It’s been one year since Cisco & NetApp launched FlexPod, a modular cloud platform designed to accelerate our customers’ evolution from traditional IT infrastructure silos to a shared, virtualized infrastructure. While ‘virtualized infrastructure stacks’ is the IT industry’s product offering du jour, there are three key areas where FlexPod truly differentiates itself from the ‘stack’ offerings. I believe discussing these keys will help you to better understand why 450 customers to date have selected FlexPod as their cloud platform.
FlexPod Difference #1: Industry’s Only Standardized Platform
It’s widely understood that regardless of industry, every business seeks standardization of operational processes as a means to increase product quality while reducing the costs associated with the development and manufacturing processes.
Ironically standardization is not the norm within the product portfolios of many IT hardware vendors. It seems that too many are still operating with yesteryear’s mindset; one focused on delivering a limited set of capabilities that are bound to a specific hardware platform.
FlexPod is the only standardized infrastructure platform offering on the market. It is comprised of unified compute, network, and storage technologies that provide unified management interfaces, integration points, functionality and capabilities across a diverse set of hardware offerings. This standardization enables operational consistency and application design repeatability. As such these procedures and architectures are only be modified based on the size or capacity of the platform or application.
FlexPod Difference #2: Designed to Deliver Solutions
The delivery of applications on FlexPod has always been the focus of Cisco and NetApp. Since the initial release of FlexPod for VMware, which showcased our Secure Multi-Tenancy design, the platform has expanded to include support for bare metal deployments and virtual infrastructures powered by Citrix XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V (via the Cloud Fast Track Program).
Beyond the diversity of supported hosts, our engineering teams have invested literally tens of thousands of man hours designing, testing and validating application architectures for a plethora of applications including VMware View, Citrix, XenDesktop, Microsoft Exchange, SQL and SharePoint Server, Oracle Database, and SAP, just to name a few. By providing applications in a modular-design format, customers can accelerate their time to market while being assured that today’s configuration will scale to support their organization over time.
Combining these modular designs with the standardization of the FlexPod platform results in consistent functionality regardless of the size of the components deployed. This benefit eliminates the hidden pitfalls that are inevitable when deploying migrating between two distinct boutique platforms and instead allows on to begin viewing hardware as merely a means to scale a solution.
With the Unified Support Center and customers can be assured that they will receive the best in class joint support from Cisco & NetApp in the event of a FlexPod support escalation.
FlexPod Difference #3: Partners Ensure Customer Success
Our channel partners are the key to ensuring the success of our customers and the solutions deployed on the FlexPod platform. Frankly, I believe this is an area where FlexPod truly excels.
By relying on our channel partners to deliver the services our mutual customers require; Cisco, NetApp and our FlexPod technology partners can focus on developing rock-solid platforms and validated application designs. In turn our partners can showcase their technical skillsets by providing cloud-based services such as technical assessments, application and virtualization migrations, technical training, and tier 1 & tier 2 support services for the FlexPod. It is through this symbiotic relationship that the vendors, partners, and ultimately the customers win, as each is able to focus on their area of expertise.
Wrapping Up this Post
When one stops to consider the pace of innovation, for example VMware releases a new version of vSphere every 24 months, I believe we can all agree that rigidity in the IT infrastructure is dead. Standardization with native flexibility to adapt to an ever-advancing landscape is one of the most important attributes that an infrastructure platform can provide.
Over the past year customers have increasingly come to recognize the value of standardization and flexibility within their infrastructure. In fact, 450 of these customers made it a requirement of their cloud platform and selected to deploy on FlexPod. Should a virtualization vendor release a significant technological advancement in the near future, it may for all intensive purposes, render today’s ‘virtualized infrastructure stack’ to tomorrow’s technological debt.
I’d suggest you avoid the rigidity and consider deploying on a FlexPod platform. I assure you; twelve months from now there will be significantly more than the 450 who currently have.
