2011年4月28日星期四

Canvas Systems Expands Networking Support for Cisco IOS

Canvas Systems is pleased to announce a new support option for Cisco IOS. Leveraging its channel partnerships, Canvas can now offer third party support for Cisco IOS, including software bug fixes. Canvas' third party support program, CanvasGuard, consists of both hardware and software support for Cisco switches, routers, firewalls and other networking devices. Flexible options include service levels ranging from next business day support to onsite hardware spares.

"With this addition to the CanvasGuard program, we are able to provide a fully certified and cost-effective solution for all of our network customers," says Paul Smith, VP of Sales Operations for Canvas. "Customers with genuine Cisco router equipment and valid licenses now have a clear alternative to Smartnet."

CanvasGuard maintenance programs offer support across all OEM platforms including Dell, IBM, HP, Sun and Cisco routers. Support is provided by OEM certified technicians; currently maintaining over 850 customers and 23,000 servers. CanvasGuard also provides both lifetime and advanced warranty programs, depending on product. Designed to enhance the total life cycle of your data center, CanvasGuard also provides a Real-Time Spares Management program to ensure the parts you need are on hand when you need them.

About Canvas Systems:
Founded in 1998, Canvas Systems is the leading global and independent supplier of IT Hardware and Support - providing the largest channel alternative for data center and hardware services. Based in Norcross, Georgia, Canvas also has regional headquarters in the United Kingdom and Netherlands. Canvas specializes in providing clients with faster and affordable green IT products and services including: Data Center Hardware, Third-Party Maintenance, Financing and Rentals, Infrastructure Services and Remarket and Recycle programs.

Canvas has an extensive $100 million inventory, offers same day shipment to over 70 countries and saves significant money for clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses. Canvas Systems is part of the Platinum Equity Portfolio. For more information, call 1-877-CANVAS-9 or visit

2011年4月18日星期一

Cisco opens green datacenter to support internal operations

If you are going to be pushing your datacenter vision out to corporate America and expect to have any credibility, it is important that you be running your own business on the infrastructure that you are selling.  With the opening of their new Allen, TX datacenter,  refurbished Cisco is doing just that, rolling out a new green datacenter that is operating on the full portfolio of Cisco datacenter hardware and software.

From 100 KW of solar cells generating power on the roof (for use by the offices, not the datacenter hardware) to the plans to use ambient fresh air to reduce cooling costs, Cisco has attempted to at least touch all the bases in the current green datacenter model. But with an eye towards practicality, the expected PUE of this new facility is only 1.35.

This isn’t a bad number, but with every new facility in the datacenter business trying to post PUE ratings of as close to 1.0 as possible, it is nice to see a realistic rating target from a major vendor. With aspects to the calculation such as the use of outside air, Cisco can only factor in average local temperatures, though they expect to be able to use outside air cooling at least 65% of the time. If Cisco is able to generate a better PUE after running the facility for an extended period, I’m certain they will make sure the media and their customers are aware of the improvement over the projected rating.

The data center is also one half of what Cisco describes as a metro Virtual Data center. It is paired with a datacenter in Richardson, TX to deliver IT cloud services that span the two facilities and offer the advantages of redundancy for increased uptime and disaster recovery planning.

I’m sure that Cisco will be making the most of the facility as a showcase for their Unified Computing infrastructure model, which will allow them to give potential customers a more one to one pitch when comparing their converged computing alternative to those offered by other vendors, or, more specifically, HP.