SAN JOSE, Calif.— August 23, 2012 — Cisco customers such as Beaufort Memorial Hospital, Capital Region Orthopaedics, and Human Kinetics are rapidly turning to Unified Fabric™ data center architectures that unite storage, compute, and networking resources, network services, and management to simplify IT operations and reduce costs. Cisco Unified Fabric solutions provide dynamic IT management across physical, virtual and cloud-based networks through a flexible, scalable network architecture.

Customer momentum for the Unified Fabric approach is reflected in Cisco's deployment metrics.  More than 36,000 customers have deployed NX-OS, Cisco's unified fabric and computing operating system to take advantage of Cisco Unified Fabric capabilities, and to support business growth and gain competitive advantage.  Through April, 2012 Cisco customers have deployed more than 17 million Cisco Nexus data center switch ports and 8 million Cisco MDS storage switch ports, typically used in a unified fabric environment.  More than 6,000 customers have deployed the Cisco Nexus 1000V switch, a softswitch that delivers highly secure, multitenant services by adding virtualization intelligence to the data center network. 

Customers are adopting a Cisco Unified Fabric because it helps to reduce data center complexity and breaks down the silos created by separate storage and local area networks. With a Unified Fabric, customers can more rapidly adopt new technology trends such as Big Data, cloud computing, workload mobility and pervasive video.

Cisco Unified Fabric Customers Gain Benefits

Ed Ricks, CIO, Beaufort Memorial Hospital

Located in Beaufort, South Carolina, Beaufort Memorial Hospital has been recognized for ten consecutive years as one of the nation's most technologically advanced, being named a "Most Wired" hospital by Hospitals and Health Networks.

"We're in the business of delivering optimum patient care. Integrating Cisco's Unified Fabric technologies, like Nexus 1000v and Cisco MDS, gave us the virtual intelligence we needed to deliver highly secure, multi-tenant services and the multiple-protocol storage support required to house large quantities of sensitive patient data. With Cisco's help in virtualizing our data center and end-user workstations, we‘re able to provide our caregivers with a seamless clinical workflow, allowing them to save time, be more agile and better serve our patients' needs."

Ray DeCrescente, chief technology officer, Capital Region Orthopaedics

Capital Region Orthopaedics is a multidisciplinary healthcare practice that specializes in musculoskeletal problems and injuries, offering patients a convenient, one-stop medical facility for bone and joint recovery.

"The push towards electronic medical records and digital x-rays is a huge undertaking.  With Cisco's Unified Fabric in our data center, we have the flexibility and bandwidth to support heavier data and storage traffic. In the world of physicians, time is money. So, when our IT staff was able to save us time by using the management features provided by Cisco, we were able to reduce our operating costs which allowed us to invest in new healthcare technologies for enhanced patient care."

Brad Trankina, director of networks and information systems, Human Kinetics

Human Kinetics, an educational publisher, is known globally as the information leader in physical activity and health.  Human Kinetics publishes quality educational products that help scholars, sports and health professionals, and the general public to lead healthier, more active lives.

"The demand for digital content has put unprecedented strain on our data center. Upgrading our data center with Cisco's Nexus, UCS, Catalyst, and Netflow Generation Appliance solutions gave us the storage scalability, manageability and performance needed to deliver digital content more quickly. As a result, we have saved more than 40 percent in reduced hardware and management costs."

Supporting Facts

The Cisco Unified Fabric Portfolio Includes:

• Cisco Nexus Family of Data Center Switches
• Cisco MDS 9000 Family of Storage Network Switches
• Cisco DCNM
• Cisco NX-OS
• Cisco Application Control Engine (ACE)
• Cisco ASA1000V
• Cisco Virtual Security Gateway (VSG)
• Cisco Network Analysis Module (NAM)
• Cisco NetFlow Generation 3000 Series Appliances

Supporting Resources:

• View: Cisco Unified Fabric Overview video
• View: Cisco Unified Fabric Vision video
• Read: Cisco Unified Fabric architecture page
• Read: Cisco Data Center and Cloud blog
• Learn more: Data Center Services website

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