MICROSOFT, HP, AND THE DYNAMIC DATA CENTER In addition to the main DSI announcement Microsoft announced a few weeks later that it would showcase a concept of a Dynamic Data Center (DDC), jointly developed with Hewlett-Packard. The DDC features a combination of HP servers, software, storage, and networking hardware connected based on prescribed network architecture. Microsoft software dynamically assigns provisions and centrally manages the DDC resources. The software driving the DDC will enable customers to automatically deploy a distributed application; provision the associated server, storage, and networking resources required for that application; and dynamically allocate resources to grow and shrink based on business and workload demands. The Dynamic Data Center concept is the result of more than a year of collaborative efforts between Microsoft and HP in support of the DSI and the underlying SDM. The SDM, a fundamental building block of the DSI architecture, is a live standard, the operational requirements of applications with datacenter policies. Collaborating around the SDM, both Microsoft and HP contributed innovations throughout the DDC development process. The Windows Server™ Group at Microsoft first developed a prototype of a future version of Automated Deployment Services (ADS)—a server provisioning and administration tool for Windows Server 2003—extending its support for the SDM. This future version of ADS will enable centralized provisioning and management of a prescribed set of industry-standard servers, storage, and networking hardware. HP contributed innovations in hardware, including prototypical development of an Authenticated Identity for its ProLiant servers to better enhance server boot security. HP also developed prototype SDM-enabled software providers, which allow Microsoft's software to provision and manage HP ProLiant Servers, HP ProCurve switches, and HP StorageWorks disk arrays. Microsoft also collaborates with HP due in part to HP's expertise in datacenter innovation. Microsoft will integrate two products and create a new management software facility and product suite called the Systems Center. The Management of Operations (MOM) product, an event and performance monitoring tool, and the Systems Management Server (SMS), which provides resourcing and deployment services, will be combined into the new product. The Systems Center will be used to automatically manage everything from desktops and laptops to PDAs to full-scale applications and servers. The Center will provide a set of tools for application management, performance management and trending, and capacity and resource management. |
