Some inside info as to what's taking Microsoft's Windows Server 2016 so long

Friend and enthusiast of the Microsoft enterprise news, Mary Jo Foley, is back at it again. Mary Jo who writes for ZDnet, is reporting that Microsoft is working harder than ever to turn Windows Server 2016 into a ‘cloud optimized server’ for the future.

What does any of that mean besides arguably an excuse for Microsoft to push back its Windows Server 2016 roll out date? Well, Mary Jo goes into great detail in her piece about Microsoft’s efforts at “deeply refracting”, and making the server “largely compatible”, and a few other buzz-worthy phrases. Suffice to say, Microsoft is doing a bit more planning for the future of cloud-based computing than they have historically shown for products in their release/reiterate and market-watch strategies of old.

General Manager of Windows Server Mike Neil mentioned back in October at Tech Ed, that the next version of Windows Server will be “taking learnings from Azure and making them available to a broader set of customers.”

Neil goes on to talk about, “How do you bring the learnings from super high scale with Azure and bring it down? This stuff today is custom. Our customers want something turnkey from service providers, systems integrators, so they can layer their services on top of this,” Neil said. “We are looking forward to blurring the lines more between on-premises and cloud.”

The well-written piece goes on at length in some detail about the two flavors of computer containers, one for application compatibility and others optimized for cloud servers. More details about those will be given at Build 2015 later this year. In and of itself this an excellent move for those interested in the server side news of Microsoft. Microsoft is also expected seed the next public preview of Windows Server 2106 sometime in the spring of 2015, possibly around Build.

This news is yet another sign of Microsoft’s commitment into creating a collaborative ecosystem within its own infrastructure. Microsoft is also working on evolving its Azure platform as-a-service (Paas) architecture, moving to more of a microservices model. This level of cohesiveness is sure to pay off in the long for what’s quickly becoming their vital pivoting point away from Windows.