On Feb. 24, 2009, Rick Rashid, senior vice president of Microsoft Research, announced a new research organization called Cloud Computing Futures (CCF), focused on reducing the operational costs of data centers and increasing their adaptability and resilience to failure. The group, led by Dan Reed, director of Scalable and Multicore Systems, will strive to lower hardware costs, power consumption, and the environmental impact of such facilities. Here is an interview with Dan Reed where he discussed the new venture.
“Q:What are you announcing, and why now?
Reed: Cloud Computing Futures is a new initiative in Microsoft Research to improve the efficiency of the scalable computing hardware and software infrastructure needed to deliver cloud services. Data centers and their services have grown in size and importance as Microsoft has shifted to a software-plus-services model in which an increasing number of new applications run in part, or entirely, in the “cloud” and are delivered to clients via the Internet. ”
Related Links
Seeding The Clouds, on Dan Reed’s Blog
