When Oracle bought Sun Microsystems it got a lot of stuff it wanted and a few things that were less desirable. Turns out OpenOffice is one of the latter (I guess Ellison figures free software won't do much to finance a new yacht).
The OpenOffice volunteers have gone independent, starting what they call The Document Foundation. OpenOffice (which is actually called OpenOffice.org) will be renamed LibreOffice.
That could all change if Oracle joins the new group and allows them to use the current name.
Do you use OpenOffice? Is this good news for the suite? You tell me at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/29/2010 at 1:18 PM7 comments
For a while there was a flaw that impacted ASP.NET apps, letting hackers convince the apps to give up information that is not in its best interest -- kinda like an Andy Sipowicz interrogation.
The good news is there is a fix that should solve the problem right away, a fix so important Microsoft couldn't wait two weeks for Patch Tuesday.
Still, Microsoft has had workarounds for some time, and, in fact, keeping these workarounds in place might be good practice for safety's sake.
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/29/2010 at 1:18 PM1 comments
I'm not sure if Microsoft would have released its free Web versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint were it not for Google Apps, but I'm glad they did (and if I have to thank Google, I will).
These apps are reportedly in use by some 20 million people and now that they are available in a bunch more countries (such as Australia and Russia).
There are also a few tweaks, such as the ability to embed these apps in your Web site. This allows visitors to contribute content through Word and play with some models through Excel.
Any bright ideas as to what to do with these apps on your site? Let us all know at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/27/2010 at 1:18 PM0 comments
For consumers, Microsoft Security Essentials, an antimalware tool, was free from the get go. The best thing is, unlike its predecessor OneCare, Security Essentials actually works, and from your reports, works pretty darn good.
Now the tool is free for small businesses as well -- provided you have ten or fewer clients. Of course, individuals at large shops are free to use it as well... It just can't be an official Microsoft-supported corporate standard.
The only minor hitch is that, in order to qualify, all machines must go through Microsoft Genuine Advantage and be proven legit. Seems like a small price to pay for some decent free security software.
What is you antimalware tool of choice? Send a virus-free e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/27/2010 at 1:18 PM2 comments
Gartner loves to be on the leading edge -- inventing new terms, releasing feisty statements and generally acting like a know-it-all.
But here's the deal, I trust you far more than I trust Gartner, so I will present their latest hypothesis and see what you think.
Gartner coined the term 'IT debt' to refer to the dollar amount it would take to get all your applications up-to-date. The assumption is that older software leaves a shop vulnerable, which pushes you to be on the latest version -- or else (are you sure Microsoft didn't write this report?).
In any case, it would cost a half a trillion bucks (more than double the size of the current enterprise software market) to get these apps to where Gartner feels they should be.
Here it is from the horse's mouth (or something else, you decide): "A modern enterprise or public sector organization is likely to be critically dependent on a number of business applications. Each one is at a particular point in a complex life cycle; each one is slowly, but inevitably, diverging from its ideal state toward a suboptimal state and, potentially, toward obsolescence or failure," says Andy Kyte, a Gartner VP who is saying things software vendors absolutely love to hear.
Does this mean the software wasn't good to begin with or does it just flake out over time (like a copy of Windows XP that was installed a while ago)? You tell me at dbarney@red mondmag.com.
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/27/2010 at 1:18 PM17 comments
A reader discusses how important reliability, especially in the cloud, is in the workplace:
When thinking of the quality of something, 99.9 percent is pretty darn good -- until you apply it to IT Systems uptime. Obviously, if down time occurs during hours when nobody is working, then no big deal. But when does that ever happen?
My personal experience with service providers (back before the cloud) was they were never as concerned with my outage as I was, and they would sometimes even scold and threaten if you reported an issue more than once. I always hated the feeling of being beholden to these companies when my main goal was to increase the availability of the applications. I have long since invested in IT infrastructure and do not rely on outside hosting services any longer (other than applications that are regularly accessed by the public.
I do my best to keep my systems operational at all times, which does include down time for maintenance -- which is down time when I pick it. Obviously, I still rely on two critical service providers: an ISP and electricity. We currently have chosen to go with one service provider for our ISP, willing to risk the consequences if there is an outage. Just last week, we had a rare one. There was interruption to service for some workers, but many more continued to work with critical applications as if nothing was amiss. This would not have been possible with a cloud provider.
To be honest, since I have brought one of our most prominent applications in house -- e-mail -- I don't know if it would be possible to go back to a 99.9 percent SLA. My clients are much too spoiled now.
