Microsoft loves to flirt with open source -- it just won't commit. Its latest move solidifies an agreement to port Hyper-V to OpenNebula, an open source cloud project aimed at service providers.
This may not be entirely altruistic: Citrix and VMware are already firmly in the OpenNebula camp. At any rate, expect some early code this month.
How would you advise Microsoft on open source? You tell me and I'll share as long as you write me at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/11/2011 at 12:47 PM5 comments
A lot of companies have tried to compete with Microsoft and failed -- Lotus, WordPerfect, Netscape and Novell all come to mind.
When Microsoft announced Hyper-V, I expected VMware to suffer the same fate. The opposite has happened -- VMware keeps getting stronger and stronger.
Already the dominant force in server virtualization, the company is now aiming for the cloud. This is a natural move as cloud services tend to run on virtualized infrastructures.
The company is nearing the billion-dollar mark and is growing fast -- sales in the second quarter increased by 37 percent over the same quarter a year ago. And the number of cloud service providers working with VMware is now more than 2,500. Not too shabby.
VMware officials see a strong movement of IT shops taking their virtual infrastructures and transforming them into private clouds using vCloud Director. Once in place, IT can connect with external public clouds for additional capacity.
VMware is also edging its way into software development with its Cloud Foundry open source tool.
What are your thoughts on VMware as a cloud player? Let me know at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/04/2011 at 12:47 PM11 comments
When Windows 8 ships in the next year or two, you'll be able use Windows Live for single sign-on roaming.
Windows Live is already in use to connect to SkyDrive and Office Web Apps. It also gives MSDN and TechNet subscribers a master password that offers access to an array of Microsoft sites.
Windows Live can store your Windows settings, allowing you to log on with a variety of devices and have the same user experience and data.
One scenario is where you have a work computer and a home machine. You can stop what you are doing at work, and when you get home finish your work -- Windows Live essentially saves your place for you.
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/04/2011 at 12:47 PM0 comments
Good news for cloud customers and regular, old Web surfers: New Net neutrality rules have been approved and kick into gear in less than two months. Under the rules, network providers have to disclose how their networks operate, and can't discriminate against users or block legal traffic.
This is great news. If service providers were given free reign to slow down or block traffic, or change prices based on network use, the whole cloud industry is put in jeopardy.
What is your take on Net neutrality? You tell me at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/27/2011 at 12:47 PM5 comments
Microsoft has said it's "all in" with the cloud, and that means being all in with Azure. At the recent Build show, Microsoft spoke in a lot of generalities, but also laid out a fair share of specifics. On the general side, Server & Tools Business President Satya Nadella talked about the need for "a rich portfolio of storage across blobs, tables and full relational capabilities to handle the complexity of data [with] Windows Azure."
I've been reading the views of many cloud gurus and it seems that storage is perhaps the biggest impediment to cloud success. Let's hope the software and hardware together can build inexpensive, fast and reliable storage solutions for the cloud.
Microsoft also has a model for selling applications or places to store your data. The Windows Azure Marketplace already has hundreds of apps and services and will soon be available in 25 more countries.
Microsoft may want to dominate the cloud, but it also recognizes it must play nice if it is to have any chance at all. That means interfacing with services such as Yahoo, Facebook and (gasp!) even Google. Windows 8 will play a role because it's designed to access these services all with a single sign-on.
And Windows 8 developers can get started right away with the new Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows 8. Yup, that's that actual name, with Windows repeated twice! There's also a more generalized kit: the Windows Azure SDK 1.5 with an enhanced certificate upload process.
Have you played with Azure? Share your thoughts and experiences at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/27/2011 at 12:47 PM2 comments
OpenStack, an open source cloud operating system, has one major commercial backer: Rackspace. Rackspace, through its Rackspace Cloud Builders initiative, wants you to embrace the open side of the cloud.
Bruce Hoard, the top editor at Virtualization Review, talked to Rackspace's Jim Curry about the company's support of OpenStack and where the project stands.
OpenStack was started by NASA and Rackspace and is now being adopted by an array of people and organizations that build new functions on top of the OpenStack core. OpenStack is now on its fourth major iteration, dubbed "Diablo."
Curry is understandably bullish on OpenStack. Of course, he's paid to be. Curry believes that Rackspace, as well as Amazon, has the scale to support large cloud projects today. That's where Cloud Builders comes in. This is a RackSpace group specifically aimed at helping enterprises build or buy and support OpenStack-based apps. One of the key initiatives is Storage as a Service, which has been working for about a year and a half.
Right now, most Cloud Builders customers are in beta, and the company is still working out pricing details for its services, primarily support.
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/27/2011 at 12:47 PM4 comments
It is still probably a year or two away, but that didn't stop Microsoft from promoting Windows Server 8 at the recent Build show.
