A lot of news lately from Microsoft about the large datacenters. This video is about energy efficiency :
Kudos to Bart Wessels
Software + Services
December 11, 2008
Energy Efficiency in Microsoft’s datacenters
Forrester : Microsoft Azure: Low Immediate Impact But Watch This Space
Forrester shares teir perspective on Microsoft Windows Azure …
Microsoft finally took the wraps off its hosted platform at the end of October 2008. The platform is actually a portfolio that includes existing hosted services including SQL Services as well as a new operating system called Windows Azure. Application development managers should view Azure as a brand new platform rather than an evolution of today's platforms — and they should not view the Azure Services Platform as an alternative for rehosting existing .NET applications. Azure is early in its development (and available only in prebeta form) and so is appropriate only for skills development and experimentation during the next year. Teams with immediate needs for "platform-as-a-service" (PaaS) offerings will find more pragmatic options for Windows applications from Amazon Web Services LLC and other hosting providers as well from as non-Windows providers such as salesforce.com.
Source: Microsoft Azure: Low Immediate Impact But Watch This Space
December 10, 2008
Inside Microsoft’s Datacenter
ONe of them that is … A peek inside one of Microsoft’s datacenters including a brief interview with Michael Manos :
December 09, 2008
Google Native Client moet server ontlasten
Hoe handig webapplicaties ook zijn qua beheer, ze leveren ook nadelen op als het gaat om rekenen, zeker met grote hoeveelheden data. Maar volgens Google is het bedrijf vrij ver gevorderd om dat nadeel van webapplicaties op te vangen.
Ik heb het artikel even 2 keer moeten lezen. “Software om de server te onlasten”, is dat niet gewoon een client of te wel lokale software ? Is de lokale rekenkracht, multimedia, etc nu ineens wel belangrijk ?
Volgens het artikel is Google bezig haar antwoord op Adobe Flash, Air en Microsoft Silverlight te ontwikelen. Wat mij betreft de zoveelste erkenning van Google dat de juiste strategie Software + Services is en niet “SaaS” als in in “browser-only” oplossingen.
December 05, 2008
Microsoft Online Services - Casestudies
What better way than let customers and partners tell you they are satisfied and enthusiastic about your services. Here’s a first batch of customer casestudies for Microsoft Online Services :
- Partner Case Study: LINK Conference Service
- Customer Case Study: Datatune
- Partner Case Study: Virteva
- Customer Case Study: Archiver’s
Online Services Delivers Enterprise-Class Communications to Growing Retail Business - Partner Case Study: PointBridge
- Customer Case Study: Recycled Energy Development
- Partner Case Study: Arctic IT
- Customer Case Study: Staser Consulting Group
- Partner Case Study: SBS Pros
- Partner Case Study: Evolve Partners
- Partner Case Study: BEI
- Partner Case Study: ClearPointe
Offering Online Services Points to a Clear Win for ClearPointe
ClearPointe built its business on the remote management of client infrastructure. But many of the small to mid-sized business that ClearPointe serves were not taking advantage of newer messaging and collaboration technologies because of the high cost of building the infrastructure and licensing the software. When ClearPointe began to offer the Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft Online Services, it found an excited audience among its clients. Arkansas Physicians Management, Inc., seized the opportunity to move forward with an e-mail migration project that had been languishing for years. This expanded service provider role enables ClearPointe not only to deliver results much faster and with virtually no up-front costs, but also to achieve increased revenues and an expanded set of business relationships with existing and new clients alike.
Online Services Provide Strong Entry into New Markets for Conferencing Company
Concerned that the company might be typecast as a conferencing services provider only, executives at LINK Conference Service actively sought avenues to provide valuable new Unified Communications solutions to their clients. Extending company offerings, they believed, would not only add value to their existing customers; it would also open the door to new opportunities. LINK Conference Service quickly realized these anticipated results with the Microsoft® Business Productivity Online Suite. This new subscription-based service makes Microsoft Exchange Online, Office Live Meeting, Microsoft Office Communications Online, and Microsoft SharePoint® Online available for a low cost, monthly, per-user subscription fee. The ability to offer hosted enterprise-class software solutions that a small business does not have, and that larger organizations can use to streamline their communications and simplify their IT management has helped LINK Conference Service win new clients such as Datatune and support its existing customers more fully.
