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In the last post we discussed in great detail the process of carefully planning your Hybrid Cloud . The planning process is vital, and in this post we’ll see the time spent planning really start to pay off. In this post I’ll discuss the 4 Steps that I believe are crucial when Building any Hybrid environment...

This might seem like an overly obvious statement, but it is worth emphasizing: The early planning stages of your Hybrid Cloud strategy are some of the most important discussions that IT leaders and implementers can have. The majority of the CIOs I’ve spoken to over the last year tell me that they are...

Earlier this week I examined what we at Microsoft mean when we use the term “Hybrid Cloud.” If ever there were a time to get really specific about our vocabulary, this was it! Now that our definition is clear, I want to go one step further and discuss how this strategy is different from what other cloud...

If you haven’t seen it yet, a Gartner report from last month * is really worth checking out. Gartner calls out three key areas (Acquisition costs, Ease of management, and Functionality richness), and I recommend reviewing the entire report in detail. You can read it here , compliments of Microsoft. In...

The IT industry never slows down and IT pros are constantly assessing what’s next and what’s best – not only for their business , but also for their careers . The virtualization world is going through a big inflection point, and this is leading to a lot of noise and conflicting information in the marketplace...

Earlier this week I got to deliver a keynote at Oracle OpenWorld 2013.  It was a lot of fun, and pretty exciting to be the first Microsoft exec to talk to this massive and important part of the IT industry. In case you missed it, you can check out the full keynote here , or the highlights below...

A few days ago I got to sit down with the guys from TechNet Radio to talk about the third pillar of our “ What’s New in 2012 R2 ” series – Enable Modern Business Apps . We conclude this three-episode series by discussing why it’s important for IT pros to understand how modern apps function (hint: ...

Part 9 of a 9-part series .   A major promise underlying all of the 2012 R2 products is really simple: Consistency . Consistency in the user experiences, consistency for IT professionals, consistency for developers and consistency across clouds. A major part of delivering this consistency is the...

  Part 4 of a 9-part series . The Common Engineering Criteria (CEC) that I’ve talked about in previous posts have been instrumental in ensuring that the teams contributing to 2012 R2 met rigorous and specific criteria in areas like Manageability, Virtualization Readiness, Data Center & Enterprise...

This week’s episode is a repost of an interview I did with TechNet Radio earlier this week.  In this interview I talk with host Kevin Remde about the new 2012 R2 wave of products, and we talk about the first two posts (covering People-centric IT ) in our new nine-part 2012 R2 series .  Check...

Part 3 of a 9-part series . In today’s post, we tackle a common question I get from customers: “Why move to the cloud right now ? ” Recently, however, this question has changed a bit to, “What should I move to the cloud first ? ” An important thing to keep in mind with either of these questions is that...

Back in May , I discussed how technologies such as Windows Server 2012, Hyper-V, and System Center 2012 SP1, provide the most scalable, reliable, and feature-rich platform to run key, tier-1 workloads like SQL Server, SharePoint and Exchange, at the lowest cost. To help customers virtualize these workloads...

In place of this week’s podcast (since everyone is on their way back from Spain!), check out this replay of my TechEd Europe keynote from earlier this week.

I am absolutely thrilled to be delivering the Day 1 keynote at TechEd Europe for the third straight year . This is consistently an amazing event with the very best and brightest companies and IT pros across Europe, not to mention some equally amazing products to highlight and demonstrate. There were...

In a previous post I talked about technical, people, and cloud computing trends in corporate IT.  The practical impact of these trends means that the shift to a “bring your own device” (BYOD) or “choose your own device” (CYOD) enterprise workforce is here to stay .  These trends place a lot...

Earlier this week (both on-stage and on this blog ) I commented that “ cloud computing is no longer a spectator sport “ and that now, more than ever, there are countless reasons to get excited about what your business can do in the cloud. Whether you’re looking to dramatically scale, dynamically innovate...

Yesterday was a HUGE day for the IT community , the tech industry, and Microsoft. In case you missed my keynote or any of the other sessions, you can watch them on-demand h ere (you can also read the keynote transcript ). To get into even more detail, check out the list below with topics and links to...

[Posted Monday, June 3]   In Satya Nadella’s post from earlier today , he describes Microsoft’s transformation to a “cloud-first” business: Two years ago we bet our future on the cloud and quietly refocused our 19 billion-dollar software business by completely transforming our products, culture...

In this episode, I discuss what to expect from TechEd North America (June 3) and TechEd Europe (June 25), as well as some of the big themes in my Day 1 keynote at both events. This is a huge event for the tech industry, and I look forward to seeing a lot of friends and partners in both cities! ...

I’ve heard IT departments all over the world share a very similar joke about how the rest of the company has no idea where their e-mail comes from or where their SharePoint sites are stored – they just want these things to be there when they need them. IT departments, however, do know exactly where these...

In this episode I talk about the Hybrid Cloud and CRN 's recent piece entitled "Microsoft Leaps Ahead of VMware in Hybrid Cloud Management."  You can read my post on this same topic from late last week here . As always, if you have questions or topics you’d like to hear addressed on an...

Several weeks ago I met with a customer who expressed a very common problem: “If we can’t access our data at any moment, from any location, we immediately begin losing money.” This comment was made before any other topic we discussed that day – before concerns about app management, security, or even...

Until just a few years ago, the entire IT industry was pretty tightly focused on two things:  PC’s and Servers.  These clients are still the biggest players in our market, but, for a modern IT pro, today's landscape also includes slates, tablets, laptops, and smartphones. It makes that earlier...

No two enterprise IT departments are the same – but one thing they all have in common is this: They want the components of their IT infrastructure (hardware, software, cloud, apps, etc.) to JUST WORK. One of the things I really love about my job is the opportunities I have to meet with so many...

Over the last few years I’ve had, in one meeting or another, countless discussions with my teams and colleagues about the size, shape, and impact of the Cloud.  If you’ve been to a Microsoft event like TechEd or MMS, you’ve heard us talk about the Cloud OS and the promises we feel the Cloud OS delivers...