If you’re in IT you are likely pulled between an almost infinite need for more computing power to deliver business solutions and the ever increasing demands for greater agility, higher efficiency and lower costs. Fortunately, you can now deliver on these seemingly contradictory demands by leveraging the benefits of cloud computing with our public and private cloud solutions. And they are only going to get better.
Microsoft gives you a sneak peek at the next step in private cloud computing by showing you just two of hundreds of new capabilities coming in the next version of Windows Server, internally code-named “Windows Server 8.”
At 36:50 of this online video Microsoft demonstrates how Windows Server 8 virtual machines will help you build private clouds of greater scale by supporting (at least…) 16 virtual processors fully loaded with business critical workloads like SQL Server. Then Microsoft show you how you can deliver improved fault tolerance and flexibility, without the added tax or complexity of additional hardware, tools and software licenses, by using the new built-in Hyper-V Replica feature. All it takes is a few clicks, a network connection and Windows Server 8.
Microsoft released a video tour of four of Microsoft’s global datacenters. The video provides an inside look at how the company has invested heavily to rapidly evolve its datacenter IT infrastructure and best practices to deliver greater scalability, reliability, efficiency, security, and sustainability.
Microsoft has come a long way since our first datacenter in 1989. The server count, power efficiencies and number of facility locations have grown dramatically. Microsoft’s cloud is now comprised of a globally distributed datacenter infrastructure supporting hundreds of online services, including Windows Azure, Office 365, Bing, MSN, Windows Live, Hotmail and Xbox Live. More than a billion customers and 20 million businesses in over 70 countries use these services each year.
To meet the business goals for delivering higher energy efficiency, sustainability, and computing capacity at scale, Microsoft started designing their own datacenters and servers a few years ago and have been constantly innovating to improve upon our best practices and key learnings gained over the past 22 years. The first Microsoft-designed datacenter opened in 2007 and it gave Microsoft better control over the operating environment. This allowed Microsoft to achieve Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) well below the then industry average of over 2.0 for traditional facilities.
As Microsoft’s user base grew, operational excellence and services reliability required high availability through advanced monitoring and incident response, service support, and back-up failover capability, managed through their geographically distributed Microsoft Operations Centers—operating 24x7x365. Microsoft’s customers demand trustworthy cloud services—requiring a comprehensive approach to security ranging from software development and operations to physical security. In addition to maintaining high standards for operations processes, Microsoft routinely bring in third parties to verify our capabilities, resulting in ISO and PCI certifications, SAS70 Type II attestations, and FISMA certification and accreditation.
Microsoft pursuit of energy efficiency and cost effectiveness has been an ongoing activity. Microsoft divided their Chicago datacenter into two distinct level of service. The bottom floor houses water cooled containers without redundancy in the infrastructure. It relies on software that is resilient to failures. The container- based deployments allow us to deploy up to 2400 servers quickly, while driving the infrastructure cost down compared to traditional “N+1” datacenters. Microsoft’s container bay is operating at a PUE of less than 1.25 compared to the traditional co-locations upstairs that operate at about 1.5.
Microsoft went on to build our Dublin datacenter with free air cooling to achieve even higher efficiencies for a traditional “N+1” datacenter with PUE of 1.25 compared to 1.5 for the upper floor in Chicago.
In 2010, Microsoft began building their first Generation 4 datacenter, culminating over three years of research and development internally and externally with industry partners. Generation 4 designs also built upon their Dublin datacenter experience of using free airside economization and applying it in a truly modular manner using two different form factors. The original container deployments have evolved into free air cooled Information Technology Pre-Assembled Components (ITPACs) that drive these new datacenters’ PUEs even lower than the Chicago facility containers. Microsoft are also using free air cooling for our N+1 modular designs, but now with simple metal buildings without raised floors. These fully modular facilities have reduced their time to market by 50 percent and deliver outstanding PUEs, low water utilization and low total cost of ownership.
In their Quincy datacenter, ITPACs are moved into place and connected to each other for complete module deployment.
Microsoft datacenters will continue to evolve to provide a robust, secure, highly reliable, and efficient foundational infrastructure. And Microsoft Datacenter team hope that by sharing their key learning's and best practices that they can help the industry, as a whole, to drive greater efficiencies in their environments and through the use of Microsoft cloud services.
Microsoft hope that you will enjoy the video tour of four the cloud infrastructure facilities.
You can access more of Microsoft best practices around datacenter efficiencies, rightsizing servers for production environments, cloud security, etc. in published papers and blogs available on Microsoft web site at http://www.globalfoundationservices.com.
Follow the links below for further information.
Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 SP1
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26701
Now Available - System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 SP1
http://blogs.technet.com/b/vmmssp/archive/2011/07/11/now-available-system-center-virtual-machine-manager-self-service-portal-2-0-sp1.aspx
System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 SP1 Overview and Quick Start
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg588340.aspx
System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 SP1
http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/virtual-machine-manager/vmm-self-service-portal.aspx
“We can recommend Hyper-V without reservation for customers looking for the most effective way to virtualize their SAP systems or landscapes.”
