Market Review: What’s New in Microsoft World II

Microsoft Office - Cloud Computing is the Word

    Two weeks ago, on 15^th of June 2010, Microsoft Office was shipped together with Visio and Project 2010, closing the cycle of releases started with SQL Server 2008 R2, Visual Studio 2010, Sharepoint 2010 (all 3 shipped in April 2010) and Windows Azure (available also in April). The words that describe/unite at best these software tools is cloud computing and collaboration, why that? First we have to consider Azure, the new product from Windows’ portfolio, a framework for cloud computing and SaaS (Software as a Service) architectures, and composed of 3 components, namely Windows Azure which allows running applications and accessing data in the cloud, SQL Azure Database  provides data services in the cloud, while Windows Azure platform AppFabric allows the communication between the applications residing in the cloud. Also MS Office 2010 is part of Microsoft’s strategy toward cloud computing, the weight falling on SharePoint 2010, a business collaboration platform that together with the other MS Office tools allow to manage information, automate and manage business processes, facilitate decision making process, etc. A cornerstone of the framework is the co-authoring tool that “allows multiple people to work on a single copy of a document at the same time or at different times, seamlessly, whether they are online or offline”. As it seems are provided also “community features that allows users to share data as they do on Twitter and Facebook”, a step toward social computing. Microsoft plans to offer an online version of Office 2010, called Office Web Apps (OWA), supposed to be also a competitor for Google Docs.

    There are also people who question the steps done by Microsoft toward cloud computing, but in the end is important to establish the software infrastructure in which cloud computing-based applications could be developed, futures that don’t exist currently could appear in future versions or could be provided by third-party vendors.

    Microsoft comes also with some unpleasant surprises, as it seems Microsoft’s SharePoint Server runs only on 64-bit hardware and requires also a 64 bit SQL Server edition, and this could be quite an important constraint for many customers. The most unpleasant surprise is that Microsoft renounces to the well-known upgrade schema, the reason for that, as mentioned in Ars Technica quoting a Microsoft spokesman, from the need to simplify the product lineup and pricing, based on “partner and customer feedback” (I’m sorry but I can’t really buy that!). The same source expects that upgrades will be available with promotions, after Office’s launch. The only promotion I heard of is Microsoft Office 2010 Technology Guarantee program but if refers only to the customers who “purchased, installed, and activated a qualifying Microsoft Office 2007 product between March 5, 2010, and September 30, 2010”, they being eligible to download Office 2010 at no additional cost. How about the ones who bought a Microsoft Office 2007 copy in 2010 but before 5^th of March (like I did)?!

Microsoft TechEd North America Sessions are Online

    The Microsoft TechEd North America sessions held in New Orleans were made available online (video and slides), an opportunity for technical professionals to get an overview on the new advancements in Microsoft technologies, being approached topics related to the various platforms of Windows, MS Office, Dynamics, Web, Cloud Computing & Online Services, etc. I really like the way Microsoft makes its technologies available to the public, especially the fact that it provides also Express versions of their software, allowing newbies and developers to get acquainted and use essential basic functionality. The MSDN, TechNet, webcasts, Channel9  and community and personal blogs bring the technical and non-technical closer to the company and its technologies.

Market Review: What's New around the World

Instead of Introduction

    May is gone and it was quite a stressful month because given the fact that I had to start with a new job, a new position I will have to grow in, I had also to find a new apartment, move, install myself, so I barely had time for my blogs, the little time I had spending it reading stuff related to the new requirements, trying to improve my German, etc. Even so, I found a few interesting resources, adding them to the pile of other interesting links I collected over time. So, I realized that maybe it makes sense to group some of them in a set of postings under the title “What's New (In My World)”, hopefully they will be of interest for other people too.

Free Universities and Resources for SQL Developers & Co.

    I was kind of positively surprised to discover that several known authorities in their fields opened their own online Universities for the masses, a new free formal form of study on the web that takes advantage of the latest trends in online learning – webcasts, PowerPoint presentations, blogging posts, online communities, new technologies and applications, etc. The most unexpected appearance is the SQL University having as faculty known professionals and bloggers like Jorge Segarra, Adam Machanic, Pinal Dave or Kendal Van Dyke, to mention only the ones whose blogs I previously known, but also others not less important professionals. The posts cover topics like SSIS, PowerShell, parallelism, database administration, etc. and I find them quite a useful resource of knowledge not only for beginners but also for experienced professionals.

