It's hard to believe it's already September. While that means back to school for many, it also means there's less than one month until the official launch of the long-awaited new Microsoft Partner Network.
Some may dispute whether it's long-awaited, I realize. After all, for some smaller partners, the new certification requirements could mean their once-coveted Gold Certified status will be no longer attainable.
But others are eagerly anticipating the change. One such firm is Tallan, a Microsoft National Systems Integrator (NSI) based in Hartford, Conn. As I reported today, Tallan has acquired twentysix New York, a move it said positions it for the pending changes.
"It wasn't really a concern and not a factor but now that they've announced it and gotten the rules out, it makes me feel easier we will be able to satisfy that we will be able to stay in the top tier of the program," says Craig Branning, Tallan's CEO. In fact, he welcomes the fact that it will be harder to achieve Gold status.
"I like it. It gives a company like ours some advantages because we can set ourselves apart," he says. "It was a little bit too easy to qualify for gold status for some of the smaller players."
How will MPN shape your business? Is it giving you the urge to merge? Are you looking at other partnering opportunities? Please share with us the good, the bad and the ugly as some did at the recent WPC 10 conference in Washington, D.C. You can drop me a line at jschwartz@1105media.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on September 02, 2010 at 11:03 AM0 comments
Microsoft yesterday launched what it calls Premier Mission Critical Support Service, which, as the name implies, is intended to help users architect and maintain apps and systems that require constant availability.
These long-term services are for those who want to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars to perform architectural reviews, implementation and monitoring services thereafter, as reported by my colleague Kurt Mackie.
I spoke with Norm Judah, CTO of Microsoft Consulting Services to try to get a better understanding of where partners would fit into this service. When asked if they would be certified to potentially deliver these architectural reviews, he sounded doubtful -- and certainly not in the short term.
"Probably not, at least not initially, because the solutions engineer, the guy we are going to keep on site is generally deeply involved in doing that work to have that context," Judah explained. "There's an opportunity for us, when we have much more knowledge about the system to really investigate what a sell-through would look like, but I don't think we are ready for that. In many cases, the customers are asking for us to do this because they want Microsoft's skin in the game."
That said, Judah does see partners delivering some of the remediation services. "Remediation might be something simple such as tune a database but it could be something very complex, like you need to re-architect the middle tier of your commerce application. Those are all partner opportunities, driven by the customer. That is really the customer's choice who they want to do that with. If they have an existing partner that they work with, maybe it's the guy who wrote the application, no problem in doing that and we would work very closely with them taking the output of their remediation."
What's your take on this new service? Drop me a line at jschwartz@1105media.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on August 11, 2010 at 12:13 PM0 comments
There's no shortage of opinions out there as to what should happen now that Hewlett-Packard has ousted CEO Mark Hurd.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison blasted HP's board for taking what he felt was a minor infraction and cutting him loose as a result. "The HP board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago," Ellison wrote to The New York Times. "That decision nearly destroyed Apple and would have if Steve hadn't come back and saved them."
Meanwhile, Kevin Kelleher revives an idea that was frequently broached at the end of the Carly Fiorina era: break up the company. Kelleher made his proposal in DailyFinance:
"If the board were really honest with itself about the best strategy, it would use Hurd's departure as an occasion to break the company up into three smaller pieces -- a computer hardware maker, an IT services firm and a printer company. Find a solid CEO for each, and let them focus on what they do best."
While that may be extreme, staying the course could be a tough act to follow. True, while Hurd grew revenues from $87.6 billion in 2005 to $125 billion projected for this year, that was done primarily through mega acquisitions.
The cost of doing so has meant the company has taken on huge debt. Daily Finance's Peter Cohan points out HP's debt has mushroomed from $3.4 billion to $14 billion on Hurd's watch, while its cash position has slipped from $13.9 billion to $13.3 billion.
Hurd's cost cutting, while improving operations has had a price. According to yesterday's Wall Street Journal:
"Caris & Co. analyst Robert Cihra estimates that HP's PC business has effectively driven all revenue growth since Mr. Hurd took over. But operating margins in that business are just 5 percent. And in the last two quarters, HP has been losing share to Asian rivals Lenovo Group, Acer, Toshiba and Asustek Computer at a faster clip.
HP's market-leading printing business generates solid 17 percent margins, but growth is a sluggish 3 percent, estimates Mr. Cihra. The same is true of its services business, which became a big part of HP's business with the acquisition of Electronic Data Systems: 16 percent margins but just 2 percent growth."
Meanwhile, Reuters points out that Hurd reduced research and development spending by 20 percent, noting HP spent only 2.5 percent of sales on R&D. Reuters notes that rivals Apple, Cisco, Dell and IBM averaged more than 6 percent, meaning HP will need to increase its R&D if it wants to keep pace.
What's next for HP is anyone's guess but the status quo likely won't do. Does the board need to do something as drastic as splitting up the company? What's your recommendation? Feel free to comment below or drop me a line at jschwartz@1105media.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on August 11, 2010 at 12:20 PM2 comments
A top executive charged with sexual harassment or violating company policies is hardly a rarity in today's business world. Yet, the news Friday that the laser-focused Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd was effectively dismissed for such allegations has rocked Silicon Valley.
As the story played out over the weekend, and no doubt will continue to do in the coming days and weeks, some argue HP's board should have looked the other way, given the fact that the company's market cap has doubled and the company has substantially and consistently grown revenues and profits since Hurd took the reigns five years ago.
It's bizarre that the woman at the center of the scandal, marketing consultant and "actress" Jodie Fisher, charged Hurd with sexual harassment and hired the celebrity attorney Gloria Allred to represent her only to release a statement expressing regret.
"Mark and I never had an affair or intimate sexual relationship," she said in a statement released Sunday. Fisher went on to say that she has reached a private settlement with Hurd, who also denied any intimate relationship. "I was surprised and saddened that Mark Hurd lost his job over this," Fisher said. "That was never my intention."
Are you buying this from either party? Even if all that is true would HP have let go a CEO who turned the company around merely for fudging expense reports or having a few ill-advised dinners? Perhaps it would have given the company's strong focus on requiring employees to uphold ethical standards. HP reportedly has let go numerous employees who had violated HP's rules of conduct and it would have been hypocritical to look the other way when Hurd did so. In the end, Hurd no longer had the confidence of HP's board. While Wall Street loved him, employees and many in Silicon Valley detested him, according to analysts.
Suffice to say, it appears there's much more to this story. But the bigger question is what's next for HP? Even those who argue that Hurd was to HP what Steve Jobs is to Apple, let's not forget that Apple did just fine during his six-month leave of absence last year. Hurd's departure is an opportunity for the company to bring innovation forward and strengthen its partnerships.
Internal candidates to replace Hurd include Todd Bradley, who turned around the company's once-struggling PC business. Ann Livermore, who runs HP's huge services business is another oft-mentioned possibility. Outside candidates include two Softies: Microsoft COO Kevin Turner and Stephen Elop, president of the company's Business Division.
Others include EMC CEO Joe Tucci, IBM executive Michael Daniels, and former Compaq CEO Michael Capellas, The Wall Street Journal reports. Netscape founder and Silicon Valley VC Marc Andreessen is leading the search committee. (Could he be a candidate too?)
HP's board should be looking for a CEO who can execute as well financially as Hurd did -- no easy task -- but also someone who will bring technical and product leadership that companies like Apple, Google and (yes, even) Microsoft are demonstrating these days.
If not, those companies, along with the likes of Acer, Cisco, EMC and IBM, just to name a few, will further erode HP's effort to lead in markets that range from tablets to PCs to communications devices to enterprise infrastructure.
The new CEO will also have to look at its partnerships, including the one Hurd extended with Microsoft back in January to develop and bring to market advanced data center technology. While there has been some progress, that partnership looks a little cold these days.
For example, HP phoned it in when it came to endorsing Microsoft's Windows Azure appliance. At Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference last month, Dell and Fujitsu had executives front and center to talk up their plans to deliver an Azure appliance. At WPC, HP was nowhere to be found, though Scott Farrand, vice president for the company's Industry Standard Servers and Software business told me not to read anything into that.
"It was a simple matter of logistics for trade shows and availability of key executives for that kind of time line," said Farrand, who also gave telephone briefings at WPC. "There was no specific message in there that's of significance relative to HP's attitude here. We've had a longstanding partnership with Microsoft."
Also, while HP is now planning to deliver a Windows-based tablet PC, that was not a sure thing following its April announcement that it was acquiring Palm for $1.2 billion. In the months that followed, HP went dark regarding the future of the Windows-based Slate PC that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer highlighted earlier this year. It appeared DOA only for the company to recently disclose it will deliver the Windows-based Slate targeted at high-end enterprise users.
HP needs a leader who will not just give lip service to advancing its wares and its partnerships. It's not only important to the future of HP but to the ecosystem that surrounds the company.
What's your take? Drop me a line at jschwartz@1105media.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on August 09, 2010 at 2:22 PM1 comments
It appears either Microsoft has mainframe-envy or IBM is not too happy about Microsoft's data center ambitions of late. Most likely, it's a combination of both.
Consider the following:
- Microsoft recently said it is going to offer portable data centers based on its cloud-based Windows Azure platform.
- IBM just launched a new mainframe that is the first to support virtualization of x86-based blades with Linux, not Windows, as the preferred platform. Big Blue appears cold to the idea of the blade extensions supporting Windows.
- The European Union last week launched an investigation of IBM's mainframe business. IBM's response: Microsoft and its minions are behind the investigation.
So it was a hot July for two companies who really have bigger fish to fry than each other. It is clear IBM is not happy with Microsoft these days, based on Big Blue's response to the EU investigation:
The accusations made against IBM by TurboHercules and T3 are being driven by some of IBM's largest competitors -- led by Microsoft -- who want to further cement the dominance of Wintel servers by attempting to mimic aspects of IBM mainframes without making the substantial investments IBM has made and continues to make. In doing so, they are violating IBM's intellectual property rights.
T3 and TurboHercules offer mainframe software that competes with IBM's own offerings.
As for the newly launched mainframe, the zEnterprise is the most important new piece of big iron launched by IBM in more than a decade because it is the first to provide integration with its Power7 blade infrastructure and x86-based blade racks running Linux.
Where it breaks new ground is its common virtualized platform capable of running 100,000 VMs simultaneously, while providing a turnkey data center that shares network, storage and power components.
Providing the capability for the mainframe to assign workloads to x86-based blades is the system's Universal Resource Manager, made up of software and embedded hardware, said IBM Distinguished Engineer Donna Dillenberger, in an interview at the launch event.
Her colleague, David Gelardi, IBM's vice president of sales, support and education, told me one could opt to run Windows workloads rather than Linux on the x86 BladeCenter Extensions, dubbed zBX.
"There's no reason you can't use it to run Windows, because Tivoli's provisioning capabilities is operating systems agnostic," he said. "Windows would run on an outboard blade and ultimately would run on an xBlade inside zBX."
But at the same time, Steve Mills, senior vice president of IBM's software and hardware businesses, was in another room with analysts playing down that notion. When asked if the blades would run Windows, Mills reportedly said because they are x86-based, Windows could run on it "but the problem was essentially, to IBM, Windows was too much of a black box to be able to do what they wanted to do with it," recalled RedMonk analyst Michael Cote, in an interview.
"I don't think IBM is especially interested in managing Windows on the zEnterprise," Cote said. "Technologically it wouldn't work out, and they probably are unwilling to do whatever it would take to make Microsoft help them out with it. But I think in the wider context of things, IBM's not really out to help Microsoft out really."
Analyst Joe Clabby of Clabby Analytics, in an interview, explained it would require Microsoft to support IBM's virtualization technology and make tweaks to its own Hyper-V. "Hyper-V is nowhere near IBM from a virtualization and provisioning perspective," Clabby said. "If I were IBM I'd say get that stuff out of the way, use this approach and then you can integrate with our mainframes better, but I don't think that will be received well by Microsoft."
So both Cote and Clabby are in agreement that we shouldn't anticipate the new zEnterprise running Windows workloads -- at least with the help of Microsoft and IBM -- any time soon.
As for the EU investigation: "I don't know if IBM's allegations that Microsoft is behind it are true, but in this day and age, part of the way you compete is to try to help government agencies do antitrust stuff," Cote said. "Whether it's a good way of competing, it seems like one front in a war of competing."
Is Microsoft really a threat to IBM these days? Cote says certainly more so than it was in the past. "Microsoft wants to expand into the enterprise area," he said. "If you look at the numbers on Windows server usage, it's everywhere. That's a chunk of revenue that IBM is missing out on."
It's not just the data center where IBM is taking on Microsoft. IBM is also taking its best shot at breaking into the desktop with its new CloudBurst offerings and its free Microsoft Office alternative, Lotus Symphony.
While the two companies both compete and partner in many areas, it does appear that the rivalry between them is picking up. "I don't think IBM as a culture has ever forgiven itself for creating Microsoft with DOS licensing and everything, but I see a bit more viciousness when it comes to IBMers talking about Microsoft people these days," Cote said.
