CISCO UCS - TECHNICAL DETAILS

UCS is an integrated, scalable, multi-chassis platform in which all resources participate in a unified management domain. The main system components include:

Compute: The system is based on an entirely new class of computing system that incorporates blade servers based on Intel Xeon 5500 Series processors. The Cisco UCS B-250 M1 Extended Memory Blade Server offers patented Cisco Extended Memory Technology to support applications with large data sets and also to allow more virtual machines per server.

Network: The system is integrated onto a low-latency, lossless, 10-Gbps unified network fabric. This network foundation consolidates what today are three separate networks: LANs, SANs, and high-performance computing networks. The unified fabric lowers costs by reducing the number of network adapters, switches, and cables, and by decreasing power and cooling requirements.

Virtualisation: The system unleashes the full potential of virtualisation by enhancing the scalability, performance, and operational control of virtual environments. Cisco security, policy enforcement, and diagnostic features are now extended into virtualised environments to better support changing business and IT requirements.

Storage access: The system consolidates access to both SAN storage and network attached storage (NAS) over the unified fabric. Unifying storage access means that the Cisco Unified Computing System can access storage over Ethernet, Fibre Channel, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), and iSCSI, providing customers with choice and investment protection. In addition, administrators can pre-assign storage-access policies for system connectivity to storage resources, simplifying storage connectivity and management while helping increase productivity.

Management: The system uniquely integrates all the system components, enabling the entire solution to be managed as a single entity through Cisco UCS Manager software. Cisco UCS Manager provides an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI), a command-line interface (CLI), and a robust application-programming interface (API) to manage all system configuration and operations. Cisco UCS Manager helps increase IT staff productivity, enabling storage, network, and server administrators to collaborate on defining service profiles for applications. Service profiles are logical representations of desired physical configurations and infrastructure policies. They help automate provisioning and increase business agility, allowing data-centre managers to provision resources in minutes instead of days.

Working as a single, cohesive system, these components unify technology in the data-centre. They represent a radical simplification in comparison to traditional systems, helping simplify data-centre operations whilst reducing power and cooling requirements. The system amplifies IT agility for improved business outcomes.