Cisco Data Center Exec Ullal Departs
Jayshree Ullal, who has headed Cisco's Data Center 3.0 initiative, has left the company to "pursue new professional opportunities," the company said late Friday. Ullal, the senior vice president of Data Center, Switching and Services Group (DSSG), announced her departure Friday on the Cisco Data Center blog:
With mixed feelings and much introspection I have come to my decision to leave Cisco after 15 great and memorable years. My loyalty and affection to Cisco, CEO John Chambers and my teams made this a very difficult and lengthy decision process. It has been my privilege to lead this team and I have full faith in our future driving Cisco's vision for transforming the data center ... As for the inevitable question of what I plan to do next, I hope to re-kindle passions for my “next new gig” this summer and make an informed decision later this year.John McCool will assume leadership of Cisco's DSSG group, reporting directly to CEO John Chambers, and will also fill Ullal's position on Cisco’s Development Council.
Posted by Rich Miller 
May 11, 2008 | Permalink | Newsletter
April 14, 2008
Cisco, Dell Blogs Feud over FCoE vs. iSCSI
As the data center evolves, the technology industry's largest companies are positioning themselves to be major players in the next-generation data center. Broad adoption of many of these new data center technologies is a long way off, but the battle for mindshare is under way. This was visible in last week's exchange between the corporate blogs for Cisco Systems (CSCO) and Dell (DELL), which engaged in a spirited debate about storage networking protocols for the next-generation data center.
The discussion provides a good overview of the competition between Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and iSCSI, as well as how Cisco and Dell are using their blogs to advocate for the technologies they are supporting.
Cisco has made a huge bet on Fibre Channel over Ethernet as the unified fabric will serve as a platform for its ambitions in the next-generation data center. With the introduction of its Nexus 5000 Series switches last week, Cisco accelerated its efforts to advance FCoE as the right choice for a unified fabric, using company blogs and videos to educate customers and partners about Cisco's strategy. That included a post from Dante Malagrino providing resources about FCoE.
Posted by Rich Miller April 14, 2008 | Permalink | Newsletter
April 08, 2008
Nexus 5000: Next Step in Data Center 3.0 Push
Cisco Systems (CSCO) continued its push into the data center today, introducing the Nexus 5000 switch as the next step in data center consolidation using a unified network fabric that can connect ties together servers, storage and I/O. The Nexus 5000 is the end result of Cisco's investment in Nuova, a startup founded by former Cisco executives.
As part of today's announcements at its Partner Summit 2008 in Hawaii, Cisco said it would acquire the 20 percent of Nuova it doesn't already own.
FCoE Provides Unified Fabric
Like the Nexus 7000 switch unveiled in January, the Nexus 5000 series runs Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), an emerging protocol that can connect LAN-based servers with Fibre Channel storage networks, creating a flexible high-speed data center infrastructure. Cisco is positioning the Nexus 5000 as a tool to virtualize data center assets over a unified fabric running on 10 Gigabit Ethernet. The new switch is currently being tested by Savvis (SVVS), the IT infrastructureThe use of Fibre Channel over Ethernet offers the potential to reduce the number of interface connections on each server, eliminating the need for separate connections for Ethernet and Fibre Channel, a protocol that is widely used in storage area networks (SANs). This would result in fewer cables, adapters and switches, which in turn would reduce power consumption. It will also allow greater portability for virtual machines within the data center.
Posted by Rich Miller April 08, 2008 | Permalink | Newsletter
January 28, 2008
Cisco Unveils New Switches for Data Center 3.0
Cisco Systems (CSCO) today is unveiling a new line of switches to support a "unified fabric" allowing customers to seamlessly integrate servers and storage in data center networks. The Nexus Series of switches marks the next phase in Cisco's Data Center 3.0 initiative, and features a new operating system (NX-OS) and data center network management tool.
The Nexus 7000 Series runs Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), an emerging protocol that can connect LAN-based servers with Fibre Channel storage networks, creating a flexible high-speed data center infrastructure. Existing Cisco Catalyst 6500 switches will also be able to plug into the unified fabric.
The use of Fibre Channel over Ethernet offers the potential to reduce the number of interface connections on each server, eliminating the need for separate connections for Ethernet and Fibre Channel, a protocol that is widely used in storage area networks (SANs). This would result in fewer cables, adapters and switches, which in turn would reduce power consumption. It will also allow greater portability for virtual machines within the data center.
Cisco launched its Data Center 3.0 initiative last July with a focus on managing virtualized data centers, and introduced VFrame Data Center, an "orchestration solution" to link computing, networking and storage infrastructures together as a set of virtualized services.
With the Nexus Series, Cisco is seeking to place its equipment at the heart of a unified fabric - a single technology delivering all data center networking requirements. Deepak Munjal, Cisco's senior VP of marketing for Data Center Solutions, describes the unified fabric as the "holy grail" of data center networking.
"We really believe the main impetus of the unified fabric is the maintenance of all existing Fibre Channel investments," said Munjal. "We believe this is the way most networks will converge."
Posted by Rich Miller January 28, 2008 | Permalink | Newsletter
January 07, 2008
Cisco: 'Significant' Data Center News Coming
There have been several stories in recent weeks noting that Cisco (CSCO) will be sharpening its focus on the data center sector in 2008. The networking giant unveiled its Data Center 3.0 initiative last July, which focused on orchestration technology for virtualized data center assets. The next phase in Cisco's data center push will be coming shortly, according to Doug Gourlay, Cisco's Senior Director for Data Center Solutions. Here's an excerpt from Doug's blog post last night:
Over the next several weeks and months there are going to be significant announcements in the data center from Cisco. Not just new boxes or features, but technologies that will transform the way networks are built, change the way IT operates, and set a new bar for availability, security, and manageability. That's why I am so excited right now... the race is about to start.The race has actually been underway for some time, and is populated with some pretty strong and fast competitors with sharp elbows. But it's fair to say that the industry will be watching closely for the details of Cisco's next steps in its data center initiative.
