Google and Cisco team up for hybrid cloud

Network equipment vendor Cisco and Google have joined forces to get a foothold in the cloud market with a new hybrid solution.

The deal gives Google the opportunity to help Cisco's enterprise customers bridge their on premises data centres with Google Cloud. Google is considered the third-place runner in the cloud market behind Amazon and Microsoft.

Cisco and Google will offer a hybrid cloud solution built on the open source Kubernetes container orchestration technology and Istio microservices platform.

Cisco's HyperFlex converged platform and Private Cloud Infrastructure will be used on premises, with software components licensed on an annual basis in one, three or five-year terms.

Hardware required for the hybrid solution will be sold on a perpetual basis by Cisco.

Google said its Kubernetes-based Container Engine service would deliver a consistent environment for the Cisco on premises offering.

As the solution allows customers to use their choice of management, software, hypervisor and operating system, customers can avoid cloud lock-in, Google said.

The partnership follows Microsoft's tie-up with multiple hardware vendors, including Dell EMC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Lenovo, with the Azure Stack hybrid cloud offering.