Technical information

Ordering Guide
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The following information affects server purchasing decisions for Cisco Unified Communications products so is
included here for background/reference/convenience.
Positioning - when should you buy Cisco UCS vs. Cisco MCS 7800 for Cisco Unified Communications?
Table 28 outlines the main differences between Cisco Unified Communications on the Cisco MCS 7800 vs. Cisco
Unified Communications on Cisco UCS. If your customer lacks skills in administering and supporting servers,
VMware, and storage technology, do not sell them Cisco UCS unless it is a Managed/Hosted Services opportunity
and someone with those skills will be performing implementation and operation. Customers lacking these skills
must be sold the Cisco MCS 7800.
Table 27. Cisco Unified Communications on Cisco MCS 7800 vs. Cisco Unified Communications on Cisco UCS
UC on MCS 7845
UC on UCS B-series
UC on UCS C-series
Physical, bare-metal, non-virtualized installation
VMware-only installation
Cisco on OEM server
Cisco on Cisco-manufactured server
Support for all UC apps
Phased support of UC apps (see www.cisco.com/go/uc-virtualized for list)
Single standalone application supported
Application Co-residency supported
Application Co-residency on select
configurations.
Short life from FCS to EoSale
Use of VMware can extend effective life
Many SKUs per server configuration
Single SKU per server configuration
“Narrow” Application/Server compatibility
“Broad” Application/Server compatibility
DAS (local disks) storage only for UC apps
Fiber Channel SAN for UC apps
DAS (local disks) storage, plus Fibre
Channel SAN on select configuration.
List Price $24K per server
List Price $13,400 per blade server, plus
additional price of VMware licensing,
chassis, fabric extenders, fabric
interconnect switches, etc.
List Price $16,500 - $23,600 per rack-
mount server, plus additional price of
VMware licensing.
Appliance user experience
“Not an appliance”
Factory-installed OS and Application
Nothing factory-installed
No Server/OS expertise required.
Expertise with Servers, VMware and SAN
required
Expertise with Servers and some expertise
with VMware required.
“One stop shop” management via Application
“Three screens” to manage: Application, VMware, Server
Can Cisco UCS be sold for third-party applications and operating systems? Yes, but these should only be sold
via Data-Center SKUs. Collaboration UCS SKUs are only for use with UC applications.
Capacity limits for Cisco UCS should come from the design guides and calculator tools at
http://www.cisco.com/go/srnd. Because of the application co-residency via VMware, effective capacity per server will
be much higher than that for the Cisco MCS 7845. See also the sizing guidelines at www.cisco.com/go/uc-virtualized
Third-party hardware components on Cisco UCS are not supported with UC applications unless explicitly
indicated in the software ordering guides or release notes.
Reuse of a Cisco UCS to run a different software product is usually supported provided the target application
supports the UCS model, and the UCS server has the correct specs. Consult the appropriate server compatibility
matrix for your applications.
Service Processors: Cisco UCS B-Series uses UCS Manager software, which is embedded in the Cisco UCS 6100
Fabric Interconnect Switches. Cisco UCS C-Series currently uses Cisco Integrated Management Controller (CIMC)
for out-of-band management access. Both solutions also leverage VMware vCenter for certain kinds of alerts.
Keyboards, mice, and monitors are not included with Cisco UCS. Cisco does not make or resell any Keyboard-
Video-Mouse (KVM) remote-access hardware or software.