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Cisco Announces Resources For Data Center Planning
Cisco Systems announced a set of resources designed to help enterprise users build more-efficient data centers, a program that could also lead to more sales of Cisco equipment in the
April 15, 2004
2 Min Read
Cisco Systems announced a set of resources designed to help enterprise users build more-efficient data centers, a program that could also lead to more sales of Cisco equipment in the data-center market.
Called the Business Ready Data Center Initiative, the program offers enterprise users a wide range of best-practices information and planning services to help them construct data centers that make the best use of technology, Cisco said.
While billing the initiative as a something "customers were asking for," Cisco's Jonathan Gilad, solutions manager for data center networking, said such initiatives also help to "accelerate the sales cycle" for Cisco in the targeted technology area.
The initiative, Gilad said, was Cisco's way of responding to a change in the data center market, which he said has gotten more complex while also being targeted as a place where enterprises can streamline resources. Customers "want more of a systems approach" to designing data centers that integrate with their existing networks, Gilad said. "They want to know how this all works together."
To that end, Cisco has identified several functions specific to data-center design where the company is offering advice, services, technology, or a combination of all three, including:
architectural design guides, based on best practices;
security and application optimization methods;
integration for servers and storage hardware;
network-hosted data services, including data replication and volume management;
integration design with equipment, software and services from partner vendors EDS, IBM, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft.
While Gilad said some of the initiative's services will be available as free resources (some design guides and success stories are already posted on the Cisco Web site), much of the high-level design and advice will only be available to Cisco customers, either those who purchase data center equipment, or those looking to integrate data centers with existing Cisco infrastructures. There is no set pricing for any of the initiative's advanced services, Gilad said.
"Data center architectures are changing from silos of information to consolidated architectures with shared resources on everything from computing to storage to reusable application components," Gilad said. "Customers have been coming to us, asking us how to design their data center architectures. The initiative provides them with a much more strategic approach."
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