The FINANCIAL — On July 12 at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference, Dell and Microsoft Corp. announced a strategic partnership in which Dell intends to use the Windows Azure platform appliance, introduced by Microsoft today, as a part of its Dell Services Cloud to develop and deliver next-generation cloud services for Dell and its enterprise, public, small and medium-sized business customers.
"Dell will also work with Microsoft to develop a Dell-powered Windows Azure platform appliancefor enterprise organizations to run in their datacenters," Microsoft informs.
The News
• Dell Services will immediately begin implementing the limited production release of the Windows Azure platform appliance to host public and private clouds for its customers, leveraging its vertical industry expertise in providing options for flexible application hosting and delivery, and increased overall efficiency of IT operations and delivery. Dell Services will also provide advisory services, application migration, and integration and implementation services.
• Dell will work with Microsoft to develop a Windows Azure platform appliance for large enterprise, public and hosting customers to deploy in their own datacenters. The appliance will leverage infrastructure from Dell combined with the Windows Azure platform.
Cloud Computing Responds to Changing Business Needs
Dell and Microsoft understand that cloud computing delivers significant efficiencies in infrastructure costs and allows IT to be more responsive to the business. Recognizing that more organizations can benefit from the flexibility and efficiency of the Windows Azure platform, Dell and Microsoft have partnered to deliver an appliance to power a Dell platform-as-a-service (PaaS) Cloud.
Microsoft announced today at its Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, D.C., the limited production release of the Windows Azure platform appliance, a turnkey cloud platform for large service providers and enterprises to run in their own datacenters. Customers and initial partners such as Dell using the appliance in their datacenters will have the scale-out application platform and datacenter efficiency of Windows Azure and SQL Azure offered by Microsoft today.
Dell Data Center Solutions (DCS) has been working with Microsoft to build out and power Windows Azure platform since its launch. Dell will leverage the insight it has gained as a primary infrastructure partner for the Windows Azure platform to ensure that the Dell-powered Windows Azure platform appliance is optimized for power and space to save ongoing operating costs, and performance of high-scale cloud services.
Dell is a top provider of cloud computing infrastructure and has a client roster that includes 21 of the top 25 most heavily trafficked Internet sites and four of the top five global search engines. Dell has been custom-designing infrastructure solutions for the leading global cloud service providers and hyperscale datacenter operators for the past three years. Through this customer insight, Dell has developed deep expertise about the specialized needs of organizations in hosting, high-performance computing, Web 2.0, gaming, social networking, energy, SaaS, and public and private cloud builders.
Cloud Services Reduce Complexity and Increase Efficiency
With the combined experience of Perot Systems and Dell, Dell Services delivers vertically focused cloud solutions, unencumbered by traditional labor-intensive business models. Dell Service operates clouds today, delivering managed and support services-as-a-service to over 11,000 global customers. Plus, Dell has a full suite of services designed to help customers take advantage of public and private cloud models. The new Dell PaaS powered by the Windows Azure platform appliance will allow Dell to offer customers an expanded suite of services including cloud-based hosting and transformational services to help organizations move applications to the cloud.
Quotes
“Organizations are looking for innovative ways to use IT to increase their responsiveness to business needs and drive greater efficiency. With the Microsoft partnership and the Windows Azure platform appliance, Dell is expanding our cloud services capabilities to help customers reduce their total costs and increase their ability to succeed. The addition of the Dell-powered Windows Azure platform appliance marks an important expansion of Dell’s leadership, as the No. 1 provider of cloud computing infrastructure,” said Peter Altabef, president, Dell Services.
“Microsoft and Dell have been building, implementing and operating massive cloud operations for years. This extension of our long-standing partnership will allow customers to use cloud computing to focus on what matters most for their business — building innovative capabilities and driving new revenue,” said Bob Muglia, president, Microsoft Server and Tools Business.
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