Demand for cloud services is exploding. The Cisco Global Cloud Index now forecasts that cloud traffic will grow by more than 30 percent in every region in the world over the next five years. In all, global cloud traffic will quadruple by 2019.

It's a huge business opportunity for cloud service providers (CSPs). But what do they need to capitalize on it?

• As-a-service cloud capabilities:CSPs should be able to provide a wide range of customized cloud services-public, private, and hybrid; IaaS, PaaS, SaaS-on demand, under consumption-based pricing models.
• Speed:Customers should be able to select and customize cloud offerings from a portal. They should be able to turn up new services in minutes, instead of waiting days or weeks for a CSP to build out new infrastructure.
• Performance and reliability that customers can count on:Customers relying on the cloud for their business profitability don't want to be beta testers. They want solutions from industry-leading providers, using the platforms and environments that they already know and trust.
• Hybrid cloud flexibility:Customers know that things change fast. They need solutions that can adapt easily to whatever comes next, on a workload-by-workload basis. That means being able to move some workloads to public clouds, while running others locally to meet security, compliance, or geo-location requirements.
• Global-ready solutions:New cloud services should be able to scale anywhere and everywhere, so that expanding into new markets is easy.

It's a lot to ask for, but the world's leading cloud vendors are listening. See the Cisco Cloud Architecture for the Microsoft Cloud Platform.

Hybrid Cloud Solutions: Fast, Simple, and Ready to Scale

Cisco Cloud Architecture for the Microsoft Cloud Platform was designed from the ground up to meet the demands of today's dynamic cloud marketplace. It's the result of a partnership between two of the world's cloud leaders, Cisco and Microsoft. And it encompasses strategy, joint engineering, development, and support.

Cisco Cloud Architecture for the Microsoft Cloud Platform puts all the pieces in place for ready-to-deploy, scalable cloud services. That includes flexible cloud infrastructure (Cisco UCS servers, Cisco Nexus? switching, integrated management, and more) powered by Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI). It pre-integrates this versatile cloud infrastructure with the Microsoft Windows Azure Pack cloud software platform. And all of it is pre-tested and validated for performance, scalability, reliability, and security that both CSPs and their customers can trust.

With Cisco Cloud Architecture for the Microsoft Cloud Platform, CSPs can deliver a wide range of in-demand cloud services: disaster recovery as-a-service, backup as-a-service, database as-a-service, hosted private cloud. They can set up new services for customers in one tenth the time of traditional approaches and deliver them in 37 percent less space. They can improve their ability to meet service-level agreements (SLAs) by 72 percent. And with more efficient cloud infrastructure, simpler operations, and zero hypervisor licensing costs, they can do it at up to 70 percent lower operating costs.

View the Cisco Cloud Architecture Infographic.

If you're joining us in Barcelona, Spain this week at Mobile World Congress, visit the Cisco booth (Stand 3E30) which will feature a demo of the Cisco Cloud Architecture for the Microsoft Cloud Platform.

Learn More

See how and hear Cloud Service Provider QSS is realizing the advantages of Cisco Cloud Architecture for the Microsoft Cloud Platform to differentiate their hybrid cloud services, get to market faster, and improve profitability.

Want to know more about what Cisco Cloud Architecture for the Microsoft Cloud Platform can do for your business and your customers? Visit www.cisco.com/go/ccamcp.