2. Chris Fadool, CSE, Hyperflex, Central Region
@chrisfadool
Cisco HyperFlex Systems
TDM
3. Opportunities and Challenges for IT
Islands of Innovation
Silos Complicate Operations and
Reduce Efficiency
APPS
Meeting Cloud Expectations
Delivering Public Cloud
Economics and Elasticity…
On Premise
New Application Types
Require Software Control and
Data Closer to Compute
APP
Scale Out Infrastructure
Software Defined: Compute, Storage, Network
Micro
Service
Micro
Service
Micro
Service
Micro
Service
Digital Transformation Imperatives…
…Driving New Architectures
4. The Promise of Hyperconverged Systems
Efficient
Adaptable
Deploy at Cloud Speed
Instantly Provision, Clone or Snapshot Applications
Flexible Deployment
Variety of Configurations to Handle Diversified Set of Workloads
Scale-As-You-Grow
Add Resources Non-Disruptively and Scale Performance Linearly in Small Increments
Agile
6. Hyperconvergence
Gaps
Fast Time to MarketSimplicity
New Management Silos
Inefficient Scaling
and Data Optimization
Limited App Performance
and Workload Support
First Gen HCI
7. Gaps New Management Silos
Inefficient Scaling
and Data Optimization
Limited App Performance
and Workload Support
IT Is Looking for a Better Answer
Requirements
Fast Time to MarketSimplicity
Agility
Simplicity
+
Integration with
Existing Data Center
Easy Scaling
+
Resource Efficiency
Existing Apps
+
Next Gen
AdaptabilityEfficiency
First Gen HCI
9. Cisco HyperFlex Systems
1 Complete
Hyperconvergence
Unified Compute and
Network Infrastructure Wide Array of Rack and Blade Form Factors
Integrated, High
Performance
Network Fabric
Automated
Management of all
Hardware
Virtualization
Aware
Cisco UCS: The Ideal System for Hyperconvergence
10. Cisco HyperFlex Systems
1 Complete
Hyperconvergence
Unified Compute and
Network Infrastructure
Cisco HyperFlex
Cisco HX Data Platform
Data Services and Storage Optimization
2 Next Gen
Data Platform
Designed for
Distributed Storage
11. Cisco HyperFlex Systems
1
3
Complete
Hyperconvergence
Unified Compute and
Network Infrastructure
Part of a Complete
Data Center Strategy
Elastic and Secure at
Enterprise Scale
Cisco HyperFlex
Cisco HX Data Platform
Data Services and Storage Optimization
2 Next Gen
Data Platform
Designed for
Distributed Storage
Cisco One
Enterprise Cloud Suite
Cisco ACI
12. Flexible, Extensible Storage Interfaces
Future Ready
Architecture
API-Enabled Data
Platform Supports
Multiple Storage
Formats
At Launch
Support for VMware
Future Releases
• Containers
• Additional VM
environments
ObjectFile Block
Bare MetalContainers
Cisco HyperFlex: HX Data Platform
Data Services and Storage Optimization
13. Cisco HyperFlex Configurations
HX240c Nodes
Capacity-heavy 3–8 Node Cluster
(VSI: IT/Biz Apps, Test/Dev)
Per-Node
1x1.6TB Cache SSD
up to 23x1.2TB HDDs
SD Card/120GB Back SSD
(Boot/Housekeeping)
HX240c + B200
for HF Hybrid Nodes
Compute-heavy Hybrid
(Compute Bound Apps/VDI)
Up to 4 Blades
SD Card or SAN (Boot)
3-8 Node HX240c Cluster
HX220c Nodes
Smallest Footprint 3–8 Node
Cluster (VDI, ROBO)
Per-Node
1x480 GB Cache SSD
6x1.2TB HDDs
SD Card/120GB SSD
(Boot/Housekeeping)
14. HyperFlex Key Customer Benefits
Efficient
Adaptable
Scale-As-You-Grow
Adaptive
Scaling
Non-Stop
Infrastructure
Built on
the UCS Platform
