Cisco Blog > Data Center and Cloud
If you follow the news in the world of data center you probably noticed a small announcement from Cisco last week regarding the UCS portfolio… 
To net it out in a simple way, I’ve been telling people that the trail of innovation that Cisco has been blazing with UCS just got a lot wider. That’s because this rollout is all about three key vectors that our customers have guided us to expand on:
Here’s a short recap on the event. If you missed it, the replay is available here.
Padma Warrior and Joe Inzerillo discuss how technology is transforming the #MLB fan experience.
We had a stellar lineup at the event in New York. Our CTO, Padma Warrior, headlined and did a fantastic job setting the context for this wave of innovation in the frame of IoE and Fast IT. Paul Perez followed, explaining the sea change occurring in the application landscape and the customer imperatives guiding development of the UCS platform. Finally, Satinder Sethi stepped us through all the new technology we’ve added to the portfolio. Frank Palumbo hosted the event for us in New York, and I think it’s no coincidence he was rewarded later in the day by a thrilling walk-off win by the Yankees. Note that my last link there is to MLB.com, whose CTO, John Inzerillo, joined our event to share all the cool fan experience technology they’re developing.
I’d like to thank our #CiscoChampions for joining us at the event and bringing their unique and (trust me) unfiltered perspective to the news. Another highlight for me was the opportunity to tour the MLB Advanced Media Center with Matt Eastwood of IDC who joined us in New York to moderate a panel on scale-out computing. Matt, so sorry about the results of the Yankees/Red Sox game…it’s tough to overcome Palumbo-level karma. Having several of our customers and partners at the event really rounded it out, making a special day for everyone that joined us in New York and in the streaming sessions.
Jim Leach (L) and Tech Field Day panel of Cisco Champions.
To hit on all the details, the team has taken a divide-and-conquer approach here on the blog as well as youtube and our other social media venues. In addition to the links above, here are some of the pieces you can check out to learn more. Scanning the #USCGrandSlam hashtag on Twitter is another good way to take a look at the news and reactions.
Padma with panelists discussing Big Data in the IoE.
Tags: ACI, Big Data, Cisco UCS, Computing, data center, Fast IT, IoE, OpenStack, Servers, UCS
I was speaking with a customer today at VMworld and, unlike many discussions, which are focused on the infrastructure (servers, storage, networking), this one turned primarily on the application. This person was describing to me his need to match the server to a new set of applications he is being asked to support and then what to do with all the data being generated. With much of the conversation at the show focusing on virtualization of resources, he made the point that consideration of the architecture itself – how servers, storage and networking is leveraged – was still critical to mapping the requirements of the application back to what that application lives on.
This is a trend we’re seeing more and more. A new breed of applications, and the increasing density of data, is driving a new way of thinking about the underlying infrastructure. Often, these applications are developed internally, leveraging many of the toolkits available on the market today, and delivered through a private or public cloud. These applications can be run from Read More »
Tags: analytics, Big Data, CiscoUCS, data center, launch, Servers, UCSGrandSlam
“The innovation pipeline is very strong, and you can expect to see announcements in the fall that will continue to accelerate our momentum with UCS and add to our competitive advantage.”
Those are comments from Cisco’s earnings call last week, and on September 4th I hope you will join us for the unveiling of the next wave of Unified Computing that John Chambers was speaking of.
We don’t invoke the term innovation lightly at Cisco. As Frank Palumbo recently talked about, change is the only constant, and our data center customers need to stay in front of that change. What we’re hearing from them often centers on three critical concepts:
1. We need a common operating environment that spans from the data center to the very edge. “Edge” in this sense is used to describe the many worlds that exist beyond the walls of the data center, where the demand for computing power is inexorably growing. For service providers that can mean IT infrastructure located at the Customer Premise. For large enterprise and public sector IT teams the Edge is found in the branch offices, retail locations and remote sites where innovation is exploding with dynamic customer experiences and new ways of doing business. It’s at the wind farm and the end of the drill bit miles below the oil rig. It’s in the “fog” of connected sensors and smart objects in connected cities. And it is the handheld devices that billions of people are using today to consume and generate unprecedented volumes of data and insight, and the 50 billion people and things that Cisco estimates will be connected by 2020.
