VCE, the company formed as a joint venture between Cisco and EMC to sell Vblock, a converged-infrastructure solution consisting of the two companies' products, unveiled a slew of new software and hardware this week.

The company introduced open management capabilities for the Vblock portfolio, Vblock Specialized Systems and new Vblock systems designed for branch offices and mid-sized data centers.

"Our approach is driven by a commitment to bring simplicity and speed to data center deployments and operations," Praveen Akkiraju , CEO of VCE, said. "Today we take the next important steps in defining the next generation data center with the introduction of new VCE developed systems and software that converge data center operations for customers."

New elements to the VCE portfolio include:

VCE Vision Intelligent Operations

VCE Vision Intelligent Operations software enables converged infrastructure management leveraging and preserving investments in existing management frameworks. Developed for the entire Vblock portfolio, the software dynamically informs customer management frameworks about Vblock Systems, creating a 'single-pane-of-glass' experience and delivering a converged operations experience.

Through collaborative engineering work with VMware, the software has native integration with VMware's Virtualization and Cloud Management Portfolio. VCE Vision also supports open API-enabled integration into other industry management toolsets, preserving customer investments made in their existing frameworks.

Vblock System 200

Vblock System 200 brings the Vblock family to distributed environments and mid-sized data centers, expanding VCE's market reach. Mid-market customers use Vblock System 200 as core infrastructure. Large customers use it as part of their distributed environment, extending their current Vblock investments across their business.

Vblock System 100

Vblock System 100 is targeted for remote office and branch office deployments, bringing line-of-business applications from core data centers to remote sites.

Vblock System 300 and Vblock System 700 family enhancements

Vblock System 300 and Vblock System 700 architectures have been enhanced to provide greater configuration flexibility in optimizing compute, networking and storage resources. Using the latest Cisco, EMC and VMware technologies, Vblock System 300 and 700 families now have up to twice the capacity and performance capabilities.

VCE Specialized Systems

VCE is introducing the first of a series of systems that are optimized with pre-installed core enterprise workloads. These include Vblock Specialized System SAP HANA. The specialized SAP HANA system has received certification for running the software.

Availability

Vblock System 100 is targeted for availability in March, 2013 through VCE and its partners. Vblock System 200, VCE Vision Intelligent Operations and Vblock™ Specialized System SAP HANA are targeted for general availability in early Q2, 2013. Enhancements to Vblock System 300 and Vblock System 700 families are available immediately.