It was interesting enough that Microsoft announced this week a
deal with Red Hat for virtualization interoperability.
We're fans of interoperability here, as are most partners and users, so we're receiving the announcement as good news -- as is the new incarnation of ZDNet's terrifying three-headed blog. And who would want to argue with that beast?
What was more interesting, though, as many observers have already pointed out, is that the word "patent," so critical to Microsoft's landmark SuSE Linux agreement with Novell, is nowhere to be found in the Red Hat deal. Well, actually, it is, but only in specifying that patents aren't part of the deal:
"The agreements are specific to establishing coordinated technical support for our mutual customers using server virtualization. The agreements have nothing to do with patents, and there are no patent rights or other open source licensing rights implications provided under these agreements. The agreements contain no financial clauses other than test fees for industry-standard certification and validation."
And so we have something fairly rare but hopefully becoming more common: mostly non-contentious cooperation between Microsoft and an open source vendor. From what we can tell thus far, nobody is outraged by this deal, which is mildly remarkable given the outrage the open source community generally has for Microsoft. Clearly the lack of a patent clause has led to cheers and quelled jeers for the deal.
For partners and customers, this little agreement is all good -- again, interoperability is pretty much always a good thing. For VMware, it's a challenge, but we're guessing that the virtualization titan won't just stand pat in response to this news.
We're not ready to declare that there's a bright new future for Microsoft and open source working together, but the Red Hat deal is a step in the right direction. Cheers all around, then, and let's hope for more.
What's your take on Microsoft and Red Hat cooperating? Sound off at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on February 17, 20090 comments
Yes, Microsoft is going to open its version of Apple stores -- a
retail store full of Microsoft stuff. This is the sort of thing that might have really upset resellers maybe a decade ago, but now that most channel players are more consultants and integrators than pure resellers, it shouldn't make that much of a difference. In any case, we find it a bit funny that both Microsoft and Apple -- two companies that have always tried to be on the edge of innovation -- have gone running back to the old-school brick-and-mortar model in order to compete with each other.
Posted by Lee Pender on February 17, 20090 comments
In case you missed it (and, um, we almost did), IBM this week
bolstered its cloud computing efforts by creating a new division for the technology and appointing Erich Clementi, who was already doing a bunch of other stuff in Armonk, as its head. See an awkwardly extreme close-up of Clementi, along with a pretty good explanation of what's going on,
here.
But wait, there's more -- namely a
deal with Amazon to offer IBM software through Amazon's cloud service to partners, ISVs and customers.
Posted by Lee Pender on February 12, 20090 comments
We're guessing that partners will like the distributor's new 60-day financing and leasing programs. Check out the details in a fairly well-written Tech Data press release
here.
Posted by Lee Pender on February 12, 20090 comments
We took a rare foray into
Windows Mobile this week -- a bit of a detour from the enterprise-software-heavy content partners are used to here. And what do you know? Somebody cared enough about Windows Mobile to write to us. That somebody was Mark, and here's what he had to say:
"I realize that you need to be a good little Microsoft cheerleader to keep the Microsoft advertising revenue coming, but let's face reality please!"
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hang on a minute here, Mark. Let's stop you right there. If you've read any of our Vista coverage, you'll know that we're not Microsoft cheerleaders. In fact, in a post made almost three years ago, we compared Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and a couple of other Microsoft executives to Mafiosi. In fact, the mafia thing has come up more than once here as a comparison to Microsoft. And we've just been brutal on Vista because Vista and Microsoft deserve it.
We've said that Microsoft is too fat, that its cloud strategy needs work and that it might be giving partners a raw deal with its SaaS compensation plan -- among other criticisms. (To be fair, though, Microsoft has since more or less addressed the first two criticisms and seems to be evolving the third.) Sometimes we side with Microsoft, and sometimes we don't. It's a judgment call we do our best to get right.
