If you're one of those vendors that make extensions for Systems Center so that
the Microsoft management suite can monitor more than just Windows, you'll have
some new competition soon...from Microsoft.
System Center isn't just for Windows anymore, Microsoft revealed
this week. By the second quarter of next year -- yes, that's a year from
now, when Operations Manager SP1 comes out -- it'll manage Linux and Unix environments,
as well as VMware's ESX Server virtualization application. It'll also interoperate
with other management platforms such as HP's OpenView and IBM's Tivoli suite.
The forthcoming management extensions are available in beta now.
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Posted by Lee Pender on April 30, 20080 comments
It's the
incontrovertible
rule
of RCPU: No matter what happens, Microsoft makes more...Wait, what's
this? Microsoft
didn't
make more money
in its most recent fiscal quarter? Well, not compared to
the year-ago quarter, it didn't -- but you know that by now.
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Posted by Lee Pender on April 29, 20081 comments
The PC makers are finding ways to
keep
selling XP
, and, yes, we'll use any excuse we can to work an upside-down
exclamation point into RCPU.
Posted by Lee Pender on April 29, 20080 comments
Ugh,
this
sounds like a nasty mess. If you want to take out your frustrations about the
IIS
and SQL attacks
that have hit about half-a-million Microsoft-supported Web
sites (so far), though,
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Posted by Lee Pender on April 29, 20082 comments
The non-news news of the day is that Microsoft
still
doesn't own Yahoo
. We'll keep you posted on other things that aren't happening.
Posted by Lee Pender on April 29, 20080 comments
Today just seems like the kind of day made for reader feedback in RCPU, so
here goes.
Our e-mail of the week comes from Jim, a previous contributor whose area code
correlates to good ol' Fort Worth, Texas, home of your editor's alma mater.
Jim weighs in -- thoughtfully, we find -- on the Google-Salesforce.com
hookup and the impact it might have on Microsoft:
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Posted by Lee Pender on April 24, 20080 comments
Partners worried about competing with Microsoft in the SaaS space have a little
less to worry about this week. The story's still a little light on details,
but Microsoft is
saying
now
that it'll host third-party (read: partner) apps along with Exchange
and SharePoint.
Posted by Lee Pender on April 24, 20080 comments
While we're on the topic of SMBs, as we are today, now seems like a good time
to refresh your memory of an article that ran in the March issue of
RCP
.
It was on a Microsoft program that allows customers to essentially rent Microsoft
applications. Curious? Nostalgic? Click
here
Posted by Lee Pender on April 23, 20080 comments
In the second half of this year -- which is, after all, rapidly approaching
-- Microsoft will roll out a couple of major products for partners in the SMB
space. Windows Small Business Server 2008 and Windows Essential Business Sever
2008 are the cornerstones of Redmond's
revamped
server strategy
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Posted by Lee Pender on April 23, 20080 comments
Microsoft's not un-hyped hybrid customer relationship management offering is
generally
available...right now
. Dynamics CRM Online -- which offers customers an
on-premises deployment, a Microsoft-hosted option or both -- hits the streets
with a cheaper price tag and considerably more storage capability than those
of its biggest rival, Salesforce.com.
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Posted by Lee Pender on April 23, 20080 comments