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Hitachi Vantara and Cisco roll out managed services offering
The channel is getting its hands on the fruits of a tie-up that should make life easier for customers looking for a hybrid cloud service
Storage player Hitachi Vantara has added more hybrid cloud managed services to its partnership with Cisco.
The two vendors will be combining Hitachi’s EverFlex with Cisco Powered Hybrid Cloud to provide customers with more options.
The tie-up also brings together a number of technologies including Hitachi Infrastructure Orchestration as a Service (HIOaaS) and Cisco Intersight to provide observability and management.
It should accelerate the move towards a hybrid cloud environment for customers, provide higher levels of automation, and comes with security and compliance features.
Given the managed service approach, there is a role for the channel partners to play in delivering the service to customers.
“According to a recent survey, nearly half of businesses are struggling to navigate complex cloud landscapes,” said Kimberly King, senior vice-president of strategic partners and alliances at Hitachi Vantara. ”Hitachi EverFlex with Cisco Powered Hybrid Cloud is a strategic response to modern enterprise needs.
“Our ability to deliver both through our partners and Cisco’s network directly tackles the complexity challenge by providing strong IT operational capabilities that can be scaled based on customer data management needs,” she said. “This partnership enables businesses to establish a robust data foundation today so that they are prepared for future innovation.”
Managed service model
Customers are not just operating in a hybrid cloud environment, but the pressure on costs continues and the hunt for innovation has led an increasing number of users to turn to a managed service model.
Hitachi’s channel will be able to deliver an option that combines storage, infrastructure, managed service and hybrid cloud management with Cisco’s expertise in networking.
“Our joint efforts with Hitachi Vantara around hybrid cloud managed services support a holistic approach to achieving customers’ business outcomes,” said Alexandra Zagury, vice-president of partner-managed and as-a-service sales at Cisco.
“Our combined portfolio, including Hitachi Infrastructure Orchestration as-a-Service, deliver the reliability, flexibility and insights that allow the customer to be more agile in today’s dynamic business environment. And the Partner-to-Partner model taps into one of the biggest growth drivers in the industry right now by providing customers with more choice and partners with the opportunity to build offers around their competencies.”
The partnership got the support of Axel Heitmann, director of datacentre and networking at Computacenter, which works with both vendors.
“This presents a compelling opportunity for partners and resellers, amplifying our ability to deliver customised hybrid cloud services for our customers,” he said.
Hybrid cloud demands
The timing of the announcement comes against a background of growing demand from users for hybrid cloud environments. Research from Citrix this week indicated a growing wave of repatriation of data back on-premise after turning away from the public cloud.
Ashish Nadkarni, group vice-president and general manager of worldwide infrastructure research at IDC, said there was a demand from customers for a managed services option that would help them navigate their cloud infrastructure.
“These types of strategic offerings between trusted industry leaders are instrumental in effectively addressing the mounting complexities enterprises face on their hybrid cloud journeys,” he said.
