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January 23, 2014 News Thursday: NetApp and Cisco Attain Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track Validation for FlexPod Architecture and More Cloud and Enterprise News...

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by C&E BloggerNetApp and Cisco Attain Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track Validation for FlexPod Architecture with Support for SMB 3.0; Microsoft Joins FlexPod Cooperative Support Model

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V and System Center 2012 were designed to enable customers to create and manage highly scalable, highly virtualized environments on premises, in the Windows Azure cloud, with a hosted solution provider, or in a hybrid cloud infrastructure. To give customers guidance on the best way to deploy such environments, Microsoft created the Private Cloud Fast Track architecture and a program for partners to validate their solutions for this architecture. The latest Fast Track validation from Cisco and NetApp is FlexPod Datacenter with Microsoft Private Cloud architecture, now supporting SMB 3.0 and clustered Data ONTAP.

Based on close collaboration with engineers at NetApp and Cisco, FlexPod Datacenter with Microsoft Private Cloud is an easy, scalable choice for on-premises private cloud solutions or cloud infrastructure for service providers.  FlexPod offers multiple advanced storage features with Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V including seamless support for both SAN and NAS with SMB 3.0 and ODX for lightning fast file transfer capabilities.

“The Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track architecture is a proven approach for deploying the Microsoft Cloud Platform on premises, and the award-winning FlexPod Datacenter platform is validated for both SAN and NAS storage approaches,” said Brian Hillger, director, Server and Tools Marketing, Microsoft. “Built on Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V and System Center 2012, the Cisco and NetApp FlexPod Datacenter solution simplifies private cloud deployment for customers, with the goal of dramatic reduction of infrastructure and application deployment time from days to hours.”

Microsoft has joined the FlexPod Cooperative Support Model, a partnership of NetApp, Cisco, other leading Technology Partners to deliver FlexPod solution support to our joint customers.  The Cooperative Support Model leverages the combined experience, resources, and technical expertise of NetApp, Cisco, Microsoft and industry leading technology partners. The addition of Microsoft means that FlexPod customers running Microsoft Windows Server with Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center can rely on Microsoft expertise as part of the program.  In addition, the inclusion of Microsoft in the Cooperative Support Lab means it will be easier to replicate and resolve multivendor issues so customers receive a more streamlined response to their issues.

Congratulations to Cisco and NetApp on achieving this validation as a means of serving our mutual customers.

For more information:

CloudMunch brings Open DevOps to Microsoft Windows Azure Cloud

DevOps management platform provider CloudMunch announced integration of its DevOps platform with Microsoft’s Windows Azure. This collaboration allows developers and IT operations teams to use the CloudMunch Open DevOps Platform with their preferred tools for continuous delivery of applications to Windows Azure instances.

Parallels Announces Support for Windows Azure Pack for Parallels Automation

Hosting and cloud services enablement provider Parallels announced support for Windows Azure Pack through their APS (Application Packaging Standard) for Parallels Automation. This new product allows hosting service providers to bring the innovations from Windows the Windows Azure public cloud into a service provider’s datacenter, speeding the time to market to deliver the latest solutions from Microsoft ahead of their competitors.

Read the press release for more information.

Emulex Announces OneConnect OCe14000 to Increase Performance and Salability for Virtualization and the Cloud

Network connectivity, monitoring and management company Emulex announced the next generation of high performance Ethernet connectivity solutions for virtualized, enterprise and cloud data centers. The OneConnect OCe14000 line takes advantage of networking and virtualization innovations in Windows Server 2012 R2 to provide rapid, secure and scalable hybrid cloud connectivity

Read the press release for more information.

Hortonworks and Microsoft Collaborate to Expand Hadoop’s Reach

Hortonworks and Microsoft are working together to expand the reach of Apache Hadoop and deliver Apache Hadoop to Microsoft Windows and Windows Azure environments. In the effort to help customers embrace Apache Hadoop, Microsoft has logged over 6,000 engineering hours in the last year, committing code and jointly driving innovation across a range of open source projects including the Hive/Stinger initiative.

Visit the Hortonworks labs website for more information on the collaboration.  

In addition, Microsoft and Hortonworks will host a webinar on February 6 for customers interested in learning how to implement the Hortonworks Data Platform with Microsoft’s Windows, Office, SQL Server, Parallel Data Warehouse, and Windows Azure platforms.