August 28th, 2008
A (Microsoft) Codename a day: Sputnik
As I announced last week, I’m holding a short but sweet Microsoft codename contest this week, with the prize being a free signed copy of my Microsoft 2.0 book (which I will ship anywhere in the world to the winner).
Since I announced the rules and regulations, I’ve gotten more than a few interesting submissions. I was seeking from readers new (but real and existing) Microsoft codenames which I’ve had yet to detail as part of my growing Microsoft Codename list. I will be running some of the best ones (as judged by yours truly) on my blog this week.
Without further ado, let’s get to it.
Codename of the day: Sputnik
Best guess on what it is: A log-processing system powering Microsoft’s adCenter online-ad platform
Meaning/context of the codename: I’m not sure of the Microsoft “theme” of which Sputnik is a part. It does seem to be connected to “Cosmos” and “Dryad,” Microsoft’s cloud-storage layer and distributed-computing technology, respectively. Sputnik was the name of Russia’s space program and aircraft used in that program. Russia preferred to call its craft/indefinite satellites “Cosmos,” according to at least one article I found in my searches.
Back story: The Sputnik ETL (extract, transform and load) infrastructure already is powering the paid-search and display events on adCenter, one tipster says. Sputnik is built on top of SQL Server Integration Services. However, unlike SSIS, Sputnik works across distributed systems because it makes use of the Cosmos file system and Dryad distributed-execution technologies.
Additional info: Microsoft is working on making all of the infrastructure powering its cloud-computing services able to work across loosely coupled, distributed, multicore systems. Sputnik is no exception.
Got a Microsoft code name you’ve been wondering about? Send it my way before the end of this week and you just might win my end-of-summer codename contest. (Winners names will be kept confidential unless they want them publicized. So don’t be shy: Microsoft employees, customers, partners, competitors and others are all eligible!)
Meanwhile, if you want to keep track of the full month’s worth of Microsoft code names I end up posting, bookmark this “Microsoft Codenames” page.
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