Microsoft, EMC Team On Private Cloud VirtualizationMicrosoft, EMC Team On Private Cloud Virtualization

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EMC announced new reference architectures based on its information infrastructures and Microsoft's virtualization solutions that are designed to facilitate IT customers' move to the private cloud.

The two firms already have a strategic alliance and the partnership announced Tuesday will enable users to utilize EMC solutions in Microsoft Hyper-V environments. EMC said its EMC E-Lab created a virtualized infrastructure that includes EMC Symmetrix VMAX, Windows Server R2 and Microsoft Hyper-V. The configuration, according to EMC, can scale to support 1,024 virtual machines.

"Customers need computing environments that can dynamically pool and allocate computer, network and storage resources so their core applications can be deployed quickly and scaled to meet spikes in demand as they occur," said Microsoft's Dai Vu in a statement. "By using technologies from EMC and Microsoft, customers can increase control and customization, and scale efficiently to provide the agility required to deploy more projects to the cloud." Vu is director of solutions marketing in Microsoft's Windows Server and Cloud division.

Another EMC partner -- Cisco Systems -- also collaborated with Microsoft and EMC in the deployment of a virtualized Microsoft Exchange project that is capable of supporting more than 32,000 Microsoft Exchange users.

"To address this," EMC said that it and "Cisco Systems and Microsoft collaborated to design and build a reference architecture modeled on a virtualized Storage Area Network (SAN) and based upon EMC Unified Storage, EMC Virtual Provisioning, Cisco Unified Computing System and Microsoft Hyper-V."

In related announcement Tuesday, EMC said it has worked with Microsoft to reduce costs for SQL Server environments. Microsoft estimated the partnership will save nearly 70% in its adCenter storage infrastructure over the next five years. The complexity of the configuration is indicated by the $1.9 billion in online advertising revenue delivered through the adCenter platform from online properties like Bing, MSN, Windows Live and Yahoo.

"Sometimes we get caught up in exotic new solutions and forget about what a difference basic storage consolidation can make," said Brian Garrett, of the Enterprise Strategy Group, in a statement. "Microsoft SQL Server and EMC Symmetrix storage are at the heart of the adCenter BI infrastructure."

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