- Mythbuster busts his own tale
- 10 open source companies to watch
- Sony recalls 73,000 Vaio laptops
- Tool to evade China's Web censorship
- Chrome and Firefox and add-ons
Newsletters | Podcasts | Chats | Opinions | RSS Feeds | This Week In Print | IT Careers | Community | Reports | Downloads | Slideshows | New Data Center
Partner Sites:App Performance | On Demand Security | Networking Solution | SOA | Value of WDS
Cisco last week unveiled its next-generation data center strategy along with a key product to support that vision at its annual Networkers conference.
Called Data Center 3.0, the plan is intended to enable customers to better utilize their data center resources, build less-expensive storage-area networks and enhance data security. Among other features, it involves melding disparate data center networking technologies — Ethernet, Fibre Channel and Infiniband — into a single fabric for connecting and virtualization of network elements.
Cisco launched Data Center 3.0 on the heels of HP’s $1.6 billion acquisition of data center automation vendor Opsware. HP says Opsware will allow it to offer its customers a "comprehensive and fully integrated solution for IT automation."
While Cisco’s Data Center 1.0 and 2.0 strategies focused on data center consolidation, 3.0 targets virtualization and automation, says Jayshree Ullal, Cisco senior vice president of the Datacenter, Switching and Security Technology Group. With it, Cisco’s data center strategy is revealed, she says.
“This is an important day for Cisco,” Ullal says of the Data Center 3.0 launch.
The fabric — embodied in a new appliance called VFrame Data Center — is intended to provide real-time, dynamic orchestration of infrastructure services from shared pools of virtualized server, storage and network resources, Cisco says.
VFrame Data Center is designed to link compute, networking and storage infrastructures. It includes a policy engine for automating resource changes in response to infrastructure outages and performance changes, which can be controlled by external monitoring systems through an “open” Web services application programming interface, Cisco says.
The Data Center 3.0 strategy is also aimed at optimizing application performance, service levels, efficiency and collaboration.Cisco plans to flesh out its Data Center 3.0 vision over the next two years.
Some users indicate that Cisco’s data center vision aligns with their own.
“[Virtualization] is a way [users] get to see information at any point in time,” says Evan Jafa, CTO at First America Corp. “We look at everything as a service rather than individual disciplines or technology stacks.”
Virtualization end-to-end management and “full visibility” of the virtual environment are “major gaps,” Jafa adds. And deciding which internal IT group is going to provision virtual resources can be tricky, he says.

In this whitepaper learn how Retrospective Network Analysis (RNA) has proved a different type of...
SNMP Monitorin One Critical Component to Network ManagementSNMP is a valuable tool to any network administrator who requires complete visibility into the...
Monitoring and Managing App PerformanceThis paper defines application analysis, discusses the different categories of tools on the market,...

Double-Take (r) Software and Microsoft are teaming up on September 9, 2008 for a webinar focusing...
Transforming the Enterprise WAN Edge: Video from CiscoLife on the edge of your WAN has changed dramatically. With the need to deliver advanced services,...
PoE Plus: Impact on the PoE MarketThe standard for Power over Ethernet (PoE), IEEE Std. 802.3af(tm)-2003, advanced networking,...

Archiving, backup and data protection take on ever more critical roles in the enterprise. Data...
The New Network/System Management ChallengesIncreasingly popular technologies such as virtualization, wireless networking and data center...
Virtualization Reality CheckFind out why analysts say approaching virtualization with an ounce of caution is wise. And also why...
Partner Content
Explore the Ultrium Edge
The powerful tape technology can address data security with tape encryption as well as long term data protection.
Find out more
Disk and Tape Square Off
Discover what disk and tape really cost -- and which solution provides lower total cost of ownership and optimizes energy use for your organization
Download the White Paper
Don't Fall For The Myths
The Clipper Group explores the truth behind the myths of tape, digging into the misconceptions in the disk vs. tape debate.
Download the White Paper
Will You Add Tape Too?
Over two thirds of disk-only users look to add tape back into storage infrastructure according to recent survey.
Download Survey Information
Comment