Got Servers? Check Out Cisco and Microsoft Fast Track

Cool technology — be it a server system, a network switch or a fancy storage unit — is of no value to you as a channel partner if the technology is too difficult to implement or operate, or is fraught with support issues. Any of these aforementioned difficulties could possibly cut into your profitability and also hamper your relationship with your customer.

As Cisco continues to ramp up our Microsoft solutions we are partnering more closely with Microsoft in its Fast Track programs, which help to eliminate some of these issues and provide a higher level of confidence and trust via validated (by Microsoft) reference architectures. Most recently we submitted Cisco’s Microsoft Private Cloud offering. Fast Track, in this instance, is defined by Microsoft as:

MICROSOFT PRIVATE CLOUD FAST TRACK is a reference architecture for building private clouds that combines Microsoft® software, consolidated guidance, and validated configurations with Cisco® technologies—including compute, management, network, and storage—as well as value-added software components.

Built on the Windows Server® 2008 R2 Hyper-V® technology and Microsoft System Center solutions, Microsoft private cloud offerings can help customers and service providers build dedicated infrastructure as a service (IaaS) environments that transform the way they deliver IT services. Specifically, Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track solutions provide a turnkey approach to delivering scalable, preconfigured, and validated infrastructure platforms for on-premises private cloud implementations. With local control over data and operations, IT can dynamically pool, allocate, secure, and manage resources for agile IaaS. Likewise, business units can deploy line-of-business applications with speed and consistency using self-provisioning (and decommissioning) and automated data center services in a virtualized environment.

Fast Track from Cisco and Microsoft delivers an in-depth prescriptive reference architecture that has been tested by Cisco and validated by Microsoft. Fast Track provides you the opportunity to benefit with a faster deployment, reducing your risk, and delivering the power and flexibility of Cisco UCS to your customers. With all the new products coming from Microsoft over the next few months – Windows Server, System Center – take a look at Fast Track. It may save you time and money.

Rex Backman is 
global marketing manager of Microsoft Solutions
 at Cisco. Monthly guest blogs such as this one are part of The VAR Guy’s annual platinum sponsorship. Read all of Cisco’s guest blogs here.