Everybody's Got Mail

An e-mail platform, that is. Yahoo got deeper into the e-mail game this week with its purchase of Zimbra. And we're still waiting to see what else Google has in the works.

Posted by Lee Pender on September 20, 20070 comments


Office Under Attack! Again!

Old hands are gunning for Microsoft Office. Lately, we've heard of Google's productivity-suite tag team with Capgemini targeting Microsoft Office. There's also a newly released Google PowerPoint competitor. Now, IBM has come lumbering back into the suite game with a free offering based on some old Lotus stuff.

We're looking at IBM's underwhelming offering as another also-ran (although you never know), but it does raise the question -- addressed by ZDNet's amazing three-headed blog -- as to whether there's anybody out there who's not trying to dethrone these kind of the suites.

And speaking of Office, the third service pack for Office 2003 is out now.

Posted by Lee Pender on September 19, 20070 comments


Salesforce.com Ups the Ante

In old-school video games -- and, we gather, in most new ones -- there are levels of play. You get past one, and your reward is a whole 'nother one, as we'd say back in Texas, that's even more difficult to conquer. There's not much time for celebration moving up the ladder of success. Well, that's what business is like these days for Salesforce.com, in case you were wondering just where this was going. (We're not gamers here at RCPU, but your editor did spend a few months working for a company that makes video games.)

Salesforce.com, of course, has been highly successful and a darling of the trade press. As a vendor of hosted customer relationship management applications, Salesforce.com has conquered the first few levels of the software (or "no software," in Salesforce.com's case) industry. Great. Now, things get harder.

They get harder because, as we've known for a while, the big players in the software industry -- namely Microsoft -- are waking up to software as a service and prepping hosted offerings that will compete with Salesforce.com's impressive CRM wares. And we all know what usually happens in this case. The innovator, or the metaphorical rabbit in the market race, either gets consumed (bought) or chewed up and spit out (kicked to the curb, Netscape-style) by bigger competitors.

Salesforce.com's CEO Marc Benioff knows all this and, at this point at least, he doesn't seem to be aiming for the Holy Grail of acquisition and the good life as a wealthy pseudo-exec. No, admirably, he seems to want more -- to keep conquering the levels of the game until Salesforce.com becomes more than just a hit upstart.

At his company's show this week, Benioff positioned Salesforce.com not just as a niche hosted-CRM competitor but as a company offering a whole development platform -- boldly named Force.com -- for hosted applications. As far as we (or anybody else) can tell, nobody has tried the development-platform-for-hosted-apps approach before. And consider Benioff's quote in the BusinessWeek article linked here:

"We're a platform company, not just an applications company. We have a vision for the future of an industry."

Those don't sound like the words of a guy who's ready to sell out or quit on his vision. That's good -- because too many innovators now want nothing but the big payout that acquisition by a mega-company brings. And while we have nothing at all against the normal course of industry consolidation, we do understand that acquisition can (although it doesn't always) stunt or even snuff out innovation within companies doing some really interesting stuff. Just look what Salesforce.com's success has brought forth -- a hosted CRM application from Microsoft that, if they know how to handle it, could be a boon for partners. It often takes a mouse to make the elephant jump, and the quickened pace of innovation that results is good for partners, users and the industry as a whole.

Now, whether Benioff and his charges can conquer the next level of the game -- the one in which Microsoft and SAP enter the picture (the "Bosses" of the level, perhaps) -- is another issue altogether. But we're glad to see that he's still playing, and we'll be looking over his shoulder as Salesforce.com takes on all comers.

What's your take on the impact of SaaS? Are your clients showing interest in hosted applications? Let me know at [email protected].

Posted by Lee Pender on September 19, 20070 comments


Office 2007 Is Hugely Popular

It's hugely popular in the retail channel, anyway.

