Executive Summary:
Karen acknowledges Microsoft Windows Server 2008, System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2007, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2008 for receiving Editors’ Best awards and examines Microsoft’s perspective on virtualization as it relates to a new generation of Web-integrated IT. |
Microsoft’s new product releases in the past year
have been numerous and significant. In many
ways these products are revolutionizing IT. But
even as I acknowledge the Microsoft products
receiving our Editors’ Best award this year, I
can’t shake the feeling that these releases are
approaching the last hurrah of a fading generation of technology. So
first, let me congratulate this year’s winners. Then let’s consider the
oncoming generation and where it’s taking Microsoft and IT.
Gold
Windows Server 2008 brought virtualization into the IT mainstream,
created new competitive possibilities with Server Core, and simplified
deployment with the concept of server roles. The product’s technical
achievements, its grounding in customer feedback, plus its timely and
drama-free release earn this year’s gold award for Server 2008.
Asked to comment on the award, Bill Laing (general manager,
Windows Server Division) said, “Windows Server 2008 is Microsoft’s
most customer-focused server release to date; this is evident in how
the server is configured and managed by role through the Windows
Server Manager utility. Windows Server 2008, built with Web and
virtualization technologies, enables you to increase the reliability
and flexibility of your server infrastructure.”
Silver and Bronze
The silver award for Microsoft products goes to System Center Data
Protection Manager (DPM) 2007. Native backup and restore capability
was never a strength of Microsoft products until DPM arrived
a few years back. But DPM’s initial versions protected only the OS.
With DPM 2007, Microsoft extended disk-to-disk-to-tape backup to
products that were crying out for such a solution: Exchange Server,
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007, and SQL Server.
This award recognizes Microsoft for providing much-needed and
eagerly awaited functionality.
System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2008, with
its support for Hyper-V and heterogeneous management of virtual
and physical environments, has not yet been released. But SCVMM
2007 changed the competitive game in the virtualization arena
by focusing Microsoft’s value proposition on managing a mixed
physical and virtual environment “from a single pane.” The strategy
behind SCVMM and the importance of management in a virtualized
environment make SCVMM the bronze award winner this year.
The Next Generation
The 2008 product generation takes virtualization into the mainstream
of Microsoft-based IT and is changing the way IT works. But
the idea of virtualization is steadily expanding as a way of thinking
beyond on-premise IT. Microsoft is now seeing virtualization as a
broader concept that encompasses cloud computing, Web services,
Software as a Service (SaaS), Software + Services (S+S), and Service-
Oriented Architecture (SOA).
In this view, “virtualization” becomes “logicalization” of technology.
As Bob Kelly (Microsoft vice president, Infrastructure Server
Marketing) recently told me, “Virtualization is a way of making
logical a bunch of physical stuff. The more that IT becomes logical,
the much more quickly they’ll be able to respond to business needs.
Logicalization is not just about compute or storage. It’s also in fact
about applications—not just like Softricity style, but even SOA.
Service orientation is really an isolation. Web services is just a virtualized
service. It’s isolated. The more IT gets on this road to making
their infrastructure, their applications, and their environment
logical, the faster they’ll be able to consume this innovation and the
more quickly they’ll be able to respond to business needs. There’s
nothing like being able to stand up a new server environment with
the press of a button because you have increased demand. That’s
what logicalization of IT means.”
When Microsoft jumps on an idea, that idea spreads and grows
wildly. So just as you’re getting used to the various possibilities for
and layers of virtualization, Microsoft is taking the idea of virtualization
much further. By distilling “virtualization” down to its essence
as “isolation” of physical hardware, OSs, and applications, Microsoft
created a paradigm for understanding that cloud-based approaches
are also essentially about “isolation.”
This perspective on virtualization means that the 2008 wave of
Microsoft products is opening the door for the new generation of
Web-integrated IT. Early explorations of the idea of logicalization
of IT include Microsoft Live Mesh and SQL Server Data Services. In
the future, the industry might look back on Hyper-V and its approach
to virtualization as quaint. But it just might also be seen as the granddaddy
of an entirely different type of IT.
End of Article
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