So this is a new blog focussing on two hot areas for Microsoft this year notably: Search and High Performance Computing. The target audience will be channel partners interested in engaging with Microsoft and learning more on where they can get resources to help. I promise that the majority of this blog wont be links to other areas of MS resources but rather a discussion area for the topics around these subjects as well. And of course all comments are very welcome - those amusing ones will definitely make it on :)

By way of intro, I have worked in Microsoft UK now for 5 years - 3 of which were in the Enterprise and Partner Group (EPG) and the last 2 in the Small and Medium Solutions and Partner Group of SMSP. Roles have taken me from generalist roles to subject expert roles around Mobility and lately Security and finally to the newer areas of HPC and Search.

The areas open for discussion here are not competitor bashing but rather the advantage that I believe partners and customers can derive from using our technology - Search will be focus on business search inside the firewall and HPC looking at our foray into that arena and how MS will be changing the dynamics in the market to the benefit of customers and partners alike.

Look forward to your comments - all welcome!

Okay so I know I said in the intro that I would not just throw links at you but to be honest sometimes it is useful. This is a good one to start with:

https://www.jumpstartmssearch.com

This is the sign up page for those partners who wish to learn about our new propositions around the whole enterprise search arena - here you can sign up (once you become a registered partner and have a certified partner ID) and start to pace yourself through technical and sales training on the Windows Vista platform, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and the Windows Live Platform. There has been much noise in the press but get it from the horses mouth here!

On another note the The Butler Group are holding an Enterprise Search conference on September 21st entitled:  Butler Group Strategy Briefing Enterprise Search. We are there alongside some other notable players - look forward to seeing you there! They are also delivering a new whitepaper to the market entitled:

The report will cover all the major players and is a charged for service from The Butler Group again launch in September. If you are interested in the nest steps if you are a UK Partner then please look here for a UK MS Site giving the what next type steps:

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/office/partners.mspx

More soon!

So this story has been getting a bit of news in the press and driving quite a bit of traffic on some of the sites I watch. The main story can be viewed here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115464222236026179.html?mod=hps_us_at_glance_opinion

What do you think about Government intervention into technology markets? - should the UK Government aid UK technology startups in this arena?- will businesses and consumers benefit? - should free market dynamics be left to operate? I would be interested to hear all your thoughts and will post the most interesting comments.

Right so if I am not careful I will natter all about Search and not do justice to probably one of the areas where I think Microsoft can have a huge impact over the next 18 months - notably High Performance Computing. Now, many of you might say that MS is a high volume software business and HPC today is not a mass market phenomenon but guess what - we are looking to change that :)

So what is in it for you - well today we believe through our market research that many businesses, institutions and organisations are conducting computing on platforms not best optimised for their mathematical and computational needs. In essence, they cannot afford the appropriate systems and today there are not systems which they can either; afford, configure, manage and/or maintain in order to do their jobs. In answer to this varied need, Microsoft is bringing out Windows Compute Cluster Edition which will bring HPC to the Windows World.

Want to know where to go to get more information well - here today:

Information:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/ccs/overview.mspx

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=798b01f3-2bad-41c7-a34a-c2a6e6f9d535&displaylang=en

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/06/04/ClusterComputing/default.aspx

https://www.microsoft.co.ke/windowsserver2003/ccs/techresources/usingjobscheduler.mspx

SDK:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=d8462378-2f68-409d-9cb3-02312bc23bfd&DisplayLang=en

But most importantly please send me a comment giving me your contact details if you want to engage with the HPC team in Microsoft UK to help you to build your partner business with Microsoft. We have early deployment kits, technical teams and sales professionals waiting to help you take advantage of our offering in this market - look forward to hearing from you!

Tonight I want to share with you the partners who will be using CCS as one of their platforms of choice moving forward this year. The ISVs will be critical to Microsofts success around HPC and with the CCS product and more importantly, IMHO will be the community that will really solve the customer issues around vertical industries CCS will be successful in:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/misc/06-28iscquotesheet.mspx   

To this end partnering with these organisations in the UK will be critical and will be one of my personal focus areas to allow business success in the UK, not just for MS but for the software channel broadly. Stay tuned for more information on them all.

