Cisco sheds light on server plans

Cisco has posted further details about its upcoming line of server systems.

The company said that its new Unified Computing blade-mount servers would be joined by a line of rack-based systems and extension appliances which will ship in the coming months.

The three rack-mount servers will ship between November and will range from a US$2,589 model ($2,862) to an extended US$10,339 system. All three models will be offered under the banner of the UCS C-Series.

Cisco hopes that the addition of the rack-mount systems will help extend the reach of the Unified Computing platform.

The company first unveiled the programme in April with the effort of combining network and storage management with server virtualisation technologies.

"The Cisco UCS C-Series provides a cost effective entry point and a clear migration path to unified computing for our customers," said Prem Jain, senior vice president of server access and virtualisation for Cisco.

"This rack mount server form factor also opens the unified computing opportunity to a broader range of our channel partner community."

Meanwhile, the blade-based UCS B-Series server will be accompanied by a memory extension unit set to be released this month and an interface card for additional Ethernet connections slated for release in December.

Additionally, Cisco said that both the B-Series and C-Series servers would be fully certified for Oracle's RAC and Database software offerings.