In case you missed the earnings announcement late last week, Ingram Micro reported -- like just about everybody else -- quarterly revenue and profit shortfalls, but the big distributor managed to beat Wall Street expectations. So we'll take that as mostly good news.
Posted by Lee Pender on 11/05/2009 at 1:22 PM0 comments
OK, so the news here is that Microsoft has decided to make its discount on the Business Productivity Online Suite, or BPOS (catchy), permanent. Henceforth, the price of BPOS will be $10 per user per month rather than $15 per user per month.
Hey, if it works, it works, although partners might not be thrilled by this cloud pricing strategy if it ultimately causes their referral fees to shrink. The main point here, though, is that the timing of the permanent price cut is likely not incidental.
As we've been telling you for a while now, Microsoft recently lost a bid to provide e-mail service for the city of Los Angeles. Google and its pure-cloud play beat Microsoft, which spent perhaps too much time (at least publicly) railing against the security and reliability of Google's cloud-based applications -- and, we submit, doing too much bashing of the whole idea of the cloud in general.
Well, today, we read this from a Seattle PI article:
"The Business Productivity Online Suite was one of the Microsoft options that the Los Angeles city government considered while searching for a new e-mail and collaboration system..."
Oh, really? Well, that's even more interesting. So Microsoft comes in, bashes Google (fair enough; that's competition), casts doubt upon the cloud model (not a good idea), talks (from what we can gather) about the advantages of old-school Exchange and Outlook, and then says, "But, hey, our cloud stuff is really great! Even though we're actually behind Google in terms of cloud computing! And we're trying to walk a tightrope between protecting revenues from our traditional products and moving toward a new model! A model that, by the way, we want you to think is insecure and unreliable unless it's coming from us...in which case it's not really, entirely complete yet!"
Granted, it's doubtful that anybody from Redmond used those exact words, but that's probably about how the pitch sounded to the fine elected officials of L.A. It's no wonder Google won the contract. It came in with a clear message, an inexpensive new platform and some sort of vision for the future. Microsoft came in with all sorts of baggage and likely left some decision makers a bit confused.
It's not that BPOS is a bad product. It doesn't seem to be; it's growing in terms of user numbers and capabilities all the time, from what we've seen. And we're sure that Microsoft can and will eventually be a big player in the cloud. It just needs a better game plan right now.
Any more comments to make on this story? Or on the cloud in general, or on Microsoft's cloud strategy? We'd love to hear them at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 11/04/2009 at 1:22 PM2 comments
Now, here's a Microsoft cloud play that could produce some thunder. Microsoft is offering Dynamics CRM Online, its hosted customer relationship management suite, free for seven months to customers of Oracle's and Salesforce.com's competing products.
We've long held that Dynamics is a powerhouse-in-waiting in enterprise software, and we think that's especially true for Dynamics CRM, both on-premises and in a hosted model. So, Microsoft partners, set those wavering Oracle and Salesforce.com customers up with a little try-before-you-buy and see whether they get hooked. (Incidentally, Microsoft is now saying that Dynamics CRM Online turns out to be the cheapest of the three options, anyway).
Posted by Lee Pender on 11/04/2009 at 1:22 PM0 comments
There'll be more features and a couple of new high-end versions of the database, but prices are going up. Redmond magazine columnist Mary Jo Foley has details.
Posted by Lee Pender on 11/04/2009 at 1:22 PM0 comments
OK, so EMC and VMware are mostly the same entity, but now Cisco is on board, not as an acquirer but as a partner. The two-and-a-half companies have come together to combat the IBM-HP datacenter powerhouse. The new alliance will focus on virtualization and storage technology as well as networking for datacenters, which seems entirely reasonable given what each company does. The first product is already here: Vblock, a private-cloud offering.
Posted by Lee Pender on 11/04/2009 at 1:22 PM0 comments
In 1995, when Major League Baseball returned from a labor dispute that killed the end of the 1994 season, baseball players were suddenly everybody's best friend. Ballplayers signed autographs, posed for pictures and high-fived kids as they never had before. They had a reputation to restore. And eventually, they did restore it...before the steroid scandal hit, of course.
But forget about the steroids for now. Microsoft is emerging from a bit of a "baseball strike" of its own with Windows 7 replacing Vista. One of Vista's big problems was that not many applications worked with it; another was that migration to it, especially from machines that lacked the requisite memory, was difficult. Those and other factors frustrated users (to say the least), so not many people migrated to Vista. That was especially true in the enterprise.
With Windows 7, though, Microsoft is showing up early to games to chat with fans, offering enhanced help and support features that include social networking options and built-in, automated fixes. It's also busy trying to sniff out upgrade problems that some users are reporting, although some readers (check out the comments on the two linked articles) are still struggling to get the new OS up and running. (Incidentally, there's also an "application-compatibility" program for the forthcoming Office 2010.)
Of course, any new product -- particularly a new OS -- is likely to be fraught with some danger in the installation process and will always bring out more complaints than compliments from users. But Microsoft seems to taking a different tack with Windows 7 than it did with Vista.
This is just a feeling, not necessarily based on anything but observation, but Microsoft seemed adamant when Vista launched that the OS was perfect and that anybody who couldn't get it to work was obviously doing something wrong or just wasn't smart enough to install an OS. That perceived attitude alienated many users, who ended up shunning Vista and convincing their friends and colleagues to do the same.
We don't get that same feeling from Redmond with Windows 7. Microsoft seems to be a kinder, friendlier software monolith with the launch of its new OS. Even its ads for Windows 7 come across that way. And while it's never been in Redmond's DNA to admit to too many mistakes (especially as far as a new product is concerned), we're getting less of the perfection vibe from Microsoft regarding Windows 7 than we did with Vista. This time, it seems as though Microsoft is here to help, not to berate or belittle users.