On another note - I am still counting the points I have queries over on the 'Easiest Guide to Linux document'....will get back to you on that one!

Righty ho, so just seen a new story around some of the great Search technology coming out of Microsoft Research if you've not been there yet you can get insights into all the latest Microsoft Research projects here:

http://research.microsoft.com/

Be careful though as these projects often vary greatly by the time they make it into the customer domain and even into beta testing! That said, it's a great resource to get those insights into new technology areas. One of these is the work around Search retrieval and accuracy - check out the story here:

Microsoft scientists have some new thoughts when it comes to search ranking and retrieval accuracy.

New techniques for analyzing search relevance--the way users browse and click through specific content--can improve the algorithms used to rank results, according to two papers submitted by a group of Microsoft researchers.

"Most search engines today use a somewhat two-dimensional approach, matching user queries with the content and link structure of Web pages to return a list of results. We're looking at how to add a third dimension--the users themselves--to improve the search experience," said Eugene Agichtein, a researcher in the Mining, Search and Navigation Group within Microsoft Research.

http://news.com.com/Microsoft+shows+off+improved+search/2100-1032_3-6102892.html?tag=cd.top

The research papers themselves are here:

http://research.microsoft.com/news/featurestories/source/sigirpapers2006.aspx

Looking around for all of the stories around HPC has brought me to this site which has the history and evolution of SuperComputing all in a simple page of A4. Gordon Bell from Microsoft Research has written it all up here, the top bits have to include:

- Supercomputing-A_Brief_History_1965_2002

- Paths and cul de sacs on the endless road to supercomputing

The direct link is: http://research.microsoft.com/users/gbell/Supercomputing_&_CyberInfrastructures.htm   

Now I am not saying this is all ideal content for your next 'Best Mans Speech' but it is an interesting read to see where we have come from and have a glimpse at where we are going! Enjoy...!

So this week there have been a few stories in the press around MS in the automotive industry and as it's Friday afternoon I thought I would share them both you all as well as the hilarious stories happening around the latter - typical Microsoft banter :-)

Firstly, there has been the vertical launch in the Automotive industry of Microsoft's HPC offering - I initially read about this here:

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2162060/auto-industry-revs-performance

And quickly got to this Microsoft site detailing our offerings - echoing my thoughts from the earlier post around 'HPC for the masses':

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/aug06/08-09HighPerformanceComputingPR.mspx

What I found so exciting about this announcement and the further announcements we will have around Engineering and Academia etc is that we are helping to bring the power of high performance computing into the reach and grasp of the business power users who need it - freeing them from the expensive bespoke projects that HPC has orientated around in the past. The opportunity therefore for HPC partners will grow exponentially as new target audiences can be addressed who in the past have not been able to afford to run and or manage projects. The extra upsell and cross sell opportunities will also start to come onstream as the benefits stated in the press release above allow integration to the wider MS offerings. Specifically i am refering to the following:

So I am sure some of you have seen the Automotive announcements around Formula 1 that I have to say are to the best of my knowledge not confirmed yet. However the rumour is that Bridgestone and Microsoft have been granted exclusive contracts to be the sole suppliers, of tyres and ECUs respectively, of Formula 1 beginning in 2008.

The Formula 1 enthusiast site has some amusing jokes around this topic - I could at this moment be all serious and Corporate and not share them but to be honest we are all human and they do help raise a smile:

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=28614

The one thing I would say is that Reliability has been a core tenet of the Trustworthy Computing initiative for years so you want to read more on a serious note then please have a look at the facts around this here:

http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/twc/resources.mspx

Have a great weekend all!

