Beyond Binary

At a key supercomputing conference on Monday, Microsoft released a test version of its Excel spreadsheet redesigned to run on powerful clusters of servers.

By engineering Excel to run better on such clusters Microsoft said that customers are seeing spreadsheets that normally would take weeks to calculate now run in a few hours.

The software maker also released a beta version of Windows HPC Server 2008 R2--the latest version of Windows Server designed to run in high-performance compute clusters. The announcements were made at the SC09 conference in Portland, Ore.

Microsoft has taken the standard version of Excel 2010 and combined it with new Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 technology, allowing Excel to run on the cluster. The final version of Excel compute cluster and Win HPC Server 2008 R2 is expected to be ready in summer 2010. The capability has been in development for about 18 months.

The announcements are the latest in Microsoft's push over the last few years to better compete against Linux in the market for compute clusters--high-performance systems built by linking together large numbers of standard servers. Last year, for example, Microsoft managed to crack the upper echelons of the supercomputing ranks, landing in the top 25 rankings for the first time.

Microsoft also said the next version of its developer tools--Visual Studio 2010--will help ease the task of writing software that can run efficiently on such systems.

"Until now, the power of high-performance and parallel computing has largely been available to a limited subset of customers due to the complexity of environments and applications, as well as the challenges of parallel programming," Microsoft senior director Vince Mendillo said in a statement.

As for the new version of HPC Server, Microsoft said it offers the ability out-of-the-box to support clusters of up to 1,000 nodes as well as diskless boot and improved management and diagnostics abilities.

SAN FRANCISCO--Microsoft trotted out some of its biggest customers on Tuesday to make its case that it still makes sense to spend money on software in a tough economy.

The gathering of invited corporate IT users here is designed to serve as the beginning of the business push for Windows 7, which is already available to larger businesses and goes on sale to consumers and small businesses on October 22.

A panel of Microsoft executives and customers talked about the pending launch of Windows 7 at an event in San Francisco on Tuesday.

(Credit: CNET News)

Among those already trying out Windows 7 is Intel. The chipmaker did a lot of work to make Windows Vista work, but like many companies, it decided not to put it on its own desktops.

By contrast, Intel is adopting Windows 7 rather quickly. Already about 500 employees from throughout the company are testing the software, said CIO Diane Bryant. Of those workers, 97 percent said they would recommend the operating system.

"It's a very strong pull," Bryant said.

Although a good business case can be made for upgrading our machines, it can still be a tough sell, said IDC analyst Al Gillen.

CEO Steve Ballmer presided over an event that was, effectively, the business launch of Windows 7.

(Credit: CNET)

"The problem is it costs money to save money," Gillen said.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who earlier Tuesday sent out an e-mail to customers arguing for "the new efficiency" driven by software, is slated to speak shortly at the event being held at the at the University of California, San Francisco's Mission Bay campus.

Update 9:55 a.m.: The panel has wrapped up and Ballmer has taken the stage. So far, we're hearing familiar talk about doing more with less and his case that technology is at the early stage of its influence on business.

10 a.m.: Ballmer starts his pitch for Windows 7.

Ballmer said his hope is that, once the new operating system hits the market, that individual workers will be going to businesses asking them to put Windows 7 on their corporate computers. "I think we are going to see a lot of that kind of demand," Ballmer said.

But, he acknowledged that alone won't sway businesses. "Even with that swell of interest, you are still going to have to confront the new efficiency."

There, he said, it will come down to whether Windows 7 really can make business workers more productive, something he clearly believes it can.

10:20 a.m. Ballmer has switched into the full-on sales pitch, highlighting the cost savings that can be achieved. Customers can expect to save $90 to $160 in costs each year per computer that they move onto Windows 7, largely from lower support and management costs. (It wasn't clear if this was as compared to a PC running XP or one running Windows Vista.)

Windows 7 can also make it cheaper to deploy new software, though Ballmer acknowledged that skeptics will point out the cheapest thing is just not to deploy new software at all. "I got that," Ballmer said.

Still, he said, it's a "very good place in the product cycle" to embrace Windows 7," Ballmer said, noting that businesses that move now would be early adopters, but not the first companies to do so, pointing to a list that included Ford, Fiat, BMW, Bombardier, Continental Airlines, Intel, Halliburton and Starwood.

Ballmer said he expects most companies will start moving to Windows 7 as they add new PCs, but won't do large-scale upgrades of existing machines and probably won't rush out to replace all their PCs either.

10:30 a.m.: On to questions and answers. Microsoft starts with a few written ones that came in over the Internet. First off: No, Ballmer is not free for golf next Monday--he'll be in London.

