{"id":9231,"date":"2008-11-03T14:11:00","date_gmt":"1999-11-29T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=9231"},"modified":"2008-11-03T14:11:00","modified_gmt":"1999-11-29T20:00:00","slug":"day-1-the-keynote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=9231","title":{"rendered":"Day 1: The Keynote"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Keynote presentation was all about Dynamic IT and how Hyper-V makes IT more efficient (power, hardware) and flexible (mobility and quick to deploy).\u00a0 MS’s argument is that virtualisation without management doesn’t give you dynamic IT.\u00a0 Hence, VMM 2008 and OpsMgr 2007 via PRO.\u00a0 You use a "single pane of glass" to manage the infrastructure, not point solutions, as you would have heard if you’ve heard me speaking about Hyper-V.<\/p>\n

BTW, the venue is tiny.\u00a0 A huge amount of us were in another room watching a tiny screen.\u00a0 We could not see the presentations, speaker or demonstrations.\u00a0 Come on Microsoft!\u00a0 Amsterdam was much better than this place!\u00a0 And it smells too (don’t ask me what it smells like!).<\/p>\n

The demo uses the food ordering demo built on multiple servers that MS has been using for a while.\u00a0 A web server running as a VM was no longer able to get required resources so it slowed down.\u00a0 OpsMgr recognises this.\u00a0 Via PRO, VMM can recommend an alternate VM and us quick migration to move the VM to another host with more resources.\u00a0 Of course, using Live Migration in Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2, the VM has no perceivable downtime, e.g. VMotion in ESX.<\/p>\n

Sidenote: I’m also reading at the moment that VMware are to cut software prices by 10%.<\/em><\/p>\n

And there was a reminder that virtualisation is multiple technologies, not just machine virtualisation (servers and PC’s).\u00a0 MS purchased Kidaro<\/a> to implement their own VDI solution aka VECD – a user logs into a virtual PC via a terminal or dumb PC via RDP.\u00a0 App-V is the renamed new version of Softgrid or application virtualisation.\u00a0 Applications are streamed into self contained packages.\u00a0 They execute on a PC but are not installed … they are self contained.\u00a0 Presentation virtualisation is Terminal Services – no explanation required there, I hope.<\/p>\n

System Center manages it all – OpsMgr, VMM, Config Manager 2007 R2 (App-V).<\/p>\n

"Announcements": Hyper-V server, VMM 2008, App-V 4.5 for SA customers and MAP.\u00a0 Nothing new to be brutally honest.<\/p>\n

There is a claim that the MS Hyper-V and System Center solution for 5 hosts is 1\/3 of the price of VMware VI.\u00a0 If you make use of authenticated host licensing with free OS’s for the guests then you certainly will see this.<\/p>\n

MS deploys around 10,000 new servers a month.\u00a0 I’ve heard this before.\u00a0 The new data centers are huge, e.g. Grange Castle in Dublin – open in 2009.\u00a0 A new one in USA is powered using hydro-electric.\u00a0 Another uses local recycled water for cooling.\u00a0 They’re trying to do greener IT – virtualisation allows this.\u00a0 If you order a server in MS, virtual is the default.\u00a0 You need to justify and specify a physical machine to get it.<\/p>\n

There was a demo of cross platform extensions, e.g. manage other OS’s and applications from System Center.\u00a0 Some of this is by MS and some of this is by 3rd parties (WS Man & Open Pegasus).\u00a0 This uses OpsMgr 2007 R2.\u00a0 Application showed modelling of Oracle, Apache, SUSE and Solaris alongside Windows and IIS.\u00a0 The model included synthetic transactions.\u00a0 This is 6 months old news \ud83d\ude41\u00a0 We also see a "new" feature in R2 for SLA management\/reporting.\u00a0 That’s available now to OpsMgr 2007 customer as a free download<\/a> (Service Level Dashboard Management Pack).<\/p>\n

Operations Manager 2007 R2 will be a public beta by the end of November.\u00a0 I’m hoping there is actual new functionality in R2.\u00a0 I’ve not heard it yet \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

ForeFront: It’s based on System Center: MOM and WSUS.\u00a0 The new version will utilise existing installations of OpsMgr and WSUS.\u00a0 That’s a major improvement.\u00a0 Naturally, he reminds us that Active Directory is key to ID management.<\/p>\n

Enterprise Business Server 2008: the 3 server solution for medium sized enterprises.\u00a0 Some announcements on November 12th.<\/p>\n

Windows Server 7 aka Windows Server 2008 R2.\u00a0 R2 is the official name.\u00a0 There is an "M3" pre beta release available for download.\u00a0 The 3 focus points:<\/p>\n

1) Virtualisation<\/p>\n