OakLeaf Systems: Windows Azure Platform Appliance (WAPA) Announced at Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2010

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Windows Azure Platform Appliance (WAPA) Announced at Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2010

Updated 7/13/2010 10:00 AM PDT with new articles marked •

Steve Ballmer and Bob Muglia announced a limited production deployment of the Windows Azure Platform Appliance (#WAPA) to three long-term partners: Dell, HP, and Fujitsu at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2010 on 7/12/2010.

This post is your one stop shop for 8015 feet or more of news about Microsoft’s new Windows Azure Platform in a box and and analyses of its prospects (PageDown on a 20-in. LCD monitor = ~1 foot of new text.) Here are its sections:

Independent Reporters/Analysts Ring In
Microsoft WPC10 WAPA Agitprop with links to keynote transcripts and videos
Press Releases from Dell, Fujitsu, HP and eBay, which duplicate Microsoft’s
From the Competitors’ Camps

Independent Reporters/Analysts Ring In

Following are articles by influential computer-industry reporters and analysts about WAPA and related products:

• Mary Jo Foley (@MaryJoFoley) delivered Microsoft's upcoming cloud PDC: What's on tap? on 7/13/2010 at 7:03 AM PDT to her All About Microsoft blog for ZDNet:

Microsoft was not planning to hold a Professional Developers Conference (PDC) this year. But company officials changed their minds and announced this week that they will hold PDC10 in Redmond at Microsoft headquarters on October 28 and 29.

This isn’t going to be a traditional PDC. It will be focused almost entirely on cloud computing, rather than Windows, for one. Secondly, it will be a combined live and virtual event. It sounds like live attendance is going to be limited to about 1,000 or so people, with the rest of those interested being told to watch the keynotes and sessions via Webcast.

Developers and IT pros are still the intended audience for this year’s PDC, as they typically have been for previous ones. But the emphasis of this year’s event will be on developing applications that can run on-premises and/or in the private and public cloud.

Microsoft is going to talk about what’s happening with its promised virtual machine role capability for Windows Azure, known as Windows Server Virtual Machine Roles on Azure, at the October PDC, said Amitabh Srivastava, Senior Vice President of Microsoft’s Server and Cloud Division. Srivastava also said Microsoft will share more about its Project Sydney — IPV6 technology designed to connect on-premises and cloud servers. (Last year, Microsoft officials said Sydney would be finalized before the end of 2010; I’m thinking a beta by the PDC timeframe is more likely.)

“IT (professionals) want infrastructure as a service, platform as a service and software as a service,” Srivastava said. “Azure was our platform as a service play. The VM (roles) will be our infrastructure as a service play.”

The VM role feature will help users run their on-premises applications in the cloud, but applications that are hosted that way won’t be multitenant-capable.

Microsoft also is going to talk about some of the underlying systems-management application programming interfaces (APIs) that Azure will expose, enabling customers and partners to use third-party solutions to manage Azure-based clouds. Srivastava said Microsoft will be talking about tooling that works with Azure APIs during the two-day event, as well. …

Mary Jo continues with background details on eBay’s upcoming WAPA installation and bets that eBay will present at PDC10.

Veteran analyst Rob Enderle (@Enderle) questions The Azure Appliance: Returning to Microsoft's Roots? in this 7/13/2010 post to the ITBusinessEdge blog:

This week Microsoft announced its Azure appliance in partnership with Dell, HP, and Fujitsu. [No] doubt these companies also began breathing easier because it had looked like Microsoft was going to vertically integrate with Azure as it had done with Zune and the Xbox, locking out hardware partners. Microsoft’s success was defined by an initial argument in the '80s between Apple and Bill Gates over what the future would look like. Apple, through a number of executives, believed (and still does) that the successful path was to vertically integrate, while Microsoft believed in creating a leveraged model where one company defined common software standards across a vastly larger computing ecosystem.

As it turned out, Microsoft was right. However, the past decade has certainly pointed to the merits of Apple’s argument, and it was Apple, not Microsoft, that ended that decade on top. The next wave is to the cloud and many of us think this will be the driver for the next big wave in computing. But it had initially looked like, for this new wave, Google was on Microsoft’s side of the argument and Microsoft had switched to Apple’s. Fortunately, that now seems not to be the case. Let’s explore this.

Azure Appliance: Dell's Advantage

My briefing on the Azure appliance initiative was done jointly with Dell and Microsoft with Dell, I think, successfully showcasing that it might be in the best shape to drive this initiative domestically. That's because it doesn't have the internal conflicts with Microsoft that both Fujitsu and HP do. It enjoys heavy support for platforms competing with Microsoft’s own and is more of a x86 specialist than the other two companies. The fact that it was the only company that jointly pre-briefed a large group of us covering this technology is another indicator that these two vendors may be closer than the others.

Azure is Microsoft’s cloud platform. It can be deployed as a service hosted by Microsoft, hosted by a Microsoft partner like Dell, or hosted internally and installed as a private cloud appliance on-premise by Dell, HP or Fujitsu. This provides a somewhat unique level of choice on who you buy the solution from and whether you buy it traditionally or as a secure hosted service.

Mid-Market Solution

While the “appliance” approach really only works for companies with massive data needs due to its potential scale, the services that Microsoft and Dell are pushing are more appropriate for mid-market companies that want the flexibility, low cost, and massive load-balancing potential of Azure, but can’t possibly justify the hardware. Granted, in any hosting solution, security requirements must be met, but Dell and Microsoft should be more than capable of assisting in the validation work.

This might be one of the few times a platform has come out that is designed from the outset either to be deployed internally or as a service, reflecting both Microsoft’s roots and its need to adjust to the changing landscape. This is clearly a flagship offering from the company, and it showcases the related attention to detail in both the quality of the work and the positive nature of its reception. These are both good indicators for the mid-market, which typically doesn’t like the more common “science experiment” products that companies like Google have tossed its way.

Is Microsoft on a Bubble?

Microsoft is a diverse company with initiatives seemingly going in different directions at all times and that's increasingly difficult to get a read on. This suggests a lack of central control and direction, which might be corrected with recent staffing and organizational moves. For a while, with projects ranging from Zune, Xbox, Kin, and the Microsoft Stores, it appeared that parts of Microsoft were adopting the Apple/IBM model and going vertical. The problem with such a move is that it would disenfranchise partners, and these partners seemed to be increasingly hedging their Microsoft bets with Linux, Android, ChromeOS, Intel’s platforms and even the purchase of companies like Palm and Wind River.

It still appears that Microsoft is on a bubble where no certain decision has been made across the company either to return it to its successful roots or to fundamentally change it into an Apple/IBM-type firm. If Azure is successful, it likely will help those that argue that returning to the company's roots is the more successful path; if it isn’t, the alternative will likely be true.

There is one clear danger as Sun recently demonstrated by trying to go the other way, from hardware to software: Getting caught in the middle can be deadly.

Wrapping Up: Azure, the New Windows? The New Microsoft?

Azure has the potential to redefine Microsoft and shift the model from being hardware-centric to one that is services/annuity-centric. Such a move began more than a decade ago, and many of us think it is is overdue. However to be truly successful, this isn’t a product alone, but needs to be a company transition taking it to the next step. This will be the first time such a transition has been attempted since Bill Gates left and could either prove Steve Ballmer’s worth or damn him to obscurity. As big as Azure is, its importance to Microsoft is matched only by the Windows Tablet. Either could revalidate Microsoft’s relevance or prove it irrelevant, if things go badly.

It’s good to bet the company, but often the importance of doing so doesn't become clear until the bet is won or lost. This might be one of those times.

• Carl Brooks (@eekygeeky) quotes Bob Muglia:

Microsoft is the first and only company that offers customers and partners a full range of cloud capabilities and the flexibility to deploy these services where and how they wish.

in a sidebar to his Microsoft unveils Azure-in-a-box piece of 7/12/2010 for TechTarget’s SearchCloudComputing.com blog:

Microsoft has announced that it will sell Azure appliances to its considerably larger customers. A select few technology giants, along with online shopping portal eBay, have bought Microsoft-specified, preconfigured "cloud-in-a-box" appliances designed to let them run Microsoft's Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering from their own premises.

Announced at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, the Windows Azure Platform Appliance is not for the faint of heart, nor is it available to the general public. Microsoft said it is targeting IT organizations that buy hundreds or thousands of servers at a time, like governments, service providers and very large enterprises.

No details about the hardware, networking or software were revealed, but current customers are Dell, HP, Fujitsu and eBay. eBay will be installing the Azure appliances in two of its data centers after testing its capabilities by hosting part of its site on the public, Microsoft-run platform.

"For enterprise and government infrastructure and operations professionals, this announcement brings greater degrees of freedom in using Windows Azure, but it won't bring Azure in-house for more than the few very largest companies...at least not yet," said Forrester principal analyst James Staten in a blog post about the announcement.

Staten characterized the move as aimed at mollifying Microsoft's partners, who have not responded well to having to compete directly with Redmond for software services.

The move allows giants like HP and Fujitsu a bite of Microsoft's cloud apple while letting Microsoft continue to gather momentum with its new fleet of cloud services: Azure, Business Productivity Online Standard Suite (BPOS) and Office Online (Skydrive). If irritated by the competition, HP and Fujitsu could prioritize alternative cloud technologies over Microsoft, but demand for Microsoft's products and software remains strong.

Dell, HP and Fujitsu will offer Azure services out of their own data centers to enterprise customers under undisclosed terms. The appliance is highly managed by Microsoft; buyers reportedly will pay Microsoft for services, as well as the hardware and software stack to run Azure in-house. Microsoft has been secretive about the underlying technology in Azure and clearly plans to remain firmly in control as Azure deploys outside its walls.

Want to buy one? You can't.
Microsoft has said the appliance is in "limited production release" to only a small set of customers and partners. Future plans for the appliance are to be determined. From the Azure appliance website: "We will develop our roadmap depending on what we learn from this set of customers and partners. We have no additional details to share at this time."

Microsoft is covering other bases in private cloud, as well. It also announced the release of its System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self Service Portal, formerly the Dynamic Data Center Toolkit, which is an infrastructure and automation toolkit designed to run in a Windows Server 2008 data center and allow self-service for virtualized servers, monitoring and other features associated with cloud computing. The beta release of Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 also went out, with a heavy emphasis on virtualization and integration updates.

