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Private Cloud Stacks: Page 2 of 3

Multi-Vendor Approach

The multi-vendor approach bundles hardware and software components from several manufacturers into a joint solution with some level of integration testing and certification done by the vendors. Two examples of this are VBlock and FlexPod.

Vblock is a combination of Cisco networking and compute, EMC storage and VMware virtualization software. Vblock is bundled with EMC's Unified Infrastructure Manager software which provides a level of automation and a single point of management for most of the infrastructure. Vblock is supported and tested by The VCE Company which was created by the three parent OEMs as a delivery/support model for Vblock as well as a way to drive future joint integration and advance the solution as whole.

FlexPod is a joint solution between NetApp, and Cisco to provide a tightly coupled converged infrastructure that can support multiple private cloud and application environments. FlexPods come in many flavors such as VMware server virtualization, Citrix VDI infrastructures or tailored to Microsoft environments like SharePoint, Exchange and SQL. The base FlexPod solution is not bundled with automation/orchestration software which places it below the other examples for private cloud readiness out of the box, but by doing so enables customers to choose the automation/orchestration tools that best fit their needs.

Both approaches have the potential to accelerate a customer journey to private cloud or cloud like service delivery. This is achieved by the testing, certification and integration that is taken care of by the vendor and the confidence/risk-reduction of running on a proven infrastructure.