It wasn’t all that long ago when folks were predicting the potential demise of Microsoft or at least becoming less relevant in the IT world. Redmond’s new CEO Satya Nadella last year made some bold moves and statements of direction including the company’s new emphasis on “productivity and platforms.” It now appears the sense of doom overshadowing the software giant is lifting.
As Microsoft turns 40, 2015 is shaping up to be a huge year. The company plans to release a number of new products, technologies and improvements to existing products. Many of them are key to solidifying Microsoft’s relevance in the second half of this decade.
1. Windows 10
Without a doubt, the forthcoming Microsoft release that will receive the most attention is Windows 10, slated to be released at some point next year.
Without a doubt, the forthcoming Microsoft release that will receive the most attention is Windows 10, slated to be released at some point next year.
Although Microsoft released the first Windows 10 Technical Preview in late September (see Redmondmag.com/Posey1014), the early release focused on tying the tile-based UI to the Windows desktop. Microsoft seemingly wanted to prove to customers that the company is still capable of creating a desktop OS that people would actually want to use.
The Windows 10 Technical Preview shows a unified OS eliminating the dual personality that dogged Windows 8/8.1. Now Windows 10 allows users to run modern Windows Store apps with traditional desktop software alongside one another on the desktop. One example of that is a mainstay of the Windows desktop, the File Explorer, and a Windows Store app open together, regardless of which interface you’re using. The same is true for Office, Internet Explorer and others.
This release could very well determine the future of Windows as a desktop and mobile OS. Now that iPads, Android devices and even Macintosh computers can access enterprise resources and IT is enabling BYOD, Microsoft must make Windows more compelling than ever or risk users moving to other platforms. Either way, Microsoft’s relevance no longer hangs in the balance over whether that happens.
2. Windows Server vNext
On the same day that Microsoft released the Windows 10 Technical Preview, the company also released a Preview of the next version of Windows Server — with much less fanfare. Although this Preview release is light on new features, there’s a lot of speculation that Microsoft will add more as the release date approaches.
On the same day that Microsoft released the Windows 10 Technical Preview, the company also released a Preview of the next version of Windows Server — with much less fanfare. Although this Preview release is light on new features, there’s a lot of speculation that Microsoft will add more as the release date approaches.
For now, the most noteworthy features in what many refer to as Windows Server vNext are focused on storage. There’s a new replication feature called Storage Replica that performs a block-by-block copy from one Windows Server to another. That way, full server replicas can be created and kept in sync. There’s also a new Storage Quality of Service feature that will allow storage IOPS to be dedicated to a specific workload.
Microsoft started talking up Storage Replica at TechEd Europe in Barcelona in late October. Storage Replica, which Microsoft sometimes calls Windows Volume Replication (or WVR), provides block-level, synchronous replication between servers or clusters to provide disaster recovery. The new replication engine is storage-agnostic and Microsoft says it can also stretch a failover cluster for high availability.
Most notable is that Storage Replica provides synchronous replication, which, as Microsoft describes it, enables organizations to mirror data within the datacenter with “crash-consistent volumes.” The result, says Microsoft, is zero data loss at the file system level.
3. Hyper-V
In Windows Server 2012 and the subsequent R2 release, Microsoft introduced a version of its Hyper-V hypervisor that made it competitive with the VMware virtualization platform. In Windows Server vNext, some have downplayed the latest upgrades to Hyper-V, though Microsoft is introducing some important improvements.
In Windows Server 2012 and the subsequent R2 release, Microsoft introduced a version of its Hyper-V hypervisor that made it competitive with the VMware virtualization platform. In Windows Server vNext, some have downplayed the latest upgrades to Hyper-V, though Microsoft is introducing some important improvements.
The most important new improvement is the ability to create checkpoints for production environments. Although Hyper-V has long had the ability to create checkpoints (snapshots), those checkpoints were rarely supported for production workloads because of issues with application consistency. The new production checkpoint feature will use the Volume Shadow Copy Services to create application-consistent checkpoints. There’s even going to be an option for creating application-consistent checkpoints for Linux virtual machines (VMs).
4. Windows PowerShell 5.0
Like every previous Windows PowerShell release, 5.0 is chocked full of new features. Most of them are geared toward hard-core PowerShell developers, but there are at least a couple of features that might be of general interest to IT pros.
Like every previous Windows PowerShell release, 5.0 is chocked full of new features. Most of them are geared toward hard-core PowerShell developers, but there are at least a couple of features that might be of general interest to IT pros.
One such feature is the ability to do remote file editing. After establishing a session with a remote machine, it will be possible to edit a file located on that machine.
Windows PowerShell 5.0 will also introduce an important new change to the Desired State Configuration tool. You’ll be able to throttle the tool so that system resources aren’t overwhelmed when performing Desired State Configuration checks against large numbers of systems.
5. An Improved Command Prompt
One of the things that I’m personally looking the most forward to this year is Microsoft’s updated Command Prompt and Windows PowerShell interface. If you have ever tried to do a Copy and Paste inside of a Command Prompt window or inside of Windows PowerShell then you know the results can be somewhat unpredictable. Both of these environments have problems related to line breaks and line wraps. Thankfully, Microsoft has finally seen fit to update the Command Prompt window and the Windows PowerShell window so that copy and paste work in the same way they do with any other window.
One of the things that I’m personally looking the most forward to this year is Microsoft’s updated Command Prompt and Windows PowerShell interface. If you have ever tried to do a Copy and Paste inside of a Command Prompt window or inside of Windows PowerShell then you know the results can be somewhat unpredictable. Both of these environments have problems related to line breaks and line wraps. Thankfully, Microsoft has finally seen fit to update the Command Prompt window and the Windows PowerShell window so that copy and paste work in the same way they do with any other window.