Cisco Authorizes Avnet, Ingram Micro To Configure UCS Servers
Both distributors will help solution providers working with Cisco's C-Series blade servers by configuring those servers to customer requirement with processors, memory, hard drives, and adapters.
Cisco’s Unified Computing System (UCS) combines networking, blade servers, and storage in a single architecture, as well as all Cisco core switching and routing products, security, and voice over IP (VoIP) into a single architecture.
Chris Swahn, vice president and general manager of the Cisco Solutions Group for Avnet Technology Solutions Americas, said his company already has orders for the blade servers from solution providers, and that he expects the products to arrive at its Tempe, Ariz.-based global solution center in a couple of weeks.
"We will give partners access to the devices as they are being built, and let them download software during the process," Swahn said. "Customers and end users will have the ability to dial into their servers."
Avnet also happens to be the only authorized assembler of vBlock storage solutions, although assembly of those solutions has yet to begin, Swahn said.
EMC, Cisco, and VMware in November unveiled Vblock Infrastructure Packages, a series of pre-configured, pre-tested storage solutions based on EMC’s Symmetrix or Clariion storage arrays, Cisco’s Unified Computing System (UCS) and networking switches, and VMware’s vSphere server virtualization platform.
"So the new Cisco server authorization gives one more piece of the Cisco UCS infrastructure," he said.
Avnet also plans to be an authorized configuration partner for Cisco's new B-series of blade servers, which are expected to ship fairly soon, he said.
Ingram Micro currently has demo units of the C-class blade servers in its Buffalo, N.Y.-based solution center, in its Millington, Tenn.-based advanced logistics center, and in a mobile demo unit, said Holly Garcia, senior director of vendor management for UCS at the distributor.
Ingram Micro's mobile demo unit is one of the first for showing the C-class blade servers on the road, Garcia said. In the Buffalo solutions center, the distributor is showing the new servers as part of complete data center architecture featuring products from Cisco, VMware, and EMC, she said.