A View On The Future Of The Softgrid Product Line

Wednesday, 03 October 2007 by Michel Roth

I recently came across a blog post by Randall Kennedy over at Infoworld.com. He noticed some interesting statements made by Chad Jones (Product Manager for SoftGrid at Microsoft) in the Microsoft Technet forums.

You'll have to read for yourself but here's a summary:

� SoftGrid 4.5 will enter beta in a few weeks (Q4 2007). From the sounds of it, this will be the last stand-alone version they release before absorbing the server components into Windows Server System, etc.

� Version 4.5 will include a new, "lightweight" streaming implementation that doesn't' require Active Directory or SQL Server. This version will complement the existing SoftGrid server components as well as the new MSI packaging tool, providing 3 ways to deploy SoftGrid-packaged applications.

� Microsoft will complete its integration of SoftGrid when it releases Microsoft Systems Center Configuration Manager (MSCCM) R2 sometime next year. Chad is promising "deep" integration with MSSCM, whatever that means.