Cisco and VMware Expand Their Strategic Partnership to Deliver Next Generation Cloud Infrastructures

SAN FRANCISCO – VMworld® – August 27, 2012 –  Today Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO, news, filings)  and VMware (NYSE: VMW)  announced they plan to expand their strategic partnership to include integrated products and solutions aimed at delivering the software defined datacenter. This partnership expansion will be highlighted by an investment in dedicated engineering teams collaborating on deeper integrations across the VMware cloud infrastructure and management stacks and Cisco’s Data Center Networking and Fabric Computing platforms. The companies’ investment in joint dedicated engineering teams will represent a new level of collaboration which will enable the software defined datacenter through unprecedented coupling of virtual and physical infrastructure.

Highlights:

• Cisco and VMware will make significant joint engineering investments to develop technology integration initiatives, which will launch a new set of solutions designed to provide customers unprecedented levels of agile compute and network services, workload and workspace mobility,  end-to-end visibility, and ease of troubleshooting across their physical and virtual infrastructures.
• To support customer demand and choice, VMware will integrate the Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches with the new VMware vCloud® Suite 5.1, also announced today, and other VMware products.
• Cisco and VMware will develop Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS)-based cloud solutions, which will bundle Cisco virtual networking, virtual services and management such as the Nexus 1000V virtual switch, CSR 1000V cloud router, ASA 1000V cloud firewall, virtual WAAS for WAN optimization, and Intelligent Automation for Cloud with VMware vSphere® 5.1, VMware vCloud Suite 5.1 and complementary management offerings.
• Furthering the commitment to mutual customers, Cisco will resell VMware vCloud Suite 5.1, which will feature enhanced interoperability with Cisco Nexus 1000V.
• As part of the companies’ joint vision for the transformation of the workspace in the post-PC era, VMware and Cisco are expanding their joint solutions with Cisco VXI and VMware View to introduce new integrated solutions for SMB and ROBO customers featuring Cisco e-Series UCS servers and VMware View®.
• Cisco and VMware will also provide Cisco Validated Designs and reference architectures to simplify and accelerate customer implementation of these joint solutions.
• Cisco and VMware joint solutions will be made available for VCE, as well as ecosystem partners,  to help drive customer adoption of its industry-leading converged infrastructure platforms. Cisco and VMware remain strongly committed, along with EMC, to the VCE partnership.

This expanded partnership will leverage Cisco’s history of innovative leadership in networking and systems with VMware’s industry leadership in software-based virtualization and cloud infrastructure.  To date, the partnership has delivered groundbreaking products and solutions including:

• Nexus 1000V – In 2009, VMware and Cisco delivered a distributed virtual switch from Cisco enabling network administrators to simplify network management between their physical and virtual environments. Since its inception, more than 6,000 customers have licensed this joint solution.
• Cisco UCS – In 2009, Cisco introduced the Unified Computing System (UCS), a new x86 platform that radically simplified the management of compute, storage access, networking and virtualization and is tightly integrated with the VMware vSphere platform, enabling customers to reduce their CAPEX and OPEX as they expand their virtual and cloud infrastructures.
• Converged Infrastructure – Cisco and EMC, together with VMware and with investments from Intel, established the VCE coalition in 2009, spearheading the movement toward converged infrastructure. Customers globally have recognized the value of Vblock™ Infrastructure Platforms in accelerating the migration of enterprise workloads to private and public clouds.
• Cisco VXI and VMware View – In 2012, Cisco and VMware cooperated to deliver a unified collaboration solution leveraging VMware cloud infrastructure, VMware View and Cisco UCS, Cisco Wide Area Application Services and Unified Communications platforms to enable customers to migrate to a more open, mobile and immersive workspace environment in the post-PC era.

Supporting Quotes:

Rob Lloyd, Executive Vice President, Cisco

“Cisco and VMware have delivered incredible value to customers seeking to accelerate the deployment of private and public clouds. The next-generation datacenter will enable customers to capture the value of VMware cloud infrastructure and management stacks along with the next wave of Cisco innovations in hardware, ASICs, systems and network programmability to deliver unprecedented scalability, security, diagnostics and policy management. As the leader in networking, Cisco looks forward to continuing to lead the industry in partnership with VMware.”

Pat Gelsinger, Incoming Chief Executive Officer, VMware

“The software-defined datacenter will deliver the next leap in software-based datacenter automation across server, storage and networking, but it requires equal hardware and systems-based innovation. We are very excited to further our partnership with Cisco, the industry-leading innovator in networking, as we believe it will bring significant value to our joint customers through the integration of the VMware cloud infrastructure platform with Cisco’s intelligent network fabric.”

Related Links

• Learn more about the Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches
• Learn more about Cisco Unified Computing System
• Learn more about the VMware vCloud Suite

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• Cisco and VMware Strategic Alliance page
• Twitter: @Cisco Systems, @VMware

About Cisco

Cisco, (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

About VMware

VMware (NYSE: VMW)  is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to thrive in the Cloud Era. Customers rely on VMware to help them transform the way they build, deliver and consume Information Technology resources in a manner that is evolutionary and based on their specific needs. With 2011 revenues of $3.77 billion, VMware has more than 400,000 customers and 55,000 partners.  The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com.

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VMware, VMware vCloud, VMware View, VMware vSphere and VMworld are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective organizations. The use of the word “partner” or “partnership” does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any other company.

Forward-Looking Statement

This release may be deemed to contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include, among others, statements regarding expansion of Cisco’s and VMware’s strategic partnership, investments in joint dedicated engineering teams, launching of a new set of solutions, remaining strongly committed to the VCE partnership, Cisco continuing to lead the industry in partnership with VMware, bringing significant value to joint customers, and expectations for the software-defined datacenter.  Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future events or results due to a variety of factors, including, among other things, the ability of the companies to partner successfully; the ability to achieve expected benefits of the partnership; business and economic conditions and growth trends in the information technology and networking industries; competitive factors, including but not limited to pricing pressures, industry consolidation, entry of new competitors into the virtualization and cloud computing markets, and new product and marketing initiatives by our competitors; the uncertainty of customer acceptance of emerging technology; changes to product development timelines; Cisco’s and VMware’s ability to protect their proprietary technology; and Cisco’s and VMware’s ability to attract and retain highly qualified employees; customer markets and various geographic regions; global economic conditions and uncertainties in the geopolitical environment; and other risk factors set forth in Cisco’s most recent reports on Form 10-K and 10-Q filed on September 14, 2011 and May 23, 2012, respectively, and VMware’s most recent reports on Form 10-K and 10-Q filed on February 24, 2012 and August 2, 2012, respectively, and reports each company may file from time to time on Form 8-K. Any forward-looking statements in this release are based on limited information currently available to Cisco and VMware, which is subject to change, and neither Cisco nor VMware assume obligation to update the information after the date of this release.