Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Affirms Commitment to Dynamic Systems Initiative

Microsoft Corp. (www.microsoft.com) CEO Steve Ballmer spoke to more than 2,600 attendees at the Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) 2005 today, describing how Microsoft's execution on its Dynamic Systems Initiative can enable customers to build and operate dynamic environments to achieve higher business value through automation, flexible resource utilization and knowledge-based processes.

In his keynote address, Ballmer announced increased investments in support of the Dynamic Systems Initiative, specifically in the area of virtualization to help enterprise customers improve the flexibility and utilization of their computing hardware. He also announced an important step toward industry agreement on the technology architecture to simplify network security management.

"We've heard from our enterprise IT customers loud and clear that they need their systems to be more automated and flexible," Ballmer said. "That's why we're investing in the Dynamic Systems Initiative and areas like virtualization, more secure network access and interoperability -- we're committed to helping IT deliver greater efficiency and value."

Virtualization allows customers to make more efficient use of hardware resources and reduce IT infrastructure costs. In his keynote speech, Ballmer announced Microsoft's increased investment in both virtualization and virtualization management technology, demonstrating near-term product improvements and laying out a long-term strategy for both areas.

In addition to these near-term product deliverables, Microsoft is working with the industry and increasing its investments to provide customers with more robust virtualization and virtualization management solutions for the Windows® platform.

"Gartner sees the integration of virtualization technology with the operating system as a natural evolutionary step for the x86 platform," said Thomas Bittman, research vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner Inc.

"Intel is excited to be working with Microsoft on the foundation of a more dynamic and manageable computing environment, one that maximizes our companies' hardware and software virtualization expertise," said Abhi Y.

Ballmer also demonstrated progress in implementing WS-Management, a Web services specification co-authored by Microsoft, AMD, BMC, Dell, Intel, Sun and WBEM Solutions. WS-Management addresses the cost and complexity of IT management by providing a common way for systems of all types to access and exchange management information across the infrastructure.

Ballmer also announced Microsoft's architecture alignment and planned interoperability between the Trusted Computing Group's Trusted Network Connect (TNC) architecture and Microsoft Network Access Protection (NAP).

This alignment represents an important step toward industry agreement on network security technologies and endpoint integrity. Microsoft Network Access Protection technology will help address this need by simplifying the process of ensuring that as users connect to corporate systems and data, their devices are healthy.

"Recent headlines of attacks, identity theft and lost or stolen systems point to the increasing need for protected access into the corporate network and assurance of endpoint integrity," said Jim Ward, TCG president.

Related to today's announcement, in October 2004, Microsoft and Cisco Systems Inc. announced an important alliance to share and integrate Network Access Protection and Cisco Network Admissions Control (NAC).

Microsoft Windows Server System (TM) is integrated server software providing the infrastructure for IT operations, application development, integration and information work. Built on the Windows Server operating system and designed with Common Engineering Criteria, Windows Server System is focused on making it easier for IT professionals to connect and manage their IT environments.

Because Windows Server System products are integrated for enhanced manageability and security, they help organizations reduce complexity and lower costs.