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Tuesday, October 20, 2009 Microsofts Big Bang

The coming months will be the most vital for the software giant as it readies to roll out products that will not only decide its future, but that of the software industry as well

Microsoft has lined up a series of product launches over the next three months in what is termed as the biggest launch wave in Microsofts history.

Three of the companys core productsWindows 7, Exchange Server 2010, and Server 2008 R2are set for a joint launch on October 22. Next month will also see the company commercialize its SaaS offeringthe Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS)which is currently undergoing a two-month customer trial. This will be followed by the launch of Azure, the companys ambitious cloud computing platform, in November.

Each of these launches is vital for Microsoft to retain its 20-year dominance in the software marketplace that is seeing increased competition and changing business models. Its a big bang for Microsoft as the success or failure of these products will not only decide the future of Microsoft but that of the software industry as a whole.

Windows 7: most crucial

The most important release is Windows 7, described by many as the long-awaited successor to Windows XP, what with the debacle of its predecessor Windows Vista.

XP, launched in 2001, is already eight-years-old, but is still running 70 percent of all the Windows PCs across the globe. Microsoft will end active support for XP by 2014, and extended support by 2017. Thats why Windows 7 must do for Microsoft what Vista didntbe a worthy successor of XP and restore the faith of the industry that Microsoft can deliver a stable PC platform.

To Microsofts credit, Windows 7 has received good reviews. For starters, although Windows 7 uses the same kernel as Vistas, its much lighter and doesnt require the major hardware upgrades that Vista did. This works favorably for Microsoft at a time when the world is going through an economic crisis, IT budgets are on hold, and PC shipments are sliding.

Since June, Microsoft has been running trials to ensure that both its partners and customers get to see and experience the new OS. Windows 7 doesnt require any hardware upgrade, runs on 512MB RAM, and Pentium and Celeron configurations. Indeed, many of our customers are running trials on four-year-old PCs, says G Ramesh, Director, Windows Client, Microsoft India.

Microsoft is also betting on several new features of Windows 7, including DirectAccess, a VPN-killing technology that gives mobile users seamless access to corporate networks; BranchCache, which stores frequently-used data locally to improve network performance at remote branch locations; BitLocker, which encrypts data on hard drives and removable storage devices; and AppsLocker, which locks the PC when it detects unauthorized access of an application. However, some of these features are available only in the Windows 7 Ultimate and Enterprise editions.

According to Ramesh, these tools could cost Rs 3,000-4,000 per node if customers were to purchase them from a third party. Additionally, the OS comes with an advanced power-saving mode, which, if programmed smartly, can help customers save up to Rs 4,000 per node per annum.

Despite the economic odds being stacked against Windows 7, Microsoft expects the ramp-up for the new OS to be faster than that of Windows XP. Discloses Ramesh, Our target is to reach 50 percent installed base by 2013. If we achieve this, it will be the fastest ramp-up for any Windows OS till date. XP took five years to reach this mark.

Because Microsoft will actively support XP only till 2014, this will aid the adoption process among enterprises, points out Ravi Putta, Director, Alliance Prosys, a Microsoft Emerging SI partner from Hyderabad. It will result in third-party applications limiting their XP support; hence customers will move to Windows 7. That though is not the only reason why customers will upgrade. Windows 7 is stable, and has some really great features.

Alliance is running trials with its 20 leading customers, each having more than 1,000 installed nodes, and expects to migrate 4,000 nodes to Windows 7 by March 2010. The early adopter is the IT sector, which has its own IT teams that are working on application-compatibility with Windows 7. In other accounts it will be a gradual adoption, and our strategy there is to first run trials for the senior management and make them experience the benefits, informs Putta.

Pune-based Leon Computers, a Microsoft Gold Partner, is also betting on faster adoption of Windows 7 among its customers. We are running trials with 15 customers, and expect 5,000 upgrades within 12 months. While the IT sector will lead the adoption, other sectors such as auto will adopt it after June 2010 when the trial period for Windows 7 RC ends, opines Rahul Meher, Managing Director, Leon Computers.

