Over the past couple of months a number of customers have asked us, just what is a FlexPod and why should I care? Well, the best way to describe FlexPod is to imagine your IT infrastructure as a Lego set.
Each component represents a brick. By themselves, they are of little use, but link several different bricks together and you can start building something useful. The problem with this approach is the number of different options out there. It can be confusing and ultimately a waste of time trying to work out what is the best Flexpod reference architecture to suit your needs.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could do away with all the headaches around configuring the basics? Well, that’s the idea behind FlexPod.
The two key companies in the FlexPod partnership are NetApp and Cisco. NetApp and Cisco have worked together to come up with solutions that are designed to work together in the most efficient way.
FlexPod is based on NetApp’s storage technology, and Cisco’s server/network/fabric technologies. Indeed, the origins of FlexPod are based on Cisco and NetApp’s joint vision to make things easier. Together, NetApp’s industry leading storage technologies, and Cisco’s Unifed Computing System (UCS) form a solid base for you to build your Flexpod solutions upon. In simple terms, it’s as close to a datacenter in a box as you can get.
With FlexPod, UAE firms can really remove the need to worry about the platform upon. After all, innovation doesn’t happen in the foundations. They’re just there to support the innovation.
Together NetApp and Cisco have validated various configurations of their platforms to come up with a clear and simple scale of devices. These are based on workloads that are common in the industry.
What this means in reality is that rather than worrying about whether your network fabric will support the amount of virtual machines you wish to run, you can simply refer to the FlexPod validations. The confidence that these validations provide means it’s possible to focus much more time on the parts of the solution you’re actually innovating in.
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