It's Product News Wednesday, so we're stretching
VMware's
acquisition of Thinstall from a financial story into a product story, as
Thinstall's stuff will eventually make it into VMware's desktop virtualization
offering.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/16/2008 at 1:21 PM0 comments
Microsoft
took
the wraps off of a retail component of the Dynamics suite of business applications
this week.
Perhaps hoping for better things from America's Team, Microsoft included in
its press
release a Dallas Cowboys customer reference that ended up being somewhat
poorly timed. No doubt Jerry Jones installed the Dynamics retail app himself
and does all the maintenance on it, such is his obsession with controlling every
detail of his football team, including fourth-quarter coaching. Apparently,
not even Microsoft Dynamics can deliver a playoff victory.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/16/2008 at 1:21 PM1 comments
The word "malware," which we assume has its
roots
in Baudelaire, has always sort of made us snicker. But this
new
malware toolkit (whatever that is) that's making an end run around anti-virus
applications doesn't sound too funny at all.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/15/2008 at 1:21 PM0 comments
Bill Gates, you knew about. The press has written stories, sonatas and sagas
(well, stories, anyway, and lots of them) about the departure of Microsoft's
legendary leader. Redmond has worked to ensure his line of succession, with
Steve Ballmer continuing as CEO mostly for the business side of things and Ray
Ozzie taking over the technology reins.
But there's a lot more to Microsoft's transition than just Gates' departure.
Bruce Jaffe, architect of some of Microsoft's biggest acquisitions -- including
the massive
aQuantive buyout -- will be gone
by the end of February. And, perhaps more critically, Jeff Raikes, president
of the Microsoft Business Division, the group responsible for a little product
called Office, will
be gone -- "retired" -- by the end of the summer of 2008.
Raikes' replacement, Stephen Elop, formerly of Juniper Networks and Adobe,
is already in Redmond preparing to take over one of the company's biggest roles.
But Elop isn't the only new arrival in Microsoft's executive cabinet. In fact,
there's been so much executive shuffling in the Pacific Northwest lately that
even those who are trying to keep score are having
trouble just keeping up.
The question, of course, is what all of this means for Microsoft, its partners
and its customers. What's happening looks to RCPU (and to others, surely) like
the exodus of old-school Microsoft and the birth of a new generation in Redmond
-- one that could steer the company toward Web-based applications and Software-as-a-Service,
and (gently) away from the old Windows-Office juggernaut.
We're not suggesting that anybody's being put out to pasture here. We are noting,
though, that the new generation coming in looks very Web-focused and that a
lot of the new-ish arrivals are outsiders, not Microsoft veterans moving into
new roles. Ozzie, Elop and COO Kevin Turner have all joined from other companies
within the last few years, and former aQuantive CEO Brian McAndrews has taken
control of a big chunk (understandably) of Microsoft's high-priority advertising
business.
We're also not suggesting that Microsoft is going to stop selling Windows,
Office, Windows Server, Exchange or any of its other moneymakers any time soon.
Microsoft's new executive hires, however, do seem to reveal a corporate commitment
to become more "Web 2.0" and less desktop and fat client. Raikes is
hardly a luddite -- after all, he did add SharePoint capabilities to Office
and is still a driver of Microsoft's unified communications initiative -- but
his years of experience in Redmond and desktop-heavy résumé do
look a little old-school in comparison to Elop's Adobe pedigree.
Observers these days, sometimes in this newsletter, love to say that Microsoft
is going to have to scramble to keep up with more Web-savvy competition from
companies like Google (and Adobe, for that matter). After further review --
yes, we've been watching football again -- RCPU is not so sure about that. Microsoft
is still the giant of the software industry in terms of market share and influence
on users and the channel. Our take isn't that Microsoft, with its fresh faces
and new categories of technology, is scrambling to keep up with competitors,
but rather that it has decided to move corporate IT investment in a new direction
-- one that will have progressively less to do with Windows and Office -- at
its own speed. Call it a soft landing for the desktop-heavy Microsoft economy,
engineered and controlled by Redmond.
Oh, sure, Microsoft is way behind in some key areas -- consumer search, for
instance -- and unlikely to make up the gap, but there's really no other company
in the industry outside of maybe Cisco that wields the power over corporate
money that Microsoft does. Microsoft sees the demand for SaaS, for virtualization,
for managed services, and it's reacting to it without killing its own current
cash cows of Windows and Office. It might not be the leader in those new categories
-- in terms of either market share or innovation -- but it's there, and our
guess is that Microsoft will be powerful enough to move its customers to Web-based
business models at its pace rather than have to chase after a customer base
fleeing to other vendors.
And the competition? Oh, it'll be there -- it is there, and it's strong --
but it won't be able to just run away with an installed base that includes pretty
much every company in the world and has such a massive financial commitment
to Microsoft already in place. Some companies -- think IBM -- fail to see technological
and generational shifts coming and miss them altogether. Microsoft is taking
steps now not to make that mistake -- and to take control of its own destiny
as businesses gradually shift away from the desktop.
Usually, markets move companies, but sometimes companies move markets. Microsoft
wants to be in the latter category, not the former.
