Cisco plugs critical hole in WebEx, users urged to upgrade ASAP

@Cisco has fixed a critical vulnerability in its @WebEx #videoconferencing software that could be exploited to compromise meeting attendees’ systems by simply opening a booby-trapped Flash file shared in a meeting. About the vulnerability (CVE-2018-0112) The flaw is due to insufficient input validation by the Cisco WebEx clients, and affects Cisco WebEx Business Suite clients, Cisco WebEx Meetings, and Cisco WebEx Meetings Server. (The Cisco WebEx Business Suite (WBS) meeting services and Cisco WebEx Meetings are a hosted multimedia conferencing solution that is managed and maintained by Cisco WebEx. The Cisco WebEx Meetings Server is a multimedia conferencing solution that customers can host in their private clouds. Customers download the WebEx client application to attend meetings on the various Cisco WebEx Centers.) “To exploit this vulnerability, the client application would require a meeting attendee to open a malicious Flash file. An attacker may be able to accomplish this exploit by providing the malicious .swf file directly to users via the file-sharing capabilities of the client,” Cisco explained in an advisory published on Wednesday. The good news is that it is not currently being exploited in the wild: it was discovered and reported to Cisco by Alexandros Zacharis, an officer in the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA). There are no workarounds for the flaw, so users should either upgrade their software to the latest releases or remove it from their systems altogether. Other vulnerabilities fixed Cisco has also released on Wednesday a number of security updates for several of its security appliances and other software. Among the holes plugged is one affecting the company’s unified infrastructure management solution that simplifies data center operations. “A vulnerability in the role-based resource checking functionality of the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) Director could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to view unauthorized information for any virtual machine in the UCS Director end-user portal and perform any permitted operations on any virtual machine,” the company explained. “The vulnerability is due to improper user authentication checks. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by logging in to the UCS Director with a modified username and valid password. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to gain visibility into and perform actions against all virtual machines in the UCS Director end-user portal of the affected system.”

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2018/04/19/cisco-webex-cve-2018-0112/

Cisco & MapR set a Software Defined Storage World Record

It sounds like a long time, but first we had to wait for a few milestones to precede us: UNIVAC I 1951 – UNIVAC pioneers use of magnetic tape for storage 1993 – Severe Tire Damage is the first band to live stream 2007 – Netflix launches their streaming media business and finally, 2017 – @Cisco & @MapR achieve a #SPEC #SFS world record for streaming workloads   The #DataAge That’s some pretty impressive company.  Why is this particular benchmark result so significant? Because data is the lifeblood of business.  According to IDC, we’ve entered the Data Age: The world’s data will double every two years for the next decade.  How companies store, manage, access, and deliver hypercritical data will determine winners and losers. But such volume of data cannot be easily managed with conventional systems.  As data-driven businesses gain prominence, demand is growing for integrated solutions encompassing high-density storage, powerful compute, and improved scalability: Enterprises are collecting and storing more data for longer periods to support predictive analytics. Data is classified by “temperatures” (hot/warm/cold) for dynamic data tiering. Decision makers want to access and analyze data for real time insights. But traditional storage arrays are expensive and don’t easily support large scale-out landscapes.   A New Approach to Software Defined Storage That’s why Cisco developed the UCS S3260 Storage Server, a modular architecture designed to deliver efficient, industry-leading storage for data-intensive workloads.   And that’s why we’re partnering with MapR to provide a complete end-to-end software defined storage solution. Our S3260 Storage Server offers the industry’s best performance in a compact 4RU form factor.  It supports either Scale Up (expandable to 28 drives/node), or Scale Out (easily adding multiple nodes to your integrated infrastructure), and is a proven Hadoop platform.   MapR-XD provides a highly reliable distributed data fabric with enterprise-grade features such as Global Namespace and Multi-temperature store.   We Blew It Away Our SPEC SFS world record demonstrates the performance of the S3260 with MapR-XD. SPEC’s benchmark suite is the standardized method for evaluating performance using file server throughput and response time.  We ran the Video Data Acquisition (VDA) streaming workload because it simulates applications that store data acquired from temporally volatile sources such as surveillance cameras. Cisco and MapR have been setting records since we published the industry’s first Big Data benchmark in 2015.    But this was the first SPEC SFS benchmark on a HDFS (Hadoop file system) compatible platform.  Together, Cisco and MapR blew away all previously published SPEC SFS benchmarks: 2070 streams with an overall response time of just 12.94 msecs! You can read the complete, audited benchmark report here.   Back in the Real World But companies don’t run benchmarks for a living.   What’s this mean for our customers? Referring back to our data delivery milestones, the UCS S3260 Storage Server is perfect for modern data-intensive workloads like big data and video steaming.  Analytics and content distribution applications require both simultaneous scalability and high performance.  This need is ubiquitous in industries as different as video surveillance and entertainment. Remember the frustrating mid-movie buffering we put up with back in 2007?  Yesterday I watched Sunday Night Football’s live stream on my laptop connected to the Cisco network without so much as a hiccup. Nor did I expect one.  We’ve become accustomed to a right-now world.  We generate and consume more data in real time today than ever before in history.  As our demand for storage capacity and performance in this Data Age continues to increase, we’ll want greater density and higher performance at lower costs. Cisco and MapR deliver on those expectations.   The innovative, modular design of our UCS S3260 Storage Server allows independent refresh of compute, storage, and network.  And it scales to over ½ PB.   Like the rest of Cisco’s Intent-based Data Center portfolio, the S3260 benefits from profile-based management, 40gE speed, and best-in-class Security to create the most flexible, programmable, cost effective infrastructure you can deploy. Click here to learn more about how the UCS 3260 Storage Server can benefit your Data Center.

