9 Ways Cisco Intersight Helps You Build a Modern Data Center

In today's ever-evolving IT landscape, building and maintaining a modern data center demands a more nuanced approach than ever before. With more organizations considering cloud, multi-cloud, and hybrid-cloud environments, you need a solution that offers flexibility, scalability, and agility to stay ahead of cyberthreats and data compliance obligations. We’re showcasing Cisco Intersight, a cloud-based management and automation platform, as a powerful tool for technical professionals seeking to optimize their data center and cloud infrastructure.  

In this blog, we'll delve into 9 ways Cisco Intersight can help you build and manage a modern data center by exploring: 

• Unified Infrastructure Management 
• Automation and Policy-based Management 
• Performance and Health Monitoring 
• Lifecycle Management 
• Integration and Extensibility 
• Security and Compliance 
• Scalability and Optimization 
• Analytics and Reporting 
• Backup and Disaster Recovery 
  

1. Unified Infrastructure Management

One of the key advantages of Cisco Intersight is its ability to provide a unified view of your entire data center infrastructure. This means that whether you're dealing with Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) servers, hyper-converged infrastructure, or other connected third-party targets, Intersight acts as a centralized dashboard for monitoring and managing these diverse components [1]. According to Cisco,“[Intersight is] the only IT operations platform that lets you see, optimize, and automate on-premises and cloud infrastructure through a single login and user interface.[2]” This view simplifies daily operations and reduces management complexity. 

2. Automation and Policy-Based Management

Modern data centers thrive on automation. Cisco Intersight allows you to define and enforce policies to automate repetitive tasks. This also helps you to stay consistent with your configuration and compliance across your infrastructure.  

Some examples of automation and policy-based management you can perform with Cisco Intersight include: 

• Auto-Discovery and Inventory Management: You can automatically discover and inventory all the Cisco devices in your infrastructure, providing a centralized view of your hardware. 
• Firmware and Software Updates: You can set up Automation policies to automatically check for and apply firmware and software updates for Cisco and third-party devices.
•  Configuration Templates: You can create configuration templates for different types of devices. When a new device is added, Intersight can apply the pre-designated template for that device type, ensuring consistent configurations across your data center. 
• Policy-Based Profiles: Intersight allows you to define policies for various aspects of your infrastructure, such as security, networking, and storage. These policies can be applied to multiple devices, ensuring consistent and compliant settings.
• Auto-Provisioning: Using automation, you can set up policies that dictate how new devices should be provisioned. This includes specifying VLANs, security settings, and other configurations that are applied automatically when a new device is added to your data center. 
• Monitoring and Alerts: You can configure Internight to monitor the performance and health of your infrastructure. Policies can trigger automated responses to specific events or issues, such as sending alerts or taking predefined corrective actions. 
• Integration with DevOps Tools: You can integrate Intersight with DevOps tools and platforms, allowing you to incorporate infrastructure management into your CI/CD pipelines. This ensures that changes to the infrastructure are consistent with your development and deployment processes. 
  

3. Performance and Health Monitoring

Cisco Intersight provides extensive monitoring capabilities, allowing you to track the status of servers, storage, and network devices. It alerts you to potential issues, enabling proactive troubleshooting and minimizing downtime. 

4. Lifecycle Management

Cisco Intersight provides recommendations for firmware updates and facilitates automated deployments, ensuring your data center remains secure and efficient while also simplifying hardware and software lifecycle management. 

5. Integration and Extensibility

A modern data center often involves a mix of vendors, solutions, and locations. Cisco Intersight recognizes this and offers integration with third-party tools like virtualization platforms, container orchestrators, or cloud services. This extensibility allows you to create a more comprehensive and flexible solution tailored to your specific needs.  

6. Security and Compliance

Data center security and compliance are top priorities. Cisco Intersight offers features to enforce security policies and maintain compliance standards. Some of these features include:  

• Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): 
• Secure Device Onboarding: 
• Secure Boot and Firmware Verification 
• Security Compliance Checks 
• Encrypted Communication 
• Audit Logging and Reporting 
• Policy-Based Security Profiles 
• Integration with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Systems 
• Vulnerability Management 
• Automated Threat Response  

Regular audits, vulnerability assessments, and reporting tools are just a few ways that Cisco Intersight empowers administrators to detect and remediate potential security issues before they become critical. 

7. Scalability and Optimization

As your data center requirements evolve, Cisco Intersight ensures that you can scale your infrastructure efficiently. It monitors resource utilization and helps you optimize resource allocation based on usage patterns, leading to cost savings and better performance. 

8. Analytics and Reporting

Intersight provides detailed analytics and reporting, giving you insights into performance trends, resource usage, and capacity planning. This data empowers you to make informed decisions, fine-tuning your data center for optimal efficiency. 

9. Backup and Disaster Recovery

Data center uptime and data integrity are foundational to business operations. To ensure uninterrupted availability, Cisco Intersight  plays a role in backup and disaster recovery strategies. It can automate backup processes, replication, and failover, ensuring business continuity even in the face of unexpected disruptions. Additionally, if you’re using common DR technologies like Veeam, Pure Storage, Wasabi, and Amazon S3, Cisco Intersight can integrate with them too. So, it’s supplemental to your existing Disaster Recovery ecosystem [3]. 

Interested in Cisco Intersight for Your Hybrid Environment? 

By providing unified infrastructure management, automation, in-depth monitoring, and integration capabilities, Cisco Intersight offers the unifying technology your data center needs to protect and maintain the integrity of your data. If you’re interested in a demo, or more resources, visit our resource page and request a 1:1 consultation with a member of our data center team.  

Sources 

[1] https://intersight.com/help/saas/getting_started/overview 

2] https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/cloud-systems-management/intersight/solution-overview-c22-742932.pdf 

[3] https://www.veeam.com/blog/cisco-orchestration-veeam-backup-automation.html#:~:text=Cisco%20Intersight%20Orchestration%20delivers%20automation,deliver%20the%20benefits%20of%20automation.