Online Services Help Software Firm Affordably Access Enterprise-Class E-mail
Based in Seattle, Washington, Datatune is a small business software development firm that serves information-driven companies. After 10 years of running Microsoft Exchange Server onsite, Datatune moved to Google Apps to cut costs. Productivity diminished as users struggled with navigating the unfamiliar interface and had difficulty managing their schedules without the calendaring features of Microsoft Outlook to which they were accustomed. A year later, when communications solutions provider LINK Conference Service presented the Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft Online Services, Datatune did not hesitate to sign up. With Microsoft Exchange Online and the familiar Outlook client software, Datatune gained an enterprise-class communications solution for a low monthly fee and without the expense or effort of maintaining an on-premise e-mail infrastructure.
Reducing IT Management Burden Creates Opportunities for New Strategic IT Initiatives
Many of the organizations with which the IT consultants from Virteva work have limited resources. As a consequence, these organizations feel they can barely maintain their existing IT environments at the levels they want. They certainly have no time to talk about whether their operations are running as efficiently as possible or how they might use other technologies to enable their organizations to accomplish even more. Virteva needed a way to help these organizations lessen the pain of running their IT environments. The Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft Online Services provides just that. By offloading the day-to-day IT management and infrastructure responsibilities to Microsoft Online Services, Virteva’s clients save money, gain unsurpassed support, and have time to work with Virteva on other IT opportunities that may provide more strategic benefits to their businesses.
Archiver’s had established 45 retail outlets across the United States in less than eight years. But with that expansion came growing pains. The company’s POP3-based e-mail system, which had worked well during the company’s early days, no longer suited the enterprise into which Archiver’s was evolving. At the same time, Archiver’s was not in a position to migrate to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, much as its executives wanted to. Archiver’s three-person IT team did not have the time or the resources to build or support an expensive on-premise infrastructure. Archiver’s turned to Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Virteva, which introduced them to the Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft Online Services. By subscribing to Microsoft Exchange Online, Archiver’s gained the enterprise-class features and services it needed without the cost of building—or the burden of managing—in-house infrastructure.
Realizing a Recurring Revenue Stream by Reselling Online Services
PointBridge specializes in connecting people to people and people to information with technologies such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Office Communications Server, as well as collaborative business intelligence technologies such as Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Office Performance Point Server. But PointBridge also understands that for a large number of organizations, the infrastructure and staffing requirements associated with collaborative technologies is beyond reach. By directing these customers to the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite, however, PointBridge has been able to offer the enterprise-class functionality these customers desire in an online form that eliminates the on-premise infrastructure requirements. For PointBridge, the results are happy customers and recurring revenue streams without associated cost of goods sold.
RED Saves Green Using Online Document Management Service
Each Recycled Energy Development (RED) project involves complex, multimillion-dollar contracts that need to be carefully negotiated, controlled, maintained, and audited. RED recognized that it needed a better way to manage these documents, but it could not afford to divert its financial or human resources to support a full-service in-house document management infrastructure. Microsoft® Gold Certified partner PointBridge came up with a better approach that used Microsoft SharePoint® Online, part of the Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft Online Services. Microsoft Online Services delivers the functionality RED needs without the upfront capital expense it wanted to avoid.
Online Services Create Ongoing Revenue Stream while Delivering Customer Value
Arctic Information Technology is a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner based in Anchorage, Alaska that offers end-to-end Microsoft business solutions to organizations in Alaska and throughout North America. Arctic IT recognized that many local organizations did not have the resources, infrastructure or staffing required to support on-premise collaborative technologies such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and Microsoft Exchange Server. This barrier dropped with the introduction of the Microsoft Online Services and the Business Productivity Online Suite, which enable Arctic IT to provide enterprise-class functionality in an online, subscription-based form that reduces or eliminates the need for an on-premise infrastructure. As a result, Arctic IT can deliver business value to its small and mid-sized business client companies, while gaining new customers and creating a new recurring revenue stream.
