Window to the Private Cloud

How EMC IT Uses Microsoft – Part 1 – Evaluating Office 365

emc-community-network@emc.com — Tue, 07 May 2013 16:21:10 +0000

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Wissam Halabi, an EMC Distinguished Engineer from the EMC IT Office of Architecture and Innovation. Wissam is a Microsoft expert as well as an architect in charge of designing EMC’s IT environment for Microsoft. I was curious to find out more about how EMC uses Microsoft for internal IT purposes and found our discussion quite interesting.

I learned that EMC uses SQL Server for various database purposes. SharePoint is deployed in an innovative internal as-a-Service offering – an interesting story for another day, EMC is deploying System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) for monitoring purposes and that we use Lync for instant messaging in conjunction with Exchange for email. It turns out EMC has been a long time user of Exchange and the footprint has grown dramatically.

Around the 2004 timeframe, EMC had about 27,000 mail boxes deployed on 168 mailbox servers across 10 sites. As EMC grew from 2004 to 2009, EMC IT implemented a global messaging infrastructure that consolidated worldwide exchange servers to two managed data centers with over 50,000 mailboxes on Exchange 2003 supporting 400 offices in 80 countries. Keeping pace with growing storage demand was a major problem at the time. IT initiated an archiving project to reduce storage requirements and to come into compliance with new EMC governance policies. The archiving part of the story is fascinating but that too will have to wait for a future post. Overall the global messaging infrastructure project led to cost saving estimated at $20M, largely due to storage tiering and centralized management.

EMC continued its growth and the requirements for Exchange were even more demanding. From 2009 – 2011, EMC upgraded to Exchange 2007 with 64,000 mailboxes in an environment EMC IT specified to provide 99.99% uptime and zero data loss. The infrastructure would be 100% virtualized with 100% disaster recovery in place. It would also accommodate the surge in mobile devices and requiring support for 25% of the user population now using BlackBerry devices to access email.

Given the growth and demands of email on EMC IT and thinking about EMC moving to Exchange 2010, our use of SharePoint, coupled with EMC’s push to cloud computing, I was curious to discuss the pros and cons of Office 365 and whether a company like EMC might consider Office 365 as an option. My expectation from Wissam was a polite decline. A company with a sophisticated IT team like EMC would not consider such an option. To my surprise, Wissam pulled up presentations with supporting spreadsheets to show me that EMC had in fact extensively investigated the feasibility of a move to Office 365.

Wissam compared 5 different cloud options ranging from a full Microsoft 365 option to a CSC or similar hosted option and finally a full EMC private cloud, on premises option. What he discovered is that from a pure cost standpoint, even based on preferential pricing from Microsoft, EMC started to save money with a full EMC private cloud, on premises implementation at about 6,000-7,000 users, well short of the now 80,000 required. A couple of other limitations are that Microsoft provides a 3-9’s SLA as part of Office 365 yet EMC requires 4-9’s and the penalty to Microsoft for missing an SLA is minimal.

As we wrapped up our chat, he shared with me an architectural diagram of the current configuration, see below. The picture underlines a couple of the guiding principles of EMC IT today, simplify and automate. Today, all new infrastructures deployed by EMC IT uses VBLOCK platforms from VCE. This greatly simplifies life for IT through a single point of contact for support of the total platform as well as automating many traditional IT tasks and gives Wissam the freedom to think up more ways to innovate.

If you are EMC World, be sure to visit Microsoft kiosk at booth 1035. Also see the presentation on Wednesday, May 8 at 4pm in the Palazzo M, ‘Optimize Business Application Performance & Protection with EMC Solutions for Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and VMware.

Leveraging Flash Across the Microsoft SQL Server Stack

Sam Marraccini — Sun, 05 May 2013 00:36:16 +0000

Earlier this week, EMC's Sam Marraccini wrote a guest blog on Microsoft's SQL Server team site highlighting the benefits of Flash technology with Microsoft SQL Server. In short, flash continues to be a game changer and with the introduction of EMC Xtrem products including XtremSF (PCIe server flash), XtremSW Cache (server side caching) and XtremIO (all Flash array) is helping to improve performance for key application workloads.

via vwin.typepad.com

Thanks for spreading the Xtrem word!!

Leveraging Flash Across the Microsoft SQL Server Stack

Virtual Winfrastructure — Sat, 04 May 2013 00:20:57 +0000

Earlier this week, EMC’s Sam Marraccini wrote a guest blog on Microsoft’s SQL Server team site highlighting the benefits of Flash technology with Microsoft SQL Server. In short, flash continues to be a game changer and with the introduction of EMC Xtrem products including XtremSF (PCIe server flash), XtremSW Cache (server side caching) and XtremIO (all Flash array) is helping to improve performance for key application workloads.

