Microsoft Open Licensing Changes

Good morning!  Not sure how noteworthy these really are.. but for what it is worth.. here are Microsoft’s recent E-Open Licensing “changes”

Product Name Changes

Note:  Product Name changes to existing SKUS are retro-active and will flow to all downstream systems that display SKU/Descriptions regardless of the date range of the information.  When a product name change is made, it will flow to downstream systems within 24 to 48 hours. 

Old Product Family Name	New Product Family Name	Target Change Date	New SKUS?
Windows Terminal Services CALWindows Terminal Services External Connector	Windows Remote Desktop Services CAL(Win Rmt Dsktp Svcs CAL)Windows Remote Desktop Services External Connector (Win Rmt Dsktp Svcs Ext Conn) Windows Remote Desktop Svcs SAL (SPLA) (Win Rmt Dsktp Svcs SAL)	Launching September 1, 2009	YES

Windows Terminal Services CAL is being renamed to Windows Remote Desktop Services CAL.  Terminal Services is adding features to provide a centralized desktop delivery architecture that enables desktop environments to run and be managed on virtual machines within one centralized server.  To reflect these broader capabilities, the Windows Terminal Services role will be renamed to “Windows Remote Desktop Services”.  Despite this name change, both the existing Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services CAL and the Windows Remote Desktop Services CAL will be able to access the  Windows Server R2 License Server and be able to take advantage of the new features in the Windows Server R2 License Server.   Customers who have Software Assurance on Terminal Services CAL licenses today will be entitled to receive the Software Assurance benefits related to the Windows Remote Desktop Services CAL during the term of the Software Assurance agreement.

 

New “On Price List” Promotions Launching September 1, 2009

Windows 7 Professional Upgrade Promotion

Offer:                    Get more out of the PCs you use today by upgrading to Windows 7 Professional. With Windows 7 you can make users productive anywhere with great performance and reliability, enhanced security and control, and streamlined PC management. For a limited time you can get Windows 7 Professional at an approximate 15% discount off the regular price.  Discount varies by geography.  And if you include Software Assurance you can upgrade to Windows 7 Enterprise and get exclusive rights to purchase the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack.

 

Promo Dates:    September 1, 2009 – February 28, 2010

Promo SKUS:     Identified with “Promo” in the SKU description

Program(s):        Open, Open Value (Additional Product), Select, Select Plus, Select Local, Worldwide Government Partner

                                (Corporate, Government)

Microsoft Desperate for you to use IE8

Do you know about these crazy range of campaigns that Microsoft is using to get people to use Internet Explorer 8?  They had an offer to feed the homeless if you download it and are now offering the chance to win $10,000.  Crazy huh?

Microsoft now has a campaign in Australia where $10,000 is given away that has been “buried” somewhere in the Internet.  But the catch is that in order to find this money, you need to be using IE8.  Apparently if you stumble upon the site where Microsoft placed it under that browser you get some sort of notification and the money is yours?  If you find the page without being on IE8, you get a message that says “But you’ll never find it using that browser.  So get rid of it or get lost”.  Ha! 

Of course this campaign is directly tied to Twitter.  Microsoft is suggesting that users who wish to play in this IE8 treasure hunt also follow @tengrand_IE8 on Twitter to get daily clues.

At the bottom of the page it reads “Tell your friends.  It is not as stupid as it sounds”   Ha! Well maybe stupid AND desperate actually.  Why does Microsoft need to spend all of this time doing stupid gimics and just worry about making a better product?  Too many marketing and sales people I guess & not enough developers. 

H-P and Microsoft Forge $180 Million UC Alliance

Article from ChannelWeb by Andrew Hickey.. kind of interesting.  The big companies just keep on getting bigger and bigger…

Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Microsoft have unveiled a four-year, $180 million global initiative to work together to deliver integrated unified communications (UC) and collaboration solutions.

Unveiled Tuesday at Interop Las Vegas 2009, the two powerhouses said the deal is an extension of their 20-plus-year Frontline Partnership, through which the two companies collaborate for enterprise offerings.

