Weekly Cloud Review: Converged infrastructure + developer outreach
With the consumerization of IT sweeping through the enterprise, organizations are increasingly embracing the private cloud in an effort to keep up with the fast-evolving expectations of their end-users. The path to addressing the needs of today’s workforce leads to converged infrastructure, a modular approach to managing data centers that aims to simplify deployment and operations and accommodate future data growth.
Cisco and NetApp are leading the charge with FlexPod, a jointly developed converged reference architecture series that competes with VCE’s Vblock and and EMC’s VSPEX. Celebrating the third anniversary of their partnership this week, the pair revamped the lineup in a push toward the cloud services market.
The latest updates to FlexPod include new a specialized design for cloud providers, integrations with Cisco’s UCS Director 4.1 and Intelligent Automation for Cloud, and the addition of Citrix to the Flexpod Cooperative Support Program. This means that FlexPod users now have access to the firm’s virtualization know-how.
Apigee is taking a different approach to helping enterprises tap the power of the cloud. The Palo Alto-based firm recently upgraded its API management platform to support Node.js, a Javascript-based development platform that can be used to easily create and integrate cloud services.
According to chief architect Gregory Brail, the update aims to make it easier for engineers to solve complex problems such as orchestration and mobile optimization. “We want to give developers the best possible platform for creating today’s modern apps that deliver data and services through APIs and are consumed on a wide variety of devices,” Brail stated.
Cloud-based CRM giant Salesforce is also doubling down on developers with the $1 Million Hackathon, a mobile app contest scheduled for the upcoming Dreamforce conference in San Francisco. More than 20,000 programmers are expected to turn up.
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