Adds Suresh Ramani, CEO, TechGyan, a Mumbai-based Microsoft Gold partner, In no uncertain terms this is a huge release for Microsoft, especially after what happened with Vista. Vista was such a disaster that many customers who bought it downgraded to XP due to compatibility and performance issues. By contrast, the buzz around Windows 7 is really positive, and this should come as a relief to Microsoft. The biggest USP of Windows 7 is that it is better than Vista in power and functionality, with XP-level resource requirement and compatibility.

Server 2008 R2

With Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft intends to break into the enterprise league where it wants to prove that the NOS can run mission-critical applications. Core to the new release of the server OS is the enhanced Hyper-V server, an indication of the companys serious efforts to streamline its virtualization strategy to take on market leader VMware.

Usually, R2 represents an incremental enhancement over the original version. However, Pallavi Kathuria, Director, Server Business Group, Microsoft India, claims that Server 2008 R2 is transformational. Its not a service pack upgrade but a completely new server OS. It incorporates new features and improvements including Hyper-V support, power management, scripting tools and server management tools.

Kathurias claims are vindicated by the recent CRN Test Center Review which has termed Windows Server 2008 R2 as Microsofts best-ever server OS. According to the review, the features that make R2 the best among all previous editions are the Active Directory Administration Center; DirectAccess and BranchCache which work in tandem with Windows 7; improved power efficiency via the Power Management tool; and more features in Hyper-V.

Hyper-V in Server 2008 R2 supports up to 64 logical processors. This is important in two ways. First, it means Hyper-V can support a greater number of virtual machines. Second, administrators have greater flexibility in allocating CPU resources in a virtual environment.

The Live Migration in Server 2008 R2s Hyper-V allows moving virtual machines between two hosts without any interruption of the service of that VM. The enhancements in the Hyper-V could help Microsoft in acquiring mindshare in the virtualization space because its far more cost-effective than VMware. Now one needs to see how these features work in a live environment, comments Shailesh Mallya, Manager, Marketing, Lauren Information Technologies, a Microsoft Gold partner in Mumbai.

Rahul Meher of Leon Computers partly agrees with Mallya. If the truth be told, VMware is miles ahead of Microsoft in virtualization. However, the new Hyper-V looks impressive, and Microsoft has a chance to capture more marketshare. He adds, If you notice, VMware is strong in the 50-100 servers solutions segment. Microsoft was so far targeting this segment, but now they have realized that VMware is well-entrenched here and enjoys a great brand-recall among CIOs. It is in the 5-20 servers solutions segment where Microsoft is now focusing, and this change in strategy will bring marketshare.

According to Kathuria, Windows Server already enjoys a marketshare of 75 percent in the x86, and with a highly-rated new server OS round the corner, Microsoft is doing all it can to consolidate the share. Says Kathuria, We will be rolling out several demand-generation programs. Sales readiness training for partners is on the cards, and we intend to help partners create PoCs to demonstrate the functionalities of R2 to the customers.

Exchange 2010

Microsofts other big release is Exchange 2010 which for the first time combines on-premise management with online services.

Some of the key features include Exchange Federation which allows cross-premise sharing of resources including federated messages and calendar sharing both within and outside an organization; support for SATA which allows customers to use the standard desktop HDD to store and archive data without having to invest in costly SAN boxes.

Exchange 2010 has been designed with an eye on bringing down the cost of running it. The major innovation is in form of Failover Clustering to ensure high availability with half the physical infrastructure than earlier needed. Also the new platform doesnt require expensive SAN boxes to archive data and can even store on desktop class SATA disks. This can drastically bring down the infrastructure cost to run Exchange and this will be a big draw for companies to upgrade, says Sanjay Manchanda, Director, Business Division, Microsoft India.

Other feature enhancements include role-based access control; device security that allow admins to set up mobile device policies; voice-mail review that gives a text-based preview of voice-mail messages; protected voice mail to prevent voice-mails from being forwarded outside the organization; and multi-mailbox searching.

