Two of Microsoft's highest-profile systems integrators (SIs), one in the Southeast and one in the Northeast, are merging into one East Coast services company.
Intellinet, based in Atlanta with offices in Charlotte, N.C., and Durham, N.C., and Innovative Computer Systems (ICS) Inc., with offices in Farmington, Conn., and Waltham, Mass., on Tuesday announced a definitive agreement to merge. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on February 04, 20150 comments
Continuing with its ambitious every-four-months update cycle, Kaseya shipped Release 9 of its product portfolio this week with significant enhancements to its mobility management, at an aggressive price, and to its cloud architecture.
Officially announced on Tuesday, R9 was available Jan. 31, in keeping with a shipment schedule of the last day of January, May and September that the company followed all through 2014. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on February 04, 20150 comments
Less than two months after acquiring Acompli, Microsoft stamped the Outlook logo on the iOS and Android mobile e-mail app and loaded it into the Apple App Store and Google Play store on Thursday.
The quick move fulfills many partners' requests to have a full Outlook component in Office for iPhone, in the Office for iPad suite released last March, and in the more recently delivered Office for Android suite, which graduated out of preview stage on Thursday. Microsoft bought Acompli on Dec. 1 in a deal reported to be worth more than $200 million. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on January 29, 20150 comments
Another data point on Microsoft HoloLens and Minecraft. A few days ago, I argued that Microsoft's revolutionary holographic computing headset, HoloLens, reframes Microsoft's earlier purchase of Mojang (see the full argument here), but my premise is that the low-resolution, insanely popular Minecraft game that Microsoft acquired with Mojang is the killer app for the HoloLens.
For what it's worth, Minecraft was the only application that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella mentioned during his prepared remarks in Microsoft's Q2 earnings call this week.
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Posted by Scott Bekker on January 28, 20150 comments
Earlier this month, we reviewed a 7-inch WinBook tablet running Windows 8.1 that cost just $60. Our verdict was that it's an amazing value. The catch was that the price was part of a promotion at Micro Center stores that was good through Jan. 25.
In the updates department, the sale is over, but the price remains the same. In fact, the price now also applies to online orders, as well, meaning this little PC isn't just for those within driving distance of one of Micro Center's two dozen locations. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on January 28, 20150 comments
IT management software vendor LANDesk on Wednesday updated its partner program with expanded partner training, new benefits and incentives, and director-level channel managers in three global regions.
"With the announcement today, we're providing end-to-end comprehensive training," said Jim Kilgour, senior director of global channel sales and programs at LANDesk, in a telephone interview. "What also changes today is that we have, I believe, industry-leading deal protection and gross margin. We've been listening to our partners over the last couple of years, and doing competitive analysis. We know where the competition is. We set out a strategy for our partners to be even more successful than they have been." More
Posted by Scott Bekker on January 28, 20150 comments
After a decade in the corporate embrace of Symantec Corp., Veritas will emerge again as its own entity in a separation planned for December.
Symantec revealed the plan to split into two independent, publicly traded companies back in October, but on Wednesday revealed that the name of the information management company will be Veritas Technologies Corp. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on January 28, 20150 comments
If Windows 10 is going to keep Microsoft relevant, the operating system has to fill two tall orders that conflict. It's got to be an attractive operating system for tablets, phones and 2-in-1s that is loaded with forward-leaning features. At the same time, it must provide a more intuitive interface for legacy Windows users who need to be able to get stuff done from the keyboard and mouse.
A critical milestone release in Microsoft's effort to ship Windows 10 in 2015 came on Friday with the January build of Windows 10. Build 9926 closely followed the major consumer event last week about forthcoming features in the operating system, and the new release delivered many of its hotly anticipated features. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on January 26, 20150 comments
We know way more now about Microsoft's plans for Windows 10 than we did before the big news conference this week -- the Project Spartan browser is real, Cortana is fully integrated, unified applications are a reality, some upgrades will be free, Windows will be updated as a service, holographic computing is coming, et cetera.
Check coverage by Kurt Mackie and Jeff Schwartz for a lot of the details. But as always, the more you know, the more questions you have. Here are 10 of the biggest questions raised by the Windows 10 media event in Redmond: More
Posted by Scott Bekker on January 23, 20150 comments
Back in September, when Microsoft paid $2.5 billion for the Swedish company that makes Minecraft, CEO Satya Nadella seemed to be groping blindly.
The Mojang acquisition was the fourth largest in dollar terms in Microsoft's history. But for that enormous pile of money, Microsoft was getting a low-resolution video game that seemed like it might have peaked. Yes, the game, involving chunky animated figures moving through an open world that players build with Lego-like digital blocks, was wildly popular, but it's never clear how long that will last in the famously fickle arena of preteen tastes. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on January 22, 20150 comments
With exactly six months to go until the July 14, 2015 end of service deadline for Windows Server 2003, Microsoft's Licensing Solution Provider partners (formerly known as LARs), are sounding the alarm more insistently.
Both CDW and Insight Enterprises had their media operations reaching out on Wednesday to mark this milestone on the way to the deadline. Insight provided a handy list of some of the common pitfalls that it's seeing as it works with customers to update their infrastructures: More
Posted by Scott Bekker on January 14, 20150 comments