The rapid pace at which Cisco IT has deployed the Cisco MDS 9000 Series Multilayer switch indicates a shift in priorities from cautious investigation of new technologies to a willingness to accept an incremental level of risk to more quickly achieve the vision set out almost three years ago. Business continuance and disaster recovery strategies continue to receive significant focus, and the adoption of newer technologies helps add functionality and further stratify the tiers that are supported by Enterprise Storage Services.
Although the ability to support greater numbers of terabytes of storage at Cisco currently hinges on the homogeneous nature of its storage install base, as storage software management products mature, Cisco expects the costs of managing heterogeneous storage to decrease over time.