2. We need a stronger engine to accelerate core applications and power data-intensive analytics. (AKA, “you’re going to need a bigger boat”) The imperative for faster and better decisions has never been greater and the tools to extract the signal from the noise in the data deluge require big horsepower. Recommendation engines, real-time price optimization, personalized location-based offers, improved fraud detection… the list goes on in terms of opportunity created by Big Data and the IoE. All while IT continues to deliver the core applications – that keep business running – uninterrupted and faster than before.
3. We need a common operating environment that spans traditional and emerging applications. Complexity is the bane of innovation and the bane of IT. In addition to the familiar workloads, which are well understood in terms of bare metal scalability and virtual encapsulation, there is growing use of applications architected for massive horizontal scale. In-memory, scale up analytics are being utilized right alongside cloud-scale technologies like MapReduce to tackle different elements of business problems in different ways. Very different architectures, with very different demands on computing infrastructure. The conditions for complexity loom. Will a hero emerge?
When UCS was born it shook up many of the fundamental assumptions of what data center infrastructure should be expected to do and what IT could do to accelerate business. With this launch, history repeats itself, as we work to help customers future proof the data center for change tomorrow and transformation today. Our development team has taken the next stride in the journey of re-inventing computing at the most fundamental levels, to power applications at every scale.
I hope you will join us for the event on 9/4 to see how we’re taking our strategy forward in the data center. We have a bit of a baseball theme in the launch since we’re delighted to be joined by Major League Baseball’s Joe Inzerillo at our event in New York. So follow the conversation at it unfolds over coming weeks with #UCSGrandSlam and #CiscoUCS. The bases are loaded.
Tags: Big Data, Cisco UCS, data center, IoE, IoT, Servers
Innovation. Change. Market transitions. This is the natural order when it comes to IT.
Today’s accelerated rate of technological change is disrupting all areas of IT, while at the same time creating new possibilities for our data center customers. As a CIO, you’re tasked with capitalizing on the benefits of new technologies to enhance operations, but with minimal disruption to your business. That’s not easy do to when the world is moving so quickly.
Innovation brings new players to the marketplace, and sometimes compels existing vendors to adjust their strategies. Earlier this year, in a move that will have a significant impact across the IT landscape for technology providers and customers alike, IBM announced an agreement with Lenovo for the acquisition of IBM’s x86 server and associated networking business including Flex System.
Five years ago, Cisco made a strategic move by announcing a data center innovation and putting into motion a market transition. Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) led the converged data center transformation by integrating high-performance networking, compute, and storage into a single, unified platform. Cisco UCS created a new value proposition for the data center in virtualization and cloud computing, achieving measurable cost savings and technology gains.
Now the number two worldwide vendor of blade servers, our vision and ability to execute delivers value that clearly resonates with our customers. Cisco UCS changes the economics of the data center by increasing operational simplicity and improving business agility. This is a great time for you to take a closer look to learn why over 30,000 customers have made the move to Cisco UCS.
As the inevitable change takes place across the IT landscape, Cisco remains committed to the data center. We are also committed to our long-time collaboration with IBM, one of Cisco’s most successful partnering relationships. Our plan is to move forward, build on this relationship and continue to deliver solutions of high value for your data centers across technology, service, and support.
Tags: Cisco UCS, cloud, data center, IBM, Lenovo, Servers
In this week’s episode of Engineers Unplugged, Jamie MacQuarrie (@JMacQuarrie) and Jay Cuthrell (@qthrul) discuss both the history and future of the data center. How have automation and standards changed the operational model for applications? How are roles changing with the changing technology?
For these answers and more, listen in:
A lot of great ideas here–let us know what you think.
**The next shoot is at Varrow Madness, Charlotte, NC, March 20, 2014! Contact me now to become internet famous.**
This is Engineers Unplugged, where technologists talk to each other the way they know best, with a whiteboard. The rules are simple:
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Tags: automation, data center of the future, IAC, Servers, services
