Micosoft – Server OS maker par excellence

Microsoft gets a lot of flak for its many lame products. It’s difficult to decide which is the lamest of all. The Me too Windows Phone, the pathetic Bing or the “so NOT “ Microsoft Live? Or maybe the Windows desktop OS? Its on death row, its head neatly greased, and waits happily and patiently to be executed - even though it will take years. And Microsoft Office can now be DONE online, but cant DO online. It just waits. To be undone by time.

But behind all this doom and gloom shines Microsoft’s little lauded and often forgotten jewel – the Windows Server OS. Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 8 even more so, are the ultimate in server computing. Yes, if you want to run Apache with a PHP app (Wordpress), nothing beats Linux. But for everything else you need Windows Server. Windows Server is performant. Scaleable. Manageable. Programmable.

With terminal services you can virtualize desktops and apps. And its inbuilt virtualization makes it easy for administrators to run several machines on one server and easily configure redundancy and automated backup of not just apps but the whole OS. Windows Server makes it easy to go to the cloud, but allows you to decide to wait. Windows Server is THAT reliable and manageable you can hold on to your precious data a while longer. Share your data with Google or your hosting provider at some point in the future.

And Windows Server 8, already far ahead, lifts the bar even higher. Hyper-V is greatly improved. The internal switches between VMs can now be intelligently configured and traffic throttled or filtered. Hyper-V Replica can backup virtual machines automatically itself at intervals. And differentially. Put your server back in time with a few mouse clicks in case of emergency.

Storage for your servers can be virtualized and moved to other hardware with a few mouse clicks. You can move virtualized servers onto other servers - LIVE.

You can even send a LIVE VM to a remote host, thanks to network virtualization. Domain controllers can now also be virtualized and the Hyper V hypervisor will recognize domain controllers and deal with them intelligently avoiding conflicts.

And Windows Server management got easier too. Not just the management of a single server but of all your servers, including virtualized ones.

Windows Server 8 is cool. And it’s the future of Microsoft.

Microsoft and Skype = Why?

I still can not see benefit for Microsoft. At least not a 8,5 billion benefit. OK so Skype is a big brand, has some decent infrastructure & technology and 660 million users. Thats all good. But most of those users are already Microsoft Users, running Windows. So its kinda like buying customers you already have. The infrastructure is decent, but linux based, and the technology cant be worth that much money.

Microsoft has become very communications focused, it would appear as Bill Gates and Steven Ballmer view this as the way forward for Microsoft. However Microsoft's core business, operating systems and productivity software (office) is under attack and needs to advance much more quickly for Microsoft to keep that business long term. iPads, Android tablets and soon GoogleChrome books are capturing significant market share and changing the way we interact with computers. The "desktop", as we know it, is fast becoming history. Its just too static and difficult to manage. So with the desktop being Microsoft's core business, I am sure Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates have some plan for Skype to push forward their Windows and Office products - but i am not getting it. How exactly?

Until now i have not read any convincing analysis or comments by Microsoft how Skype can really help Microsoft push forward. I would think a significant buy at the operating system or enterprise level would make more sense. Maybe Vmware, Citrix, or potentially invest in hardware vendors to make notebooks that are more integrated with Windows to be able to match a MacBook air or iPad.

Skype will of course help the Microsoft Lync product. However, Microsoft Lync is hardly a significant product for Microsoft. Not now and neither in the future. At the same time Microsoft is making it self into a telecom company, and of course telecom companies are going to be wary of this development and avoid Lync. VoIP providers worldwide would be silly to push interoperability with Lync, after all its likely that Microsoft will take their business sooner or later. And telecom companies still have considerable clout.

So, I remain skeptical of this purchase by Microsoft.

Microsoft and Nokia to marry?

