Operational Practices Overview
Cisco Data Center Management
Cisco IT Operational Practices / Data Center Operations Management: This document provides
an overview of how Cisco Systems manages its data center operations command center and
production data centers. Data centers are the core of the global Cisco network, one of the largest and
most complex networks in the world. Customers can benefit from Cisco IT’s real-world data center
management practices.
“There is a success story here, and it goes further than just the OCC team. It is not just a success story of operations. It is a success
story of Cisco IT and how we have come together to build a data center solution.” —Dick Corso, Manager, Data Center Operations
Group
Background
Cisco has 5 production data centers and over 40 engineering data centers and server rooms worldwide. Two production data centers are located
in San Jose, California, and the remaining three are in Research Triangle Park (RTP), North Carolina; Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and
Sydney, Australia, and support Cisco business applications. The rest are engineering data centers and server rooms, and support product
development processes. They range in size from 22,000 square feet to only 200 square feet; all together they total over 120,000 square feet.
These rooms are spread among eleven countries in ten time zones around the world.
A Data Center is defined as a room that is at least 1,000 sq ft (100 sq m) in size and support at least 100 engineers. There are 21 such rooms
within Cisco. It's a secure, raised-floor environment that houses production servers and networking equipment. Cisco’s production and
engineering Data Centers have conditioned power backed up via an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) and a separate generator unit, both of
which are located outside of the room. Independent power and data connectivity are provided to rows of server cabinet locations, either on one
side of the room or distributed evenly throughout the room.
Simpler