What's your take on Microsoft's new blood and on the departure of bigwigs like
Jeff Raikes? Send it to [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/15/2008 at 1:21 PM1 comments
International Business Machines -- we just love full names like that -- gave
Wall Street a much-needed jolt this week with
earnings
that beat expectations.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/15/2008 at 1:21 PM0 comments
Perhaps flush with the victory they scored in court last fall, European regulators
are
on
Microsoft's back again -- this time, in part, because of (you guessed it)
the Internet Explorer browser! Couldn't they just Goog...uh, we mean Live Search
the U.S. antitrust settlement and figure something out?
Microsoft isn't the only one in trouble, though; New
York is after Intel.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/15/2008 at 1:21 PM0 comments
The big distributor has some interesting leasing finance options for partners
that work with SMBs. Launch yourself into the press release
here.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/10/2008 at 1:21 PM0 comments
Last week's post on the
ultimate
demise of Netscape got readers into a nostalgic mood. Since it's a slow-ish
news day, let's jump right into your Internet memories:
First off, Mike from Finland writes again, this time to correct RCPU on an
extremely important point. RCPU referred to pop legends ABBA as "four singing
Swedes" -- when, in fact, one of the ladies in the group was actually Norwegian
(and therefore probably should have had a place in another
recent entry).
"Completely irrelevant to anything, of course, but Anni-Frid was
Norwegian, not Swedish. I worked in Sweden in those long-off days (in my case
'75 to '80), and my memories of that song include driving a Volvo (what else?)
through Paris with the windows wide open and playing that song [in this
case, 'Fernando' -LP] at semi-full power. (I worked three weeks in Paris,
three weeks back in Sweden for about 18 months in '78 to '79)."
Semi-full power, Mike? Heck, you should have cranked it! Your editor is an
unashamed ABBA fan and actually knew that one of the band members was Norwegian
but simply made a careless, sloppy error last week. So, we thank Mike for his
diligence in sorting Scandinavian singers. That's what RCPU is all about.
Mitch, presumably not Norwegian, wrote to say that he was on the Internet before
he wasn't on it...or something like that:
"In 1984, I was thrown into IT with an assignment to become the administrator
of a BSD UNIX system. One of my jobs was to log in to the University of California
at Berkeley to get periodic OS patches, updates and, of course, the latest
database of jokes for the 'fortune' application. I went through a whole transition
of connection methods from ARPAnet, UUCP and NSF connection betas as part
of my monthly routines. I recall doing a 'who' statement while logged in to
find someone at Berkeley who was online to get support. At that time, between
2 and 4 a.m. CST, there would be less than a screen full (yes, 25 lines) of
people active.
"In 1993/1994, I was out of the country on business for an extended
period. A gentleman from the local phone company and I struck up a conversation
over breakfast and he posed the question, 'How do I get on the Internet?'
At the time, I had taken off my IT hat for a new occupation, and I didn't
even know what he was talking about! A year later, after returning back to
the U.S., it seemed like the term 'Internet' was in everything I read. I was
moving back into IT and it seemed the world had passed me by in the two years
I was away."
It did explode quickly, didn't it? Peter, RCPU's neighbor here in Greater Boston,
said that being an "early adopter" of the Internet got him at least
one, uh, perk:
"At a meeting of a hundred or so folks way back in the '80s, the
meeting sponsor was looking for a few people to test a beta. This was before
beta testing became an event for the masses; back then, you needed to sign
your first born away along with a few hundred non-disclosure statements. Anyway,
I was chosen for one reason: I was the only person there who had an e-mail
address printed on my business card."
Another Mike, probably not from Finland, finishes off our trip down memory
lane with some pleasant ramblings that should be followed by a sigh and maybe
a sip of a lovely beverage:
"Well, there were many DARPA users (and hackers), and many probably
still really hate the fact that it changed. As you know, most were .gov- and
.edu-type in those days (UNIX mostly). So, not to take away anything from
Andreessen (and Clark), but for those of us who were in the corporate world
on protected networks (IBM SNA in my case all the way through the '80s), I
think the real introduction to public networking and access to many useful
resources and collaboration came through the old bulletin-board systems.
"Xmodem and its derivatives were the downloading tool of choice for
binary stuff when PCs became popular in the early '80s. I would venture to
say that these same folks populated many of the Inet communities starting
in 1990 or thereabouts and heavily influenced the Inet world as we know it
today (along with folks like Bob Metcalf of Ethernet fame and his contemporaries).
When the corporate nets started converting to IP, the Inet received a lot
of business traffic (sometimes disguised as personal use)...anyway, not necessarily
the driving force, so to speak, but certainly related and a different perspective.
"I do remember Netscape (and Sun, I guess) and its JavaScript 1.2
implementations, and it is certainly true that for many the Web browser and
the Inet were synonymous...and probably still are for many of today's users.
'The king is dead; long live the king.'"
Long indeed, Mike. Thanks to all who shared their memories. If you've got anything
to add on this topic or any other you see in RCPU, add it at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/10/2008 at 1:21 PM0 comments
More news from a big distributor: Tech Data has inked (sorry, we couldn't resist)
a
deal
with FMAudit to offer managed printing services.
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/10/2008 at 1:21 PM0 comments
Let's see...hockey joke or
McKenzie
brothers joke? Ah, heck, we love Canada. We'll just
give
you the link so you can see what this workstation thing is all aboot, eh.
(There's no cliché like a Canadian cliché.)
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/09/2008 at 1:21 PM0 comments