Cisco and NetApp Simplify the Delivery of Cloud Infrastructure and Industry-Specific Applications

Cisco and NetApp have announced new FlexPod solutions. FlexPod combines Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure with NetApp® data services to help organizations accelerate application delivery and transition to a hybrid cloud with a trusted platform for innovation. The new Managed Private Cloud solution offers new consumption options for more flexible access to powerful IT infrastructure and applications as customers modernize their data center for hybrid cloud. Additionally, FlexPod Datacenter for Epic EHR, a key healthcare application, is the first in a series of new pre-tested vertical solutions, with support for more healthcare applications, coming soon. FlexPod continues to be a platform for innovation and investment protection, introducing new validated solutions for the latest virtualization software, enterprise applications, and databases incorporating the latest technologies from Cisco and NetApp.

According to IDC, Cisco and NetApp have recorded market-leading growth with FlexPod, showing double-digit, year over year growth for five successive quarters.  

Managed Private Cloud

The new Managed Private Cloud solution built on FlexPod enables customers to realize a cloud-like, As-a-Service model for their on-premises IT. The FlexPod infrastructure would be located on-premises but managed remotely, securing critical customer data and advancing cloud-capabilities for both partners and their customers. This solution will be delivered by channel partners. Initial delivery partners include Dimension Data,  ePlus, Microland, and ProAct and as the program evolves it would expand to a larger set of partners.

FlexPod Industry Solutions

New FlexPod industry solutions provide a proven platform to quickly deploy key applications across industries that are challenged by the increasingly diverse, dynamic and distributed nature of data. Launching today, FlexPod Datacenter for Epic EHR simplifies IT infrastructure for healthcare customers, helping them move faster and unleash new insights for improved patient care. Together, NetApp and Cisco are providing customers with a secure, reliable, and highly available platform for their most business-critical applications by providing best practices and sizing guidance to reduce risk and accelerate deployments. Additional solutions will extend support to other applications and industries later in the calendar year.

Platform for innovation

FlexPod continues to be a platform for innovation and investment protection with the release of new validated designs that address customers’ most pressing business needs. In addition to the new healthcare and managed private cloud solutions, new designs have been released across the FlexPod Datacenter portfolio. This proven FlexPod platform for IT modernization has been refreshed for both VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V environments incorporating the latest technologies from Cisco UCS, Cisco ACI and NetApp All Flash FAS storage. The SAP and SAP HANA solution, foundational for several successful enterprise customers and service providers offering Hana-as-a-Service, was refreshed in May 2018. New solutions have also been released for desktop virtualization (Citrix XenDesktop/XenApp and VMware Horizon View) and Microsoft SQL 2016. Additionally, the new NetApp IP based MetroCluster can be combined with Cisco ACI to form a single fabric spanning active-active datacenters for a robust Business Continuity solution.