Cisco aims new UCS system at AI, machine learning
Posted by ChannelNomics on September 10, 2018:
Cisco Systems' channel partners will get a significant new tool to help customers embrace AI and machine learning at scale in their IT environments.
The giant tech vendor today unveiled the latest addition to its Unified Computing System (UCS) portfolio, aimed at enabling enterprises better manage, process and analyze the massive amounts of data that are generated not only in their traditional data centers, but also through the IoT, the cloud, mobile apps and other modern trends.
The UCS C480 ML rack server is an integrated system that comes with compute power, storage capabilities and network features that Cisco says are needed to handle the huge data sets that companies are hoping to leverage to make better business decisions.
The impetus behind the C480 ML is the desire of end users to use AI, machine learning and deep learning techniques to gain more insights into the data they are accumulating and make better decisions that will improve the customer experience, grow revenue streams and cut costs, according to Todd Brannon, senior director of data center marketing at Cisco. The company noted that eight out of 10 businesses have implemented or are planning to implement AI as a customer service solution by 2020, and that by 2035, AI technologies will increase productivity by as much as 40 percent.
Gartner analysts also are predicting that this year, the business value of AI worldwide will reach $1.2 trillion and that it will grow to $3.9 trillion in 2022.
Brent Collins, data center global practice director at solution provider World Wide Technology (WWT), told Channelnomic she is pleased to see Cisco continuing to invest in areas like AI, data analytics and business intelligence and that the C480 ML is "subset of a larger story" for the vendor.
Such an aggressive approach will be important going forward because "every customer is looking at [AI]", Collins said.
"Virtually every company wants to leverage the data they've got and discern insights from that data," he pointed out. "It's just a matter of where they're at.
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