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.
N/A
Cognizant Cloud360
Score 5.0 out of 10
N/A
Cognizant offers Cloud360, a comprehensive cloud management platform.
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).
Cognizant Cloud 360 is very well suited for cloud integration of modern, common software among users of a wide spectrum of proficiency levels. The user interface is well designed and intuitive, and all common software tools have existing implementation tools and intuitive platforms for cloud migration. Cognizant Cloud 360 is not as useful when most users are highly technically competent and use specialized, less common software tools that are to be migrated to the cloud platform. Cognizant is technically sound, but maybe not as much as some established competitors (Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, etc) and also may not have familiarity with lesser-known software applications.
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).
Very good customer service team. Very responsive to inquiries, and willing to collaboratively develop solutions to software Platform integration challenges.
Very intuitive user interface. Layout for various tools and settings is well-conceived and implemented, and the software is ultimately very easy to navigate for even novice users.
Customizable resource library. The platform makes it easy to select tools that are needed without forcing you to subscribe to additional tools that are not needed.
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.
Could improve in agility in the delivery life cycle. When customer demands change and abrupt changes in resources and configuration are required, the change order process is not as quick as desired.
Advanced technical competence and knowledge of a wide variety of specialized software applications is a bit lacking. Relative to some competitor software from Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, or HP, Cognizant isn’t as technically inclined and ready to handle issues with less common software tools.
Not as forthcoming with status updates as some competitors. In cases of interruptions or upcoming updates, Cognizant doesn’t disclose timely and detailed information unless it is specifically requested by the user.
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.
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
Support is very timely and thorough in their responses to inquiries, and also is very willing to help in finding collaborative solutions to any technical challenges. Overall, the only negative is they may not be as equipped or ready to proactively handle some more customized requests as a more established competitor would be. This is more of a reflection of the software than the support team.
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.
Cognizant Cloud 360 has more of a modern look to it and most of the same functionality. I prefer the layout of Cognizant as I find it more intuitive for a variety of users, but Microsoft’s is also pretty well laid out. Microsoft is more established and has more experience in integrating a wide variety of applications, and so is more ready and equipped to handle less common application cloud integration.
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.
Cognizant Cloud 360 has saved on overall hardware costs, as many resources have been migrated to the cloud platform and local storage and hardware systems are no longer needed.
There was an initial period of negative return as the migration was occurring, as some applications were interrupted, which in turn interrupted the flow of projects and inhibited the timely allocation of resources.
Another positive return can be measured in time savings, as users can more easily access applications from the central cloud source versus various locally customized network locations.