https://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/cisco-mapr-sds-world-record

Cisco and Splunk Demonstrate the Power of Integration

You already know that insights from data are the foundation for digital business. Much of this data comes directly from your data center, network and security infrastructures. But let’s face it, using custom-built or disparate tools to analyze each system is challenging at best. This is where Cisco and Splunk can help. #Cisco and #Splunk have worked closely to integrate #SplunkEnterprise with #CiscoUCS, Networking, and Security portfolios, to provide real-time #ITOperations and #SecurityAnalytics. These capabilities will be on full display at Splunk .conf2017, where the Cisco team will be showcasing the industry’s most comprehensive set of Splunk integrations that enable you to derive real-time insights from your data, accelerate troubleshooting and provide holistic security. If you’ll be in Washington, DC, for Splunk .conf2017, make the Cisco booth your first stop for an action-paced agenda of demos and theater sessions covering Cisco Data Center – Next generation Cisco UCS for Splunk Enterprise Cisco Security – Cisco Firepower 6, Umbrella and Cloudlock integrations with Splunk Cisco Meraki – Developer platform to build apps on top of the Cisco Meraki Cloud For the deep dive, don’t miss the Cisco breakout session, Innovation through the Power of Integration, on Thursday, September 28 |1:20 p.m. | Ballroom C. You’ll hear from three Cisco teams whose technologies feature Splunk integrations. If you can’t join us in Washington, DC, join the conversation and interact with us on Twitter using #CiscoatSplunkConf. For more information on Cisco and Splunk solutions visit cisco.com/go/bigdata or download the eBook.

https://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/cisco-and-splunk-demonstrate-the-power-of-integration

Springpath Will Drive HyperFlex Innovation, Giving Cisco More 'Firepower' Against HPE-SimpliVity, Partners Say

Partners are bullish on the future of #Cisco #HyperFlex as the networking giant acquires #hyperconverged software developer #Springpath for $320 million and doubles down on #UCS innovation through its new UCS M5 product line. Solution providers said they are expecting to win more hyper-converged deals within the next 12 months and have more "firepower" against competitors like #HewlettPackardEnterprise ( #HPE ) thanks to bringing #Spingpath in-house with the potential of ramping up the #HyperFlex innovation engine.  " #Cisco really needed a solid play in the #hyperconvergedinfrastructure space. With #SimpliVity getting snapped up [by HPE] and #Nutanix building its business to stand alone, Cisco needed to do an acquisition to land them squarely in this space," said Michael Knight, CTO of solution provider Encore Technology Group, a #Cisco Gold partner. [Related: 5 Ways Partners Can Drive UCS Refreshes And New Wins With Cisco's M5 Servers] Springpath's software helps enterprises turn standard servers into a single pool of compute and storage resources. Its software platform eliminates the need for dedicated network storage and integrates into existing management tools. The company's early claim to fame was that of helping enterprises avoid vendor lock-in when it comes to network infrastructure. Also of note, though, is Springpath's ability to add new capabilities to its shared, converged infrastructure. The networking vendor could eventually include artificial intelligence (AI) for greater automation of networking security and computing, according to partners. The partner ecosystem could also build AI integrations into the solution, which would add greater value for customers and give partners a leg up against the competition. "Springpath allows them to drive more product innovation and they'll also own all the intellectual property," said Kent MacDonald, vice president of business development at Long View Systems, a Calgary, Alberta-based and top Cisco partner. "I'm excited to see how they can use the Cisco Innovation labs to drive even greater acceleration for feature functionality." HPE's Channel Chief Terry Richardson spoke with CRN this week about the company's 100 percent channel pledge for Nimble and SimpliVity. Richardson said the Nimble, SimpliVity pledge is aimed at Cisco. "A lot of [SimpliVity and Nimble's] success really grew up on what I would describe as the backs of the traditional legacy Cisco partner base," he said. "Those partners were wise in choosing those technologies. Now that both those companies are part of HPE what I have seen is a real shift in interest from those partners not only continuing the relationship with SimpliVity and Nimble but getting more interested in HPE." Cisco didn't comment on Richardson's statement. One top executive from a solution provider that partners with both Cisco and HPE said the networking giant needs Springpath in its arsenal to fight off HPE-SimpliVity. "Springpath gives Cisco that firepower in its in-house portfolio to have a more compelling story against the HPEs and Dells of the world," said the executive, who did not wish to be named. "Cisco can now say they own 100 percent of their hyper-converged [solution] … That speaks volumes about their commitment. Not only that but with the Cisco-SimpliVity partnership done with, it was a much-needed play for the channel." Although Cisco's data center sales dropped 4 percent to $837 million year-over-year during its fourth fiscal quarter, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins said the company saw "solid traction" in HyperFlex bookings, although no official numbers were reported. "HyperFlex, our hyper converged offering combined with CloudCenter, is gaining traction with customers benefiting from simplicity and scalability to support their hybrid cloud strategy," said Robbins during Cisco's fourth quarter earnings conference call. In an interview with CRN, Todd Brannon, Cisco's director of product marketing for UCS, said the company just passed the 60,000 UCS customer mark thanks to an uptick in HyperFlex clients. "So we just passed 60,000 customers on UCS and 1,600 of those are HyperFlex," said Brannon. "We're seeing increased traction there. What's interesting about our HyperFlex business, is that about 30 percent of the customers that are coming in on HyperFlex are brand new to Cisco in terms of computing. They're not from our UCS install based. So 30 percent of those HyperFlex customers are actually brand new computing customers from Cisco." HyperFlex consists of UCS servers and software-defined storage technology from the hyper-converged startup Springpath. Cisco launched HyperFlex in March 2016 thanks to the strategic partnership with Springpath, which was founded by former VMware storage engineers. In March 2017, Cisco unveiled HyperFlex 2.5 that contained new features and capabilities such as the addition of high-capacity all-flash nodes and the HyperFlex Connect product. Long View's MacDonald said Hyperflex is resonating with customers seeking to reduce complexity in their data center. "We're seeing one of the motivating conversations with customers is, 'I want to take cost out of my IT, and I want to reduce complexity.' That is where we're seeing HyperFlex becoming a contender," said MacDonald. Regarding feature set, Springpath is on par with competitors Nutanix and SimpliVity, but the product isn't quite as mature, according to solution providers. Together with Cisco, HyperFlex will become a native product and more developed with deeper integrations across the Cisco stack. "There will be more partner adoption once Cisco owns the technology," Encore's Knight said. "I think there were a lot of partners that wanted to see what was going to happen before they went all in." Cisco expects to complete the acquisition of Springpath by the end of its fiscal 2018 first quarter in October. Cisco already owned an undisclosed stake in Springpath, and the vendor was rumored to be on the brink of acquiring Springpath as long ago as August of last year. The Springpath team will join Cisco's Computing Systems Product Group which is led by Liz Centoni, senior vice president and general manager of the group.

