During Bob Muglia's Keynote address at TechEd North America 2010, he talked about the many benefits organizations can gain by moving to the cloud. One thing he talked about was how an organization can scale services through shared hardware. This allows for self-service capabilities, as well as accelerating the speed of delivering applications.
There are three different core models enabled by the cloud: a new hardware model, a new applications model, and a new operations model.
In the new hardware model, hardware becomes very standardized and purchased in larger increments, which lowers the costs and spreads out the purchase cycles letting them become more predictable.
The new application model is designed for scaling and availability. Using the new application model, you can expedite application creation and integration into your existing environment, lessening time to value and rapidly increasing capabilities.
The new operations model changes how we stage and deliver these applications, whether it involves one or hundreds of servers. This helps transform how you deploy these types of applications at scale.
Mary-Jo Foley wrote about this at her blog, and talked about how Server Application Virtualization (which was mentioned first at MMS 2008) will be "a potentially powerful tool for moving legacy applications into the cloud".
Server Application Virtualization will be a strong enabler that should dramatically simplify the deployment and management of Data Center applications, without requiring a rewrite. It will both lessen the time it takes and simplify the deployment and upgrade of an application or service, whether in your datacenter or in the cloud. You will have less base OS images to manage and update, and when you need to update your images, you can quickly recompose the application onto the updated server image. If the application itself needs to be updated, you can do so quickly and redeploy it across your farm. Whether this is your front end web tier, your application layer, or the backend database, by virtualizing the application you can gain the operational benefits of decreasing the administrative burden for these workloads.
Taking this a step further, IT can now create custom application models and allow a Business Unit to deploy these services on their own, allowing the business to proceed on their time-line while maintaining control of the underlying infrastructure. This delegation will decrease the bottlenecks a business unit may encounter when trying to respond to business directions, while also showing centralized IT to be more agile and flexible, and able to meet the demands of their customers.
I am excited by the possibility of Server Application Virtualization, and of what it will bring in the future.
When heading down to New Orleans for TechEd North America a couple weeks ago, my mind wandered back to the TechEd three years ago In Orlando where we launched SCE 2007, the very first System Center IT management solution Microsoft specifically built for midsize businesses. Yes, I got a bit teary-eyed as my plane rolled-up to the gate at Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans. How had three years already flown by? As I walked from my gate and passed by the big statue of Louis Armstrong, I thought about Will Ferrell's line from the movie "Blades of Glory" where he states that Louis Armstrong landed on the moon (hahahah).
I arrived pretty late at night coming from Seattle, through Atlanta, but the air was still warm and humid - something I definitely hadn't been feeling up in Seattle where we appear to be going through a "global cooling" cycle. When I got up the next morning to make my way toward the convention center with the 10,499 other folks there for the event I enjoyed the feeling of the sun and humidity again - wouldn't want to be out in it all day, but nice to have the option. I could also feel another kind of heat - this show was going to be HOT...in a good way.
From the moment the Expo hall opened for traffic until it closed, the Microsoft management area had great traffic. We had LOTS of folks coming through to learn more about the System Center IT management and virtualization solutions. What was REALLY cool for me was to talk to existing SCE customer whom I talked to at TechEd 2007 who were looking forward to the new SCE 2010 release with built-in virtual machine management. In the same way, we had LOTS of DPM 2007 customers coming through wanting to talk about DPM 2010 and all the cool innovations since that product first launched in 2006. This provided a perfect opportunity for us to talk about our pending new SCE Plus 2010 release which becomes available 1 July. This new "solution" offering provides streamlined licensing and cost-benefitial pricing to purchase SCE 2010 + DPM 2010 together as a complete midmarket IT management solution. The feedback on this new midmarket solution was really positive - just like it was when we launched SCE 2010 and DPM 2010 at Convergence US in April. Validation is always nice.
