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Cisco Systems
Unified Computing Servers
Copyright 2021, Faulkner Information Services. All Rights Reserved.
Docid: 00021125
Publication Date: 2102
Report Type: PRODUCT
Preview
Cisco’s Unified Computing Server (UCS) lineup is designed to provide a streamlined architecture for the converged data
center, in addition to unifying servers, storage access, networks, and
virtualization technology. This family includes hardware such as UCS servers
(rack, storage, and blade), UCS management software, fabric interconnects and
extenders, and other products. This report looks at Cisco’s Unified Computing
Servers in
greater detail.
Report Contents:
- Description
- Related Faulkner Reports
- Vendor
- Applications
- Environment
- Support
- Pricing
- Competitors
- Web Links
Description
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Cisco’s Unified Computing Servers (UCS), which was first unveiled in 2009, offers a streamlined
architecture for the converged data center that unifies servers, storage
access, networks, and virtualization technology to better manage data center
infrastructure.
Related Faulkner Reports |
| Cisco Systems Company Profile |
The data center server platform supports the
"Internet of Everything" – or "IoE" – and offers computing capacity that is designed to
better:
- Address business acceleration
- Improve IT innovation
- Tune an environment
to support application needs - Power server workloads
Cisco’s UCS allows users to reduce the number of
on-premise systems that must be purchased, cabled, configured, powered, cooled,
secured, and managed. In general, they can help streamline data center
resources; scale service delivery; and reduce the number of devices that require
setup, management, power and cooling, and cabling.
| Vendor |
|
Name: Cisco Systems, Inc. |
Its integrated system can be configured through
unified, model-based management to help streamline the deployment of
enterprise-class applications and services that run in bare-metal, virtualized,
or cloud-based computing environments. Some of Cisco’s UCS’ benefits include:
- Streamlined Server Connectivity – Connecting and managing data center computing. Includes SingleConnect, which unifies LAN, SAN, and systems management into one
simplified link for rack servers, blade servers, and virtual systems. - Programmable Infrastructure – Uses an open XML API to manage the
personality, configuration, and connectivity of server and I/O resources. - Unified, Model-Based Management – Configuring server and
I/O resources to automate the administrative process. - Port Extender Technology – Condensing
three network layers into one to eliminate blade chassis
and hypervisor-based switches, bringing all traffic to a single point. - Graphics-Intensive App Support – Via desktop virtualization.
- SAP HANA Migration Acceleration – For modernization and migration
efforts.
Unified Computing Servers
Cisco’s lineup of Unified Computing Servers include B-Series (blade servers), C-Series
(rack servers),
S-Series (storage servers), and E-Series (blade servers for ISR routers), as listed in Table
1.
| Type | Maximum Memory | |
|---|---|---|
B-Series Blade |
||
|
Blade |
7.7TB |
C-Series Rack |
||
|
Rack |
77TB |
| S-Series Rack | ||
|
Storage |
720TB |
| E-Series Blade | ||
|
Blade for ISR routers |
200GB |
Figure 1 shows some of Cisco’s B-Series blade servers.
Figure 1. B-Series Blade Servers
Source: Cisco Systems
Figure 2 shows a selection of C-Series rack servers.
Figure 2. C-Series Rack Servers
Source: Cisco Systems
Figure 3 shows Cisco’s S-Series storage server.
Figure 3. S-Series Storage Server
Source: Cisco Systems
UCS Software
Cisco offers UCS Systems-Management software to help manage Cisco and
third-party servers, networks, storage, and converged, hyper-converged,
and composable infrastructure. These applications are described
in Table 2.
| Software | Description |
|---|---|
| Cisco Intersight |
|
| Workload Optimization Manager |
|
| UCS Central |
|
| UCS Manager |
|
| UCS Director |
|
| Integrated Management Controller Supervisor |
|
UCS Fabric Interconnects and Fabric Extenders
Cisco’s lineup of fabric interconnects and extenders are designed to help
create a highly-available management domain that supports all-attached UCS
chassis, blade servers, and rack servers.
- UCS 6400 Series Fabric Interconnects – 3.82Tbps switching
capacity and 200Gbps bandwidth. - UCS 6300 Series Fabric Interconnects – 40GB for B-Series blades and
C-Series rack servers. - UCS 6200 Series Fabric Interconnects – Line-rate, lossless 10GbE
and FCoE, with native FC SAN connectivity. - Fabric Extender Technology – Extensible, scalable fabric that
allows the switching fabric access layer to extend and expand to the server
hypervisor, while also offering a single point of management and policy
enforcement.
Other Products
Cisco also offers virtual interface cards, B-Series "mezzanine" adapters,
C-Series Rack Server PCIe adapters, PCI-e-NVMe storage, and GPUs.
Applications
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Potential application areas for Cisco’s UCS portfolio include
data centers of varying sizes and importance, including mission-critical data
centers and those with blade or rack server environments; virtualization, Web,
and cloud-based infrastructure; complex storage and network environments; and branch
offices.
Table 3 lists Potential Cisco UCS applications by specific product.
| UCS Series | Application |
|---|---|
|
B-Series Blade Servers |
Virtualized and non-virtualized data center |
|
C-Series Rack Servers |
Production-level virtualization, Web-based |
|
S-Series Storage Servers |
Environments with data-intensive workloads. |
|
E-Series Blade Servers |
Converged compute, network, and virtualization-ready platform environments |
Environment
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Cisco’s UCS products are designed to operate in enterprise data
centers and integrate with infrastructure from third-party vendors such as Dell EMC
and NetApp, as well as software from companies such as CA, Dell EMC, Microsoft,
Oracle, IBM/Red Hat, SAP, VMware, Citrix, Hitachi Vantara, and NetApp, among others. Platform
support is extended to Microsoft Windows, VMware vSphere, RHEL, SUSE Linux,
Oracle Linux, Citrix XenServer, Solaris, and Ubuntu.
Support
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Cisco offers UCS customers multiple
support options, among them release and other general information resources,
install and upgrade options, configuration guides, troubleshooting alerts,
software downloads, and community forums. Cisco also offers Technical Sales Help
for those who call (866) 425-5351 (US and Canada only, M-F 8AM-8PM EST). Other
UCS support services include:
- Tools – Subscription required.
- Smart Services – Smart Net Total Care Portal; Warranty Information; Buy or Renew Support Services.
- Support Resources – Support Community Forums; Security Advisories; Cisco Notification Service; and Cisco DocWiki.
Pricing
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Cisco does not release pricing information for UCS due to configuration
dependency. Customers can
request a quote
online.
Competitors
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Cisco UCS competes in a large,
well-established server field in North America. Top competitors include HPE’s BladeSystem; Dell PowerEdge;
servers from IBM; and Fujitsu Primergy;
among
others.
Web Links
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- Cisco Systems:
http://www.cisco.com/ - Dell Technologies: http://www.dell.com/
- Fujitsu: http://www.fujitsu.com/us/
- Hewlett Packard Enterprise:
https://www.hpe.com/us/en/home.html/ - IBM: http://www.ibm.com/
About the Author
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Brady Hicks is an
editor with Faulkner Information Services. He writes about computer and
networking hardware, software, communications networks and equipment, and the
Internet.
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