Cisco, Veeam Create 'Game-Changer' Hyper-Converged HyperFlex Partnership

Cisco and Veeam have created what they are calling a “game-changer” in the hyper-converged infrastructure market by infusing Veeam's data management platform into Cisco's flagship HyperFlex platform.

"It's going to be a game-changer for the industry," said Peter McKay, co-CEO and president of Veeam, in an interview with CRN at VMworld 2018. "We're the first and the only intelligent data management solution for Cisco HyperFlex. It's a tightly integrated the solution [and we're] going to market together as a joint, one single SKU, that all the Cisco sales organizations, Cisco channel, Veeam channel can take advantage of."

Veeam will integrate its new, highly resilient data management platform, Veeam High Availability, into Cisco HyperFlex. The vendor's High Availability solution provides seamless scalability, ease of management and support for multi-cloud environments through Cisco support services, supporting all virtual, physical and cloud workloads.

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McKay said Veeam will soon be rolling out channel enablement on the new solution as well as new partner incentive programs to drive sales.

"We're going to introduce some interesting and exciting new programs to incentivize the channel to really grab it and run with this new offering," he said.

The new Veeam Availability on Cisco HyperFlex will be offered through Cisco and is backed by Cisco Solution Support, which provides support for the entire solution stack, enabling customers to deploy with confidence and peace of mind. Veeam Availability on Cisco HyperFlex is expected to be generally available in the fourth quarter of 2018.

"The focus for us was really around, 'How do we make it easier for them to buy. Easier for them to deploy. Easier for them to manage a combined solution. That's what we really focused on, easier for the customers to manage and run a data management solution," said McKay. "We think this is a win for our customers. A win for our partners and a win for Cisco and Veeam."