Posted by Tony Hey
Vice President of Microsoft Research Connections

There is a sea of change happening in science: It’s increasingly being driven by data and computation. The practice of science is now enhanced by collecting and analyzing massive quantities of data rather than small, focused experiments. The data are coming from instruments such as satellites, high-throughput biometric screening systems, networks of sensors and telescopes, as well as massive computer simulations. In this decade we will collect more scientific data than we’ve collected so far in the whole of human history. Soon it will be impossible to do any kind of science without computational tools―and the more advanced and powerful, the better for the scientist and the science.

Extending the challenge of increasing data quantities is a corresponding need to collaborate across numerous sources and data consumers. This is driving a trend toward open science data, open access to text and publications, open standards, and open collaboration around computational tools that best serve the science community. There’s a unique role right now for the computer science and IT industries to help scientists unleash the value of their data by allowing more contributors to derive insights, and combine and refine data regardless of its scale and complexity. Microsoft Research aims to play a part in this transformation of the scientific discovery process through offering combinations of breakthrough research, software assets, algorithms, and open collaboration to accelerate the process of reaching insight. This post will be the first of a series of profiles that highlight Microsoft Research collaborations in the spirit of open science and innovation.

Today we’re showcasing a noteworthy example at the intersection of big data analysis and open science. ChronoZoom, an open source community project released earlier this year, has the ambitious goal of presenting the history of everything and is proving to be a vital tool in the evolving field of Big History, which attempts to unify the past – from the beginning of time, some 13.7 billion years ago – with the present. Big History offers a broad understanding of how the past has unfolded, and lets us explore the unifying characteristics that can bridge the intellectual chasm between the humanities and the sciences. The project has been a truly collaborative effort by the University of California, Berkeley, Moscow State University, the Outercurve Foundation, and Microsoft Research Connections. ChronoZoom utilizes Windows Azure, HTML5, JavaScript and a rich user interface to bring the elements of Big History together. It is now available in 2.0 beta for public use, feedback and, ultimately, widespread collaboration. You can learn more about ChronoZoom through this video overview, or experience it firsthand at www.ChronoZoomProject.org.

Posted by Anandeep Pannu
Senior Program Manager – Open Source Technical Center

Today at BSDCan, NetApp and Microsoft presented their collaboration with Citrix to bring native support for FreeBSD on the Windows Server Hyper-V hypervisor.  This continues a commitment to extend support across platforms to the Windows Server Hyper-V solution, making it easier for more customers to realize the benefits of server virtualization and progress toward cloud computing.  We caught up with Joe CaraDonna, NetApp Technical Director of Core Operating Systems, for more on how this collaboration will support FreeBSD and Microsoft customers and partners, as well as his insights into what’s next. 

Posted by Sandy Gupta
General Manager, Open Solutions Group

Today I would like to share some encouraging news about work we have underway with OpenNebula to support continued innovation and interoperability in the cloud – Windows Server Hyper-V is now an officially supported hypervisor for OpenNebula. The open source project is working on a prototype for release next month and it will soon be possible for customers to build and manage OpenNebula clouds on a Hyper-V based virtualization platform.

Posted by Sandy Gupta
General Manager, Open Solutions Group

A common truth in this industry is that emerging markets often leapfrog mature ones when it comes to adopting new business models and technologies.

One example that illustrates this well is cloud computing in China.

Cloud-based infrastructure is budding across cities and provinces throughout China to support the country’s rapid transformation and evolution into the world’s foremost economy. To help provide the mixed source infrastructure necessary to facilitate the awesome growth and change taking place across China, Microsoft today signed a collaboration agreement with China Standard Software Corporation (CS2C), the country’s leading domestic Linux operating system provider. 

Posted by Sandy Gupta
General Manager, Open Solutions Group

Two weeks ago the OpenStack community announced the release of Essex. I want to congratulate the community on reaching this key milestone. Microsoft is working with the OpenStack community to restore and enhance the Windows Server Hyper-V support in OpenStack to benefit customers that are planning to use the two together. We have put together a dedicated team at Microsoft focused on working with the community to support this effort.