Category Archives: partnership

Juniper Networks and Lenovo form global datacentre partnership

datacentre1Lenovo and Juniper Networks have announced a global strategic partnership to drive development of next-generation datacentre infrastructure solutions.

The partnership will focus on next-generation converged, hyper-converged, and hyper-scale data centre infrastructure solutions for enterprise and web-scale customers. The aim of the union will be to deliver flexible and cheaper solutions for customers, with a strong focus on simplifying user experience.

“Partnering with Lenovo expands Juniper’s strategy to deliver a full-stack solution for a wide-range of data centres, from the mid-range enterprise to private cloud and to hyper-scale customers,” said Juniper Networks CEO Rami Rahim. “We are excited about collaborating with Lenovo to leverage the full power of our IP-networking portfolio based on JunosOS and Contrail, in delivering the next generation of converged, hyper-converged, and hyper-scale solution to customers in China and globally”

As part of the partnership, customers will be able to purchase Juniper networking products directly through Lenovo, as well as receiving a consolidated support function for both companies. With the move to disaggregation of hardware and software in the datacentre, the two companies intend to bring open, flexible solutions to market, leveraging the ONIE (Open Network Install Environment) model.

“Lenovo is on a mission to become the market leader in datacentre solutions. We will continue to invest in the development and delivery of disruptive IT solutions to shape next-generation data centres,” said Gerry Smith, Executive VP and COO at Lenovo’s PC and Enterprise Business Group “Our partnership with Juniper Networks provides Lenovo access to an industry leading portfolio of products that include Software Defined Networking solutions – essential for state-of-the-art data centre offerings”

With a focus on the Chinese market, currently plans centre on a joint go-to-market strategy, as well as a tailor-made resell model to address unique localization requirements in China.

Cisco and Verizon team up to launch Cisco Spark

Cisco corporateCisco is expanding its partnership with Verizon Enterprise Solutions to offer its new cloud-based collaboration service, Cisco Spark, to Verizon’s customer base.

The announcement builds on continued efforts from Verizon to bolster its range next-generation collaboration solutions, which already includes offers such as Cisco WebEx Cloud Connected Audio, Collaboration Meeting Room and Verizon’s UCCaaS Mobile First service.

The new joint offer will deliver Spark Message and Spark Meet features integrated with Verizon’s business collaboration services. The ultimate goal of the partnership will be to develop a service delivered in such a manner that customers are unable to differentiate between the Cisco and Verizon components. While currently available in the US, the service will be available to enterprise and government customers worldwide towards the end of the year.

Cisco has also announced the allocation of $150 million to the Cisco Spark for Developers Fund to generate new ideas for the ecosystem. The fund will cover direct investments, joint development, additional enhancements and developer support.

Verizon has been making considerable efforts over the last 12 months to increase its cloud-based communications offerings, to meet the demands of an increasingly mobile and collaborative workforce. With enterprise increasingly searching for opportunities to create a more productive working environment, software- and cloud-based offerings which enable employees to work in the office, from home or on the road, are quickly becoming the norm.

“Verizon is a leader in delivering global, mobile-enabled unified communications solutions to our business and government clients,” said Bob Minai, Executive Director, Advanced Communications at Verizon. “By integrating Cisco Spark meeting and messaging capabilities into Verizon’s collaboration portfolio and global network, Verizon and Cisco will continue to help enterprise clients with digital transformation initiatives that drive better customer experiences and meaningful, measurable business outcomes.”

The partnership continues Verizon’s trend of collaborative business, following up on last month’s announcement that it would be teaming up HyperOffice. As part of the agreement, HyperOffice would distribute its Share.to communications suite from Verizon Cloud infrastructure. Primarily, the tool will enable employees to work alongside freelancers, customers and other stakeholders all using different collaboration tools that need to work together.