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Rapport: Groeistuipen van Cloud Computing

 

Dit rapport gaat in op de invloed van de gebruikers van Cloud Computing. Zij beïnvloeden namelijk de aanbieders van ICT. Om te profiteren van Cloud Computing moeten aanbieders strategische keuzes maken. De belangrijkste conclusies uit het rapport:

• Alle ingrediënten zijn aanwezig om te profiteren van Cloud Computing
• Terughoudendheid bij ICT-aanbieders in het aanbieden van Cloud
• Uitdaging in omslag naar een vraaggestuurd model.

Source : ABN Amro -

Download het rapport (pdf)

Bring Your Own … Cloud | #byoc

Gartner Group published a new report on Personal Cloud Services. The most recent developments with devices is that they all come with their own cloud services, like email, pictures, documents, etc.

Personally I love cloud services like Kindle and Netflix which span across almost all devices I typically use

Personal Cloud Services Will Be Integrated in Most Connected Devices by 2013: Gartner

…Speaking at a briefing for technology industry executives in Singapore today, Gartner managing vice president Andrew Johnson said that the emergence of personal clouds reflects the “4S experience”, consumers’ desire to store, synch, stream, and share their content on regardless of device or platform seamlessly. ...

“The shift to the personal cloud will accelerate rapidly in 2012 as consumers learn how to use new services on their devices,” said Mr. Johnson.  “As cloud services become part of people’s lives, device vendors and platform providers must integrate cloud services in order to win customers in 2012 or risk being displaces by those that offer these services. Brands must stretch across multiple devices, platforms and services.”

According to Gartner’s definition, personal cloud allows consumers to seamlessly store, sync, stream and share using multiple connected devices such as smartphones, media tablets, televisions and PCs over the internet. Consumers have begun to adopt cloud-based services as part of their digital ecosystem, thanks to services such as Netflix, Google Apps, Amazon Music, Microsoft SkyDrive and Apple's iCloud. In a personal cloud, a TV show, for example, can be watched, left and resumed across multiple devices.

“The notion of personal cloud is not new, the refinement and diversity of services for consumers is,” said Mr. Johnson.  “Online backup and synchronization companies have been offering personal cloud for years. However, a big change has occurred during the past couple of years, with the growing adoption of mobile and portable devices that have limited internal storage and rely heavily on cloud services. What distinguishes the personal cloud from what came before is its ability to store, synchronize, stream and share as needed allowing consumers greater flexibility in choosing devices and platforms.”

Gartner estimates that consumers will spend approximately US$2.2 trillion on digital technology products and services in 2012, or about 10 percent of the average disposable household income. By 2015, consumers will spend some US$2.8 trillion worldwide on connected devices, the services that run them and content that is transferred through them.

However, according to Gartner, growth is not the only opportunity.

“Inside the spending envelope, market dynamics will collapse some markets while creating others that expand the captured revenue. Providers of consumer devices, services and content must anticipate the risk of sweeping changes to their business models,” said Mr. Johnson. “The personal cloud will force technology providers not only to rethink how they approach markets, but also, more importantly, how they define markets. ‘Emerging’ and ‘mature’ markets are no longer useful market segmentation.”

However, traditional storage will not disappear overnight but will, however, be augmented by the consumer personal cloud.  Gartner predicts that personal cloud will become widely adopted by 2015, but that in 2014 less than 10 percent of consumers will use cloud services as their main storage.

Gartner’s recommendations for technology vendors:

• Make personal cloud services a core part of your development efforts.  Invisible and ubiquitous now, monetize later
• Take the time to educate and evangelize cloud services to consumers. A key to consumer cloud services will be educating people about the role of the cloud, and how new business models such as subscription and streaming services can coexist with existing services they are familiar with.
• Service providers must deliver an invisible content synchronization experience.
• Personal cloud services can’t be tied to one specific device or platform. An invisible experience means it works on anything.
• Failure to protect consumer data, or a lack of service reliability, could lead to a consumer backlash and a co-dependence on local storage, on top of privacy and security concerns.

More information is available in the Gartner report “Consumers and the Personal Cloud". The report and related research is available on Gartner's website at http://www.gartner.com/resId=1924714

 

A domainname like bringyourowncloud.com might proof its use some day in a $ 2.8 Trillion market …

Gartner: The forthcoming Public Cloud IaaS Magic Quadrant

Gartner Group is creating a new magic quadrant for ‘Public Cloud IaaS ..

… Despite having made various blog posts and corresponded with a lot of people in email, there is persistent, ongoing confusion about our forthcoming Magic Quadrant for Public Cloud Infrastructure as a Service, which I will attempt to clear up here on my blog so I have a reference that I can point people to.

1. This is a new Magic Quadrant. We are doing this MQ in addition to, and not instead of, the Magic Quadrant for Cloud IaaS and Web Hosting (henceforth the “cloud/hosting MQ”). The cloud/hosting MQ will continue to be published at the end of each calendar year. This new MQ (henceforth the “public cloud MQ”) will be published in the middle of the year, annually. In other words, there will be two MQs each year. The two MQs will have entirely different qualification and evaluation criteria.

…

Continue at source : The forthcoming Public Cloud IaaS Magic Quadrant
Lyd

Microsoft Partner Eco System : Scalability and Impact

Last week Microsoft sent out a press release regarding a report by IDC about Microsoft’s partner ecosystem and its economic impact : $ 580 Billion.

In the software industry there is this the Rule of Thumb :
$1 in software revenue generates up to $10 in the partner ecosystem.

Although 1:10 may seem a very big multiplier, simply compare it to Microsoft’s annual turnover and you’ll see it isn’t that far off.

For sure Cloud Services may impact the 1:10 ratio; but nevertheless a lot of services our partners provide today in the “on premises” world are still very relevant in the “cloud” world.

And if there’s 1 thing that distincts Microsoft from a lot of other players in the current market it is the this partner eco systems. It creates scale in consulting, implementation and management of client’s IT infrastructure. A scale that is far beyond that of any other company in the software industry :

the IDC white paper, commissioned by Microsoft, can be viewed : here

Google Wave .. gone

Yes, Google pulled the plug on Google Wave according to a blogpost yesterday :

… We have always pursued innovative projects because we want to drive breakthroughs in computer science that dramatically improve our users’ lives. Last year at Google I/O, when we launched our developer preview of Google Wave, a web app for real time communication and collaboration, it set a high bar for what was possible in a web browser. …

… Wave has taught us a lot, and we are proud of the team for the ways in which they have pushed the boundaries of computer science. We are excited about what they will develop next as we continue to create innovations with the potential to advance technology and the wider web. …

Continue at source : Google blog

Little over a year ago Gartner Group’s Tom Austin asked (himself) this question :

Will the Google Wave inspire a Revolution?

by Tom Austin  |  May 29, 2009  |  6 Comments

Google inspires and frustrates, leads and lags, marches to the beat of a different (non-enterprise) drummer and wants everyone (including enterprises) to love and adore it.

What a mix! I have been looking at Google Wave and I am really, really impressed. At the same time, I have serious misgivings about whether Google understands what it needs to do to succeed with enterprises (I have  research note that’s about to pop out – probably will appear around 3 June).

Wave is potentially a major disruptive discontinuity, a clean sheet design. It will be darned near impossible for vendors of existing or earlier-generation products  to morph their products to effectively emulate this. Wave will force others to do new clean sheet projects.

Unfortunately, the first on the block with an entirely new, disruptive discontinuity, isn’t always the long term winner.

Continue at source : Gartner.com

At that time there wasn’t really much to say about it. It was an innovative thought which  was overhyped to say the least. Overhyped because the intentions, or at least people’s perceptions, where that Google Wave would replace email, Unified Messaging, Unified Communications all together.

Robert Scoble analysis at that time “hinting” in the direction that Google Wave was really a hype. Not solving any communication challenges we might have, but creating new ones :

OK, I took a few hours off from playing with Google Wave yesterday. I read all my comments on the post I wrote Thursday about Google Wave, many of which were very ascerbic toward me.

I took the day off and said “what if they are right?” and “is Google Wave a really great way to collaborate with other people?”

On coming back to Google Wave with fresh eyes tonight and even after collaborating with people on a few things my answer is “no, they are not right” and “no, Google Wave is even less productive than email.”

Continue at source : scobleizer.com

Some day many of the ideas introduced in Google Wave may surface in other solutions. But this endavour also showed us that challenging email is one tough cookie …

Gartner Webinar : Google vs. Microsoft: A Battle for the Clouds

This is a recorded session. Its free but you have to register …

Google and Microsoft are investing billions of dollars every year, building out data centers to support their cloud offerings, and hoping to be No. 1 in a world where the cloud is central to computing. We'll focus on the differences between their strategies, and who is likely to succeed most at what.

