Microsoft Opens WPC With Major Cloud Announcements

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Paul Thurrott

Windows IT Pro

InstantDoc ID #125589

Microsoft this week is hosting its annual Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in Washington D.C., and (as has been the case in recent years) the company is using it as a forum for a surprisingly diverse set of announcements. Key among these was the software giant's continued commitment to transitioning to a cloud computing superpower.

"We are at an inflection point in technology history," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said at the show. "For customers, cloud computing creates tremendous value, which translates to massive opportunity for Microsoft and its partners. As in past technology transitions, Microsoft will help partners embrace the industry's transformation to realize their opportunity and continue to be economic drivers for their local community."

Microsoft announced the Windows Azure platform appliance, which it describes as the first "turn-key cloud services platform," and one that is already in use by companies such as Dell, Fujitsu, and HP. The broader Windows Azure platform allows customers to deploy "clouds," or datacenter-based computing resources, on demand, lowering costs during downtime and expanding capabilities seamlessly during need. These clouds are typically hosted off-site, but those based on the Windows Azure platform appliance can be hosted on-premise, within a corporation's own datacenters. Microsoft calls these private clouds.

Microsoft also announced the Release Candidate (RC) version of the System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self Service Portal 2.0, which will allow customers to dynamically pool, allocate, and manage virtualized resources (based on Hyper-V) to enable Infrastructure-as-a-Service. This is another key piece of the company's private cloud initiative.

Microsoft also announced the public beta release of Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. This update doesn't offer any new functionality on the client, but is a major release on Server, with two major new features, Dynamic Memory for Hyper-V and RemoteFX. Microsoft didn't announce a final release date, but SP1 is now expected to ship in early 2011 after being delayed. (SP1 Beta 1 was originally going to ship at TechEd last month, I'm told.)

There's a lot more going on at WPC this week, of course. I'll have additional reporting starting today on the SuperSite for Windows.

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Add a Comment

iKlimecki, you're a classic user who *thinks* he knows IT. Tell me how an IT unit is going to manage these devices? What happens if it gets stolen? Encryption? Remote wipe?

Some of these things are possible, but only as THE USER, which is a nightmare for IT administrators. Something you haven't a clue about.

*Is the device promising? Yes.

*Have they worked with industry leaders such as Microsoft (probably curdles your blood, doesn't it?) and Cisco? Check and check, as it has secure VPN and Exchange connection abilities.

*Do they have any way whatsoever to manage all of these fancy little devices? For example, is there a way to get a common base profile that sets up these devices as they come in so that IT can protect their investment and ensure the security of the files stored on this device? NO.

I state again, this thing has promise, and I welcome the technology. It is not enterprise-ready in my opinion until they have some way of managing the iPad outside of the iPhone configuration utility and (heaven help us) iTunes.

Huge enterprise problems, but you likely hadn't thought of that in your little iSilo.

fanboys suck7/15/2010 4:05:36 PM

@S:

Yeah Microsoft really out-innovated Google in the mobile space with it's awesome Winmob 6.5 handing Android it's A$.

Klimecki7/15/2010 3:26:42 AM

In the meantime google's cloud strategy (app engine) is 10 years behind and has little, if any paying customers. MS continues to out innovate goodle in yet another market. and who is the cloud based company? maybe google should call it wave or buzz to join it's other failed products.

S7/14/2010 5:49:56 PM

Hey Sucker

You just don't get it do you? You need to stop thinking 'old school'.

Klimecki7/14/2010 2:57:34 PM

@iKlimecki

You're correct, it is in the enterprise. It is NOWHERE near enterprise ready, though. I doubt you understand the difference.

How do you get apps on it?
How do you configure it?
How do you update it?
How do you get ANYTHING file-related on it?

It's a promising device, but in this iteration, it's a support nightmare.

But you likely haven't thought about that side of it, so I'm pretty sure you'll come back with something

fanboys suck7/14/2010 2:14:26 PM

@sucker:
The iPad is already in the enterprise. Sorry.

Klimecki7/14/2010 12:05:25 PM

The iPad is nowhere near enterprise ready. At all.

@Gordon: don't waste your time arguing with iKlimecki. You'll just get a headache.

fanboys suck7/14/2010 10:26:02 AM

@Gordon:
"Perhaps if thought of Microsoft as an orange and Apple as well, an apple this would help you see the reality of things"

Me see the reality of things? The quote above looks like English but what the hell are you smoking?

Or are you using a netbook?

Klimecki7/13/2010 4:48:36 PM

@Gordon:
Apple writes popular software for the PC too. It's called iTunes. Heard of it?

Klimecki7/13/2010 4:29:12 PM

@Gordon:

That would be the technology field.

Klimecki7/13/2010 4:27:13 PM

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