The $180 million investment will go toward product development, professional services and joint sales and marketing. All products and services that stem from the pairing will be available through each company’s channel organizations, HP and Microsoft said.

Manfred Arndt, distinguished technologist of unified communications solutions for HP’s ProCurve Networking division, said the combined HP-Microsoft offerings will span software, hardware, networking and services to help companies capitalize on collaborative tools to boost productivity and ultimately reduce travel, telecommunications and IT operating costs by streamlining communications across messaging, video and voice with connected application and devices. The end result will be solutions that facilitate and deliver VoIP, video, conferencing and a host of other collaborative applications.

“Unified communications is not a point product,” Arndt said. “It is a vision and a strategy.”

Jeana Jorgensen, Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) director of marketing for unified communications, added that the goal of the integration is to make the PC the endpoint for communications and collaboration.

“At the end of the day, it’s about customer choice,” she said. “We want you to be able to compute wherever you are in the same exact manner you’re used to.”

The pairing comes as UC and collaboration solutions are poised for explosive growth. According to a recent report from Forrester Research, 84 percent of enterprises in North America and Europe are evaluating, piloting or implementing UC and collaborative solutions. That market is expected to grow at a rate of 35.9 percent through 2015.

The initiative ties together HP and Microsoft’s visions and best practices for building productivity solutions on open software-based platforms that work with applications and systems people commonly use. The pairing will spawn solutions that are accessible from nearly any device, Arndt said.

The two companies will form joint teams to collaborate on products and services development across Microsoft’s Office SharePoint Server, Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS), as well as HP’s ProCurve networking gear. Additionally, HP will certify the HP dx9000 TouchSmart Business PC and select smartphones for Microsoft unified communications software, like Office Communicator. HP will also deliver new IP desk phones certified for Microsoft OCS and other unified communications tools.

HP and Microsoft will also offer end-point interoperability with HP Halo Telepresence Solutions and OCS-based unified conferencing to enable remote participation at any OCS-enabled PC to join telepresence conferences. Meanwhile, HP also announced that Halo will now be part of HP’s ProCurve division.

On the professional services side, the two companies will launch a full set of business productivity services including assessment, architecture planning and design, implementation, monitoring, management and support for software, hardware, network, server, storage and infrastructure components. HP will also dedicate a global team of service professionals to support the joint solutions. Both companies will also target communications service providers and offer them the same technologies and services to enable hosted UC and collaboration services to SMBs.

HP and Microsoft will also provide services for customers who seek to run their technology on-premise, fully outsource or a hybrid combination of the two, while also working together to address real-time collaboration needs through HP Halo Managed Services and HP ProCurve products.

The two companies will assign dedicated sales teams to their joint solutions and train thousands of technical and delivery personnel. They will also showcase the joint offerings in Microsoft Technology Centers and HP Customer Briefing Centers worldwide.

HP is also expected to launch financing and trade-in programs through HP Financial Services to accelerate the adoption of the joint solutions.

Arndt added that the HP-Microsoft mash-up is an alternative choice to other UC and collaboration solutions on the market and will help customers and the channel offer solutions tailored to organizations’ specific business needs.

“This will ease the transition to unified communications,” Microsoft’s Jorgensen said. “We’ve always communicated and we’ve always collaborated. Now customers are looking for guidance because there’s such a variance of definitions on what unified communications is.”

Microsoft Lays off Thousands and More Coming

Well fine.   Isn’t there too many Microsoft people anyway?  I know there are plenty of sales people that do not know much about anything and have I no idea what their real role is.   Sorry Microsoft people but I really think this is a good thing.   Maybe the problem was with crazy Vista that no one liked..?  Regardless I think it is a good thing.  Clean house.

Here is the article from Channel Web…

Microsoft Tuesday laid off several thousand employees and said it has almost finished eliminating 5,000 positions as part of a $1.5 billion cost-cutting effort. But Microsoft left the door open to additional layoffs, which suggests that company officials expect the weak economy to continue gnawing away at revenue.