Please join VP and Gartner Fellows Tom Austin and David Mitchell Smith

What You Will Learn:

• Where do Microsoft and Google stand today?
• What will be the effect on markets as a result of Microsoft/Google competition?
• How will enterprise IT decisions be affected by the battles between Microsoft and Google?

Wired Magazine reviews Microsoft Office Web Apps #windowslive #live@edu

If you haven’t seen or used Office Web Apps you can check it out at http.office.live.com

Microsoft's New Web Apps Will Have Your Head in the Cloud

With Office 2010, Microsoft has taken an important (and inevitable) step into internet-stored media. That's right; MS is all up in the cloud now.

In addition to releasing its new native Office suite, which gives you the option to save your files on the Intertubes, Microsoft has rolled out free, lightweight web versions of Office apps accessible through Windows Live.

We took several Office apps for a test ride: Word, PowerPoint and Excel. The verdict? For the most part, this is a decent web suite that works well with the native Office apps, though it's still a little unrefined. …

Continue at source: Wired Magazine

Pew Internet : The future of cloud computing

Recent report by Pew Internet about the perceived future of cloud computing. Especially the comments to certain questions contain great insights and links king this a very good read …

Overview

Technology experts and stakeholders say they expect they will ‘live mostly in the cloud’ in 2020 and not on the desktop, working mostly through cyberspace-based applications accessed through networked devices. This will substantially advance mobile connectivity through smartphones and other internet appliances.

Many say there will be a cloud-desktop hybrid. Still, cloud computing has many difficult hurdles to overcome, including concerns tied to the availability of broadband spectrum, the ability of diverse systems to work together, security, privacy, and quality of service.

About the Survey

The survey results are based on a non-random online sample of 895 internet experts and other internet users, recruited via email invitation, Twitter or Facebook from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and the Imagining the Internet Center at Elon University. Since the data are based on a non-random sample, a margin of error cannot be computed, and the results are not projectable to any population other than the experts in this sample.

Source and download: Pew Internet

This type of future research also brings the Microsoft 2019 video to mind. Great context for the research above if you ask me …

Email market share is getting more confusing by the day

Email market share has been a discussion topic shortly after the solution came to market (ages ago) and it is also a fun topic for many people.

Although “Email in the cloud” was introduced in the mid-90’s, it now has become a hot topic in the whole email market share discussion. This becomes clear when you look at for example a recent article on LotusLive :

…With LotusLive, launched just a year ago, the effort is to allow people to be able to stay in their in-box and bring work tasks, information, and people together, in context. It has 18 million users today compared to just about 1 million each for Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) and Google Premier Apps. …

The conclusion looks straightforward :

• 18 M users in Lotus Live
• 1 M in BPOS
• 1 M in GAPE

The question it raises : What are the various platforms and what functionality is offered, licensed and used. So are we comparing apples to apples ?

A second question it raises : which email platform(s) does the vendor offer. Assuming you can only sell so many different email platforms to 1 company, 1 solution is gaining share while the other is loosing right ?

So 2 interesting tables / charts to build would be :

1. An overview of email platform(s) offered per vendor
2. An All-up market share view of total mailboxes per vendor with maybe a consumer / business split.

Request to all of you interested in this topic :

I will make a start with this but would very much appreciate your comments / tweets to public data sources that can help me figure this out.

Gartner Fellows Interview With Microsoft's Ray Ozzie on Cloud Computing

Gartner recently did an interview with Ray Ozzie on Microsoft’s vision on “cloud-based computing” … Microsoft’s Software + Services vision and execution is comprehensive and well on track …

… Cloud-based computing will create the biggest discontinuity of the IT landscape since the Internet. We sat down with Ray Ozzie, chief software architect at Microsoft, to discuss his vision for cloud computing, and the impact on enterprise computing and the IT industry.

Overview

Cloud-based computing will fundamentally transform how enterprises procure and consume technology solutions. Vendors such as Microsoft, which rely almost exclusively on revenue from traditional shrink-wrapped software, are threatened by the shift, but must embrace the technological and business model discontinuities. At this critical transition point for Microsoft, and nearly a year after Microsoft publicly disclosed its cloud-computing strategy, Gartner Fellows Neil MacDonald and David Smith met with Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie to talk about how Microsoft and the industry have progressed during the past year, and to look ahead at what's next for cloud computing.

Key Findings

• Ozzie's (and thus, Microsoft's) vision of cloud computing emphasizes hybrid enterprise/cloud computing, where organizations choose when and where computing takes place locally versus in cloud-based infrastructure, and emphasizes that the on-premises and cloud-based solutions work seamlessly together.
• As with early encryption issues, Ozzie believes that security and privacy issues will be addressed as the industry matures in a combination of legislative advances, as well as industry cooperation.
• Ozzie's vision for cloud computing includes system infrastructure, an application platform and finished applications being delivered as a service.
• Microsoft is investing in its own data centers because it must in order to provide its consumer-based services. It believes it is helping to lead the industry in providing innovations in data center architectures.
• Ozzie believes the future of cloud computing is in the experience delivered via a browser across multiple devices — mobile, PC and TV-type screens — which is a vision he refers to as "three screens and a cloud."
  …

Continue at Source : Gartner.com

Microsoft is de nummer 1 op het web

Naar aanleiding van een recent onderzoek naar de tijd die gebruikers online besteden en met name met welke diensten ze dit doen komt Microsoft als nummer 1 uit de bus :

Microsoft staat boven Google en Yahoo

Het gebruik van Windows Live Messenger heeft ervoor gezorgd dat wereldwijd 14,5% van de tijd die online wordt doorgebracht men actief is op sites en programma’s van Microsoft. Volgens comScore verslaan ze daarmee Google, Yahoo en Facebook.

Bron: Dutch Cowboys

Microsoft levert populairste online-diensten

Wereldwijd wordt de meeste tijd op internet besteed aan diensten van Microsoft. De softwareproducent blijft Google en Yahoo voor, zo blijkt uit cijfers van comScore. Met name het chatprogramma Live Messenger zorgt voor veel bezoekuren voor Microsoft.

Bron: NU.nl

Microsoft blijkt nummer één op het web

Bijna 15 procent van alle tijd op het web wordt besteedt aan een van de online-diensten van Microsoft. Vooral Live Messenger trekt veel bezoekuren.

Bron: WebWereld

Where’s Microsoft in the Forrester Wave for Collaboration platforms Q3/2009 ?

This one is just too funny not to show. In an IBM presentation about all things great about Lotus the presenter did his atmost best to hide the competition. Or maybe this is Lotus Symphony’s “hide the competition” feature ?

Can you guess where Microsoft is ?

Source  : IBM.com

The Radicati Group Releases "Email Storage Market, 2009-2013" Study

Email stirage is (becoming) a story of very big numbers. An organisation of 1000 users will generate an average of 400GB per month. 

The latest study by The Radicati Group, Inc., "Email Storage Market, 2009-2013," includes an in-depth analysis of  market trends, drivers and barriers, installed base and revenue market share by vendor, and four-year forecasts for the on-premises email storage market.

Enterprise email volumes continue to grow driving the need for increased storage capacity. Based on the study, an average company of 1,000 users will use approximately 20 Gigabytes per day of storage in 2009, which translates into 100 GB per week, or 400 GB per month. 
All organizations, today, recognize that the need to offload email from their email servers and on to storage devices is essential to ensure efficient, long term storage capacity.

This study looks at the adoption of email storage devices from Dell, EMC, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM, NetApp, and Sun Microsystems across Small, Medium and Large Enterprise. It estimates that revenues for storage devices across all three market segments will reach $16.3 billion in 2009, and grow to over $22 billion by 2013.

To view the the full study brochure and Table Of Contents, click here

Source : http://www.radicati.com

HP maakt einde aan EDS

       

Ik zag het berichtje eergisteren langskomen en wilde er toch even bij stilstaan .. EDS is een van mijn oud werkgevers en alles bij elkaar heb ik 7 jaar bij EDS gewerkt en dat was echt een supertijd. EDS was ook een echte naam in outsourcing, wereldwijd na IBM Global Services, de grootste.

Toen ik bij EDS kwam was het een “klein” bedrijf in Nederland met iets van 260 mensen, en het groeide uit tot een van de grootste oursourcers in NL met meer dan 2500 mensen. Nu een afdeling binnen HP met niet langer een eigen identiteit. Erg jammer maar zo gaan die dingen in IT land.

