SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) and Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) have announced an expansion of their long-standing relationship that will deliver new cloud and in-memory computing offerings to help organizations transform their businesses.

SAP, the world's largest maker of business management software, said applications will now be available for deployment via Dell's VIS Next Generation Datacenter Platform, opening up new ways for customers to increase IT responsiveness and business efficiency. In addition, with Dell's PowerEdge R910 now among the hardware platforms certified by SAP for running SAP In-Memory Computing technology, Dell customers can dramatically increase the availability and speed of business information, leading to faster and more insightful decision-making. The announcement was made at SAPPHIRE(R) NOW, being held in Orlando, Florida, May 15-18, 2011.

Cloud delivery models are becoming a top priority for many corporate IT departments due to their quick deployments, cost-effectiveness and overall flexibility. For Dell customers, deployment of SAP applications using Dell's cloud solutions makes moving to the cloud an easy and secure transition. Both Dell and SAP offer open, affordable solutions and choice, allowing customers to build on their prior investments in software from diverse vendors.

Dell is also now an SAP-certified provider of cloud services, as well as an SAP-certified provider of hosting services, providing high-quality standards for cloud-based delivery of SAP applications. As part of the certification, Dell's cloud delivery offerings have passed SAP's criteria for delivering SAP applications on its platform.

Dell is a major provider of cloud solutions. The ability to run SAP applications on Dell cloud solutions can help customers increase resiliency, performance and efficiencies of scale without the overhead of traditional IT environments. The University of Kentucky, currently testing a proof-of-concept roll out of SAP applications on a Dell cloud solution, highlights the value of these complementary offerings.

"Cloud computing is not only coming of age, it represents a significant opportunity in enterprise computing," said Vince Kellen, CIO, University of Kentucky. "With our enhanced collaboration with Dell and SAP, here at the University of Kentucky we are planning right now how we can improve the agility and cost-effectiveness of our infrastructure. "The initial tests have shown some impressive results. Over the short and long term we expect to take advantage of the scale, openness and flexibility that Dell's cloud solutions will provide."

"SAP is committed to delivering its solutions in open and flexible ways that best support customer success," said Sanjay Poonen, president, Global Solutions, SAP. "This announcement underscores our commitment to delivering enterprise applications via the cloud in cooperation with our leading partner ecosystem. Through this expanded cooperation with Dell, customers will benefit from our complementary cloud and in-memory solutions, enabling them to transform their businesses, flexibly and affordably."