There have been a few articles in the press with different pundits commenting on differing company strategies for Search. This one from 'The Business Online' has commentary from our  COO Kevin Turner on our enterprise business search strategy as well as David Graham our UK Search Business Manager. As they say in the article, we believe some of the key advantages for businesses using our systems and software for Search are the following:

1. Protecting corporate secrets from outside inspection - Security from our software but also our approach (please refer to the article for details)

2. Compatibility with Windows - aiding usability through integration with AD etc

3. Knowledge Network - allowing you to find people within your organisation with similar projects, interested and or knowledge

All this will be brought together under the umbrella of Windows Live Search Centre and many of the benefits will be delivered through SharePoint Server 2007, for the full article just click on the following:

http://www.thebusinessonline.com/docklands/Stories.aspx?Microsoft%20and%20Google%20slug%20it%20out%20for%20control%20of%20enterprise%20searches&StoryID=59DF0514-729A-47E5-AE67-51B158B96E07&SectionID=41FE9E2C-544E-4A45-AB5C-37BE72F2F5F0

If you are interested in joining in, have a look here:

Link to Jumpstart for Microsoft Search Program

Immediate questions please look here or post me a comment:

Click here to read the Quickstart for Microsoft Search Partner FAQ

Enjoy!

There is a new series of 'Talking Microsoft' articles - in resume a selection of videos posted about the UK Business. The first in the series is our UK Managing Director Gordon Frazer: http://blogs.technet.com/talkingmsft/ see the video here! 

Standby for some with the HPC and Search team over the next few weeks!

So had a fantastic day today over at Williams F1 - Yes the Formula 1 racing team!

http://www.rbswilliamsf1conferences.com/   

The great news is if you are a UK Partner you will be able to get yourself an invite there too for our UK Partner days in just a few weeks! In doing so, find out more about Search and all the new customer campaigns coming out. Check out the best F1 collection I have ever seen and also buy yourself a piece of F1 history - I am now the proud owner of 2 gears from an F1 car - proudly sat on my mantelpiece (not that the other half is best chuffed with that...)

Did you see the Sunday Times at the weekend - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2095-2309765.html - our new Search Marketing services product - Microsoft adCentre goes live in the UK as of last Monday. This is a new era for Microsoft in the UK and realisation of our ambitions to be the leading media owner and the leader in delivering online services - Bring it on!

Are you a Microsoft Partner? Are you using Microsoft adCentre to help with your business marketing - get going now!

So was browing the web this evening and found these documents on customizing search for SPS 2003 - great for those 2003 customers and great to get those discussions going for when Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS for short) comes out in the next few months:

How to Customize Your Search Using SharePoint Portal Server 2003:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/odc_SP2003_ta/html/Office_SharePointPortalServerSearchBox.asp

Also, we have had a less than perfect reputation in the past years for WebSearch but I have been very very impressed recently with the following

http://beta.search.msn.com/

Have you tried MSN Search beta yet? As a friend of mine once said 'minds are like parachutes they function best when open.....' and i have to be honest I am finding the new experience far superior and hits the spot!

So we have had some questions from partners wanting to understand how to write iFilters for SharePoint etc James Akrigg our Partner Technical Specialist for Search has found the following handy links:

Using iFilters to get the text from file formats so that you can process just text and I have found an article that gives an example of this..

1)     How to write an iFilter: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/odc_SP2003_ta/html/ODC_HowToWriteaFilter.asp

2)     How to use iFilters in managed code: http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/IFilter.asp

Enjoy!

So you have all been in the same situation before - you sit listening to a great presentation - stunning stage work - a slick demo - and a powerful speaker that makes you want to jump up and just 'buy one'. But there is something in your mind that just resides and niggles making you question what you see and hear. I have to say, absolutely everyone in Microsoft is sceptical about stuff we see and hear - and so it was the same with me when I heard about the knowledge network inside of SPS 2007.

A good resume of the knowledge network can be found here:

'The next release of Microsoft's SharePoint server software will have a feature called Knowledge Network that automatically builds profiles of employees and their areas of expertise'

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/applications/0,39020384,39269529,00.htm

So how does it work in action? Well, last May I was given a new task - please do XYZ and devise a strategy for MS UK should deliver on ABC - the first thing I wanted to do was find all the experts in the domain area - conduct my own research and then pick their brains. Within a few minutes I was able to find the people and start surfing their mysites for all the content that would help me in my new task - before this would have taken weeks and would have involved lots of 1:1 meetings and would have been a long and drawn out process. Within an initial 10 day period working at home the strategy was devised and the initial task achieved. As I have said countless times before 'software helps intellectually challenged people look clever' - Job done, I need all the help I can get!

If you want to know more, click here for the press release and a host of links to downloads and whitepapers:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/may06/05-17CEOSummit06PR.mspx

Great weekend all..!

Council uses Search to drive business efficiency:

http://www.vnunet.com/computing/news/2161749/council-uses-search-drive

Righty ho, so it's a beautiful thing to be able to find the people and information you need within your business, but I don't need to simply FIND information. This may seem as a shock to you, but finding information is totally useless to me and or the business I work in.

What I actually want to do is the following:

1. Find Information that allows me to look more clever than I am

2. Find colleagues who help me to look good in front of my peers

3. Share and collaborate with these colleagues on projects where we all have a common and or shared goal (sometimes differs in business!)

4. Display that information and work with colleagues who need to interact with it in order to do their job better - be they internal or external to my business.

Now the finding of information is increasingly becoming the easy bit, whether on our technologies or those of IBM, Google, Endeca etc etc the simple task of finding information really isnt that hard to achieve in the business context. The tougher bit lies around steps 2 to 4 above. Once you add into that mix some of the business issues I have this starts to get really tough some of these are as follows:

1. Security around specific documents and compliance between and within businesses

2. Accountability for structured information and how documents can be updated and kept up-to-date to avoid duplication

3. Real time collaboration to enable shared ideas to be brought into life with precise output be they presentations, complex calculations or documents to brief agencies or sales bid documents

So in a business scenario, I wish for a research professor in Southampton to work with a research business in Bangalore and MIT in Boston. Together not just identify information, but collaborate on it and then allow me the 'dumb' user to be able to find their data and post questions, suggest refinements and model new ideas all in a collaborative environment that allows me to do so securely. After all I dont want to break compliance rules or give away secrets to the competition do I...

So Business Search and HPC - bringing the above together in a world whereby we can harness computing power that hasnt been available to the masses before, with software that allows you to not just find but also play, model, extrapolate, and share with colleagues within and outside the corporate boundaries - that's what I want.

So when I look at the business world today I see people who can deliver bits of this jigsaw but do I see businesses who can deliver the whole enchilada.....not today.....but I dont think it will be very long in coming. Those that do will be the ones to add real value to their customers and build real value back to their shareholders.

That's probably enough from me - thoughts and comments anyone? (BTW thanks for those who have e-mailed privately - all comments gratefully received)

Would you prefer two blogs split into HPC and Search or keep it as it is?

Feedback gratefully received!

Ah yes so here we are in the UK just about to start a 3 day bank holiday weekend and here's me all concerned that you arent going to have enough to keep you busy. Yep your Zune hasnt arrived yet, your XBOX 360 is having a rest so I have collated some of the 'best links ever' for Microsoft Compute Cluster Edition so you can play until your hearts content!. Seriously the links below do have some of the best technical content I have found yet. Brief Synopsis below and then the links:

Beta software from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/ccs/default.mspx

 

UK Partner presentation here: (download to the HPC section)

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/events/presentations/

 

The best link: Developer blog for HPC, simply fantastic rich set of information for help and guidance around the 'how-to' stuff:

 

http://windowshpc.net/blogs/dev_gen/default.aspx   

 

Fantastic resource for downloads – CCS diagnostics, CCS QFEs, CCS Test Apps, SDK, guides on porting Unix code etc etc:

http://windowshpc.net/files/default.aspx     

This is a demo datasheet for Bill Gate's talk and demo at Supercomputing 2005 in Seattle, WA. It discusses cancer research from a distributed computing perspective:

http://windowshpc.net/files/25/datasheets/entry34.aspx   

Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 Technical Library

 

http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/Library/dce5123f-8af4-47c2-9192-9075998e24c71033.mspx?mfr=true

 

Kudos goes to the US product teams for the developer blog - when I see new stuff go up there I will highlight here so you dont miss it!

