Microsoft made a major foray into the home entertainment market Sunday with
the announcement of the general availability of Windows Home Server. Partners
swarmed around the announcement with a series of related products or complete
systems -- some available immediately, others coming over the next year.
One of the fastest on the draw is Hewlett-Packard. The HP MediaSmart Server,
based on Windows Home Server, was available immediately for pre-order from Amazon.com,
BestBuy.com, Buy.com, CircuitCity.com and CompUSA.com. HP's offering also set
a benchmark on pricing -- about $600 for a 500GB server and about $750 for a
1TB server.
A few companies already have systems ready based on the system builder version
of the software, including Ace Computers, Advantec, PC Club and Universal Systems
Inc.
Two other systems available now are the Tranquil PC T7-HSA Tranquil Harmony
Home Server and the Velocity Micro NetMagix HomeServer. Promising systems before
the end of 2007 are Fujitsu Siemens Computers and Medion Home Server. Iomega
Corp. is committed to shipping systems in early 2008, while Gateway Inc. and
LaCie also have plans to sell Windows Home Server-based systems.
According to Microsoft, there are at least 35 applications for Windows Home
Server from companies including Avira GmbH, Diskeeper Corp., Embedded Automation
Inc., Proxure Inc., SageTV, SightSpeed Inc., Telligent Systems, WiLife Inc.,
avast!, F-Secure, CEIVA, Iron Mountain, Jungle Disk, Lagotek, LobsterTunes,
Raxco Software and Whiist.
Posted by Scott Bekker on November 06, 20070 comments
Dell Inc. announced its intention on Monday to buy EqualLogic Inc. for $1.4
billion in cash. EqualLogic, which makes virtualization-optimized iSCSI storage
area network solutions, will be Dell's sixth acquisition in two years. Like
several of those acquisitions (Silverback Technologies and ASAP Software), this
deal has channel ramifications.
According to a Dell statement, "Dell plans to grow EqualLogic's successful
channel-partner programs with current and future EqualLogic-branded products,
and also plans to incorporate EqualLogic technology into future generations
of its Dell PowerVault storage line available through the channel and direct
from Dell."
Meanwhile, if you thought Dell would be satisfied with its recent radical transformation
from a mostly direct business model to a mixed model with about 10,000 retail
outlets via partnerships with Wal-Mart, Staples, Carphone Warehouse, Bic Camera
and Gome...think again. During the EqualLogic call, Michael Dell said, "Six
months ago, I think we had zero stores where you could buy Dell product, and
now we have about 10,000 stores. Just stay tuned for additional announcements."
Dell also said he'll keep offering Windows XP until customers don't want it
anymore.
The main story on EqualLogic with some of the other tidbits is here.
Posted by Scott Bekker on November 06, 20071 comments
Visual Studio 2008 will be ready for release this month, according to S. "Soma"
Somasegar, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Developer Division.
That means the much-anticipated "Orcas" set of developer tools at
least will be on track for Microsoft's big day, Feb. 27, when Microsoft plans
to launch Visual Studio 2008, Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008. It remains
to be seen if the new versions of Windows Server and SQL Server will be ready
for launch at that time.
For more details about the current status of Visual Studio and some of the
newly released components such as the Sync Framework CTP and Popfly Explorer,
click here
for Keith Ward's coverage.
In his update on Visual Studio progress at Microsoft's TechEd Developers conference
in Barcelona, Somasegar referred to some new licensing terms for partners. One
change to Visual Studio 2008 licensing terms is supposed to end limitations
on partners that prevented them from building solutions on Visual Studio for
non-Windows or non-Microsoft platforms.
Another new element is shared source licensing for Premier-level partners in
the Visual Studio Industry Partner program. Those exclusive partners will be
allowed to view Visual Studio source code for debugging purposes while integrating
their products with Visual Studio 2008.
Posted by Scott Bekker on November 06, 20070 comments
It's been a while, but Microsoft has
signed
another deal with a Linux development/distribution company, promising not
to sue its users for any alleged patent infringement. This time it's Turbolinux,
a maker of Linux desktop and server products that sells most of its wares to
Japan and China.
