Build your IT on FlexPod

Since ancient times, pillars have supported all types of architecture. Greek and Roman architecture used pillars to support aqueducts, large municipal buildings, temples, and much more. Similarly, FlexPod® innovation (pillars) hold and support FlexPod clients. Three major pillars that come to mind are smart, sustainable, and secure. A few customer datapoints underscore why FlexPod delivers in these three areas:

1. Smart management of complexity: 79% believe their organization’s IT environment is equally or more complex than it was two years ago.*
2. Sustainability: customers are making sustainability a priority throughout their IT as they both meet the corporate sustainability goals where 8% of world’s energy will be used by IT in 2030 (up from 2%) and 32% of companies realize tangible value from data.*
3. Security: security resilience is top of mind among executives where 96% consider it highly important to their business. In addition, 41% of the companies surveyed said that they suffered a major security incident or loss within the last two years.*

FlexPod converged infrastructure solution from NetApp and Cisco delivers and tests these three pillars and alleviates these client pain points across nearly every hybrid, edge, and data center workload. End customers benefit from the full testing of these three pillars in every FlexPod solution and the constant stream of innovations, technologies and solutions that Cisco and NetApp bring to FlexPod.

FlexPod customers benefit from telemetry and advanced algorithms to enable new levels of predictable maintenance (firmware compliance, Cisco Hardware Compatibility List), proactive support (Cisco Connected TAC), and automated optimization of compute and storage resources that can increase productivity, improve performance, and reduce TCO. In addition, NetApp^® Active IQ^® Digital Advisor simplifies the proactive care and optimization of NetApp storage. Fueled by installed-base telemetry data, Active IQ uses advanced machine learning techniques to uncover opportunities to reduce risk, improve the performance and efficiency of your storage environment, provide prescriptive guidance, and increase security. Customers gain increased productivity, improved reliability, and less downtime.

FlexPod addresses the entire lifecycle of sustainability by minimizing the use of raw materials and components, dynamically adjusting power based on utilization, and optimizing compute and storage resources across the hybrid cloud. It also enables the continuous activation of new operational capabilities without incrementally adding infrastructure.

Environmental responsibility is more important than ever, and FlexPod gives its customers a unique operational model to leverage both Moore's law and the latest NetApp and Cisco innovations. For example, customers can reduce their data center footprint by more than 6 times, with a reduction in power usage of up to 20 times over their current spinning-disk environment. A similar story takes place on the compute side of FlexPod with Cisco UCS X-Series servers. Cisco quickly innovates the most efficient, leading-edge processors into its UCS servers that can shrink customer and data center footprint dramatically.

FlexPod integrates security at every layer of infrastructure and operations. Built on a Zero Trust security model that incorporates authentication, encryption, visibility, and control, FlexPod delivers real-time vulnerability notifications, remediation, and data recovery capabilities. It enables customers to tune their data protection and Zero Trust requirements to the required level or beyond to keep out the bad guys. FlexPod offers numerous unique features to protect against ransomware attacks at all stages. To learn more, go to FlexPod Ransomware Protection.

Register for Cisco Live Las Vegas.

At the event:

• Visit NetApp booths 7510 and 7112.
• See FlexPod running Cisco Live’s mission-critical show workloads and VMs. Visit the Cisco network operations center (NOC) at the edge of the exhibit hall to learn more.
• Look for Mike Hommer, NetApp Partner Field CTO, who will give two talks:
  • FlexPod: A secure, smart, and sustainable foundation for your hybrid cloud journey
  • Aston Martin with FlexPod, a winning team

To learn more about FlexPod, go to:

• netapp.com/flexpod
• cisco.com/go/flexpod

* Customer datapoints:

1. https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/se/2022/6/Collateral/esg-first-look-ucsx-ser.pdf
2. https://www.netapp.com/esg/sustainability/
3. https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/security/security-outcomes-vol-3-report.pdf