As any partner knows, Microsoft doesn't operate in a vacuum. So when Redmond
decides to cut costs
, all sorts of organizations feel the pinch. Kelly wrote last week, the day Microsoft announced layoffs, to tell us that she was feeling it already:
"We were just informed today that our highly valued (and highly paid) MCS consultant was off our company project because as of today he is no longer employed with Microsoft. I don't have all the details, but it happened without any warning and right at the beginning of our Vista deployment."
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Posted by Lee Pender on January 29, 20090 comments
Just when Windows needs to be getting lighter, the pesky EU might force Microsoft to
include every browser under the sun
in its operating system. Then again, it's Microsoft putting out this news, not the EU. So maybe there's some jockeying for position going on here. Once again, stay tuned...
Posted by Lee Pender on January 29, 20091 comments
This
isn't what we wanted to hear
from Redmond about how cost-cutting would affect Microsoft's product offerings. Apparently PerformancePoint Server is
up for the chop
-- more specifically, it'll be folded into SharePoint -- in the months to come.
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Posted by Lee Pender on January 28, 20090 comments
Champagne in the Valley for VMware, which beat analysts' expectations with its
Q4 and fiscal-year earnings
. But not too much champagne -- and not too expensive -- as the company, like most other vendors, is signaling that 2009 might be a bit difficult. In fact, VMware is following the trend of not forecasting for 2009 at all. Not a particularly good sign, if not surprising.
Posted by Lee Pender on January 28, 20090 comments
For those of you still not using Firefox (oooh, snap), the first release candidate of Internet Explorer 8 is
available
. And, bonus!
Here's
one reviewer's first look at it.
Posted by Lee Pender on January 28, 20090 comments
We want to believe. We really do. We love the IBM commercials with the cartoon pixies dancing around executives, and we're ready to buy into the promise of green technology -- the cost savings, the benefits to the planet, the overall feel-good nature of the whole thing.
But last time we checked -- and that's not meant to be a cliché; we literally mean the last time we checked -- green technology, green IT or whatever you want to call it was still more hype than reality. Way more, actually.
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Posted by Lee Pender on January 28, 20091 comments
It's all the rage online, but if you want to be a part of Windows 7 madness, you'd better hurry -- download availability of the beta is scheduled to
end on Feb. 10
.
Posted by Lee Pender on January 27, 20090 comments
Last week's
announced layoffs
made news, but there's more than just pink slips to Microsoft's cost-cutting measures.
This week, Microsoft announced that part of Iowa will remain prairie for longer than planned, as Redmond is delaying construction of a datacenter in West Des Moines. OK, we know -- West Des Moines (probably) isn't prairie land, but we like to think of Iowa as a verdant alternative to slushy suburban Boston.
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Posted by Lee Pender on January 27, 20090 comments
Windows Live and Office Live, the somewhat amorphous concepts that (at this point, anyway) aren't hosted versions of either application, are now
under the same umbrella
in Redmond. And if rumors prove to be true, they might end up with a new name: "Kumo," a Japanese word that apparently can mean "cloud" but also "sea spider." That should make for one heck of a mascot.
Posted by Lee Pender on January 27, 20090 comments