More on Azure from Carl Brooks:

As Microsoft Azure matures, pricing remains a problem

An introduction to developing for Microsoft Azure

Comparing Microsoft Azure's pricing policies

Carl continues with additional background for WAPA.

Michael Coté posted Sorting out Microsoft’s clouds – Quick Analysis to the Enterprise Irregular blog on 7/12/2010:

Microsoft expanded its cloud offerings today, answering the call for “private cloud.

“Our strategy is to provide the full range of cloud capabilities in both public and private clouds.”
–Robert Wahbe

After today’s announcements, Microsoft has at least three cloud options for you: a public cloud that’s mostly a platform as a service (Azure), a private cloud in limited release (Windows Azure Appliance), and an outline for building a private infrastructure as a service cloud (“Private Cloud Deployment Kit”).

This is all notable as Microsoft has, until now, really only been know[n] for the first, Azure, which provides a bundle of services for developing applications in several programming languages. Azure remains the only one of these clouds that’s widely, if not generally available.

I’m a bit unclear the “Private Cloud Deployment Kit,” and so far there’s not enough Google juice on whatever solid pages are up to find anything. While there’s a whole slew of .docx’s and .pptx’s on a Microsoft cloud site, the “solution” nature makes narrowing down a specific offering a bit, well, enterprise-y. Which is surprising coming from Microsoft who’s usually very good at not being so.

Evaluating Private Clouds

For private cloud, saving money is your main concern because you’re still worrying about everything.

For the newly announced Windows Azure Appliance, Microsoft is pairing its Azure software offerings with three hardware partners: Dell, HP, and Fujitsu. While they don’t call it a “private beta,” the “limited production release” makes it effectively so, in the Web 2.0 sense at least. This means you’ll need a special relationship with Microsoft (or one of it’s partners) to get Windows Azure Appliance.

Would it be worth it? It’s difficult to tell yet. Once the pricing and final specs are out, you could conceivably compare it to other offerings. For a private cloud, the only thing that really matters is pricing and TCO.

With a private cloud you’re still: managing your cloud, paying for and do any geographic dispersal (and manage the on-the-ground government hijinks there), going to be stuck on upgrade cycles getting hung up on your own fears about upgrading versus staying with what works….

In summary, with a private cloud you’re not getting the advantages of having someone else run the cloud infrastructure.

Clearly, if a private cloud is better than some calcified mess you’re in, then sure. But, the question at the back of your mind should always be: why not make it public cloud? I’m pretty sure there’ll be many legit reasons for several years to come – but things are murky at this point – maybe if you come up against them, you could share them and we could start cutting through the fog.

Nicely, Microsoft’s cloud-based desktop management offering Intune is good context here. Imagine if running all that desktop management infrastructure was no longer your concern. Intune is gated for just small businesses at the moment, but it’s clearly something that’d be appealing to enterprises.

• Alex Williams’ For Partners: The 12 Benefits and Risks of Windows Azure of 7/12/2010 from the ReadWriteCloud blog reviewed analyst R “Ray” Wang’s WPC10 session:

Breaking down the different aspects of a cloud computing platform can be no simple feat. That's especially true with Windows Azure. The service has multiple components.

Ray Wang, an industry analyst, broke down the different components in a research report for companies in the vast Microsoft partner ecosystem gathering this week in Washington, D.C. for the Worldwide Partners Conference.

About 14,000 people are attending the event. Microsoft executives said the record attendance is due to a few factors, in particular the interest in how Windows Azure will play out for the future of their businesses.

Wang breaks down Azure into its three categories:

Microsoft Windows Azure

Microsoft SQL Azure (formerly SQL Services)

Microsoft Windows Azure Platform: AppFabric (formerly .NET Services)

He points out that companies need to really focus on what layer of the service they plan to focus their energies. Those four layers include infrastructure, orchestration, creation, and consumption.

Wang spoke to 71 partners for the research report they produced, which details the benefits and risks of the new models that come with Windows Azure.

The Advantages

Wang provides six benefits of Windows Azure:

Faster deployment times and client adoption.

Greater pool of development resources.

Recurring revenue streams.

Improved TCO and margin for differentiated IP.

Opportunity to break out of the Microsoft client base.

Lower application lifecycle costs.

And six risks:

Potential loss of account control to Microsoft.

Increased competition for development resources.

Shift to volume business.

Decline in upfront profit and revenue collection.

Accelerated globalization and market competition.

Increased self-hosting and integration costs.

In terms of advantages, the potential for a recurring revenue stream and the total cost of ownership and differentiated IP are clear opportunities.

On recurring revenue streams:

"A key component of SaaS/Cloud is utility pricing. Partners that build IP and solutions will move to a more stable subscription revenue model. Most billing will move from upfront to monthly or quarterly."

And total cost of ownership:

"The cost of development and time to market will decrease. The result - improved margins and better ROI for new product development. Partners can test scenarios with the Microsoft Azure ROI calculator."

As for disadvantages, costs and competition are going to be a huge struggle, especially as pricing models change. Subscriptiopn services provide long-term benefits but the changes are signiicant for companuies used to getting half of its revenues up front. Competition will only intensify, making mindshare a critical aspect of drawing customers. That's a sign that community management will become increasingly important.

Risks associated with self-hosting:

"Partners that self-host will face long term cost challenges. As Microsoft, Amazon, and Google build out large scale data centers, their cost of delivery will reach 1/10th of a partner's ability to host by 2015. Moreover, data, process, and metadata integration among various cloud platforms remains the most complex challenge. Partners who can not scale in integration and data center costs will find themselves burdened with a new legacy cost structure."

And with increased competition:

"With SaaS/Cloud, every partner, ISV, and SI solution offering is competing for mind share. Competition for solutions goes global, cross-platform, and cross industry. Partners must prepare to compete for mind share among all the technology vendors offering solutions."

Wang's ultimate point is that everything has changed. The business model is different. The need to differentiate IP has new importance. All barriers are breaking down, be they cultural, geographic or architecturally.

It's all a different game. And there will be all kinds of affects, including a lot of people finding that they don't fit in this new world of the cloud.

Mary Jo Foley (@MaryJoFoley) posted Microsoft launches Azure private cloud in a box on 7/12/2010 at 6:25 AM PDT to her All About Microsoft blog for ZDNet:

Microsoft is making good on its promise to allow enterprise customers buy Windows Azure preconfigured in datacenter containers from selected partners.

On July 12, the company took the wraps off the name for this offering — Windows Azure Platform Appliance — and said Dell, Fujitsu and Hewlett Packard were all -to sell this offering.

Despite the name “appliance,” the new offering is not the size of a breadbox. These appliances are big preconfigured containers with between hundreds and thousands of servers running the Windows Azure platform.

In the short term, these containers will be housed primarily at Dell’s, HP’s and Fujitsu’s datacenters, with Microsoft providing the Azure infrastructure and services for these containers. In the longer term, Microsoft is expecting some large enterprises, like eBay (which is committing today to purchase this offering), to house the containers in their own datacenters on site — in other words, to run their own “customer-hosted clouds.”

Last year , there was confusion as to whether Microsoft was going to allow customers to buy its Azure offering and run it in their own datacenters. In the end, the Softies said that they wouldn’t offer Azure this way. So is today’s announcement a 180-degree about-face?

No, claimed Server and Tools General Manager Amy Barzdukas, during an interview I had with her prior to the kick-off of Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference on July 12. A good analogy for these Windows Azure Appliances is a set-top box, she said. Microsoft is the ones providing the “smarts” and the services that power these appliances. Microsoft is doing the patching, the managing and everything but the hosting of the customers’ data, she explained.

For some customers who’ve been unwilling or unable (due to compliance, security and other reasons) to have Microsoft host their data in Microsoft’s datacenters around the world, the Appliance option gives them a way to take advantage of Azure’s scalability without having to move their data off-premises.

The Azure Appliances are running the same Windows Azure cloud operating system and SQL Azure cloud database that Microsoft runs itself, according to company officials. The target audiences for the product are governments, large enterprises and service providers who might be interested in buying 1,000 servers at a time. …

Microsoft WPC10 WAPA Agitprop

• Microsoft asserts “Executives also highlight new products and services from Microsoft that foster a connected experience for consumers through the cloud” in its New Microsoft Channel Chief Charts Course to Cloud Profitability for Partners press release of 7/13/2010:

WASHINGTON — July 13, 2010 — Today at the annual Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, Jon Roskill, Microsoft Corp.’s new channel chief, addressed the Microsoft partner community for the first time, unveiling business strategies and resources to help partners of all types seize new opportunities in the cloud. The company also detailed new products and services to help consumers tap into the cloud through all the screens in their lives — from the largest screen in the living room to the smallest screen in one’s pocket.

In his keynote address, Roskill, who took the helm earlier this month as corporate vice president of the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group, spoke to partners about the industry transformation that is under way with the emergence of the cloud, and the opportunity that creates for partners to grow and evolve their businesses.

“The industry is at an inflection point, and Microsoft is leading the charge through what will be one of the biggest industry transformations of our time,” Roskill said. “Partners have always been fundamental to Microsoft’s business, and we are committed to helping our partners adapt and find the right cloud opportunities so we can grow and succeed together.”

Roskill detailed new tools, resources and sales support that Microsoft is delivering to help partners plan and build profitable businesses in the cloud and advance their cloud knowledge, including partner opportunity guides for cloud services, the new Microsoft Cloud Essentials Pack and Microsoft Cloud Accelerate Program designation, and new solution incentives for partners. Roskill also spotlighted the winners of the 2010 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards. More information on Roskill’s announcements can be found at http://www.microsoftpartnernetwork.com/RedmondView/Permalink/Crossing-the-Chasm-Turning-Cloud-Opportunity-Into-Reality-for-Partners.

In addition to Roskill’s keynote address, Andy Lees, senior vice president of the Mobile Communications Business, and Brad Brooks, corporate vice president of Windows Consumer Marketing and Product Management, teamed up to show partners how new consumer products and services from Microsoft work across all the screens in consumers’ lives. Showcasing Windows Phone 7, Windows Live, Windows Phone, Xbox and more, they demonstrated how Microsoft platforms combine the power of immersive software with smart services accessed instantly via the cloud to deliver experiences that make lives easier, more entertaining and more fun. During the keynote, Lees announced that Windows Phone 7 will be complemented in the cloud by a new Windows Phone Live site that will also be home to the new Find My Phone feature that allows people to find and manage a missing phone with map, ring, lock and erase capabilities — all for free. More information can be found at http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone. …

• Bruce Kyle’s Microsoft Offers Support for Moving to the Cloud post of 7/13/2010 to the US ISV Evangelism blog reported:

Today at the annual Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, Jon Roskill, Microsoft’s new channel chief, unveiled business strategies and resources to help partners of all types seize new opportunities in the cloud.