http://m.crn.com/news/networking/300090941/springpath-will-drive-hyperflex-innovation-giving-cisco-more-firepower-against-hpe-simplivity-partners-say.htm

SwiftStack and Cisco Collaboration Makes it Easy to Leverage the Benefits of Enterprise Cloud Storage

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- #SwiftStack, a company that powers #hybridcloud storage for enterprises, today announced that its hybrid cloud storage software is now validated by #Cisco for the #CiscoUCS® #S3260 storage server and integrated #UCSManager. SwiftStack is the only object storage solution with solution bundle part numbers on Cisco's global price list, and is the only such solution with the option of Cisco Solution Support. The combination of ordering efficiency, end-to-end solution support, and validated designs provides for the ideal consumption experience for enterprises  This Cisco Validated Design (CVD) status is the result of successful completion of comprehensive testing and documentation of SwiftStack by Cisco engineers to facilitate faster, more reliable and more predictable deployments for customers. CVDs provide the foundation for systems design based on common use cases or current engineering system priorities. They incorporate a broad set of technologies, features and applications to address customer needs. With SwiftStack software running on Cisco UCS Storage Servers, organizations can leverage the benefits of the public cloud while retaining the control and level of protection typically associated with private data centers running behind enterprise firewalls and security. SwiftStack innovations power hybrid cloud storage for enterprises. Enabling freedom to move workloads between private data centers and public clouds like Amazon or Google, SwiftStack software delivers universal access to petabytes of unstructured data in a single namespace. Corporate data remains under the management control of internal IT, served by infrastructure that starts small and seamlessly scales huge within and across geographic regions. The result, pay-as-you-grow consumption of IT-managed resources on-premises and in the cloud. "Enterprises are looking for the benefits of public cloud storage as they modernize their business workflows and leverage hybrid cloud solutions," said Don Jaworski, CEO of SwiftStack. "As a Cisco Preferred Solution Partner, we have collaborated to establish a joint solution that leverages the high density and industry-leading networking capabilities of Cisco UCS Storage Servers in a solution that Enterprises can easily and confidently consume." SwiftStack brings the fundamental attributes of public cloud resources into the enterprise infrastructure: scalability, agility, and pricing based on consumption. Legacy applications can access and consume storage via file services, and cloud-native applications via object. Users gain the freedom to move workloads between private data centers and public clouds like Amazon or Google, and from cloud to cloud, according to administrative policies. Whether on-premise or in public cloud, data remains under the management control of internal IT, residing wherever it is needed by users and applications

http://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/SwiftStack-and-Cisco-Collaboration-Makes-it-Easy-to-Leverage-the-Benefits-of-Enterprise-Cloud-Storage-1002275189

5 Ways Partners Can Drive UCS Refreshes And New Wins With Cisco's M5 Servers

Watch Out #DellEMC, #HPE #Cisco recently unwrapped the next generation of its flagship Unified Computing System ( #UCS ) server line, and the networking giant said competitors like Dell and Hewlett Packard Enterprise couldn't compete with it when it comes to its architectural approach and total cost of ownership. #Cisco 's new #UCSM5 line includes blade and rack servers, an enhanced #UCSDirector, a new #Intel processor and a Workload Optimization Manager. "What really differentiates us from Dell, is that Dell is asking customers to really just keep throwing more servers and people at the problem," said Todd Brannon, Cisco's director of product marketing for UCS, in an interview with CRN. "Partners aren't going in and having a server-to-server conversation with people and trying to fight at the slots and watts level. It's much more on the operational level that we want to compete … It lets [customers] manage more infrastructure with fewer people."

Don't Call It A Server

Cisco said M5 is not a server, but a system. Instead of going head-to-head with Dell or HPE server-by-server, partners can approach businesses with a system level, future proof solution.