HP maakt een jaar na de overname van de dienstverlener een einde aan EDS. Nu de integratie compleet is wordt de naam omgedoopt in HP Enterprise Services.

Bron: HP maakt einde aan EDS

Microsoft Has Turned The Corner

I had to post this one … Mini Microsoft, the very (very very) sharp Microsoft (employee?) critic finally grants Microsoft a positive analysis and a very good one I have to say … Microsoft has turned the corner and read why :

… I've got to say: in my opinion, Microsoft has turned The Corner.

You know The Corner.

The one that gets us off of pothole ridden Vista Avenue (one street over from Lincoln in Blue Velvet). The Corner that requires Microsoft to shed some of the fat it has layered on recently just to make the turn without flipping. The one that requires a bit of humility for past failings (the aforementioned Vista, Xbox losses & red-ring, Zune's market performance so far, WinMo asleep at the wheel, no coherent brand strategy, search lagging behind for so long, the abandonment of IE after IE6, a confused developer story, a bungled Yahoo! acquisition attempt, etc etc etc).

The Corner that perhaps doesn't get us out of the bad neighborhood, but is at least pointing us in the right direction. What has helped make the turn?

• Windows 7
• Bing
• Silverlight
• IE EU chutzpah
• ...and award worthy, coherent ads that aren't a demonstration of how best to destroy millions of dollars quickly. …

… Now we have the potential to start shaking this off and achieving solid, if not stellar, results.
• Microsoft is Getting Things Right This Time
• Bing, the Imitator, Often Goes Google One Better
• Google vs. Bing: Bing holds its own in search-off
• Looking Beyond Its Old Vista, Microsoft Emits a New Aura
• Microsoft up as Goldman adds to 'Conviction Buy'

This is happening, too, while the shine on Google is dulling. Rather than pulling an Apple on us anymore, Google has picked up the nasty habit of pre-announcing technology. Guys, you stole the wrong playbook. And, uh, we don't want it back. Plus the government's gaze has moved from the fallen-working-on-redemption of Microsoft to the obvious domination of Google in search and information strong-arming. A dose of the medicine Google's now getting:

• Why Google Is Stealing Apple's Ideas (Googlers, you do not want the Apple fan boys mad at you. Trust me on this.)
• Google's Microsoft Moment
• Google OS: TechCrunch dubs Linux a 'big ol’ bag of drivers' If you add an OS to Chrome, it's an OS
• Google OS: Let's all take a deep breath and get some perspective (truly a landmark in the Return of Fake Steve Jobs). …
  
  
  

  Continue at source: Microsoft Has Turned The Corner

  
  

Forrester : Case Study: Learning From GlaxoSmithKline's Cloud-Based Email Decision Process

GlaxoSmithKline already in January announced they plan tp save up to 30% on their Communication and Collaboration infrastructure costs by moving from Lotus Notes/Domino to Microsoft Online Services.

Forrester created a research paper on this that provides more background. Very interesting read for this still on Lotus Notes :

Executive Summary

GlaxoSmithKline is moving approximately 90,000 email users to Microsoft's Exchange Online, a cloud-delivered service. To make the decision, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) went through a rigorous internal discovery process to calculate costs, find dependencies, and analyze its workforce. The result is that GSK is able to optimize its messaging and collaboration platform to meet the full range of its end users' requirements — while saving on its ongoing costs. To make your own cloud-based opportunity, learn from GSK's experience and: 1) analyze your workforce needs; 2) tier your workforce to optimize costs; and 3) calculate your own fully loaded costs.

Continue at source : Forrester.com

Radicati: EMEA Hosted Email Market projected to grow to 564M mailboxes by 2013

Impressive growth ahead in the coming years for Hosted Email in Emea :

… The Radicati Group, Inc.'s latest study, "EMEA Hosted Email Market, 2009-2013," provides an in-depth look at all segments of the European Hosted Email market, including: ISP/Webmail email, Hosted Business Email, and Managed Business Email.

According to the study, the installed base of hosted email mailboxes in EMEA is expected to grow from 398 M mailboxes in 2009, to 564M mailboxes by 2013. Growth is driven by increased broadband Internet availability across the region, lower prices and better bundling of premium services. Businesses, throughout EMEA, are also taking renewed interest in hosted business email solutions as a way to reduce costs in a tight economy. This is reinforced by the increased availability of low-cost, full-featured messaging and collaboration suites from Microsoft, Google and others.

The study provides an analysis of leading EMEA market players: 1&1/GMX, Arcor, Arsys, BT, Cobweb, Colt, Free, Global SP, Jazztel, Jet Multimedia, Mamut ASA/Active 24, Orange Business Services, Register.it, T-Home/T-Systems, Telecom Italia, Versatel, and others. …

Source: Radicati.com

Radicati : Hosted UC market $5 Billion by 2013

Hosting / Online Services are certainly an accelerator for Unified Communications; According to Radicati Group the revenue size will double in the the coming 4 years ..

.. The latest study by The Radicati Group, Inc., "Hosted Unified Communications Market, 2009-2013," provides an in-depth analysis including installed base and revenue market share by vendor, four-year forecasts, and breakouts by region and business size.

The Hosted Unified Communications market is comprised of services that offer integrated voice, messaging, collaboration, and presence capabilities that can be easily accessed and managed through a single interface. This study looks at two key market segments: Hosted UC Providers, and Telecom UC Providers.

The study provides an analysis of a broad range of Hosted UC Providers, including: Apptix, AT&T, CallTower, Cypress Communications, Hutchinson 3G, Intelliverse, Intermedia, LightEdge Solutions, Microsoft, NTT DoCoMo, Onebox, Orange SA, Skype Technologies, Sprint Nextel Corporation, Telus, USA.NET, Verizon Communications, Vodafone and others.

The Hosted UC market is showing strong growth with revenues expected to reach $2.3 billion in 2009, and growing to nearly $5 billion by 2013. …

Source : http://www.radicati.com

InfoWorld: Groeiende interesse MKB in managed services

InfoWord publiceerde vorige week een artikel dat de groeiende interesse van MKB bedrijven in Managed Services of wel diensten aangeeft. Dit naar aanleiding van een onderzoek van MarketCap.

Zoals het artikel al aangeeft is Microsoft een van de bedrijven die hier actief op inspeelt met ondermeer door partner gehoste oplossingen en online diensten rechtsreeks van Microsoft.

.. en wellicht heel aantrekkelijk voor de snelle beslissers, Mirosoft geeft nu tot 25% korting aan bedrijven die de BPOS Suite voor eind juni 2009 aanschaffen ! 

… Bedrijven zullen in 2009 het meest investeren in volledig beheerde netwerk- en platformdiensten, zo voorspelt onderzoeksbureau MarketCap. Met name het midden- en kleinbedrijf zal dit jaar massaal kiezen voor managed services, zoals software-as-a-service.

Volgens MarketCap, dat eind 2008 de investeringsintenties bij bedrijven en instellingen onderzocht, zijn managed services in 2008 en 2009 de meest genoemde IT-investering. Zo zou eenderde van de kleinere bedrijven het werkplekbeheer nu al aan externe mensen overlaten.

Betere service
Kleinere en middelgrote ondernemingen met een beperkte IT-capaciteit zijn bijzonder ontvankelijk voor volledig beheerde diensten, constateert MarketCap. Kim van Brugge van distributeur Portland Europe ziet deze ontwikkeling terug in de praktijk. "Veel IT dienstverlenende bedrijven in de Benelux zijn nu juist op zoek naar een goede managed service oplossing waarmee zij klanten niet alleen een kwalitatief betere service kunnen verlenen, maar ook tegen een aantrekkelijker kostenplaatje."

Softwareleveranciers met veel klanten in het MKB, zoals Microsoft, Symantec, Trend Micro en IASO, spelen al in op deze trend en ontwikkelden specifieke managed services voor deze doelgroep. In de Benelux gaat het om een omvangrijk marktsegment: zo zijn er in deze regio alleen al 50.000 bedrijven met 20-100 medewerkers. Bedrijven zouden ook vanwege de huidige economische situatie sneller kiezen voor managed services, aldus MarketCap. Diensten zoals software-as-a-service zijn in trek, omdat de eindgebruiker vooraf geen investeringen hoeft te doen. …

Bron: Groeiende interesse MKB in managed services

Microsoft: Internetgebruik overtreft tv in 2010

Marketingfacts heeft een korte Youtube summary en de link naar het document van Microsoft over de Europese Internet Trends geplaatst :

Europe Logs On

 

Internet is hard op weg om in de zomer van 2010 televisie te overtreffen als het belangrijkste medium. Die voorspelling doet Microsoft na een uitvoerige studie naar internetgebruik in Europa waarvan gisteren de resultaten zijn gepubliceerd in het rapport ‘Europe logs on: European Internet Trends of today and tomorrow‘ (pdf). Lees Meer over: Microsoft: Internetgebruik overtreft tv in 2010.