Flexible
Deployment
Always-on Data
Optimization
Complete
Hyperconvergence
Intuitive
Management
Cloud
Speed
All 3 Layers of Network, Compute
and Storage Intelligently Integrated
Into a Single Solution for <60 Minute
Deployment
Eliminate Infrastructure Silos and Use
Existing Management Tools to Manage
and Automate Operations
Instantly Provision, Clone or
Snapshot Applications
Unified Management Using Existing
Skillsets in the Organization
Variety of Configurations to Handle
Diversified Set of Workloads
Inline Dedupe and Compression
Ensuring Hyper-Efficient Resource
Utilization
Add Resources Non-disruptively
and Scale Performance Linearly
in Small Increments
Scale Compute or Capacity to Match
Application Needs
Self-Healing Fabric Based
Hyperconvergence with
Cloud Monitoring
Agile
17. Fast and Easy Installation
STEP 0
STEP 1
60 MINUTES
OR LESS
VMware and HX Data
Performance Software
Installed on Servers at
Factory/Reseller Before
Shipping to Customer
Rack Up Servers, Power
on, and Add to vCenter
Drag and Drop
Configuration (JSON) File
Create, Cluster,
and Datastore
Start Provisioning VMs
19. HX Data Platform Overview
Hyperconverged Data Platform That Allows Companies to Leverage Compute Servers
for Storing and Managing Their Data without Compromising on Features or Performance
• Inline De-duplication and Inline
Compression
• Scale Out Just-in Time
• Scale Compute and Storage
Independently
• Annual Subscription Pricing
Economical Scaling
• Robust Data Integrity
• Continuous Availability
• Proactive Auto-support
• VM-level Snapshots for Instant
Backups
Enterprise Grade
• Fast Installation and
Configuration
• 100% vCenter-based
Management
• Rapid Cloning for VM
Provisioning
Maximum Simplicity
20. Hyperconverged Scale Out and
Distributed File System
CONTROLLER
VMHYPERVISOR
VM VM VM
HYPERCONVERGED DATA PLATFORMHYPERCONVERGED DATA PLATFORMHYPERCONVERGED DATA PLATFORM
Start With as Few
as Three Nodes
Hyperconverged
Data Platform
Installs in Minutes
Add Servers, One
or More at a Time
Linearly Scale
Compute, Storage
Performance,
and Capacity
Distribute and
Rebalance Data
Across Servers
Automatically
Retire Older
Servers
HYPERCONVERGED DATA PLATFORM
CONTROLLER
VMHYPERVISOR
VM VM VM
CONTROLLER
VMHYPERVISOR
VM VM VM
CONTROLLER
VMHYPERVISOR
VM VM VM
CONTROLLER
VMHYPERVISOR
VM VM VM
21. CONTROLLER
VMHYPERVISOR
VM VM VM
HYPERCONVERGED DATA PLATFORMHYPERCONVERGED DATA PLATFORMHYPERCONVERGED DATA PLATFORMHYPERCONVERGED DATA PLATFORM
CONTROLLER
VMHYPERVISOR
VM VM VM
CONTROLLER
VMHYPERVISOR
VM VM VM
CONTROLLER
VMHYPERVISOR
VM VM VM
CONTROLLER
VMHYPERVISOR
VM VM VM
Software Modules Inside a Server
Controller VM Has
Direct Access to Drives
VAAI Plugin Offloads Snapshots
and Clone Operations
IO Visor Module Presents
NFS to ESX and Stripes IO
DATASTORE/VOLUME
CONTROLLER
VM
HYPERVISOR
VMVMVMVMVM
HDD
HDD
SDD
SDD
IO Visor
VAAI
22. Building on the Right Foundation
Cisco HX Data Platform
Built From the
Ground Up for
Hyperconvergence
Distributed Log-
Structured File
System Designed
for Scale-out,
Distributed
Storage
Advanced Data
Services (Snapshots,
Clones) and Data
Optimization
(Inline Dedupe,
Compression) Without
Trade-offs
Better Flash
Endurance and
Disk
Performance
Computing,
Storage,
Networking, and
