This is the kind of news that makes those of us who are fans of cloud computing cringe. No, we're not talking about Microsoft finally putting a price on Azure, which should happen later this month at the Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans.
We're talking about a relative slew of datacenter outages that took place worldwide last week, including an outage, caused by a fire, which brought Microsoft's Bing Travel site down for hours and took out payment system Authorize.net for a solid 12 hours.
These are the "see, I told you so" moments that critics of cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service love to point to when they assail the hosted model. And it's hard to argue with them after a week like last week. Granted, internal systems go down in enterprises all the time. But when that happens, companies can call in their own IT folks (or partners) at just about any hour to fix problems and get systems up and running again -- ideally with relatively little disruption. In any case, the company is in control of the situation.
Not so in a hosted model. With cloud computing, SaaS or whatever you want to call it, somebody else is running everything, meaning somebody else has to get a stricken datacenter up and running again before you can get your applications -- and possibly your business -- back online. It's a scary proposition, putting critical business applications in the hands of strangers -- albeit strangers who probably have uptime guarantees in their contracts and are experts at running datacenters.
But downtime nightmares shouldn't scare companies away from the hosted-computing model. First of all, those internal IT people who can come in and fix systems at a moment's notice cost a lot of money -- and most of the time, they're probably not doing seriously critical work. (Sorry, partners, but that's true for many of you who do a lot of that kind of work, too. It's something to think about, not that you haven't thought about it already.)
Plus, although it's nice to have some control over the process of getting systems back up and running, there's no guarantee that internal IT people will be able to fix a problem any more quickly than contracted folks who run a datacenter will. So, despite the occasional relative disaster, cloud computing is still a pretty safe bet, especially given that it's such a massive money-saver compared to running systems on-premises. That's just something to remember in the aftermath of a down week for uptime in datacenters -- and it's something for partners to consider when developing marketing strategies for hosting models.
What are your biggest fears with cloud computing? What are your customers saying about it? Sound off at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 07/07/2009 at 1:22 PM0 comments
For those who accuse Microsoft of not being an innovative company, we offer Microsoft Research as an example of an argument to the contrary. The folks there are currently touting a browser that acts more like an operating system than...well, than like a browser. More details here.
And then there's the uglier, nastier side of Microsoft browsers: the now-infamous...uh, shall we say, vomit commercial for IE 8, an ad that Microsoft has pulled. We haven't actually watched the ad itself, which is included in the Wall Street Journal blog entry linked. But the description of the ad alone -- also included in the link -- is enough to make us think we don't need to see it.
Posted by Lee Pender on 07/07/2009 at 1:22 PM0 comments
Another previously unknown and currently un-patched vulnerability is on the loose, Microsoft says. Read the full security advisory here.
Posted by Lee Pender on 07/07/2009 at 1:22 PM0 comments
NearPoint 4.0 greatly expands the sources in which enterprise workers can search and find the data they need...along with a bunch of other useful stuff.
Posted by Lee Pender on 07/02/2009 at 1:22 PM0 comments
We know -- government is usually about as transparent as a brick wall. But the government's new CTO has set up a Web site aimed at tracking exactly where the government is spending its IT dollars. It's all part of a government effort to provide more information to those of us who fund it, which is going...well, OK, we guess. Note to partners who sell to the government: If these charts are any indication, Defense is a good bet for a department that might throw some money your way.
Posted by Lee Pender on 07/02/2009 at 1:22 PM0 comments
Google Apps Sync (or GAS, here at RCPU) was supposed to sync Gmail with Outlook, but it ended up messing up Outlook instead. Well, apparently, Google has the problem all worked out and can resume trying to kill Microsoft Exhange.
Posted by Lee Pender on 07/02/2009 at 1:22 PM0 comments
Most of the time here at RCPU, we try to run reader e-mails pertinent to industry and partner issues because, well, that's what we cover. But with Independence Day weekend coming up, we thought it might be fun to...well, have some fun. So here are a couple of e-mails from a couple of our best serial e-mailers that have nothing to do with Microsoft, technology or even business.
First, our old friend, Peter, is back with a random shot that doesn't even relate to an RCPU entry:
"I've been noticing lately that you have a resemblance to that French actor Gerard Depardieu (when he was younger and not when he's in costume as Obelisk in his 'Asterix' series). It's kind of interesting because the bottom third of what is now the United States, through as far as Denver, was all French territory until Napoleon got into trouble and sold it off in a fire sale. Of course, there never would have been any United States if it hadn't been for the French intervening on behalf of the rebel colonists."
Peter, you and I could easily turn this into a history discussion, but let's deal with the Depardieu thing first. Those of you who might be reading this on Redmondmag.com might be wondering what on earth Peter is talking about. Due to a site update, there's a 3-year-old picture of me up on that site, a photo so bad that even my mother said she didn't like it.
There's a newer photo of me, though, in the e-mail version of this newsletter, and there's another one floating around online, as well. Now, let's see. Here's young Gerard, and here's a more mature, well-rounded Gerard.