All that said, he points out that IBM's true nemesis is Oracle. And Microsoft has made it clear that its two biggest enemies are Apple and Google, with VMware and Oracle clearly in its path, as well. The tensions between IBM and Microsoft "are definitely more active but they're not at each other's throats," Cote said.
Clearly it will be interesting to see the two go head to head in the market for so called private clouds "in a box." What's your take? Drop me a line at jschwartz@1105media.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on August 03, 2010 at 10:41 AM0 comments
Shortly after announcing that it was acquiring Palm, it looked like Hewlett Packard was throwing in the towel on shipping a Windows-based slate PC.
That was a major blow to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who kicked off 2010 in January in his annual opening keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show. That was where he famously unveiled HP's slate PC, saying it would be one of many to run Windows 7.
Despite the low entry cost of the iPad from Apple ($495), HP kept plugging the Windows slate, pointing out it would have some niceties absent in the iPad, such as USB ports and support for Adobe Flash.
But then after HP announced its $1.2 billion deal to acquire Palm, the company went dark on the Windows slate. HP indicated slates based on Palm's webOS were a key reason for acquiring Palm.
Now HP has a two-slate OS strategy: The webOS slate, reportedly to be called the PalmPad, will be targeted at as an alternative to the Apple iPad -- primarily consumers and those using the device to consume content. Its Windows-based HP Slate will be designed for business users looking to run enterprise applications. That move ups a battle recently waged by Cisco Systems, which last month launched the Cius, a device also targeted at enterprise users.
"HP believes the best way to serve customers is to offer them choice, and HP is very excited about the slate category," the company said in an e-mailed statement. "HP plans to use webOS from its recent Palm acquisition as well as Windows 7 from Microsoft for this category."
It also appears HP is looking at providing shared Internet connectivity in its devices, HP Personal Systems Group executive Phil McKinney said Wednesday to IDG News Service at the AlwaysOn Stanford Summit. That's a feature now built into the Palm Pre Plus.
First hand, I can report that the shared Internet connectivity is a nice feature. Though I had trepidations about purchasing a Palm Pre Plus, the free mobile WiFi hub service was worth the highly discounted cost -- even if I decided webOS was a dud. And that was before HP announced it was acquiring Palm.
To be sure, webOS has some nice features but it is sorely lacking in the apps department. For the PalmPad and webOS to succeed, HP will have to get the Palm ecosystem up and running quickly.
Given the success of the iTunes App Store and Google's Android, it still remains to be seen where Windows Phone platform, webOS and even Research in Motion's BlackBerry platform will land. But given the projections for the slate/tablet market, there's plenty of room for growth. A report released this week by Forrester Research found that tablet sales will grow from 3.5 million units in 2010 to more than 20 million units in 2015.
Yesterday's announcement that Amazon will offer a $139 Kindle suggests this will be a diverse marketplace for digital devices for the foreseeable future.
Ballmer said at WPC last month that Microsoft is committed to the slate PC market. For now it looks like the first Windows 7-based slates will be bigger ticket items targeted at knowledge workers. Microsoft's announcement last week that it has licensed the architecture of ARM Holdings microprocessor suggests that there is more to come from Microsoft in this space.
For now, I am waiting for the dust to settle, at least somewhat, before deciding what kind of slate to acquire. But it's nice to know there will be lots to choose from. Will we (those other than geeks and power users) own multiple digital devices as price points crater in the future? What's your take? Drop me a line at jschwartz@1105media.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on July 29, 2010 at 10:01 AM0 comments
Anyone who was hoping that Microsoft's partner organization would put the breaks on its plans to require unique certifications was disappointed last week.
"It's full speed ahead," said Julie Bennani, general manager for partner programs at Microsoft, in an interview during last week's Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, D.C. "We are still going on with those requirements and landing those in October."
While she and Microsoft's new partner chief, Jonathan Roskill, signaled they were willing to consider alternatives at a later date, as reported, the plan looks baked to move forward with the Oct. 1 date for transitioning to the new Microsoft Partner Network (MPN). "If we said, 'If you could get Gold in three of the five in Core IO, we could give you a Core IO competency.' That's one thing that's interesting to think about," Roskill said.
Microsoft last week did say it's renaming the competency and advanced competency designations Gold and Silver, but many appeared to welcome a Silver designation like receiving a booby prize.
At WPC last week, I sat in on a session called MPN: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. It was moderated by Mo Edjlali, a management consultant, who, until recently, served five years as the president of the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners Washington D.C. chapter.
Now a management consultant, Edjlali looked at the situation from both points of view. "I think Microsoft wants people to have focus, that makes sense," Edjlali said. Indeed there are many partners who are Gold who most would agree don't deserve that designation today.
"But I think the trouble is some products are so closely related that you can't say your good in BI and not in SQL Server, it confuses customers when they might feel that expertise isn't there when it's always been there," he added. "People say 'my staff hasn't changed but now we are going to come across like we're not as sharp as we used to and these big companies that have the manpower will have the credentials but not have the skills or actually put the billable people on project with those skills.'"
That is the center of the fear. The large integrators can afford to have Gold certified engineers across the board, but the small- and mid-sized firms can't. So they will have to decide which disciplines they want to be Gold certified in and accept Silver for the rest.
Perhaps a better idea would have been to introduce a Platinum tier, Edjlali said. "It's going to be difficult for people to go from Gold to Silver," he told me in an interview after the session.
Janice Crosswell of Microsoft Canada's Corporate Assurance Group, who was sitting in on the session tried to spin the situation. "Silver is better than [the current] Gold," Crosswell said to the group. "When you're talking about some of the math, and I am saying 'I am just Silver,' you are actually rank higher than the [current] gold. There are some more requirements."
That didn't go over too well. "Customers are never going to know that Silver is now better than Gold used to be," a partner in the session replied. "They see Gold and that's what they see."
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on July 12, 2010 at 5:11 PM0 comments
There is growing buzz that Microsoft will come up with some compromise over the certification requirements that some partners fear will put them out of business. But it is not clear to what extent.
Details of any changes to the new Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) are expected to be made public next week at the company's annual Worldwide Partner Conference, set to be held in Washington, DC.
"The word on the street is some changes have been made and will probably be announced at WPC," says Howard Cohen, northeast regional chairman of the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP).
Cohen says it remains unclear what those changes will be but he was optimistic. "The people at Microsoft who were responsible for MPN have told us clearly that they are open to dialog and they appreciate the role IAMCP plays as the voice of their partner channel." A Microsoft spokeswoman said the company does not comment on rumors but said "we will be talking a lot about MPN next week at WPC."
As reported, MPN is set to place new certification requirements that will force many partners to hire additional engineers in order to maintain multiple advanced certification levels. As the Gold Certification Partner designation is set to fade away, MPN will give way to specialty-specific designations called Advanced Competencies.
The requirement that bars double-dipping by engineers could impact those organizations with multiple Competencies now because they will have to add engineers to cover multiple disciplines at the Advanced level in the MPN.
Many Microsoft partners, larger ones in particular, say that's a good thing. "We don’t want to compete with someone who paid $1,500 and passed one test and became a virtualization partner," says Thad Morrow, director of sales at Concord, Calif.-based Entisys Solutions.
"Personally I think they are going to have make revisions because it will put too many partners out of business to be quite honest," argues Jeff Goldstein, president of New York-based Queue Associates, winner of Microsoft's CRM Dynamics SL Partner of the Year Award. "I understand what Microsoft is trying to do. Too many people are Gold Certified Partners."
Cohen doesn't dispute the notion that Microsoft has too many partners out there who have abused the Gold designation over the years. By his estimate, of the 12,000 partners in the New York City metropolitan area, 7,000 don't even have registered domains. Of those that do, perhaps only 3,000 to 4,000 are active Microsoft partners looking to grow their businesses, he reasons.
"Nobody who's making investments in building a good practice likes to see anybody level the playing field," Cohen says. "I think MPN is meant to wipe away all of the things that leveled the playing field. This is a good thing. As long as you don’t hurt the people who are playing by the rules, those are the ones we have to make sure we are taking good care of."
Pruning Microsoft's partner base in a way that doesn't take meat off the bone could be a critical challenge for the company's new channel chief Jonathan Roskill, who took over last week after swapping jobs with Allison Watson, who held the job for over seven years.
Another challenge for Roskill will be to get partners comfortable with Microsoft's "we're-all-in" cloud strategy. What other challenges does Roskill have? If you'd like to make your opinions known, please take a minute to participate in a brief poll. As always, your responses will be kept anonymous unless you invite us to follow up with you about your answers. Click here to take the survey.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on July 08, 2010 at 2:10 PM1 comments
Report suggests Microsoft's woes stem from lack of young developers and customers.
It was, no doubt, a rather unsettling beginning of Microsoft's new fiscal year.
First Microsoft kills the Kin, making it arguably its biggest flop since Bob. Then a report by Microsoft Kitchen's Stephen Chapman detailed some specifics about plans for Windows 8 including a Windows Store, faster boot-up, support for slate-type devices and facial recognition. Not a welcome move as Microsoft is looking to keep the focus on Windows 7.
Then on July 4, The New York Times published a scathing piece that questioned Microsoft's ability to appeal to young consumers and developers alike. Using the Kim demise as the backdrop, the Times piece questioned Microsoft's ability to appeal to the youth crowd.
"We did not get access to kids as they were going through college," Bob Muglia, president of Microsoft’s business software group, told the Times last year. "And then, when people, particularly younger people, wanted to build a start-up, and they were generally under-capitalized, the idea of buying Microsoft software was a really problematic idea for them."
Tim O'Reilly, the influential book publisher and conference organizer, lent credibility to the Times' Ashlee Vance assertion:
"Microsoft is totally off the radar of the cool, hip, cutting-edge software developers. And they are largely out of the consciousness of your average developer," O'Reilly was quoted as saying.
O'Reilly in a blog posting said he doesn't recall saying that. "My memory is that Ashlee opened our conversation with that assertion, which I countered by saying that Microsoft still has big, active developer communities, and that you shouldn't assume that just because you can't see them in San Francisco, that they are dead," O'Reilly writes.
"I feel more than a little misrepresented," O'Reilly concludes. "It's sad when the NYT uses "flamebait" techniques in its stories. Rather than real journalism, this felt like a reporter trying to create controversy rather than report news."
Frank Shaw, Microsoft's corporate VP of communications told Seattle's public radio station KUOW that Microsoft has two strong efforts to recruit young developers -- Dreamspark and its Imagine Cup project taking place now in Poland. "We've got programs designed at young developers," Shaw said. "I look at both those things and think maybe our definition of cool and hip is different."
He points to his recent blog posting where he highlights Microsoft's net income for its 2009 fiscal year of $14.5 billion, compared to Google's $6.5 billion and Apple's $8.2 billion. "We've grown revenue and profits in a phenomenal way," Shaw said. Of course a clearer indication will come later this month when Microsoft reports its fiscal year 2010 earnings for the period ended on June 30.
Do you think Microsoft can pull out of its current morass and appeal to young developers and consumers? Drop me a line at jschwartz@1105media.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on July 07, 2010 at 6:14 PM2 comments
Microsoft cut its losses quickly with the Kin, even though it never should have been hatched in the first place. Not that it's a big shock that Kin failed or Microsoft had much choice in the decision to kill it. It just seemed that after the lack of logic in rolling it out in the first place, that Microsoft might be reticent to concede defeat so rapidly.
Kin, known internally at Microsoft as Pink, of course was borne of Microsoft's acquisition of Danger, maker of the Sidekick, which was marketed by T-Mobile until it yesterday pulled the plug on it as well, according to CNET's Ina Fried. Even though Kin was destined to be a dud, Andrew Brust blogged some interesting theories on why Microsoft had to launch it and let it fail. Check out his top 10 reasons why Microsoft may have launched Kin anyway. Brust notes:
Kin had to be brought to market, and had to fail, in order to topple [corporate VP Roz] Ho from her position and consolidate power in the WP7 [Windows Phone 7] team.
When I saw the Webcast of the Kin's launch in April, I couldn't help but cringe. It came after Microsoft finally had a credible story with Windows Phone 7, even if it is still has an uphill battle to cut into the comfortable lead maintained by Apple with the iPhone and Google with its Android platform.
But it would be foolish to rule Microsoft out of the mobile enterprise race, yet. But when Microsoft launched Kin, it was evident it had no legs, and moreover it was a clear distraction from its Windows Phone 7 story.
The Kin, if it is remembered at all, may challenge Microsoft's Bob as the company's biggest dud ever. For those who remember Bob, launched 15 years ago to make Windows 95 easier to use, it recently made Time magazine's list of 50 worst inventions ever.
