 |
 |
|
Cisco Router Shop Links - PBM IT Solutions - Call (888) 233-6471Featured Solution: Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS)Q. What is a data center? A. A data center is a computer facility designed for continuous use by several users, and well equipped with hardware, software, peripherals, power conditioning and backup, communication equipment, security systems, etc. Recent changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure put IT on the front lines for ensuring a business is complying with regulations, notably Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA. Not only is it necessary to store key data for longer periods, but being able to retrieve information at a granular level - right down to specific emails - is now an IT responsibility, so a data center that is not handled properly could result in a trip before a judge. Hardware assets should be used well after their depreciated financial life has ended — for as long as is technically possible. Beyond backup and recovery protection, ensuring maximum data center availability and uptime is clearly crucial to a business’s success. Business Continuity seldom goes beyond the planning stage at most companies, however, until downtime or data loss hit. Virtualization can be viewed as part of an overall trend in enterprise IT that includes autonomic computing, a scenario in which the IT environment will be able to manage itself based on perceived activity, and utility computing, in which computer processing power is seen as a utility that clients can pay for only as needed. Application virtualization separates applications from the hardware and the operating system, putting them in a container that can be relocated without disrupting other systems. A storage management solution should address the protection of recoverable as well as unrecoverable information. The need to protect unrecoverable data is obvious — unless this data is protected, it must be manually recreated if it is lost. As for recoverable data, although it may be recoverable through reinstallation, the process can be extremely time-consuming and costly. To reinstall an updated application, users must install the application plus all the updates. In addition, all preferences and options need to be reset to their exact state prior to the loss. Some functions in the Cisco Unified Computing System are similar to those offered by the Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches, but with a different set of applications and design scenarios. The Cisco Unified Computing System offers the capability to present adapters to physical and (in the near future) virtual machines directly. When presented to the virtual machines, VN-Link technology can provide many of the same benefits as those described for the Cisco Nexus 1000V Series. Green IT is making information technology itself more energy efficient, and going beyond that to using IT to reduce the carbon footprint of other operations. An High Availability Data solution must be practical to implement - minimizing acquisition cost and operational complexity while being able to efficiently scale-out to meet any performance requirement as business needs evolve. The Cisco Nexus 1000V allows policy to move with a virtual machine during live migration ensuring persistent network, security, and storage compliance resulting in improved business continuance, performance management, and security compliance. |
