Cisco and NetApp Advance Digital Transformation with Software-Defined Converged Infrastructure Solution for the Next Generation Data Center

New FlexPod SF converged infrastructure solution enables digital transformation with high-end predictable performance, programmable agility, and scale

Cisco and NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) expanded the portfolio of the industry’s fastest growing integrated infrastructure and certified reference systems with a new offering that is uniquely designed for emerging business challenges.

The new FlexPod® SF solution offers an ideal infrastructure for the data-intensive scale-out workloads that are critical to digital transformation. It features innovative NetApp® SolidFire® all-flash, scale-out, cloud-connected storage, Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS®) B-Series servers, and Cisco Nexus® switching. The new solution can support enterprise and emerging architectures with precise storage capacity and performance tailored to the needs of individual tenants in multitenant environments.

“Enterprise IT organizations face a dual challenge; they have to maximize performance and value from existing mission-critical workloads while adopting new technologies that can speed digital transformation,” said Eric Sheppard, research director, IDC. “The adoption of private cloud solutions offers an approach that helps them more easily transition to the future. FlexPod SF is a good example of an architecture that securely and seamlessly delivers workloads across cloud environments at scale and at cost.”

New Features Support Fast-Paced Cloud Environments

The new solution extends the FlexPod technology portfolio that has been deployed by over 8,400 global customers and 1,100 partners that serve 100 countries. Representing over 250 years of combined engineering experience, the portfolio has generated a total of $8 billion in combined revenue across Cisco and NetApp to date.

The new solution offers:

• High-end predictable performance. Reliably run hundreds of applications on a single platform with guaranteed SLAs to independently set capacity and quality of service (QoS) at minimum, maximum, or burst performance levels across the entire infrastructure. FlexPod SF is built on Cisco UCS, which has over 120 world record benchmarks, combined with the dedicated performance of NetApp SolidFire storage. SolidFire offers the ability to remove 93% of storage performance issues and remove “noisy neighbors” with SolidFire QoS.
• Programmable agility. Seamlessly meet business demands with SolidFire software-defined architecture, simplified management, and scale by automating every aspect of provisioning, management, and reporting with 100% programmable SolidFire storage and UCS B-Series servers. Cisco UCS compute offers up to 56% faster time to market and the ability to deliver up to 59% more business applications to end users. NetApp SolidFire storage also enables virtual machine (VM) deployment up to five times faster and provides granular “scale as you grow” capabilities with independent storage nodes.
• Scale-out value. Enable customers to align business expenses with business growth by reducing initial capital expenditures. This highly flexible solution delivers controlled performance at lower operating costs by allowing customers to buy only as much compute and storage as they need, when they need it. The FlexPod family of solutions delivers impactful savings of up to 46% in lower IT infrastructure costs. FlexPod SF also offers cost savings through infrastructure consolidation, automation, and rapid application delivery.

“At Safelite, a leading provider of vehicle glass repair and replacement services, we serve up to 6 million customers every year. To continue offering our customers the best service possible, we needed a simple, highly scalable solution that would offer a superior customer experience and support our continued growth,” said Matthew Coy, vice president, Information Technology, Safelite Group. “The high-performance compute and next-generation storage of FlexPod SF provided us a strong foundation for our state-of-the-art claims processing center.”

“We’ve had great success in leveraging FlexPod to help our customers address their business requirements and achieve operational efficiency, cost savings, and overall success,” said Jerry McIntosh, senior vice president, Advanced Technology, ePlus. “We’re excited for the opportunity to expand our reach to cloud and virtualization buyers with FlexPod SF.”

“To help businesses capitalize on their digital transformation, IT needs a new kind of cloud infrastructure that is simple, agile, and performs predictably as application requirements rapidly change,” said Satinder Sethi, vice president, Data Center Solutions, Cisco. “FlexPod SF offers a prevalidated, next-generation software–defined, converged architecture solution that customers can deploy with confidence to meet their transformational goals.”

“Data is at the heart of business success in the digital era. Together, Cisco and NetApp offer a family of solutions that give organizations access to the full value of their data for competitive advantage,” said Brett Roscoe, vice president, Products, Solutions, and Services Marketing, NetApp. “FlexPod SF helps customers maximize that value with a new kind of converged infrastructure that easily scales, performs predictably, and offers better economics.”

About FlexPod
FlexPod is a portfolio of prevalidated, converged infrastructure solutions that combine the Cisco Unified Computing System integrated infrastructure, Cisco networking, and NetApp storage components. FlexPod simplifies and modernizes IT with continuous innovation, delivering unmatched application performance, broad support for any cloud strategy, and improved operational efficiency to accelerate data center transformation and business evolution. The FlexPod portfolio includes FlexPod Datacenter for core enterprise data centers and service providers, FlexPod Express for medium-sized businesses and branch offices, and FlexPod Select for data-intensive workloads. The portfolio is validated with leading hypervisors, operating systems, systems management tools, and cloud management platforms.

About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide technology leader that has been making the internet work since 1984. Our people, products, and partners help society securely connect and seize tomorrow’s digital opportunity today.

About NetApp
NetApp is the data authority for hybrid cloud. We provide a full range of hybrid cloud data services that simplify management of applications and data across cloud and on-premises environments to accelerate digital transformation. Together with our partners, we empower global organizations to unleash the full potential of their data to expand customer touchpoints, foster greater innovation and optimize their operations. For more information, visit www.netapp.com.