Cisco Teams with BMC Software to Advance Cloud Computing

Cisco, an enabler of networking technology, signed a strategic alliance with BMC Software, a company specializing in Business Service Management solutions, to develop and market new solutions for large-scale multi-tenant cloud computing infrastructures.

As per the terms of this agreement, the two companies will work on product development roadmaps and technology architectures to offer worldwide customers a complete suite of solutions that simplify and automate the delivery of cloud services. Building on their existing joint solutions, Cisco (News - Alert) will also resell BMC's Service Assurance and Compliance solutions as an option on the Cisco Unified Computing System.

Also, as part of the alliance, Cisco and BMC announced the availability of a new cloud solution, the Integrated Cloud Delivery Platform, which is designed to meet the requirements of service providers and large-scale private cloud computing environments. This new joint solution is believed to help cloud providers easily deploy end-to-end cloud services running on a cloud computing infrastructure that spans data center networks, computing systems, storage and applications.

"As cloud computing evolves from a strategic idea to a business reality, companies are quickly discovering the complexities of deploying and managing cloud solutions in a hybrid data center. BMC's alliance with Cisco will enable our customers with large-scale cloud computing environments to make mission-critical cloud services a practical reality for their demanding businesses and customers. IT organizations can be more nimble, cost-efficient, scalable, and, most importantly, better aligned to the business," Bob Beauchamp, chairman and chief executive officer at BMC Software (News - Alert) said in a press release.

A key highlight of this alliance is that it seeks to deliver highly secure, scalable, multi-tenant cloud computing. Under this strategic alliance, Cisco and BMC are building on their cloud expertise to align product roadmaps, technology architectures and development efforts to offer a complete suite of cloud service delivery solutions. Cisco and BMC will be supporting these solutions with joint marketing, services, sales, testing and certification activities to accelerate the adoption of the cloud solutions.

Also, the joint solution from BMC Software and Cisco - the Integrated Cloud Delivery Platform is said to enable large-scale cloud providers to eliminate many of the complex, manual steps required to set up and provision a cloud computing service, enabling greater end-to-end simplicity across the cloud network.

Built on new levels of integration of BMC's Cloud LifeCycle Management (CLM), this platform is said to be a comprehensive cloud computing software orchestration and management solution, with Cisco's data center networking, compute, and storage solutions. The integrated system is designed to operate in large-scale private, public and hybrid cloud environments.

In a single integrated solution, cloud providers can now deploy end-to-end cloud services running on a cloud computing infrastructure that spans applications networks, computing and storage. Using this platform, cloud providers can now automate and optimize the initial provisioning and configuration of new cloud offerings.

Padmasree Warrior (News - Alert), chief technology officer, senior vice president and general manager, Enterprise, Commercial and Small Business for Cisco, believes that Cisco and BMC have a common vision for advancing Cloud computing with unified infrastructure combined with seamless management.