INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Data Centres
“Today, most IT
organisations
are adopting
a multi-cloud
strategy, and as a
result customers
need a scalable
and consistent
management
environment across
their data centres.”
President, IDC. “Artificial intelligence
(AI)-infused cloud-based management
tools can offer deep insights into the
state of the infrastructure, identify
troubles before they become major
issues, and enable quicker ‘root cause’
identification and analysis of issues.”
Intersight is designed to deliver a new,
higher level of simplicity and intelligence
that is intuitive from the start and
continues to learn and evolve over time:
• Pervasive simplicity: Cisco Intersight
features a dynamic user interface
that can be customised by user
role. As a cloud-based service,
new functionality is delivered via
portal updates without burdening
customers with upgrades, and the
experience scales seamlessly as
customers directly connect new
systems for management. The
platform is designed to constantly
learn to help make daily IT operations
easier. Analytics combined with tight
integration with the Cisco Technical
Assistance Center (TAC) constantly
improve the assistance provided
through the recommendation engine.
• Expertise: Tight Cisco Technical
Assistance Center (TAC) integration
and insights from Cisco and
the UCS Community provide
recommendations and best practices.
• Continuous optimisation: The ability
for the Intersight platform to provide
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actionable intelligence will grow
stronger over time from the power of
cloud-based machine learning. It can
learn from the collective experience
of the UCS user community, as well
as the best practices of Cisco experts
and peers. This will enable better
predictive analytics and resource
utilisation to be provided through the
recommendation engine.
• Agile delivery: IT can rapidly respond
to business demands and frequent
changes while maintaining the policy
enforcement designed to implement
safe and reliable business services. Cisco
Intersight is API-driven and Cisco UCS
and HyperFlex are fully programmable
systems, supporting development and
operations tool chains for continuous
integration and delivery.
• Constant protection: The Cisco
Intersight service adheres to the
stringent security standards of
Cisco InfoSec, and helps enable
secure communication between
the Cisco Intersight SaaS platform
and managed endpoints, allowing
applications to be deployed and
updated securely.
Cisco Intersight will be available in Q4
2017 and is integrated and designed to
coexist with existing UCS and HyperFlex
management tools, so customers can
adopt Cisco Intersight as they desire
without added complexity. Cisco
Intersight will be available in an on-
premise deployment model in the future
and is built on an extensible architecture
with OData standards-based RESTful
APIs and connector framework,
simplifying third party software and
hardware integrations.
The Cisco Intersight Base Edition will be
available at no charge. It includes global
health monitoring and inventory, a
customisable dashboard, the HyperFlex
Installer to quickly deploy clusters, and
the ability to context-launch the UCS
Manager, IMC and HyperFlex Connect
element managers.
The Cisco Intersight Essentials Edition
includes all the functionality of the
Base edition as well as policy-based
configuration with service profiles,
firmware management with scheduled
updates, Hardware Compatibility Listing
(HCL) compliance checks and upgrade
recommendations, and other features.
Bringing next-generation systems
management to over 60,000
UCS, HyperFlex and converged
infrastructure customers
Cisco recently announced fifth
generation UCS Servers with the
high-performance UCS M5 series and
an accompanying release of UCS
Manager that provides connector
support to Cisco Intersight. UCS M5
systems are also now available in Cisco’s
hyperconverged infrastructure solution
with the new Cisco HyperFlex M5
nodes, including HyperFlex Edge, with
Cisco Intersight providing cloud-based
cluster deployment capability in the
Base Edition. Cisco leads the industry
with the most comprehensive portfolio
of converged infrastructure solutions;
Cisco Intersight creates opportunities
for deeper partner integrations and even
greater operational simplicity.
As customers include Cisco UCS®,
HyperFlex and Intersight in their IT
modernisation initiatives, Cisco offers
a comprehensive life cycle of data
centre services from advisory through
optimisation, managed technical
and learning services to improve cost-
efficiency and reduce risk. Cisco’s portfolio
of services leverages global expertise,
proven processes, and innovative
methodologies to help customers
accelerate and simplify operations. n
“Complete system life cycle
management is delivered by Cisco
Intersight through machine learning,
analytics and automation.”
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