 

Bron: Microsoft: Internetgebruik overtreft tv in 2010

InfoWorld : Test Center: E-mail security services square off

InfoWorld tested 6 Hosted filtering vendors; Microsoft came in second in this test with a score of 8.6:

… From spam-busting to content management, we test the limits of hosted e-mail security offerings from AppRiver, MessageLabs, Microsoft, MX Logic, SECNAP, and Trend Micro

E-mail is the primary conduit of information for many organizations, both internally and with the outside world. Unfortunately, e-mail is also a prime channel for annoyances such as spam, as well as security threats in the form of viruses, spyware, phishing attacks, and more. Some companies choose to defend their e-mail systems in-house by deploying e-mail security products. Others, however, look to outside assistance in the form of hosted e-mail security services.

As a follow-up to my review of nine e-mail security appliances, I looked at six hosted e-mail security solutions from AppRiver, MessageLabs (now owned by Symantec), Microsoft, MX Logic, SECNAP Network Security, and Trend Micro. Postini (now owned by Google), another major player in the hosted e-mail security space, declined to participate …

Interesting Google did not participate …

Very good result for Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services :

Formerly Frontbridge (long a leader in anti-spam services), Exchange Hosted Filtering Services (EHFS) is available in typical Microsoft fashion: The service offers great features, including anti-virus, using multiple engines, encryption, and disaster recovery. It's adept at stopping spam, preventing 97.5 percent of unwanted messages from coming through, while stumbling on 11 false positives and one critical false positive (see test results). Moreover, it's easy to set up, manage, and use -- especially with Windows-based e-mail systems. On the other hand, pricing is hard to nail down, though large customers get great price breaks. Also, as one might expect from Microsoft, using the service with the Firefox 3.0 browser did not work well, although Firefox 2.0 was OK.

Source : InfoWorld.com

Microsoft Exchange to grow with 100 Million + mailboxes in the coming years

People who regulary visit my blog (or RSS feed) know I like statistics … Some new insights into Microsoft Exchange and the projected growth (100 Million Mailboxes) for the coming 4 years :

… The Radicati Group, Inc.'s latest study, "Microsoft Exchange Server and Outlook Market Analysis, 2009-2013," provides an in-depth analysis of the market for Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Outlook, including market share, installed base by version, as well as breakouts by business size, and region.

According to the report, Microsoft Exchange Server will have a total installed base of 241 million on-premises and hosted mailboxes by year-end 2009, and is expected to grow to a total of 347 million by 2013. This represents an average annual growth rate of 11%.

The report provides extensive breakout information for Microsoft Exchange Server penetration by version, business size and region in North America, EMEA, Asia/Pacific, and Rest of World. In addition, it also provides installed base and breakout information for Microsoft Outlook, including Outlook Web Access (OWA), and Hosted Microsoft Exchange Server.

Microsoft's recently released Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) is also analyzed, and strengths and weaknesses are discussed for all current Microsoft Messaging and Collaboration products. …

Source: Radicati group

Forrester Sees a Bright Decade for Cloud Computing

eWeek highlights a new Forrester Research report about the bright and sunny future of cloud computing :

In a new report, the IT researcher says that providers are now finding success selling SAAS subscription applications in Web conferencing, collaboration and IT service management. Previous sales successes were relegated to CRM and human capital management applications.

- Forrester Research has unearthed more evidence that cloud computing, also known as software as a service, is rapidly gaining traction in new vertical business sectors. The Cambridge, Mass.-based IT researcher said in a new report published March 13 that providers are now finding success selling ...

Source : Forrester Sees a Bright Decade for Cloud Computing

Ovum: Microsoft goes online and worldwide

Ovum gives a brief analysis on Microsoft’s international launch of BPOS. Unlike some other analysis I’ve seen trying to compare Google Apps to Microsoft BPOS, this highlights one of the main differences … Choice …

…Microsoft's recently announced Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) is much more than a challenge to Google Apps, playing as it does to organisations from five persons to millions, and allowing a combination of in-house and hosted deployment - the so-called 'software plus services' model. The release of BPOS is very timely, offering guaranteed availability and with well thought out functionality. However, there is still some work to do on the product that might make it appear like a beta release in the eyes of a CIO.

 

Mix 'n' match for customers and partners

The BPOS hosted products are: Exchange, SharePoint, Office Communications Server and LiveMeeting. This package is priced at $15 per seat per month and organisations can subscribe to additional facilities such as archiving.

But this is not just cloud-based services like Google Apps, although that offering is definitely a threat that Microsoft wants to see off. Rather it is a software plus service offering that gives organisations that have the IT support infrastructure and wish to retain in-house capability the option to have their BPOS services linked to the corporate servers to provide an anywhere information service for employees, partners or customers. …

Continue at source : Ovum.com

CEO dwingt CIO nu al tot cloud-computing

Interessant artikel. Ik heb zelf het BroadGroup rapport nog niet gelezen. Veel valt of staat natuurlijk wel met de definitie en scope van cloudcomputing. Snelheid kan soms een zegen zijn voor bedrijven om te komen tot bijvoorbeeld flexibele kosten, maar haast is minder goed of slecht eigenlijk. De kans ligt volgens mij op het selectief zijn in zaken die je nu al naar de cloud kunt brengen gewoonweg omdat die als dienst al behoorlijk zijn uitgekristaliseerd …

… In een poging kosten te drukken zullen veel IT-managers door hun CEO’s onder druk worden gezet om met cloud computing aan de slag te gaan,. Dat stelt BroadGroup na onderzoek. BroadGroup adviseert CEO’s cloud computing te omarmen. Gartner daarentegenraadt juist aan nog met cloud-projecten te wachten.

Dat schrijft Infoworld. Gartner voorspelt dat het nog zeven jaar zal duren voordat de cloud-industrie volwassen genoeg is voor een mainstream IT-oplossing. BroadGroup stelt echter dat dwingende kostenargumenten ertoe zullen leiden dat CEO’s hun IT-managers en CIO’s desondanks gaan dwingen snel een cloud platform te accepteren. Dit ondanks verzet van de IT-afdelingen. “De verandering betekent dat die deels de controle gaan verliezen. Toch is hun medewerking essentieel, omdat er onderweg veel risico’s en problemen gemanaged moeten worden,” stelt het rapport. …

Bron : ManagersOnline

Windows Live in Nederland .. indrukwekkende statistieken

Ik blijf nog even bij de blog van het Nederlandse Windows Live Team. Het gebruik van Windows Live in Nederland is echt indrukwekkend :

• Er zijn in Nederland ongeveer 9 miljoen Messenger programma’s in omloop en sterker nog: ze worden elke maand gebruikt om mee in te loggen op ons netwerk.
• Daarvan is nu ongeveer 20% Messenger versie 2009.
• Messenger 8.5 en 8.1 zijn nog steeds het meest populair,
• Windows Messenger is nog goed voor een aandeel van 10%.
• Er zijn maandelijks zo’n 6 miljoen accounts actief. Sommige mensen hebben meerdere accounts,
• dit leidt tot een uniek bereik in Nederland van 5.3 mln (per maand)
• in december 2008 werden er 6 miljard berichtjes verstuurd via Messenger.
• gemiddeld chat een Nederlander (15+) 20 minuten per dag via Messenger (actieve gesprekken).
• 14% van alle tijd die men in Nederland online besteed, wordt besteed op Messenger. En dan tellen we niet mee dat mensen de hele dag zijn ingelogd… nee, het zijn actieve chat-minuten.

Source: Nieuws over de uitrol van Windows Live Messenger 2009

Burton Group: Why Is Governance Pain So Common With SharePoint?

Governance is important not only for SharePoint, but for any information management system. All in all the list that Graig summs up is not that negative on SharePoint …

… Governance problems have plagued all sorts of websites, but in my experience they seem to come up disproportionately in SharePoint installations.  In researching and writing my new document "Website Governance: Guidance for Portals, SharePoint, and Intranets" (slated for publication in March) I wanted to figure out why that is.  Here is what I found out about why SharePoint has proven to be particularly vulnerable to chaos when ungoverned: …

Check the full post for the list of items.

