Choosing a Solution
Case Studies
Ford Expects to Save More Than $1 Million with PC Power Management
As part of its global commitment to energy efficiency, Ford wanted to implement a policy of active power management across its office computers. Under its new PC Power Management program that uses Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 and NightWatchman … Continue reading
Outsourcer Empowers Employees, Saves Millions with Self-Service Identity Management
Vangent, a provider of IT and consulting services, wanted to streamline the process of giving new employees accounts and access to the groups and resources that they needed. This issue was particularly important given the company’s large number of seasonal … Continue reading
Union Pacific Reduces Costs, Boosts IT Responsiveness with Hyper-V
Running the nation’s largest freight railroad requires sophisticated technology. Union Pacific wanted to expand the use of virtualization to curb physical server growth and better meet business needs. The railroad had deployed VMware virtualization technology in its data center to … Continue reading
Sprint Estimates Savings of $1.3 Million Through Centralized Power Management of PCs
Sprint Nextel searched for a way to advance its commitment to environmental sustainability while reducing operating costs. The company evaluated upgrading to Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3 to take advantage of its centralized power management capabilities. After conducting … Continue reading
Large Retailer Relies on a Virtual Solution to Deliver Optimal Shopping Experience
With its attractive stores offering trendy merchandise at affordable prices, Target changed how consumers think about discount shopping. To help Target deliver on its “Expect More. Pay Less.” brand promise, Target chooses reliable, scalable, and cost-effective technology. That’s why the … Continue reading
Hospital Resolves Security Issues Faster, Saves $97,000 on Servers, with New Software
Allina Hospitals & Clinics recently upgraded to Microsoft Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010 to gain efficiencies in securing and managing its 27,000 PCs. Allina has cut security remediation time in half, giving IT staff more time to help employees deliver patient … Continue reading
Cloud-Services Provider Reduces Time-to-Market Time and Cost by 33 to 50 Percent
By 2009, Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ) was an established and successful provider of cloud-computing services—but tight economic times and a rapidly evolving market presented a challenge. To meet the new needs of new customers, IIJ needed a more powerful and … Continue reading
Appliance Manufacturer Saves €1.5 Million with Global Virtualization Solution
Miele & Cie is a manufacturer of premium household appliances that are distributed worldwide. To reduce server sprawl and data center costs, Miele had deployed a large virtualization solution based on VMware. However, to expand its virtualized environment, the company … Continue reading
Engineering Firm Virtualizes Field Servers, Saves $3.2 Million, with Switch to Hyper-V
Engineering firm CH2M HILL was an early user of virtualization software to lower server costs. However, when the global economy began to slump in 2007, the company sought a more cost-effective virtualization solution than VMware. It switched to the Windows … Continue reading
Leading Solution Provider for Multi-Unit Restaurants Moves to the Cloud
Decision Logic, a Microsoft Gold ISV Partner, provides web-based back office solutions for Multi-unit Restaurant Operators. Decision Logic built the solution as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering. The main application and all data is hosted and managed by Decision Logic in … Continue reading
Global Translation Provider Simplifies Private Cloud Administration with Portal
Lionbridge translates and adapts technology products and web content to meet the linguistic and technical needs of clients around the world. Lionbridge used server virtualization to simplify its IT infrastructure and build a private cloud environment. To further simplify these … Continue reading
Consultancy Helps Customers Optimize Servers, Save $1.2 Million with Private Cloud
Convergent Computing (CCO) is a global IT consulting firm and one of the first Microsoft Gold Certified Partners for Enterprise Systems. CCO wanted to expand its areas of expertise and develop a new practice area that would help enterprise IT … Continue reading
China Telecom Introduces Cloud Services Platform in Just Six Months
China Telecommunications Corporation (China Telecom) is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the People’s Republic of China. To expand its hosting business, China Telecom built an Internet data center (IDC) at subsidiary Shanghai Telecom to determine the best infrastructure … Continue reading
How-To's & Training Materials
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System Center 2012 Licensing FAQ
This FAQ sheet to discusses System Center 2012 Server Management Licensing.
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Features Comparison: Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Server and Windows Server "8" Beta Hyper-V
The following tables compare selected features of Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server “8” Beta Hyper-V. The tables include
comments about each version’s performance, as well as a notation about how well each feature is supported. -
Why Hyper-V? Competitive Advantages of Windows Server "8" Beta Hyper-V
Server virtualization has evolved over the past few years from a nascent technology into a mature IT feature. In the process, businesses of all sizes have begun taking advantage of its power to meet shifting business needs. By virtualizing their workloads, organizations can control and cut costs while improving the scalability, flexibility, and reach of IT systems.
With these advances, however, comes the realization that virtualization by itself does not allow organizations to build or take advantage of cloud services, which are assuming an ever-growing role in the execution of business tasks.
Microsoft has taken a leading position in the advancement of virtualization technology with Hyper-V. First introduced as part of Windows Server 2008, and then expanded and enhanced in Windows Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V provides organizations with a tool for optimizing server hardware investments by consolidating multiple server roles as
separate virtual machines running on a single physical host machine. They can also use Hyper-V to efficiently run multiple operating systems—including operating systems other than Windows, such as Linux—together on a single server, and take advantage of the power of 64-bit computing.Download Why Hyper-V? Competitive Advantages of Windows Server “8″ Beta Hyper-V in PDF format
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Microsoft Customer Assessment Tool for Private Cloud
Are you ready for Private Cloud? Take a free 10-minute Private Cloud assessment, get a customized report, and connect with Microsoft.
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Microsoft Private Cloud - How to Buy
You have several choices to help you deploy commercial private and public clouds based on Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V, System Center, and related products. Explore the options below to get started:
Option 1: Pre-validated Configuration
Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track Partners
Get a pre-validated hardware and software private cloud configuration from Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track OEM partners. Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track partners have worked with Microsoft to combine hardware and software offerings based on a reference architecture for building private clouds. Within the Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track program, we recommend:- Midsize companies explore offerings from Dell and IBM
- Enterprise companies explore offerings from HP, Dell, IBM, Fujitsu, NEC, Hitachi, or NetApp/Cisco
Option 2: Build Your Own
Microsoft Private Cloud Partners
For those looking to build your own private cloud, Microsoft has invested in a set of engagements to help you with assessments, proofs-of-concept, and deployments through our partners or Microsoft Services. The investments are designed to help reduce the risk, cost, and time associated with testing and deploying a cloud environment. Contact a partner or Microsoft Services for more detail.Option 3: Hosted Private Cloud
Microsoft Private Cloud Service Providers
Microsoft Private Cloud Service Providers build and deploy private cloud solutions based on Microsoft technologies you already know and trust. Find a service provider in the Microsoft Private Cloud Service Provider Program who can host a dedicated private cloud for you.
Downloads
Download Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate (RC)
The next release of Windows Server, Windows Server 2012, will offer businesses and hosting providers a scalable, dynamic, and multitenant-aware, cloud-optimized infrastructure. It securely connects across premises and helps IT Professionals to respond to business needs faster and more efficiently. … Continue reading
Download Microsoft Private Cloud Evaluation Software
A Microsoft private cloud dramatically changes the way your business produces and consumes IT services by creating a layer of abstraction over your pooled IT resources. This allows your datacenter to offer true infrastructure service capability as well as optimally … Continue reading