Google Cloud, Cisco Solidify Network Management Team-Up

Google Cloud will launch a network management solution that integrates with Cisco SD-WAN to simplify multicloud and on-premises deployments.

Google’s Network Connectivity Center (NCC) automates site-to-cloud and site-to-site connectivity, ensuring that users can access workloads from any location. NCC lets businesses harness Google Cloud’s backbone to deploy and oversee VPNs, interconnects and SD-WANs. As a result, businesses can optimize their network connections and cut down on time and costs. The product is in preview.

Customers can access the VPN-based cloud connectivity directly from Google Cloud or select partners. NCC also can connect with the Google Cloud Network Intelligence Center to provide a single pane of visibility.

Colgate-Palmolive, the multinational household and health care product company, expects to benefit from NCC. Miguel Mejia is Colgate-Palmolive’s WAN engineering lead.

“As an industry leader, a fast and reliable network is essential to maintain our productivity across a large number of our globally distributed work centers. We understand Google Cloud’s Network Connectivity Center could help us achieve broader access to Google’s global network and also enable us to connect our remote site users and applications in a consistent manner.”

Source: Google Cloud

Cisco Partnership

The Network Connectivity Center can use Cisco SD-WAN to provide connectivity across Google Cloud’s backbone.

Cisco’s JL Valente

Google Cloud and Cisco last year announced Cisco SD-WAN Cloud Hub with Google Cloud. The companies at the time said select customers could participate in previews near the end of 2020. They said they would make the solution generally available in the first half of 2021. Now the solution is here.

The team-up allows customers to access Cisco SD-WAN Cloud OnRamp support in Google Cloud. Customers can connect their various sites together with Google Cloud’s global network and Cisco’s SD-WAN fabric.

The solution integrates Google Cloud Network Connectivity Center with the Cisco vManage network management system. Cisco uses vManage for its Viptela SD-WAN solution.

“Google Cloud and Cisco continue driving innovation for our joint customers to enable secure and automated SD-WAN access from applications and services running on Google Cloud Platform,” said JL Valente, vice president, product management, for Cisco enterprise routing, SD-WAN and cloud networking. “Our latest integration not only extends the Cisco SD-WAN fabric to Google Cloud to automate provisioning of site-to-cloud connectivity effortlessly, but also gives customers the choice of using Google Cloud for providing a highly reliable, high performance global cloud network for site-to-site connectivity that can be deployed in minutes.”

Source: Cisco and Google Cloud

Valente elaborated further in a blog. According to Cisco, the second phase of the partnership will involve real-time telemetry exchange.

Cloud Management Study

A new study emphasizes the multicloud nature of our world. VMware and Xtravirt recently commissioned Forrester Consulting to ask businesses about their cloud strategies and the role MSPs play in furthering their cloud strategies.

Eight-five percent of companies run their applications on two or more different clouds, according to the study. Furthermore, one-half (51%) have adopted a multicloud strategy.

More than 150 IT decision-makers participated in the survey. They indicated that their biggest cloud adoption concern is mitigating costs, followed closely by data protection and employee skills.

Perhaps the juiciest nugget of the study pertained to MSPs. Eighty-six percent of respondents said they have already invested in an MSP or plan to do so in the next year. Some 83% agreed or strongly agreed that MSPs help businesses optimize their cloud strategies. For example, respondents said MSPs could expand the number of of apps and services they can access, as well as improve application performance.