Apple Hires Microsoft's Data Center Manager

[bigpics]

From what I understand, there are smart and creative people at MS but the company is bloated and unorganized so it is unable to really utilize its people effectively.

My friend's son is a senior MS exec, and from what I know (third-hand, mind you), Microsoft has a history of hiring lots and lots of top-tier grads. From about 1990-2000, they pretty much had pick of the litter.

Since then, Apple and Google among others have become magnets in their own right, and IBM and Oracle have also picked up their share - to name a few of the big boys.

You're right about the bloated part too, tho' "overorganized," i.e., bureaucratic, rather than unorganized may be a better description. MS is a collection of jealous baronies where the Win, Server and Office groups can pretty much quash anything else that doesn't fit their grand schema.

Which has resulted, e.g., in their seriously flawed efforts in the phone and "slate"/tablet markets. Including the recent "Pink"/Kin disaster.

So a lot of the talent begins to feel misused, abused and undervalued. But there are interesting things going on with the X-Box, Sync and Surface teams, and a lot of talent and resources are being thrown into the growing (if hard to understand and manage) stable of Live (read: "cloud" and "SaaS) offerings.

One semi-independent team is that developing Office for Mac. I've been in their advisory panel for a year or too now, and they really go out of their way to solicit feedback, suggestions, not just about Office (in some depth), but about how I use my Macs, and my attitudes about things like Office Apps on iOS devices. You get the impression they really care about their product and enjoy what they're doing.

Yeah, yeah, they probably feed it back on ways to make Win more Mac-like, but in the long run, for all users and Apple itself, I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing.

Both companies are going to be around for a long time, and while they overlap, they also have different missions that occupy different aspects of the whole computing "ecosystem." And both now have a common interest in not letting Google overrun key products.

PS: If you're looking for new companies for Apple to wary about, also keep your eyes on Amazon, and yes, facebook. Both have "ideas."

 

[z3r0]

He was at Microsoft for 2 years and over a decade at Yahoo. I would say he's more of a Yahoo employee then Microsoft.

I'm pretty sure he didn't fit in at Microsoft the same way ex-IBMer Papermaster did at Apple.

Its a good thing he's going to work at Apple. Hopefully he can help build a FreeBSD backend like Yahoo once had in it's glory days!

What I find ironic is Apple building data centers and pushing the cloud while they just finished acing the Xserve.

Apple should make a move and buyout Joyent if they really want to get serious. Joyent has been picking up a lot of top talent!

noone seems to be happy Apple is bringing in employees from even microsoft. But dont ya think this is kinda a real sign of the dominance Apple is starting to have.

Also maybe Apple has managed to pick out the small piece of talent microsoft had? haha the new strategy will be steal all the good employees, much cheaper than buying them out.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

He was at Microsoft for 2 years and over a decade at Yahoo. I would say he's more of a Yahoo employee then Microsoft.

I'm pretty sure he didn't fit in at Microsoft the same way ex-IBMer Papermaster did at Apple.

Its a good thing he's going to work at Apple. Hopefully he can help build a FreeBSD backend like Yahoo once had in it's glory days!

What I find ironic is Apple building data centers and pushing the cloud while they just finished acing the Xserve.

Apple should make a move and buyout Joyent if they really want to get serious. Joyent has been picking up a lot of top talent!

Seeing as OS X is a FreeBSD brethren it's not hard to realize that while XServe is decommissioned that they are still designing, developing and testing future Server Hardware and the Data Center is a great testing ground amidst a huge swath of 3rd party hardware inside there.

 

[lostngone]

Eeekkk!

There goes the neighborhood...

Ok, so now we need a Fail-Whale equivalent because I see the Apple cloud going down a lot.

 

[lostngone]

You sir, are an epic winner for that comment!

I like the mop behind him. Is he the janitor of the data center?

 

[shartypants]

Is this a good thing? He's been corrupted already

 

[z3r0]

OS X isn't much of a FreeBSD brethren, maybe user land but not much else.

I wish Apple would just build Mac OS X on top of FreeBSD kernel instead of the Mach/XNU frankenstein.

There are some real nice features in FreeBSD that would require a kernel re-write in Darwin. I'd love to have Jails, ZFS, capsicum, pf, and other tech available with aqua.

If thats out of the question at least port their server end software to FreeBSD. Final Cut Server, Xgrid, Xsan, Open Directory etc... wont see much use with out the Xserve.