"We can deliver customers multiple different types of architectures on this. So if its scale-up for SAP HANA or scale out for something like Hadoop or OpenStack – we can offer those different architectures in one system, from an operational perspective. So they can grab the right type of box for the job but that all comes from a singular pool of resources and one management paradigm," said Brannon. "Our UCS is extremely modular so as we bring in new form factors and I/O components – all these things are tied together in a singular system. So the components can come and go – like servers, networking, etc. – but the operating model, everything stays consistent over time, so it's future proofing things for customers."

Performance, Application Boost From Intel

Intel's new Xeon Scalable processors inside M5 has significantly boosted performance. Cisco said it had seen improvements of up to 86 percent in application performance between the fourth generation of UCS compared to new fifth generation M5. 

"The new Intel M5 processor really gives us the ability to extend our technology leadership in our fabric-based computing, our management capability, and our virtual interface card," said Scott Mohr, director of data center and cloud for Cisco's Global Partner Organization. "Partners can improve their TCO and application performance for customers … It's triggering our ability to attach to applications and optimize our customer's application environments."

http://m.crn.com/slide-shows/storage/300090476/5-ways-partners-can-drive-ucs-refreshes-and-new-wins-with-ciscos-m5-servers.htm/pgno/0/2

Cisco's server CTO says NVMe will shift from speed to capacity tier

#Cisco 's server CTO says #NVMe will shift from speed to capacity tier Raghunath Nambiar says data centres will be asked to do more with more By Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor 8 Aug 2017 at 07:33 SHARE ▼ Interview NVMe storage is becoming denser, faster, than other forms of storage and will therefore become a capacity tier according to Cisco's chief technology officer for UCS Raghunath Nambiar. “Right now people are looking at NVMe from a performance point of view,” Nambiar told The Register in Sydney last week, “but the real game changer is going to be capacity.” Nambiar said 2.5 inch SSDs will soon hit seven-terabyte capacities, but “NVMe will go to 32 terabytes 18 months from now.” That density will mean that even small servers like the UCS B200, Cisco's half-width workhorse, will be able to work with 64 terabytes of data in each server and plenty more across a blade chassis or a fabric. Nambiar said businesses will put that data to work with more intensive just-in-time analytics. “Many of the places in the States have a decent knowledge about your buying patterns,” he said, and use that data to power recommendation engines. Consumers, he added, have a tolerance for about one second's wait while an automatic teller machine or online retailer processes their transaction, but business wants their analytics to deliver. “Today they may look at 100 records,” he said. “In six months, they will look at 1,000 records.” Before long, he thinks organisations will expect that kind of analytics to consider tens of thousands of records in an effort to up-sell, cross-sell or just delight a customer. To respond, data centre operators will need to get ready to host lots more data in the same racks they use now and Nambiar said 100G Ethernet networks will soon become table stakes. Scaling out by improving throughput will also become critical, rather than relying on the sheer grunt of new CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs and networks. Nambiar said Cisco will plans to help in a few ways, including more work on validated designs for emerging workloads in big data and analytics and enhancements to its fabrics. “It is not going to be plug and play,” he warned. “If you want to fully take advantage of these capabilities you need to think deeper, down to data management platforms.” The recently-announced Starship server automation platform and further enhancements to UCS Director will try to do lots of that in advance. Nambiar said Cisco's aim is to mate UCS a hands-off proposition not long after racking and stacking has finished, with OS and applications self-installing and optimising themselves ready for desired workloads. “We will apply the known 'tunables' based on our best practice,” he said. “The server is going to be a platform to run applications,” Nambiar concluded. “Hardware itself is much less important. The management layer is what matters

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/08/08/cisco_ucs_cto_raghunath_nambiar_interview/

Redfish server management gets vendors' nod in new server hardware

Customers trying to unite their hybrid IT infrastructures with server management tools get mixed messages from the big server vendors. All major server vendors have touted compatibility with the Redfish server management open standard specification in recent weeks, in the newest versions of their servers -- Hewlett Packard Enterprise ( #HPE ) Gen10, #DellEMC 's #14G and #Cisco Unified Computing System ( #UCS ) M5. But this goodness comes undone as each vendor, unwilling to relinquish management of their systems, continues to favor its own proprietary systems management tools.
http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/news/450423155/Redfish-server-management-gets-vendors-nod-in-new-server-hardware

Seagate Takes Blame For Cisco UCS Server Configuration Snafu

#Seagate on Friday admitted to CRN that it was the source of the misconfigured hard drives that caused #Cisco to warn customers about potential data loss in certain Cisco #UCS servers. Cisco early this week issued a field notice that some of its Cisco UCS servers were shipped with hard drives that had the write cache mistakenly turned on. If the write cache is enabled, those servers could experience data loss if the servers lost power since the data in the cache might not be saved.  "Seagate has confirmed that certain drives shipped to Cisco did have the write caching performance option enabled. We have worked with Cisco to address the issue. We believe it is has been resolved to their satisfaction," a Seagate spokesperson wrote in an email to CRN. [Related: Some Cisco UCS Servers May Lose Data If Power Is Cut Off] Cisco, in its field notice, said the issue impacted the Cisco UCS C220-M3, C220-M4L, C240-M3, C240-M4L, and UCSC-C3X60 servers. Cisco identified the affected drives with their Cisco part numbers and did not specify them as being from Seagate. However, Cisco did include the Seagate name in some of the documentation in the field notice. Cisco, in its field notice, wrote that the affected drives would have to be re-configured in the field, and included instructions for how to do so. "Cisco ships all of their hard drives from manufacturing with drive write cache disabled. During a quality audit, select units were found to have the drive write cache enabled. The issue has been remediated in the manufacturing process. Users of potentially affected devices are recommended to change the drive cache configuration," Cisco wrote. The issue appears to be a logistics error and not a technical error, and is an argument for greater automation, said Glenn Dekhayser, national data management practice lead at Red8, a Costa Mesa, Calif.-based solution provider and Cisco channel partner. "This is what happens when humans are involved," Dekhayser told CRN. "A hard drive looks like a hard drive. You can't tell from the outside if the cache write is enabled or disabled. These things happen. It's bound to happen sometime." No hard disks should be shipped with their cache write enabled, Dekhayser said. "Write cache without persistent battery backup or persistent flash memory on the drive is not safe," he said. "You need a way to either move data to flash memory or keep the drive powered until the data in the cache is written to persistent memory. That would have prevented the issue."