There is a rumour going around that Microsoft and Nokia are courting each other. A partnership would make perfect sense. Microsoft and Nokia are both loosing the battle for the Smartphone / Tablet market. Apple iPhone is the cream of the crop, with a far superior product. Android is rapidly gaining market share because it more or less does what iPhone does (without the finesse, style, and class) but at a much lower price tag. These top two are followed at a distance by Nokia and Microsoft. Nokia still has a name and significant market share. But its on death row with its hopeless Symbian Operating System. Its having its head shaved and soaped without making as much as a peep. Their Symbian OS has little developer support. In fact little support at all. But Nokia still has market share. Significant market share.

At the same time, Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 is too far behind and not significantly better enough to really bridge the gap to Apple and Android. It works, but that’s about it. That said, Microsoft has a significant developer community behind it. And developing for Windows Phone 7 is going to be easier for most developers then developing for Apple or Android. But there is no significant market.

Now take Microsoft Windows Phone 7 with its huge Microsoft developer community and marry that to a still powerful mobile brand name with still significant market share, and, hey presto, you have a serious contender. A serious number 3 that with the right moves could potentially do some damage. Sure, it might anger some of Microsoft’s hardware partners. But none of them are committed to Microsoft themselves? Samsung does it with anybody and messes with just about any OS, including its own self made ‘Bada’ OS. Surely a strong and loyal partnership with Nokia might be worth it for Microsoft.

Microsoft could buy Nokia, or it could simply ‘incentivize‘ them. Microsoft is still a huge cash machine, and sitting on a sickeningly large pile of cash. Steve Ballmer has been known to spend money on sillier things (Search and online ads for example). But who knows, maybe it doesnt even have to go that far.

I for one believe the Smartphone/tablet market is strategic to Microsoft. And one that it has ignored for a long time. Seeing the development of Microsoft share value in the last 12 years its not like the stock market is overly excited by Microsoft’s ‘Vision’.

So its really time for Steve Ballmer to do something. Crack open the wallet and spend where it matters….

MS CEO Steve Ballmer on the iPad

I should have posted this video with my last blog post, but seeing it again its crystal clear to me that Steven Ballmer is not seeing the threat of tablets and smartphones to the PC. Clearly Steve Jobs lost the 'battle of the PC', so what he is doing now is obsoleting the PC.... A process that will take quite a few years but its well underway. The Windows client needs to get mobile and fast!

Android and Iphone/Ipad/Itouch - the future consumer OS?

I was reading Steve Ballmers comments at the D8 Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, recently in which he said that Microsoft will win the tablet race and beat Ipad and Android tablets. He also said the desktop PC/Notebook is here to stay claiming that tablets will be purchased in addition to your notebook or desktop. I’d disagree.

As Android and the Iphone/Itouch/Ipad OS become more and more powerful, many households will require less notebooks/desktops with Windows and at some point maybe none at all. In my house we have several notebooks, but with the advent of the Ipad/Itouch, they have become less and less used. You can easily check your email, read a webpage or watch a video on an Itouch /Ipad and its faster, easier to navigate and starts up immediately.

These devices are unlikely to replace the corporate desktop. However, isn’t home use how Windows conquered the corporate desktop? In the early nineties, Windows was used at home first and people simply demanded to have Windows at work since they knew how to use it. So with home users switching to Ipad/Itouch/Iphone and Android powered devices at home, the long term “attack” on Microsoft's cash cow - the corporate desktop - has started.

Which is why it is so important that Microsoft makes an impact with Windows Phone 7.

And things are not looking good. Windows mobile was a disaster. A terrible OS, that has been steadily loosing market share in recent years. So Windows Phone 7 enters the market with a history of failures in its name. And it gets to compete with the cult like Iphone & Ipad, and with the booming market for Android based phone and tablet devices.

Microsoft versus Apple in tablets pretty much looks set to be a repeat of the Ipod versus the Zune. Microsoft enters the market a couple of years later with a “me too” , with little or no innovations and zero “coollness”.

So beating Android is Microsoft's best hope. Problem is, Android is pretty good, improving fast and is free. Its available in numerous form factors, from numerous vendors and there are lots of applications for it. I am running a Google Nexus, and apart from Battery life this is a pretty cool device.

