Cisco Cisco Server Provisioner White Paper

Page of 2
IMPACT BRIEF | 1
©2014 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | www.enterprisemanagement.com
Introduction
In January of 2014 Cisco Systems launched Cisco Intelligent Automation for Cloud 4.0 (IAC 4.0). 
In combination with the latest release of Cisco UCS Director, responsible for management of physical 
and virtual servers, storage and network infrastructure, IAC 4.0 enables the rapid and policy driven 
provisioning of cloud-based IT services. These services can now be deployed on physical or virtual 
resources in massive and heterogeneous private cloud environments, and managed alongside resources 
from one or more public cloud platforms. 
Key Customer Value
IAC 4.0 is part of Cisco’s Unified Management 
strategy, aimed at breaking down the walls 
between traditional data center silos – storage, 
network, servers, security, applications, 
middleware, database – enabling cloud 
administrators, developers and end users to easily 
assemble and manage IT services. Recent EMA 
research has shown the incredible importance of 
eliminating data center silos, in order to deliver 
application environments more rapidly and at a 
better quality.
Most Notable New Capabilities of Cisco IAC 4.0
Hybrid Cloud:
 Cisco IAC 4.0 provides out-of-the-box management of multiple cloud environments 
– including VMware vCloud, OpenStack and Amazon Web Services. A new initiative called Cisco 
InterCloud enables moving workloads between private and public clouds, via layer 2 network 
connectivity, without the need for application redesign. IAC 4.0 will integrate with InterCloud in order 
to consistently and securely manage IT services across local data centers and public cloud infrastructure. 
Cisco is currently working on additional InterCloud connectivity with cloud service providers such as 
Microsoft Azure, CSC, CenturyLink, British Telecom, and others.
Governance:
 EMA research has found that after the cloud honeymoon is over, organizations require 
an advanced and granular governance framework to consistently enforce cost control, quotas, security, 
reliability and performance across physical, virtual and cloud environments. IAC 4.0 offers these 
capabilities within a multi-tenancy architecture, targeting enterprise and service provider scenarios.
Integration with UCS Director:
 Cisco UCS Director provides infrastructure management capabilities 
for physical and virtual server, storage and network resources. UCS Director can be seen as the “factory,” 
making things happen in the background for infrastructure provisioning, while IAC provides the IT 
“storefront,” extending self-service ordering of applications, infrastructure and entire services to a 
wide range of users. In the 4.0 release, this integration between IAC for cloud management and UCS 
Director for physical and virtual infrastructure management is a strong combination.
Out of the box workflows:
 With the embedded capabilities of Cisco Process Orchestrator, IAC 4.0 
offers over 800 standard workflows and 500 so-called extension points. These extension points are 
Cisco Intelligent Automation for Cloud 4.0: 
Cloud Management for IaaS and Beyond
2%  1% 
15% 
48% 
34% 
The importance of breaking down IT silos  
Very Unimportant 
Unimportant 
Neither Important nor 
Unimportant 
Important 
Very Important