Home Enterprise Cisco UCS C240 SD M5 Server Launched for the Performance Edge

Cisco UCS C240 SD M5 Server Launched for the Performance Edge

by Brian Beeler
UCS C240 SD M5

Edge and remote office use cases are all the rage these days, and for good reason. IDC says 50% of new enterprise IT infrastructure will be deployed at the edge by 2023. Beyond the typical use cases that have been around for decades, like small offices and retail, the types of applications being used at the edge are much more intensive. Formerly applications like AI and ML were only the domain of the data center. As edge compute needs grow, solutions tailored to meet these specific needs are increasingly more important. To help address these more performance-oriented edge use cases, Cisco has launched the UCS C240 SD M5 server.

Edge and remote office use cases are all the rage these days, and for good reason. IDC says 50% of new enterprise IT infrastructure will be deployed at the edge by 2023. Beyond the typical use cases that have been around for decades, like small offices and retail, the types of applications being used at the edge are much more intensive. Formerly applications like AI and ML were only the domain of the data center. As edge compute needs grow, solutions tailored to meet these specific needs are increasingly more important. To help address these more performance-oriented edge use cases, Cisco has launched the UCS C240 SD M5 server.

Cisco UCS C240 SD M5

The UCS C240 SD M5 offers a 2U chassis with support for one or two Intel Xeon Scalable CPUs. The board has 24 DIMM slots with support for Intel PMEM. In total this means the C240 SD M5 can be configured with 7.6TB of RAM footprint, split amongst 12 DIMM slots (12x128GB) and 12 PMEM slots (12x512GB).

Cisco UCS C240 SD M5 front 6-bays

Looking at storage and PCIe expansion, the server provides two options. Above, the chassis offers six 2.5″ NVMe drive bays, with two PCIe expansion slots. Below is a more modest storage configuration with just two bays. This configuration however offers more PCIe expansion options, with six slots. They may also be configured with optional M.2 boot drives and can support two NVIDIA T4 GPUs.

Cisco UCS C240 SD M5 front 2-bays

The power and I/O connectivity is all in the front of the box. The rear of the chassis encompasses six fans.

Cisco UCS C240 SD M5 rear

The C240 SD M5 is also a bit shorter than a typical server at just 22″ deep. The more standard C240 M5 is 29″ deep by comparison. They can also be stacked 4-high without racking and only need 6″ of clearance off the back, for space-constrained deployments. Of course the server also supports Cisco Intersight, which provides a number of benefits like system analytics and support for remote configuration and management.

C240 SD M5 Availability

The server is available now.

Cisco C240 SD M5 Spec Sheet

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