Online Collaboration Services Support Consulting Company’s Quantum Growth
Based in Anchorage, Alaska, the Staser Consulting Group (SCG) brings together an interdisciplinary team of experienced business intelligence professionals to help companies make better fact-based decisions. To handle a recent four-fold growth, SCG needed enterprise-class communication and collaboration software, but deploying an on-premise solution was not economically feasible, nor was it practical considering SCG’s virtual business model. As a knowledge-based company, SCG found the right solution when Arctic Information Technology—a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner—introduced the Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft® Online Services, which provides the capabilities SCG needs in an online, subscription-based service. This solution enables SCG’s highly dispersed team to work together effectively and have access to the latest documents and contact information.
Online Services Enables IT Consultant to Refocus on Higher Value Strategic Services
SBS Pros is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner based in Torrance, California that provides IT services to organizations across the United States—from the federal government to small and mid-sized businesses. Although SBS Pros offers a comprehensive portfolio of IT services, particularly in the area of security, it often found that it was spending more time helping clients administer and maintain core infrastructure than helping them overcome business challenges. With the introduction of Microsoft Online Services, SBS Pros can help its clients migrate their cumbersome in-house infrastructures to a cost-effective enterprise-class online service. This saves its clients money, strengthens its role as trusted advisor, and positions SBS Pros to more effectively help clients refocus on more strategic projects—which contribute more fully to SBS Pros’ bottom line.
Gaining a Comprehensive Messaging and Collaboration Solution to Meet Client Needs
Many of the small and mid-sized organizations that Evolve Partners supports wanted more than just e-mail—they wanted more complete collaboration solutions to accompany their e-mail infrastructure. However, Evolve could not find a service provider partner that could offer a more comprehensive enterprise-class messaging and collaboration solution to meet its client’s needs. Not until, that is, Microsoft Online Services began offering the Business Productivity Online Suite. This offering provides precisely the kinds of enterprise grade messaging and collaboration tools that Evolve Partners’ clients had been seeking—and all for a low monthly subscription fee. Microsoft Online Services is helping Evolve meet its client’s needs, opening doors to new business opportunities, and increasing its revenues.
Online Communications Solution Opens New Doors for IT Service Provider
Business Engineering, Inc. (BEI) has been designing, building and maintaining Microsoft® Windows Server®-based networks for clients in the Washington D.C. area for more than 20 years, but it knows that in-house infrastructures are not right for all organizations. BEI wanted a solution that would enable its clients to access to an enterprise-grade messaging and collaboration environment that they did not have to build and maintain in-house—and it found just the solution in the Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft Online Services. By reselling Microsoft Online Services, BEI can meet its clients’ need for enterprise-grade messaging and collaboration services, but requirements for in-house infrastructure and IT support resources are significantly reduced. It’s more cost-effective for BEI customers and it opens doors—and increases revenues—in ways that BEI could not before.
Gartner : Microsoft Collaboration Offering Ushers in New Era for SaaS
Gartner speaks highly of Microsoft Online Services …
Microsoft's multitenant software-as-a-service offering for Exchange, SharePoint and Office Communication Server provides a substantial new option for buying and consuming collaboration software.
Source : Gartner.com (subscription may be required)
December 03, 2008
Gartner: SaaS to grow in 90% of organizations
Gartner surveyed 258 IT managers in US and Europe and did find a strong demand for SaaS based solutions. Also some differences in SaaS investments in US compared to Europe :
Nine out of ten companies plan to grow their use of software-as-a-service (SaaS) in the next year, according to a survey by Gartner.
More than one third of respondents (37%) plan to replace on-premises software with SaaS to drive down total cost of ownership (TCO), Gartner found.
Those surveyed cited cost-effectiveness and ease of deployment as primary reasons for adoption. Other major drivers included replacing on-premises solutions that had not met performance expectation, or changes in sourcing strategy.
