Cisco announced three accelerator packages to make its Unified Computing Systems (UCS) servers part of future OpenStack private clouds. The three accelerator packages — High Density, Mixed Workload and Storage Intensive — for common data center cloud configurations were unveiled Monday.
The move suggests how some large compute and networking suppliers will try to stay relevant if large segments of their customer bases decide to move to a deeper implementation of virtualized resources. OpenStack offers management of virtualized servers, storage and networking, with the OpenStack Neutron Project working toward a fully software-defined approach to virtual networks. Many Cisco competitors are contributing to that project, in hopes of disrupting established network providers.
That makes the stakes high for Cisco’s bid to insert its UCS, with its converged data switching fabric, into the mix as OpenStack infrastructure. UCS offloads storage and network traffic from the hypervisor’s virtual switch and moves it through a Cisco Nexus 2000 fabric extender card to a parent Nexus switch. Some OpenStack adopters, particularly heavy Cisco network device users, will find it an easier pathway to private cloud.