Great post, Vaughn. Congratulations to you and all the folks at NetApp and Cisco who help make FlexPod. Can’t imagine building an environment like mine the way I would have had to even a couple of years ago, and I look forward to building on and expanding our FlexPod-based infrastructure.
Mike,
Here’s to your success with FlexPod! Please reach out if I can assist in any way.
So we just signed off on a certified system this week. I am extremely happy about this, and we are not even multi-tenant. But, as the industry moves toward hybrid cloud I have talked to a *lot* of SPs out there to determine what they plan to offer (hosted DR, hosted hybrid, host profile, storage replication, etc.). Most of them are standardizing on FlexPod…and the idea of being able to migrate like to like systems between public and private cloud in the coming years is very enticing. The business case for people who do not have multi-tenancy needs (or even unified fabric because maybe they are not using FC) is justification in itself. The idea of getting away from SRM is also enticing. For example, we colocate in PhoenixNAP right now, and one thing we look forward to working with them on is being able to connect to their FlexPod too.
John,
Thank you for your business. If I can assist in anyway please let me know.
(full disclaimer, I worked on the SMT/FlexPod team, now work for VCE)
Really? This too marketing-ish for you Vaughn, Assertion #1 is wrong, there are many (even more than just VCE) standardized offerings. Assertion #2 and #3 apply to any of us in the game.
At the end of the day, I am glad FlexPod is a competitor, as it keeps each of us on the innovation track, and ends up being better for customers and our companies. Please stay away from the blanket and blatantly incorrect/marketing driven statements.
Jonathan,
Thanks for the comment. Wish you were still at NetApp, you did a fantastic job leading the FlexPod engineering team.
I am a bit confused over your comments. You suggest there are many standardized stack offerings and reference what I assume is Vblock (via VCE citation).
I fail to see how there can be standardization if the storage array, array kernel, array management tools, array features (like FAST cache or replication), and array integrations with 3rd parties are all different. Unless you are suggesting that the storage array in the Vblock provides commodity functionality and all of the benefit is derived from the server virtualization layer than I disagree with your assertion.
For example: If one develops a solution in their lab based on Vblock Series 300 (VNX based) there is no way to ensure the functionality of the integrations below the hypervisor layer with operate in the same manner when deployed on Vblock Series 700 (VMAX based).
2/3rds of the way to standardization is not standardization. Dare I suggest it’s merely hiding behind the capabilities of the other technology partners?
Help me to understand.
“FlexPod is the only standardized infrastructure platform offering on the market.” < WTF?! hahahahahhaha! If you can shove anything into a FlexPod, any old kit you've got lying around your datacenter, that's not what I would called standardized! Cheered me up no end this! Vaughn, you should do stand up! 🙂 #GAMEON
Steve,
The value a hardware platform provides in the datacenter has changed with the adoption of server virtualization. One of which is infrastructure standardization; the ability to separate HW function from HW platform in order to provide repeatable and consistent delivery of infrastructure and infrastructure capabilities.
One can achieve a certain level in VMware software alone, but add Cisco & NetApp and one receives end-to-end standardization and consistency.
I don’t believe there is another example of such standardization and consistency within a stack please share. If I’m in error, please elaborate.
Hey John and Steve,(Disclosure i work for a Systems integrator)
Great feedback and i believe Flexpod has helped created much hype in the market given the number of new customers that have signed on.
I would also argue that its success can be related to the open ecosystem that it has leveraged. The industry has kinda spoken and its not moving down a highly restrictive path.
Just some feedback for everyone on the Australian market. Flexpod’s success has been staggering and i would personally like to thank the team at both Cisco and NetApp for their engagements with the Partner community in helping customers achieve highly scalable solutions while reducing complexity.
I wish John and Steve all the best as they push to achieve the same kind of outcomes and that you enjoy the benefits that NetApp and Cisco are seeing through Flexpod.
Keep up the good work