Tools for Your Business

Roskill detailed new tools, resources and sales support that Microsoft is delivering to help partners plan and build profitable businesses in the cloud and advance their cloud knowledge, including:

New Microsoft Cloud Essentials and Microsoft Cloud Accelerate, Business Builder for Cloud Services,

Cloud Profitability Modeler.

Roskill shared new Microsoft Partner Network sales and marketing resources to help partners attract customers and close deals. Some ey resources to get you started:

Value of Earning a Microsoft Competency Guide

5 for 1 WPC Exam Pass for WPC attendees

List Your Company on Microsoft Pinpoint

Microsoft Partner Network Sales Specialist Accreditation

More information on Roskill’s announcements can be found at http://www.microsoftpartnernetwork.com/RedmondView/Permalink/Crossing-the-Chasm-Turning-Cloud-Opportunity-Into-Reality-for-Partners.

Jon Roskill: WPC 2010 Vision Keynote 7/13/2010 (00:42:32) Microsoft Corporate Vice President Jon Roskill talks partnering in the cloud opportunities.
Allison Watson and Jon Roskill: WPC 2010 Vision Keynote 7/13/2010 (00:15:46) Microsoft Corporate Vice Presidents Allison Watson and Jon Roskill present the 2010 Microsoft Partners of the Year. [Video archive links added 7/13/2010 4:40 PM PDT.]

Consumer Products Connect to the Cloud

In addition to Roskill’s keynote address, Andy Lees, senior vice president of the Mobile Communications Business, and Brad Brooks, corporate vice president of Windows Consumer Marketing and Product Management, teamed up to show partners how new consumer products and services from Microsoft work across all the screens in consumers’ lives.

Showcasing Windows Phone 7, Windows Live, Windows Phone, Xbox and more, they demonstrated how Microsoft platforms combine the power of immersive software with smart services accessed instantly via the cloud to deliver experiences that make lives easier, more entertaining and more fun.

During the keynote, Lees announced that Windows Phone 7 will be complemented in the cloud by a new Windows Phone Live site. The site will also be home to the new Find My Phone feature that allows people to find and manage a missing phone with map, ring, lock and erase capabilities — all for free. More information can be found at http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone.

Andy Lees: WPC 2010 Keynote Clip (00:1:21) Andy Lees, Senior Vice President of Mobile Communications Business on the connected consumer experiences for Holiday 201
Brad Brooks and Andy Lees: WPC 2010 Vision Keynote (01:12:14) Microsoft Corporate Vice President Brad Brooks and Microsoft Senior Vice President Andy Lees discuss the future of Microsoft consumer products. [Video archive links added 7/13/2010 4:40 PM PDT.]

Other Announcements

Additional news from the Worldwide Partner Conference today includes the following:

Microsoft Services Launches Practice Accelerator to Make Training and Offering IP More Accessible to Partners: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/wpc/docs/ServicesPartnerStrategyFS.docx

Intuit Partner Platform Delivers Windows Phone 7 SDK: http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev

Find Out More

More information about the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference is available on the virtual event site at http://www.digitalwpc.com. You can watch select keynote addresses live or on demand, register to view sessions, and learn more about the news and events coming out of the conference.

On Wednesday, former U.S. President Bill Clinton will share his unique and motivational insights and observations with the audience in a presentation titled “Embracing Our Common Humanity.” Also on Wednesday, Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner will take the stage to outline strategies and opportunities for partners to successfully compete in the cloud.

The four Build Your Business in the Cloud presentations of WPC10’s Microsoft Cloud Services page (for small, medium, enterprise and public sector organizations) are now live. Here’s the table of contents for each presentation:

The Cloud Opportunity Executive Summary
The Cloud Opportunity and Customer Benefits
Capitalizing on the Cloud
Making the Transition to Cloud Services
Understanding the Impact of Cloud Services
Making the Transition to Selling Cloud Services
Calls to Action Calls to Action by Partner Type
Additional Resources
Opportunities in Other Customer Segments

• Mario Juarez explains The Windows Azure Platform Appliance: Why, When and Where It Will Work for You in this 7/12/2010 post to TechNet’s Windows Server 2008 R2 Experts blog:

It's bigger than a breadbox. And you probably won't be sticking it in your kitchen this summer. But make no mistake, the "appliance" that Microsoft announced at this week's Worldwide Partner Conference is not only a technical marvel, it's concrete evidence of the depth of Microsoft's commitment to cloud computing.

If you've seen the news, you might still wonder: exactly what is the Windows Azure platform appliance? As Robert Wahbe (VP of Microsoft Server and Tools Marketing) notes in this blog post, it is a unique hardware-software offering that delivers network, storage, and computing resources based on the full Windows Azure platform stack (Windows Azure and SQL Azure). Dell, eBay, Fujitsu, and Hewlett-Packard are starting to deploy it now.

Once in the market, it will be a serious cloud offering. As Robert puts it, "Service providers, governments and large enterprises who would consider buying, say, 1,000 servers at a time, will be able to deploy and manage the appliance in their datacenter." So in addition to the massive scale and multi-tenancy that come with the Windows Azure Services platform, it offers the added benefits of control: physical location, geo-proximity, data sovereignty, and regulatory Compliance.

To get a deeper overview, I talked with Scott Ottaway, one of the key product managers on the Windows Server team who is seriously focused on the Windows Azure platform appliance. …

See Mario’s post for the 00:03:39 Silverlight video segment.

As Scott noted, the announcement of the appliance is another milestone in Microsoft's intensive efforts to make cloud computing a reality. Here's an overview of other Microsoft info/voices out of WPC this week:

You can read the press release from WPC, including the announcement of the Windows Azure platform appliance here.

Robert Wahbe's blog post gives some great context on our strategy for helping businesses embrace cloud computing.

SQL Guru Donald Farmer blogs about a new "premium information marketplace" dubbed Microsoft Codename "Dallas," which he describes as "a place where developers on any platform as well as information workers can find data from commercial content providers as well as public domain data to consume and construct new BI scenarios and new apps." Zane Adam, general manager of the Azure team, gives his take here.

SQL Server expert Dan Jones lets you kick the tires of SQL Azure and connects you with a nifty nine-page downloadable guide to get you started.

The Windows Server team announces that Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Beta is available for download.

Other voices:

Press announcements from eBay, Dell, and Fujitsu.

Microsoft proclaimed “New Windows Azure platform appliance among latest innovations that enable Microsoft partners to move to the cloud” in its Partners “All In” to Cloud Computing at Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2010 of 7/12/2010:

WASHINGTON — July 12, 2010 — During its annual Worldwide Partner Conference, top executives from Microsoft Corp. talked with more than 14,000 attendees about the impact of cloud computing and the myriad of ways it will enable partners to deliver compelling new services to their customers. The company made several announcements, including the introduction of the Windows Azure platform appliance, the first turnkey cloud services platform for deployment in customer and service provider datacenters. Dell Inc., eBay Inc., Fujitsu Ltd. and HP are early adopters of a limited production release of the appliance.

Microsoft’s 640,000 partners generated more than 6 million highly skilled jobs and approximately $537 billion in local revenues last year. Top of mind for these partners who sell, customize, build upon, implement and support Microsoft solutions worldwide is the industry’s shift to cloud computing and their continued growth. In his keynote address, Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, highlighted the critical role partners will continue to play in driving the IT industry’s transformation to cloud computing and helping fuel economic growth and job creation in local communities around the world.

“We are at an inflection point in technology history,” Ballmer said. “For customers, cloud computing creates tremendous value, which translates to massive opportunity for Microsoft and its partners. As in past technology transitions, Microsoft will help partners embrace the industry’s transformation to realize their opportunity and continue to be economic drivers for their local community.”

According to IDC, the cloud will drive 19 percent of new growth in software spending in 2013–2014 and cloud spending will grow five times faster (26 percent compound annual growth rate) than all applications spending.

“These providers can best participate in the growing cloud market by aligning themselves with capable ecosystem partners that can help them deliver their service-enabled offering, and enhance services delivery for their customers,” said Robert Mahowald, vice president, SaaS and Cloud Services at IDC.

Onstage at the partner conference, Bob Muglia, president of the Server and Tools Business at Microsoft, outlined how Microsoft provides a comprehensive and integrated service and server platform that allows customers and partners to deploy clouds when and where they want. The Windows Azure platform offers a standardized service platform; the customizable Windows Server platform lets customers and partners build public and private clouds that leverage existing investments with maximum flexibility.

“Microsoft is the first and only company that offers customers and partners a full range of cloud capabilities and the flexibility to deploy these services where and how they wish — whether that is with Microsoft, a service provider, in a customer datacenter or a combination of all three,” Muglia said. “Today’s introduction of the Windows Azure platform appliance ushers in a new era of cloud computing, and we are looking forward to working with our partners to bring all the benefits of the appliance to our customers and the business technology industry.”

The new Windows Azure platform appliance combines Windows Azure and Microsoft SQL Azure with Microsoft-specified hardware, enabling on-demand IT capacity and faster delivery of new applications. Large enterprises and service provider partners deploying the appliance in their datacenters will have the benefits of the cloud services that Microsoft offers today, while maintaining physical control of location, regulatory compliance and data. In addition, Muglia disclosed new details regarding Microsoft code name “Dallas,” an information service powered by the Windows Azure platform that provides developers and information workers access to third-party premium data sets and Web services.

Muglia also elaborated on several new enhancements to the Microsoft server platform that make it easier for customers and partners to build cloud solutions, including the Release Candidate of the System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self Service Portal 2.0. The company also introduced the Microsoft Management and Virtualization Solution Incentive and the Private Cloud Deployment Kit, which offers financial rewards and guidance to partners as they build virtualization and private cloud solutions. More information is available at http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog.

Tami Reller, corporate vice president and chief financial officer for the Windows business, detailed the tremendous partner opportunity with Windows 7 and announced the beta release of Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1, which enhance the deployment and management of virtualized desktop infrastructure. Reller also emphasized the role of the cloud in Windows and announced the second public beta of Windows Intune, a new offering that uses the best of both Windows cloud services and Windows 7 to manage and help secure PCs. More information is available at The Windows Blog (http://windowsteamblog.com).

