QuickStart for Data Center: Data Center Decision Makers Data Sheet … · 2009-02-10 · QuickStart for Data Center: Data Center Decision Makers Data Sheet CIO Perspective • Driven

QuickStart for Data Center: Data Center Decision Makers Data Sheet

CIO

Perspective

• Driven by corporate strategy • Cares about investment protection • Demands business up time and high availability • Wants to reduce costs – CapEx and OpEx • Likely to want to be kept informed; may also be the approver

What Cisco Technology/Solutions are they interested in? The CIO is not typically focused on specific products or solutions, but rather the benefits that the best product/solution set can provide. Addressing the CIO’s concerns with the business benefits of our solutions is a good strategy. If you start to talk about features or specific products you’ll lose the conversation.

• Catalyst 6500 series and Security Services modules – Data Integrity and Cost Containment through Consolidation

• ACE Module– Data Integrity and Cost Containment through Consolidation and Business Agility

• MDS 9500 series – Data Integrity and Cost Containment through Consolidation and Business Agility

• VFrame Data Center – Business Agility and Cost Containment through Virtualization and Consolidation

Page 1 of 27 © October 2007

CIO DATA CENTER DECISION MAKERS DATA SHEET

Concerns and Benefits

Concerns Benefits of Cisco Data Center Solutions

Data security and compliance • Integrated platform that provides imbedded security throughout

• Robust reporting tool that correlates all device logs for compliance reporting

• Integrated security for the encryption of data in transit throughout the network

• Application layer security to provide protection against the most sophisticated attacks on corporate data

Cost containment • Consolidation of Data Centers, applications, servers, storage resources, and network resources provides the greatest return on IT assets

• Orchestration provides an environment that allocates or retires resources, such as servers and applications, based on actual demand, minimizing power, cooling, and licensing costs

Business agility • Deployment of an integrated, scalable solution that can quickly adapt as business needs dictate

• Automated management of all network resources to ensure compliance of business policies throughout the network

• Platform for migrating to future generations of networking easily and with minimal costs

• Leadership and innovation in Data Center Networking

• By deploying an intelligent network platform, which supports and enhances the Service Oriented Architecture for application deployment, businesses can maximize their investments to resolve business needs



What they say

• “IT runs the business – downtime is not an option.” • “I want to see more business value out of IT.” • “I need to take a long-term view of where I want our Data Center infrastructure to

be in 5 years. We can’t go on building out our infrastructure with discrete silos of different infrastructure.”

• “I need to control opex and capex costs. The Data Center’s current infrastructure deployment and operations model is not economically sustainable.”

Questions to ask

• What new business services or processes are you considering? • How do you work with the business to define the IT strategy? • What are your long-term targets or strategies for reducing costs? • What would the business impact of a natural or man-made disaster be? What are

your challenges here? • To what extent are power, space, and cooling impacting your business today? • What are your personnel issues around productivity, skills shortages, growing

talent, and functional organization? • How are you integrating business information to increase overall effectiveness? • How do you decide what to keep in house and what to outsource? • What impact has recent legislation had on your organization?




Objections/Counters Why would I, as a CIO, talk to Cisco? Cisco helps transform Data Centers into strategic assets that protect, optimize, and grow your business. Cisco’s Data Center Network Architecture delivers the most integrated end-to-end Data Center networking solution, empowering enterprises to gain the greatest level of control when aligning Data Center resources with business needs. We are also a well known entity in the Data Center and are a highly stable company that offers services and support along with our products and solutions. I question Cisco’s long-term commitment to the Data Center. We only enter a market with a firm commitment to achieving and maintaining a leadership position. Cisco has a multi-billion dollar Data Center business. Data Center 3.0 demonstrates our two-year strategy, and we continue to roll out strategies that address web 2.0 requirements. What does Cisco know about Data Centers? We are more than a networking company. Cisco continues to develop intelligent capabilities that specifically increase the effectiveness of Data Center services. The Data Center is built from a multitude of different technologies, which are delivered by a number of vendors to build the overall solution. Cisco currently provides numerous products and technologies for the vast majority of Data Centers in the world. This gives Cisco insight into Data Center requirements, which we build on by talking to our many customers and leveraging our own experience as a large Data Center user.