In any event, I don't want to drone on too much, but breakout and interactive session demand and attendance blew out what we experienced at previous TechEd events and we had a GREAT time engaging in conversations with attendees about their businesses, IT situations and talking technology. I know that customers and partners come to this event to learn about new products and get their questions answered, but I ALWAYS walk away feeling like I've gotten just as much value from the interaction as they do. So, to those of you I was able to meet and hang-out with at this year's TechEd - thank YOU! I handed out lots of cards, so please feel free to stay in touch and hope to see you again at future events!
Merci for the memories,
David Mills
Sr. Product Manager
Microsoft System Center
Good morning everyone,
I wanted to make you aware of a new ZDNet article from a trip through EMEA the System Center team did showcasing the ‘Best of MMS’. Ryan O’Hara was interviewed by Roger Howorth on the state of the System Center business and the article is now live. Check out “Server app virtualisation in Microsoft's sights”
Jeff Wettlaufer Sr Technical Product Manager System Center, Management and Security Division
I have been an attendee at many a Trade Show, and have seen the good and the bad, but I never knew how much work went into putting one of these things on, until coming over here to Microsoft. These past 6 months, I have been involved with both MMS 2010 and TechEd North America 2010 from the inside, and have seen just how much work is involved in getting these Shows out the door. For MMS 2010, I was involved with choosing the sessions for the Virtualization Track, presenting some of those sessions as well as pieces of the Virtualization booth, but my fondest memory there (and also the most work) was designing, creating, and presenting a demo during Bob Muglia's Keynote address on Day 1. You would think that 4 minutes wouldn't require so much work, but putting the demo together (utilizing $250,000 of hardware from hp), building the messaging, and all of the rehearsals, it was some work. That was an intense and a little bit stressful experience but a thoroughly enjoyable one that I will never forget.
At TechEd 2010, I was even more involved. I had responsibility for choosing the Virtualization Track Sessions here as well, but was even more involved in the review process for the sessions. I was also involved in 6 different sessions as well as the Reviewer's Day the day before TechEd Started. Virtualization is a fun track to be involved in, but presents some challenges. You have many different aspects of Virtualization (on the Desktop and in the Datacenter) and differing levels of knowledge of those technologies by the attendees. Plus, a lot about Virtualization is in the solutions it provides. Most of the technology sessions seemed to go to the respective products' tracks (Windows Server for Hyper-V and Windows Client for a lot of the Client sessions), but the Virtualization track turned out great. I could never have put it all together myself, and didn't try. We had a tremendous Track PM who had this track running more smoothly than I had ever thought possible. Kory McCormick did an amazing job putting this all together. From handling a last minute cancellation on Friday (and re-adding it on Monday), to ensuring all of the sessions were ready to go, to handling all the challenges both big and small with respect to booth duty and getting all the session PowerPoints in on time, and ensuring all the equipment was there and ready. She did a Fantastic job, and I really wanted to call her out in appreciation.
As for the event, Virtualization played a key role in the theme for this year's TechEd. From being the supporting role in all of the cloud discussions (can you really have cloud without Virtualization), to the introductions and details about Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Virtualization played a key role throughout the week. We had tremendous traffic at the Virtualization booths all week, and were able to give out nearly all of the Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Posters and the Integrated Virtualization Posters to any comers.
For the event, I got to deliver some of the Demos for both the Virtualization Track Kick-Off Session (VIR206) presented by Dai Vu, and the Management Track Kick-Off Session (MGT203) presented by Ryan O'Hara. One of the best parts of these demos is that I was able to show how our stuff all works together. When you can feed in alerts from System Center Operations Manager to System Center Service Manager, and correlate them with customer generated incidents, then utilize Opalis to create workflows that will do something whether it by physical, or in the case of my demonstration, virtual (utilizing PowerShell to create a new VM). This shows the tremendous power or our Server Management Suite. Also, I was able to demonstrate some of the integrations done by our Partners to make Virtualization even better. By leveraging our Partner PRO Tips, I showed how you can autorecover from a disk utilization issue, but also how to migrate VMs when certain thresholds or actions hit. This is very powerful in that it shows how Virtualization can proactively solve problems before they occur and become big problems.