(And let me, as the writer of RCPU, just add a personal note here, in case anybody's wondering: I have no idea who advertises with us. I'm not kidding about this. I write the newsletter, send it off to my editors -- hence the "we" all the time; it's a team effort -- and forget about it unless somebody has a question for me. I don't even read it when it hits my inbox -- but you should! In all seriousness, though, I've never made a comment here to appease an advertiser and never would. Just so everybody understands that.)
OK, end of rant. Sorry about that. It was nothing personal, Mark; you just gave us an opening to explain things a bit. Let's get back to Mark's e-mail:
"Microsoft couldn't get the mobile OS right in six versions, so why should anyone expect different from a Microsoft mobile OS update? They need to scrap what they have and start over with a new product team.
"We've returned more Windows Immobile devices than we've kept or resold, mostly due to constant OS-wide hangs during e-mail access and wireless roaming. Every customer hates them because Microsoft can't get the most basic functions to work reliably, much less the custom apps that the customers needed to run. At least now we have a strong alternative to integrate with business solutions -- the iPhone and BlackBerry platforms. Customers love them.
"What Microsoft has proven over the last 20 years is that they rarely innovate and that their product ruts run very, very deep. Fundamental design defects are rarely corrected, while many just get worse with each new release."
Here, Mark, we defer to your expertise. Windows Mobile experts we are not -- in fact, we rarely write about it, which might have been obvious from this week's entry. Our take was that Microsoft was at least trying to move forward with the forlorn OS, but you've brought to light a lot of issues we just didn't know existed. For that, we thank you, and we hope you'll write again. We'll (probably) spare you the lecture next time.
Do you have another take on Windows Mobile? Or anything else you've read in RCPU recently? Tempt fate at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on February 12, 20093 comments
Oooh, it was such a tease after the drudgery of Vista. But if you missed the Windows 7 beta, you're too late.
It's gone. You'll just have to wait for the next release...and keep using XP for now.
Posted by Lee Pender on February 11, 20090 comments
The maker of Firefox would be more than happy to help the EU
take down IE. Imagine that.
Posted by Lee Pender on February 11, 20091 comments
We heard a story some time ago from someone -- we can't remember who -- about chatting with a friend who worked for Microsoft. The storyteller suggested that the Microsoft employee Google something, at which time the Redmond wage earner shot back, "Don't you mean Live Search it?"
Um, no. We don't. Because despite Microsoft's best efforts, Google is still synonymous with search, at least for consumers. But that other category of search -- enterprise search, or finding data that's tucked away in various corners of a company's IT infrastructure -- doesn't quite belong to Google yet.
That's where Microsoft might have an opportunity to stake a claim in search, and Redmond bolstered that effort this week with the announcement that it's integrating technology it acquired when it bought Fast Search & Transfer with the quite successful Microsoft Office SharePoint server.
The combination will yield a whole new server, actually, logically dubbed Fast Search for SharePoint, which will ship with Office 14. There are a couple of other new server options on the way, too, including a product for companies building e-commerce Web sites and a server for customers who want to use Fast's platform with SharePoint before Office 14 launches.
These new products could eventually be nice little earners for partners as SharePoint add-ons, and with SharePoint going great guns in the enterprise, channel players might as well cash in. For Microsoft, which is bound and determined to grab at least some of the search market somewhere, the new offerings represent an opportunity to use SharePoint's popularity and usefulness to grab search customers.
We don't expect hordes of users to start "Live Searching" anything, but inside the enterprise SharePoint could give Microsoft a search foothold. And that would be something.
Give us your take on Microsoft enterprise search at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on February 11, 20090 comments
It's not often that we write much about Windows Mobile here, but the teetering OS -- which doesn't enjoy anywhere near the market share of its desktop counterpart and has been struggling recently -- topped the news early this week, so here we are.
There's much to say, actually, so here's a little wrap. First off, Microsoft is announcing a new service that lets users synchronize their devices with the Web. Called MyPhone, it sounds a lot like -- maybe even exactly like -- Google's Google Sync product, which the search giant created in part by licensing Microsoft's ActiveSync technology.
