• Microsoft Expands Datacenter Management Offerings With Advanced Heterogeneous and Virtualization Capabilities 2 May 2008 Vitaly Popovich

    LAS VEGAS — April 29, 2008 — Today, before an audience of more than 4,000 IT professionals and partners at the Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) 2008, Bob Muglia, senior vice president of the Server and Tools Business at Microsoft Corp., outlined the next phase in the company's strategy to enable dynamic IT organizations. As part of this strategy, Muglia announced technology innovations that are designed to expand Microsoft's virtualization capabilities and introduced its use of open source technologies and industry standards to broaden its ability to deliver automated management of heterogeneous IT environments. "At Microsoft we are helping redefine what it means to do IT management in the enterprise with the new capabilities we are announcing today," Muglia said. "By taking our knowledge of the Windows environment and expanding it to address heterogeneous management needs across platforms, applications, hardware and virtualization, we are opening up a new level of opportunity for companies to drive greater efficiency, responsiveness and value for their business." As IT environments grow more diverse and complex across desktops, datacenters, physical and virtual deployments, and heterogeneous infrastructures spanning Windows and non-Windows environments, Microsoft has worked closely with customers to deliver a comprehensive enterprise strategy for an integrated management solution. The announcements today build on the strong, existing Microsoft System Center presence in the datacenter with key additions in the areas of cross-platform, expanded interoperability and multivendor virtualization management solutions, which are further extended by the contributions of a strong and growing partner ecosystem. Extending Cross-Platform Management for the Datacenter Microsoft today announced the availability of a public beta for System Center Operations Manager 2007 Cross Platform Extensions, which build on the existing Operations Manager 2007 technology and capabilities

  • Live Mesh 23 April 2008 Vitaly Popovich

    Microsoft came out with a preview of new interesting product, Live Mesh What is Live Mesh? Live Mesh is a "software-plus-services" platform and experience that enables PCs and other devices to "come alive" by making them aware of each other through the Internet, enabling individuals and organizations to manage, access, and share their files and applications seamlessly on the Web and across their world of devices. Live Mesh includes: § A platform that defines and models a user's digital relationships between devices, data, applications, and people—made available to developers through an open data model and protocols. § A cloud service providing an implementation of the platform hosted in Microsoft data centers. § Software, a client implementation of the platform that enables local applications to run offline and interact seamlessly with the cloud. § A platform experience that exposes the key benefits of the platform for bringing together a user's devices, files and applications, and social graph, with news feeds across all of these. What differentiates Live Mesh is its underlying platform. As a platform company, Microsoft believes in the power of the operating environment—and that if that environment is built correctly, the entire ecosystem will benefit. Live Mesh is built on the Live Services Platform, providing a Web-centric Mesh Operating Environment that evolves the user experience from one of "My Computer" to one of "My Mesh," with the user at the center of that experience. While many existing offerings may appear similar in that they utilize hosted services for storage, sharing files, or peer-to-peer connections between PCs, most of those products fulfill only one specific need. Live Mesh is unique in that it takes a more robust approach, bringing together all of this functionality in one offering. By weaving together the best of software and Internet services, Live Mesh delivers a platform and experience that is comprehensive yet simple and open. Further Inf

  • Microsoft Case Study: Enhancing Availability with a Server Core Installation of Windows Server 2008 17 April 2008 Vitaly Popovich

    Situation Microsoft IT knows that unanticipated downtime can have a significant negative impact. Loss of critical systems or services can reduce productivity, sales, and confidence from staff, partners, and customers. Solution Microsoft IT deployed the Server Core installation option of Windows Server 2008 where it needed a server to be dedicated solely to the roles and features that a Server Core installation supports. Read the whole case study here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc500983.aspx

  • Microsoft Enables Real-Time Business Decisions with BizTalk RFID Mobile 17 April 2008 Vitaly Popovich

    LAS VEGAS — April 17, 2008— At RFID Journal LIVE! 2008, Microsoft Corp. today unveiled Microsoft BizTalk RFID Mobile — a lightweight platform for a variety of mobile devices, which simplifies the development of mobile applications that expose relevant, real-time business information. BizTalk RFID Mobile enables delivery of relevant information from mobile devices to core business processes for a variety of scenarios, whether for a dock worker verifying a shipment or a pharmacist verifying that the right medicine has been stocked. Microsoft today made available a private beta with general availability expected in late 2008. Customers and partners can participate in the BizTalk RFID Mobile Technology Adoption Program (TAP) by registering at https://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?SiteID=65. "Given today's fast-paced environment, customers have asked for business process technologies that enable real-time decision-making to help drive measurable business results," said Burley Kawasaki, director of product management in the Connected Systems Division at Microsoft. "Together, with leading industry partners including Motorola Inc., Intermec Technologies Corp., Unitech, Samsung and Psion Teklogix Inc., we will deliver a cost-effective, mobile RFID platform that works with existing business processes and systems." As part of the Microsoft BizTalk product line, Microsoft BizTalk RFID Mobile underscores the company's long-term commitment to deliver extensive service-oriented architecture (SOA) and business process management (BPM) capabilities as part of the overall Microsoft application platform. The platform is a set of compatible, mission-critical technologies and development tools that enable customers to develop applications that work with existing systems. "BizTalk RFID Mobile represents an exciting opportunity for Motorola to build on our track record of delivering innovative products to meet customer needs," said Joe White, vice president of RFID business

  • HP Introduces Security Products to Maximize Data Protection and Minimize Risk for Businesses 7 April 2008 Vitaly Popovich

    SAN FRANCISCO, April 7, 2008 - HP today strengthened its security portfolio, HP Secure Advantage, with the introduction of several products that increase data protection and compliance in storage environments. New to the portfolio are a secure fabric switch; an encryption kit for tape autoloaders and libraries; integration of compliance and key management appliances; and, an online security assessment tool. These offerings provide customers with a holistic approach to data security, from evaluating existing security strategies to identifying and combating potential security threats. As a result, companies can reduce the risk of security breaches, achieve regulatory compliance and safeguard against lost intellectual property, revenue or corporate reputation. "Companies of all sizes are grappling with how to handle increased business risks associated with data center sprawl, network attacks and new regulatory pressures," said Jon Oltsik, senior analyst of Information Security at analyst firm Enterprise Strategy Group. "The breadth of HP's Secure Advantage portfolio, combined with its services strength, addresses evolving challenges with security and compliance." In a recent survey of technology security professionals, respondents cited data protection as their No. 1 priority for 2008. The survey revealed that the number of company records exposed due to security breaches increased threefold in 2007 over the previous year.(1) HP has been protecting the majority of the world's financial transactions for the past 35 years, safeguarding ATM, point-of-sale networks, credit card information and electronic funds transfers. HP Secure Advantage bolsters this effort by delivering a portfolio of servers, storage, software and services that provides customers with integrated security solutions – from the desktop to the data center. Data protection and compliance in storage environments HP added new storage encryption, key management and compliance capabilities to its Secure

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