I'm really hoping that I look more like the first than the second, but that's for the reader to decide. In any case, this e-mail really struck me because 1) I actually lived in France for about five years and loved it, and 2) my first real employer was Six Flags Over Texas (now sadly facing bankruptcy). What's that second bit about, you ask? Well, the original Six Flags in Arlington was named for the six flags that have flown over the state of Texas: the flags of (not in order) the U.S., the Republic of Texas, the Confederacy, Mexico, Spain and, of course, France. And that (kind of) closes our loop on Franco-American history.
Our next e-mail comes from the legendary Mike, who reads so faithfully that he almost immediately responded to yesterday's post about the tech industry's (possible) second-half comeback in 2009, a post that included a dropping of the name Frank Reich (which, incidentally, when mashed into one word means "France" in German...hmm).
Anyway, Mike remembers fondly Frank Reich's 1984 performance for Maryland against Miami:
"I'm a U of Maryland alum -- great reference regarding Reich, although you don't detail the amazing game in which the Terps were down to the mighty Jimmy Johnson-coached Miami Hurricanes 31-0 at halftime. This was in the fall of 1984, if I'm not mistaken. Sweet, sweet victory and memory. Thanks for sparking that."
Mike, you are not mistaken, and just for you, here's a little trip down memory lane. (And for you college football buffs, yes, 1984 was the same year this happened. Sorry, Miami fans.)
Mike went on in an e-mail exchange to tell us this:
"The biggest comeback is now 35 points in Division 1 set a few years ago."
Right you are, Mike, but we prefer to remember Frank Reich as the guy who was, for a little more than a decade, the author of the greatest comebacks in the history of both college and pro football. (And if you're really into good ol' American football, check out what must be the greatest comeback ever -- with a tragic twist at the end -- from no place else but Texas and the great sport of high school football. Enjoy.)
Does your editor look like Gerard Depardieu? Send your verdict or anything else you can think of to [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 07/02/2009 at 1:22 PM0 comments
This is when it starts to get better, right? Actually, maybe so. We heard beginning back in 2007 (maybe before then) that there was a recession coming and that it might be pretty bad. We heard the presidential candidates talk about it during most of 2008. And by the time 2009 came around, we were mired in it, with even Microsoft laying people off en masse for the first time ever and reporting disappointing earnings -- by Redmond's standards, anyway.
Well, today marks the first day of Microsoft's new fiscal year and the first day of the last six months of calendar 2009. So, how are we doing, tech industry? Are we too far behind to catch up for this year, or are we a second-half team poised to strike late?
The latest round of news and surveys shows that we might just have a fighting chance of coming back in 2009. OK, there are pessimists out there; one consultancy has declared 2009 a "disaster," at least in terms of IT salaries, which must be at least a reasonable measure of how the tech economy is going. But keep your eye out for the August issues of both Redmond and RCP magazines because we do some salary surveys of our own around here, and the results might just surprise you. That's all we're going to say at this point. You'll just have to be in suspense for a month or so.
There are other indications that show that tech is poised for a second-half turnaround. We told you yesterday that Gartner's number crunchers said that they were perhaps a little too pessimistic in their forecasts for PC shipments in 2009. Well, never to be outdone by Gartner, the Forrester folks said this week that they actually thought 2009 would be a little better than it has been so far for the industry as a whole. However, they are saying that the worst is over and that the tech industry -- at least in the U.S. -- is poised for a fourth-quarter rally and strong 2010.
Maybe we should ask Frank Reich what he thinks will happen. As well as we can remember (we didn't Google this, nor did we Bing it), Reich is still the quarterback who is the author of the greatest comebacks in the history of both college football and the NFL. He led the Bills to that famous playoff comeback over the erstwhile Houston Oilers back in January of '93, helped by former Texas Christian University legend Kenneth Davis at running back. (A gratuitous, largely random TCU reference? You bet.)
What we need now is a Frank Reich for the tech economy. It might be Windows 7. It might be improvement in the economy as a whole. It might simply be a change in attitude from gloom and fear to hope and courage. In any case, whatever it is we need might already be here, if we're to believe the analysts and their numbers. Let's hope that the tech industry in 2009 can stage a fourth-quarter rally for the ages. Hopefully it's already in the works.
What's your take on the economy and your business for the second half of 2009? Send it to [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 07/01/2009 at 1:22 PM1 comments
Wow, these guys in Northern California are showing some ambition. First, Cisco turns itself into a server company. Now, company officials are hinting at development of a long-rumored competitor to Microsoft Office. The potential sounds like a Web-based offering similar to Google Apps.
Well, Cisco, you'll be deep in enemy territory if you try to do this. Many have tried to knock Office from its throne, and thus far all have failed. Show us what you've got...if you're going to have it.
Posted by Lee Pender on 07/01/2009 at 1:22 PM1 comments