Cisco Targets Data Centers

Through the new initiative, dubbed Business Ready Data Center, Cisco is releasing tested architectural designs and deployment guides that provide best practices for large enterprises as they look for ways to cut costs, improve security and optimize performance in their data centers, said Christine Falsetti, director of enterprise solutions at Cisco, San Jose, Calif.

The blueprints tie together networking, security and storage to help customers build an intelligent network foundation as they migrate their data centers to utility-based computing models, she said.

"Customers can reduce deployment cost and risk, and they can accelerate deployment by taking advantage of the [guidelines] we offer," Falsetti said, noting that the design and deployment guides, aimed at large enterprises with 5,000-plus employees and 400-plus servers, are available on the Cisco Web site.

To help roll out the initiative, Cisco has tapped several technology and integration partners, including EDS, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Microsoft. Cisco also is offering its own professional and customer-support services.

While customers should be able to retain much of their existing Cisco networking gear as they adopt the Business Ready architecture guidelines, the company hopes the new initiative will drive sales of its security, storage and optical product lines, said Jonathan Gilad, solutions manager for enterprise data center networking at Cisco.

Cisco offers similar initiatives aimed at campus, branch and teleworker deployments.