Exam 70-620 is one of the microsoft exams and the name of this examination is MCTS Windows Vista certification. This certification will suit best to the candidates who wish to gain skills and knowledge on validating efficiently to install, manage as well as configure windows Vista operating system in any level enterprise environments. This examination is also helpful to the IT professionals to upgrade their skills to the windows Vista operating system. Successful completion of this examination will help the candidates to earn Microsoft certified technology specialist certification in this configuration.
Requirements And Job Roles For This Examination:
This examination will target the IT professionals who have work experience or knowledge in solving issues in the network connectivity, desktop operating system and other issues related with desktop applications. Candidates can get several job opportunities in the top companies after certifying with this examination. Some of the job roles include: technical support specialists, network administrators, system administrators and system analysts etc.
Exam Objectives:
The following are the Windows Vista exam objectives and they are:
1) Network connectivity configuration
2) Windows security features configuration
3) Upgrading as well as installing windows vista
4) Troubleshooting as well as configuring the mobile computing
5) Configuring the applications that are included in windows vista
6) Optimizing as well as maintaining systems that run windows vista
7) Troubleshooting and configuring post installation system settings
Other Details:
Exams can be registered in Pearson VUE centers or in online through Pearson VUE website by paying the fee. The exam comprises of 70 questions with 120 minutes time duration and no adaptive or case study type questions. Only multiple choices, drag- drop, built a tree, reorder type questions are asked. Minimum score to pass in the exam is around 700 out of 1000 (70%).
Install and configure Windows Vista drivers.Configuring and troubleshooting Post-installation system settingsTroubleshoot post-installation configuration issues.Configure and troubleshoot Windows Aero.Configure and troubleshoot parental controls.Configure Microsoft Internet Explorer.Configuring Windows security featuresConfigure and troubleshoot User Account Control.Configure Windows Defender.Configure Dynamic Security for Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.Configure security settings in Windows Firewall.Configuring network connectivityConfiguring networking by using the Network and Sharing Center.Troubleshoot connectivity issues.Configure remote access.Configuring applications included with Windows VistaConfigure and troubleshoot media applications.Configure Windows Mail.Configure Windows Meeting Space.Configure Windows Calendar.Configure Windows Fax and Scan.Configure Windows Sidebar.Maintaining and optimizing systems that run Windows VistaTroubleshoot performance issues.Troubleshoot reliability issues by using free Microsoft exam questionsbuilt-in diagnostic tools.Configure Windows Update.Configure data protection.Configuring and troubleshooting mobile computingConfigure mobile display settings.Configure mobile devices.Configure Tablet PC software.Configure power options.
Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) certifications enable professionals to target specific technologies and to distinguish themselves by demonstrating in-depth knowledge and expertise in their specialized technologies. more at http://www.certkingdom.com
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
Continued Growth in Southern California
Microsoft continues to expand its initiatives in Southern California. From philanthropic efforts within local schools and the surrounding community, to the upcoming Worldwide Partner Conference, the company is committed to building and maintaining a strong presence in the Southland.
Recently in an article for the Orange County Business Journal, Microsoft's Southwest District General Manager, Tyler Bryson, reflected on the growth that the company has seen in Southern California. Discussing the company's presence, Tyler noted that Microsoft has been an integral part of the Orange County community for more than 20 years.
In addition to an ever-expanding customer base in the area, Microsoft has increased its presence during the past four years:
* The Irvine Microsoft Technology Center launched in 2007
* The Mission Viejo Microsoft Store opened its doors in 2009
* The Costa Mesa store is set to open later this month
We're excited about our continued involvement in the community!
Recently in an article for the Orange County Business Journal, Microsoft's Southwest District General Manager, Tyler Bryson, reflected on the growth that the company has seen in Southern California. Discussing the company's presence, Tyler noted that Microsoft has been an integral part of the Orange County community for more than 20 years.
In addition to an ever-expanding customer base in the area, Microsoft has increased its presence during the past four years:
* The Irvine Microsoft Technology Center launched in 2007
* The Mission Viejo Microsoft Store opened its doors in 2009
* The Costa Mesa store is set to open later this month
We're excited about our continued involvement in the community!
Sunday, May 29, 2011
MacDefender Scareware Linked to Russian Payment Site
The fake MacDefender malware that has been plaguing owners of Apple computers for about a month has been traced back to Russian online payment processor ChronoPay, a computer security researcher claimed Friday.
"Some of the recent scams that used bogus security alerts in a bid to frighten Mac users into purchasing worthless security software appear to have been the brainchild of ChronoPay, Russia's largest online payment processor and something of a pioneer in the rogue anti-virus business," writes security researcher Brian Krebs on his KrebsonSecurity blog.
The fake MacDefender phishing attack and similar scareware called MacProtector and MacSecurity often attacks through poisoned Google Image search results and is very difficult for Mac users to remove because it attaches itself to a computer's launch menu and has no dock icon.
Krebs said he traced new strains of the scareware back to ChronoPay by investigating two domains the rogue software directs Mac users to go for a paid software security solution. He found that both mac-defence.com and macbookprotection.com are associated with the email address fc@mail-eye.com—an address that leaked ChronoPay documents indicate is owned by the company's financial controller Alexandra Volkova.
Those two domains have been suspended by Webpoint.com, a Czech registrar, according to Krebs. But the fc@mail-eye.com account was recently used to register appledefence.com and appleprodefence.com, he added, though Mac users have not yet reported being directed to those domains via scareware like MacDefender.
"ChronoPay has been an unabashed 'leader' in the scareware industry for quite some time," Krebs writes. "In 2008, it was the core processor for trafficconverter.biz, the rogue anti-virus affiliate program that was designed to be the beneficiary of the first strain of the Conficker worm, a menacing contagion that still infects millions of PCs worldwide.
"Last March, the company was at the forefront of another emerging scam, when it began processing payments for icpp-online.com, a scam site that targeted filesharing users and stole victims' money by bullying them into paying a 'pre-trial settlement' to cover a 'Copyright holder fine.'"
Apple said this week that it would release an update to its OS X operating system that roots out and destroys the fake Mac Defender malware and similar scareware.
The company also released a support document instructing Mac users on ways to eliminate MacDefender from their computers.
"Some of the recent scams that used bogus security alerts in a bid to frighten Mac users into purchasing worthless security software appear to have been the brainchild of ChronoPay, Russia's largest online payment processor and something of a pioneer in the rogue anti-virus business," writes security researcher Brian Krebs on his KrebsonSecurity blog.
The fake MacDefender phishing attack and similar scareware called MacProtector and MacSecurity often attacks through poisoned Google Image search results and is very difficult for Mac users to remove because it attaches itself to a computer's launch menu and has no dock icon.
Krebs said he traced new strains of the scareware back to ChronoPay by investigating two domains the rogue software directs Mac users to go for a paid software security solution. He found that both mac-defence.com and macbookprotection.com are associated with the email address fc@mail-eye.com—an address that leaked ChronoPay documents indicate is owned by the company's financial controller Alexandra Volkova.
Those two domains have been suspended by Webpoint.com, a Czech registrar, according to Krebs. But the fc@mail-eye.com account was recently used to register appledefence.com and appleprodefence.com, he added, though Mac users have not yet reported being directed to those domains via scareware like MacDefender.
"ChronoPay has been an unabashed 'leader' in the scareware industry for quite some time," Krebs writes. "In 2008, it was the core processor for trafficconverter.biz, the rogue anti-virus affiliate program that was designed to be the beneficiary of the first strain of the Conficker worm, a menacing contagion that still infects millions of PCs worldwide.
"Last March, the company was at the forefront of another emerging scam, when it began processing payments for icpp-online.com, a scam site that targeted filesharing users and stole victims' money by bullying them into paying a 'pre-trial settlement' to cover a 'Copyright holder fine.'"
Apple said this week that it would release an update to its OS X operating system that roots out and destroys the fake Mac Defender malware and similar scareware.
The company also released a support document instructing Mac users on ways to eliminate MacDefender from their computers.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Citrix overhauls virtual desktop products for 'personal cloud'
Citrix's annual Synergy conference is opening with a bang this week, with Citrix previewing overhauls to nearly every component of its virtual desktop product lines, reaching from the data center to the iPad.
