Cisco customers have a choice between Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) and Ethernet VPN (EVPN) for building their data center network fabrics. Since these technologies are thought to be interchangeable, the choice often falls to cultural, political, or other “Layer 8” decision-making. But the fabric technologies are, in fact, different in ways both subtle and significant, and one’s choice has a profound impact on fabric orchestration, operations, and staffing.

I hope you’ll join me all the way through this three-part blog series as I compare and contrast these technologies and provide a foundation for deciding on the best choice for your organization’s needs.

Often, when an organization is ready to refresh its storage, compute and networking infrastructure, IT and business stakeholders want to start the conversation with a specific product in mind. Perhaps they have a solid relationship with a vendor, or they’ve heard about a best-of-breed solution at a conference, and they just want to find the best price on their desired solution.

However, we’ve found that the process is actually more important than the product during a refresh. Sure, modern data center infrastructure can improve performance and reliability, but the most critical aspect of a refresh is identifying a solution that will help an organization meet its specific business needs.

Here are five steps we follow to help organizations ensure success when they refresh their infrastructure.

As IT organizations look to be more agile in supporting ever-changing business requirements, they’re turning to Kubernetes to speed up their delivery of value. However, with Kubernetes being an open source software, IT departments might have too many options for modernizing with this platform. Let’s use the fictional monster Frankenstein as an analogy to explore the challenges in building this modern framework.

The CIO of a large financial services firm recently approached me for assistance in building out her company’s cyber-resilience strategy. Specifically, she knew that the firm was going to need to add an additional data center over the next year to meet growing demand, and she wanted to use that expansion as an opportunity to enhance the firm’s business continuity program. CDW provided the company with some practical advice to help draw this additional benefit from its investment.

While we were helping a very large organization expand an existing global footprint, the advice we shared is relevant across firms of all sizes. Let’s take a look at a few ways that all organizations can enhance cyber resilience.

It is an understatement to say that 2020 has been a year filled with unknowns. So, it’s not surprising that many organizations are holding off on planned IT upgrades, waiting to see what the future holds before they expend significant capital on a data center refresh.

Companies do, however, need ongoing support for their data center infrastructure. For those that had previously planned to replace equipment when the original warranty expired, some form of extended support will be necessary.

Business and IT leaders can choose between extended support contracts from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) or third-party maintenance (TPM) providers — each of which has its own unique benefits.

Let us consider the origin of a server. They primarily start with an original equipment manufacturer (OEM). It is a base model, usually with bare bones equipment in it to power up and support any low-end software installed on it. From here, the options explode with what you can do. Load up all the bays…