How will virtualizing my infrastructure layer with the Universal Connectivity System™ 2900 lower my operating costs?
Today's dynamic business environment dictates 24/7 operations and downtime can be very expensive. The Universal Connectivity System 2900's value lies in its ability to passively monitor the network and instantly send alarms to identify and isolate problems, allowing test equipment to be bridged quickly to the problem path or circuit without removing it from its secure location. If needed, problem paths or circuits can be instantly rerouted, ensuring maximum network availability.

Data Centers today also struggle with power and cooling issues that make it imperative to reduce cable bulk and excessive and underutilized equipment. The UCS 2900 provides data centers with the ability to cable up their infrastructure once-cables are sometimes unused or cut and just left under the floor-and clean up their rat's nest of cables.

How does the Universal Connectivity System 2900 help to manage multiple and networks?
The UCS™ 2900 control system features an interactive path control that assists network operators in path configuration, routing, monitoring, and troubleshooting procedures. Network operators can efficiently track port-to-port path connectivity, equipment usage, and link resources in real-time. Paths are color-coded to alert operators of equipment and path status. Any path item can be selected to display detailed historical fault and configuration data.

The alarm management system enables network operators to set predetermined fault notification based on a user and by port selectable criteria. Path connectivity (Fiber/Copper connectivity, broadcasts, test/monitor, and loopbacks) is established interactively from the connectivity window.

The UCS 2900's path management feature reduces resources required for planning networks, managing network changes, troubleshooting outages, and provisioning new services.

How would hands-off management benefit or help my data center managers?
The UCS2900 performs network changes faster, reduces the resources required, and improves the quality of the reconfigurations. Why wait for a technician to go onto the data center floor, physically move cables-and hope that no errors are made- when the needed configuration changes can be made instantly, and securely, right from the desktop, wherever the location. Ultimately, the UCS 2900 saves considerable time and allows valuable resources to be spent time on more strategic initiatives.

How can a virtualized infrastructure layer help to optimize my national or global data center infrastructure?
Quite simply. With a virtualized infrastructure layer, data centers-local or global-can all access the same equipment when needed. This helps reduce the amount of equipment that is needed in any given data center. Consider this ‘follow the sun' strategy:

A team in a New York data center needs to utilize equipment-server, storage and an application database-for a DR test. Then at 5pm that night, the team from California utilizes the same equipment located in New York, but virtually adds one more piece of equipment for their test. Then later that evening, another team in Japan accesses the exact same equipment that resides in New York for their test. Its all do-able when a virtualized infrastructure layer is utilized.

As well, the Universal Connectivity System 2900's management system provides the ability to segregate ports through robust, role-based access controls, ensuring proper—and secure—management authorization regardless of the user's location (local, national or global).