Microsoft private cloud solutions are built using Windows Server with Hyper-V and the System Center Suite. The combination of these two provides enterprise-class virtualization and end-to-end service management. Specific enabling software would include:

With the appropriate hardware and software infrastructure in place, you would be able to launch your SharePoint environment in a private cloud, exclusively created using Microsoft technologies.

A Microsoft private cloud solution can be licensed through the Microsoft Enrollment for Core Infrastructure licensing program. This is a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA) enrollment, which allows a simple and flexible per processor licensing model. It is available in three flavors: Datacenter, Enterprise, and Standard. ECI Datacenter is recommended solely for the fact that it supports unlimited virtualization rights.

A Microsoft private cloud is worth considering as a full, comprehensive, end-to-end cloud computing solution. It provides a familiar and consistent platform, where your organization can potentially leverage some of the investments and skill sets that it already has.

A Microsoft private cloud solution provides cross-platform support for multi-hypervisor environments, non-MS operating systems, and a variety of application frameworks, and supports integrated automation across third-party management toolsets. It also gives your organization the flexibility to span environments and create hybrid clouds using a broad portfolio of Microsoft technologies: