April 2009 - Posts

WOW, speaking of Windows 7, here’s some late breaking news – Windows XP Mode is coming!!
25 April 09 06:46 PM | ronaldg

Not sure why they chose to push this out on a Friday, but what the hey.  As you should already know there’s some pretty compelling new stuff coming in Windows 7, but I have to say this previously undisclosed feature may well be the, or at least one of the, most impactful of any of them.   Direct Access is way cool, to be sure, and the Problem Step Recorder is my odds-on favorite for the Windows 7 killer app (like Snipping Tool was for Vista – too bad more folks didn’t get to know about it).  But, the new Windows XP mode directly addresses one of the key legitimate reasons that prevented many businesses from adopting the Vista technology – app compatibility (specifically the need for the business to run incompatible legacy apps).  Now, you should also know (if you’ve watched my webcasts or come to an SB2 event) that we’ve done plenty to try and help partners (and IT) mitigate these apps, but some of the more robust tools (e.g. Application Compatibility Toolkit) were either not known or not used for various reasons (e.g. complexity). Also, some of you may be familiar with our really strong virtualization story that includes technologies and solutions such as App Virtualization, VPC/Virtual Server, Hyper-V, MED-V, and now DVI which can also be used to mitigate app compat.  (If you’re not familiar with those acronyms, I’ll encourage you to listen to one of the Virtualization 360 webcasts where those are discussed.)  But, some of those technologies required volume licensing (software assurance) or a sophisticated and current (as in Windows Server 2008-based) IT infrastructure which, unfortunately, not everyone has.  So, now, here comes Windows XP mode with Windows 7.  I’ll not go into a significant amount of detail in this post, but know that it’s similar to what we’re already doing in the MED-V solution which is available thru the MDOP (Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack) which itself is a technology we acquired thru the acquisition of Kidaro just over a year ago.  In a nutshell, what the Kidaro/MED-V technology does is to allow enterprise data and applications to run within a virtualized machine (known as “workspace”) that’s managed at the corporate level.  The key here is that even though the solution is leveraging a virtual machine, the VM OS is transparent (no additional desktop window – similar to the remote app capability in terminal services)  and, if desired, the user interacts with the app just like any other app without even knowing that it’s running in a separate (virtual) OS.  So now, with XP Mode, you’ll be able to accomplish essentially the same thing, you can launch an app in a (transparent) VM by doing the same essential steps you would normally do to run the app vs having to launch the VM as a separate process and then launch the app within the VM.  Is this cool or what!  Of course, MED-V is still better because it provides for more robust management and control of the VM environment and infrastructure, but if MDOP is not a player for your customer, then at least you can leverage this technology now at the individual desktop level.   Below are some key links.

Check it our more fully on “The Windows Blog” at: The Windows Blog (screenshot below)

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Also, as you might expect, Paul Thurrott, whom I’ve referenced here in the past, has also already put out some pretty good info on this at his “Supersite for Windows”: Paul Thurrott's Supersite blog (Secret no more post), and here’s a direct link to some screen shots on his site: Windows XP mode screen shots.

Windows 7 virtual Partner Readiness Day
25 April 09 06:11 PM | ronaldg

Windows 7 virtual Partner Readiness Day (vPRD)– Registration is now open!

The Windows 7 virtual Partner Readiness day is set for Thursday, May 7^th, and it will run from 8:00 am to 2:45pm (PST).  Of course all the training on vPRD is free for our partner community.

Registration is now open at: www.WindowsPartnerReadinessDay.com.

As you can see from the screen shot below, at this site you will find event details including track information, keynote speaker bios, and some cool Windows 7 resources such as “Tips and Tricks”, and more information on how to obtain richer application and driver experiences (altho these are developer focused resources, I know there’ll be some good technical background info in there that partners can use as well).  And the bottom Windows 7 link will take you directly to the Windows 7 product and solutions page on the partner portal where you can get even more partner information.