10:32 a.m.: Well, he took a couple more written questions but no live questions from the audience before the event wrapped up.

Microsoft dropped a mini-bombshell on Monday, announcing that it is contributing thousands of lines of code for inclusion in Linux.

But lest anyone think Microsoft suffered a massive head trauma over the weekend, the code it is releasing isn't really about helping Linux compete better with Microsoft. The drivers are really geared at making Windows a better host for Linux.

"The Linux device drivers we are releasing are designed so Linux can run in enlightened mode, giving it the same optimized synthetic devices as a Windows virtual machine running on top of Hyper-V," Tom Hanrahan, director of Microsoft's Open Source Technology Center, said in a statement. "Without this driver code, Linux can run on top of Windows, but without the same high performance levels."

As noted by CNET Blog Network writer Matt Asay, Microsoft is releasing three drivers for Linux under the GPL that governs Linux.

Although Microsoft has released open-source code in the past, the company has generally favored licenses other than the GPL. That said, the GPL is the way into the Linux kernel and Microsoft wants this code in Linux.

In an article on its press Web site, Microsoft acknowledged the departure. The company has also been going after Linux for years, both on the marketing and legal fronts.

"Today, in a break from the ordinary, Microsoft released 20,000 lines of device driver code to the Linux community," Microsoft said. "The code, which includes three Linux device drivers, has been submitted to the Linux kernel community for inclusion in the Linux tree."

The move comes at a time of mixed signals from Redmond when it comes to Linux. Microsoft has said that the browser-based versions of Office, which are due out next year as part of Office 2010, will support Firefox, bringing at least a portion of Office to Linux for the first time.

It has also made peace with a number of Linux companies, most notably a 2006 pact with Novell, but has continued to rattle its legal saber at those with whom it has not struck patent deals.

After years of making claims that many Linux implementations violate Microsoft patents, Microsoft finally took a case to court in February, filing suit against navigation systems maker TomTom.

The two sides later settled, but the settlement left many unanswered questions and Microsoft hasn't said if it will take similar action against other companies.

Although the latest move is clearly designed to bolster Windows as a hosting environment for servers running both Linux and Windows, to me there is something slightly discordant about adding code to something you feel is already infringing on your intellectual property. Perhaps, though, that's just the very definition of co-opetition.

Microsoft is in an interesting position--seeking to compete with Linux while also understanding that many companies run both operating systems. Not only is it about making its business customers happy, but there is good money to be made by owning the management and virtualization layers, even if there is some Linux running atop Microsoft's stack.

For those that want to hear Microsoft's take on the news, here's a video of Hanrahan discussing the move with Sam Ramji, the company's senior director of platform strategy. (Note: Silverlight is required.)

One of the limiting factors for Windows Azure--Microsoft's operating system for the cloud--is that it only runs in Microsoft's data centers.

Some have wondered why Microsoft doesn't just package it up and offer it as something that businesses or hosters can run in their own data centers.

Server and Tools head Bob Muglia on Tuesday announced pricing and other details for Windows Azure, Microsoft's cloud-based operating system.

(Credit: CNET News)

Server and Tools boss Bob Muglia said in an interview Tuesday that Windows Server will start to take on attributes of Azure, but said there are good reasons why Azure doesn't make sense as a standalone product.

The main reason, Muglia said, is that it isn't built to offer choice. Because Microsoft knows exactly the hardware that will run on Azure, it hasn't built it to support different kinds of hardware or software.

"Windows Azure obviously runs in our own data center," Muglia said. "It is very much restricted. It only needs to run the hardware that we are trying to run on. It's not really appropriate for us to deliver it to customers in that form."

Businesses and hosters will want to offer their own clouds he said, and Microsoft will have tools for them, but Azure isn't their answer. Instead, he said, Windows Server, System Center, and Virtual Machine Manager will get a lot better at operating in a cloud-based environment, while still offering customers lots more choice.

"We will be taking our Virtual Machine Manager product and evolve it over time to much more straightforwardly allow customers to build their own private cloud," Muglia said.

Just because they will remain separate products, though, doesn't mean there won't be overlap between the Azure and Windows Server teams, he said. He noted that Windows Server 2008 R2, the version of Windows 7 for the server, has the ability to boot from a virtual hard drive--a feature developed by the Windows Azure team. Conversely, Azure supports applications written in PHP, a feature that it was able to offer because of work the Windows Server team had done in its last release.

