Roundup: NetApp, Cisco, Microsoft, Fusion-io

Here’s a look at some of today’s noteworthy links for the data center industry:

Cisco and NetApp accelerate transition to Microsoft Private Cloud. Cisco (CSCO) and NetApp (NTAP) announced the availability of a Cisco Validated Design (CVD) for the FlexPod shared infrastructure and Microsoft private cloud. The new solution builds on a reference architecture that was announced last year and  is designed to reduce infrastructure and application deployment time from days to hours while helping achieve greater utilization of physical and virtual resource pools. Cisco and NetApp will bring the validated and pretested data center solution for the cloud to partners with the help of Avnet Technology Solutions (AVT). The new FlexPod solution was validated by Microsoft as part of its Private Cloud Fast Track program. The solution combines Cisco network switches, NetApp unified storage systems running on Data ONTAP software, with Windows Server 2008 R2 and System Center. It was validated with Microsoft private cloud and is deployed at select Microsoft Technology Centers worldwide, allowing customers to see the power of Microsoft System Center with Windows Server Hyper-V on the FlexPod shared infrastructure. "The FlexPod validated with Microsoft private cloud reinforces Cisco's commitment to offering a range of data center solutions that enable our channel partners to offer customers more choice and flexibility," said Satinder Sethi, vice president, Server Access Virtualization Technology Group at Cisco.  "Microsoft customers can now use shared infrastructure and integrated management to complement Microsoft's deep application insights, along with the ability to automatically orchestrate resources from the FlexPod, to enable customers to deliver applications as services and meet demanding business service-level agreements."

Fusion-io selected by Drecom.  Fusion-io (FIO) announced that leading Japanese social gaming company Drecom is using Fusion ioMemory to power its MySQL database environment. Drecom, a leading entertainment web service provider in Japan was evaluating options for scaling their infrastructure rapidly to meet demands and determined that the write endurance of Solid State Drives (SSDs) did not meet its performance and reliability criteria. Drecom decided to integrate the Fusion-io ioDrive into its servers and in addition to cutting server sprawl in half a significant improvement in its MySQL data base performance was noticed. “We needed a solution that would allow us to enhance our MySQL environment to serve our rapidly-growing user base,” said Drecom IT Architect Senior Engineer Yusuke Saito. “No one wants to wait when they log on to play a game. With Fusion ioDrives integrated into our servers, players won’t see ‘server busy’ messages. Now, even millions of players can be sure to enjoy the user experience they expect online.”