Citrix's goal is to make all data and applications available to users on any device, without threatening IT security. The PC era, which replaced the mainframe era, is now being replaced by the cloud era, and each user will have a "personal cloud," said Wes Wasson, Citrix senior vice president of marketing.
"A personal cloud is something that is much bigger than just a Windows desktop," Wasson said. "It's the way people want to work, from any location, at any time, on any device, with everything they need to be successful."
FIRST LOOK: Citrix's big changes
The devices - PCs, thin clients, smartphones, tablets, etc. - are already there. What's needed is better software to deliver applications and data, and more sophisticated data centers and networking tools to connect people to their personal clouds, he said.
Among the numerous announcements at Synergy, Citrix is unveiling "Project Olympus," which combines its own XenServer virtualization product with OpenStack, a new open source cloud computing project launched by Rackspace and NASA. Olympus will help cloud providers or enterprises build scaled-out, self-service infrastructures with commodity equipment, Citrix said. An early access program for Olympus is opening now, with general availability planned for the second half of this year.
Citrix's other announcements fall into a few categories: improving the end-user and IT manager experience, boosting efficiency in the data center, and providing secure connections from the data center and client devices to cloud services.
Highlights on the end-user side include:
• HD Faces for GoToMeeting, a high-definition video client for Citrix's Web conferencing software, is entering a public beta.
• GoToManage for the iPad, which lets IT pros access physical and virtual desktops remotely to diagnose and fix problems, will launch for free in the Apple App Store this week.
• Citrix Receiver, the software that delivers virtual desktops and applications to user devices, supports 149 smartphones and 37 tablets. At Synergy, Citrix will demonstrate Receiver working on Google's Chrome OS laptops, the HP webOS tablet, and Motorola's Atrix 4G smartphone/laptop combo. Multitouch support on tablets is being upgraded, Wasson said.
• The second version of XenClient, a bare-metal hypervisor for installing virtual desktops on PCs, will be shown in a technology preview that expands the software to more types of laptops. Bare-metal desktop hypervisors are not widely used, but may offer greater security by isolating virtual machines, and a richer experience than streamed desktops by using the PC's native horsepower. Citrix is upgrading XenClient to improve the user interface, synchronization, backup and remote data wipes.
• Citrix will also preview XenClient XT, a higher-end version with "extreme security, isolation and performance," designed for government and other organizations in need of multi-layer security, Wasson said.
Citrix's goal is to make all data and applications available to users on any device, without threatening IT security. The PC era, which replaced the mainframe era, is now being replaced by the cloud era, and each user will have a "personal cloud," said Wes Wasson, Citrix senior vice president of marketing.
"A personal cloud is something that is much bigger than just a Windows desktop," Wasson said. "It's the way people want to work, from any location, at any time, on any device, with everything they need to be successful."
FIRST LOOK: Citrix's big changes
The devices - PCs, thin clients, smartphones, tablets, etc. - are already there. What's needed is better software to deliver applications and data, and more sophisticated data centers and networking tools to connect people to their personal clouds, he said.
Among the numerous announcements at Synergy, Citrix is unveiling "Project Olympus," which combines its own XenServer virtualization product with OpenStack, a new open source cloud computing project launched by Rackspace and NASA. Olympus will help cloud providers or enterprises build scaled-out, self-service infrastructures with commodity equipment, Citrix said. An early access program for Olympus is opening now, with general availability planned for the second half of this year.
Citrix's other announcements fall into a few categories: improving the end-user and IT manager experience, boosting efficiency in the data center, and providing secure connections from the data center and client devices to cloud services.
Highlights on the end-user side include:
• HD Faces for GoToMeeting, a high-definition video client for Citrix's Web conferencing software, is entering a public beta.
• GoToManage for the iPad, which lets IT pros access physical and virtual desktops remotely to diagnose and fix problems, will launch for free in the Apple App Store this week.
• Citrix Receiver, the software that delivers virtual desktops and applications to user devices, supports 149 smartphones and 37 tablets. At Synergy, Citrix will demonstrate Receiver working on Google's Chrome OS laptops, the HP webOS tablet, and Motorola's Atrix 4G smartphone/laptop combo. Multitouch support on tablets is being upgraded, Wasson said.
• The second version of XenClient, a bare-metal hypervisor for installing virtual desktops on PCs, will be shown in a technology preview that expands the software to more types of laptops. Bare-metal desktop hypervisors are not widely used, but may offer greater security by isolating virtual machines, and a richer experience than streamed desktops by using the PC's native horsepower. Citrix is upgrading XenClient to improve the user interface, synchronization, backup and remote data wipes.
• Citrix will also preview XenClient XT, a higher-end version with "extreme security, isolation and performance," designed for government and other organizations in need of multi-layer security, Wasson said.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Nokia denies Microsoft buyout rumours
A senior executive at Nokia has responded to rumours that Microsoft is readying a bid for the mobile arm of the Finnish company, saying they were wide of the mark.
Nokia and Microsoft decided to partner up back in February in a bid to take on Android.
So far we have not seen this partnership bear fruit, but from day one there was speculation that this could be more than just strategic – a test bed for Microsoft taking Nokia under its wing.
News today that Nokia was getting rid of the Ovi brand and sticking with just Nokia has fuelled speculation that a takeover was on the cards, with Nokia know-it-all Eladr Murtazin saying in a blog (which was translated from Russian by Unwired View): "Next week Nokia will start the negotiations about the sale of its phone unit to Microsoft.
"For now the results of the negotiations won't be public, but the deal might close before the end of 2011. Both companies are in a big hurry."
Buy out (of the question?)
Microsoft has been spending big recently, acquiring Skype for a cool $8.5 billion. Seeing as this was a cash offer, we have a feeling Ballmer and co have enough in the coffers to claim Nokia for their own.
Mark Squires, UK Nokia PR, has tried to quash rumours, however, writing on his Twitter account: "We typically don't comment on rumors. But we have to say that Eldar's rumours are getting obviously less accurate with every passing moment."
So, denial from Nokia but this hasn't stopped the rumour mill going into overtime.
Nokia and Microsoft decided to partner up back in February in a bid to take on Android.
So far we have not seen this partnership bear fruit, but from day one there was speculation that this could be more than just strategic – a test bed for Microsoft taking Nokia under its wing.
News today that Nokia was getting rid of the Ovi brand and sticking with just Nokia has fuelled speculation that a takeover was on the cards, with Nokia know-it-all Eladr Murtazin saying in a blog (which was translated from Russian by Unwired View): "Next week Nokia will start the negotiations about the sale of its phone unit to Microsoft.
"For now the results of the negotiations won't be public, but the deal might close before the end of 2011. Both companies are in a big hurry."
Buy out (of the question?)
Microsoft has been spending big recently, acquiring Skype for a cool $8.5 billion. Seeing as this was a cash offer, we have a feeling Ballmer and co have enough in the coffers to claim Nokia for their own.
Mark Squires, UK Nokia PR, has tried to quash rumours, however, writing on his Twitter account: "We typically don't comment on rumors. But we have to say that Eldar's rumours are getting obviously less accurate with every passing moment."
So, denial from Nokia but this hasn't stopped the rumour mill going into overtime.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Get Ready for SQL Server R2
Be ready to support your customers in upgrading their database applications and leveraging all the new features that SQL Server R2 has to offer.
* Exam 70-432 : TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance
* Exam 70-433 : Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Database Development
* Exam 70-448 : TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance
* Exam 70-450: PRO: Designing, Optimizing and Maintaining a Database Administrative Solution Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008
* Exam 70-451: Upgrade: Transition Your MCITP SQL Server 2005 DBD to MCITP SQL Server 2008 DBD
* Exam 70-453: Upgrade: Transition Your MCITP SQL Server 2005 DBA to MCITP SQL Server 2008
* Exam 70-454: PRO: Designing Database Solutions and Data Access Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008
* Exam 70-432 : TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance
* Exam 70-433 : Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Database Development
* Exam 70-448 : TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance
* Exam 70-450: PRO: Designing, Optimizing and Maintaining a Database Administrative Solution Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008
* Exam 70-451: Upgrade: Transition Your MCITP SQL Server 2005 DBD to MCITP SQL Server 2008 DBD
* Exam 70-453: Upgrade: Transition Your MCITP SQL Server 2005 DBA to MCITP SQL Server 2008
* Exam 70-454: PRO: Designing Database Solutions and Data Access Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Sony hit again with two hacks
An intruder has apparently broken into So-net, an internet service provider subsidiary of Sony, and stolen about $1,200 worth of virtual tokens.