And speaking of productivity suites (dig that smooth transition), Jim not only read Tuesday's entire newsletter entry on Google and Capgemini, he took the time to write us about it:

"Like you, I think Capgemini's backing of Google's office suite will just cause Microsoft to create lighter-weight and less-expensive versions of Office, so what would be the point of moving to Google? Plus, there is so much Microsoft Office documentation, books, training, online forums that OpenOffice, Star Office and Google's suite just don't have. Then because Microsoft wisely designed Office products so that one could extend them via VBA or compiled add-ons, millions of businesses have custom code that can be reused in MS Office, even in lighter-weight, less expensive versions. I know from experience OpenOffice, Star Office cannot make use of compiled Office add-ons nor of non-compiled add-ons, nor can they correctly work with VBA (macros) except very simple ones. Google's office suite won't work with any existing Office custom coding. In addition, with Microsoft's building of many data centers around the world, applications like SoftGrid and more, you can expect Microsoft will be offering an excellent Office product as SaaS. Competition makes good things happen and only makes Microsoft create better products, which is what we are seeing."

Jim, we're right there with you, and thanks for taking the time to write.

Posted by Lee Pender on September 13, 20071 comments


Microsoft OEMs: HP, Dell...and Sun

It was inevitable, really. Sun Microsystems finally acknowledged, fully and completely, the power of Microsoft this week. Three years after making peace with Microsoft, pocketing a nice little package of cash and opening up to interoperability with Redmond, Sun has become a Microsoft OEM. The former rivals announced this week that Sun will begin building x64 serves with Windows Server 2003 software installed at the factory.

And so ends, once and for all, the Sun rebellion, that determined but quixotic quest to compete with Microsoft and Windows straight up. The rebellion's been quiet for a while, of course -- it effectively ended in 2004 when Microsoft paid Sun almost $2 billion to settle an antitrust quarrel and Sun opened its products to Microsoft technology. It got even weaker, arguably, when Sun threw its Solaris operating system and Java technology into the open source universe. Now, though, Sun's just another company shipping servers that run Windows. It had to happen some time.

Well, except that, as the first story linked notes, Sun is still a big player in the server market, checking in behind IBM and HP. So for Microsoft partners, this week's agreement could open a fairly large new window (oops -- that ended up a pun) of opportunity. And, generally speaking, it should ease the hassle of wedging Windows onto a Sun server since the servers will now ship with Windows installed. Smiles all around, then...right?

Surely only the most ardent followers of the Sun rebellion -- and there couldn't be many of them left, given that Sun is just recovering from a fairly long and large financial down period -- are unhappy about this. Well, there also might be a few partners who've made some money off of installing Windows on Sun servers who are less than happy, too. But they should be able to adapt to Sun being a Microsoft OEM pretty easily.

There's an interesting little wrinkle to the deal, too: The two companies are promising interoperability of their respective OSes with each other's virtualization offerings -- a sign that Microsoft is backing up some of its talk about virtualization.

Sun's sensible capitulation looks like good news, then, for the most part. We'll miss the old rivalry a little bit, though, dormant as it has been the last few years. At least we'll always have our old highlight reels of Scott McNealy and Bill Joy taking swipes at Microsoft. Maybe someday, when there's a technology-industry version of ESPN Classic, those old barbs will find a home.

What opportunities does Sun OEMing Windows open up for you as a partner? Tell me at [email protected].

Posted by Lee Pender on September 13, 20070 comments


Microsoft, Novell Continue To Cozy Up

Cuddly, cuddly! What a week for former Microsoft rivals to nuzzle up to Redmond. Still-new friend Novell is teaming with Microsoft to open an interoperability lab in Cambridge, Mass. (perhaps America's smartest city), and there are new customers for the infamous Microsoft-Novell Linux deal, too.

Posted by Lee Pender on September 13, 20070 comments


States Not Ready To Let Antitrust Oversight Go

California -- just by coincidence, we're sure -- is the ringleader for a group of states that wants to extend antitrust oversight over Microsoft.

Posted by Lee Pender on September 12, 20070 comments


Google Apps Shakeout Continues

Microsoft is running smack about Google Apps now in the wake of this week's Google-Capgemini earthquake. Not that Redmond is nervous or anything.

