First UCS training environment in Europe featuring real equipment

Fast Lane expands its lab infrastructure in Hamburg with the addition of four Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) labs

Hamburg/Berlin, 19th July 2010 – The Cisco Learning Solutions Partner Fast Lane has equipped its training centre in Hamburg with the first four Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) labs (each catering for 16 participants) in Europe. These learning and presentation environments are very suitable for use in practical training, for consultancy work and also for evaluations. Attendees at training sessions around the world can also access the new lab environments remotely in order to expand their knowledge and expertise in the field of data centres. The labs will, for example, be put to use for authorised Cisco training courses such as the !Designing Cisco Data Center Unified Computing (DCUCD) and !Implementing Cisco Data Center Unified Computing (DCUCI) as well as for multi-vendor training sessions involving products from Cisco, NetApp and VMware.

Each individual UCS lab is equipped with a Cisco UCS 5100 blade server chassis, eight UCS B-series blade servers, two UCS 6100 series fabric interconnects and two UCS 2100 fabric extenders. In addition, the labs each have two Cisco MDS 9124 multilayer fabric switches and a NetApp 3140 / 2050 Cluster. Practically-based learning sequences using this equipment enhance, for example, the following training courses in the field of data centres:

UCS Lab 0710 2

!Designing Cisco Data Center Unified Computing (DCUCD)

The five-day DCUCD training course provides participants with the required knowledge and skills to design scalable Data Centre Unified Computing solutions based on the latest Cisco technologies. This includes a close look at the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS), Cisco Nexus Switches and Catalyst 6500 in the Virtual Switching System (VSS).

!Implementing Cisco Data Center Unified Computing (DCUCI)

During the five-day DCUCI course, participants gain comprehensive knowledge and skills relating to the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) and the implementation of a virtualized data centre environment. The training also covers the implementation of the UCS in an enterprise data centre routing & switching infrastructure with the Cisco Nexus product family.

VDDC

As part of the strategic cooperation between NetApp, Cisco and VMware with regard to establishing Virtual Dynamic Data Centres (VDDC), participants in this one day training course developed by Fast Lane are made aware of the typical challenges faced when creating a data centre.

As well as being used for training courses listed in the official programme, the labs are also used for special workshops for the training of Cisco partners in UCS as well as for providing advanced training for Cisco technicians and account managers.