Cisco today entered the blade server market with a system called the Unified Computing System that pairs Intel x86-based processors with its 10Gbps Ethernet switch technology, VMware virtualization and network, storage and virtualization management.
The Unified Computing System (UCS) is an architecture that combines individual server, network and storage silos into a single data center architecture that is united by converged, enhanced Ethernet. UCS is part of Cisco’s Data Center 3.0 strategy announced in 2007.
What effect does this announcement have on IT managers? According to Cisco, adopting it will result in an up to 20% reduction in capital expenditures and a 30% reduction on operational expenditures. Productivity will be improved and applications will be able to be provisioned in minutes instead of days. Individual servers will be able to managed as one, rather by themselves.
The server component of UCS is the UCS B-Series blades, which are based on Intel’s upcoming Nehalem processors, Intel’s next-gen Xeon processor. The blades include extended memory technology that allows larger applications and more virtual machines to run. The UCS 5100 Series Blade Server Chassis connects to the UCS 2100 Fabric Extender and then to the UCS 6100 Fabric Interconnect switch. All is managed with the embedded UCS Manager.
The chassis support as many as eight blade servers and two UCS 2100 Fabric Extenders in a 6U enclosure. Each Fabric Extender has four 10Gbps connections. Network adapters are available for Cisco blade servers that are optimized for virtualization, existing driver stacks or high-performance Ethernet.
The network component of the UCS is based on lossless 10G Ethernet, a technology that converges Fibre Channel, 10G Ethernet and InfiniBand networks. With converged enhanced Ethernet, cabling, switch ports and power consumption can be reduced.
VMware is teaming with Cisco for its VMware ESX Server technology and with BMC for resource management software.
The Cisco blades and UCS infrastructure are expected to be available in the second quarter of this year.