Yes, that's right. The two rivals announced very similar products this week, and both offerings have Microsoft technology in their DNA. Maybe this is Microsoft hedging its bets in the mobile market by introducing one offering and getting its technology into another. Or maybe it was just an opportunity for Redmond to pick up some revenue from a competitor. In any case, this type of cooperation between vendors is not unusual -- unless the vendors are Google and Microsoft. Then it's news.
For Windows Mobile partners and users, MyPhone, along with a forthcoming, Apple-esque mobile-applications store, are at least signs of life from an operating system that has looked a little less than healthy lately. (By the way, it's not lost on us that MyPhone sounds a lot like iPhone. We're just sayin'.)
As is always the case with the would-be vultures who can't wait for Microsoft's demise (and will likely be waiting for a while longer), some pundits had started whispering here and there about the death of Windows Mobile. But with a new version out this month and some potential momentum around MyPhone, it looks as though Redmond is very much moving and shaking with Windows Mobile. Just how many customers dance to the new tune is something partners and mobile pundits will be watching very closely.
Can Windows Mobile regain its momentum? What's your take on the mobile OS? Sound off at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on February 10, 20090 comments
Green IT, generally speaking, remains more hype than reality, and Microsoft -- unlike, say, IBM -- hasn't exactly been taking the lead in selling green technology to customers. But
this week's release of the Environmental Sustainability Dashboard for the Dynamics AX enterprise resource planning suite is a big step in the green direction in Redmond. (And if you're scoring along at home, letter fans, that's the ESD for the Dynamics AX ERP suite.)
The dashboard is sort of business intelligence for energy use. It lets companies capture data on energy consumption and related costs and then use the data to analyze how they can save energy -- and money. It's all delivered with Microsoft's "role-tailored design," which shows users information based on their roles in a company.
"Customers are feeling increasing pressure to start to deal with this issue," Jennifer Pollard, senior product manager for Dynamics at Microsoft, told RCPU last week. She noted that, for instance, the French government now requires companies to report carbon dioxide emissions.
Pollard also noted that the "greening of the supply chain" has put the squeeze on midsize businesses, AX's target market. "Big companies are stepping up to the plate and saying, 'We are going to require our customers to supply this information to us,'" Pollard said. "That starts to really affect our target market, which is medium-sized business."
But the new AX dashboard isn't just about meeting regulations. It is, of course, about saving companies money by allowing them to cut energy costs. And, partners, it's free for AX customers, which is a nice little selling point for the whole AX suite.
"We really see in this down economy that the time is now to deliver this information so that our customers can benefit from it," Pollard said. "If you can measure it, you can manage it."
Posted by Lee Pender on February 10, 20090 comments
Sometimes the collision of news and comedy is so spectacular, so earth-shattering, that mere jokes don't suffice in the face of raw hilarity.
We believe that we've experienced such a collision this week, with the infamous Conficker virus having struck the French military and effectively grounding the French Air Force. (For ceux qui parlent français, you can read about the whole thing here in French, in a blog posting in which the word "Conficker" is spelled no fewer than three different ways.)
OK, OK. So this story isn't really funny. It's actually pretty scary and no doubt has produced a lot of stress for the folks who have been in charge of ridding the French military network of the nasty virus. But rarely have two comedy gold mines -- Microsoft security and the French military (let's face it, not history's most successful outfit) -- combined in such a spectacular way.
Your editor lived in France for five years and loves the country, so we mean no offense to the good people of the hexagon here. But you have to admit, there are jokes to be made. We're not going to make them, though. Instead, we're just going to let the comedy of this story stand on its own merit. If you want to take a crack or two, feel free to e-mail us at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on February 10, 20090 comments
The Gospels, the Beatles, the Horsemen of the Apocalypse...and now
Microsoft patches. It's a nice, even number this week: 4.
Posted by Lee Pender on February 10, 20090 comments