150 Customers for Cisco and NetApp FlexPod

NetApp, Inc. announced that more than 150 customers have implemented joint data center solutions based on the FlexPod design architecture.

Cisco Systems, Inc. and NetApp’s FlexPod is a pretested architectural design guide that combines networking, computing and storage in a shared infrastructure, and supports multiple applications and workloads to help channel partners accelerate and simplify their customers’ transition to the cloud. Last November, Cisco and NetApp introduced the first FlexPod solution with VMware, now available through 120 qualified channel partners worldwide.

Cisco and NetApp are also announcing a new additional design guide for FlexPod that supports SAP applications in the cloud.

FlexPod is a design architecture with combined networking, computing, and storage infrastructure. The flexible, scalable shared infrastructure is pretested to help channel partners and customers lower deployment risk, increase data center efficiencies, and create a flexible IT environment to build a private cloud.

FlexPod is built on the Cisco Unified Computing System server platform, Cisco Nexus switches, and NetApp unified storage systems running Data ONTAP.

More than 150 customers, including Dominion, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., and Radiant Communications, have deployed FlexPod and received benefits such as:

• A shared infrastructure that scales to meet the changing requirements of growing data centers without disruption or the need to make architectural changes in the future;
• Integrated networking, computing and storage components that can be centrally managed. These components are optimized for a virtual data center environment and enable central management of an entire infrastructure (storage, compute, network, and hypervisor);
• An open design management framework that integrates with existing third-party infrastructure management solutions from vendors including SAP and VMware.

Cisco and NetApp released new design guides that use the FlexPod design architecture in support of SAP applications.

• The design consists of SAP solution-based landscapes validated on the FlexPod shared IT infrastructure that help customers minimize application downtime to accelerate the deployment of SAP solutions in a virtualized environment.
• The design allows customers to transition their existing or new SAP applications to a dynamic cloud-enabled environment.
• The FlexPod solution for use with SAP applications can support both virtual and physical configurations and scales up or down as required.
• For added security, customers can isolate different development or maintenance environments, or manage different production environments for SAP applications through the Cisco, NetApp and VMware Secure Multi-tenancy (SMT) Design Architecture design guide.

Cisco, NetApp, and VMware have built a new Unified Support Lab where support engineers can reproduce customer environments, diagnose issues, and rapidly resolve customer cases. This further strengthens the global 24-hour cooperative support model that Cisco, NetApp, and VMware developed to offer customers a streamlined response to identify and solve potential issues related to the FlexPod for VMware and Secure Multi-tenancy architecture designs.

Rockwell Bonecutter, Global Alliance Channel Lead, Accenture, said: "We are seeing strong interest in flexible, secure, scalable, and highly functional IT infrastructure solutions that help companies optimize their SAP applications to achieve greater efficiencies and reduce costs."

Bert Odinet, Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., said: "As a global natural resources company, the latest economic downturn provided us with a unique opportunity to focus on business process transformation in preparation for the eventual recovery in our business. We turned to SAP, Accenture, and NetApp to help us create a strong and flexible application platform better aligned to our evolving business requirements. There were crucial differences in the capabilities of the innovative stack approach they offered with their other partners that couldn’t be matched by alternative solutions we evaluated. As a result, we were able to reduce program risk, provide infrastructure scalability, and create a lower-cost operating model – all of this while accelerating a significant business process transformation program."

Jason Leeson, Vice President, Advanced Hosting at Radiant Communications, said: "As one of the largest independent business-to-business Internet service providers in Canada, we needed to expand our cloud hosting business with an additional data center and were looking to improve our services. Using Cisco and NetApp FlexPod for VMware, we now have a flexible and efficient shared IT infrastructure that scales easily and quickly, allowing us to deploy highly secure, multi-tenant cloud-based services on demand."

Kevin Ichhpurani, Senior Vice President, Business Development and Strategic Alliances, SAP, said: "FlexPod, now available in support of SAP applications, brings the power of the Cisco and NetApp FlexPod solution to our customers, providing them with a proven, flexible IT infrastructure that enables them to build secure private clouds. Organizations can now scale SAP solution-based landscapes on demand, helping them be ready for the future and capitalize on new growth opportunities."