Hypervisor
Integration
Eliminates
Management
Silos
Distributed File system
Local FS Local FS Local FS Local FS
Unique
Architecture
23. Independent Scaling of Compute
and Capacity
Scale
Compute
HX Data Platform
Add NodesScale Cache or Capacity Within Nodes
HX Data Platform
CONTROLLERHYPERVISORCONTROLLERHYPERVISOR CONTROLLERHYPERVISOR CONTROLLERHYPERVISOR
IOVisorIOVisor
IOVisorIOVisor
IOVisorIOVisor
IOVisorIOVisor
VM VM VM VM
Non-
HyperFlex
Hosts Can
Connect to
Storage with
IOVisor
VM VMVM VM VMVM VM VMVM VM VMVM
24. Dynamic Data Distribution
• HX Data Platform stripes data across all nodes simultaneously,
leveraging cache across all SSDs for fast writes
• Balanced space utilization: no data migration required following
a VM migration
Systems Built on Conventional File
Systems Write Locally, Then Replicate,
Creating Performance Hotspots
CONTROLLERHYPERVISORHYPERVISOR CONTROLLERHYPERVISOR CONTROLLERHYPERVISOR
VM VMVM VM VMVM VM VMVM
HX Data Platform
VM VMVM
CONTROLLERCONTROLLER
25. Continuous Data Optimization
BEFORE
Inline Deduplication
20–30% space savings
Inline Compression
30–50% space savings
No Special Hardware
No Performance Impact
Log-Structured File System Yields More Efficient Data Optimization
26. • Pointer-based snapshots
• Space-efficient
• Fast creations and deletions
• Fine-grained or coarse-grained
• VM-level or VM folder-level
• VAAI-integrated
• Quiesced and crash-consistent
• Use vCenter Snapshot Manager
• Policy-based
• Schedules, retention period
Fast and Flexible Native Snapshots
for Backups
27. • Pointer-Based
Writeable
Snapshots
(Instantaneous
Clones)
• VAAI integrated
• VM-level
granularity
Native VM Clones for Rapid Provisioning
• Batch creation GUI
• Apply unique names
• Use customization spec
to apply IP
• Powerful tool to rapidly
setup a large set of VMs
using just VC (without
scripting or View
composer); Up to 256
clones in parallel per job
• Golden/Base VM can be
a template, powered on
or powered off
28. • Extends virtualization
management seamlessly
• No switching between
management consoles
• View storage alerts/alarms alongside
with ESX alerts/alarms
• Command line interface for automation
Management Built for Server Admin
100% vCenter-Based Management
34. 10:45 – 11:30 AM BREAKOUT SESSIONS
HPE
Breakout Room: Delta 360 Club
“Benefits of Transforming to a Hybrid
Infrastructure”
Timm Ideker, Director of Sales, Enterprise
Group
CANON
Breakout Room: Interview Room
“Learn How to Efficiently Manage Your
Print and Scan Environment”
Dana Mawn, Business Development
Consultant – NT-ware USA
NIMBLE STORAGE
Breakout Room: Guest Locker Room
“Overcoming the App-Data-Gap using a
Predictive Flash Platform”
Mitch Gram, Sr. Sales Engineer
M-FILES
Breakout Room: Main Field
“What You Don't Know About Document
Management – But Should”
Corey Candela, Channel Account Manager
Editor's Notes
Applications are becoming increasingly distributed: microservics, container based. Cloud, DC, Edge.
Distributed architectures need strong fabric, policy to tie it all together.
Distributed apps and infrastructure = network is the system
Cisco in a position of strength from the network/fabric
VO: SDN, SDS, SDC coming together
SHOW: Mode 2 requirements demand software defined infra.
