Partner Watch, July 19

Visionpace announces a new style of classroom/on-site training that lets students apply their knowledge in real-world situations. 07/19/2005

DoS Flaw Affects Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows 2003

Microsoft is working to fix a publicly disclosed flaw in Microsoft's Remote Desktop Services that can lead to a denial of service attack against certain Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 systems. 07/19/2005

HP to Cut 14,500 Jobs

HP on Tuesday announced it is cutting 14,500 jobs worldwide -- about 10 percent of its total workforce -- in an ongoing effort to bolster the computer and printer firm’s bottom line. 07/19/2005

Microsoft Licenses Voice Technology

Microsoft has purchased an OEM license to use voice-processing software from Global IP Sound, a developer of voice codecs. 07/18/2005

Microsoft Updates Auto Development Platform to 5.0

Last week at the Automotive Conference 2005 in Yokahama, Japan, Microsoft announced the release of a new version of its customizable software platform Windows Automotive 5.0. 07/18/2005

Microsoft Open Licensing Tips

If you have less than 250 PCs, you need to read this. 07/18/2005

Neverfail Releases Virtual Environment for Real-Time Demos of Product Line

At Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference earlier this month, Austin, Texas-based Neverfail Group announced the introduction of a virtual environment that allows Neverfail partners to present live, on-demand demonstrations of the company’s product line to potential customers via the Internet. 07/18/2005

IT Weekly Roundup, July 15

From the business wires this week: authentication solutions, search appliances, an enterprise-level file exchange program and a plug-in for encrypting backed-up data. 07/15/2005

RES Brings Wisdom to Windows Change Management

Real Enterprise Solutions announced Thursday that it is shipping Wisdom, a new integrated change and configuration management tool for Windows. 07/14/2005

Softricity Updates SoftGrid – Delays Zero Touch

Softricity is shipping version 3.2 of its SoftGrid Windows application virtualization package. 07/14/2005

SonaSafe Exchange Standby Solution Ships

SonaSoft began shipping its SonaSafe Exchange Standby Solution, an integrated disk-to-disk backup and recovery and disaster recovery solution for Microsoft Exchange Server. 07/14/2005

Manage and Administer Groups in Active Directory: Part Two

In part two of a series, find out how you can simplify the management of organizational changes in Active Directory with minimal effort. 07/13/2005

TCP Chimney Dispute Cleaned Up

Microsoft settled its legal dispute with Alacritech over the TCP Chimney networking technology for offloading network protocol processing, the companies announced Wednesday. The deal clears the way for Microsoft to deliver early next year the Scalable Networking Pack for Windows Server 2003, an out-of-band feature pack that had been in legal limbo. 07/13/2005

Microsoft Releases Three Critical Security Bulletins

Microsoft issued three critical security patches on its July patching day Tuesday, including the fix for a dangerous problem in the JVIEW Profiler for which Microsoft issued a kill bit last week. 07/12/2005

New Partner Resource Addresses Vertical Theme

Microsoft could've substituted "Vertical" for the official theme of its Worldwide Partner Conference and it might've been more appropriate than the actual theme, "Velocity." 07/12/2005

Ballmer Rallies the Partner Troops

It was only about 9:30 a.m, but Steve Ballmer showed all the energy of a linebacker ready to do battle as he came bounding onto the stage for his keynote address at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner conference on Sunday. 07/12/2005

Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 to Follow General R2 Release

An R2 version of Windows Small Business Server 2003 will follow the R2 release of the other editions of Windows Server 2003 by 60 to 90 days, Microsoft officials said at the company's Worldwide Partner Conference. 07/12/2005

Microsoft Names Citrix, HP 2005 Partners of the Year

More than 45 companies took laurels in Microsoft's Partner of the Year awards, held this weekend at the company's Worldwide Partner Conference in Minneapolis, Minn. 07/12/2005

Microsoft Adds Partner Competencies, Improves Partnering Tools

Additional competencies include those for solution providers mobility experts; partnering tools improvements include vastly streamlined registration process. 07/12/2005

Partner Watch, July 12

Fullscope debuts software solutions for process manufacturers, and seven companies join or move up in the Microsoft Partner ranks. 07/12/2005

Microsoft Streamlines Open Value Licensing, Expands Reach

Last week at its Worldwide Partner Conference in Minneapolis, Minn., Microsoft unveiled a streamlined Open Value licensing structure for small and mid-size companies. 07/11/2005

Sasser Saga Ends With Conviction of German Teen

The Sasser worm exploded onto the Internet in May 2004, taking down hundreds of thousands of computers, slowing network traffic and causing millions of dollars of damage with its automated exploitation of a flaw in Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The worm's trajectory ended Friday with a conviction and 21-month suspended sentence for Sven Jaschan, who succeeded spectacularly in what German authorities suggested was his motive -- gaining fame as a programmer. 07/11/2005

Internet Explorer Flaw Still Under Investigation

Microsoft continues to investigate a vulnerable component in Internet Explorer for which it posted a kill bit last week, but it is unlikely the software giant will include the fix as part of its monthly patching event on Tuesday. 07/11/2005

Executive Software Becomes Diskeeper Corp.

