Cisco announced on September 17 to be intentioned to acquire Metacloud. Metacloud, was founded in 2011 in Pasadena, California, and provides a managed OpenStack-based product called Carbon|OS that, running on existing hardware, allows to run a private cloud “on premises” (as the company says).
Apparently Cisco’s new acquisition which should be completed in the Q1 2015, is aimed to provide its customers with Metacloud’s OpenStack-based cloud platform integrated on Cisco’s Cloud Infrastructure and Managed Services solution, which is based on OpenStack open source software, this acquisition will help the Californian company to accelerate its Intercloud strategy.
The Intercloud strategy was announced by Cisco last March and it is supposed to be a network of clouds that jointly with other partners is supposed to deliver a secure cloud platform. Metacloud offering combined with Cisco’s is supposed to give a comprehensive solution with Metacloud’s remote managed OpenStack Private Cloud-as-a-Service platform, allowing enterprises to have the benefits of public cloud with the security of a private data centre.
Hilton Romanski, senior vice president, Cisco Corporate Development, said:
Cloud computing has dramatically changed the IT landscape. To enable greater business agility and lower costs, organizations are shifting from an on-premise IT structure to hybrid IT – a mix of private cloud, public cloud, and on-premise applications, the resulting silos present a challenge to IT administrators, as choice, visibility, data sovereignty and protection in this world of many clouds requires an open platform. We believe Metacloud’s technology will play a critical role in enabling our customers to experience a seamless journey to a new world of many clouds, providing choice, flexibility, and data governance.