HCI is a culmination of this…
New Apps and IT Models Demand Software Defined, Fabric-Based Infrastructure
End-to-end simplicity that helps IT move faster, enabling digital transformation
Keeps your data optimized and your infrastructure aligned to application requirements
Ready for an expanding range of applications and operating models
Most vendors in the space have these same value propositions and meet these requirements, so what is missing?
Time to value
Day 0 aspect
Factory automation – Simplicity and Economics
UCS_M Services profiles and unified fabric, connecting once for bandwidth sake, 160 servers
Data SDS, 2-3 copies, default (replication factor) – configurable resiliency
On Demand provisioning, cloning, snpa to build and automate an Agile IT infrastructure – speed of cloud on your private infra
UCS managed infrastructure for a seamless continuous Refresh Capability. enterprise grade level support and services (single support for DC)
VM density….
Cisco HyperFlex Systems is a new family of fully productized, Cisco branded solutions that we are adding to our Data Center portfolio.
BUILT ON UCS
Fabric-centric, built for scale-out computing
Unified management of all physical and virtual infrastructure
Easy to deploy/ scale/manage
c
3) Part of a complete Data Center Strategy
Cisco ACI
Application Network services
Secure micro-segmentation and workload placement
Combined with UCS = End-to-End Fabric and Systems programmability and automation
ECS
Integrations for cross-data center orchestration
IaaS
Hybrid Cloud Bursting
BUILT ON UCS
Fabric-centric, built for scale-out computing
Unified management of all physical and virtual infrastructure
Easy to deploy/ scale/manage
3-8 Node Clusters
1x480 GB Cache SSD
6x1.2TB HDDs
SD Card/120GB SSD (Boot/Housekeeping)
3-8 Node Clusters
1x1.6TB Cache SSD
up to 23x1.2TB HDDs
SD Card/120GB Back SSD (Boot/Housekeeping)
3-8 Node Clusters
Up to 4 Blades*
SD Card/SAN (Boot)
End-to-end simplicity that helps IT move faster, enabling digital transformation
Keeps your data optimized and your infrastructure aligned to application requirements
Ready for an expanding range of applications and operating models
Time to value
Day 0 aspect
Factory automation – Simplicity and Economics
UCS_M Services profiles and unified fabric, connecting once for bandwidth sake, 160 servers
Data SDS, 2-3 copies, default (replication factor) – configurable resiliency
On Demand provisioning, cloning, snpa to build and automate an Agile IT infrastructure – speed of cloud on your private infra
UCS managed infrastructure for a seamless continuous Refresh Capability. enterprise grade level support and services (single support for DC)
VM density….
End-to-end simplicity that helps IT move faster, enabling digital transformation
Keeps your data optimized and your infrastructure aligned to application requirements
Ready for an expanding range of applications and operating models
Time to value
Day 0 aspect
Factory automation – Simplicity and Economics
UCS_M Services profiles and unified fabric, connecting once for bandwidth sake, 160 servers
Data SDS, 2-3 copies, default (replication factor) – configurable resiliency
On Demand provisioning, cloning, snpa to build and automate an Agile IT infrastructure – speed of cloud on your private infra
UCS managed infrastructure for a seamless continuous Refresh Capability. enterprise grade level support and services (single support for DC)
VM density….
Current HCI solutions require an environment to meet a large number of pre requisites, these turn into delays for deployment of a new cluster. Networking teams often have to be brought in to determine how to connect the dozens to hundreds of new 10Gb network ports to the datacenter and requires new configuration of switches to support cluster discovery mechanisms.
UCS eliminates the need for complex decisions and enables the storage nodes to be plug and play.
Parallelizes new server installs
Role-based access control allows for domain experts to have control of their pools
Server admins
LAN admins
Storage admins
GUI or command line
Extensible XML API gives you full control and scriptability with a single tool
Customers need HCI simplicity and agility but not at the expense of creating another island of infrastructure and management. HCI needs to be part of a larger strategy.
