Cisco has announced plans to invest $1 billion in expanding its cloud computing offerings. The company will partner with a number of different vendors to build a “global intercloud,” essentially a network of clouds, based on OpenStack technology.
“While there are many cloud offerings on the market today, the [Cisco] Global Intercloud differs in many ways. The first and most meaningful difference is that while all current cloud offerings exist as one-off solutions, the Intercloud is a network of clouds,” wrote Zeus Kerravala, principal analyst at ZK Research. “A single cloud service obviously has value, but a collection of connected clouds has exponentially more value.”
In addition to traditional cloud computing, the intercloud will support the internet of things, which Cisco believes represents a $19 trillion global market opportunity.
