BANGALORE, INDIA: The Server and Tools Business (STB) at Microsoft is one of the most productive divisions which contributed close to $13 bn to Microsofts revenues last year. Driving this growth for the last many years is Bob Muglia who was recently elevated as president of STB.
He is also instrumental in delivering Dynamic IT, an initiative by Microsoft to help IT developers create optimized, flexible and scalable infrastructure that are well-tuned with business requirements for enterprises.
The STB portfolio includes Windows Server, SQL Server, Visual Studio, Virtualization products, System Center management products and the Forefront line of business security products, among others. Bob Muglia was recently in India to launch the companys low cost server computing solution called Foundation Server 2008.
Interestingly, Microsoft has come out with a low cost server offering and is aggressively targeting the emerging geographies; consequently, it is also taking on the open source vendors with a low cost offering for the first time. In an interview with Dataquest, Bob Muglia speaks about the new product, the open source hype and the way forward for STB. Excerpts
CIOL: What is the Foundation Server?
Bob Muglia: Its a low cost server platform that brings significant value to small businesses which till now could not afford such an enterprise class product. It is targeted at customers who are cost conscious and want more RoI given the current economic conditions. We have made the Foundation Server easy and simple and at the same time highly functional. For instance, its built for businesses with 15 or less users.
What this means is that small businesses can leverage the host of features that will enable them to run a range of solutions like business apps, databases, file, print sharing and remote access. We have tied up with Dell and HP which will be offering the Foundation Server. We are pretty bullish that it will change the way IT is being used in small enterprises and will empower them with enterprise class solutions leading to richer user experience and higher productivity.
CIOL: The current economic climate has created a perception that open source is cost effective, what is your take on that?
BM: Firstly, I would like to drive home the point that open source solutions are not free. Its a myth. Customers of open source end up paying for the subscription and licensing fee which makes it not a low cost solution. The second most important thing is functionality. The current competitive scenario increasingly demands customers to leverage IT in innovative ways leading to overall cost reduction and increase in productivity.
We are actually gaining share from Linux as customers realize the value of the Windows-based IT infrastructure. For instance, a Windows-based ecosystem makes for a seamless delivery of critical enterprise enablers like database management, networking, virtualization, HPC and web workflow make for compelling value that open source cannot provide.
If you take the Foundation Server 2008, it will empower the SMBs with server based software that gives them the functionality to offer such services like integrated email, simplified IT and virtualization among others at a very less cost. Moreover, as they grow they can upgrade to other solutions in the STB portfolio also. In a nutshell, its an extremely agile solution that makes SMBs align their business goals with IT effectively with no loose ends.
