Hello again. I'm posting this from San Francisco where I'm attending the VMworld 2010 U.S. conference. It may surprise some but Microsoft has been exhibiting at this conference since 2005, talking virtualization with customers and partners who are running Microsoft servers, desktops and applications. During this timeframe we've helped customers consolidate servers, modernize IT and optimize desktops. In some instances, customers chose to migrate away from their previous virtualization technology to Microsoft.
As you may recall from my previous post, virtualization is no longer the destination. Virtualization clearly plays a role in enabling this move toward more agile IT services by simplifying the deployment and management of desktops and datacenters. It's a stepping stone to the cloud. Imagine never having to set up a server, update an operating system, or build a database system. That's the promise of cloud computing and the point of our 'open letter' advertisement to VMware customers today. As the advertisement says, "If you liked the efficiencies and cost savings of virtualization, you'll love the cloud."
So at this year's VMworld, we are demoing the cloud solution that Outback Steakhouse created using Windows Azure Platform. Working with a partner, Outback Steakhouse developed and deployed an online marketing campaign in less than eight weeks - the flexibility and scalability of the cloud allowed them to support overwhelming customer response. The marketing campaign met its goal of 500,000 fans in only 18 days. It's a great example of IT being able to satisfy business and marketing demands with a fast, cost-effective solution.
We will also demo how we're helping customers use the same tools to control and manage Windows Azure-based applications, as they would applications running on Windows Server. Customers can use System Center Operations Manager to monitor the health of applications, whether the apps are on-premises or on Windows Azure, and in return get a complete view of how well all their IT services are running. We showed this demo at Microsoft Management Summit 2010. This solution provides the critical capability to manage your applications regardless of the infrastructure they may run on, whether it be your datacenter or the public cloud with Windows Azure.
Finally, we'll talk about how we're helping customers create private cloud environments for greater collaboration. To help IT manage and account for these environments most effectively, the tools exist today so customers can create highly scalable and flexible IT environments with flexible compute capacity which can be billed back in units.
Your path to cloud computing is real and it's here today. I'm at VMworld this week and if you are too, please stop by the Microsoft booth and say hi.
Edwin Yuen
Hello everyone, we wanted to get this information to you as soon as possible. We now have released a fully configured virtual machine for ConfigMgr v.Next Beta 1. Based on a Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 OS, this is a fully built virtual machine ready to import into your Hyper-V environments.
This is something the ConfigMgr team has done for a few major releases, starting back at the ConfigMgr 2007 RTM timeframes. We are really excited to get you guys this type of access, to help you evaluate the latest and greatest ConfigMgr v.Next release. We are also in the process of uploading the hands on labs for ConfigMgr v.Next as well, look for that announcement soon.
Some resources for you:
Jeff Wettlaufer Sr Technical Product Manager System Center, Management and Security Division
Hello again! I know it's been a while since I've written a blog, but since my last post I have spent time taking care of a new baby and blogging (and everything else ☺) takes a back seat to that.
What I did want to talk about today is a great technical conversation which is happening on the Network World site about the future of computing, clouds, and virtualization. Writing for the Microsoft side is David Greschler, who is a director of Virtualization Strategy at Microsoft and founder of Softricity. David and I worked together at Softricity before they were acquired by Microsoft and virtualization became a trendy technology.
In his first post, David explains his thoughts on why customers can rely on Microsoft's current set of products as well as its vision for the future of virtualization and its importance as a stepping-stone to cloud computing. With his years of experience in Virtualization, both at Microsoft and before then, David really understands that Virtualization is not about the technology but rather the capabilities that it can provide IT and companies as a whole.
Microsoft is a platform company that provides customers with the tools, capabilities, and features they need to manage their applications, both in their datacenters and in cloud computing. This means providing not only the virtualization infrastructure, but the management, identity, and application development framework that companies need to fully prepare and easily adopt cloud computing. Through years of working with customers to develop enterprise solutions to meet their needs, Microsoft is able to deliver these end-to-end capabilities.
I strongly encourage you to review David's posting and to start thinking beyond just the virtualization of infrastructure and more about the journey to cloud computing. I believe that Microsoft is the best company to work with customers on that journey. In the end, Cloud is not a technology or product but a destination for the future of IT and Microsoft is leading the way to that.