When using flash technology to either extend the cache of the storage array or using flash PCIe cards in the server itself (or even better, using both!) – you can dramatically increase the amount of total IOPS while also improving response times to sub-millisecond! Think about that, drive more I\O while significantly improving performance at the same time.

Interested to read more, be sure to check out Sam’s blog post and be sure to come to the Solutions Group booth (#1035) or the Xtrem Flash booth at EMC World next week!

Windows Server 2012 Storage Features

emc-community-network@emc.com — Fri, 03 May 2013 08:41:26 +0000

Windows 2012 introduces a lot of new features and capabilities helping IT organizations to lower cost when using these built-in
features. Last week, Michael Otey posted a blog talking about new Windows 2012 Storage Features and I wanted to add
additional information regarding EMC capabilities and integrations with this new technology.

EMC is leading the Datacenter transformation and in Big Data and currently supports many of these new features and capabilities found in Windows 2012

One example is data deduplication, a new feature that performs data deduplication in the background without any performance impact to primary workloads and includes the option to schedule the process for the volume or files.

The best candidates for deduplication are file shares, software deployment shares and virtualization deployment shares such as VHD libraries. Applications which continue access like Microsoft SQL and Exchange Server are not good candidates for deduplication.

Deduplication also could be a great benefit for backup and restore process, Microsoft provides a VSS writer for data deduplication backup and restore process. For customers who run data deduplication on Windows Server 2012 with supported EMC arrays, Windows will use the deduplication processes directly from the array extending the storage feature through to Windows.

SMB 3.0 protocol is another feature that brings new capabilities including performance and high availability improvements. This is great for new implementations and deployments and in the near future we will see applications such as Hyper-V and SQL Server be
implemented on SMB file shares in our Datacenters where EMC storage is present.

We can also expect to see different DR Solutions where we can leverage some of those functionalities, for instance latency reduction over WAN is an example of performance improvement in this new SMB version.

Overall the new features for Windows 2012 SMC protocol includes:

SMB Transparent Failover
SMB Scale Out
SMB Multichannel
SMB Direct
SMB Encryption
VSS for SMB file shares

These new features and capabilities provide flexibility and reliability to Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V deployments with SMB-based storage on EMC storage arrays. EMC fully supports SMB 3.0 within its unified storage platforms, such as EMC VNX.

For more information about Windows 2012 SMB please visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2709568

Thin Provisioning technology provides efficiency for storage provisioning and business applications. This new feature of Windows 2012 is integrated with EMC arrays, so that EMC virtual provisioning gives storage administrators flexibility in deploying storage to Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V hosts.

Windows Server 2012 can detect thin-provisioned storage on EMC storage arrays and reclaim unused space, including when Windows Server 2012 is deployed within a Hyper-V virtual machine.

Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX).Is a feature that enables you to be more efficient when you are moving data in a shared storage array.
This reduces CPU and network resources consumption on the physical host and increase data movement speed. This is a great functionality in virtual environments when we have to move Virtual Machines between different locations.

Windows Server 2012 and EMC intelligent arrays make ODX-enabled file functions transparent to applications, which means that Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V hosts that use EMC storage arrays automatically optimize file and move functions without
administrator intervention.

More information about ODX in this link http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh848056%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

EMC is excited to support these and many more new features found in Windows Server 2012!

For more information, be sure to visit the Everything Microsoft at EMC Community.

Great EMC Blog on Microsoft TechNet – Leveraging Flash Across the Microsoft SQL Server Stack

Karen Griffith — Thu, 02 May 2013 16:30:23 +0000

Our own Sam Marraccini wrote the following blog which is posted on Microsoft TechNet. We hear from many of our customers that as their databases grow, costs increase and performance decreases. Sam presents a very compelling case for using Flash in a SQL Server envrionment. Enjoy his post here:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/dataplatforminsider/archive/2013/05/01/leveraging-flash-across-the-microsoft-sql-server-stack.aspx

The Hype v. Reality of Software Lead Storage and Windows Server 2012…Infrastructure matters to the tune of 15% lower TCO and 33% lower staff costs!