So whoever heads up the Windows Phone 7 division is going to have his work cut out for him. He will face an uphill battle against formidable opponents. Its going to need an innovator, a visionary. And guess who appointed himself head of the Windows Phone 7 division last week. None other then Mr Steve “We have a good mobile phone strategy, apple sells no mobile phones today” Ballmer himself.

Place your bets ladies and Gentlemen....

Microsoft endorses software based PBX for Windows

Last week Microsoft announced that the next version of Microsoft OCS 2007 will include PBX functionality and will be renamed to Communications Server. The product will be released some time late this year.

So what does this mean to the PBX market and in particular to 3CX and our partners? Well first and foremost it’s a huge endorsement of what we have been doing until now: The market is heading towards software based PBX, and away from proprietary systems such as Cisco and Avaya and away from Linux black box systems such as Trixbox or Switchvox.

Microsoft’s marketing investment in communicating this to customers will significantly enlarge the Windows based software PBX market. This is likely to be a huge shot in the arm for 3CX marketing – we now have an ‘ally’ in explaining why your next PBX should be Windows based.

At the same time, we have ‘gained’ a significant competitor and the question is how much of this now huge Windows PBX market will choose Microsoft Communications Server over 3CX Phone System.

The days that Microsoft would enter a market and take it over are long gone. Look at Microsoft ISA server or One Care Anti Virus. Microsoft has a hard time competing against VMware. Does everybody use Sharepoint or even Internet Explorer? And in the case of telephony it does not have a big strategic advantage in terms of integration with other Microsoft products. The Office 2010 communication APIs will be available to 3CX and we will achieve a similar level of Office integration.

Sure the Microsoft brand is strong, and Microsoft will capture significant market share. But there are millions of companies out there that are searching for an easy to use, open standard and inexpensive solution and that is something that Microsoft Communications Server most definitely is not. And they will look towards 3CX........

Windows is Back!

As a long time Windows user, I remember the early versions - Windows 3.1 was a real breakthrough not only for Microsoft, but also for the industry. It brought a visual interface within reach of ‘the masses’ and spurred on the software industry. Four years later another giant step forward was made with the multi-tasking and ultra stable Windows NT 3.51/4.

Since then the progress has been down right disappointing. Microsoft got side tracked into pointless products, trying to compete in every market space imaginable, and as a result its core products got neglected.

Windows XP was OK, Windows Vista was disappointing. Enter Windows 7…..

Windows 7 feels fast, stable, looks good, is functional. Windows 7 can confidently and proudly walk in the footsteps of its revolutionary ancestors, Windows 3.1 and NT. Windows 7 is far ahead of its competition in terms of looks, compatibility, and manageability. It runs on any half decent computer. I even installed it on a 6 year old notebook and it runs fine.

Microsoft critics might talk about ‘open source’ and free Linux, or the expensive and proprietary/closed Apple (in the sense of API's and control by Apple). No chance.

Windows 7 will re-establish Microsoft leadership as the consumer and desktop OS of the future. I wrote a post about the danger of Chrome OS for the future of Microsoft and calling them to action. I believe Windows 7 is a good response to the Google Chrome OS threat. Sure, Google Chrome might do well on Netbooks, but I don’t give it much chance in the corporate world, as well as with consumers who want more then a browser.

I like Windows 7. I’ve decided. I will be holding on to my Microsoft shares :-) !

Of Apple Iphone versus Windows Mobile

I recently switched from a Windows mobile phone to an Iphone. Yes a little late. Rarely have I seen a technology gap so large between 2 products. So what does the picture have to do with it? Well, keen divers and snorklers amongst you might avail themselves of the latest Windows mobile phone at no charge! Its at the bottom of that sea. (TIP: Its a greek island) Finders = keepers. Considering the state of Windows mobile, and that particular phone, I have an inkling that this might not be enough incentive to get your goggles out. SO....... let me add a FREE 1 MONTH holiday in same island to that!