And, never fear, if you can’t make it on the 7th, all the sessions will be recorded and made available for partners and field to access if they cannot attend the live online event – so for those of you in Austin, Jacksonville, and City of Industry (CA) don’t miss the TS2 and SB2 seminars there on the 7th, those are not recorded.

 

Solution Selling webcast series coming up
14 April 09 03:29 PM | ronaldg

Since I referred to “solution selling” in my recent post around device drivers, it seems like fortuitous timing that the Partner Learning Center should be launching a new Solutions Selling Series.   So, for those of you who may not be up to speed on this, here’s a way to develop your skills in that area.  Nowadays, as I’ve made the point before, it isn’t enough to just offer up the “latest and greatest” and expect folks will flock to your door; especially in these difficult economic times, you’ve got to really provide the “value” message.  Folks will ALWAYS buy if the value is there, solution selling will help you understand how to find that value by understanding the concept of customer “pain” and how to find it and leverage it to grow your revenue.

Here’s the synopsis of the series: Solution Selling® is the industry standard for sales execution process and the preferred sales methodology of Microsoft.  This five-part webinar series presented by Sales Performance International will introduce you to the philosophy and key concepts of the Solution Selling process. As a special bonus, the fifth webinar in the series, Controlling the Elevated Risk of Buyers in this Economy, has been especially created to offer tips as to how to sell to your potential buyers in this difficult economy.

PLC ID	Event Title	Date	Time	Dur	PLC Registration URL
266314	Solutions Selling Series: No Pain, No Change	4/22/2009	10:00 AM Pacific Time	90 min	https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/details.aspx?publisher=12&delivery=266314
266315	Solutions Selling Series:  The Solution Must Equal the Buying Vision	4/29/2009	10:00 AM Pacific Time	90 min	https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/details.aspx?publisher=12&delivery=266315
266316	Solutions Selling Series:  Make Yourself Equal Before You Make Yourself Different	5/06/2009	10:00 AM Pacific Time	90 min	https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/details.aspx?publisher=12&delivery=266316
266317	Solutions Selling Series:  Don’t Close the Deal Before It is Closable	5/13/2009	10:00 AM Pacific Time	90 min	https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/details.aspx?publisher=12&delivery=266317
266318	Solutions Selling Series:  Controlling the Elevated Risk of Buyers in this Economy	5/20/2009	10:00 AM Pacific Time	90 min	https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/details.aspx?publisher=12&delivery=266318

Interesting article on device driver compatibility in Vista and Windows 7, AND a solution selling take the topic
12 April 09 09:58 AM | ronaldg

This PCMag.com article (Will My Device Work with Windows 7?) brings out some interesting facts that you may not have known about device compat and availability for Windows 7 (and Vista as well).  But actually my main point with this post isn’t to plug the article but try to give you some food for thought around solution selling and how to “up your game” and help your customers think more strategically.

