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About one year after the introduction of its hyperconverged system, and 1,100 orders later, Cisco announced upgrades to its Cisco HyperFlex Systems portfolio.

The latest release bridges HyperFlex platform innovation from version 2.0 to 2.5 and includes management improvements, new enterprise data protection and security features, according to the vendor.

With increased performance and I/O, Tuesday’s HyperFlex release targets more data-intensive workloads.

What partners will see in the new release:

Cisco has about 1,400 partners qualified to sell data-center services; of those, 575 have either sold HyperFlex or have deals in the pipeline, the company said. There are four baskets of HyperFlex partner opportunity – hybrid cloud infrastructure; drive refresh; profitability; and accelerated services, according to Scott Mohr, director, data center/cloud, with Cisco’s global partner organization.{ad}

“We believe from a portfolio perspective, we’re bringing a truly end-to-end cloud based experience to our partners, which differentiates their value exchange significantly from some of our competitors that are point-product-related or not as holistic in their offers,” he told us.

Compliance is one of the big areas where Cisco helps partners differentiate what they offer customers, specifically around governance and compliance and meeting audit requirements. Also, the vendor touted its validated designs and solutions architectures, which Mohr noted are tried, true and tested.

“In essence, cookbooks for our partners to deliver,” he said.

Viewed as an extension of the company’s servers, HyperFlex offers UCS customers a path toward a more cloud-oriented infrastructure without much adjustment in their …

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…  operational model and how they run their IT infrastructure today, Mohr suggested, driving a refresh opportunity for partners.

Profitability and accelerated services, as partner opportunities, go hand in hand. Mohr referred to some of Cisco’s xIP programs for HyperFlex HX-Series such as the Opportunity Incentive Program (OIP), Solution Incentive Program (SIP) and Value Incentive Program (VIP).  HyperFlex is also eligible for Cisco SmartPlay Bundles, and partners can help customers tap into Cisco Capital financing.

Finally, partners can build a services practice as cloud architectures gain acceptance among customers.{ad}

“Customer requirements today around hybrid IT are outpacing their ability to keep up, creating a bit of a cloud gap in IT’s ability to deliver,” said Mohr.

Some types of services that HyperFlex are driving for partners: life-cycle adviser, business cloud adviser, Cisco Advanced Services/Technical Services (AS/TS), and Cisco ACES sales process.

Of the 1,100 HyperFlex Systems sold over the past year, about 70 percent went to existing customers, while another 30 percent were white-space, or new, customers, according to company.