http://m.crn.com/news/data-center/300088816/seagate-takes-blame-for-cisco-ucs-server-configuration-snafu.htm

Datos IO and Cisco Team to Enable Cloud Backup and Recovery at Scale for Multi-Cloud Environments

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, #DatosIO, the application-centric cloud data management company, announced availability of an integrated solution together with #Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) that simplifies and automates data protection for next generation customer-centric applications running on Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure ( #ACI ), Cisco Unified Computing System ( #UCS ), and Cisco #HyperFlex hyper-converged systems.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170713005244/en/Datos-IO-Cisco-Team-Enable-Cloud-Backup

Cisco Announces M5 UCS System — Citrix Customers Will Benefit

#Citrix workloads have been running on #Cisco hardware since the beginning of the #UCS line — way back in the #M1 days — and we are proud to be a launch partner for the #M5 debut. Our mutual customers count on the reliability and performance of Cisco UCS and the security, manageability and performance of Citrix #XenApp and #XenDesktop. Together, Citrix and Cisco provide a winning combination for anyone’s digital transformation needs. As Cisco points out, M5 is not a server, it’s a system. M5 is a system built on the latest Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors that will provide greater performance and flexibility that ever before. Of note for Citrix customers are three key features: Highest GPU density in the industry. Combined with XenDesktop’s HDX 3D Pro capabilities, the new M5 system will be able to drive a greater number of graphics-intensive workloads per host at a higher level of performance than ever before. Future-proof. The M5 system’s flexible and modular architecture allows customers to tune and scale compute, storage, I/O, and memory to meet the changing needs of a growing and changing desktop virtualization environment. This dovetails nicely with XenDesktop’s ability to help customers manage change at the desktop OS and application layers where patches, updates and upgrades can be a challenge without a system that is ready to deal with continuous change. Ready for cloud management. M5 will be ready for Cisco’s new Unified management system which will enable management of UCS and other Cisco components from the Cloud. This aligns perfectly with Citrix Cloud, which can be leveraged to manage XenApp and XenDesktop servers running on UCS on-premises or from the Cloud. Citrix even provides a method for offloading control plane components to Citrix Cloud, so that customers can focus on running only user workloads on Cisco UCS servers located anywhere they wish. M5 ushers in a new dawn for increased performance, flexibility and scale, which is right on time for the digital transformation wave. Citrix is proud to be a launch partner and we look forward to serving our mutual customers with our industry leading combined solutions.

https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2017/07/11/cisco-announces-m5-ucs-system-citrix-customers-will-benefit/

IBM Simplifies Object Storage for Cisco Customers

LAS VEGAS, June 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at #CiscoLive, #Cisco 's annual IT and communications conference, #IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced that companies using Cisco #UCS servers can now manage their data intensive workloads securely and efficiently on-premises with the IBM #CloudObjectStorage (COS) System, now available as a #VersaStack Solution for Cloud Object Storage. This pre-validated, tested and supported solution is designed to offer modern, flexible storage for unstructured data for use cases such as active archive, backup, content repository, enterprise collaboration and cloud application development. Businesses rely on a variety of storage architectures, including file and block storage for traditional workloads and performance-centric applications. Today's organizations are increasingly adding object storage for its massive scalability, cost efficiency and ability to manage rich, user-definable metadata. IBM and Cisco have collaborated to simplify and speed object storage adoption for customers with the VersaStack Solution for Cloud Object Storage. The combination of the Cisco UCS S3260 Storage Server, C220 Rack Servers and Cisco Nexus 9K switches with IBM Cloud Object Storage System is ideal for data intensive workloads, supporting IT organizations with an easily scalable solution. Customers can use their same on-premises Cisco hardware and server management tools to add IBM Cloud Object Storage to their current IT environments, allowing them to manage their data – from petabyte to exabyte scale – with reliability, security, availability and disaster recovery – all without replication. This new offering will modernize storage access, so that when clients are ready to extend their workloads into a hybrid cloud storage environment, the processing and tools are already in place for them to use their IBM Cloud Object Storage software, in either a private or hybrid cloud environment. "The growth of unstructured data in the enterprise is driving the need for a highly scalable, cost effective storage architecture," said Satinder Sethi, vice president, data center solutions, Cisco. "Cisco UCS S-Series Storage Servers are built to deliver rapid scalability and performance coupled with maximum investment protection through multi-generational system design. Cisco is collaborating with IBM to extend VersaStack with a new cloud object storage solution, that is built on UCS S3260 storage server, 40G fabric and IBM Cloud Object Storage that can scale from terabytes to petabytes in minutes." IBM Cloud Object Storage redefines the availability, security and economics of data storage, requiring less storage, power, floor space, personnel and cost than traditional storage options. It complements IBM's high and medium-performance flash and disk storage options, available for Cisco customers via IBM VersaStack, by providing a different kind of storage environment – one that is built for cloud native applications; unstructured data like video, audio, image and documents; and archive and other data protection needs. IBM takes a "software-defined/hardware-aware" approach to object storage. IBM Cloud Object Storage provides information about the status of both the logical and physical elements of the system in one view. This includes statistics on the health of disk drives, fans, NICs and the temperature of major system components. Intelligence delivered in the IBM COS Manager makes it easy for a single administrator to manage 10s of petabytes of storage, which can significantly lower the total cost of ownership for large scale object storage systems. "At IBM, we want to make it easy for organizations to adapt their IT environments when business needs change," said Phil Buckellew, general manager, IBM Cloud Object Storage. "Providing IBM Cloud Object Storage for Cisco hardware customers does just that – it allows them to use their existing investments to gain massive scalability for large volumes of data or changing business needs, with the option to extend into the IBM Cloud if and when it makes sense for them." The VersaStack Solution for Cloud Object Storage is backed by a Cisco Validated Design (CVD), which provides guidance on design and deployment of the solution, enabling Cisco customers and channel resellers to repeat the successful approaches they have taken with other Cisco validated solutions and seamlessly add object storage to their IT tool kit. It also simplifies the integration process for Cisco customers, who can now use their existing Cisco purchasing agreements and support structure to implement a flexible IBM Cloud Object Storage environment. The VersaStack Solution for Cloud Object Storage is available now, joining a growing family of VersaStack solutions jointly developed by IBM and Cisco. VersaStack solutions now have 19 validations (combined CVDs and Redbooks), enabling IBM and Cisco's joint customers to address a wide range of workloads and use cases.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ibm-simplifies-object-storage-for-cisco-customers-300479431.html

