5 things you need to know about HyperFlex with CloudCenter

I’ve been working on a new bundle of Cisco HyperFlex offered with Cisco CloudCenter. And I’m excited to share some details — because I’ve got that “Wow, this is a really great opportunity for Cisco customers” feeling, that I only sometimes get while working for a large tech vendor.

Together, these two powerful solutions help you take the next step with a hybrid IT strategy built on a HyperFlex infrastructure foundation. The HyperFlex with CloudCenter bundle is now offered at promotional price, with added incentives that fund implementation services for the offering. So now is a great time to take a look.

In this post, I’ll share 5 things you should know about this powerful combined solution.

1 – Cloud Experience Everywhere

Flexible and scalable infrastructure services are a key component of digital transformation and the foundation for Hybrid IT service delivery. But not if your infrastructure services are stuck behind a traditional help desk “ticket and wait” style service delivery front end, and a manual application deployment process back end.

HyperFlex with CloudCenter now delivers a cloud experience to users with a click button service – including deployment and management of VM or full application stack – without the cumbersome IT consumer experience of the past.  Users get a drop-down menu that lets them pick the workload and choose where to deploy. And a simple tag-based policy engine provides guardrails that guide automation and user decisions as they work across both HyperFlex and public cloud environments.

With CloudCenter added to HyperFlex, you can make your agile and flexible hyper converged infrastructure services easy to consume, and give users the cloud experience they expect both on premises and in public cloud.

2 – Hybrid Cloud Scale

HyperFlex is known for its “Scale out” architecture that makes it easy to add compute and storage nodes, and easy to add resources to workloads within a node. But that can be limited to on premises infrastructure, and isolated from a hybrid IT service delivery strategy.

CloudCenter turns HyperFlex into what I call a hybrid “Scale out, Scale out” architecture. You still get HyperFlex legendary ease of adding compute and storage resources to “Scale out” on premises.  But now it is also easy to “Scale out” by deploying workloads to the public cloud.  Since CloudCenter architecture abstracts the underlying nuances of both vSphere on HyperFlex as well as your choice of public cloud, users can simply choose where to deploy workloads. IT can set policies that taps public cloud capacity on demand, on schedule, or based on compliance or security rules. You can optimize a changing mix of infrastructure utilization and your cloud bill.

HyperFlex with CloudCenter means that hybrid cloud isn’t a thing you have to build. It delivers an application-centric automation layer that spans on and off-premises environments.

3 – Easy Hybrid IT Entry Point

Many IT organizations are moving past initial public cloud efforts. But, are facing a wide range of technically feasible choices as they expand their hybrid IT strategy. Choice is good. But having so many options can also bring complexity. Both technical complexity with a broad mix of application types and deployment environments. And, operational complexity with multiple cloud and datacenter specific tool stacks and silos of expertise.

This solution extends the simplicity offered by HyperFlex.

• This bundle is easy to order – There are 4x unique product IDs that package up our most popular HyperFlex configurations. You can choose from HyperFlex HX220c and HX240c with all flash or hybrid storage options. Pick the number of nodes with a minimum of 3 and maximum of 8. Pick a pair of fabric interconnect. Pick power cable appropriate for your country. Add memory or vSphere Enterprise licenses as options. And select software subscription duration – 1, 3 or 5 year. That’s it.
• This bundle is easy to get started – The bundle is offered with a promotion that pays certified Enterprise Cloud Suite partners who are ready to install CloudCenter, set up public cloud, model a couple of application profiles for deployment, and bring users up to speed. You get started fast.
• This bundle is easy to use – Users get single portal to deploy and manage workloads, in HyperFlex and Cloud, so they don’t need to learn multiple environment specific tools, or develop deep cloud API expertise. Users can share standard services or build their own. IT can easily create tags and link to policies that guide who can do what, where, when and for how long.

HyperFlex with CloudCenter offers a low impact way to evolve your cloud strategy without turning your IT organization inside out. And while preserving investments in your infrastructure.

4 – Full featured

HyperFlex with CloudCenter includes all CloudCenter features. This is not a limited use version that is restricted to some sub-set of features. Or, limited to use just on premises.  HyperFlex with CloudCenter supports all CloudCenter use cases that help deliver business value on HyperFlex infrastructure investment.

HyperFlex with CloudCenter has everything you need now, and has governance, security, multi-tenancy, cost controls and reporting — and everything you will need as your hybrid cloud strategy evolves over time.

5 – Limited Time Promotion

This bundle is offered at special adjusted list price for both HyperFlex and CloudCenter components. Category and partner discounts apply from there.

• For those looking to explore CloudCenter added to their HyperFlex environment, the bundle price for HyperFlex with 1 year CloudCenter subscription – is roughly same price as HyperFlex alone. This is a low risk “buy and try” opportunity.
• For those who already see the value of CloudCenter, this is a great opportunity to get a 3 or 5 year subscription and additional VMs at a really great price.

The bundle is enhanced with partner services used to deploy CloudCenter and accelerate time to value. Certified ECS Integrator partners are funded by ECS adoption incentive for CloudCenter installation.

If you are looking for an easy hybrid IT entry point, or wanting a more agile consumption model for your hyperconverged infrastructure – right now is the best time to ask your Cisco or Partner sales contact about HyperFlex with CloudCenter.

Read this At a Glance for more information.