So I’m dutifully studying up on Server 2008 R2 and reading on Microsoft’s website about how Terminal Services is so good now, that we really can’t call it Terminal Services anymore. In fact, we need at least three new names to describe it. Trouble is, they all seem to mean the same thing.
The first term Microsoft thinks we need is “VDI,” for “Virtual Desktop Infrastructure.” What does that mean? Microsoft says it means “a centralized desktop delivery architecture.” I’m not sure, but I think that means Terminal Services. Second, there’s “Remote Desktop Services,” or “RDS.” What does that mean? Umm, according to Microsoft, it’s the new term for Terminal Services. But wait, there’s more. “RemoteApp & Desktop Connection” (RAD is the acronym; honestly, you can’t make this stuff up) looks like, well, you probably see where I’m going here… Terminal Services.
I make a living teaching Microsoft topics. It’s unfortunate that so much of what I spend my time – and my students’ time – doing amounts to translating the new acronyms and names to the old ones. But if we don’t spend time on it, then we’ll have no clue as to what Microsoft’s TechNet articles and white papers and Knowledge Base articles are talking about. Microsoft has fallen so in love with its own jargon that they remind me of IBMers in the 80s, who would never use a simple term (“disk”) when a silly, home-grown acronym was available (“DASD” = “Direct Access Storage Device,” which I guess was preferable to an indirect access storage device). Any of you who have worked for the government at any level, or for almost any large organization, is probably familiar with this concept of inventing lots of arcane acronyms, most of which aren’t necessary but are meant to lend an Air Of Importance (AOI) to things that Aren’t Really New (ARN) but Feel New If Renamed (FNIR, pronounced “phneeer”).
This is not to suggest that all acronyms are useless. There is one, in fact, that I wish Microsoft would pay a little more attention to: KISS.
Recent posts:
Solid-State Disks and Server 2008, Part 4
Solid-State Disks: A Different Animal
Glenn Weadock is a longtime instructor for Global Knowledge and teaches Windows 7, Server 2008, and Active Directory. He has recently co-developed with Mark Wilkins two advanced Server 2008 classes in the Microsoft Official Curriculum. Glenn also consults through his Colorado-based company Independent Software, Inc. and is technical director of MarketCoach Investment Education Software LLC.
The Leader in Network Knowledge
Post new comment