Sunnyvale, Calif. and REDMOND,
Wash.-Dec. 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
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.
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