After announcing major updates to Windows a few weeks ago Microsoft Corp. offered a new set of cloud computing programs. It unveiled Hyper-V Cloud, that makes it easier for businesses to build their own private cloud infrastructures using the Windows Server platform.

Several hardware manufacturers like Dell Inc., Fujitsu Ltd., Hitachi Ltd., HP, IBM Corp. and NEC Corp. have already signed on as Hyper-V Cloud partners in this current deployment. They will help deliver Microsoft validated infrastructure services to enable organizations to implement private clouds.

Privacy and Security

Apparently, many customers are interested in “Cloud” services and operations but have concerns over things like physical infrastructure and security policies. In response, Microsoft’s new private cloud offerings will satisfy that need at the infrastructure level; meanwhile it will provide a clear migration path to cloud services at the platform level.

Hyper-V Private Clouds

Microsoft has existing technologies that are able to meet the concerns and conditions of “cloud” customers.

• Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft’s server platform, delivers comprehensive virtualization and management capabilities through Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V.
• Microsoft System Center, provides the components that organizations need to implement private clouds.
• Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track program, Microsoft and its partners will deliver a broad choice of predefined, validated configurations for private cloud deployments; this included compute, storage, networking resources, virtualization, and management software.

HP and Microsoft have jointly collaborated on the Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track program and developed HP Cloud Foundation for Hyper-V. This architecture combines Microsoft System Center and Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V with the HP BladeSystem Matrix. It will provide customers with a foundation for running business applications within a private cloud-computing environment.

Additional Hyper-V Cloud Components

Microsoft is not stopping there. Their commitment to the cloud include additional services to make it easier for companies to make the move. Here are three:

Hyper-V Cloud Service Provider Program More than 70 service providers worldwide offer infrastructure as a finished, using Microsoft technology.

Hyper-V Cloud Deployment Guides Microsoft is now offering tools and expert guidance developed during hundreds of Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS) customer engagements over the past few years. For customers who want to build their own private clouds on top of existing infrastructure investments the Microsoft experience can be invaluable.

Hyper-V Cloud Accelerate Finally, to tie it all together, Microsoft is making investments to help customers and partners fund proofs of concept, assessments, and production deployments. They want to make sure that the customer’s needs are satisfied and cloud.

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Coming in 2011 will be Microsoft’s new Cloud services program called Office 365; but starting October 19, Microsoft would be launching a beta version. Microsoft’s cloud based service brings together Office, SharePoint, Exchange, and Lync for organizations. The company is opening a limited beta program for it in 13 countries and regions.

Gone is the Businesss Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) and Live@edu . Microsoft chose the name, Office 365, in order to reflect the everyday of the year dependability feature.

There will be multiple versions: small-business, mid-size/enterprise, educational and government versions of the product, The Office 365 version for Education is the new name to replace Live@Edu.

In addition to the existing suite of BPOS products, Microsoft is also adding Dynamics CRM Online into the Cloud Office 365 suite; it will provide updates to the core products in the suite.

There are other features as well. There is a single sign-on with identity federation and for the console with a redesigned User Interface. A new and beefed up administration and access control is available. There is support for new markets and languages; and an enhanced Syndication partner interface. Microsoft officials said to that consumers can expect some of these features to make an appearance  before the end of 2010. However, do  not to expect them all to show up until sometime in the second half of 2011.

Prices and Costs

Office 365 for users with fewer than 25 employees will be available for $6 per user per month. For enterprises and government organizations, look at about $10 per user per month. The basic offering is at $2 per user per month (note -this was the Deskless Worker). Office Professional Plus software will have a pay-as-you-go operation. For $24 per user per month, Office Professional Plus, will be available. This is the basic Office 365 cloud services.

Google Apps

The primary target for Office 365 appears to Google Apps and other  productivity suites for businesses that have in recent years put significant competitive pressure on Microsoft.

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iWork is an Apple program that make it easy to create spreadsheets, documents, and presentations the “Mac way”. Apple even touts it as being compatible with Microsoft Office.