… This doesn't mean that SharePoint cannot be governed.  But they do point to the importance of creating a statement of governance early in the planning cycle for SharePoint.  While some large SharePoint deployments rise above all these problems, it is rare and difficult for them to do so without a governance structure in place. …

Note: This is a cross-posting from the KnowledgeForward blog.

Source: Why Is Governance Pain So Common With SharePoint?

The PC is No Longer the Center of the Universe

I was cleaning up my RSS feeds and came across this 9 month old blogpost (May 2nd 2008) from Amy Wohl.

Reason for posting a response 9 months later is to illustrate how time constraint some analysis can be.

“traditional vendors like Microsoft …” ? We are only 9 months further along. I do wonder if Amy still has the same opinion on the matter

Also funny to see Google become more “traditional”.. Offline Gmail …

At IBM's Business Partner Leadership Conference, held this week in Los Angeles, IBM CEO Sam Palmisano and Google CEO Eric Schmidt spoke on the state of computing and their vision for its future, both separately and togehter.  The big news is that they agree:

• We are moving from a PC-Centric world to a Network-Centric world filled with millions of devices of every shape and description.
• In this Network Centric world, the PC is just another device, of decreasing importance as the emerging economies come online with their preference for mobile platforms which more closely ressemble smart phones.
• In the Network Centric World, Open Standards and published APIs are very imortant so that new innovations can easily be attached to the network and become new platforms for deelopment.
• The cloud (very large scale shared computing, available for hire) will become uibiquitious, probably sold by platform providers who will recruit ecoosystems of ISVs and provide a well-managed, secure platform, freeing both customers and ISVs from the need to implement hardware where they lack the skills or capital.
• This networkcentric Computing model will require tons of storage and new interaces and methods to discover the information and manage it.
• This enables everyone to have more access to information.  Some of it will be stored in the cloud, but some of it will continue to be stored on site.  It's a hybrid world.

Large traditional vendors like Microsoft will have to choose between adopting the open standards, network centric, cloud approach, finding a new market niche, and slowly becoming less relevant.  That's why Microsoft's chsing so hard after the consumer market with the Yahoo.

Source: The PC is No Longer the Center of the Universe

If the tradition is software and the innovation is services … Microsoft is doing pretty well …

Ferris: Microsoft Online Collaboration Services Are Reasonably Priced

Nick Shelness of Ferris Research makes the comparison between a Microsoft based on premise solution vs the Business Productivity Online Solution :

… Microsoft Online Services are reasonably priced compared to the cost of running equivalent on-premises software.

Consider what’s likely to be a common purchase of Microsoft Online Services:

• Exchange Online (email/calendaring/address books)
• Office Communications Online (presence/instant messaging)
• Office Live Meeting (Web conferencing)
• SharePoint Online (shared spaces/workflow management)
• Exchange Hosted Services (email archiving/spam and malware filtering)

The price varies on whether elements are purchased singly or in a bundle, but it seems $15/user/month will be common, with volume discounts of around 20%.

Using the on-premises versions of Exchange, OCS, and SharePoint, Microsoft typically receives annual income of about $60 to $80/user/year; or $5-$7/user/month. For example, consider the Small Business Server Standard Edition pricing, which basically provides Exchange, SharePoint, and anti-spam and anti-virus for Exchange. For 100 users, it costs:

• $1,089 for the server license and five-user clients access licenses (”CALs”)
• $7,315 for 95 CALs, which are payable annually …

Continue at Source: Microsoft Online Collaboration Services Are Reasonably Priced

"Report: Gmail about one-third as expensive as hosted e-mail".. but, we think.. 'You get what you pay for!'

The MS Exchange Blog (not the official MS team blog by the way) offers a nice perspective on the recent Forrester report which of declares Google’s GMail “the winner in price in a apples to oranges comparison. Why apples and oranges ? Well the list of the MS Exchange blog shows a few :

…Remember.. 'You get what you pay for'

Some current 'issues' that I believe exist with Google Mail at present.. (from an Enterprise perspective)

-There's no granularity of mailbox size limits

-Limited client-side rules capability

-Mailboxes can be accessed from any internet connected location - this has security considerations for some organisations

-Limited offline use - Google can  provide an ajax client that enables laptops to have the last 60 days' mail available offline though

-Full clients such as Outlook are supported using the IMAP protocol, this would synchronise mail folders, but not calendars, meaning that a laptop user’s calendar would either be online and visible to those permitted, or offline and invisible

-Authentication - custom integration requires to be written/adopted in order for an Active Directory user ID to be used for Google Mail access

-Collaboration - Google of course provides a full suite of tools for collaboration use, however there is little to no granularity as to which users can use which tools

-Telephony - Google's products do not currently support the SIP protocol for telephony integration

-Using a non-Microsoft mail platform would reduce the tight integration possible with applications such as Sharepoint

-In-house application support. Should a third-party application be in-place which integrates or uses Outlook for mail services, the application would need to be developed in order for it to be able to use Google Mail

-Mobile use – BES access would be via IMAP and BB use would therefore not be as functional

-Google Mail is still in ‘BETA’ !

-Google’s Privacy Policy could (should?) be a concern to some (most?) enterprises …

 

Source: "Report: Gmail about one-third as expensive as hosted e-mail".. but, we think.. 'You get what you pay for!'

Guy Creese : Google Expands GAPE Sales Footprint with Resellers

Guy Creese tells it like it is. Google is making steps with Google Apps For the Enterprise (GAPE), but the journey is long. The competition is not resting at all … A few clippings from Guy’s post :

…. Today Google announced that it was allowing resellers to sell Google Apps Premier Edition (GAPE). Google is going to sell it to them at a 20% discount ($40/year per user), and then when they sell it to organizations at a markup they can keep the profit. …

… However, in my opinion this does not mean that Google's sales to enterprises will turn around any time soon. (Google is doing very well selling to SMB's, but not to large enterprises). This move is like a car manufacturer announcing they have an expanded network of dealers. Umm, OK, but does anyone want to buy the cars? And at the moment the answer is no. …

…. In short, Google's announcement is a step in the right direction, but it's one step in a 1,000 mile journey. …

Source: Google Expands GAPE Sales Footprint with Resellers

Ferris: IBM’s Open Collaboration Client Solution Saves Money?

Very good article by Ferris. An objective analysis of IBM’s approach in the ‘Anything But Microsoft’ strategy. This turn out to be a very costly exercise which brings organisations no rela benefits.

IBM recently presented its Open Collaboration Client Solution (OCCS), in conjunction with Virtual Bridges, to Ferris. IBM proposes that OCCS presents substantial cost savings over the equivalent Microsoft approach. We’re skeptics. …

…  IBM claims that the first saving ($75 per user per annum) is achieved by only purchasing Microsoft software licenses under a Microsoft Select Agreement when installing new Microsoft software (every 3-5 years), rather than entering into an Microsoft Enterprise Agreement and paying an annual license fee. This analysis is based on list prices. This is a false argument. In practice, organizations are able to negotiate Microsoft Enterprise Agreements that eliminate this $75 per user per annum differential. …

This is the case in many of these type of comparisons. Comparing the list prices against an optimised scenario.

For many years, competitors (Corel Office, Lotus SmartSuite) have offered productivity suites at significantly lower price points than Microsoft Office. For some time, Star Office-derived offerings (Open Office from Sun, and more recently, Symphony from IBM/Lotus) have been available at zero cost. We accept that there are users who do not need the power (and attendant complexity) of Microsoft Office. However, these alternative offerings have had little impact on Microsoft’s Office market share.

IBM’s approach also involves a hidden cost. Lotus Symphony is written in Java and runs atop Lotus Expediter and open-source Eclipse, also written in Java. Under Windows and Linux, Java JAR files are treated as data, which considerably increases the memory footprint of these applications. In fact, Lotus recommends at least 1GB of memory to run Symphony effectively. Business users who wish to migrate desktop PCs from Microsoft Office to Lotus Symphony may find that they will need to upgrade (replace?) these PCs at significant cost. In fairness to IBM, users who wish to upgrade to Windows Vista will also require a significant PC upgrade.

Exactly .. “free” in purchasing terms is not free in practice. Migration cost the lack of or limited ISV eco system (so no or little 3rd party solutions), a limited partner eco system (fewer partners providing support often means support is more expensive and scarce).

