Savvis Session at Cloud Expo

Savvis and Cisco announced an expanded relationship focused on the development of private clouds for the enterprise.

Savvis will integrate the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) as the cornerstone of Savvis Symphony, Savvis' next-generation private clouds platform, previously dubbed Project Spirit, that will power the industry's first enterprise-class Virtual Private Data Center (VPDC) with multi-tiered security and quality of service capabilities. Cisco UCS unites computational, network, storage access, and virtualization into a scalable, modular architecture that is managed as a single system.

The Cisco Unified Service Delivery solution optimally utilizes pools of resources within any given data center and applies them to any service offering as well as interconnects data center islands to further combine resources, which can significantly reduce capital and operational costs. Savvis is using the Cisco Unified Service Delivery solution for service delivery which combines the Cisco UCS architecture with the Cisco Nexus solutions, ACE and MPLS next-generation network.

As part of an expanded go-to-market strategy, Savvis and Cisco are also working together to deliver managed IT infrastructure solutions and enterprise private clouds. The companies have collaborated on the development of a reference architecture that will help enable enterprise customers to take advantage of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) benefits available in Savvis Symphony. This architecture was tested and validated end to end in Cisco's labs, which should enable Savvis to quickly bring these services to market.

"Savvis is one of the first service providers to deliver private cloud and Cisco Unified Computing System benefits to the enterprise," said Rob Lloyd, executive vice president of worldwide operations, Cisco. "The Cisco Unified Computing System is a key element in the Cisco service provider portfolio, which is evolving the data center to a more consolidated, virtualized and automated environment that lays the foundation for cloud computing. We are working closely to support Savvis and Savvis Symphony to provide our mutual customers with cloud IT infrastructure services based on Cisco's Unified Service Delivery architecture."

"The market for IT infrastructure is undergoing profound change as virtualization and new technologies impact cost strategies and alignment with the business," said Phil Koen, chief executive officer, Savvis, Inc. "Enterprises want all the benefits of cloud computing, but acquiring, integrating and managing the new technologies is not for everyone. We look forward to working with Cisco's global sales force experts with deep experience in virtualization and Cisco technologies, with a unified vision of private clouds for the enterprise."

Today's announcement of Cisco UCS being selected for Savvis Symphony builds on the progressive relationship Savvis has had with Cisco in providing managed IT infrastructure solutions since 2006. Savvis is using Cisco's Unified Service Delivery architecture for key elements of service delivery which also includes the following solutions:

• Savvis selecting the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series, Cisco ACE blade and Firewall Services Module to deliver virtualized network infrastructure for its next-generation hosted area network architecture;
• Cisco and Savvis announcing Savvis' global next-generation MPLS network that unified Savvis' data center infrastructure and management systems enhancing Savvis' ability to deliver IT IaaS; and
• Savvis announcing the Cisco Nexus 5000 and 7000 Series switches serving as the virtualized network backbone for the VPDCs powered by Savvis Symphony, along with the Cisco Nexus 1000V Switch with VN-Link technology enabling virtual machines and network connectivity to be seamlessly linked.

Savvis operates a global tier one application transport network and 28 data centers globally encompassing more than 1.4 million square feet of raised floor space designed to support enterprise IT operations. In addition, Savvis was recently positioned as a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Web Hosting and Cloud Infrastructure (on Demand), 2009, and can be accessed at www.savvis.net/magicquadrantleader