a few vendors and consists from 3 main hardware components: computing servers, switches (in some cases switches are not necessary) and NetApp storage systems: FlexPod based on Cisco Servers and Cisco Nexus switches nFlex based on Fujitsu Servers with Extreme Networks switching ONTAP AI using NVIDIA supercomputers with Melanox or Cisco Nexus switches. Converged Infrastructures have tested and validated design configurations from vendors available to end users and typically include popular infrastructure software like Docker Enterprise Edition (EE), Red Hat OpenStack Platform, VMware vSphere, Microsoft Servers and Hyper-V, SQL, Exchange, Oracle VM and Oracle DB, Citrix Xen, KVM, OpenStack, SAP HANA etc. and might include self-service portals PaaS or IaaS like Cisco UCS Director (UCSD) or others. FlexPod, nFlex and ONTAP AI allows an end user to modify validated design and add or remove some of the components of the Converged Infrastructure while not all of the other Converged Infrastructures from competitors allows modification. FlexPod The FlexPod platform is designed to power an organization’s most demanding apps, integrate advanced cloud services, and manage data easily—bringing them more business advantages. With the introduction of FlexPod XCS in 2022, it offers a new level of visibility, automation and hybrid cloud connectivity. Other offerings include FlexPod Express, FlexPod Datacenter, and FlexPod AI. In 2022, it also introduced FlexPod as a Service, which lets organizations shift to a pay-as-you-go model. There are few FlexPod types: FlexPod Datacenter, FlexPod Select, FlexPod Express (Small, Medium, Large and UCS-managed), and FlexPod SF. FlexPod Datacenter usually uses Nexus switches like 5000, 7000 and 9000; Cisco UCS Blade Servers; Mid-Range or High-End NetApp FAS or AFF systems. FlexPod Select often used with BigData framework software like Hortonworks, Cloudera, or more recently, Confluent. FlexPod SF has in its architecture Nexus 9000 switches, Cisco UCS Blade servers and NetApp SolidFire storage based on Cisco UCS rack servers. Cisco UCS Director used as the orchestrator for FlexPod for a self-service portal, workflow automation and billing platform to build PaaS and IaaS. FlexPod systems supported under the cooperative center of competence. NetApp Converged Systems Advisor (CSA) is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that consists of an on-premises agent and a cloud-based portal. Multi-Pod is a FlexPod Datacenter solution with a FAS or AFF system leveraging MetroCluster technology for stretching storage system between two sites. NetApp and Cisco looking to incorporate NetApp MAX Data product into FlexPod solutions once persistent memory technology will be available