Closing out the keynote addresses, Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft Business Division, highlighted growing partner momentum for Microsoft Online Services (MOS), shared examples of how partners are delivering value to customers with MOS and announced the new partnerships with communications service providers, including Bell Canada, BT, PGi, TDC, and Telenor Group, as well as distributors Ingram Micro and Tech Data. Elop also announced the naming and expected beta availability of the next version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. More details are available at http://blogs.technet.com/b/msonline and http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2010/jul10/07-12WPCDynamicsCRMPR.mspx.

All of these new products and technologies will provide partners new sources of revenue and access to new customers so they can continue to grow and be the economic drivers they have always been.

On Tuesday, Jon Roskill, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group, will outline opportunities and resources for partners to build profitable businesses in the cloud, and Andy Lees, senior vice president of Microsoft's Mobile Communication Business, and Brad Brooks, corporate vice president of Windows Consumer Marketing and Product Management, will share new details about the company’s consumer strategy and offerings.

Links to individual keynote video archives (click to start video):

Steve Ballmer: WPC 2010 Vision Keynote (00:39:42)
Bob Muglia: WPC 2010 Vision Keynote (00:48:40)

Links to keynote speech transcripts:

The Windows Azure Team posted Just Announced at WPC: the Windows Azure Platform Appliance on 7/12/2010 at 10:00 AM PDT:

At the Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in Washington D.C. today, Bob Muglia outlined our vision for the cloud and explained how we're investing heavily in supporting both customers and partners as they shift to the cloud. For those customers who are looking for more control than a public cloud offering can provide, Bob announced today the Windows Azure Platform Appliance, a turnkey cloud platform that customers and partners can deploy in their own datacenter.

Read on for answers to the top line questions you may have about the appliance. You can also watch a new Channel9 video with Steve Marx and Ryan Dunn who provide an overview of the appliance, or visit the Windows Azure Platform Appliance page. To learn more about all of the news Bob announced today, you can read the press release, watch the keynote and check out the post by Robert Wahbe, corporate vice president, Microsoft Server and Tools, recapping the news.

What is the Windows Azure Platform Appliance?

The Windows Azure Platform Appliance consists of Windows Azure, SQL Azure and a Microsoft-specified configuration of network, storage and server hardware. Service providers, governments and large enterprises who would, for example, invest in a 1000 servers at a time, will be able to deploy the Windows Azure platform on their own hardware in their datacenter. Microsoft Windows Azure Platform Appliance is optimized for scale out applications - such as eBay- and datacenter efficiency across hundreds to thousands to tens-of-thousands servers.

What are the benefits of the appliance?

The main benefit of the appliance is that it provides the benefits of the Windows Azure platform with greater physical control, geographic proximity, regulatory compliance and data sovereignty.

Does the appliance include hardware, what kind?

The appliance will run only on network, storage and server hardware that meets the Windows Azure platform reference specifications. We've invested significant engineering resources to ensure that the hardware required by the appliance is optimized to enable service availability, automated management and power, cooling and operational efficiency across tens of thousands of servers. Based on industry-standard x64 hardware, customers will be able to purchase the appliance from a choice of partners.

Is the Microsoft Windows Azure Platform Available now?

The appliance software (Windows Azure and SQL Azure) is currently being delivered to a small set of service provider partners (Dell, Fujitsu and HP) and a customer (eBay) to run on Microsoft-specified hardware in their datacenters.

What is the partner opportunity in the cloud? With the Windows Azure Platform Appliance?

There is tremendous opportunity for partners in the cloud, and we're committed to working with our strong partner ecosystem to make this transition a win for all of us.The appliance presents even more opportunity for ISVs to efficiently build and cost-effectively deliver new and existing applications on the Windows Azure platform. Roughly 30% of our current Azure subscriptions to date are via partners.

Tomorrow we'll dive into the partner news and momentum at WPC, so stay tuned!

The Windows Azure team’s undated official description of WAPA with FAQs and links to WAPA news is here.

Steve Marx and Ryan Dunn describe WAPA in this Introducing the Windows Azure Platform Appliance 00:09:33 Channel9 video segment:

At WPC, Bob Muglia announced an exciting new addition the Windows Azure platform, called the Windows Azure Platform Appliance. When the appliance is released for broader availability, it will allow partners and large customers to host their own dedicated versions of Windows Azure and SQL Azure. For developers, this means that your Windows Azure applications can be hosted on-premises, in a partner’s data center, or in the public cloud without change.

Join [Ryan Dunn] in this video with Technical Strategist, Steve Marx as we talk about what the appliance means to developers and dig a bit more into the announcement.

Robert Wahbe posted Realizing the Promise of Cloud Computing with Microsoft to TechNet Blogs’ The Official Microsoft Blog – News and Perspectives from Microsoft blog on 7/12/2010 at 2:30 PM EDT:

Bob Muglia outlined our vision for the cloud today, at the Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, DC. You can read our press release and watch the keynote here, but I wanted to give some additional context on our strategy to help businesses embrace cloud computing.

We’re committed to providing a platform that lets customers take full advantage of cloud computing. For those who want a standardized service platform - we’ll run the cloud for them, whether in our data center or theirs. For those who adopt our customizable server platform, we will provide the capabilities in products such as Windows Server and System Center so that they can build their own. Across all of our offerings, we are committed to providing common tools for application development, IT management and identity that let customers and partners carry their existing investment forward to the cloud.

At Microsoft, we are investing deeply to support the shift to cloud computing. It can provide ready-made applications that people can use from anywhere. It can enable a company to quickly spin up IT for an entirely new business with little capital expense. A startup can deliver the next great social media application, without worrying about the hardware to support millions of users. An IT department can respond to the needs of business more quickly at a lower cost of operations. It is also a tremendous opportunity for Microsoft partners to prosper as they help their customers take advantage of the cloud.

Our strategy is to provide the full range of cloud capabilities in both public and private clouds. I won’t spend time here discussing our Microsoft Online Services and other software as a service offerings – that’s another post – but will focus on how we are enabling platform and infrastructure in the cloud through both a services platform (Windows Azure) and a server platform (Windows Server), connected through a common set of tools and experiences.

Why do we distinguish between the two? A cloud services platform must run on hundreds and thousands of computers distributed over multiple geographies, while providing a single, integrated computing platform for IT professionals and developers. A services platform also needs to provide a full-featured database and support existing systems and applications so they can run in the cloud. The Windows Azure platform, available since February, is such a cloud services platform. It is made up of Windows Azure and SQL Azure and it is being used by more than 10,000 customers today for a wide variety of applications.

But some customers are looking for more control than a public cloud offering can provide – control over things like physical location, proximity to other systems, data management, and regulatory compliance. To help address this need, Bob announced today that we are extending the Windows Azure services platform by offering the Windows Azure platform appliance that customers or partners can run in their own datacenters.

The appliance is the same Windows Azure platform we run at Microsoft, and includes Windows Azure and SQL Azure on Microsoft-specified hardware. Using it, service providers, governments and large enterprises will be able to get the control they need, while still getting the benefits of scale, multi–tenancy, and low operational costs.

Dell, Fujitsu, and Hewlett-Packard are implementing a limited production release of the appliance in their datacenters, so they can deliver cloud services to customers, and we are working with them so they can offer the appliance to run in customer datacenters, too. eBay is an early appliance customer. They believe the Windows Azure platform appliance will help them more easily launch new products and features, while eliminating manual IT processes and reducing costs.

There are good reasons to build a private or public cloud service using our Windows Server platform, too – it’s a versatile platform that allows for greater customization than a standardized service like Azure can provide. Together, Windows Server, System Center, Hyper-V, and SQL Server provide a server platform that lets you build a dynamic, virtualized, self-service infrastructure.
And, just like we are investing in our services platform, we also continue to enhance our server platform. Today we shipped the release candidate of the System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self Service Portal, providing tools and guidance to build cloud services on the Windows Server platform. We also released the beta of Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 for virtualized infrastructure and a foundation for cloud computing. And we announced new programs to reward and guide partners as they help customers progress toward cloud with the server platform.

Dell

Microsoft PR published Dell Expands Cloud Strategy and Services With Microsoft Windows Azure Platform Appliance with a “Strategic partnership to enable IT organizations to more efficiently meet the needs of business” deck on 7/12/2010:

WASHINGTON — July 12, 2010 — Today at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference, Dell and Microsoft Corp. announced a strategic partnership in which Dell intends to use the Windows Azure platform appliance, introduced by Microsoft today, as a part of its Dell Services Cloud to develop and deliver next-generation cloud services for Dell and its enterprise, public, small and medium-sized business customers. Dell will also work with Microsoft to develop a Dell-powered Windows Azure platform appliancefor enterprise organizations to run in their datacenters.

The News

Dell Services will immediately begin implementing the limited production release of the Windows Azure platform appliance to host public and private clouds for its customers, leveraging its vertical industry expertise in providing options for flexible application hosting and delivery, and increased overall efficiency of IT operations and delivery. Dell Services will also provide advisory services, application migration, and integration and implementation services.

Dell will work with Microsoft to develop a Windows Azure platform appliance for large enterprise, public and hosting customers to deploy in their own datacenters. The appliance will leverage infrastructure from Dell combined with the Windows Azure platform.

Cloud Computing Responds to Changing Business Needs

Dell and Microsoft understand that cloud computing delivers significant efficiencies in infrastructure costs and allows IT to be more responsive to the business. Recognizing that more organizations can benefit from the flexibility and efficiency of the Windows Azure platform, Dell and Microsoft have partnered to deliver an appliance to power a Dell platform-as-a-service (PaaS) Cloud.

Microsoft announced today at its Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, D.C., the limited production release of the Windows Azure platform appliance, a turnkey cloud platform for large service providers and enterprises to run in their own datacenters. Customers and initial partners such as Dell using the appliance in their datacenters will have the scale-out application platform and datacenter efficiency of Windows Azure and SQL Azure offered by Microsoft today.

Dell Data Center Solutions (DCS) has been working with Microsoft to build out and power Windows Azure platform since its launch. Dell will leverage the insight it has gained as a primary infrastructure partner for the Windows Azure platform to ensure that the Dell-powered Windows Azure platform appliance is optimized for power and space to save ongoing operating costs, and performance of high-scale cloud services.