Place to emphasize customer choice and that our intraline positioning is being fully considered
HyperFlex doesn’t create a new island of vendor infrastructure
HyperFlex is built on UCS, a common platform for all workloads: virtual, physical, scale up, scale out
The UCS management products, UCS Manager and UCS Central Software, provide common and consistent management across the entire UCS product portfolio. This includes the following systems for different types of workloads:
Core data center workloads: the B-Series blade servers and C-Series rack-mount servers
Edge-scale computing: the UCS Mini
Cloud-scale computing: M-Series
1. Automation and Security Policy :
With UCS architecture meeting Hyper convergence we extend security policy automation to the full infrastructure stack (Compute, Network, Storage, Facilities, and Security Pillars). One example with this integrated HCI and UCS Architecture is that we can optimize the hypervisor with Adapter policies, Host Policies etc.
Benefits to customer : Investment protection, no operational disruptions with net new training, same Cisco DC models as existing parts of the business. With ACI the Hyperflex stack can be much more encompassing and container type workloads ready for automation of security posture.
2. Analytics and Visibility : We have extensive loggings capabilities today which can be analyzed with tools such as Splunk or third party solutions to build event correlation and analytics capabilities, and technologies within the fabric such as the Netflow engine on the UCS VIC Adapters which bring deep application visibility.
Benefits to customer : No performance penalties on workloads and host. Cisco DC solutions have built-in data gathering and reporting which can be easily mapped to the inter and intra HyperFlex node paths for deeper analysis, reporting, and actions.
3. Secure Architecture: HyperFlex natively includes a strong platform security posture, including things like server and infrastructure secure boot, fabric and server image signing, trusted platform modules and execution technology on the server processors, immutable bootblocks etc. In HyperFlex we have the security policies that can be attached servers, the IO paths they attach to, and the points of management of the solution.
Benefits to customer : No building of an add-on security component for the compute, adapters, fabric attachment points for even logging, configuration, access and accounting, in a hardened environment with strict policy control.
Cisco HyperFlex provides simple infrastructure scaling. As the environment scales, ACI provides the SDN architecture for rapid, secure application delivery and consistent policy enforcement. HyperFlex with ACI prepares HCI for enterprise-scale adoption
Automated Application Centric Policy Model: Cisco ACI is an SDN architecture. Its goals are to accelerate application delivery, reduce costs and increase business agility.
Increased security for HyperFlex – Segmentation allows for isolation of HX vs other workload applications. Once we have separate traffic paths we can apply more granular ACI control policies and security services relevant to that application.
Consistent policy for HyperFlex regardless of scale. This leads us into capturing HX deployment best practices and being able to standardize the instantiation of these uniformly on the fabric . This can be done at the UCS and Fabric via policy and extended with UCSD as part of the CECS offering.
HyperFlex Health Monitoring and Telemetry - Cisco ACI is designed to offer a combination of software and hardware that can provide real-time hop-by-hop visibility and telemetry. HX Controller VMs and the Data Platform. . Cisco APIC can present detailed information about the performance of individual endpoint groups and tenants in the network. This information includes details about latency, packet drops, and traffic paths and can be sliced at the group or tenant level. Telemetry information can be useful for a wide range of troubleshooting and debugging tasks, allowing an operator to quickly identify the source of a tenant problem across physical and virtual infrastructure. This level of visibility with ACI atomic counters is not available on other platforms or overlays
Traffic Optimization - Cisco ACI was also designed to offer a hardware-based tunneling environment that does not need to be configured device by device. This approach offers full line-rate performance with no penalty on the hypervisor and the capability to manage physical and virtual environments in the same way. Line rate benefits HX.
Compute, Storage and Fabric Readily Scale to Support Diverse Workloads - Consistent policy for HyperFlex and business applications regardless of scale with ACI templates. As you add and delete nodes delivered via the UCS programmable policy is consistently applied through the ACI fabric
Flexible Application Service Policies: Business applications have availability and security requirements that can be readily addressed through ACI policy
Now let’s turn to the HX Data Platform, which is the revolutionary software at the heart of Cisco HyperFlex. The HX Data Platform has taken an extremely innovative and differentiated approach that begins with a log-structured file system they developed from scratch, expressly designed for hyperconvergence.
