Become a Contributor

We’re calling for papers on Virtualization for the 24th Architecture Journal.

Emerging more than a decade ago as a way to simulate an environment inside another, the industry still discovers new and unexpected virtues of this technique across several domains.

As any other IT discipline, though, it must be carefully planned in order to drive benefits to the organization instead of becoming a new source of complexity for further expense. This is the motivation for this Architecture Journal.

Until March 11, we'll be receiving proposals on Architecture Strategies for Virtualization. The following list contains just a few examples of possible topics of interest. You may submit on those or any other you consider pertinent:

Virtualization requirements and impacts on the corporate network – how does virtualization impact the corporate network and how must the corporate network change to meet the needs of virtualization (this could be broken out into a couple of papers itself. Like VDI impacts on network traffic, changes to network traffic due to server consolidation).
Changes to corporate backup strategies because of virtualization – how to help consultants talk to customers about how they will need to change their existing backup strategy and environment to manage their virtualization implementation.
Enterprise Planning of an Application Virtualization Process – Helping corporations plan how they are going to convert their existing software package portfolio to App-V. Focusing on prioritizing and scheduling applications for virtualizing.
Etc.

To submit your proposal, please send us the following content no later than March 11, 2009:

An abstract of between two and four paragraphs.
A short list (2-3 items) of reader's takeaways from business and technical perspectives. This determines the relevance of your value proposition.
A short bio (1-2 paragraphs).
A list of previously published articles, if any.

Submissions must be made to archjrnl@microsoft.com (we receive many submissions for each issue, so we encourage you to put time and thought into yours).

After the call for articles has ended in March 11, everyone who has submitted an idea will be notified via e-mail as to whether their submission was accepted or not. If it is accepted, your article must follow this schedule:

March 18, 2009. Article acceptance is announced.
April 7, 2010. First draft (possibly unfinished) is due. We'll send you our feedback a few days after.
April 21, 2010. Final draft is due.*
Mid-June, 2010. The issue of the Journal is ready and published.

* We recommend that articles be between 2,500 and 3,500 words in length.

Send us your proposal or questions to archjrnl@microsoft.com. Good luck!

Do you accept submissions outside the “call for papers” period?

If you already have an idea for an abstract, we recommend that you wait for the next call before making a submission, subscribing the Architecture Newsletter.

Will I get paid for writing?

We do not currently pay authors for contributing to the Architecture Journal.

What are the guidelines for papers printed in the Architecture Journal?

We recommend that papers are between 2,500 and 3,500 words in length – although we have accepted shorter and longer papers in the past. The article should be submitted using Microsoft Word. Diagrams should be submitted in either Microsoft Visio or Microsoft PowerPoint, and will be reformatted for the magazine.

In case I contribute, who owns the article?

We will ask you to sign a release form that gives Microsoft permission to reprint the article, although ownership of the article will remain with you.

Top of page

The Architecture Journal

Most of the articles in this magazine are community contributions. Learn about our call for papers and how your ideas could by shared with more than 50,000 architects worlwide.

Send your feedback and comments to archjrnl@microsoft.com.