Cisco And Microsoft Launch Platform For Cloud Service Providers

Cisco and Microsoft are expanding their cloud and data centre partnership with the launch of a new platform that helps cloud service providers deploy hybrid services more quickly and cheaply.

The two firms first agreed to offer their services together last July with the intent of targeting the data centre industry, but the expansion means they can target providers in other industries as well by offering Cisco networking gear and Azure software.

The Cisco Cloud Architecture for the Microsoft Cloud Platform combines the Windows Azure Pack and Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI), allowing customers to offer network services, disaster recovery, big data analytics and enterprise application services at ‘DevOps speed’.

Microsoft Cisco cloud partnership

“We want our service provider partners to move up-market with us and offer higher-end cloud services,” said Nick Earle, senior vice president of Cloud and Managed Services at Cisco. “By partnering with Microsoft we’re able to deliver a tightly integrated, application centric cloud architecture. This unique new platform will help our partners dramatically accelerate the delivery of new and innovative hybrid cloud services for their customers.”

“Cisco and Microsoft already have a strong relationship in the cloud and data center markets,” added Aziz Benmalek, general manager of hoisting service providers at Microsoft. “Today, we’re expanding that collaboration with a solution that will allow our mutual partners to deliver services quickly and grow revenue faster with a cloud-enabled platform.”

Cisco has invested heavily in cloud technology, which it hopes can support the Internet of Things, or the Internet of Everything (IoE). However it is also investing in its InterCcoud – a ‘network of clouds’ that provide customers with a choice of services.

To this end it has added 14 new partners to its Intercloud, bringing the total number of partners to 60, with 350 data centres across 50 countries – allowing it to comply with local data sovereignty laws and handle any number of workloads.

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