Alliance develops blueprint for data centres

Cisco Systems, Oracle and EMC have combined their products to help companies build so-called bullet-proof data centres for ebusiness.

The vendors have set up a joint development centre to provide technical blueprints of what they call ECOstructures. They have also launched a website, www.eECOstructure.com, to provide details on how companies can shorten implementation time and operating costs.

The first blueprint, called the 'Resilient ECOstructure', incorporates information from previous ebusiness customer implementations. It combines best business practices and technical configurations to help companies set up and operate various aspects of an internet infrastructure.

Products in the initiative include Cisco's Catalyst Lan switches and Distributed Director, Oracle's Parallel Server and EMC's Symmetrix Enterprise Storage systems and software.

"This alliance is about eliminating risk for our customers," said Roy Sanford, vice president of enterprise alliances at EMC. "The blueprint will speed the deployment of internet infrastructures."

Michael Rocha, senior vice president of Oracle's platform technologies division, said the blueprints are designed to provide technical information, even if customers choose servers from other suppliers.

"This is an alliance of necessity, driven by customers looking for speed of deployment, lower cost and reliability," he said.

The programme is also backed by a testing lab that will assess the three companies' products and publish certified solutions. The vendors also plan to run joint marketing tours to educate customers on the certification.

Officials would not specify how much money each partner put into the ECOstructure initiative, other than to say it is a joint multi-million dollar effort.