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Cisco, SimpliVity in hyperconverged infrastructure deal

Vendor cooperation offers advantage to the right technology resellers and providers

Partners of both Cisco Systems and hyperconverged infrastructure provider SimpliVity have some new options for next-generation datacentre infrastructure thanks to a cooperative development and co-marketing deal between the two announced last week.

Executives at Westborough, Massachusetts-based SimpliVity said the channel-focused vendor will roll out a version of its OmniStack Integrated Solution later this year bundled with Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) C-Series rack-mount servers.

The SimpliVity and Cisco mash-up will deliver the standard hyperconverged menu of hypervisor, computing, storage, network switching, backup, replication, cloud gateway, caching, WAN optimisation, and real-time deduplication capabilities. Tying several of the units together will facilitate the creation of high-availability datacentres that can be federated and centrally managed through VMware's vCenter, officials said.

"We are not the first to market, however, we offer the most complete solution," SimpliVity CEO Doron Kempel said of the integrated offerings.

"As we engaged with some of the most sophisticated customers and partners across the globe, demand for an integrated solution with Cisco UCS became a recurring theme."

The Cisco-backed OmniStack Integrated Solution pits the pair against rival VMware, which also last week rolled out its long-awaited hyperconverged offering dubbed EVO: Rail.

The VMware solution combines its technologies with those of Dell, EMC and Fujitsu to deliver a similar set of computing, networking, and storage capabilities in a single box.

The SimpliVity/Cisco collaboration is likely to benefit partners of both vendors who are seeing increased interest in hyperconverged infrastructures in the market.

Cisco's commitment to the channel is already well known and SimpliVity recently debuted its first-ever three-tiered global channel program to broaden its market reach and attract new partners.

"SimpliVity's hyperconverged infrastructure solution is gaining rapid adoption in our market and with our customers," said Ted Glahn, CEO of Norcross-based systems integrator ProSys Information Systems.

"As a long time Cisco partner, we are extremely pleased that SimpliVity's data virtualisation platform can now be delivered with Cisco UCS. The simplicity, ease of use and material cost savings delivered by this solution is a winning combination."

Kent Christensen, practice director of virtualisation and cloud at datacentre solution provider Datalink in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, said his company is looking to leverage the Simplivity and Cisco hyperconverged wares to help clients "transform their environments to gain greater efficiency, simplify management and optimise performance".

The new SimpliVity OmniStack Integrated Solution with Cisco UCS is expected to ship in November with a starting price of around $55,000.

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