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Cisco, Google, sitting in a tree, C-L-O-U-D-I-N-G

HyperFlex learns to talk Kubernetes for consistent hybrid cloud merriment

Cisco and Google have struck a partnership to stretch Kubernetes from on-prem to the cloud and back again.

The partnership will see the Chocolate Factory's Kubernetes container orchestrator and Istio microservices manger integrated with Switchzilla's hyperconverged HyperFlex platform.

Kubernetes has all-but become the de facto standard for container-wrangling and cloud-native application dev, as even Docker now supports it. Google's made sure its own cloud cloud runs it very well.

Like other hyperconverged products, HyperFlex makes a virtue of behaving a lot like a public cloud, albeit with a smaller pool of physical resources. Extending to the G-cloud adds scalability and the chance to stretch applications from one's own premises into the cloud without having to re-tool anything.

As Google's announcement says, the partnership will help customers' cloud migration, and: “Developers will be able to create new applications in the cloud or on-premises consistently using the same tools, runtime and production environment.”

Or as Cisco Cloud Platform and Solutions veep Kit Crompton puts it, developers find it difficult to develop in a public cloud and then deploy to the private environment.

Importantly, the deal will let HyperFlex users discover Google Cloud services from a local service catalogue. This matters because IaaS is nice, but really just someone else's computer. Cloud services see cloud titans or ISVs offer platforms that are ready to run at hypescale.

Google's already struck a similar deal with Nutanix. Cisco's therefore keeping up with the cool kids, which it needs to do as HyperFlex is solid, but not a market leader or markedly different to other hyperconverged products.

The deal will therefore give HyperFlex better prospects. Which Cisco needs, as its full-year earnings for the year ending July 29, 2017 saw switching and routing both slip, as did data centre sale.

Since Cisco will provide the one-backside-to-kick technical support, Google gets to pull more customers into the cloud without having to find more droids to answer the phones.

In other Cisco news, the company has announced it's restructured its product categories. Currently, revenue is reported in switching, NGN routing, collaboration, data centre, wireless, security, service provider video, other, and services.

As of Q1 2018, the categories will be infrastructure platforms, applications, security, other, and services. ®

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