Now that's a tough act to follow.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on July 02, 2010 at 10:23 AM0 comments
Quest Software wants providers of managed services to use its broad portfolio of systems management, migration and connectivity software. The problem is managed services providers, or MSPs, don't want to pay Quest's traditional lump-sum licensing fees. In order to make its software palatable to managed services providers, Quest has introduced a new consumption-based licensing model that it hopes will broaden its market.
The company earlier this month launched its new Service Provider Program, designed to let MSPs license its software the way service providers are accustomed to doing business -- by the month or quarterly and as applicable on a per user or account basis.
"We are traditionally targeted at the on-premise customer to give them all the capabilities they need to do things themselves," Darren Swan, Quest's manager of development told me. "We have worked with service providers to help them do it with the customers, but we haven't targeted specifically the service providers to enable them to move on-premise to host and manage."
Quest had to make a fundamental change in its business model to reach this new customer set. That's because the business model for MSPs doesn't encourage them to incur up-front software license fees.
After seeing its revenues decline for the first time in a decade last year, Quest is trying to extend its reach to MSPs by offering its software via a new licensing and model that is more conducive to them.
The subscription model is appealing for two reasons: the ongoing revenues and convenience for the end customer, explains Scott Gode, VP of marketing at Azaleos, a managed services provider and Quest partner.
"The unique thing with Quest, particularly around their migration tools, is that it's not at all a niche because migrations are huge and will continue to be," Gode says. "But it's not your typical annuity model because a migration is more often or not a one-time event verses consuming cloud storage space, which is an ongoing annuity model."
But Quest also has monitoring and other tools that are used on an ongoing basis. Yet MSPs are only willing to pay for those tools as they are consumed. One MSP that found Quest's array of tools appealing is DirectPoint Inc., based in Lindon, Utah.
Dan Atkinson, DirectPoint's VP of alliances, hooked up with Quest about a year ago, and found many of its monitoring and migration tools suitable for its needs. But Atkinson said DirectPoint couldn't introduce new capital expenditures to pay for the software when the company was accustomed to weighing its costs towards operational expenditures. Atkinson said Quest's move from perpetual license fees to quarterly per-user pricing sealed the deal.
"Paying all of those upfront license fees and maintenance fees does not work well for somebody like ourselves that is a pure-play MSP," Atkinson explains. Software vendors who want to do business with MSPs and cloud providers appear to be grudgingly if not gradually moving in this direction, according to Atkinson.
Case in point is CA Technologies, which recently acquired monitoring vendor Nimsoft and cloud virtualization platform vendor 3Tera. "We're beginning to see more and more of it," Atkinson says.
If you're an MSP, are you finding software vendors showing more willingness to work with you on licensing? Drop me a line at jschwartz@1105media.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on June 29, 2010 at 11:42 AM0 comments
Time will tell whether the reshuffling of responsibilities between soon-to-be former Channel-chief Allison Watson and her successor, Jon Roskill was a chance to allow both execs to broaden their careers and put new blood into their respective organizations or whether there are more pronounced changes in the works to the way Microsoft goes to market with its partners.
It's hard to be shocked that after nearly seven years Watson is moving to a new role. That's the Microsoft way and anyone who follows the company knows it frequently shuffles execs. By many accounts, Watson was overdue for such a change.
The move caught many partners and even those inside Microsoft off guard --just a few weeks before Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference.
"The new fiscal year is a week away, and that means kicking off and executing the 2011 marketing campaigns and Allison's new role will play an important role there," Directions on analyst Paul DeGroot suspects. "Microsoft's global sales meeting usually happens a week or two after the partner conference, so she'll be getting worldwide visibility right away."
Watson's move as corporate VP for Microsoft's Business and Marketing Organization (BMO) should not be viewed as a kick upstairs, DeGroot added. "BMO is a pretty critical part of Microsoft's sales organization, so leading the U.S. BMO is by no means a trivial role or a sideways move," DeGroot said. "Maybe they are grooming her for future roles in the corporate mainstream."
By most accounts, Watson was well regarded in the partner community. "Allison truly has supported our group and we were very happy to have the opportunity to work with her," said Kerry Gerontianos, president and CEO of Incremax Technologies Corp. and the IAMCP's national president. "The most rational explanation for the change is she's been there awhile."
Now it is unclear whether she will share the keynote stage with her successor or will cede it to him. The message of course is that the two will work together. Watson said as much in a blog posting yesterday.
"As I shift into my new role, one thing that will not waiver is my passionate dedication to partners," Watson noted. "My commitment to strengthening and evolving our engagement, and the collective learning you've imparted will be a toolset I will continue to employ. Jon and I are eager to hear from you about how we can best serve Microsoft's partners and customers."
Yet if she knew this was coming as recently as two weeks ago, she held it close to the vest. In fact she spent nearly an hour just two weeks ago talking to myself and Redmond Channel Partner editor-in-chief Scott Bekker, outlining the importance that partners follow Microsoft to the cloud, which was to be the basis of her keynote at WPC.
"Microsoft is 'all in' but we haven't really been telling everyone what 'all in' is yet," she told us. "In a comprehensive way, that's obviously a major goal for WPC. And the roadmap is becoming very fleshed out during the course of the next 12 months."
How partners should follow Microsoft to the cloud will surely remain the theme of WPC (stay tuned for the July RCP cover story), still lots of questions loom. Perhaps the most significant is what this will mean for Julie Bennani, general manager of Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Group. Bennani is architect of the new Microsoft Partner Network.
Many channel partners are concerned about what the new certification rules will mean to them, particularly smaller ones. Under the new rules, as I reported, there will be no double dipping, but partners are hoping Microsoft will make exceptions.
While it appears the new rules are pegged at those that latch onto a certification without committing enough to those product lines, others argue the collateral damage can hurt those partners who can't afford to hire additional engineers, yet those they have are skilled in multiple disciplines.
"If they want to make bigger changes to MPN, they could use this re-organization as an excuse for a delay," suggests Howard Cohen, regional chairman of the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP).
Also it remains to be seen what this will mean to Pam Salzer, Microsoft's Senior Director of Worldwide Partner Marketing. Many are bracing for additional personnel moves at some level in the coming days and weeks.
What's your take on all these changes? Drop me a line at jschwartz@1105media.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on June 25, 2010 at 12:31 PM0 comments
Microsoft may be "all-in" the cloud. But if it can't convince the world that its services are secure, it could be all-out. That may explain why Microsoft is talking up cloud security these days.
Joel Sider, a senior product manager for identity and security for Microsoft's Forefront business, reiterated Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing initiatives in a blog posting this week. "We strive to be more transparent than anyone about how we help enable more secure cloud computing," Sider wrote.
Last week, Microsoft released a comprehensive update of its Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) best practices, particularly targeted at .NET developers building apps that will run in the cloud.
"We're putting renewed effort into communicating all of our efforts to help customers and partners think thru cloud security in the right way," Sider added in an e-mail. But as I reported this month, how do you really know what's behind the curtain of any provider's cloud services?
While many cloud providers comply with such standards as SAS 70, ISO 27001, PCI and COBIT, there is no common way for them to disseminate information to partners and customers. Hence, that visibility is lacking today.
There are efforts in the works to resolve this lack of clarity. Of particular note is CloudAudit, which seeks to develop standards for how cloud providers release information to prospective and existing enterprise clients that can satisfy specific compliances and internal governance requirements.
CloudAudit uses the recently released Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Cloud Controls Matrix -- a framework that consists of 98 controls that specify how cloud providers should release detailed guidelines on how services are audited and risk is determined.
Among those participating are Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Unisys and Rackspace, though it remains to be seen if those and other players ultimately implement the CloudAudit specs. But it is an effort worth watching. If CloudAudit is widely adopted, it could remove one barrier to cloud computing.
What do you think? Drop me a line at jschwartz@1105media.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on June 23, 2010 at 3:09 PM0 comments
Former president Bill Clinton will be making a keynote address at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, DC., Microsoft announced yesterday.
Clinton, who formed and runs the William J. Clinton Foundation, "with the mission to strengthen the capacity of people in the United States and throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence," will be among several heavy hitters scheduled to speak at WPC.
Among others on the revamped agenda scheduled to speak include Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and group presidents Kevin Turner, Stephen Elop and Bob Muglia.
Of course, headlining WPC will be Microsoft's channel chief, Allison Watson, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group, who will spell out the implications of Microsoft's "all-in" cloud emphasis and what that means to partners.
The Clinton keynote, called "Embracing our Common Humanity," is slated for Wednesday July 14th. The other humanitarian named Bill, Bill Gates, Microsoft's founder and chairman-turned-humanitarian, is not scheduled to appear at WPC.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on June 16, 2010 at 7:52 AM0 comments
Microsoft is talking up application virtualization and there are some new technology, partnering and licensing considerations on the horizon. Also in its battle against VMware, look for Citrix and Microsoft to act as true partners-in-crime to take on the cause for desktop application virtualization.
First, in case you haven't heard, effective July 1, those customers who don't qualify for Windows Client Software Assurance will require a new license called Windows Virtual Desktop Access, or Windows VDA. According to a posting on Microsoft's site, the company came up with Windows VDA to allow organizations to license virtual copies of Windows in virtual environments for devices that don't qualify for Windows client SA such as third-party contractor PCs and thin clients, among others.
Windows VDA is a device-based subscription license that will cost $100 per device per year. "It will allow organizations to create multiple desktops dynamically, enable user access to multiple virtual machines (VMs) simultaneously and move desktop VMs across multiple platforms, especially in load-balancing and disaster recovery situations," Microsoft says.
What's the benefit of that added cost? Among other things, Microsoft says it will allow users to run Windows in a data center including Enterprise editions, rights for a primary user to access corporate VDI desktops from non-corporate PCs including home systems and kiosks and access rights for up to four VMs, concurrently. It will also support unlimited mobility of VMs between servers and storage and unlimited backups of VMs, according to Microsoft.
At a time when Windows 7 sales appear to be going through the roof, Microsoft appears to be making a strong push toward desktop virtualization even as it may cannibalize future Windows licensing.
To strengthen its portfolio, Microsoft is working closely with longtime partner Citrix to take on the larger behemoth -- VMware. Brad Anderson, who oversees Microsoft's virtualization efforts, gave a keynote address at Citrix's annual Synergy conference earlier this month following Citrix launch of the first bare-metal client hypervisor..
Following Anderson's keynote, he and Citrix CTO Simon Crosby posted a recorded video conversation between the two where he talked up what Microsoft has in store on the App-V front.
"With application virtualization, what we're doing is taking all the assets, all the experience from the desktop, applying it to the server, and this will be released in conjunction with the next version of System Center in 2011," Anderson said. "Think about this as being embedded into virtual machine manager that gives you the ability to separate out your existing applications, so that you can actually have that separation of the app and the OS and dramatically reduce your number of operating system images."
One of the things Anderson demonstrated in his keynote was the next version of System Center Virtual Machine Manager making Xen Server a first class citizen. "The integration is definitely there," Anderson said.
Added Crosby: "So you can drag and drop a multi tier app from Xen App and Xen desktop, which has tons of components, and just magically shows up. One cool use case: once you've done all this virtualization, it's a good way to deploy things into the cloud, so I can then take an app that I've virtualized and pop it up into Azure."
What's your take on the new VDA licensing? If you're a Microsoft partner are you looking more closely at Citrix's XenSource platform and the new bare-metal hyper-visor the company announced? Drop me a line at jschwartz@1105media.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on May 28, 2010 at 3:09 PM1 comments
Not feeling all that prepared for the forthcoming changes in the Microsoft Partner Network? You're not alone.
According to a poll of a small but very influential group of partners, only 29 percent said they feel very aware of the changes and requirements in the Microsoft Partner Network, while 58 percent are somewhat aware and 12 percent are either unsure or not aware. Meanwhile, 38 percent say they are not familiar what they have to do to prepare for the changes, while 46 percent said they were somewhat prepared. Only 15 percent feel very prepared.
These stats and others were gathered at last week's first-ever national meeting of the U.S. chapter of the International Association of Microsoft Certified Partners (IACMP), where I reported Microsoft's effort to extol the virtues of its move to the cloud and the uneasiness that partners are experiencing.
During the event, which included live meetings around the country and attendees who logged into a Webcast, Microsoft polled the audience to get their feelings on MPN.
While only 26 attendees weighed in, only members of IAMCP were invited and these are influential Microsoft partners. So you may choose to take these numbers with a grain of salt but they are at least an indicator of how some key partners feel.
We’d like to hear from more of you. Please let us know what level of awareness and readiness you have for the forthcoming changes in MPN. Drop me a line at jschwartz@1105media.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on May 26, 2010 at 11:29 AM0 comments
The International Association of Microsoft Certified Partners held its first-ever national meeting yesterday where the forthcoming new Microsoft Partner Network (MPN), the Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) and Microsoft's emphasis on the shift to cloud computing were front-and center.
Nearly 1,000 partner firms are members of IAMCP. The goal of yesterday's held event was to reinforce the IAMCP's mandate that partners should network with one another and create relationships by which they go to market together in areas where their skills are complimentary.
