Is Microsoft Chocking While Dogfooding Windows Server 2008?

Concomitantly with the advancing into the final stages of the development of Windows Server 2008, formerly codenamed Longhorn, Microsoft applauded the fact that it was converting its infrastructure to the latest edition of the server operating system. Of course that the Redmond company has a strong tradition at dogfooding its own products. The term dogfooding refers to companies that are implementing and running their own software. This is the case with Microsoft, and with Windows Server 2008. But according to statistics provided by Alexa via InformationWeek, it appears that Microsoft might be chocking while dogfooding its last 32-bit server operating system.

The Redmond company made no secret that it introduced Windows Server 2008 into its production environments, before the platform was finalized. In fact, as early as the Beta 3 stage, Windows Server 2008 was powering Microsoft.com. And while the company has been emphasizing the evolution of the current version of the server operating system in comparison to its predecessor, Windows Server 2003, pointing to increased performance, statistics from Alexa reveal that Microsoft.com is rather sluggish.

Even running on Windows Server 2008, Microsoft.com has an average loading time of 4.3 seconds, which has promoted a label of Slow, when it comes down to assessing its speed. The fact of the matter is that Microsoft.com is approximately 75% slower than all websites. The fact that Microsoft.com is powered by pre-RTM versions of Windows Server 2008 was confirmed by Microsoft in the past, but the latest update was provided via the lament of the last Windows Server 2003 - the Lone Server, a humorous approach of the upgrading process to the latest version of the server platform.

"Albeit affectionately stated by those in IT, my name really means 'alone Server'. They call me Lone Server since I'm the only Windows Server 2003 box remaining in the Microsoft.com environment. All the other servers upgraded to Windows Server 2008 pre-release builds. Even though Windows Server 2008 is not yet final, Microsoft.com is running solely on Windows Server 2008 these days", the Lone Server stated. "Adding insult to injury, the Windows Server 2008 boxes always ask, "want to benchmark against me on key workloads? I simply can't compete against those Windows Server 2008 boxes. I know that my turn for an upgrade will come, but for now, I guess I just need to be patient."

Windows Server 2008 is planned to be released to manufacturing in February 2008, and for the official launch at the Heroes Happen Here event in Los Angeles on February 27, 2008. It is obvious that Microsoft's dogfooding of Windows Server 2008 is a signal to customers that the operating system has been ready for deployment, since the last development milestones in the second half of 2007.


Video: The Lone Server