Executive Software changed its company name to the match name of its signature product, the popular Diskeeper disk defragmenter. 07/11/2005

Microsoft CRM 3.0 Gets a Preview

Microsoft took advantage of two conferences in the last week to provide an early look at Microsoft CRM 3.0, the follow-on to Microsoft CRM 1.2. 07/11/2005

BREAKING NEWS: MCP Program Takes New Road in September

Framework for "new generation" certifications to debut in September, beginning with SQL Server, Visual Studio. 07/11/2005

Windows XP SP2 Distributions Pass 200 Million

Microsoft distributed more than 218 million copies of Windows XP Service Pack 2, a senior Microsoft executive told an audience of Microsoft partners. 07/11/2005

Small Business Gets Big Recognition

Check this out: A new, "specialist" certification for Small Business Server experts. 07/10/2005

IT Weekly Roundup, July 8

From the business wires this week: SurfControl gets the thumbs up from Microsoft for its Web filter; a network monitor for IP devices; a registry optimization tool and a database management solution. 07/08/2005

Microsoft Offers Deal for Midmarket Customers

It's no secret that Microsoft is eager to increase its midmarket sales. On Thursday, Microsoft launched one of its first specific initiatives in the space with a discounted, three-server solution that it will rely on partners to deliver. 07/07/2005

Active Directory Gets Interop Boost from New Programs

Active Directory was a star of Microsoft's TechEd 2005 Europe show, with the company rolling out a number of programs and partnerships for improving the interoperability of its proprietary directory service. 07/07/2005

Citrix Unveils Remote App Access for SMBs

Citrix Systems announced it is shipping Citrix Access Essentials, a variant of its popular remote access products that run on top of Microsoft’s Windows Terminal Server designed for small and medium-sized businesses. 07/07/2005

July Patch Tuesday to Bring 3 Bulletins

Following a familiar pattern of chasing heavy patching months with light months, the Microsoft Security Response Center on Thursday said that its monthly security patch release day next Tuesday will bring three new security bulletins. 07/07/2005

Microsoft Ramps up on Midmarket Resources

In conjunction with the launch of a Windows Server System promotion for midmarket businesses on Thursday, Microsoft is making available a number of new resources for organizations with 25-500 PCs. 07/07/2005

SQL, Visual Studio, BizTalk Launch Set for Nov. 7 in San Francisco

Microsoft solidified its plans to launch SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006 in November. 07/06/2005

Microsoft Shows System Center Roadmap at TechEd Europe

Microsoft Betas Learning Consultant Certification for MCTs

The new title will recognize “the practice” of designing and delivering custom learning solutions for organizations. 07/06/2005

Fix Released for Tablet PC Edition Memory Leak

Microsoft posted an update this week that fixes a memory leak in Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005. 07/06/2005

Disk-to-disk Appliances Add Hot Backup

Unitrends is shipping new software for its disk-to-disk backup and restore appliances that enables administrators to back up the entire system all the way down to the bare metal without having to take down the server. 07/06/2005

Opinion: Parsing Microsoft's June Patches

Security expert Russ Cooper surveys the field of Microsoft security bulletins for June, assessing which matter the most. 07/06/2005

Sybari Antigen Gets MOM Management Pack

Microsoft's recently acquired Sybari Software subsidiary took a first public step toward fitting in on Wednesday with the release of a Sybari Antigen management pack for Microsoft Operations Manager 2005. 07/06/2005

MBSA 2.0 Posted to the Web

The 2.0 version of Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA), the free tool for scanning the security of networks at small and medium organizations and recommending improvements, is available on the Web this month. 07/06/2005

Windows 2000 Update Rollup Causes Problem for Citrix Users

Some Citrix users are running into problems after installing Microsoft's Update Rollup 1 for Windows 2000 Service Pack 4. 07/06/2005

IBM, Microsoft Settle Antitrust Claims – Postpone Others

Microsoft has agreed to pay IBM $775 million and to extend $75 million in software deployment credits in order to settle outstanding antitrust claims regarding the Redmond software giant’s competitive practices in desktop software markets during the 1990s. 07/05/2005

MS To Unveil New Competencies at Partner Conference

Microsoft Ups IP Protection for OEM, ISV Partners

Telecoms Get Help with New Service Provider Program

Cool New Gateway E-Series Desktops Feature Dual Core CPUs, BTX

Gateway is shipping three new lines of 64-bit business desktops built around Intel’s BTX cooling technology, two of which can be ordered with Pentium D dual-core CPUs. 07/05/2005

Device Management

The command-line tool DevCon.exe provides a ton of functionality. 07/01/2005

A Question of Scale

Benchmark published for SQL Server 2005; scalability story is mixed. 07/01/2005