News


Microsoft Quietly Rolls Out Dynamics SL 2011

Microsoft's Dynamics SL 2011 enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution hit general availability late last week. For Microsoft partners, the product was made available for download on April 4.

Unified Communications Adoption To Double in 2011, Move to Cloud

According the latest CDW-G Unified Communications Tracking Poll, unified communications adoption has doubled in the United States over the past year, with many organizations moving their UC implementations to the cloud.

Epsilon Hack Exposes Customer Data from Best Buy, Others

Worldwide marketing service firm Epsilon revealed on Friday that its clients' customer data, which the company used in e-mail campaigns, have been breached.

Microsoft Releases Windows Home Server 2011, SBS 2011 Essentials to Testing

Microsoft's professional services subscribers can now download the 64-bit Windows Home Server 2011 (WHS 2011). The company has also released the general-evaluation version of Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials (SBS 2011 Essentials).

Windows Intune Rounds Out Microsoft Cloud Services

With Windows Intune's availability, Redmond's cloud lineup for partners spans the back office, CRM, systems management and Infrastructure as a Service.

Windows 7, Office 2010 Migrations Need Early Planning, Gartner Says

"The big migration" from Windows XP and Office 2003 is coming, according to research firm Gartner, and IT pros should be prepared.

Microsoft Releases iSCSI Software Target 3.3 to Windows Sever 2008 R2 Users

Microsoft released on Monday iSCSI Software Target 3.3, a Windows Server 2008 R2 addition that allows for shared block storage in storage area networks using the iSCSI protocol.

Windows Tablet Outlook: Next-Gen Arriving Fall 2012?

Unnamed sources cited by Bloomberg push back the potential release Redmond's mass-market-focused tablet offerings. 

Microsoft Puts Dynamics Franchising Plan on Hold

Microsoft has tabled a plan that would allow small Dynamics partners to become franchisees of larger integrators.

Overall IT Spending Rises, But Datacenter Budgets Stay Flat

According to two recently released studies, most datacenter managers are not planning to increase their budgets this year, but overall IT spending is nevertheless expected to rise.

Microsoft Plans To Raise Cloud Licensing, Software Assurance Benefits

Microsoft is planning some licensing changes that it says would benefit its Software Assurance (SA) customers and service provider partners.

HP Launches Partner Program for Private Clouds

Hewlett-Packard Co. has launched its CloudSystem Partner Program, which is designed to help partners sell HP's CloudSystem portfolio.

Microsoft Files Search Antitrust Complaint with EC Against Google

Microsoft has filed a complaint against Google with the European Commission, the latest salvo in the EC's ongoing antitrust investigation into whether Google is stifling search-advertising competition in Europe.

Microsoft Windows Thin PC CTP Goes Public

A public community technology preview (CTP) of Microsoft's Windows Thin PC (WinTPC) software technology is now available, the company announced on Tuesday.

Dell, Rackspace, Equinix Launch OpenStack Demo Environment for Cloud App Testing

Dell, Equinix and Rackspace have teamed up to launch an OpenStack demo environment on Wednesday in a bid to get customers to test cloud-based apps on the platform.

Microsoft Outlines CAL Changes Coming in August

Microsoft described some planned Client Access License (CAL) changes at its Microsoft Management Summit last week in Las Vegas. The changes will become effective in August of this year.

Cisco Pads Cloud Portfolio with newScale Acquisition

Cisco Systems announced on Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire newScale Inc., a provider of self-service, self-catalog and lifecycle management software.

Windows Home Server 2011, SBS 2011 Essentials Poised for Release

Microsoft engineering teams finished work on Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials and Windows Home Server 2011 on Tuesday. The next step is for Microsoft's hardware partners to image the software onto their upcoming server products.

IDC: Android, Windows Phone 7 Will Lead 2015 Smartphone Market

According to an IDC report released Tuesday, Google Android, the projected smartphone market leader in 2011, will remain in the top spot by 2015, with Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 coming second.

Amazon Rolls Out EC2 Dedicated Instances for Cloud Customers

Amazon Web Services launched its EC2 Dedicated Instances service on Monday, in response to indications from its enterprise customers that they do not want to share computing resources with other companies.