"We see an opportunity to really help you gain more information and connections to grow your business," said Cindy Bates, VP of Microsoft's U.S. Partner Strategy, who was the keynote speaker. Bates used her pulpit to talk up MPN -- launched at last year's WPC but set for some key changes to be rolled out this year. For a deep dive on the MPN see Scott Bekker's full report.
As far as many partners are concerned, MPN spells uncertainty. Approximately 60 to 70 percent of the IAMCP are now Gold Certified Partners, said Kerry Gerontianos, president and CEO of New York-based Incremax Technologies and president of the U.S. IAMCP, in an interview following the presentation. That's because it is unclear how those partners will rank under the new structure, which looks to create an advanced certification for some of Microsoft's largest partners.
Gerontianos, who hosted the event at Microsoft's New York City office, talked to me about satisfaction with MPN so far by IAMCP members. "I would say it's mixed," he said. "I think there is a lot of concern about MPN." While Bates did little to address how partners may be affected down the road, she did tell the several hundred in attendance that she considers IAMCP an important constituency.
"IAMCP and its very impressive partner community is closely and strategically aligned with Microsoft and, in our view, is one of the most [important] communities in the industry, fostering and facilitating partner-to-partner connections," Bates said. "I have seen first-hand how partners have increased revenue as a result of p-to-p networking, identifying new customer opportunities through point solution delivery, expanding geographical reach or increasing capabilities through partnerships."
Of course those are mere platitudes to those partners that may find themselves having to invest in further certifications or losing their existing status. To its credit, the IAMCP is pushing hard for Microsoft to take the needs of smaller but high-revenue producing partners into consideration when rolling out MPN. How that will play out remains to be seen.
What's your take on MPN? How do you see it affecting you? And how does Microsoft's "we're-all-in" the cloud emphasis potentially impact your business moving forward? Drop me a line at jschwartz@1105media.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on May 20, 2010 at 4:21 PM2 comments
Active Directory Federation Services 2.0 is now shipping but Microsoft postponed the release of CardSpace 2.0, putting its future in doubt.
The current CardSpace is built into Windows 7 and Vista but it doesn't appear that it is widely used. Perhaps that's why Microsoft quietly announced that it was putting on hold the next version, CardSpace 2.0, which was to provide a common user-interface for managing multiple logins.
CardSpace 2.0, which had been in beta since last year, supports ADFS 2.0 and includes support for the Windows Identity Foundation. To address the lack of an updated Information Card, in the new ADFS 2.0, Microsoft next month is expected to release a Community Technology Preview of an add-on to ADFS 2.0 that will enable Windows Server to issue InfoCards.
It appears that Microsoft shifted gears in March with the release of its U-Prove information identifier at the RSA Conference when Scott Charney, Microsoft's corporate vice president of Trustworthy Computing, launched the CTP of the company's U-Prove technology.
U-Prove centers on the issuance of digital tokens that allow users to control how much information is shared with the recipient of the token. Used against ADFS 2.0, U-Prove lets users federate identities to across trusted domains. Microsoft released U-Prove under its Open Specification Promise and also donated two reference toolkits for implementing the algorithms under the Free BSD License.
Moreover, Microsoft released a second specification under its OSP for integrating U-Prove into open-source identity selectors. How that will play out, in terms of whether the .NET and open-source communities embrace U-Prove, remains to be seen.
But that has many people wondering if there's any future for CardSpace 2.0 and if U-Prove will prove, pardon the pun, to be a viable replacement. "There's certainly support for information cards; our involvement in information cards is alive and well," said Joel Sider, a senior product manager in Microsoft's Forefront security group, in an interview yesterday. Microsoft is not saying when it will update its CardsSpace 2.0 plans, but some are wondering whether the technology has a future.
CardSpace 2.0’s uncertain fate is "no surprise given its limited adoption," said Patrick Harding, CTO of Denver-based Ping Identity, a Microsoft partner and competitor. "Unfortunately, it has also really upset all of those people and companies that have bought into the InfoCard model at Microsoft's urging."
What's your take on the CardSpace 2.0 situation? Have you looked at U-Prove? Drop me a line at jschwartz@1105media.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on May 06, 2010 at 10:58 AM0 comments
About 10 days ago, I broke down and bought a Palm Pre Plus for a mere $49. The few people I've told have given me blank stares. I love the gesture-based interface and the way the device works. An added bonus was the free mobile hotspot built into the device that I can use to connect my netbook while on the road. I've been reluctant to reveal my purchase because I have 20 days left to return it to Verizon should I conclude it's a dud.
While I have been on the fence, HP announced yesterday that it has agreed to acquire Palm Inc. for $1.2 billion. This leaves me thinking Palm's webOS has a much brighter future. Here's why: The biggest knock against webOS and the Pre is its lack of apps. That has been the source of my dilemma -- not the device itself.
Only 2,000 are in Palm's App Catalog compared to 200,000 or more in Apple's iTunes App Store. Making matters worse, sales of Palm-based devices are nimble, in part because developers have taken a pass on webOS in favor of Apple's iPhone and Google's Android platform.
IDC said in a research note yesterday that it believes Google's Android platform will be number two behind Nokia's Symbian platform. As everyone knows, Apple iPhones and iPads are selling like hotcakes. Then there's the BlackBerry brand and devices based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile coming out this fall.
So where does that leave Palm and webOS? Until HP came to the rescue, the future was looking bleak, despite what I think is a superior platform and user interface to Android and BlackBerry. Windows Phone 7 is a dark horse with a lot of potential, but the jury is still out. If I end up disappointed with my Palm Pre, I wouldn't rule out settling with a Windows Phone 7 or an iPhone, as an alternative. But I have no intention of leaving Verizon and neither are an alternative at this time.
The good news for webOS is that HP plans to invest significantly in both sales and marketing as well as in its developer eco system, said Tom Bradley, executive vice president of HP's personal systems group, speaking on a call to investors that was webcast. Bradley also sees extending webOS to other form factors and using its vast channel and retail presence to reach customers -- both enterprise and consumers.
"Our breadth of products between smart phones, slate and potentially netbooks represents an enormous opportunity for our customers," he said. While he declined to elaborate, the Web site CrunchGear posted five devices it envisions HP developing with webOS.
Bradley also is well aware he needs to get developers as excited about webOS as they are about Android and the iPhone, and indicated he's up for the challenge. "We believe this is a very, very early stage market. I think the developer community will very aggressively, as we invest and provide support, begin to develop that suite of applications for webOS that will make it even more compelling than it is today," Bradley said.
Indeed, HP has the means to quickly give a boost to the webOS developer eco system, said Jeffrey McManus, CEO of Platform Associates, in a brief e-mail exchange. McManus, who has given talks in the past on how to develop apps for the iPhone, was among the first to purchase the Pre when it came out last year.
"I'm confident that HP will be a great steward of Palm's webOS platform, which is still the most compelling mobile platform in existence today, particularly from a developer perspective," McManus said. "It gives developers the ability to build native mobile applications using the same tools and technologies they already use to build ordinary Web sites today (HTML, CSS and Javascript). And WebOS will become even more compelling as HP brings it to more devices, including the Slate (which I'd expect them to do fairly soon)."
Still, IDC and others say the move could strain HP's relationship with Microsoft, whose CEO Steve Ballmer showcased HP's forthcoming Windows 7-based Slate tablet device at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. It also suggests HP's move into the smart phone market will come at the expense of Windows Phone 7, though Bradley was coy as to whether it will have a multi-platform smart phone and tablet strategy -- or emphasis.
Let's not forget that Bradley's successor at Palm, Ed Colligan, licensed Windows Mobile for the Palm Treo, in a widely publicized event with Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. It represented the first non-PalmOS-based platform the company added and, at the time, a key vehicle for Windows Mobile (in 2005 the Treo was the only major smart phone on the market besides the BlackBerry). That had mixed results for both companies, and I guess we'll find out how Bradley might handle Windows Phone 7.
Bradley insisted HP will continue to work closely with Microsoft. "We clearly believe in choice," he said. "We intend to continue to be a strategic partner for Microsoft, they are a huge piece of our business today and will continue to be so."
Still, there are reasons to be skeptical. As analyst Rob Enderle pointed out in a blog posting, HP has a history of missteps in the mobile market. "Palm and HP have both made runs at matching Apple in the past, and fallen flat on their faces," Enderle noted. "But the two companies’ combined resources might be just the secret sauce needed to stand tall beside Cupertino’s Goliath."
Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Altimeter Group, agreed. "HP is now a force to be reckoned with in the mobile space," Gartenberg said in a blog post. "The combination of Palm technology and brand combined with HP resources and channel partners will be a strong combination for HP to drive their mobile efforts forward."
Having bought my first 3Com PalmPilot 3x in 1999 and a longtime user of the Treo, it bares noting that what's left of Palm is the company's name and heritage. The Palm Pre and webOS are very different platforms, but in my opinion, it is the only platform that currently rivals the iPhone and Droid.
A year ago I asked: Will Palm Get its 'MoJo' Back with webOS and Pre? Things certainly went down a different path than the company and many of its investors and supporters had envisioned and hoped.
With HP agreeing to acquire Palm (and let's not forget the deal could fall through, or another suitor could come along with a better bid), I agree with McManus. The future of webOS is looking brighter. But the question remains: will HP get its mojo back in the mobile market? It's too early to say but as I pointed out yesterday, it is quite ironic that Palm will once again be reunited with its former CEO Bradley, with 3Com and will be under the same roof as the once iconic iPaq. Presuming Jon Rubenstein, the key developer of the Apple iPod, and his team stick around, some interesting things can happen.
I still haven't decided whether I will keep my Pre but I am more inclined to hold onto it than I was yesterday at this time. What's your take on HP's move? If you're a developer, are you more inclined to look at webOS? Should I keep or return my Palm Pre? Drop me a line at jschwartz@1105media.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on April 29, 2010 at 8:51 PM2 comments
The pending release of Microsoft's Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) 2.0 is expected to play a key role in simplifying how organizations provide access control to systems and applications, including those running in the cloud.
Microsoft is expected to release ADFS 2.0, the free Windows 2008 Server add-in to Active Directory, this week, as reported. ADFS 2.0 provides claims-based authentication to applications developed with Microsoft's recently released Windows Identity Foundation (WIF).
While ADFS 2.0 give single sign-on to .NET applications built-in WIF and systems running Windows 2008 Server instances, it also extends that authentication to Microsoft's Windows Azure cloud service. But just as important, it provides single sign-on to Windows applications running on other cloud-based services, said Jackson Shaw, Quest Software's senior director of product management.
"ADFS 2.0 is really going to shed the spotlight on federation and cloud services and that's something the industry can use," Shaw said, in a telephone interview from the company's TEC 2010 conference in Los Angeles. "You can put an ADFS 2.0 instance up and use it to connect directly to Google or Salesforce.com. It's fairly straightforward."
Key to ADFS 2.0 is its support for the Security Assertion Markup Language 2.0 (SAML) standard, which is widely supported by cloud providers and ISVs. By allowing Windows and .NET apps to make and exchange SAML-based authentication claims, that removes a key barrier.
While Shaw sees ADFS 2.0 as a key step forward toward improving cloud security, he cautioned it's not a panacea. "Not every single piece of information about what someone can or can't do is stored in Active Directory," Shaw said. "There may be something about my spending authority in the SAP system, for example. What that means is it forces a customer to synchronize more info into Active Directory."
The problem, he explained, is customers may not want to always do that."That's part of the evolution of cloud services we have to go through, and that's why I am excited about ADFS 2.0, because as more and more customers start to use this, these types of difficulties are going to be surfaced," Shaw said.
Not lost on him of course, is the opportunity that presents for third parties like Quest, Ping Identity, Symplify, CA, Novell and others to offer tools to remediate some of these issues.
Keynoting at this year's TEC 2010 was Conrad Bayer, Microsoft's general manger for Identity and Access solutions. Shaw, who attended the keynote, shared a few observations:
- Directory technologies have all been brought together into one group at Microsoft, which Bayer will oversee. That includes ADFS, Forefront Identity Manager and Rights Management Server. "This is definitely a step in the right direction from the perspective of actual integration across the product line and hopefully some proper integration with Active Directory," Shaw said in a blog posting released just after we spoke.
- When Bayer polled the audience to see how many were using AFDS, very few raised their hands. "I believe this will change once ADFS v2.0 releases later this year - since ADFS is basically free," Shaw noted.
- Cardspace 2.0 is not ready, Bayer confirmed. "It doesn't go away but it isn't imminent to be released either," noted Shaw. "They want to add OpenID support and they are working on that along with incorporating it into Internet Explorer."
Are you looking to use ADFS 2.0 in your organization or for your clients? Drop me a line at jschwartz@1105 media.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on April 26, 2010 at 7:12 AM1 comments
I had the opportunity this week to see Microsoft's portable data centers, which the company showcased here in New York.
