Microsoft Supports Cisco’s Unified Computing

Microsoft Corp. announced its support of Cisco’s Unified Computing System entrance into the server datacenter market as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM). Through this agreement, Cisco will pre-package, resell and support Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V technology and Microsoft SQL Server 2008. In addition, Microsoft is working closely with Cisco to integrate System Center into this new solution.

Over the past five years Microsoft has built a strong alliance with Cisco, and Unified Computing System is a natural point of evolution for the relationship. These two companies that provide best-of-breed solutions are uniting network, compute and virtualization resources into one system. Unified Computing System with Windows Server will bring value to enterprise customers in the following ways:

Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

• Runs the familiar Windows platform, helping customer’s lower operational costs and quickly work with existing environments
• Takes advantage of pre-integrated network, compute, virtualization and application tiers to help reduce IT development and deployment life cycles
• Helps reduce capital and operational expenditures through consolidation of virtual machines

Improved Flexibility

• Provides out-of-box scalability, which creates an IT environment that can be scaled to meet the needs of the business
• Increases resource flexibility, speeds reconfiguration and reduces errors that cause downtime
• Enables faster provisioning, making it a turnkey solution for datacenter virtualization
• Designed for interoperability to utilize existing investments, which helps reduce complexity to implement and architect virtualized solutions

Integrated Management

• Accelerates the delivery of new services simply, reliably and securely for both virtualized and non-virtualized workloads
• Integrates management capabilities, enabling administration of both physical and virtual environments for a consistent end-to-end experience
• Helps remove complexity that drives higher operational expenses, because management works across the network to the applications

Enable Next-Generation IT

• Establishes a consistent platform both on and off the premises to create a flexible and responsive IT datacenter
• Enables more automation, process integration and tools to providing agility to respond to business needs quickly
• Balances resources dynamically for optimal utilization of IT assets
• Incorporates role-based administration that builds on existing skills and best practices

Bill Laing, Corporate Vice President, Windows Server and Solutions, Microsoft, said: “Datacenters are becoming more virtualized across the enterprise, and our customers need a solution with great flexibility and integrated management that helps save them money. Cisco’s Unified Computing System running our Windows Server platform brings all those pieces together.”

Prem Jain, Senior Vice President of Server Access and Virtualization Business Unit, Cisco, said: “The Cisco Unified Computing System unites compute, network, storage access and virtualization resources in a single energy-efficient system that unleashes the power of virtualization. By delivering and supporting Microsoft operating systems for the Unified Computing System, we’re offering a familiar Windows platform to help our customers integrate this revolutionary new architecture into existing data center environments so they can quickly realize the benefits of unified computing.”