Gates Discusses DSI As Microsoft Announces New Admin Tools

by Alex Woodie

It was a busy day for Microsoft's Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI). At the Microsoft IT Forum in Copenhagen, Denmark, yesterday, the company's chairman and chief software architect, Bill Gates, talked up the initiative's plan to simplify the management of distributed systems, while also demonstrating "Indy," the codename for an upcoming performance modeling tool. Gates also announced the first public beta release of Windows Update Services, an updated Dynamic Systems Initiative roadmap with new white papers, and the worldwide availability of several products related to the initiative.

It's been about a year and a half since Microsoft first unveiled the Dynamic Systems Initiative and its plans to build more autonomic (or self-administering, self-tuning, and self-healing) capabilities into its Windows Server System (see "Microsoft Explains Its Vision of the Autonomic Windows Future"). Since then we've seen the delivery of several components that Gates said would be key to the three-to-five-year roadmap for the initiative, not the least of which is Windows Server 2003.

Two crucial pieces of the plan come into place late this summer. That's when Microsoft sent Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 and Virtual Server 2005 to manufacturing. Although the company just yesterday announced the worldwide availability of these two products, they've been available here in the United States for a while.

Even more products related to the initiative will fall into place in 2005, when Visual Studio 2005 starts shipping. One of they key technologies Microsoft is targeting for Visual Studio 2005 is the "Indy" performance modeling tool, which will actually be part of the Visual Studio 2005 Team System. Gates demonstrated the "Indy" performance modeling tool at the show in Copenhagen yesterday.

"Indy" is a capacity-planning and performance-modeling tool that allows Windows users to simulate their applications on specific hardware configurations to scope out any performance problems before plunking down a large amount of cash for an under- or over-performing server. "Indy" is supposed to be available with the upcoming release of Microsoft's System Center Version 2.0, which should also include Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 and Systems Management Server 2005.

Another key technology of the initiative, Windows Update Services, is now available as a public beta, Microsoft announced yesterday. Windows Update Services, a follow-on to the Software Updated Services 2.0 product, is supposed to be a more automated and expansive update program, not just for Windows operating systems but also for SQL Server, Exchange Server, and Office XP and 2003, which today must be updated and patched independently of Windows. The Windows Update Services beta can be downloaded from Microsoft's site.

Gates also announced the immediate availability of the new Windows Server System Common Engineering Report. Microsoft explains that this report is the next step on the Windows Server System Common Engineering Roadmap, and provides greater detail about the integration Microsoft is delivering across the Windows Server System products, specifically for Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 and Microsoft Virtual Server 2005. Users, business partners, and software vendors that want to know how to work with Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 and Virtual Server can check out the Common Engineering Criteria that Microsoft has revealed by downloading the report from the Common Engineering Roadmap page.

Microsoft also announced the availability of two new feature packs for Systems Management Server 2003, which is used in the provisioning of new machines. The new Device Management Feature Pack helps automate the steps administrators must go through to perform device discovery, collect hardware and software inventory, and distribute software to these devices. The other new product, Operating System Deployment, is designed to help desktop administrators create a Windows operating system desktop image and deploy it in an automated manner.

In a statement, Gates reiterated Microsoft's intent to build autonomic capabilities into the Windows Server System. "The distributed nature of computing makes it challenging for customers to manage the cost and complexity of their technology investments," Gates said. "We are committed to a unique approach that builds operational knowledge into the applications themselves, enabling customers to reduce complexity now and in the future."