Those stories are the most fun to tell, along with the late nights getting the hardware all setup, and the early mornings (why did I have two 8 am sessions) presenting and also assisting my other presenters.
This was a fun event, and I can't wait until TechEd Europe to do it all again.
Greetings from New Orleans! We are all pretty jazzed to be in this amazing city. This year for Microsoft, we have exceeded our registration targets by over 60%. That means that this week there will be over 10,500 guests, speakers and event staff in New Orleans for the largest IT Pro event on the calendar.
There are a significant number of Microsoft product group, Engineers, Subject Matter Experts, Field and Partners in 1 place to cover just about any MS product you can name. There are over hundreds of sessions, and it all starts this weekend with pre conference training that many of us have arrived early to deliver.
On Monday, it all lights up with President Bob Muglia speaking at 9AM to the entire event in his keynote. Bob will cover some significant product announcements, updates, and vision/ strategy about the Cloud for you.
Following this, just before lunch, we would encourage you to attend the ‘Foundation’ sessions that are running. These are 1 hour in length, and are delivered by Microsoft Leadership. Of particular note, is the session many of our team are involved in, which is the Optimized Desktop session. In this session Garth Fort, System Center GM will cover the Microsoft strategy for Windows 7 and the Optimized desktop. We will present and demonstrate the capabilities to deliver a centrally managed, highly automated deployment solution, complete with application Compatibility, centralized reporting and more.
As well, we plan to speak heavily about the role Virtualization plays in the Optimized Desktop. From Application to Application compatibility solutions such as App-V, to Desktop Virt areas like MEDV, Presentation virt and also VDI. All will be demonstrated. We have had a lot of' discussion talking about how to fit almost 40 minutes of demo into 1 hour!
Once these are completed, we also want you to be aware of 2 Track keynotes. Virtualization 360 is a session run by Dai Vu – our Director of Virtualization solutions. This will also be a demo packed session, 75 minutes of great content and product demonstration highlights.
And then, just before we dive into deep sessions for the week, we have a highlight session. Ryan O’Hara, Sr Director for System Center, will deliver a demo jammed MGT203 - Microsoft System Center Roadmap and Strategy session. This is always 1 of the most popular sessions of the week, where we will walk through the in market, near term, and futures for System Center and Forefront technologies.
We cannot wait to see everyone. This event carries a huge amount of focus for us, and we hope that comes through in the passion and quality of content we will deliver for you.
Thanks for joining us.
Kind regards
Jeff Wettlaufer Sr Technical Product Manager System Center, Management Securities Division
If you’re coming to the “Big Easy” (New Orleans), for TechEd North America, and you work in a midsize business, be sure to come see us at the Microsoft Demo Station Stations for SCE 2010 and DPM 2010, to see how we’re making virtualization and IT management “Big Easy” for midsize businesses! We also have a great line-up of session you can attend to learn more and some of the System Center team members and I will be there to answer your questions.
MGT202
Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2010, Part 1: Technical Introduction
Jason Buffington
MGT302
Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2010, Part 2: Protecting Applications
MGT314
Technical Introduction to Microsoft System Center Essentials 2010
David Mills; Jason Buffington
MGT02-INT
What’s New In Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2010?
So, come on down and have a Beignet with coffee for breakfast, maybe some jambalaya for dinner and learn something new. Son of a gun we'll have big fun on the bayou!
Later, gators.
