NEC US Press Center

NEC and Microsoft have collaborated since the beginning of the PC industry - both have contributing to the growth of PC adoption in the Japanese market. For servers, the companies have collaborated since the earliest development of Windows®-based systems in order to provide high-performance and high-reliability solutions to our customers.

Amid continuing network development and the advent of NGN (Next Generation Networks), the demands for improving the enterprise network environment have been increasing. To meet these demands, in May, 2006 NEC and Microsoft agreed to expand the collaborative relationship for IT/Network convergence. This collaboration will help create products and solutions which integrate computers, servers, and networks in the marketplace and result in new and improved work processes.

1. Enterprise Networking

As communication networks and data networks become more integrated through IP technology (e.g. VoIP phone), people expect to improve productivity in workplaces by integrating networks into the office environment. To meet this expectation, NEC and Microsoft have been working together on creating solutions which provide seamless integration of NEC's IT/Network convergence technologies such as UNIVERGE and Microsoft's Office System products. Together, NEC and Microsoft will strive to improve these solutions and meet our customers' demands.

2. Next-generation high reliability, high performance servers

In the server area, NEC and Microsoft have been working together since 1993 to maximize reliability and performance through the joint development of server products. Today, this collaboration is being extended to develop and expand the global sales of next generation, high-end servers and Fault Tolerant (FT) servers. NEC Express5800 servers hold the top market share in Japan market, thus enhancing mission critical systems and meeting a wide range of customers' IT system demands.

3. HPC Servers

Historically, High Performance Computing (HPC) has been used by customers such as research institutes, that do extremely advanced computing. Today, the needs for advanced computing on the Windows desktop are increasing in industries such as finance and manufacturing. In order to meet these needs, NEC and Microsoft are collaborating on the development of high performance computing.

4. Patent Cross Licensing

Patent cross licensing beween NEC and Microsoft promotes effective technology development and will provide faster development of high quality products based on business platforms.

5. Collaboration in Japan

As broadband services become widely available, the demands for PC and multimedia converged solutions are increasing in the consumer market. NEC and Microsoft continue to work on joint development of media PCs to meet these increased demands.

NEC and Microsoft have been making joint efforts in system integration areas as well. For example, the Windows SI Support Center was founded in 2001 during a period of accelerated adoption of Windows servers in enterprise systems in Japan.

Development of office communication products
In 2006, NEC and Microsoft began a collaborative relationship in office communications. We will enhance this collaboration through integrated products such as NEC's IP telephony server "UNIVERGE SV 7000" and Microsoft's "Live Communication Server 2005". With its computer and communications technologies, NEC holds the top share in the Asia and Oceania VoIP market with its IP telephony servers. The integration between Microsoft's office application technology and NEC's IP technology will realize utilization of all the communication functions through Microsoft Office products.

Joint development of high-reliability, high-performance, and high-availability server
NEC has been working on the reliability of OS and hardware in conjunction with Microsoft development teams since the Windows NT era. For the next Windows server operating system "Longhorn", NEC is the first company in the world to successfully demonstrate dynamic reconfiguration of memory for a high-reliability server which can hold a maximum of 32 Intel Itanium2 (64-bit CPU) processors. NEC and Microsoft are currently evaluating and developing next generation FT servers. This makes it possible to provide high-reliability and high-availability server products and solutions. NEC and Microsoft will continue working together to expand functions for enterprise platform for future operating systems.

Technology collaboration on HPC server
As a new area of collaboration, NEC and Microsoft are working together to integrate Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, Microsoft's HPC operating system, and the Global File System (GFS), which is NEC's file system that enables high-speed transfer of large volumes of data. These technologies enable a high-performance environment with low TCO. Furthermore, NEC and Microsoft have been jointly evaluating 3rd-party software to promote HPC servers in the Windows environment.

NEC and Microsoft have both contributed to growth of the PC market. For PC servers, we have been collaborating on the development of Windows server operating systems and providing reliable server systems.

For enterprise PCs, NEC has promoted Windows XP SP1 adoption by completing a large deployment for NEC's internal use. For Windows Vista Media Center, NEC and Microsoft have been jointly working to improve audio/video distribution in the PC environment.

In Japan, NEC and Microsoft have established an SI support system by providing high quality consulting and project support in order to promote quick and effective system installation. For mission critical systems, the needs for a .NET environment in addition to UNIX and open environment are increasing. NEC and Microsoft have been conducting joint development and evaluation in this area, and we are able to provide highly reliable and functional applications.

To further collaborate as businesses expect flexible systems with enhanced web services, NEC will expand utilization of Microsoft's .NET system infrastructure in its business packages and provide our customers with .NET-supported application software.

Joint Support for Office System Joint support systems to leverage the latest technology in the office system are as follows:

Support Service for Mission Critical Systems
As Windows penetrates into office and mission critical systems, NEC has been working to enhance support services and to build collaborative systems with Microsoft. In order to assure that our customers' system are safe, NEC is the first company in Japan to have provided long-term support (more than 10 years).

SQL Customer Lab
The SQL Server Customer Lab Program provides customers with an opportunity to work directly with the SQL Server Product Development team in an interactive hands-on lab environment. NEC provides our technology and products for the lab.

Microsoft Technology Center
Microsoft Technology Centers (MTCs) provide the facility and resources for customers to utilize and evaluate solutions with Microsoft® and partner technologies for pre-sales activities. NEC provides our technology and products to the center in Chicago.