Microsoft's Service Pack Shuffle

We're as excited as you are about Windows Server 2008. Seriously. After Vista failed to impress last year, the buzz around the star of this year's crop of new Microsoft products has grown steadily.

And why not? Windows Server 2008 has blockbuster sales potential for partners and already has customers' attention. And now, it has an added bonus: a built-in service pack.

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Posted by Lee Pender on February 21, 20080 comments


Tech Data To Offer VMware Wares

The big distributor is keeping it real in the virtual world by offering to VARs the most popular virtualization apps on the market today.

Posted by Lee Pender on February 21, 20080 comments


Microsoft Repackages Servers for SMBs

Just in care you were confused by Microsoft's server offerings for small and medium-sized businesses (does anybody not know what "SMB" means?), Redmond is here to make things clear. (Yes, that last part was supposed to rhyme.)

Microsoft announced today the Windows Essential Server Solutions family, which we could call "WESS" but won't. The concept behind this is simple. There are two versions of the aptly named Windows Small Business Server 2008 -- Premium and Standard -- for small businesses, and two versions (yup, Premium and Standard again) of the Windows Essential Business Sever 2008 aimed at midsize companies.

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Posted by Lee Pender on February 20, 20080 comments


Symantec, CA Release Recovery Apps

Symantec's Backup Exec 12 is on the market; the company calls it the first backup application certified for Windows Server 2008. Backup Exec System Recovery 8 More

Posted by Lee Pender on February 20, 20080 comments


Survey Says Vista Not Cracking the Enterprise

OK, we know. It's right up there with the news that the earth is round and the shocker that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Still, if you were curious, a new survey "reveals" that half of all IT managers have no plans to deploy Vista .

Well, they have no plans to deploy Vista "at this time," according to the survey. Don't let that bit on the end slip away. What happens when a company undergoes a hardware refresh and can't get anything but Vista for new machines? As we've suggested before in RCP, that's when Vista might finally make a break for enterprise pay dirt.

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Posted by Lee Pender on February 20, 20082 comments


Redmond Shuffles Web Execs...Again

"Hmm, maybe if we move this person into this job (and, um, buy Yahoo), we'll finally get this Web thing right..."

-- Overheard (not really, of course) in a Redmond board room around the time this decision was made.

Posted by Lee Pender on February 19, 20080 comments


Microsoft To Give Away Development Tools

To high school and college kids , that is. So, grow a bad teenage mustache, brush up on the parlance of today's youth (we think we heard some of it in the movie Juno , but we can't be sure), and see if you, too, can pass for a high school kid and score some free stuff. Or not.

Posted by Lee Pender on February 19, 20081 comments


Microsoft To Fight Dirty with Yahoo

Hi, reader, what's happening? Like Lumbergh from Office Space , we're playing a little catch-up today, not because we've "lost some people" but because we took the very un-Lumbergh step of not working over the long weekend. As a result, we're writing Tuesday's newsletter on Tuesday and not the day before. So, it'll be short and sweet today. More

Posted by Lee Pender on February 19, 20080 comments


Sweet, Sweet Reader Feedback

Sweeter than discount chocolates the day after Valentine's Day, it's RCPU reader feedback! We're hoping that you're either savoring a post V-Day glow or at least capably explaining to the wife why you came home empty-handed again this year. (We're big fans of, "Valentine's Day is just a retail scam! I love you every day!" Eventually, that's got to work. Oh, and ladies -- we're guessing that 90 percent of our readers are married guys, so please excuse the one-sided attempts at humor.) More

Posted by Lee Pender on February 15, 20080 comments


Microsoft-Yahoo Update

How much does Yahoo not want to become part of Microsoft? So much that the company is apparently running toward Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. for safety.

Meanwhile, Yahoo's staying busy. CEO Jerry Yang is trying to explain to shareholders why his company -- their company, really -- rejected Microsoft's first overture. And Yahoo's still trying to run a business here, doing what companies do: buying other companies and laying people off.

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Posted by Lee Pender on February 15, 20080 comments


Azyxxi Gives Way to Amalga

Microsoft has renamed its health care offering for the enterprise. Not that the new name is really that much better.

Posted by Lee Pender on February 15, 20080 comments


If You Haven't Patched...Patch!

If you haven't run Microsoft's massive haul of patches from this Patch Tuesday, you might want to go ahead and do that , experts say.

Posted by Lee Pender on February 15, 20080 comments