Microsoft announced Hyper-V Cloud on Monday at Tech•Ed Europe. Hyper-V Cloud is a set of programs and offerings that makes it easier for businesses to build their own private cloud infrastructures using the Windows Server platform. Dell Inc., Fujitsu Ltd., Hitachi Ltd., Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), HP, IBM Corp. and NEC Corp. have already signed on as Hyper-V Cloud partners, and will be working with Microsoft to deliver prevalidated infrastructure and services that enable organizations to implement private clouds with increased speed and reduced risk.

The announcement is one of a number of new initiatives from Microsoft to offer more support for organizations interested in deploying Hyper-V-based clouds, with in-house or through a service provider. Hyper-V is Microsoft’s virtualization hypervisor, software that allows multiple operating systems to run on a single physical server.

“Many of our customers have told us they want the benefits of cloud-computing — fast deployment, increased agility, lower costs — but with tight control over things like physical infrastructure and security policies,” said Brad Anderson, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Management and Security Division. “Our new private cloud offerings fulfill that need at the infrastructure level, while providing a clear migration path to cloud services at the platform level.”

More information on Hyper-V Cloud and additional details on how Dell, Fujitsu, Hitachi, HDS, HP, IBM and NEC are participating in the program can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/privatecloud.