Adrian Simays, Microsoft Global Applications Technical Enablement EMC, discussed the long-standing partnership between EMC and Microsoft with theCube hosts Dave Vellante and David Floyer live at EMC World (watch the live broadcast at SiliconAngle.TV or right here on SiliconAngle.com).

The two companies share a “unique but very healthy relationship,” Simays said, talking about the strategic partnership Microsoft and EMC shared for over a decade. EMC has brought a lot of value to Microsoft through this relationship, he explained, mostly to their Hyper-V, cloud and application offerings.

Asked by Dave Vellante to share what customers need to know about Microsoft’s Windows Server 2012, Simays deemed it a great operating system, mentioning that Microsoft has put a lot of effort into refreshing their technology, from their SQL server to their desktop and server OS. Windows Server 2012 extends the enterprise functionalists Microsoft is offering, adding new enterprise-focused features, such as offline date transfers.

Server 2012 virtualization on par with VMware

The new Server 2012 also comes with version 3 of Hyper-V – Vellante mentioning that by version 3, Microsoft usually gets it right. Simays notes a lot of interest and activity surrounding this new version, saying it’s “on par with VMware” in what number of virtual processors and machines is concerned, also adding that there is “no application you cannot virtualize” at Hyper-V level.

Talking about ODX – Offloaded Data Transfer, Simays explained that it enables the server to be connected to the storage array and offload certain tasks directly to the array. A Microsoft demo showed a 10 GB file being copied in 10 seconds through the storage array, highlighting the potential of such a connection.

Advice for CIOs

Asked about the advice given to EMC customers when it comes to Windows Server 2012 adoption, Simays stated a lot of the advanced feature sets it provides are ideal for EMC’s smaller customers, as they would be hard to manage for larger custoemrs. “EMC is first to market to support 2013 Server features,” he added, and the company advises its customers to tread new features lightly, cautioning them to determine which suit them best.

Talking about Windows Server 2012’s customer base and adoption, Simays said that much like the way Microsoft gets something right by version 3, when it comes to operating systems, “customers don’t really implement before Service Pack 1.” A lot of EMC customers show interest and are asking about it, but they are not yet implementing it in large working environments. They are waiting for someone else to take the risk first. He saw the adoption as a rolling process, first implementing the server and later adding more of its features.

Simays said EMC’s advice to customers would be to take a good look at the new features and figure “what will work in your environment,” as not all will be cost effective for all customers. They should also acknowledge what EMC has to offer, as the company is testing the sever and its feature sets, and delivering solutions that customers know will work properly.