Oracle Gobbles Up Primavera

Posted by Lee Pender on October 09, 20080 comments

Symantec Grabs MessageLabs

Posted by Lee Pender on October 09, 20081 comments

BroadSoft Teams with Redmond on Hosted UC

Now maybe somebody can figure out exactly what UC is and why companies should invest in a hosted version of it.

Posted by Lee Pender on October 09, 20080 comments

Ballmer on 'Vista Capable' Suit: I Know Nothing!

OK, he didn't go that far, but let's just say that baldness isn't all that he and Sgt. Schultz have in common.

Posted by Lee Pender on October 08, 20080 comments

Six More Months for XP

As for the "other" OS, Vista, it's hard to say what its future holds. XP's expiration date (or should that be XPiration date?) could come dangerously close to flirting with the launch of Windows 7, a signal that, perhaps, Microsoft really is ready to let Vista stumble out into the cold and die by the side of the road -- a fate many users would still consider too good for the troubled OS.

It's worth noting here that Volume Licensing customers get downgrade rights regardless of what's happening with OEM downgrades -- an oft-misunderstood detail that Microsoft's PR firm was careful to point out in relation to a recent Redmond magazine story. So XP's lifeline will mostly apply to consumers and small businesses, but it's still a sign to partners that Microsoft isn't likely to stop supporting the trusted old OS any time soon.

All of which reinforces a notion that's becoming clearer and clearer: Windows 7 had better be pretty good. With Vista turning users away in fairly large numbers and Software as a Service making the OS itself a little more obsolete by the day, Windows 7 will step into a harsh reality when it does finally come out. In the meantime, if you're in the market for a computer, you might want to consider buying one by the end of July 2009. That's when Microsoft's supposedly going to cut off supplies of XP. Supposedly...but we'll believe it when we see it.

We're always open to a good round of Vista bashing as well as some Vista praise. Send your thoughts to [email protected].

Posted by Lee Pender on October 08, 20081 comments

AMD Spins Off Manufacturing

Posted by Lee Pender on October 08, 20081 comments

Microsoft Builds BI into SQL Server

Posted by Lee Pender on October 08, 20080 comments

Redmond Warning to Software Pirates

But the deck of this story made us chuckle a little bit: "Company-sponsored report says counterfeits lead to system failures, lost data." Wait, doesn't using a legitimate copy of Windows lead to that stuff?

Oh, come on, it's only a joke. Lighten up and enjoy the rest of the week. We'll be back on Tuesday. Be sure to tip your waitress...

Posted by Lee Pender on October 02, 20080 comments

Hyper-V Server 2008 Released

Posted by Lee Pender on October 02, 20080 comments

Microsoft's Cloudy Future

OK, most of that last sentence was a massive overstatement -- but we got your attention, right? We know that Windows isn't going to be obsolete any time soon, if ever. And Office is likely to be the suite of choice for the masses for at least a few more years to come.

Plus, there's no guarantee that SaaS, cloud computing or whatever you want to call it will ever unseat the old-fashioned desktop computing model, much less bump it off within the next few years. (After all, ASPs never ruled the world, and they were really just early SaaS providers.)

Still, SaaS is looking more like a viable alternative every day, and companies like Google, NetSuite and especially Salesforce.com are building nice little (actually, pretty darn big) businesses around it. So we're intrigued by some of the comments Steve Ballmer made this week when he dropped a few hints about a forthcoming "Windows Cloud" OS that will be aimed at developers of SaaS applications.

Never mind, first off, that some startup seems to have beaten Microsoft to the Windows Cloud punch. What we're interested in is Ballmer's attitude toward SaaS -- or Software Plus Services, as Microsoft calls it -- more than the scant details the Microsoft CEO released on Windows Cloud.

Let's check some quotes from the PC World article linked above:

"Ballmer was quick to point out that Microsoft doesn't envision products such as the Office productivity suite to move entirely off desktop PCs and onto the Internet.

But Microsoft is working on a service that would let people do 'light editing' of Office documents at places such as a public Internet kiosk, Ballmer said."

Ballmer doesn't envision Office moving entirely onto the Internet? At all? Ever? Why not? We're not saying that a SaaS-model Office would outsell the traditional offering. But as cloud computing gains acceptance, why wouldn't Microsoft at least offer a hosted option for Office? Would it cannibalize desktop revenues that much? Is the model just too difficult to put into action, and too risky financially?

