There's a
new
version of the authentication application out.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/23/2008 at 1:21 PM0 comments
The
next version
of Windows could be available by the end of next year (that's the end of
2009 for those of you still writing 2007 on your checks -- if you even write
checks anymore). Of course, if Microsoft has a late-2009 release for Vista's
successor on its roadmap, we should probably expect the OS some time in 2015.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/22/2008 at 1:21 PM2 comments
Microsoft is like a quick-strike football team that's never really out of
a game no matter what the score or how much time is left on the clock. When
a new technology comes along, Redmond can fumble, throw interceptions and blow
coverage for three quarters and still storm back in the fourth quarter to win...or
at least to send the game to overtime. (Yes, we're caught up in the excitement
here in Boston about the perfect Patriots. Bear with us, please. It's going
to be two long weeks until the Super Bowl.)
Oh, sure, sometimes Microsoft waits too long to stage its comeback and gets
clobbered -- think consumer search and personal music players (otherwise known
as iPods). But in so many "games" in years past -- the browser wars,
productivity-suite competitions, even the battle for operating-system supremacy
-- Redmond has found some way (even if it wasn't always entirely legal -- yes,
we're sticking with the Pats theme here) to break out of an early funk and steamroll
the competition.
And so we have this week's virtualization shindig taking place on the home
field in Redmond. Once again, Microsoft stumbled out of the gate trying to react
to a new technology. Once again, an opponent -- in this case, VMware -- has
a big lead. And, once again, Microsoft is on the comeback trail.
We all know about Hyper-V, the virtualization technology that will eventually
come with Windows Server 2008. But, this week, Microsoft gained a few more yards
in its pursuit of VMware's goal line. For one thing, it opened
up its virtualization policy on Vista. Finally, Redmond is going to open
all versions of the OS to virtualization. (And before you go saying, "Who
cares? It's only Vista," keep in mind that analysts -- and, yes, even RCPU
-- are predicting that Vista will finally make serious inroads into the enterprise
in 2008. So this week's announcement should eventually carry some weight, even
if it seems trivial right now.)
Redmond also bought this week a little company called Calista -- presumably
not named after the former star of "Ally
McBeal," not that we ever watched that show -- which makes technology
to improve the desktop virtualization experience. Combine that acquisition with
Microsoft's partnership
with Citrix to market desktop virtualization and to allow interoperability
between Hyper-V and XenServer, and we see a virtualization strategy coming together
in Redmond that shows some flexibility and some backbone.
Of course, we're not even close to counting VMware out of this contest, given
the lead the popular -- and, let's not forget, EMC-owned -- vendor already has.
And Oracle and Sun, among others, pose formidable opposition, as well. What
we are seeing, though, is Microsoft finally connecting on a few passes, getting
a few first-down runs, making a defensive stand or two and gearing up for a
real battle in virtualization. Given Microsoft's built-in advantage -- massive
existing investment in its technology -- this one should be a battle until the
final gun.
What's your take on Microsoft and virtualization? How do you see the strategy
taking shape? Let me know at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/22/2008 at 1:21 PM1 comments
The former Disney CIO is Microsoft's
new
head techie. And talk about a small world after all -- his last name is
Scott, which was the same last name the old CIO had. Now, that's just goofy.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/22/2008 at 1:21 PM0 comments
To hear Microsoft tell it -- and there's no spin here at all, we're sure --
Exchange is
tearing
users away from Notes at a healthy clip these days.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/22/2008 at 1:21 PM0 comments
Channel consolidation continued this week as one Gold Certified Partner
snapped
up another: Ascentium is purchasing U.K.-based SharePoint consulting firm
Artemis.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/17/2008 at 1:21 PM0 comments
Whatever Larry wants, Larry gets...and BEA, Larry Ellison wants you. Actually,
the free-spending Oracle honcho has
wanted
BEA for a while, and this week, he finally got it -- for
almost
$8 billion (or for
$8.5
billion, depending on whose story you read).
The multibillion-dollar price tag, which represents more than $19 per share,
is a nice bump up from the $17 per share that Oracle offered -- and BEA rejected
-- in October. What amazes RCPU, though, isn't so much the money but the notion
that Oracle is bringing yet another vendor into the fold. Dig this paragraph
from the RCPmag.com
story on the acquisition:
"Ellison has already spent more than $25 billion during the past
three years buying a long list of competitors, including PeopleSoft, Siebel
Systems and Hyperion Solutions."
Sheesh! Put the price tags aside for a second, and think about this: How on
earth is Oracle integrating all of those companies -- with all of their technology,
cultures, partner bases and the like -- under its immense and very expensive
umbrella? Integration is going pretty well, at least according to financial
results, which have
been fantastic lately.
