NEC Introduces Integrated Server and Network Virtualization Solution with System Center 2012 and Windows Server 2012

IRVING, Texas: NEC Corporation of America (NEC), a leading provider of advanced IT solutions, and a pioneer in OpenFlow-based Software Defined Networking (SDN), will unveil at Microsoft’s TechEd conference the award-winning NEC ProgrammableFlow Network Suite optimized to integrate with Microsoft’s System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager, delivering automated server and network orchestration for virtualized data centers. This new integrated solution, which will be demonstrated at TechEd, will transform network management for Windows Server 2012 customers, enabling new levels of control, flexibility, automation, and significant OpEx savings.

NEC’s planned SDN solution will help customers of Windows Server 2013 and Hyper-V automate the time-consuming and disruptive task of configuring their networks as they support the dynamic movement of virtual machines. It further enhances the flexibility provided with complete network virtualization, introduced with the NEC OpenFlow-based vSwitch for Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V and available since January 2013. NEC’s ProgrammableFlow vSwitch for Windows Server Hyper-V environments, the PF1000, and the ProgrammableFlow SDN Controller manage network flows, working in conjunction with System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager, controlling the source and destination virtual machines.

Customers will have new levels of virtual machine mobility, visibility and control as they monitor end-to-end network flows from one virtual machine to another. ProgrammableFlow SDN customers, operating in production today, have experienced operating expense reductions of as much as 50-80%.

The new, integrated orchestration will be demonstrated at TechEd in New Orleans on June 4, in the session entitled “How to Design and Configure Networking in Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager and Hyper-V,” which begins at 3:15 p.m. NEC and Microsoft are open to early adopter customers now, with general availability of the technology expected this fall.

“Windows Server 2012 SDN lets customers rethink networking in the context of transforming their data centers for the cloud by abstracting apps and services from the underlying network,” said Mike Schutz, general manager, Server and Tools Marketing, Microsoft. “NEC’s ProgrammableFlow Network Suite, optimized to integrate with Microsoft’s System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager, helps ease the administrative burden of configuring and provisioning networks. Private and hybrid cloud customers can realize the promise of SDN by reducing operational complexity, introducing new levels of automation, and enabling centralized control over servers, and both the physical and virtual networks.”

“I have been talking to customers across the country in a series of Software-Defined Networking workshops, and they are excited, but skeptical, of the benefits of SDN,” reported networking industry analyst Jim Metzler, VP of Ashton, Metzler and Associates. “NEC has repeatedly demonstrated leadership with its ProgrammableFlow network family – most recently with its SDN Application Center. Based on reports from SDN customers in production today, NEC has helped to clarify what is possible with this transformative technology.”

“Expanding our integration with Windows Server 2012 through System Center Virtual Machine Manager is the natural progression of NEC’s SDN solution development,” said Mike Mitsch, VP of Enterprise Technology, NEC Corporation of America. “Customers using Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager and ProgrammableFlow networking now have the ability to be more responsive to their lines of business while delivering reduced operational costs with new levels of total system agility.”

Introduced to the market in 2011, the ProgrammableFlow Network Suite was the first commercially available SDN solution to leverage the OpenFlow protocol, enabling complete network virtualization and secure multi-tenant networks. ProgrammableFlow networking enables customers in production today to easily deploy, control, monitor, and manage multi-tenant network infrastructure. Endorsed by customers, the ProgrammableFlow solutions provide the first comprehensive suite that includes both physical and virtual switches as well as an SDN controller and the new NEC SDN Application Center, an ecosystem of network applications. Ideally suited for corporate and service provider data centers, the ProgrammableFlow Controller provides a cost-effective, high-performance, highly scalable SDN platform.