[Linux-bruxelles] NYTimes.com Article: Microsoft Mulls Self - Managing Technology

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Microsoft Mulls Self - Managing Technology

March 16, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 




 

Filed at 1:30 a.m. ET 

REDMOND, Wash. (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. said Friday it will
offer new technologies designed to help business customers
automatically manage their flow of computing power and
resources to match their workload. 

The Redmond software giant plans to formally announce its
``Dynamic Systems Initiative'' next week. The new effort is
similar to others already under way at competitors, such as
IBM's ``autonomic computing'' initiative. 

The central idea for all these efforts is that companies'
networks should be able to monitor themselves, shift
processing power and dedicate storage where and when it's
needed. By instructing the networks to manage themselves,
system administrators will be freed up to focus on other
business matters, rather than baby-sitting the network. 

Microsoft's initiative focuses on new technologies to
create and support ``smart'' programs that know how to
anticipate such needs, said Bob O'Brien, Microsoft's
Windows Server group product manager. For example, every
time someone places an order on a Web site, the underlying
program can be instructed to make a certain amount of
storage available. 

``If the application knows ... what kind of resources it
will need, it starts to see that work load increase, (then)
it knows how many resources to put on,'' he said. 

In addition, Microsoft is working with hardware
manufacturers to deliver infrastructure that works
seamlessly with these applications. 

Windows Server 2003, Microsoft's newest server software
scheduled for release next month, will include some of the
technology. Another component will be available later this
year and Microsoft expects to release more tools in the
next three to five years, O'Brien said. 

IBM announced its ``autonomic computing'' initiative about
18 months ago. ``The complexity of technology is growing
exponentially,'' said IBM spokesman Michael Loughran. The
goal, he said, is ``to have (information technology) people
focus on the business and not focus on the actual
infrastructure anymore.'' 

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Microsoft-On-Demand.html?ex=1048817283&ei=1&en=60e105a601b12a2a



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