In honor of Earth Day, I thought it would be fitting to describe what Microsoft is showcasing because it does portend its vision for the next generation data centers that have self-cooling systems and servers that don't require fans.
Microsoft first demonstrated the portable data centers at its Professional Developers Conference back in November in concert with the launch of Windows Azure. It gained further prominence last month when Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made his "we're all in the cloud" proclamation at the University of Washington with these huge units in tow. The one I saw in New York was 20-feet long by seven feet wide but Microsoft also has one that stretches 40 feet.
These portable data centers, which are designed to be housed outdoors, are packed with loads of racks, blade servers, load balancers, controllers, switches and storage all riding on top of Windows Azure and Microsoft's latest systems management and virtualization technology.
But they also have self-cooling systems that suck the hot air out of the servers and use that to generate heat when needed in other parts of the data center. In places where the climate is cold, it brings that cool air into the data center. Otherwise it takes the outside air and runs it through what are known as adiabatic coolers. These custom-configured containers have sensors that automatically adapt to outside temperatures that fall below 50 degrees or above 95 degrees, as well as humidity levels lower than 20 percent or higher than 80 percent.
While these portable data centers represent the latest proof-of-concept for where Microsoft sees organizations building on-premises private clouds, they are used to power Microsoft's own Azure-based data centers. "These are actual units that run our data centers today," said Bryan Kelly, a service architect for research and engineering in Microsoft's Global Foundation Services business unit, who demonstrated the portable data center for me.
It is also a reasonable bet that while they are not on Microsoft's official product roadmap, customers will ultimately be able to buy their own Azure powered containers that, in some way, emulate this model, most likely from large systems vendors such as Cisco, Dell, EMC Hewlett-Packard, IBM and custom system builders.
Speaking at the Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas Tuesday, Bob Muglia, president of the company's systems and tools business was the latest to suggest as much. "The work that we're doing to build our massive-scale datacenters we'll apply to what you're going to be running in your datacenter in the future because Microsoft and the industry will deliver that together," Muglia said, according to a transcript of his speech.
Microsoft will buy 100,000 computers this year for its own data centers, Muglia said. They will be housed in these containers weighing roughly 60,000 pounds, equipped on average with 2,000 servers and up to a petabyte of data.
The units I saw showed no brands, so I have no idea, whether they were bundled with Cisco, Dell, HP or IBM components, just to name a few. But it doesn't matter, according to Kelly. "This is all commodity hardware," he said.
That may be so but the configuration of these data centers is anything but commodity. To give it justice, check out this Channel 9 video taken by Microsoft's Scott Hanselman at PDC where cloud architect Patrick Yantz provided a 16-minute walkthrough of the units.
Do you see these data centers in your future? Drop me a line at jschwartz@1105media.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on April 22, 2010 at 11:00 AM0 comments
After declining to disclose the value of its outsourcing deal with Microsoft, Infosys CFO today reportedly revealed that it's worth a whopping $100 million.
Bangalore-based Infosys announced Tuesday that Microsoft is outsourcing its IT help desk, PC, infrastructure and application support to them in a three-year deal that involves 450 Microsoft locations in 104 countries.
CFO V. Balakrishnan revealed its windfall to Dow Jones today. When I spoke with Nataraj, Infosys VP and unit head of infrastructure management Tuesday, he emphasized that the deal will not lead to any job displacement.
Nataraj also said that the work it has picked up was support already farmed out to a multitude of partners in the past -- that this was mainly the consolidation of that work to one partner. "Microsoft has outsourced parts of its internal IT before," notes Directions on Microsoft analyst Paul DeGroot.
Our original news report generated some less than enthusiastic comments. "C'mon Microsoft -- use US-based workers," wrote Bob. "No wonder no one wants to go into the tech field. Even Microsoft drinks the outsourcing Kool-Aid."
Added John: "What bugs me more than anything is that, like anyone who offshores to China or India, the cost of Microsoft products will not be cheaper. On the one hand we're too expensive to employ, on the other hand we live in the U.S. and are paying a premium for goods and services. Well, we may be seeing the last of the great experiment we call the U.S.A."
DeGroot points out that outsourcing of IT support could have other ramifications for Microsoft. For example, with fewer internal operations being performed by Microsoft employees, it could mean that there are no longer as many people internally with easy access to product groups and to highly detailed operational data.
It’s also potentially providing less access to "the world's best Exchange/Windows/SharePoint/SQL Server engineers who they might be able to call on to solve a problem that a lot of customers are having," he said.
"Microsoft also uses its internal systems to 'dogfood' new products," he added. "For example, new products are often put into full production internally while they are still in external betas. Microsoft users put up with the problems they might encounter because they understand that their experience will help the company make a better product."
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on April 15, 2010 at 4:01 PM6 comments
If you're looking for VC money, don't presume no one else has considered your unique idea, be prepared to show you have a solid customer roster and don't expect to find the easy money of yesteryear.
Those were among the takeaways of a panel presentation I attended earlier this month with five VCs and a company that received venture funding. It was moderated by Bloomberg TV's Taking Stock anchor Pimm Fox.
As a prelude to the panel, PricewaterhouseCoopers' partner David Silverman revealed PwC's annual MoneyTree report, which gave the lowdown on last year's dismal year for venture funding that was tighter than ever. Investors only pumped $17.7 billion into companies, down 37 percent over 2008's $28 billion.
There are indications that it is starting to bounce back incrementally this year, with signs trending toward $20 billion, Silverman said. As reported, funding remains tight -- but VCs still see opportunities in areas such as cloud computing, smart phones and green technology. VCs are looking at smaller deals and companies that have proven and viable customer bases.
The takeaway: Those seeking big payouts of yesteryear should reset their expectations, the VC's warned. "I think the classic VC model is broken," said First Round Capital founder and partner Howard Morgan
"The mathematics are simple; if you raised a billion dollar fund and you wanted it to return 20 percent, you needed to return $3 billion. If you own 20 percent of your companies that exit, you needed to create $15 billion worth of market cap. If you were in YouTube and Skype and MySpace and a few others, you may be halfway there. That part is broken. What's not broken is that companies need capital."
Vytas Kislieulius, CEO of Collections Marketing Center, a software-as-a-service startup that runs a collections exchange and describes himself as a "serial entrepreneur," said it is important to be realistic when making your case to potential investors these days.
"I have never been one to believe that the investors are here for my benefit but for our benefit. If I make it good for them they'll make it good for me," Kislieulius said. “If I can't make it good enough for both of us, I know who’s going to win. It's not me. That's the way the deal works."
That also means startups should go to investors with a solid business case. "There's less willingness to let it ride now than there used to be," Kislieulius said. "It takes so much more proof that there's a real market and that there's real customers."
Finally, he warns, those seeking funds should scope out potential investors carefully. "You have to choose them as carefully as they choose you because if you just take the money and it's a mismatch, it's brutal, I can promise you that."
Have you reached out to the venture community for funding? Or are you seeking alternative forms of funding your business? Drop me a line at jschwartz@1105media.com and follow me on Twitter @JeffreySchwartz.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on March 31, 2010 at 11:44 AM0 comments
Can Microsoft convince customers to upgrade to the full version of its forthcoming Office 2010, due for release May 12?
While that question has been looming large for awhile, today The Wall Street Journal's Nick Wingfield once again raises that specter focusing on the formidable challenge from Google. Wingfield said "Microsoft seems to be staring down the Google threat," pointing to wins by General Motors and Starbucks.
Google has 25 million Google Apps customers, though Gartner says only 1 million are paying customers. The report says there are 40 million paying Microsoft Office online customers, a small but noteworthy fraction of the hundreds of millions of Office users.
With Office 2010, Microsoft is adding its own Web-based client that will extend the use of apps such as Word and Excel to the browser. Moreover, Office 2010's ability to link to the forthcoming SharePoint Server 2010 will make the two a unique pair of products that will enable new levels of collaboration within enterprises and among extended work groups (for a deep dive on Office 2010 see the cover story in the current issue of Redmond magazine).
Microsoft appears to be shrugging off Google Apps as a threat to its Office franchise. But Silicon Alley Insider editor Henry Blodget begs to differ, writing "Microsoft Should Be in Major Panic Mode." Why? Blodget argues that Google has improved the capability of its offering and that many Office users will migrate. Microsoft can add more features, he argues, but those will appeal to a small subset of overall users.
"So don't take the puny size of Google's App business and the fact that big companies aren't seriously considering Apps as an alternative as a sign that Microsoft is safe," he writes. "Microsoft isn't safe. Microsoft is very exposed."
Since launching its partner program last year, Google recently reported that it has signed on nearly 1,000 solution providers. One of them is Tony Safoian, president and CEO of SADA Systems, who is both a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and a member of Google's program. Safoian appeared last week on a Redmond Channel Partner Webcast hosted by editor-in-chief Scott Bekker.
"We feel like there are customers that are a great fit for Google and culturally they may be a little different," Safoian said. "And there's customers who will never get away from a desktop oriented experience or they just love the Outlook interface and they've invested a lot in that technology. We are just being honest and faithful to the market in being able to speak intelligently about both solutions and being able to offer whichever one makes the most sense."
Are you looking to upgrade to Office 2010? If so, why? Or should Microsoft be in panic mode? Drop me a line at jschwartz@1105media.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on March 29, 2010 at 1:59 PM4 comments
While many loathe writing off Palm, the company responsible for creating the first generation of PDAs, the prognosis isn't looking too good. At the moment, those predicting Palm's demise seem to be heavily outweighing those who believe the company is going to regain its former glory.
Palm's sustainability came into deeper scrutiny late last week when the company said it shipped 960,000 units and only sold 408,000 of them. That suggests the company has stuffed its channel with a ton of unsold inventory. The news caused its shares to drop 30 percent Friday. Though the shares rallied early on the news that AT&T would start selling its devices, the company's shares closed down half a point.
Critics point to a number of missteps by Palm, from choosing Sprint as its exclusive launch partner (it added Verizon in January) to releasing the new device last summer -- days before Apple started shipping its next generation iPhone. But the biggest mistake has been how the company treats its partners and developers.
Despite the promise of delivering a software development kit that would be friendly to any JavaScript or HTML developer, the tooling failed to arrive in advance of the device. This dampened the prospect of it building a rich partner ecosystem. And now there are only 2,000 apps that support Palm's WebOS, compared with 170,000 for the iPhone, 30,000 for Google's Android and 5,000 for Research in Motion's BackBerry, according to data compiled by Silicon Alley Insider.
The 1990s saw Palm building a vast developer ecosystem with its PalmOS. "Back in the early days, Palm could do no wrong and was an unstoppable force, it dominated the PDA space…" recalls longtime Palm devotee Mark Nielsen in a blog posting last month.
But a key problem this time around was that Palm lost the developer ecosystem long before WebOS, Nielsen continued. Under that backdrop, Nielsen begs the question: is Microsoft following in Palm's footsteps with its Windows Phone 7 Series strategy, which effectively scraps the old Windows Mobile 6.x code in favor of the Silverlight RIA-based architecture and Zune interface? In other words, just as PalmOS apps were useless to WebOS, will the same come true for .NET Windows Mobile developers?
"I have nothing against the Zune. I own one but it's not Windows Mobile and its navigation UI is not very flexible. On top of that, they choose to not support past apps, which once again I believe was a huge mistake for Palm," Nielsen notes.
"So like Palm, they have chosen to start over and play catch-up on third-party apps when they didn't really have to," said Nielsen. "You've alienated your past developers while hurting their customer-base which is your customer-base. In the meantime, you've positioned your new OS to 'wow' the home consumer and downplay your enterprise strengths. Microsoft, it's not too late to correct some of your decisions. Just look at Palm and see how it has worked for them."
Giovanni Gallucci, organizer of last year's Windows Mobile Developer, says that's not a fair comparison. "The PalmOS ecosystem was dying or dead," he said in an interview. "The Windows Mobile team learned by watching Palm and realized they have to get their code out there fast, early and into everybody's hands. Clearly Palm's approach that no one would get the SDK until after the device shipped was a strategy that failed."
Gallucci dug himself into a hole in early 2009 when he and others launched the Palm PreDevCamp effort. He shortly walked away from it last year after its apparent demise. It should also be noted that Apple wasn't quick to make its SDK available before the iPhone came out. However, this didn't hurt them as it did Palm.
"Microsoft is going to the opposite extreme saying 'we're going to give you the SDK well before we even call this an alpha,'" he said. "They are taking a risk, much more than any other company does in giving developers access to their code, long before it's fully baked. But it's a risk that's paid off for them in the last three decades."
What's your take? To learn more
about Microsoft's new mobile strategy, see: Top 7 Windows Phone 7 Highlights from MIX10. Share your thoughts by droping me a line at
jschwartz@1105media.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on March 23, 2010 at 4:47 PM4 comments
Jerome York, best known for his association with the billionaire and activist investor Kirk Kerkorian, passed away late last week just days after suffering a severe brain aneurysm.