The deal also includes a number of collaboration initiatives, including making
Microsoft's Live Search the default search engine.
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 23, 20070 comments
OK, here's an important new technology concept to think about. Microsoft Distinguished
Engineer Eric Traut gave a presentation last week at the University of Illinois
where he said Microsoft is working on "MinWin," a much tighter kernel
to provide the foundation for all future Windows OS releases, client and server.
It's currently 25MB and Traut wants to make it smaller. I'm not going to get
my hopes up, especially after all the cool technology plans Microsoft had for
Windows Longhorn/Vista that were eventually dropped or delayed. But this does
sound promising.
Keith Ward has a lot more detail on "MinWin" here.
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 23, 20070 comments
The long international nightmare appears to be over. The European Commission
and Microsoft settled their antitrust case in a phone call on Monday morning.
The agreement came after a round of dinner diplomacy between Microsoft CEO Steve
Ballmer and European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes in the first week
of October, followed up by daily phone calls to hammer out the details.
Highlights: Microsoft won't appeal the Court of First Instance ruling, Microsoft's
communications protocols will now only cost rivals a one-time fee of about $14,300
and a patent royalty will now amount to 0.4 percent of a competing product's
sales as opposed to an earlier royalty of 5.95 percent. Click here
for more details.
The case will be sure to generate continuing minor spats of the sort that occasionally
flare up between Microsoft and its antitrust overseers at the U.S. Justice Department
or state governments.
But barring bad behavior on either side, both parties are now free to move
on to other things.
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 23, 20070 comments
Dell, which built its once-dominant PC position on a direct-to-consumer model,
took another step toward the retail channel
with
an agreement with Staples.
Starting Nov. 11, Dell will sell desktops, notebooks, monitors and printers
at 1,400 Staples locations and through the Staples Web site. The deal was announced
on Monday. It follows a similar arrangement with Wal-Mart to sell PCs in 3,000
stores. Worldwide, Dell says its products will be in more than 10,000 stores.
At Staples, Dell systems will be displayed alongside Hewlett-Packard, Acer
and Toshiba machines.
We're still anxiously awaiting specifics from Dell on how they plan to include
VARs in their future sales plans.
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 23, 20070 comments
You think you've seen good growth, or had your share of growth-related employment
headaches? Well, Microsoft had a stunning example of partner growth to tell
in a press release distributed on Thursday. It described the company's new report,
estimating the
worldwide
economic impact of Microsoft.
The partner-growth bombshell from the release was this:
"Wicresoft Co. Ltd., a Microsoft partner based in China, grew from
70 to 1,000 employees in a short amount of time and generated a sales volume
of $32 million last year alone."
Wicresoft President Ingrid Wang commented on the achievement in the press release:
"Through Microsoft's training program, our sales staff completed
a year's sales volume in only half a year. Our business boomed. We have had
a successful transformation from novice member of China's IT ecosystem to
international player. We treasure the strategic alliance with Microsoft here
in China."
Turns out there's more to it. Wicresoft, which describes itself as a professional
IT and business process outsourcing services provider, is a bit more than a
Microsoft partner. "Strategic alliance" is a bit of an understatement.
According to Wicresoft's Web page, the company was formed in 2002 as a joint
venture between Microsoft and the Shanghai Municipal Government. Before joining
Wicresoft, Wang had worked at Microsoft (China) Co. Ltd., and two other top
executives, Mike Xu and Patrick Cai, are Microsoft veterans. This is a company
to keep an eye on.
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 18, 20070 comments
Eric Ligman, Microsoft's U.S. senior manager of Small Business Community Engagement,
has been busy over on his small business community blog in the last week. For
one thing, there's a new Windows Small Business Server Test Drive feature designed
to help partners show Small Business Server to prospects through a Web-based
tool. There's a similar customer-facing tool on the SBS 2003 R2 product site,
but it doesn't have as many bells and whistles as the version for partners to
show their customers. Find out more
here.
Also, Ligman blogged that the SBS Partner Subsidy promotion is being expanded.