Dell is a top provider of cloud computing infrastructure and has a client roster that includes 21 of the top 25 most heavily trafficked Internet sites and four of the top five global search engines. Dell has been custom-designing infrastructure solutions for the leading global cloud service providers and hyperscale datacenter operators for the past three years. Through this customer insight, Dell has developed deep expertise about the specialized needs of organizations in hosting, high-performance computing, Web 2.0, gaming, social networking, energy, SaaS, and public and private cloud builders.

Cloud Services Reduce Complexity and Increase Efficiency

With the combined experience of Perot Systems and Dell, Dell Services delivers vertically focused cloud solutions, unencumbered by traditional labor-intensive business models. Dell Service operates clouds today, delivering managed and support services-as-a-service to over 11,000 global customers. Plus, Dell has a full suite of services designed to help customers take advantage of public and private cloud models. The new Dell PaaS powered by the Windows Azure platform appliance will allow Dell to offer customers an expanded suite of services including cloud-based hosting and transformational services to help organizations move applications to the cloud.

Quotes

“Organizations are looking for innovative ways to use IT to increase their responsiveness to business needs and drive greater efficiency. With the Microsoft partnership and the Windows Azure platform appliance, Dell is expanding our cloud services capabilities to help customers reduce their total costs and increase their ability to succeed. The addition of the Dell-powered Windows Azure platform appliance marks an important expansion of Dell’s leadership, as the No. 1 provider of cloud computing infrastructure,” said Peter Altabef, president, Dell Services.

“Microsoft and Dell have been building, implementing and operating massive cloud operations for years. This extension of our long-standing partnership will allow customers to use cloud computing to focus on what matters most for their business — building innovative capabilities and driving new revenue,” said Bob Muglia, president, Microsoft Server and Tools Business. …

Fujitsu

The Fujitsu and Microsoft Expand Partnership to Provide Global Cloud Computing release comes with a “Microsoft announces that Windows Azure platform will run in Fujitsu’s datacenters; Fujitsu to offer new cloud services based on Windows Azure” preface:

TOKYO and REDMOND, Wash. — July 12, 2010 — Fujitsu Ltd. and Microsoft Corp. today announced a new worldwide cloud computing partnership that enables Fujitsu to deploy the Windows Azure platform appliance in Fujitsu datacenters. Fujitsu will deliver a comprehensive set of new cloud services and solutions, including system integration, cloud migration and managed services, to customers and independent software vendors (ISVs). Fujitsu will also run its own applications on the Windows Azure platform appliance. The new Fujitsu cloud services and solutions based on the Windows Azure platform will be available first in Fujitsu’s datacenters in Japan, starting at the Fujitsu Tatebayashi System Center by the end of 2010, to be followed by other locations around the world. In addition to the appliance, Fujitsu will be providing services on the Windows Azure platform to customers on a global basis.

Microsoft is investing deeply to enable the transformation of cloud computing, while the Windows Azure platform appliance will add to Fujitsu’s cloud portfolio by supporting three modes of cloud consumption identified by Fujitsu — infrastructure as a service, applications as a service and activity as a service. Activity as a service allows customers to subscribe to business services, specified in business rather than technology terms, and it represents a significant shift in the way the IT industry creates value, with the emergence of new business models to create new services. As a result of the expanded partnership between Fujitsu and Microsoft, customers will be able to easily address new business scenarios that require rapid scaling of applications and obtain services that are predictable and immediately consumable.

“Fujitsu has a vision of a prosperous, human-centric, intelligent, networked society, and this strategic global partnership with Microsoft is a major step forward in being able to realize this,” said Kazuo Ishida, corporate senior executive vice president, responsible for ICT Services Business, Fujitsu. “Through this alliance, we are providing our customers with a new array of possibilities in cloud computing. Our partnership with Microsoft truly reflects Fujitsu’s cloud strategy and will no doubt break new ground in contributing to the creation of an IT-networked society.”

Microsoft also announced today at its Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, D.C., the limited production release of the Windows Azure platform appliance, a turnkey cloud platform for large service providers and enterprises to run their own datacenters. Customers and initial partners such as Fujitsu using the appliance in their datacenters will have the scale out application platform and datacenter efficiency of Windows Azure and SQL Azure offered by Microsoft today.

“We believe the introduction of the Windows Azure platform appliance marks an important industry milestone in the transformation to cloud computing,” said Bob Muglia, president of Server and Tools Business at Microsoft. “By extending the power of our cloud platform to customer and service provider datacenters like Fujitsu, we are paving the way for more customers to fully realize the business benefits of the cloud.”

In addition to deploying the Windows Azure platform appliance in Fujitsu’s datacenters, the partnership also involves both companies, combining their strengths to develop a Fujitsu-branded Windows Azure platform appliance that customers will be able to purchase and deploy in their own datacenters, using Fujitsu’s hardware technology.

Fujitsu will also train more than 5,000 consultants and developers to work with customers and ISVs to consult, develop and integrate new and existing applications on the Windows Azure platform. In addition, Fujitsu and Microsoft will develop sales and marketing activities to further promote the new cloud services.

With decades-long experience and a proven track record together, Fujitsu and Microsoft can provide the utmost support in enabling large- and medium-sized businesses to transition and migrate their largest and most complex environments to cloud services — with the added benefit of Fujitsu’s telecommunications and networking expertise to ensure that disruption is minimized and the resulting solution is robust.

More information about today’s announcement is available at the Worldwide Partner Conference virtual pressroom. The blog for Robert Wahbe, corporate vice president, Server and Tools Marketing, Microsoft, is available at http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2010/07/12/realizing-the-promise-of-cloud-with-microsoft.aspx, and on Twitter at #WPC10. …

Microsoft prefaced their HP and Microsoft to Partner on Windows Azure Built on HP Converged Infrastructure press release with “Collaboration to help transition customers to cloud computing:”

PALO ALTO, Calif., and REDMOND, Wash. — July 12, 2010 — HP and Microsoft today announced their intention to work together on a Microsoft Windows Azure platform appliance that will enable large enterprise customers to confidently and rapidly adopt cloud-based applications as businesses needs change and grow.

The companies will work together to deliver a complete hardware, software, services and sourcing solution that will accelerate customers’ transition to the Windows Azure platform. Customers will be able to manage the appliance with HP Converged Infrastructure on-premises or choose HP data center hosting services.

Enterprise customers adopting cloud services need a comprehensive approach, including application modernization support, an optimized infrastructure platform and flexible sourcing options. With the new Windows Azure platform appliance, HP and Microsoft will help customers rapidly scale applications, deliver new online services, and migrate Windows and .NET-based applications to the cloud. This latest collaboration extends the $250 million Infrastructure-to-Application initiatives HP and Microsoft announced in January and will result in HP delivering these offerings:

Data center hosting services. HP Enterprise Services will combine deep systems management expertise, standardized processes and world-class secure data centers to manage the Windows Azure platform appliances for HP customers. HP and Microsoft plan to release a limited production Windows Azure platform appliance for deployment in HP data centers by the end of the year.

Converged infrastructure for Windows Azure. HP’s current position as a primary infrastructure provider for the Windows Azure platform, coupled with HP and Microsoft’s ongoing efforts to optimize Microsoft applications for HP’s Converged Infrastructure through extensive joint engineering and development, will allow HP to deliver an industry-leading cloud deployment experience for its customers. The Converged Infrastructure for the Windows Azure platform appliance will include the following:

HP Networking, which delivers to customers a flexible network fabric that is simpler, higher-performing and more secure, at up to 65 percent lower cost of ownership than competitive solutions.*

HP ProLiant servers, which are highly dense, highly scalable computing platforms that help customers speed application delivery, better utilize IT resources and achieve strong returns on investments.

The appliance can be deployed in HP Performance-Optimized Datacenters (PODs), which deliver improved power and data center capacity as well as rapid data center expansion. HP PODs allow customers to increase capacity without the capital expense of brick-and-mortar construction. They will be used in addition to traditional data center deployments.

Application modernization, migration and integration services for Windows applications. HP’s expertise in complex environments, specific industries, frameworks, processes and resources will help customers modernize, migrate and integrate their applications while balancing costs and speed when adopting the Windows Azure platform.

“Customers want to refocus their resources in managing their business and out-task IT processes like software acquisition and maintenance,” said Sean Kenny, senior vice president, Worldwide Applications and Business Process Outsourcing, HP Enterprise Services. “HP is the only technology company that can combine the Windows Azure platform with the industry’s best people, processes and Converged Infrastructure technology to remove the complexity of migrating applications to the cloud.”

“Microsoft and HP will align engineering, sales and professional services to provide enterprise customers a full range of cloud services and technologies where they want it and how they want it,” said Bob Muglia, president of the Server and Tools Business at Microsoft. “By adopting the Windows Azure platform appliance, customers will have a clear path to adopt a proven cloud platform that integrates with their existing investments and expertise. The Windows Azure platform appliance will provide customers with a turnkey solution to address new business scenarios that require rapid scaling of applications and deliver services that are predictable, immediately consumable and more cost-effective.” …

eBay

Microsoft PR finally rings in with “Microsoft unveils new Windows Azure platform appliance for cloud computing; eBay signs up as early customer” the preface to eBay and Microsoft Announce Cloud Computing Agreement, a customer testimonial of 7/12/2010 from eBay:

WASHINGTON — July 12, 2010 — Microsoft Corp. and eBay [NASDAQ: EBAY] today announced that eBay will be one of the first customers of Microsoft’s new Windows Azure platform appliance for cloud computing. The partnership is a significant joint engineering effort that will couple the innovation and power of the Windows Azure platform appliance with the technical excellence of eBay’s platform — to deliver an automated, scalable, cost-effective capacity management solution.

Microsoft also announced the limited production release of the Windows Azure platform appliance, the first turnkey cloud platform for large service providers and enterprises to deploy in their own datacenters. eBay will incorporate the Windows Azure platform appliance into two of its datacenters to further optimize its platform and achieve greater strategic agility and datacenter efficiency.

This partnership follows a successful pilot deployment by eBay of Microsoft’s public Windows Azure platform, which offers eBay the flexibility to deploy certain applications on a public cloud while maintaining the reliability and availability of eBay.com. eBay’s page for iPad listings — http://ipad.ebay.com— is hosted on the public Windows Azure platform.

