Cisco is now calling the VDI package the Virtualization Experience Infrastructure (VXI) so people can ask for it by name.
A couple of weeks after Cisco Systems and its virtual desktop/data center business partners
VMware and EMC announced new support for their Vblock cloud systems,
lead mover Cisco clarified its VDI strategy Nov. 16 by productizing its
wide-ranging product set and giving the reference architecture a name
that resembles a misordered Roman numeral.
Cisco is now calling the VDI package the Virtualization Experience
Infrastructure (VXI) and adding it to the catalog so people can ask for
it by name.
Virtually all the components -- including load balancing and
application delivery, wide area application acceleration software,
security appliances, VPN client, data center switches, SAN switches,
routers -- you name it -- are required to be Cisco-made.
However, the VXI will work with Citrix XenDesktop 5 and VMware View 4.5 desktops.
Cisco is repositioning itself in a trend most IT analysts believe will
finally start to take off in 2011, thanks largely to major improvements
in bandwidth, software performance and I/O routing.
The VXI is a comprehensive offering. Likewise, it will be a matter of
serious comprehension for IT architects to get through the
729-page VXI Configuration Guide (PDF) that Cisco published with the launch.
Complicated it is. The VXI system supports a wide variety of endpoint
devices, including Cisco Unified IP Phones, laptops, business tablets
including Cisco Cius, and smart phones.
Cisco also said that its Cius business tablet will be enabled to run
virtualized desktop environments at launch thanks to the introduction
of newly designed client applications from Citrix, VMware and Wyse.
In the data center, the VXI package will work natively with Cisco's
Unified Computing System and its Vblocks cloud computing packages.
Vblocks are modular, preconfigured rack systems consisting of servers
and networkware from Cisco, storage/security/system management from
EMC, and the ESX hypervisor from VMware.
Resulting cloud computing blocks can range in size from hundreds of
virtual machines to more than 6,000 virtual machines, depending on the
customer's needs. The number of endpoints in a VXI deployment could
range in the thousands, depending upon requirements.
Vblocks use end-to-end Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCOE) connectivity only.
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Chris Preimesberger was named Editor-in-Chief of Features & Analysis at eWEEK in November 2011. Previously he served eWEEK as Senior Writer, covering a range of IT sectors that include data center systems, cloud computing, storage, virtualization, green IT, e-discovery and IT governance. His blog, Storage Station, is considered a go-to information source. Chris won a national Folio Award for magazine writing in November 2011 for a cover story on Salesforce.com and CEO-founder Marc Benioff, and he has served as a judge for the SIIA Codie Awards since 2005. In previous IT journalism, Chris was a founding editor of both IT Manager's Journal and DevX.com and was managing editor of Software Development magazine. His diverse resume also includes: sportswriter for the Los Angeles Daily News, covering NCAA and NBA basketball, television critic for the Palo Alto Times Tribune, and Sports Information Director at Stanford University. He has served as a correspondent for The Associated Press, covering Stanford and NCAA tournament basketball, since 1983. He has covered a number of major events, including the 1984 Democratic National Convention, a Presidential press conference at the White House in 1993, the Emmy Awards (three times), two Rose Bowls, the Fiesta Bowl, several NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments, a Formula One Grand Prix auto race, a heavyweight boxing championship bout (Ali vs. Spinks, 1978), and the 1985 Super Bowl. A 1975 graduate of Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., Chris has won more than a dozen regional and national awards for his work. He and his wife, Rebecca, have four children and reside in Redwood City, Calif.Follow on Twitter: editingwhiz
