Microsoft's Services Platform Takes Shape

Bob Muglia, Microsoft's Server and Tools senior vice president, broke the news during the second keynote of Microsoft's "Get Virtual Now" day. Microsoft will reveal significantly more details about the next-generation services platform during its Professional Developers Conference late in October.

Microsoft has been hinting at the new services platform for about 18 months. Virtualization and modeling will be part of that platform, Bob said.

The services platform intertwines with the virtualization strategy. Today's keynote foreshadowed a surprisingly clear services strategy, in which virtualization enables more manageable mobile computing scenarios and provides the infrastructure for cloud computing.

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My initial reaction: The empire strikes back, and Web 2.0 platform companies should be concerned. Years ago, when working as an analyst, I strongly encouraged Microsoft to worry less about declining desktop PC relevance and focus more where relevance is shifting—to the server and the mobile device. Microsoft is doing just that and more.

I get the vision, now I'll try to explain it. Perhaps the best place to start is Microsoft's new mission statement, as articulated today by CTO Kevin Turner: "Create experiences that combine the magic of software with the power of Internet services across a world of devices."

That's a wonderfully succinct and aptly stated mission statement for the increasingly connected world. I'll start by spinning outward from virtualization.

Speed of Light Limitations
There's something strangely appropriate about the somewhat hyper Bob Muglia talking about Hyper-V, Microsoft's new virtualization hypervisor. "We live in a connected world," he told conference attendees. "In this connected world, physical location still matters. Why? We can't overcome the speed of light."

Virtualization won't defy physics, but it can allow enterprises to consolidate processes and distribute them more dynamically. "Virtualization isn't just about the desktop," Bob said. He predicted that all information would eventually be virtualized. That's a bold prediction.

Microsoft envisions virtualization better enabling what Bob called "user-centric computing." Microsoft sees virtualization as one means of solving logistical IT problems created by mobile computing. Bob laid out a vision where virtualization could provide applications from corporate servers to PCs or even PDAs and cell phones.

He's got the right idea. The way I see it, the proliferation of mobile PCs and other devices offers many benefits, such as being able to work from anywhere at any time. But increased mobility creates two fundamental IT problems:

• Too much information leaves the corporate confines, creating potential privacy, regulatory and security problems; and
• Distributed mobiles demand more management resources.

Kevin Turner emphasized the importance of "connecting the digital lifestyle and the digital workstyle." He's absolutely right. There is tremendous overlap between the two lifestyles, and often with designations changing based on context rather than location.

Microsoft is aiming to bridge these two lifestyles, and cloud computing is one means.

The Virtualization Cloud
At one point, Gartner analyst Tom Bittman took the keynote stage to describe how virtualization is changing technology architectures, processes, cultures and IT markets.

"We believe that virtualization really unlocks cloud computing," Tom asserted. "What the cloud is delivering are virtualized services." He said virtualization is the "future" of cloud computing.

Source: Microsoft

The Gartner analyst described a transformation from component orientation to layer orientation to—through virtualization—automated service orientation.

Similarly, Bob described virtualization as a "core enabler" of cloud services, whether on-premises or hosted elsewhere. He called virtualization "absolutely critical" for delivering cloud services.

Bob demonstrated a new feature—Hyper-V Live Migration—coming in Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V. He showed a video streaming from a virtual machine being moved to a new location in real time, with no dropped frames. This exactly the kind of capability cloud services providers will need to deliver over the Internet to provide what enterprises expect from the corporate networks.

"The cloud is a very next step in the evolution of the data center"—and for virtualization, Bob said.

A Vision Emerges
But it's not enough. "Virtualization plays a key role, but you need a complete platform," Bob said. "Virtualization has a foundational role, but it's only one part." To build "next-generation services applications," developers need computing and storage services as a foundation and, on top of that, communications, identity and workflow services, among others.

"We think a very [important] part of this is modeling and modeling technology," Bob said. From the Microsoft slide above you can see that modeling is the top layer beneath the actual delivered services. The image is a snapshot of a slide Bob presented during his keynote.

At PDC, "Microsoft will be talking much more in detail about our services platform and about how all these components fit together. You'll see that in Los Angeles," Bob said.

The company plans to spend $8 billion in research and development during fiscal 2009, with the Enterprise and Software and Services categories getting the largest investment. Microsoft also will invest in the Desktop and Entertainment and Devices categories. The two areas of greatest investment synergistically share services in common.

[Please send your tips or rumors to watchtips at live.com]

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• Around the World in Less Than 180 Days, Microsoft Watch, June 26, 2008
• Microsoft Gets Hyper-V over RC, Microsoft Watch, March 19, 2008
• Server Launch: Too Many Missing Pieces, Microsoft Watch, Feb. 27, 2008
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