Microsoft lays down strategy to speed up private cloud

Microsoft has updated its private cloud product strategy and revealed plans to speed up end user deployments of the technology.

At the Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas this week, the software giant released System Center 2012, and confirmed a new iteration of Windows Server would be released later this year.

In an address to 5,000 IT professionals, Brad Anderson, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s security and management division, hailed the products as core components of the software giant’s private cloud plans.

“We've got Windows Azure running in the public cloud. We've got Windows and System Center running in the private cloud in your datacentre...[and] we can see Windows and System Center powering hosted data centers and hosted clouds,” said Anderson.

 “It truly is the most comprehensive solution for you to build your cloud on, the most simple, and the most cost-effective.”

To speed up private cloud deployments, the vendor has created 12 pre-configured product packages, in conjunction with its technology partners, under the Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track programme.

“[These packages are] pre-optimised, they’re pre-tested and pre-configured to give you the absolutely best experience out of the box,” said Anderson.

“You can get a hold of these and get a private cloud up and running in a very short period of time.”

Anderson said the programme will make it easier for end users to build private clouds on hardware from multiple vendors.

“[End users] want to have the choice to say, ‘I want this particular hardware vendor to provide my datacentre capabilities and I’m going to get storage from this particular vendor,’” explained Anderson.

“With Fast Track, you have that flexibility, rather than being forced into [looking] at one particular option.”