I continue to evaluate cloud services (e-mail is a big one for me) but then I see a two-hour down time and wonder what the C-level guys would think of IT if we had that. The last time we had a two-hour outage on e-mail was over four years ago when our co-located server bit the dust. Obviously, changes were demanded to avoid such an occurrence again.
-Travis
Here's a reader's take on expanding communication technology:
As technology creates better methods of communication, we humans flock to the latest and greatest. Yes, our pocketbooks do the voting, and the vote is in: We want the fastest method of communication.
The Pony Express was fast, but the telegraph was faster. Then came the telephone, and we all wanted one. Mobile phone? I loved my big, bulky car phone back when I got it in 1990 -- now everyone has a cell phone. E-mail was great, even cutting edge back in the late 1980s when I was using it. Soon, Blackberry connected us while on the road, and now Twitter gets it out to everyone immediately.
Let's face it, except for a few hermits, we want to be connected 24 hours a day. And when we don't, we turn the damn things off.
-Andrew
Share your thoughts with the editors of this newsletter! Write to [email protected]. Letters printed in this newsletter may be edited for length and clarity, and will be credited by first name only (we do NOT print last names or e-mail addresses).
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/24/2010 at 1:18 PM0 comments
Market research is almost always imprecise, but in the case of the cloud market, it is darn near ridiculous. A little while ago I looked into this due to the fact that the cloud constitutes more and more of our everyday coverage. Here's what I found:
- IDC sees a huge growth for this market, some "six times the rate of IT spending between now and 2013. In 2009, approximately $17 billion was spent on cloud-related technologies, hardware and software. By 2013, that spending is expected to grow to $45 billion." In two years, cloud spending could account for 25 percent of IT spending growth.
- Merrill Lynch sees a much, much larger market, and believes next year that "the volume of cloud computing market opportunity [will] amount to $160 billion, including $95 billion in business and productivity apps (e-mail, office, CRM, etc.) and $65 billion in online advertising."
- Gartner was somewhere in the middle and estimated a $56.3 billion cloud market for next year.
Now, Gartner has added some fresh projections: The cloud already accounts for more than 12 percent of current IT budgets, the Gartner eggheads claim. That will only increase, as 40 percent of those surveyed will increase their portion of cloud spending next year.
Are you into the cloud? Float your story my way at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/24/2010 at 1:18 PM3 comments
Microsoft usually wants its customers to upgrade to its latest and greatest, but in the case of Windows 7 users and IE, Redmond would prefer you stay with the tried and true IE 8 rather than the beta of IE 9 -- at least for now.
But Redmond also doesn't want you to hold off on upgrading to Windows 7 just for IE 9; instead of migrating concurrently, Redmond is asking you to go ahead and migrate to Windows 7 and run IE 8. The idea here is that IE 8 and 9 are largely compatible, so there's no need to wait.
Along with this advice/encouragement, Microsoft also made a correction:
IE 9 will not require Win 7 SP1, but will run just fine on the initial release.
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/24/2010 at 1:18 PM3 comments
My best articles are based on you, the Redmond Report reader, and your input. I'm interested in two things: The first has to do with the cloud, whether it Azure, Google, Amazon, what have you. I want real-world stories of cloud apps, custom built or otherwise. If you care to discuss, send a note to [email protected].
Next up is IE 9. Have you downloaded the beta? For those that answer yes, contact me at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/22/2010 at 1:18 PM6 comments
If you run ASP.NET-based forms, you may want to be aware of a flaw that could let hackers steal passwords.
The flaw involves the Public Key Encryption (PKI) and covers virtually all current versions of Windows.
Fortunately, there is a workaround or two that can be found in Kurt Mackie's fine article here.
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/22/2010 at 1:18 PM0 comments
Some clever dirtbag hacker scum built scareware that pretends to be an alert from Microsoft Security Essentials. And given that Essentials is free and apparently pretty good, lots of folks could fall for this.
So who publicized this exploit? Microsoft? Try again. Symantec took this honor.
The malware pops up a warning of an unknown Trojan, and after clicking, offers to clean your machine. Big mistake.
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/22/2010 at 1:18 PM0 comments
It may seem odd to launch a 2008 product in the year 2010, but that's what happens with a Release 2. In this case, Microsoft hit the Big Apple to debut Windows HPC Server 2008 R2.
The server is designed for data-intensive apps such as large databases
and data mining. This baby can now handle more than 1,000 nodes, which is four times more than its predecessor.
The new rev also ties Windows 7 more tightly into the high-performance world. The client can exploit unused server cycles to do front-end processing such as sorting massive Excel databases.
I'm more interested in how the Windows client can exploit multicore and graphical processors to handle mega apps. Do you have any experience in this world? If so, drop me a line at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/22/2010 at 1:18 PM0 comments