HP and Cisco partner on HP BladeSystem

To ensure choice and interoperability for their joint customers, HP and Cisco recently announced another option to bridge their data center server and networking architectures.

The Cisco Fabric Extender for HP BladeSystem, also known as the Cisco Nexus B22 Fabric Extender (FEX) for HP, benefits customers by extending the Cisco Unified Fabric into the HP c-Class BladeSystem.

The solution offers tighter integration for customers investing in HP BladeSystem and Cisco Nexus switch environments by preserving investments with existing data center technology.

Co-engineered by HP and Cisco, this solution allows customers to easily connect and configure their HP BladeSystem c-Class infrastructure and Cisco Unified Fabric.

Benefits of the Cisco FEX for HP BladeSystem includes:

• increased network bandwidth and resiliency, which is needed for delivering mission-critical applications running on multiple server links;
• expanded flexibility to address changing business demands with consolidated migration paths from 1GbE to 10GbE networks;
• reduced network provisioning and maintenance required by IT administrators from the Cisco Nexus parent switch to as many as 24 fabric extenders

HP BladeSystem c-Class provides integration of data center resources including cables, power supplies, fans networking and redundancy for increased efficiency and reduced costs by addressing IT sprawl at the server-to-network layer.

“BladeSystem customers are looking to HP for solutions that easily integrate into existing environments,” said Andrew McNiven, Industry Standard Servers and Software Product Manager, HP South Africa. “This new solution allows industry-standard collaboration options for enterprises choosing HP BladeSystem c-Class infrastructure while simplifying their connections and reducing network costs.”

“Our customers want to easily and cost-effectively take advantage of the latest Cisco Unified Fabric innovations,” said Soni Jiandani, senior vice president, Server, Access and Virtualization Technology Group, Cisco. “By offering the Cisco Nexus B22 Fabric Extender (FEX) for HP, our customers can extend the benefits of the Cisco Unified Fabric across their existing data center infrastructure.”

Pricing and availability

The Cisco Fabric Extender for HP BladeSystem is now available directly from HP and its authorised partners.