Cisco and Pure Storage accelerating digital transformation

Together, #Cisco and #PureStorage are extending the definition of converged infrastructure to deliver flexible growth. Easy implementation. And choice and transformation. Solutions such as Cisco #UCS and Pure Storage’s #FlashStack have revolutionized the deployment of converged infrastructure by creating powerful efficiencies for the data center and the business. Customer Lifescript bolsters IT health with the help of FlashStack. Lifescript is the number one ranked website dedicated to women’s health. The site inspires women to be proactive about their health and helps them build a support network of experts and other users. Since its founding in 1999, Lifescript has gone through several format and business model transitions. With the help of FlashStack, Lifescript went from a vitamin plan provider to the #1 website dedicated to women’s health in a few short years. Today, it attracts 18 million unique visitors and 100+ million page views monthly.

https://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/cisco-and-pure-storage-accelerating-digital-transformation

Schneider Electric Increases Certainty, Flexibility, Speed of Deployment for Converged IT with Cisco Certification of APC NetShelter SX

ANDOVER, Mass., June 1, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- #SchneiderElectric, the global specialist in energy management and automation, today announced the #APC NetShelter® SX IT cabinet with Shock Packaging is now certified to ship as a pre-integrated package with #Cisco Unified Computing System ( #UCS ) servers. Through this validation, APC is providing channel partners and customers the assurance of pre-tested, proven converged system compatibility, enabling them to deploy IT faster than ever before. Growing digital demands Today, businesses are facing increased pressure to keep pace with the rapid growth of big data and the Internet of Things ( #IoT ). To support the new demands of these trends, IT environments are becoming highly distributed and converged and must be flexible, easily repeatable and quickly deployable. However, for organizations utilizing Cisco UCS servers, their choice of physical infrastructure support solutions has been greatly limited: until now, pre-racked Cisco UCS servers were authorized for shipment in Cisco R Series racks only. This reduced the ability of organizations to optimize the physical infrastructure in a Cisco UCS converged system, increasing complexity and time to market. It also restricted business for partners.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/schneider-electric-increases-certainty-flexibility-speed-of-deployment-for-converged-it-with-cisco-certification-of-apc-netshelter-sx-300467242.html

Cisco UCS and MemSQL: Real-Time Data Warehouse for the Enterprise

Real-time analytics on live data and the ability to analyze data at scale, are key for any digital organization. Acting on insights in the moment helps deliver contextual user experiences, identify new sources of revenue, and prevent costly expenditures. To become a responsive data-driven business, organizations must address current data latency challenges. These challenges are commonly found across three general areas: Three Data Latency Challenges and Solutions Slow data loading: Loading data, moving past batch processing, and receiving analytics responses in real time remains out of reach for too many businesses. A real-time data warehouse reduces extract, transform, and load (ETL), combining transactional and analytical workloads into a single system. Lengthy query execution: Operational insights must be readily available for in-the-moment decisions. A data warehouse that delivers a fast query response can deliver insights whenever the application or users require it, ultimately providing a differentiated service or identifying opportunities. Low concurrency: Digital business assumes a large-scale use of data across an entire business or customer base. As more users engage and interact with data, the response time for those interactions must maintain a consistent experience. A scalable data warehouse will help ensure that data and user growth will not negatively affect the operational system. Real-Time Data Warehouse for the Enterprise #MemSQL on #Cisco #UCS Integrated Infrastructure for #Big Data and Analytics is built to address these challenges. MemSQL provides a scalable, real-time data warehouse platform for high-performance applications that require fast, accurate, secure, and always available data. MemSQL scales linearly to millions of events per second while analyzing petabytes of data for insights. MemSQL also enables fast ingestion and concurrent analytics needed for sensor systems, recommendation systems, and use cases that require instant, actionable insights

