SUNNYVALE, CA and REDMOND, WA--(Marketwire - December 8, 2009) - NetApp (
NASDAQ:
NTAP) and
Microsoft Corp. (
NASDAQ:
MSFT) today announced a new three-year agreement
that deepens product collaboration and technical integration, and extends
joint sales and marketing activities to customers worldwide. Under the new
agreement, the two companies will collaborate and deliver technology
solutions that span virtualization, private cloud computing, and storage
and data management, enabling customers to increase data center management
efficiencies, reduce costs, and improve business agility.
"Microsoft is committed to driving highly scalable dynamic datacenter
solutions with innovative partners like NetApp," said Bob Kelly, corporate
vice president of infrastructure server marketing, Server and Tools
Business at Microsoft. "Through the deeper integration of server,
virtualization, management and storage technologies, Microsoft and NetApp
customers can expect data center solutions that help them reduce costs,
increase performance and reach new levels of efficiency."
"The NetApp and Microsoft alliance has helped thousands of enterprise
customers around the world do more with less," said Tom Georgens, president
and CEO of NetApp. "We are excited about the opportunity we have to build
on this success and together help our mutual customers design and implement
truly dynamic data centers that can dramatically reduce costs and increase
availability, flexibility, and ease of use."
As part of the new strategic alliance agreement, NetApp and Microsoft will
expand product collaboration and technical integration activities,
including the following areas:
- Virtualized infrastructure solutions based on Windows Server 2008
R2, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, Microsoft System Center and
NetApp® storage systems. These solutions can provide reliable data
availability and streamlined data management, and can help maximize
server and storage utilization by using 50 percent less storage
compared to a baseline of traditional storage.(1)
- Storage and data management solutions for Microsoft Exchange
Server, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, and Microsoft SQL Server
that improve communications and collaboration, enable faster,
better-informed decision making, and greatly accelerate software
development and testing.
- Efficient and flexible cloud computing and hosted services
solutions that provide integrated data protection, "always on" data
access, and a flexible, cost-effective infrastructure.
In addition, NetApp and Microsoft will enable customers to experience
firsthand the value of joint solutions at the Microsoft Technology Centers
around the world and at industry events. Both companies will participate in
engagements with channel partners and industry-leading systems integrators,
offering technology solutions that are comprehensive and easy to use.
As further proof to the collaboration between both companies, NetApp, the
2009 Microsoft Storage Solutions Partner of the year, utilizes a variety of
Windows Server platform technologies to improve storage system management
and streamline backup, recovery, and remote replication in Windows Server
2008 R2 Hyper-V environments. In addition, integration with the Microsoft
System Center family of products and additional application-integrated
NetApp products help maximize uptime for a wide variety of application
environments, including Microsoft Exchange Server, SQL Server and
SharePoint Server.
For more information about the partnership, available solutions, demos and
customer testimonials, visit
Microsoft.com and
NetApp.com.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (
NASDAQ:
MSFT) is the worldwide leader in
software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize
their full potential.
About NetApp
NetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions that
accelerate business breakthroughs and deliver outstanding cost efficiency.
Discover our passion for helping companies around the world go further,
faster at
www.netapp.com.
(1)- NetApp Virtualization Guarantee Program,
http://www.netapp.com/us/solutions/infrastructure/virtualization/guarantee.html
NetApp, the NetApp logo, and Go further, faster, are trademarks or
registered trademarks of NetApp, Inc. in the United States and/or other
countries. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such.
Contact Information: Press Contacts:
Ryan Lowry
NetApp
(408) 822-8544
ryanl@netapp.com
Rapid Response Team
Waggener Edstrom Worldwide for Microsoft
(503) 443-7070
rrt@waggeneredstrom.com