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To the surprise of few industry observers, data storage and IT infrastructure giant EMC Nov. 30 announced that its networked storage systems, software, services and solutions will fully support the next generation of Microsoft products, including Exchange Server 2007, the 2007 Office system and Windows Vista.
EMC will work closely with customers it shares with Microsoft to integrate the new functionality of these applications into their current systems, a company spokesperson said.
“EMC and Microsoft have done [storage] business together for a long, long time, mostly around the Clariion storage servers, and EMC certainly has the credibility and technology to carry the upgrade [to Vista] off,” said Brian Babineau, senior analyst with the Enterprise Strategy Group.
Microsoft had been supplying its Windows Storage Server software to Hopkinton, Mass.-based EMC for use in its storage server hardware for several years, although EMC no longer ships that particular product.
“But, hey, Microsoft certainly isnt going to come out and say, Were going to certify Vista to run on EMC Clariion only … well be seeing every vendor in the Free World coming out with Vista-support announcements, and it happens every time Microsoft puts out an OS update,” Babineau said.
EMC is making a major commitment to helping customers upgrade and migrate to the latest technology from Microsoft, said Howard Elias, EMC executive vice president, Global Services and Resource Management Software Group.
“We have the systems, software and people that can make enterprise transitions to Exchange Server 2007, Office 2007 and Windows Vista straightforward and cost-effective,” Elias said.
EMCs product portfolio is currently being tested and “will be qualified as interoperable with the new Microsoft products,” Elias said.
The EMC software, hardware and professional services designed for the newest Microsoft releases and delivered through EMC Global Services include:
- EMC Assessment and Migration Services for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. These new services will help provide smooth and cost-effective upgrades of their enterprise messaging environments and will enable them to use such new features of Exchange Server 2007 as unified messaging, an EMC spokesperson said.
- EMC Solutions for Microsoft Office 2007. As a Microsoft Global Systems Integrator, EMC has worked with early-adopter customers to customize solutions on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and other Office server features, including Office InfoPath 2007, Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 and Office Groove Server 2007.
- EMC Services for Microsoft Windows Vista. EMC automates the process for large-scale deployment of Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 with service offerings built around Microsofts Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007 solution accelerator and SMS 2003 to help organizations upgrade their IT infrastructure in a cost-effective, secure manner.
In addition, EMC said it is developing packages that integrate its Documentum content management platform with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.