In case there was any lingering doubt, we can confirm this week that
Microsoft is serious about this SaaS -- or even Software Plus Services -- stuff
after all. And despite some early concerns, it's becoming clearer that partners
won't be as shut out as they might have thought.
This week, Microsoft and HP revealed an initiative aimed at preparing
VARs to undertake what's called private-label hosting. Basically, VARs resell
applications hosted in datacenters by Microsoft-approved managed service
providers (or MSPs, of course); HP and Microsoft provide some technical
infrastructure and handy tips for getting started.
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Posted by Lee Pender on December 11, 20081 comments
It's apparently -- chemistry majors we were not -- the symbol on the
periodic table of for sodium chloride. In any case,
NaCl, or Native Client
, is Google's effort
to bring Web applications up to the same level of performance as desktop apps.
And already ink-stained (if we can still be called that in the Web era)
journalists are predicting that it could someday spell doom for Microsoft. From
the
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Posted by Lee Pender on December 10, 20080 comments
UC still remains (mostly) a mystery to us, but the price tag on
this new effort
at least makes it
interesting.
Posted by Lee Pender on December 10, 20080 comments
And so we come back to this because it just won't go away. Despite a recent
improvement in the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, there's
still a
global economic freak-out
in full swing...and journalists
and newsletter writers (ahem) aren't exactly keeping a balanced perspective
about it. It's time for a little
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Posted by Lee Pender on December 10, 20080 comments
So, the beta version of Vista SP2 is
now
available
, which is only important if you bothered with Vista or Vista SP1.
Already, the reviews for SP2 beta
lack
enthusiasm
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Posted by Lee Pender on December 09, 20084 comments
Microsoft is
integrating
RSA's Data Loss Prevention into the Windows infrastructure. RSA, of course,
is now part of EMC. So that's EMC's RSA's DLP being integrated into Windows.
Got that?
Posted by Lee Pender on December 09, 20080 comments
That's right -- Microsoft has started a clothing line. No, really! And it's
called..."Softwear"! Just remember that the marketing guru who dreamed
this up probably makes well into six figures, if not more. Check out
this
story from
Macworld
, but be ready for a snark attack in the comments
section.
Posted by Lee Pender on December 09, 20080 comments
For those who have bothered to deploy Vista,
SP2
is already in beta
. The Windows Server 2008 beta is available, too.
Posted by Lee Pender on December 04, 20081 comments
A quick note before we start: Your editor didn't realize until it was too late
that there would be no RCPUs the week of Thanksgiving, otherwise known as last
week. We had planned to run a barrage of reader feedback that week, but instead
we went dark. So, as the holidays near and news inevitably slows over the next
couple of weeks, expect some reader feedback from pretty deep in the archives
to appear in this space. Your weeks-old e-mail might show up here yet. Don't
give up hope!
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Posted by Lee Pender on December 04, 20082 comments
Wondering how the channel is going to participate in this whole cloud computing
thing? Well, Ingram Micro is now offering Microsoft Service Provider License
Agreement to its partners. There's more detail in Ingram's entirely comprehensible
(and thank you for that, Ingram)
press
release
Posted by Lee Pender on December 04, 20081 comments
We suppose you could call
these
the sky in cloud computing...or something like that.
Posted by Lee Pender on December 04, 20080 comments