David Mills Sr. Product Manager System Center Marketing
As I've written many times in this blog, virtualization is much more about how and why you use the technology than what it can do. Desktop Virtualization is a great example of the promise (and the potential pitfalls) that virtualization offers customers. I'm sure for many of you, when it comes to understanding what role desktop virtualization can play in your environment, you may have more questions than answers. Some of the questions I've heard when I've talked to people about virtualization include:
I've always said that each customer IT environment is unique. With that in mind, Microsoft wants to work with you to provide the best virtualization solution, not just a one size (solution) fits all offering. When it comes to addressing your specific Desktop Virtualization needs, we provide a range of options, a suite of modular solutions, that can be tailored to meet your needs and deployed together or separately to meet your specific goals and requirements. As regular readers of this blog know, I'm an evangelist for management being the key to virtualization. When it comes to Desktop Virtualization, that concept is just as important. Our approach with the System Center management suite is to provide a single management experience for your environment; physical to virtual, desktop to datacenter.
In the solutions that Microsoft offers in Desktop Virtualization, we have broken the dependencies between the OS, Application, and Data and User Settings. By having virtualization solutions in each of these areas, we can offer you the best solution, optimized for your individual needs. Just as Server Virtualization broke dependencies between the OS and hardware, separating these other desktop objects is the key to Desktop Virtualization. Desktop Virtualization is not simply applying Server Virtualization concepts and capabilities to the desktop.
By taking this approach to Desktop Virtualization, we can help you streamline your migration to Windows 7 as part of a broader IT management strategy. This means greater flexibility and simplified PC management-all while preserving and capitalizing on your existing IT investments for lower TCO.
As with many of our solutions, we work closely with our partners to deliver a holistic and comprehensive set of solutions, to offer the best possible configuration for your needs. For example, the Microsoft alliance with Citrix provides a comprehensive and cost-effective VDI solution. Many people I've talked to want a better understanding of how Citrix and Microsoft work together on VDI. I would strongly recommend that everyone watch this video that details the joint Microsoft -Citrix VDI solution and learn more about two limited-time offers from Microsoft and Citrix. This video gives a clear summary of what Citrix and Microsoft are doing in the Desktop Virtualization space.
Still, our solutions are not limited to just Citrix. We also have a number of other Microsoft partner solutions, including:
To learn more about these solutions, click this link.
In addition to the partnerships listed above, you can also benefit from our Virtualization Deployment partners. These partners are system integrator and value added channel partners that offer specialized resources, industry knowledge, and best practices to help you assess your business needs as well as plan, build, and deploy an integrated virtualization solution.
Hear What Others Have to Say
There has certainly been a lot of discussion and opinions around desktop virtualization, making it hard to find a resource to use to get started about Desktop Virtualization. The Microsoft Desktop Virtualization Hour, which features a full-length, on-demand video of the Microsoft Virtualization Summit webcast, is a great place to get started on Desktop Virtualization and see what Microsoft can do for you.
You can listen to customers such as Expedia, Holland America, and Group Health, along with executives from Microsoft and analysts from Gartner, explain how desktop virtualization can help reduce TCO, improve flexibility, and ease management across the desktop environment. The discussions from both customers and industry experts provide insight and best practices around using Microsoft virtualization solutions to simplify your migration to Windows 7. You can also watch a behind-the-scenes video with executives from Microsoft and Citrix to get their perspective on where virtualization technology is heading and what it could mean for your organization.
Take the Next Step
So, I know this is a lot of information. Where should you start on your Desktop Virtualization journey? I would recommend working on developing your desktop virtualization strategy today. This means researching and understanding what impacts virtualization can have on your desktops and what the advantages and disadvantages of each solution can be. Click on the thumbnail below to explore the Microsoft Desktop Virtualization Hour Web site. And if you are ready to get started with Desktop Virtualization or even if you are already deployed with Desktop Virtualization, you should take advantage of some special, limited-time offers from Microsoft to kick start your VDI implementation or replace your VMware VDI licenses.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, you can leave them here or reach out to me via E-mail or Twitter. The links are in my signature below. Thanks again and good luck!
Edwin Yuen
Director - Virtualization
Related Links [sidebar]
Press Release-Microsoft Accelerates Desktop Virtualization
Microsoft Desktop Virtualization
IDC Report on Client Virtualization