DATA CENTER OPERATIONS DATA CENTER DECISION MAKERS DATA SHEET

DATA CENTER OPERATIONS

Perspective

• Driven by need to keep within budget • Considers application availability to be important • Needs to plan for stored data growth • Wants to reduce operational costs • Is almost certainly responsible for implementation; may also be part of the

approval process

What Cisco Technology/Solutions are they interested in?

• Catalyst 6500 series • Catalyst Service Modules • Fibre Channel Switch • ACE Module • WAAS • MDS 9500 series • Ethernet Blade Switches • VFrame Data Center



Application availability • Intelligent networking solutions provide a highly available infrastructure that can be managed based on the application required, via Cisco VFrame Data Center architecture

• Verified and tested solutions through the Cisco DCAP Program

• World Class support organization



Data integrity • Secure Data Center Architecture utilizing the Cisco end-to-end product line

• Industry-leading solution of encryption of data in transit over multiple networking topologies

• Reporting and forensics tool for documentation of compliance and SLA reporting

Change management • Protected and ensured SLA agreements for applications, via virtualization within multiple environments

• Centralized tools for policy management for all vested groups, via the Data Center using the VFrame Data Center appliance

• Roles based access to all networking devices throughout the Data Center

• Consultative services to help streamline the change management process throughout the entire organization

What they say

• “I need to have a short-term and a long-term view. What do I want our IT infrastructure and Data Center to look like in 5 years, and how are we going to get there?

Questions to ask

• What are your main challenges – distance, cost, bandwidth, latency • What costs do you have related to data unavailablity? • Where does the enterprise want to reduce the risk of data loss? • What are your Data Center plans for redundancy and backup? • What is the distance (current and planned) between Data Centers?



Objections/Counters Buying from a single supplier locks us in - we have a two-supplier policy. Cisco has always embraced open standards, and on several occasions has introduced innovations to create industry standards for both networking interoperability and storage networking. Cisco is also committed to an open environment that enables multiple vendors to work together. There are also some cost savings available to you when using a single vendor. I already have an existing relationship with HP/IBM/EDS/EMC/KPMG. We also have a relationship with these vendors. We work closely with them and provide solutions through them. I respect that, but what would it take to make you explore alternatives? I have different managers running storage and networking, but your products span both these disciplines so I don't know how I would manage them. Cisco storage networking products can be managed in many different ways. The variety of management options gives full flexibility to match what any business wants to set up in terms of a management organization. We have customers who use a single group to manage both network and storage, and we have customers who ask different groups to manage different parts of the Data Center. I’ve seen Cisco buying Linksys and Scientific Atlanta – it’s obvious that the home is where their future lies. Our philosophy is to drive everything onto the network, and the Data Center is an enabler of the network. What does Cisco know about Data Centers? We are more than a networking company. Cisco continues to develop intelligent capabilities that specifically increase the effectiveness of Data Center services. The Data Center is built from a multitude of different technologies, which are delivered by a number of vendors to build the overall solution. Cisco currently provides numerous products and technologies for the vast majority of Data Centers in the world. This gives Cisco insight into Data Center requirements, which we build on by talking to our many customers and leveraging our own experience as a large Data Center user.