So-net disclosed the compromise in an alert (written in Japanese) on its homepage on Thursday.
Meanwhile, security firm F-Secure today disclosed that it has also discovered a phishing site that's hosted on a Sony server in Thailand.
"Basically this means that Sony has been hacked, again," Mikko Hypponen, F-Secure's chief research officer, noted in the blog post. "Although in this case the server is probably not very important," he added.
News of the latest breaches come barely a month after Sony disclosed intrusions at its PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Online sites that compromised data on close to 100 million account holders.
A So-net spokesman told the Wall Street Journal, which broke the story, that the breach of the ISP is unlikely connected to the previous compromises.
The Sony-owned So-net ISP lets consumers accumulate reward points that can be redeemed for Sony merchandize and services. The intruders illegally redeemed points belonging to about 130 consumers. Another 73 accounts were compromised, but their points were not redeemed, the Journal noted.
In addition, about 90 email accounts are also believed to have been compromised in the breach
According to the Journal, an intruder using one IP address, tried to access So-net's point service close to 10,000 times before finally gaining access. So-net itself appears to believe that the intruder had usernames of account holders and used an automated program to generate possible passwords, the Journal said.
It's not immediately clear why the company apparently doesn't have a mechanism for flagging multiple failed attempts to access its systems.
The intrusions are believed to have taken place on May 16 and May 17. So-net discovered the breach on May 18, after receiving consumer complaints. So-net stopped the point redemption service following the discovery of the breach.
The latest breaches are relatively minor in scale compared to the massive breach at PSN and Sony Entertainment Online. Even so, it only adds to the company's embarrassment.
The earlier intrusions forced Sony to take its PSN service offline for several weeks while it struggled to identify the scope of the problems and how to fix them.
The company started re-launching the service this week but isn struggling to keep it running smoothly.
For instance, earlier this week Sony was forced to once again take a portion of its PlayStation network offline because of a programming error that could provide hackers a way to break into its networks.
So-net disclosed the compromise in an alert (written in Japanese) on its homepage on Thursday.
Meanwhile, security firm F-Secure today disclosed that it has also discovered a phishing site that's hosted on a Sony server in Thailand.
"Basically this means that Sony has been hacked, again," Mikko Hypponen, F-Secure's chief research officer, noted in the blog post. "Although in this case the server is probably not very important," he added.
News of the latest breaches come barely a month after Sony disclosed intrusions at its PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Online sites that compromised data on close to 100 million account holders.
A So-net spokesman told the Wall Street Journal, which broke the story, that the breach of the ISP is unlikely connected to the previous compromises.
The Sony-owned So-net ISP lets consumers accumulate reward points that can be redeemed for Sony merchandize and services. The intruders illegally redeemed points belonging to about 130 consumers. Another 73 accounts were compromised, but their points were not redeemed, the Journal noted.
In addition, about 90 email accounts are also believed to have been compromised in the breach
According to the Journal, an intruder using one IP address, tried to access So-net's point service close to 10,000 times before finally gaining access. So-net itself appears to believe that the intruder had usernames of account holders and used an automated program to generate possible passwords, the Journal said.
It's not immediately clear why the company apparently doesn't have a mechanism for flagging multiple failed attempts to access its systems.
The intrusions are believed to have taken place on May 16 and May 17. So-net discovered the breach on May 18, after receiving consumer complaints. So-net stopped the point redemption service following the discovery of the breach.
The latest breaches are relatively minor in scale compared to the massive breach at PSN and Sony Entertainment Online. Even so, it only adds to the company's embarrassment.
The earlier intrusions forced Sony to take its PSN service offline for several weeks while it struggled to identify the scope of the problems and how to fix them.
The company started re-launching the service this week but isn struggling to keep it running smoothly.
For instance, earlier this week Sony was forced to once again take a portion of its PlayStation network offline because of a programming error that could provide hackers a way to break into its networks.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Bing Rewards: Haven’t We Played This Game Before, Microsoft?
Microsoft, we thought you learned your lesson from the from the failure of Bing Cashback. It looks like we were wrong.
Earlier today, Microsoft launched Bing Rewards, a new program that lets users earn credits for performing actions like searching on Bing, making Bing their homepage and testing out new features. The more users perform these actions, the more credits they earn.
Of course, there’s a catch — you have to download the “Bing Bar” (it’s a toolbar for Internet Explorer) onto your Windows machine and sign up with a Windows Live ID. We hope you’re running Boot Camp, Mac owners.
Overall, Bing Rewards is exactly like any loyalty rewards program you’ve used via your credit card or at your favorite store. Buy more stuff and complete certain tasks, and you get some miniscule reward. The program is clearly the successor to Bing Cashback, the now-defunct rewards program that gave you money for buying products through the Bing search engine. Cashback’s termination was announced in June, and it officially closed on July 30.
We were hoping that Cashback would be the end of Microsoft trying to (directly) buy users, but it looks like that was hoping for too much. While the program seems like a decent enough concept, we just don’t think people treat search like they do their credit cards. Are thousands or millions of people really going to switch from Google and install a god-awful toolbar just so they can get a Zune?
Microsoft, you’re wasting time, energy and resources on this rewards program. Awesome new features are going to help you win the search war, not Bing points and gift cards.
Earlier today, Microsoft launched Bing Rewards, a new program that lets users earn credits for performing actions like searching on Bing, making Bing their homepage and testing out new features. The more users perform these actions, the more credits they earn.
Of course, there’s a catch — you have to download the “Bing Bar” (it’s a toolbar for Internet Explorer) onto your Windows machine and sign up with a Windows Live ID. We hope you’re running Boot Camp, Mac owners.
Overall, Bing Rewards is exactly like any loyalty rewards program you’ve used via your credit card or at your favorite store. Buy more stuff and complete certain tasks, and you get some miniscule reward. The program is clearly the successor to Bing Cashback, the now-defunct rewards program that gave you money for buying products through the Bing search engine. Cashback’s termination was announced in June, and it officially closed on July 30.
We were hoping that Cashback would be the end of Microsoft trying to (directly) buy users, but it looks like that was hoping for too much. While the program seems like a decent enough concept, we just don’t think people treat search like they do their credit cards. Are thousands or millions of people really going to switch from Google and install a god-awful toolbar just so they can get a Zune?
Microsoft, you’re wasting time, energy and resources on this rewards program. Awesome new features are going to help you win the search war, not Bing points and gift cards.
Google vs. Microsoft: Will This Time Be Different?
The deal is done: Yahoo Search is soon to be Bing. Yahoo cuts costs by ditching search technology, both companies share ad revenue, but most importantly, Microsoft now controls a bit less than 1/3 of the search engine market. All of this money, deal-making, and reinvention is designed for one purpose: to take down Google.
While this is the fourth reincarnation of the Microsoft search engine, make no mistake: this is Microsoft’s best shot yet at beating its arch rival on its home turf. It’s never put so many resources towards that goal. With that in mind, will Microsoft knock its greatest threat down a peg, or will billions of dollars be flushed down the drain? The result of the Bing push will ripple across all layers of the web for years to come.
Let’s Remember How We Got to This Point
We need to put the competition in historical context. While Google has remained Google since 1997, Microsoft search has been through no less than four major incarnations since its inception in 1998. Each one has failed to make any sort of dent in Google’s dominating market share.
For years, Microsoft didn’t take search very seriously – it launched the MSN Search engine and utilized search listings from others – Inktomi (the HotBot search engine, ironically acquired by Yahoo), Looksmart, AltaVista, etc. However, as it saw Google rapidly rise in power (thanks in part to powering Yahoo search), the company finally created its own search technology, around 2004-2005.
