Cisco, with Partners, to Put $1 Billion into OpenStack-based "Intercloud"
Cisco Systems has announced that it plans to invest more than $1 billion to expand its cloud business in the next two years, including building an OpenStack-based Intercloud, descrbied as a "network of clouds," with several partners. The Cisco global Intercloud is being built for the Internet of Everything, with real-time analytics, “near infinite” scalability and full compliance with local data sovereignty laws, according to the company. The Intercloud, which will feature open APIs for application development, will also deliver a new enterprise-class portfolio of cloud IT services for businesses and service providers.
The Internet of Everything has been getting quite a bit of attention lately, with The Linux Foundation also announcing its Allseen Alliance initiative, billed as "the broadest cross-industry consortium to date to advance adoption and innovation in the 'Internet of Everything' in homes and industry." Partners supporting the alliance include some of the world’s leading, consumer electronics manufacturers, home appliances manufacturers, service providers, retailers, enterprise technology companies, innovative startups, and chipset manufacturers.
The following organizations, which are either planning to deliver Cisco Cloud Services or have endorsed Cisco’s global Intercloud initiative, represent Cisco's cloud partners: Australian service provider Telstra; Canadian business communications provider Allstream; European cloud company Canopy; cloud services aggregator, provider and wholesale technology distributor Ingram Micro Inc.; global IT and managed services provider Logicalis Group; global provider of enterprise software platforms MicroStrategy, Inc.; enterprise data center IT solutions provider OnX Managed Services; information availability services provider SunGard Availability Services; and global IT, consulting and outsourcing company Wipro Ltd.
According to Cisco's announcement:
"The networked connection of people, data, processes and things, dubbed the Internet of Everything, is expected to be a $19 trillion economic opportunity in the coming decade. The Internet of Everything movement, which is creating an entirely new set of requirements for globally distributed and highly secure clouds, has empowered Cisco and its partners to initiate the development of a massively scalable, flexible and highly secure Intercloud to deliver the mobile, collaborative and rich video cloud services that enable today’s new connected experiences."
The Intercloud will be based on OpenStack, and you can find out more about its architecture and the roles of partners on this page.