Cisco says it will offer Windows Server 2008 preinstalled on virtualized Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) appliances scheduled to be available later this year, reports Network World. This support will let users at branch offices access Windows Server 2008 locally — hosted on the WAAS appliance, which essentially becomes the software’s server — while also accessing applications remotely that are hosted on centralized data centers.
Under the non-exclusive arrangement, Cisco becomes a reseller of Windows Server 2008. The two companies plan to test and validate the products and offer customers joint support, and they also plan to jointly market the integrated product.
Microsoft also has application acceleration partnerships with Citrix, Packeteer, Juniper and many others.
Cisco and Microsoft have a strange dance of a relationship. Both of them are “control freak” companies and Cisco can’t be anything but wary as it watches Microsoft slowly creep its way into markets that Cisco wants to dominate, namely VoIP. (For a great analysis of how the two are competing in this area, check out an article written by Cisco reseller Peter John Revill, The Cisco/Microsoft battle for unified communications.)
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