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Microsoft Reaches Out to Reseller Channel with New Online Tool

Microsoft launched a new online tool this week that it hopes will foster the creation of alliances and partnerships in its reseller channel. The new tool, called the Microsoft Partner Channel Builder, is designed to help Gold Certified and Certified Partners collaborate with one another, form new alliances, identify opportunities in new markets and geographies, and deliver new solutions to customers. Gold Certified and Certified Partners can use the online tool to describe the solutions and skills they can offer, as well as any additional skills they need (that other partners can offer) to meet the specific needs of their customers. Other registered partners can also access Partner Channel Builder tool, but only in browse-only mode, and only to find and contact potential business partners. "Partner Channel Builder allows partners to draw upon the demonstrated skills and expertise of the vast Microsoft partner community to complement their solutions offerings and win more business," said Kevin Wueste, general manager of the Microsoft Partner Program." Microsoft has more than 240,000 partners in its program. Partners can access the tool at www.microsoft.com/partner/channelbuilder.

Microsoft Reaches Out to Small Business Users with New Online Tools

Small businesses looking to grow on the Windows platform have more Microsoft technical and marketing resources directed at them in the form of Microsoft's Small Business Center Web Site, which it refreshed with new capabilities last week. New tools available to small business users include a Security Guidance Center, an online forum for small businesses users to talk to other small business users, and an interactive tool that allows small business users to enter their profile and get a personalized recommendation on the solutions available to meet their small business needs. Doug Leland, general manager of Microsoft's Worldwide Small and Midmarket Solutions & Partner group, says the addition of the new resources is the result of feedback from 20,000 valuable users, users like Shirley Tan, owner of AmericanBridal.com, a four-person e-tailer specializing in wedding favors, and based in San Francisco. "I'm running a tight ship," Tan says, "and I need a Web site that can help me be more effective in managing my online business, a site that offers online tools that provide business solutions, technology support, and dialogue with experts and peers." In other words, a site just like Microsoft's Small Business Center.

New ISA Server 2004 Enterprise Edition Provides Centralized Management

Microsoft is launching a new high-end version of its firewall and Web server accelerator. Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 Enterprise Edition, which was announced in mid-February and will ship this month, offers users the capability to manage multiple network devices and enforce consistent firewall policies, on multiple devices, from a central location. The new release also brings support for the Cache Array Routing Protocol, which Microsoft says increases the speed and availability of Web content by efficiently sharing the cache database across multiple servers. Scalability is also boosted thanks to support for Network Load Balancing and symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) on servers with eight or more processors. Microsoft also says ISA Server 2004 Enterprise Edition improves the security of users accessing Microsoft Exchange servers with Outlook Web Access and Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 RPC. Microsoft also announced the immediate availability of the Microsoft ISA Server Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005. Microsoft suggests retailers sell ISA Server 2004 Enterprise Edition for $5,999 per processor.

New BizTalk Server 2004 Plug-In Works with RosettaNet Trading Network

Microsoft yesterday announced a new plug-in that enables its BizTalk Server 2004 integration software to work with RosettaNet, a trading network for retailers, distributors, and manufacturers in the electronic supply chain. The BizTalk Server 2004 Accelerator for RosettaNet is certified RosettaNet Ready, and is fully compliant with RosettaNet Implementation Framework (RNIF) versions 1.1 and 2.0. Microsoft says it has attracted more than 4,000 BizTalk Server customers since the product was first launched in 2000. In addition to the RosettaNet plug-in, Microsoft offers accelerators for the HL7 and HIPAA healthcare initiatives, the SWIFT financial services initiative, and the UCCnet global data synchronization initiative; and adapters for MySAP, MQSeries, the Web Services Enhancements 2.0 (WSE) plug-in to Visual Studio.

Secunia Describes Phishing Flaw in IE 6

With Patch Tuesday a week away, will Microsoft fix a newly found phishing flaw in Internet Explorer? Microsoft engineers are reportedly aware of a flaw in IE 6 running on Windows XP SP2 that opens the door to a URL spoofing attack utilizing pop-up banners. Although the flaw could be used to launch so-called phishing attacks--where users are tricked into disclosing personal information like bank account numbers when led to a fraudulent Web site that's disguised to look like a trusted company's Web site--there are no reported incidents yet. Software security firm Secunia published its description of the vulnerability, which it calls the "Microsoft Internet Explorer Popup Title Bar Spoofing Weakness," last Monday. Phishing was singled out as one of the major threats to Windows security during a speech by Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates at a recent industry event (see "Microsoft Says It Is Making Strides in Boosting Security").

MessageOne Unveils Super Affordable Windows High Availability Management System

MessageOne recently launched a new high availability service for Windows shops. The Austin, Texas, company's new OneSwitch offering combines a Web-based management console and agents for specific Windows applications with the "market-leading replication engine" of a user's choice. The company claims that OneSwitch users can fail over (or fail back) to a fully synchronized backup server in 15 minutes or less, at the push of a button. It offers OneSwitch agents for Microsoft Exchange, Exchange clusters, Exchange Outlook Web Access, IIS Server, SQL Server, Citrix Metaframe, and Blackberry; it's also compatible with any other program that can run as a Windows service. The offering starts at $150 per server, or $300 per pair, per month.

MKS Reports 108 Percent Growth in Change Management License Revenue

These are good times for companies that sell software change management systems. The most recent financial results at MKS attest to this fact. MKS, which helps companies manage the development, modification, and roll-out of code for Windows, Unix, OS/400, and other platforms, reported that revenue from sales of change management licenses increased by a whopping 108 percent year-over-year for its third quarter of fiscal 2005, which ended January 31. Although MKS didn't say it in its announcement, the high rate of new sales was almost certainly driven by last fall's Sarbanes-Oxley Act deadline, which required public American companies to display a certain degree of control over their internal development processes or risk sending their CEOs and CFOs to the penitentiary. The combination of maintenance fees and sales of new change management licenses rose 64 percent to $8.3 million, while revenue from its growing services business doubled year-over-year, the company said. MKS' total quarterly revenue was $10.6 million, a 46 percent increase from last year. These heady sales figures tipped MKS into the black, with net income of $800,000, compared to a net loss of $1.1 million last year, and a net gain of $200,000 for the quarter ended October 31, 2004.