Seeing as OS X is a FreeBSD brethren it's not hard to realize that while XServe is decommissioned that they are still designing, developing and testing future Server Hardware and the Data Center is a great testing ground amidst a huge swath of 3rd party hardware inside there.

 

[blow45]

Based on some of the posts in this one forum, it seems that most are coming from loud mouth teens who know nothing, or just want to say something for the hell of it. Geez!

not even teens, preteens, they are all over this place, and the amount they write here is inversely proportional to their knowledge and experience. uggghhh

 

[SFStateStudent]

Maybe he wanted to give up his Mercedes Benz for a "TESLA" or a "ZipCar"...

 

[CFreymarc]

Wow, that bar-b-q at Bill's place panned out. Didn't expect a talk over a few beers and ribs over how to manage over 100 million users in a data center would come to something. At least no blood sucking head hunter got a commission on this one and he got a better signing bonus. Welcome to the club!

 

[CFreymarc]

not even teens, preteens, they are all over this place, and the amount they write here is inversely proportional to their knowledge and experience. uggghhh

Then there are those that are playing a game of "Who am I?" by posting to this inside The Loop via a private, self paid, wireless, VPN.

 

[kiljoy616]

Blasphemy! Could not help it.

 

[kiljoy616]

Wow, that bar-b-q at Bill's place panned out. Didn't expect a talk over a few beers and ribs over how to manage over 100 million users in a data center would come to something. At least no blood sucking head hunter got a commission on this one and he got a better signing bonus. Welcome to the club!

No but there where lawyers for sure.

 

[JGowan]

He definitely made a good move. Going from Yahoo to Microsoft and now to Apple... excellent career thus far! Congrats, sir (if you're listening)!

 

[iSavant]

Haven't read the comments yet, but...

I had to rate this front page story as "negative"

just on-a-count-a I'm not used to seeing human faces when I visit the mr site

Make it go down the page, Please!

 

[blow45]

I had to rate this front page story as "negative"

just on-a-count-a I'm not used to seeing human faces when I visit the mr site

Make it go down the page, Please!

No human faces? wtf?

will that do then?

Then there are those that are playing a game of "Who am I?" by posting to this inside The Loop via a private, self paid, wireless, VPN.

I am sure there are but I don't really see what you mean, other than that.

 

[jonnysods]

What do you reckon these guys get paid?

 

[RalfTheDog]

Rats, sinking ships and all that. </troll>

 

[coder12]

It's a boom microphone with a windscreen on it.

Nope! That's the swiffer XL-4SxyYQERupupdowndownleftrightleftrightabenterDAF!$r44q limited edition ceiling duster! I'd know because I own four of them and am the official spokesman for its fan club.

 

[JAT]

I first saw this story around 7 hours ago. Since then I've still not come up with an opinion.

It's really hard to get me to not have an opinion, so congrats to MR for the most bland story of 2011 to date!!



I must say though, "bored college student" and "immature kid" may be equivalents in the mind of some people. For instance, anyone over 30.

 

[res1233]

Nope! That's the swiffer XL-4SxyYQERupupdowndownleftrightleftrightabenterDAF!$r44q limited edition ceiling duster! I'd know because I own four of them and am the official spokesman for its fan club.

Lol @ this. I have to say though, that picture is slightly retarded. Reminds me of the recent windows phone 7 commercial: "Lets you get in, and out, and back to life" Translation: "This phone isn't interesting enough to keep your attention so, you get in, and you'll want to get out, so you can get back to life." Microsoft just doesn't get the message they send with the subtle details I guess.

 

[kiljoy616]

I like the mop behind him. Is he the janitor of the data center?

hahahahaha good one.

Liquid on isle 4 came to mind.

 

[SeaFox]

From what I heard that'll be an improvement for MobileMe group!

Yes, just what Apple needs -- data center managers from the company responsible for the T-Mobile/Sidekick disaster.

 

[Winni]

As a datacenter manager ? Quite the contrary, those are 3 big data center experiences right there.

As a product manager ? I'd agree with you.

Let's see...

Most successful desktop operating system: Microsoft Windows.
Most successful server operating system: Microsoft Windows Server.
Most successful office suite: Microsoft Office.

Three good reasons (and there would be more like Exchange Server, Sharepoint Portal, SQL Server, Visual Studio) to also have confidence in the man if he were hired as a product manager.

Like it or not, Microsoft still is the most IMPORTANT software company around, and they don't hire incompetent idiots either.

 

[John.B]

Nobody has answered the burning question: Were any chairs thrown?