Last week NetApp rocked the industry with our most significant product launch ever. Cisco played a key role with the release of FlexPods, a validated, pre-designed, base configuration built on Cisco UCS and Nexus and NetApp FAS storage components designed to be elastic and to scale incrementally both up and out.
This week our positions are reversed.
Cisco today announced the Cisco Virtualization Experience Infrastructure (VXI), a vision that includes a comprehensive desktop virtualization reference architecture and solution spanning collaboration, borderless networking and data center technologies. The VXI design incorporates Citrix XenDesktop and VMware View to offer solutions that have been built and validated through extensive three-way collaboration between Citrix-Cisco-NetApp and VMware-Cisco-NetApp.
We couldn’t be more excited about VXI and how NetApp is collaborating with Cisco and other industry leaders to support key desktop virtualization solutions. VXI takes an expansive view of virtual desktops beyond just VDI to present a credible roadmap on how to virtualize your desktop and end user environment. Our ability to deliver this solution is another key indicator we’re reaching the desktop virtualization tipping point as my colleague Ben DuBois eloquently shared last week.
One of the biggest challenges we see with virtual desktop infrastructures is the architectural and organizational complexity inherent in projects that span multiple IT domains. It’s common to hear about data center teams trying to architect and size the data center environment while also struggling to understand the impact and changes required to their LAN/WAN infrastructure. As a precursor to VXI, NetApp teamed up with Cisco, VMware, and Wyse to build a 50,000 Seat VDI Deployment and Reference Architecture. This is the largest known VDI reference architecture ever built! Trust me here, during the validation phase we experienced and resolved a number of challenges first-hand.
Successfully virtualizing a desktop environment requires more than just a data center solution …
...or a network solution …
...or a desktop solution...
You’ve got to have all three!
Cisco and NetApp are uniquely positioned to drive end-to-end virtual desktop solutions. The combination of Cisco’s server, network, and end-user technology with NetApp’s unified storage platform and advanced storage capabilities such as FlexClone provisioning, disk and cache deduplication plus the points of integration provided enable solutions which are unmatched in the industry.
“NetApp is committed to VXI and believes it is the right vision on how virtual desktops will evolve ... NetApp plays a critical role in this solution by driving down storage costs by a factor of three: protecting critical data, eliminating performance bottlenecks, and providing end users continuous access to their information.”
- Patrick Rogers, VP of Alliances and Solutions, NetApp
In addition, the NetApp and Cisco engineering teams have worked closely to develop pre-designed base configurations for a range of application workloads – including desktop virtualization – which can be scaled up for performance/ capacity or out for multiple consistent deployments. Cisco and NetApp have worked with key partners like VMware, Citrix, and Microsoft to develop extensively tested Cisco Validated Designs which leverage core infrastructure components such as 10GbE Unified fabric, Cisco UCS and Nexus, and NetApp FAS arrays. These reference architectures ensure optimal designs, service and performance consistency plus the architectural standardization which one can build a truly cloud-optimized, shared virtual infrastructure.
In September Cisco, Citrix and NetApp announced a groundbreaking desktop virtualization solution built on Cisco Validated Designs and embraced by partners such as MTM Technologies, who are providing their own integrated offerings and "one-number-to-call" for support.
Today, Cisco is announcing a VMware desktop virtualization which leverages our extensive expertise in VMware environments including the creation of the industry’s largest reference architecture: 50,000 seats! The end result is a dramatic increase in the end user experience, reduction in physical infrastructure, and ease with which IT can deploy and scale desktop virtualization solutions.
“NetApp is committed to VXI and believes it is the right vision on how virtual desktops will evolve.”
- Patrick Rogers, VP of Alliances and Solutions, NetApp
For more information, check out the recent 3-part series on VXI:
- Part I: Three Reasons Desktop Virtualization has Reached a Tipping Point
- Part II: Why Storage Matters for Desktop Virtualization
- Part III: Storage Must-Have’s for Desktop Virtualization
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