While details were not as forthcoming as they were with the Windows 8 client, Microsoft did whet our server whistle just a bit. It seems every Microsoft presentation has to be peppered liberally with the word "cloud" these days, and Windows Server 8 was no exception. The company claims the new server OS is thoroughly "cloud-optimized" and, through the support of large clusters, can support large and scalable cloud services. And to improve uptime, Microsoft is enhancing Live Migration so there is no interruption when a virtual hard drive is moved from one machine to another.
Microsoft is also looking to lower the cost of storage by turning Just a Bunch of Disks (JBOD) into a unified cloudy storage pool.
Are you jonesin' for Windows Server 8? If so, what would like to see in it? Advice welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/27/2011 at 12:47 PM6 comments
It seems that every other day, there is another major Web services outage. The latest victim is Microsoft, which recently saw a bunch of e-mail services go down, including Hotmail, Office365, SkyDrive and more. Most of the problems were in Europe or Asia, but they spilled over to North America, as well.
It only took hours to get most services back up, but it took a number of days for Microsoft to explain itself. It turns out a DNS error was the culprit. Most of the downed services were not enterprise-class and clearly not mission-critical.
Nonetheless, outages like this put the scare in IT. While most users were down for a few hours, I heard from one customer who claims he was down for five days. That could be out-of-business time. One IT pro, a Live@EDU customer, had two outages just days apart. Still, it is nice to see that Microsoft explained what happened, just as Amazon did with its two more recent outages.
Do you trust the cloud? What steps can you take to make sure you don't suffer when it goes down? Best advice welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/13/2011 at 12:47 PM9 comments
Many high-profile execs have called for the death of the PC, most notably Larry Ellison and Scott McNealy. More recently, Google has been pushing Web-based devices as PC replacements. Meanwhile, the vast majority of computer users still pound away on PCs or Macs.
Now, though, VMware CEO Paul Maritz, once a Microsoft bigwig, says the days of the PC are numbered. Maritz also made a bold prediction: that in five years, less than a fifth of users will be on Windows.
VMware hopes to help fulfill that prophecy by supplying software that moves data and apps to the cloud, allowing for a range on non-Windows devices to handle the client duties. In a speech at the recent VMworld show, Maritz argued that much of the groundwork has already been laid. Virtualization drives half of today's computing infrastructure, which makes it that much easier to take the next step to the cloud.
Is Maritz blowing smoke, or is he really onto something? Your answers welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/13/2011 at 12:47 PM9 comments
Do you consider Microsoft to be a cloud thought leader? If so, you may want to hear what it has to say about where its cloud technologies are going.
The Microsoft cloud portfolio is designed to support hybrid clouds, which combine private and public clouds into one working unified system. The relatively new head of the Microsoft Server and Tools division, Satya Nadella, laid out the strategy in a recent investor speech. As when Microsoft went "all in" with the Internet well over a decade ago, it is now "all in" with the cloud.
The cloud is a work in progress for Microsoft, but the long-run plan is a complete portfolio that lets you build any kind of cloud. But the notion of easily building a mixed private and public cloud is, at least for now, the Holy Grail of cloud computing. "Our job number one from a Server and Tools Business is to make sure that we have the core operating system and data tiers available across public and private cloud," Nadella said.
At its simplest level, Microsoft Azure underpins the public cloud, while Windows System Center and Windows Server drive the private side. Nadella thinks Microsoft has a huge advantage since a lot this software is already in nearly every shop. Does Microsoft's installed base give it a leg up in the cloud space? You tell me at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/13/2011 at 12:47 PM0 comments
If one patent defines the future of Windows, then after Windows 8 we'll see Windows become a true cloud-ready OS.
The recently unearthed Microsoft patent describes how an OS can boot from the cloud to a remote computing device, whatever it may be, and the storage streams back and forth from the 'Net. The theory is you can have a laptop, tablet or what have you that is purely dumb until it connects. Then it boots remotely and starts to work. Not entirely original and perhaps not patent-worthy, but it may indicate Redmond's direction moving forward.
I believe that for decades to come, Microsoft will sell operating systems that come with your phone, PC or whatever.
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/06/2011 at 12:47 PM6 comments
Redmond magazine columnist Don Jones has a knack for cutting to the chase. He recently turned his attention to the cloud, where he sees some important lessons from a few of Google's recent moves. It seems that Google launches, beta tests and hypes cloud services that it ultimately kills.
One service I'm glad died is Google Health, where Google stores our medical records. I wouldn't trust Google with my dental records. Google claimed it was all safe, but this is the same company that drives down private roads, photographs our homes and sniffs our Wi-Fi.
And many of Google's products are forever in beta. The issue is, should you trust a product that may be killed or never it make out of beta? How does one make long-term business decisions about cloud services? As Jones asks, "Whom can you trust?"
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/06/2011 at 12:47 PM3 comments