http://blog.memsql.com/cisco-real-time-data-warehouse/

Cisco's servers are stuck in limbo, look likely to stay there

#Cisco has missed out on a blade to rack server shift, sales growth has turned negative, it doesn't sell to cloud providers and it has a small market share. Should it invest to grow or get out of servers altogether? Cisco's third fiscal 2017 quarter results were disappointing, with a 1 per cent decline in revenue year-on-year to $11.9bn. The data centre segment, meaning #UCS servers mostly, made $767m in revenue and was down 5 per cent. It constitutes just 6 per cent of Cisco's overall revenues. In the previous quarter data centre revenues were $790m, down 4 per cent year-on-year, and in the quarter before that they were $834 million, down 3 per cent year-on-year. There is a pattern of decline here. Stifel analyst and MD Aaron Rakers has charted this, showing Cisco data centre revenues and the year-on-year percentage change

The chart shows actual numbers plus estimates looking at nine quarters.

UCS servers blazed a bright trail in the sky when they first arrived. What is going on?

Overall server sales are down, according to both Gartner and IDC. #Dell and #HPE lead the market, followed by #IBM, #Lenovo and #Huawei.

IDC gave #Cisco a 6.3 per cent market share in 2016's fourth quarter, with HPE having a 23.6 per cent share, Dell 17.6 per cent, IBM 12.3 per cent and Lenovo 6.5 per cent. Original design manufacturer (ODM) suppliers accounted for 7.9 per cent. Why is Cisco lagging?

Rakers charted quarterly server sales by architecture over the past few years

Rack-optimised server sales are the big winners, with blade server sales second, a long way behind, and growth stopping. Density-optimised server sales are flattish, towers are in decline and large systems are the smallest category, although growing slightly.

Rakers next plotted Cisco's UCS server sales in the blade and rack segments, showing both revenues and revenue share percentages

Most of Cisco's UCS revenues come from blade server sales, the declining second-placed architecture, and not rack servers, the main and growing segment. The conclusion is inescapable; Cisco has misread the server market badly, with revenue growth slowing drastically and then stopping from its first fiscal 2015 quarter, two and a half years ago.

Rakers said: "Cisco continues to face a misaligned portfolio for the mix from blade to rack servers – i.e. Cisco has ~30 per cent revenue share in blades; sub-4 per cent share in rack servers."

Cisco sells its servers to enterprises and not the hyperscalers or cloud service providers, ODMs such as Supermicro and Chinese server suppliers such as Inspur.

Cisco has been pushing its HyperFlex hyperconverged infrastructure appliance (HCIA), using OEM'd Springpath software. In March Cisco said it had gained 1,100 HyperFlex customers after nine months of sales. Nutanix has around 5,400 and we expect Dell EMC to be in that kind of area soon.

In its third-quarter results announcement Cisco did not update the 1,100 customer number. A Stifel survey of Cisco's VARs/resellers found 16 per cent thought HyperFlex was best positioned in the HCIA market while 40 per cent thought Nutanix was the leader. Some 66 per cent had sold HyperFlex systems into existing Cisco accounts, not new customers.

Rakers said that some 20 per cent of server revenues come from sales into the public cloud, and Cisco does not sell there, with ODMs and white box servers having around a 40 per cent share.

Sitrep

To sum up, Cisco's servers account for 6 percent of its overall revenues, and these revenues have been declining for four quarters in a row. It has a 6.3 per cent share of the overall market, but a less than 5 per cent share in the biggest and growing rack server section. It's progress in the HCIA market was off to a good start but it lags a long way behind market leaders Nutanix and Dell. HPE, by buying SimpliVity, is becoming a stronger competitor.

Finally it is not a supplier to the public cloud server marker.

It seems to us that, to make progress with servers, Cisco needs to get into rack servers in a big way. But there is a more fundamental question; what is its goal here? Does it want to be a leading server supplier, up with Dell and HPE? Or is it content to have a sub-10 per cent share of the market, selling into its installed base and under continual attack from Dell, HPE and the various Chinese and ODM suppliers?

If it wants to get up with the leaders then it has to spend a lot of money on engineering development and so forth. That will be a hard call when overall revenues are declining, servers are just 6 per cent of its business and it's laying people off.

Perhaps Cisco should step back, take a deep breath, and decide to exit the server market, selling its UCS business to Lenovo, say. Perhaps on the other hand it could try something radical, like buying Supermicro.

That doesn't feel right with our view of Cisco moving into servers as an adjacent market to its core networking market. It then moved into storage as an adjacent market to servers, and failed. We think Cisco sees its server market prospects as being limited, and can't see it making the investments needed to become a top four or five server supplier.