While this is the fourth reincarnation of the Microsoft search engine, make no mistake: this is Microsoft’s best shot yet at beating its arch rival on its home turf. It’s never put so many resources towards that goal. With that in mind, will Microsoft knock its greatest threat down a peg, or will billions of dollars be flushed down the drain? The result of the Bing push will ripple across all layers of the web for years to come.
Let’s Remember How We Got to This Point
We need to put the competition in historical context. While Google has remained Google since 1997, Microsoft search has been through no less than four major incarnations since its inception in 1998. Each one has failed to make any sort of dent in Google’s dominating market share.
For years, Microsoft didn’t take search very seriously – it launched the MSN Search engine and utilized search listings from others – Inktomi (the HotBot search engine, ironically acquired by Yahoo), Looksmart, AltaVista, etc. However, as it saw Google rapidly rise in power (thanks in part to powering Yahoo search), the company finally created its own search technology, around 2004-2005.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
CA To Sell Antivirus Business
CA Technologies is parting ways with its antivirus business, after it brokered a deal late last week to sell its Internet Security Business Unit off to private equity firm Updata Partners .
Best Microsoft MCTS Training, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com
Financial terms of the deal, expected to close in June, were not disclosed.
Following the acquisition, CA's Internet Security Business Unit, which incorporates the company's endpoint security offerings, including its consumer and enterprise antimalware and antivirus products, will be transformed to a new company called Total Defense, Inc.
The transaction does not, however, affect CA's enterprise security business, which is increasingly focused on identity and access management software, cloud security and business intelligence solutions.
"This is a win-win for CA Technologies and for our ISBU customers," said Jacob Lamm, CA executive vice president, in a statement, adding that the acquisition would free the company up to pursue other endeavors in cloud security and IT management spaces.
Updata Partners, a technology-focused growth equity firm, has a history of security-oriented investments, including recent financial backing of Web gateway provider M86 and cloud security firm Alert Logic.
"CA Technologies is one of the top software companies in the world, with a record of innovation and best-in-class solutions," said James Socas, general partner at Updata Partners, in a statement. "We are delighted to be able to work with them, with the ISBU's strong team, and on behalf of their customers and partners, to create a new leader in the information security market."
However, while CA's Internet Security Business Unit has been in existence for about 10 years, the acquisition follows after CA Technolgies' disappointing Q4 earnings and less-than-glowing reviews of its antimalware products from independent testing firms, such as AV-Test.org, which failed to certify CA Internet Security Suite 2011 in its quarterly report.
Meanwhile, more than 60,000 businesses across a wide range of industries and market segments have deployed CA's solutions, with an additional four million consumers worldwide deploying the company's Internet Security Business Unit products.
Best Microsoft MCTS Training, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.comFinancial terms of the deal, expected to close in June, were not disclosed.
Following the acquisition, CA's Internet Security Business Unit, which incorporates the company's endpoint security offerings, including its consumer and enterprise antimalware and antivirus products, will be transformed to a new company called Total Defense, Inc.
The transaction does not, however, affect CA's enterprise security business, which is increasingly focused on identity and access management software, cloud security and business intelligence solutions.
"This is a win-win for CA Technologies and for our ISBU customers," said Jacob Lamm, CA executive vice president, in a statement, adding that the acquisition would free the company up to pursue other endeavors in cloud security and IT management spaces.
Updata Partners, a technology-focused growth equity firm, has a history of security-oriented investments, including recent financial backing of Web gateway provider M86 and cloud security firm Alert Logic.
"CA Technologies is one of the top software companies in the world, with a record of innovation and best-in-class solutions," said James Socas, general partner at Updata Partners, in a statement. "We are delighted to be able to work with them, with the ISBU's strong team, and on behalf of their customers and partners, to create a new leader in the information security market."
However, while CA's Internet Security Business Unit has been in existence for about 10 years, the acquisition follows after CA Technolgies' disappointing Q4 earnings and less-than-glowing reviews of its antimalware products from independent testing firms, such as AV-Test.org, which failed to certify CA Internet Security Suite 2011 in its quarterly report.
Meanwhile, more than 60,000 businesses across a wide range of industries and market segments have deployed CA's solutions, with an additional four million consumers worldwide deploying the company's Internet Security Business Unit products.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Microsoft, Juniper urged to patch dangerous IPv6 DoS hole
MORE URGING: Microsoft security expert warns over SharePoint data at risk
Some Windows networking consultants are so concerned about the hole and Microsoft’s lack of interest in fixing it, that they have been warning users directly. “There is a serious Windows vulnerability for RA flooding as a denial-of-service attack on wired LANs. It only takes between 5 to 20 packets to CPU-bound every Windows 7 or Server 2008 machine on that subnet,” said Microsoft MVP Ed Horley, Principal Solutions Architect at Groupware Technology to attendees of the Rocky Mountain IPv6 Summit in Denver, Colo., last week. “I have heard rumor it can also lock out Playstation 2 and Xbox consoles. With enough packets it requires a hard reboot to recover.”
Although several workarounds exist, each has a significant drawback. One is to turn off IPv6, which also disables new Microsoft technologies that rely on it, such as DirectAccess, a service that allows Windows 7 machines to have an always-on remote access connection to Windows Server 2008 R2 servers. Remote Access is touted as a money-saving option as it replaces the need for a separate VPN in Windows environments.
Experts also advise using a router that has implemented a Cisco technology called RA Guard - and while Cisco routers support RA Guard, not all routers do. RA Guard was submitted as an informational document to the IETF, RFC 6105, but it is not on track to become a standard.
Juniper, for instance, has no intention of implementing it and is instead waiting for IETF RFC 6164. “RFC 6105 IPv6 Router Advertisement Guard, published about nine weeks ago, is an informational RFC, as opposed to an IETF Standard, that documents Cisco's proprietary RA-Guard technology. Cisco asserts that at least one of their patent applications (US PPA 20080307516) covers this technology. While Cisco has stated that should RFC 6105 become a standard then they will make a royalty-free license available, since this is not yet a standard there is no such option. We can however achieve much the same functionality simply by applying access control lists,” said Juniper’s Peter Lunk, director of product marketing for high-end security systems.
Lunk added: “Conversely, RFC 6164, released last month, is a ‘standards track’ RFC (which is to say on the way to being, but not yet, a standard) supported by Juniper, Google and IBM and others that addresses many of the same issues in a much more open manner. We expect this to be ratified as a full standard at the next IETF meeting in July.”
BACKGROUND: Jeff Doyle on the case for enterprise IPv6
Heuse has also called Juniper out on the carpet for dragging its feet to fix the hole. Juniper’s Lunk argues that the RA advertisement problem stems from a flaw in the ICMPv6 protocol and should be fixed by the IETF.
“The flaw in the ICMPv6 protocol has only been identified in a small subset of older Juniper products, and only when configured as a host rather than a router,” he said. “According to the protocol, devices configured as hosts must accept and process all advertised routes. This is an inherently dangerous thing to do. If our customers must use auto-configure mode on the IPv6 host on an open LAN, then we strongly recommend whitelisting sources of acceptable routes which will protect them from bogus advertisements.”
Some Windows networking consultants are so concerned about the hole and Microsoft’s lack of interest in fixing it, that they have been warning users directly. “There is a serious Windows vulnerability for RA flooding as a denial-of-service attack on wired LANs. It only takes between 5 to 20 packets to CPU-bound every Windows 7 or Server 2008 machine on that subnet,” said Microsoft MVP Ed Horley, Principal Solutions Architect at Groupware Technology to attendees of the Rocky Mountain IPv6 Summit in Denver, Colo., last week. “I have heard rumor it can also lock out Playstation 2 and Xbox consoles. With enough packets it requires a hard reboot to recover.”
Although several workarounds exist, each has a significant drawback. One is to turn off IPv6, which also disables new Microsoft technologies that rely on it, such as DirectAccess, a service that allows Windows 7 machines to have an always-on remote access connection to Windows Server 2008 R2 servers. Remote Access is touted as a money-saving option as it replaces the need for a separate VPN in Windows environments.