In an email sent to Microsoft employees, 

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Microsoft will continue to monitor the impact of the economic downturn on the company’s business and will cut further jobs if necessary.

Microsoft in January revealed plans to eliminate 5,000 jobs in research and development, marketing, sales, finance, legal, human resources and IT operations by June 2010, the first company wide layoff in history.  

At the time, Ballmer warned Wall Street analysts that the technology industry faces a “once-in-a-lifetime set of economic conditions” and said the economy was in the process of “resetting to a lower level of business.”

In Microsoft’s most recent quarter, profit fell 32 percent and overall revenue fell 6 percent, marking the first time in company history that quarterly revenue experienced a year-on-year decline.

Client 

division revenue fell 15.4 percent during the quarter and has declined for three straight quarters, but Microsoft hopes the launch of Windows 7 will counteract this trend. In the coming year, Microsoft will also launch Office 2010, Exchange 2010, and potentially a new search offering.

Anonymous Microsoft blogger Mini Microsoft published the text of an e-mail that Microsoft HR Chief Lisa Brummel purportedly sent Tuesday to managers asking them to minimize e-mail volumes and to answer employee questions face-to-face or via Live Meeting instead of via e-mail.

In February, Microsoft’s HR department sent out letters to 25 laid-off workers informing them that they’d been overpaid in their severance packages and asking them to repay the difference within 2 weeks but the reverse course and said it would seek reinbursement.

Microsoft Wireless Combos

So Dan, this is a shout out for you…

Anyone else out there annoyed by these wireless combo packs?  If you try to split them up there is no receiver that you can purchase separately to just use the keyboard or just use the mouse.  Sure you can spend another $60 and buy a wireless mouse with the receiver, but really…!!   And why are these wireless things so expensive?  $149.95 list I think is what that Microsoft MS 7000 is.  For a keyboard & mouse?  No keyboard is that cool. 

I have been through quite a bit of wireless mice, keyboards in my day & I really do not think they are what they are cracked up to be.  I don’t go that far to be “wireless” and the battery breaks way too much for me.  Way too high maintaince.   I will stick with the plugged in keyboard & mouse and never worry about a battery issue or a receiver issue.  And I will save about $100.   Thanks..

VMware contiunes to Reek of Microsoft..

VMware has taken on the distinct scent of Microsoft again.

It just hired another ex-Microsoftie for its senior ranks.

Besides CEO Paul Maritz and second-in-command, COO Tod Nielsen, both Microsoft émigrés, there’s now chief development officer and EVP Richard McAniff, late corporate VP of Microsoft Office, a Redmond veteran of 21 years standing.

He will be responsible for R&D across both VMware’s server and desktop units and report to Maritz, whose game is to keep ahead of Microsoft technologically speaking.

At Microsoft McAniff was responsible for Excel and Access, oversaw the Business Intelligence effort in Office as well as the development of web components for the SharePoint Portal Server. McAniff also helped guide the development of Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003 and Office 2007. Before picking up his corporate VP chevrons, he was general manager of Visual Basic.

Prior to joining Microsoft in 1987, McAniff, 59, was a member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories.

Article written by Maureen O’Gara

Microsoft to Attack Mac Pricing on New TV Ads

Maybe it will inspire Apple to lower their prices!!  BTW how the heck is that Apple guy still on Dancing with the Stars, beating out Holly and Denise Richards.  There is definitly a company wide email going out to all Apple employees to vote for that guy otherwise be fired.  They are definitly trying to raise the morale of Apple so Steve Jobs is not the only person behind the company.  And the Dancing Show they think is the way to America’s heart.. hmm interesting world we live in.

Jerry Seinfield/Bill Gates http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_Rj-aoGi_8

Other commercials can be found here..

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-us

After running through a series of ad campaigns designed to make Windows look cool, then victimized, then simply inescapably ubiquitous, Microsoft is now hoping to attack Apple in new ads that portray Macs as unaffordable compared to generic PCs.

