Microsoft's Private Cloud Scramble
Did you notice all the talk at PDC about private clouds? Microsoft did not discuss a private cloud solution per se but the concept was referenced again and again, which to me indicates that the company is headed in that direction – and fast.
Silence is golden at Microsoft. For years, none of the official talking heads uttered "service-oriented architecture," it was all about Web services. The "SOA" ban has apparently been lifted. "Apple" may still be on the forbidden list – at least at Microsoft Germany press events.
Yes, we've heard rumblings about enhancements to Windows Server and System Center, and the Dynamic Data Center Toolkit for Enterprises, expected in the first half of 2010, but the arm waving isn't all that convincing.
Project Sydney announced at PDC by Bob Muglia will enable companies to tunnel back to internal data centers from Windows Azure over secure connections. But is there code?
"[O]ur focus is to make it as easy as possible for you to connect the applications that you're running within your own environment – because you're going to keep doing that for many years – with new applications and applications and parts of applications that you run in the public cloud environment, and this is just one of the ways we're doing that," said Muglia during the conference keynote.
On Tuesday, the company announced a new three-year partnership with NetApp, a specialist in storage for virtual environments. NetApp sells SnapManager for Hyper-V and a Management Pack for System Center.
Lee Gates, NetApp's senior manager of Microsoft Solutions Engineering, blogged:
"Since last summer, NetApp, a charter member of Microsoft’s Dynamic Data Center Alliance, has been working closely with the Microsoft Windows Solution Accelerator Team as they develop the Microsoft Dynamic Data Center Toolkit for Enterprises (aka DDTK-E; availability scheduled in the first half of 2010). The DDTK-E is a free, partner-extensible toolkit that provides a framework for creating agile, virtualized IT infrastructures. IT teams can leverage the toolkit with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and SCVMM 2008 along with partner extensions to plan, operate and deliver the foundation for a private cloud."
Microsoft needs to come up with a solution for enterprise customers, explain how it fits with Windows Azure, and fast. As Stephen Swoyer reports in his article, 2010 a Boom Year for Cloud Computing?:
"There's a kind of stratification between cloud adopters, according to Aberdeen. Enterprise-class shops tend to pursue cloud computing as a consequence of existing investments in virtualization and, to a lesser extent, green IT. In this sense, cloud computing could even be described as a logical continuation of extant virtualization or energy-efficiency efforts.
One upshot of this is that enterprise IT organizations, more so than IT practices in small- and midsize (SMB) shops, have a disproportionate interest in private clouds. More than half (56 percent) of enterprise IT organizations are building their own private cloud-based infrastructures, according to Aberdeen; less than one-fifth (20 percent) of SMB shops are doing as much."
Will Azure technology trickle down to private clouds? Will enterprise customers look elsewhere if Microsoft doesn't offer a clear strategy in the first half of 2010? Express your thoughts below or drop me a line at krichards@1105media.com
Posted by Kathleen Richards on 12/10/2009 at 5:10 PM