In April, Microsoft announced a partnership with Cisco that offered enterprise customers a way to use Cisco’s data centers with Microsoft’s cloud services. Today, Microsoft announced what it calls the Cloud OS Network, which includes over 25 companies that have pledged to use Microsoft’s cloud services in their systems.

In a post on Microsoft’s blog, Takeshi Numoto, the company’s Corporate Vice President for Cloud and Enterprise Marketing, described the benefits for customers that use one or more of its Cloud OS Network partners:

The members of the Cloud OS Network are leading service providers who will offer hybrid services that give customers greater flexibility and choice. By making a substantial commitment to the Microsoft Cloud Platform, they are able to deliver tailored infrastructure and application services that meet diverse customer needs. Customers will have greater choice in customization, data sovereignty, security, privacy and service levels.

The Cloud OS Network partners offer ways to use Microsoft’s products such as Windows Server with Hyper-V, System Center and the Windows Azure Pack. There are already over 3 million customers who use these products in 90 countries, and the Cloud OS Network partners manage over 2.4 million servers in more than 425 datacenters. The list of companies that are a part of the network include Lenovo, Fujitsu and T-Systems but, oddly, not Cisco.