Catch a wave, and you're sitting on top of the world. OK, maybe not, but
this
is still pretty interesting.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/18/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments
"You wouldn't know a diamond if you held it in your hand."
-- Steely Dan, "Reelin' In the Years"
Have you ever really gotten into a TV show, or maybe even a movie, and just
had a terrible sense of foreshadowing that the whole plot was about to go down
in flames like the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday Night Football? (Sorry, we
really tried to avoid the sports reference there, but your editor really enjoyed
watching his Dallas Cowboys win that game. Look at it this way -- we've officially
jinxed the Cowboys for the rest of the season. You're welcome.)
Anyway, you know what we're talking about here. It's the moment when your favorite
show jumps the shark -- and we're very sorry for the tired, late '90s reference
there, but if Microsoft can dredge up Jerry Seinfeld, we can get the ol' shark
reference back out. Maybe an actor leaves, or a key writer quits, or -- worst
of all -- a character gets pregnant, meaning a baby is on the way who will
magically be seven years old the next season. It's just a sad, frustrating feeling,
that sense of dreaded inevitability.
Well, that's the feeling a lot of folks have had for Microsoft regarding Dynamics,
Redmond's enterprise software entry. There's just so much potential there, but
Microsoft keeps messing with it -- not seeing, in the eyes of some, the diamond
it holds in its bejeweled, exquisitely manicured hand.
First, Dynamics was going to be about simplicity, ease of use and, most importantly,
cheapness -- if that's even a word. It was going to sweep into the enterprise
resource planning market from the bottom up, giving hope to those mid-sized
companies that trembled in the presence of monster ERP systems from SAP and
Oracle (although, to be fair, both companies do have mid-market offerings of
their own).
Then, somebody in Redmond -- keep in mind that the Dynamics leadership keeps
changing -- got the notion that Microsoft could go up market with its ERP
applications, and the big global systems integrators started sniffing around
in territory where previously smaller partners had ruled. Right there, Microsoft
began to approach the shark, as if to jump it; complicating Dynamics and jacking
up its price tag would have killed much of its appeal and alienated its most
potentially fertile market, mid-size businesses.
Well, according to RCP columnist, ERP guru and friend of RCPU Josh Greenbaum,
folks in the Pacific Northwest have apparently come
(back) to their senses and backed away from the shark again. Microsoft is
taking Dynamics back down-market, where Redmond hopes that its massive partner
army will crush the more direct-sales-oriented approaches of SAP and Oracle.
Greenbaum likes the move, and so do we -- especially from the partner perspective.
The global SIs haven't completely disappeared, and goodness knows there was
enough conflict in the Dynamics channel without them. But, with Microsoft mostly
backing off of the Fortune 500 with Dynamics, at least smaller, regionally and
vertically oriented partners will be back on the front lines of selling and
customizing the applications -- and companies will have an attractive, simpler,
lower-cost ERP alternative from a major (maybe the major) software vendor.
In other words, it's back to square one for Dynamics, strategically speaking -- back
to the first season (to continue the TV metaphor) when the concept was unique,
the writing was witty and the characters were engaging. Let's hope it stays
that way.
What's your take on Microsoft's Dynamics strategy? Tell us at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/17/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments
With the DATAllegro acquisition closed, Microsoft is
making
some noise about SQL Server and data warehousing.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/17/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments
Apparently, Paul Maritz's keynote
did
little to answer the big questions surrounding VMware. Really, Maritz giving
a keynote and not mentioning Microsoft, executive departures or the company's
over-a-cliff stock price is a little like ESPN doing a review of the year 2008
in sports and not mentioning the Olympics.
Meanwhile, still in Vegas, still at VMworld, Citrix busted out with the announcement
of XenServer 5.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/17/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments
Your editor woke up to approximately 346 e-mails about VMware, virtualization
and VMworld this morning. While we understand and appreciate the importance
of virtualization here at RCPU, we're still not experts in the technology. Luckily,
though, RCPmag.com employs some folks who are, and one of them wrote up a pretty
darn good VMworld piece
here.
