Responding to changes in the IT landscape brought about by virtualization, Cisco formally launched its unified computing architecture which it claims will lead the transformation of next-generation data centers.
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In a recent telepresence press briefing at Cisco Philippines, Andre Smit, managing director of Cisco's data center sale's group in Asia-Pacific (AP), announced that the company is targeting the data center market, pegged at $US85 billion, with its new unified computing strategy.
"Our unified computing system can meet the market needs by delivering a unique solution that unleashes virtualization," he said, noting that Cisco's strategy is to pursue the opportunities in the data center market which involves hardware, software, services, as well as networking.
Pete Nicholls, business development manager of Cisco data center in AP, reported that about $20 billion of the market opportunity for data centers can be addressed by their unified computing offering.
He explained that unified computing system is designed to unleash the full potential of a data center, and virtualization can help customers reduce total cost of ownership (TCO), increase business agility, and improve energy efficiency.
"On average, 75% of IT budgets in data centers are spent on operating costs due to the high cost of managing the complexity in data centers," Nicholls said. "And unified computing can help increase business agility and improve energy efficiency."
Smit said unified computing provides the solution since what is needed is a "cohesive system" that unites computing, the network, storage access and virtualization into one single system, leading to a simplified management.
"Virtualization is transforming the data center because it delivers significant benefits like server consolidation, increased utilization of data center resources, and it improves availability to support mission critical applications," he said.
However, both executives noted that some business challenges still remain, such as limited scalability, management complexity, and lack of coherent network policies and security. What IT organizations must do, they said, is to weave together the complex network, compute virtualization and management software.
"It's as though a car buyer would have to purchase a car frame from one vendor, an engine from another vendor, wheels and seats and controls from other vendors, then assemble it himself, create a dashboard, and fine tune it for optimal driving," Smit explained.
Dubbed Data Center 3.0 Strategy, Cisco's unified computing, according to Smit, is more than just a product since it is a platform for integration, computing, networking and virtualization.
He said the system shall undergo pilot testing in the next three to six months for evaluation and might be released by end of the year.
The company recently unveiled an ecosystem of partners to stimulate market adoption of unified computing. Some of Cisco's new partners include Accenture, BMC Software, EMC Corp., Intel, Microsoft, and VMware.
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BY Tom S. Noda
Source：The Industry Standard
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