Q&A with Dave Northey, Microsoft IT Pro Evangelist

Dave Northey is a Microsoft IT Pro Evangelist working in Ireland, where his job title leads to some confusion ("evangelist" is still considered a religious title in Ireland; software title, not so much). Dave gets to work with as many of the 72,000 Irish IT professionals as he can. He explains his role as someone who gets to learn new stuff and talk to people about it ("the best job in IT," as he calls it).  He considers himself a Principal Systems Engineer.

Q: You were present for several launch events for Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, and Visual Studio 2008. What do the attendees at the events seem most interested in? What are they talking about?

A: I owned the Windows Server track and as such didn't get to see any of the other sessions (which was a shame). Within the Windows sessions, the interest was pretty much for everything we showed. But if I had to call out a few of the highlights, I'd say Hyper-V, Terminal Services, Failover Clustering, and NAP. Most people I spoke to were talking about when they were going to deploy. I don't think there'll be anyone waiting for the first service pack this time (you didn't need to wait for SP1 for Windows Server 2003 or 2000 either -- but that's the perception we have to get over).

Q: You did a number of posts on your blog called "Thoughts from the field" where you published people's first impressions of Windows Server 2008. Did anyone talk about changes and features that gave them concerns? Or if they liked the way certain features worked in Windows Server 2003 better?

A: The idea behind my "Thoughts from the field" was simply to highlight local references -- to get local IT Pros to talk about their experiences (I've started doing a few more recently -- they're just not called anything in particular).  Concerns? To be honest, no, there weren't any. Everything that's in both Windows Server 2008 and 2003 is easier to do in 2008.  Most of the new features in Windows Server 2008 are talking directly at business issues, so they resonate well -- e.g. how do I secure my network?  Answer = NAP.

Q: Hyper-V is clearly a big deal for Microsoft. From the people you've spoken to at the events and people you correspond with, do you have a sense of how many are using virtualization now, or exploring its use? For those that haven't jumped into virtualization, what is holding them back?

A: Most people I speak to are looking at virtualization in some form or another. Those looking at Hyper-V are probably already using a competitor's product (i.e., they already know and understand what server virtualization is all about and the benefits they can get from it) and most of them are planning to move away from the competition over to us. They're just waiting for us to ship (as am I). Those that are not looking are just waiting to see what happens. If the numbers are right (that only 5 percent of all servers are virtualized today), then there's 95 percent of the market to play for, and if you could get a free solution from Microsoft, then why would you look anywhere else?  These people are also waiting for us to ship!

Q: Finally, if you could change one thing about Windows Server 2008, say for a future version, what would it be?

A: Oh, that's easy -- make it even more modular.  Let me start with a Server Core install and layer on the functionality I want -- all the way up to a Full install (I don't think we should have two completely different installation options).