Symantec, CA Release Recovery Apps

Symantec's Backup Exec 12 is on the market; the company calls it the first backup application certified for Windows Server 2008. Backup Exec System Recovery 8 is out there, too.

The security giant has also popped out Symantec Solutions for Windows, which has a strong SaaS flavor. And, while we're at it, Symantec has SaaS versions of Online Backup and Online Storage for Backup Exec available, as well. In other news, Symantec's press release writer is recovering nicely from a recent bout of carpal tunnel syndrome.

More

Posted by Lee Pender on 02/20/20080 comments


Microsoft To Fight Dirty with Yahoo

Hi, reader, what's happening? Like Lumbergh from Office Space , we're playing a little catch-up today, not because we've "lost some people" but because we took the very un-Lumbergh step of not working over the long weekend. As a result, we're writing Tuesday's newsletter on Tuesday and not the day before. So, it'll be short and sweet today. More

Posted by Lee Pender on 02/19/20080 comments


Redmond Shuffles Web Execs...Again

"Hmm, maybe if we move this person into this job (and, um, buy Yahoo), we'll finally get this Web thing right..."

-- Overheard (not really, of course) in a Redmond board room around the time this decision was made.

Posted by Lee Pender on 02/19/20080 comments


Microsoft To Give Away Development Tools

To high school and college kids , that is. So, grow a bad teenage mustache, brush up on the parlance of today's youth (we think we heard some of it in the movie Juno , but we can't be sure), and see if you, too, can pass for a high school kid and score some free stuff. Or not.

Posted by Lee Pender on 02/19/20081 comments


The New York Times Approves of Office Live

Our old buddy David Pogue (OK, OK, we've never met him, but it sounds so classy to know someone who writes for The New York Times ) says that Office Live Small Business is actually pretty cool .

Posted by Lee Pender on 02/15/20080 comments


If You Haven't Patched...Patch!

If you haven't run Microsoft's massive haul of patches from this Patch Tuesday, you might want to go ahead and do that , experts say.

Posted by Lee Pender on 02/15/20080 comments


Microsoft-Yahoo Update

How much does Yahoo not want to become part of Microsoft? So much that the company is apparently running toward Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. for safety.

Meanwhile, Yahoo's staying busy. CEO Jerry Yang is trying to explain to shareholders why his company -- their company, really -- rejected Microsoft's first overture. And Yahoo's still trying to run a business here, doing what companies do: buying other companies and laying people off.

More

Posted by Lee Pender on 02/15/20080 comments


Azyxxi Gives Way to Amalga

Microsoft has renamed its health care offering for the enterprise. Not that the new name is really that much better.

Posted by Lee Pender on 02/15/20080 comments


Sweet, Sweet Reader Feedback

Sweeter than discount chocolates the day after Valentine's Day, it's RCPU reader feedback! We're hoping that you're either savoring a post V-Day glow or at least capably explaining to the wife why you came home empty-handed again this year. (We're big fans of, "Valentine's Day is just a retail scam! I love you every day!" Eventually, that's got to work. Oh, and ladies -- we're guessing that 90 percent of our readers are married guys, so please excuse the one-sided attempts at humor.) More

Posted by Lee Pender on 02/15/20080 comments


VMware Revises Channel Program

Virtualization titan VMware has sweetened the incentive pot for some of its smaller partners with revisions to its channel program. Specifically, partners at its program's Professional level (basically its entry level) now have access to the "advantage +" incentive program for the first time.

"We're seeing a growth in all of our partner tiers," Julie Eades, VMware's director of worldwide channel marketing, told RCPU. "We really felt that [Professional partners] are very open to needing the same kind of benefits as the other tiers of the program." VMware now has nearly 10,000 partners worldwide, Eades said.

More

Posted by Lee Pender on 02/14/20080 comments


NetApp Expands Channel Program

Well, hello, RCP Editor in Chief Scott Bekker. Perhaps you have some news about NetApp for us:

Network storage vendor NetApp this week launched an expansion of its channel program in a bid to expand its market share against EMC and other storage vendors by giving its partners the tools to deliver more profitable services surrounding NetApp's storage devices and software. Of the four initial service focus areas for NetApp partners in the program, one is specifically for Microsoft applications.

More

Posted by Lee Pender on 02/14/20080 comments


Microsoft E-Mails: PCs Were Not So Vista-Ready After All

You might remember a lawsuit filed claiming that Microsoft labeled PCs as Windows Vista capable when they were only really capable of running one version of Vista, the low-level Vista Home Basic.

Well, this week, we found out as part of the suit's legal proceedings that there was more to the story than just a bit of allegedly misleading marketing. Apparently, there was something resembling mass confusion inside Microsoft, including fairly high-ranking executives -- Mike Nash and Jim Allchin among them -- questioning what on earth was going on with the whole Vista labeling campaign. One employee even said in an e-mail that a "piece of junk" PC could still qualify for a Vista Ready label.

More

Posted by Lee Pender on 02/14/20081 comments


Subscribe on YouTube