But what's the secret? Acquisitions can be pretty rough for everybody involved
-- except the folks at the top and some major shareholders who clean up money-wise.
In the rank and file, they take a lot of work and can cause a lot of clashes.
Yet, here's Oracle, spending like a contestant on the old "Wheel of Fortune,"
picking
out prizes from the corner of the screen, and somehow making it all work.
Color us impressed...and maybe a little frightened.
What's Oracle's secret to integration success? Do you have any tales to share
of working with Oracle? Share them at [email protected].
Incidentally, Oracle wasn't the only big spender this week -- Sun splashed
out a cool billion
for MySQL.
And, if you were wondering about this week's reader feedback, we're saving
it for next week. So, stay tuned, take a look at the latest
entries (but ignore the photo -- it's two years old, and your editor has
hair now), and send your thoughts on anything and everything to [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/17/2008 at 1:21 PM0 comments
RCPU had a little sit down this week (well, a phone conversation, anyway) with
Steve Hale, vice president of the North American Partner Organization for
F5,
a vendor of technology that, among other things, provides a platform for the
delivery and optimization of applications for enterprises.
If Hale's name sounds familiar, it's because he was with Microsoft for 17 years
and has just been with F5 for the last six months or so. But he's been a busy
guy in his short time at the new gig. Primarily, he's trying to take an F5 partner
base that's "very transactional in nature," he said, and get some
of its membership to start providing services as well as ringing up sales.
The main thing that Hale and his organization want to do is get partners up
to speed in terms of technical know-how, making sure that they're prepared to
provide services for disciplines including application delivery, networking
and infrastructure, and storage virtualization. And while Hale said that partner
technical readiness "is not a real glamorous thing," it is, he said,
"the foundation kingpin of everything we do. If we don't get that right,
you're done from square one."
F5 currently has about 300 partners in North America, Hale said, and rather
than trying to move all of them to a services-based model at once, he wants
his organization to work with those most interested in getting serious about
services.
"We're not going to do some big, broad-based approach," he said.
"We'll take a few partners that really want to be in this space."
Along with getting partners up to speed in terms of technical expertise, F5
is focusing on pairing partners up with each other so that they can combine
competencies and serve customers together.
The company is also reaching out to one of its own primary partners, Microsoft,
with a series of white papers on implementations of Microsoft technologies,
mainly Exchange, SharePoint and Dynamics.
"I'm saying, 'Hey, Microsoft, show me where you've got implementations
going on, and we will go optimize it,'" Hale said.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/17/2008 at 1:21 PM0 comments
Microsoft partner Phase 2 International, sensibly based in Hawaii, is all over
Redmond's SaaS (or, we suppose, S+S) play. Kurt Mackie has more about Phase
2's SaaS-y goings-on
here.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/17/2008 at 1:21 PM0 comments
In case you missed it, a
public
beta of Vista SP1 has been out there since late last week. For those of
you actually running Vista, that is.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/16/2008 at 1:21 PM0 comments
Here in panic nation, with the sub-prime mortgage fiasco and the resulting
credit crunch leaving blocks of houses empty, and the stock market tanking like
the Cowboys in a playoff game, all the talk is starting to boil down to one
word: recession.
The signs
of an economic slowdown are everywhere, and presidential candidates are
starting to address the issue -- and when politicians wake up and realize that
something's going on, that's when you know that whatever it is they're talking
about is at an advanced stage and is very much upon us.
We don't often venture outside the realm of Microsoft and industry news here
at RCPU -- and we're hardly economists, although we sometimes read The Economist
-- but the "r" word, should it come to pass, would have implications
for everybody reading (and writing) this newsletter. The question is whether
you're prepared for a recession, or at least for some tough times ahead.
Now, as Microsoft partners, maybe you're not in panic mode, and maybe you shouldn't
be. After all, one of RCPU's principal laws of the universe is that no matter
what happens, Microsoft just keeps making money. But the credit crunch might
already have your business in a bit of a bind, and any sort of economic downturn
that eventually affects IT spending could make the sledding all that much tougher.
So, as we sometimes like to do here, we're turning the floor over to you on
this one. Tell us: Are you preparing for a recession, or at least for tough
times ahead? What are you doing to prepare? How much would a recession affect
your business?
As always, direct your answers to [email protected].
If we get any in time, we'll run some tomorrow. Otherwise, look for responses
in this space next week.
Oh, and totally off-topic for this entry but very much on-topic for RCPU, the
Microsoft
executive exodus continued this week with the departure
of Rob Short, an important guy from the Core Operating System Division .
And one departing Microsoft exec might literally
buy the farm.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/16/2008 at 1:21 PM0 comments