[PLUG] Re: MS and SaaS (was Hello!)

[JP Vossen <jp@jpsdomain.org>]

> Date: Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:12:42 -0500
> From: Matt Ayres <matta@tektonic.net>
>
> Marketing for Windows is getting very strong.  Microsoft has these
> "hosting partner events" all around the country where they provide
> hands on demos of their latest software.

I'd argue that that has always been one of MS' greatest strengths, 
especially since stable, secure software was demonstrably neither a 
strength nor a priority.  I used to call this "The Mighty Microsoft 
Marketing Machine" because I saw far too many well designed and smooth 
running NetWare networks totally destroyed when upper management--wooed 
by TMMMM and/or having read an article in a magazine--forced IT to 
migrate to Windows in the mid-late 90's.  That was sad, but good for IT 
consultants, which I was at the time.


> The next IIS also has PHP support built-in which is meant to entice
> customers that normally would have chosen a Linux server.

I didn't know that.  That *is* very interesting.  I'd rather be dead 
than run IIS, but I can see how that could be a very useful thing for MS 
shops.


> One of my vendors is really trying
> to push Microsoft on me, to the point where I received a bunch of free
> licenses sponsored by Microsoft.  To say the least, I was not
> impressed.. while wearing my sysadmin hat. With the business hat on
> there is a huge demand for Windows based services these days.

Really?  I am not in a position to see that these days, so I must take 
your word for it.  But anecdotally, I can name only one person I know 
who really likes MS.  Everyone else I know dislikes them to some extent 
for some reason and either avoids them or simply uses them for a paycheck.


> One area where Microsoft really has an edge is in the SaaS
> (Software-as-a-Service) industry -- services such as hosted exchange
> and hosted sharepoint are some of the earliest and most prominent SaaS
> offerings.

Is that perhaps because managing the dense opacity of MS products, 
beyond a trivial level, is beyond all but the larger shops with 
specialist staffs?  Or am I just being bitter now?  :-)  But what I mean 
is, have you ever had to deal with the utter insanity required to 
usefully back up Exchange?  Personally, I have not, but I've heard a lot 
of horror stories (many in more-or-less pro-MS magazines like Redmond).

Later,
JP
----------------------------|:::======|-------------------------------
JP Vossen, CISSP            |:::======|        jp{at}jpsdomain{dot}org
My Account, My Opinions     |=========|      http://www.jpsdomain.org/
----------------------------|=========|-------------------------------
Microsoft has single-handedly nullified Moore's Law.
Innate design flaws of Windows make a personal firewall, anti-virus
and anti-malware software mandatory. The resulting software arms race
has effectively flattened Moore's Law on hardware running Windows.
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