Product reviews done so far suggest that Microsoft has a winner with Exchange 2010. In my opinion, Exchange 2010 has some great features and it may relatively do better than both Win 7 and R2. There are plenty of companies running Exchange 2000 and 2003 who are ripe for upgrades, believes Ramani.

In anticipation of Exchange Server 2010, Microsoft has been building its channel capacity. Over the last one year we have vastly improved our regional coverage. We have exceeded the set target of trained Exchange skill-sets in the market. So from a sales readiness point of view we are all geared for the Exchange 2010 roll out. As we approach the launch date we plan aggressive marketing for demand generation, opines Manchanda.

On cloud nine

Cloud computing has been termed a paradigm-changing concept. In a report released in early 2008, Gartner predicted that the global Software as a Service (SaaS) market would be in excess of $19.1 billion by 2011. It also predicted that 25 percent of all new business software sold globally by 2011 will be delivered as SaaS. According to Springboard Research, India is expected to be the fastest growth market for SaaS. From under $55 million in 2007, SaaS revenues from India are expected to grow at a CAGR of 76 percent to reach $260 million by 2011.

With such bullish predictions about cloud computing and the SaaS delivery model, its but natural that the largest software player has huge stake riding on this fast emerging software delivery model.

BPOS and Azure mark Microsofts entry into cloud computing. Azure could act as a major turning point in taking the cloud computing paradigm from the hype to the realization phase. Considering the vast network of ISVs and software developers which Microsoft commands, the success of Azure will mean large number of applications going on the cloud. This could lend great momentum to creating the cloud computing ecosystem.

However for Microsoft sales partner the biggest game changer would be BPOS, which includes SaaS versions of Exchange, SharePoint, Office Communications Server and Office LiveMeeting. According to Microsoft, the trial run for BPOS has evoked a positive response. Since July 17, when we launched customer trials, 1,400 customers of various sizes have signed up for the trials. This is a clear indication of the cloud computing opportunity in India, says Sanjay Manchanda, Director, Business Division, Microsoft India.

The company recently concluded an eight-city channel enablement program during which it trained select partners to sell BPOS. Microsoft has also announced the commission that partners will receive for selling BPOS. We will give 12 percent commission on every new sale of BPOS seats, and 6 percent for the following years on renewal, informs Manchanda.

Ramani, who signed up as a Microsoft Online Services partner, is bullish about selling BPOS. I consider SaaS to be the biggest game-changer for solutions providers, especially those focused on the SME segment. We have been one of the first few partners to run BPOS trials with customersand they like the product.

Leons Meher too is running trials for BPOS with four of his customers. Being a new concept, it will take time to click with customers. However, there is no doubt that the SaaS model will find good adoption among SMEs who cant afford to have a special team to manage their IT. SaaS converts IT spends from capex to opex, and gives predictability to SMEs IT expenditure. Being a managed services provider, Online Services tie in very well with our remote infrastructure management offerings, and create an additional stream of revenue.

Nevertheless, the same partners highlight several challenges in rolling out the products. The biggest challenge is that of pricing, notes Ramani. The entire BPOS suite is priced at $15, while Exchange Live as a standalone offering is priced at $10 per node per month. This is much higher than Google Apps, which is offering mailboxes at almost 50 percent discount. Microsoft needs to have a special pricing for India because many customers are still only 50 percent compliant on licensing. When these factors are taken into account, the BPOS subscription works out to be high.

Manchanda counters the high-price argument. The mailbox from Google is a plain vanilla service, whereas Exchange is a full-fledged messaging platform so there cant be any comparisons. However, we are listening to our partners and will surely consider their feedback.

Meher points to another potential issue. The invoice for BPOS will be raised from Singapore and has to be paid in dollars. Customers may have an issue with this as there are stringent RBI guidelines on outward remittances. Additionally, the money has to be paid online, which can also be a matter of concern.

Manchanda says that they are aware of the regulatory issue, and are looking for ways to facilitate local billing for certain customers who may have an issue with the amount of outward remittance allowed.

