Cisco UCS “Grand Slam” Event

Cisco UCS has taken the server market by storm, with some analysts saying it’s the “Apple” of the market, taking the majority of the profits with lower market share. Although UCS hasn’t evolved as quickly as some competitors, that’s all set to change this week with a new Cisco launch. Join me, Tech Field Day, and Cisco for the UCS “Grand Slam” event in New York and see what’s next!

Cisco hasn’t briefed me on the launch, but Todd Brannon posted a blog outlining what this event will cover. So take the following as pure conjecture on my part:

1. “We need a common operating environment that spans from the data center to the very edge.” – This sounds like Cisco will introduce smaller, more self-contained members of the UCS family. Since Todd says “Edge” includes “the many worlds that exist beyond the walls of the data center,” one can assume we’re talking something like Dell’s VRTX – a self-contained hardware platform with server and storage all in one rugged piece. Maybe a tower UCS?
2. “We need a stronger engine to accelerate core applications and power data-intensive analytics.” – Yeah, this sounds like a given. Expect a bigger, badder UCS. More blades. More CPUs. More memory. More awesome.
3. “We need a common operating environment that spans traditional and emerging applications.” – Ok so a UCS optimized for cloud applications, maybe? This sounds like a good direction for the company to head – we’ve already seen Nutanix selling into Hadoop and cloud environments, so why not Cisco UCS? I even heard rumors last week at VMworld of OpenStack running on UCS…

So we’re getting more UCS everywhere. Cisco is expanding the pie. But I think there’s more to this. Two overlooked elements:

1. UCS as converged infrastructure – VMware announced EVO:Rail and EVO:Rack at VMworld last week. Cisco preempted this with an announcement that they were working with SimpliVity on a UCS converged infrastructure combo. I think they’re eager to show that UCS remains relevant in this area of datacenter computing even as VMworld powers competitors with EVO.
2. UCS + Whiptail Invicta – Cisco bought Whiptail (which became Invicta) for a reason, and I keep hoping we’re going to see that that reason is. Maybe this time? I think a top-of-rack ultra-performance storage platform has a great place in a converged Cisco UCS environment, something I’m writing about this week separately. I sure hope we see this!

Tune in on September 4 online and see for yourself how well I did with these predictions. And watch the Tech Field Day site for our delegate reactions in a roundtable video recorded at the event!