Cisco is to release more network management hardware and
software under itsData Centre 3.0product suite to speed
the delivery of enterprise software applications, business users at
theCisco Networkers 2008conference in
Barcelona were told today.
Analysts said the tools are designed to strengthen Cisco's hold
in datacentres by providing the underlying network infrastructure
and applications such as videoconferencing, voice communications
and collaboration to run over the network.
Cisco announced several new optimisation products at the
conference. These included the
Cisco ACE 4710 appliance, which allocates the computing power
of virtual servers to run specific applications faster and
Cisco
WAAS mobile software, which provides application acceleration
for mobile workers.
Ram Velga, senior director of datacentres at Cisco, said
deciding how to make the best use of bandwidth when applications
needed more processing power was the main challenge for datacentre
managers.
"The ongoing trend of consolidation - people pulling more
network applications into a tighter space - and the ongoing trend
to virtualise servers and storage increases the bandwidth required
and changes the addressing schemes network managers must have in
place to make sure their applications run," he said.
Christopher Mines, senior vice-president at analyst firm
Forrester, said Cisco was keen to push its "network as a platform"
vision, which positions its hardware and software at the heart of
running and operating datacentres. With this in mind, end-users
should try and negotiate larger discounts if they decide to run
only Cisco products.
"More and more IT functions will sediment into the network over
time, and Cisco is trying to position its network operating system
as a platform for both applications development and deployment.
Once this becomes the foundation of the datacentre, it can be
expensive to change, so users should consider this when negotiating
contracts," said Mines.
Cisco Networkers 2008 blog - day 1 part 1 >>
Cisco Networkers 2008 blog - day 1 part 2 >>