Karen Griffith — Wed, 01 May 2013 13:04:12 +0000

I recently read an interesting perspective on Software defined data centers and storage. The blog by David Vallente at Wikibon- entitled Windows Server 2012 Falls Short on Software-Defined Storage (http://wikibon.org/wiki/v/Windows_Server_2012_Falls_Short_on_Software-Defined_Storage). David and his team including David Floyer recently did an analysis of Windows Server 2012 and the new features such as OffLoad Data Transfer (ODX) , Storage spaces, SMB 3.0 etc. ( David Floyer’s blog - Windows Server 2012 Falls Short on Software-Defined Storage http://wikibon.org/wiki/v/Windows_Server_2012_Falls_Short_on_Software-Defined_Storage)

The folks at Wikibon have been predicting for some time that ISVs like Microsoft (and Oracle) would increasingly try to grab more storage function and pressure traditional storage models.

In this analysis, Wikibon conducted a number of interviews with customers that had some level of experience with Windows Server 2012. This group represented a range of industries and account sizes. What they found was that Microsoft Windows Server 2012 is an important and successful new release.

He further elaborates that in Wikibon’s view – “specifically as it relates to Windows Server 2012, arrays that integrate with this new platform will provide better tactical ROI in the near term.”

But the potential challenge is in the robustness and maturity of this new functionality and deployment model. As Wikibon further elaborates, its Windows Server 2012 lack of robustness and storage function maturity that cautions them on the true Software-led storage from Microsoft is still a release cycle or two away. Specifically, array-based storage will continue to provide the best ROI for many small and mid-sized Microsoft shops over the next 18-24 months.

In both of these cases, Wikibon’s research found that to the extent an array had the capability to exploit these new features, the value proposition of array-based storage was significantly better than relying solely on a Microsoft-led (Software-led) storage stack ( aka the do it yourself model) . As such, the array-based capability that Wikibon modeled to evaluate the business case demonstrated significantly better value than a Microsoft Software-led approach using commodity disks .

What array did they use in the modeling and analysis? The EMC VNX platform. Wikibon further cautions folks looking at using Windows Server 2012 to ensure that their arrays can exploit the new functionality.

Wikibon highlighted in their analysis that:

Spending 10% more on disk array hardware that can exploit Windows Server 2012 capabilities can lead to 14% lower overall costs relative to today’s Microsoft Software-led approach using JBOD;
While server costs will be somewhat lower and largely offset more expensive array costs, the real savings come from infrastructure management costs (i.e. lower people costs).
By utilizing array-based hardware that can integrate with and exploit Windows Server 2012 function, IT organizations will free up staff time and reduce management complexity by approximately 33%. This can lead to better IT staff productivity and reduction in time spent doing non-differentiated heavy lifting for storage.

Wikibon sums it up:” Microsoft’s Windows Server 2012 delivers some compelling function, but critical storage capabilities are lacking, such that true Software-Defined Storage from Microsoft remains elusive. In the near-to-mid term, to achieve maximum efficiency IT organizations must either investigate alternative software-defined offerings or stick with array-based storage solutions that integrate with Windows 2012. Importantly, to the extent these traditional arrays exploit key new features in Windows Server 2012, business value will likely exceed all-Microsoft storage stack approach.”

No surprise here at EMC…. we agree that Windows Server 2012 is very interesting. EMC was the first to announce our intent to deliver support ((June 2012 – http://www.emc.com/about/news/press/2012/20120910-01.htm)

; were the first storage provider to deliver support for SMB 3.0 and our award winning VNX platform was used to showcase the TechEd keynote to show case the ODX functionality. We also are leading the pack with quite a bit of integration with Windows Server 2012 and System Center. Let us not forget our recent announcements around VSPEX support for Windows Server 2012 as wellIn addition to checking out the Wikibon blogs, I would recommend checking out:

Everything Microsoft at EMC

Also, there are additional assets that may help you understand the role infrastructure plays when deploying Windows Server 2012 in a Private Cloud Environment. More information can also be found on emc.com

EMC Perspective: The Power of Windows Server 2012 and EMC Infrastructure – http://www.emc.com/collateral/emc-perspective/power-windows-server-2012-emc-infrastruction-ms-pce.pdf

Whitepaper: EMC VNX3 Introduction to SMB 3.0 – http://www.emc.com/collateral/white-papers/h11383-vnxe-introduction-wp.pdf

There is a wealth of opportunities at #EMCworld to learn more about EMC and Windows Server 2012. I am also looking forward to talking with the Wikibon folks at EMCworld to learn more about their analysis.

