Microsoft Research is exploring a new way to connect servers directly to other servers, without the use of any switches or dedicated networking inside a datacenter container.
That project, known as CamCube, is one way that Microsoft execs are attempting to rethink the datacenter. More on that in a moment….
In the nearer term, Microsoft’s various development teams are making their own tweaks to the fabric powering the company’s existing and future cloud services.
Microsoft execs don’t talk a lot publicly about the infrastructure that underlies its cloud platform. Global Foundation Services runs the “guts” of the cloud, and is responsible for tweaking the datacenter servers and services that power the customer-facing Microsoft cloud components, like Windows Live, Bing, Business Productivity Online Services, etc. GFS is the team that does a lot of the work to bring online new Microsoft datacenters, like
the latest one in Boydton, Virg., that the Softies just announced they’ll be building.
GFS is building a new Manageability Framework (MFx), according to a recent
Microsoft job blog post, that will be replacing the current suite of GFS management tools which are “at lealst a decade old.” (I’m thinking
Microsoft’s AutoPilot is an example of one such existing GFS tool.) MFx will include tools for server monitoring and deployment across datacenters, as well as the base for new datacenter-management apps that will run in massive fault-tolerant, distributed environments.
GFS works on problem solving, not just product development. Recently, GFS published a white paper with lessons learned around
energy efficiencies realized via its IT Pre-Assembled Component (ITPAC) design. It has another paper on
security best practices for those developing for and moving apps to Windows Azure.
