WinInsider

Microsoft is making a major push in online services, expanding the availability of cloud-based versions of popular business applications such as Exchange, SharePoint and Live Meeting globally and increasing its data center capacity through a partnership with Hewlett-Packard's EDS services division.More than 4,000 solution providers are registered to sell Microsoft Online applications, and until today these services were only available in 19 countries. The partnership with EDS will provide Microsoft with access to data centers in local markets, pushing Microsoft Online delivery to local customers and keeping data within local geographies.

Microsoft today released its BizTalk Server 2009 enterprise application  integration platform. The new release offers broader connectivity for those  building enterprise services-oriented architectures and extended integration  with the company's development and tooling environments.

The company had said it would ship BTS 2009 in  the first half of this year when it issued the beta in December 2008.  It is the sixth version since its release in 2000 and replaces BTS 2006,  which was released about two years ago.

Companies that want to start testing their business applications for compatibility with Windows 7 won't have to wait much longer -- Microsoft plans to make its new operating system available for trial next month at its Tech Ed conference in Los Angeles.

The conference will feature a "Windows 7 'Bring Your Own Apps' Lab," according to Microsoft developer Yochay Kiriaty, who announced the program in a blog post this week.

In an apparent move aimed at softening corporate resistance to Windows 7, Microsoft is readying a surprise addition when the new operating system ships, according to a tech blog.

Windows 7 will sport a new feature called "Windows XP Mode" or XPM, said the Windows IT Pro SuperSite blog Friday.

The new mode will enable users with Windows XP applications that otherwise might have problems running on Windows 7, to run them in a virtualized XP environment.

"XP Mode consists of the Virtual PC-based virtual environment and a fully licensed copy of Windows XP with Service Pack 3. It will be made available, for free, to users of Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions via a download from the Microsoft web site," said the blog post by Rafael Rivera and Paul Thurrott.

Government officials are still hashing out how best to allocate the broadband stimulus grants, but Microsoft this week pushed for that money to go schools, libraries, and hospitals.

"We believe the country can get the biggest bang for the connectivity buck by using that $7 billion to ensure that each and every one of the nation's schools, libraries and hospitals are wired for fast and affordable broadband Internet access," Marc Berejka, senior director for technology policy and strategy, wrote in a blog post.

"This is essential to achieve President Obama's goal of modernizing our education and healthcare systems.

The release candidate version of the Windows 7 operating system has apparently hit the streets in the form of various leaked peer-to-peer BitTorrent distributions.

On Thursday, some Web sites were reporting releases of Windows 7 RC that were fakes. However, ZDNet and other news sources on Friday claimed that real distributions of the RC are now out there.

Such a leak cycle seems kind of old hat with test versions of Microsoft's operating systems. It's thought that Microsoft's partners leak the bits.

When Oracle earlier this week revealed its intention to acquire Sun Microsystems for more than $7 billion, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's initial reaction was one of extreme surprise. After mulling the deal over, Ballmer still can't figure out what motivated Oracle to plop down such a princely sum for Sun.

"I have no idea why a software company would buy a hardware company. We don't want to buy any hardware companies," Ballmer said Wednesday in an appearance at the American Chamber of Commerce in Cairo, Egypt.

With server sales sluggish, and an economy that shows no signs of improving anytime soon, Ballmer's confusion is understandable. But solution providers see Sun not as a beleaguered hardware vendor, but as an engine of innovation that will complement Oracle's well-honed software-development capabilities.

Microsoft has applied for a trademark for the name Sift for "operating system software for mobile phones; computer search engine software; computer programs for searching email, text messages, address and contact information.

"The company's spokespeople have evaded questions from both me and from PaidContent writer Joseph Tartakoff. Nevertheless, the trademark application suggests that Windows phone users will soon be offered a Sift function.

Tartakoff also reported that Microsoft has dropped the term "Windows Mobile" in favor of the more generic "Windows phone." Indeed, the most recent press releases relating to Windows Mobile avoid using the term in the headlines, but it's not clear if the product line will be rebranded.

Enterprises can expect security of authentication, data protection, privilege levels and the DNS to improve for users running the next client version of Windows.

The evidence that Windows Vista is far more secure than XP, both in theory and in practice, is abundant. With new features and standards Microsoft hopes to make Windows 7 even more secure, especially for enterprises.

A paper on their Technet site explores several new security features in Windows 7 most of which have an enterprise angle to them. In all cases there's nothing completely new, but there is better design and easier implementation for IT and users of strong security capabilities.

Microsoft has been looking to fill jobs associated with Windows 8, its next operating system beyond the current Windows 7 beta.

Two job postings have been spotted, as noted by the CodenameWindows blog last week and by others on the Web. While it's no surprise that Microsoft has been working on Windows 8, public references to it have been few and far between.

One of Microsoft's Windows 8 job posts is for a lead development engineer in software testing.