So much to understand about your Cloud Options for Microsoft Applications …The path you take matters! The Radicati Group Perspective

Karen Griffith — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:42:37 +0000

In the world of IT…. things are moving very quickly. In my role at EMC, I have the opportunity and quite frankly privilege, to talk to many customers, partners, press and analysts and as well as EMC’s many experts on Microsoft. Consistently I hear from all about the abundance of information out there on cloud computing and virtualization… and how confusing it can be to cut through all of the noise and truly educate yourself.

There are a number of EMC resources and sponsored opportunities for IT professionals to do just that – educate themselves on technical considerations for deploying Microsoft Applications such as Exchange, SharePoint, SQL Server database and Windows Server in a cloud environment.

EMC recently worked with industry leading analysts and thought leaders to discuss what customers should begin to think about as they evaluate which path to take regarding their Microsoft applications and cloud computing. I am going to be posting a weekly blog on our efforts to help our customers, partners and the broader Microsoft community on the role that infrastructure can have in helping your transform your Microsoft environments to the Cloud.

As always – key place to start your education process is here on this blog and also on our Everything Microsoft Community on ECN.

Radicati Group Whitepaper- Benefits of Consolidating and Virtualizing Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint in a Private Cloud Environment – Understanding the Role of Infrastructure to Ensure Success

EMC experts partnered with Sara Radicati and her team at the Radicati Group to create a whitepaper and webcast to discuss the benefits of consolidating and virtualizing Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint in a Private Cloud Environment and how infrastructure such as that offered by EMC and our channel partners. In this paper, Sara and her team discuss the benefits of consolidating and virtualizing Microsoft

http://www.emc.com/collateral/white-papers/radicati-emc-wp.pdf

Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint Consolidation and Virtualization in a Private Cloud Environment Webcast Replay – A Customer perspective.

EMC also had the opportunity to continue our work with Sara and her team and also Phillip Reynolds , Associate Director of Technology, Williams & Fudge an EMC customer. The web conference was moderated by Sara Radicati and brings together guest speakers from EMC and one of its customers, financial firm Williams & Fudge, to discuss how customers can best leverage virtualization technologies and other key infrastructure components that are critical to the deployment of a successful private cloud environment. This web conference looked at the benefits of virtual private cloud deployment, and how EMC’s private cloud virtualization technologies and solutions can support the implementation of secure private cloud deployments of Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft SharePoint.

See the webcast on replay – http://www.radicati.com/files/webconferences/2013/2-Mar-Virtualization/Microsoft_Exchange_and_SharePoint_Consolidation_and_Virtualization_in_a_Private_Cloud_Environment_3-28-13.wmv

And the Premiere Opportunity to Learn More about Cloud – EMCWORLD 2013

EMCWorld – so many session and demos in so little time

Adrian’s Virtual Winfrastructure blog – Painting a Picture of Microsoft Solutions at EMCworld does a great job of providing an overview on all of the EMC Solutions and demos focused on Microsoft environments..

His blog is here – http://windowtotheprivatecloud.com/author/virtual-winfrastructure/

Expanding on EMC’s Support for Windows Server 2012 Storage Features

Karen Griffith — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 20:38:16 +0000

Guest blog by Francisco Blasco

Windows 2012 introduces a lot of new features and capabilities helping IT organizations to lower cost when using these built-in features. Last week, Michael Otey of Windows IT Pro posted a blog talking about new Windows 2012 Storage Features and I wanted to add additional information regarding EMC capabilities and integrations with this new technology.

EMC is leading the Datacenter transformation and in Big Data and currently supports many of these new features and capabilities found in Windows 2012

One example is data de duplication, a new feature that performs data de duplication in the background without any performance impact to primary workloads and includes the option to schedule the process for the volume or files.

Deduplication also could be a great benefit for backup and restore processes, Microsoft provides a VSS writer for data deduplication backup and restore process. For customers who run data deduplication on Windows Server 2012 with supported EMC arrays, Windows will use the deduplication processes directly from the array extending the storage feature through to Windows.

SMB 3.0 protocol is another feature that brings new capabilities including performance and high availability improvements. This is great for new implementations and deployments and in the near future we will see applications such as Hyper-V and SQL Server be implemented on SMB file shares in our Datacenters where EMC storage is present.

Overall the new features for Windows 2012 SMC protocol includes:

SMB Transparent Failover
SMB Scale Out
SMB Multichannel
SMB Direct
SMB Encryption
VSS for SMB file shares

For more information about Windows 2012 SMB please visit: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2709568

Windows Server 2012 can detect thin-provisioned storage on EMC storage arrays and reclaim unused space, including when Windows Server 2012 is deployed within a Hyper-V virtual machine.

Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX) is a feature that enables you to be more efficient when you are moving data in a shared storage array. This reduces CPU and network resources consumption on the physical host and increase data movement speed. This is a great functionality in virtual environments when we have to move Virtual Machines between different locations.

Painting a Picture of Microsoft Solutions at EMC World

Virtual Winfrastructure — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:31:36 +0000

EMC World is just around the corner (May 6-9) and we are busy behind the scenes preparing for a big week! As part of EMC's Solutions Group (ESG), my team is responsible for helping to educate and promote EMC's many Microsoft solutions.

As you might imagine, there is a lot to talk about so the hardest part about something like this is how to cover everything (for a full listing of our Microsoft activities, be sure to check out this great overview on the Everything Microsoft at EMC Community)!

For starters we will be showcasing some key recent EMC solutions as part of the EMC ESG booth (#1035) at EMC World. This year we decided to focus on two major application categories that many customers tend to ask us about: Databases and Collaboration. Specifically we will have demos, publishes best practices and technical information about:

Microsoft SharePoint 2013 & Exchange 2013 (& earlier)

Data Protection including Single Item Level Restore
Virtualized Deployments for Messaging and Collaboration
Multi-site Disaster Recovery

Microsoft SQL Server 2012

Highly Available SQL Server (including AlwaysOn Support)
Xtrem Performance for SQL Databases
End to End SQL Server Data Protection

The ESG booth will be highlighting integration with many key applications including Oracle, SAP and Cloud & Big Data so it will be a chance for attendees to meet with Subject Matter Experts in one place about their business applications.

What's unique about the booth this year is we will have a live art experience taking place all week with a speed painter performing his Paintjam and a contest for someone to win a trip for two to attend any museum in the world! It should be colorful (sorry, couldn't resist)!

There are also many sessions devoted to Microsoft technologies. I'll be presenting a topic entitled "Automate & Provision VNX Storage with Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track Solutions" where I'll be discussing EMC's continued support for Microsoft virtualization and Private Cloud technologies including Microsoft System Center. The session will cover automation and management orchestrator through our integration with technologies such as Virtual Machine Manager, Operations Manager and Microsoft Orchestrator.

You can find me on Tuesday, May 5^th from 5:30-6:30PM in Lando 4201A or Thursday, May 9^th from 1:00-2:00 in Palazzo A. Hope to see you there!

Additional sessions I would recommend for my Microsoft friends and followers include:

Powering Microsoft Applications with VNX – this is being delivered by my good friend Stefan Voss from EMC's Unified Division. He is awesome and you won't want to miss this as he discusses in-depth performance and support for key Microsoft workloads! This session will be on Monday, May 4^th at 1:00-2:00 and Thursday from 8:30-9:30.

Storage Provisioning, Monitoring & Orchestration of Your Microsoft Applications – another technical wizard and all around great guy, Giri Basava of our Microsoft Partner Engineering team will discuss EMC's Storage Integrator (ESI) for provisioning and managing in a Microsoft environment. Giri is fresh off his presentation at Microsoft's Management Summit (MMS) where he got great feedback! You can catch him on Tuesday from 4:00-5:00 (he's my warm up act) or Thursday May 9^th from 1:00-2:00 (which unfortunately you will miss since you'll be in my session).

And many more sessions including:

IT Trends: Microsoft SharePoint, Office and EMC Documentum – Better Together
AppSync: Managing VNX Protection of Critical Microsoft Applications and VMware
Optimize Business Application Performance & Protection with EMC Solutions for Microsoft, Oracle, SAP & VMware
VMAX & Application Deployment: Best Practices for Virtualized Microsoft Applications
VNX Family Integration with VMware, Microsoft and Citrix Virtualized Environments
Accelerating SQL and Oracle Database Environments with EMC XtremSW Cache and EMC FAST
EMC Backup: Strategies for Backup & Recovery of Microsoft Applications

And that's just the Microsoft focused sessions; there will be A LOT more on EMC technologies including new updates we can't talk about just yet! We'll also have the Hands-On Labs which have become one of the most popular parts of EMC World!

Are you a partner? Be sure to attend our Global Partner Summit that will be taking place at the same time (as well as EMC's SE Conference with all of our field SEs in town for their own separate training including many Microsoft sessions of their own).

