Successful partnering is when two or more organizations come together to deliver a solution that is better than the sum of its individual parts. Joint solutions help customers accelerate deployment, simplify operations and support, while reducing costs and risk.

Cisco has always partnered with industry leaders to deliver best of breed solutions as well as flexibility and choice. With the introduction of UCS X-Series, we have again partnered with industry leaders to deliver innovative solutions with our converged infrastructure and data protection partners.

Cohesity

Piggybacking on Tushar's blog on NVMe storage performance from last week, I'll start with Cohesity on UCS X-Series. If you aren't familiar with Cohesity, they radically simplify data management, making it easy to protect, manage, and derive value from data, and are a Leader in the 2021 Gartner? Magic Quadrant? for Enterprise Backup and Recovery Software Solutions. Cisco and Cohesity have jointly tested and validated Cohesity DataProtect software running on UCS X-Series. In my first blog, I said the modular UCS X-Series blurs the lines between blade and rack servers. Cohesity DataProtect used to be the domain of Cisco UCS C-Series rack servers and UCS S-Series Storage Servers. Now, the UCS X210c Compute Node, with its six high performance drives, expands enterprise choice and flexibility for deploying Cohesity data management solutions and is an excellent choice for Cohesity data management solutions. This helps IT teams eliminate silos by having a single platform to run apps and protect the data. Read how to Protect and Do More with Your Data At-a-Glance.

Converged Infrastructure

Last week, I discussed databases and UCS X-Series. Today, I want to draw your attention to our Converged Infrastructure (CI) offerings for them. CI is Cisco's computing and networking paired with leading storage vendors to offer a Cisco/partner validated and tested solution. These proven architectures speed deployment, enhance business agility, and reduce risk saving customers time and money.

FlexPod

In 2010, Cisco and NetApp partnered to create FlexPod. Thousands of customers have used the FlexPod platform to run their core business apps like databases. NetApp has been named a leader in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Primary Storage. We published two white papers so far for FlexPod with UCS X-Series:

• FlexPod Data Center Improves Your IT Operations for Oracle Database Solution Overview
• FlexPod Datacenter with Cisco UCS X-Series White Paper

One of the best things about this solution is Cisco Intersight is the operational control plane for the solution. Not only our servers, but also the NetApp storage arrays. The NetApp Active IQ Unified Manager connector integrates the storage with Intersight. You can manage the complete solution in a unified fashion.

Here is a short (6 min) demo of UCS X-Series with NetApp storage being managed by Intersight.

FlashStack

In 2015, we created FlashStack with Pure Storage. Pure Storage was ranked highest for Ability to Execute and furthest for Completeness of Vision in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Primary Storage.

We published two white papers so far for FlashStack with UCS X-Series:

• FlashStack Streamlines Your IT Operations for Oracle Database Solution Overview
• FlashStack with Cisco UCS X-Series and Cisco Intersight

We will soon have a FlashStack with SQL on a UCS X-Series white paper so keep an eye out for that.

The Pure Storage FlashArray Connector was the first storage integration with Intersight allowing you to manage the complete FlashStack solution in a unified fashion. That helps simplify infrastructure operations and transform the way businesses support their IT investments

Here is a short demo showing UCS X-Series and Pure Storage powered by Intersight

What's next

Come back next week as we discuss X-Series TCO/ROI. Can't wait until then for more information on UCS X-Series? Check out the other Cisco UCS X-Series blog posts, along with the additional resource links below.

Resources

• Cisco Cohesity Data Management Solutions
• Converged Infrastructure solutions
• FlexPod -NetApp and Cisco Solutions
• FlashStack -Pure Storage and Cisco Solutions

Cisco UCS X-Series blog posts

1. Series Blog#1 -UCS X-Series Unbox the future today
2. Series Blog#2 -The power of innovation -Cisco UCS X9508 Chassis
3. Series Blog#3 -The power of possibilities -Cisco UCS X210c M6 Compute Node
4. Series Blog#4 -UCS X-Series Intelligent Fabric Modules deliver simplicity and performance
5. Series Blog#5 -X marks the spot -Cisco UCS X-Fabric Technology
6. Series Blog#6 -Modernize everything -Cisco UCS X-Series & Cisco Intersight
7. Series Blog#7 -Cisco UCS X-Series powers modern applications
8. Series Blog#8 -The advantage of partnerships -Cisco UCS X-Series Solutions
9. Series Blog#9 -Do more today, save money tomorrow with UCS X-Series
10. Series Blog#10 -UCS X-Series -Computing for the next decade