HyperFlex provides high resiliency and fast recovery.
The HX data platform defaults to a 2X replication factor, which means three copies of data are distributed across the system and it can sustain a simultaneous two-node failure without data loss. Customers can increase the replication factor if they wish. When a node fails, the VM’s that are evacuated to other nodes re-attach to the data store seamlessly; no data movement is required among the remaining nodes in the cluster. When the node is replaced, bare metal hardware is automatically configured with all identity information and network settings via UCS service profile in a matter of minutes. The HX data platform then re-distributes data automatically to the recovered node. This capability also allows for non-disruptive rolling upgrades.
HyperFlex provides Continuous data optimization
Always-on inline data deduplication and inline compression provide highly-efficient resource utilization, minimizing the amount of infrastructure required. This is tuning-free and done automatically. First Gen HCI solutions often suffer significant performance penalties for de-dupe and compression, forcing customers to buy more capacity than they need, or to buy hardware accelerators in the cast of Simplivity. This is another benefit of the purpose-built HX Data Platform vs. systems built on conventional filesystems
HyperFlex provides extensible, flexible storage interfaces.
The HX Data Platform has been designed to support todays workloads as well as next-generation applications. The overwhelming majority of customers have built their current operational framework around VMware virtual machines. At launch HyperFlex will support VMware as well as file access by other servers, with future support built in for containers and other virtual machine types.
HyperFlex provides integration with existing tools and processes is an essential tenet of next-generation Hyperconvergence
UCS Manager is the most advanced systems management framework and familiar to 50,000 customers world wide. Cisco HyperFlex ships from the factory with pre-configured services profiles that will allow customers to deploy the total environment – servers and networking - quickly and error-free. The HX Data Platform features Integrated, native Data Management Features. Native storage functionality is integrated into vCenter, allowing instant provisioning, cloning and snapshotting of applications, dramatically simplifying daily operations and avoiding additional management toolsets.
Let’s now go into two of very unique capabilities of the system: Independent scaling or compute and capacity and dynamic data distribution.
HX Data Platform is a distributed filesystem built from the ground up to deliver high performance without compromising on data optimization, data management, scalability or resliency.
General:
Appending (in log strcutre file system) is fast.
- Legacy filesystems are write-in-place so slower; need to read the block first
Data services - the log structured distributed objects layer does not impact any modifications (writes) to already compressed data. All incoming modi cations are compressed and written to a new location, and the older data is marked for deletion (unless the data needs to be retained in a snapshot). None of the data that is being modi ed needs to be read for modi cation before writing.
- Legacy is read-modify-write resulting on significant performance penalty; need to uncompress, read and then modify
Flash – we append so more flash friendly
Legacy wears out heavily written cells
Key solution capabilities. Get Technical for ~3 slides…..
Can we get a slide on the magic of a log-structured filesystem vs. EXT4 or other. How it is the foundation for all the differentiation….
Ingredient brand for equivalent of HALO
Independent Scaling - HX Data Platform is designed for independent scaling of compute, caching or capacity, allowing full flexibility to scale the environment based evolving business needs
Nutanix does not have IOVisor component to scale compute without bottlenecks
So, they cannot support Blade based scaling for compute
--- Disaggregation of caching, capcity and compute layers results in ability to sacle each tier seperately
Dynamic Data Distribution - incoming data is distributed across multiple servers in the cluster and accelerated by the Cisco UCS Network Fabric in order to eliminate performance bottlenecks and achieve high IO performance
Dynamic Data Distribution - incoming data is distributed across multiple servers in the cluster and accelerated by the Cisco UCS Network Fabric in order to eliminate performance bottlenecks and achieve high IO performance
Continuous data optimization – always-on inline data deduplication and inline compression provide highly-efficient resource utilization, minimizing overall IT footprint
2–5X Data Reduction
Need some VO on how the filesystem lends itself to higher efficiency here.