   Early this year I discovered the BeyeUniversity that currently offers a series of 5 free certificate programs for BeyeNetwork members, covering Business Intelligence related topics, the online video courses having an easy to follow format, the content being approachable also by non-professionals. Between the instructors could be recognized Bill Inmon, one of the pioneers in data warehousing, leading the course on Unstructured Data and being also a columnist in BeyeNetwork newsletters, several others webcasts with him being also available. Ralph Kimball, the other important personality in the area of data warehousing has opened the Kimball University and even if its courses are not free, on his website could be found a big collection of articles reflecting the ideas of his school of thought. 

   The MIT OpenCoureWare initiative is quite old, though maybe not so many people know that there are made available also courses on Database related topics, for example Database Systems, Database, Internet, and Systems Integration Technologies or Data Mining, the lecture notes and study materials offering a high level overview of the concepts related to the mentioned subjects. Some of the other courses offer also video or audio content, though more such resources could be found on YouTube EDU, Academic Earth, Lecturefox or similar resources, being covered a growing range of database related topics. Similar such resources could be found also with a simple search using the favorite search engine, many Universities have made available online, voluntarily or involuntarily their text, video or audio lecture notes.

Microsoft News

    With SQL Server 2008 R2, Visual Studio 2010 and MS Office 2010 Microsoft closes a new cycle of releases, the products reflecting Microsoft’s philosophy and the degree to which the company made it to hold their promises. It will be interesting to see how the products will be regarded by professionals and press, how they fit in the general technology trends, how they could be used together in order to provide highly scalable and available solutions. I really hope that Microsoft have made some important steps in bridging the gaps existing in their tools integration on 64 bit version, and that the new added functionality makes a difference.

ERP Systems: ERP Software Predictions for 2010

    Again on Panorama Consulting Group’s 360 ° Blog post on Top Ten ERP Software Predictions for 2010. Sorry, given the current economical context, excepting the eventual acquisition moves and few sporadic attempts to change something in ERP vendors’ strategy I don’t feel anything big coming for the next year. Most probably ERP vendors like any other companies will be more focused on cutting down losses, reducing the headcount, introducing one or two features in their products, maybe putting on hold some of the projects they are working on unless immediate profit is expected, the shift changing from “thinking big” to “focused thinking”, keeping the flag up.

    It’s true that the crisis we are going through stresses the importance of having tangible benefits after implementing an ERP solution, cutting down the costs, breaking such projects in easily chewing pieces in the attempt of reducing the risks and obtaining results faster, though whether phased rollouts is best approach for that it’s more a philosophical question. Even more, an ERP solution is just a piece of the puzzle, you have to consider in the end the overall infrastructure, the many other systems floating around as isolated islands, the culture of people, the maturity of the business, and maybe the most important - the means by which an ERP system could be leveraged to higher level of performance, and maybe this is the best factor considered when calculating the ROI; however you can’t achieve that if you’re not having in place adequate (business intelligence) tools and mindset to derive benefit out of your ERP system! Maybe that’s the direction CIOs have to follow – striving for performance and eliminating waste, thinking lean and green, sustaining business value.

    The crisis stressed also the importance of having in place adequate risk management, though that have been on managers’ plate since several good years, and if they ignored it until now, most probably they won’t change things over night, as some experience and again mindset is required in order to get things right.

    I agree on the increased adoption of SaaS by SMBs, though I wonder if that can be achieved at large scale, how SMBs will deal with specific requirements, how they will integrate the SaaS ERP solution with the existing systems. I don’t think the ERP and SaaS market is mature enough to address the challenges concerning the merging of the two solutions, of course that don’t mean that attempts won’t be made in this direction.

    For small vendors will be difficult to enter on a market dominated of giants like Oracle and SAP, it takes lot of time and effort to come up with a feasible ERP system, maybe small vendors can better address the requirements of SMBs by offering more customized solutions, better and cheaper support than big vendors do. Everything is possible, first of all you need to have a good product, a good marketing strategy, gain customers’ trust and maintain it over time.