The Microsoft and Cisco Marriage: Addressing Emerging Customer Needs

The debut of September 2008 marked the one year anniversary of the Microsoft and Cisco marriage on the interoperability front. The two companies permitted customers to dictate the next move in their competitive "ballet," and in this regard kicked up a notch the interoperability level of Cisco hardware and Microsoft software, even in terms of products, where the two are competing against each other. Bob Muglia, senior vice president of the Server and Tools Business at Microsoft, indicated that although the collaboration between the two companies spans across a variety of areas, the main focus has been placed on IT architecture, the evolution of connected entertainment and, perhaps most importantly, network optimization.

 

"Addressing emerging customer needs is what this collaboration is all about. We put our heads together to get out in front of our customers to anticipate their needs and address the real-life technology issues they face. For example, many of our customers are considering shifting from running some of their IT services in-house to having them hosted remotely. Cisco and Microsoft are working together to identify how this change impacts the network and computing resources to ensure that our customers’ requirements are met," stated Kathy Hill, senior vice president of Access and Networking Services at Cisco.

 

Through the collaboration with Cisco, Microsoft has seen new customer networks being optimized for its software products. Muglia applauded the intimate connection achieved between Cisco's infrastructure in branch offices and on wide area networks with Microsoft solutions. Cisco has in fact offered optimization for products such as SharePoint, Windows Vista and especially Windows Server 2008.

 

"I’d (...) highlight our joint efforts embedding Windows Server 2008 on Cisco’s Wide-Area Appliance Service (WAAS) branch office solution (called "Windows Server on WAAS"), which gives our customers an integrated appliance for their branch offices. It provides customers with a single solution that delivers the core IT services of Windows Server 2008 at the branch location, improving efficiency and responsiveness, while relieving the network for quick and reliable application delivery," Muglia added.