Experts also advise using a router that has implemented a Cisco technology called RA Guard - and while Cisco routers support RA Guard, not all routers do. RA Guard was submitted as an informational document to the IETF, RFC 6105, but it is not on track to become a standard.
Juniper, for instance, has no intention of implementing it and is instead waiting for IETF RFC 6164. “RFC 6105 IPv6 Router Advertisement Guard, published about nine weeks ago, is an informational RFC, as opposed to an IETF Standard, that documents Cisco's proprietary RA-Guard technology. Cisco asserts that at least one of their patent applications (US PPA 20080307516) covers this technology. While Cisco has stated that should RFC 6105 become a standard then they will make a royalty-free license available, since this is not yet a standard there is no such option. We can however achieve much the same functionality simply by applying access control lists,” said Juniper’s Peter Lunk, director of product marketing for high-end security systems.
Lunk added: “Conversely, RFC 6164, released last month, is a ‘standards track’ RFC (which is to say on the way to being, but not yet, a standard) supported by Juniper, Google and IBM and others that addresses many of the same issues in a much more open manner. We expect this to be ratified as a full standard at the next IETF meeting in July.”
BACKGROUND: Jeff Doyle on the case for enterprise IPv6
Heuse has also called Juniper out on the carpet for dragging its feet to fix the hole. Juniper’s Lunk argues that the RA advertisement problem stems from a flaw in the ICMPv6 protocol and should be fixed by the IETF.
“The flaw in the ICMPv6 protocol has only been identified in a small subset of older Juniper products, and only when configured as a host rather than a router,” he said. “According to the protocol, devices configured as hosts must accept and process all advertised routes. This is an inherently dangerous thing to do. If our customers must use auto-configure mode on the IPv6 host on an open LAN, then we strongly recommend whitelisting sources of acceptable routes which will protect them from bogus advertisements.”
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Microsoft: Windows Collection is not biased by OEMs
Microsoft has told TechRadar that its choice of laptops for its recently launched Windows Collection has not been biased by commercial pressures.
The Windows Collection includes 10 original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), with Sony, HP, Acer. Toshiba, Dell (and Alienware), Packard Bell, Asus, Lenovo and Samsung joined by Scan.
Of the 30 laptops only three have AMD processors, and some of those included – the Toshiba Satellite C660 for instance – have not garnered particularly good reviews.
Cynicism
But, UK MD of consumer and online, Ashley Highfield, has insisted that the inevitable cynicism over the process of choosing the laptops is misplaced, with Microsoft's focus on selling more Windows PCs generally and raising the profile of good machines.
"The proof of the pudding will be in the eating," Highfield told TechRadar. "We want to sell more machines so picking ones that aren't the best in their categories would be a strange thing to do.
"The consumer may well be somewhat interested in the specs but they often just want to know 'is this the one that will suit my needs'.
"I think we may well have gotten too obsessed, along with the OEMs about the spec which is a bit nerdy – and not enough about aesthetics, what it's designed for and how does it work."
Say for certain
Microsoft's UK head of Windows, Leila Martine, insisted that corporate benchmarking and then the UK team's opinions were what brought the choices.
"I can certainly say that the way we have chosen these machines are not based on any commercial agreements," she stated.
"It doesn't matter to us because any one of these that sells over and above we get the same licence fee across any of those."
"Part of whole process is what OEMs are sharing with us in terms of innovation. Obviously, we have to actually see the machine in order to consider it.
"I think we have a pretty good range everything, not everything is right at the top of the price range."
The Windows Collection includes 10 original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), with Sony, HP, Acer. Toshiba, Dell (and Alienware), Packard Bell, Asus, Lenovo and Samsung joined by Scan.
Of the 30 laptops only three have AMD processors, and some of those included – the Toshiba Satellite C660 for instance – have not garnered particularly good reviews.
Cynicism
But, UK MD of consumer and online, Ashley Highfield, has insisted that the inevitable cynicism over the process of choosing the laptops is misplaced, with Microsoft's focus on selling more Windows PCs generally and raising the profile of good machines.
"The proof of the pudding will be in the eating," Highfield told TechRadar. "We want to sell more machines so picking ones that aren't the best in their categories would be a strange thing to do.
"The consumer may well be somewhat interested in the specs but they often just want to know 'is this the one that will suit my needs'.
"I think we may well have gotten too obsessed, along with the OEMs about the spec which is a bit nerdy – and not enough about aesthetics, what it's designed for and how does it work."
Say for certain
Microsoft's UK head of Windows, Leila Martine, insisted that corporate benchmarking and then the UK team's opinions were what brought the choices.
"I can certainly say that the way we have chosen these machines are not based on any commercial agreements," she stated.
"It doesn't matter to us because any one of these that sells over and above we get the same licence fee across any of those."
"Part of whole process is what OEMs are sharing with us in terms of innovation. Obviously, we have to actually see the machine in order to consider it.
"I think we have a pretty good range everything, not everything is right at the top of the price range."
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Are you a Windows expert?
You are? Then why are you reading this? You should be hanging out at Microsoft's Windows Experts Community.
I dunno how long this thing has been around, but Microsoft blogger Paul Donnelly calls it a "new site." Donnelly describes Windows Experts Community as "a collection of online forums geared for advanced users, enthusiasts, experts and so on -- those that are doing fantastic and amazing things with their Windows PCs and other ecosystem devices. We're also rolling out a community-driven wiki where members can create and edit articles and explainers on how they've set-up their PCs, created scenarios, or established their own best practices."
With all the newbies on the web -- and I consider that to be pretty much anyone who never used Gopher to search the Net -- there's a mythology that no online communities existed before Facebook and Twitter. The misbelief: Social sharing/social media is something new. Well, it's not. Anyone who used dial-up bulletin boards in the 1980s or 90s (or, gasp, earlier) knows otherwise -- or the cliques that still populate IRC today. Newsgroups and forums all had tremendous traction before Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was potty trained.
Microsoft was built on community -- and, particularly before the U.S. antitrust case of 1998, actively engaged Windows user groups. They were part of the development process, and Microsoft rewarded them with early access to software and free licenses. Enthusiasts have long been one of Microsoft's most important assets. Enthusiasts are also any company's most valuable evangelists. People take buying advice from people they know.
Microsoft should better engage enthusiasts, and to provide them a watering hole to shoot the sh*t. Not since Windows 95 is the time more appropriate. Windows 7 has tremendous momentum, as the huge XP install base migrates. Community can be a great place to learn and to share about Windows 7 rigs -- and to be a little bit peacock blustering your feathers.
"Come join other enthusiasts in the Windows Experts Community, show them what you've got and share your knowledge, stories, tips and tricks about taking Windows further," Donnelly beckons. "Post a picture of your best gaming rig build or your parts list for your totally fanless water cooled system. Sure, Microsoft makes Windows but we love to see the ways our enthusiasts take it places we never imagined."
Yeah, that's the right idea.
By the way, if you've read this far, instead of clicking off to Windows Experts Community right away, thank you! Perhaps while you're still here you could explain what makes you a Windows expert and how you interact with others. While you're at it, boast about your rig or link to a photo of it. Please tell all in comments.
I dunno how long this thing has been around, but Microsoft blogger Paul Donnelly calls it a "new site." Donnelly describes Windows Experts Community as "a collection of online forums geared for advanced users, enthusiasts, experts and so on -- those that are doing fantastic and amazing things with their Windows PCs and other ecosystem devices. We're also rolling out a community-driven wiki where members can create and edit articles and explainers on how they've set-up their PCs, created scenarios, or established their own best practices."
With all the newbies on the web -- and I consider that to be pretty much anyone who never used Gopher to search the Net -- there's a mythology that no online communities existed before Facebook and Twitter. The misbelief: Social sharing/social media is something new. Well, it's not. Anyone who used dial-up bulletin boards in the 1980s or 90s (or, gasp, earlier) knows otherwise -- or the cliques that still populate IRC today. Newsgroups and forums all had tremendous traction before Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was potty trained.
Microsoft was built on community -- and, particularly before the U.S. antitrust case of 1998, actively engaged Windows user groups. They were part of the development process, and Microsoft rewarded them with early access to software and free licenses. Enthusiasts have long been one of Microsoft's most important assets. Enthusiasts are also any company's most valuable evangelists. People take buying advice from people they know.
