Microsoft Brings Cloud Down to Earth for Enterprises

System Center 2012 is a true “private cloud builder”

SQL Server 2012 will help customers manage “any data, any size, anywhere” with its releases to manufacturing today

Hong Kong – March 7, 2012 – Cloud computing is the most important paradigm shift in IT since the arrival of the Internet. Enterprises around the world are already beginning to make the transition to this new model of computing, with the objective to gain agility, focus and economics. In the meantime, data explosion is occurring at every level across every imaginable device, application and individual. Enterprises have an unprecedented need to seek an advanced, cloud-ready data platform that can help unlock breakthrough insights across the organization to respond quickly in a competitive marketplace. With the launch of System Center 2012 and SQL Server 2012, Microsoft believes these business challenges can be easily address.

The Microsoft Private Cloud: Built for the Future. Ready Now.
“IT leaders tell Microsoft that private cloud computing promises to help them focus on innovation over maintenance, to streamline costs and to shorten IT respond time, as demand of IT balloon dramatically,” Ken Wong, Server Business Group Lead of Microsoft Hong Kong, says. “We are delivering on that promise today. With Microsoft System Center 2012, customers can move beyond the industry hype and speculation, and make private cloud deployment a reality.”

System Center 2012 is available as a single, integrated private cloud management solution for the first time. The new capabilities in System Center 2012 demonstrate Microsoft’s commitment to easing the acquisition, deployment and economics of private cloud computing. It enables businesses to build and delivery business applications across both private and public cloud platforms. It organizes existing IT assets (network, storage and compute) within the private cloud with extended capabilities to manage Microsoft public cloud, allowing hybrid cloud management from a single pane of glass.

The new System Center 2012 integrates eight separate products into one unified solution, streamlining installation and reducing time for deployment from days down to hours. The ownership of System Center 2012 has also been simplified; customers will only need to choose between the Standard and Datacenter editions of the product, based on their virtualization requirements. Due to the fact that System Center 2012 Datacenter edition licensing covers unlimited virtual machines, customers can continually grow their private clouds without additional licensing costs for virtualizing their infrastructure and applications.

Major companies are relying on System Center 2012 and the Microsoft private cloud, including Unilever. “Our private cloud will help us meet our goal of doubling Unilever’s business without increasing our environmental footprint,” said Mike Royle, Enterprise Services IT director at Unilever. “Working with Avanade, we are betting on System Center 2012 as the management platform to extend our investments in virtualization toward private cloud, to automate processes, and to ensure the reliability of our infrastructure and application services.”

Ken Wong, Server Business Group lead of Microsoft Hong Kong introducing Microsoft System Center 2012 at Microsoft Tech.Days 2012
Ken Wong, Server Business Group lead of Microsoft Hong Kong introducing Microsoft System Center 2012 at Microsoft Tech.Days 2012
(From left to right) Stephen Forte, Chief Strategy Officer of Telerik and Scott Golightly, Microsoft Regional Director introducing SQL Server 2012
(From left to right) Stephen Forte, Chief Strategy Officer of Telerik and Scott Golightly, Microsoft Regional Director introducing SQL Server 2012
SQL Server 2012 Infographic
SQL Server 2012 Infographic
Microsoft Private Solutions Infographic
Microsoft Private Solutions Infographic

SQL Server 2012 – A next-generation, cloud-ready information platform
Microsoft today also announced that the latest version of the world’s most widely deployed data platform. SQL Server 2012 has released to manufacturing on March 6th, 2012. SQL Server 2012 helps address the challenges of increasing data volumes by rapidly turning data into actionable business insights; expanding Microsoft’s commitment to help customers manage any data, regardless of size, both on-premises and in the cloud. Along with SQL Server 2012 announcement, Microsoft has also disclosed additional details regarding its plans to release an Apache Hadoop-based service for Windows Azure.

“Data is being generated faster than ever before, and organizations need a way to process and analyze all that data. Whatever the type or size of data, SQL Server 2012 delivers the platform and familiar tools to manage data, generate actionable insights and help drive business impact. As the foundation of Microsoft’s cloud-ready IT platform, SQL Server 2012 unlocks breakthrough insights, as well as quickly building solutions and extending data from server to private or public cloud backed by the most advanced features and capabilities on the market,” says Lenie Young, Product Marketing Manager for SQL Server of Microsoft Hong Kong.

SQL Server 2012: Proven Capability
SQL Server 2012 has already been deployed for production use by hundreds of global, industry-leading customers, such as Volvo Car Corp., Revlon and LG Chemical. Local early adopter includes Companhia de Electricidade de Macau (CEM). “By leveraging the consultant’s expertise from Microsoft, we set up a project team and build up our business model based on the best practices suggested by Microsoft. SQL server 2012’s Power View proposed by Microsoft gives us an interactive experience of web-based data exploration, visualization, and presentation to users of all levels. Its feature of collaborative reporting offers new insights with pervasive data discovery across the organization, helping us to make fast, correct business decisions.” said Denis Chan, Senior Manager, Information Technology Department, Companhia de Electricidade de Macau (CEM).

Tackling Big Data
IT research firm Gartner estimates that the volume of global data is growing at a rate of 59 percent per year, with 70 to 85 percent in unstructured form. Furthering its commitment to connect SQL Server and rich business intelligence tools, such as Microsoft Excel, PowerPivot for Excel 2010 and Power View, Microsoft announced plans to release an additional limited preview of an Apache Hadoop-based service for Windows Azure in the first half of 2012. Since the first limited preview released in December, customers such as Webtrends and the University of Dundee are using the Hadoop-based service to glean simple, actionable insights from complex data sets hosted in the cloud. Customers interested in signing up for the latest preview should visit http://www.hadooponazure.com.

Continued Improvements, New Levels of Return on Investment
To help customers more cost-effectively manage their enterprise-scale workloads, Microsoft will release several new data warehousing solutions in conjunction with the general availability of SQL Server 2012, slated to begin April 1. This includes a major software update and new half-rack form factors for Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse appliances, as well as the availability of SQL Server Fast Track Data Warehouse reference architectures for SQL Server 2012.

In addition, Microsoft is releasing results from a new Microsoft-commissioned Forrester Consulting Total Economic Impact study on the potential benefits of upgrading to SQL Server 2012. The study reports a potential return on investment of up to 189 percent with a 12-month payback period.

For more information about today’s announcements or download an evaluation copy of SQL Server 2012, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/sqlserver/.

Remark:
1. “Microsoft SQL Server 2012: Potential Game Changer”, Amy Konary & Carl W. Olofson, IDC, January 2012

2. “The End of the Database as We Know It – noDISK, noSQL, Cloudy”, Donald Feinberg, Gartner IT Symposium, October 2010
3. http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-SQL-Server-2008-R2-Enterprise/Stratus-Technologies/Protect-your-mission-critical-databases-from-downtime-and-data-loss-with-six-nines-uptime-availability/4000007136

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

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