Another major concern is the partner engagement model for BPOS which has been criticized because Microsoft will directly bill customers and manage the entire service delivery. Naturally, partners are afraid that they will lose control over their customers. Partners would prefer to bill their customers directly rather than have Microsoft bill their customers. This is the model Google follows, and it allows partners to add their own value-added services and decide pricing, states Ramani.

Manchanda allays partners fears: Our cloud strategy revolves around the Software Plus, with the software client located on customer premise and managed application available in the cloud. Partners will control customers since there will be on-premise component to manage.

Channel complaints

With the stakes so high, Microsoft has no alternative but to rely on the partner ecosystem. The company has drawn up battle-lines on multiple fronts, and therefore needs an army of partners to take on multiple competitorsfor instance, VMware on the virtualization front, and GoogleApps in the cloud.

Little wonder then that Microsoft has announced the overhauling of its partner program. The Microsoft Partner Program will now be called the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN). The company has said that it plans to get rid of the current Gold and Certified partner designations next year, and will instead rank partners according to their specific competencies. Microsoft is in the process of developing 32 competencies for channel partners, in some cases merging existing competencies, and in others, creating new ones. "The change from program to network reflects the changing business models and customer needs. Also it means that we want partners to leverage the power of the network and collaborate, says Rajeev Mittal.

While the new MPN is a work in progress, and may take several months to shape up, one key change that could impact partners is that Gold Certified Partners will be required to take Microsofts Customer Satisfaction Index. Hitherto, participation in customer satisfaction surveys wasnt a requirement for partners, although it was encouraged.

The company has already announced its plans to double its market coverage by adding three new distributorsCompuage, Rashi and Neotericand 40 sub-distributors.

While partners have appreciated the expansion of distribution, they allege that Microsoft is not focusing on resolving their real issues. States TechGyans Ramani, Many partners are privately not too happy with how Microsoft is doing business with them. The partner account managers are focused more on transactions and less on relationship-building, and this is something that Microsoft needs to resolvehow to reconcile short-term targets with long-term objectives.

The biggest let-down for even the staunchest of Microsoft partners has been its complete apathy toward the issue of service tax on software which has significantly impacted the software reselling business. For over a year, the entire software community has been impacted by the tax issue. We have suffered heavily both in revenues and margins, but Microsoft hasnt extended any support, complains Sandeep Salman, Vice President, Consulting and Services, of Delhi-based Future Soft Solutions.

Concludes Ramani, Competition is increasing, business models are changing, and formidable players like Google are coming up with new concepts. Microsoft will have to cope with all these, and in this partner support will be key.

Posted byJaya Kumar K Sat12:41 AMNo comments: Labels:Microsofts Big Bang Wednesday, January 14, 2009 Order a burrito from your iPhone, or not
one loves a burrito more than me, thats why I was interested to discover that Mexican food chain Chipotle has released an iPhone app. (McDonalds used to be the majority interest in Chipotle but sold their stake in October 2006, but I digress)
According to the Intertubes the Chipotle iPhone app allowed users to customize their order by checking a series of boxes. Once complete the order is sent to a nearby restaurant for pickup.
After being posted briefly on Monday morning the application was quickly and unceremoniously removed without explanation. Users on MacRumors forums were reporting problems with the app was extremely buggy
As it turns out, the company decided to pull the application after a few hours because of unexpected demand that was overloading its servers. User requests were timing out with enough frequency that the team decided it would rather hold off until it could offer a more enjoyable and reliable experience.
The current goal is to have it back on the App Store in two weeks, along with some cosmetic changes (many of the user reviews that were left while the app was still available had some complaints regarding the user experience).
My problem is that there isnt a Chipotle location near me (~60 miles). I wonder if Baja Fresh and Taco Bell are following all this? Can all the fast food chains be far behind? The first restaurant to do an iPhone app right stands to win a lot of loyalty not to mention good PR