… Ferris is very dubious about any cost savings that accrue from replacing Microsoft Exchange + SharePoint + OCS with Lotus Domino + Quickr + Sametime, or vice versa. In both cases, Ferris data indicates that migration costs swamp any putative savings. In addition, as with IBM productivity applications (see above), upgrading to Notes 8.x, which is Java/Expediter/Eclipse-based, introduces a 1GB PC desktop RAM requirement. This is a requirement that is not satisfied by the vast majority of currently deployed business desktop PCs (see above). In addition, Ferris believes that any organizations that are willing to allow Microsoft to host their collaboration data will be able to realize considerable cost savings by switching to Microsoft’s Online offering (see MS Exchange Online Pricing) of which Exchange Online + SharePoint Online + Office Communication Online + Live Meeting can be purchased for $15 per user per month. …

Microsoft is actually expanding the choice for clients. Not only how they procure software or services but also how they deploy the solution. Microsoft Online Services is the better solution, simply because it represents an evolutionary model which over IBM’s revolution …

… We cannot help but feel that IBM is today, as it has been for many years, interested in the idea of reducing Microsoft’s desktop revenue. It has tried with mainframe-based offerings, with Java-based Network Computers, and now with its Linux-based Open Collaboration Client Solution. IBM has not succeeded in the past, nor do we expect it to be any more successful with this offering. In our opinion, the greatest threat to Microsoft’s desktop hegemony comes from the cloud (e.g., Google Apps, etc.). We believe that Microsoft’s rapidly emerging Live and Online offerings mean that Microsoft is already well positioned to benefit from any move to the cloud, just as it did with an earlier move to the browser and Web server.

… Nick Shelness

Source: IBM’s Open Collaboration Client Solution Saves Money?

A maturity model for cloud computing

I like maturity models; simply because they help any discussion with regards to the incremental steps within the developement of a product, solution or service. James Urquhart has developed a maturity model for clud computing :

One of the really difficult aspects of cloud computing for most established IT organizations is the fact that the move to clouds, even private clouds, is not a simple, intuitive one. Replacing the bulk of both technology and process with a focus on capacity as a service--an automated, self-administered service--results in many organizations "experimenting" with the cloud, but few pushing any barriers. To make matters worse, we are in that wonderful "discovery" phase of a technology, where there are few if any guides to how to do it right, with minimal risk, and those that do exist are generally personal opinions, not "burned in" recipes for success.

This post does not pretend to be such a recipe. However, over the course of the last several months, culminating in some great conversations with some really smart people the last few weeks, I've come to realize that there is a basic maturity model for moving from data center consolidation architectures to true open market cloud architectures.

Remember maturity models? They've been around for some time, but a couple of years ago there was a small burst of creativity among system integrators and analysts alike, and maturity models were defined for a variety of IT subjects, ranging from business processes to technology architectures, such as SOA. The basic idea was to lay out some milestones, or even "gateways", to be achieved by IT as they worked towards achieving some idealized computing or process goal.

To that end, below is a simple five phase maturity model that I and others believe describes the stages of evolution for an enterprise data center trying to achieve cloud Nirvana:

...

Continue at Source: A maturity model for cloud computing

Ferris Research: Microsoft’s Approach to the Cloud

Very nice perspective on cloudcomputing and especialy recognising Microsoft’s unique position and approach ..

As we noted in our posting Cloud Computing - A Taxonomy, cloud computing can be delivered in three guises:

• As Public Services (PSs) hosted in large, multisite data centers, and delivered over the public Internet.
• As Virtual Private Services (VPSs) hosted in large, multisite, multitenanted data centers, and delivered securely over the public Internet. These VPSs are sometimes referred to as Software as a Service (SaaS).
• As Private Applications (PAs) hosted in large, multisite, multitenanted data centers, and delivered securely over the public Internet.

Some vendors offer only one type, some two, but only Microsoft offers all three. This is important, and to the extent that Microsoft is able, over time, to employ the same platform for all three, it allows both the easy morphing of PSs into VPSs, and more importantly, the easy morphing of PAs into VPSs, and VPSs into PSs.

This is not the only way in which Microsoft’s approach to the cloud is different from other vendors. Microsoft dominates the desktop, and has a growing on-premise server, and on-premise solutions, market share. This, in turn, leads in many organizations to ownership of the definitive internal directory — Active Directory (AD). This places Microsoft in a unique position to create bridges between an organization’s internal IT infrastructure and the “cloud.” …

Continue at source: Microsoft’s Approach to the Cloud

Forrester : Microsoft Azure: Low Immediate Impact But Watch This Space

Forrester shares teir perspective on Microsoft Windows Azure …

Microsoft finally took the wraps off its hosted platform at the end of October 2008. The platform is actually a portfolio that includes existing hosted services including SQL Services as well as a new operating system called Windows Azure. Application development managers should view Azure as a brand new platform rather than an evolution of today's platforms — and they should not view the Azure Services Platform as an alternative for rehosting existing .NET applications. Azure is early in its development (and available only in prebeta form) and so is appropriate only for skills development and experimentation during the next year. Teams with immediate needs for "platform-as-a-service" (PaaS) offerings will find more pragmatic options for Windows applications from Amazon Web Services LLC and other hosting providers as well from as non-Windows providers such as salesforce.com.

Source: Microsoft Azure: Low Immediate Impact But Watch This Space

Microsoft uses software edge on Cisco in unified communications war

Very good article about Microsoft Unified communications and how a consistent strategy is paying off …

… Two years ago, Zeus Kerravala, a Yankee Group analyst, confidently recommended Cisco over Microsoft for most enterprise unified communications deployments. Today, the tables have turned somewhat, but the two competitors, and a host of bit players, continue to wage war over where unified communications is going, and who will take enterprises there.

"It's pretty safe to go with Microsoft now," Kerravala said. "The thought process was that VoIP is the foundation for unified communications, which meant Cisco was pretty safe. I think the conversation has changed."

Strangely enough, he said, the strategies of the companies have remained fairly consistent. Microsoft has long approached unified communications from an email and software-centric world, while Cisco has brought its PBX legacy to bear with a strong voice message.

But enterprises' definitions of unified communications and their expectations for the technology have changed. Two years ago voice was considered the cornerstone of any UC deployment, but that thinking -- at least in some circles -- has changed, Kerravala said.

"Presence is now the centerpiece of UC," he said. This pushes the advantage toward Microsoft and its rich ecosystem of software partners. …

Read on : SearchUnifedCommunications.techtarget.com

Gartner: SaaS to grow in 90% of organizations

Gartner surveyed 258 IT managers in US and Europe and did find a strong demand for SaaS based solutions. Also some differences in SaaS investments in US compared to Europe :

Nine out of ten companies plan to grow their use of software-as-a-service (SaaS) in the next year, according to a survey by Gartner.

More than one third of respondents (37%) plan to replace on-premises software with SaaS to drive down total cost of ownership (TCO), Gartner found.

Those surveyed cited cost-effectiveness and ease of deployment as primary reasons for adoption. Other major drivers included replacing on-premises solutions that had not met performance expectation, or changes in sourcing strategy.

The survey involved eight major countries worldwide and 258 IT executives that make purchasing decisions of enterprise software. Most respondents were either currently using SaaS, or planned to use it within the next 12 months.

European firms trailed behind North American companies when it came to plans to increase investments in SaaS or subscription model products. But 49 percent of European respondents said that they expect new investments to increase slightly and 15 percent expect significant increases in investments. This compares to 62 percent and 15 percent respectively in North America. The US has been an early adopter of SaaS, with more than 20 percent of respondents indicating use for five years or longer and 60 percent having adopted it in the last three years.

Source : ITWorld

DirectionsOnMicrosoft: What Microsoft Got Right: The First 30 Years

Good and clearly writeup of (some of) Microsoft’s strengths :

… Microsoft is one of the most successful companies in modern history. It revolutionized the way companies use IT to do business and helped elevate the importance of IT in terms of corporate strategy.

Since its inception 33 years ago, Microsoft has made many mistakes both large and small. But it also got a few big things very, very right. As the post-Gates era takes shape, we look back on five things Microsoft got right and what they teach us. …

• Software Is King

Lesson: Question the rules. Change the game.

• Outsource Your Sales Force

Lesson: Create win-win partner situations to grow fast.

• Technology for the Masses

Lesson: Don’t neglect your customers’ most important need: a better price.

• Developers, Developers, Developers!

Lesson: Make it easy for partners to customize your product.

• The Long View

Lesson: Business isn’t a sprint; it’s a marathon. Be persistent.

