Cisco and Microsoft Integrate Azure with Application Centric Infrastructure

Cisco and Microsoft are expanding their cloud and data center relationship to include a new platform to accelerate service delivery and streamline the journey to the Intercloud for cloud providers. The goal is to provide the building blocks for cloud providers to evolve beyond traditional infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offerings to create combined IaaS, platform as a service (PaaS), software as a service (SaaS) solutions that deliver more value to their customers.

Specifically, the companies are launching the Cisco Cloud Architecture for the Microsoft Cloud Platform—an integrated solution that combines Windows Azure Pack and Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) to help cloud providers deliver hybrid cloud services. This collaboration will deliver pre-packaged policy management libraries that allow cloud providers to implement applications more quickly with consistent policy management. In addition, Microsoft System Center 2012 R2is integrated with the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) Manager to provide the operational simplicity and control that cloud providers need to manage their growing business.

The companies said the combination of Windows Azure Pack and Cisco ACI allows partners to deliver services—from network services and disaster recovery, to big data, and enterprise application services—at DevOps speed, drastically reducing total cost of ownership and accelerating time-to-revenue.

Cisco also added 14 cloud providers to its list of participants in the Intercloud partner ecosystem, bringing the number of Intercloud providers to more than 60 with a footprint of more than 350 data centers across 50 countries. The new Intercloud providers include Bezeq International (Israel), City Cloud Technology (China), CTC - Itochu Techno Solution (Japan), Freudenberg IT (Germany), iland (United States), Proximus (Belgium), QSS (Bosnia) QTS (United States), Skyscape Cloud Services (United Kingdom), Telecom Italia (Italy), Telefonica (Spain), Troila Technology Development (China), ViaWest (United States) and Yunan Nantian Electronic Information (China).

“We want our service providers partners to move up-market with us and offer higher-end cloud services. 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,” stated Nick Earle, senior vice president, Cloud and Managed Services, Cisco.

"Cisco and Microsoft already have a strong relationship in the cloud and data center markets.  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. The work we’ve done to integrate Cisco ACI with Windows Azure Pack will allow cloud providers to dramatically accelerate time-to-market, while decreasing costs.  Together, Cisco and Microsoft are helping our partners evolve with current market demand and rapidly shifting customer needs,” said Aziz Benmalek, general manager, Hosting Service Providers, Microsoft.

http://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=1608152