Some of this is very new. How can I be sure it will work? Cisco Data Center Network Architecture is a solution set consisting of a tested combination of existing, new, and emerging products and technologies. Many framework SRND (design guides) and best practices documents have been written and published by Cisco. Cisco has also carried out joint testing with key partners in the Data Center, such as IBM, HP, EMC, VMWare, Oracle and more. Cisco also has numerous customer case studies reflecting the many thousands of companies that have already deployed Cisco Data Center solutions and technologies. IBM partners with Brocade, Nortel and others - what advantage is there in using Cisco as part of their solutions? Cisco has a very strong, important strategic relationship with IBM, covering not just Data Center, but many other areas. In the Data Center, Cisco's relationship with IBM is not just on a product level. IBM and Cisco have a joint architectural proposition for the Data Center called Cisco Data Center Network Architecture Optimized with IBM for the On Demand Operating Environment. Cisco and IBM have carried out joint developments for the Data Center in areas including Ethernet switching, storage networking, security, and application optimization. You sell a common management message, but the products do not reflect this. Cisco has a clear vision of what we want to accomplish in the Data Center space. Today we have a very comprehensive management portfolio to manage the Data Center. This is based on yesterday's and today's Data Center architecture and support methodology, which is very device centric. As we evolve this architecture and support model, we are evolving our management architecture to reflect this. Today’s Cisco solutions meet the needs of the multiple operational constituents in the Data Center, including network operations, security operations, system/applications operations, and storage operations.

SERVER MANAGER DATA CENTER DECISION MAKERS DATA SHEET

SERVER MANAGER

Perspective

• Technically focused • Function oriented • Interested in features, technology, and performance • Job security a high priority • Is almost certainly required to support the implementation; may also be responsible

for delivery of the implementation • May also be a key technical decision maker for specific technologies in the Data

Center


• Catalyst 4948 and 6500 series • Ethernet Blade Switch • SFS 3000 and 7000 series • VFrame Data Center



Meeting Service Level Agreements • Ensures corporate requirements for application deployment policies are enforced via the VFrame architecture

• Ensures changes or failures within network infrastructures are addressed dynamically

Maximizing utilization • Allows the virtualization of server resources via VMWare to be maximized within the VFrame environment

• Incorporates other technologies, such as Infiniband, into the overall server management process via VFrame environment

• Tightly integrates server management into a corporate policy management solution



Minimizing infrastructure and licensing costs • Provides an integrated management tool for reporting server usage based on application needs

• Provides a vehicle for “on demand” server deployment and server shutdown based on demand thresholds

What they say

• “As long as my servers are up I’m OK.” • “We have too many underutilized servers.” • “We’re implementing a virtualization solution now.” • “We’re considering virtual switch technology.” • “We’re out of capacity and can’t put another server in our Data Center.” • “We are beginning to adopt blade technology.”

Questions to ask

• How many servers do you have, and what are your current utilization levels? • What is your disaster recovery plan, and have you ever had to use it? If so, what

was its impact, and what were the challenges? • How many man-hours do you spend reacting to things: managing failed backups,

reacting to running out of disk space or processing power? • How is your deployment of servers being impacted by a lack of space or

insufficient power and cooling? • Could your current environment cope well with a sudden influx of new users? • When was the last time your recovery plan was assessed? • What challenges are you facing maintaining IT resources in remote locations? • What major projects are you being asked to look at by your management team?



Objections/Counters I would prefer to work with a specialist supplier. Cisco is a specialist supplier for a comprehensive range of Data Center technologies. We specialize in network technologies that improve server utilization through consolidation and virtualization.

My primary concern is server utilization. Cisco can’t do much for me in this area. One of our newest products, VFrame Data Center, gives server administrators the ability to pool server resources and dynamically allocate them based on the needs of the hosted applications. In addition, VFrame DC allows unused server resources to be returned to the shared pool for reuse by other applications. VFrame DC also helps enhance the scalability, robustness and security of server virtualization technology such as VMware. Together, these capabilities drive up server utilization. What does Cisco know about Data Centers? We are more than a networking company. Cisco continues to develop intelligent capabilities that specifically increase the effectiveness of Data Center services. The Data Center is built from a multitude of different technologies, which are delivered by a number of vendors to build the overall solution. Cisco currently provides numerous products and technologies for the vast majority of Data Centers in the world. This gives Cisco insight into Data Center requirements, which we build on by talking to our many customers and leveraging our own experience as a large Data Center user. Some of this is very new. How can I be sure it will work? Cisco Data Center Network Architecture is a solution set consisting of a tested combination of existing, new, and emerging products and technologies. Many framework SRND (design guides) and best practices documents have been written and published by Cisco. Cisco has also carried out joint testing with key partners in the Data Center, such as IBM, HP, EMC, VMWare, Oracle and more. Cisco also has numerous customer case studies reflecting the many thousands of companies that have already deployed Cisco Data Center solutions and technologies. Your products don't work well with products from other vendors. Although optimized for Cisco, many of the Cisco Data Center Network Architecture best practices and design principles are relevant for Data Center networking in general. Cisco




