DataCore is making it cheaper to give storage virtualization a whirl.
For
a cool grand, you can see what it's like to treat your hard drives with
the same flexibility that some of you now treat your virtual servers and PCs.
And unlike storage virtualization of the past, this one doesn't require Fibre
Channel, which almost no one in IT understands.
Posted by Doug Barney on October 11, 20060 comments
I've been pretty interested in Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) for a while,
but the deeper I looked, the less I saw Microsoft using the term. Instead of
"SOA," everything was "Web Services" or "Windows Live."
Don't believe me? A search of Microsoft.com reveals 6,019 instances of the term
"SOA." Sounds impressive, until you realize there are 351,162 results
for "Web Services." You do the math.
I know these are two somewhat different concepts, and many of the folks at
Microsoft agree -- except for them, "Web Services" has relevance while
"SOA" doesn't.
But more
and more Redmond folks are getting it. The company even put on an SOA conference
last week that promoted the concept, especially from Microsoft's standpoint.
Do you care about SOA? Let me know at [email protected]
or comment below.
Posted by Doug Barney on October 11, 20060 comments
Google's Web-based
word processor is out and the news is good, great, not so good -- and a
big dose of unsure. The price (free) sure is right, and the interface and
file saving conventions are slick. But it is still utterly dependent upon the
Web.
I gave it a whirl and found it simple to use and, with my cable modem, fairly
snappy (I'm sure my old DSL connection would have given it fits). You can store
your files remotely, though I'm not sure what the quotas are or how much I'd
trust my critical files to a server I've never seen before. You can also save
them locally, like as a Word file in My Documents.
I'd love to see an option to save the same file both places at the same time.
Then again, I'd love for Word to offer the same feature, to save in My Documents
and a thumb drive or backup disk with one click. Office 2007 anyone?
Posted by Doug Barney on October 10, 20061 comments
Every time I see a YouTube link, say on a motorcycle site, I find something
cool. So why is it that when I go directly to the site, I am overwhelmed with
lameness? Add to that poor organization and search, and it's no wonder I reckoned
YouTube was worth about $1.65, as opposed to the
$1.65
billion Google just agreed to pay for the video site.
By the way, here's
my kids' YouTube contribution. Can you count how many vehicles I own?
Posted by Doug Barney on October 10, 20060 comments
Windows XP still makes Swiss cheese look like the Great Wall of China, and
Vista's security is very much untested. So it seems that the $100 Linux laptop
(I think there have been more articles written about this puppy than units shipped)
could upstage Microsoft desktop OSes by
offering
a deeper level of security than anything Redmond offers -- say, along the
lines of a Mac.
This is the beauty of building a system from the ground up. And that means
Microsoft should be able to do the same thing with Vista. Only time (as in months)
will tell. Are you a beta tester? Have your tests revealed anything about Vista
security? Clue us in by commenting below or e-mailing me at [email protected]
Posted by Doug Barney on October 10, 20061 comments
While the MIT $100 laptop has yet to ship enough units to have its own Patch
Tuesday, the monthly Microsoft tradition is going strong.
Today, the company released 10 fixes for Windows, Office and the .NET Framework.
Still, you have to hand it to Microsoft for being so honest and willing to
take its lumps each and every month.
Posted by Doug Barney on October 10, 20061 comments
Here is a very cool idea: Google has a new service that
searches
for bits of public domain code. Need a little widget and don't have the
time or skill to build it? Just download and go! I have a couple of questions:
Is this code tested for bugs, security holes or malware? And can malware itself
find its way into the system?
By the way, we're launching Redmond Developer News, a new magazine for corporate
software development managers. Get your subscription here.
And if you're a developer or development manager, what would you like to see
in such a magazine? Let me know at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on October 10, 20060 comments
OK, here's a minor revelation. When we put
Ray Ozzie on our cover last year, I wrote this for a headline: "The Next Bill Gates." I had a feeling that Bill bought Ray's company so Ray could decide the future of Microsoft software. I failed to believe in my own instincts and toned down the headline. I was wrong. Less than a year later, Bill gave Ray the keys to his kingdom.
Ozzie is an eminently trustworthy software guru, and he is staking that reputation on "Live," otherwise known as Windows, Office and other Web services. I'm a skeptic, but if anyone can pull this off, it is the new Bill Gates.
Posted by Doug Barney on August 01, 20060 comments
Steve Ballmer has never been a shy sort. In high school he would have run the Glee Club, done all the morning announcements and told the assistant principal exactly how to run things. So any perception that Ballmer hasn't been running the show at Microsoft are as false as a
Tour de France doping denial (Floyd for now possibly excepted).
But with all the questions about Bill (Gates, in case you were unsure) retiring, Ballmer saw it fit to explain his exact role -- as in "I run this company!" Ballmer will be as aggressive as ever, which is good and bad. Good because we want our tech companies to push the envelope; bad because so many terrific third parties are in Redmond's crosshairs and Ballmer is clearly gunning for them.
Posted by Doug Barney on August 01, 20060 comments
Pen computer concern Go Corp., which folded its tent years ago after Microsoft entered the market, lost an anti-trust suit claiming that Microsoft used its market control to steer developers away from doing business with Go.
http://redmondmag.com/news/article.asp?editorialsid=7583
Years after it went under, Go's founder bought back the rights to his company just so he could squeeze some cash out of Redmond. This is nearly the same tactic that former Novell chief Ray Noorda used to sue Microsoft for squashing DR-DOS -- except that Noorda won!
While a federal judge decided that Go waited too long to sue, the European Union keeps on needling and needling Microsoft. Despite previous record fines, EU cops are about to pull out their ticket books again and demand more money, claiming that Redmond violated an EU order two years ago. We'll just have to see how much the EU charges this time around.
Posted by Doug Barney on July 06, 20060 comments
Microsoft has a new site,
CodePlex, where developers can interact, work together on projects, and even (gasp) post open source software! The site includes tools to help teams build actual products, such as issue tracking and source control, all thanks to Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server. Microsoft itself uses the site to work on projects and even allows outsiders to make suggestions!
http://adtmag.com/article.aspx?id=18822
Posted by Doug Barney on July 06, 20060 comments