Microsoft and NetApp sign three-year partnership

The two firms will collaborate on the development of cloud-based technologies

Microsoft and NetApp have announced a three-year partnership to develop and sell new cloud computing, virtualisation and storage technologies.

Microsoft will work with storage and data management vendor NetApp to develop better virtualisation support between Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, Microsoft System Center and NetApp storage systems.

Improved storage integration with Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and Microsoft SQL Server is also on the cards.

“The NetApp and Microsoft alliance has helped thousands of enterprise customers around the world do more with less,” said Tom Georgens, president 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 datacentres that can dramatically reduce costs and increase availability, flexibility and ease of use.”

The two companies are also looking to build in better support for their product lines for cloud computing and will be developing new products together for that market.

“Microsoft is committed to driving highly scalable dynamic datacentre 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, virtualisation, management and storage technologies, Microsoft and NetApp customers can expect datacentre solutions that help them reduce costs, increase performance and reach new levels of efficiency.”