Apple’s iWork Suite and Excel and Powerpoint The first version was release in 2005. It is a productivity suite much like Microsoft Office. Now, Apple has added export support on iWork for iPad for Excel and PowerPoint. What makes this important is that iWork has its own internal structure when working with numbers and text. Apple released updates for version 1.2 for their iWork touch suite. This involves Keynote, Numbers, and Pages for iPad and Microsoft Office export.

Keynote is Apple’s presentation software. With the Keynote 1.2 product, users can export presentations to Microsoft PowerPoint (.PPT) format. You can also import Microsoft PowerPoint presentations with better reliability and performance.

Numbers is the spreadsheet application associated with the iWork suite. In Numbers 1.2 users can export spreadsheets to Microsoft Excel (.XLS) format; and import Microsoft Excel with fewer problems.

Pages is the word processing application and Apple has a video showing off the main features.

In Pages 1.2 the functionality works better with MS Word. The Font handling and importing and exporting documents is easier to work with fewer problems.

Apple recently released their office suite, iWork, for the iPad in June 2010 as three separate applications. The cost of each is $9.99. There are some major limits with the apps; however, being that they originate and promoted by Apple they, nevertheless, are some of the top selling applications for the iPad.

With the new configuration, iPad users, who prefer some MS Office products, should feel comfortable with the way Apple is making sure that their main applications continue to function outside of their environment. Especially enthralled iPad users. This affords them another reason that supports their decision to use the iPad. They will continue to get from Apple, and Microsoft the products that they need.

Source: Tipd

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At the High Performance Computing Financial Markets Conference, Microsoft announced the immediate availability of Windows HPC Server 2008 R2. This is a comprehensive high-performance computing (HPC) solution. The server offers new capabilities for powerful analysis and can find applications in high-end technical computing workloads in business, educational institutions, and government.

Microsoft High Performance Computing

Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Technical Advancements

Customers can expect Windows HPC Server clusters to run a wide a variety of mission-critical applications, from simulating financial markets to fighting disease to building next-generation vehicles.

A comprehensive solution

With Windows HPC Server, customers do not need to spend additional time and money to piece together multiple technologies. It provides a streamline operation  experience for administrators and users because it is interoperable with the Microsoft IT infrastructure many customers have invested time and money  in applications such as Active Directory, SharePoint Server, Microsoft System Center and Microsoft Office.

New capabilities for more powerful analysis and computation

Microsoft indicates that performance studies show that HPC Services for Excel 2010, for example, in Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 reduces calculation time of huge, complex spreadsheets by orders of magnitude. For example, according to Microsoft, calculations of a workbook with 1,700 records dropped from 14 hours to less than three minutes.

Growing application support

Hundreds of technical computing applications currently run on Windows HPC Server 2008 R2, with a sixteen-fold increase over the past two years. Forty partners announced their support of the Windows HPC platform today.

Extending HPC to the Cloud

The cloud is a key player in Microsoft’s Technical Computing initiative. Microsoft customers will be able to upload HPC workloads from their on-premises data servers to the cloud for  just-in-time processing.

Parallel Development Simplified

There is another tenet of its Technical Computing initiative: Simplifying the development of HPC applications for the new generation of distributed, or parallel, computing resources on client systems, server clusters and in the cloud. With Windows HPC Server 2008 R2, Visual Studio 2010, and partners such as Intel Corporation and NVIDIA Corp., Microsoft provides an integrated parallel computing platform where developers can efficiently design, test, and optimize parallel code for deployment on client, cluster, or cloud computing resources.

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It’s not you haven’t thought about it, but wondered if you really needed it. I talking about your need for a home server. You like the idea of a central server to help administer you home computers, but Windows Server 2008 R2, is a bit of an overkill. You’ld probably be right. So does Microsoft. That’s why they have come up with Windows Home Server.

The Beta Version has many features that are worth looking at including

• Extending media streaming outside the home or office
• Improvements in multi-PC backup and restore
• Simplified setup  user experience
• Expanded customization tools for partners

There are three elements currently available, a download, a forum, and an update section.

Downloads can occur here: HomeServer

What can it do for you?

