unified computing system (UCS)

What is a unified computing system (UCS)?

A unified computing system (UCS) is a converged data center architecture that integrates computing, networking and storage resources to increase efficiency and enable centralized management.

UCS products are designed and configured to work together effectively. The goal of a UCS product line is to simplify the number of devices that need to be connected, configured, cooled and secured to provide administrators with the ability to manage everything through a single graphical interface.

The term unified computing system is often associated with Cisco. Cisco UCS products have the ability to support traditional operating systems and application stacks in physical environments but are optimized for virtualized environments. Everything is managed through Cisco UCS Manager, a software application that enables administrators to provision the server, storage and network resources all at once from a single pane of glass. Management is also performed from the cloud with the Cisco UCS X-Series modular system.

Similar offerings to Cisco UCS include Hewlett Packard Enterprise Synergy, Sun Modular Datacenter S20 and Juniper.