Ready or not, your company is probaby wondering what to do with a device as popular as the iPad. So, never mind the idea of Macs invading the desktop as a serious tool, now comes something that doesn't even sport a keyboard, let alone storage or any simple way to manage or secure them via enterprise-sanctioned management solutions. Doug Barney at Redmondmag.com does a pretty good job of getting some IT folks to wonder out loud about some of the issues and concerns.
How are you dealing with/managing iPads in your company? Does your company have formal plans to bring them into the management fold? Comment here.
Posted by Michael Domingo on 06/02/2011 at 11:59 AM4 comments
Microsoft wants you to check out Systems Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 in beta release, and it's doing that by opening up its community evaluation program to the public. CEPs for other Systems Center components are already under way.
Are you actively participating in any of the CEPs? Tell us about your experiences (well, at least the stuff that won't violate the NDA you signed to get into it).
Posted by Michael Domingo on 05/26/2011 at 11:59 AM0 comments
The interestingly-named Numara owns the equally interestingly-named product dubbed FootPrints, which it got through its acquisition of UniPress a few years back. FootPrints is really a large family of enterprise IT management solutions, and one component that the company has updated recently is FootPrints Migration Manager. With momentum to migrate to Windows 7 in light of XP free support options waning, enterprises might look at Numara a bit more closely.
Just as a side note: Numara's earlier claim to fame was an application called Track-It!, which it sold to Intuit. Track-It!? FootPrints? It's just odd to be a coincidence, no?
BTW: I'm still looking for folks to chime in on their Windows 7 migration plans. Basically, are you or aren't you? And why (or why not)? You can comment here or e-mail me at [email protected].
Posted by Michael Domingo on 05/26/2011 at 11:59 AM0 comments
The rumor from Bloomberg News (which we got from Mary Jo Foley's All About Microsoft blog) sounds like news that we heard back in 2002: Microsoft might be demoing a Windows tablet at next week's ninth annual AllThingsD Conference, and it might be based on Windows 8. And that begs the question: Does anyone who already owns an iPad 2 care?
Posted by Michael Domingo on 05/26/2011 at 11:59 AM0 comments
I wasn't there, but some of our fearless 1105 counterparts on the east coast did manage to fly out (and make it back home safely, as of this posting) and blanket the event like William T. Sherman. And they did awesome job as usual with their reportage.
Last year was a one-note conference (Windows 7, Windows 7, Windows 7!). and this year might feel the same way, with the cloud ringing louder than anything else. But the cloud is not one product and Microsoft has lots going on up there. So, I've taken the liberty of rounding up all the news from our 1105 properties into this handy dandy blog post:
Even though Tech-Ed mainly caters to the IT crowd, the show had no shortage of developer-related news:
I think that's it. After reading all of these reports and from other newsers online, I felt like this Tech-Ed was more a feel-good, let's-re-energize-our-community show, one that said, "Look at us, world! We're Microsoft and we're still relevant!" I hope so.
[Editor's Note: We removed the link to the article regarding VB6 being open sourced; since this posting, that news was retracted.]
Posted by Michael Domingo on 05/19/2011 at 11:59 AM0 comments
This is hot news on the RedmondDeveloperNews.com site right now: Microsoft will be
open sourcing Visual Basic 6
on the CodePlex site next month. VB6 is two decades old, which in Internet years is, how old? Answers below.
[Editor's Note: The story on the RedDevNews.com site was retracted after we posted this blog post. We apologize for the misinformation.]
Posted by Michael Domingo on 05/19/2011 at 11:59 AM3 comments
Many users on Windows machines are perhaps way too familiar with scareware, malware that effectively hijacks a system then asks you to fork over a credit card or live with a dead machine. Yes, I've been had twice over the last five years on this same PC (and recovered with some awesome and free tech support out there), which is two more times than I care to admit. (Fool me twice, right?)
Macs are pretty popular these days, so they're now just as big a target of such schemes, and one biggie out there right now is MacDefender. What's interesting is this report from ZDnet's Ed Bott that claims that an internal memo is telling AppleCare staff to not discuss or confirm/deny whether a Mac user's machine has been disabled by scareware like MacDefender. Is it irresponsible for Apple to do this? Or is that the company's prerogative?
Posted by Michael Domingo on 05/19/2011 at 11:59 AM1 comments
Over on the Redmond Channel Partner site, Peter Bruzzese does his best Roger Ebert impression (sans the politics) in his
kick-the tires-review of SBS 2011.
Posted by Michael Domingo on 05/05/2011 at 11:59 AM0 comments
Remember the good old days, when it was common in IT circles to say something to the effect: "I've never been fired for recommending IBM"? Replace IBM with Microsoft and that's what you could have said for the last two decades. But the times, they are changing.
Online News Editor Kurt Mackie has an interesting overview of the features coming in System Center 2012, which is expected later this year. A big part of the feature list is its cross-platform management capabilities. You might think of this feature as Microsoft's acknowledgement that many of its customers are no longer Microsoft-only shops. Managing and distributing updates and patches to systems and devices outside the realm of Windows servers, PCs or Windows Phones is smart thinking. Microsoft needs a few more good ideas like that.
Curious: Does Microsoft technology dominate at your company? What percent of devices connected to your network are non-Microsoft products? Comment here.
Posted by Michael Domingo on 05/05/2011 at 11:59 AM3 comments
Android, iPad or iPhone apps and anything related to development on those platforms? Yes, they're hot as far as we can tell when we see readers tweeting our articles. Windows Phone 7 pieces also get tweeted, but not with the same fury. Still, we're convinced we need to continue covering it, and maybe we'll see some IT-related apps at some point for the platform that should be defining the category of enteprise apps on mobile devices. That day will come. In the mean time, check out
this piece by Chris Paoli over at Redmondmag.com.
(Oh, yeah: If you know of any truly awesome apps that would have IT folks whipping out their phones bedside, let us know here.)
Posted by Michael Domingo on 04/28/2011 at 11:59 AM1 comments
Microsoft is spitting out licenses by the googolplex, but
Unisys just came out with some data that companies are lax to migrate to it. The data comes from an online poll amassing 133 responses, so take the report for what it's worth. Even then, it's Unisys and they're pretty humongous for offering such services to their clients. When clients aren't migrating, Unisys doesn't want to be twiddling its thumbs.
I'd love to hear about your migration plans, whether it's happening or not. If you're holding off for now, I'd love to know why (budget, migration issues, other projects take precedence, etc.). You can comment here or e-mail me at [email protected].
Posted by Michael Domingo on 04/28/2011 at 11:59 AM1 comments
Yep, it was 25 years ago this week that it hit the fan in a big way. The nuclear accident in Chernobyl gives us a glimpse into the bleak future for the cities within the nuclear glow of the power plants in Japan that were crippled by the recent earthquake and tsunamis. I'm reminded of this quote from Albert Einstein, speaking on humanity's ignorance of the power of atomic energy: "A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels." (Einstein was talking about nuclear weapons, but it seems to fit the situations we're in with the nuclear reactors as well.)
Posted by Michael Domingo on 04/25/2011 at 11:59 AM0 comments