Cisco announces new virtualization services

BANGALORE,INDIA:Cisco today announced new products and professional services that will help customers virtualize data centers for greater operational and energy efficiency.

The new offerings make the virtual network a highly efficient platform for delivering data center services, Cisco said in a statement.

"Real-time collaborative applications, energy concerns and the need to achieve greater efficiency from assets are driving IT managers to transform their data centers through new technologies," said John McCool, senior vice president and general manager, Cisco Data Center, Switching and Services Group, and co-chair of the Cisco EcoBoard.

"By providing virtualization technologies across the data center, Cisco aims to help businesses achieve the agility and resiliency they need to compete on a global scale," he added.

The Cisco Data Center 3.0 includes Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) software release 4.1, Cisco Application Control Engine (ACE) software release 3.1, Cisco VFrame Data Center software release 1.2, and New Cisco Data Center 3.0 professional programs and services to better support customers with data center deployments.

"By virtualising the resources of a data center, an enterprise can offer services across the globe from a single centralized data center, thereby reducing operational cost and increasing asset effectiveness," said Sumit Mukhija, national sales manager, data center, Cisco India and SAARC. "With these technologies, Cisco aims to help businesses achieve the agility and resiliency they need, to compete on a global scale."

Cisco WAAS software release 4.1 is scheduled to be available for download in Q3, CY08. WAAS Live Video Streaming and WAAS Virtualization are separately licensed features with pricing starting at $2500 per device.