The announcements were made during the Microsoft Hosting Summit, held March 3
to 5 in Bellevue, Wash.
The
Microsoft Dynamic Data Center Tool Kit offers guidance, sample code, best
practices and collateral "to help hosting partners deploy managed hosting
offerings," according to the company. It also features step-by-step
instructions for building a virtualized, scalable infrastructure and marketing
guidance so hosting partners can sell managed services and solutions.
All
hosting providers enrolled in the Microsoft Hosting Community, an extension of
the Microsoft Partner Program, will have access to the tool kit.
Microsoft
also took the opportunity during the summit to play up Windows Server 2008 with
Hyper-V technology and Microsoft System Center, as well as issue
"cost-reducing updates" to its SPLA (Services Provider License
Agreement).
With
Microsoft System Center, a host provider can manage its clients' and servers'
physical and virtual assets on the same platform; Hyper-V technology allows
several virtual machines to run on a single physical machine.
Microsoft
Hyper-V represents a substantial challenge to VMware, which has
traditionally held much of the market share in the virtualization space.
"During these difficult economic times, hosted services are more important
than ever as customers look for ways to reduce cost and increase
efficiencies," John Zanni, general manager of the Worldwide Software Plus
Services Industry for the Communications Sector at Microsoft, said in a
statement. "There is a tremendous opportunity for hosting providers to
partner with Microsoft to transition from mass-market hosting into
higher-margin managed services."