York, 71, was best known for playing a key role in helping save Chrysler and later IBM. He was brought in to both companies as CFO when their survival was very much in question. York instituted major cost-cutting initiatives and is credited with contributing to their respective turnarounds.
At the time of his death, York was still sitting on Apple's board, where he was a director since 1997. York joined Apple's board just prior to the return of CEO Steve Jobs. "He has been a pillar of financial and business expertise and insight on our board for over a dozen years," Jobs said in a statement. "I will miss him a lot."
More recently, York was in the spotlight for his efforts to lead Kerkorian's initiatives to salvage General Motors before its meltdown last year that resulted in its filing for bankruptcy. As his obituary in The New York Times noted, he foresaw much of GM's problems years before they played out, though his warnings were largely ignored.
His obituary pointed to "one rare miss" when he and some investors bought direct systems marketer Micro Warehouse for $275 million, looking to capitalize on the boom for selling IT goods online. I recall sitting down with York at Micro Warehouse's Norwalk, Conn. headquarters. At the time, York was still treading water, trying to transform the company from an inbound seller to an outbound marketer of systems. But Micro Warehouse ultimately filed for bankruptcy and was snapped up by rival CDW.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on March 22, 2010 at 7:05 AM1 comments
While client and desktop virtualization was always something Microsoft knew it couldn't ignore, it has always loomed large as a threat to Redmond's Windows franchise. But a group of coordinated announcements today suggests Microsoft is going to put more emphasis on both application virtualization and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) technology.
Microsoft has taken several key steps to make its Application Virtualization (App-V) and VDI stack both more appealing from a licensing perspective, as well as from an implementation standpoint.
"It's a coming out party," IDC analyst Al Gillen said in a telephone interview. "Microsoft had been very disinterested in client virtualization, or at least in promoting client virtualization. This represents a fundamental shift of strategy for them. They really have not endorsed client virtualization anywhere near the level of sincerity that they needed to. It's ground-breaking from my point of view for Microsoft to do this." By not putting emphasis on VDI, Microsoft risked seeing VMware and Citrix continue to expand its presence, Gillen points out.
Microsoft kicked off its announcement with a Webcast talking up its added focus on VDI with a panel of customers, along with Gartner analyst Mark Margevicius, to extol VDI in general and Microsoft's place in the equation.
The popular travel site Expedia Inc., for example, is well into the rollout of a catalog of 600 applications to 7,000 distributed desktop users as part of a migration from Windows XP to Windows 7, and is now doing a proof-of-concept on VDI, said Chaz Spahn, a senior systems engineer at Expedia in a telephone interview.
"We looked at SCCM [Microsoft's System Center Configuration Manager] or application virtualization technology and saw it gave us faster time to delivery," Spahn said of the App-V decision, noting it is appealing for use with call center agents and remote developers, who are typically contract workers distributed worldwide.
"We find at Gartner that the level of interest in desktop virtualization without exception is very high right now," Margevicius said on today's Webcast. Customers across sectors ranging from health care, government, finance and manufacturing are all interested in it due to its potential to ease administration and deployment as well as address concerns about compliance and security. "The distributed nature of PCs is very much at risk in terms of data being compromised," he said.
What is so noteworthy about today's announcement? Microsoft said customers no longer have to purchase separate licenses to access Windows in VDI environments. For non-Software Assurance customers, Microsoft has added a "Windows Virtual Desktop Access subscription" priced at $100 per year per PC or thin client device.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is upgrading its VDI stack, adding support for Remote FX graphics acceleration platform into Windows Server 2008R2, support for dynamic memory enabling memory on VMs to be changed on-demand and the elimination of the need for hardware-based virtualization. Also today, Microsoft added to its longstanding partnership with Citrix Systems, where it will extend Citrix HDX technology in XenDektop to RemoteFX.
"While some if it isn’t quite ready yet, from a competitive perspective they want the market to know what's coming and get the market excited about their portfolio," said Jeff Groudan, director for thin client computing at Hewlett-Packard, in a telephone interview. HP used Microsoft's launch to announce its Remote Desktop Client (RDC) add-on for its portfolio of Windows Embedded Standard (WES)-based thin clients.
Today's announcements also follow Microsoft's recent release of App-V 4.6, an add-on to the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack and Microsoft Application Virtualization for Terminal Services. Key to that upgrade is that it allows organizations to deploy applications in a single storage area network (SAN), rather than require them to be spread out across VMs.
Microsoft had no choice but to take the plunge into the client virtualization pool, observers say. Among other reasons, it's critical to Microsoft's effort to become a player in the overall mobile computing space, Gillen says. "Mobile devices are becoming important and it’s a space that Microsoft doesn't own," Gillen says. "Client virtualization is one of the things that really marries together traditional client computing together with mobile computing and Microsoft was going to be a non-player if they didn’t get in their and compete."
If you're a customer, are you looking at VDI and application virtualization for your organization? And for partners, do you see a rich opportunity for services dollars here? Drop me a line at jschwartz@1105media.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on March 18, 2010 at 12:42 PM0 comments
A week after trying to sell customers on its "we're all in" campaign to the cloud, Microsoft is now trying to bring its vast network of partners onboard.
Allison Watson, the corporate vice president of Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Group, made her pitch Wednesday in a prepared and edited video presented via a 10-minute webcast.
"The cloud is here, the cloud is now, and it is important that each of you embrace understanding what it is," Watson said, after reiterating CEO Steve Ballmer's five "dimensions" about how the cloud will embody all of Microsoft's computing efforts.
But if the number of views tallied on the video is any gauge (less than 100 nearly 24 hours after the webcast), it leads me to wonder whether partners are feeling the buzz about Microsoft's cloud campaign. As I was watching the video, available on-demand, I was wondering: where's the beef?
And without further adieu, Watson explained how 1.5 million McDonald's employees at 31,000 stores are using Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). "They needed a cloud e-mail solution and Microsoft online services became their choice." (Yes, I know that "where's the beef" was a campaign by McDonald's rival Wendy's, but you get my point).
Watson used the McDonald's example to explain how BPOS can be integrated with customers' internal systems and partners' own offerings. "I would highly encourage you to actively integrate these offerings within your own larger stack today so you don't miss out on this cloud opportunity now," Watson said.
Microsoft has 7,000 partners offering BPOS with 20,000 active trials under way, she said. And since its launch last month, 200 customers per day are signing on to use Windows Azure, she added. "In many ways, it's still a green field with an upside in trillions of dollars," she said.
Indeed, according to our own survey of 500 Microsoft partners, 18 percent believe cloud computing will have an impact on their business this year. Twenty-six percent believe the impact will come next year, and 16 percent say it will arrive in 2012. Another 10 percent predict it will come after 2013, while 8 percent say it has already arrived.
But in response to a blog post by Watson following the video that effectively reiterated Microsoft's five principals, one partner asked, "Where can I get information on partner opportunities now?" Watson replied that more information will come at the Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in July.
There are some actions partners can do in the meantime. She suggested working with the Bing APIs because search will embody the need for partners to help customers find and aggregate data in new ways moving forward. "We're developing search technologies that integrate information seamlessly from the cloud from users, from developers, and we are bringing all of those things together in an integrated way," she said.
Another key area where partners will be able to add value is helping customers address security and privacy, she noted.
OK, so Watson has primed the pump. But many partners are still wondering how this will change their business. What's your take on Microsoft's "we're all in" cloud campaign? Are you "in" or are you still wondering, "Where's the beef?" Drop me a line at jschwartz@1105media.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on March 11, 2010 at 10:17 AM0 comments
In more than two decades of following Novell, I've had many conversations with experts about who might someday acquire the company. In my mind, it was never a question of "if" but "when" Novell would be snapped up. But the company just chugged along.
Could that acquisition finally be arriving?
New York-based hedge fund Elliott Associates LP on Tuesday made a bid for Novell for $2 billion -- a 49 percent premium over Novell's share price Tuesday night before it catapulted yesterday by 28 percent. Elliott already holds an 8.5 percent stake in the common stock of Novell. The hedge fund was vague about its intentions with Novell but believes the company is underperforming.
Indeed, Novell has underperformed compared to key rivals Red Hat, Microsoft, Citrix Systems and IBM, wrote Anders Bylund, an analyst and contributor to The Motley Fool. But what will a hedge fund do to turn the company around? Potentially chop it up and sell off the pieces? Might another player -- such as one of its rivals -- be able to add value to its offerings?
"Over the past several years, Novell has attempted to diversify away from its legacy division with a series of acquisitions and changes in strategic focus that have largely been unsuccessful," wrote Elliott portfolio manager Jesse Cohn in a letter to Novell shareholders. "With over 33 years of experience in investing in public and private companies and an extensive track record of successfully structuring and executing acquisitions in the technology space, we believe that Elliott is uniquely situated to deliver maximum value to the company's stockholders on an expedited basis."
Elliott declined to elaborate further and it remains to be seen if a bidding war emerges.
Novell was once a kingpin in the software industry. Its founding CEO, the late Ray Noorda, was a legend in the 1980s and early 1990s, and was perhaps best known for coining the term "coopetition."
Once Microsoft's nemesis, Novell was the first major player to provide the technology for enterprises to interconnect their PCs. These days, though, you'd be hard pressed to find an enterprise of any size still relying on Novell's NetWare.
After a failed bid to acquire Lotus in 1990, Novell later acquired WordPerfect, ultimately selling most of those assets to Corel. The one vestige of WordPerfect still owned by Novell is the technology that is now the basis of GroupWise, also a minor player in messaging compared to Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes.
These days, of course, Novell is best known as the No. 2 Linux distributor. But it also has virtualization, systems management, identity management and services offerings.
And ironically, Novell today is a Microsoft partner as Noorda's philosophy of coopetition has come full circle -- much to the consternation of many in the open source community.
How important is Novell's fate to your business, and what are the implications of where the company ends up? Drop me a line at jschwartz@1105media.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on March 04, 2010 at 9:58 AM0 comments
With today's deadline to sign off of the Windows 7 RC, many users have to decide whether to go back to Windows XP or Vista, or whether to pony up and upgrade to Windows 7.
Providers of PC migration software like Laplink and Detto Technologies can capitalize on that decision either way. In my news story, I described how I used Laplink's PCmover to upgrade to Windows 7 from the release candidate, but the software is really intended for those with XP or even older versions of Windows looking to a) migrate those systems to brand-new ones, or b) do in-place upgrades of existing PCs from older versions of Windows to Windows 7.
Systems with Vista don't require a clean install when upgrading to Windows 7, though in many instances it might not be a bad idea. But those with XP have no choice other than to perform a clean install. And that's where Laplink has its sights. While PCmover is a retail product, Laplink is also is trying to extend its reach to the enterprise. Laplink has OEM arrangements with Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo, as well as 1,000 channel partners.
Why would a channel partner want to bother with a low-cost tool like PCmover? A $500 starter kit for 25 licenses is a good way to offer small businesses PC migration services, said Mark Chestnut, Laplink's senior VP of business development.
"For someone who is in the business of delivering PC migration as a service, we lower their cost of delivering that service and allow them to make better margins," Chestnut said.
Many small businesses may not have the patience or the resources to re-image their Windows 7 systems, Chestnut said. That offers a services revenue opportunity for solution providers, he added. Microsoft insiders tell him there are still 20 million machines running XP that are eligible to be upgraded to Windows 7.
"The current economic environment being what it is, companies are really obviously clamping down on IT spending, yet Windows 7 has some huge advantages," Chestnut said. "I think they will take a closer look at keeping as many of the old PCs and preserving their previous investments longer, than in the past."
Are you considering upgrading your older hardware to Windows 7? Or, if you're a solution provider, do you see an opportunity? Drop me a line at jschwartz@rcpmag.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on March 01, 2010 at 1:17 PM0 comments
Microsoft channel chief Allison Watson last week joined the Twitterati and has launched a new blog called Redmond View.
Watson, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Group, has invited partners to follow her on Twiiter @Allison_Watson or on Facebook "so I can get your feedback and chat with you about what's going on in the marketplace and in your business," she wrote in her inaugural blog post.
Getting right down to business, Watson focuses on a subject near and dear to partners and Microsoft: the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). Pointing to over 1 million BPOS seats, Watson calls on partners to go deeper.
"It's important that you internalize our offerings in your unique business requirements, and then give us feedback about what you need to capture the opportunity," she said. "A lot of partners are asking me, 'How do I make money in this deal?' It depends on whether you're a reseller partner, an ISV partner, or an integrated partner. Based on all the deals we've done to date, we're hearing that the average partner opportunity is about $167 a seat. That includes partner referral fees, the initial setup and migration fees, as well as factoring in some of your managed service fees. That's a pretty big opportunity."
Watson points to four tools Microsoft is offering: the profitability modeling tool, a partner link tool that lets partners embed direct quoting, a tool that allows co-branded billing and a commerce dashboard to help understand the success of sales trials.
