Microsoft expands its partnership with Cisco offering new cloud opportunities

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Microsoft and Cisco believe the next generation of tools is on the way and that the cloud will be a key feature. There's little surprise in that statement, as things have been trending in that general direction for a while now. Microsoft and Cisco aren't strangers either, as the two have been partnered before, so the latest news simply expands on that relationship.

This time around a tool is being unveiled. According to Microsoft's Aziz Benmalek "next-generation services require close compatibility between hardware, software, network, storage and compute", and the firms have teamed up for a new product called Cisco Cloud Architecture for the Microsoft Cloud Platform. Benmalek claims that engineers from both companies have worked closely the ensure the integration between products from each. The result is combining Windows Azure Pack and Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI).

"By implementing this capability in our platform tool, we will give service providers the ability to deploy new apps and services with lifecycle support from Cisco, Microsoft and other ISVs that participate with us. Because the application and infrastructure policies will be pre-configured and in an application policy library in Windows Azure Pack, service providers will be able deploy new services and applications with much greater speed", Benmalek explains.

The two tech giants hope that this collaboration results in improvements in speed, allowing for faster times to market with services, as well as reduced cost of ownership and acceleration of time to revenue numbers.

Microsoft makes no bones about the future it envisions, calling the cloud a "center of opportunity". Benmalek concludes that "I’m excited to build on our relationship with Cisco -- and to see how our service provider partners will embrace these new opportunities moving forward".

Photo credit: Ken Wolter / Shutterstock

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