But Wait, There's More

Windows Server 2003 R2 Beta Now Available

Microsoft last week unveiled the first release candidate for Windows Server 2003 R2, an upcoming release of the operating system that will roll-up all the service packs and fixes into one bundle, in addition to bringing new functionality. In the new functionality department, users can expect improvements in remote management, identity management, and storage management, among others. Windows Server 2003 R2, which was beta tested earlier this year, (see Windows Server 2003 R2 Goes to Beta 2), is expected to ship by the end of 2005. To read more about R2 or to register for a download, see www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/r2/default.mspx.

Gates and Ballmer to Introduce New Mid Size Business Strategy

Microsoft's top executives today will unveil the company's new strategy for targeting mid size businesses. Chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates and chief executive Steve Ballmer will speak to more than 300 mid size business customers and partners in their keynote addresses for the first annual Microsoft Business Summit 2005 conference, which is being held on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington. Earlier this year, Microsoft signaled an increasing interest in gaining mid size customers when it unveiled the medium-sized business version of its Small Business Server package, the Windows Server System Solution for Midsize Businesses, which combines Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition, Exchange Server 2003 Standard Edition, and Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 Workgroup Edition and 50 client access licenses (CALs). Microsoft says the package's price tag of $6,400 is about 20 percent off the cost of buying the products separately. The Ballmer and Gates keynote is scheduled to begin at 8:45 (PDT), and will be broadcast live from the Microsoft Web site.

Microsoft Wheels and Deals, Acquires Teleo, Completes FrontBridge Buy

Microsoft announced one acquisition and completed another last week. The tech giant bought Teleo, a privately held developer of voice over IP (VOIP) telephone solutions that Microsoft expects to integrate into its MSN offerings. "It's going to be very exciting to see Teleo software extended into MSN products," says Wendell Brown, co-founder of Teleo. "The union of our respective technologies and talents has the potential to deliver great value to customers." Microsoft also finished off its acquisition of FrontBridge Technologies, a provider of hosted e-mail and security solutions. The acquisition of FrontBridge, which will continue to operate as a separate subsidiary, was first unveiled in July (see "FrontBridge Buy to Boost Microsoft's Service Biz").

IBM Unveils New Storage Software for Windows Servers

IBM yesterday unveiled Tivoli Storage Manager HSM for Windows V5.3, a new release of its policy-based hierarchical storage management (HSM) offering for Windows. TSM HSM for Windows helps a Windows shop better manage the growth of data on its primary machine by providing various tools for moving individual files, parts of file systems, or entire file systems over to the TSM server, where the data will occupy less space than it did on the primary server, while still being fully accessible in ways that users expect. Then, depending on the organizations' retention policy, those files can be migrated off disk to a more long-term storage medium, such as tape. The software, which supports Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Windows 2003 Server, and Windows 2003 Enterprise Server, will become available via IBM's Passport Advantage program on September 16.

Professional Services Industry to Bypass Discrete Manufacturing as Dominant IT Buyer

It's a sign of the times, and not necessarily a good one. According to the analysts at IDC, the professional services industry in the United States is to become the dominant buyer of server and storage technology by 2009, overtaking the discrete manufacturing sector. IDC reckons that server sales in the U.S. will grow by a compound annual growth rate of 4.8 percent from 2005 through 2009 to reach $23.9 billion and storage for those servers will grow by 6.8 percent (compounded annually) to hit $7.6 billion. IDC didn't want to give away the specific data about how much money discrete manufacturers and professional services companies, the latter of which mean accountants, consultants, lawyers, PR firms, and the like. While IDC didn't say this, I will: When we offshore our manufacturing, it is no surprise that services will take over. The decline in manufacturing would seem to be the real story here, and that is nothing to brag about. It is something to be concerned about, and something that needs to be fixed. There's a word for a country that doesn't make things: colony.

Tech Workers in the U.S. Are Getting Pessimistic about the IT Biz

The Washington Alliance of Technology Workers is probably the closest thing to a trade union that the IT industry has for workers, and in April of this year, WashTech commissioned survey firm Evans/McDonough and Harris Interactive to get a statistically sound sampling of the IT workforce in the United States and poll them on important issues. They got 369 respondents to the survey, and the levels of pessimism out there in IT land seems to be growing according to the survey. In 2003, when the economy was appearing to get back on its feet and the echoes of the various IT booms from the late 1990s were still in memory, 65 percent of the full-time IT workers polled said that they believed that the demand for IT workers would increase. In the early 2005 survey, only 54 percent of respondents thought demand would increase. The interesting bit is that contract workers are (understandably) more pessimistic now as well as then. Only 57 percent of contract workers contacted two years ago by WashTech's surveyors believed jobs would pick up, and this year, that has dropped to 41 percent. The other interesting aspect of the survey is that 48 percent of respondents have seen a pay increase in the past year, but 37 percent say their pay has remained the same and 15 percent saw a decline. Some 56 percent of workers say that they put in more than 40 hours a week, and 37 percent say they put in more than 50 hours a week.