I sit in a group made up of devs (and ex-devs) and infrastructure folks. While "my half" looks forward to new releases of the .NET Framework the other half seem to get all excited about stuff without an API - surely everything has an API!? They all seem especially happy at the moment as Hyper...

Whoops - nearly forgot this one. We released Beta 2 of the HPC pack earlier this month. I am a fan of HPC - even if I have no dev skills in it :-) Head over to the connect site (and sign up if necessary) to gain access to the download.

Apologies for the delay - meant to blog about this (and lots of other stuff) much earlier in the month. We released a new Community Tech Preview of Windows HPC Server 2008 this month. The good news is that you can join the HPC beta today, download an ISO of an evaluation copy of Windows Server 2008 and...

I have previously posted on High Performance Computing and what it may mean to ISVs. Currently two of my ISVs are getting very active with the beta of Windows HPC Server 2008 in the area of Financial Services which is exciting - but not nearly as exciting (IMVHO) as using HPC to address the needs of...

We are not short of content these days - why not try one or two of our Windows Server 2008 technical webcasts nicely grouped together by my colleagues in Microsoft EMEA. Windows Server 2008 Event Page: http://www.microsoft.com/emea/spotlight/event.aspx?id=87 Links to Session Videos: Windows Server 2008...

At the moment there is a lot of activity in Microsoft UK to gather up all the great stories from our early adopters we have been working with - everything from videos to case studies to short sound bytes. Which made me realise that we must be missing out on lots of great stories from other UK ISVs we...

The following resources should help you get up to speed on Windows HPC Server 2008 and high performance computing in general - whether you prefer to read, listen, watch or travel. First up, two events in March. Events: London, March 27th 2008: In the UK we are delivering a one day Jumpstart on Windows...

Two UK events that may be of interest to ISVs. Architect Insight Conference 2008 - April The Architect Insight Conference 2008 registration site is now open. This is the third year of the conference and this year we move venue from Wales to England. I spoke at and attended the first two (and blogged...

But places are going very fast! From our MSDN Flash (which amazingly some of you don't get! Signup now ) "We are registering IT Pros and Developers via separate URLs, so unless you want to end up in the wrong track, please use the appropriate registration link. Developers please register here ....

I thought a few pics from the technical overview document would make Windows HPC Server feel more real to folks brand new to this area. This post complements my introduction to Windows HPC Server 2008 . A typical Windows HPC Server 2008 Network The Administration Console - start page The Administration...

One of the ISVs I work with is Memba . Memba last year started to beta a file transfer platform to publish, share, send and transfer very large files over the Internet - Velodoc . From that work they went on to create Velodoc XP Edition, a downgraded version of Velodoc without repository and without...

Something odd happened in 2007. I seemed to spend most of the year talking or "projecting" - and very little time standing in front of a whiteboard working through issues and architectures with ISVs. As a result my whiteboard work was getting more and more scruffy. I am pleased to say 2008...

Today I delivered an overview of IIS7 at the Architect Forum held at our offices in Reading. I promised I would share a few of the links I mentioned during the session. Main IIS7 site Summary of how Microsoft.com are using IIS7 and more recent webcast Request Filtering in IIS7 and the alternative for...

Then check out this short paper created by IDC http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/f/f/1ff030a1-7351-46f4-bee4-14e506be2b7b/207571.pdf . This IDC study provides a review of the new features and functionality in Microsoft Windows Server 2008, along with an assessment of the market conditions it will...

Well - US$ prices anyway. I will have a dig for UK. Details can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/nov07/11-12HyperVPR.mspx The headline stuff: Pricing for all Windows Server 2008 products will be increasing by approximately 1 percent for all distribution channels. Estimated MSRP...

Last week we had a 3 day Windows Server 2008 Tech Reviewers Workshop.   One of the presenters has taken three of the demos presented and released them as new screencasts on Channel9.   Each screencast has an accompanying demo script for easy redelivery. Nice work. · Installing PHP...

When I started working with UK developers many years back, one of my focus areas was ASP vs PHP. 10 years on from those days and both technologies are very successful with huge fans of each technology (ASP becoming the much more powerful ASP.NET). But on IIS, the favourite is by far ASP.NET. On Unix...

A small point but useful to know. Starting with RC1 and going forward, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 will have to be downloaded separately. More information can be found on the Windows Server Division blog.

You can find it over at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/default.aspx . We are currently working on getting some refreshed content up to the site - but for the moment it represents a great starting place before moving on to other sites such as http://www.iis.net We have also made public...

On Wednesday delivered a day briefing on developing server applications with IIS7, WCF, WF, MSMQ as well as a swift look at Designing For Operations. The "official" followup email should happen in the next few days with details of how to download the decks and code. In the meantime, here are the important...

The latest Windows SDK is now available for installation as an ISO download. The SDK release supports: Windows Server 2008 RC0 Windows Vista SP1 Beta .NET Framework 3.5 Beta2. and is compatible with the RTM release of Microsoft® Visual Studio 2005 SP1 (including Express Editions). I did chuckle slightly...

It also includes a CTP of Windows Server Virtualisation - yay! http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2007/sep07/09-24windowserverrc0.mspx

Last Thursday we delivered a day briefing on developing server applications with IIS7, WCF, WF, MSMQ as well as a swift look at Designing For Operations. The "official" followup email should happen in the next few days with details of how to download the decks and code. In the meantime, here are the...

These are exciting times - lots of new technologies which will be useful to UK ISVs. The following is a list of just how broad our remit is right now - and in case you were wondering. We are a team of.... 8 :-) Visual Studio 2008 – great new development environment which can build .NET Framework 2.0...

Firstly some good news ;-). We have been saying we would Release to Manufacturing (RTM) Windows Server 2008 by the end of the calendar year. This is no longer the case. We are instead intending to RTM in the first quarter of calendar year 2008. The change surprised me a little as my own customers were...