News Release

Xerox Selects Cisco Unified Computing System to Deliver Its Cloud-Based Global Managed Print Services

Cisco UCS Handles Transactions for More Than 1 Million Xerox and Non-Xerox Print Devices Worldwide and Infrastructure-as-a-Service Cloud Offerings with Vblock-for-Cloud
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Dec 04, 2012

SAN JOSE, Calif--– December 4, 2012– With businesses of all sizes looking at every part of their IT infrastructure to find cost savings, managed print services (MPS) has emerged as a new opportunity to improve overall productivity and reduce operational costs by an estimated 30 percent. As more and more organizations sign on for Xerox’s market-leading MPS offering, they benefit from faster access to information about their global print operations – delivered by the Cisco Unified Computing System™ (Cisco UCS®) and data center infrastructure, which supports hundreds of thousands of transactions per second on behalf of Xerox.

Last year Cisco and Xerox formed an alliance to deliver cloud-based services and technology solutions that combine network intelligence and print, and today, Xerox uses Cisco data center solutions so its global delivery centers can meet the fast-growing demand for cloud-based MPS.  The Cisco data center environment gives Xerox’s global MPS offerings room to expand by providing a smaller footprint that also saves power and meets cooling requirements.

To support the double-digit growth predicted for the MPS market year-over-year, Xerox’s global network of MPS delivery centers hosts a suite of more than 100 applications, including ticketing systems, help desk, inventory, and financial reporting.  The volume of performance data generated is massive, highlighting everything from print usage and performance trends, to equipment maintenance requirements and other critical issues. The compilation and analysis of Big Data, hosted on the Cisco data center infrastructure, allows Xerox to continually refine its services while providing valuable information to customers to help simplify and improve print resources and costs.

Xerox also works with Cisco to deliver cloud services using the Vblock platform, which combines Cisco UCS with EMC storage and VMware for virtualization, as well as Cisco Intelligent Automation software, to deliver Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) cloud capabilities and Cisco Hosted Collaboration services.  Xerox Cloud Services support clients of all sizes from facilities in the U.S., UK and Kuala Lumpur, and use Cisco Hosted Collaboration Services to provide a range of advanced communication and collaboration services, including integrating IP Telephony, single number reach, instant messaging. In the future, the offering will incorporate Cisco Jabber® and Cisco WebEx® solutions.

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

  • The Xerox global MPS delivery network includes Cisco UCS servers and Cisco Nexus® switches to improve scalability to support rapid growth, enhance performance of Big Data analytics, and accelerate server-to-server and server-to-storage communications for faster, more reliable delivery of MPS. The MPS business is hosted on two data centers located in separate cities in the U.S.  The secondary site is a mirrored, disaster recovery site for the primary. 
  • Xerox selected Cisco UCS as the core server for its global MPS delivery centers, and built several server profiles based on different UCS models to perform various roles in its data center.  Cisco UCS B200 Blade Servers handle administrative and infrastructure functions that help the entire data center run smoothly.  Cisco UCS B230 Blade Servers support basic application and virtualization functions.  Finally, higher-performance applications, including SQL databases, run on Cisco UCS B440 Blade servers and Cisco UCS C460 Rack-Mount Servers. 
  • With Cisco UCS Manager, Xerox can also use service profiles to quickly deploy both physical and virtual servers.   With the rapidly increasing demand for services, Xerox needed to apply service profiles quickly, and get new servers and applications running, without rebuilding environments every time.  Cisco UCS has reduced the number of service profiles that need to be managed by 80 percent.
  • Cisco’s Nexus family of switches, including Nexus 5000, Nexus 2000, and Nexus 1000V, as well as the Cisco MDS 9000 Series Storage switches, provide 10-gigabit connections as part of the Cisco Unified Fabric.  The Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches also support unified ports with fibre channel over Ethernet (FCoE) that enables Xerox to connect to EMC storage over a single, converged network. 
  • The new global delivery center deployment has resulted in accelerated performance of applications for MPS, improving response times; streamlining the environment by reducing the number of server service profiles by as much as 80 percent; and improved staff productivity by 20 percent.
  • Xerox Cloud Services has deployed Vblock 700 Series platforms to power cloud facilities in global locations.  Multitenant and private cloud nodes are offered to both internal Xerox groups and external clients.  
  • Xerox Cloud Services chose the Cisco Process Orchestrator for IT process automation. This automation has allowed Xerox to speed the deployment of application environments and reduce cost by eliminating manual processes. The Cisco Process Orchestrator is part of the Cisco Intelligent Automation software portfolio.

SUPPORTING QUOTES

As the worldwide market leader for MPS, we’re continually looking for ways to bring new benefits to our customers. By using Cisco UCS to support our global MPS delivery network, we can quickly respond to the changing needs of our customers and offer them simplified data, new applications, and faster service. Cisco’s UCS is critical to managing the growing global demand for MPS,” said Andrew Morrison, senior vice president, Xerox MPS Business.  

“The Vblock platform is an efficient vehicle for rapidly deploying multitenant and private cloud nodes worldwide as Xerox Cloud Services grows,” said Steve Houser, CTO, Xerox Cloud Services. “The integrated service, powered by Vblock with UCS, provides performance and flexibility with the assurance of tight integration and rapid deployment.”

Additional Resources

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About Xerox

With sales approaching $23 billion, Xerox (NYSE: XRX) is the world’s leading enterprise for business process and document management. Its technology, expertise and services enable workplaces – from small businesses to large global enterprises – to simplify the way work gets done so they operate more effectively and focus more on what matters most: their real business. Headquartered in Norwalk, Conn., Xerox offers business process outsourcing and IT outsourcing services, including data processing, healthcare solutions, HR benefits management, finance support, transportation solutions, and customer relationship management services for commercial and government organizations worldwide. The company also provides extensive leading-edge document technology, services, software and genuine Xerox supplies for graphic communication and office printing environments of any size. The 140,000 people of Xerox serve clients in more than 160 countries.  For more information, visit http://www.xerox.com, http://news.xerox.com or http://www.realbusiness.com.  For investor information, visit http://www.xerox.com/investor.

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