Cisco and Microsoft accelerate data center virtualization innovation

Cisco today announced that it will work with Microsoft to provide data center virtualization solutions to bring enhanced scalability and operational control to Microsoft Windows Server's virtual environment. The Cisco Nexus® 1000V Distributed Virtual Switch and the Cisco Unified Computing System (trademark) with Virtual Machine Matrix Extender (VM-FEX) capabilities will work with the Windows Server Hyper-V hypervisor to bring coverage to customers. Leading Cisco networking features for virtual and physical networks while still supporting customers' existing IT management processes.

Key Highlights:

Cisco Nexus 1000V Virtual Switch Delivers Enhanced Visibility, Control, and Operational Flexibility for Hyper-V Environments:

Cisco Nexus 1000V Distribution The virtual switch introduces the dynamic configuration and management capabilities of Cisco NX-OS software into Windows Server Hyper-V to simplify the operation of the virtual network infrastructure as a physical network extension. It also provides full virtual machine-level visibility and brings security controls consistent with its Cisco physical network for virtual environments.

The Cisco Nexus 1000V introduces Cisco's policy enforcement, automated provisioning and diagnostic features that will enable IT administrators to quickly deploy virtual workloads in Windows Server Hyper-V environments and scale to very large data centers.

By working with the Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) management tool, the Cisco Nexus 1000V will help network, virtualization, and server administrators improve the efficiency of collaboratively managing multi-tenant and mobile virtual environments. At the same time, the Cisco Nexus 1000V provides them with accurate, real-time data to support rapid troubleshooting of virtual environments.

The Nexus 1000V integrates Cisco security software (Virtual Security Gateway and Virtual ASA), Virtual Wide Area Application Services and Network Analysis Module to provide a detailed view of the multi-tenant environment. Severe virtual machine level security and application acceleration, as well as practical virtual machine to virtual machine activity monitoring and reporting capabilities.

The Cisco Unified Computing System VM-FEX powers virtual environments for simple operations and superior performance:

Cisco UCS&trade with VM-FEX capabilities helps IT administrators manage computing and networking Provision, configure, manage, monitor, and diagnose virtual machine network traffic in a unified infrastructure with virtualized resources.

VM-FEX also uses Microsoft's SR-IOV feature in Windows Server 8 Hyper-V to provide near-next; bare metal> virtual machine I/O performance.

By consolidating the physical and virtual network layers into a single virtual infrastructure, VM-FEX reduces the number of management points that network administrators need to monitor and provides a consistent set of features for virtual and physical infrastructure. This initiative also improves traffic engineering, visibility, and troubleshooting capabilities for virtual machine traffic, enabling IT administrators to build a holistic virtual and physical network infrastructure.

Policy-based network configuration automates virtual machine creation, dramatically speeding application deployment. This configuration is supported by both Cisco and Microsoft virtualization management tools.

The outstanding scalability and storage density of the Cisco Unified Computing System make it an ideal choice for customers, and will be able to support the in-depth exploration of many of the new virtualization features of Windows Server 8 and Hyper-V. The combination of the Nexus 1000V and VM-FEX with Windows Server Hyper-V will enable advanced control capabilities and consistently simple management capabilities to help accelerate the customer's journey. Cisco is committed to providing advanced components that help customers deploy end-to-end virtualized data centers and simplify the way they deliver and manage IT services to their customers. The Cisco release of the Cisco Nexus 1000V and VM-FEX will be used in conjunction with Microsoft Hyper-V to support this strategy.

Listing Information

The Cisco Nexus 1000V and VM-FEX solutions that support Hyper-V will be available when Windows 8 Server is available in the market.