Close
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Applications
    • Applications
    • Cloud
    • Servers
    • Storage

    How Cisco is Modernizing Management of Its UCS Franchise

    By
    Chris Preimesberger
    -
    September 21, 2017
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin
      Cisco.Systems.sign

      Cisco Systems has been building and selling its Unified Computing Systems line of pre-configured, converged servers since the launch in March 2009, and it’s been a source of both pride and profit for the company ever since.

      A UCS consists of proprietary data center architecture, servers, plenty of dense storage and a set of management software and services based on high-end Intel processors. Cisco partners provide all hardware and software that isn’t in the networking realm–except the main servers, which Cisco itself makes.

      Since then, the systems have undergone five server updates and sold more than 60,000 systems worldwide. By any measure, this is a successful product line.

      However, Cisco hadn’t spiffed up the system’s management controls in a long time. So, on Sept. 21, the world’s largest internet networking provider added smart new cloud-service management controls with Cisco Intersight, a dashboard that also works with Cisco HyperFlex Systems.

      Oh No, Not Another IT Acronym (SMaas?)

      Cisco Intersight is designed to simplify data center operations by delivering systems management as-a-service (no, the company didn’t refer to this as SMaaS—yet, anyway), alleviating the requirement to maintain islands of on-premises management infrastructure. Complete system lifecycle management is delivered by Intersight using machine learning, analytics and automation, the company said.  

      Many enterprise application architectures are evolving into scale-out and multi-site deployment models, delivered by containers, microservices and Kubernetes schedulers. Alongside this trend, DevOps approaches are accelerating the rate of application development and continuous feature delivery. Cisco said that Intersight addresses these challenges, helping IT staff optimize operations while offering an intuitive user experience.

      Cisco said a number of its customers are already participating in an engineering preview of Intersight, connecting thousands of UCS and HyperFlex systems for testing and feedback. 

      What’s New in the Package

      Key features in Intersight include:

      • Pervasive simplicity: Cisco Intersight features a user interface that can be customized by user role. As a cloud-based service, new functionality is delivered via portal updates without burdening users with upgrades, and the experience scales seamlessly as users  directly connect new systems for management. 
      • Analytics combined with tight integration with the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) constantly improve the assistance provided through the recommendation engine. The platform is designed to constantly learn to help make daily IT operations easier.
      • Expertise: Tight Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) integration and insights from Cisco and the UCS Community provide recommendations and best practices.
      • Continuous optimization: The ability for the Intersight platform to provide actionable intelligence will grow stronger over time from the power of cloud-based machine learning. It can learn from the collective experience of the UCS user community, as well as the best practices of Cisco experts and peers. This will enable better predictive analytics and resource utilization to be provided through the recommendation engine.
      • Agile delivery: IT can rapidly respond to business demands and frequent changes while maintaining the policy enforcement designed to implement safe and reliable business services Cisco Intersight is API-driven and Cisco UCS and HyperFlex are fully programmable systems, supporting development and operations tool chains for continuous integration and delivery.
      • Constant protection: The Cisco Intersight service adheres to the stringent security standards of Cisco InfoSec and helps enable secure communication between the Cisco Intersight SaaS platform and managed endpoints, allowing applications to be deployed and updated securely.

      Cisco Intersight will become generally available in Q4 2017 and is integrated and designed to coexist with existing UCS and HyperFlex management tools, so users can adopt Cisco Intersight as they see fit.

      Intersight will be available in an on-premise deployment model in the future. It is is built on an extensible architecture with OData standards-based RESTful APIs and connector framework simplifying third party software and hardware integrations. 

      Deployment models:

      • Base Edition will be available at no charge. It includes global health monitoring and inventory, a customizeable dashboard, the HyperFlex Installer to quickly deploy clusters and the ability to context-launch the UCS Manager, IMC and HyperFlex Connect element managers.
      • Essentials Edition includes all the functionality of the Base edition as well as policy-based configuration with service profiles, firmware management with scheduled updates, Hardware Compatibility Listing (HCL) compliance checks and upgrade recommendations, and other features.

      For more information, go here. You can attend a live webcast on this topic Sept. 26 at 10 a.m. Pacific time by registering here.

      Chris Preimesberger
      https://www.eweek.com/author/cpreimesberger/
      Chris J. Preimesberger is Editor Emeritus of eWEEK. In his 16 years and more than 5,000 articles at eWEEK, he distinguished himself in reporting and analysis of the business use of new-gen IT in a variety of sectors, including cloud computing, data center systems, storage, edge systems, security and others. In February 2017 and September 2018, Chris was named among the 250 most influential business journalists in the world (https://richtopia.com/inspirational-people/top-250-business-journalists/) by Richtopia, a UK research firm that used analytics to compile the ranking. He has won several national and regional awards for his work, including a 2011 Folio Award for a profile (https://www.eweek.com/cloud/marc-benioff-trend-seer-and-business-socialist/) of Salesforce founder/CEO Marc Benioff--the only time he has entered the competition. Previously, Chris was a founding editor of both IT Manager's Journal and DevX.com and was managing editor of Software Development magazine. He has been a stringer for the Associated Press since 1983 and resides in Silicon Valley.
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Latest News

      Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

      James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
      I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
      Read more
      Applications

      Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

      James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
      I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
      Read more
      IT Management

      Intuit’s Nhung Ho on AI for the...

      James Maguire - May 13, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nhung Ho, Vice President of AI at Intuit, about adoption of AI in the small and medium-sized business market, and how...
      Read more
      Applications

      Kyndryl’s Nicolas Sekkaki on Handling AI and...

      James Maguire - November 9, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nicolas Sekkaki, Group Practice Leader for Applications, Data and AI at Kyndryl, about how companies can boost both their AI and...
      Read more
      Cloud

      IGEL CEO Jed Ayres on Edge and...

      James Maguire - June 14, 2022 0
      I spoke with Jed Ayres, CEO of IGEL, about the endpoint sector, and an open source OS for the cloud; we also spoke about...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2022 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×