According to a report by the Associated Press, Microsoft hired Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the ad agency behind the campaign pairing Bill Gates with Jerry Seinfeld, to recruit “unwitting subjects by posing as a market research firm studying laptop purchasing decisions.”

Participants found on Craigslist were given between $700 to $2,000 to buy a computer fitting certain criteria, and were told they could keep the computer they selected.

One participant named Lauren was told to buy a 17″ notebook for less than $1000. She was then filmed entering an Apple Store where she couldn’t find one. Lauren then heads to Best Buy and selects a $699 HP machine running Windows. That experience was turned into a 60 second TV spot for Microsoft after the agency told the buyer that the purpose of the excursion was really to promote Windows.

Shopping for hardware

The new ads don’t go into details on hardware purchases; they simply make the case that PC laptops can be found for cheaper, playing up tight funds in the tough economy. Best Buy actually does sell the DV7-1245DX, an HP notebook with 17″ screen, but it lacks fast wireless 802.11n, fast Gigabit Ethernet, digital audio inputs and outputs, weighs 7.75 pounds, and only features the screen resolution of Apple’s 15″ notebooks: 1440 by 900. Technically, it is a 17″ notebook in terms of size, but it doesn’t have the 17″ resolution of Apple’s MacBook Pro, which is 1920 by 1200.
One HP buyer pointed out that this model series “has the worst screen I have ever seen in my life. It’s the 1440×900 screen and the viewing angles are so poor that even when sitting directly eye level with the screen it is totally washed out. If I go a little bit off-axis the screen results in a negative image. I was using the default settings. Unfortunately I didn’t read reviews before i purchased.”

Shopping for software

More importantly however, the HP notebook runs Windows Vista, as having the lowest operating system satisfaction rating in rankings that were led by Mac OS X Leopard and also included Linux and Windows XP. Many PC makers continue to add a “Windows XP downgrade” as a feature on their new PCs.

This makes it particularly interesting that Microsoft would advertise its product by citing the price of the hardware it runs on, rather than calling attention to any of the features in its own product. It’s not that Microsoft hasn’t tried. Vista’s first “Wow” campaign portrayed customers in a state of pleasant shock when using it.

Shopping for an ad campaign

After those ads collapsed in an avalanche of bad press complaining about arbitrary changes that did not improve anything and software and hardware compatibility problems, Microsoft rolled out the Mojave Experiment which showed users a “new OS” that was really just a repackaged version of Vista. Those ads attempted to claim that Vista’s bad reputation was all due to customers not giving the the system a fair shake, but the ads sidestepped the real problems users were experiencing by not allowing participants to run Vista on their own PC or with their existing software and peripherals.

Hmm so who knows.. But that is the LBC…

Microsoft Retail Store..? Really??

So did you hear.. 

“Microsoft plans to open its own retail stores to ‘transform the PC and Microsoft buying experience,’ the company said [in February] as it hired an executive to run the retail operation…. Microsoft has long been perceived as lagging behind rival Apple in appealing directly to consumers, and Apple has a head start of several years in running a chain of stores.”

Really Microsoft? You think that is going to work?? You are not Apple by anymeans and the consumer not the business you want to target? Really?  They are doing it to increase the general public awareness of one of the largest software companies & sell some SAP products too. 

I am not a PR person by any means.. but do you think this is going to work?  I don’t see it but maybe I am missing something..?

So perhaps here is how the typical SAP Store experience might go..

“Guten Tag. Bon jour. Hola. Ni Hao. Ciao. Hello,” says Hans, the official “greeter” of the brand-new SAP Store located at the Paramus Park mall in Paramus, N.J.  He apparently speaks multiple languages. “Just like SAP software does,” he cheerfully tells a husband and wife who have just wandered into the store.

“Why is the company named sap?” asks the beleaguered middle-aged woman.

“It’s not pronounced ’sap,’” replies Hans, rather curtly. “It’s pronounced S – A – P.”

