From End-User to Data Center: Cisco Enhances Cloud Computing Performance, Efficiency and Security

Portfolio additions strengthen Cisco leadership in data center, branch office and cloud

LAS VEGAS, NEV. – July 13, 2011– At Cisco Live, the company’s annual IT and communications conference, Cisco today introduced new technology to increase the efficiency and security of cloud-based networks so that information can be delivered instantly, with industry-leading security, to more people, on more devices, in more locations.  Cisco’s cloud computing vision unites a world of many clouds—  private, public, hybrid and community— providing connectivity to every mobile device, personal computer, tablet and TV. Based on  borderless networks, these interconnected clouds represent the next phase in the evolution of the Internet.

New additions to the Cisco® product portfolio support three key cloud computing requirements: data center virtualization, network performance and security, and span the entire cloud infrastructure, from the end-user and branch office, through the network to the data center.  These additions include Cisco Unified Computing System™ (Cisco UCS™)  and Nexus® switches for the data center and cloud, the Cisco Wide Area Application Service (WAAS) for application performance optimization, and Cisco IronPort Email Security.

TECHNOLOGY NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

Cisco Unified Computing System Innovations: Leading in the Era of Cloud Computing

Cisco today continued to lead the industry in data center innovation by expanding the networking capabilities of the Cisco Unified Computing System  with new Fabric Interconnects, a new Virtual Interface Card, and a new chassis I/O module. Together, these additions significantly extend the agility, scalability and performance of UCS-based data centers and cloud environments, allowing businesses to:

• Improve application performance and handle workload bursts by doubling bandwidth to the chassis, quadrupling bandwidth to the server, and reducing end-to-end latency by 40 percent
• Improve workload density by doubling the switching capacity of the data center fabric
• Improve infrastructure agility and support converged fabrics with flexible, unified ports. Any Fabric Interconnect Unified Port can be designated as Ethernet, Fibre Channel, or Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
• Improve virtual machine workload density by doubling the number of virtual interfaces

UCS Manager, which manages all system configuration and operations for both UCS blade servers and rack-mount servers, provides a robust and open Application Programming Interface (API) for integration with other management software.  Cisco is now introducing VMware vCenter for the Cisco Unified Computing System and UCS Express on Cisco Integrated Services Routers (ISRs), a unified virtualization management platform which enables IT organizations to organize, rapidly provision and configure the entire virtualized IT environment across branch offices and the data center. This will help customers reduce operating costs, improve operational automation, and deliver higher levels of security.

The Cisco Unified Computing System unites compute, network, storage access, and virtualization resources in a single energy efficient system. In less than two years, more than 5,400 customers spanning all industries and workloads have deployed the Cisco Unified Computing System, making it one of the world’s favorite foundations for building private and public clouds.

Optimizing Application Performance for Cloud and Video

Cisco today introduced new innovations to its WAAS product line which improve the performance of traditional and emerging applications such as software-as-a-service (SaaS), virtual desktops, and high-quality video across wide-area networks.

With the introduction of the industry’s first context-aware data redundancy elimination (DRE), Cisco WAAS manages bandwidth more efficiently and enables applications to perform better at remote or branch offices, because information doesn’t always need to be delivered from data center.  The new context-aware DRE improves application response times and throughput by changing the DRE caching behavior on a per-application and per-branch office basis. This context-aware capability provides “performance fairness” across all branches and improves the end-user experience.

In addition, the new WAAS Central Manager, which can manage up to 2,000 WAAS instances from a single interface, and integrated Application Performance Manager (APM) provide network administrators with enhanced visibility into application performance and network utilization, improved operational efficiency, and  rapid root-cause analysis of performance issues.

Email Security for the Cloud

Today Cisco introduced innovativeemail security features to counter the increasing number of low-volume targeted email attacks and to provide highly secure email encryption for better end user experiences. The new Cisco Cloud Security solutions for web and email reduce risk of malware, phishing attacks and spam through consistent protection policies.

The Cisco IronPort Outbreak Filters protect against personalized email attacks that target individuals or small groups.   Using integrated IronPort and ScanSafe security technology, the Outbreak Filters solution identifies messages likely to be targeted attacks, and protects users by blocking access to malicious websites.

The Cisco IronPort Business-class email security provides enhanced security for email accessed by any tablet, PC or smartphone:

• Enables business users to use existing corporate credentials (userID and password) to access most of their cloud applications with a single user sign-on
• Enables true disabling of recalled email messages so that recipients can no longer read them
• Allows end users “secure forward capability” to control who an email can be forwarded to

QUOTES

“Virtualization, performance, and security are three of the most fundamental requirements for building and using clouds,” said Lew Tucker, chief technology officer of cloud computing for Cisco. “As the number and diversity of clouds grows, meeting these requirements through a common, unifying platform – in other words, the network – will help organizations from all industries communicate and access information more dynamically and securely, both within their own clouds and with other clouds that are relevant to their needs. Today’s technology developments across Cisco’s business represent the latest step in the company’s ongoing strategy to help customers build and use clouds effectively and safely. They reinforce the basic premise that the network makes clouds happen.”

“When Cisco set out to design an evolutionary new computing system, we heard from our customers that power, management, and server administration costs were sapping their budgets, leaving few resources for innovation,”  said Soni Jiandani, senior vice president, Server Access Virtualization Technology Group, Cisco.  “We aimed to create the ideal, programmable, platform for virtualized and cloud environments with integrated networking and management, flexible and scalable enough to handle any workload.  Now with over 5,400 UCS customers, Cisco’s rapid market share growth underscores our leadership in the industry transition to fabric computing and converged infrastructure, and we continue to deliver innovative technology to help solve our customers’ challenges.”

“At Cone Health, a leading healthcare organization, we tested the new Cisco UCS 6248UP Fabric Interconnect technology, Cisco UCS Virtual Interface Card 1280 and UCS 2208 Fabric Extender and we’re very happy with the increased bandwidth, density, features and roadmap for the new products,” said Michael Heil, manager of technology infrastructure at Cone Health.  “We are able to run our SQL server data warehouse application on Cisco UCS blade technology while leveraging a full 40G all the way to the blade, which  allows us to better meet the new government Meaningful Use requirements.  Cisco’s continued UCS innovation translates into more efficient and agile  methods to deliver exceptional patient care at Cone Health.”

“The new Cisco IronPort Outbreak Filters solution will play a big role in helping our customers better protect their businesses from an ever-changing threat landscape,” said Tom McArthur, President of Storbase Corporation.  “Most of these companies have invested in only rudimentary web security solutions making them susceptible to everyday blended threats originating via email. Cisco is simplifying security protection for our customers by helping ensure that they have the most comprehensive defense against today’s highly sophisticated email-born threats while providing users a secure and simple way to manage and access their email.”

SUPPORTING RESOURCES  

• Read more about the Cisco Data Center Business Advantage
• View video on Cisco IT Cloud Architecture 
• View videos on Cisco’s new data center products and the Data Center Business Advantage
• Read Cisco Unified Computing website
• Read Cisco WAAS website
• Read Cisco Cloud Computing website
• Read Cisco Unified Fabric website
• Read Cisco Data Center website
• Read Cisco Data Center blog
• Read Cisco Data Center Services website
• Read Cisco Security website
• Read Borderless Networks website
• Read Borderless Networks blog

Technorati Tags: Cisco, Data Center, Data Center Switches, Unified Computing System, Unified Fabric, Cloud, Cloud Services, Security, Application Optimization

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO, news, filings) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate.  Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

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