OK, I admit it: I’m looking forward to VMworld like a kid looks forward to camp. But for exactly the opposite reason: VMworld marks the end of summer and the beginning of the fall tradeshow season. Summer, despite its all-American goodness, is an odd time for our industry—no less busy due to fall preparations, but devoid of the big moves, vision and ideas that make it exciting. That’s saved for the fall, when everyone is back from the beach and ready to listen.

So, if you’re ready to listen, you’re likely to hear the following themes emerging at VMworld 2010:

From cap ex to op ex

VMware practically owns the franchise on the cap ex value proposition, having proven that the hypervisor hath no equal when it comes to reeling in server spending. VMware CEO Paul Maritz has signaled a heavier emphasis on the op ex side of the equation. Why? I suspect two reasons:

• Virtualization is a cap ex boon and an op ex bust—as compute capacity is made available by the hypervisor, it’s quickly filled in with new machines. The result? An explosion in the number of machines that need to be managed—and an explosion in operating expense.
• The often-forgotten fact that cap ex represents less than 30 percent of overall IT spending. The larger share of cost savings—higher on the mind of the CIO—is operating expense.

Consequently, op ex is emerging as the new cap ex and will get considerable attention this year.Renewed emphasis on business value Continue reading…

Okay, this is somehow cloud related, but mostly I’m writing about this because Age of Empires was one of the games I spent endless hours playing in college.

Microsoft announced the return of Age of Empires, one of the biggest PC franchises in the world, having sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and essentially defined real-time strategy (RTS) games for the PC, says Dave Luehmann, general manager of Microsoft Games Studios. “This next version will really change the rulebook of how those games are played”.

Age of Empires Online, now in a closed beta release, will be familiar to franchise fans, who can go here and sign up for a chance to join the beta. However, at the game’s core is a new, socially connected experience. The game now invites players to create a living, growing online world that’s shared with friends around the world through Games for Windows LIVE, an online gaming network related to Xbox LIVE. Anyone with a LIVE account can see their friends online and send and receive voice messages, text messages, and game invites. In Age of Empires Online, players can use the service to invite friends for a cooperative quest or a friendly challenge in the local arena, trade goods and weapons, and visit each other’s capital cities. Continue reading…

RDS Reserved Instances are available now. You can get a lower price and know that an instance has been reserved for your use.

After you make a low, one-time payment, you can use a DB Instance at an hourly rate that is significantly lower than the On-Demand pricing for the same instance class. This will result in a decrease in AWS charges for any application that requires full-time access to a relational database.

When you purchase an RDS Reserved DB Instance, you choose a specific AWS Region and instance class. You do not need to choose an Availability Zone. You can purchase up to 20 Reserved DB instances. If you need more DB Instances, you need to complete the Amazon RDS DB Instance request form. You cannot move a reservation from one Region to another and they always apply to a particular DB instance class, so make your purchase with care. Continue reading…

Microsoft just announced the release of the first version of SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) for MySQL.

Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) is a toolkit that dramatically cuts the effort, cost, and risk of migrating from MySQL to SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2. SSMA 2008 for MySQL also supports migrating to SQL Azure.

SSMA for MySQL lets you quickly convert MySQL database schemas to SQL Server schemas, upload the resulting schemas into SQL Server, and migrate data from MySQL to SQL Server.

SSMA for MySQL supports migration from MySQL 4.1 and higher to any edition of SQL Server.

The latest SQL Server Migration Assistant is available for free download and preview here. Continue reading…

This SDK includes API libraries and samples for building connected applications with the .NET platform. It spans the entire spectrum of today’s Internet applications – from rich connected applications with advanced connectivity requirements to Web-style applications that use simple protocols such as HTTP to communicate with the broadest possible range of clients.

The new version introduces a fix in the Windows Azure AppFabric SDK for the following Service Bus bug:

Adding a Ws2007HttpRelayBinding endpoint that uses TransportWithMessageCredential security mode to a ServiceHost that also exposes a local MEX endpoint (not visible through the Service Bus) using the mexHttpsBinding, causes the local MEX endpoint to stop working. Invoking the MEX endpoint results in an InvalidOperationException.

You can download the SDK here.

You can try Windows Azure and SQL Azure for a month for free, with the Windows Azure One Month Pass USA. Through this unique offer, US developers can get a one month pass to try out Windows Azure and SQL Azure - without having to submit a credit card.

Limited to US developers, the first 500 to sign up each month will get a full months pass good for the one calendar month. In addition, youll get free phone, chat and email support through the Front Runner for Windows Azure program.

There are a ton of great resources provided on the Windows Azure One Month Pass USA offer page, as well as the full details for this offer, so be sure to check it out and request your subscription today.

The Dow Chemical Co., Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, and the University of Georgia have each selected Microsoft cloud solutions, Microsoft announced today at the start of the company’s annual Financial Analyst Meeting.

With this announcement, Dow Chemical, Hyatt and the University of Georgia join the thousands of businesses and government entities representing millions of people that have purchased Microsoft’s online productivity services. Customers include 13 of the top 20 global telecom firms, 15 of the top 20 global banks, and 16 of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies. In addition, more than 10,000 customers in more than 40 countries have chosen the Windows Azure platform in just nine months. More than 10,000 schools in more than 130 countries have enrolled in Microsoft’s Live@edu cloud-based service, serving 11 million students, staffers and educators worldwide. Continue reading…

For the Ubuntu faithful, the recent announcement that Canonical could be expanding their business relationship with IBM in regards to the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud platform is welcome news. Though details are vague at this point, the early buzz is that a strengthened joint venture between the two companies might possibly be forthcoming at this week’s Open Source Convention in Portland, Oregon. As of late April of this year, UEC counts 12,000 active deployments and growing. This is good news as it demonstrates that business is starting to take Ubuntu seriously as an alternative to the established heavyweights in the industry. Continue reading…

While all other blogs are reporting that apple store is down. I went to the iPhone application for Apple Store and this is what I got….If I select them, it goes into a empty page…

But the cat is out of the bag then.

With Cluster Compute Instances, you can now run many types of large-scale network-intensive jobs without losing the core advantages of EC2: a pay-as-you-go pricing model and the ability to scale up and down to meet your needs.

Each Cluster Compute Instance consists of a pair of quad-core Intel ‘Nehalem’ X5570 processors with a total of 33.5 ECU (EC2 Compute Units), 23 GB of RAM, and 1690 GB of local instance storage, all for $1.60 per hour.

Continue reading…