Feb 11, 2017 08:18 AM EST By Dan Archer, UniversityHerald Reporter

Cisco is about to beef up its cloud offerings, aiming for the big crowd- the enterprise IT market. Cisco this week announced the expansion of its hybrid cloud offerings by integrating Cisco UCS (Unified Computing System) with the Microsoft Azure Stack.

Cisco Joins Microsoft In The Hybrid Cloud Front

According to CRN, which got the full details of the integration story, the San Jose-based networking giant is teaming up with the Redmond-based software company in the cloud computing space, expanding the company's hybrid cloud business and at the same time, enabling tech partners to deliver Azure services from their on-premise data center space.

The cloud partnership, which will be officially called as the Cisco Integrated Solution for Microsoft Azure Stack, will grow Cisco's Microsoft portfolio and also give companies the ability to grow enterprise application and modernize in a scalable hybrid cloud environment.

The tie-up between the world's largest software company and the world's largest IT networking provider will also provide the companies full control over how they manage governance, security, and performance in the cloud front.

Tech partners and application developers can also take advantage of this partnership by tapping into a new recurring revenue opportunity by delivering Cisco UCS platform along with Microsoft Azure IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) and Azure PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) offerings.

In addition to the new revenue opportunities, the cloud offering will also provide a single pane of control hubs for managing all elements of cloud computing and networking through policy-based templates, which will be resulted in the reduction of the total cost of ownership for joint customers, according to the networking giant.

Finally, the cloud partnership reinforces Cisco's complete approach to cloud computing, offering customers a greater freedom to choose the best environments for their traditional and cloud-native applications.

General Availability And Pricing

As mentioned by the San Jose-based Cisco in the company's official website, some of the key benefits of cloud computing partnership are listed below:

• Accelerated business growth and IT innovation for enterprise IT customers.
• Cloud offerings are based on the industry-leading fabric-based Cisco UCS architecture, which features high-performance networking designed and optimized for Microsoft Azure Stack.
• Simplified IT management and control.
• Increased business confidence and trust in the enterprise IT environment.

There's still no official words about pricing, but customers can check Cisco site for more information about this latest cloud offerings. The Cisco Integrated System for Azure Stack is set for general availability in the second half of 2017.

In other Cisco news, Cisco this week also launched what it calls the industry's first Secure Internet Gateway in the cloud. Dubbed as the Cisco Umbrella, a cloud-delivered security platform that provides the first line of defense to protect employees both on and off the corporate network.

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