Microsoft announced the Microsoft Solution for Windows-based Hosting Version 3.0 on Tuesday, touting it as a flexible, modular platform with new out-of-the-box services that enable users to roll out hosted offerings faster and cheaper. Microsoft also lowered the barriers for its Service Provider License in an attempt to encourage smaller companies to consider adding Windows hosting services.
"Version 3.0 is focused on being easy and fast to deploy," said Mark Jewett, product manager for Windows-based Hosting. "And it can apply to hosting providers of all different sizes, not just the large providers."
Phone giant SBC Communications will pay Microsoft $400 million in a deal that will bring TV programming over high-speed fiber optic data lines to consumers in the US. SBC, like other telephone giants in this country, is rapidly moving into markets once dominated exclusively by cable companies, and the 10-year Microsoft deal will help the company offer cable-like packages to customers. SBC expects to spend over $4 billion over the next three years on its fiber optic networks, the company says.
Microsoft opened a new round Tuesday in its public spat with Novell with the launch of a migration program to move Novell NetWare customers to Windows Server 2003. The kit includes tools, prescriptive guidance, training, newsgroup-based technical support and a financial incentive of $600 to $15,000.
"Customers have increasingly told us that they are looking for ways to make the move to Microsoft's reliable server platform and road map, but are concerned about migration issues," Martin Taylor, general manager of Platform Strategy at Microsoft, said in a statement.
Offering relief from managing complex, distributed systems, Microsoft Chief Software Architect Bill Gates took the stage of the IT Forum in Copenhagen Tuesday to introduce a handful of tools and a hatful of promises. "The magic of software can eliminate this complexity," Gates said in his opening address, amid a cloud of smoke left lingering from the magic show that preceded him on stage.
Microsoft's key for simplifying system management lies in its Dynamic Systems Initiative, which Gates laid out as a long-term vision requiring broad industry cooperation.
Microsoft shares dropped at the beginning of trading on Wall Street yesterday, as expected, to reflect the upcoming payout of a $3-per-share special dividend. In a positive development for shareholders, however, the decline was less than the size of the dividend to be paid -- meaning that the overall value of the stock went up. Shares of the company started trading at $27.35 and finished at $27.39, or $2.58 lower than Friday's closing price.
Passwords will soon be a thing of the past, replaced by biometric and smart-card technology, Bill Gates reiterated on Tuesday. Speaking at the Microsoft IT Forum in Copenhagen, Denmark, the Microsoft chairman predicted that people will soon rely on alternative means of authenticating their identity.
"A major problem for identity systems is the weakness of passwords," Gates said. "Unfortunately, with the type of critical information on these systems, we aren't going to be able to rely on passwords. Moving to biometric and smart cards is a wave that is coming, and we see our leading customers doing this."
Microsoft made a minority investment on Monday in Unix/Linux management vendor Vintela on Monday. Neither Microsoft nor Lindon, City, Utah-based Vintela would comment on the size of the investment. But sources said the amount was under $10 million. Vintela has acted a key participant in Microsoft's Unix/Linux interoperability strategy. Nonetheless, Vintela is an unlikely Microsoft partner.
Vintela is a spinoff of Caldera, the company that sued Microsoft for antitrust violations and settled for an undisclosed amount in 2000. Vintela also has deep roots in the Unix/Java worlds. In spite of these two factors, Vintela has been working with Microsoft for more than a on a number of current and future initiatives, ranging from systems management to security.
Technology news site Neowin.net revealed MSN's desktop search plans this weekend, reporting that Microsoft is using technology acquired from its purchase of Lookout Software earlier this year. Dubbed the MSN Toolbar Suite, the beta software provides an MSN Toolbar for Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), Microsoft Office Outlook, and Windows Explorer, and a new tool called the MSN Deskbar, which appears to sit in the Windows taskbar.
"Perhaps the most important thing in the Toolbar Suite package is the installation of the separate MSN Desktop Search," Neowin.net's Tom Warren noted in a post on the site. "The results gained from simply searching for files are amazing. Searching is speedy, and you can even search for the author of certain files.
Software giant Microsoft signed software partnerships Monday with India's leading outsourcing firms, Infosys Technologies and Wipro, and stepped up plans to hire more programmers in India. The deals will enable Infosys and Wipro to use Microsoft technologies to build software for their clients.
Earlier Monday, Ballmer opened a Microsoft office in Hyderabad, 340 miles north of Bangalore, India's leading high-tech hub. About 1,500 Microsoft employees, mostly software programmers, have worked out of a rented building in Hyderabad's outskirts.
The new Microsoft campus, its largest outside the United States, will eventually house 3,000 programmers. Microsoft is one of dozens of American technology companies that have set up research and development centers in India, taking advantage of its vast pool of skilled workers who can be hired for a fraction of the cost in the United States.
Microsoft and Avanade, a specialist in Microsoft integration solutions, have teamed up to deliver a library of reusable components to help developers build .Net applications more efficiently. Microsoft, of Redmond, Wash., licensed portions of ACA.Net (Avanade Connected Architecture for .Net) to create the jointly built library known as Enterprise Library, said Matt Joe, development integration and migration solution manager at Avanade, in Seattle. Enterprise Library technology will be available to developers in January. Avanade is using the technology in its consulting work.