Ballmers articulates Microsoft DSI strategy which has MS Windows 2003 at the core.

I spend a lot of time talking with Microsoft customers around the world, and one thing I consistently hear is that the growing complexity of today's computing systems is driving up costs and limiting the potential of information technology to work on the toughest business problems. In fact, a study by the consulting firm Accenture reported that IT professionals spend up to 70 percent of their time maintaining existing systems.

...

Over the past several years, Microsoft, in partnership with other IT industry leaders, has been making significant investments in an effort we call the Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI). The goal is to build a comprehensive set of solutions for the Windows platform that can help automate the design and management of the increasingly complex and distributed computing systems that customers need today. Doing this will free up valuable IT resources to work on higher-value projects, and make computing simpler and more cost-effective for organizations large and small.

Specifically, DSI is about doing three things really well:

• Building software development tools that help IT managers and software-development teams design computing systems that are inherently simple and inexpensive to manage. We call this "design for operations."

• Enhancing the Windows operating system platform with powerful management technologies suited for complex and constantly-changing IT environments, such as automated deployment, configuration and monitoring.

• Building easy-to-use, scalable solutions that cover every aspect of the management experience, with real-time feedback on system performance and a high level of automation.