Siebel Systems and Microsoft have shown off redesigned .Net-based 'Smart Client' technology, integrating Microsoft Office and Exchange Server 2003 within Siebel enterprise software environments. The firms also unveiled deployment options for Universal Application Network (UAN) that use Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 as a runtime engine and tool set for customisation.
Siebel 7.7 will allow users to link Office Outlook 2003 records to data in the Siebel database, and the Siebel Exchange Connector will allow users to synchronise calendar information, contacts and to-do lists between Siebel 7.7 and Exchange.
Microsoft BizTalk Server executes UAN business integration processes and UAN common services, providing static cross-referencing, dynamic cross-referencing, and error and exception handling.
Just days before the kickoff of Microsoft Momentum, Bob Muglia, senior vice president of Microsoft's Enterprise Storage and Enterprise Management Divisions, met with CRN Senior Writer Paula Rooney to discuss channel opportunities associated with the company's security, storage, and server and software management products due to ship in the fourth quarter of 2003 and 2004. Muglia, a senior-level executive who has been with Microsoft for 15 years, sits on Microsoft's Technical Senior Leadership Team and Business Leadership Team.
The European Union gave Microsoft until Oct. 17 to rebut the latest antitrust charges, prompting unusually strong criticism Thursday from the software giant. Microsoft had wanted more time to answer revised allegations, issued in August, that it was illegally trying to extend its dominance with Windows operating systems into markets for servers and multimedia players.
'Ten weeks (total) to respond in comparison to the 20 months it took them to put this file together is disappointing because there's a lot of new information in there,' Microsoft spokeswoman Tiffany Steckler said.
Gates Mills, Ohio, is an actual town--population 2,508. Some "Microsoft is evil" conspiracy theorists believe that in this town resides the software world's version of "The Truman Show." They say Gates Mills is a small laboratory for Microsoft and IBM's insidious schemes--world domination via fiat.
As a result, the emerging proxy of Gates Mills is a place where normal folks run their lives on emerging "standards" that are focused on distributed computing. I have the utmost respect for Microsoft and believe that it has some of the world's most talented people. However, an event last month in New York City gave plenty of fodder for those who might not.
Microsoft FrontPage 2003 is the Web site creation and editing component of the Office 2003 system. But unlike all previous versions, which were sold either separately or with the rest of the suite, the newest version can only be bought as a separate package.
FrontPage still integrates with the rest of Office and employs shared Office features like the Picture Manager and Clip Organize. But it's now intended for serious Web authors and businesses that want to build sites based on data sources in XML, OLEDB, or Web services formats. Many advanced features, like Web logs and data-driven news pages, require Microsoft's SharePoint services.
Microsoft will focus on adding new security technologies to its products, educating its customers and improving its process of releasing patches, CEO Steve Ballmer pledged on Thursday. In the most significant security announcement since Chairman Bill Gates unveiled the software giant's Trustworthy Computing Initiative, Ballmer told attendees during a keynote address at the software giant's first Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans that Microsoft will redouble its efforts to secure its users.
"Our goal is simple: Get our customers secure and keep them secure," Ballmer said in a statement. "Our commitment is to protect our customers from the growing wave of criminal attacks."
U.S.-based software maker Microsoft said on Thursday it would develop software to deliver standard television over the Internet, targeting telecoms operators wanting to expand their business. A prototype of the software will be shown next week in a speech by Microsoft founder Bill Gates at ITU Telecom World 2003 in Geneva, one of the world's largest telecoms trade shows. Bell Canada and India's Reliance Intercomm will work with Microsoft to develop a commercial product by the end of 2004, said Ed Graczyk, Microsoft TV Platform marketing manager.
At its annual partner confab, Microsoft will unveil a lower-priced version of its Content Management Server and software to better integrate CMS with SharePoint Portal Server and Windows SharePoint Services. Attendees of the New Orleans event will also get beta software of the new Microsoft Content Management Server 2003 Connector For SharePoint Technologies, formerly and more succinctly known by its code name: Spark.
With this new release, integrators can publish CMS content from Windows SharePoint Services, while in the past, the integration pack let them share and publish documents from SharePoint Portal Server to CMS.
Despite a rash of gushing news stories about the successes of Linux and Mac OS X on the server and client, respectively, Microsoft's Windows operating systems continue to dominate its OS rivals in both markets, and a recent report notes that usage of Windows is actually growing in both markets as well. Market researchers at IDC say that various versions of the Windows desktop and server OSes currently dominate their respective markets and will continue to do so for at least the next four years. IDC credits Microsoft's volume licensing programs for the company's ability to grow share during a time in which it is already the dominant player.
Microsoft plans to announce on Thursday a detailed plan to combat a recent wave of security threats, but one executive told CNET News.com things won't change overnight.
"I don't think it is a big bang thing," Microsoft Senior Vice President Bob Muglia said in an interview Wednesday. "I think it's an evolutionary, multistep thing."
As earlier reported, Microsoft is moving toward a strategy known as "securing the perimeter," which involves a greater reliance on firewalls and other "shields" to stop hackers from reaching potentially vulnerable PCs. Thus far, Microsoft has focused its efforts on a Trustworthy Computing initiative designed to improve the way the company writes its software as well as on finding flaws and quickly patching them as they are uncovered.