“Microsoft’s focus on and investment in the Windows Azure platform appliance shows it is committed to world-class cloud computing solutions. eBay has the right blueprint for next-generation software-as-a-service-based applications with our platform’s architecture, scale and reliability, ” said James Barrese, eBay vice president of technology. “Joint engineering on the Windows Azure platform appliance with eBay’s massive, high-volume systems allows Microsoft to demonstrate its leadership in this space and helps eBay improve our user experience through a flexible, scalable and cost-effective solution.”

The Windows Azure platform appliance consists of Windows Azure, Microsoft SQL Azure and a Microsoft-specified configuration of network, storage and server hardware. The appliance is optimized for scale out applications and datacenter efficiency across hundreds to tens of thousands of servers.

“eBay has one of the world’s largest ecommerce platforms, and we believe the Windows Azure platform appliance provides the scalability, automation, datacenter efficiency and low cost of operations that eBay requires to meet the needs of its customers worldwide, ” said Bob Muglia, president of Server and Tools Business, Microsoft.

eBay and Microsoft will deploy the Windows Azure platform appliance this year. …

Press Releases from Dell, Fujitsu, HP and eBay

Following are corresponding press releases from the three WAPA partners and customer. With the exception of Fujitsu, the companies’ and Microsoft’s version of the press releases are almost identical.

Dell

Dell Expands Cloud Strategy and Services With Microsoft Windows Azure Platform Appliance of 7/12/2010 appears to duplicate Microsoft’s version above:

Today at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference, Dell and Microsoft Corp. announced a strategic partnership in which Dell intends to use the Windows Azure platform appliance, introduced by Microsoft today, as a part of its Dell Services Cloud to develop and deliver next-generation cloud services. The Windows Azure platform appliance will allow Dell to deliver private and public cloud services for Dell and its enterprise, public, small and medium-sized business customers. Dell will also work with Microsoft to develop a Dell-powered Windows Azure platform appliance for enterprise organizations to run in their data centers.

The News

Dell Services will begin implementing the limited production release of the Windows Azure platform appliance to host public and private clouds for its customers, leveraging its vertical industry expertise in providing options for the efficient delivery of flexible application hosting and IT operations. Dell Services will also provide advisory services, application migration, and integration and implementation services.

Dell will work with Microsoft to develop a Windows Azure platform appliance for large enterprise, public and hosting customers to deploy in their own data centers. The appliance will leverage infrastructure from Dell combined with the Windows Azure platform.

Cloud Computing Responds to Changing Business Needs
Dell and Microsoft understand cloud computing delivers significant efficiencies in infrastructure costs and allows IT to be more responsive to business needs. Recognizing that more organizations can benefit from the flexibility and efficiency of the Windows Azure platform, Dell and Microsoft have partnered to deliver an appliance to power a Dell platform-as-a-service (Peas) Cloud.

Microsoft announced today at its Worldwide Partner Conference here the limited production release of the Windows Azure platform appliance, a turnkey cloud platform for large service providers and enterprises to run in their own data centers. Customers and initial partners like Dell using the appliance in their data centers will have the scale-out application platform and data center efficiency of Windows Azure and SQL Azure offered by Microsoft today.

Dell Data Center Solutions (DCS) has been working with Microsoft to build out and power Windows Azure platform since its launch. Dell will leverage the insight it has gained as a primary infrastructure partner for the Windows Azure platform to ensure that the Dell-powered Windows Azure platform appliance is optimized for power and space to save ongoing operating costs, and performance of high-scale cloud services.

Dell is a top provider of cloud computing infrastructure and its client roster includes 20 of the top 25 most heavily trafficked Internet sites and four of the top global search engines. Dell has been custom-designing infrastructure solutions for the leading global cloud service providers and hyperscale data center operators for the past three years. Through this customer insight, Dell has developed deep expertise about the specialized needs of organizations in hosting, HPC, Web 2.0, gaming, social networking, energy, SaaS, plus public and private cloud builders.

Cloud Services Reduce Complexity and Increase Efficiency
With the combined experience of Perot Systems and Dell, Dell Services delivers vertically-focused cloud solutions, unencumbered by traditional labor-intensive business models. Dell Services operates clouds today, delivering managed and support software-as-a-service to more than 10,000 global customers. In addition, Dell has a comprehensive suite of services designed to help customers take advantage of public and private cloud models. The new Dell PaaS powered by the Windows Azure platform appliance will allow Dell to offer customers an expanded suite of services, including cloud-based hosting and transformational services to help organizations move applications to the cloud.

Quotes
"Organizations are looking for innovative ways to use IT to increase their responsiveness to business needs and drive greater efficiency. With the Microsoft partnership and the Windows Azure platform appliance, Dell is expanding its cloud services capabilities to help customers reduce their total costs and increase their ability to succeed. The addition of the Dell-powered Windows Azure platform appliance marks an important expansion of Dell's leadership as a top provider of cloud computing infrastructure." - Peter Altabef, president, Dell Services.

“Microsoft and Dell have been building, implementing and operating massive cloud operations for years. Now we are extending our longstanding partnership to help usher in the new era of cloud computing, by giving customers and partners the ability to deploy the Windows Azure platform in their own datacenters.” – Bob Muglia, president, Microsoft Server and Tools Business.

Fujitsu

Fujitsu jumped the #WPC10 gun by announcing its WAPA partnership three days early on Friday, 7/10/2010 without divulging specific product details.

The following items are copied from Windows Azure and Cloud Computing Posts for 7/9/2010+. Items marked •• were added on 7/12/2010, marked • were added on 7/11/2010 and unmarked items are from 7/10/2010:

•• Sam Mamudi reported Microsoft, Fujitsu team up on cloud computing: WSJ for MarketWatch on 7/10/2010:

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Microsoft Corp. and Japan's Fujitsu Ltd. will likely announce in the coming week an agreement to join forces in cloud computing, according to a media report Saturday.

Microsoft … and Fujitsu … already have decided to team up, The Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition, citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter.

Cloud computing is seen as the next big step in software services, providing online software, resources and information to computers on demand.

The Journal said the joint effort will give Microsoft access to Fujitsu's data centers and customer base. It will see Fujitsu offer Microsoft's Windows Azure, which gives Internet-based access to Windows software stored at data centers.

The Journal added that Fujitsu will set up platforms for cloud computing at data centers in the U.K., Australia, Singapore, Germany and the U.S. by the end of the fiscal year. Fujitsu plans to spend $1.1 billion on cloud computing-related businesses during this fiscal year, an amount that includes research and development as well as capital expenditure.

The paper added that on Friday Fujitsu President Masami Yamamoto said the company wants to broaden its global alliances in an effort to boost its cloud computing-related services.

• Nikkei.com reported on 7/9/2010 Fujitsu, Microsoft Unite To Take Cloud Computing Global via the Wall Street Journal and CloudTweaks (see related article below):

Fujitsu Ltd. (FJTSY, 6702.TO) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) will share data centers worldwide in a bid to catch up to Google Inc. (GOOG) and other pioneers in the business of providing software and computing services online, the Nikkei reported Friday.

The effort will combine Microsoft software with Fujitsu customer service to speed both firms’ expansion into cloud computing.

Fujitsu operates 90 or so data centers in 16 countries. As early as this year, it will begin hosting Microsoft cloud services at its Tatebayashi center in Gunma Prefecture. It plans to do the same at locations in the U.S., the U.K., Singapore and elsewhere, equipping them with the necessary technology. In deciding to work with Microsoft, Fujitsu acknowledges that its own cloud services have limited prospects for growth abroad.

Microsoft is racing to expand its cloud services worldwide, having opened massive data centers in Chicago and Dublin last year. But the U.S. firm has been stretched thin in customer support and other areas and will seek to reinforce them in cooperation with Fujitsu. Microsoft also believes that teaming with Fujitsu will help it make customers of globalizing Japanese companies.

The partners are considering joint investment in new data centers, which cost tens of billions of yen to build.

Microsoft this January introduced Windows Azure, which gives businesses Internet-based access to Windows software stored at Microsoft data centers instead of on their own computers. Through its partnership with Microsoft, Fujitsu will try to tap this base of Windows users.

Salesforce.com, a leader in cloud services, has about 77,000 customers worldwide, including the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Sompo Japan Insurance Inc. Google invested around 700 billion yen in its cloud computing business from 2006 to 2009. Among its customers in Japan is toilet manufacturer Toto Ltd. (5332.TO).

Both firms are pushing more aggressively into Japan, threatening domestic information technology giants. Fujitsu will seek to counter this challenge by working with Microsoft to build a global presence in cloud computing.

The world market for cloud computing will grow to $55.5 billion in 2014 from $16 billion in 2009, reckons U.S. research firm IDC. Japan’s IT industry is hampered by its inability to offer the same level of cloud services worldwide even as more domestic firms globalize.

I expect many Microsoft partners at WPC 2010 will be very unhappy about the new competition from this 800-lb, ¥5 trillion (USD$50 billion) Asian gorilla. Fujitsu (along with HP) is a WPC 2010 sponsor.

Note: Reading the Nikkei or WSJ articles requires a paid subscription.

Pat Romanski reported Fujitsu Pins Future On Cloud Computing Services in this 7/9/2010 post:

After drastic restructuring in its device businesses, Fujitsu Ltd. is counting on cloud computing-related services to lead its long-term earnings growth and overseas expansion.

The president of the Japanese technology firm said Friday that he expects cloud computing-related businesses to generate about ¥1.3 trillion to ¥1.5 trillion in revenue in the fiscal year ending March 2016. Such businesses currently generate revenue of only about ¥100 billion.

"Our medium- and long-term growth depends on cloud computing," said President Masami Yamamoto at a press briefing.

Yamamoto added that he expects about 30% of Fujitsu's technology service operations will be cloud computing-related in the fiscal year through March 2016.

His comments come as Fujitsu tries to concentrate more on its mainstay technology services operations, after going through restructuring to reduce its exposure to volatile and capital-intensive businesses such as semiconductor production and hard disk drives. The company is trying to pitch itself to corporate customers as an all-in-one provider of hardware, software and services in the style of International Business Machines Corp., and is pushing to get more revenue from abroad.

"We no longer have any loss-making segments...it's time for us to be more aggressive," Yamamoto said.

Pinning its hope on the expected worldwide diffusion of next-generation computing services that are accessed online, Fujitsu plans to spend Y100 billion on cloud computing-related businesses in the current fiscal year, including on research and development as well as for capital expenditure.

