Cisco Teams With Startup Springpath, Sets Sights On Total Dominance ...
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`http://www.crn.com/print/news/data-center/300079867/cisco-teams-with-...
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`Published on CRN (http://www.crn.com)
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`Home > Cisco Teams With Startup Springpath, Sets Sights On Total Dominance Of The Hyper-Convergence Market
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`Cisco Teams With Startup Springpath, Sets Sights On Total Dominance Of The Hyper-Convergence Market [1]
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`byKevin McLaughlin and Mark Haranas [2] on March 1, 2016, 1:01 pm EST
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`Cisco Systems took the wraps off a new hyper-converged infrastructure product line called
`HyperFlex Systems Tuesday, pitching it as a more economical and better-performing alternative
`to Nutanix and other startups in the fast-emerging space.
`
`HyperFlex Systems, unveiled at the vendor's annual partner conference in San Diego, consists of
`Cisco UCS servers and software-defined storage technology that Cisco developed through a
`strategic partnership with Springpath, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based startup founded by former
`VMware storage engineers.
`
`The technology, which Cisco is calling the HX Data Platform, pools storage from solid-state and
`conventional hard drives and turns it into an enterprise-grade object storage system, Todd
`Brannon, Cisco’s director of product marketing for UCS, said in an interview.
`
`[Related: Here's Why Cisco Partners Believe Vendor Will Acquire Hyper-Converged
`Startup Springpath [3]]
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`Cisco also revealed that it led a previously undisclosed Series C round of funding in Springpath.
`Brannon declined to specify the amount of the investment but said Cisco has been working with
`Springpath since 2012, the year it was founded.
`
`Springpath spokespeople didn’t respond to a request for comment. The startup has raised $34
`million in funding to date from investors Sequoia Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Redpoint
`Ventures and Stanford University, according to Crunchbase.
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`CRN in January was first to report that Cisco had signed an OEM agreement with Springpath [4]
`and made an undisclosed investment in the startup. Cisco has the option to acquire Springpath
`based on revenue results, according to CRN's sources.
`
`Cisco's HyperFlex pricing for a three-node HyperFlex cluster starts at $59,000 including one year
`of 24x7x4 on-site support. Cisco is now taking orders and plans to start shipping products
`sometime this month, a spokesman for the San Jose, Calif.-based vendor told CRN.
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`Cisco is a late arrival to the hyper-convergence market, where top startups Nutanix and
`SimpliVity have collectively raised close to $590 million over the past several years. But
`according to Brannon, hyper-convergence startups have taken "some real architectural
`shortcuts" that have slowed mainstream adoption of the technology.
`
` "That’s what we're fixing with HyperFlex," Brannon told CRN.
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`Cisco Teams With Startup Springpath, Sets Sights On Total Dominance ...
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`http://www.crn.com/print/news/data-center/300079867/cisco-teams-with-...
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`Brannon said while hyper-converged startups like to tout their offerings as being quick to set up,
`they're typically combinations of compute and storage that don’t account for networking. As a
`result, customers have to figure out how to connect all the different parts together, and getting a
`system up and running can take days or weeks, he said.
`
`Cisco, with its deep expertise in networking, has made sure this won't be an issue with
`HyperFlex. "We’re going to bring you a solution you can deploy in less than an hour, including the
`network, and that’s crucial," he said.
`
`One particular area of strength for Cisco HyperFlex is that customers can use it to scale their
`compute and storage independently, said Brannon.
`
`Cisco partners who've been eagerly awaiting the vendor's arrival to the hyper-converged market
`told CRN they're impressed with the HyperFlex offering.
`
`"We always felt Cisco needed a full-fledged solution in this space," said Vinu Thomas, chief
`technology officer at Presidio, a New York-based Cisco partner that sells UCS systems.
`
`"We've sold quite a bit of Nutanix and there was no comparative Cisco play," said Anoj Willy, vice
`president of product development at Trace3, an Irvine, Calif.-based company that works with
`both vendors. "Now Cisco has given us a competitive offering that we can bring to market.
`
`"Cisco also has the networking component, which has been the trickiest component thus far in
`the data center in terms of commoditization and control," Willy told CRN.
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`HyperFlex will be included in many of Cisco's channel incentive programs, including the Value
`Incentive Program (VIP) and Opportunity Incentive Program (OIP), and Cisco's field sales teams
`will also work with partners to sell HyperFlex, said Ken Trombetta, vice president of Cisco's
`Global Partner Organization.
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`Cisco was attracted to Springpath because the startup has developed what Brannon described
`as "an entirely new, purpose-built file system" that’s designed for hyper-convergence.
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`Most existing hyper-converged offerings rely on open-source operating systems such as Ext4 [a
`file system for Linux], which weren't intended to be used in hyper-converged environments,
`Brannon said.
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`Cisco is also touting HyperFlex's performance, which Brannon said is superior to offerings
`currently on the market. He told CRN that customers who've been testing HyperFlex through
`Cisco's early access program, some of which are using hyper-converged offerings from Nutanix
`and other startups, like what they're seeing.
`
`"[Cisco HyperFlex] is stopping them dead in their tracks," Brannon said. After testing it out,
`customers "are stopping and turning around and giving us purchase orders."
`
`Cisco HyperFlex also offers customers better cost of ownership because it includes data
`optimization technology that lets them buy less infrastructure and raw capacity, according to
`Brannon.
`
`Brannon said while Cisco doesn't intend to walk away from its existing UCS partnerships with
`SimpliVity and other vendors, it does view Springpath's technology as superior and plans to lead
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`Cisco Teams With Startup Springpath, Sets Sights On Total Dominance ...
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`http://www.crn.com/print/news/data-center/300079867/cisco-teams-with-...
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`with it in sales discussions with customers.
`
`"Our confidence in [Springpath] technology is reflected in the fact that we’ve fully productized it.
`We're adding a product family to our company, and we’re going to go drive with this," Brannon
`said.
`
`"This is definitely not aimed at SimpliVity," said Brannon. "This technology is going to leapfrog a
`lot of the incumbent players, but I think Nutanix has a lot more to be worried about here than
`SimpliVity does."
`
`Chris Morgan, a Nutanix vice president in charge of channels and distribution, told CRN that the
`San Jose-based company isn't surprised to see new players enter the hyper-convergence space.
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`"Cisco is a formidable competitor with a strong channel base, but with a history of false starts
`entering new markets," Morgan said in an email. "Channel partners have already communicated
`to us that they will take a wait- and-see approach with this unproven technology from an untested
`startup."
`
`Source URL: http://www.crn.com/news/data-center/300079867/cisco-teams-with-startup-springpath-sets-sights-on-
`total-dominance-of-the-hyper-convergence-market.htm
`
`Links
`[1] http://www.crn.com/news/data-center/300079867/cisco-teams-with-startup-springpath-sets-sights-on-total-
`dominance-of-the-hyper-convergence-market.htm
`[2] http://www.crn.com/author/kevin-mclaughlin-and-mark-haranas
`[3] http://www.crn.com/news/data-center/300079861/heres-why-some-partners-think-cisco-should-acquire-hyper-
`converged-startup-springpath-instead-of-partnering-with-it.htm
`[4] http://www.crn.com/news/data-center/300079256/sources-cisco-inks-oem-deal-with-startup-springpath-preps-ucs-
`hyper-converged-appliance.htm
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