Cisco and VMware are collaborating on data center solutions designed to improve the scalability and operational control of virtual environments. Specifically, the Cisco Nexus 1000V distributed virtual software switch is expected to be an integrated option in VMware Infrastructure. 
The Cisco Nexus 1000V distributed virtual software switch aims to simplify the operations of both physical and virtual networking infrastructures to help server, virtualization and networking administration managers accelerate data center virtualization. The Nexus 1000V will extend Cisco's security, policy enforcement, automated provisioning and diagnostics features into dynamic VMware environments that will be able to scale to thousands of live virtual machines. In this highly agile environment, the new Cisco Virtual Network Link (VN-Link) technology on the Nexus 1000V will integrate with VMware's vNetwork Distributed Switch framework to create a logical network infrastructure that will provide full visibility, control and consistency of the network.
The companies will also combine their expertise in networking and virtualization to introduce a new set of multidisciplinary professional services and reseller certification training in support of customers' data center virtualization strategies. In parallel, Cisco and VMware are collaborating on integrating VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions with Cisco Application Delivery Networking solutions to improve the performance of virtual desktops delivered across wide-area networks (WANs). The companies also jointly offer virtualization consulting services to help customers create and deploy server, network and storage virtualization solutions across their data center that reduce costs by provisioning new applications quickly and more safely, while maintaining high levels of application performance.http://www.cisco.comhttp://www.vmware.com
- In April, Cisco unveiled its Nexus 5000 Series of data center-class switches, a major step towards the company's vision of a Unified Fabric for the Server Access Layer. In conjunction with the product announcement, Cisco announced that it had acquired the remaining 20% equity share it did not already hold in its subsidiary Nuova Systems, a start-up that developed the switch.
The Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switch delivers line-rate, low-latency, 10 Gigabit Ethernet switching, as well as the industry's first standards-based, input/output (I/O) consolidation solution via support for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), Data Center Ethernet and virtualization technologies. The switch is an extension to the Cisco Nexus family designed to support increasing I/O demands of multicore processors and virtualized environments. - In January, Cisco unveiled its the next generation, flagship data center-class switching platform for combining Ethernet, IP, and storage capabilities across one unified network fabric. The Cisco Nexus 7000 Series, which sets forth the company's Data Center 3.0 vision, represents the culmination of over $1 billion in R&D, according to the company. The platform is designed for next generation data center infrastructure deployments of virtualized servers, storage, networks and applications.Using a unified fabric would eliminate the need for parallel storage and computational networks, reducing the number of server interfaces and significantly reducing the cabling and switching infrastructure required in the data center. At the heart of the network is a lossless unified switching fabric capable of simultaneously forwarding storage, Ethernet, and IP traffic. Cisco's Nexus 7000 is a scalable modular platform that delivers up to 15 terabits per second (Tbps_ of switching capacity in a single chassis, supporting up to 512 10 Gbps Ethernet and future delivery of 40- and 100-Gbps Ethernet.
