This post originally appears in Cisco’s Data Center & Cloud Blog
I am here in the beautiful San Diego to support the NetApp team and activities at Cisco Live 2012. This year’s event features the largest number of joint Cisco and NetApp solutions in our history! I expect Cisco Live attendees will be impressed with the depth and breadth of our offerings.
When I was asked to blog on what we have in store for the event I thought they were asking me to write another book! Honestly, I can’t even cover the volume of FlexPod activity in a single post. With that said, allow me to share with you a few items I find truly compelling.
FlexPod Powers the NOC at Cisco Live
This year’s Cisco Live network infrastructure is expected to support over 15,000 users with 35,000 devices and is expected to transfer over 3 terabytes of Internet traffic. Powering the Network Operations Center (NOC) that provides these services is a FlexPod. This is the second year that a FlexPod has powered the NOC at Cisco Live!
You can’t miss the NOC, it’s the glass walled datacenter locate adjacent to the World of Solutions’ entrance. Stop in and meet the NOC engineers; they can discuss the number of Cisco technologies and solutions running on the FlexPod. For those who want to learn even more, the Cisco Live NOC is featured in session BRKNMS-1035 on Thursday at 3:30 in ballroom 6D.
FlexPod Overruns the Exhibit Hall
FlexPod provides unmatched infrastructure flexibility ranging from architectural capacity and network connectivity, to bare-metal and virtual operating systems, to the broadest set of business critical applications.
With over 1,050 customers in 33 countries, FlexPod is leading the industry as the platform of choice for those seeking an agile datacenter. With over 70 public references, 20 Cisco Validated Designs (CVDs), the broadest set of validated management partners and numerous security validations including PCI Compliance, FISAM and ICSA; it’s easy to understand we are adding 1.5+ new FlexPod customers every day!
Cisco Live attendees will have the opportunity to learn of the latest FlexPod news including…
New entry level FlexPod for midsize and distributed environments. Its based on the Cisco UCS C-series and NetApp FAS2240 array. The new platform received a support from our field and analysts.
Validated FlexPod Management and Solutions. This new program strengthens the management options offered to FlexPod customers providing unified, turnkey functionality for automation and orchestration and have passed extensive testing in Cisco and NetApp labs.
MS Private Cloud built on FlexPod. Learn how Cisco, NetApp and Microsoft are accelerating private cloud adoption with deep integration into management interface such as Microsoft Hyper-V, System Center 2012 and PowerShell Toolkits with NetApp OnCommand management software.
FlexPod is also powering the over 80 VXI clients residing throughout the Cisco Live expo hall, including the event registration desks, Internet kiosks, and walk-in self-paced labs. In addition a number of technology partners will feature FlexPod platforms in their exhibits.
Customers Share their FlexPod Success
Customer success stories are often cited as the most compelling information one can obtain at a tradeshow. They often present the real world experiences and the unfiltered results that a vendor simply can’t provide. This year GE, the University of Tennessee and the Walz Group are presenting sessions around their cloud and desktop virtualization environments. I advocate you attend these sessions as they speak to the benefits of FlexPod in transitioning their datacenters to a more agile infrastructure. I expect the topics to range from operational best practices to architectural designs, to ROI and presenter insight.
Here’s a brief description of each session:
GE: A major global enterprise with 20 strategic data centers and presence in 87 countries. Will demo their agile ‘development on demand’ self-service portal based on FlexPod, which has provisioned over 1,000 VMs in the past 12 months.
Transforming GE’s Cloud with FlexPod, session BRKPCS-4387 is Tuesday at 1:30
Dev on Demand – GE’s Private Cloud Built on FlexPod, session WOS4779 is Wednesday at 2:30pm in the Cisco Solutions Theater
University of Tennessee: Launched ‘Apps@UT’, to provide anytime access to virtual desktops, applications, personal files and network resources for over 27,000 students and staff. ‘Apps@UT’ is powered by Citrix XenDesktop and FlexPod.
University of Tennessee Launches Virtual Desktop Revolution session BRKPCS-4381 is Wednesday at 4:00
Designing & Deploying Citrix XenDesktop on FlexPod is Wednesday at 1:30 in the NetApp Booth
The Walz Group: Deployed a multi-site enterprise private cloud infrastructure with a unified service catalog and single pane of glass management. The gains from standardizing on FlexPod range from ROI to RTO.
Readers can read my interview with Bart Falzarano from Cisco Live 2011.
Beyond the Cloud – Conquering Technology Debt with FlexPod is Wednesday at 5:30 in the NetApp Booth
More information can be found on all of these sessions in the NetApp Communities.
Hope to See You There
Cisco Live 2012 is going to be a fantastic event. There’s so much momentum with Cisco and NetApp that this post can’t do it any justice (for example SAP on FlexPod). You should find the time and stop by the NetApp booth; we’d love to share more.