Ralf Lindenlaub, Vice President for Virtualization and Cloud Management Value Prototyping/CoE, SAP
SAP Eases Deployment Time, Cost by 95 Percent; Endorses Hyper-V “Without Reservation”
Customer:
Region:
EMEA
Subsidiary:
Germany
Segment:
Enterprise
Industry:
High Tech and Electronics Manufacturing
Products & Technologies:
Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
− Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter
− Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 SP1
Technologies
− Hyper-V
Summary:
Enterprises and “cloud” providers that run SAP want the most powerful and effective ways to deploy and manage the software. That’s why SAP tested its software running on Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V virtualization technology, and using the latest deployment and management tools from both SAP and Microsoft. The results: the SAP and Microsoft technologies reduced SAP deployment time and cost by 95 percent compared to physical deployments, and boosted management productivity by 400 percent. The newest technologies in Hyper-V give it the power, reliability, and flexibility that enterprises and providers need for SAP virtual systems and landscapes. “We can recommend Hyper-V without reservation,” says an executive.
Links:
http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000010713
Hyper-V Replica. Today, replication is complex to configure and often requires expensive proprietary hardware. Hyper-V Replica is asynchronous, application consistent, virtual machine replication built-in to Windows Server 8. With Hyper-V Replica, you can replicate a virtual machine from one location to another with Hyper-V and a network connection. Hyper-V Replica works with any server vendor, any network vendor and any storage vendor. In addition, we will provide unlimited replication in the box.
This last point will be key to our customers. Why? Because VMware announced with VSphere 5.0 that they will include VM replication with their upcoming version of Site Recovery Manager (SRM), which costs extra AND charge customers a per VM replication fee $200-$500 per VM (!) to replicate.
Three key points:
1. 16+ virtual processors within a Hyper-V VM
2. Hyper-V Replica (VM replication “in the box”)
3. Hundreds of new features coming in the Microsoft Private Cloud
Public post from Mary Jo Foley - All about Microsoft contains all details
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-shows-off-early-peek-at-windows-server-8/10002?tag=mantle_skin;content
Q1: What is Office 365? Is it just “Office in the cloud”? Where can I learn more?
Office 365 is that and so much more! Office 365 combines the power of Office desktop apps with enterprise-grade e-mail, shared documents, instant messaging, and video and web conferencing (Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Lync Online) in an always-up-to-date cloud service that is backed by Microsoft and some of the best partners in the world. Further, Office 365 bring access to the Office Web Apps, which enable you to view, share and edit your Microsoft Office documents on the web with virtually any device connected to the internet. These services combine to provide you with the most comprehensive productivity solution for your business needs. Watch our professionals and small business or enterprise demos to get a taste of these services all working together.
Q2: Which Office 365 plan is right for my business? Where can I find pricing information on these plans? Can I switch between the two later on?
Office 365 offers plans tailored to meet your business’s needs, whether you are a new business, an established organization, a small office or a multinational enterprise. Office 365 for professionals and small businesses (Plan P) is designed for organizations with fewer than 25 employees and is just $6 per user per month, while Office 365 for midsize businesses and enterprises (Plans E1-E4 and K1-K2) provides larger organizations the tools they want with the IT control, security and reliability you expect from Microsoft in a range of plans from $4 (K1) - $27 (E4). And if you are a smaller org with technical know-how, you’ll be happy to know that there are no minimum seat requirements for the enterprise plans, it works for orgs of one to thousands. The small business plan is capped at 50 users and not able to be transition later on. To find which is right for you, take a look at our professionals and small businesses and midsize businesses and enterprises placemats to compare the included features. For a more in depth analysis and feature list, see ourOffice 365 service descriptions.
Q3: I want to dig deeper into the detailed specs, features and capabilities of Office 365, such as mailbox sizes, cloud storage space, archiving, identity and details on security and service continuity policies in Office 365. What can I find this information?
The Office 365 service descriptions are your go-to source for the nitty-gritty details about our service. These docs contain information on each of our cloud services (Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Lync Online, Office Web Apps and Office Pro Plus) as well as detailed information on Migration, Support, Identity and Security. You can also read our security whitepaper and check out the Office 365 trust center to read about our practices.
Q4: I’m interested in buying/trying Office 365, where should I start?
The best way to begin is to make sure your company’s hardware and software meets the minimum system requirements for Office 365. Then check out our Getting Started page which will get you setup to trial or buy your Office 365 service. To make the trial and purchase process as smooth as possible, we’ve provided the following resources:
- Office 365 for professionals and small businesses Product Guide: This high-level walkthrough will guide you through how to sign up for an Office 365 subscription and how to begin using some key features.
- Office 365 for professionals and small businesses Purchase and Support Guide: This guide will help you learn more about Office 365 for professionals and small businesses and how it can benefit your organization. The guide focuses primarily on the Office 365 commerce experience and will help you to buy and manage your Office 365 subscriptions.
- Office 365 for midsize businesses and enterprises Buyer’s Guide: Guiding customers through key decisions relative to online communication and collaboration solutions, including deciding if the cloud is right for your organization and how Office 365 for enterprises can meet your productivity needs.