If so, then Microsoft really might be in trouble. Again, we're not flying a flag for a SaaS revolution here, but we do acknowledge -- who doesn't? -- that it's an attractive model for customers and partners alike who know what they're doing. It's growing now and seems likely to continue growing, and, unlike the ASPs of the '90s, companies such as Salesforce.com seem to have the confidence of small-business and maybe even some enterprise customers.

In a tightening economy, with midsize companies increasingly looking to save costs and dump off IT management on somebody else, Ballmer is talking about Office being on the desktop for at least the foreseeable future. And, in doing so, he's kind of dismissing cloud computing (more on that shortly). Those are worrying signs because they seem to point to Microsoft being either unable or unwilling technically and financially to fully embrace the increasingly popular cloud computing model with its core products.

And then there was this:

"Ballmer was dismissive of Google, saying Docs and Spreadsheets has 'relatively low usage' and that users want richer features in an office software package.

'We want software more powerful than software that runs in a browser,' Ballmer said."

Whoa. OK, he's right about the first part. Google Docs and Spreadsheets is a pretty weak offering thus far, both in terms of functionality (compared to Office, anyway) and in terms of market share. But the second part of the quote above is the kicker. If Ballmer's just talking about Office being more powerful than Google's apps, fine. But -- and this could come down to how the reporter wrote the story, we'll admit -- it sounds as though he's suggesting that cloud applications aren't as powerful as their on-premises cousins.

Salesforce.com, its users and partners will likely beg to disagree. And if Microsoft's attitude is that desktop apps will always trump SaaS offerings in terms of functionality, there would seem to be a serious lack of vision in Redmond. Surely that's not the case...right?

We'd like to think that Microsoft is moving toward fully embracing cloud computing and bringing partners along for the ride. And, to be fair, there have been lots of signals to that effect. But Ballmer's comments seem to be those of a CEO who doesn't want to see the old-school OS and desktop productivity suite -- his company's moneymakers -- become less and less relevant all the time. We know it's hard letting go -- but everybody, even Microsoft, has got to move forward.

Does Microsoft get cloud computing? Let us know at [email protected].

Posted by Lee Pender on October 02, 20080 comments

Kalido Brings BI to the Mid-Market Masses

"It's been very difficult for companies to get enterprise-wide adoption of BI tools because the infrastructure required to support them is very heavy," said Bill Hewitt, Kalido president and CEO, in a phone chat with RCPU this week. Hewitt was referring specifically to business intelligence applications from Business Objects and Cognos, the two main market players, which were recently snapped up by software titans SAP and IBM, respectively.

"The cost of implementing Business Objects and Cognos is cost-prohibitive. SAP and IBM make it clear that you need to buy their apps," Hewitt said.

Even before the mega-vendors picked the BI market nearly clean, BI technology -- which basically lets companies easily find and manipulate critical business information from multiple sources, especially databases -- had become too big and expensive for mid-market companies. Apps that were meant to simplify life suddenly had implementation schedules that ran for months (or years) and costs with a lot of zeroes before the decimal point.

So Kalido is stepping in with an offering intended for mid-size companies -- and hosted and managed by partners. It's BI in the cloud, with a monthly subscription fee and outsourced management for customers rather than a huge start-up cost and an overworked IT staff. Oh, and that means a recurring revenue stream from subscriptions for partners. Kalido's offering starts at $5,000 per month priced to the reseller -- which can then charge as it sees fit for management and services.

"We take the data from the source system to the BI tool with a business-driven, fully automated engine," Hewitt said. "There's no manual coding. The result is far fewer people are needed to maintain the environment. If you take BO and Cognos as the best examples, they are the traditional BI stack. Those products need to be integrated by the customer. Customers need to know infrastructure pieces for SAP and IBM. You can get infrastructure up and running in 90 days with our approach."

Kalido's partner-hosted offering will actually integrate with both BO and Cognos apps -- or it'll work with Microsoft Excel, which Hewitt called "the most popular reporting tool on the planet." It also simplifies reports -- one company moved from using 5,000 reports to using just 1,800. The key, Hewitt said, is to take the burden of BI management off of IT people and create a more useful business context for the technology -- putting control over reporting in the hands of users rather than in the hands of IT folks.

"They manage the environment, but IT people don't understand a context of the way info is used," he said. "When business users take accountability for what they want to see, they end up getting what they want."

There's more about Kalido's hosted offering here.

This was just one of those technology offerings we found interesting enough to feature in RCPU. If you've got something you think is cool, unique or especially useful, feel free to drop us a line at [email protected].

Posted by Lee Pender on October 01, 20081 comments

IS Decisions Releases WinReporter 4.0

Posted by Lee Pender on October 01, 20080 comments