Read Article for full details: DirectionsOnMicrosoft

These points combined truely set Microsoft apart from any other software company. The “asset” that’s build through this strategy is continuously leveraged into new territory such as Software + Services …

Microsoft Online Services means business for partners

Channel Insider features a great article about the recent launch of Microsoft Online Services (Exchnage Online and SharePoint Online to start with) in the US.

Given their focus on the market they zoom in on the partner business ofcourse.

In general they’ve asked Partner was the impact of offering Managed Services was on their overall business :

Channel Insider asked more than 300 managed service providers with more than 18 months experience in delivering managed services what impact managed services had on their other product and services sales. As shown in this graphic, managed service providers saw substantial increases in sales of software and professional services following the initial managed services engagement.

Several Partner highlight their role in recent migrations / implementations of new clients onto Microsoft Online Services:

As part of the SharePoint beta program, Evolve Partners worked with implementing the services offering with two customers—one that was already using an on-premise offering and a virgin account. Based on that experience, Evolve—a solution and managed services provider in Anaheim, Calif.—discovered it could sell high-value, high-margin professional migration, customization and training services to its customers.

“In a one-time migration from Exchange 2003 to 2007 it is no different than if you’re doing it in the cloud. But once it’s done on-premise, you go away. With a service, you can then step back and ask how else you can help them,” says Tim Acker, Evolve’s chief operating officer.
“So many small and medium businesses get through the migration, but they don’t use the application. [Services] frees up the dollars to help them improve utilization. That’s especially good with SharePoint so we can help them with document retention and collaboration, instead of having them worry what version they’re on,” Acker adds. “That’s a huge value to the customer.”

I like this quote best, basicly because it says it all :

“Microsoft is putting its marketing behind services and that’s going to benefit all their partners,”

says Lisa Coleman, director of marketing at Intermedia.

Choosing Gmail over Microsoft Exchange : costly move

eWeek featured an article with the title : “Serena to Dump Microsoft Exchange for Google Gmail, the Cloud”.

The article ofcourse got my interest and when I started reading I thought this can’t be true. The article is one big confusing apples and oranges overview. I am quite sure that nor Mr Bister of Serena, nor the journalist has used Microsoft Excel to do their calculations …

Let’s have a look :

… Serena Software expects to save $750,000 per year by shedding Microsoft Exchange Server in favor of Google's Gmail application for its 800 employees, officials of the Web development software maker told eWEEK Nov. 12.

The move, slated to be completed by the end of 2008, is a coup for Google. The search engine provider has been struggling to entice customers to switch from the Microsoft Outlook e-mail client and Exchange Server on-premises application to its SAAS (software as a service) Web mail, word processing, spreadsheet and other applications.

These applications and data associated with them live on Google's hosted servers, which customers access through the Internet. This method, also called cloud computing, is becoming more popular for cost-conscious companies, which may also be tired of maintaining the servers that house their data.

Ron Brister, senior manager of global IT operations at Serena, told eWEEK Serena has subscribed to Google's GAPE (Google Apps Premier Edition) service, the paid version of Google Apps, for $50 per user, per year.

Brister said it cost Serena roughly $1 million a year to use Exchange once all of the CALs (client access licenses) and software assurance were factored in; he expects Serena to pay only a quarter of that to use GAPE. …

So an Exchange environment for 800 would cost $ 1 Million USD / Year ? Really ?

That’s $ 1250 USD / user / year ..

According to Radicati Group the average TCO per year is much lower :

Mid-size organizations (i.e. 1,000 email users) had a 3 year average TCO of $562 per user/year.

As the article suggests, Microsoft also offers Exchange Online. When using the calculator featured on the Microsoft Online site, The cost is much lower :

• $ 7696 / month for 800 users
• $ 92352 / year for 800 users
• $ 115,44 / user / year.
  
  This is excluding the Microsoft Outlook client, so the customer would need to purchase a separate Outlook client, or MS Office version. If you’d assume $300 / user for MS Office then this would be an additional investment of
  $ 240.000

However, Brister said Serena so far is only using Gmail and the Postini assets to protect and serve Gmail, largely because Serena staffers are using Microsoft's SharePoint collaboration software. While there is no current plan to jettison SharePoint, he conceded that that may change as Serena staffers get more comfortable with the cloud. Brister added:

What we're finding is it's becoming pretty viral and it's getting used, taking less of an emphasis off of things like SharePoint, which becomes static and stale much more quickly when you have something much more collaborative in the cloud and as easy to use as Gmail. It's become each of the users' preferences rather than anything we're dictating.

So they continue to use SharePoint. MOre good news. Serena could purchase the Business Productivity Online Suite, consisting of :

• Exchange Online : email
• SharePOint Online : Collaboration
• LiveMeeting : Web / Video Conferencing
• Office Communications Online : IM and Presence

All of this functionality will cost them :

• $ 11544 / month for 800 users
• $ 138528 / year for 800 users
• $ 173,16/ user / year.
  
  This is excluding the Microsoft Outlook and Communicator client, so the customer would need to purchase a separate Outlook and Communicator client, or MS Office version. If you’d assume $300 / user for MS Office then this would be an additional investment of $ 240.000 .

All in all you would come no where near the $ 1 Million USD that the article suggests Not in an on Premise Scenario (the Radicati TCO hihlighted) nor in an Online Services Scenario (the 2 scenario’s shown above>

There have been some cases where Google Apps has wedged its way in the door, joining Microsoft Office. Capgemini's embrace of Google Apps in September 2007 comes to mind.

Funny that they mention they alliance. The majority of info on the Capgemini site is over 1 year old. The site contains no success stories.

My recomendation to Serena Software would be to do some homework, look into Microsoft Online Services and reconsider their options …

 

Update 16-11-2008 : ZDbet has also picked up on this story with some additional (mis)calculations : http://blogs.zdnet.com/SAAS/?p=609

Survey: Microsoft's share of IT spending up

A Goldman Sachs survey out today shows that Microsoft is taking a larger cut of shrinking IT budgets.

Goldman Sachs' survey of decision-makers at Fortune 1000 companies showed that 41 percent of respondents expected to increase their spending with Microsoft over the next year, compared to 23 percent who expected to cut back.

Source: http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/153321.asp 

Although you could argue that these are very early conclusions given the current economic climate, these are comforting results.

Surely companies are cutting back on their overall IT spend, but they also spend their IT budget in areas that make sense. All of the top spend categories, looking at the products deal with the’Information Worker’ platform, which fuels productivty and streamlines communications.

The authors say:

… Microsoft's shift into the top group is likely to be a result of a number of its enterprise product upgrades, such as SQL Server (Microsoft's enterprise database) and the ongoing traction of SharePoint server. In addition, the Office suite was stronger than expected in the September quarter; however we remain mindful of the exposure to the small-to-mid sized enterprise and remain muted in our expectations for this area of Microsoft's business …

Some companies may be looking for quick and short term cost fixes by turning to “SaaS” based Office solutions. Surveys like this prove that many organisations look at “office functionality” as part of their platform and equip their people with the best integrated tools rather than buying them new tools every year …

The fact that Microsoft is offering almost all of the above mentioned products online through Microsoft Online Services, allows companies to speed up implementation, lower TCO and speed up the implementation.

Gartner: Magic Quadrant for Social Software

Microsoft certainly sticks out in this Gartner Analysis.

As one my main focus area these days is on Software + Services I really am pleased with the quote on Google :

The SaaS-only model will limit the appeal for some organizations.

It confirms that although SaaS is an attractive business model with huge potential there are advantages in having multiple delivery options such as on-premise and hosting …

Microsoft: Strengths

• With SharePoint, Microsoft offers a broad set of capabilities that combine structured collaboration with core social computing capabilities, including blogs, wikis, podcasting, persistent group chat, discussion groups, "people search" that uses social network analysis, and related rich content, portal and workflow capabilities on a platform that offers consistent management and administration.
• Microsoft has continued to see exceptional market penetration, momentum, sizable internal and external deployments, and satisfaction with Windows SharePoint Services (a component included in Windows server at no extra charge) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007) during 2008.
• It offers integration with desktop office applications and related offerings such as Microsoft's productivity tools, leading e-mail server, unified communications suite, Web-based meetings and Live Services.
• It has a very strong technology partner network ready to exploit SharePoint's presence in business environments while adding value and filling functionality gaps.
• The possibility now exists for better support for social analytics (sentiment and intent analysis) through integration with the recently acquired Fast Search & Transfer.
• Microsoft's market presence as a dependable global vendor enables it to handle enterprise requirements.