Baseball, for all its problems, has turned itself around. This dreadful World Series is racking up huge ratings, from what we're reading in headlines on Google News. So, as you watch the Series (which your editor is not doing, actually), remember that Microsoft is trying to win back your favor, too...and probably without the use of steroids.
Do you sense a new attitude from Microsoft regarding Windows 7? Or is Redmond still just the same old Redmond? Have your say at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 11/03/2009 at 1:22 PM2 comments
We're not sure what noted irony expert Alanis Morissette would say about this, but it turns out that Microsoft is kind of, sort of paying for part of the city of Los Angeles' switch to Google's e-mail platform. Apparently, Microsoft paid the state of California $70 million back in 2006 after the state alleged that Redmond -- get this -- overcharged for its software. L.A., evidently, has $1.5 million of that money left over and will give it to Google for the city's Google Apps deployment.
If nothing else, this is a funny circumstance -- and kind of a painful one for Microsoft, given that Google won the e-mail bid in large part by touting the lower costs of its service in comparison to Microsoft's more traditional offering.
Posted by Lee Pender on 11/03/2009 at 1:22 PM0 comments
When we read the news that Tony Scott would be entering the CIO Hall of Fame, we immediately thought, "Wait, there's a CIO Hall of Fame?" Well, there isn't, really. Iit's just an honor bestowed on certain technology executives by one of your editor's former employers, CIO magazine.
Posted by Lee Pender on 11/03/2009 at 1:22 PM0 comments
Economic recovery? Not in Walldorf, Germany, mein freund, where SAP reported disappointing third-quarter earnings and saw its stock price tumble this week.
We hate to always be nattering nabobs of negativity, but we here at RCPU feel as though SAP's earnings will be the rule and not the exception for a while to come. This "recovery," if it's even happening, isn't going to be a quick one. So, get used to this kind of stuff.
Posted by Lee Pender on 10/29/2009 at 1:22 PM0 comments
Come on back, Randy Newman. Google is singing your tune this week. There's little doubt that the nerds from Northern California love the city to the south of them now that they've won a big contract to provide e-mail for the city of Los Angeles.
That's right. Sgt. Joe Friday will soon be filing his police reports via the cloud -- if, in fact, Google's cloud stuff actually works -- instead of using Outlook and Exchange.
Microsoft pushed hard to keep L.A. from going Google but, as we said last month, Redmond took the wrong tack. Microsoft (from what we've read, anyway) went old-school and bashed the cloud model itself. Whoever was involved for Microsoft on this deal pushed client server as a platform (we've surmised) rather than talking about why, perhaps, a mixture of Software plus Services or an on-premises installation with some sort of migration path to the cloud might make more sense than a pure cloud play. A not unreasonable concept, by the way.
Google went into L.A. during a recession talking about cloud computing to a strapped city in a broke state, touting the overall cheapness of outsourcing e-mail rather than managing it in-house. But whether the cloud model is really cheaper or more efficient long-term than an on-premises e-mail installation isn't the issue here.
The issue is that Microsoft sent a bunch of heavies into Southern California to try to sell "they way you've (or we've) always done it," and Google talked about the future, about a new and exciting computing model with promise and potential. Microsoft, from what we can tell, focused on tearing that model down -- even though Redmond wants and desperately needs to make progress in the cloud computing game itself. Talk about mixed messages.
We said last month that Microsoft was making a huge mistake with its Luddite approach, and sure enough (this never happens), we were right! Hey, there's a first time for everything. Seriously, though, if Microsoft is going to get caught up in trying to preserve its old business and computing models rather than being flexible enough to adapt to new ones, the company really is going to struggle in the years to come. But there's no reason why that should be the case. The cloud race is just starting, and Microsoft has the brains and resources to keep up with and probably beat just about anybody. It just has to want to win. Does it? Right now, we can't tell.
And Google has to live up to its promises, which is not necessarily going to be easy. Consider this not-insignificant paragraph from the L.A. Times story linked above:
"The contract was approved pending an amendment that would require Google to compensate the city in the event that the Google system was breached and city data exposed or stolen. No such clause existed in the contract."
Clearly, there's some caution -- maybe even skepticism -- in L.A. about this whole cloud thing. But there's also the belief that cloud computing will work better and be cheaper than keeping Microsoft's expensive and complicated software around city hall (or wherever the server room for the city of L.A. is). This will be a landmark implementation for Google and for cloud computing...one way or another.
What it won't be is a win for Microsoft, which, we believe, has come out of this whole scenario looking stodgy, antiquated and maybe a little mean. Microsoft might not love L.A. right now, but it's going to have to love cloud computing a little more than it did in its L.A. pitch if it wants to succeed in being a leading provider of cloud services. We can understand folks from L.A. not knowing much about clouds, but we really thought a company from Seattle would be more willing to work with them.
What's your take on Microsoft's cloud strategy and Google's victory in L.A.? Will it be a disaster for L.A. and Google or for Microsoft -- or both? Send your thoughts to [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 10/29/2009 at 1:22 PM5 comments
They're PCs that don't have the normal boatload of trial software and other stuff loaded on them. You can get them at a physical Microsoft store or at the company's online shop. But, as far as we can tell, you won't find them anywhere else, at least for now.
One funny note on this little story comes from a blogger named Marcus Yam, who did a fine job with his entry on this issue but worried us a little bit with his opening paragraph:
"There's nothing better than the snappy feeling of a freshly installed operating system -- one that's free from the cobwebs collected and caused by constant use (and perhaps neglect)."
Nothing better? Marcus, if that's the way you feel, amigo, you might want to step outside the cubicle for a while. Just a piece of friendly advice. Other than that, nice work.
Posted by Lee Pender on 10/29/2009 at 1:22 PM0 comments