Cisco customers gain speed and flexibility with FlexPod

As organisations of all sizes move into the cloud era, companies are searching for solutions that will enable them to make the transition quickly and efficiently.

In becoming the first validated infrastructure for private cloud enabled by Microsoft's System Center 2012, FlexPod does just that.

Jointly developed by Cisco and NetApp, FlexPod stands tall as the number one integrated infrastructure solution in the global market, with a rapidly growing customer base.

“FlexPod is a solution which has been pre-engineered and pre-validated to work together, incorporating the Cisco UCS compute platform and NetApp unified storage systems,” says Charles Odlin, Business Development Manager - Data Center, Cisco New Zealand, noting that FlexPod has delivered value to over 2,500 customers across 35 countries worldwide.

In supporting multiple applications and workloads, FlexPod helps customers and partners accelerate and simplify their transition to the cloud.

The solution components include Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) servers, NetApp unified storage systems, and Cisco Nexus networking fabric.

Odlin says UCS servers unify computing, networking, management, virtualisation, and storage access into a single integrated architecture, enabling end-to-end server visibility, management, and control in both bare metal and virtual environments.

Delving deeper in the wider benefits of the FlexPod solution, Odlin says architecture can scale up or out, and can be optimised for a variety of mixed workloads in both virtualised and non-virtualised environments.

“A key benefit of FlexPod is its ease of management,” Odlin adds.

“Coupled with the flexibly and scalability the solution offers, FlexPod meets the needs of a growing business and helps that organisation evolve.”

According to Odlin, building FlexPod on Microsoft’s proven virtualisation platform provides customers with an integrated, agile and efficient data center environment - supported entirely through the FlexPod Cooperative Support Model.

“If a customer requires help, both Cisco and NetApp technicians can manage the problem to resolution, irrespective of where the problem lies,” Odlin adds.

“Our technical centres have FlexPods already built on site, allowing our technicians to emulate customer problems, ensuring a faster solution.”

Odlin believes that by deploying FlexPod, organisations of any size, can save time and money due to quicker rollouts based around an already tested model.

“Because FlexPod solution is already pre-validated, it takes the guess work out of transitioning to cloud for businesses,” he adds.

Businesses can also leverage innovative financing options to overcome budgetary challenges, optimise cash flow and improve return on investment on their cloud strategy.

Regardless of the size of the FlexPod solution, the entire purchase can be amortised over the term of a Cisco Capital financing agreement, accelerating the transition to a converged infrastructure with affordable monthly payments aligned to individual business needs.

For more information regarding Cisco Capital click here