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Data center strategy is a critical part of business strategy. In fact, the ways and means of IT deployment make all the difference between an efficient, successful organization and an ineffective one. Therefore, to align and adapt quickly to the needs of business, IT is changing the delivery mechanisms of infrastructure resources. Part of the change is a shift towards integrated solutions.

In fact, integrated solutions such as FlexPod, account for more than 50% of today’s data center spend. They increase hardware utilization while delivering measurable efficiencies. FlexPod is a single infrastructure solution that contains Cisco UCS, Nexus fabric and NetApp cluster Data ONTAP storage. It delivers flexibility and lets you command and control the growth of your data center resources. FlexPod benefits are clear–but to gain the full potential of all of the inherent benefits IT organizations are doing more.

Enter infrastructure automation. Data centers everywhere are in the midst of a sea change as the benefits and efficiencies of automation, across hardware and human resources, are becoming increasingly apparent.

Cisco UCS Director automates your end-to-end IT processes across your FlexPod infrastructure within minutes. It abstracts the complexity of individual devices, hypervisors and virtual machines into a single management console allowing you to manage all of your FlexPods, even geographically dispersed, as a single system.

Watch this video and see how Cisco UCS Director and FlexPod can increase the efficiency of your data center.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KubD0Fp_Qfg&feature=youtu.be

With Cisco UCS Director your staff never has to manage each touch point, or component individually. As a result, your organization can experience:

• Consistency: bringing up infrastructure instances that comply with your business’ precise specifications virtually eliminates costly human error and its impact.
• Adaptability: With multi-vendor coverage you can manage your heterogeneous data center comprised of FlexPod and other infrastructure components, eliminating silos within your organization.
• Staff Empowerment: Your existing staff will be able to support more capacity more easily, and they will experience fewer “fire drills”.

Quality and business velocity are not trade-offs; end-users require both. Today’s IT environment is fast moving and as such the impact of mistakes can be tremendous–especially as they ripple across multiple aspects of your business. Preventing mistakes through a holistic management solution such as UCS Director is more important than ever because recovery can be more painful and costly than ever. The combination of FlexPod and Cisco UCS Director ensures that your infrastructure resources will be deployed as intended, with correct policies and a smart data model to keep IT moving at the pace you need.

Data center strategy is a part and parcel of business strategy. Be sure your business is using the tools needed to move it forward.

Attend a free, live technical demo of UCS Director held bi-monthly.



Authors

Joann Starke

No Longer with Cisco