Enterprise Software & Services

Microsoft made it clear today: Its future is not in Windows or Office. Instead, it's in the Internet and computing clouds. If it can deliver on the promise of its just-announced Live Mesh, the company will be able to fight off Google, and leave Apple in the dust.

Microsoft has a radically different approach to software as a service. But will it be better for IT?

Most people use e-mail or FTP to transfer files. But there are other, more sophisticated approaches.

Apple zealots have one more reason to hate Microsoft: A new study concludes that the Microsoft brand is more respected and more valuable than Apple's. It looks as if Apple's Windows-bashing ads haven't paid off the way that Steve Jobs had hoped.

As a Macintosh business consultant, I've built up IT infrastructure for dozens of companies over the past few years. Most of these companies have been under 200 desktops and at least half Macintosh. I've just completed my first medium sized business move to Google Apps, and I have to say I am extremely pleased.

In fact, I find myself in a position to recommend the switch anyone out there is a similar situation.

People keep trying to save Cobol. But is it really in any danger?

It's IT Blogwatch: in which Red Hat gives up on the consumer desktop Linux market. Not to mention some Chinese guys with too much time on their hands...

Businesses have shied away from adopting Vista, but Forrester Research has come up with a report offering five reason companies should adopt Vista right away. Agree with it or not, it's necessary reading for any Windows-based enterprise.

If you want to know how your Web applications are performing, you need a TrueView, says one vendor.

Mac acolytes might not like to hear this, but a just-released report from Forrester Research concludes that large businesses should upgrade to Vista as soon as possible, and forgo the Mac. Even Linux, the report concludes, is a no-go for big companies.

With speech recognition practically a commodity today, IT should start treating it as they would a keyboard or mouse.

Virtual machine software and new hardware may be the breakthrough thin client advocates have been waiting for.

Last week a Microsoft exec revealed that Vista's User Account Control (UAC) scheme was designed from the ground up to keep people safe by constantly annoying them. Microsoft needs to learn that security through annoyance isn't the way to keep users safe --- or to keep them as customers.

Virtualization is heading for cell phones, predicts one vendor.

Monitor your virtual machine environment while keeping VM sprawl in check.