Microsoft should better engage enthusiasts, and to provide them a watering hole to shoot the sh*t. Not since Windows 95 is the time more appropriate. Windows 7 has tremendous momentum, as the huge XP install base migrates. Community can be a great place to learn and to share about Windows 7 rigs -- and to be a little bit peacock blustering your feathers.
"Come join other enthusiasts in the Windows Experts Community, show them what you've got and share your knowledge, stories, tips and tricks about taking Windows further," Donnelly beckons. "Post a picture of your best gaming rig build or your parts list for your totally fanless water cooled system. Sure, Microsoft makes Windows but we love to see the ways our enthusiasts take it places we never imagined."
Yeah, that's the right idea.
By the way, if you've read this far, instead of clicking off to Windows Experts Community right away, thank you! Perhaps while you're still here you could explain what makes you a Windows expert and how you interact with others. While you're at it, boast about your rig or link to a photo of it. Please tell all in comments.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Microsoft Q3 2011 by the numbers: Record $16.43B, Windows revenue declines
Today, after the closing bell, Microsoft answered an oft-asked question: What would the quarter be with no new major products in the pipeline? Would Windows 7 and Windows Server R2 (released October 2009) and Office 2010 (released May 2010) provide enough sales tailwinds?
For fiscal 2011 third quarter, ended March 31, Microsoft's revenue rose 13 percent to $16.43 billion, year over year. Operating income: $5.71 billion, or 10 percent increase. Net income rose 31 percent to $5.23 billion, or 61 cents a share. Earnings per share rose by 36 percent year over year.
Twenty-seven months ago, Microsoft stopped providing Wall Street analysts with quarterly and yearly guidance, in a move that is highly unusual for so large and so successful a public company. Microsoft's refusal to give guidance creates unnecessary negative perceptions about its performance. As such, Wall Street analysts had to rely solely on their wits to call the quarter (again). Average consensus was $16.1 billion revenue and 56 cents earnings per share. Revenue estimates ranged from $15.83 billion to $17.17 billion, with estimated year-over-year growth of 11.7 percent. So Microsoft topped the Street.
"We delivered strong third quarter revenue from our business customers, driven by outstanding performance from Windows Server, SQL database, SharePoint, Exchange, Lync and increasingly our cloud services," Microsoft COO Kevin Turner said in a statement. "Office had another huge quarter, again exceeding everyone's expectations, and the addition of Office 365 will make our cloud productivity solutions even more compelling."
The PC Shipments Quandary
For the second quarter in a row PC shipments hung like a shadow over Microsoft results. Fifteen days ago, Gartner and IDC reported weaker-than-expected demand during first calendar quarter, which coincides with Microsoft's third fiscal quarter. Globally, PC shipments fell 3.2 percent year over year during first quarter, according to IDC, while Gartner put the decline at a less anemic 1.1 percent. Gartner had predicted 3 percent growth, while IDC expected 1.5 percent growth. Manufacturers shipped 84.3 million PCs in the quarter, according to Gartner, and 80.6 million by IDC's estimate.
The reasons for the declines are worse for Windows PC manufacturers, which have played a fierce game of lowering prices. The gambit's effectiveness is over. "Weak demand for consumer PCs was the biggest inhibitor of growth," Mikako Kitagawa, Gartner principal analyst, said in a statement. "Low prices for consumer PCs, which had long stimulated growth, no longer attracted buyers.
"Instead, consumers turned their attention to media tablets and other consumer electronics. With the launch of the iPad 2 in February, more consumers either switched to buying an alternative device, or simply held back from buying PCs. We're investigating whether this trend is likely to have a long-term effect on the PC market."
The problem isn't so much that tablets are replacing PCs as displacing some of their functions. People who might otherwise buy a new PC are getting other devices instead. According to a recent AdMob survey of tablet owners, seven out of 10 use their PC less. Nearly 30 percent of tablet owners use the device as their primary PC.
But while the consumer market goes gaga over tablets, businesses have been down to the business of upgrading aging Windows XP PCs. When Windows 7 launched in autumn 2009, about 80 percent of the install base was still on XP. The lengthy, and heady, transition has been good for Microsoft, which last week revealed 350 Windows 7 license sales during the operating system's first 18 months of marketability. Yesterday, Gartner revealed that Windows accounts for 78.6 percent of all desktop and server OS revenues.
However, even with businesses continuing Windows 7 upgrades, revenue for the Windows & Windows Live division fell 4 percent year over year.
Q3 2011 Revenue by Division
* Windows & Windows Live: $4.445 billion, down from $4.650 billion a year earlier.
* Server & Tools: $4.104 billion, up from $3.706 billion a year earlier.
* Business: $5.252 billion, up from $4.341 billion a year earlier.
* Online Services Business: $648 million, up from $566 million a year earlier.
* Entertainment & Devices: $1.935 billion, up from $1.21 billion a year earlier.
The Mobile Conundrum
Microsoft's most immediate, long-term competitive challenge remains mobile, where upstarts like Apple and Google body slammed Windows Mobile during 2009-10. There is the aforementioned competition from iPad, too. Apple shipped 4.69 million tablets during calendar Q1 for about 19.5 million total for the first four quarters of sales. Apple's tablet generated nearly $12.4 billion in new revenue during the first 11 months of availability. Mobile devices running Apple's iOS generated $43.79 billion during calendar 2010, or about 57 percent of Apple revenues.
By most every estimate, mobiles are the future of computing, something iPad's negative impact on PC sales shows. Mobile applications are set to generate enormous revenues that may soon begin to cannibalize PC applications. Gartner predicts $15 billion revenue generated by mobile apps this year, up nearly three times from 2010.
But Microsoft isn't rudderless in the cloud-conncted device seas. During the quarter, Microsoft and Nokia announced a definitive, non-exclusive agreement for Windows Phone 7. Nokia plans to ship Windows Phone as its primary operating system, starting in 2012. Nokia and Microsoft signed the deal -- it's official now -- one week ago. Yesterday, the axe fell at Nokia: Symbian is being outsourced to Accenture and 7,000 Nokia employees will be transferred or sacked. Gartner and IDC both predict that the deal will propel Windows Phone to second in smartphone market share, behind Android, by 2015. Meanwhile, Microsoft plans Windows 7.5, codename "Mango," for release before the holidays.
As for tablets, Microsoft is working on a new version of Windows for ARM processors. There categorization gets messy. Gartner and IDC classify Android, BlackBerry and iOS slates as "media tablets." While tablets running Windows count as PCs. This has caused some confusion among bloggers and journalists about Microsoft having no tablet strategy.
I contend that Microsoft could still be a major player in the cloud-connected device market even without a tablet or tablet operating system, from back-end hosted applications and Azure.
Q3 2011 Income by Division
* Windows & Windows Live: $2.764 billion, down from $3.073 billion a year earlier.
* Server & Tools: $1.419 billion, up from $1.27 billion a year earlier.
* Business: $3.165 billion, up from $2.542 billion a year earlier.
* Online Services Business: Loss of $726 million, up from $709 million loss a year earlier.
* Entertainment & Devices: $225 million, up $150 million a year earlier.
Breakdown by Division
Microsoft reports revenue and earnings results for five divisons: Windows & Windows Live, Server & Tools, Business, Online Services and Entertainment & Devices.
Windows & Windows Live. Weaker than-expected PC demand hurt the division during fiscal third quarter, with revenue falling 4 percent year over year. Profits declined, too (see below). While Microsoft reported business PC sales up 9 percent year over year, consumer sales fell 8 percent. Netbook sales plummeted 40 percent, which is mixed blessing. According to analysts, many potential netbook buyers are choosing tablets, with major benefit going to Apple -- that's the bad. The good: Netbooks generally ship with lower-margin Windows versions, such as Starter Edition. The shift in mix to "Premium" Windows versions is better for Microsoft.
Overall, Microsoft said that global PC sales declined 2 percent year over year, which is in line with aforementioned analyst data. OEM revenue fell by 3 percent, which is to be expected given the macro-PC economics. Enterprise Windows 7 deployments doubled over six months, Microsoft Peter Klein said during Microsoft's earnings conference call today.