Oh Mr Balmer, what were you smoking when you could have bought Apple for a pittance??

Google Chrome OS – Mr Gates, please come back?

The announcement by Google of its new OS has the industry buzzing - and it will certainly be interesting to see the clash of these titans. Google will strike Microsoft right in its heartland– the Windows desktop system and its accompanying office package. Of course, the OS is still very much 'vaporware', but the threat is real.

I remember the ‘attacks’ by IBM (OS/2), Novell (Dr DOS), Corel & Borland (on Office), as well as Linux in more recent years. Each time Microsoft prevailed simply because it had the better product, the better marketing and the competing product was just not ‘different’ enough. So Microsoft has the track record to shake off Google - only things are little different now.

The market parameters have changed and so has Microsoft. Microsoft is no longer the lean, mean and focused company that it was in the nineties. It has not focused on its main stay products – Windows XP/Vista and Office. There has been little innovation for those products whilst the market has been demanding faster and more manageable versions.

Instead, Microsoft has been messing about making Financial and CRM software (Dynamics), VoIP / Conferencing software (OCS/Response point), Firewall software (ISA server), Xbox, Zune, Online Search, Online ads - and not been very successful at it! Does Microsoft need to be in those businesses? I think not. The stock market does not think so either. Luckily Google has been kind enough to give Microsoft a headstart (Chrome OS will not come until 2010)

Windows is an excellent operating system and Microsoft has the credentials to come out victorious against Google. But it will require focus and commitment.

Who better then Bill Gates to lead such an effort? He has done it before in 96 when he embraced the internet. He has the vision to do it. Build a brand new netbook OS!

As a Microsoft Shareholder: Mr Gates, please consider a come back to head up this effort!

Advantages of a Windows based PBX

Last week I released a whitepaper explaining the advantages of a Windows based PBX over an appliance or a linux based PBX. I detailed the top 10 benefits. You can view the whitepaper in PDF format here. 

I also created a short presentation on youtube. Feedback welcome!

Windows Server 2008 Foundation – good – very good!

Microsoft announced a new server version – Windows Server 2008 Foundation. In a nutshell this is a lower cost OEM version of Windows Server 2008 – of course a few features have been removed but all the key features are there including Active Directory.  Essentially a File, Print (and why not PBX) server for Small to Medium business. 

With server costs as low and hardware specs as good as they are today, the average brand new rack mounted $1000-$1500 server will easily be able to handle being a PBX as well as a file and print server. 

And if such a server runs Windows Server already, pre-installed just like the way you buy a notebook, then choosing a Windows based PBX as your next communications solution is pretty much a no brainer. :-) 

Data, Data….. Where are you? Gdrive is calling…..

Considering the flurry of news about the rumored Gdrive today, it would appear that the much awaited Google Gdrive data storage is just around the corner. And this is good news for Google fans like myself. Although there are several free data storage services available, I prefer to have it all tied to my google account.

I am assuming the new Gdrive service will be free, though I don’t see how they will be getting ad revenue out of it. Wait… maybe they will insert ads into the documents you store on the free space? :-)

Together with the Gdrive rumors are the forecasts of the death of the PC and as always Microsoft. I really cant see how an online data storage service means the death of the PC or Microsoft for that matter. We are going to need a user friendly OS, and therefore Windows, to keep running our applications, and access our shiny new online data storage.

Cisco buys Jabber – The future of XMPP looks bright….

Last week Cisco bought Jabber, the maker of Instant Messaging products and the company behind the XMPP standard for Instant Messaging. The XMPP standard has already gained a lot of traction – it's the technology behind Google talk and many chat servers including Openfire, ejabberd and more.

Cisco will be integrating Jabber technology into all its unified communications products and making XMPP the de facto standard for CISCO products. Cisco is a pretty nice name to have on your list of 'Allies' and this is a tremendous shot in the arm for the XMPP standard and for Internet Messaging in general.

Internet Messaging needs a strong, ubiquitous open standard and it looks like XMPP is going to prevail. Is the death bell ringing for proprietary internet messaging servers such as Office Communications Server (OCS)...?

Microsoft launches free Hyper V server based on windows 2008 core

Microsoft just announced that it has made Hyper V server available for free download. To be clear, we are not talking about the Hyper V that is bundled in Windows 2008, but a separate, stand alone ‘distribution’ of Windows 2008 core and Hyper V. The host license itself is free, but of course any copies of Windows that you run virtually on the machine must be licensed. This makes Hyper V server the functional equivalent of VMware ESX. See the comparison between Hyper V server and Windows 2008 here (scroll down). Vmware and Microsoft are making virtualization more accessible and more cost effective, but the biggest gain will be that both firms are likely to continue to deliver virtualisation innovations faster then ever before.

In 3CX terms this means that virtualising the PBX is now even easier and more cost effective. By virtualising the PBX, you can save on hardware costs, energy costs and above all administration/management time. Think about it – you can make a complete backup of your PBX on a DVD!

The future of chat and presence - XMPP? Or Microsoft's OCS Bulkware?

There is a lot of talk about chat and presence in the enterprise. And of course as an IP PBX / Unified communications vendor 3CX is closely looking at chat. I am not sure most companies need chat, but definitely there are going to be enterprises using it. Right now chat in the enterprise (if allowed) is probably fragmented, with users installing clients of popular chat networks.

So what are the options? Of course the ever proprietary Microsoft has a solution - its 'Jack of all trades, master of none' product called Microsoft Office Communications Server. It does chat. Kind of. It has a proprietary client which works only with OCS. OCS itself requires a truck load of servers to setup and doesnt talk to any of the leading chat services. So with OCS you can now chat to the guy in the office next door. Great. Surely enterprise chat only works if you can use it to connect to todays AND tomorrows popular chat networks? Yahoo, MSN, Google et all? And talk to your customers, suppliers - the world basically? I am pretty sure chat can only be succesfull if based on an open standard. Just like the web is, email is, voip is.

Is XMPP this open standard protocol that will open up chat & worldwide presence? Its been around for a long time and has a lot of support. The Jabber chat server and its derivatives are based on it. Google uses it in its chat network, and there are loads of gateways to other chat networks implemented and working. If you would want chat, wouldnt you want an XMPP based solution? They are inexpensive (with several free options) and with lots of client options.

So where does 3CX tie in? We're evaluating our options how to integrate into enterprise chat. Do we create a simple integrated chat solution with SIP simple? Do we integrate with OCS? Or do we integrate XMPP and allow phone presence to be viewable in any XMPP compatible chat server and client?

I'd welcome the feedback from our 3CX community! Is chat important to you? If yes - standards based?

Mr Ballmer! Two times zero still makes zero....!

These financial ‘analysts’ make me laugh some times. Microsoft’s intended purchase of Yahoo is supposed to ‘loosen Googles grip on ads’, ‘rock the foundation of online search’, to name just a few of the quotes I have seen. Truth of the matter is that both Yahoo and Microsoft have negligible market share in online ads, and for a very good reason: Their platforms are both very bad and have very little presence. No one uses the Yahoo or Microsoft search engine – only first time internet users that use IE's default and basically don’t know what they are doing. Not a great target market. The Adwords platform is light years ahead of Yahoo or Microsoft, has the *entire* market and is backed up by excellent support from a basically excellent company. Just how two losers uniting is supposed to beat Google is beyond me. Or am I missing something? Microsoft is $44 billion down and has just doubled its online market share to Zero. Mr Ballmer, you won’t beat Google on search and ads. Make Windows and Office better, and you might have a fighting chance to survive the Google onslaught and avoid that smart little Apple right behind you morphing into a Windows, Office and ultimately Microsoft killer.

ODF Alliance - Microsoft OOXML 1-0

The ODF alliance, the organization proposing an open standard document format, hit back brilliantly at some "research" performed by the Burton Group (aka the Microsoft Propaganda Department) , in which it claimed OOXML was superior. Not surprisingly this "research" by the Burton group was provided free of charge - of course because it had been entirely funded by Microsoft in advance and is to be used as another piece in the Microsoft FUD strategy.

The answer of the ODF alliance provides a good read, check it out here. Its well written and i think a clear win for ODF! Not surprisingly the Burton Group also published some free "research" in which it warns against Google Domains. What a coincidence. I wonder who paid for that free "research". The Microsoft propaganda machine is obviously busy, but are people still listening?

Sending Exchange & Outlook to the digital trashcan.....

I recently chucked the Exchange / Outlook Fatware combo for Google Apps. And i havent looked back since. Google Apps comes with the best anti spam & anti virus in town, 6 gigs per mailbox (and counting), and is super easy to administer. You can access your mail anywhere and its backed up by Google. No need to worry about a backup mail service or about moving ISP. And its free too. What more can you wish for? Even Santa Claus cant improve on that.

Whats more, now I can actually search for mail efficiently (and find stuff). Truth is, Outlook hasn't really progressed since Outlook 97 - which wasn't very good to start with. But if you want to continue using Outlook, you can - Google recently added IMAP support. So you can replace those cumbersome public folders with Google IMAP enabled mailboxes. To top it off, Google Domains has calendaring too, as well as a neat little user portal.

If you want to start 2008 without mail hassles, check it out! Meanwhile, have a great New Year celebration :-)

Microsoft Unified Communications Server launched....

No one other than Bill Gates launched Microsoft's entry into the VOIP market last week. Microsoft Unified Communications Server is a web conferencing and chat server that can be integrated with existing PBXs (Although the enterprise version has a switching module). Microsoft has validated the VOIP market and this will definitely help educate the market about the benefits of software-based phone systems. Though the route it has taken is a strange one - it's counting on partnerships with PBX vendors to create the total solution. Exactly why PBX vendors would want to partner on this plan is unclear to me, though it seems Nortel has offered to be the first lamb and bought into the idea of letting the Trojan horse into their customer base. I believe CISCO, Avaya and others will put up a tougher fight, leaving resellers to do the integration with the existing PBXs on their own.

Traditional PBXs are more or less black boxes and are notoriously difficult to integrate with. Coupled with the fact that most Microsoft Resellers have little telecommunications experience, I believe that it is going to be an uphill battle for Microsoft.

Not surprisingly Bill Gates announced the demise of the hardware based PBX, (along with message that it wants to partner with PBX vendors), and that a software switch will be doing that work in the future , obviously supplied by Microsoft. As a matter of fact, 3CX can do software based switching today ....

So Microsoft enters yet another market. But will it be successful? Microsoft has launched a series of unsuccessful products that have had a hard time getting significant market share - Microsoft ISA server, Dynamics, Virtual Server to name just a few. Even at no cost, Virtual Server is unpopular. Yet its core products, Operating systems and Desktop applications, are under heavy attack. Vista is a spectacular failure.

I can't help thinking that under Steve Ballmer Microsoft has lost its focus. Frustrated by a share price that has been static for nearly 7 years, Microsoft is behaving like a cornered dog, taking bites at any market it thinks might help its plight. Focusing its efforts on the release of a truly good operating system and desktop application upgrade might help Microsoft more....

Microsoft buys Aquantive

Microsoft spending 6 billion for an acquisition! Thats very rare. And for aquantive.... Seems like a lot of cash indeed. Microsoft is looking to reverse its fortunes in the Ad business... But i doubt that this acquistion will increase their chances. I'd say their chances of effectively competing with Google we're zero before this acquistion, and about two times that after shelling out 6 billion.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/05/18/microsoft-to-buy-aquantive_1.html