The company also plans to have 5,000 cloud computing specialists on its staff by the end of March 2012. Yamamoto said that Fujitsu's clients will benefit from those specialists when they adopt the so-called software-as-a-service business model, which is expected to gradually replace the traditional model of selling software in packages to be installed on individual computers.

Fujitsu plans to set up platforms for cloud computing at its existing data centers in the U.K., Australia, Singapore, Germany and the U.S. by the end of the current fiscal year. It is also spending several billion yen on a new data center currently under construction in southern China, which will begin to operate next year, Yamamoto said.

The company also plans to strengthen its global alliances to make its cloud computing-related services more comprehensive and competitive. "We are looking for partners who can provide what our services are missing," Yamamoto said. In a recent interview with Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal, Yamamoto said the company was looking to buy technology service providers with a strong customer base or software companies who provide so-called "middleware," a type of software that makes applications compatible with different computer platforms.

In its medium-term earnings goals set last year, Fujitsu continues to aim for an operating profit of ¥250 billion and revenue of ¥5 trillion in the fiscal year through March 2012. …

Stuart Wilson reported Flore leaves Fujitsu Technology Solutions on 7/9/2010:

Fujitsu Technology Solutions recently announced that it had parted company with president and CEO Kai Flore. In a short statement, Fujitsu Technology Solutions confirmed that Flore would leave the company and his position as president and CEO has ceased with immediate effect. The company’s chairman, Richard Christou, will take on the role of executive chairman until Flore’s successor is identified. The search for a new president and CEO is already underway. The management council will now report into Christou.

Christou is corporate senior executive VP of Fujitsu Limited, responsible for the group’s business in all markets outside Japan. Christou has steered business outside Japan since June 2008 as president of the global business group. From 2000 to 2007, Christou was executive chairman of European subsidiary Fujitsu Services, expanding it into the second-largest services provider to the UK government and Fujitsu’s largest single business outside Japan.

Fujitsu has not divulged reasons for Flore’s sudden departure. Flore had played a major role in defining Fujitsu Technology Solutions remit and services offering. Fujitsu Technology Solutions employs more than 13,000 people and is part of the global Fujitsu Group.

•• YouReader adds background to Flore’s departure in its Fujitsu Technology Solutions loses CEO post of 7/8/2010:

A bald statement from Fujitsu Technology Solutions (FTS) says president and CEO Kai Flore is no longer in post. A search for a new President & CEO is already underway and Richard Cristou is keeping the seat warm until the new CEO is found.

Flore became FTS CEO on November 3rd, 2008, when Fujitsu bought out the Siemens interest in Fujitsu Siemens Computer (FSC) , after being appointed chief strategy officer in 2007. Prior to that he was the FSC CFO. One source says he has now been fired.

Now Christou is no bagman from below. He is a, wait for it, Corporate Senior Executive Vice President of Fujitsu Limited, and responsible for the group’s business in all markets outside Japan; a direct report to God in other words. He was a Corporate SVP and head of the EMEA operations of Fujitsu from March 2007 to June 2008 when he ascended the ladder to become a Corporate Senior Exec VP.

Flore resigned or was ejected on or just before June 24. Christou then took on the role of Executive Chairman at FTS, having been the chairman since March 2007. It looks like he fired Flore.

Earlier in June there was another big exec deckchair move at Fujitsu, with Tony Doye joining from Unisys to become president and CEO of Fujitsu America. Christou provide a laudatory quote in the announcement release: "Fujitsu is pleased to welcome Tony Doye to the helm at Fujitsu America. Tony comes to us with proven expertise in creating and delivering solutions that improve client service levels and increase innovation. His deep experience in information and communications technology services will usher in a new phase of growth as Fujitsu expands in North America."

In March 2009 Farhat Ali was the CEO for Fujitsu America and it appears he was not the right man to "improve client service levels and increase innovation [and] usher in a new phase of growth." Out he went.

Is one person responsible for these CEO-level changes and is that Richard Christou, or does the responsibility lie higher still? What prompted them?

We note that on April 1st, 2010 Masami Yamamoto, who had been a corporate senior vice president and president of Fujitsu's Systems Products Business group, became president of the entire Fujitsu conglomerate, with a focus on getting the group back to profitability.

So we have a new overall Fujitsu group boss taking charge in April this year with the profitability focus. In June Fujitsu America gets a new CEO and there is talk of a "new phase of growth," while also in June the FTS CEO seems to have been dismissed.

The thread that's emerging here is one of Fujitsu's new boss insisting that subsidiaries in America and Europe deliver much more growth, and two exec heads have been put on the block and chopped off to show he means business. FTS was not immediately able to answer any questions on the matter.

Flore and Doye aren’t the only recent problem in Fujitsu’s executive ranks. The tail of the preceding post provides another example:

… Fujitsu is also trying to overcome its recent scandal surrounding the departure of a former president. The company initially said in September that then-president Kuniaki Nozoe was stepping down because of illness. After Nozoe went public with a claim of wrongful dismissal, Fujitsu changed its explanation, saying he had associated with an investment fund with suspected ties to organized crime--claims that he denies.

"As you can see in the improvements in our earnings, the dispute with Mr. Nozoe has had very little impact on our businesses," Yamamoto said. "Our clients continue to trust us."

HP

HP’s HP and Microsoft to Partner on Windows Azure Built on HP Converged Infrastructure release of 7/12/2010 is another Microsoft duplicate but with different formatting:

HP and Microsoft today announced their intention to work together on a Microsoft Windows Azure platform appliance that will enable large enterprise customers to confidently and rapidly adopt cloud-based applications as businesses needs change and grow.

The companies will work together to deliver a complete hardware, software, services and sourcing solution that will accelerate customers’ transition to the Windows Azure platform. Customers will be able to manage the appliance with HP Converged Infrastructure on-premises or choose HP data center hosting services.

Enterprise customers adopting cloud services need a comprehensive approach, including application modernization support, an optimized infrastructure platform as well as flexible sourcing options. With the new Windows Azure platform appliance, HP and Microsoft will help customers rapidly scale applications, deliver new online services and migrate Windows and .NET-based applications to the cloud. This latest collaboration extends the $250 million Infrastructure-to-Application initiatives HP and Microsoft announced in January and will result in HP delivering:

Data center hosting services – HP Enterprise Services will combine deep systems management expertise, standardized processes and world-class secure data centers to manage the Windows Azure platform appliances for HP customers. HP and Microsoft plan to release a limited production Windows Azure platform appliance for deployment in HP data centers by the end of the year.

Converged Infrastructure for Windows Azure – HP’s current position as a primary infrastructure provider for the Windows Azure platform, coupled with HP and Microsoft’s ongoing efforts to optimize Microsoft applications for HP’s Converged Infrastructure through extensive joint engineering and development, will allow HP to deliver an industry-leading cloud deployment experience for its customers. The Converged Infrastructure for the Windows Azure platform appliance will include:

HP Networking, which delivers to customers a flexible network fabric that is simpler, higher-performing and more secure, at up to 65 percent lower cost of ownership than competitive solutions.⁽¹⁾

HP ProLiant servers, which are highly dense, highly scalable computing platforms that help customers speed application delivery, better utilize IT resources and achieve strong returns on investments.

The appliance can be deployed in HP Performance-Optimized Datacenters (PODs), which deliver improved power and data center capacity as well as rapid data center expansion. HP PODs allow customers to increase capacity without the capital expense of brick-and-mortar construction. They will be used in addition to traditional data center deployments.

Application modernization, migration and integration services for Windows applications – HP’s expertise in complex environments, specific industries, frameworks, processes and resources will help customers modernize, migrate and integrate their applications while balancing costs and speed when adopting the Windows Azure platform.

“Customers want to refocus their resources in managing their business and out-task IT processes like software acquisition and maintenance,” said Sean Kenny, senior vice president, Worldwide Applications and Business Process Outsourcing, HP Enterprise Services. “HP is the only technology company that can combine the Windows Azure platform with the industry’s best people, processes and Converged Infrastructure technology to remove the complexity of migrating applications to the cloud.”

”Microsoft and HP will align engineering, sales and professional services to provide enterprise customers a full-range of cloud services and technologies where they want it and how they want it,” said Bob Muglia, president of Server and Tools Business, Microsoft Corp. “By adopting the Windows Azure platform appliance, customers will have a clear path to adopt a proven cloud platform that integrates with their existing investments and expertise. The Windows Azure platform appliance will provide customers with a turn-key solution to address new business scenarios that require rapid scaling of applications and deliver services that are predictable, immediately consumable and more cost effective.” …

eBay

eBay’s eBay and Microsoft Announce Cloud Computing Agreement release prefaced “Microsoft Unveils New Windows Azure Platform Appliance for Cloud Computing; eBay Signs up as Early Customer” is another Microsoft PR duplicate:

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Microsoft Corp. and eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) today announced that eBay will be one of the first customers of Microsoft’s new Windows Azure platform appliance for cloud computing. This is a significant joint engineering effort that will couple the innovation and power of the Windows Azure platform appliance with the technical excellence of eBay’s platform – to deliver an automated, scalable, cost-effective datacenter solution.

“Microsoft’s focus on and investment in the Windows Azure platform appliance shows they are committed to world-class cloud computing solutions. eBay has the right blueprint for next-generation software-as-a-service-based applications with our platform’s architecture, scale and reliability”

The Windows Azure platform appliance is the first turnkey cloud platform for large service providers and enterprises to deploy in their own datacenters. eBay will incorporate the Windows Azure platform appliance into two of its data centers to further optimize its platform and achieve greater strategic agility and datacenter efficiency.

This announcement follows a successful pilot deployment by eBay of Microsoft’s public Windows Azure platform, which offers eBay the flexibility to deploy certain applications on a public cloud while maintaining the reliability and availability of eBay.com. eBay’s page for iPad listings – http://ipad.ebay.com – is hosted on the public Windows Azure platform.

“Microsoft’s focus on and investment in the Windows Azure platform appliance shows they are committed to world-class cloud computing solutions. eBay has the right blueprint for next-generation software-as-a-service-based applications with our platform’s architecture, scale and reliability,” said James Barrese, eBay vice president of technology. “Joint engineering on the Windows Azure platform appliance with eBay’s massive, high-volume systems allows Microsoft to demonstrate its leadership in this space and helps eBay improve our user experience through a flexible, scalable and cost-effective solution.”

