Building a next-generation data center with Cisco UCS and managing it with CA Technologies.
Data centers are the ultimate power consumers, constantly growing in necessity and consumption. Allowed to run free, they are not sustainable by any measure – power, size and space, or manageability. Technology created them, but now technology is taming them with next-generation data center technology. Virtualization, in combination with cloud computing, is reducing the amount of server hardware required. Simply put, less hardware uses less power and makes for greener data centers that cost less to run. Through not-so-simple technology, the industry is getting there.
Larger organizations typically have larger data centers, often making them the first to move to new technology. But out-of-control sprawl is hitting many organizations hard. Have you been pushing the edge on your data center space and considering a move to a larger space? Or are you maxing out in every direction and entirely rethinking your data center plans? Have you thought of deploying next-generation data center technology to help you gain control? Alternatives to “more of the same” are here and being deployed now.
The discussion of Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) that follows is not to imply it is the only alternative, nor is CA Technologies the only partner that integrates with Cisco UCS, but it provides an example of the choices you have. So, if you are looking to revamp your data center solution so it can scale more sustainably, consider these and other alternatives.
Cisco UCS is a data center platform built to bring data centers to the next level, using technology optimized for managing virtualization. Purpose-built, Cisco UCS supports important business drivers for maintaining reliability and helps to achieve cost reduction through data center consolidation and the use of virtualization. It also promises to be a stable foundation to support application delivery. On every level – I/O connectivity, CPU utilization, physical and logical architecture – it addresses the need for less hardware and greater flexibility and reliability. Embedded management and a flexible API make it accessible to partners to extend its manageability beyond the Cisco UCS environment.
CA Spectrum Infrastructure Manager, CA eHealth Performance Manager and CA Automation Suite for Data Centers (formerly CA Spectrum Automation Manager) share a direct integration with Cisco UCS that results in an integrated fault, performance and configuration management solution that customers can use to assure their entire physical and virtual infrastructure. It also addresses the need for automated, policy-based provisioning of physical, virtual and cloud resources. All three products tie to CA Virtual Assurance as a common management layer for virtual server technologies, so that virtual servers are managed equally with physical servers.
For instance, CA Spectrum Infrastructure Manager automatically discovers and creates a software model of each UCS Manager, chassis, blade and fabric interconnect switch, creating a topology map that enables operators to view all of these critical Cisco UCS components as well as system and environmental details. CA eHealth Performance Manager collects performance details for each component of the Cisco UCS and will proactively alert on performance issues that deviate from normal and will impact users and services. CA Automation Suite for Data Centers provides automated configuration monitoring to ensure configuration doesn’t drift from its intended state as well as supporting automated provisioning of physical and virtual servers. These advanced management features complement your intent to better and more efficiently manage your data centers.
Editor’s Note: Last May, Cisco published Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) A Complete Reference Guide to the Cisco Data Center Virtualization Server Architecture by Silvano Gai, Tommi Sali and Roger Andersson. CA contributed a chapter to this book, CA Management Integration with Cisco UCS. Team members were: David Cramer, Stephen Elliot, Kathy Hickey, Tanvir Hussain, Rich Lau, Steve Lemme, Leslie Menegaz, Bill Minto, Wendy Payne, Jerome Simms, Pam Snaith and Jeffrey Webb.
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