Vic Gundotra summed up this deal by reusing the "Two turkeys do not make an eagle" quote. However, I think he is likely channeling some angst over losing it and may be missing the bigger picture that Microsoft and Nokia together may actually amount to the phoenix rebirth of both their mobile strategies that they both desperately need.

In the past week at their own press conferences and at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Nokia announced a deep partnership with Microsoft to build Windows Phones. There’s been lot of speculation on why Nokia decided to go this route rather than either adopt Android in a similar strategy or to continue to develop their own platform strategy. The introduction of Steven Elop, a former Microsoft executive, as the CEO is fueling some speculation that the Nokia decision may in part have been based on his former relationships rather than the objective best interest of the company. That seems to me to be a red herring.

I think this was exactly the right move for both Nokia and Microsoft (and Nokia’s employees and customers.) Here are some of my thoughts:

• Magic 8 Ball says "Outlook not so good": Microsoft has had trouble getting back into the mobile space and has needed bolder moves and stronger partnerships for some time. Word is that Nokia’s internal predictions for smart phone market share showed them diving into single digits before too long. Their "platform" (current state strategy) is burning and is taking them in the wrong direction.

• The Android Morass: I see the Android market as alive and vibrant, but also crowded and fraught with peril for anyone trying to differentiate. Android is becoming the mobile platform of choice for not only well executed devices but also for low end barely-smart phones. Nokia jumping on that bandwagon would have the potential to get them lost in the noise very quickly.

• Better Together: Microsoft and Nokia need each other in ways that Google doesn’t. Microsoft sells software and Nokia sells phones. Both of them need the other to make money to be successful and they can compliment each other that way. Google sells advertising and could care less if you have to give your stuff away for free as long as they get they eyeballs. They want a slice of every device out there, good or crappy, and a race to the bottom for hardware makers is just fine. Microsoft has much more to gain from a strong Nokia than Google would and building best in class devices that unite each of their strengths is aligned well with what they both need.

Will they succeed? Signs so far point to MSFT continuing to move too slow and being hamstrung by current partner relationships in some ways. Unless they break that cycle and get their development and engineering velocity higher than both Google and Apple they are going to have trouble keeping up. This is a big challenge for them that they are falling down on so far since the launch of Windows Phone 7. Hopefully a tight partnership with a premier hardware vendor can help them drive reference devices that will push the rest of their partner/carrier relationships forward and drive higher velocity.

Enterprise/Business Perspective

• iPhone is Bad for IT: My thoughts for some time is that iPhone and Android have been bad for business IT. Not because they aren’t capable platforms but because they come from a consumer oriented mindset and a lot of the best talent in the market place is getting tied up right now trying to build the next Angry Birds app. You can get business apps on those platforms but that isn’t where the energy is at right now. That coupled with the fact that the iPhone is not compatible with the development model of most IT departments and it’s a pain to get apps on outside the app store and you have a mobile platform that sets back business IT mobile development by years.

• MSFT Enterprise Roots: MSFT and their mobile platform has at least a little bit of business IT DNA. Microsoft is downplaying that for now, but hopefully not excising it all together. My expectation is that anything better than a total failure of the platform will provide an outlet for real enterprise class mobile application development to flourish once more.
• Calling All IT Devs: Bring on my ERP, CRM, HR applications… why aren’t I interacting with my core business tools via rich custom applications yet? There are a smattering of commercial applications in some of the marketplaces but my IT department should be making its own packaged and custom tools available, driving real business value to their mobile workforces.

Am I missing the mark here? What do you all hope to see from this partnership? What top apps from your IT department do you need on your mobile devices today?

Of my four rough categories of virtualization, platform or server virtualization is usually what comes to mind first. I use the term platform since this can be done in special situations with PC operating systems, not just server, but I’ll cover those in my next post.

Typically, instead of running a server operating system like Linux or Windows Server on its own hardware, you instead run it inside an already running server. Usually this is done on a special server set up to run many virtual servers on a single box. This can also be done on a PC or laptop, but usually with only one guest operating system running inside the main operating system.

So why would you do this?

