Re: Microsoft Joins the Battle for Itanium

From: Keith Parris (keithparris_NOSPAM_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 04/15/05 

Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 15:16:37 GMT

And there's more. Again, from Interex's HP World News newsletter, April
15, 2005: 

---
Microsoft Gets Itanium 'Religion'
http://asia.cnet.com/news/software/0,39037051,39225455,00.htm
---
which says:
---
Microsoft uses Longhorn to promote Itanium
By Stephen Shankland, CNET News.com
Monday, April 11 2005 1:57 PM
Microsoft has committed to sell an Itanium edition of its forthcoming 
Longhorn Server, part of a renewed marketing effort for Windows on the 
high-end processor that Intel and Microsoft plan to begin Monday.
...
Support for [Itanium] has been a lower priority for Microsoft. That's 
starting to change, as Microsoft comes around to the way Intel and its 
chief Itanium ally, Hewlett-Packard, see the world. Like them, Microsoft 
wants to use Itanium to tackle the "big iron" part of the server market 
-- massive multiprocessor machines running demanding and crucial tasks.
"Our position has not been as clear here as much as it should be," Bob 
Muglia, senior vice president of the Windows Server Division, said in an 
interview. "We have a commitment to Xeon, but also very much to Itanium."
Part of that commitment involves releasing Longhorn Server for the 
processor in 2007, Muglia said, which is the same year the x86 version 
is expected. Another part is a multicity tour called Route64 to tout 
advantages of 64-bit processing.
Another part of Microsoft's commitment will be buying 1,600 Itanium 
servers from HP. "I would say it's the most positive that we've been, 
ever really, since the start of Itanium," said Rich Marcello, senior 
vice president of HP's Business Critical Server group.
...
Itanium has 64-bit extensions that permit the processor to easily use 
more than 4GB of memory. That feature appeals to Scott Erkonen, managing 
officer of networking at Premier Bank Card, who runs 
business-intelligence tasks on an HP Integrity server with 12 Itanium 
processors and 24GB of memory. Until upgrading an earlier Xeon system to 
an Itanium machine, the company was having trouble keeping up with 
demands in loading, processing and extracting useful information, he said.
...
Trials and travails
Microsoft has long yearned for the plump profits and prestigious 
customers of the big iron market, but it's been tough convincing them 
that Microsoft has what it takes to run servers that must stay up and 
running without fail.
"Our traditional partner channels and Microsoft don't have the 
experience base working with the customers who have that set of needs," 
Muglia said.
Microsoft has some incentive to push Windows on Itanium: competition 
with Linux. Fujitsu announced new 32-processor Itanium servers last 
week--but for customer demand reasons, it's releasing models with Linux 
first in June, with Windows support to follow in September.
Intel, too has had its hardships ... but things are looking up now, said 
Abhi Talkwalkar, senior vice president of Intel's Digital Enterprise 
Group. "Our first quarter was very strong as it pertains to Itanium," he 
said. And the chipmaker is eagerly awaiting the release of Montecito 
models at the end of 2005.
...
Microsoft plans Itanium versions of SQL Server 2005, its .Net Framework 
2005 and Visual Studio 2005 ... "What we expect to see over the next 12 
to 24 months is a set of really critical customer applications moving 
onto Windows and the Itanium platform," Muglia said. ... "The next 
logical thing to get on Integrity would be an Exchange implementation. I 
think that will be coming sometime down the road," Marcello said."

Relevant Pages

  • Microsoft to limit Windows apps on IA64
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    (comp.os.vms)
  • Microsot kills XP on Itanic
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    (comp.os.vms)
  • Re: Install XP 64-bit on Windows 2003 Server
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    (microsoft.public.windows.server.general)
  • Re: Install XP 64-bit on Windows 2003 Server
    ... CPU is Itanium Processor. ... Now I also need to install Windows XP 64-bit on this machine also. ... Server 2003 IA64 instead, but Microsoft also haven't released at R2 ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.general)
  • Re: AMD64 sales figures
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    (comp.os.vms)