has always embraced open standards, and has opened up innovations to create industry standards on several occasions for both networking interoperability and storage networking. The company is active in the DMTF, IEEE, IETF, OASIS, SNIA, T11, W3C, and other Data Center relevant bodies. Your products aren't all best in class. Cisco products may not be best in class at any specific point in time, but we expect to deliver best in class products over a reasonable time frame. The key issue in the Data Center area is that Cisco is the only vendor that can provide a total solution to meet the many requirements for intelligent network services, that can deliver key strategic partnerships, and that can have a vision for the future to match ongoing requirements. Networks are only plumbing. I focus on the servers. Servers are transient. They are merely nodes on the network (use this response with care!).

STORAGE MANAGER DATA CENTER DECISION MAKERS DATA SHEET

STORAGE MANAGER

Perspective

• Technically focused • Function oriented • Interested in features and technology • Usually risk averse • Is almost certainly required to support the implementation; may also be responsible

for delivery of the implementation


• MDS 9500, 9200, and 9100 series • MDS Fibre Channel Blade Switch • WAAS • VFrame Data Center



Timely availability of corporate data • Provides the most scalable, highly available infrastructure for the access and storage of corporate data via the MDS product line

• Provides a policy-based infrastructure that ensures the prioritization of data flow within a virtualized environment that can quickly adapt to changes as required



Disaster recovery and business continuance policies

• Provides secure, virtualized environments, with policy-based rules that govern the provisioning, backup, and growth of storage assets across multiple Data Center locations

• Ensures the individual requirements for encryption of data in transit are enforced throughout the corporate infrastructure

• Provides an environment that can quickly be adapted based on changes in policy throughout the corporate environment

Flexible infrastructure and maximum utilization

• Provides a virtualized environment of storage assets for deployment of resources quickly and dynamically

• Provides the ability to utilize a centralized backup mechanism, such as a tape library, across multiple independent environments through Inter VSAN routing

• Allows the transparent integration of IP based storage within the corporate Fibre Channel environment

• Allows corporate storage designs to migrate to and utilize new or emerging technologies such as FCIP

What they say

• “I can’t keep up with the amount of storage that needs to be backed up, replicated, and archived. ”

• “How do I get out of this storage management mess when my storage needs are growing like this!”

Questions to ask

• What major projects are you being asked to look at by your management team? • Could your current environment cope well with a sudden influx of new users? • How much growth are you seeing in your storage needs year over year? • What is your disaster recovery plan, and have you ever had to use it? If so, what

was its impact, and what were the challenges?



• When was the last time your recovery plan was assessed? • How many man-hours do you spend reacting to disk space issues? • What kinds of issues are causing you to delay, or to be unable to deploy, new

storage? • What kind of struggles are you having with IT resources in remote locations? • How much storage do you have, and what are your current utilization levels? • What concerns do you have about the security of your company’s data? • What is your Recovery Point Objective (RPO)? In other words, how much data can

you lose? • What is your Recovery Time Objective (RTO)? In other words, how long can you

be down?

Objections/Counters I would prefer to work with a specialist supplier. Cisco is a specialist supplier of a comprehensive range of Data Center technologies. We are a strong enterprise SAN vendor with significant global market share. Our solutions are deployed in thousands of the world’s leading companies and are implemented in all industries. My primary concerns are disk utilization and the provisioning of new storage. Cisco can’t do much for me in these areas. With the introduction of VFrame Data Center, Cisco allows storage resources to be pooled and dynamically allocated based on a variety of criteria. This can drive up utilization, and potentially reduce negative impact on applications. What does Cisco know about Data Centers? We are more than a networking company. Cisco continues to develop intelligent capabilities that specifically increase the effectiveness of Data Center services. The Data Center is built from a multitude of different technologies, which are delivered by a number of vendors to build the overall solution. Cisco currently provides numerous products and technologies for the vast majority of Data Centers in the world. This gives Cisco insight into Data Center requirements, which we build on by talking to our many customers and leveraging our own experience as a large Data Center user. Some of this is very new. How can I be sure it will work?




