I visited the Cisco Data Center Network Applications (DNA) Lab this morning in Santa Clara in Building 7, near Tasman and Cisco Way.
Even the lobby is high-tech – I was greeted by a remote lobby secretary via camera.
The actual data center lab is an ell-shaped floorspace behind a glass wall about 25′ on each arm. Although the DC is only used for demos and training, most of the gear is turned on and blinking. They have a bunch of air conditioning units and a fan to keep the room under 90 degrees.
The racks and yellow cable trays are by Panduit. The networking gear is Cisco, or from Cisco-owned companies like Topspin.
There’s a rack of computers from each of Penguin Computing, Dell (1950 and 2850), HP and a Sun 420R.
The more interesting section on the left has storage arrays by IBM, Hitachi and Fujitsu. There’s also a cabinet of NetApp filers and EMC arrays.
Around the conference table are a few projection screens with Cisco admin software screens projected, and a bank of digital clocks with timezones around the world.
Data Center Network Applications Lab (PDF)
eWeek.com: Cisco’s Challenge: Catching the CIO’s Eye
