Microsoft

Microsoft PDC 09: The pressure’s on

In the past, Microsoft has used its Professional Developers Conference to talk pie in the sky. Promises made one year for the next typically dribbled out months, even years late and functionally short. Longhorn anyone?

That can’t happen anymore.  With PDC 2009 kicking off this week, Microsoft  has precious little time to make good on Azure promises. It’s playing catchup with uber-nemesis Google and — perhaps more importantly — to Amazon which has real-world cloud services out and functioning now for real, paying customers. Continued »

More Novell cuts, follow Microsoft cuts

If the recession is, in fact,  winding down, employment truly is a trailing indicator, with tech companies continuing to cut headcount.

Last week, both Novell and Microsoft cut jobs. Novell sliced 3% — or about 100 to 130 —  of its 3,900 employees, according to published reports. And it suspended company-paid 401K contributions, according to its 8K filing. Continued »

Google and Microsoft trading places in mail

So, Google wins a big, prestigious $7.2 billion email account –for 30,000 Los Angeles municipal workers . Google Apps Premier is displacing Novell Groupwise there.  But Google beat out the Microsoft Exchange-Outlook combo even though by most accounts the dollar difference between bids was itty bitty.

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Economic woes linger, but it’s time to plan for growth

OK, so not every economic indicator we’re seeing right now is positive, although the revelation today that GDP grew 3.5 percent in the third quarter (instead of the 3.2 percent predicted) is definitely cause for at least a “Woo-Hoo!” (Here’s Reuters article analyzing the data.)

And for many different reasons, members of the IT channel are starting to sound like parrots: saying NOW is the time to really start planning for growth.

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Azure gets eclipsed

Microsoft continues its push to make its proposed Azure cloud plat form palatable to developers beyond the Windows realm and an embrace of Eclipse is bound to do that. 

Toward that end, Microsoft signed two proxies–Tasktop Technologies and Soyatec– to help make the Eclipse software development platform Azure friendly. (Or is it the other way around?) Anyway, the goal is to equip Eclipse to work with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 features.

Part of the deal is to develop updates to the Eclipse IDE so that it can incorporate new Win 7 and WS 2008 R2 features. Another is a planned open source plug-in to let PHP developers use Eclipse to create Web apps that would run in Azure. Also on tap: a Windows Azure SDC  for Java.

More details here and here

Top five IT channel lessons for the quarter

VARs remain extremely cautious on public cloud computing and are obsessed with which vendor giants will remain standing after more expected M&A activity. Those are but two highlights of this quarter’s SearchITChannel.com Advisory Board call. But there more below:  

1: Fear the cloud: Okay, that verbiage may be overkill, but the VARs said they spend a lot of time educating customers about when and if public cloud computing will really meet their needs. Vendor hype aside, board members said public cloud scenarios run counter to HIPAA and other compliance regulations.

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Vista-reminiscent marketing blitz starts for Windows 7

When the geniuses behind WIndows 7 marketing came up with the idea for customer-hosted launch parties (and associated Windows 7 launch party prep videos) I’m sure they didn’ t expect the most common descriptor would be “cringe inducing.”

What this not-so-dynamic video foursome needs is not Windows 7 so much as cheap tequila. A lot of cheap tequila.

More on the festivities here.

HP, Microsoft moves irk partners

Hewlett Packard channel partners were unpleased to learn this week that HP will make them foot the bill for new compliance training.

HP wants all its parters to comply with the U.S. Government Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by year’s end. And said compliance will set them back $120 which they will be required to front on their credit card upon registration.

The goal is to make it “easy and affordable..for our channel partners to comply,” according to HP. The problem is, the FCPA is for “U.S. firms seeking to do business in foreign markets” and many of the affected HP partners are not authorized to sell HP products outside the U.S.

Well, at least they can charge it. Microsoft ERP partners were unpleased to learn that, starting in November, tehy won’t be able to fund their software license purchases with credit cards–corproate or otherwise. The reason? Microsoft was sick of the associated charges so now VARs must pay by check or PO.  The news was first highlighted in Bob Scott’s Insights last week. 

Check out more channel news at SearchITChannel.com.

Microsoft starts testing Office Web Apps

Last year Microsoft promised light-weight, browser-born analogues to its Office applications juggernaut.
Today, it’s ready to let some invited outsiders test Office Web Apps. At least some of them. Continued »

Microsoft Golds can still sign up for ARC

It’s not too late to participate in Microsoft’s Analyst Relations for the Channel (ARC) pilot. Qualifying Gold partners can still sign on for Gartner or Forrester Research access until September 30. Continued »