Xerox and Cisco have announced a collaboration in which Xerox will employ Cisco's Unified Computing System to deliver its cloud based managed print services (MPS) offering. Cisco reports that its system supports hundreds of thousands of transactions per second on behalf of Xerox.
This follows an announcement, made last year, in which Cisco and Xerox formed an alliance to deliver cloud-based services and technology solutions that combine network intelligence and print. Xerox now employs Cisco data center solutions so its global delivery centers can meet the fast-growing demand for cloud-based MPS. The Cisco data center environment gives Xerox's global MPS offerings room to expand by providing a smaller footprint that also saves power and meets cooling requirements.
"By using Cisco UCS to support our global MPS delivery network, we can quickly respond to the changing needs of our customers and offer them simplified data, new applications, and faster service," says Andrew Morrison, senior vice president for Xerox MPS Business.
To support the double-digit growth predicted for the MPS market year-over-year, Xerox's global network of MPS delivery centers hosts a suite of more than 100 applications, including ticketing systems, help desk, inventory, and financial reporting. The volume of performance data generated is massive, highlighting everything from print usage and performance trends, to equipment maintenance requirements and other critical issues. The compilation and analysis of Big Data, hosted on the Cisco data center infrastructure, enables Xerox to continually refine its services while providing valuable information to customers to help simplify and improve print resources and costs.
Xerox also works with Cisco to deliver cloud services using the Vblock platform, which combines Cisco UCS with EMC storage and VMware for virtualization, as well as Cisco Intelligent Automation software, to deliver infrastructure-as-a-service cloud capabilities and Cisco Hosted Collaboration services.
The MPS business is hosted on two data centers located in separate cities in the U.S. The secondary site is a mirrored, disaster recovery site for the primary. Cisco UCS B200 Blade Servers handle administrative and infrastructure functions, while Cisco UCS B230 Blade Servers support basic application and virtualization functions. Higher-performance applications, including SQL databases, run on Cisco UCS B440 Blade servers and Cisco UCS C460 Rack-Mount Servers.
For more information, visit the Xerox website.