Re: Microsoft Switched To Linux To Protect Its Web Site -- MS DNS

["Bryan J. Smith" <b.j.smith@ieee.org>]

On Thu, 2003-08-21 at 11:40, Joe Tosetti wrote:
> Thought this was interesting.
> http://www.securitypipeline.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=1310083
> 4

Microsoft's DNS has been _primarily_ hosted on Linux for around 2 years
now.  This was the result of a combination both technical incompetence
and, probably the main reason, general Microsoft executive failure to
recognize DNS as a major artery to their _entire_ on-line presence.

Now Microsoft has moved 100% to Linux-based DNS c/o Akamai, who is
already providing reverse proxy servers runnings Linux-Squid in front of
IIS servers.  Supposedly over 50% of the load on all of Microsoft's
on-line presence hits an Akamai proxy.

Anyone who knows Microsoft knows their OS design team is actually good,
technically speaking.  Most of the problem in Microsoft is not only
their executive management, who interjects political decisions that
override the OS developers' recommendations, but the application team
who the executives allow to interject even more garbage.

But beyond that, it's the department most people don't talk about.  At
the bottom of the barrel is Microsoft's IT division.  Anyone who works
at Best Buy can tell you about them, as Microsoft does all of Best Buy's
IT -- as they use Best Buy as their "model" for retail/POS.  Since Best
Buy gets it all for free, they don't complain.  Unless it really hurts
them, like unencrypted wireless, and over 1 week downtimes.

Their on-line presence is just as bad.  So bad that even UNIX adoption
cannot help them.  Microsoft not only outsources most of their IT, from
UNIX/Linux-based DNS to UNIX/Linux-based reverse proxy caches to
UNIX/Linux-based disc replication and UNIX/Linux-based development tools
(outside of the build software, although some of it is still open-source
based).

For a refresher on the Microsoft Dec'00 to Feb'01 downtime due to DNS,
see my post here:  
http://www.matrixlist.com/pipermail/leaplist/2001-February/009426.html  

[ Please excuse the profanity, I was trying to get the point across to a
MS bigot at the time. ]

-- 
Bryan J. Smith, E.I.             b.j.smith@ieee.org
http://thebs.org/certs.pdf         http://thebs.org
---------------------------------------------------
The more Microsoft says there is no accountability
in Linux, the more people laugh at Microsoft.



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