Bill Shields

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Cisco’s Unified Computing System, originally designed for the datacenter is now optimized for Branch Office / Remote Office (ROBO), point-of-sale, and smaller IT environments with the announcement today of UCS Mini.  This solution delivers servers, storage, and 10 Gigabit networking in an easy to deploy, compact form factor. Expandable to 15 servers, UCS Mini provides […]

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To highlight the power and ease of use of the UCS PowerTool SDK and XML, a Windows PowerShell scripting contest was run from March 27th to May 11th. Championed by Technical Marketing Engineers Eric Williams and Jeff Foster, the contest exceeded its goals with 24 scripts submitted. The most popular category was configuring a new […]

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The UCS Power Scripting Contest closed on May 11th and the five finalists were announced at Microsoft TechEd today. They are:

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If you are coming to Houston next week for Microsoft TechEd, please set aside some time to stop by the Cisco booth (#701) and attend our sessions to learn how we are partnering in the datacenter.

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Many IT organizations use Microsoft PowerShell to automate and accelerate data center management tasks. The Cisco UCS PowerTool module for PowerShell provides users a comprehensive list of cmdlets to manage all components of Cisco UCS.  Users can use these cmdlets to write PowerShell scripts to simplify, speed up, and error proof UCS management and deployment.

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A number of useful scripts have been entered in the UCS PowerTool/PowerShell contest. Here is what’s been happening since the 11th.

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For those of you who follow the Cisco Data Center blog in general and my blogs in particular, you’re probably thinking it is time I updated you on this topic. You’re right! But it is almost time for Cisco Live and I will be presenting it there.

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The scripts have started rolling in and I wanted to update you on what’s been posted to date. Maybe you could use them in your environment? To review these scripts and participate in the contest, head over to the Cisco Communities.

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Many IT organizations use Microsoft PowerShell to automate and accelerate data center management tasks. The Cisco UCS PowerTool module for PowerShell provides users a comprehensive list of cmdlets to manage all components of Cisco UCS.  Users can use these cmdlets to write PowerShell scripts to simplify, speed up, and error proof UCS management and deployment. […]

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Little known to most people, including residents of Houston, Texas, there is a peanut butter cannery here, and it is capable of producing over 1 million jars of peanut butter a year. Thanks to the coordination efforts of Terry Edge, a Cisco Channels Manager, two teams of Cisco employee volunteers produced 12,595 jars — 21,254 pounds — of peanut butter this […]

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As the year comes to a close, I wanted to revisit the economics of Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS). Cisco UCS has fantastic technology. Technology that technical decision makers are demanding. But what about business decision makers? The question for them is how will UCS save them money?

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Intel estimates1 that one-third of the servers in production are more than four years old. At first, one might think that it is great to get this much service out of a capital investment, but the operational costs to run these outdated servers would pay for a complete technology refresh increasing performance and reliability while […]

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Cisco is proud to be a Platinum sponsor and exhibitor at PASS Summit this year. If you aren’t familiar with PASS Summit, it “is the world’s largest, most-focused, and most-intensive conference for Microsoft SQL Server and BI professionals.” Gary Serda has done an excellent job in detailing what the Cisco UCS team will be sharing […]

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Next week at Oracle OpenWorld, I will be giving an abbreviated theater presentation on how Cisco UCS is changing the economics of the datacenter (full presentation below). If you will be at OOW, please stop by the Cisco booth (#1021 – Monday 9/23 @ 12:30pm, Tuesday 9/24 @ 4pm, & Wednesday 9/25 @ 2:30pm) for […]

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Given the diversity of the attendees, I wasn’t sure what to expect at Intel® Developer Forum (IDF) having never been to one before. Now I’m very glad to have the opportunity to discuss our updated blade and rack servers with Intel’s Xeon® E5-2600 v2 series of processors (aka Ivy Bridge v2) with potential customers, analysts, […]

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Almost a year ago, I wrote my first blog post detailing what customers have been saying about their UCS experiences in our Case Studies, Solution Briefs, etc. The findings have been updated with the latest studies. While the percentages haven’t changed much, the number of customers reporting similar results (like Cisco’s market share) has gone […]

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When I think of why technology solution providers should attend Microsoft’s WPC, I decided to pay homage to one of Steve Ballmer’s mantras with my blog title. Last year, at Microsoft’s WPC in Toronto, I was approached by KEMP Technologies (a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner). They gave me an elevator pitch on their products and […]

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Complexity and Cost Comparison: Cisco UCS vs. IBM Flex System is report recently published by Principled Technologies. They evaluated both the technologies and costs of each solution and found a UCS solution is both less expensive to deploy and less complex to manage than an IBM Flex System. Off all the ways Principled Technologies shows […]

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Next week, Microsoft will be hosting over 16,000 attendees from over 160 countries at their Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston, Texas. Cisco is again a proud sponsor of this event and complete details about our participation are available on Cisco.com. Stop by booth #1401 where Cisco will be demonstrating: UCS B-Series blade and C-Series rack […]

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I have lost count of the number of trade shows I’ve worked over my career. But working trade shows for Cisco over the past 14 months has been a uniquely positive experience. Microsoft TechEd North America 2013 makes my 5th show evangelizing Cisco UCS and our solutions. I have been able to have long (sometimes […]

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Please visit Cisco’s TechEd web site to learn more about what we have going on at the show and visit www.cisco.com/go/microsoft to learn more about Cisco’s Microsoft capabilities.   I first attended Microsoft TechEd in 1996 in Los Angeles. What a learning experience it was. This year, I’ll be there staffing the Cisco booth (#1701) […]

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Cisco UCS has fantastic technology that technical decision makers are demanding. But what about business decision makers? It doesn’t matter how great the technology is, the question for BDMs is how will UCS save me money? I set out to answer that question, connecting UCS technology innovations to TCO improvement, for the Unifying Your Data Center Roadshow […]

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Cisco’s server power engineering team recently compared the Cisco UCS 5108 Blade Server Chassis with B200 M3 blade servers against HP’s BladeSystem c7000 Enclosure and HP ProLiant BL460c Gen8 blade servers.

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I recently worked with Loughborough University on a financial impact study of their initial deployment of Cisco UCS. The study documents their findings of a dramatic improvement in IT efficiency, bearing out the advantages that attracted them to the UCS solution. Loughborough’s Customer Case Study has been revised with the results of this TCO study […]

Cisco Unified Computing System Service Profiles and Templates contain over 127 different server identification and configuration settings.  These identity settings are abstracted from the physical server and stored in the UCS Domain where they can be leveraged automating and speeding deployment while reducing errors. Today, this Cisco innovation is still unique in the industry. The […]