Microsoft : Cautions

• Given its breadth, MOSS may deter those who are looking to take advantage only of the collaboration and social networking capabilities, and those not fully committed to Microsoft infrastructure services.
• There are functional gaps including social tagging and bookmarking, social search and an improved wiki (although some of these are offered by Microsoft as open-source components through its Codeplex community).
• This strong partner network is a "double edged sword" as SharePoint may require a multivendor ecosystem to fulfill the needs of an organization with sophisticated social software needs.
• SharePoint's rich functionality can be hard to pull together into user-friendly environments without some technical assistance.
• More flexible deployment options are offered through the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) SaaS program, but its credibility will take time to establish.

As one my main focus area these days is on Software + Services I really am pleased with the quote on Google :

The SaaS-only model will limit the appeal for some organizations.

It confirms that although SaaS is an attractive business model with huge potential there are advantages in having multiple delivery options such as on-premise and hosting …

Source: Gartner Group

This report and many others are available on Microsoft’s Analyst Relations page.

Kevin Kelly: Predicting the next 5,000 days of the web

Rob Adams recently pointed me to this video. Aparently I’ve been living under a rock for not having noticed this video / vision of Kevin Kelly on TED :-)

 

Nemertes Presents Top Unified Communications Vendors with PilotHouse Awards

Microsoft winner over Cisco and IBM …

Four leading unified-communications vendors earned PilotHouse Awards from Nemertes Research, based on ratings from their customers.

“For now, the main UC battle is between Cisco and Microsoft, as measured by customer experiences and ratings,” says Robin Gareiss, executive vice president and senior founding partner of Nemertes Research. “But IBM and Avaya aren’t far behind, so the right focus on customer service, value, and technology innovation could easily shift this market in the coming year.”

As part of Nemertes’ Unified Communications and Collaboration research project, 443 IT executives from 426 companies rated their unified-communications vendors. PilotHouse Awards recognize vendors who received the highest average scores in several categories. UC decision-makers rated their vendors on customer service, value, technology, product features, and management tools.

Nemertes Research 2008 PilotHouse Awards: Unified Communications

Best Overall UC Vendors

• Microsoft Corp. - Winner
• Cisco Systems, Inc. - Finalist
• IBM - Finalist

The detailed report outlines additional categories that UC decision-makers rated their vendors. Although awards were not issued in each category, the report does detail which vendors perform best in each area, and why.

Source: Nemertes.com

Forrester: SharePoint Shoots For The Cloud

Forrester has a good piece on SharePoint Online. A solution that will fuel the growth of SharePoint tremendously in the coming years …

When is SharePoint not like SharePoint? When it's SharePoint Online, part of Microsoft's recently announced Microsoft Online Services offering. Unlike Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 — a full-blown collaboration platform with collaboration, content management, business intelligence, portal, search, and application development facilities — SharePoint Online offers only basic collaboration capabilities.

That said, SharePoint Online could be perfect for your organization. If your organization is looking for commoditized collaboration and business content management services, then take a close look at SharePoint Online.

Alternatively, if you're looking to build differentiated solutions for knowledge workers, then consider taking the full MOSS plunge. To assess which offering best fits you, start by mapping your requirements using Forrester's research on IT archetypes.

Source: SharePoint Shoots For The Cloud

Gartner: Microsoft's E-Mail/SharePoint Pricing Portends Shift to SaaS

Microsoft’s S+S message has landed in the market. Gartner picked up on it (ofcourse)  with a very positive point of view… exciting times :-)

… Newly announced Microsoft software-as-a-service pricing and distribution for Exchange and SharePoint -- coupled with robust pent-up demand -- will accelerate the transition away from premises-based collaboration software. …

… Analysis

Microsoft's newly announced collaboration SaaS pricing is likely to generate substantial interest from enterprises seeking to cut costs or move away from premises-based collaboration deployments. The economics will be most appealing to small enterprises (those with fewer than 1,000 employees), which have the highest operational unit cost and generally can't provide the BPOS suite services internally for less than $15 per user per month. Enterprises with 20,000 or more employees are unlikely to experience cost savings, but may be looking to move to a SaaS model for other reasons. Microsoft's inclusion of a strong channel model for SaaS distribution will ensure broad market coverage and should keep government regulators at bay.  …

… Gartner expects elements of the BPOS to mature rapidly, with routine, mainstream adoption occurring in 2010. We expect 20% of enterprise e-mail seats to use SaaS (from Microsoft and other vendors) in 2012, up from 1% in 2007. Early adopters of this multitenant SaaS will likely encounter issues associated with its immaturity, such as stability, contract terms, data migration, integration, security and legal issues. Enterprises should therefore wait for several quarters of successful large-volume operations prior to engagement. ..

 

Download the full analysis : microsofts_emai...pdf (116.1KB)

Source: gartner.com

Forrester: Firms Want Managed Unified Communications

I like the thought that UC is preferred ‘as-a-service’, but I do not understand the motivation as descibed by Forrester : unclear ROI to name one. Depending on the depreciation status of the current Communication Infrastructure ofcourse, the benefits and value of UC is a ‘no-brainer’

I do agree the landscape is changing fast, but so are the prices. This space is being ‘democratised’ …

Microsoft’s view on UC is that is (rapidly becoming) a software play rather than proprietary hardware. Chaninging fast in that context is more innovation than anything else, somthing that is often not the case for some of the PBX’s in the basement …

Bottomline it makes sence to procure it as-a-service which in most cases includes the upgrades (innovation) …

The number of unified communications (UC) evaluations and pilots is up more than 20% since last year. However, those pilots have not yet translated into full deployments.

Why? Unclear value of ROI, rapidly evolving technologies and standards, immature user interfaces, and a confusing vendor landscape.

As a result, many technology decision-makers tell us that they want to rent rather than buy unified communications. This perfect storm of change and uncertainty enables UC vendors, network service providers, and even software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendors to win managed UC share by offering industry-specific solutions, enabling rich channel partners, and ensuring that CIOs hear the message of mitigating risk with managed UC deployments.

Source: Firms Want Managed Unified Communications

InfoWorld: 'Laptop niet veilig op Amerikaans vliegveld'

Ik hoorde vorige week over deze statstieken, ongelofelijk .. en dan te bedenken dat laptops over het algemeen vol staan met vertrouwelijke bedrijfsgegevens ...

... Op grote en middelgrote vliegvelden in de Verenigde Staten raken jaarlijks ongeveer 637.000 laptops zoek. Dat blijkt uit een onderzoek van het Ponemon Institute.

De kans dat de rechtmatige eigenaar zijn laptop niet meer terug vindt, is volgens de onderzoekers het grootst bij security checkpoints. Uit het onderzoek blijkt ook dat wekelijks zo'n 10.278 laptops niet meer terechtkomen bij de eigenaar. 65 Procent van de vermiste laptops wordt volgens de experts niet meer teruggeëist. 77 Procent van de mensen die hun laptop ooit kwijt zijn geraakt geven in het onderzoek aan er geen vertrouwen in te hebben dat hun laptop ooit wordt teruggevonden. 16 Procent geeft zelfs aan helemaal niets te ondernemen als hun laptop tijdens een zakenreis zoek zou raken. ...

Bron: 'Laptop niet veilig op Amerikaans vliegveld'

$1.3 billion spent on storage power and cooling, IDC says

Wow .. and this will only become more

… The cost of providing power and cooling to all the world's spinning disk drives exceeded US$1.3 billion in 2007, IDC says in a new report. …

Source: $1.3 billion spent on storage power and cooling, IDC says

Domino or Exchange wiki?

For 3 days the Domino or Exchange ? wiki is up. In this short timeframe a huge collaborative effort has resulted in more insight into what the ‘ Fortune 175’ are using as their primary email platform.

Below is a snapshot of the result so far (27-6-2008 16h15) and bare in mind that this is still work in progress.

(graph update d27-6-2008: As Paul Mooney made clear the previous graph was “misleading” see comments)

As this is data in a wiki, everyone is free to add / alter / delete information and the outcome is … democratic ..

So stuff that needs to be sorted is :

• N? or E ?
  Its one or the other.
• M (=MIX) 
  This is an organisation that uses both platforms for email. I would argue that not both platforms are equal in size and that the 80/20 rule applies.
  Maybe a good suggestion is to find out what the corporate standard is as defined by the CIO office / corporate IT department.
  
  Second criteria/interpretation maybe Domino applications used. If this is an overview related to email the Domino apps and the related usage of Notes/Domino is not relevant. Or add an additional column that indicates Domino Apps.
• ?
  That’s the challenge to find out aparently.

I will put my suggestions forward and see what becomes of them ..