Microsoft News Tracker

Nicholas Carr is providing this weekend’s Microsoft buzz with a rumor that Microsoft is getting ready to roll out a Web apps strategy if not necessarily any actual apps:

Put your ears to the ground, my friends, for the Beast of Redmond may be stirring. I’ve heard that Microsoft has begun briefing its large enterprise clients on an expansive and detailed strategy for moving its software business into the cloud. If the report proves correct - and I make no guarantees - the company will unveil the strategy to the public either next week or the week after.
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The new strategy will, I’m told, lay out a roadmap of moves across three major areas: the transformation of the company’s portfolio of enterprise applications to a web-services architecture, the launch of web versions of its major PC applications, and the continued expansion of its data center network.

And in the latter regard, Carr has a double header - Rumor: Microsoft set for vast data-center push:

I’ve received a few more hints about the big cloud-computing initiative Microsoft may be about to announce, perhaps during the company’s Mix08 conference in Las Vegas this coming week. One of the cornerstones of the strategy, I’ve heard, will be an aggressive acceleration of the company’s investment in its data center network. The construction program will be “totally over the top,” said a person briefed on the plan. The first phase of the buildout, said the source, will include the construction of about two dozen data centers around the world, each covering about 500,000 square feet or more. The timing of the construction is unclear.

You can’t have a good cloud strategy without plenty of capex, of course, but what with the Yahoo acquisition this seems like a fairly stressful time to be raiding the piggy bank. It’s a good thing Microsoft has all those old-fashioned operating systems and offline applications to foot all these bills.

Less snarkily, if these rumors pan out, it will be interesting indeed to see how Microsoft manages to finesse “software plus services” to avoid killing the cash cows while simultaneously avoiding owning some large buildings stuffed with unused computers. And no, I won’t complain about all the times Microsoft disparaged Web apps.

Related: Michael Arrington reports a rumor that Microsoft may also be announcing at Mix08 an offline version of Silverlight to compete with Adobe Air for the Rich (and occasionally offline) Internet Application business.

Russian news reports indicate that Microsoft’s has announced plans for a new mega data center in Siberia:

Microsoft has announced plans to build a data center in Irkutsk, one of the largest cities in Siberia. The facility will be able to hold 10,000 servers, according to Birger Steen, the head of Microsoft’s Russian and CIS business unit. The company’s plans were outlined in a press briefing Friday and reported by Russian news outlets Kommersant and Cnews.

The project appears to be smaller in scope than recently announced Microsoft data center projects in Dublin, Ireland and the Chicago area, and no budget was announced (although some Russian media sources cited the $500 million number for the other projects). No specific site has been selected yet, but Microsoft is said to be considering locations in between Irkutsk and Angarsk, two cities north of Lake Baikal in southern Siberia.

There’s apparently good power availability in the region and presumably also Internet bandwidth, but I guess they won’t have to worry too much about cooling.

The Microsoft buildout of Internet infrastructure continues apace as this week they revealed two new $500 million data centers in Illinois and Ireland:

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Microsoft today announced that they will be opening a new software development center in Canada:

Microsoft Corp. today announced that it intends to expand its presence in Canada by opening a new software development center in the greater Vancouver, British Columbia, area. The Microsoft Canada Development Centre will open in the fall of 2007 and will be home to software developers from around the world.

“Microsoft is a global company, and our greatest asset is smart, talented, highly skilled people,” said S. Somasegar, corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft. “Our goal as a company is to attract the next generation of leading software developers from all parts of the world, and this center will be a beacon for some of that talent.”

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The Vancouver area is a global gateway with a diverse population, is close to Microsoft’s corporate offices in Redmond and allows the company to recruit and retain highly skilled people affected by immigration issues in the U.S.

Since S. “Soma” Somasegar is providing the quote, one suspects it will be a developer tools oriented center. I hope they have their real estate lined up already - otherwise, the price just went up. Update: Microsoft spokesman Lou Gellos is downplaying the immigration angle and says the center will initially have 200 employees.

Meanwhile, back in Redmond, Microsoft bought an unused 28 acre parcel from Nintendo of America:

Nintendo Co. said Tuesday that it reached a deal to sell Microsoft a vacant 28-acre parcel across from Nintendo’s North American headquarters. The agreement confirms widespread assumptions that Microsoft would buy the land.

Microsoft will keep the land in reserve for possible development in the future and use it to help alleviate a parking shortage in the meantime, said Lou Gellos, a company spokesman. The parking garages at the company’s adjacent RedWest campus are often filled to capacity.

The deal will close in mid-July at which point the price will be known.

IT infrastructure services company Savvis Inc. announced on Friday that it had sold two adjoining data centers in Santa Clara, California to Microsoft for $200 million. Microsoft had been the only occupant of the data centers which contain 250,000 sq. ft. of floor space and the sale rmarked the termination of a long term colocation contract which had been set to expire in 2010.