Watson's call to action comes as some Microsoft partners are voicing frustration over its pricing moves, and as Google appears to be gaining momentum in the enterprise with its own Google Apps offering (Google this week said it has nearly 1,000 partners in its Google Apps Authorized Reseller program).
What's your take on Microsoft's tools and Google's momentum?. Are you looking at Google Apps as an alternative to BPOS, or perhaps an adjunct? Drop me a line at jschwartz@rcpmag.com. And you can follow me @JeffreySchwartz on Twitter, as well, for other short updates.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on February 24, 2010 at 11:08 AM1 comments
Cisco's decision to pull the plug on its partnership with HP was a major salvo in tensions that have been brewing between the two companies over the past year. Cisco last week said that it's cutting HP off as a Certified Channel and Global Service Alliance partner, a move that could force the companies' respective partners to make some tough choices.
"There may be a push by one or both companies to push channel partners to an either/or situation," said Mark Amtower, a marketing consultant with expertise on selling IT to the federal government, in an e-mail. "Many companies carry both as partners right now -- I don't think that will continue. If you push HP, marketing support from Cisco will disappear and vice versa."
The two companies have been encroaching on each other's turf for some time, with Cisco last year saying it would offer its own blade servers and HP becoming more entrenched in networking by bolstering its ProCurve line and agreeing to acquire 3Com Corp.
With the partnership set to expire April 30, Cisco took the unusual move of publically announcing it was cutting HP off. HP quickly shot back, accusing Cisco of not working to "best serve clients' needs."
Does this move signal an end to co-opetition? It raises the question of whether we will we see more partnerships unravel or, at the very least, become more diminished as companies look to become single-source providers.
Or maybe, as Directions on Microsoft analyst Paul DeGroot suggested, the current partnership has become "too all-or-nothing." Perhaps they needed "a more nuanced approach to ensure that joint customers get the support they require, while the other partner doesn't get privileges that it doesn't need for mere interoperability purposes," he said.
Gartner analyst Tiffani Bova agreed. "I wouldn't be surprised if a new arrangement doesn't follow closely behind where they meet each other half way in order to continue to service their joint customers and partners," Bova said.
Indeed, that may happen. On the other hand, what if Cisco means business and wants nothing to do with HP? If indeed these two companies go their own way, we could see Cisco getting closer with IBM and perhaps Oracle/Sun while HP could forge closer ties with the likes of Brocade and Juniper Networks.
Certainly, for Microsoft partners, this also raises some questions since most also carry gear from Cisco, HP or both. What's your take on the implications of Cisco and HP going separate ways? Will we indeed see others follow suit? Among other things, could this lead Microsoft to rethink its strategy of working closer with the likes of Novell, Red Hat and Zend? Could co-opetition as we know it be on the line here, or is this just a case of Cisco playing hardball?
Drop me a line at jschwartz@rcpmag.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on February 22, 2010 at 10:00 AM0 comments
Small and medium-size businesses have long been the salvation of IT recoveries, but this time that conventional wisdom may be falling flat.
The good news, as I reported earlier this month, is the economy surged last quarter by 5.7 percent, the largest such expansion in six years. Adding to that optimism, the Federal Reserve yesterday said business equipment output was up 0.9 percent in January, slightly higher that December's 0.7 percent.
IT output jumped 1.7 percent, marking the third consecutive monthly gain of more than 1 percent for IT gear. That has reflected in strong earnings reports from Cisco, Intel, Microsoft and, yesterday, HP, which posted an 8 percent increase in revenues and boosted its outlook for the year.
That should bode well for SMBs, which are typically the first to lead recoveries from recessions. But a troubling report in BusinessWeek underscores the fact that SMBs this time aren't leading that recovery. Instead, SMBs are continuing to let go of employees and reduce capital spending.
Only 20 percent of those surveyed by the Federation of Independent Business plan to make capital outlays. Even more concerning, 3 percent see sales increasing, -1 percent say they plan to hire more employees, 1 percent expect the economy to improve and 5 percent believe it's a good plan to expand, according to the FIB survey (PDF). And -13 percent expect credit lines to open up.
Small businesses continue to hurt, that same BusinessWeek piece said, noting a Feb. 1 report by the Federal Reserve saying that banks continue to hold back on offering credit to them.
Probably none of this is surprising, but it is rather sobering. How is this affecting your ability to sell solutions to prospects? Have you found avenues of financing for your own business or that of your clients? Perhaps you've turned to leasing, private equity or even the venture capital community? Please share them with us. Drop me a line at jschwartz@rcpmag.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on February 18, 2010 at 10:08 AM0 comments
Now that Microsoft has revealed its mobile ambitions, partners must wait to see what's underneath the covers.
Microsoft began its orchestrated rollout of the new Windows Phone 7 Series this week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The new platform replaces Windows Mobile 6.x with a completely revamped user interface that incorporates Microsoft's Metro, the basis of Zune and Windows Media Center.
Windows Phone 7 Series licensees must adhere to specific integration requirements such as defined screen sizes, support for touch and GPS, among other things. The goal is for Windows Phones that come out later this year to be more architecturally consistent like the BlackBerry and iPhone, while offering a broader ecosystem of devices and form factors.
If you have a vested interest in the current Windows Mobile, you should take a look at the changes that lie ahead. They're not trivial. This 20-minute Channel 9 video provides a good overview of what Windows Phone 7 Series will look like.
But Microsoft is tight-lipped about the underpinnings of its new platform. While company officials say that's by design – to keep focus on the new UI -- it has some wondering whether that portends portability issues.
"I think probably what's going on is it’s a complete break with Windows Mobile 6.5," says Directions on Microsoft analyst Matt Rosoff. "They know that news might not be received well by application developers so they are trying to figure out what the portability story will be."
If Microsoft is headed in a different direction architecturally, it's going to have to shim the old apps to get them to run, says IDC analyst Al Hilwa. "We're talking about various subsets of .NET underneath so it's not that difficult, but the question is whether they have the time to do that," Hilwa says, referring to the planned holiday season release. Partners will get a better picture of what development challenges they face when Microsoft releases the Windows Phone 7 tooling and bits at next month's MIX 10 conference.
"Windows Mobile has a portfolio of business app extensions and, given the new interface, those folks may very well have to re-architect their apps," Hilwa says. "I think they will be more than willing to do that, that’s my sense. They are already partnered and invested in Microsoft technologies. I think they will make that judgment and take the time to refurbish their apps. But as usual with application vendors, not everyone always will, there will be those that can't invest much but I think that's a minority."
More curious: can Microsoft attract those partners who have passed on Windows Mobile but have already built apps for the Apple iPhone, Research in Motion BlackBerry and devices based on Google's Android platform?
For now, Microsoft is emphasizing the consumer aspects of Windows Phone 7 – the Zune interface, the ability to aggregate social networks, photos, games via Xbox Live, and media into a common user interface. Though Microsoft hasn't played up the business capabilities, officials say it will support OneNote, Exchange, Word, Excel and access to Sharepoint. But at this week's debut, Microsoft gave mere lip service to those features. "The amount of time devoted during the presentation to "Productivity" was disappointing," writes Philippe Winthrop, an analyst at Strategy Analytics, in a blog posting.
Enterprises for the most part don't develop mobile apps internally, they rely on the partner community, Hilwa says. The question is will Windows Phone 7 Series win over the partner community? Drop me a line at jschwartz@1105media.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on February 16, 2010 at 5:43 AM1 comments
It's been a dramatic week for SAP, whose software runs the operational underpinnings of some of the largest enterprises. The company shook up its executive suite, replacing CEO Leo Apotheker with co-CEOs Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe. SAP today also disclosed the departure of former SAP CEO John Schwarz.
Listening to founder and chairman Hasso Plattner speak on Monday during a press conference that was webcast, it was a day of reckoning for the company to acknowledge its missteps and apologize to its customers for gouging them.
Those weren't his exact words but he tacitly acknowledged SAP has to find a new engine of growth besides imposing heavy maintenance and licensing fees. "We are a public company, and profit is everything," Plattner said. "But in order to be profitable, it needs to be a happy company. I will do everything possible to make SAP a happy company again. And in order to be profitable and please the shareholders, we have to focus on our customers, and we have to make the customers and their employees happy, as well."
During the Q&A portion of the call, a reporter asked if Plattner was acknowledging that SAP was an unhappy company. Clearly resenting the question, Plattner responded, "Please don't turn it around that we are unhappy. Take it that we have to be happier. Happy companies are companies who enjoy their success, their strategy, and are marching forward at the highest possible speed without complaining. SAP has the capacity, has the strategy, has the development on its way, and it takes unfortunately some time with our huge customer base."
Forrester Research analyst Paul Hamerman said in a blog post that Plattner said the right things. "He's got this right: taking care of your customers makes your company successful. Forcing profitability via price increases and sales tactics is not a sustainable recipe for success," he wrote.
True happiness for SAP, of course, will come when it can -- among other things -- address its stalled cloud strategy. The company launched its Business ByDesign, a SaaS-based application suite, in 2008 but angered larger enterprise customers by saying it was targeted at organizations with 100 to 500 employees, according to a research alert released by Saugatuck Technology today.
"SAP's strong prevailing culture and its need to protect its R/3 cash flows fundamentally forbade the company from pursuing offerings that could replace it," the report said.
I spoke with one of the report's authors, Saugatuck founder and CEO Bill McNee, who described four challenges facing SAP.
The biggest changes SAP must face are cultural. "They have a very significant cultural transition where they have focused historically on the large enterprise customer almost to a fault and a legacy around the big deal, to a technology-not-invented-here syndrome," McNee said.
Second, the company needs to accelerate cloud strategy. "They need to better articulate their cloud vision," he said.
Third, the company needs to figure out how to bring forth the right technology and monetize it.
And finally, if SAP really wants to succeed in targeting the small and medium business market, it needs to come up with an accelerated go-to-market strategy. That also means shedding its legacy of primarily selling direct to customers. "SAP has less experience building partner networks that will enable them to succeed in the small to medium market," McNee said.
If SAP is successful with its Business ByDesign offering and building up a partner eco system, it is likely to butt heads with Microsoft's Dynamics business, McNee said. "Microsoft's channel should stay alert to changing customer requirements, and evolving offerings from Microsoft, going forward."
What will it take to bring happiness to those buying and selling ERP, CRM and other business solutions? Share your thoughts by droping me a line at jschwartz@1105media.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on February 11, 2010 at 2:25 PM0 comments
Google's latest stab at social networking is creating a lot of "buzz," but it remains to be seen whether it will become as dominant as Facebook or Twitter. Based on initial reactions, it doesn't appear to be a threat. The real question, though, is whether it will make Google Apps Premier Edition (GAPE) a stronger contender in the enterprise.
Make no mistake: That's one of the company's goals with Google Buzz, which uses the inbox as a way of bringing together all of one's social networking activities.
"The inbox is the center of attention for many people's online communication, but the way today's social tools interact with e-mail is pretty limited," said Todd Jackson, the product manager for Buzz, speaking at Google's headquarters at an event that was webcast. "With Buzz, we wanted to change that and bring social updates to your inbox in a way that goes beyond normal e-mail."
Buzz got off to a curious start, rattling some of its Gmail users. "OK, Google Buzz, you've made your point. Now how do I shut [you] off?" tweeted Jeffrey McManus, CEO of Platform associates, the developer of Aprover.com and a Gmail user.
I asked McManus, a longtime user of social networks and well-known in the .NET development community, for his thoughts on Google's long-term prospects in the enterprise.
"Buzz brings very little that's new to the table," he responded.
Burton Group analyst Guy Creese agreed in a blog post this morning. Creese and others believe that Microsoft already has a superior answer to Buzz in its Outlook Social Connector, which will appear in Office 2010, due for release this spring. While it remains to be seen how well Outlook Social Connector will be received, Creese believes it's a good start and will appeal to those comfortable with Outlook.
Not surprisingly, Microsoft seems to feel the same way. ZDnet blogger and Redmond columnist Mary Jo Foley said in a blog post yesterday that Microsoft doesn't appear to be concerned. "Are the Softies quaking in their boots? Not exactly," she wrote.
However, some analysts suggest that while Buzz may not displace Facebook and Twitter, it could gain traction. "Despite mediocre past attempts at social networking products such as Orkut or Dodgeball," wrote Interpret analyst Michael Gartenberg in a blog post, "Buzz is likely to attract a strong following by virtue of its tight integration into Gmail and the ability for Google to expose the service to advanced as well as novice users immediately."
I'd like to hear from those who've used Outlook Social Connector and Google Buzz and get your thoughts. And for those in the channel selling Office and SharePoint, what's your take? Drop me a line at jschwartz@1105media.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on February 10, 2010 at 10:45 AM0 comments
Microsoft has removed a job posting seeking a manager for a new hosted offering intended to bring e-mail and collaboration services to SMBs.
