Server, Cloud and all points in-between

All things related to pricing, licensing and business planning for Windows Server, Windows Azure, System Center and Forefront.

Datacenter Expansion and Capacity Planning

Update on recent developments regarding Windows Azure Datacenter Expansion and Capacity planning -...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 05/24/2012

Reduced Pricing on SQL Azure and New 100MB Database Option

Yesterday I posted a blog on the Windows Azure Blog announcing new pricing which will benefit both...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 02/15/2012

Virtualization – More Bang, Less Buck

Yesterday, David Greschler posted a bit on HyperV and System Center which referenced a recent...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 04/14/2011

Virtualization, Consolidation and Cloud - What Will It Mean For Servers? Two Truths and a Myth...

Two Truths and a Myth: The rate of virtualization (number of servers and / or number of instances...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 04/07/2011

Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA) changes for Windows Server

Summary for the Service Provider IT Professionals / Procurement Officers who are desperately late...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 11/18/2010

Virtual Machine Meets Physical License - 3 Things you care about in the cloud

At the PDC, the volume of announcements on product updates, new offers and emerging technology can...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 10/29/2010

Our offer still stands and you know where to find us...

I talked about the results of a benchmarking study performed by Greg Leake a couple months back on...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 08/17/2009

Azure Dev Challenge Questions Tackled

Last month Microsoft announced its first-ever Azure Developer Challenge. Since then, we’ve received...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 06/02/2009

TechEd USA 2009 wrap up

Friday concluded this year’s TechED: North America. We were delighted to have thousands of...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 05/19/2009

A Spirited Debate...

As everyone knows, there is no shortage of passion in the tech industry. Naturally, there are many...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 05/15/2009

The Web Platform

At MIX we unveiled the Web Platform Installer (PI) 2.0 Beta. The WebPI combined with the work we...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 05/08/2009

Azure Developer Challenge – Judged by Om Malik and Michael Cote

As you know, I’m always up for a little friendly competition… I’m excited to announce that today, we...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 05/04/2009

...And we'll prove it!

Yesterday I blogged about some recent findings regarding both system cost and performance when...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 05/01/2009

WebSphere Loves Windows…Who Knew?

For years I’ve heard people say that Microsoft technology is great for mid range solutions. I can’t...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 04/30/2009

Two flavors of cloud computing – Public and Private

Six years ago we announced a multi-year, multi-product vision for the Enterprise which we called...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 04/28/2009

Walking the Walk – the Cloud and Standards

Earlier today, the DMTF announced the creation of the “Open Standards Cloud Incubator” group which...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 04/27/2009

The "Benefits" of Singularity... Thoughts on the Events of the Week

Even before the events of early this week, we were fielding questions about a homogenous hardware /...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 04/24/2009

.NET Services - Cloud Interoperability

Speaking of standards - I’m thrilled to report that we will release the “M5” (Milestone 5) CTP...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 03/30/2009

Moving beyond the “Manifesto”

As you might expect, several of us spent most of Thursday and Friday last week in conversations with...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 03/29/2009

Moving Toward an Open Process on Cloud Computing Interoperability

Moving Toward an Open Process on Cloud Computing Interoperability From the moment we kicked off our...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 03/25/2009

Windows Azure and Windows Server - Licensing Model

Press and blog coverage over the last few weeks spurred several folks to ask questions about our...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 03/23/2009

MIX Day 3: Oslo - "M" and the MSC

Last Friday we spent time talking about Oslo, which included a drill into “M” and demos. Doug Purdy...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 03/23/2009

MIX 09 - Return on Experience

Posting from The Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas where I’m taking part in Microsoft’s 4th annual MIX...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 03/18/2009

Bring back the red shirt

Sign the petition here! See you at Mix.

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 03/12/2009

Web Computing - Premsises, Hosting and Cloud

I had the privilege of talking to a number of customers, members of the community and reporters last...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 03/10/2009

Higher Standards for Web Standards

Since the emergence of web services in the 90s, we’ve seen an explosion of standards and standards...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 02/16/2009

Microsoft's Annual SOA and BP conference - SOA meets Cloud

Today we wrapped up the 6th annual SOA and BP conference here in Redmond. This was the 14th stop on...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 01/29/2009

Microsoft Positioned in the Leaders Quadrant of Latest Magic Quadrants for Application Infrastructure

The latest round of research is out from Gartner, and they have positioned Microsoft in the Leaders...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 01/27/2009

Know SOA or No SOA?

You’ve probably seen the chatter as a result of Anne’s recent post. So, the question on all SOA...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 01/09/2009

Ring in the New Year with the SOA & Business Process Conference – goes great with Eggnog…

We had our first real snow last week which means that ski season is finally upon us and everyone in...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 12/15/2008

Signs of the Apocalypse - Sun fears the Browser

  1. Protest in Auburn over a football coach draws more than an anti-war protest 2. Despite all the...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 12/10/2008

Another Milestone for the BizTalk Product Family

We are excited to announced two things today! 1—As promised, the first public beta of BizTalk Server...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 12/08/2008

Web Platform – Single Install Release Candidate

Today, we posted a release candidate (RC) of the Web Platform Installer (Web PI) here. This effort...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 11/24/2008

TechEd Developer 2008

I had the pleasure of being in Barcelona this week for the TechEd Developer conference. Highlights –...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 11/12/2008

PDC Day 2 – "M" Under OSP, "Lap Around Oslo" & More Services

Day 2 of PDC started off with another fantastic keynote address, thanks to Ray Ozzie, Steve...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 10/28/2008

PDC Day 1 – Azure Services Platform, CTP availability and much more!

Well, we’re finally here, on the ground in LA at PDC. After months of speculation, chatter and...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 10/27/2008

Countdown to Oslo: Introducing "M" and "Quadrant"

Robert Wahbe and I were out on the road this week meeting with press and members of the dev...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 10/10/2008

The Road to PDC - .NET Framework 4.0 and “Dublin”

We’re within a month of this year’s Professional Developer’s Conference, and like a lot of folks,...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 10/01/2008

Oslo and Modeling

Just in case you haven’t seen this yet, check out this article in eWEEK from last week. Focuses on...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 09/18/2008

Microsoft Participating in the Object Management Group (OMG)

This week I had the privilege of sitting with Bob Muglia while he taped a short video on his...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 09/09/2008

BizTalk Server 2009

Today, we announced updated plans for the next major version of BizTalk Server. We launched the...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 09/05/2008

BizTalk Services “R12” Release – Workflow

Drum roll please….for those of you are as interested in the advent of cloud services, this is big....

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 07/18/2008

BizTalk Adapter Pack 2.0 announced at WPC

This week I returned to my home state of Texas to attend the Worldwide Partner Conference. Returning...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 07/11/2008

IDS Scheer announces the release of ARIS for BizTalk

June has been an active month for the Business Process Alliance. In a recent post, I shared some...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 06/25/2008

.NET StockTrader 2.0 Demo at TechEd IT Pro

For those that missed it and those hungry to see it again - check out this video from TechEd IT Pro...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 06/16/2008

Steven Martin Blog Videos

New videos to be posted soon.

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 06/11/2008

TechEd Developer & "Oslo" Wrap Up

What a week! TechEd is always one of my favorite shows. Not just for learning, but also for the...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 06/09/2008

Convergence - SOA, SaaS, Modeling, Virtualization

Last year at TechEd we talked about deploying technologies in a blended way – both on premises and...

Author: Steven B. Martin Date: 06/06/2008

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