Looking ahead we reckon there'll likely be product line tweaking, statements of renewed commitment and determination, but little actual change in its situation. Servers are too large a part of Cisco's revenues to throw away, too small a part to be worth investing heavily in, and not in a dire enough situation to need a radical fix. They're stuck in limbo and look likely to stay there
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/18/cisco_servers/

Nutanix consciously uncouples with move into software-only sales

Updated #Nutanix has decided the time is right to sell more software, inking deals that will see its #hyperconverged software-defined-everything stack sold with servers by #HPE and #Cisco. The company already has deals with #Lenovo and #Dell, but both involve selling ready-to-roll appliances. These new deals will see Nutanix sell just software and certify it will work on certain servers, giving would-be-users the chance to assemble their own rigs. The idea's not a major turnaround for Nutanix, as the company already sold standalone software to special customers who asked for it very, very, nicely. CEO Dheeraj Pandey also once told your correspondent that in its early days Nutanix contemplated selling only software, but decided customers would be happier with one throat to choke and therefore built appliances. Nor is the idea of selling a hyperconverged stack without hardware outlandish – #VMware says its #VSAN is going great guns and it is sold as code, albeit for servers that have been signed off as ready to roll. Then there's the fact that Nutanix already sold standalone software for #Cisco 's #UCS -C servers. The new arrangements mean #HPE' s #ProLiant and Cisco's UCS-B servers are now certified to run Nutanix's stack. The company says it's done this because it wants to offer prospects more choices and looks like it wants to expand those choices in the future because its canned statement says customers will have “... the option to transfer their software-only entitlements to another qualified third-party platform, including additional x86 servers anticipated to be validated at a later date.” The Register is willing to make a small wager that Cisco's storage-oriented UCS-S will make that list of additional servers before long (and notes that they were added to the servers-for-VSAN list a couple of weeks back). Nutanix doesn't care if you buy new servers or run its code on old kit. Indeed, it reckons there's a chance organisations with existing UCS-B and ProLiant fleets are now candidates to become Nutanix-powered clouds. Also new is a "Nutanix Go" plan that will let you acquire the company's wares as if they were operational expenditure. Just like you would with a cloud, #Oracle hardware or #Microsoft s forthcoming #Azure Stack. Nutanix has had a rough time of it lately, warning of sluggish sales, watching its share price tumble and wearing out the carpet as execs depart. Perhaps selling software alone will help turn that around. The company's also wooing users of #Citrix s #XenServer, which as of this week's 5.1 release of the Nutanix stack can run that hypervisor. Nutanix has previously pitched itself as a fine option for running Citrix's Xen applications. Now it can run four hypervisors: Hyper-V, XenServer, vSphere and its own Acropolis. The new cut of the company's software also lets users blend all-flash and hybrid clusters and added container services. ® Updated to add It turns out Nutanix certified ProLiant's without asking HPE, which has sent us the following statement attributable to a spokesperson: "While it's nice that Nutanix recognizes our leadership in the server industry, there is no relationship between HPE and Nutanix." HPE reckons those hankering for hyperconverged ProLiants should buy #SimpliVity instead, natch

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/04/nutanix_software_only_sales/

​Nutanix expands software footprint with HPE, Cisco, offers more pricing options

#Nutanix said its Enterprise Cloud Platform software will be available on #HewlettPackardEnterprise #ProLiant systems as well as #Cisco #UCS B-series blade servers in a move that'll expand the company's distribution.

The #softwaredefinedstorage and enterprise cloud company already has partnerships with #Lenovo and #Dell as well as its own appliances.

In addition, the #NutanixEnterpriseCloud Platform will be available either installed on an appliance or as a software license with its server vendor partners.

Nutanix's Enterprise Cloud Platform gives the company a broader market in the datacenter and for enterprises managing hybrid deployments. Customers will be able to deploy Nutanix's software via HPE or Cisco and retain the option to support entitlements to another vendor.

The company also launched a program called Nutanix Go, which sells its cloud infrastructure in a model that mimics public cloud pricing systems. For CIOs, moving Nutanix software to a pricing model that falls under the operating budget could be appealing.

Nutanix said its software will be available on HPE's ProLiant systems in the fourth quarter. Enterprise Cloud Platform is available as a tech preview on Cisco UCS B-Series blades today. Nutanix Go pricing is available on some Nutanix NX appliances now.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/nutanix-expands-software-footprint-with-hpe-cisco-offers-more-pricing-options/

Cisco Channel Exec On Amazon Competition, VIP Incentives, And Winning Over Avaya Partners

What is #Cisco s stance on #Amazon as the web giant unveils competitive offerings like #Chime and #Connect ? Where are the highest partner incentives today in Cisco's popular Value Incentive Program (VIP)? And just how important is #UCS to Cisco in 2017? Nirav Sheth, vice president of solutions, architecture and engineering for Cisco's Global Partner Organization, tackles these questions and more in an exclusive interview with CRN. "The strength of our portfolio, the breadth of our portfolio, the strength of our balance sheet, the strength of our innovation, the customer brand that we have – all of that is driving so many new partner conversations in terms of partners that have not worked with us in the past," said Sheth.

http://m.crn.com/slide-shows/networking/300084483/cisco-channel-exec-on-amazon-competition-vip-incentives-and-winning-over-avaya-partners.htm?itc=most_pop

Scality Releases First Cisco Validated Design For Object Storage And Announces C Spire As Joint Customer

SAN FRANCISCO, March 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- #Scality, world leader in object and #cloudstorage, today announced its Scality #RING #objectstorage software is now validated by #Cisco for the Cisco #UCS® S3260 storage server and integrated UCS Manager. Scality RING is a #softwaredefinedstorage platform designed for the digital enterprise, providing ultimate flexibility in supporting the business needs of Global Service Providers, large enterprises, Media & Entertainment providers, and those working with data generated by Internet-connected devices (IoT). The Cisco-Scality joint storage solution enables digital businesses to solve critical IT problems by managing data growth with predictability, leveraging standard hardware that is already proven in their environments. This Cisco Validated Design (CVD) ensures that the Cisco-Scality solution is designed, tested, and documented to facilitate faster, more reliable, and more predictable deployments for customers.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/scality-releases-first-cisco-validated-120000717.html