News


Microsoft Joins Cloud Advocacy Organization as 'Contributor'

Microsoft has joined cloud computing advocacy group Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA) as a "contributor," the organization announced on Wednesday.

Microsoft Launches Office 365 for Small and Midsize Businesses

Microsoft rounded out its Office 365-branded products on Wednesday with the launch of three new editions of the productivity suite.

Microsoft's $15 PC-to-Windows-8 Upgrade Deal Ends this Month

Thursday will be the last day to get and use a promotional code entitling consumers to a discount on upgrading a new Windows 7 PC to Windows 8 Pro, Microsoft said on Tuesday.

VMware Revamps Partner Competency Program, Launches 'Cloud Credits'

VMware has overhauled its Partner Competency program, as well as added new revenue-generating incentives for solution providers selling cloud services, the company announced at this week's VMware Partner Exchange Conference in Las Vegas.

Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 Hits General Availability

Microsoft made Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 available for download on Tuesday.

Partners To Get Direct Billing for Office 365 Wednesday

Seven months after announcing that partners would soon be able to handle customer billing for the Office 365 suite, Microsoft will officially start the program tomorrow.

UPDATED: Windows Azure Storage Restored After Worldwide Outage

Service was restored to Microsoft's Windows Azure storage on Saturday, after an expired SSL certificate left customers unable to access their data beginning Friday afternoon.

Microsoft Explains Office 2013's Single-PC Licensing Limitation (UPDATE)

Consumers and small business users who purchase Office 2013 are permitted just "one installation" under the new suite's licensing plan, Microsoft explained this week.

Microsoft Releases SP3 of Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010

The third service pack (SP3) for Microsoft's Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010 (UAG 2010) product became available for download this week, bringing support for newer Microsoft client and server solutions.

Microsoft Reports Blockbuster Growth for Yammer Since Acquisition

Eight months after being acquired by Microsoft, enterprise social networking company Yammer is apparently doing fine.

Microsoft Touts Lync 2013 Mobile Device Support, Skype Integration

Microsoft's opening keynote talk at its Lync 2013 Conference in San Diego on Tuesday featured a few firsts.

Report: Windows 8 'Blue' Hits First Development Milestone

The Windows 8 refresh code-named Windows "Blue" has just completed its first milestone build (M1), according to ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley.

Partner: Lync 2013 To Bring Some Load Balancing Benefits

Lync 2013 will have similar load balancing requirements as the previous version of Microsoft's unified communications server, according to an expert with Kemp Technologies, one of 12 Microsoft partners that offer qualified load balancer products for Lync.

Partner Readies Windows 8 Mobile Device Management Solution

Windows 8 devices, with their built-in security capabilities, could simplify matters for organizations considering bring-your-own-device (BYOD) scenarios, according to Wave Systems Corp., an independent software vendor and board member of the Trusted Computing Group.

Survey: Microsoft Named Most Important Vendor to CIOs

Chief information officers named Microsoft their most indispensable "mega-vendor" in Piper Jaffray's quarterly CIO Survey released to its clients this week.

Microsoft CFO Hedges on Windows 8 Strategy Questions

In response to questions about Microsoft's market strategy with Windows 8, Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein repeated the same basic response: The Windows 8 ecosystem is still evolving.

Microsoft Releases Exchange 2010 Service Pack 3

The third service pack for Exchange 2010, which will enable the older e-mail server to work with some of Microsoft's newer product releases, was released on Tuesday.

Amazon, Apple Top Corporate Reputation Survey; Microsoft Drops to No. 15

Microsoft has fallen off the top 10 of Harris Interactive's annual survey measuring the reputations of the most visible companies in the United States, while Amazon.com, Apple and Google are among the top five.

Microsoft To Shutter Mesh Sync Service This Week

Wednesday, Feb. 13 will be the last day for Microsoft's Mesh file synchronization service.

Microsoft Switches Exchange 2013 to 'Cumulative Update' Schedule

In a major procedural shift, Exchange 2013 updates will be released as quarterly cumulative updates (CU) starting sometime in this first quarter, Microsoft announced on Friday.