Cisco and AMD help modernise defence industry IT infrastructure

Cisco has announced that it is helping defence departments modernise and simplify their IT infrastructure with its AMD-powered rack servers.

The UCS C4200 Series Rack Server Chassis hosts four UCS C125 M5 Rack Server Nodes in two rack units (2RU) with shared power and cooling. The server nodes are powered by AMD EPYC processors, which boast “the highest core density in the industry”.

This has made it possible to cut down on the number of cables used by defence departments, reducing the number from 200 individual cables by 60% to only 80.

Cisco has managed to merge 20 racks of gear down to a single rack, as well as cut down on power consumption and licensing costs, making running the technology more affordable for the defence departments, which are typically funded by taxpayers.

The new offerings make it easier to manage servers: in a case study, Cisco detailed that “one defence agency deployed the Cisco UCS C-Series to simplify infrastructure management and scaling”.

The unnamed defence department no longer has to manually manage servers on an individual basis, and can now use UCS Manager to orchestrate them “collectively using software-defined service profiles”.

Cisco’s UCS Manager simplifies the deployment of service profiles to both rack and blade servers, with defence departments being able to manage as many as 160 nodes at the same time.

“As a result, the defence agency has streamlined infrastructure management, established greater consistency of server configuration and security, and simplified scaling without the need for downtime,” said Cisco.

The combination of the UCS C4200 Series Rack Server Chassis and UCS C125 M5 Rack Server Nodes is used to benefit “various defence departments in multiple countries”. However, Cisco didn’t specify which exact states are customers.

One of the benefactors could be the US Department of Defense (DoD), which has strong ties with the American tech giant. In July, Cisco launched Webex for defence, an all-in-one collaboration platform specifically made for the military department. Authorised to work with the DoD’s national security systems, the new tool integrates with Cisco’s full Webex portfolio of devices, allowing users to connect securely from phone, desktop, or video.