Windows 7 TalkZ

This is not Windows news, but since it will probably affect many of our readers who use Microsoft products, including myself, I figured it was worth reporting:

According to Major Nelson’s blog, Microsoft is increasing the price for the Xbox LIVE gold plan’s subscription service, starting November 1st. The changes in price will only affect those in Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom or the United States.

The blog posts mentions that the price has been the same since 2002 and hints that the expanded services Microsoft is adding to Xbox LIVE is the reason for the price increase. Recent additions to the service include: avatars, facebook, twitter, last.fm, Zune video and Netflix. The service will also be upgraded soon to include: ESPN 3, Kinect and Zune music. As stated elsewhere, with Kinect coming soon and the rush of new users likely to sign up for the service, it seems that this is an ideal time for the price increase

Here is the pricing chart with the new gold plan costs coming soon:

To help current gold subscribers keep the cost down, Microsoft is providing a way to lock in their subscription for the next 12 months at the current price. If you wish to lock in the discount, visit here.

While this may seem like a great business move with the expected holiday rush for Kinect, as a user, I would definitely have preferred that the service either become free or that Microsoft decrease the cost for the gold plan. Shouldn’t this service come automatically with the price of the console? That’s my opinion, let me know what you other Xbox LIVE users think.

Related posts:

1. Hulu Plus Coming to Xbox in 2011
2. Where Are Microsoft Going Next?
3. United Airlines to Partner with Microsoft Zune
4. Zune Pass Coming to the UK?
5. Windows Phone 7 and Xbox LIVE Announcements at Gamescon

If cost is any indication about how and when to move to a new technology, saving 3 to 4 million dollars over the next few years would be incentive enough. So CH2M HILL, a Fortune 500 company and a leader in engineering, management, procurement, construction, and operations, switched to Microsoft virtualization and management software with Hyper-V away from VMware Inc.

According to Microsoft, between 2005 and 2007, the company used VMware ESX to virtualize 350 servers in its datacenter and 100 servers in regional offices. When the global economy lost traction in 2007, CH2M HILL decided that it needed a more cost-effective virtualization solution.

Why Virtualization?

Essentially it offers at the very least the opportunity to save on hardware expenses. Instead of buying 10 servers and 10 software licenses, you can buy 1 physical server, and the software licenses to run 10 virtual machines. Do the math. If one server costs about $4,000, then 10 would be $40,000. Add $500 to $1000 for the operating system license and the software packages you could be looking at about 10,000 for the software including the OS. It could be as much as $50,000.

Hyper-V Image

Instead, you spend $4,000 on a server and 10,000 on the software, or $14,000.

That’s how CH2M HILL saw it. But apparently, Hyper-V, Microsoft’s version with comes with Server 2008  was less expensive than VMWare. Here is their take:

“The company was cutting costs across the board, and we wanted to push forward with virtualizing more servers, especially in our field offices, but we just couldn’t do it with VMware,” said Greg Barton, senior analyst, Enterprise Systems Group, CH2M HILL. “By switching to Microsoft from VMware, we will save $280,000 in software fees. Plus, we can now afford to tackle our 600 field servers and are aiming to virtualize 20 percent of these computers each year. At $5,000 a server, that’s a savings of $3 million over the next three to five years.”

VMWare

Indeed, Virtualization will certainly be a product alternative, especially if the power of the servers can increase, making the virtualization not only affordable, but allows companies to maintain productivity in that environment.

Related posts:

1. Windows 7 SP1 will Contain Minor Updates
2. How To Setup a Virtual PC Console in Windows 7
3. Native Support for Virtual Hard Disks in Windows 7
4. Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 4.0 Beta7
5. Windows Server 2008 R2 To Be Shown At PDC 08