Infrastructure service provider Computacenter has turned to storage vendor NetApp to build a virtual data centre service for customers.
NetApp’s FlexPod architecture can expand in four directions – increasing storage, network bandwidth, servers or applications, allowing customers to save because they don’t have to invest in infrastructure they don’t need, explained the company at a London launch.
“Why NetApp, and not Exadata or Vblocks?” asked Neill Burton, data centre solutions director at Compuatacenter, referring to storage products from Oracle and EMC, both of which Computacenter supports. “It was a simple decision.” NetApp, he said, had good products for unstructured data and good partnerships with other vendors and sales channels.
Computacenter claims VDC will offer IT cost savings of up to 30 percent, mostly through the elimination of the need for permanent spare capacity. Compared to other options, it is more flexible, said Burton: other solutions might require fixed storage, networking or server components.
The company will underwrite the cost savings, offering a refund if promised savings do not emerge. “We are so confident that if we are wrong we’ll write you a cheque,” said Matthew Yeager, practice leader for storage at Computacenter. “That should liberate the budget for the customer.”
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FlexPod is not similar to Exadata and not similar to Vblock - they are all three different things. It's like saying I prefer to drive 10 miles to work instead of flying or walking. Doesn't make any sense.
1 - FlexPod is a PDF and a sticker, it's no different from what all infra guys are doing today but with less choice.
2 - Exadata is focused on solving one workload problem.
3 - Vblocks are an orderable solution, prebuilt, delivered to your datacenter in six weeks from order, and has many solutions on top of it.
Interesting to note my friend Matt from CC offering to underwrite promised savings, so is the point that it's cheaper? Is that really what it's all about?
What about business partnership, shared risk, joint go-to-market, innovation, value, service creation, solution delivery, new revenue lines, better margins - that's what you will get from a VCE powered Vblock System delivered either direct or through a partner.
Just my 2p!
@Steve Chambers = KNOB
Partners cant sit by and ignore the traction that Flexpod has in the market. Virtualisation is driving our business to be more efficient and to do more with less.
The traction of Flexpod in the market is a direct result of the overall success that both NetApp and Cisco are having in the virtualisation space. Unified solutions out of the box that drive down DC costs while providing more is something every Partner and Customer are acutely aware of.
On a competitive front some People would Argue that Exadata has a limited market and VBlock is far too rigid and requies too many ticks in the boxes to make it a reality. Nothing like selling the customer the Vblock story and delivering them a VCE solution with one the sticker.
Its all about customer and whats right for them.
@Steve -
You're a bright guy, and a brilliant technologist, yet i can't figure out why you'd post such comments.
A vblock is a prevalidated cloud architecture comprised of Cisco, VMware, and EMC that is distributed by VCE who also provides the architecture validation.
A FlexPod is a prevalidated cloud architecture comprised of Cisco, VMware, and NetApp that is distributed by global channel partners. FlexPod (both architecture and application solutions) are validated by Cisco and are published as CVDs.
So help me out as I don't understand your comments around a pdf. Are you suggesting the Cisco Validated Designs are worthless?
What is being missed here is beyond the technical differences (vblock offers multifarious arrays and array capabilities where as FlexPod provides unified arrays with identical functionality regardless of hw scale) is that both solutions are designed to accelerate the adoption of cloud computing and the value that comes with such an operational model.
Let's drop the vendor bickering, and celebrate the fact that Computacenter is cloud enabled! Kudos Computacenter!
Just my $0.02
Vaughn