1. Consolidation/Cost: Typical IT datacenters have many, many servers but many of those servers don’t work very hard. There’s lots of spare processing cycles to go around. Consolidation of these servers into less physical boxes saves hardware cost, power, and space. In large datacenters this can add up to huge cost savings for a company, if the profile of the servers being consolidated is right.
2. Flexibility/Dynamic Capacity: Sometimes servers don’t need to be around all that often. A company may need to add capacity only occasionally (like during tax season) or may keep special application servers around only for particular projects. Virtual servers   can be moved around much more easily than physical servers and can be stored as images in large data storage. Some companies keep a virtual library of special use server images that can be set up when needed.
3. Development/Testing/Support: Sometimes a PC user may have a need for a special use operating system on their own PC. I’ve done this often for demo purposes, even running a virtual server OS on my laptop at times to show of some scenario or capability. This is also often used to host special development or testing environments. Finally, some critical or interesting pieces of software may not run on your main operating system and so a virtual guest environment may be useful (e.g. Windows on a Mac or Linux on a Windows PC.)

Server Virtualization – Industry Roundup

Here’s a rundown of some of the main players in platform virtualization and a high-level analysis of each:

Citrix – XenServer

• Was focused on the open-source Xen project but now provides Hyper-V management
• Base, relatively full featured version available free as Xen
• Enterprise support and advanced management provided at enterprise cost
• Seen as enterprise class and a viable competitor to VMWare and MS Hyper-V (as well as a MS partner against VMWare) especially at lower price points, but requires Citrix management tools to be used effectively

EMC – VMWare

• Market leader with majority market share and high penetration in large businesses
• Known for unique (for now) advanced enterprise features like memory overcommit
• Free starter-style version available as ESXi
• Seen as the market leader though costs can be high and alternatives may have strengths in specific circumstances

IBM – z/VM

• Traditionally a mainframe based OS virtualization technology

• Based on deep history of OS virtualization development dating back to the 1960s
• Focused on UNIX/Linux OS support

• Seen as a strong UNIX/Linux solution for datacenters already managing large IBM platforms or datacenters outsourced to IBM but not typically considered for new implementations

Microsoft – Hyper-V

• Second place in market share and gaining on VMWare
• Near feature parity with all other vendors, requires MS management tools for full capabilities
• Free console managed version and full version available with Windows Server
• Seen as a strong contender for leadership in virtualization in the future and often wins on price but still lacks some of the enterprise capabilities of competitor offerings

Open Source – Xen

• Capable, open-source virtualization offering
• Feature parity at the hypervisor level with other enterprise offerings
• Lacks management tools and support needed in most enterprise environments
• Seen as a strong hypervisor platform but mostly adopted through enterprise vendors building solutions around it, like Citrix and Oracle

Oracle – VM Server

• Xen based offering targeted at Oracle solutions
• May be a stronger offering in the future with the integration of Sun multi-OS solutions
• Seen as a follower in this space but a viable alternative for heavy Oracle shops

With that roundup I’ll break for now and cover PC level platform virtualization in my next post. Until then let me know if you have any comments or see any gaps. Enjoy!

Side tip: I now listen to almost all informational podcasts and audio books at 2x speed. I found that you quickly get used to the pace and get through more content. I’ve been doing this for months now and I already wish I had more speed control and could go faster.

Harvard Business Review IdeaCast

http://blogs.hbr.org/ideacast

This weekly cast has the feel of a business school lecture series, each featuring a business expert or leader of industry talking on a single topic. The 15 minute length is easily consumed and I always feel like there are at least a couple ideas I can take away from each.

Wall Street Journal Podcasts

http://online.wsj.com/public/page/podcast.html?mod=WSJ_footer

The WSJ has a huge collection of daily and weekly casts. There is plenty of good business content. I’ve been regularly listening to Wall Street Journal on Small Business and will often save up a few of these 5 to 10 minute casts and listen to them all at once.

Business Week Podcasts

http://www.businessweek.com/search/podcasting.htm

Business Week also has a pretty good collection of casts with Behind This Week’s Cover Story being one I check out pretty often. This is a casual 15 minute walkthrough of the weeks cover story. Another highlight from Business Week is The Welch Way, which is series of short discussion on business and management topics from Jack and Suzy Welch.

37signals

http://37signals.com

For something slightly different, 37signals offers a weekly podcast that reviews their unique business perspective as a small, agile, highly successful web software company. They draw on material from their day to day operations best practices as well as information published in their recent book Rework, which I listened to recently from Audible and liked.

Any standouts that I’m missing? Enjoy!