Azure Arc is a set of technologies that brings Azure security and cloud-native services to hybrid and multicloud environments. It enables the user to secure and govern infrastructure and apps anywhere, build cloud-native apps faster with familiar tools and services to run them on any Kubernetes platform, and modernize the data estate with Azure data and machine-learning services.
N/A
Cisco Intersight
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
Cisco Intersight is an operations platform that helps IT operations teams control and automate Cisco UCS, converged, and hyperconverged infrastructure. Intersight consolidates and automates infrastructure lifecycle management from data centers to the edge in one solution delivered as-a-service.
It is best asset management & centralized monitoring across multi cloud environments. It can be used to access those assets, update them when necessary, implement Azure monitor to get insights. We can also onboard thsese assets to Microsoft Defender for Cloud to provide the cloud security. Azure Arc is not suitable for the client device management or use as a MDM.
It is highly suited for an organisation pushing for a standardised and centralised configuration of settings using policies, profiles and templates. It is highly suited for customers used to legacy UMM that need to refresh their environment, but instead of deploying them in UMM (which is still possible), to take the time and effort to learn Cisco Intersight Infrastructure Service and IMM as well as familiarise themselves with the differences between UMM and IMM, and the issues in UMM which IMM addresses and improves upon. We deployed in UMM initially then transitioned to IMM with the transition too. I cannot think of a scenario where Cisco Intersight Infrastructure Service would not be suited. Even for small-scale deployments, it provides significant benefits. Maybe if you come from another server vendor management environment, the learning curve may feel steep (e.g. many new concepts and constructs that one has to master).
Standardising the environment by enforcing use of updating templates.
Show the difference on a profile between what has changed and what setting was last deployed.
Perform bulk deploy operation on profiles (like server profiles).
Policies underpin all settings (e.g. no more defining individual VLANs before being able to use them, or having to clean them up manually when they are no longer in use. You deploy a Domain VLAN policy that states which VLANs are configured on a domain (either standalone) or a domain profile template (if domains profiles are bound to an updating domain profile template).
It is difficult to spot an added or removed VLAN in an Ethernet Network Group Policy or VLAN Policy. The comparison widget will show you that something has changed, but if you have 100s of VLANs, the difference does not stand out. Workaround: we copy the data out and compare it in a text editor.
If you are transitioning from UMM to IMM, you lose some functionality like vNIC redundancy pairs.
It is not easy to map the UMM version 4.x server firmware version to the equivalent IMM version 5.x firmware version.
It is not possible to configure out-of-band management IP addresses on a per-domain basis. You have to configure these ranges via an IMC Access policy (which contains the IP address range/pool) on the server profile. This leads to "server profile template sprawl" where we have to maintain multiple server profile templates since our domains sit on different ranges, even though the servers are for the most part configured identically.
UCS domains in IMM only support one Ethernet Network Group Policy (VLAN group) per vNIC template.
Been using Cisco Software as a service (SaaS) platform in a production environment for a large medical and health professionals that has critical healthcare and patients care dependency.
Support team is very helpful getting system updated as needed, and vendor support is fantastic. Also get a dedicated Cisco networking engine to review and advise system health and recommendations.
Azure Arc monitoring is based on a unified procedure which includes the installation and configuration of the Arc agent on any computer/server which is to be onboaded to Arc. The solution is very usable especially when combined with the usage of Windows Admin Center, the HTML5-based unified management console for all our hybrid infrastructure. Many of the best of breed Azure tools and services are available via Azure Arc, when deployed to on-premise servers.
Usability of Cisco Intersight is highly dependent on the licensing purchased. The default (free) license level provides a lot of value for the minimal amount of effort to implement. The paid license levels provide additional features (detailed inventory, configuration management and deployment, etc.)
I have had servers TAC cases open for issues with Cisco Intersight. Some have yet to be resolved. One case that is still open is where the HCL status ( Hardware Compatibility List ) shows not validated when It should be. We have several servers that have the exact same hardware, OS, and the same firmware. One server will show the HCL is not validated but all others will
Azure Arc uses the underlying power of Microsoft Azure, which allows assets across multicloud to be onboarded to Arc platform. It provides monitoring, security, updates in one click in one single platform. It also provides licensing benefits for Windows Server licenses, which offers premium features like Windows server admin center to manage your windows servers more effectively.
I personally think that Cisco Intersight Infrastructure Service is at the top of its class when it comes to managing data center hardware. The cloud-connected design feels very modern and easy to use. The mobile app is something I wouldn't expect to get in a server management tool. The way it can update, monitor, and manage our servers is very nice. Overall, we are very happy with it.
After configuring Azure Arc-enabled services on premise for SQL Server, we saw a drastic decrease in our Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by 30%
After working with Azure Arc monitoring agents installed in our on-prem Windows and Linux users, we documented a 20% increase in overall IT operations efficiency, due to the unified monitoring solution.
The Azure Arc-enabled servers security baseline provides procedural guidance and resources for implementing security recommendations and best practices. This has increased operational efficiency and decreased security incidents by 15%.
The negative thing is that we prefer to use the UCS Manager in our company because this bare metal is integrated into the FI and no extra appliance is required. SaaS is generally not viewed favorably in Germany.
Telling the user that they have to buy Intersight licenses even if they use UCS Manager annoys our customers.
