Cisco has had customers running containers on its systems for some time and is now taking the next steps to help support container deployments. Cisco and Docker Inc have now entered into a strategic alliance that will see the two firms collaborating on both sales and engineering efforts for containers. The alliance will see Docker deployments on certified Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) converged server systems. Specifically there is now a Cisco Validated Design (CVD) for the Docker Data Center platform, that will enable organizations to deploy Docker on Cisco UCS -B series blade servers or C-Series rack servers. The CVD also extends to Cisco’s FlexPod effort that includes NetApp storage components.