This is an extra discount for SBS customers who buy from Small Business Specialists.
Check it out here.
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 18, 20070 comments
Trust a crime writer to get business right. While at a used bookstore on vacation
this summer, I picked up a 1977 novel by Elmore Leonard called
The Hunted.
In it, Leonard's got one of the pithiest descriptions of how to succeed in business
that I've ever come across.
"In the business world, you don't prepare yourself for a certain job and
that's it, like a bookkeeper, a tax accountant. You hire those people,"
one character, a successful businessman, explains to a marine, who is about
to retire from the service and is looking for direction. "What you do,
you keep your eyes open, you use a little imagination seeing how you can fit
into a situation or how you can bend the situation around so it fits you."
Then again, this particular businessman is on the run from mobsters, so there
you go.
What are your favorite books about business? Send titles to me at sbekker@rcpmag.com.
We're taking the kitchen-sink approach here, so include books that are partner-specific,
market-specific, management tomes and even books that aren't obviously about
business but inspire your work. When we get enough, we'll pull them into a list
to share.
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 18, 20070 comments
Microsoft released a huge study on Thursday filled with facts and figures about
how much its software contributes to worldwide GDP, employment and tax revenues.
With the study stored on Microsoft's Web page in a subdirectory titled "Corporate
Citizenship," the primary audience for this document is obviously governments.
It's something Microsoft can point to when lobbying for less protectionist trade
policies and better IP protection.
There are plenty of tidbits in the IDC-prepared, Microsoft-commissioned study
that give partners a sense of where they stand in the bigger picture. How about
this one:
"Microsoft-related activities are responsible for 14.7 million jobs from
an IT industry total of 35.2 million people -- 42 percent of total IT employment
globally in 2007 -- and more than $514 billion in tax revenue worldwide,"
according to Microsoft.
It sounds like partners might be in the mix there. Some other highlights found
in the study are:
- "For every $1 Microsoft earns in 2007, companies working with Microsoft
will earn $7.79." That figure is lower in the United States, at $6.14,
but much higher in some places. "Countries such as China, India and Russia
see earnings in excess of $16 to $1," Craig Mundie, chief research and
strategy officer at Microsoft, said in a statement.
- There are more than 640,000 vendors in the Microsoft ecosystem.
- Those vendors will make more than $425 billion in revenues in 2007.
- IDC is bullish on IT jobs and businesses. The study predicts 7.1 million
new IT jobs and 100,000 new businesses over the next four years. China is
expected to be the No. 1 source of new jobs, followed by the United States.
The study is available here.
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 18, 20071 comments
Earlier this week, I wrote about how Ingram Micro was
going
"all Facebook" with a set of social networking sites where solution
providers could connect with each other to partner on business opportunities
or on mergers and acquisitions.
Well, that's the opportunity for partners to do some online networking with
each other. Now Microsoft is moving to make social networking itself a business
opportunity for its partners.
Microsoft announced a partnership with wiki provider Atlassian Software Systems
and RSS specialist NewsGator on Wednesday at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.
The basic idea is for the two firms to put together packages that make it easy
for companies to "expand social computing opportunities in the workplace."
The packages will work with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft's
runaway hit server product that did $800 million in business in fiscal 2007.
SharePoint is well on its way to joining Microsoft's club of billion-dollar-a-year
products (Windows clients, Office, Windows Server, Exchange Server and SQL Server).
NewsGator went GA on Wednesday with NewsGator Social Sites, a collection of
site templates, profiles, Web parts and middleware for SharePoint Server and
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.
Atlassian is making immediately available plug-ins for exchanging information
between SharePoint and its Confluence wiki product for the enterprise.
Derek Burney, general manager of SharePoint at Microsoft, said in a statement,
"Microsoft's relationships with Atlassian and NewsGator represent dynamic
new opportunities for integrating social computing technology into a company's
business productivity infrastructure."
Do you see business value for your clients in social networking? Could you
make money from it? I'd like to hear your thoughts at sbekker@rcpmag.com.
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 18, 20070 comments