Satya Nadella - CEO, Microsoft on stage with Michael Dell - CEO, Dell at Dell World 2015
Dell has joined the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider program, a move which will see the tech giant sell Microsoft cloud solutions across Azure, the Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) and Office 365.
Announced at Dell World 2015 overnight, the partnership follows news that the two companies will also unite to launch a new cloud solution and program that enable organisations - irrespective of size - to use the Microsoft cloud platform.
“Digital transformation is an imperative for business today, and we are making our customers’ journey easier and faster through adoption of hybrid cloud,” says Michael Dell, CEO, Dell.
“Dell shares a vision with Microsoft that open architectures and simplified cloud management will benefit customers of all sizes, freeing them to focus on their businesses and not their technology.”
As a Cloud Solution Provider, Dell will provide end-to-end enterprise mobility and identity solutions, based on EMS and Azure Active Directory.
With regards to the new hybrid cloud offerings, terms of the deal will see a Microsoft Azure-consistent, integrated system for hybrid cloud come to market, alongside extended program offerings.
“A core part of our mission to empower every organisation on the planet requires us to build world-class platforms and forge deeper partnerships that help businesses of all sizes transform with digital technology,” says Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft.
“By expanding our longstanding partnership with Dell to offer a truly integrated hybrid cloud, we will make the cloud more accessible to organisations of all sizes with the choice and flexibility to best meet their needs.”
According to Nadella - in pushing Microsoft’s cloud-first, mobile-first strategy - businesses are increasingly turning to hybrid cloud as a way to achieve the agility and cost-savings of the cloud while maintaining control of their assets.
Consequently, Microsoft and Dell have announced Cloud Platform System Standard (CPS Standard), the newest addition to the Microsoft Cloud Platform System (CPS) family.
Nadella claims that CPS is the industry’s “only integrated system” with a “true hybrid cloud experience”, built on optimised Dell modular infrastructure with pre-configured Microsoft CPS software, including Microsoft software stack and Azure services.
“The hybrid cloud experience comes from the platform’s consistency with Azure, enabling agile deployment and operation of workloads and allowing customers to build multi-tiered, scalable applications,” Nadella explains.
“A fully integrated, preconfigured system, CPS Standard is purpose-built to remove many of the complexities and costs traditionally associated with hybrid cloud deployments.”
CPS Standard is shipping now with Windows Azure Pack, System Center 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2012 R2 and is ready to install Microsoft Azure Stack when it becomes available.
Going forward, Dell and Microsoft will also offer CPS Premium for large enterprises and service providers requiring a higher-capacity hybrid cloud solution.
