Dell has announced it is building on its strategic alliance with Microsoft to deliver Windows Azure to Dell customers worldwide through the Dell Cloud Partner Program. This expands upon the previously announced alliance providing Application Development Services on Windows Azure. With the evolving Dell-Microsoft relationship, current and future customers will have even more choice and flexibility when pursuing and planning public cloud infrastructures. Acting as a single-source supplier through the Dell Cloud Partner Program, Dell will offer customers a central point of solution integration, control and direct support, lessening the complexity and challenges of deploying cloud environments.

“At the heart of Dell’s Cloud strategy are customer choice and flexibility, the underlying reasons driving our continued expansion of the Dell Cloud Partner Program and our open, scalable cloud solutions and services across Dell,” said Nnamdi Orakwue, vice president, Dell Software Strategy, Operations and Cloud. “The evolution of our Windows Azure alliance combined with Dell’s end-to-end solutions, services and support will help Dell customers globally truly reap the benefits of cloud to achieve tangible business results.”

“Windows Azure is a flexible and scalable cloud platform that lets customers build on trusted Microsoft technology, including Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V and System Center 2012 R2. Strengthening our relationship with Dell for Windows Azure adds new opportunities for businesses to quickly and easily build, deploy and manage applications across public cloud environments,” said Garth Fort, general manager, Server and Tools Marketing, Microsoft. “This relationship will give additional tools to organizations of all sizes and help them turn the cloud into a focused, competitive advantage.”

In addition to taking advantage of Windows Azure, Dell customers gain a superior level of integration and support across existing Dell solutions and services such as:

• A complete portfolio of services to develop and manage next-generation, custom applications for Windows Azure, as announced earlier this year;
• Expert guidance in helping assess, build, operate and control cloud environments with Dell Cloud Consulting and Application Services, whether customers are just starting in cloud, already have significant cloud investments, or are somewhere in between;
• The ability to manage single or multiple public, private and hybrid clouds through one pane of glass with Dell Cloud Manager, formerly Enstratius; and,
• Direct support from a Dell salesperson to advise customers through the best purchasing, deployment and maintenance options to meet their unique needs, accounting for budget, workloads, current infrastructure, use cases, etc.

As unified cloud management is critical to supporting any cloud environment, Dell also unveiled that Dell Cloud Manager is adding support for Windows Azure Compute on top of the already supported Windows Azure Storage. This comprehensive offering now brings the governance, business agility, and open approach of Dell Cloud Manager to Windows Azure users for both Compute and Storage, enabling them to benefit from increased security, automation, integration with leading configuration management and operational tools for orchestration, and cloud management. Dell Cloud Manager is a cloud infrastructure management solution for deploying and managing enterprise-class applications and the consumption of cloud services in public, private and hybrid clouds.

The Dell Cloud Partner Program gives customers more choice and flexibility to select the public cloud partner, platform and model appropriate for their business needs. The Program complements Dell’s cloud focus areas of enabling private cloud, delivering multi-cloud management and supplying cloud builders.

Availability

• Customers globally can now take advantage of Windows Azure through the Dell Cloud Partner Program. 
• Dell Cloud Manager support for Windows Azure Compute is currently available globally.