Cisco Data Center Network Architecture is a solution set consisting of a tested combination of existing, new, and emerging products and technologies. Many framework SRND (design guides) and best practices documents have been written and published by Cisco. Cisco has also carried out joint testing with key storage partners in the Data Center, such as IBM, HP, EMC, HDS, Sun, Dell, NetApp and more. Cisco also has numerous customer case studies reflecting the many thousands of companies that have already deployed Cisco Data Center solutions and technologies.

NETWORK MANAGER DATA CENTER DECISION MAKERS DATA SHEET

NETWORK MANAGER

Perspective

• Technically focused • Function oriented • Interested in features and technology • Is almost certainly required to support the implementation; may also be responsible



• Catalyst 4948 and 6500 series • Catalyst Services Modules • ACE Module • WAAS • SFS 3000 and 7000 series • Ethernet Blade Switch • VFrame Data Center



Service Level Agreement requirements • Enables an intelligent platform for application delivery based on tested and documented reference architecture

• Solutions are feature-rich, highly-integrated, secure, and scalable

• Peak performance, even in remote locations, managed and maintained for quick deployments

• Dynamic allocation of exiting network resources based on policies



Flexible infrastructure

• Virtualized network resources and application environments that are secured and provisioned quickly within the same physical device

• Virtualized testing and modeling environments that accelerate new deployments

• Innovative technology within existing architectures

Minimizing downtime and performance issues • Integrated network analysis and network traffic monitoring tools

• Log files, compliance reporting, root cause analysis, and trending can be streamlined

• Better utilization of operational and support staff due to virtualization and orchestration

What they say

• “I need to provide lots of bandwidth between Data Centers, and I need to make sure users can get to the apps.”

Questions to ask

• What major projects are you being asked to look at by your management team? • What are your current utilization levels? • When was the last time your recovery plan was assessed? • What is your disaster recovery plan, and have you ever had to use it? If so, what

was its impact, and what were the challenges? • What kinds of challenges are you facing maintaining IT resources in remote

locations? • Could your current environment cope well with a sudden influx of new users? • How many man-hours do you spend reacting to bandwidth issues?

Objections/Counters




Buying from a single supplier locks us in - we have a two-supplier policy. Cisco has always embraced open standards, and on several occasions has introduced innovations to create industry standards for both networking interoperability and storage networking. Cisco is also committed to an open environment that enables multiple vendors to work together. We have adopted a “best of breed” network product approach due to the importance of our Data Center. Cisco understands the importance of your Data Center, and we feel that the best solution is an integrated and flexible architecture that best supports your business goals and lowers costs through dynamic allocation and provisioning of shared resources. We also believe that a Cisco end-to-end Data Center architecture will lower your support costs with our Data Center Assurance Program. Your products aren't all best in class. Cisco products may not be best in class at any specific point in time, but we expect to deliver best in class products over a reasonable time frame. The key issue in the Data Center area is that Cisco is the only vendor that can provide a total solution to meet the many requirements for intelligent network services, that can deliver key strategic partnerships, and that can have a vision for the future to match ongoing requirements.

SECURITY MANAGER DATA CENTER DECISION MAKERS DATA SHEET

SECURITY MANAGER

Perspective

• Technically focused • Function oriented • Interested in features and technology • Is almost certainly required to support the implementation; may also be responsible

for delivery of the implementation • May also be a technical decision maker for security products


• Catalyst 6500 series • Catalyst Security Services Modules • MDS family of products • ACE Module • ACE XML Gateway • VFrame Data Center



Enforcing corporate security policies • Intelligent and integrated security platform • Embedded security and compliance policies

Documented regulatory compliance • Roles based access to all networking devices • Integrated reporting tools • Security process integrated within all areas

of the Data Center Change management • Integrated security policy and management

across all networking components • Testing and verification of security policy

enforcement before real time deployment


SECURITY MANAGER DATA CENTER DECISION MAKERS DATA SHEET


What they say • “Our information is our business. We need to protect our data everywhere –

in transit and at rest.”

