Microsoft Partner Program, we hardly knew ye. Well, that's not true; we actually knew ye quite well. But ye are not long for this world (how far can we carry this?) and will soon -- well, within 16 months -- be replaced by the Microsoft Partner Network. RCP the magazine Editor in Chief Scott Bekker goes into great detail about the MPN here.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/01/20090 comments
We're taking a break from running reader e-mails this week, although we've got plenty more to run and will get back to them (probably) next week. This week, though, we just couldn't resist the return of the Red Menace, the Free Software Foundation.
Yes, the industry's favorite communists are back, this time with a very nasty Web site that (guess what?) attacks Microsoft and Windows 7. The "Windows 7 Sins" site details the FSF's objections to Windows 7, Microsoft, proprietary software and presumably the American capitalist system. It also encouraged people to meet on Wednesday at noon on the Boston Common to dump proprietary software into a huge garbage can, or something like that -- a sort of Boston Software Party, if you will.
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Posted by Lee Pender on 08/27/20094 comments
So, who saw this coming? Bankrupt and defeated vendor SCO, which lost a lawsuit it filed against IBM in 2007 and at the same time lost claim to ownership of the UNIX copyright (which went to Novell), has won a stunning reversal in a federal Appeals Court. Now, not only can SCO get back to suing IBM (if it can raise the money), but Novell seems to have lost its unique copyright on UNIX. Goodness. Do stay tuned on this one.
Posted by Lee Pender on 08/27/20095 comments
Amazon's new offering promises to bridge the gap between the cloud and the corporate on-premises network. It's pretty intriguing, actually, given that, in Amazon's model, companies pay only for what they use (like paying for electricity, as this story notes), and they can create chunks of the cloud for themselves that are totally independent from those of other customers. It's a new turn, from what we can tell, on the multi-tenant hosting idea, and many companies skeptical of moving into the cloud might just be tempted to take a look at it.
Posted by Lee Pender on 08/27/20090 comments
Legendary Editor in Chief Scott Bekker explains in Redmond Channel Partner (the magazine) about how Microsoft is taking the unusual step of laying out plans for its Services Ready consulting packages for partners.
Posted by Lee Pender on 08/27/20090 comments
One of the things we love most about cloud computing is the name; it simply lends itself to a massive library of plays on words, metaphors and jokes. In this edition of RCPU, we're devoting the entire newsletter to cloud computing. And the timing is good for that, too, because there's a storm brewing in the cloud computing space (see?).
Just this week, F5 Networks (yes, we know, a vendor) released results of a study it commissioned somebody called Applied Research West to undertake. Applied Research West surveyed 250 IT managers, each at a company of 2,500 people or more, and found that clouds are indeed rolling in on the corporate horizon. Check out a few key numbers from the linked story:
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Posted by Lee Pender on 08/26/20090 comments
You know that huge deficit prediction we all read about this week? Don't blame the national IT department (or whatever it's called) for it; the CIO of the U.S. is, apparently, all about saving money with cloud computing. (By the way, we try to keep RCPU as apolitical as possible, so please spare us the e-mails attacking or defending one party or the other over the deficit. We just thought it made a semi-clever lead-in to this entry. That's all.)
Posted by Lee Pender on 08/26/20090 comments
In case you missed it, some hack who writes for Redmond magazine (ahem) wrote an article on hosted ERP a couple of months back. The take-away? Hosted ERP, once feared by many organizations as unsecure or insufficient, can work very well and save a lot of money in the right scenarios and when properly implemented. Allay your fears here.
Posted by Lee Pender on 08/26/20090 comments
Remember Application Service Providers? Even if you do, you might not want to mention them in the office or on a job interview, this semi-snarky article advises. The correct phrase now is Software as a Service or, of course, cloud computing. (By the way, the folks who commented on this article received it fairly poorly; we thought it was kind of clever. You never know what you're going to get on the Infobahn.)
Posted by Lee Pender on 08/26/20091 comments
"The snow leopard is a powerful hunter, able to kill prey three times its weight."
-- From the Snow Leopard Trust Web site
OK, so it's not a real snow leopard, but it is on the hunt for game much bigger than itself. Apple is releasing the latest version of its Mac operating system -- called Snow Leopard, of course -- on Friday. In fact, folks who pre-order now can actually take delivery of the new OS by the end of this week.
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Posted by Lee Pender on 08/25/20094 comments
That Microsoft and Yahoo search deal that's meant to somehow take on Google, even though neither one can come close to touching Google's market share in search? Well, it might not be on after all if the two companies can't get by antitrust watchdogs. You think anybody in the U.S. Department of Justice would like a shot at Microsoft on this one? Yeah, so do we.
Posted by Lee Pender on 08/25/20090 comments