As you should already know, I’ve been doing SB2 events this year and the main subject in the SB2 events is the “Vista Customer Conversation” which revolves around helping our partner base deal with the negative perceptions of Vista that cause some folks to want to stay on legacy OSes for the wrong (or less than optimal) reasons in many cases.  One of the main areas of Vista negative perception is around device driver compatibility and availability.  Now, to be sure there have been compatibility and availability issues around VIsta, so the negative perception has roots in the real world, so, in the SB2 events (and in the webcasts I’ve done around the SB2 event content which you can access from the Partner Learning Center, see links at bottom of post) we discuss why these negative perceptions are happening and what you can do to mitigate them.  Unfortunately, in the face of some driver issues, customers, and unfortunately sometimes partners, revert to the “stay on XP” solution.  So that’s why I want to interject some solution selling thoughts around that into this post.  In my events lately I’ve been challenging my partners, when faced with driver availability and compatibility issues, to consider the following approach, that incorporates a selling technique known as “latent pain” which is indentifying pain that a customer doesn’t know that they have.  In this case, when a customer indicates they “can’t move to Vista because they need to use a legacy device (e.g. a device that doesn’t have functional Vista drivers)”, my suggestions is to consider asking the customer the following question: “Ok, so let me understand this -- the use of this legacy device is more important to your business than protection of your company data.  In other words, the costs for you to replace, or recover from loss, or compromise of, the company data is less than the replacement cost of that device, is that correct?”.  You might also extend the question to bring in the additional aspects of the productivity savings that accrue through less vulnerability to malware or leveraging better ways to find and use data in your infrastructure.  But essentially what you’ve done here is to make sure the customer understands that there is “potential” (latent) pain that can be avoided with Vista and that that pain may well be a lot more costly than the pain of implementing the solution.  To amplify, what you’d be helping the customer understand here is that right now on XP, even though it seems secure (since they’ve likely not had any breaches or successful malware attacks or loss of data), they ARE at higher risk of malware issues (stats show us XP is 60% more susceptible).  Moreover, their sensitive data that exists on servers or desktops or laptops is not protected against loss or unauthorized access if someone were to gain physical access to it via a USB key or if a laptop is lost/stolen.  So what you’re helping them to do is realize the real potential cost of staying on legacy technology.  In this particular case, is the cost of replacing a $2k network printer or scanner less than the cost of replacing/recovering lost data or mitigating unauthorized access to that data?  Of course, with BitLocker protection, Vista can insure that data, even on a drive that a bad guy now has physical possession of, is not compromised, and in the case of USB, you can also secure USB ports against use of unauthorized USB devices through Group Policy in Vista.  Hopefully, you can put the rest of it together, so my main point here is to challenge you, my partner, with thinking past the obvious path of just accepting what would appear to be a limitation and making a tactical decision, but instead thinking beyond that to what the future impact of accepting that limitation is and making sure your customer is making the best strategic decision.  IMHO this is how trusted advisors are made.  Oh, and btw, you make some additional revenue, and if you’ve been following my SB2 content, you also know that Vista, with Reliability Monitor, System Health report, self-healing capabilities, and the new Event model, is not only more secure, but way easier to support than XP, that how cool is that.  And, of course, all these points will still hold true for Windows 7 as well, since it incorporates basically the same device driver model (updated from WDDM v1.0 to v1.1) and support tools.

https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/details.aspx?publisher=12&delivery=259897 and

https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/details.aspx?publisher=12&delivery=260423

Windows 2008 Foundation Server launched
06 April 09 03:01 PM | ronaldg

I suspect many of you have already heard about this, but I thought I’d post this in case you haven’t.  This is a new Server SKU to accommodate your small businesses up to 15 users who for whatever reason aren’t ready for or don’t want SBS 2008.  The product was officially launched on April 1st.

So you’re welcome to read the web site (at the link below), but here’s some “vitals” in case you’d just as soon bypass the marketing stuff (in fact, the home page, as you would expect, is almost all marketing fluff) and get the tech Readers’ Digest version.

Here’s the link to the home page on Microsoft.com: Windows Server 2008 Foundation

For starters, as I alluded to above, it’s an OEM-only play so will only be available (presumably) thru new server purchases.  I haven’t seen any actual pricing but since it’s designed to be an entry-level product, sold on entry-level server hardware, I’m hearing that it’s supposed to be very inexpensive (some are even dubbing it an “ultra-low-cost server”), yet will provide basic server functionality with the benefit of also being Windows so it’ll have the familiar UI.  Beyond that, there are some key differences in it and Standard Server, but there will be an upgrade path to the Standard Server when the business is ready.

Some of the key differences are:

• OEM-only distribution (e.g. pre-installed on a server, not in a box)
• limited to a single, x64 processor (min 1.4 ghz)
• only supports up to 8gb RAM
• No support for virtualization (e.g. no Hyper-V role option and WSF cannot be run as a guest OS) or Core installs*
• Limited to 15 users per server, and these are local accounts (although you can run AD, and even join domains as a member server, but note that if you do that, the 15 user limit applies across all AD scenarios)
• No user CALs needed (however, if you do certain roles like TS or apps like Exchange, you will need the associated CALs for those, and since there is no server CAL in play, the user does not have rights to access other servers, so this is pretty much limited to a single server small environment, which the home page calls out “ideal first server supporting your single-server network”)
• Maximum of 30 SMB network connections (file/print/storage), or 50 TS or RRAS/VPN connections, however anonymous internet connections are not limited.**

So, as you can see, Windows Server Foundation is an excellent lead-in to the suite of Windows Server products. Windows Server Foundation provides your customers with inexpensive, easy-to-deploy, proven, and reliable technology to run most prevalent, current business applications, in addition to sharing information and resources.

OH, and btw, watch out, there’s likely going to be some confusion as you search out info on WSF, since there’s also something called Windows Server 2008 Foundation Networking, which you’ll find a lot of info an links on, that has nothing to do with this product.  One other interesting tidbit, if you go to the home page above and see some comparison links on the right, don’t be surprised if you don’t see WSF as part of the matrix (not sure why they included all those links on the WSF page, oh well).

Well, hopefully that hits some of the tech highlights and now you know

On an interesting side note: Microsoft will donate a portion of every Windows Server 2008 Foundation sale, up to a total of $100,000, to TechSoup.org and Telecentre.org, global nonprofit organizations that help other nonprofits and social entrepreneurs get the most out of technology.   cool, eh?

 

* Here is a list of the supported roles: Active Directory Domain Services, Active Directory® Lightweight Directory Services, DHCP Server, DNS Server, File Services, Print Services, Fax Server, and Web Services (IIS).

** However, there can only be 15 individual users connected at one time on SMB/RRAS/VPN. 

Well, it’s getting to be that time of year again…
03 April 09 10:02 AM | ronaldg

You probably thought I was referring to Spring or end of school year or something other than the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC).  But, it’s only a little over 90 days to WPC and the registration is open, so get your reservation in early — and get ready to connect with the largest (and best IMHO) partner network in the world.
This year, WPC will be held at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, July 13 –16, 2009. If you’ve never been to Nawlins, then let me tell you it is a fun place to visit – especially if you like to eat. There’s a ton of really good eating places there, some well known like Emeril’s, Cafe DuMond, or Brennan’s, and other less well known but nonetheless great places to eat, like Jacques Imo’s or Mother’s (I go to those 2 every time I get to Nawlins). But I digress, so let’s get back to the subject at hand.  WPC is great conference for partners to learn about the latest Microsoft technology as well as our vision and strategies for the Microsoft Partner Program (MSPP) going forward and it’s also a great place to engage with other partners and Microsoft folks.   Last year, the conference hosted more than 11,000 attendees from around the world and over 8,000 networking meetings. The four-day WPC 2009 experience offers many opportunities to engage with Microsoft and other partners.  Here’s the link to the WPC page on the MSPP portal.

https://partner.microsoft.com/US/trainingevents/wwpartnerconference

Check out the agenda and events section for more info on what kind of training opportunities you’ll have access to while at WPC.  Among other things, at WPC you can:

• Identify new business opportunities that use current Microsoft technologies, including the Windows 7 operating system and Windows Internet Explorer 8.

• Experience Hands-On Labs showcasing Microsoft technologies, and learn directly from Microsoft experts about the business opportunities and customer value of each solution.

• Find out how to capture new business opportunities such as using Software-plus-Services to transform software delivery.

And, lastly, in case you can’t make it or in even before the WPC 2009 event itself, you can take advantage of conference benefits, like executive webcasts and interactive resources, in fact, you can access them year-round through Digital WPC.

Hope to see you there….