Undaunted, he presses on. “It’s German. The original name was ‘SAP Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing.’ Or in German, it’s ‘SAP Aktiengesellschaft Systeme, Anwendungen, Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung.’ Say it with me…..”

“SAP Aktiengesell…,” responds the woman. “Do you have a bathroom I could use?”

“Of course,” Hans says. “It’s right over there by the posters of our five founders, which are for sale.” The woman looks puzzled, looking left and right. “You know,” says a nearly exasperated Hans. “Dietmar Hopp, Hans-Werner Hector, Hasso Plattner, Klaus Tschira, and Claus Wellenreuther.”

Silence. “It’s by the Exit sign,” Hans finally says.

The woman scuttles away, and her husband glances around the austere concrete-and-glass store, which offers two unoccupied HP PCs (with labels that read “For Power Users Only”) and display case after display case filled with shimmering CDs, with names such as: Business Suite, NetWeaver, BusinessObjects Edge, Business ByDesign, Crystal Reports, Service-Oriented Architecture and lots more.

The husband finally asks Hans: “So, what do you actually sell here?”

“Software,” says Hans, rather proudly. “We are the world’s leading provider of business software, offering applications and services that enable companies of all sizes and in more than 25 industries to become best-run businesses. We have more than 82,000 customers in more than 120 countries.”

“So, like word processing or Excel spreadsheets—that kinda software?”

“No. Not like word processing or Excel.” Hans was visibly agitated by the inane line of questioning, but since he hadn’t had a customer in days, he plays nice.

“These are the leading, robust, highly scalable, highly flexible business applications that run the back-office systems of the world’s largest companies—such as Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola .” Hans stared at the man. “That kind of software.”

“Oh. I see,” said the man, who looked down at his watch. “I try to avoid that scale. But I guess I could use help with managing my finances.”

“For you, sir, we have a fully integrated suite of ERP, CRM, BI and supply chain applications,” says Hans. “How much do you know about Business Suite 7?”

“ER-what?”

“ERP,” says Hans. “Enterprise resource planning. It’s quite essential”

“I see,” says the man, thinking a second. “So the price tags on the disks are all in Euros. So, how much is this ‘fully integrated ERP’ suite, in U.S. dollars?”

“Average total cost for, say, an ERP implementation is approximately $16 million.  Total time of implementation is roughly 20 months” says Hans. “Want to hear more?”

“No!”

“Of course,” continues Hans, “you’ll have to pay us an annual maintiance fee, which is around 22 percent of the net license price, and spend millions more on upgrades when we release new versions. Though we are fixing that.  And that’s all assuming everything goes well with the intall.  So how many seats are we talking about here?”

“Seats? I don’t need any seats. And if I did, Crate and Barrel is right across the way.”

The wife returns, to the delight of the husband. “Honey, let’s go,” he says quickly.

“Come back and see us again,” says Hans. “Auf wiedesein. Au revoir. Adios. Zai jian. Ciao. Goodbye!”

Microsoft, Citrix Join Forces Against VMware

Microsoft and Citrix Systems have tightened their virtualization partnership to help both companies compete more effectively with market leader VMware, they announced Monday.

 

Citrix said it plans to release a new suite of virtualization management tools in April, called Citrix Essentials, that will be offered in two versions — one for Microsoft’s Hyper-V software and another for Citrix XenServer.

Citrix has more advanced management tools than Microsoft for virtual environments, and Microsoft hopes the partnership will help spread the use of Hyper-V in data centers. In return, Microsoft has pledged to manage XenServer environments with the next version of its Systems Center management software, which currently works only with Hyper-V and VMware’s ESX. It will also market and sell Citrix Essentials for Microsoft Hyper-V to its customers worldwide, the companies said.

In another move to counter VMware’s lead, Citrix will offer its XenServer software free starting in April. One or two high-end features from that product, including the high-availability features, will be moved to Citrix Essentials for XenServer, but many of the existing capabilities will be available for no charge, said Citrix CTO Simon Crosby.

Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V and Citrix Essentials for XenServer each will be priced at US$1,500 to $5,000 per server, depending on the features selected, Crosby said.

The announcements were made just as VMware’s customer conference kicked off in Cannes, France.

“What this is really about is Microsoft and Citrix as a team going against VMware,” said Mark Bowker, an analyst with Enterprise Strategy Group.

The tools in Citrix Essentials include StorageLink, for provisioning and managing virtual machines across large storage area networks; dynamic provisioning, which allows thousands of virtual machines to be booted simultaneously from a single master image; and a new “lab management” tool for creating virtualized test and development environments. It will also have a graphical tool for automating a workflow of complex management tasks.

The version of Essentials for XenServer will include the high-availability features that are currently in the Platinum edition of XenSource 5. Those features will not be in the version for Hyper-V.

“Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V is a much-needed step, especially for Microsoft,” according to Chris Wolf, a senior analyst with Burton Group.

The storage and provisioning capabilities will be a boost for Microsoft, although the lack of a high-availability option will make some enterprises hesitant about using Hyper-V for production applications, Wolf said. At least initially, he expects the Microsoft platform to be more widely used for virtual test and development environments.

The cross-management capabilities between Hyper-V and XenSource will also give Citrix a boost, Wolf said. Customers could deploy XenServer now, with the knowledge that they can adopt Hyper-V later and manage both from Microsoft Systems Center, he said.

However, both vendors still face a formidable challenge in VMware, Bowker and Wolf said. VMware retains a technology lead in server virtualization, and it has an established presence in many data centers.

“A lot of large enterprises have mature VMware deployments; they’re a bit cautious about splitting their infrastructure across multiple hypervisors.” Wolf said, adding that Monday’s announcements may have the most impact for small and midsize businesses.

Microsoft and Citrix both said they have a price advantage that makes them competitive with VMware. Customers would have to pay VMware $5,000 per server to get the functionality offered in the free XenServer, according to Crosby. However, VMware’s Infrastructure 3 software does include features that XenServer will not have.

Microsoft wants to make virtualization part of the Windows platform, just as networking capabilities are a part of Windows today, said David Greschler, Microsoft’s director of Systems Center marketing. The fact that companies are familiar with Windows lowers their training costs, he argued. “When they know Windows, they know virtualization.”

Both companies see plenty of room for growth in the market.

“Today we’re seeing [virtualization] at about 20 to 30 percent penetration,” Greschler said, “but we expect that to grow very fast, and it will be in the upper 80 to 90 percent range very quickly.”

Microsoft Heads to Court….

The downgrade rights option that Microsoft allows OEMs to offer with new Windows Vista PCs are one of the most telling signs of the market’s distaste for Vista.  As Microsoft prepares to release Windows 7, Microsoft would love for downgrade rights to fade into the rear view mirror.  Instead Microsoft is being hauled into court for alleged anti competitive behavior.

The plaintiff is a class action suite filed earlier in Seattle that claims that Microsoft acted illegally by forcing customers to buy new Vista PC’s in order to get XP.  Downgrade rights allow cusotmers who buy new PC’s with Vista Business or Vista Ultimate to revert back to XPP.

The reason why this case is of interest to me.. is that companies DO pay additional money to downgrade from Vista to XPP.  $59 and up…

According to the filing, Microsoft initially $104 for the downgrade option and gave OEM’s until June 30 2008 to offer downgrade rights.  But Microsoft has reaped such “tremendous profits” from the downgrade option that it decided to extend the deadline on 2 different dates.  First to Jan 31 2009 and later to July 31 2009.

TO DATE, nearly one in three customers purchasing new computers has paid for a downgrade from Vista to XPP. 

On July 31st, Microsoft will supposedly stop providing media for downgrades to OEMs.  You will still be able to access the downgrade rights after that date by contacting Microsoft.. and I will be able to help as well.   But that is the new date Microsoft has given…