By the way, it was in yesterday's newsletter as well, but if you missed Keith Ward's analysis of the brave new world of productivity suites, check it out here.

Posted by Lee Pender on September 12, 20070 comments


It's a VMworld, and the Rest of Us Just Live in It

Just as the weather is cooling down (at least where we are), VMware is heating up. We've heard the figure 10,000 bandied about in reference to the number of attendees at this week's VMworld in San Francisco. We haven't confirmed that number ourselves, but if it's accurate, it roams in the same ballpark as Microsoft TechEd and Worldwide Partner Conference numbers. Maybe even a bigger ballpark. VMworld is big. Let's just say that.

Following on yesterday's raft of product announcements, VMware soldiered on today, revealing the acquisition of a Swiss virtual machine management vendor called Dunes -- so named, no doubt, because Switzerland is known for its...dunes?

Anyway, never to be outdone even at somebody else's show, Microsoft staged an announcement with Citrix to say...well, not much, as friend of RCP Mary Jo Foley notes (the companies will be standardizing on Microsoft's VHD format). But Microsoft is saying something (more than one thing, actually), we suppose, and that's what seems to matter most in Redmond. Nobody at Microsoft wants us to forget that the mothership is very tuned into virtualization -- despite the fact that it's still way behind VMware in almost every way possible and doesn't seem to have all that much of a coherent strategy for how to really break into the market.

For now, virtualization is VMware's world, and Microsoft is just trying to live in it. And with VMware being part of (don't forget) mega-monster EMC, it's unlikely that Redmond will be able to bully its way to the front of the market share line any time soon. But we know that won't stop Microsoft from trying -- or at least talking about trying.

What's your take on Microsoft's virtualization strategy? Or VMware's, for that matter? Let me know at [email protected].

Posted by Lee Pender on September 12, 20070 comments


Google and Capgemini Take on Office

On the west side of Paris (France, not Paris, Texas), contained within a sort of bubble in the city limits, sits La Défense, a skyscraper complex that would have all the earmarks of a city of the future...if we were still living in 1985. Conceived in the 1950s as a place outside of Paris's more enchanting "quartiers" to stick vulgar commerce and keep the less charming, more corporate flow of Francs (now Euros) away from the city's cafés and museums, La Défense is glass and steel, brick and concrete, business suits and dress shoes. It's more Manhattan than Paris, except without any of the things that makes Manhattan (New York City, not Manhattan, Kan.) one of the most exciting places in the world.

If you remember the silly cartoons from the 1960s about what the "city of the future" would look like, you have some idea of what it's like to stand in the middle of La Défense. It tries way too hard to be futuristic and cutting-edge; it sort of comes off as ridiculously overbuilt and under-greened. It's almost a parody of itself...and yet, it's useful. IBM has a major presence there, as does Paris-based global consulting juggernaut Capgemini, the latter of which is the subject of this entry.

Capgemini and Google announced this week that the consulting firm will start recommending Google's productivity suite -- a competitor to Microsoft Office -- to its clients. This seems to be the first legitimate competitive blow in a while (maybe ever) to Office, which enjoys 90-plus percent market share. After all, Capgemini is a serious firm with a serious reputation; its recommendation of Google's wares will carry serious weight in corporate IT departments.

Looking forward, it wouldn't be totally ridiculous to predict that Google's productivity suite -- with its slim, efficient format and featherweight price tag -- could be the go-to software of the future for office workers, especially now that Capgemini is giving it a massive credibility boost. Office has the major advantages of a near-universal installed base and familiarity with users (which is never a small factor in IT buying decisions), but it's also bloated (who actually uses anywhere close to all the features in the suite?) and expensive compared to what Google and Capgemini are now peddling together.

In fact, Office is under fire on several fronts; the Capgemini announcement combined with threats from open document format (ODF) suites like OpenOffice and StarOffice, mean that Office is in a more precarious position than it's ever been in a decade or more.

