January was a busy month for Cisco Systems Inc. on the hyperconverged front. In addition to its continuing key partnership with Veeam Software Inc., Cisco announced that it would pursue the acquisition of Skyport Systems Inc. in a bid to strengthen its hybrid cloud offerings. Cisco also announced HyperFlex 3.0, a major product update that includes new features designed to enable customer migration to a multicloud model.

In addition, Cisco released its new container platform on HyperFlex 3.0. “It’s the simplicity message; customers want ease of use of technology,” said Darren Williams (pictured, left), HyperFlex leader in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Russia at Cisco Systems. “You can have a three-node cluster up and running in 34 minutes, including the network.”

Williams visited the set of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Cisco Live event in Barcelona, Spain, and spoke with co-hosts John Furrier (@furrier) and Stu Miniman (@stu). He was joined by Stefan Renner (pictured, right), technical director of global alliances at Veeam Software, and they discussed Cisco’s and Veeam’s strategy for meeting customer needs in the hyperconverged space, the challenges of data protection compliance, and global interest in the HyperFlex solution. (* Disclosure below.)

Cisco’s hyperconverged approach is focused on leveraging its current presence in hardware while building a stronger software portfolio, catering to customer interest in a multicloud environment. An IDC study in 2017 showed that 87 percent of enterprises either are using or plan to use a hybrid model.

Expanded role for Veeam on Cisco’s platform

Veeam remains a key partner with Cisco in its hybrid strategy. Last year, Veeam expanded its work with Cisco when it launched direct snapshot integration on Cisco’s HyperFlex platform. “If you add Veeam on top of [HyperFlex] to install availability features … that’s also less than an hour,” Renner said. “A lot of customers are taking about moving to the cloud completely, or at least moving a majority of their data.”

The challenge of meeting General Data Protection Regulation requirements in Europe is also occupying customer attention, as any business with data on European citizens must comply by May. Many companies will be challenged to find and delete specific data as required by the new law, which might involve a single table entry in backup.

“It’s not about a single solution,” Renner said. “[GDPR] goes across different databases, different applications, different software.”

There are now 2,500 HyperFlex users globally, according to Williams. In addition to managing the requirements of GDPR, customers will look to Cisco and Veeam for new solutions that will fit the hybrid enterprise.

“We’re seeing more customers think of hyperconverged as a multicloud strategy,” Williams said. “We’ve had some great traction. It’s just going to get faster and faster.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Cisco Live Barcelona 2018. (* Disclosure: Veeam Software Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Veeam Software nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE