What to Expect from MVP Summit 2009

As you may know, since 2004 I’m one of 25 Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) for Terminal Server. It’s only two more weeks until I will be heading to the annual MVP Summit in Redmond again. Microsoft promises to provide opportunities for MVPs to network and socialize with their technical peers, build stronger relationships with Microsoft product teams, and represent their communities by sharing real world insight and feedback. In particular the last topic led to some discussion within the Terminal Server MVP group. Some MVPs complain that they still don’t see true innovation coming out from the TS product group or that Microsoft doesn’t implement features the MVPs suggest fast enough.

I don’t want to defend the TS team (I believe they can do this much better than I), but was it not always Microsoft’s strategy to build the platform, sell it to the masses and let top-notch partners provide the “cool” stuff on top of it? I strongly believe that Microsoft’s “catch-up-to-the-market” game just belongs to an overall strategy that worked very well for many years. I don’t say that this strategy of being a second mover will still be as successful in the future. But shouldn’t we all acknowledge that Microsoft only does the basic stuff and their partners adapt it so that it fits for all the different customers. They call it eco-system which requires ONE platform builder, a strong international distribution channel plus a bunch of smart “complementers” and as many customers as you can get. But you can also see it from the perspective that Microsoft has turned so big that they cannot innovate fast enough anymore. So they need innovators and impatient people like the MVPs to give them some feedback in order not to move in circles.

Without Microsoft’s current strategy, there wouldn’t be the sort of “holding-shit-together” tools and consulting services many MVPs make their money with. But there wouldn’t be such a big market for Microsoft products either. And I tell you what; I personally like figuring out what HST tools will be required for the next Windows Server release… So, in two weeks I want to learn as much as I can when they tell me which features they will include into the new OS and which features they won’t. The day Microsoft starts doing it all right will be a bad day for me, because in that moment I will be out of business. I bless every day they (accidently?) make stupid things and allow me to fix it!

So I strongly believe that we shouldn’t be talking too much about visions when we meet with the TS team. We should rather concentrate on the basics – and that’s just the next generation features and the impact they have on their and our customer base (and audiences for those MVPs who are publishers). If we wanted to talk about real new architectural concepts – which may include topics like the real separation of OS layers – the TS team may be the wrong target group. Such things should rather be discussed with people like Mark Russinovich or Eric Traut. They are also the ones who influence new OS deployment concepts, such as VHD streaming to bare metal or VHD injection for application deployment. But it’s primarily the TS team we are talking to, not the core OS designers.

Now, with the virtualization wave, Remote Desktop Services has become what we call a bread and butter business. This means, this year’s MVP Summit introducing details of Windows Server 2008 R2 may be rather focused on stabilizing the TS platform, enhancing application compatibility, reducing support overhead, creating new markets and making money, but probably not about real innovation. However, we should still share our honest opinion regarding their product roadmap and new features with them. In the past, they were always open to also listen to our complains and – by acting on them – trying to avoid the most obvious mistakes.