Earlier this week, I blogged that Amazon's cloud computing problem from a three-day outage at its Northern Virginia datacenter had important ramifications for cloud computing.
Steve Clark, IT infrastructure architect for cloud, virtualization and Wintel with Lexmark, sent this thoughtful response taking issue with my characterization of Amazon as one of the big three in cloud computing and making some other good points: More
Posted by Scott Bekker on April 27, 20110 comments
A survey of 2,700 Appcelerator users released today shows that mobile developer momentum is shifting back toward Apple as multiple levels of fragmentation frustrate developers who had been enthusiastic about the Google Android platform.
While Microsoft Windows Phone 7 passed the RIM BlackBerry platform for third place in developer interest in the Q2 survey conducted jointly by Appcelerator and IDC, it was a pyrrhic victory as interest in both platforms was dropping. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on April 26, 20111 comments
A central tenet of the environmental movement is that when it comes to cutting down on waste, it's best to reduce, reuse and recycle, in that order.
As the environment got its due on Earth Day Friday, a Microsoft OEM executive provided an update on the refurbishment channel, which is an opportunity for partners to help new customers reuse old systems -- and profit from the process. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on April 25, 20110 comments
Ahead of its earnings call this week, Microsoft formally announced that Windows 7 has sold more than 350 million licenses.
In announcing the milestone on The Windows Blog on Friday, Brandon LeBlanc noted that it comes 18 months after the Windows 7 launch and comes amid IDC estimates that more than 90 percent of businesses have Windows 7 migrations in progress. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on April 25, 20110 comments
Amazon Web Services appears to be back online after one of the most significant outages in the short history of cloud computing.
As my colleague Jeff Schwartz reported today, Amazon Web Services seems to have finally gotten a handle on the problem at a Northern Virginia datacenter that left some organizations crippled for three days. High-profile companies affected by the incident included Foursquare, Reddit, Quora and HootSuite. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on April 25, 20111 comments
An expansion of Kaseya's automated IT systems management software toolset that will be available later this month brings the Swiss vendor closer to offering an end-to-end solution for smaller managed services providers.
The company introduced two new modules for its Kaseya IT Automation platform. Service Billing 1.0 is designed to allow MSPs to automate billing from a central portal. That module is integrated with the new Service Desk 1.3, which tracks billable time against open tickets and work orders and includes other enhancements to streamline the ticket process from ticket entry to remediation, according to the company. A related enhancement is integration of Service Billing with Intuit QuickBooks for generating invoices and processing receipts. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on April 22, 20110 comments
Former Microsoft Online executive Ron Markezich may need some sensitivity training for his new role as a senior executive facing Microsoft's U.S. partners. Or maybe someone at Microsoft appointed him to the role of bad cop to enterprise partners.
Markezich was named corporate vice president of the U.S. Enterprise and Partner Group at Microsoft on Monday, according to his executive bio. The same day, identified in that role, he gave an interview to AllThingsD about the beta launch of Office 365 (the top 12 features of which we've spotlighted in this Web feature). More
Posted by Scott Bekker on April 22, 20110 comments
Microsoft's U.K. subsidiary is firing a shot across Apple's design bow with a showcase of attractive Windows 7 PCs called, somewhat presumptuously, "The Collection."
The 30 PCs in The Collection will be featured at retail stores across the United Kingdom. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on April 21, 20110 comments
J.J. Antequino, over at Microsoft's U.S. SMB&D TS2 Team Blog, has a couple of helpful posts this week for partners evaluating Windows Intune, Microsoft's new cloud-based systems management and security toolset.
In one post, Antequino explains how partners can activate their customers' Windows 7 Enterprise licenses, one of the killer values in the Windows Intune package. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on April 21, 20110 comments
Microsoft has started to make some progress in search -- partly from the vast improvements to both its search technology and strategy with the Bing relaunch, and partly from the integration deal with Yahoo.
But things don't look so rosy from Yahoo's perspective, according to comments made by CEO Carol Bartz during an earnings call on Tuesday. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on April 20, 20110 comments
After a 45-day delay, partners can get Windows Small Business Server 2011 through the Microsoft partner digital distribution portal, where partners with Action Pack subscriptions or gold or silver competencies go for internal use rights (IUR) software.
Microsoft had originally planned to make SBS 2011, which is a key product for partners and especially the large Small Business Specialist Community, available by the end of February. But Microsoft ran into unspecified problems with posting the server software and Multiple Activation Key (MAK) product keys to the portal, and delayed the release to Q2. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on April 20, 20110 comments
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| Ron Markezich |
Ron Markezich, a 13-year Microsoft veteran who has served as chief information officer and most recently ran Microsoft Online, has been named corporate vice president of Microsoft's U.S. Enterprise and Partner Group.
Microsoft updated Markezich's executive bio with the new title and role on Monday.
According to the bio, the U.S. Enterprise and Partner Group serves 1,500 customers across the company's enterprise software offerings, cloud services and devices. "In this role, Markezich is responsible for leading U.S. enterprise sales and marketing, including national and field sales, partner, marketing, operations and vertical industry teams." More
Posted by Scott Bekker on April 19, 20110 comments