Questions to ask

• What major projects are you being asked to look at by your management team? • What is your disaster recovery plan, and have you ever had to use it? If so, what

was its impact, and what were the challenges? • What challenges are you facing maintaining IT resources in remote locations? • Could your current environment cope well with a sudden influx of new users? • How many man-hours do you spend reacting to security issues? • When was the last time your recovery plan was assessed?

Objections/Counters I would prefer to work with a Security specialist. Cisco has the most comprehensive network security solution in the industry. Our integrated and comprehensive end-to-end solution can reduce opex through centralized provisioning and reporting. It can also reduce the time it takes to respond to security incidents.

APPLICATIONS MANAGER DATA CENTER DECISION MAKERS DATA SHEET

APPLICATIONS MANAGER

Perspective

• Technically focused • Function oriented • Interested in features, technology, and performance • Is almost certainly required to support the implementation; may also be responsible



• Ethernet Blade Switch • ACE Module • ACE XML Gateway • WAAS • VFrame Data Center



Service Level Agreement requirements • Networking, server, server load balancing, and storage resources provisioned based on SLA requirements

• Seamless implementation and enforcement of policies throughout multiple physical Data Centers

• Disaster Recovery and Business Continuance requirements can be automated to dramatically reduce downtime when failures occur within any device or system



Reducing time for deployment of new applications or changes

• Utilizing VFrame and virtual partitioning, application policies are quickly deployed on current hardware devices

• Test and upgrade environments are quickly and easily created within the existing platforms without disrupting production systems

• Roles based streamlining of application management and deployments

Enabling application integration • Intelligent network platform, which supports and enhances the Service Oriented Architecture for application deployment

What they say

• “Our applications are the ‘face’ of our business.” • “It’s all about keeping the applications available.” • “The infrastructure needs to address the requirements of strategic applications,

and to deliver appropriate service levels and prioritization.” • “IT is not keeping up with the changing demands of the business. We need to be

an enabler for business agility, not an obstacle. I’m looking at an SOA strategy.”

Questions to ask

• Are you struggling to develop new systems due to inflexibility? Because of lack of available servers? Due to insufficient storage? Because of network resources?

• How closely has your development environment mirrored the production environment into which your applications will be deployed?

• What would happen if the business grew suddenly? • How do you plan to roll out new projects, especially to remote locations? • Are there challenges with the way your applications run at your branch offices?

Objections/Counters




I manage applications for the Data Center and see no way that Cisco can assist me. Cisco’s strength in Data Center virtualization – network, server, and storage – can facilitate the rapid deployment of applications, which shortens the time it takes to get applications to market. Your products don't work well with products from other vendors. Although optimized for Cisco, many of the Cisco Data Center Network Architecture best practices and design principles are relevant for Data Center networking in general. Cisco has always embraced open standards, and has opened up innovations to create industry standards on several occasions for both networking interoperability and storage networking. The company is active in the DMTF, IEEE, IETF, OASIS, SNIA, T11, W3C, and other Data Center relevant bodies. Your products aren't all best in class. Cisco products may not be best in class at any specific point in time, but we expect to deliver best in class products over a reasonable time frame. The key issue in the Data Center area is that Cisco is the only vendor that can provide a total solution to meet the many requirements for intelligent network services, that can deliver key strategic partnerships, and that can have a vision for the future to match ongoing requirements. What does Cisco know about Data Centers? We are more than a networking company. Cisco continues to develop intelligent capabilities that specifically increase the effectiveness of Data Center services. The Data Center is built from a multitude of different technologies, which are delivered by a number of vendors to build the overall solution. Cisco currently provides numerous products and technologies for the vast majority of Data Centers in the world. This gives Cisco insight into Data Center requirements, which we build on by talking to our many customers and leveraging our own experience as a large Data Center user. Some of this is very new. How can I be sure it will work? Cisco Data Center Network Architecture is a solution set consisting of a tested combination of existing, new, and emerging products and technologies. Many framework SRND (design guides) and best practices documents have been written and published by Cisco. Cisco has also carried out joint testing with key partners in the Data Center, such as EMC, IBM, HP, and more. Cisco also has numerous customer case studies reflecting the many thousands of companies that have already deployed Cisco Data Center solutions and technologies.

