Cisco enters into a strategic alliance with Docker that includes both sales and engineering support to help advance the state of container deployments in modern data centers.
Cisco has had customers running containers on its systems for some time and now is taking the next steps to help support container deployments. Cisco and Docker Inc. have entered into a strategic alliance that calls for the two companies to collaborate on both sales and engineering efforts for containers.
The alliance will result in Docker deployments on certified Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) converged server systems. Specifically, there is now a Cisco Validated Design (CVD) for the Docker Data Center platform that will enable organizations to deploy Docker on Cisco UCS -B series blade servers or C-Series rack servers. The CVD also extends to Cisco’s FlexPod effort that includes NetApp storage components.
“Many of our customers are running containers on Cisco UCS already,” Liz Centoni, senior vice president and general manager of the Cisco Computing Systems Product Group, told eWEEK.
Centoni added that Cisco customers to date have primarily been using Docker for greenfield, cloud-native applications, though some are interested in deploying containerized legacy applications. Overall, organizations are looking for best practices and guidance on how to operationalize containers, she added.
The new partnership with Docker Inc. will help to further Cisco’s container support.
“UCS currently supports bare-metal and virtualized environments, which are typically how containers are deployed,” Centoni said. “The joint engagement with Docker will deliver a more turnkey approach to the consumption of container technology such as automated setup, optimal configurations of Compute, Network and Storage, and better integration into the Docker Management platform.”