Cisco Sees 'Huge Advantage' With New AI, Machine Learning-Specific UCS Server

Cisco Systems is making what is perhaps the most significant development in the decade-long history of its UCS server line with the introduction of the C480ML, an Nvidia GPU-loaded heavyweight aimed at the burgeoning market for AI and machine learning. The C480ML is the second major new Cisco UCS server rollout in little more than three months. Its introduction is part of a concerted effort to capitalize on dramatic big data customer growth and to send a message to enterprises and solution providers that Cisco intends to rule the AI roost. The number of customers running big data workloads on UCS servers has increased 18X in the last four years, according to Han Yang, Cisco senior product manager. "We're seeing a tremendous amount of growth for big data workloads, and those are the same customers that are asking for additional analytic capabilities like machine learning and deep learning," Yang said.