Springtime is a heavy tech show season.  This week in Las Vegas, we won Best of Interop in the SDN category with the APIC.  Next week we are headed to Chicago to talk about the APIC and ACI at Microsoft's largest and most comprehensive technology event, Microsoft Ignite.  As data center customers look to Microsoft's Cloud Platform with Windows Server 2012 with HyperV, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, and Windows Azure Pack; they will be modernizing their infrastructure, looking for scaled performance, fast deployment, efficient networking, and extended manageability.  UCS and ACI deliver a powerful solution to achieve these objectives.  To share our networking perspectives on this, Shashi Kiran and I will be there to deliver a new business and technical session entitled:

Microsoft Cloud Meets Cisco's ACIon Tuesday May 5 from 1:30PM to 2:45PM in S105A, McCormick Place Convention Center, Chicago, IL

Technology must enable a new process model for speeding up workflows across siloed organizations within the IT function. This session will introduce Cisco's Application Centric Infrastructure and its tight integration into Microsoft Azure clouds. We'll show how you can deliver new tenant services while transforming your IT organization and workflows with a common policy model, centralized control, and simplified operational visibility across your data center. We'll demonstrate how your applications, network and security teams can leverage a new operational model to generate compelling business outcomes for your enterprise.

This infographic provides a little preview on what we'll share.

Infographic -Cisco ACI for the Microsoft Cloud Platform

I recommend taking in the session with Robert Reynolds, Principal PM Lead, Windows Azure Pack, Microsoft entitled:

Expanding the Microsoft Cloud Platform with the Windows Azure Pack and Partners on Wednesday, May 6 from 1:30pm -2:45pm in E351, McCormick Place Convention Center, Chicago, IL

Robert will be discussing partner solutions that add value to Windows Azure Pack (WAP).  Joining him, Srinivas Kotamraju and Vimala Veerapan will be presenting and demonstrating APIC integration with WAP.

For all the details on our data center presence at MS Ignite, see our Cisco Ignite Information Site.  I hope to see you there!