As businesses increasingly embrace private, public, and hybrid clouds to cost-effectively and quickly deliver business applications and services to a rapidly expanding device ecosystem, vendors are increasingly positioning to meet the market demand. Cisco, which has been talking up the opportunitiies available in the era of the Internet of Things (IoT), has announced that it’s building a “global Intercloud” – a network of clouds – together with a set of partners. Services will be available via channel partners.
The Intercloud will have a distributed network and security architecture designed for high-value application workloads, real-time analytics, “near infinite” scalability and full compliance with local data sovereignty laws, the company said. It will also be open, with APIs for rapid application development, and will be used to support a portfolio of cloud IT services for businesses, service providers and resellers.
Cisco expects to invest over $1 billion to build its expanded cloud business over the next two years.
Cisco’s partners in the endeavor include Australian service provider Telstra; Canadian business communications provider Allstream; European cloud company Canopy, an Atos company; cloud services aggregator, provider and wholesale technology distributor Ingram Micro Inc.; global IT and managed services provider Logicalis Group; global provider of enterprise software platforms for business intelligence, mobile intelligence, and network applications MicroStrategy, Inc.; enterprise data center IT solutions provider OnX Managed Services; information availability services provider SunGard Availability Services; and leading global IT, consulting and outsourcing company Wipro Ltd.
“Customers, providers and channel partners alike are turning to Cisco to create open and highly secure hybrid cloud environments, and they want to rapidly deploy valuable enterprise-class cloud experiences for key customers – all while mitigating the risk of capital investment,” said Robert Lloyd, president of development and sales, Cisco. “The timing is right for Cisco and its partners to invest in a groundbreaking, application-centric global Intercloud to provide broader reach and faster time to market. Together, we have the capability to enable a seamless world of many clouds in which our customers have the choice to enable the right, highly secure cloud for the right workload, while creating strategic advantages for rapid innovation, and ultimately, business growth.”
