HP and Microsoft have announced their intention to work together on a Microsoft Windows Azure platform appliance that will enable large enterprise customers to confidently and rapidly adopt cloud-based applications as businesses needs change and grow.
Customers will be able to manage the appliance with HP Converged Infrastructure on-premises or choose HP data center hosting services.
Enterprise customers adopting cloud services need a comprehensive approach, including application modernisation support, an optimised infrastructure platform as well as flexible sourcing options. With the new Windows Azure platform appliance, HP and Microsoft will help customers rapidly scale applications, deliver new online services and migrate Windows and .NET-based applications to the cloud. This latest collaboration extends the $250 million Infrastructure-to-Application initiatives HP and Microsoft announced in January.
HP will deliver a Converged Infrastructure for Windows Azure, HP’s current position as a primary infrastructure provider for the Windows Azure platform, coupled with HP and Microsoft’s ongoing efforts to optimise Microsoft applications for HP’s Converged Infrastructure through extensive joint engineering and development, will allow HP to deliver an industry-leading cloud deployment experience for its customers. The Converged Infrastructure for the Windows Azure platform appliance will include:
- HP Networking,
- HP ProLiant
- Can be deployed in HP Performance-Optimised Datacentres (PODs),
- Application modernisation, migration and integration services for Windows applications