Here’s why Microsoft is a good technology bet…
02 April 09 02:00 AM | ronaldg

I’m sure most, if not all, of my readers are familiar with the fact that Microsoft is committed to R&D, to the tune of multi-billions per year.  It’s this pure research that continues to make us competitive, and also a good bet for your technology future.  It’s always a bit frustrating for me to hear folks proclaim Apple the innovation leader because they’re able to focus on a narrow range of proprietary software and hardware technology and get to market first with some cool stuff like a thin notebook (since it doesn’t have a CD/DVD) or a cell phone that uses a touch interface.  Oh, and on an interesting side note here, Apple just released it’s V4 Safari browser and one of the first major articles allows that they appear to have “borrowed” a few things from Chrome; I’m sure glad the fruit folks don’t resort to copying like we’re accused of doing so often – borrowing is much better way to do things.  And I use the term “pure research” above because our R&D effort is not just focused on product research, like some other folks, but as Craig Mundie points out in the article: “Conducting basic and applied research is part of Microsoft’s DNA”; at Microsoft, “More than ever we’re committed to this investment, enabling our researchers and developers to continue advancing technology for challenging societal problems and pushing the boundaries of computing in exciting ways.”  We’re not just about getting to market with a touch UI cell phone, this is about projects that range from “natural user interface technologies that respond to speech, touch, and gesture for the automobile, home, and office” to important new “technologies intended to greatly reduce the costs of datacenters”.  Now, of course, we’re fundamentally about computer science, so we’re not inventing new food items or fertilizer, but our research spans dozens of disciplines in computer science, some of which are also mentioned in the article.  And also, of course, it’s common, and a purely intentional outcome, that the technologies developed in Microsoft Research find their way into the next generation of Microsoft products – the great speech recognition in Vista is an example of this that immediately comes to mind.  And, you will likely see the multi-touch “Surface” technology incorporated into the new Windows 7.  And, or course, there’s so many things that are implemented “behind the scenes” like the artificial intelligence that enhances Live Search and Windows, and the database and graphics that underpin the Worldwide Telescope.  And, as part of the TechFest 2009, we also announced a new research organization called Cloud Computing Futures – I’ll let you read the article to find out more about that and some of the other things I’ve alluded to above.  Lastly, I want to encourage you to read the “About Microsoft Research” section at the bottom, I’ll be you’ll learn something about Microsoft Research that you didn’t already know.  And, in closing, I just want to reiterate the main point I make in the title – regardless of all the things you may, or may not, like about Microsoft, the fact remains that, thanks to our commitment to research, we will continue to do real innovation (even though others seem to get more credit in this area) across a range of computing technology to insure that your investment (or bet) in our technology will be a good one for many years to come. 

Microsoft Research Shows Glimpse of Tomorrow’s Computing Technologies

here’s (at least part of) why we have to deal with negative perceptions
02 April 09 01:48 AM | ronaldg

(sorry, this actually happened about 2 weeks ago, but it took me a while to get this out, but my focus here isn’t to point out the launch of IE8 but rather to offer some more food for thought on why we have to battle negative perceptions).

[Headline] Researcher hacks just launched IE8.  So what are you thinking right now?  Are you thinking this might be the title of a good article on the workings and results of  3Com TippingPoint’s PWN2OWN contest.  Or are you thinking something more like “oh brother, Microsoft has done it again…”.   Well, my money is on the latter, and that’s my point here.  

This turns out to be a pretty interesting article (IMHO) that I would recommend, so I’m including the link to it below.  I would have preferred a more objective and descriptive title, e.g. “New browser exploits revealed in PWN2OWN contest” or even better, “PWN2OWN first-prize winner hacks Apple Safari within seconds” -- but the writer chooses to go with the headline above. 

As far as the actual article, it’s a pretty good review of the major outcomes of the PWN2OWN contest, and it does offer some interesting insights into what is essentially a hacking contest, but done in the right way.  Interestingly, and back to my main point about the perception bias, this is the same event that spawned the headline last year “Vista falls” which was one of my early YMTC posts, which, as with this year's title, singled out the Microsoft negative and required you to read deeper into the article to find out significant details such as the hack was only accomplished after the attacker used credentials to get past UAC, or that the hack was done thru a 3rd-party app not a native part of the OS,  or that Mac OSX 10 was hacked WAY faster than Vista.