Here, though, we come back to La Défense. The prototypical central business district of the future, it was built to suck all of the corporate life out of Paris -- but it didn't. Microsoft's European headquarters are in a much more charming area of the city, and SAP has stuck with a more quaint Paris-proper location, as well. Dassault Systémes, France's biggest software company, and Business Objects, France's other biggest software company (depending on whom you ask) are both headquartered in somewhat leafier suburbs of Paris, not in the urban jungle of La Défense.

What we're saying here, with lots of indulgent references to the city where your editor used to live, is that not everything that looks like the future ends up being the future. Google's productivity suite, with Capgemini's endorsement, could very well take a chunk out of Office's market share, but we don't anticipate hordes of users abandoning Office en masse. If anything, most will probably choose to remain in Office's old neighborhood, warts and all, rather than flee to Google's city of the future.

What we do anticipate, though, is that finally (potentially) having a serious competitor will spur Microsoft to think about releasing lighter, cheaper versions of Office, along with perhaps a true hosted version -- given that "Office Live" isn't actually a live version of Office. Partners, then, should follow Google's progress closely and stay on top of the repercussions that are bound to come out of Redmond -- because even if they stay in Microsoft's gentrified old neighborhood, they'll surely have to adapt to the lure of the gleaming new development across town.

What's your take on Capgemini's backing of Google's productivity suite? Let me know at [email protected].

Posted by Lee Pender on September 11, 20073 comments


Virtualization Marches On

VMware has several new products out, and hey! Look at that! Microsoft is making virtualization announcements, too, at the same time. What a coincidence!

Posted by Lee Pender on September 11, 20070 comments


Readers on WGA and the Service Packs

Even in the dog days of August, concerned readers took the time to contact us on a couple of hot topics.

On the first, the infamous Windows Genuine Advantage, David reports in fine British English:

"I have had problems with WGA on the install side -- firstly when it was offered up as an update openly and it crashed my main PC. I was able to restore the system once I'd realised the problem after a couple of hours and set the update to not bother me again. A year or so later, it came through as an update disguised as something else, causing the same problem, but due to the subterfuge it took out the PC for the best part of a day. Eventually I had to do a driver update to fix the problem and only later discovered the cause.

"I complained both times to Microsoft and received a feeble response the first time and nothing the second time! All this trouble to benefit MS and no one else -- it really annoyed me that this had not been thoroughly tested and was offered as a critical update. I have since advised all my clients to be extremely wary of MS updates and never to leave them on automatic."

A wise move, David, and thanks for your e-mail.

And on the dichotomy between Windows Vista SP1 and XP SP3, Brian, a Kiwi who will surely be supporting the All Blacks in the Rugby World Cup (which starts tomorrow!), didn't mince words:

"If ever Microsoft offered an insight into its own potential doom, it is Vista. Will a service pack resolve the issues? Who knows? The major hurdle is that Vista shut out a lot of software and hardware that many of us were using, some of it the latest offerings from major companies in their fields. Drivers were too slow to be available and Vista-friendly upgrades are not being offered by our favorite packages. From a business perspective, the cost to own was far too high in a cycle that was too short from the last major upgrade, which many still have not completed, to XP.

"Why much of this happened comes down to Microsoft's business attitude of not sharing code with other providers so they can adapt their offering to work with the new operating system. Trying to eliminate the competition by writing them out of contention in this manner is fundamentally poor business when your profit depends on their ability to keep users on your operating system. Look to some of the examples of good decisions, such as Adobe's to make it work on the OS of your choice -- Windows, MAC and Linux. Although the latest version of Photoshop is only very slowly becoming Vista-friendly.

"I work in computing and run my own server-based network at home. I purchased a cheap laptop so I could get an understanding of Vista. Ended up dual-booting with XP so I could still work with the software I owned. For me, the cost of replacing all the software I work with is not viable until my client base has made a financial decision to upgrade theirs. And remember who they are going to ask for input into that decision."

Brian, we hear you, and you're not alone.

Any thoughts on anything you've read in RCPU? Shoot them to [email protected]. And have a great weekend.

Posted by Lee Pender on September 07, 20070 comments