Cisco Cisco Nexus 1010 Virtual Services Appliance Information Guide

Page of 3
“The Cisco Nexus 1010 allows one engineering team to effectively manage policies 
and troubleshoot issues at the VM level,” says Luca Salati (Network Engineering 
team) and Luca Chiappetti (Network Operations team). “Now there is no need to 
hand off tasks to other parties.”
The solution design incorporates a pair of Nexus 1010 appliances in each Data 
Center. The traffic generated by each appliance is handled by the two LAN-on-
Motherboard (LoM) network ports, which reduces the risk of misconfiguration and 
helps to ensure that no single point of failure exists. In addition, the new Cisco 
appliances also allows the service provider to extend its use of Nexus family 
features, such as 
 for reducing downtime, and port 
channeling for increasing redundancy and bandwidth. 
Cisco Nexus architecture also gives FASTWEB a strong platform for further 
development. For example, hosting the Cisco Prime Network Analysis Module (NAM) 
on the Nexus 1010 appliance provides a higher level of VM control and analysis 
by extending visibility into the Virtual Machine (VM) network.  FASTWEB also has 
the potential to strengthen security at the VM level by hosting the Virtual Security 
Gateway (VSG) on  the Nexus 1010.  The VSG is an intra-tenant Firewall that can 
be used to create zones of trust within your Data Center.
Results
FASTWEB’s approach of using the Cisco Nexus 1010 to clearly define server and 
networking domains has transformed virtualized server farm management. 
New services can be deployed faster. Previously, before a new application could 
be launched, it had to be set up by a system administrator. Production timelines 
were often missed or postponed, because administrators were struggling with 
busy workloads. By removing this step alone FASTWEB expect to accelerate 
time-to-deployment by 80 percent.
Improved load-balancing of traffic across the server farm, combined with better 
visibility of virtual machines, has optimized operations. “We’ve taken a quantum 
leap in the way we handle over 1000 VMs. The Cisco Nexus 1010 provides fewer 
points of management and better tracking of machines as they transfer around the 
data center,” says Luca Salati (Network Engineering team) and Luca Chiappetti 
(Network Operations team).
Although the application has been in place for only a short time, FASTWEB expects 
these process efficiencies and productivity gains to translate into cost savings.
With this solution, less complexity and risk are associated with virtual networking. 
Both the Cisco Nexus 7000 and 1010 run on the Cisco NX-OS which gives, for 
example, FASTWEB greater consistency of software and management tools across 
the virtual access and core network layers.
Moreover, FASTWEB’s innovative VM management approach does not end there. 
The provider is considering the possibility of hosting the Cisco Data Center Network 
Manager (DCNM) LAN Virtual Service Blade (VSB) on the Cisco Nexus 1010. Capable 
of managing physical and virtual switches, the DCNM simplifies the deployment of 
innovative Cisco NX-OS features. It can also be used to monitor the performance of 
individual VMs and provide VM-aware path analytics, giving even greater granularity 
and control. 
Luca Salati (Network Engineering team)
FASTWEB
Customer Case Study
© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.. 
Page 2 of 3
Luca Chiappetti (Network Operations team)
FASTWEB