But as I point out in my YMTCs, this is really about food for thought for you and to point out some of the subtle ways (and sometimes obvious ways as well) that the press fuels the negative perception we battle.  Unfortunately, very little of our industry journalism is objective any more, and, of course journalists know that they’ll get noticed more with a sensational headline.  So, in this case, even though I would not classify the article as a negative one, for someone who’s just skimming, all they’ll see is a glaring headline that puts Microsoft technology in a negative light – I would submit that this is how negative perceptions are begun and re-inforced.  

As I said, I wouldn’t even classify this article as particularly biased, as many are.  It really turns out to be a fairly balanced overview of the some of the results of the PWN2OWN contest and gives some decent insight into this event and how it is used in a constructive way.  As the author notes in the subtitle, Safari and Firefox were also hacked, and if you read the article you’ll find out that, as I alluded to above, that Safari was undone in a matter of seconds by 2 people, so out of the total of 4 hacks that won prize money, half of them were against Safari.  But hey, why headline that when you can probably get more mileage out of “Researcher hacks just launched IE8”.  Moreover, if you continue to read, you’ll also find out that the host machine for IE8 was Windows 7 beta and that the "The build of Internet Explorer 8 used in the contest yesterday was not the RTW build released today."  But, if you just read the title or first page of the article, I’ll bet you didn’t know that, but the title probably led you to the assumption that it was the “launched” version (although there’s no way for me/us to know if that would’ve made a difference), and that’s part of why we’re having to deal with so much negative perception.

So read the article (link below) if you’re interested in that sort of stuff, and then “you make the call”, was the title above a fair depiction of the overall article content or a sensationalized one that adds (unfairly IMHO) to the negative perception issue?

Researcher hacks just-launched IE8

New Free Download: Windows Essential Business Server (EBS) Preparation and Planning Wizards
02 April 09 01:19 AM | ronaldg

Free is almost always good, right?  And especially if the freebies can help you grow your business or be more efficient in the services you provide.  Well, check out these free preparation and planning wizards for EBS.  Actually the news here isn’t so much that these are free but that they are now available by download – they can be installed from the EBS media as well.  They can help you and your customers prepare their environment and plan for deployment of Windows Essential Business Server.  You can download this tool for free here (download center) without any obligation to purchase Windows EBS.  This tool does not change anything on the network, it just scans your network environment to identify network problems and issues that you need to correct to better prepare your environment for deployment of Windows EBS and it will also provide information about the network settings that you will need to install and deploy EBS in a more efficient manner.  FYI, the tool runs about 100 environment checks and provides data and links to documentation (relevant KB articles) to address the issues found.  

For partners and IT Pros alike, these wizards are a simple way to possibly improve their network performance and simplify and enhance the implementation of your EBS solution.  And, for partners especially, this is a great tool to evaluate your current and potential customers' networks. This tool also showcases some of the fundamental best practices included in Windows EBS. Hopefully all of you are familiar with EBS by now from some of my past posts, as well as from TS2 and SB2 events over the last 8-9 months and are making your 50-250 user customers aware of the benefits is can bring to their business IT infrastructure.  Now, as I mentioned above, this tool was also available on the EBS media, so if you’ve got that, and have done an install, you may have already been aware of it or used it.  Also, note that this is not the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit, that I’ve discussed before, which can also be extremely handy in preparing and planning for Windows Server 2008 and virtualization technologies as well as inventories and assessments of the client part of the infrastructure.

As always, we (Microsoft) will try and provide prescriptive and consultative documentation around our technologies for our partners and customers.  We hope your are leveraging as many of them as possible to make your job easier and more efficient.