As a Cisco networking professional you probably thought you'd never see this happen but Cisco is to become a reseller of Microsoft's Windows Server 2008. Yup, Cisco is going to bundle Microsoft's upcoming OS with its WAN optimization gear for branch offices. Cisco says it will embed a virtualization component with its Wide-Area Application Services (WAAS) appliance to enable customers to host Microsoft's OS services within their existing branch networks.
Writing in Microsoft's Windows Server Division blog, Adam J. Skewgar, Microsoft group product manager, branch and storage solutions, says of the partnership: "IT can offer all of the performance and availability benefits of having base IT services in the branch office without the need for extra hardware. In fact, deployment is all centrally managed, entirely through software."
The bundle will be available later this year.
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