Microsoft&#39;s Software-Plus-Services Plan Praised
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Microsoft Corp. partners introduced to the company&#39;s software-plus-services strategy this week at its Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) applauded the plan, though they noted a few challenges as the company makes the transition from selling business software to offering more hosted and Web-based services.
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InfoWorld - Microsoft partners introduced to the company&#39;s software-plus-services strategy this week at its Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) applauded the plan, though they noted a few challenges as the company makes the transition from selling business software to offering more hosted and Web-based services.
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Microsoft is polishing Vista with a long-awaited service pack in hopes of greater adoption among businesses.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft's top executive outlined the company's plan to transition from a traditional software company to offering software plus services for the first time on Tuesday, giving some roadmap details for how the strategy will play out in the next year. In a keynote at the Worldwide Partner Conference in Denver, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer shed more details on the plan other executives, such as Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie, have been teasing out over the past year -- but not many more. He gave a time frame for the early part of the transition but mostly echoed what other executives have said about Microsoft's slow transition to adding hosted business services to its traditional software portfolio. "For software plus services, the time is now," Ballmer said, finishing off the first of a raft of keynotes on the first day of Microsoft's annual partner conference. He said that over the next year, Microsoft will continue to sell mostly on-premises software, but there will be more evidence of the transition to its hybrid model as the year goes on. Since Microsoft began talking about its plan to gradually transition to offering more hosted services last year in a speech by Ozzie at its TechEd Conference in Boston, many noted that the company had no choice. With such an entrenched business in enterprise and consumer desktop software, it would be impossible for Microsoft to be as nimble in offering hosted services as rivals like Google and Salesforce.com, which started their businesses as Web-based services providers. And a warmer reception for hosted services is clearly the direction the enterprise market is heading as businesses become more comfortable accessing Web-based services beyond the traditional consumer staples of e-mail and search that have been popular for years. The transition to providing more services will touch every part of Microsoft's business, but some changes will be more obvious than others, Ballmer said. The user interface will be an important place for innovation in this area, and Microsoft's Silverlight technology is the cornerstone of that, he said. Microsoft introduced Silverlight, a browser plug-in that allows for rich video and interactive media experience to be delivered within Web sites, in April. A solid services platform on which partners can build services and also that they can resell with Microsoft managing and hosting them also will be a clear sign of the transition, Ballmer said. Microsoft already is offering a combination of consumer-oriented services, such as Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Local Search, but will begin bulking up its portfolio of enterprise services as well, he said. Microsoft already has unveiled business services like Exchange Hosted Services for enterprise messaging and Office Live hosted service for small businesses. There will be new and expanded services like these as Microsoft progresses further with its software plus services strategy, Ballmer said.
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Microsoft is backing a new company that will help enterprises design, deploy, and manage Windows Mobile phones and services.
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Microsoft finally made good on a five months&#39;-old promise Thursday by upping the storage allowance for new members of its Hotmail e-mail service.
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A U.S. judge praises a new timeframe for Microsoft to fix its technical documentation required in its antitrust settlement.
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Developers had mixed reactions to Microsoft&#39;s revamped Longhorn plans Friday, with some unhappy to see the Windows update split into pieces but others pleased with what they see as a more pragmatic approach.
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Microsoft said today it would make the service pack 1 software update available this month to some customers.
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There&#39;s only one problem with Microsoft&#39;s Service Pack 2, a key upgrade to the popular Windows XP operating system: It turns some computers into large, expensive doorstops.
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Citrix Systems, Inc., has signed an agreement with Microsoft, which will enable Citrix to deliver more comprehensive access solutions on the Windows platform.
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I&#39;ve been running a new Windows XP computer from Microsoft all week. It boots up quickly and runs smoothly. I&#39;m very impressed.
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Microsoft has released tools designed to help enterprises deploy Windows Vista more easily.
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New features included in Beta 2 of the software are support for AMD's virtualization technology, as well as new integration with Active Directory, Microsoft said.
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Windows XP users have until early next year to update business systems and applications before the operating system&#39;s Service Pack (SP) 2 is fully unleashed.
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Microsoft enters the home stretch for completion of its next-generation OS.
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If large businesses use tools such as Microsoft's Solution Accelerator Business Desktop Deployment package (assuming it's easier to use than it is to say), the administrative "best practices" those tools will help them adopt could save them somewhat more per PC than what they spent for the license, according to a Gartner study advanced by a Microsoft product manager who spoke with BetaNews.