Cisco networking hybrid cloud.
Image: asharkyu/Shutterstock

To advance the hybrid cloud adoption process for businesses, Cisco has introduced several new items in the form of both software and hardware products. With workplaces moving to both hybrid and remote work setups due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is more important than ever that organizations be ready for the challenges that come with handling multitudes of data from a variety of sources in both on-premises and cloud systems.

“While enterprises are standardizing on hybrid, multi-cloud environments, many are still building a strategy to minimize complexity and maximize value with an operational model and tools that deliver flexibility, speed and simplicity,” said DD Dasgupta, Cisco’s vice president of Product Management and Cloud Computing. “Cisco has paved the way to help IT operations transform with hybrid cloud, enabling an operational model that allows businesses to adapt quickly, and streamline the secure delivery of applications whether they are located in on-premises data centers or in the public cloud.”

The new items announced include new digital capabilities, along with improved infrastructure and data center features to accelerate the rate at which business can be done and data can be housed.

SEE: Executive’s guide to integrating the hybrid cloud (free ebook) (TechRepublic)

Intersight platform updates

Cisco’s Intersight platform has received an upgrade in its capabilities, and is now able to allow users to connect their on-premises Kubernetes clusters to new or existing Kubernetes clusters in a public cloud, such as AWS, Microsoft Azure and the Google Cloud Platform. This in turn will allow for IT administrators to observe and operate containers across on-premises and multiple public clouds from a single platform.

Additionally, Cisco has announced that the Intersight platform will now be integrated to work with Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), thus expanding hybrid cloud capabilities associated with the platform and including combined inventory and automation of virtual machines in AWS in addition to on-premises environments.

Improved infrastructure: Hyperflex Express

The company as part of the announcement also introduced the Hyperflex Express, a piece of simplified hardware and software that can provide users a faster way to the hybrid cloud through reduced deployment speeds. The Express will work alongside the Intersight platform with on-premises hyperconverged infrastructure to lower the threshold for entry by 50% and allows for deployment of the platform at a faster rate.

“With increasing cloud adoption, application outcomes are the new currency, and IT must modernize their environments to dynamically deploy resources to suit multiple application demands,” said Matthew Kimball, vice president and principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy. “Cisco is building on its strategy and technology foundation to help customers simplify their hybrid multi cloud environments and provide the infrastructure that powers all types of workloads and delivers the most value from using on-premises resources in coordination with public cloud services.”

SEE: Hiring Kit: Network Engineer (TechRepublic Premium)

UCS X-Series improvements

The final piece highlighted by Cisco is the improved capabilities of the UCS X-Series, with new accelerated computing capabilities and flexible high-performance networking. The X-Series is now equipped with Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) Nodes with Cisco UCS X-Fabric technology, affording customers the flexibility to connect compute nodes to NVIDIA accelerated computing GPU resources. This will enable organizations to meet the needs of modern AI and machine learning (ML) and virtual desktop infrastructure workloads.

The modular system includes 100G single port support and 200G bandwidth to a single server, giving users investment protection, reduced costs and increased data capacity to help fuel data-intensive applications. One major benefit of the new X-Series is the capacity to upgrade blade servers in the future once the current ones are outdated and new, improved models become available.

Subscribe to the Cloud Insider Newsletter

This is your go-to resource for the latest news and tips on the following topics and more, XaaS, AWS, Microsoft Azure, DevOps, virtualization, the hybrid cloud, and cloud security. Delivered Mondays and Wednesdays

Subscribe to the Cloud Insider Newsletter

This is your go-to resource for the latest news and tips on the following topics and more, XaaS, AWS, Microsoft Azure, DevOps, virtualization, the hybrid cloud, and cloud security. Delivered Mondays and Wednesdays