NetApp and Cisco: Virtualizing the Data Center

The enterprise data center is undergoing a transformation: Server virtualization technology is changing the way servers and applications are provisioned while altering the workload and increasing storage demand. This data center transformation makes the idea of unified computing and storage appealing.
In March 2009, Cisco announced its Unified Computing System(UCS) and architecture that integrates compute, networking, and virtualization in a single platform. In a subsequent announcement soon after, Cisco announced a partnership with NetApp that pairs Cisco UCS with the advanced capabilities of the NetApp® unified storage architecture to create a complete and easy-to-deploy virtualization solution for the dynamic data center.

In this article, I discuss the technology highlights of this solution. You can learn more about the technical details and applications in a recent joint white paper (PDF).

The Virtualized Dynamic Data Center

Current data center architectures are built around a complex, heterogeneous collection of servers and storage systems that result in poor utilization and captive resources and that require multiple provisioning toolsets, data management models, and teams of people to manage. In addition, massive data growth, challenging economic conditions, and the physical limitations of power, heat, and space exert extreme pressure on IT staffs.

Cisco and NetApp have worked to create a holistic approach that allows the network and the applications it supports to work together in the most efficient way possible. The primary goals of the collaboration are to reduce costs, improve agility, and increase business within and between data centers.

These goals are achieved by:

• Simplifying the overall data center architecture
• Reducing management complexity
• Enabling zero cost provisioning
• Leveraging NetApp storage efficiency, data protection, and availability technologies

Simplifying Data Center Architecture

With this joint solution your data center consists of just two elements: Cisco UCS provides compute, virtualization, and networking while NetApp unified storage handles data storage and related storage functions such as data protection, replication, etc.

Cisco UCS reduces the number of access-layer switches in the network and integrates compute resources around a unified I/O fabric that supports both standard IP protocols as well as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) encapsulation. It eliminates the limitations of fixed I/O configurations with an I/O architecture that can be changed through software on a per-server basis to provide needed connectivity. NetApp's unified storage architecture supports multiple protocols—including native FCoE—providing investment protection, flexibility, and simplified configuration.

Figure 1) Simplified Cisco-NetApp data center architecture.

Reduced Management Overhead

A typical data center has to cope with far too many management interfaces. This joint solution allows you to manage your entire data center using just a few tools.

Cisco UCS Manager lets you manage all UCS elements as a single, redundant, uniform pool of resources that can be configured on demand. The manager is embedded in the network fabric and automatically discovers resources as they are installed, adds them to inventory, and can automatically provision servers and I/O connectivity, putting new server instances into use in minutes rather than hours or days.

NetApp delivers unification of data storage and data management with SANscreen® and Provisioning Manager. SANscreen extends data center automation to storage with real-time, multiprotocol, service-level views of your data center's storage environment. Provisioning Manager speeds the creation of new storage resources, helps improve capacity management, and enables policy-based automation to create repeatable, automated provisioning processes.

Zero Cost Provisioning

Cisco UCS can boot directly from NetApp storage and utilize a single storage system for both virtual environments and application data. With NetApp FlexClone®, you can create operating system and application "golden images” and clone these for new deployments on the Cisco UCS platform. These clones do not require any additional space until they are modified, and only the modifications consume additional storage space. Cisco UCS profiles coupled with the instant nature of FlexClone volumes allow you to deploy fully validated application environments in minutes, without wasting any precious compute or storage resources. The fundamentals of this approach were described in a previous Tech OnTap article.

Leveraging NetApp Storage Efficiency, Data Protection, and Availability

The Cisco-NetApp solution is rounded out through the ability to leverage well-proven NetApp solutions for storage efficiency such as NetApp deduplication (now deployed on over 37,000 storage systems), thin provisioning, NetApp Snapshot™ copies, and FlexClone, as discussed above.
Data protection and availability options include Snapshot for instantaneous point-in-time copies, NetApp SnapVault® for disk-based backup, and NetApp SnapMirror for remote replication.

Find Out More

If you want to learn more about the NetApp-Cisco virtualized dynamic data center—including benefits, user cases, and a detailed technical discussion of the building blocks—check out the full white paper (PDF).

Mike McNamara Sr. Manager, Product Marketing NetApp Mike has 20 years of computer industry marketing experience, with 15 years specifically focused on storage. He worked at Adaptec, EMC, and Hewlett Packard before joining NetApp more than three years ago. Mike is also the marketing chairperson for the Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA).