Cisco on Monday set out to shake up the server world through a partnership with VMware that offers customers access to virtualized and physical computing systems over an intelligent network.
Dubbed Cisco Unified Computing System, the new technology relies on VMware's virtualization  software to offer what the company calls a next-generation data -center platform that unifies computing, network, storage access, and virtualization. The result is a scalable and flexible environment for the delivery of IT as a service.
Prem Jain, senior vice president of Cisco's Server Access and Virtualization Business Unit, said the Unified Computing System simplifies transitioning to fully virtualized data centers.
"We are working closely with VMware to increase visibility of virtualized infrastructures that can be managed and secured as easily as physical machines, but at a more dynamic scale across the data center," Jain said. "We believe this kind of manageability will further accelerate the market adoption of virtualization and provide for more flexible and responsive data-center environments."
Reduce, Increase, Simplify
According to Cisco and VMware, the combination of Cisco's Unified Computing System with VMware virtualization will accomplish several goals. First, it will allow their customers to expand the deployment of virtualization to a broader range of mission-critical applications. Second, it simultaneously will help reduce the total cost of ownership, increase business agility, simplify system management , and improve energy efficiency.
From a technology standpoint, each Cisco Unified Computing System will support thousands of virtual machines. The architecture will support a unified fabric with certification of consolidated I/O via 160GB lossless Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet, a built-in VN-Link, and integration with VMware vCenter suite management products.
"VMware has been working with Cisco for more than three years to bring together VMware's virtual data-center operating system with the intelligent network fabric," said Tod Nielsen, chief operating officer of VMware. "The Cisco Unified Computing System combined with our virtualization technology, including the VMware vSphere product family currently under development, will allow us to extend those developments in a scalable, high-performance manner with a cloud-based architectural approach." (continued...)
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