Cisco and NetApp updated their co-developed FlexPod converged infrastructure platform with more visibility and automation targeted at better support for enterprise hybrid-cloud deployments. The update also gains a new tri-letter appendage that would make any automaker envious.

The new FlexPod XCS option adds four main pillars of updates on what is now a 10-year collaboration between Cisco and NetApp.

The first is greater visibility using Cisco’s Intersight cloud-based infrastructure management platform. This allows for a single pane of glass for enterprises to manage NetApp-based data inventory, health, and compliance. It also provides a broader view of FlexPod stacks and can tie into other Cisco management services.

The second pillar is increased automation. Siva Sivakumar, VP for Cisco Computing and Solutions Product Management at Cisco, explained that this allows customers to more quickly stand up newly instantiated FlexPods using full automation that better mimics a “cloud-like experience.”

That also ties into the third pillar, which provides for more complete integration into hybrid-cloud services. Mike Arterbury, VP and GM for Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure and OEM Solutions at NetApp, explained the FlexPod platform ties directly into all three major cloud providers – Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) – to support better business continuity, a cloud native-like application development cycle, and more secure backup and recovery.

The final pillar is a new consumption model that continues to push Cisco’s long-running as-a-service pledge. The FlexPod-as-a-service option allows Cisco Plus and NetApp Keystone channel partners to package the FlexPod XCS platform into a subscription service.

Arterbury said that this will allow customers to “consume the best of Cisco [Unified Computing System], the best of Cisco Networking, the best of NetApp capabilities through an opex model so that they can lower the bar of entry and then pay for what they consume.”

Customers can continue to purchase the enhanced FlexPod XCS platform upfront using a capex model.

Timing for the new platform is set for later this year, with the FlexPod XCS platform currently trialing with “specific partners and customers.”