The old saying that "time flies by" couldn't be any more true when I reflect on our decade-long partnership with NetApp. Over the past ten years new technology trends, changing consumption models, and fast-evolving customer needs have altered the IT industry landscape. But the Cisco-NetApp partnership has stood the test of time. Why? Because it was built on a solid foundation: remarkably aligned visions of the future of IT, complimentary technology solutions, and similar corporate cultures.

Over the past two years our partnership momentum has accelerated with the success of the FlexPod architecture. Cisco and NetApp now have more than 2,100 FlexPod customers, deployments in 35 countries and more than 700 channel partners. In fact, our channel partners have proven to be the secret sauce driving FlexPod momentum.

Today, Cisco and NetApp are announcing an expansion of our winning partnership to make it easier for customers to deploy and access next-generation cloud infrastructure solutions. The partnership expansion is built around four key areas: 

• Deeper FlexPod architectural integration
• A new FlexPod solution for Cloud Service Providers
• A branch office solution
• Expanded FlexPod application validation

We invite you to learn more about today's announcement and share with us your thoughts on our expanded partnership with NetApp and how our shared data center vision is helping you manage your data center.