Cisco and Microsoft to bring a new cloud platform

BANGALORE, INDIA: Cisco has announced an extension of its cloud and data center relationship with Microsoft to include a new technology platform designed to accelerate service delivery and streamline the journey to the Intercloud for cloud providers.

Cisco and Microsoft are launching the Cisco Cloud Architecture for the Microsoft Cloud Platform—an integrated solution that combines Windows Azure Pack and Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) to help cloud providers rapidly deliver hybrid cloud services while drastically simplifying operations and reducing costs.

Additionally, 14 cloud providers has announced they plan to join Cisco’s Intercloud partner ecosystem, bringing the number of Intercloud providers to more than 60 with a footprint of more than 350 data centers across 50 countries.

Cisco and Microsoft Deliver Integrated Cloud Platform

The Cisco Cloud Architecture for the Microsoft Cloud Platform will provide the building blocks for cloud providers to evolve beyond traditional infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offerings to create combined IaaS, platform as a service (PaaS), software as a service (SaaS) solutions that deliver more value to their customers.

The combination of Windows Azure Pack and Cisco ACI allows partners to deliver services—from network services and disaster recovery, to big data, and enterprise application services—at DevOps speed, drastically reducing total cost of ownership and accelerating time-to-revenue. This collaboration will deliver pre-packaged policy management libraries that allow cloud providers to implement applications more quickly with consistent policy management.

In addition, Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 is integrated with the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) Manager to provide the operational simplicity and control that cloud providers need to manage their growing business.

Finally, Cisco and Microsoft plan to support their ecosystem partners with a full lifecycle go-to-market approach that delivers everything from service ideation and demand generation to customer retention.

The new solution is primarily designed to meet the needs of traditional enterprise applications. It will complement Cisco’s OpenStack-based architectures for cloud native workloads and provide seamless hybrid cloud capability for connecting to Intercloud and Azure. Cisco plans to publish the first reference architecture in April 2015.