Server & Tools. Revenue rose about 11 percent year over year. The division is insulated against economic maladies, because about 50 percent of revenues come from contractual volume-licensing agreements; annuity revenue grew by 11 percent year over year. Additionally, enterprise services revenue grew by 12 percent, or $90 million.
"Product revenue increased $308 million or 10%, driven primarily by growth in Windows Server, SQL Server, and Enterprise Client Access License ("CAL") Suites, reflecting continued adoption of Windows platform applications," according to Microsoft financial statements.
Business. The division was the quarter's big overall performer, with revenue up 21 percent year over year. Business non-annuity revenue grew by 28 percent, which isn't ideal. Microsoft benefits more when businesses buy annuity contracts, which revenue grew by just 5 percent. Consumer revenue rose 26 percent, or $220 million, surprising considering Microsoft's cited attach rate to PCs, which sales were down for the quarter.
Starting with the 2003 release cycle, Microsoft repositioned Office as the front end to the larger stack of server applications. During fiscal 2011, Microsoft has started to reap substantial sales from the strategy. Klein described Office 2010 as the fastest-growing version of the suite -- deployments are five times Office 2007. But this isn't happening in a vacuum. Enterprises are "purchasing our entire productivity suite platform," he said. Klein's comment puts context behind Turner's canned statement about server software.
It's my assessment that fiscal 2011 marks a turning point for Microsoft's two cash cow products -- the ascension of Office as the stronger product and one with greater sales longevity. Some of that relates to the aforementioned competition from cloud-connected devices but also the success of the Office-as-front-end to back-end business processes running Microsoft server software.
Like, Server & Tools, contractual volume-licensing agreements are high -- 60 percent, which directly derives from the Office-to-server applications stack strategy. This largely insulates the division from slowdowns in the PC market. By comparison, only about 20 percent of Windows sales come from contractual licenses. Most customers by the operating system with new PCs.
Online Services Business. Search and display ads drove up online advertising revenue by 17 percent -- $84 million to $586 million. Despite revenue gains, the division's losses increased from fiscal Q3 2010.
Entertainment & Devices. The division's revenue increased a whopping 60 percent year over year. Microsoft shipped 2.3 million Kinects during the quarter days, adding to the 8 million units from the sequential launch quarter. Xbox console sales rose 79 percent -- that's 2.7 million units. "Xbox 360 platform revenue grew $712 million or 69 percent, led by sales of Kinect sensors, increased volumes of Xbox 360 consoles, and higher Xbox Live revenues," according to Microsoft financial statements.
Regarding Windows Phone, Microsoft claims 90 percent customer satisfaction. However, the company didn't release sales figures.
Today, after the closing bell, Microsoft answered an oft-asked question: What would the quarter be with no new major products in the pipeline? Would Windows 7 and Windows Server R2 (released October 2009) and Office 2010 (released May 2010) provide enough sales tailwinds?
For fiscal 2011 third quarter, ended March 31, Microsoft's revenue rose 13 percent to $16.43 billion, year over year. Operating income: $5.71 billion, or 10 percent increase. Net income rose 31 percent to $5.23 billion, or 61 cents a share. Earnings per share rose by 36 percent year over year.
Twenty-seven months ago, Microsoft stopped providing Wall Street analysts with quarterly and yearly guidance, in a move that is highly unusual for so large and so successful a public company. Microsoft's refusal to give guidance creates unnecessary negative perceptions about its performance. As such, Wall Street analysts had to rely solely on their wits to call the quarter (again). Average consensus was $16.1 billion revenue and 56 cents earnings per share. Revenue estimates ranged from $15.83 billion to $17.17 billion, with estimated year-over-year growth of 11.7 percent. So Microsoft topped the Street.
"We delivered strong third quarter revenue from our business customers, driven by outstanding performance from Windows Server, SQL database, SharePoint, Exchange, Lync and increasingly our cloud services," Microsoft COO Kevin Turner said in a statement. "Office had another huge quarter, again exceeding everyone's expectations, and the addition of Office 365 will make our cloud productivity solutions even more compelling."
The PC Shipments Quandary
For the second quarter in a row PC shipments hung like a shadow over Microsoft results. Fifteen days ago, Gartner and IDC reported weaker-than-expected demand during first calendar quarter, which coincides with Microsoft's third fiscal quarter. Globally, PC shipments fell 3.2 percent year over year during first quarter, according to IDC, while Gartner put the decline at a less anemic 1.1 percent. Gartner had predicted 3 percent growth, while IDC expected 1.5 percent growth. Manufacturers shipped 84.3 million PCs in the quarter, according to Gartner, and 80.6 million by IDC's estimate.
The reasons for the declines are worse for Windows PC manufacturers, which have played a fierce game of lowering prices. The gambit's effectiveness is over. "Weak demand for consumer PCs was the biggest inhibitor of growth," Mikako Kitagawa, Gartner principal analyst, said in a statement. "Low prices for consumer PCs, which had long stimulated growth, no longer attracted buyers.
"Instead, consumers turned their attention to media tablets and other consumer electronics. With the launch of the iPad 2 in February, more consumers either switched to buying an alternative device, or simply held back from buying PCs. We're investigating whether this trend is likely to have a long-term effect on the PC market."
The problem isn't so much that tablets are replacing PCs as displacing some of their functions. People who might otherwise buy a new PC are getting other devices instead. According to a recent AdMob survey of tablet owners, seven out of 10 use their PC less. Nearly 30 percent of tablet owners use the device as their primary PC.
But while the consumer market goes gaga over tablets, businesses have been down to the business of upgrading aging Windows XP PCs. When Windows 7 launched in autumn 2009, about 80 percent of the install base was still on XP. The lengthy, and heady, transition has been good for Microsoft, which last week revealed 350 Windows 7 license sales during the operating system's first 18 months of marketability. Yesterday, Gartner revealed that Windows accounts for 78.6 percent of all desktop and server OS revenues.
However, even with businesses continuing Windows 7 upgrades, revenue for the Windows & Windows Live division fell 4 percent year over year.
Q3 2011 Revenue by Division
* Windows & Windows Live: $4.445 billion, down from $4.650 billion a year earlier.
* Server & Tools: $4.104 billion, up from $3.706 billion a year earlier.
* Business: $5.252 billion, up from $4.341 billion a year earlier.
* Online Services Business: $648 million, up from $566 million a year earlier.
* Entertainment & Devices: $1.935 billion, up from $1.21 billion a year earlier.
The Mobile Conundrum
Microsoft's most immediate, long-term competitive challenge remains mobile, where upstarts like Apple and Google body slammed Windows Mobile during 2009-10. There is the aforementioned competition from iPad, too. Apple shipped 4.69 million tablets during calendar Q1 for about 19.5 million total for the first four quarters of sales. Apple's tablet generated nearly $12.4 billion in new revenue during the first 11 months of availability. Mobile devices running Apple's iOS generated $43.79 billion during calendar 2010, or about 57 percent of Apple revenues.
By most every estimate, mobiles are the future of computing, something iPad's negative impact on PC sales shows. Mobile applications are set to generate enormous revenues that may soon begin to cannibalize PC applications. Gartner predicts $15 billion revenue generated by mobile apps this year, up nearly three times from 2010.
But Microsoft isn't rudderless in the cloud-conncted device seas. During the quarter, Microsoft and Nokia announced a definitive, non-exclusive agreement for Windows Phone 7. Nokia plans to ship Windows Phone as its primary operating system, starting in 2012. Nokia and Microsoft signed the deal -- it's official now -- one week ago. Yesterday, the axe fell at Nokia: Symbian is being outsourced to Accenture and 7,000 Nokia employees will be transferred or sacked. Gartner and IDC both predict that the deal will propel Windows Phone to second in smartphone market share, behind Android, by 2015. Meanwhile, Microsoft plans Windows 7.5, codename "Mango," for release before the holidays.
As for tablets, Microsoft is working on a new version of Windows for ARM processors. There categorization gets messy. Gartner and IDC classify Android, BlackBerry and iOS slates as "media tablets." While tablets running Windows count as PCs. This has caused some confusion among bloggers and journalists about Microsoft having no tablet strategy.