The Windows Azure platform appliance consists of Windows Azure, Microsoft SQL Azure and a Microsoft-specified configuration of network, storage and server hardware. The appliance is optimized for scale out applications and data center efficiency across hundreds to tens of thousands of servers.

“eBay has one of the world’s largest ecommerce platforms, meeting the wide-ranging needs of customers around the world. We are thrilled to work with such a technology and business leader as we help foster the new era of cloud computing with the Windows Azure platform appliance,” said Bob Muglia, president of Server and Tools Business, Microsoft Corp.

eBay and Microsoft will deploy the Windows Azure platform appliance this year. …

From the Competitors’ Camps

• In an attempt to steal some attention from WPC10’s WAPA announcement, Werner Vogels’ (@werner) Expanding the Cloud - Cluster Compute Instances for Amazon EC2 posted on 7/13/2010 to his All Things Distributed blog an explanation of Amazon Web Services’ new HPC feature:

Today, Amazon Web Services took very an important step in unlocking the advantages of cloud computing for a very important application area. Cluster Computer Instances for Amazon EC2 are a new instance type specifically designed for High Performance Computing applications. Customers with complex computational workloads such as tightly coupled, parallel processes, or with applications that are very sensitive to network performance, can now achieve the same high compute and networking performance provided by custom-built infrastructure while benefiting from the elasticity, flexibility and cost advantages of Amazon EC2

During my academic career, I spent many years working on HPC technologies such as user-level networking interfaces, large scale high-speed interconnects, HPC software stacks, etc. In those days, my main goal was to take the advances in building the highly dedicated High Performance Cluster environments and turn them into commodity technologies for the enterprise to use. Not just for HPC but for mission critical enterprise systems such as OLTP. Today, I am very proud to be a part of the Amazon Web Services team as we truly make HPC available as an on-demand commodity for every developer to use.

HPC and Amazon EC2

Almost immediately after the launch of Amazon EC2, our customers started to use it for High Performance Computing. Early users included some Wall Street firms who knew exactly how to balance the scale of computation against the quality of the results they needed to create a competitive edge. They have run thousands of instances of complex Monte Carlo simulations at night to determine how to be ready at market open. Other industries using Amazon EC2 for HPC-style workloads include pharmaceuticals, oil exploration, industrial and automotive design, media and entertainment, and more.

Further computationally intensive, highly parallel workloads have found their way to Amazon EC2 as businesses have explored using HPC types of algorithms for other application categories, for example to to process very large unstructured data sets for Business Intelligence applications. This has led to strong growth in the popularity of Hadoop and Map Reduce technologies, including Amazon Elastic Map Reduce as a tool for making it easy to run these compute jobs by taking away much of the heavy lifting normally associated with running large Hadoop clusters.

As much as Amazon EC2 and Elastic Map Reduce have been successful in freeing some HPC customers with highly parallelized workloads from the typical challenges of HPC infrastructure in capital investment and the associated heavy operation lifting, there were several classes of HPC workloads for which the existing instance types of Amazon EC2 have not been the right solution. In particular this has been true for applications based on algorithms - often MPI-based - that depend on frequent low-latency communication and/or require significant cross sectional bandwidth. Additionally, many high-end HPC applications take advantage of knowing their in-house hardware platforms to achieve major speedup by exploiting the specific processor architecture. There has been no easy way for developers to do this in Amazon EC2... until today.

Introducing Cluster Compute Instances for Amazon EC2

Cluster Computer Instances are similar to other Amazon EC2 instances but have been specifically engineered to provide high performance compute and networking. Cluster Compute Instances can be grouped as cluster using a "cluster placement group" to indicate that these are instances that require low-latency, high bandwidth communication. When instances are placed in a cluster they have access to low latency, non-blocking 10 Gbps networking when communicating [with] the other instances in the cluster.

Next, Cluster Compute Instances are specified down to the processor type so developers can squeeze optimal performance out of them using compiler architecture-specific optimizations. At launch Cluster Computer Instances for Amazon EC2 will have 2 Intel Xeon X5570 (also known as quad core i7 or Nehalem) processors.

Unlocking the benefits of the cloud for the HPC community

Cluster Compute Instances for Amazon EC2 change the HPC game for two important reasons:

Access to scalable on-demand capacity

Dedicated High Performance Compute clusters require significant capital investments and their procurement often has longer lead times than many enterprise class server systems. This means that most HPC systems are constrained in one or more dimensions by the time that they become operational. As a result, HPC systems are typically shared resources with long queues of jobs waiting to be executed and many users have to be very careful not to exceed their capacity allocation for that period. Cluster Compute Instances for Amazon EC2 bring the advantages of cloud computing to this class of High Performance Computing removing the need for upfront capital investments and giving users access to HPC capacity on demand at the exact scale that they require for their application.

Commoditizing the management of HPC resources

Traditionally we have thought about HPC as the domain of extreme specialism; the kind of research that only happens at places such as the US National Research Labs. These labs have access to some of the world's fastest supercomputers and have dedicated staff to keep them running and fully loaded 365 days a year. But there is a much larger category of potential HPC users beyond these top supercomputer specialists, including even within the more mid-range HPC workloads of these labs such as Lawrence Berkeley National Labs where they have been early successful users of the new Cluster Compute Instances.

Many organizations are using mid-range HPC systems for their enterprise and research needs. Given the specialized nature of these platforms, they require dedicated resources to maintain and operate and put a big burden on the IT organization. Cluster Compute Instances for Amazon EC2 removes the heavy lifting of the operational burden typically associated with HPC systems. There is no more need for hardware tinkering to keep the clusters up and running (I spent many nights doing this; there is no glory in it). These instance types are managed exactly the way other Amazon EC2 instances are managed which allows users to capitalize on the investment they have already made in that area.

More information

If you are looking for more information on Cluster Compute Instances for Amazon EC2 visit our HPC Solutions page. Jeff Barr in his blog post on the AWS developer blog has additional details and there are some great testimonials of early Cluster Compute Instances customers in the press release.

• Alex Williams reported VMware: Drops Prices by Half for Small Business Market in a post to the ReadWriteCloud blog on 7/13/2010:

VMware is changing the pricing model to a more pay as you go basis and is cutting by half the cost of its low-end offerings for the small business market.

The pricing changes are a reminder of how competitive it is getting as virtualization technologies become a means for deploying private clouds.

Microsoft this week announced it own initiative to launch private cloud environments at its Worldwide Part[n]ers conference. Microsoft is in alliance with Citrix, a competitor to VMware. For hardware, Microsoft has formed alliances with Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Fujitsu.

VMware has another approach. Its strategy is to help data centers run, secure and manage applications in the private cloud or have them bridged on-demand to partner-hosted public clouds.

It is apparent that VMware is trying to increase the pressure on Microsoft while also responding to criticism about its higher prices.

Under the new pricing for VMware vCenter products, customers will now be charged for which virtual machines that get powered. So, for example, if a client has purchased 10,000 virtual machines in the previous 12 months then it will only pays for the virtual machines it powers up. The pricing is effective September 1.

The model borrows from cloud computing services. It's clear the intention is to provide more attractive ways to get customers to scale its use of virtualization services but on a pay as you go basis. Customers have been asking for this change as they commit more deeply to virtualization.

This in turn provides insight into VMWare's plan to reduce by half the cost of its software for the small business market. VMware is seeing some of its most significant growth with small businesses. VSphere Essentials is VMware's most affordable virtualization platform. It will now cost $495 for six CPUs, or $83 per processor. That is down from nearly $1,000 for six CPUs.

VMware is also announcing it is tripling the power of its virtual management environment, providing the capability to for its VMware vCenter Server to maintain up to 15,000 virtual machines.

The new upgrade is designed to increase the scalability of the platform to support cloud computing service providers.

VMware's news goes into far deeper detail on issues such as its memory compression technology enhancements and faster migration capabilities.

But the most interesting news is the contrast to Microsoft.

VMware is using its position in the market to create disruptions in pricing models. In turn, its incremental improvements provide the company with the capability to offer easier scaling capabilities with more flexible pricing, helping small businesses most of all.

VMware is a sponsor of the ReadWriteCloud channel

Reuven Cohen of Enomaly asks Should You Build or Buy Your Cloud? in this 7/12/2010 post:

It's the age old question in IT, the question of whether or not to build it yourself or just buy it off the shelf. Lately, I seem to be hearing the questions again and again. It seems that for some reason some IT guys have gotten it into their head that if they adopt a cloud infrastructure platform, either hosted or in house, they're going to lose their jobs. So the only choice is to build it. I think the reasoning is if you build it, you will control it, and your company will have no choice but to keep you around. Unfortunately the answer isn't so cut and dry.
The rationale for building it yourself has been around as long as IT. There have always been various reasons for it, from there weren't any systems that could delivery what we needed, or we're different, we're smarter, we're bigger.. you get the point.

The real question you need to ask yourself is where do you[r] strengths as an organization l[ie]? As a software developer or selling some other core business? For most it's the latter. Building your own cloud software is fraught with risk. One such example is a major hosting firm who spent 16 months building their own cloud IaaS platform only to realize that the assumptions they made about the potential cloud market opportunity had changed and their platform couldn't deliver the technical requirements of their new customer reality. More to the point, their platform wasn't what their targeted customers wanted to buy. Compounding their problem was the platform they built themselves didn't actually work - period. The key system engineer left mid-way through the project, forcing the company to find a replacement as well as inducing a major delay in the development. Additionally poor documentation meant those replacements had no practical way to continue what had been started previously. Needless to say, several million dollars later the project did launch, only to be promptly replaced a by a turn key IaaS platform.

Then there is the question of service differentiation to which I say, if you choose an extensible cloud platform, then you're able to differentiate faster than you could if you build it yourself. Business is about adapting to market conditions. Building it yourself mean longer development cycles and potentially less adaptability. Customizing an existing platform, one that provides you a template for success and best practices is inherently less risky or time consuming. The real question you should be asking is can I deploy this cloud platform in a way that allows my business to be unique? If the answer is no, than find a platform that can. If you still can't find one, then build it yourself. But be prepared that you should now consider yourself a software developer.

As the founder of a IaaS platform vendor, I freely admit I am bias toward buying a platform over building it yourself. My reasoning is simple, our business is building IaaS platforms for service providers. Is it yours? If you answered no, my comment is unless you plan to get into the software business, building it yourself will only serve to add un-need risk, uncertainty and potential failure to your IT operations. Something I think we can all agree you should avoid.

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