Microsoft Open Sources Its Internet Servers, Steps Into the Future

For nearly two years, tech insiders whispered that Microsoft was designing its own computer servers. Much like Google and Facebook and Amazon, the voices said, Microsoft was fashioning a cheaper and more efficient breed of server for use inside the massive data centers that drive its increasingly popular web services, including Bing, Windows Azure, and Office 365.

It only made sense. Typically, when you run a web service the size of Bing, needing tens of thousands of machines to keep the thing going, traditional server hardware becomes far too expensive. But when this phenomenon was discussed in public, Microsoft typically stayed mum. In designing its own servers, it was moving away from commercial machines sold by the likes of Dell and HP hardware makers that have long worked hand-in-hand with Microsoft in so many areas of the computer game and it seemed that Steve Ballmer and company were wary of offending their longtime allies.

Microsoft will not only lift the veil from its secret server designs. It will open source these designs, sharing them with the world at large.

Not anymore. This morning, in San Jose, California, Microsoft will not only lift the veil from its secret server designs. It will open source these designs, sharing them with the world at large so that other online outfits can use them inside their own data centers. Were trying to drive hardware innovation in cloud computing, says Bill Laing, the Microsoft corporate vice president who will reveal the designs at this weeks Open Compute Summit, a conference dedicated to the free exchange of hardware know-how.

Its yet another sign that the worldwide market for data center hardware is changing in enormous ways. In the past, if you needed servers or data storage gear or networking hardware, you simply bought what was available from American hardware vendors like Dell and HP and Cisco. Now, massive web outfits like Google and Facebook and Amazon and even Microsoft are designing their own hardware, partnering with manufacturers in Asia and other foreign locales to build this hardware on the cheap, and in some cases helping others take the same route.

Facebook galvanized this movement in 2011, when it open sourced its first server designs and founded the Open Compute Project, the not-for-profit foundation behind this weeks summit. The aim was to foster a vast community of companies that would freely trade their hardware designs and bootstrap a more efficient means of getting these designs built. Now, nearly three years later, this idea was come into its own.

Microsofts move towards the Open Compute Project is particularly telling. Its not just that the company is a traditional ally of Dell and HP, with these hardware makers selling its Windows operating system on all sorts of computers, from desktops and laptops to servers. Its that, for so many years, Microsoft was staunchly opposed to sharing its intellectual property with outsiders. It avoided open source software and even actively battled against those who built the stuff. Now, its embracing open source in both the hardware and the software world.

Al Gillen

As it released its server designs, the company also open sourced the software it built to manage the operation of these servers.

But this isnt mere altruism. By sharing its designs and software, Microsoft can push the web forward, helping others build more efficient data centers. But it can also boost its own cause, expanding the market for this custom-built gear and driving down its hardware costs even further.

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Microsoft Open Sources Its Internet Servers, Steps Into the Future