I contend that Microsoft could still be a major player in the cloud-connected device market even without a tablet or tablet operating system, from back-end hosted applications and Azure.
Q3 2011 Income by Division
* Windows & Windows Live: $2.764 billion, down from $3.073 billion a year earlier.
* Server & Tools: $1.419 billion, up from $1.27 billion a year earlier.
* Business: $3.165 billion, up from $2.542 billion a year earlier.
* Online Services Business: Loss of $726 million, up from $709 million loss a year earlier.
* Entertainment & Devices: $225 million, up $150 million a year earlier.
Breakdown by Division
Microsoft reports revenue and earnings results for five divisons: Windows & Windows Live, Server & Tools, Business, Online Services and Entertainment & Devices.
Windows & Windows Live. Weaker than-expected PC demand hurt the division during fiscal third quarter, with revenue falling 4 percent year over year. Profits declined, too (see below). While Microsoft reported business PC sales up 9 percent year over year, consumer sales fell 8 percent. Netbook sales plummeted 40 percent, which is mixed blessing. According to analysts, many potential netbook buyers are choosing tablets, with major benefit going to Apple -- that's the bad. The good: Netbooks generally ship with lower-margin Windows versions, such as Starter Edition. The shift in mix to "Premium" Windows versions is better for Microsoft.
Overall, Microsoft said that global PC sales declined 2 percent year over year, which is in line with aforementioned analyst data. OEM revenue fell by 3 percent, which is to be expected given the macro-PC economics. Enterprise Windows 7 deployments doubled over six months, Microsoft Peter Klein said during Microsoft's earnings conference call today.
Server & Tools. Revenue rose about 11 percent year over year. The division is insulated against economic maladies, because about 50 percent of revenues come from contractual volume-licensing agreements; annuity revenue grew by 11 percent year over year. Additionally, enterprise services revenue grew by 12 percent, or $90 million.
"Product revenue increased $308 million or 10%, driven primarily by growth in Windows Server, SQL Server, and Enterprise Client Access License ("CAL") Suites, reflecting continued adoption of Windows platform applications," according to Microsoft financial statements.
Business. The division was the quarter's big overall performer, with revenue up 21 percent year over year. Business non-annuity revenue grew by 28 percent, which isn't ideal. Microsoft benefits more when businesses buy annuity contracts, which revenue grew by just 5 percent. Consumer revenue rose 26 percent, or $220 million, surprising considering Microsoft's cited attach rate to PCs, which sales were down for the quarter.
Starting with the 2003 release cycle, Microsoft repositioned Office as the front end to the larger stack of server applications. During fiscal 2011, Microsoft has started to reap substantial sales from the strategy. Klein described Office 2010 as the fastest-growing version of the suite -- deployments are five times Office 2007. But this isn't happening in a vacuum. Enterprises are "purchasing our entire productivity suite platform," he said. Klein's comment puts context behind Turner's canned statement about server software.
It's my assessment that fiscal 2011 marks a turning point for Microsoft's two cash cow products -- the ascension of Office as the stronger product and one with greater sales longevity. Some of that relates to the aforementioned competition from cloud-connected devices but also the success of the Office-as-front-end to back-end business processes running Microsoft server software.
Like, Server & Tools, contractual volume-licensing agreements are high -- 60 percent, which directly derives from the Office-to-server applications stack strategy. This largely insulates the division from slowdowns in the PC market. By comparison, only about 20 percent of Windows sales come from contractual licenses. Most customers by the operating system with new PCs.
Online Services Business. Search and display ads drove up online advertising revenue by 17 percent -- $84 million to $586 million. Despite revenue gains, the division's losses increased from fiscal Q3 2010.
Entertainment & Devices. The division's revenue increased a whopping 60 percent year over year. Microsoft shipped 2.3 million Kinects during the quarter days, adding to the 8 million units from the sequential launch quarter. Xbox console sales rose 79 percent -- that's 2.7 million units. "Xbox 360 platform revenue grew $712 million or 69 percent, led by sales of Kinect sensors, increased volumes of Xbox 360 consoles, and higher Xbox Live revenues," according to Microsoft financial statements.
Regarding Windows Phone, Microsoft claims 90 percent customer satisfaction. However, the company didn't release sales figures.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Microsoft announces Windows Embedded Device Manager 2011
At the Microsoft Management Summit on Thursday, Microsoft announced the release of Windows Embedded Device Manager 2011, an extension for System Center Configuration Manager 2007 that allows IT to manage Windows Embedded Standard and POSReady devices such as thin clients, digital signage, and, of course point of sale terminals.
Microsoft is accelerating the evolution of enterprise embedded devices, and today's announcement of Windows Embedded Device Manager 2011 follows the release of Windows Embedded Standard 7 SP1 earlier this month.
"With the addition of Windows Embedded Device Manager to Microsoft's extensive management portfolio, we're in a unique position to make the lives of IT managers a lot easier across PCs, servers and embedded devices," Kevin Dallas, general manager for Windows Embedded at Microsoft said today. "Previously, enterprises were forced to implement several management solutions to meet their needs, at a significant time and financial cost. We've made it simple for IT professionals to make simultaneous system updates across the enterprise with the familiarity of System Center Configuration Manager."
The solution's main benefit, therefore, is the ability to manage PCs, servers, and embedded enterprise devices from within a single application, tightening an IT department's device management and imaging capabilities.
Microsoft is accelerating the evolution of enterprise embedded devices, and today's announcement of Windows Embedded Device Manager 2011 follows the release of Windows Embedded Standard 7 SP1 earlier this month.
"With the addition of Windows Embedded Device Manager to Microsoft's extensive management portfolio, we're in a unique position to make the lives of IT managers a lot easier across PCs, servers and embedded devices," Kevin Dallas, general manager for Windows Embedded at Microsoft said today. "Previously, enterprises were forced to implement several management solutions to meet their needs, at a significant time and financial cost. We've made it simple for IT professionals to make simultaneous system updates across the enterprise with the familiarity of System Center Configuration Manager."
The solution's main benefit, therefore, is the ability to manage PCs, servers, and embedded enterprise devices from within a single application, tightening an IT department's device management and imaging capabilities.
Monday, May 2, 2011
AMD Xilleon processors to receive DivX certification
DivX announced it is working with AMD toward certifying certain Xilleon processors, which could add native DivX functionality to next-generation digital TVs or set-top boxes.
Xilleon is a system-on-a-chip MIPS processor found in set-top boxes and digital TVs. It was formerly a project of ATI, but when AMD recently acquired ATI, it absorbed the Xilleon brand as well. DivX and AMD have not come to a decision yet as to which of the growing Xilleon line will be certified.
Recently, AMD announced a new line of Xilleon panel processors, promising advanced motion compensation and frame rate conversion for future LCD digital TVs. Using the processor should amount to an even clearer picture for displays, or what AMD called "20/20 television."
The new AMD Xilleon 410, 411, 420 and 421 will support video processing for 100 Hz/120 Hz TVs all the way up to full HD resolution. Mitsubishi MZW series LCD TVs already use the processor and are based on Samsung's McFi (Motion Compensated Frame Interpolation) solution. More TV manufacturers are expected to use AMD's chips later this year.
Xilleon is a system-on-a-chip MIPS processor found in set-top boxes and digital TVs. It was formerly a project of ATI, but when AMD recently acquired ATI, it absorbed the Xilleon brand as well. DivX and AMD have not come to a decision yet as to which of the growing Xilleon line will be certified.
Recently, AMD announced a new line of Xilleon panel processors, promising advanced motion compensation and frame rate conversion for future LCD digital TVs. Using the processor should amount to an even clearer picture for displays, or what AMD called "20/20 television."
The new AMD Xilleon 410, 411, 420 and 421 will support video processing for 100 Hz/120 Hz TVs all the way up to full HD resolution. Mitsubishi MZW series LCD TVs already use the processor and are based on Samsung's McFi (Motion Compensated Frame Interpolation) solution. More TV manufacturers are expected to use AMD's chips later this year.
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