The service is code-named "BPOS-Lite," according to text of the posting, which was revealed Monday by ZDNet.com and Redmond columnist Mary Jo Foley. "BPOS 'Lite'...is part of the 'next wave' of services targeting professional individuals and smaller organizations, offering Microsoft's best collaboration, communications and productivity services," the now-removed posting said.
The manager hired for the position will be charged with developing business strategy, including creating a go-to-market model, launching services and developing service enhancements, according to the posting. The manager will "act as strong advocate for BPOS-Lite with corporate, field and partner teams; with analysts; and at industry and customer events," according to the post.
Microsoft isn't commenting, though its partner group has tweeted Foley's post. "We are always working on the next wave of Microsoft Online Services, offering Microsoft's best collaboration, communications and productivity services to businesses of all sizes," said a prepared statement e-mailed by a company spokesperson. "Although we do not have details available to share today, we look forward to sharing more at a later date."
Perhaps that later date will land during Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, D.C. that's slated for July, speculated The VAR Guy.
One person who's heard rumblings about BPOS-Lite is Bob Leibholz, vice president of business development at New York-based Intermedia, a Microsoft Gold Certified partner and one of the largest BPOS hosting providers with over 250,000 Microsoft Exchange seats. Leibholz said Microsoft hasn't given him any information about the service and he's wondering if it may put a tighter squeeze on him and his partners.
Leibholz made his displeasure known last fall when Microsoft cut the pricing of BPOS from $15 a month per subscriber to $10.
"From my perspective, they devalued BPOS last year when they decreased the price, and a concept of BPOS-Lite, which is basically another price concession, fundamentally continues to miss the understanding of value and rather compete purely on price," Leibholz said in an interview today.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has experienced scattered outages with its BPOS service over the past week, most recently yesterday. According to a letter to customers last week from Microsoft's Online Services team, the root cause of the outages were issues with networking. "We hold ourselves to the very highest standard," the letter said. "And yesterday, we didn't meet it."
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on February 02, 2010 at 11:17 AM0 comments
While there's no shortage of opinions as to whether Apple will catch lightning in a bottle for a third time with its new iPad, there's a good case to be made that the initial entry could be a boon to those developing PC-based slates.
As media critic David Carr reports today in The New York Times, the iPad "is a device for consuming media, not creating it." That's not to suggest that future releases won't raise the bar, but as many observers suggest, Apple also has to make sure not to offer too much and risk cannibalizing its MacBook product line.
Ironically, this is the same issue Microsoft faced in its initial hesitation to embrace netbooks. But the real potential of the iPad and similar Windows 7-based devices, such as one anticipated from Hewlett-Packard, is for them to let individuals consume content as a companion to one's computing experience, not a replacement. That's where the concept of the iPad and Windows 7-based slates could shine.
Among the biggest criticisms of the iPad is that it can't multitask and won't support Adobe's Flash (nor are there known plans for it to support Microsoft's Silverlight). In a Wired magazine report, Apple CEO Steve Jobs was reported to have told employees in a profanity-laden rant that Flash is too buggy and that Adobe is lazy. "No one will be using Flash," Jobs reportedly said. "The world is moving to HTML 5."
Adrian Ludwig, general manager for Adobe's Flash platform product organization, suggests in a blog post that he believes Apple's real motive is control over content. "It looks like Apple is continuing to impose restrictions on their devices that limit both content publishers and consumers," Ludwig wrote. "Without Flash support, iPad users will not be able to access the full range of Web content, including over 70 percent of games and 75 percent of video on the Web."
Several content producers tell The Times that the stalemate could indeed hasten acceptance of HTML 5. John Gruber, author of the popular Mac blog Daring Fireball, wrote that it "used to be you could argue that Flash, whatever its merits, delivered content to the entire audience you cared about. That's no longer true, and Adobe's Flash penetration is shrinking with each iPhone OS device Apple sells."
Meanwhile, as Windows 7-based slates come out this year, it is possible that OEMs will play both sides of the coin. Those that support Windows 7 already effectively support Flash, Silverlight and other runtime environments, presuming they don't strip those capabilities out. Because of the broader ecosystem of devices, some will purely access content, while others will both create and view it.
But regardless of how you view the iPad or slate computing in general, Apple has put a stake in the ground for a class of devices that potentially can redefine how we consume content, advancing on what Amazon has done with the Kindle.
Let's see what HP and the rest of its Wintel brethren bring out.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on February 01, 2010 at 9:11 AM0 comments
When John Swainson arrived at CA in 2004 after his predecessor went to jail for accounting fraud, he quickly shook up its channel program.
Swainson announced his retirement in September and yesterday CA announced his successor, Bill McCracken, who seemingly had been groomed for the slot in recent months. A Swainson protégé, both spent more than three decades, running key business units at IBM.
In fact, McCracken has a channel background on his resume. At IBM, he was general manager of marketing, sales and distribution for its PC group (that group was sold to Lenovo in 2005). McCracken was also a director of IKON Office Solutions, which was acquired by Ricoh Co. in 2008.
Forrester Research analyst Glenn O'Donnell, recalls that Swainson disrupted CA's channel but it was something that in retrospect had to be done. "It looked like a foolish thing to do at the time but some of the go-to-market efforts that were out there were not sustainable for a company that wanted to survive," O'Donnell said.
CA still has much work to do to rebuild its channel, O'Donnell said. "It's improving but they need to continue rebuilding it," he said. "Now that they've stabilized the patient and the patient is actually coming back to health quite nicely, now it's time to go out and fortify some of those channels more."
That means providing more channel partners and more tools so they can translate CA's message better to their customers, he said.
If you're a CA channel partner or are perhaps are considering becoming one, let us know how you think they are doing these days, and what changes you'd like to see them make. Drop me a line at jschwartz@rcpmag.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on January 29, 2010 at 12:45 PM0 comments
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison today confirmed the company is going to sell and service the top 4,000 customers of Sun Microsystems directly but that the remaining 31,000 smaller customers will continue to be served by its channel partners.
Ellison spoke this afternoon at a briefing held at Oracle's Silicon Valley headquarters, capping a five-hour roadmap briefing by top executives. The briefing mapped out plans to integrate the two companies, which came one day following the closing of Oracle's $7.4 billion deal to acquire Sun.
As I reported earlier today, Ellison told The New York Times that Sun's partner model was "disastrous." Ellison re-iterated that he believes Oracle is better suited at selling and servicing the combined company's largest enterprise customers.
"Where Sun was sold primarily through partners and serviced their customers primarily through partners, we're going to take the top 4,000 Sun customers and go direct -- sell to them directly, service them directly, work with them directly and make sure those customers get a good return on that investment," Ellison said.
Oracle is still committed to Sun's channel partners that service its smaller customers, he said. "Sun has a number of channel partners, Oracle has a number of channel partners, they will do a great job of servicing the other 31,000 Sun customers," he said. "We are going to rely on those channel partners, we're going to work with those channel partners, we are going to do everything we can to make them successful. They will have the same broad range of products that they got from Sun and now Oracle combined."
Plans call for combining the two companies' channel programs. But Ellison acknowledged there are instances where some large enterprises will need to or insist upon being serviced by partners. But he warned he doesn't want traditional resellers in the mix.
"As long as you're a value-added partner to the large customers, you'll keep selling to those partners," Ellison said. "If you simply take the Sun box, do nothing to it, and just resell it, and that's all you're really doing, then at that point we think we are better off going direct to the customers."
Is Ellison sticking it to channel partners who were loyal to Sun for so many years? Will those displaced partners move toward pushing gear from Hewlett-Packard, which earlier this month inked a $250 million agreement with Microsoft to jointly develop their own next-generation datacenter technology? Or will you look elsewhere such as Dell? Or perhaps you see enough opportunity with the combined conglomerate to stay the course?
Drop me a line at jschwartz@rcpmag.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on January 28, 2010 at 5:55 PM0 comments
Today could be a big day for those who implement data center technology, databases, applications and software based on Java.
As reported, Oracle today will outline its plans for integrating Sun Microsystems. Part of that plan includes hiring 2,000 engineers and sales people to sell integrated appliances that include provide integrated databases, app software, servers, storage and network gear, according to published reports. The integrated appliance model could be a multi-billion dollar business, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison tells The Wall Street Journal.
However Oracle will sell its products direct to Sun's top 4,000 customers, Ellison tells The New York Times. Those 4,000 customers account for 70 percent of Oracle's revenues. Ellison indicated Oracle will move away from relying on Sun's partners to serve those customers.
"The partner model was disastrous, and we are immediately changing that," Ellison tells the Times. Such a move could leave a lot of partners out in the cold. Will those displaced partners move to pushing gear from Hewlett Packard, which earlier this month inked a $250 million agreement with Microsoft to jointly develop their own next-generation data center technology?
Or will Dell, which is looking to build its own partner ecosystem, become an attractive haven? How will Oracle's move affect the way all those players treat partners in the future?
Drop me a line at jschwartz@rcpmag.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on January 27, 2010 at 8:49 AM0 comments
HP and Microsoft's $250 million deal extending their longstanding relationship is aimed at bringing turnkey applications and solutions based on both companies' systems management, virtualization and cloud technologies.
While the deal is primarily focused on bringing together engineering resources aimed at providing advanced solutions, part of the $250 million will be allocated to go-to-market efforts, as well. It's not clear how the funds are being divvied up.
David Donatelli, executive vice president of HP's enterprise servers, storage and networking business, said, "As part of this agreement, we are increasing our investment in our go-to-market by 10 times what we are already doing. That means, specifically, we will have new dedicated sales reps who are going to be helping customers take advantage of these technologies."
Did I hear 10 times more on dedicated sales reps? What about the channel?
In a letter today, Allison Watson, Microsoft's corporate vice president for the worldwide partner group, said the deal will benefit solution providers, as well.
"For the first time, you can tap the full potential of combined Microsoft and HP solutions to deliver unified management of servers, storage, networks, applications and datacenters," Watson wrote. "IDC estimates that 58 percent of Microsoft customers will deploy Microsoft virtualization technologies in the next two years, which can open more opportunities for your business. In addition, converged HP and Microsoft applications technology and solutions make it possible for you to offer high-volume, services-rich IT infrastructure upgrades for your installed base and new accounts."
For the first call to action, she suggested considering becoming a joint HP and Microsoft Frontline Partner. She also recommended the following:
- Leverage HP Virtualization Smart Bundles with Hyper-V.
- Discover HP SQL Server 2008 Fast Track data warehouse solutions.
- Download the HP SQL Server 2008 sizers for online transaction processing (OLTP) and business intelligence (BI).
- Leverage the combination of SQL Server 2008 with HP BladeSystem Matrix infrastructure orchestration template for OLTP Enterprise configuration and BI Enterprise configuration.
- Learn how to successfully sell infrastructure solutions with Microsoft Sales University.
- Become well-prepared to sell virtualization solutions with a Microsoft Sales Specialist accreditation.
- Find out more about Microsoft Core Infrastructure solutions and competencies.
We at RCP want to get your take on this pact. Hyperbole? Opportunity? Drop me a line at jschwartz@rcpmag.com.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on January 13, 2010 at 3:21 PM2 comments
When Accenture last week ditched Tiger Woods as its sole pitchman, it served as a key reminder of what happens when you put all your eggs in one basket.
Accenture is one of the largest independent providers of IT consulting, integration and outsourcing services with annual revenues of $21.58 in fiscal year 2009. The company, which had blanketed Woods across all media in its "We Know What it Takes to be a Tiger" campaign last week scrubbed all vestiges of Woods from its Web site and removed all posters and other collateral from its offices, according to a front page story in The New York Times.
Until last month, the golf champion had an unblemished image. It all came apart with daily allegations of indiscretions and infidelities that have since dominated the news. Accenture last week issued a statement saying "the company has determined that he is no longer the right representative," and that it will roll out a new campaign in 2010.
The new campaign will continue to carry its High Performance Delivered” message, Accenture said. While Accenture and its ad agencies are undoubtedly scrambling to come up with a new strategy, it might be advisable not to have that message riding on one point of failure, especially considering the fact that enterprise customers expect their services providers to avoid that very thing from happening in their IT environments.
According to the Times report, Woods appeared in 83 percent of Accenture's ads. Besides having so much riding on Woods, columnist Frank Rich yesterday pointed to a conversation he had last week with New York Daily News sports columnist Mike Lupica. "If Tiger Woods was so important to Accenture, how come I didn’t know what Accenture did when they fired him," Lupica asked Rich, in his weekly column.
Granted most buyers of IT consulting and integration services are familiar with Accenture, its revenues and profits have declined over the past year. So maybe it was time for the company to reshape how it delivered its value proposition. Even if Tiger Woods fiasco hadn't unfolded, perhaps he wasn't the best representative for a company providing IT services after all, notes Directions on Microsoft analyst Paul DeGroot, during an e-mail exchange we had last week.
"If you want to come across as hip, fast, physically gifted, by all means hire Tiger Woods," DeGroot said. "The lesson is, align your [message] with your company image."
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on December 21, 2009 at 9:48 AM2 comments