Both Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Azure are set for release in the coming months. Microsoft announced Azure pricing on Tuesday and said it will launch commercially at Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference in November. Meanwhile, Windows Server 2008 R2 is set to be available to volume license customers September 1, the same time as Windows 7.

As for Azure, rival Salesforce.com had some hard words on Tuesday.

"When Microsoft, the company that has the most to lose from cloud computing, enters the market, you know that 'The End of Software' has arrived," Salesforce.com VP of strategy Bruce Francis said in an e-mail. "However, instead of solving the problems of the cost and complexity of client server, Microsoft is just moving those problems to the cloud. We believe that Azure will do for cloud computing what the Zune has done for media players."

But Muglia said that Azure is actually leading the way by allowing companies a way to move to the cloud that doesn't make them create whole new ways of writing software.

"There are many millions of customers today that are running very business critical applications today in the server environment," Muglia said. "We are focused on providing those customers with a smooth easy on-ramp into the cloud where they can leverage their skills and get the scale-out benefits the cloud will provide."

At last year's WinHEC event, Microsoft Vice President Bill Laing talks about Windows Server 2008 R2, dwarfed by servers from Hewlett-Packard and IBM.

(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET)

Microsoft said that the next version of its SQL Server database, to be called SQL Server 2008 R2, will work with up to 256 logical processors as well as add a set of business intelligence capabilities previously known as Kilimanjaro.

The software maker had previously described Kilimanjaro as an add-on to SQL Server 2008, but not a new version. In an interview, though, Microsoft's Robert Wahbe said Kilimanjaro will indeed be a new version of the product, though it will share the same code base as SQL Server 2008.

"It is new capabilities but it is also a new release," Wahbe said. "We haven't been changing the core. That's the reason we named it R2."

The move to support 256 processors in SQL Server coincides with a similar move that Microsoft had already made on the Windows Server side, with Windows Server 2008 R2.

As for Windows Server 2008 R2--the server version of Windows 7--Microsoft said that it will be finalized later this year, coincident to Windows 7 on the desktop side. At this week's TechEd event in Los Angeles, Microsoft is also showing several new features of the product.

That's a far cry from several past releases in which Microsoft was cutting features to try to meet shipping deadlines, said Microsoft's Ward Ralston.

"It's generally a conversation of what ended up on the cutting-room floor," Ralston said. Instead, Microsoft is actually discussing a few additional capabilities that it will include in Windows Server 2008 R2. Microsoft had originally said that its Hyper-V virtualization layer would support 32 logical processors; instead, Microsoft said it will support 64 chips.

Another addition is the ability to create clusters that mix different flavors of chips. In the past, clusters had to use the same revision of chip, while with Windows Server 2008 R2, clusters can be made up of machines using different Intel or different AMD chips, though they still can't combine the two brands.

"Now they can look to reuse some of that potentially couple-years-old hardware," Ralston said.

SAN FRANCISCO--The server market is rough these days and the tough times are having a variety of repercussions.

One of those impacts, says Windows Server Vice President Bill Laing, is the reported deal in the works between IBM and Sun Microsystems.

Laing

(Credit: Microsoft)

"It's not surprising," Laing said, as part of a wide-ranging interview on Friday. "I think the economy has accelerated this," he said, pointing to other deals, such as this week's acquisition of SGI's assets by Rackable Systems.

"The server business has certainly been struggling really the last six months," Laing said. "I've seen decline across the board."

For the Windows Server business, Laing noted the acquisition of Sun would mean the loss of a partner, as both have Windows Server options in their lineup. (It would also mean the loss of a standalone rival, as both IBM and Sun focus a whole lot more on their respective non-Windows servers.)

Laing said that there could be an opportunity for Microsoft as the two companies work to integrate their products. "It looks like a complicated set of overlapping products."

As for Sun, Laing noted it is a company that plays in many parts of the tech industry, from storage to servers to chips to Java.

"Their presence in the industry was bigger than their revenue," Laing said.

As for Microsoft, Laing said it, too, is taking a hit in the server business, particularly when it comes to sales of new hardware.

"We're certainly seeing new server units decline," Laing said.

The ultra-high-end and ultra-low-end of the markets are growth areas for Microsoft, however. He noted that Microsoft just this week added a new version of Windows Server for low-cost servers, boxes costing as little as several hundred dollars.

Windows Server 2008 Foundation has all of the features of the standard server product, but is limited to single processor machines with 15 or fewer users.

"We actually did that pretty fast for a Microsoft product," Laing said, noting that the product had its genesis in an e-mail he sent in September asking if Microsoft needed a product specifically aimed at emerging markets.

