INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Data Centres
Cisco announces new architecture
to extend data centre capabilities
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• Enhancements to CloudCenter
to help customers manage the
life-cycle of applications across multiple
cloud environments
• A radically simpler way for customers to
buy and manage the technology across
the entire data centre architecture, via a
single Enterprise Agreement
Osama Al-Zoubi, Chief Technology Officer,
Cisco Middle East and Africa
New data centre innovation
C
isco has announced a new architecture
that extends the data centre to
everywhere that data lives and
everywhere applications are deployed. The
company has highlighted that application
innovation is at the heart of the digital
economy. A new era of apps is redefining
what data centres are and need to be capable
of supporting. Because today, the data centre
is no longer a fixed place. It exists wherever
data is created, processed and used.
To bring this 'data centre anywhere'
vision to life, Cisco is introducing a
range of innovations across networking,
hyperconvergence, security and automation.
They include:
• The expansion of ACI into the cloud
with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and
Microsoft Azure environments
• The extension of HyperFlex into branch
offices and remote locations to power
applications at the edge
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“Enterprises should be able to deploy
applications based on the needs of their
business, not the limitations of their
technology,” said Osama Al-Zoubi, Chief
Technology Officer, Cisco Middle East
and Africa. “Customers want to deploy
applications and manage data across a
range of diverse platforms, from on-premises
to cloud-based. That is why we are taking the
‘centre’ out of the data centre.”
INTELLIGENTCIO
Cisco is delivering on its new data centre
vision in three ways:
• ACI available in AWS and Azure:
Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI)
is Cisco’s intent-based networking
solution for the data centre. It delivers
operational simplicity, application agility
and protection in the data centre – all
delivered in a uniquely open approach
that integrates with all hypervisors
and container frameworks on which
applications are deployed. With ACI
Anywhere, that journey extends ACI
to any workload, any location and any
cloud. Virtual ACI already supports bare
metal clouds and remote edge locations.
And now with the new Cloud ACI
capabilities, Cisco extends automation,
management and security to AWS and
Microsoft Azure by fully integrating
with their Infrastructure as a Service
(IaaS) environments.
• HyperFlex for branch: Deploying
hyperconverged infrastructure to multiple
sites in order to provide distributed
computing at a global scale can be
a complex task. HyperFlex with Cisco
Intersight now allows customers to
seamlessly extend computing and storage
from their core data centres to the edges
of their operations. It does this with
flexible scalability and the unmatched
ease-of-use of cloud-powered systems
management. HyperFlex now delivers
data centre-class application performance
for digital innovation in branch offices
and remote sites, enabling analytics and
intelligent services at the enterprise edge.
• CloudCenter Suite: The operational
complexity and burgeoning cost of
managing applications across multiple
public and private clouds is a growing
challenge for IT teams. The new
CloudCenter Suite now features full
application lifecycle management,
greater workflow automation and
significantly enhanced cost optimisation
and governance. Finally, the new suite
is also much easier to consume, with
simplified deployment, tiered pricing and
a new SaaS offering. n
THE DATA CENTRE
IS NO LONGER A
FIXED PLACE. IT
EXISTS WHEREVER
DATA IS CREATED,
PROCESSED
AND USED.
www.intelligentcio.com