This HPC section will continue with more gusto with some great announcements around our Partner channel who are committed in this area! Great support and progress all round!

Have a great weekend all!

I was browing Robert Scoble's blog and caught this link to a great reference of 'How to get people talking about your product' - now this got me thinking around the whole process fo adoption and how many times do i hear businesses targeting customers in an inapprpriate manner that drives limited results. Have a read for yourself here:

http://www.ericsink.com/articles/Buzz.html

Scobles blog on the new start up tune for Vista was also pretty cool:

http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/feed/

How many times have i heard MS get requests for one feature or another and yet always see different users of software do the same thing multiple ways.....hmmm.....you can please some people some of the time but not all of the...you get the picture!

Anyone fancy a little weekend work linking a few XBOX 360's together...saw this fabulously inspirational story on the BBC Technology site today:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5287254.stm

Hmmm could we do HPC clusters on a networked set of 360's.....? Now I know this sounds silly but this was actually discussed at a recent meeting I went to with IBM...now there's a thing - the senior manager who came along and happened to hear that bit had some rather direct feedback for her employee:

"If this falls on it's ass, my foot is up your ass!" - nice! Maybe we will try more conventional methods of bringing clusters to the market then!

So as an follow up to the blog I did a few weeks back on F1 use of MS technology (Offtopic Friday humour... http://blogs.technet.com/mikep/archive/2006/08/11/446043.aspx), check out the very cool steering wheel from Fiat as shown on Jason Langridge's blog:

http://blogs.msdn.com/jasonlan/archive/2006/08/26/724967.aspx

I can see those motoring and MS jokes may continue for a while..., great to see our Automotive group bringing the same functionality I enjoy at home and at work into an area where I still spend a lot of my working day.

Want to extend the useful economic life of your PC - get a compute cluster HPC server... With many new technologies people rave about the technology but forget the business case that drives compelling event and the purchase - this post looks at recent examples of how UK customers have justified their purchases of HPC clusters with Windows CCS.

So in my meetings with partners and customers to date it has been patently clear that there is pent up demand from many types of power users for more computing power. Whatsmore it is also clear that this power is not required all of the time and should be a shared resource for all types of users from researchers, engineers and marketing analysts to financial modellers, insurance liability assessors and academics. In one particular example, a UK business was stifling up to 20 workstations whilst critical modelling analysis was carried out. The business case, for them was based on incremental productivity and releasing those slave workstations allowing the users to get on with their normal day to day tasks - hard to believe but true!

On another note if you are intrigued about the new Office System then check out my colleague Chris Parkes' new blog at:

http://blogs.technet.com/chrisp/default.aspx

Enjoy!

Some of you may have seen this in the press and the Blogosphere recently, one of Microsofts Gold Partners in the US released a press release poking a little fun at some of the more serious business issues surrounding Business Apps hosted on the web.

http://www.intermedia.net/about-us/news/2006/google-apps.asp

Viewed in the right context the release does bring out some interesting points around business apps for users in a hosted environment. Essentially, in a busines context we see the following as important:

• Support - managed SLAs for uptime, round the clock and follow the sun support
• Security - again managed and contactable, also Trust and Privacy which drive important business decisions around Compliance
• Offline versus Online - an entire debate in itself!

This post could go on a bit but I have to be honest, I truly believe that competition is healthy. How can your company look good and demonstrate value to the customer without healthy competiition in all areas. All good stuff if you see any other commentary on this topic please send my way.

Cheers