Cisco is preparing to introduce its own hypervisor, offering customers a path away from VMware as licensing changes under Broadcom prompt disgruntled customers to seek alternatives.
The product, called NFVIS-for-UC, is designed specifically to run Cisco’s unified communications applications, including its call management software. For years, Cisco required these applications to operate in virtual machines, most commonly on VMware’s ESXi platform. That long-standing dependency now appears set to loosen.
After Broadcom acquired it, VMware has shifted its commercial focus toward VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), a bundled private cloud stack. Many smaller and mid-sized organizations that previously relied on VMware’s vSphere products report being steered toward the more comprehensive, and more expensive, VCF suite at renewal time. That shift has prompted frustration over higher costs among many smaller and mid-sized VMware customers.
Narrower Use Case
Rather than competing head-on with VMware or Nutanix across the full virtualization stack, Cisco is targeting a narrower use case: customers who virtualize primarily to support Cisco telephony and collaboration tools. For those organizations, the requirement to adopt a full private cloud bundle may be difficult to justify.
NFVIS-for-UC supports only Cisco’s collaboration applications and runs on the company’s hardware. It is based on Cisco’s existing Network Function Virtualization Infrastructure Software (NFVIS), which the company already uses to deploy networking workloads. The unified communications edition carries separate licensing and a modified management interface.
Cisco has indicated the hypervisor will reach general availability in the first quarter. Earlier this month, the company published updated virtualization guidance confirming that current versions of its collaboration software are validated for the new platform.
Cisco’s strategy, in short, works to reduce external dependencies while retaining tighter control over performance and support.
At the same time, Cisco has expanded support for Nutanix’s AHV hypervisor for its collaboration applications, and it continues to promote FlashStack, a converged infrastructure offering developed with Nutanix and Pure Storage. FlashStack combines Cisco compute hardware with third-party storage and virtualization software to provide a validated migration path for customers reconsidering VMware.
VMware Continues as a Leader
VMware’s position in virtualization remains strong at the high end of the market. Broadcom has reported growing VMware revenue, emphasizing large enterprise customers that have adopted VCF across integrated infrastructure environments. According to company disclosures, the majority of its largest accounts have standardized on the platform.
Aiding VMware’s continued strength, migration decisions are complex and full of potential headaches, and so usually take considerable time. Transitions require careful evaluation of total cost of ownership and operational risk.
Still, for customers whose VMware footprint is limited to running Cisco collaboration tools, NFVIS-for-UC offers a more contained alternative. It does not eliminate the need for virtualization expertise, and some organizations may ultimately operate multiple hypervisors within the same environment. But it does provide an additional option at a time when infrastructure strategy is under renewed scrutiny, particularly the costs of virtualization.
