Cisco gave its HyperFlex hyperconverged infrastructure a multicloud boost, adding support for Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisors, containers including Kubernetes and new management tools.
Helping enterprises connect to multiple cloud providers is a centerpiece of Cisco's strategy. Cisco added another building block to that plan with the release of a new version of its HyperFlex hyperconverged infrastructure, with added multicloud support.
Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO)'s HyperFlex 3.0, announced Thursday, adds support for Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) Hyper-V hypervisors, in addition to previous support for VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW) ESXi virtualization. The new version adds support for containers, including Kubernetes. It also has management tools and scalability to 64 nodes, from the previous 32-node limit.
HyperFlex provides on-premises infrastructure with the flexibility of the cloud to start small and scale up, Todd Brannon, Cisco director of product marketing for unified computing, tells Enterprise Cloud News. Enterprises can optimize virtual machines and available resources and make placement decisions for virtual machines using Optimization Manager, in partnership with Turbonomic. Cisco CloudCenter helps enterprises find the best public cloud to position workloads. And AppDynamics enables operators to monitor performance.
Figure 1: 
Clouds + a road = cloud mobility.
Additionally, HyperFlex now supports "stretch clusters," the ability to cluster nodes together for failover across geographic regions.
Cisco is third place in market share for hyperconvergence, according to an IDC report released late last month, behind Dell and Nutanix. But Cisco is fastest-growing in revenues.
Figure 2: 
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Multicloud is a big part of Cisco's company strategy. (See Cisco Ponders the Meaning of the Multicloud Market.)
And Cisco isn't alone pursuing cloud mobility. VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW) introduced VMware HCX last year, to allow enterprises to move workloads between public and private clouds, in September. (See VMware Unwraps Cloud-in-a-Box.)
VMware also updated its vRealize cloud management software to allow enterprises to move workloads between public and private clouds based on cost and performance. (See VMware Lets You Fiddle With Your Hybrid Cloud to Cut Costs.)
And Hewlett Packard Enterprise is also pursuing a multicloud strategy. (See HPE OneSphere Looks to Manage Multiple Clouds Through SaaS.)
HPE bought hyperconverged pioneer SimpliVity to gain an edge in that market a year ago. (See HPE Buys SimpliVity for $650M in Hyperconverged Cloud Play.)
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— Mitch Wagner 
Editor, Enterprise Cloud News
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