"People came back with clippings from Japanese newspapers with servers that were $299," Laing said. "I started realizing it was more than just emerging markets."

By talking to Microsoft's many subsidiaries, Laing said the company realized the need for a lower-cost product was a global one. "The economic environment made it even more important."

Overall, Laing said the company is faring well competitively against Linux despite the obvious appeal the operating system has with its free up-front cost.

"Relative to Linux we are holding our own," he said. "It will be interesting to see through these economic times."

For more from Laing, here's a quick video I shot at the end of our chat on Friday as well as the story I posted earlier Friday with Laing noting that Microsoft plans to ship the server version of Windows 7--Windows Server 2008 R2--this calendar year.

SAN FRANCISCO--Windows Server boss Bill Laing said in an interview Friday that the server version of Windows 7 will ship this calendar year.

Using a little bit of deduction, I'd say that means Windows 7 continues to be tracking ahead of schedule. Although Laing's comments referred to Windows Server 2008 R2 and not to the desktop version, server products traditionally ship after desktop operating systems based on the same code base, owing to greater testing needs.

"We've really been executing," Laing said, noting that although the R2 product is a relatively minor release for the server unit, it still packs more features than he would have expected a year and a half ago.

As was the case with Windows 7, Microsoft shipped a beta version of the server update in January, after sharing it with some early customers in December. The next version, a release candidate, is due soon. Laing wouldn't say whether it would ship by next month, as is being speculated on the desktop side of things.

"I'm not sure yet," Laing said. "It's not far away, but we don't have a final date yet."

Microsoft's desktop unit has tried to give itself a lot of wiggle room by not committing to launch Windows 7 this year, although it has been working toward that goal for months. I've heard that the company plans to finalize the code as early as June if all goes well with the release candidate.

A spokeswoman for the desktop Windows unit did not immediately have any update to Microsoft's longstanding official comment, which is that Windows 7 will ship by next January.

I chatted with Laing about a number of other topics during an hour-long meeting Friday, including prospects of a Sun-IBM merger, the sorry state of the server market as well as the story behind Microsoft's new version of Windows for cheap servers. I should have more on all that shortly.

Microsoft announced a new server for small businesses, though one should not confuse it with a new version of the company's Small Business Server product.

The latter is a bundle of Windows Server and Exchange, among other things, for businesses with 50 or fewer people while the new product, Windows Server 2008 Foundation, is only the operating system and is aimed at single-processor servers with fewer than 15 users.

The new Windows version is Microsoft's answer to the server equivalent of Netbooks, ultra-low cost servers aimed at the smallest of businesses. The product will only be sold preinstalled on new machines.

CEO Steve Ballmer mentioned the product was coming and outlined the rationale at a meeting with financial analysts in February.

"From a revenue perspective, we are introducing a new low cost, low price, low functionality Windows server (version)," he said. "If you take a look at it, as server prices, hardware prices have come down, we don't exactly have a Netbook phenomenon, but if somebody can buy a $500 server, they're a little loathe to spend $500 for the server operating system that goes with it. So we have something that's akin to Netbook at the server level, and we'll be introducing our Foundation edition over the next month or two."

Microsoft also said that, through the end of September, it will donate a portion of its revenue from Windows Server Foundation to TechSoup.org and Telecentre.org, two groups that help bring technology to nonprofit organizations.

"We see this as an opportunity not only to deliver a technical foundation for business growth, but also to create a financial foundation for community," Ballmer said in a statement on Wednesday.

Microsoft started off its new-year executive shuffling by promoting longtime Server and Tools unit head Bob Muglia to president, a title he shares with entertainment boss Robbie Bach and business software chief Stephen Elop.

Bob Muglia

It's a title elevation for Muglia, whose responsibilities remain the same. It also reflects the growing importance of the server unit, which accounted for $13 billion in revenue in the most recent fiscal year, now making up fully a fifth of Microsoft's total sales.

"The core of our success at Microsoft has always been great people--people who combine talent, drive, vision, customer focus, and leadership," CEO Steve Ballmer said in an e-mail to employees. "Few people at Microsoft embody these qualities more fully than Bob Muglia, and few people have contributed more to the company's success."

The Wall Street Journal article on Muglia's promotion notes that it represents quite the comeback for Muglia, who found himself shuttled off to head management software in a post-Hailstorm reshuffling of the Internet unit. Of note, Muglia now heads the Azure Services Platform, components of which look a whole lot like Hailstorm.

I sat down with Muglia last month, just before my extended winter holiday break. In honor of his promotion, I'll post a fuller transcript of my interview on Tuesday, right before I head off to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show.