Posted by Rich Miller January 07, 2008 | Permalink | Newsletter
November 30, 2007
Cisco Preps New Dallas Data Center
Cisco has been talking the talk with its Cisco’s Data Center 3.0 initiative, which includes new products to manage virtual assets. But it's also walking the walk, overhauling its in-house data centers to take advantage of the same capabilities.
As we've seen with many large virtualization and consolidation projects, that means building a new data center. In the next two weeks Cisco (CSCO) will open a new facility in Richardson, Texas (a suburb of Dallas), which will serve as the model for the company’s future facility builds. Cisco executives Sidney Morgan and Doug Gourlay discussed the new facility Tuesday at the Gartner Data Center Conference in Las Vegas.
"We were out of capacity," said Morgan, manager of IT engineering systems at Cisco. "We were physically out of floor space. After a while, the capacity issue was no longer even floor space, but power and cooling."
Cisco currently has 47 data centers with 195,000 square feet of raised floor space, which house 12,000 servers and more than 12,800 apps. Cisco has also acquired data centers through more than 120 acquisitions since 1997. That has given Cisco a larger footprint, but the company needed more advanced data centers. Morgan said many of Cisco’s data centers have the equivalent of Tier II infrastructure, and the company wanted more capacity and redundancy.
Posted by Rich Miller November 30, 2007 | Permalink | Newsletter
August 09, 2007
Cisco Data Center Mishap Causes Outage
Cisco's web site was offline for three hours yesterday following an electrical overload during maintenance at the company's San Jose data center. In a blog post last night, Cisco attributed the electrical problem to human error:
The issue occurred during preventative maintenance of one of our data centers when a human error caused an electrical overload on the systems. This caused Cisco.com and other applications to go down. Because of the severity of the overload, the redundancy measures in some of the applications and power systems were impacted as well, though the system did shut down as designed to protect the people and the equipment. As a result, no data were lost and no one was injured. Cisco has plans already in process to add additional redundancies to increase the resilience of these systems.The outage came as Cisco was releasing a series of security advisories detailing new vulnerability's in the company's networking equipment.
Posted by Rich Miller August 09, 2007 | Permalink | Newsletter
July 30, 2007
Second Look: Cisco's Data Center 3.0
Cisco's unveiling of its Data Center 3.0 initiative last week at its Cisco Networkers conference was a big event for the company. Shortly after Cisco finished its presentations, the attention of a significant chunk of the tech audience was diverted by a data center outage in San Francisco. So in case you missed it, here's a second look at Cisco's announcement and ensuing coverage:
- Data Center 3.0? (Cisco blog): Omar Sultan, Cisco's manager for Data Center Switching writes: "You may be wondering if there is anything to this "Data Center 3.0" thing beyond some clever marketing folks earning their paychecks. Well, clever marketing folks aside, the name was very explicitly chosen, so let's deconstruct it a bit."
- Cisco Sticks Its Foot In The Data Center Door (Information Week): " For the first time, the networking vendor has spelled out the endgame of its virtualization strategy, which looks increasingly like the end of physical servers as we know them."
- Cisco Data Center Play Gains Steam with VMware Stake (eWeek): Cisco Systems, after planting its strategy flag in the fertile data center soil earlier this week, wasted no time in advancing that strategy by announcing on July 27 that it has taken a $150 million stake in VMware.
- Cisco Looks to Put Virtual Stamp On Data Centers (ComputerWorld): " Several attendees at the Networkers at Cisco Live 2007 user conference said the promised benefits hit home with them, although some noted that adopting VFrame DC may not be a simple matter."
Posted by Rich Miller July 30, 2007 | Permalink | Newsletter
July 27, 2007
Cisco Takes $150M Stake in VMware
VMware, Inc. today announced that Cisco Systems (CSCO) will acquire a $150 million equity stake in the company, reinforcing Cisco's focus on virtualization as a critical piece of its "Data Center 3.0" strategy. Cisco becomes the second tech titan to invest in the virtualization specialist prior to its eagerly anticipated IPO. Earlier this month Intel Capital acquired a $218 million position in VMware.
Both investments were made by purchasing Class A common shares currently held by EMC Corporation, VMware's parent company. Cisco's position represents 1.6% of the shares of VMware, which will consider the appointment of a Cisco executive to its board of directors.
Cisco said its purchase "is intended to strengthen inter-company collaboration towards accelerating customer adoption of VMware virtualization products with Cisco networking infrastructure and the development of customer solutions that address the intersection of virtualization and networking technologies."
Posted by Rich Miller July 27, 2007 | Permalink | Newsletter
July 24, 2007
Cisco Targets 'Data Center 3.0'
Cisco (CSCO) today unveiled its data center strategy, announcing a collection of products to manage networks and data center assets. With its "Data Center 3.0" initiative, Cisco will focus on a holistic approach to managing increasingly virtualized data centers.
"Cisco's success is built on ... understanding market transitions," said John Chambers, Cisco's chairman and CEO. "Because the network is uniquely positioned to be the platform for the data center, we are investing in innovations to help our customers transform their data centers for improved efficiency and increased business productivity."
Cisco anticipates that the data center market will be transformed by virtualization, and will roll out a series of products and solutions over the next 24 months to address that trend. That includes VFrame Data Center, an "orchestration solution" to link computing, networking and storage infrastructures together as a set of virtualized services.
Posted by Rich Miller July 24, 2007 | Permalink | Newsletter
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