Firefly Connected Lab

Your engineering teams need access to the latest Data Center environment to learn, demo, and prototype customer designs. Keeping your NFR lab up to date with the latest Data Center innovations is cost-prohibitive, and providing round-the-clock access to your engineering teams—wherever they may be—can be an operational nightmare.

The Firefly Connected Lab is a cloud-based subscription service that provides measureable on-demand, anywhere, anytime access to our next-generation Cisco Data Center lab.

Encompassing the latest Cisco Nexus, Cisco Unified Computing, VMware vSphere 4, and NetApp virtual storage technologies, the Firefly Connected Lab service includes:


  • 24x7 online access
  • Cost-effective virtualized infrastructure
  • Full access to remote desktops and consoles
  • Sample configurations
  • Solution cookbooks
  • Guided demonstrations

Virtualized Devices—Always Available
The Firefly Connected Lab uses the latest virtualization technology to enable our customers to seamlessly share access to the core lab network and storage components:
  • Cisco Nexus 7000
  • Cisco Nexus 5000
  • Cisco Nexus 2000
  • Cisco Nexus 1000V
  • VMware vSphere 4
  • Cisco MDS 9222i SAN switch
  • NetApp Storage Array
  • Cisco Firewall Services Module
  • Cisco Application Control Engine (ACE)
 Dedicated Devices—Scheduled
For some components, having dedicated access to the device is necessary to enable full functionality. These devices will be managed through our LabGear online scheduling system to enable you to reserve dedicated sessions:
  • Cisco Unified Computing System B-Series
  • Cisco Wide Area Application Services
Additional Notes
The following configuration activities will be restricted on virtualized devices:
  • Firmware and software installation/upgrades
  • Default virtual device context configuration
  • ACE and FWSM failover configuration
  • Catalyst 6500 configuration
  • Performance and stress tests on virtualized devices may be inconclusive.
 
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