Cisco adds rack server to data center computing system

Cisco this week extended its Unified Computing System data center convergence platform with rack mountable servers, saying the new form factor represents an "entry level" into UCS and more choice for customers.

Data center network brawl: How competing platforms for unified servers, storage and networking stack up 

Cisco, however, did not disclose pricing for the 1RU and 2RU servers, which will be available in the fourth quarter.

The new C-Series rack-mount servers are designed to help accelerate the adoption of the Cisco unified computing and data center virtualization system. Like the predecessor B-Series blades, the C-Series rack mount servers utilize X86 Intel Xeon 5500 processors and are optimized for Cisco's memory expansion and virtualized adapter technologies, which are integral to UCS.

The addition of the C-Series lets customers pick the compute form factor that fits their current and future data center environments, Cisco says.

UCS is designed to tightly integrate computing, networking, storage access and virtualization into a single platform. It features memory extension technology for scaling virtual machines (VM); virtual adapters to reduce the number of physical adapters in a server; embedded management; and service profiles designed to stay with a VM as it moves around an enterprise.

These Cisco-developed advances, however, essentially rule out the participation of non-Cisco blade and rack servers in a UCS environment. Cisco has said previously that it has no plans to open up UCS to incumbent data center servers from HP, IBM, Dell or Sun.

Any plans to license the virtual adapter and memory extension technologies are null as well. Even though the C-Series rack servers will allow UCS to "reach out to the broad market," Soni Jiandani, Cisco's vice president of marketing for the server access virtualization group, evaded a question on multivendor server participation in UCS and technology licensing.

Asked during a virtual press conference if Cisco plans to open UCS to the broader market of multivendor blade and rack servers, and license the memory expansion and virtualized adapter technologies, Jiandani instead stressed the platform's support for adapters from multiple vendors and "open" APIs for management integration.

But later, in a one-on-one session, Jiandani said Cisco will not license UCS technologies and has no plans at present to have the platform support multivendor servers.

"Would Cisco license IOS?" she asked rhetorically. With regard to server support, she said, "Right now, we need to execute on helping our customers and we are heads-down focused on addressing needs across a broad segment of customers. [But we] never say never."

Analysts say a rack server dramatically opens up Cisco's opportunity in the server market. It also intensifies competition with server incumbents HP and IBM.

"Cisco should now be viewed as a much broader player in the server market, more directly competing against key server players such as HP and IBM," states Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Ittai Kidron in a bulletin on the announcement. "Cisco's server products now have greater overlap with HP and IBM's server businesses, and we expect both to continue to expand their networking product portfolios and partners accordingly as they all aim for a larger piece of the next-gen data center opportunity. Juniper should further benefit from Cisco's actions."