The survey involved eight major countries worldwide and 258 IT executives that make purchasing decisions of enterprise software. Most respondents were either currently using SaaS, or planned to use it within the next 12 months.
European firms trailed behind North American companies when it came to plans to increase investments in SaaS or subscription model products. But 49 percent of European respondents said that they expect new investments to increase slightly and 15 percent expect significant increases in investments. This compares to 62 percent and 15 percent respectively in North America. The US has been an early adopter of SaaS, with more than 20 percent of respondents indicating use for five years or longer and 60 percent having adopted it in the last three years.
Source : ITWorld
Binary Tree Marks the Migration of Over 75,000 Users from IBM Lotus Notes to the Microsoft Online
Very good example of how Microsoft Business Productivity Online Services kicks in and accelerates the migration of Lotus Notes mail to Exchange Online. 5 projects executed recently and 75000 users … these are large customers …
In The Netherlands Microsoft is organising a seminar specifically on the topic Lotus Notes / Domino to Microsoft Online migrations. The date is Feb 18th 2009 and more details in the coming week.
… Binary Tree, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, announced today the completion of its fifth project this year of migrating customers from internally-hosted IBM Lotus Notes messaging systems to Microsoft Exchange Online. Services provided by key Binary Tree services partners and Binary Tree's award-winning CMT(TM) suite of migration software enabled five multinational corporations to not only collectively migrate over 75,000 users from IBM Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange, and from an on-premises model to online hosting services, it also continues to enable these customers to continue to run their on-premises Lotus Notes applications seamlessly with Microsoft Exchange Online. This is a capability unique to Binary Tree software.
Microsoft Business Productivity Online Services is a set of messaging and collaboration solutions hosted by Microsoft, and consists of Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Live Meeting, and Office Communications Online. The five customers who Binary Tree helped to migrate to Microsoft Online include the world's largest beverage company, the world's largest chain of video rental stores, the world's largest producer of postage meters, the world's second-largest manufacturer of air conditioners and climate-control systems, and the world's third largest machine tools maker. …
Read on : Forbes.com
25 GB “USB” stick .. for free
Windows Live Skydrive, your “USB” stick in the cloud has been upgraded yesterday from 5 GB storage to 25 GB
Microsoft Generation 4 Datacenter Vision
As part of the overall Online Strategy, Microsoft is expanding its global datacenter facilities globally.
Building large datacenters is not only path Microsoft is taking. Modular datacenter also form an important part of the strategy. Check out this video to get an idea of the concept :
If you are in any way interested in Microsoft’s strategy with regards to datacenters, please check out the weblog of Michael Manos.
Michael is General Manager for Global Foundation Services, basicly the entity repsponsible for the strategy, implementation eand operations of Microsoft’s Global Datacenter Infrastructure.
Michael wrote a blogpost (or better article) on the Modular datacenter strategy That’s very interesting :
Data Centers are a hot topic these days. No matter where you look, this once obscure aspect of infrastructure is getting a lot of attention. For years, there have been cost pressures on IT operations and this, when the need for modern capacity is greater than ever, has thrust data centers into the spotlight. Server and rack density continues to rise, placing DC professionals and businesses in tighter and tougher situations while they struggle to manage their IT environments. And now hyper-scale cloud infrastructure is taking traditional technologies to limits never explored before and focusing the imagination of the IT industry on new possibilities.
At Microsoft, we have focused a lot of thought and research around how to best operate and maintain our global infrastructure and we want to share those learnings. While obviously there are some aspects that we keep to ourselves, we have shared how we operate facilities daily, our technologies and methodologies, and, most importantly, how we monitor and manage our facilities. Whether it’s speaking at industry events, inviting customers to our “Microsoft data center conferences” held in our data centers, or through other media like blogging and white papers, we believe sharing best practices is paramount and will drive the industry forward. So in that vein, we have some interesting news to share.
Read on : Michael Manos’ blog
And if you still haven’t had enough, check out this interview with Michael on TechEd Online : Datacenter Leadership
