Hitachi & Cisco launch new solution for OpenShift users

Hitachi Vantara and Cisco have announced a new co-engineered solution specifically designed for Red Hat OpenShift, aiming to optimise hybrid cloud application deployment for enterprise users.

The new joint solution, named Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for Converged Infrastructure, integrates Cisco's compute and networking systems with Hitachi Vantara's Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) arrays, leveraging Red Hat OpenShift container management tools. This integration is intended to help enterprises enhance agility and resilience while reducing energy consumption, thanks to AI-powered data orchestration.

The introduction of Red Hat OpenShift containers into this infrastructure comes at a pivotal time, as enterprises need to manage multiple applications across diverse environments.

A recent report anticipates substantial growth in the application container market, driven by AI-led digital transformation, with many enterprises adopting container technology to automate traditional IT tasks, thereby reducing application deployment times and enhancing scalability. Nonetheless, a Red Hat report indicates that security concerns have caused 67% of organisations to delay or slow their container-based application deployments.

This newly launched solution seeks to simplify container adoption by offering a pre-validated enterprise infrastructure. This can potentially speed up application development processes, improve operational consistency, and enhance resilience in latency-critical workloads. The AI-powered, environmentally responsible data management is expected to bolster confidence, mitigate risks, and reduce environmental impact for enterprises.

"Organisations today are under immense pressure to modernise their IT infrastructure while meeting sustainability goals.

Our collaboration with Cisco and Red Hat reflects our commitment to delivering solutions that support both business innovation and environmental responsibility," said Dan McConnell, Senior Vice President, Product Management and Enterprise Infrastructure at Hitachi Vantara. "This converged solution can empower businesses to build and scale containerised applications more seamlessly, delivering high performance and greater operational consistency."

Echoing this sentiment, Jeremy Foster, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Cisco Compute, stated, "Cisco's collaboration with Hitachi Vantara and Red Hat marks a significant milestone for customers looking to modernise their data centres for a new era of agility, efficiency and resilience. Together, we have created a powerful and scalable solution that streamlines modern application development through the seamless deployment of container technology on the Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for Converged Infrastructure."

The converged solution offers benefits including accelerated application deployment, as it provides pre-validated and certified infrastructure to ease applications swiftly into production. By promoting operational consistency through a unified platform spanning on-premises and cloud environments, it promises a seamless experience for workload mobility and rebalancing, thus reducing risk. The solution also ensures unbreakable data resilience, with Hitachi Vantara's VSP arrays providing continuous uptime with real-time monitoring and geo-redundancy, protecting critical data and maintaining accessibility.

The solution aids in meeting sustainability objectives, with VSP arrays optimising power usage, acknowledged as a top storage solution by ENERGY STAR. This enhances enterprises' sustainability efforts while delivering a unified platform for application deployment and management across diverse environments. The VSP arrays recently earned ENERGY STAR certification and were recognised in the top three ranked positions for performance and energy efficiency in storage solutions.

Ryan King, Senior Director, Hardware Partners at Red Hat, commented, "In today's fast-evolving IT landscape, businesses are under increasing pressure to modernise their infrastructure while managing complexity and risk. Red Hat OpenShift offers a trusted, comprehensive application platform that empowers organisations to achieve cloud-native modernisation in alignment with their business goals. By enabling Hitachi Vantara and Cisco infrastructure on Red Hat OpenShift, we can provide an enterprise-ready solution to help streamline container adoption and support more scalable operations."

The converged solution is distinguished by its comprehensive approach to private and hybrid cloud infrastructure, intended to deliver faster time to value and lower operational risks. Its built-in automation and scalable architecture make it suitable for organisations aiming to modernise their IT landscape while remaining environmentally responsible.

It is available through Hitachi EverFlex, offering organisations flexible, consumption-based access to hybrid cloud solutions, aligning resource management with minimal upfront investment requirements.