TechEd 2007 Keynote Distilled

In a sequence of self-deprecating humor with famous time travelling, Microsoft VP Bob Muglia tried hard to shrugge off his or Microsoft's image of providing "foresight", with the hindersight they have gained in the past. Great attempt but a bit too apparent. :)

Streaming of the entire keynote is available at http://www.microsoft.com/winme/0706/29992/teched_.asx.

Some distilled information is provided below if you do not go through the entire clip.

There is mention of optimization model, from basic to standard to rationalized to dynamics - this sounds very familiar: maturity model (CMMI)? Obviously, the "maturity model" concept has caught the imagination of present time; by tying every theory/practice to the "maturity model", the respectability is gained and, hopefully, they are made hardly refutable too, are they?

There are 3 optimization models mentioned too, respectively for "core infrastructure", "business productivity" and "application platform". They are addressed by these initiatives: Dynamic Systems Initiatives, .NET Platform and Trustworthy Computing.

Business cannot be successful without emphasizing people-ready. We would/should have a matrix composed of "unified and virtualized", "process-led and model-driven", "service enabled" and "user focused", which is riding on the foundation platform that is federated, interoperatable and secure. (Bob mentioned "vision" again in these paragraphs!).

Next, agility from Tom Bittman (VP and CoR, Infra and Ops) of Gartner. Connetions are becoming pervasive, response time expectations are shrinking, relationships are online and short-lived. How to break the seemly unbreachable wall between Business, Infrastructure, and Applications to endue agility. Real-time infrastructure with virtualization, automation, service-oriented architecture to create operationally aware application, real-time enterprise (business) with policy-based management.

For valuation or metrics of IT, three elements must be considered: economics (read:cost), QoS(read:just sufficient), agility(read:fear of change). What is holding back or in other perspective, what elements are needed to get it right: process, technology and culture! Proven pratice: breakdown of long-term project into stages (or phases) of foreseeable success and rapid return.

Interoperability: Microsoft's standing is via products, community (including open source community), standard (openxml, ws-*), access. [sidetrack: "Microsoft has quietly hired Tom Hanrahan, formerly the Linux Foundation's director of engineering, to become its Director of Linux Interoperability. As part of his responsibilities, Hanrahan will manage the Microsoft/Novell Interoperability Lab that Microsoft began staffing up earlier this year." or details]

"unified and virtualized". for unified and virtualized environment in the following stack: presentation layer virtualiation (Windows Server Terminal Services), application layer virtualization (SoftGrid), operating system virtualization (Windows Server 2008, Virtual Server, Virtual PC). Jeff Woolsey (LPM) mentioned "server core" which is a minimum required Windows server installation for only what is required (and a command line only interface for administation - at last a wise choice to reduce contamination surface and increase stability!). [sidenote: There are a few roles the server core could take up, including Domain controller/Active Directory Domain Services, ADLDS (ADAM), DNS Server, DHCP Server, File Server, Print Server, IIS 7 Web Server, Windows Media Server, Windows Server Virtualization virtual server, Terminal Services Easy Print, Terminal Service Remote Programs, and Terminal Service Gateway.] There is a demo of virtualization manager (conversion, migration, hopping to another physical server, shell driven possible too).

"process-led and model-driven". Models capture knowledge and dirve consistency. From meta modules to core modules to domain modules to best practices modules to customized moduels, this axis is from re-use to specialization. Next the ecosystem buzzword, the same goes from SML (Service Modeling Language) ecosystem to vendor-specific models to ecosystem value-add. There is mention of Visual Studio Shell. There is a demo of operations manager, for visualization of process/model.[Or SCADA for IT/software systems].

"service enabled": software + services, to link data sources, data store, LOB applications with connected, user-focused experiences. Demo mentioned BizTalk Services.

"user focused": Office/Exprssion/Silverlight/Visual Studio, a whole set of cohesive tools (Bob mentions this word more than 10 times) can be used to create Office Business Application, Windows Applications, Rich Internet Application (RIA). A demo is made on Office Outlook integration. Of course, Silverlight is the thing to be marketed once again.

Great, congratulations on reading till the last paragraph, we have just learned the buzzwords for the next year, or until next time! :p