Posted byJaya Kumar K Sat10:58 PMNo comments: Labels:tech newsHell freezes over: Apple allows third party browsers on iPhoneYesterday Apple began approving third party Web browsers for distribution via the iTunes App Store reports MacRumors. Previously to this sudden about-face iPhone Web browsers wanting to compete with Mobile Safari, Apples bundled and pre-docked Web browser, were considered off limits because they duplicated functionality already on the iPhone.
Some of the new browsers available in the App Store include:
- Edge Browser (Free) - No loss of screen real estate to the address or navigation bars.- Incognito ($1.99) - Now you can browse without leaving a history of any kind.- WebMate:Tabbed Browser ($0.99) - Web Mate simplifies browsing by queuing up all the links you click on, then allowing you to view them one by one when youre ready.- Shaking Web ($1.99) - adds a sophisticated algorithm to compensate for small hand shaking to allow for easier reading.
MacRumors notes that this is the second major shift in Apples approval policy for iPhone software. The first was last months admittance of flatulence applications (i.e. Pull My Finger and iFart Mobile) that were previously denied entry due to limited utility.Posted byJaya Kumar K Sat10:56 PMNo comments: Labels:tech newsWindows 7 on older hardware: A Catch 22 for MicrosoftThere are a few bloggers wondering aloud about how well Windows 7 ultimately is going to run on older hardware. Thats an interesting question, given Microsofts symbiotic relationship with its hardware partners who constantly are in search of new ways to convince users to buy pricier PCs.
From early accounts by those using Windows 7 pre-beta and beta releases, Windows 7 is running pretty nicely on older machines with less powerful processors and less-than-optimal memory. In fact, as has been noted over the past few months, Windows 7 runs well on netbooks that havent been able to accommodate Vista. (Microsoft has trimmed the size and memory footprint of Windows 7 while still building it on top of the Vista kernel.)
All that said, Id bet Microsoft and its PC partners arent very keen on seeing users run Windows 7 on older machines. They want to encourage them to buy new and preferably more expensive PCs. (Thats a big part of the reason Microsoft and its OEMs are pushing multitouch as a new, hot feature for forthcoming Windows 7 PCs.) Even if Microsoft could support the older XDDM drivers on Windows 7, I doubt that it will do so, as that would send mixed messages about both its intention to move users to the new WDDM driver model, as well as its desire to get users to buy more new PCs.
It will be interesting to see whether Microsoft offers users the option to upgrade directly from XP to Windows 7 or whether it will only offer upgrades from Vista to Windows 7 once Windows 7 is released in final form. The question becomes even more pressing given that Windows XP will likely be a bigger competitor to Windows 7 than any other operating system out there (just like IE 6 is one of IE 7/IE 8s most formidable rivals, from a market share perspective).
If Windows 7 runs as well or better on your older PCs, will you consider installing it on your existing PCs rather than buying brand-new Windows 7 machines ?Posted byJaya Kumar K Sat10:54 PMNo comments: Labels:tech newsMS Patch Tuesday: 3 critical SMB vulnerabilitiesMicrosoft today shipped a solitary bulletin with patches for at least three documented security flaws in the Microsoft Server Message Block (SMB) Protocol.
The three vulnerabilities, rated critical on Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, exposes Windows users to remote code execution attacks, Microsoft said in its MS09-001 bulletin. The company warns:
An attacker who successfully exploited these vulnerabilities could install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights.
Only two of the three vulnerabilities affect Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
Although the exposure to risk seems severe (remote code execution), Microsoft believes its unlikely that functioning exploit code will be created and released. Microsofts Mark Wodrich explains why:
The vulnerabilities cause a fixed value (zero) to be written to kernel memory not data that the attacker controls.
Controlling what data is overwritten is difficult. To exploit this type of kernel buffer overrun, an attacker typically needs to be able to predict the layout and contents of memory. The memory layout of the targeted machine will depend on various factors such as the physical characteristics (RAM, CPUs) of the system, system load, other SMB requests it is processing, etc.
Eric Schultze, CTO at patch management specialists Shavlik, still recommends that Windows users view at MS09-001 as super critical to install right away.
This flaw enables an attacker to send evil packets to a Microsoft computer and take any action they desire on that computer - no credentials required. The only pre-requisite for this attack to be successful is a connection from the attacker to the victim over the NetBIOS (File and Printer Sharing) ports (tcp 139 or 445). By default, most computers have these ports turned on.
While these ports are usually blocked on Internet firewalls and personal firewalls, these ports are typically left open in a corporate network. If a worm is released, and that worm makes it into a corporate network, it will make swiss cheese of that network relatively quickly.Posted byJaya Kumar K Sat10:51 PMNo comments: Labels:tech newsDell revives North American tech support... for a priceI get a ton of email from readers of this blog asking for help with their PCs. A common way these letters begin involves a story about the reader calling the company that made the PC for help and trying to deal with a foreign tech support operator whom they couldn't understand (or vice versa). You can hear the utter frustration just from reading the emails.