If you have multiple home PCs with large amounts of music, video, digital photography, and documents, then putting them together to protect, organize, and connect the digital media can be challenging. The home server will help managing your digital information. Here are some highlights of the Home Server:

Source:  Microsoft Connect

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While most of you, Apple fans and haters alike were probably focusing on the events that went on at WWDC earlier today, Microsoft also had their own little event, Teched. At it Microsoft revealed that they are working on service pack 1 (SP1) for Windows 7 and expect to have a public beta version available in July.

There’s been lots of speculation of the possible release date of Windows 7 SP1 and this is the first official news we have of a beta release. Word has it that Microsoft is trying to rush the release of SP1 to try and get more and more businesses etc… to adopt Windows 7 who aren’t generally early adopters like most consumers. Normally you will find that businesses and large corporations wait until SP1 is released to ensure all the bugs and fixes have been ironed out.

I don’t think this is necessary and Microsoft even said it themselves that there is no need to wait for SP1 since Windows 7 is already stable.

SP1 will not contain any new features that are specific to Windows 7 itself. For Windows 7, SP1 will simply be the combination of updates already available through Windows Update and additional hotfixes based on feedback by our customers and partners. In other words, customers can feel confident about deploying Windows 7 now!

Microsoft’s Gavriella Schuster said in a blog post

The Windows Server 2008 R2 is also getting a service pack beta as well and it does have one or two new features. According to the Windows Server Division blog, it will include Remote FX (which provides a virtualized 3-D graphical experience for remote users on both thick and thin clients), along with Dynamic Memory  (this gives users more control over memory usage on a physical host and the ability to dynamically distribute it to virtual machines without remote service interruption). The service pack will also feature virtualization tools that will help users prepare for cloud computing.

The official release of SP1 is expected by the end of 2010, it could possibly be in November. So IT admins should be ready for the SP1 beta next month which will give them a chance to carry out any compatibility and integration testing in preparation for making the transition to Windows 7 SP1.

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If you are a SLQ database administrator or developer, Microsoft Azure will give you with multiple database features normally found on your server. Cloud based computing has received a lot of publicity. Microsoft is presenting a SQL Database called Azure that is a cloud-based relational database service built on the back of existing SQL Server technologies like Sql Server 2005, or SQL Server 2008. It provides a scalable, highly available, and multi-tenant service hosting a database by Microsoft on the cloud. For IT database managers, SQL Azure Database helps to address the problems associated with the deployment and distribution of multiple databases.

Microsoft SQL Azure - A SQL Database on the cloud

Among the things that developers do not have to do is to install, setup, patch or manage any software. The high availability and fault tolerance is a part of the database service, and there is no physical administration required.

SQL Azure Database supports Transact-SQL (T-SQL), a standard in the database development environment. Customers can use their existing knowledge in T-SQL development which is the standard relational data model. The model is familiar for its symmetry and coordintaion with existing on-premises databases. When database administrators use SQL Azure they can help reduce costs by integrating their programs with existing toolsets. This will provide symmetry with databases that reside on-premises as well as on cloud databases.

What do you get with SQL Asure?

• You can create scalable, and custom web applications. These are especially needed in a small to mid-size businesses, hobbyist, and startups.
• You can develop corporate departmental applications
• You can make packaged line-of-business applications. These are attractive to traditional, SaaS ISVs and for custom developers.
• You can also bring multiple data sources together that are in the Cloud to enable secure access from multiple locations, desktop and/or devices.

Source: Microsoft

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Program compatibility in Windows 7 is significantly improved over Windows Vista and aided further by the support for XP Mode, a virtual machine running programs in Windows XP on your Windows 7 desktop.

The problem with XP mode though is that it requires hardware virtualisation support on the motherboard, and a great many business PCs simply don’t have support for this.

To aid with this Microsoft have been providing developers with all the help and support they can to get their software compatible with Windows 7 and Windows 7 Server, and have been sending out a series of Green Light emails to partners.

They’ve launched the ISV Application Compatibility Centre with tools and support aplenty.  They are also making it much easier for companies to get their software ‘certified’ to work with Windows 7.

In addition they’ve also set up teams of programmers to work with software houses who are experiencing difficulties in getting their software compatible with Windows 7.  They’ve also been offering incentives such as prizes for companies that make the October 22nd deadline or even beat it.

