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Windows7 and Microsoft's Strategy: A Real-Time Industry Analysis

Saw this on the net.

Even though Microsoft is yet to officially breathe a single word on the matter, the virtualization capabilities of Windows 7 will also evolve in comparison to what is offered with Windows Vista today.

Vista was the Redmond giant’s first client for which virtualization was introduced into the End User License Agreement, and Windows 7 will take it one step further. The next iteration of the Windows client will feature a solution designed to permit end users to access remotely virtualized operating systems running on top of a hypervisor.

“As part of hosted desktop virtualization initiative, in Win7 we are building a platform with suite of products that enables remote connectivity to virtual desktops running under Hyper-V via thin or traditional clients. The products enables remote desktop and application publishing, provisioning and connecting to VMs via RDP and management which leverages SCVMM. The platform will also provide rich value-add opportunities for ISVs in virtualization space,” Microsoft revealed.

The Redmond company is already offering management tools for the Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V for Windows Vista SP1, and it looks like an evolved platform based on the utilities will be featured as a default component in Windows 7. This because the package brings to the table Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in dubbed Hyper-V Manager which is designed to permit users to access Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V from Windows Vista SP1. But also the Virtual Machine Connection set up to allow interactive sessions with a Hyper-V virtual machine from Vista SP1.

Source


What does it mean?

Exactly what I have been telling you about the market relevance thing. Microsoft is validating the virtualization of its platforms by helping customers use the virtualization, whether its own or other hypervisors. When you want to connect to other hypervisors, its fine as long as you pay a price per client license or per connection. Do you want it for free, then install or add the Hyper-V plugin AND/OR buy a plain Windows 2008 core + Hyper-V and use our MDEV in combination with MDOP 2.0 (MDOP what you see today is the same thing as the Hyper-V, then I mean strategically).

"So what is their strategy, Tarry?", you might ask.



Answer: Microsoft is adopting a very slick and yet apparent (that is exactly what I mean by the gradual penetration) and there we will see an amalgam-strategy which has both intentions and has a certain strategic intent.

Microsoft's Virtualization Strategy: A Real-Time Market Analysis

With its strategic plan (intended strategy), which it is now telling the world slowly and gradually is, that they will go to markets that VMware has not touched. This is a consciously intended course of action. They will advance with a clear purpose and trust me they are already doing an amazing work by selling MDOP for quite a while.

With its strategic ploy (strategic intent), they are going to embed certain policies and licensing choices in order to outwit the competition while supporting and even managing the competition's hypervisor. This they already claim to do with the SCVMM that can manage several hypervisors and other tools such as MOM, that can also monitor all that with ease. This is obviously to outwit the competition and may not necessarily be part of the content of such intent.

With its strategic pattern (mashup strategic intent and intended strategy): Here I will point you to one of my slides where I mention the Cynefin dilemma (David Snowden's framework), here we are seeing that as a result of several intended strategic moves and ploys, a pattern emerges from multiple decisions that are being taken over time, and this can lead to an outcome that is totally in favor of the firm, resulting in emergent behavior owning to its Ocean-Estuary Model, where streams of decisions lead to an emergent pattern and eventually a practice.

Strategic positioning (intended strategy) is more of a plan to constantly re-evaluate its current organizational position and try to align it with its market objectives. Meaning working on the Microsoft 2.0, for instance, where eventually they will use the current static platform to move them to cloud platforms and take on their ailing Web 2.0 market (thus in a way, also a decision which is part of a stream that will lead to a pattern, as mentioned above). This is very crucial and also a bit complex than in older days where users didn't have a voice (couldn't blog, couldn't do their own videos, etc).

Stategic perspective (strategic intent): Get and gather stratgists across all their divisions and get their view of the world, this too is, in a way, part and parcel of your positioning strategy (think constantly of the ever-changing market relevance: People have had a certain image about Microsoft and they want it to change, get the new generations and show them that they are changing: As an example I saw a Microsoft building in Cologne, while on a weekend with my wife, near the Rhine river and it looked awesome and will certainly attract a lot of younger folks as it had a cool design, another Microsoft office in The Netherlands will have a very cool relaxed working environment where you can relax, take a lunch nap, work at will etc, that is the new Microsoft 2.0, as I mentioned).

Bottom line: Perspective from all directions and layers (ages/generations then) will help shape the decisions to Microsoft's favor. The way the in-house and yet externalized novo-strategists, perceive their world around them and their own organization, will help Microsoft in its new multi-pronged strategy. For instance, the new Microsoft could be a Web 2.0 company , just like Nokia, which is today a very different company than it was when it got started. It was a paper and pulp company, can you imagine that! So you see how influencing they are to your content and processes if such (pervasive) perspectives to the decision making process.

So such a pentagonal strategic approach will certainly help Microsoft not only correct, re-configure and refine its , both internal and external, strategy to go to the market with its new offerings but also help regain customer confidence in both SMB and the enterprize sector.

What got Nokia from



to

,

can also give Microsoft its new direction. And this fits perfectly in the 30-year quadrant (Startup/Re-startup Cycle) which I laid out a few weeks back.

Expect more ideation articles at regular intervals now.

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