If you are like the many IT managers we talk to every day, you prefer to have options whenever you tackle a project or formulate your IT strategy. Perhaps, you do not like the idea of feeling limited, constrained or unable to leverage a viable contingency plan. Architecting your cloud strategy should be no exception .... And Cisco Intercloud Fabric can help!

So what does Cisco Intercloud Fabric do?

No time to read? This short video will provide you with an overview of the solution and perhaps entertain you for a couple of minutes. And if you are at VMworld this week, you can stop by at the Cisco booth to learn more about Cisco Intercloud Fabric.

In essence, Cisco Intercloud Fabric provides open and highly secure portability of workloads (aka applications) among heterogeneous cloud environments and with consistent network and security policies. You can move your workloads from your traditional IT environment or your private cloud to a public cloud provider of your choice. We have discussed in the past how hybrid cloud is becoming the 'new normal'. Cisco Intercloud Fabric lets you deploy a hybrid cloud that operates asoneunified environment-straddling your data center boundaries-with you in control.

And what are the benefits?

• Choice -Can you really put in place a sound strategy if you do not have options, if you do not have choice? Are you limited in your choice of hypervisors, public cloud providers, or IT infrastructure? How easy is it to change cloud providers if you wanted to do so in the future?   Cisco Intercloud Fabric will give you the freedom to place workloads across clouds. And across heterogeneous environments ... 'any' network ... 'any' hardware platform ... with multi-hypervisor support ... from VMware vSphere to Microsoft Azure ... and .... back!

• Consistency -Can you seamlessly extend your private cloud environment to the public cloud? What about your network and security policies? How will they change? Cisco Intercloud Fabric will make your life easier in this regard. You will be able to get consistent network and security policies across your data and applications, wherever they reside. This will allow you can accelerate the time required to deploy your applications to the cloud.

• Control -Managing multiple cloud frameworks is challenging! More importantly, it is about selecting the best cloud for your specific application and data. Cisco Intercloud Fabric gives you unified workload management across clouds ..... You are back in control!

A powerful enabler ....

We continue to envision IT organizations transitioning to new roles as trusted 'brokers of IT services'. As we discussed, this model enables IT to add value to one or more public or private cloud services on behalf of its users. The intent is to dynamically bring together, integrate, and manage the delivery of multiple cloud services to best meet the needs of the business.

Cisco Intercloud Fabric is a powerful enabler to facilitate that transition. You, like most IT decision makers want to retain control over your hybrid cloud environment and you may need the ability to repatriate your workloads back to your data centers.  Avoid a 'one-way' trip to the public cloud .... Retain choice, consistency and control without compromising your compliance requirements with Cisco Intercloud Fabric!

Do you want to see a demo?

Well ... If you are going to be at VMworld in San Francisco this week, you can stop by at the Cisco booth (#1217.) You will be able to witness how you can unleash your hybrid cloud with Intercloud Fabric. You can also attend one of our sessions on Tuesday to learn more about this solution and associated use cases.

Additional Resources

• Learn more about Cisco Intercloud Fabric by visiting our web site www.cisco.com/go/intercloudfabric
• For general overview of Cisco Cloud and learn how we can help you build your private and hybrid cloud  http://www.cisco.com/go/cloud
• Cisco offers choice with a broad variety of Cisco Powered Cloud Services and Managed Services options www.cisco.com/go/ciscopowered