In reality there’s very little software that would be affected by this, and most of it will be bespoke applications used exclusively by big business.  Until those applications either fully work in Windows 7, or can be replaced by ones that do, those companies will simply stick with Windows XP.  I doubt they’ll worry too much about this either as they don’t traditionally make the move to a new operating system until the first service pack comes out about a year after its release.

Hopefully this will all make a difference to us, the end user.  One of the problems however is that software development can be a lengthy and expensive business and some companies simply don’t have the funds to be able to delve into this the way they would like to.

This is probably why Microsoft’s focus on the ‘green light’ project is to…

Stay ahead of the competition, win new business and keep your customers satisfied

Sounds good enough to me!  Microsoft has certainly been pushing hard in this space to get companies to migrate both their software and their business PCs to Windows 7 and it’s easy to see the benefits in doing so.

It’s good though that it’s not just words but that they are also backing this initiative up with legions of helpful support personnel.

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Microsoft has released their first Windows 7 update, and interestingly enough, it improves Windows 7 compatibility with certain popular programs. The update helps to resolve issues with some legacy applications, such as problems during installation, interaction, instability, and World War 3. It hit Windows Update this week, but if you haven’t seen it already, it’s also available on Windows Update (Windows 7 x86 & x64, Windows Server 2008 R2 x64, and Windows Server 2008 R2 for Itanium-Based Systems).

Not only that, but Microsoft has stated that this should be one of many application compatibility updates (let’s hope that this promise isn’t like the Vista Ultimate promise), so users (and businesses) whose programs are still incompatible can safely look to the future and hope that their product will eventually be supported in Windows 7.

To learn more about which programs were specifically improved in terms of compatibility, you can take a look at the Knowledge Base Article or the list below:

• Alcohol 52% – Update enables Windows 7 compatible Alcohol 52% versions to work

• Altiris and Symantec Virtual Software up to version 6.1.499.x – Upgrade Block to avoid errors during Windows upgrade

• ZoomText version 9.18 – Driver hard Block to prevent an error

• Dell Printer Driver (Models-V105, V305 and V505) – Upgrade Block to avoid setup failure

• Trend Micro Internet Security 2007 – Upgrade Block to avoid error during Windows upgrade

• Trend Micro Internet Security 2008 – Upgrade Block to avoid error during Windows upgrade

• Trend Micro Internet Security 2009 – Upgrade Block to avoid error during Windows upgrade

• YiDongFeiXin version 2.2.x and version 3.5.x – Enables application to work

• PGP Desktop up to version 9.x – Soft Block to warn about possible issue after Windows upgrade

• Trend Micro VirusBuster 2008 – Upgrade Block to avoid errors

• Windows Live Photo Gallery – Update Windows Live Photo Gallery to avoid file association issue with Windows Media Player OCX

The “soft block,” “hard block,” and “upgrade block” lingo are also explained in the Knowledge Base article:

• Hard block – The update puts a hard block on the application. A hard block prevents an application that is incompatible with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 from running on the system (only if the manufacturer of the application gives its consent).

• Soft block – The update puts a soft block on the application. A soft block notifies you when an application that is incompatible with Windows 7 starts to run.

• Update – The update improves the application’s functionality in Windows 7.

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The previously rumored leak has been confirmed.

Wzor has placed the download links to the Windows 7 RTM on their home page, and it definitely the real deal. The build string is:
6.1.7600.16384.win7_rtm.090710-1945

[Start slideshow]

1234...121314►

This build string is a huge jump from the build before the RTM, and it also has a valid digital signature (cannot be faked). This is straight out of Microsoft, and has been leaked to major P2P sites (x64 only so far) (the original torrent is on Wzor). Windows 7 Server 2008 has also been leaked (again, only as x64), and the Beta version of Office 2010 has been leaked too (x86 and x64).

Although the title for the Office 2010 Beta still says “Technical Preview,” the build number confirms the Beta (14.0.4302.1000).