It will be a wild week for sure and a lot of fun! If you are going then be sure to come by the ESG booth and say hi, I'll be there most of the week! If you're not going, then hurry up and register and book that flight to Vegas!

See you soon!

Lead Your Transformation with Microsoft Solutions @ EMC World 2013

emc-community-network@emc.com — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:56:31 +0000

EMC World returns The Venetian in Las Vegas from May 6th through the 9th. Come join our Solutions team and meet with the EMC Microsoft Specialists, see demos on how EMC technologies support and enhance Microsoft applications and see many presentations from leading EMC Microsoft experts!

Visit us at the Booth

This year we will be highlighting SharePoint, Exchange and SQL Solutions in out booth. Over the past year we have published a large number of solutions, review our current list of solutions and come prepared with questions for our experts or just stop by and learn how EMC and Microsoft are better together.

Exchange and SharePoint Virtualization in a private cloud	Click Here
ESI integration with System Center Orchestrator	Click Here
Microsoft Exchange Server with EMC xTremSW Cache	Click Here
EMC Management Integration for Microsoft Private Cloud	Click Here
Exchange 2010 with FAST VP overview	Click Here
Exchange 2010 protection with AppSync and VNX snaps	Click Here
EMC AppSync Overview	Click Here
VF Cache Solution for SQL Server 2012	Click Here
EMC Efficient Remote Blob Storage Solution for SharePoint	Click Here
EMC Advance Multisite Availability for SQL Server 2012	Click Here
EMC Infrastructure for Virtualized Cloud Environment	Click Here
EMC DR Solution for Microsoft Applications with RecoverPoint/CE	Click Here
EMC Multisite Disaster Recovery for Microsoft SQL Server 2012	Click Here

Sessions

There is a full calendar of Microsoft related sessions at EMC World, need help finding them all? Use this list below to build your schedule and hear from EMC engineers, solution specialists and Microsoft experts present on key topics!

Using EMC Solution Guidelines for Database Consolidation: Highlighting EMC’s FAST Suite (Tuesday & Wednesday at 10AM)
Optimizing Business Application Performance & Protection with Microsoft Solutions for Microsoft, Oracle, SAP & VMware (Monday 2:30PM & Wednesday 4:00PM)
Automate & Provision VNX Storage with Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track Solutions (Tuesday 5:30PM & Thursday 1:00PM)
Powering Microsoft Applications (Exchange, SharePoint, SQL) with VNX
IT Trends: Microsoft SharePoint, Office, and EMC Documentum – Better Together
AppSync: Managing VNX Protection of Critical Microsoft Applications and VMware
VMAX & Application Deployment: Best Practices for Virtualized Microsoft Applications
Storage Provisioning, Monitoring, & Orchestration of Your Microsoft Applications EMC Storage Integrator for Windows
VNX Family Integration with VMware, Microsoft, & Citrix Virtualized Environments
Avamar: What’s New in 2013
EMC VNX: Effectively Monitoring Your VNX System
Extending Windows Server 2012 & Hyper-V 3.0 Features to the VNX Family
Accelerating SQL and Oracle Database Environments with EMC XtremSW Cache and EMC FAST
GPS: EMC Solutions Group Partner Breakout
Public Sector: Realize Governance and Compliance in State Government
EMC Backup: Strategies for Backup & Recovery of MS Applications (Exchange, SQL, SharePoint, Hyper-V)

Hands on Labs

Visit the EMC World Hands-On Labs
Want to be first in line to get hands-on time with some of the latest products and solutions from EMC? Maybe your looking to beef up on your technical knowledge using your own dedicated EMC based IT infrastructure? 30 Labs and 200 Seats at EMC World!

Self-Paced Labs For All Levels
All labs are self-paced and provide step by step guides. It doesn’t matter your level of familiarity or expertise with a product or set of technologies.

Behind the Scenes with EMC Experts
There will be product and solutions experts on-hand to answer any questions. Take a look into the real-time performance of the cloud based infrastructure running the labs.

Prizes & Giveaways
Follow the #EMCWORLD Twitter hashtag for updates and details on prizes at the Hands-On Labs!

Partner Summit

Are you a partner attending Global Partner Summit and EMC World? Be sure to join the EMC Solutions Group breakout on Monday, May 6th at 1:30 in the Sands Showroom where the agenda includes presentations from Prasad Rampalli, EVP of EMC Solutions and additional sessions on Microsoft, Oracle, Healthcare and VSPEX solutions! Be sure to check out the overview in the attached summary file.

Be sure to join us in Las Vegas where everyone is a winner!