The backlash against offshore tech support has been brewing for years, and Dell is taking an interesting step to try to make things better.

The company is now launching a specialized tech support service called Your Tech Team, which features round-the-clock access to "Dell's best trained technicians who are based in North America." (North America is in all caps and bold.) The service offers some pretty aggressive features: Calls are answered in 2 minutes or less, and the program covers all your Dell gear. You can even request an appointment with a specific technician you especially like.

The catch is that this isn't a freebie to which all Dell customers are now entitled. Previous Dell buyers will have to pay $12.95 a month for the service, or $99 a year if you buy a new PC. Those figures are from the Washington Post story linked above; I just tried configuring a new PC on the Dell.com website and was not offered Your Tech Team during the checkout process, so perhaps things are still getting underway.

The strategy is raising eyebrows in the tech industry, where tech support programs remain a mammoth expense for many companies. Has Dell figured out a way to please customers while still turning a profit? While many observers note that tech support should be free with purchase, "premium," extended, and after-hours support plans have long come with surcharges attached. Is Dell's Your Tech Team any different? We'll have to see how customers respond, but the initial reaction seems to be overwhelmingly positive, even though it's a drain on the wallet.

Posted byJaya Kumar K Sat10:44 PMNo comments: Labels:tech newsCES no-show: OLED TVsIt almost went without saying: CES 2009 was going to be flooded with OLED televisions, what with Sony wowing everyone a full year ago with its 11-inch OLED TV marvel, the downright gorgeous but proposterously expensive ($2,500) XEL-1.

In the year that passed, what happened? Well, not much: Sony's commercial OLED arsenal still consists of the one product, and though it had some larger screens on display in its booth as "technology demonstrations," none are entering production any time soon. (Sony also showed a tiny, flexible OLED screen, carefully protected under what looked like more bulletproof glass than the stuff covering the Mona Lisa.

Same kind of story at Samsung, with a selection of pint-sized, 14-inch OLED televisions with absurdly thin screens and one larger unit (31 inches, I believe) bolted to the wall. Neither is on sale.

And meanwhile, the Sony XEL-1 still costs $2,500 (though occasionally you see it on sale for less).

OLED is by all accounts the Next Big Thing in TV tech, so what's going on here? Gizmodo shrwedly posits that the economy has nothing to do with it -- though it's hard to argue that Sony's massive decline in fortunes recently isn't causing it to rethink its RD schedule at least a bit -- but rather suggests simply that the technology simply hasn't advanced on schedule as expected. Gizmodo further suggests that, based on conversations with vendors, we won't see mainstream OLED TVs until at least 2011.

That's sad, because once you see an OLED TV in action, you immediately wish you had one: The colors are downright gorgeous, with rich blacks and sparkling hues you just don't see even on the best LCDs and plasmas. And of course, the thinness is legendary. The XEL-1's screen is 3mm thick, so slim that it doesn't even look real. Let's get it together, people!

Posted byJaya Kumar K Sat10:43 PMNo comments: Labels:tech news Older PostsHomeSubscribe to:Posts (Atom)FollowersBlog Archive 2009(19) October(1)Microsofts Big Bang January(18)About MeJaya Kumar K SView my complete profile

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