Now, onto the file details (the good stuff):

Windows 7 7600 RTM (x64):
7600.16384.090710-1945_x64fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRMCULXFRER_EN_DVD.iso
Size: 3,224,717,312 bytes
CRC32: 1EE7DC6F
MD5: E6CE9644D0C7A8E1C950D257A7B2C8A4
SHA-1: 31849B315290EFABFD81F967ED3C553D82925E4C

Windows 7 Server 2008 RTM (x64):
7600.16384.amd64fre.win7_rtm.090710-1945.serverenterprise_en-us_vl. serverenterprise.vhd or file-tracker.ru
SIZE: 6,857,337,856 bytes
CRC: 2AA7974F
SHA1: EA13B569AD4EA4F34955D1FB8A7ADFF8A30297E6
MD5: EC65EE9F3B18F7A232F8B0073A02216A

Office 2010 Beta (x86):
14.0.4302.1000_Mondo_volume_ship_x86_en-us_wzt
Size: 798,101,835 bytes
CRC32: 8BE7AB28
MD5: 874AE2B75AD8FAF169784AFEC099B526
SHA-1: E8E13E9DF771314C2B8A615B4952A49DDE3C9117

Office 2010 Beta (x64):
14.0.4302.1000_Mondo_volume_ship_x64_en-us_wzt
Size: 893,402,501 bytes
CRC32: 7CBEF7DF
MD5: 24A46B000B79520969508CF940D6D581
SHA-1: E22690C6E63ACF0D0BDF9588E8308C5C855A38BC

Keep watch here on Windows 7 News for the report of the x86 leak of the Windows 7 RTM and the Server 2008 RTM.

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Manufacturers seem to be well prepared for providing driver support for Windows 7 at it’s launch.

The latest manufacturer to become ready for Windows 7 is ATI, whose ATI Catalyst 9.3 drivers now include full support for Windows 7, including Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) 1.1 compliance for ATI Radeon HD 4000, 3000, and 2000 series of graphics cards.

In the latest ATI Catalyst drivers, gaming performance is also improved which should keep performance users happy.

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The Internet community that is following the development of the next Microsoft operating system codenamed Windows 7 has seen some speculation and false rumors about the release of Windows 7 Server lately. Many blog writers jumped to the conclusion that the announced Windows Server 2008 R2 would indeed be the same as Windows 7 Server.

It probably started with Mary-Jo Foley’s article over at Zdnet which basically stated that it was confirmed that Microsoft would skip Windows Server 2008 R2 and publish Windows 7 Server directly. Three days later Mary-Jo backpedaled on her initial article stating that Windows Server 2008 R2 was alive and on schedule to be released roughly 2 years after the release of Windows Server 2008. (That’s roughly 18 months from now).

On the other hand the internal codename for Windows Server 2008 R2 is Windows 7 Server which has definitely some irony it it because it’s also the name of the next installment of Windows Server after Windows Server 2008 R2 for the general public.

To rest the case: Windows Server 2008 R2 will be published as scheduled and the Windows Server product coming after that release will be Windows 7 Server which will probably have a different name by then.

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A Microsoft software development team is working on the successor of Windows Server 2008 just like the Windows 7 development team is working on Windows Vista’s successor. There is however a huge time difference between expected releases for Windows 7 and Windows 7 Server mainly caused by the expected release of Windows Server 2008 R2 around 2009/2010 which is exactly the date that Windows 7 is expected to hit the shelves.

This could mean a projected release date of 2011/2012 for Windows 7 Server, almost 4 years away from today and 1-2 years after the release of Windows 7.

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Windows 7 Server is another product that we can expect to be released approximately at the same time that Windows 7 will hit the streets. A first announcement, or shall we say Hello World, message has been posted at Brian Puhl’s website. Brian is an Active Directory engineer for Microsoft’s IT department and he published the first public screenshot of it on his website.

There is not much to see and it’s definitely more of a “here we go again” post than anything else but we are happy with every tidbit that we can find out about Windows 7 and Windows 7 Server especially when they come from official Microsoft employees or internal sources.

Brian posted some additional information about this early build like the product name (Windows Server (R) 2008 Enterprise) and build ( 6608.winmain_win7m2.080511-1400)

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