Microsoft is trying to grow up to offer the kind of management needed to be a player in the data center. As well it should, given that x86 machines are no longer the low-cost wanna-be's relegated to the workgroup. They, too, are the data center. But all of Microsoft's games around Linux and open source will make users wonder if it really understands the market well enough to be the go-to vendor for cross platform management. Time will tell. In the meantime, as this story by John Fontana in Network World points out, the shift toward the "Dynamic Systems Initiative" (as Microsoft calls it) will face its share of problems.

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Click to read the article this is in response to.