Data Center Modernization Moves Another Step Forward with Next-Gen UCS Servers 

Over the years, Cisco and Intel have worked together to deliver breakthrough innovations that empower modern enterprises. Today, we’re introducing the next phase in data center modernization: the 8th generation Cisco UCS C-Series and Cisco UCS X-Series servers powered by Intel Xeon 6 processors.

At Cisco, we’re dedicated to providing scalable, secure, and high-performance infrastructure for businesses. With this announcement, we’re excited to provide our customers with enhanced compute performance, AI acceleration, and efficiency for demanding workloads, such as AI-driven analytics and hybrid cloud applications. Together with Intel, we’re helping enterprises run mission-critical workloads—better, faster, and smarter.

Delivering greater choice, flexibility, and performance

For customers looking for greater choice and flexibility to meet their diverse computing needs, Cisco’s next-generation lineup of UCS C-Series and X-Series servers (Figure 1) now supports Enterprise and Data Center Solid State Drives (SSD) Form Factor (EDSFF) E3.S Non-Volatile Memory express (NVMe) SSDs, which offer higher performance, improved thermal management, and increased storage density. We also continue to support traditional Small Form Factor (SFF) drives versatile enough to handle a multitude of local storage needs, as well as larger form factor drives for high-capacity and lower price/GB storage.

Intel Xeon 6 processors complement these new servers by delivering exceptional performance, offering up to 86 cores per socket with high Layer 3 cache capacity and low latency access, supporting up to eight memory channels for optimal performance. They also provide outstanding memory bandwidth and performance by leveraging the fastest Double Data Rate 5 (DDR5) memory available, including DDR5-6400 and Multiplexed Rank DIMMs (MRDIMMs).

Both UCS series platforms (Figure 2), which include the UCS C220 M8 Rack Server, UCS C240 M8 Rack Server, and UCS X210c M8 Compute Node, continue to feature modular tri-mode RAID controllers compatible with SAS/SATA HDDs/SSDs and U.3 NVMe SSDs to increase speed and efficiency, including fault tolerance, as well as higher density support in data centers and enterprise environments.

UCS X-Series offers optional Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) node connectivity for additional GPU support. This provisioning flexibility allows enterprises to easily scale up to improve the user experience and application performance. The X210c M8 Compute Node can be paired with the UCS X440p PCIe Node to support up to four GPUs.

In addition, UCS C-Series now features hot-swappable M.2 SATA SSDs, providing improved serviceability and flexibility for boot drives and storage expansion in enterprise environments.

Jeremy Foster, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco Compute,
highlights how Cisco UCS and next-gen Xeon 6 supercharge performance
and AI acceleration.

Simplifying and automating IT operations

Management using Cisco Intersight is a key differentiator for the UCS platform. It helps IT operations teams see, control, and automate their Cisco UCS converged and hyperconverged infrastructure throughout its lifecycle from one place. It consolidates and automates infrastructure lifecycle management from the data center to the edge in one solution delivered as a service.

This is a powerful operations platform that’s ideal for IT teams facing increasing demands for compute resources, staffing shortages, and increasing security threats. Being able to effectively and simply support traditional and new AI workloads on-premises and in edge locations is of paramount importance—and Intersight makes it possible.

Sustainable, secure, high-performance data centers

Data centers are at the core of an amazing digital transformation. But this transformation isn’t without challenges—from growing demands for computing power, security, and energy. IT teams can’t stand still. And with our new UCS C-Series and X-Series, powered by Intel Xeon 6 processors, they don’t have to. They can reduce their power consumption, lower their total cost of ownership, and scale operations efficiently—all without sacrificing the high performance they need. Today’s announcement is more than a next-generation computing platform—it’s a strategic investment in a sustainable and high-performance future.

Congratulations to our valued partners at Intel for their launch. This is yet another example of how our two companies continue to drive innovation and deliver value for customers.

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