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1st Cisco Sales Links - PBM IT Solutions - Call (888) 233-6471Featured Solution: Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS)Q. What is a data center? A. A data center is where the majority of an enterprise servers and storage are located, operated and managed. How exhaust air is returned to the cooling units within the data center is as important a consideration as the distribution of cool air to the servers. Hot aisle and cold aisle techniques must be extended to include evaluation of airflow dynamics. At higher power densities the amount of space required to house cooling equipment will overtake the number of cabinets. Alternate approaches, or a reduction in the amount of equipment housed in each cabinet, must be considered. Hardware assets should be used well after their depreciated financial life has ended — for as long as is technically possible. Recent changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure put IT on the front lines for ensuring a business is complying with regulations, notably Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA. Not only is it necessary to store key data for longer periods, but being able to retrieve information at a granular level –right down to specific emails –is now an IT responsibility, one that if not handled properly could result in a vacation with the local municipal system. Server virtualization is the masking of server resources (including the number and identity of individual physical servers, processors, and operating systems) from server users. The intention is to spare the user from having to understand and manage complicated details of server resources while increasing resource sharing and utilization and maintaining the capacity to expand later. Virtualization can optimize fewer servers to run at higher performance levels. One of the greatest challenges facing IT professionals is effectively protecting business critical information, particularly the growing amount of data stored on distributed desktops, remote and laptop computers. The Cisco UCS uses three adapter types, with four specific models: the Cisco UCS 82598KR-CI 10 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter, UCS M71KR-Q QLogic Converged Network Adapter, UCS M71KR-E Emulex Converged Network Adapter, and UCS M81KR Virtual Interface Card. Each of these cards has a pair of 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections to the Cisco Unified Computing System backplane that support the IEEE 802.1 Data Center Bridging function (formerly called Cisco Data Center Ethernet) to facilitate I/O unification within these adapters. On each adapter type, one of these backplane ports is connected through 10GBASE-KR to the A-side I/O module; then that connection goes to the A-side fabric interconnect. 10GBASE-KR is a copper midplane technology for interfacing adapters and switching elements through these midplanes. The other connection is 10GBASE-KR to the B-side I/O module; that connection then goes to the B-side fabric interconnect. Figure 3 later in this document shows this connectivity. Building green IT systems do come with an added cost. These systems do need to take into account the overall short and long term sustainability, the total cost of ownership and the costs of safe recycling and disposal. But when used with efficient and effective policies, the return on investment can be much greater for the organization, employees and the community. An High Availability Data solution must be practical to implement - minimizing acquisition cost and operational complexity while being able to efficiently scale-out to meet any performance requirement as business needs evolve. The Cisco Nexus 1000V provides real-time coordinated configuration of network and security services and maintains a virtual machine-centric management model, enabling the server administrator to increase both efficiency and flexibility. |
