Cisco is shuttering its Intercloud platform for connecting enterprises to multiple cloud providers, launched in early 2014 in partnership with multiple telcos, the company said in an internal message to employees.

But the cloud is still a big deal for Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), the company says.

Cisco "will be transitioning affected workloads onto other platforms," the company said in a message emailed to Light Reading. "We do not expect any material customer issues as a result of this transition. For the last several months we have been evolving our cloud strategy and our service provider partners are aware of this."

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Intercloud will shut down March 31. In lieu of Intercloud, the company will focus on enterprise hybrid cloud and service provider NFV.

Cisco launched Intercloud nearly three years ago, in January 2014, describing it then as "a breakthrough hybrid cloud solution" that allows organizations to move workloads across public and private clouds as needed. (See Cisco Goes Hybrid With Intercloud and Cisco Goes Soft With APIC, Intercloud Announcements.)

In September of that first year, Cisco announced Intercloud partnerships with service providers including BT, Deutsche Telekom, Equinix and Portugal Telecom. (See Cisco Beefs Up Its Intercloud, Adds Telco Partners .)

Microsoft signed on as a partner in March 2014. (See Cisco, Microsoft Come Together in the Cloud.)

— Mitch Wagner, , Editor, Light Reading Enterprise Cloud