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UCS VIC's Provide Extra Value in Virtualized Environments
April 28, 2021

UCS VIC's Provide Extra Value in Virtualized Environments

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Unified Computing System Adapters (UCS VICs)

We use UCS VICs primarily within our UCS B-Series computing environment. They are used primarily for ESXi servers running within VxBlock or FlexPods within the environment. A tertiary use is for bare metal servers.

The UCS VICs enable us to logically segregate traffic to different network interfaces depending on security requirements for the workloads, and provide different QoS depending on the usage of the interface.
  • Decoupled Networking.
  • Network Segregation.
  • Network Virtualization.
  • Converged Networking (FC).
  • Standalone Hosts (not connected to UCSM).
  • Increased Throughput.
  • Formfactor (UCS C-Series).
  • Network Virtualization.
  • Network Segregation.
  • Stateless Computing.
  • High initial investment (required to invest in UCS Ecosystem).
  • Quicker time to deployment for solutions with specific network segregation requirements.
  • Reduction in management overhead when utilizing UCS Manager.
When using UCS B-Series, there is no real other choice. For implementations leveraging UCS C-Series, we evaluated based on what connectivity is available, the power of the VIC's really comes when connecting to a UCS Fabric Interconnect, though they can be used standalone. When using standalone, unless implementing to increase the number of physical ports, there are more cost effective options such as the Intel X540.

Do you think Cisco Unified Computing System Adapters (UCS VICs) delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Cisco Unified Computing System Adapters (UCS VICs)'s feature set?

Yes

Did Cisco Unified Computing System Adapters (UCS VICs) live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Cisco Unified Computing System Adapters (UCS VICs) go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Cisco Unified Computing System Adapters (UCS VICs) again?

Yes

UCS VIC's work well in virtualized environments. The network virtualization and segregation they provide help enable security requirements for workloads. The network virtualization allows additional virtual network adapters to be added based on additional requirements such as segregation of management and storage traffic from workloads, or applying different QoS policies at the port level.