With many features geared toward reducing management and network overhead, Microsoft Corp.'s Exchange 2003 definitely delivers more value to administrators than previous versions of the messaging server.
The changes in this release are myriad, largely focusing on improving the ability of administrators to deploy and manage Exchange securely, reliably and with simplified management. eWEEK Labs' tests show that most of the improvements in Exchange 2003 will be welcome to companies running Exchange 2000. Furthermore, incremental value will be gained through better methods of accessing Exchange from a Web browser or wireless client.
Dell said it plans to launch an entry-level PowerEdge Server with the standard edition of Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) 2003 preinstalled for just $999. The cost of the hardware and software system--which consists of a PowerEdge 400 SC server preinstalled with the new entry-level version of SBS--comes in at less than $1,000 after a $100 instant savings promotion, according to a statement Dell released Monday.
A federal judge has ordered Microsoft to pay nearly $1 million in legal fees to the state of Massachusetts, although the award was less than half of what the state has been seeking. In an order posted online on Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly awarded $967,014 to the Massachusetts attorney general's office, which has been working on its antitrust case against the software giant for the past six years.
"We are pleased with the court's opinion to reduce Massachusetts' request for legal fees by over fifty percent," Microsoft representative Stacy Drake said in an e-mailed statement. "Our priority is to move past this case and to build more constructive relationships with state governments."
IBM's Steve Mills and Microsoft's Bill Gates pledged allegiance to software standards. Is their commitment to Web services standards real? Yes. In fact, you can bet your career on it.
Forrester shuttled to New York to attend a software interoperability fete with IBM Software Group Senior Vice President Steve Mills and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. These fierce competitors became impresarios for the day to emphasize their commitment to new Web services standards for security, reliability and transactions. Why should you believe their commitment?
Microsoft has joined the 802.11g fray with a new collection of wireless networking hardware capable of speeds of up to 54Mbps while maintaining backwards-compatibility with existing 11Mbps 802.11b (aka Wi-Fi) devices. Based on my initial testing, they seem like fine products. But they only raise an old question anew: Should you buy into 'g'?
Most of the new Microsoft lineup is about what you'd expect: a base station, notebook adapter, PCI adapter, and "notebook kit" that includes both a base station and notebook adapter. The company is also releasing a wireless bridge that connects an Xbox game machine to a shared broadband connection.
At a rural clinic in Mozambique, Bill and Melinda Gates yesterday increased their investment in the global fight against malaria by $168 million -- and, in doing so, increased the world's malaria research budget by about 30 percent.
"Malaria kills over a million people every year," Bill Gates said. "This is something we should demand more action on."
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which already has contributed $120 million to anti-malaria projects, upped the ante yesterday with $100 million for malaria vaccine research, $40 million for studies of new drugs and $28 million in support of an innovative project to test if giving infants a few doses of anti-malaria drugs along with their basic vaccines will protect against the disease.
Microsoft may be the most recognized software company on the planet, but when it comes to searching the Internet, people are much more likely to "Google it." Microsoft wants to change that, and it's betting millions that someday it will be as well known for searching as Google already is.
The software giant's push comes amid an exponential growth in information -- on desktop computers, on online photo albums, on Web sites.
"And the more information there is out there, the more difficult it becomes to find relevant information and content," said Rob Lancaster, a senior analyst with the Boston-based Yankee Group research group.
Hoping to deepen Office's corporate roots, Microsoft on Monday will debut a set of offerings designed to help users exact more value from its suite of applications. The Microsoft Office Solution Accelerator program consists of a set of software components, templates, and architectural guidance from the company. The first seven Office Solution Accelerators will ship this fall with others to follow later this year and into next.
"These solutions are focused on very specific business problems common among a broad range of users. We looked at departments like human resources, finance, and sales groups and how they are using Office so we could integrate those products in a way to streamline problems in any one those departments," said Anders Brown, Group Product Manager with Microsoft's Information Worker Division in Redmond, Wash.
Redmond finds success in pitching European app makers to embed another Microsoft-developed layer of software designed to run atop the .NET Framework. Microsoft's campaign to encourage third-party software vendors to embed not only its .Net Framework, but also another layer of software designed to build on top of .Net, seems to be picking up steam.
This week, Microsoft's small/mid-size business division, Microsoft Business Solutions, announced that 14 independent software vendors (ISVs) have agreed to act as early adopters of the Microsoft Business Framework. Microsoft made the announcement at channel-partner event in Rome.
Ray Ozzie, the software designer who wrote the Lotus Notes program, may try to derail a $521 million verdict against Microsoft to help save the company from having to make changes to its Internet Explorer browser.
Microsoft last month was found to have violated a patent held by Eolas Technologies Inc. and the University of California. Lotus Notes used similar technology before Eolas applied for its patent, and that may clear Microsoft, Ozzie wrote on his Web site last Saturday. He called on software writers to check their products for similar innovations, called prior art.