Cisco and NetApp have announced that the FlexPod integrated infrastructure solution has generated $3-billion in joint sales since its launch in 2010.
FlexPod unit shipments have grown 81% year-over-year, with demand for FlexPod solutions now reaching a $2-billion annualised demand run rate.
By combining compute, networking and storage into a single system, integrated infrastructure provides the ability to dramatically improve the efficiency and agility of data centre infrastructure, while reducing deployment risks. As a result, integrated infrastructure has emerged as one of the fastest growing segments of the IT infrastructure market.
“Our partnership with Cisco on the FlexPod integrated infrastructure redefined how enterprises deployed private cloud infrastructure,” says Tom Georgens, chairman and CEO, NetApp.
“As the data centre extends to include public cloud services for better economics and infinite scale, NetApp and Cisco are again leading the way, helping customers realise the transformative business benefits of hybrid cloud.”
“As CIOs look to simplify IT and focus on delivering business outcomes, there’s been a major industry shift toward integrated infrastructure,” says John Chambers, chairman and CEO, Cisco.
“In 2010 Cisco and NetApp launched FlexPod to deliver a more efficient, agile data centre infrastructure to customers. Together, we’re evolving the FlexPod architecture together to help our customers unleash their applications and realise the promise of hybrid cloud environments.”
FlexPod Momentum:
* Worldwide adoption – FlexPod is deployed with more than 4 100 customers and available in over 100 countries, an increase from 2 300 customers, and 70 countries last year.
* Channel acceleration – critical to the success of FlexPod has been its popularity with channel partners. The FlexPod global reseller ecosystem continues to grow with more than 1 000 channel partners qualified to sell and support Cisco and NetApp technologies. These include 110 FlexPod Premium partners with the specialised skills to sell and support integrated infrastructure.
* FlexPod \roadmap – as businesses embrace hybrid clouds to rapidly and cost-effectively deliver business-critical applications and services, Cisco and NetApp are aggressively integrating innovative technology into the FlexPod architecture, including Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) and Cisco Intercloud Fabric, along with NetApp’s clustered DATA ONTAP, Flash and cloud technologies.
* Ecosystem innovation – technology partners have also contributed to the success of FlexPod, with key companies such as Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, Citrix, F5, BridgeHead Software, Eaton, and Splunk, optimising applications to run atop a FlexPod integrated infrastructure.
* Building on success – this news continues to deliver against the three-year plan announced by Cisco and NetApp in January 2013 to align technology roadmaps and address the next-generation cloud-integrated data centre design. As part of this initiative, FlexPod will serve as the foundation for a virtualised, multi-tenant, cloud-ready data centre.
