WPC 2011 - Day 2 Keynotes

Day Two’s keynotes had a wealth of facts from leaders of various Microsoft divisions.

Server and Tools

• In 2011, the number of virtual servers shipped surpassed the number of physical servers shipped.
• In 2012, the virtual server installed base will overtake the physical server installed base.
• In 2014, the number of servers shipped will increase 14%.

The last projection is interesting.  Most of the excess capacity that was latent in organizational data centers has been put to use through virtualization and cloud technologies.  But new applications and services will drive even higher demand for server resources in the future.

Data and Business Intelligence

• Data continues to grow at a 40% compound annual growth rate. 
• 15 of 17 industry verticals have more data than the entire Library of Congress.
• 72% of users have no access to Business Intelligence tools.
• “Just because you have more data doesn't mean you have insight.”

The last research point shows why PowerPivot and other end-user BI tools are in such high demand right now.

Office and Collaboration

• 1 Billion computers run Office right now.
• SharePoint 2010 is a leader (Gartner Magic Quadrant or Forrester Wave) in all 6 of the workloads it competes in.  62% of business users use it every day.
• Exchange controls 73% of the US market, and 65% of the worldwide market.  Lotus Notes continues to lose share.