Cisco builds its own VMware hypervisor alternative, release imminent

Cisco is introducing a hypervisor for running its own applications. NFVIS-for-UC is intended to offer an alternative for organizations that are virtualizing their telephone systems but do not want to purchase the expensive VMware Cloud Foundation.

For years, Cisco has required customers to run applications such as Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) in VMs. It does this to deliver a standardized, stable experience. For a long time, VMware was the standard for rolling out these virtual machines. However, because Broadcom has bundled all kinds of products in VMware Cloud Foundation, customers are often faced with higher costs. Those who run CUCM will eventually no longer need to turn to VMware.

Cisco announced the hypervisor last year as a lightweight tool with “only the essential virtualization features.” The company is positioning the solution for organizations looking for a stable, easy-to-manage hypervisor without being dependent on third-party platforms or the cloud. At the same time, Cisco also added support for Nutanix’s AHV hypervisor. Together with Nutanix and Pure Storage, Cisco is also working on a major VMware alternative. When it comes to the hypervisor alone, this is just as much of a bulky option, which is why Cisco’s own hypervisor may be of interest.

Based on existing technology

Cisco does not seem to have any plans to make its offering attractive to organizations that aren’t using specific applications from the…