3 cool things from Microsoft Hosting Summit 2007 -- Day 1

Here are three cool things that were mentioned at the Microsoft Hosting Summit.  Some of the things here are things I knew about but until now have not been at liberty to discuss.

1)  This morning a discussion on application virtualazation brought forth a demonstration on the SoftGrid/Softricity where basically applications can be streamed virtually to a desktop from a server.  For example let's say you did not won't to deploy office to all of your desktops.  The demonstration showed a scenario where word could be launched from the server but have the lookand feel as if it were launched locally from the desktop.  This is really cool stuff and will have a tremendous impact once made available to hosters.  All those guys that have to offer services through Terminal Services will have better options for deploying desktop apps.

 2)  This is something I've known for a while, but better now than never.  Scott Guthrie and Bill Staples demo'ed for the hosting community a feature that we have been begging for.  Shared IIS configurations.  Where multiple servers can use the same configuration stored on a UNC share.  This will make deploying server farms a whole lot easier.

 3)  Also ScottGu mentioned today that IIS7 will have a service feature that will make supporting videos with WPF/E much easier.  Look out flash player.

There will be more to come as the conference continues.  I truly believe this is becoming the premier industry event more than 340 customers and partners with another 150+ Microsoft employees here to discuss hosting.