SUNNYVALE, Calif., June 22, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cisco and NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) today expanded the portfolio of the
industry’s fastest growing integrated infrastructure and certified reference systems1 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 simply,
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.”
Additional Resources
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. Discover more at newsroom.cisco.com and
follow us on Twitter at @Cisco.
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. #DataDriven
NETAPP, the NETAPP logo, and the marks listed at www.netapp.com/TM are trademarks of NetApp, Inc. Other company and product names may be
trademarks of their respective owners.
1 Fastest growing vendor of Integrated Infrastructure and Certified Reference System when measured in calendar
year 2016 revenue (Source: IDC, Worldwide Quarterly Converged Systems Tracker - 2016Q4, March 23, 2017).
Press Contacts: Amelia Vierra NetApp 1 408 822 6403 ng-uspr@netapp.com Sharon Barclay Cisco 1 617 571 1233 shabarcl@cisco.com