ENTERPRISE ARCHITECT DATA CENTER DECISION MAKERS DATA SHEET

ENTERPRISE ARCHITECT

Perspective

• Alignment of IT strategy and Business Goals • IT oriented • Big picture, holistic • Future state oriented

What Cisco Technology/Solutions are they interested in? The Enterprise Architect is not typically focused on specific products or solutions, but rather the benefits that the best product/solution set can provide. One of their key responsibilities is to ensure that IT strategy is aligned with the overall business goals.

• Catalyst 6500 series and Services modules – Data Integrity and Cost Containment through Consolidation

• ACE Module – Data Integrity and Cost Containment through Consolidation and Business Agility

• MDS 9500 series – Data Integrity and Cost Containment through Consolidation and Business Agility

• VFrame Data Center – Business Agility and Cost Containment through Virtualization and Consolidation



Long-term, strategic integration of technologies

• Architecture is emerging across multiple platforms that Cisco can deliver as a single vendor

• VFrame Data Center provides centralized architecture design and policy management process

• Performance and delivery of solutions over the long term



Balance business goals with technology infrastructure strategies

• Cisco’s Data Center 3.0 framework provides a flexible and scalable architecture that supports Service Oriented Architecture

• VFrame Data Center empowers virtualization and policy enforcement based on business needs

Reduce risks in architectural investment

• Integrated security throughout the Data Center solution

• Cisco supports the implementation of a service oriented infrastructure

• Long-term commitment to Data Center architecture from industry leader and innovator

What they say

• “I have the ability to see all parts interact with the whole.” • “My care abouts are in line with top level mandates.” • “The infrastructure needs to address the requirements of strategic applications, and

to deliver appropriate service levels and prioritization.” • “I’m looking at a Service Oriented Architecture strategy.” • “For this to be successful I need to gain business unit stakeholder buy-in.”




Questions to ask

• Where do you see your Data Center in 2 to 3 years? • Are you considering a service oriented architecture or a utilities based model? • With a Service Oriented Architecture strategy, what challenges do you see around

the end user for that strategy? • How do you see the IT organization evolving over the next 2 to 3 years? • How important is business continuity, and to what level are you planning to

support it?

Objections/Counters You’re just plumbing. Why should I talk to you? While that may be true in the routing and switching arena Cisco has broadened it’s offerings. We are touching many portions of the Data Center. The view of the network as a ‘dumb pipe’ is both outdated and limiting. The network has evolved considerably over the past twenty years, and possesses many inherent characteristics that make it an ideal element of the overall IT architecture. The very issues being faced by today’s Data Center architects are ones that can readily be addressed by taking a more holistic view, and by relocating appropriate infrastructure services into the network. We have one Data Center and no backup capacity. What can you do to help me? Building out a new Data Center but need the project to really kick into high gear. What can you do to help me? Advisory Services to help. We have multiple Data Centers around the world and we’re supporting our growth too. We have the same pressures. We are suffering from the same issues you are. What does Cisco know about Data Centers? We are more than a networking company. Cisco continues to develop intelligent capabilities that specifically increase the effectiveness of Data Center services. The Data Center is built from a multitude of different technologies, which are delivered by a number of vendors to build the overall solution. Cisco currently provides numerous products and technologies for the vast majority of Data Centers in the world. This gives Cisco insight into Data Center requirements, which we build on by talking to our many customers and leveraging our own experience as a large Data Center user.

Documents

QuickStart for Data Center: Data Center Decision Makers Data Sheet … · 2009-02-10 · QuickStart for Data Center: Data Center Decision Makers Data Sheet CIO Perspective • Driven