EMC Announces New Proven Solutions For Microsoft and Support for Windows Server 2012

HOPKINTON, Mass., June 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

News Summary:

EMC today announced:

• Simplified operational management and accelerated deployments of cloud environments via new Microsoft-focused EMC Proven™ Solutions on EMC VNX and EMC Symmetrix VMAX to help customers maximize performance
• Collaboration with Microsoft to deliver Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track Configurations based on EMC VNX.
• 80% faster storage infrastructure provisioning and expanded support for EMC Storage Integrator 3.1, an agentless, no-charge plug-in for Microsoft technologies
• Leadership and commitment to support Windows Server 2012 -- including Server Message Block (SMB) 3.0 and Offload Data Transfer (ODX) -- across EMC's broad portfolio of storage, backup and recovery products following Microsoft's general availability.
• EMC VNX was selected as the storage platform that Microsoft will use to showcase SMB 3.0 version and ODX functionality for Windows Server 2012 during the Microsoft TechEd keynote address.

Full Story:

EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) today announced new EMC Proven Solutions™ and Microsoft Private Cloud FastTrack configurations to help Microsoft customers successfully 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. New solutions 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 broad technology support for Microsoft Windows Server 2012 across storage and backup products following the general availability from Microsoft. This support continues EMC's leadership in helping 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 leading industry analyst firm, IDC(1), 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, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) & Virtual Server as ranked by customers in an extensive 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, as a leading information infrastructure provider for Microsoft applications, provides customers running Microsoft applications with the availability, protection, and automation needed to gain competitive advantage.

New EMC Proven Solutions

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 high performance and maximum flexibility for mixed Microsoft application workloads with full recovery from hardware failures within minutes leveraging storage replication. The new solution 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).

New Microsoft FastTrack Configurations With EMC 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 EMC VNX5300 arrays with industry leading server technology. These configurations are supported by documented technical best practices to help accelerate deployments and simplify management.

EMC Announces Broad Support For Windows Server 2012

As a long-standing partner for Microsoft, EMC invests heavily in joint engineering resources and expertise to test and validate the latest upcoming versions of Microsoft software on EMC infrastructure.  Continuing on this long tradition of cooperative engineering, EMC is committed to delivering broad storage platform support for Windows Server 2012, including SMB 3.0 and ODX across EMC VNX, EMC VMAX, EMC 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 Common Internet file system (CIFS) protocols.

EMC is also announcing support for EMC Avamar, EMC NetWorker and EMC Data Domain backup and recovery products. This extensive level of support for Windows Server 2012 ensures EMC and Microsoft customers the ability to confidently 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.

Customer Quote:

Peter Singh, Senior Manager, IT Operations, Toronto District School Board

"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."

Microsoft Executive Quote:

Brad Anderson, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Corporation

"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." 

EMC Executive Quote:

Prasad Rampalli, Senior Vice President, Solutions Group, EMC Corporation

"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."

About EMC

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is the world's leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to transform the way they compete and create value from their information. Information about EMC's products and services can be found at www.emc.com.

Additional Resources

• Learn more about partnering with EMC
• Read about EMC Solutions for Microsoft
• Read about EMC Consulting for Microsoft Platforms
• Learn more about ESI at Chuck's Blog
• Learn more about Microsoft at www.microsoft.com
• Join the #EMCChannel conversations on Twitter.
• Connect with EMC via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and ECN

(1) IDC, "Storage Users Demand Study 2011 - Fall Edition: Customers Still Want Choice" (2011 / Doc # 234651)

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SOURCE EMC Corporation