Nathan Myrhvold Sues the Industry

What is it with these ex-Microsoft guys? Did they actually manage to blow all their cash? And on what, in Seattle -- rain parkas and lattes? Lumberjack equipment? Ironic t-shirts? Jake Locker for Heisman paraphernalia? Anyway, first Paul Allen sued most of the technology industry over patents and now former Microsoft CTO Nathan "Nasty Nate" (not really his nickname -- we just made it up) Myrhvold is doing pretty much the same thing.

Posted by Lee Pender on December 09, 20100 comments

Microsoft Wins USDA Cloud Contract; Google Complains

Another day, another federal agency moving to the cloud. This time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture picked Microsoft's cloud e-mail offering in what turns out to be the largest government cloud deal ever. (That's a record soon to be broken, we imagine. Heads up, partners.)

Posted by Lee Pender on December 09, 20101 comments

Salesforce.com Unleashes Cloud Database

Those marketing folks at Salesforce.com sure have a way with domain names. They've got Salesforce.com, of course, along with Force.com and now...Database.com.

Yes, Salesforce.com's new database service for the cloud is called Database.com. How brilliant is that? Your editor is on his way to squat on other domain names (is that still possible?) that Salesforce.com might someday want to use: NastyCommentsAboutMicrosoft.com, MarcBenioffsEgo.com, AcquiredByGoogle.com, DubiousCliams.com...

Posted by Lee Pender on December 08, 20100 comments

Google Rambles On about Chrome

Google sent out frantic messages Tuesday morning about a big news conference involving Chrome. The revelation? There's now a Chrome Web store for the company's browser, and Chrome OS-based netbooks will launch in the middle of next year. So, yeah. That necessitated frantic press contact.

Posted by Lee Pender on December 08, 20101 comments

Microsoft Remains Uncool

Many are the times that we, in this space, have bemoaned Microsoft's embarrassing efforts to be cool. Finally, somebody in Chicago summed up in a relatively short article what we've been trying to say here for years.  

Posted by Lee Pender on December 08, 20102 comments

Microsoft Looks at Having Partners Handle BPOS Billing

One of the biggest complaints partners have about Microsoft's online-services offerings might actually be coming to something of a resolution soon.  

Posted by Lee Pender on December 06, 20101 comments

Microsoft Protests Google's Government Win

It's the old switcheroo, I tell ya! Folks in Redmond must sound like 1920s gangsters (or maybe 1850s gold prospectors?) when they discuss, no doubt in heated tones, Google's big cloud win with the General Services Administration.

Apparently (and this is a complicated story), the GSA, a U.S. government agency, stipulated that, among many other requirements, its cloud data must rest in data centers in the U.S. Microsoft responded thusly with a plan. Then Google, via Unisys, came in with a slightly different proposal that didn't include domestic-only data storage.

Posted by Lee Pender on December 06, 20100 comments

Dynamics Tries To Rain on Salesforce.com's Parade

So, with Salesforce.com's shindig coming up this week, who's looking to play the poop in the punch bowl? None other than Microsoft, which is offering customers up to $200 per seat to switch CRM providers to Dynamics from, oh, say...Oracle...or maybe Salesforce.com.

Posted by Lee Pender on December 06, 20100 comments

HP Drops Windows Home Server

And it's goodbye to HP's MediaSmart Home Server and therefore to Windows Home Server at HP. The long-time Microsoft partner is going to use its own, newly acquired and oddly capitalized webOS instead.

Posted by Lee Pender on December 02, 20100 comments

Microsoft, Red Hat Make Cloud Moves

As December rolls in, so the tide of news slowly begins to roll out. We've only got a couple more weeks of RCPU left for the whole year, as incredible as that might seem. Your editor is studying his calendar carefully to make sure it's actually December. Where did 2010 go?

That paragraph sounds like a setup for some sort of year-in-review post, but it's not. We're just sort of rambling here, to be honest, and we're not sure how to make a clean segue to the topic of this entry. So, let's just go without one.

Posted by Lee Pender on December 02, 20100 comments

SAP CEO Sees IT Spending Increase

SAP is a company so important and presumably so difficult to manage that it actually has two CEOs. In any case, one of them this week delivered the good news that IT spending is coming around, particularly in the software market. No word yet on what the other CEO thinks.

Posted on December 02, 20100 comments

JPMorgan Doles Out iPads

Really, now, why? Why are these tablet things so popular? What's really weird here is that a bunch of investment bankers are going to be carrying around products with the super-cool Apple logo on them. What will that do to Apple's street cred with the bookish hipster coffee-house set?

Posted by Lee Pender on December 01, 20101 comments