Also, don't forget to check VMworld news as it happens with our friends at
sister publication Virtualization
Review.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/16/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments
We're trying to stay calm here -- really, we are. We understand that this
isn't 1929 or even 1987 -- and maybe not even 2001, for that matter -- and
that the bright people who run our economy have the tools and the know-how to
deal with what's happening.
We know that the economy is cyclical, that all sort of factors can affect it
and that things have been much worse in the past. We're aware that 6 percent
unemployment would have only been considered possible on Fantasy Island back
in 1981 when jobless rates were closer to (or in) double digits. We get it.
But when names like Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers -- companies
that have survived worse than a credit crunch or a recession, if we're even
in a recession -- start to disappear from the roster of financial titans, we
do tend to freak out a little bit. And when the U.S. government, which (rightfully)
so loathes doing this sort of thing, steps in and nationalizes mortgage lenders
(Freddie and Fannie, of course) because it has to, we freak out a little more.
And when the stock market starts the week by dropping 500-plus points, we build
an underground bunker and start buying bottled water in bulk.
OK, maybe not. In fact, we're writing this on Monday afternoon -- and by the
time you get it on Tuesday, the market might be back up 500 points. That's how
quickly the economy moves these days. Still, it's clear that there's reason
for concern, so it obviously came as no surprise when we read last week that
companies are cutting
IT spending.
What we want to know is how the economic slowdown will affect you, the Microsoft
partner, and what you're doing about it. We asked this question, or one very
much like it, a few months ago and kind of hoped that things would be better
by now. But they're not, really, so we'll revisit the topic again: Tell us,
how bad (or good?) are things for you now, and what's your plan for riding out
the downturn? As always, send your answers to [email protected].
As always, we'll only identify you by first name (so, if you're really hurting,
don't be afraid to let us know), and we'll try to run the most interesting answers
later this week.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/16/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments
One of the Directions on Microsoft guys
thinks
it's possible, and they're not often wrong about the goings on in Redmond.
So, Vista inches ever closer to the scrap heap of history...with poor (OK, not
that poor, given his contract) Jerry Seinfeld in tow.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/16/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments
Here at RCPU, we realize that most of our readers probably don't share your
editor's passion for European "football," but trust us, this could
end up being a huge amount of fun. Apparently, Bill Gates -- whose net worth
seems to be dramatically underestimated in the linked article (surely we're
talking billions and not millions) -- is
thinking
about buying Newcastle Football Club in England.
Long story short, Newcastle has a passionate fan base with Yankees-like expectations...but
the club has more of a Cubs-like record historically. Current owner and Londoner
-- that's kind of like a Yankees fan owning the Red Sox -- Mike Ashley is putting
the club up for sale after just 16 months of ownership in part because he and
his family can't safely attend games. The fans are quite literally revolting
after the departure of popular manager Kevin Keegan, for which the fans blame
Ashley.
And Gates thought the Macworld crowd back in '97 was tough...
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/16/2008 at 1:22 PM1 comments
Well, presumably Mark Conley's parents actually named him...but CommVault has
hired Conley as
director of North American channel sales.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/11/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments
Oh, how the proprietary have fallen. Well, not fallen really, but certainly
changed. Microsoft is making noises about openness and collaboration again,
this time with a couple of standards-oriented initiatives.
Redmond said this week that it'll work on a Web services interface with IBM
and EMC, and it's also joining a standards group called the Object Management
Group. (OK, so we didn't know what that was, either -- but this
story told us).
Of course, there will always be healthy and probably justified skepticism about
just how open Microsoft wants to be and what its true motives are for joining
these efforts (as in, to take them over completely). But we can't fault Redmond
for at least showing signs of coming out of its proprietary shell. And if this
new spirit of glasnost actually leads to technological advancements of
some sort -- hey, all the better!
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/11/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments