Cisco is making a big splash with our virtual networking portfolio at Microsoft TechEd North America 2013, running June 3-6 in New Orleans, Microsoft's premier event for IT professionals and developers. There will be over 7,000 attendees and there is still time to make plans to get there yourself if you want to learn more about Cisco's role in the Microsoft ecosystem. For details, visit our show microsite.

The event is well-timed with the GA release of our Nexus 1000V virtual switch for the Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor reaching customers next week. Not coincidently, the Nexus 1000V has been selected as a finalist in the 2013 Best of TechEd awards in the Virtualization category and is eligible for the overall Attendees Pick award for the show. (If you do go as an attendee, make sure to vote early and often, as they say!)

It's great to see the enthusiasm and interest in our whole virtual networking portfolio as we ramp up to tap this market in a big way now. I've been writing the last couple of months about how much interest there was in the beta version and how well it was received, and how we've removed the main barrier to adoption by making the Essential version of the Nexus 1000V virtual switch available at no cost.

But, it's more than just about a virtual switch in a hypervisor that makes this story so exciting for Microsoft users. Microsoft MVP Damian Flynn provided us with an outstanding overview of the Nexus 1000V virtual switch integration into Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) in a webcast back in March, which is available on replay if you missed it. (Although you can see the demos and get the details live if you can get down to New Orleans next week).

Recent innovations we've announced and brought out since the first of the year across the Nexus 1000V portfolio also bring layer 4-7 virtual services to the Microsoft environment, including the Virtual Security Gateway (VSG) virtual firewall, and the rest of the Cloud Network Services portfolio. Seamlessly integrating these virtual services and chaining them together in the right order based on application policies via our vPath service insertion technology is one of the key components that sets Cisco's virtual networking strategy apart from the alternatives.

The availability of Nexus 1000V InterCloud is going to tie Microsoft-enabled data centers to the public cloud so organizations can begin to seamlessly scale their capacities on-demand with the same networking and services environments they have in their own on-premises data centers.

As of February, Cisco had over 7,000 customers for the Nexus 1000V virtual switch based solely on VMware vSphere. Now with our multi-hypervisor strategy taking us to broader markets, and the momentum we are establishing with ecosystem partners like Microsoft, we are optimistic about even greater market success moving forward. And while we're talking about different hypervisors, it's probably not a bad time to give you a heads up about RedHat Summit next month in Boston where we'll be talking about upcoming support for KVM (more details on that to come later).

If you are attending the TechEd show, make sure to stop by Cisco's booth#1701 to view the demos and talk to our developers and product managers. And for more details about our strategy as part of the Microsoft data center ecosystem, visit our Microsoft page at http://cisco.com/go/microsoft.