======================================================================== ENTERPRISE WINDOWS: OLIVER RIST http://www.infoworld.com ======================================================================== Monday, November 1, 2004
MICROSOFT CHALLENGES PENGUIN CUDDLINESS WITH TECHNET KINDNESS By Oliver Rist Posted October 29, 2004 3:00 PM Pacific Time Baby back ribs. A nasty name when you think about it, but with meat falling off the bone, a pile of roasted potatoes, a friendly merlot, and the Patriots on TV setting a new record for undefeated ... ness, who's thinking about nastiness? I can't even remember the Seattle poopypants fiasco -- and on the slim chance she's reading: Please never say that word again. With a BBQ-sauce-and-wine cocktail slowly congealing in my goatee and the Pats crushing the opposition off to my left, I've established a sanctuary of safety, a cloud of calm, a haven of ... never mind. Point is, anxiety has taken a backseat to personal comfort. ADVERTISEMENT -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- InfoWorld presents: Convergence Spotlight and White Papers Advantages of Converged Services Switched IP networks are rapidly becoming the corporate communications architecture of choice. By converging voice, data and video onto IP telephony platforms and Virtual Private Networks, enterprises can supply bandwidth when and where end users need it, while significantly lowering administrative and equipment costs. Register now to view this white paper: http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=9AD3EB:2B910B2 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- And yes, there's a Redmond segue here, although as usual, it's somewhat tenuous. In case the never-ending spew of server products from the poopy-oriented Northwest has on occasion become too much for you, I strongly advise checking out the TechNet Virtual Lab . Need to get your mental fingers deep into the guts of a new Microsoft server product? Can't afford a test lab or all the configuration time required to set up software with which you've got little experience? TechNet Virtual Lab to the rescue. And no need to purchase TechNet membership either; just fill out some user registration information -- and, Microsoft, you could use some work on this script -- and you're ready to download any of eight different server modules. Each module comes not only with evaluation software but with full documentation presented in what amounts to lesson plan format. The combination allows users to play with these servers in a sandbox environment on a connected or stand-alone machine without the need to dedicate hardware to your learning curve. Sure, downloads take some time, and the lesson plan does have a bit of the Microsoft moonie atmosphere about it, but for anyone not familiar with the software in question, Virtual Lab's value is unquestionable. The bad news is, Microsoft stopped at only eight modules. Where's Commerce Server , CRM, Storage Server, or Live Communications Server? Guys like me love the MOM (Microsoft Operations Manager) , ISA (Internet Security and Acceleration) Server, and similar modules, but in this age of IT-add-value-or-hit-the-bricks, elucidating on some of the other tools in the Microsoft shed could certainly make many of our lives a bit easier. And not just easier from a feature evaluation perspective, either. Planning any value-added business project, especially using Microsoft tools, means looking at integration, capacity, and any number of business-specific issues as well. Virtual Lab is a mechanism whereby eager Microsoft administrators try out integration projects before actually being forced to implement them. Or get formal training. Let's face it. Buying a clue concerning any computing platform nowadays means spending bucks on getting both yourself and your staff trained, and those are costs most of us would just as well mitigate. Virtual Lab gives us exactly that flexibility, allowing managers to choose software toolkits and to prove their capabilities in the virtual sandbox before being forced to spend valuable training bucks on improving staff expertise. It's a small example, but tangible nonetheless, of Microsoft's kill-them-with-kindness strategy. Linux and Unix vendors, and to a lesser extent Novell; these guys have a mantra of buckle down, learn it, know it, use it, and then keep learning to stay even remotely competent. This can be scary for an MCSE or even an all-around IT draftee the likes of which many SMBs have employed as their internal computing resources. Microsoft may wind up costing more and it may force customers into a faster upgrade cycle, but the path to these disadvantages is paved with pillows of kindness such as Virtual Lab that are difficult to find on other computing platforms. I expect to see initiatives similar to Virtual Lab in the coming months. Microsoft knows its release strategy isn't making it any friends with customers. Easy UIs and dominance of the desktop are no longer guarantors to dominating the datacenter. Redmond needs to refocus its efforts on capturing the minds of IT managers, and Virtual Lab is only one small step in this direction. If you can't pummel the penguin, you can certainly make him look less cuddly. Oliver Rist is a senior contributing editor at InfoWorld. ======================================================================== TECHWORLD: THE NEW WEB SITE FOR UK IT PROFESSIONALS Techworld is IDG's Web site for the IT professional. 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