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Hybrid cloud and converged infrastructure are two of the most powerful currents pushing IT into the 21st century.

Hybrid cloud reconciles opposing requirements for the security, performance and control provided by on-premises infrastructure with the flexibility and cost savings of cloud computing. Converged infrastructure offers the simplicity and agility demanded by modern enterprises trying to gain competitive advantage in an environment now driven by the Internet of Things (IoT), mobile and social systems of engagement and cognitive applications.

VersaStack for Hybrid Cloud

Imagine the power of combining hybrid cloud and converged infrastructure into one integrated platform. This is exactly what IBM and Cisco have achieved with the new VersaStack for Hybrid Cloud.

Jointly developed by IBM and Cisco, VersaStack brings together Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) integrated infrastructure with IBM’s market-leading and award-winning software-defined storage. The new VersaStack for Hybrid Cloud solution combines IBM Spectrum Copy Data Management and Cisco ONE ECS cloud management technologies to create a hybrid cloud management layer that can assist with orchestration, deployment, management and migration of applications across data center, public cloud and private cloud environments. The solution allows VersaStack to deliver easy-to-consume hybrid cloud solutions for use cases such as:

• Movement of applications and data to the cloud.
• Choice of the best deployment options for a wide variety of enterprise workloads.
• Improvement of business agility by deploying applications now, then moving them later to their most optimal environments.
• Tracking and management of copies for end-to-end data management.
• The freeing up of resources in the data center for new generation applications and cognitive workloads.

VersaStack solutions help customers to easily scale compute, network and storage capacity independently as needed, with benefits that include:

• Reduction in design, deployment and management overhead.
• Lower TCO, including decreased power, cooling and other operational costs.
• Rapid scalability through infrastructure automation and a simplified, validated architecture.

Just ask the experts

Leading IT industry analyst ESG sees the value and advantages of VersaStack for Hybrid Cloud:

“The new VersaStack for Hybrid Cloud solution combines all the advantages for which VersaStack is already known, with new cloud connectivity, deployment, and management capabilities that enable customers to address both their converged infrastructure and hybrid cloud requirements in one platform. ESG sees this new VersaStack solution as a market-leading step in the right direction toward simplifying IT infrastructure and increasing business agility to meet 21st century requirements.“1

At the heart of VersaStack for Hybrid Cloud lies Cisco ONE ECS cloud management, which can automate self-service application deployment to a user’s choice of on-premises or public cloud environments. It works with over 20 cloud types and regions, including IBM Bluemix Infrastructure (formerly IBM SoftLayer). The VersaStack for Hybrid Cloud solutions can incorporate IBM Spectrum Copy Data Management, which catalogs copy data from across local, hybrid cloud and off-site cloud infrastructures, can identify duplicates and can compare copy requests to existing copies, ensuring that the minimum number of copies are created to service business needs.

IBM Bluemix Infrastructure provides a wide range of high-performance global cloud compute and storage resources that are deeply integrated with IBM Spectrum Storage to optimize performance and management. Additional IBM Spectrum Storage family members, such as Spectrum Control and Spectrum Protect can be added to VersaStack configurations and delivered on premises or as cloud-based services to deliver a broad spectrum of storage solutions within hybrid cloud architectures.

These solutions also leverage the capabilities of IBM Spectrum Virtualize, most notably the Transparent Cloud Tiering feature that extends local storage into the cloud for snapshots and restores. This can improve business agility by rapidly deploying (and retiring) cloud storage and transforms the economics for storage, with the ability to convert storage-related capital expenses into operational expenses and use cloud storage as an alternative to on-premises storage.

Through the integration of all of these leading-edge technologies – Cisco ONE ECS cloud management, IBM Spectrum Data Copy Management, Spectrum Virtualize and Transparent Cloud Tiering – VersaStack for Hybrid Cloud essentially creates what might be called the “converged cloud.” Now, when enterprises want to gain the benefits of both hybrid cloud and converged infrastructure, they won’t need to cobble together a solution. Instead, they can turn to a highly integrated comprehensive solution from two of the world’s largest vendors.

If you want a single, simple solution for your IT infrastructure and cloud requirements, VersaStack for Hybrid Cloud brings it all together.

Read more about the VersaStack announcement here and here.

1 ESG: Economic Value Validation: Quantifying the Value of VersaStack, a Converged Infrastructure Solution by IBM and Cisco, April 2016

The post Introducing the IBM and Cisco converged cloud appeared first on IBM Systems Blog: In the Making.