From there, for customers getting started with Office 365 for small businesses, watch the Product Tour and read the Introduction for Office 365 administrators help article. You can also watch the User Tour or read the Quick Start Guide to learn more about the end user experience. For larger enterprises considering Office 365, the Enterprise Admin Tour and Introduction help articles are the place to start.
Q5: I would like help getting my business setup on Office 365. Where can I go to contact a partner in my area?
We designed the Office 365 Marketplace specifically to help our customers find trusted Microsoft Office 365 experts, applications and services that enhance and easily integrate with the Microsoft Office 365 suite of products.
Q6: I have a question or issue with Office 365, where can I get help?
We provide a variety of resources including the Office 365 Community and in product self-support for our small business customers as well as some additional features, including 24/7 phone support, for our enterprise plan subscribers. An overview of the available resources can be found on our website. The Office 365 help sites are also great resources to find answers to many of the common issues encountered in our service (Small Business Help| Enterprise Help).
Q7: I’m not familiar with how to move my custom domain over to Office 365. I want to use my own domain for my email (user@mydomain.com)and my public website (www.mydomain.com).
You can easily add your custom domain and use it for your Office 365 e-mail and/or public website. The below resources will walk you through this process, in either text or video form.
- Adding your domain to Office 365 for professionals and small businesses: Help Article | Custom Domain for Email Video | Custom Domain for Website Video
- Adding your domain to Office 365 for midsize businesses and enterprises: Help Article | Office 365 Technical Blog Post on most often asked questions
Q8: I’m not sure how to use SharePoint Online for my small businesses. Where can I learn more about it?
Our SharePoint Online Product Manager Ben Tamblyn has put together a great set of short videos posted to our blog explaining the service and how it can help your company be productive. If you want to dive into more how-to to understand how this works, take a look at the SharePoint Online Help & How-To section and watch these videos to learn more.
Similar help and video resources exist for Office 365 for Enterprises here and here respectively.
Q9: I am a BPOS Customer, where can I find information on the transition plans from BPOS to Office 365?
Our BPOS to Office 365 transition center has been newly updated with information on the next steps and a transition guide for a smooth move to our newest cloud service.
Q10: I have OLSB today – how Office 365 will affect me and when I can to move?
Microsoft Office 365 will replace Office Live Small Business (OLSB) as the comprehensive productivity service for small organizations. As Stephen shared last week, we will continue running the OLSB service through at least February 2012. OLSB customers do not need to take any action at this time. We will share more details about the transition later this year. Check out our OLSB transition center for the latest OLSB information and help content, including aself-transition guide for customers who want to move to Office 365 today.
Microsoft is making a beta of the next release of its Windows Intune available for download on July 11, officials announced during the Worldwide Partner Conference 2011.
The final release of Windows Intune next is going to be later this year, officials also said today. Existing Windows Intune customers will receive the coming Windows Intune version without any migration necessary, according to Microsoft`.With the coming release of Windows Intune, “administrators can deploy most Microsoft and third-party updates or software applications to PCs virtually anywhere, without the need for a server infrastructure or physically touching each PC to install the software or update,”.
For a full list of features, check out the following content:
Want to try out these cool new features? Then sign up for the Windows Intune Beta for a preview of the updates we’ve made to the service. Please note that the beta can be used on up to 10 PCs until 30 days after the update is commercially available and cannot be migrated to the commercial release.
Three months after Microsoft’s “Aurora” hybrid cloud/on-premises server for small business was released to manufacturing, the product is available via a variety of channels.
Here’s some additional information from a Microsoft spokesperson regarding the Office 365 capabilities of Aurora:
“Office 365 and SBS 2011 Essentials do work together currently. Right now, you can run the core infrastructure you need on-premise and work with online services such as O365 for collaboration and line of business (LOB) application support. The difference coming this fall is that the Office 365 Integration Module for SBS Essentials will be available. This module will provide customers with additional functionality to combine these two products without increasing complexity.”
Aurora was designed to be an on-premises Server Core, supplemented by Office 365 and other still-unspecified Microsoft cloud products. (Windows Intune or Dynamics CRM Online could be possible other cloud add-ons, I’d think.)
Add-ins will be able to be online, on-premise, or a mixture of both, according to the company. The two add-on options for the product:
Microsoft is positioning Aurora as suited for small businesses of up to 25 users). “It can seamlessly integrate into online services such as Office 365, cloud backup, and cloud management solutions,” according to a product data sheet. Cloud and on-premises roducts from third-party software/services vendors also can integrate with Aurora.
Great news to share with our Windows Server blog readers - Gartner published the 2011 Magic Quadrant for x86 Server Virtualization Infrastructure, in which Microsoft is listed among the leaders, along with Citrix and VMware. You can find the full independent report here.
Microsoft’s Brad Anderson, corporate vice president of the Management & Security Division, discusses how Gartner’s results are changing the conversation with customers on the Cloud Power Blog. Click here to read more!
To learn more about Microsoft’s server virtualization and private cloud solutions, and how customers are benefiting from them, click on the content below: