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But Wait, There's More
Microsoft Puts the 'S' Back in WUS
Microsoft this week unveiled a new release candidate for its Windows Software Update Services (WSUS), the new name for the Windows Update Services (WUS) software that was to ship next quarter, and which was to replace the old Software Update Services (SUS) software. WSUS is the free patch and update software that will ship as a component of Windows Server operating systems. WSUS is the low-end choice of tools for automating the roll-out of patches and updates for Windows and other Microsoft applications, but it doesn't offer the same level of capabilities as Systems Management Server (SMS) or Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005. Microsoft wisely changed the name from WUS, which imported certain negative product connotations, at least in minds of some people. "Based on customer and partner feedback, the name Windows Update Services and the associated abbreviation (WUS) did not accurately describe the functionality and value of the product," Microsoft says in the WSUS FAQ.
Key Longhorn Components Ship as Community Technology Previews
Microsoft lifted the curtain a little higher on its upcoming "Longhorn" version of Windows last week when it shipped the first Community Technology Preview (CTP) copy of its new Windows communications technology, codenamed "Indigo." The company also issued the second CTP of "Avalon," the codename for Windows' new presentation technology; Avalon's first CTP was unveiled in October 2003. Avalon and Indigo, along with the new WinFS file system, were originally planned to form the core of Longhorn. However, when Microsoft ripped WinFS from Longhorn, that left Avalon and Indigo--along with the WinFX development tools for building with Avalon and Indigo--as the big new features in Longhorn, with WinFS coming down the road later as a service pack update or a new release. However, Avalon and Indigo won't be exclusive to Longhorn, either, since Microsoft decided last year that Avalon and Indigo would be back-cast for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.
Microsoft Expands Source Code Sharing in Europe as the EU Considers Fine
Representatives from seven Eastern European countries will be able to view Microsoft Windows source code under an expansion of its Shared Source Initiative announced this week. Enterprises, computer makers, systems integrators, Microsoft professionals, and academic institutions from Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia, and Slovenia gain the ability to peer into the guts of Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows CE, and Windows Server 2003 as part of the expansion. The decision to expand its SSI program is being hailed as a smart move by Microsoft, which was threatened last week with $5 million in daily fines by the European Commission for failure to properly adhere to a ruling covering the sharing of source code in Europe; the EU has not yet decided whether to impose the fine. Sharing Windows source code with seven more countries "is another important step" in the SSI program, says Jason Matusow, director of the Microsoft's SSI. "Transparency leads to greater trust and opportunity," says Matusow, one of a growing population of Microsoft employees writing Web logs. You can read Matusow's blog at blogs.msdn.com/jasonmatusow.
Microsoft Announces New Business Intelligence Tools for Great Plains
Microsoft acquired a business intelligence tool from a business partner to boost the OLAP capabilities of its Great Plains ERP software, its Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) unit announced last week. The acquisition of Analysis Cubes for Excel from Professional Advantage of Fargo, North Dakota, will provide a "foundation layer" for OLAP and let Great Plains users explore and analyze their ERP-resident data from different angles and in greater depth. In addition to Analysis Cubes for Excel, Microsoft announced two other new business intelligence capabilities for Great Plains 8.0 Professional Edition, including Key Performance Indicators for MBS Business Portal and integration with the Office Solution Accelerator for Sarbanes-Oxley. MBS also took the opportunity to make several other Great Plains product announcements, including a new Grant Management module for non-profits, an enhanced Analytical Accounting module, and a new Great Plains Extender module that helps customers do things like add new user-defined fields to their windows.
Merrill Lynch Says Server Market Could Slow in 2005 and 2006
Steven Milunovich, the head IT analyst at brokerage house Merrill Lynch, thinks the server market may be heading for a slowdown. In the late 1990s, the server market was bolstered by two killer app problems--the Y2K millennium bug and the dot-com boom. Since that time, he says server shipments have been increasingly driven by an upgrade cycle whereby companies are replacing aging equipment with newer gear. According to statistics compiled by Milunovich, the four-quarter rolling average of server ages in the worldwide installed base is declining after rising pretty steadily between the fourth quarter of 1999 and the fourth quarter of 2002, rising from an average of 1.8 years to 2.05 years. The average server age (again, his data plots the four-quarter rolling average of server ages, so this math has a tendency to flatten out bumpy data and you have to be careful using it) held steady for the next year, and started to decline at the end of 2003. As 2004 came to a close, the average age of the server installed base was 1.95, and appeared to be heading south. The decline in average server age corresponded to diminishing server shipment growth, and the increasing server age in 2002 and 2003 helped get the server market growing again.
Milunovich reckons the uptick in server sales and shipments, which has been remarkable in the past four quarters, is really just an "echo" of the Y2K and dot-com buildouts. He believes server revenue growth could shift from the 6 percent growth the industry booked in 2004 (according to figures from IDC) down to zero in the 2005 to 2006 timeframe. And in terms of server shipment growth, Milunovich thinks it could shift from the 20 percent growth we saw at the end of 2004 to the low teens--and do so despite the growing use of Wintel and Lintel iron by companies large and small around the world. He also expects Windows growth on servers will all but stop by the end of 2007 and Linux growth will cool as well, dropping from 44 percent growth in 2004 to about 15 percent growth by 2008. Significantly, by 2008, Linux will be the only server platform showing revenue growth, according to Merrill Lynch's models, which are based on IDC and proprietary data.
HP to Attack SMB Market with New Blade Packaging
The great thing about blade servers is that they can pack a lot of computing power in a small space; but this also means the amount of electrical power they draw and the amount of heat they generate is also great. The blade servers from market leaders IBM and Hewlett-Packard draw three-phase, 240-volt power, in fact. Needing to have this special wiring for a blade server limits the usefulness of blades, particularly among small and medium sized businesses that do not have what we might call a traditional data center. While neither IBM nor HP has gotten a 120-volt blade server chassis out the door that can support Xeon-based processors (HP used to sell a Pentium blade server that did, but it was not enthusiastically purchased by customers, so HP has relegated it to a remote PC solution), HP is trying to get one step closer.
This week, HP said that in May it will begin shipping a special external power adapter that can power up a single BladeSystem chassis even though it plugs into single-phase, 220-volt power. This power adapter will fit in a 1U rack form factor and will be sold as a bundled solution to SMB customers are part of HP's "Smart Office" initiative. HP says about half of its blade servers are sold into medium sized businesses, but that it wants to push the technology down into smaller organizations. To that end, says Vince Gayman, vice president of small and midsize product solutions at HP, the company will host a series of road shows in major cities worldwide to introduce customers to blade servers. As part of a "Blades for Business" program, the company will also be rolling out soft bundles of blades, storage, and implementation services to make it easier for SMB customers to pick blades over traditional rack or tower servers. The idea is to have a target price in the range of $20,000 for a complete hardware setup. HP and its partners believe they can sell this into the SMB base. The idea, says Gayman, is to lower the crossover point where using blades is preferable. Currently that point is from 6 to 8 servers; Gayman's target is the 4 to 5 server level.
Fiorina Misses Out on World Bank Gig
Last week, American president George Bush surprised many in the IT and international political communities when he named Paul Wolfowitz, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense who was one of the architects of American policy in Iraq, to head the World Bank. Former Hewlett-Packard chairman and CEO, Carly Fiorina, had been rumored to be in the running for the president position at the World Bank, but her appointment, considering she was ousted rather unceremoniously from HP a few months ago, would have its own problems. For the past several decades, the United States has picked the head of the World Bank, which finances big Third World projects using First World investments (primarily from the G7 countries) and European countries have nominated the head of the International Monetary Fund, which provides emergency relief for countries experiencing financial disasters. Europe has reacted somewhat coolly to Bush's nomination of Wolfowitz, so Fiorina might get another shot at the top World Bank job. Then again, it may go to someone else. Louis Gerstner, who is the former head of IBM and who is currently chairman of The Carlyle Group, comes immediately to mind.
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