Integrated native Data Management Features – native storage functionality is integrated into existing management tools allowing instant provisioning, cloning and snapshotting of applications, dramatically simplifying daily operations
Policy
Snapshot
Pointer Based Snapshots
Fast creations and deletions
No consolidation overhead
Fine-grained or coarse grained
VM-Level or VM Folder Level
VAAI/Cinder integrated
Quiesced and Crash-consistent
Use vCenter Snapshot Manager
Policy based
Schedules, Retention period
Pointer Based Writeable Snapshots
VM-level
VAAI integrated
Batch creation GUI
Clone names
Use Customization spec
Total Formatted with RF – 10%
Customers need HCI simplicity and agility but not at the expense of creating another island of infrastructure and management. HCI needs to be part of a larger strategy.
HyperFlex is built on UCS, a common platform for all workloads: virtual, physical, scale up, scale out
HyperFlex doesn’t create a new island of vendor infrastructure
- Reliability – brand name server + service
- Centralized and management for servers – profile and policy driven
- Network optimized for virtualization environment
- Reduced complexity – fewer cables, easier to scale service profiles
Q: 256-768G[128g], 48gb+8vCPU ~4core GHz depending on CPU. 8 slots – 6hdd, 1-120,1-480.
SFP+ is a mini GBIC or enhanced small form-factor pluggable
Virtual Interface Card. For HX220c/240c it will be an mLOM modular LAN on motherboard adapter 1227
Q: 256-768G, 72gb+8vCPU ~4core GHz depending on CPU. 24 slots – 6-23hdd, 1-120 back,1-1.6t front.
SFP+ is a mini GBIC or enhanced small form-factor pluggable
Virtual Interface Card. For HX220c/240c it will be an mLOM modular LAN on motherboard adapter 1227
Q: 384GB with variability., 512mb+only 1024 MHz
SFP+ is a mini GBIC or enhanced small form-factor pluggable
Virtual Interface Card. For HX220c/240c it will be an mLOM modular LAN on motherboard adapter 1227
1) Turn-key appliance +tier1 supportbetter integrated Networking integration allows for simpler cluster creation. Could mean days vs hrs in terms of installation time savings. Cisco UCS underpinning means UCS manager and system profile simplicity carries forward.
2) Scaling
With the ability to support compute, storage and network scaling separately, enables customers full on-demand response. With the ability to independently scale caching (memory and SSD) in the near future, this advantage will only grow. This is one the key negatives traditional vendors site against HCI and Cisco is the first and only vendor to address it.
Performance advantages are also manifested as part of this, were in a standard 70/30 Read/Write mix workloads, Hyperflex can offer 50% or greater performance advantage.
3) Data Availability
Wide striping means that any node that is part of the cluster can respond to application demands. It also means failures, upgrades, etc are managed seamlessly. With built in replication factor of 2, checksums and fingerprints on the key value stores, means data integrity is deeply integrated into the system software.
4) Management Simplicity
With Cisco if they know vSphere they know how to orchestrate and manage the system. In addition if the customer is an existing Cisco customer, they are already familiar with Cisco UCS Manager and can leverage those skills to provide h/w management.
Cisco additionally offers Role Based Access Control (RBAC) to enable that application data security is matched with operations security for true Enterprise class deployment.
5) Architectural Underpinning
Cisco entered the Server market only 5 years ago and are the #1/2 blade vendor and penetrating the rack market due to their differentiated and purpose built approach to servers. With a simplified management concept at their heart, UCS creates a fundamental new approach to server flexibility and management. With the new HyperFlex software engine, they extend the concept of purpose built to the HCI market. Combined with the UCS underpinning and now the HyperFlex software engine, Cisco is bringing to market the most advanced and complete HCI offering today and one that enables customers to see value today and also be prepared to support future environments like Containers, or bare-metal clusters.
6) TCO
Will leverage script from Jeff and/or combine with next slide