Last quarter, we featured solutions with Microsoft and edge computing solutions with UCS Mini. This quarter, FlexPod built on UCS integrated infrastructure and NetApp storage continues its leadership with new designs for data center management, database platforms, and hybrid cloud deployments.

Recently released solutions include:

• FlexPod Datacenter with UCS Director
• FlexPod Datacenter with Nexus 9k and ACI with UCS Director
• FlexPod Datacenter with MS SQL 2014
• FlexPod Datacenter with SAP HANA and SAP applications
• Technical Report: FlexPod Datacenter with Cisco Intercloud Fabric and NetApp Data Fabric

FlexPod with UCS Director

Two new validated designs feature UCS Director and how it provides IT administrators the capability to accelerate FlexPod deployments and automate frequent operational tasks.  The automation and self-service mechanisms enable users to consume infrastructure without manual intervention for provisioning or configuration of pooled resources. This combination of standardization, workflow automation and self-service offered in a secure manner by Cisco UCS Director on a FlexPod platform, gives businesses the opportunity to offer IT-as- a-Service. Cisco ACI provides fabric and services automation based on the needs of the application. However, there are other parts of the infrastructure that are required for applications to optimally operate, which are outside the scope of ACI.  Resources such as storage, virtual machines, and physical servers are still very important to applications.  This is where Cisco UCS Director helps accelerate deployments by automating all of FlexPod's resources into a single automated process.

Highly Available and Flexible Database Platform

FlexPod Datacenter with Microsoft SQL 2014 demonstrates a near-site disaster recovery for reduced planned and unplanned downtime, maximum application availability, and advanced data protection.  The FlexPod Datacenter platform with SAP HANA highlights a configuration dedicated to SAP HANA with the delivery of SAP applications on the same shared FlexPod platform.

Hybrid Cloud Enablement

Hybrid Cloud solutions can address the need to scale resources to meet demand, validate new workloads outside of the production environment, and provide disaster recovery capability.  Hybrid Clouds implemented with Cisco Intercloud and NetApp Private Storage (NPS) can deliver elastic scale and rapid recovery without sacrificing security and controls required by enterprise customers.  Compute and network resources are securely extended from a customer's premise into a public cloud with the Intercloud fabric, while NPS collocates customer data.  The use of Data ONTAP in both the private and co-located clouds enables consistent presentation and management of an enterprise's data.

To learn more, visit Cisco's Design Zone to see all the Flexpod CVDs. To read the blog from the NetApp team click here.