With the introduction of a new data center architecture, Cisco made a key move in bringing to life its Data Center 3.0 strategy. The Cisco Unified Computing System, in combination with services and an open ecosystem, has Microsoft's blessing. The Redmond company revealed that it has inked an agreement with Cisco, which will permit the now original equipment manufacturer (OEM) on the server datacenter market to not only pre-package, but also act as a reseller and even offer support for Windows Server 2003 as well as Windows Server 2008 with the Hyper-V hypervisor, but also Microsoft SQL Server 2008. System Center is also working its way into this new solution, the software giant promised.

“Datacenters are becoming more virtualized across the enterprise, and our customers need a solution with great flexibility and integrated management that helps save them money. Cisco’s Unified Computing System running our Windows Server platform brings all those pieces together,” revealed Bill Laing, corporate vice president, Windows Server and Solutions, Microsoft.

And in fact, the Cisco Unified Computing System is designed to centralize a variety of resources in a single solution offering customers computing, networking, storage access, and also virtualization. Cisco applauded the new product for its efficiency in the context of reducing IT infrastructure complexity while cutting costs.

According to Microsoft, Unified Computing System with Windows Server will be capable of reducing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), while also boosting flexibility and integrated management. At the same time, the Cisco Unified Computing System is designed to enable what the Redmond company referred to as the next generation of IT datacenter, while permitting businesses to enhance their current levels of automation and process integration.

“The Cisco Unified Computing System unites compute, network, storage access and virtualization resources in a single energy-efficient system that unleashes the power of virtualization. By delivering and supporting Microsoft operating systems for the Unified Computing System, we’re offering a familiar Windows platform to help our customers integrate this revolutionary new architecture into existing data center environments so they can quickly realize the benefits of unified computing,” stated Prem Jain, senior vice president of Server Access and Virtualization Business Unit, Cisco.