Cisco Offers Cloud Computing Infrastructure for Service Providers

Cisco's Unified Delivery Service initiative combines its Nexus 7000 networking switch offering, Unified Computing System converged data center offering, CRS-1 carrier network platform and new CRS-1 modules to give service providers the building blocks to creating cloud computing environments. The plan also would extend the reach of virtualization beyond the data center to use between data centers and next-generation Web-based networks. Driving the need for the Unified Delivery Service is the growing demand from businesses to get more services out of their networks, Cisco officials said.

Cisco Systems is pulling together key pieces of its data center and networking portfolios to create a blueprint for building a cloud computing infrastructure for service providers.

Dubbed the Unified Delivery Service, the initiative combines such Cisco technologies as its high-end enterprise-level Nexus 7000 Switch Series, CRS-1 carrier network platform, Unified Computing System converged data center offering and a new carrier routing system with the capabilities offered through IP NGNs (IP next-generation networks).

Cisco officials said the new initiative, announced May 12, extends their data center portfolio and is part of its Data Center 3.0 strategy, which looks to unify the various parts of data centers and simplify the management and operation of the facilities.

Check out the building blocks for Cisco's UCS initiative.

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The Unified Delivery Service initiative is driven in large part by the demands of businesses for more services from their data center networks-Cisco is estimating 46 percent annual growth in global Internet traffic-and the promise of cloud computing.

"The unification of the data center and the IP Next Generation Network is a natural progression not just in the evolution of networking," Kelly Ahuja, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's service provider routing technology group, said in a statement. "It also builds the foundation for innovative service providers ... to enable them to optimize their networks toward delivering new revenue-generating cloud-based services."

Cisco's new CRS-1 Carrier Routing System includes two new 10 Gigabit modules and a 40 Gigabit forwarding processor for the CRS-1 platform. The system is designed to extend virtualization technology from the data center to the IP NGN core. It also addresses the needs of peering and interconnect applications for a service provider's data centers.

Using the CRS-1 platform and new modules, service providers can virtualize traffic and network operations on a per-service or per-customer basis. They are combined with the Nexus 7000 Series Switch and Cisco's UCS, which converges blade servers, storage, networking, virtualization and management software into a single data center entity.

Cisco officials said the Unified Service Delivery initiative is designed to enable virtualization in the data center, between data centers and across IP NGNs.