Microsoft-Focused EMC Proven Solutions

EMC Corporation announced new EMC Proven Solutions configurations to help Microsoft Corp.‘s customers transform and accelerate their Microsoft applications environments to the cloud.

The new solutions and configurations provide detailed design best practices for accelerating deployments of virtualized Microsoft Private Cloud environments. They address requirements for simplified management of Microsoft Private Clouds based on Windows Server Hyper-V. The EMC Proven Solutions maximize performance and recovery in mixed Microsoft application workload environments including MS SQL Server, MS SharePoint and MS Exchange leveraging MS Hyper-V on EMC VMAX and VNX platforms.

Additionally, EMC has expanded EMC Storage Integrator (ESI) 1.3 support for Microsoft, which enables Windows administrators more autonomy and self-service management of storage provisioning in physical and virtual environments. These tools simplify the mapping and provisioning of storage for an application using simple, wizard-based steps. New support is announced for Windows Server Hyper-V, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft native Remote BLOB Storage (RBS) and Windows PowerShell.

EMC also announced technology support for Microsoft Windows Server 2012 across storage and backup products following the availability from Microsoft. This support helps customers transform Windows environments by leveraging the simplicity of CIFS to simplify management while delivering increased performance, availability and lower costs.

In the recent bi-annual global update published by IDC (Storage Users Demand Study 2011 – Fall Edition: Customers Still Want Choice (2011 / Doc # 234651), in their Storage User Demand Survey (SUDS) report, EMC is named as the #1 choice for mission critical applications for Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange, Business Intelligence Analytics, Oracle Applications, SAP, Home Directory, VDI & Virtual Server as ranked by customers in the study.

Results show that more customers choose EMC storage for deployments of Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Exchange for their mission critical applications than any other vendor in the first half of 2011.

EMC provides customers running Microsoft applications with the availability, protection, and automation needed to gain competitive advantage.

The new EMC Proven Solutions announced today are:

• EMC Infrastructure for Microsoft Private Cloud enabled by EMC VNX5300, Replication Manager, Windows Server Hyper-V, Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, SQL Server, System Center: This solution documents a complete, cloud-ready infrastructure capable of delivering performance and flexibility for mixed Microsoft application workloads with full recovery from hardware failures within minutes leveraging storage replication. It also delivers simplified storage infrastructure monitoring through Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) integrated with EMC System Center Management pack, as well as simplified storage provisioning for Microsoft administrators through EMC Storage Integrator (ESI).
• EMC Automated Performance Optimization for Microsoft Applications enabled by EMC VMAX, FAST VP, and Windows Server Hyper-V: This solution enhances scalability and performance for shared application workloads using EMC Fully Automated Storage Tiering for Virtual Pools (FAST VP) and highlights the ease of management with Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM).

Microsoft FastTrack Configurations With VNX5300
The Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track program enables administrators to establish and accelerate a pre-configured private cloud. A joint effort between Microsoft and partners such as EMC, the Fast Track program helps organizations quickly develop and implement private clouds while reducing both cost and risk. New configurations from EMC combine Microsoft software including Windows Server and Microsoft System Center with VNX5300 arrays. These configurations are supported by documented technical best practices to help accelerate deployments and simplify management.

EMC Announces Support For Windows Server 2012
As a long-standing partner for Microsoft, EMC invests in joint engineering resources and expertise to test and validate the latest upcoming versions of Microsoft software on EMC infrastructure. EMC is committed to delivering storage platform support for Windows Server 2012, including SMB 3.0 and ODX across VNX, VMAX, Isilon after Microsoft’s general availability.

VNX will also support the Windows BranchCache feature which is designed to maximize performance for Microsoft users accessing a centralized IT infrastructure from remote office locations over CIFS protocols.

EMC is also announcing support for Avamar, NetWorker and Data Domain backup and recovery products. This level of support for Windows Server 2012 ensures EMC and Microsoft customers the ability to deploy centralized cloud infrastructure leveraging new Microsoft technologies with efficient data protection using EMC’s latest backup, recovery and de-duplication technologies.

EMC also delivers consulting expertise in applications, virtualization, and data centers to help Microsoft clients create well-managed virtual environments – across data centers and desktops. EMC’s Microsoft-certified consultants have expertise designing Microsoft Cloud and Microsoft System Center solutions to help customers transform their IT infrastructure, reduce costs, improve application availability and enhance service delivery.

Peter Singh, Senior Manager, IT Operations, Toronto District School Board, said: "EMC’s VNX unified storage has the best of everything at a very cost-effective price. It integrates with Microsoft Hyper-V, which is crucial to our cloud strategy, and with its higher performance, automated tiering and thin provisioning, VNX was a no-brainer."

Brad Anderson, corporate VP, Microsoft, said: "Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012 are optimized for the cloud and have new technologies designed to help customers as they move to the cloud. EMC is dedicated to helping customers deploy solutions that will drive bottom line business results."

Prasad Rampalli, SVP, Solutions Group, EMC, said: "EMC continues to provide customers with simplified management and control in virtualizing and transforming their Microsoft application environments. For more than a decade EMC and Microsoft have helped customers to efficiently and securely scale their solutions to derive the full benefit of cloud computing. This announcement represents the enormous value that can be derived through joint collaboration to help customers simplify, transform and accelerate their journey to the cloud."