Microsoft needs to get real when it comes to hosting

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

So the reports are that Microsoft believes there is a huge untapped demand for internet-hosted cloud-based services like Exchange Server, SharePoint and so forth.

One report, from our friends at The Register, states: “Nine out of 10 will also want to deploy the web-based versions of Exchange, SharePoint, and Office 2010 – due in the first half of next year. Stephen Elop (Microsoft’s business applications chief) didn’t reveal the source of the data behind his claim, but the message was blunt.”

I think not. In fact, I will eat my hat if it gets 90% business uptake of hosted services. The reliance on unreliable internet connectivity is scary beyond belief, and although I am certain that Microsoft itself will have huge deployments of this stuff, it forgets that its cloud services are effectively local storage to their network infrastructure. It’s a very different matter when your business is sitting in a village outside Newcastle.

And, to bang the drum once again, the SLA and contractual documentation is still a frightening mess. At least Dick Turpin had the good grace to wear a mask.

Honey, I downloaded the internet

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

You really do have to be careful when you sign up to one of those bandwidth-limited ISP accounts. It might be cheap, especially in these financially tough times, but you must ensure you don’t bust your way out of your monthly limit and run up some huge bills.

Fortunately, I’m with an ISP that doesn’t seem to mind how much data I pull through the network each month. That’s within reason of course.

But at the end of the day, he knows I am limited by having two ADSL lines and that I am a fair distance from the exchange. Think 1Mb per line and you’d be about right.

So you will doubtless be as amused as I was to see this usage log from my trusty TZ190 Sonicwall firewall. Apparently my main desktop computer had managed to download 16,777,215 Terabytes of data. And it seemingly did that in just 5 days 9 hours.

Yah boo sucks to the Acceptable Usage Policy – I think I have a backup of the entire internet now.

No upgrades to Windows 7? Microsoft is doing us a favour

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

Microsoft’s pricing and upgrading plans for Windows 7 in Europe are bordering on a farce. You can’t upgrade from a previous version of Windows, but you can elsewhere in the world. You can buy the upgrade product but you will get full retail box instead.

And it won’t come with Internet Explorer 8, in a strangely “the sky is falling down” reaction to the antitrust spat with the EU. Microsoft hopes that this is enough, the EU doesn’t appear to be convinced.

But this could be a marvellous thing indeed. By forcing you to wipe the machine and start afresh, it is possible to ensure that all that accumulated crap is wiped from the machine. A clean OS is a happy OS. (more…)

Will Microsoft’s Project Natal prove a joy for business too?

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

At first glance, the “demonstrated, ready to ship but really just not yet” Microsoft Project Natal looks fascinating. Finally a push forward on the otherwise tired Xbox 360 platform which, despite being a strong games console, has yet to really integrate into the house.

I know it can do media streaming and all those other goodness things. But in terms of actually delivering notable benefits, this has been a second-class citizen compared to a Media Center computer once you move outside of the games market.

But perhaps this is changing. Certainly, the announcement that Sky will be streaming video to it is interesting, albeit only for those on large bandwidth connections and with the approval of their ISPs. (more…)

Microsoft attempts to clean up its cloud

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

You may have read my not-terribly-polite post about the astonishing restrictions found inside Microsoft’s terms and conditions for its hosted services. Well here’s the follow-up.

Because yesterday, I (and a couple of colleagues) had an hour-long “full and frank exchange of views” with four senior Microsoft Redmond people responsible for the hosted services offering: Eron Kelly, Senior Director, Microsoft Online Services; Kore Kourbourlis, Senior Director, Compliance and Privacy; Brendon Lynch, Director, Trustworthy Computing; and Mike Ziock, Senior Director of Operations, Business Online Services.

We went through our concerns regarding data movement, implications for data protection issues under EU law, SLA, the sign-up process, terms & conditions and so forth. (more…)

Time for Microsoft to name its Windows 7 price

Monday, May 18th, 2009

A few months before the launch of Vista, a very senior person at Acer spilled the beans to me in a one-on-one press briefing held in Taipei, that Acer was going public with its criticism of the Vista pricing model, and that it felt it had no choice but to swallow the cost for putting Vista Home Premium onto its products rather than Vista Home Basic. Apparantly, Home Basic was the same cost as XP Home, and Vista Home Premium was some $20 more. (more…)

Some very good reasons not to choose a Microsoft hosted service

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

It’s amazing what you find when you read the Terms and Conditions.

Go to this page on the Microsoft downloads area and then download the file which is the Exchange Hosted Services Service Level Agreement document.

Scroll down to the bottom, and you will find what Microsoft will pay you if they fall foul of the SLA.

Basically, they will give you “Service Credits” for downtime, and at no point will the Credit exceed the value of what you pay Microsoft for the month of service provision. (more…)

Dear Mr Ballmer, this won’t happen at your datacenter because…?

Monday, April 6th, 2009

I’ve commented before about my feelings about the dangers of a headlong rush towards hosted services, especially those that are hosted abroad and thus can fall into the hands of any other country’s law enforcement agencies. Well, just to hammer home the point, take note of this message posted at http://sites.google.com/site/mnsclec/index

Dear Customers,

Today at 6:00am, the FBI conducted an unwarranted early morning raid of our 2323 Bryan Street Datacenters, on the 7th and 24th floors.

I received a phone call at 6:05am from our NOC that the entire network was powered off. I called Capstar Commercial and TELX, our landlord, and was told that the FBI was in the datacenter with a search and seizure warrant. I asked that the agent in charge call me immediately. (more…)

Microsoft’s Foundation – what a waste of time

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

So Microsoft has announced a new low-end version of Windows Server 2008, called Foundation, aimed at the small business users.

It doesn’t require CALs (hooray), but most everything else is a “booo”.

There’s a 15-user limit, and the server can’t have more than one processor socket and 8Gb of RAM. Oh yes, and there is no Hyper-V either. And AD has been nadgered too, of course. (more…)

What’s next on Microsoft’s kill list?

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

So Microsoft continues to kill off the backwater products in its vast product set. The latest to go is MSN Encarta. According to some reports, Encarta has a truly microscopic share of the marketplace, at least compared to the big monster known as Wikipedia.

What else has gone? OneCare, the really not bad antivirus engine, has been axed to be replaced by a free thing called Morrow. The entire Flight Simulator team has gone, as has staff in the Equipt division. (more…)