Guest blog byCalvin Nieh,Microsoft Solutions Marketing Manager at NetApp.

This week, at Microsoft TechEd 2013 in New Orleans, NetApp and Cisco's FlexPod with Microsoft Private Cloud was named a Finalist in the Best of TechEd 2013 awards program by Windows IT Pro?.

The Best of TechEd 2013 awards recognize companies that offer innovative products to the industry. The judging panel reviewed more than 300 products and services and chose 33 finalists to be interviewed at Microsoft TechEd North America 2013 in New Orleans. Winners will be determined at the show by judges and an attendee choice competition (attendees can vote online here) and then announced on the show floor on June 5th, 2013. Winners will also be published online at http://www.windowsitpro.com and http://northamerica.msteched.com.

Teams from both companies are honored and excited by this recognition, the result of years of technology investment and collaboration between the two companies.  Cisco's Nexus 1000v was also named a Finalist in the virtualization category of the Best of TechEd 2013 award program.  In addition to these distinctions at TechEd, NetApp was recently recognized as Microsoft's Server Platform Partner of the Year for 2013, an awesome follow-up to winning Microsoft's Private Cloud Partner of the Year award in 2012.

NetApp's collaboration and partnership with Cisco on FlexPod represents a combination of industry leaders in their respective fields.  FlexPod? with Microsoft? Private Cloud is a converged infrastructure platform featuring deeply integrated compute, networking, and storage as well as industry leading integration with Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012 SP1.

Designed to accelerate deployment of a private cloud IT infrastructure, FlexPod achieved Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track 3.0 validation, with exhaustive testing, documentation and Microsoft's stamp of approval, giving confidence to customers in the deployment of a proven solution.  Today, a new Cisco Validated Design documenting the details of this reference architecture has been posted here.

Both NetApp (booth 1101) and Cisco (booth 1701) are showcasing FlexPod with Microsoft Private Cloud in their TechEd exhibits, and customers have been "oohing and ahhing" at the various demos on management, rapid provisioning and automation of operations.  If you are at TechEd and haven't already come by, don't miss your chance to see FlexPod up close and personal this week!