The move to bring its video surveillance solutions to the UCS converged data center platform is the first step in a larger physical security strategy.
Cisco Systems is virtualizing its Video Surveillance
software, integrating it into the networking vendors Unified Computing System
to offer businesses a more scalable and flexible offering.
The move, announced March 21, comes several months after
Cisco officials in September 2011 laid out the companys strategy around
physical security technology. The larger initiative includes a focus on
large-scale deployments, leveraging Ciscos strengths in networking, data
center infrastructure, video, collaboration and physical security products with
offerings from third-party vendors.
According to Cisco officials, virtualizing the Video
Surveillance Manager software on the UCS is the first significant step in
creating solutions that meet the vendors large-scale deployment ambitions.
"Virtualizing video surveillance offers
organizations reduced infrastructure costs, faster disaster recovery and
deployment, reduced staffing needs and cooling costs, and improved application
performance, Guido Jouret, general manager of Ciscos Enterprise Video Group,
said in a statement. Our solutions-led building block strategy focuses on
virtualizing all Cisco software applications with Cisco Unified Data Center
applications to support optimal end-to-end video quality."
The aim is to offer enterprises
contemplating large-scale video surveillance deployments the kind of
scalability and capacity they need while offering lower costs and easier
management, according to Cisco.
The UCS is a key part of the solution. The UCS is a converged
data center solution that offers a tighly integrated bundle that includes
servers, networking and management software from Cisco with storage products
from EMC and NetApp and virtualization technology from VMware. Cisco released
the first UCS three years ago, and quickly has grown the number of customers to
more than 11,000. The solutions success also has made the networking vendor a
strong player in the worldwide x86-based blade server market.
Cisco made significant enhancements to the solution earlier
this month, with the rollout of USC
3.0.
According to Cisco, UCS modular platform offers 1,000 percent
better scalability than dedicated server offerings, which means that enterprises
and government agencies can scale to tens of thousands of surveillance cameras.
UCS Express also offers video surveillance as a service, which can be deployed
as a virtual solution on blade servers for equipment that already exists in
many branch offices.
Cisco also is offering fast deployment for large-scale
programs in such areas as municipalities, campuses, heath care and energy
through its Video Surveillance Manager software, which offers centralized
management, situational awareness and a real-time response feature.
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