Microsoft carries out second round of cuts, is the day of reckonning finally here?

The latest round of layoffs at Microsoft has taken a toll on Redmond’s security unit.

Layoffs hit Microsoft security unit | Zero Day | ZDNet.com

Steve Riley a senior security strategist who served as one of the public faces of Microsoft’s security efforts, had his position eliminated during the second round of cuts that happened this week.

Riley is best known for his presentations at security conferences and his work on the Protecting Your Windows Network book.

As Mary Jo Foley reported, the brunt of the latest cuts hit Microsoft’s sales, marketing and support units.

Bill Hill, eBook champion, leaves Microsoft | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

The timing couldn’t be more ironic. The day before Amazon announced its latest eReader, one of Microsoft’s foremost champions of screen-based reading revealed he’d be leaving the company.

Bill Hill, eBook champion, leaves Microsoft | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

Bill Hill, the kilt-wearing Scotsman known as the driving force behind Microsoft ClearType, seemingly is another casualty of Microsoft’s latest round of layoffs.

Hill joined Microsoft in 1994. In 1998, he joined a new electronic books project in Microsoft Research, run by then-vice-president Dick Brass. Hill ended up running the Microsoft team that developed ClearType, a font-display technology for computer screen

Microsoft Live Framework SDK

The Live Framework SDK currently released as a community technology preview (CTP) gives you the tools and resources to program against the Live Framework, the uniform way for programming Live Services from a variety of platforms, programming languages, applications, and devices.

Live Framework SDK

This is the book

0735622825.jpg (JPEG Image, 202x254 pixels)

If you are checking your team for signs of sanity or not I would start to see that they all have the Microsoft Administrators book.  Probably more because it was the first SharePoint 2007 book to come out and indicates they were paying attention.   The book has a funny introduction by Bill English dedicating the book to Jesus (I am not kidding), and also establishes a vocabulary for a piece of software that has to a large extent been bolted together.

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UK Continues to drive growth

Logica and Capgemini reported interim 1Q09 results with UK revenue growth of 7% and 4% respectively. Atos Origin's 1Q09 results (announced on 16 April) showed the UK growing at 8%. For all three companies the UK is now the strongest-performing region worldwide. This is strong evidence that the UK is proving more resilient to the downturn than other markets. Picking the sweet spots and avoiding costly dead ends is going to be crucial for IT services providers in 2009. In the more mature UK market, this equates to a relentless focus on outsourcing to help customers reduce costs, as well as a clear emphasis on the public sector, which continues to spend for now. Standalone consulting has all but dried up, but consulting as a complimentary component to an outsourcing sell is paying dividends.

Telecoms and Software News

UK's potential for further growth

Logica's UK orders shot up 24% in 1Q09, largely thanks to its £76-million seven-year win with the National Police Improvement Agency (NPIA) to develop the Police National Database. This is going to be a phased contract and has the potential to grow following the early development work. We suspect Capgemini's UK orders aren't as impressive, but revenue growth nonetheless was healthy (7%) due to its ability to leverage its public sector assets such as with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) where it is a key partner in consulting, advisory and outsourcing. Group strategy director Martin Cook says that Capgemini is still benefiting from lots of smaller project deals for early design-phase work - a strength that Capgemini can leverage on some of these embedded customer relationships.

IT outsourcing remains the primary driver

IT outsourcing (ITO) is driving opportunities in the UK. Group-wide, Logica's outsourcing revenues were up 9% in the quarter, and orders are steaming ahead, up 44% thanks to significant wins such as the NPIA and the UK's Law Society (£12 million), as well as with TeliaSonera in Sweden. Logica expects to see outsourcing revenues growing throughout 2009, so the signs are certainly good - not least in the UK, where outsourcing makes up the highest percentage (45%) of Logica's revenue mix.Capgemini too is seeing a surge in outsourcing bookings - up nearly 40% group-wide in 1Q09. Its notable UK ITO deal is a £14-million five-year contract with Atkins to provide IT infrastructure and applications services. Cook stressed that a large number of first-generation ITO are deals coming through, and it should benefit from these over the coming quarters both in the UK and in other territories.

UK public sector keeps on spending

Despite longer-term concerns, the UK public sector is currently acting as a safe haven. Logica saw UK public sector revenues grow 10% in 1Q09, thanks largely to the NPIA deal. Looking ahead, Logica's pipeline is mostly weighted to public sector and telecoms. Capgemini is seeing significant growth too. Group-wide, public sector now accounts for 28% of revenues, up from 24% in 1Q08. Despite a fall last year, Capgemini benefitted from increased project spending at HMRC on business intelligence and information management systems to improve revenue accrual. We expect Capgemini to benefit further as new opportunities emerge to assist HMRC in reducing tax avoidance. The UK government is currently responding to its financial challenges through a proactive investment in systems and technology to plug revenue leakage. Capgemini and other suppliers would do well to seek out related government 'revenue-leakage' opportunities.

Environment Agency big ticket

Both Capgemini and Atos Origin are bidding on the potential £700-million first-generation IT outsourcing contract at the Environment Agency. This contract is one of the UK's largest in 2009, and is attracting a lot of interest. We would expect IBM to be there too since it provides consultancy to the Environment Agency, and is the lead ITO provider to its department DEFRA.The Environment Agency deal has the potential to deliver a £100 million per annum boost for the winner, and all suppliers are competing on an ambitious sustainability-led procurement. Capgemini has a strong message around the desktop (thanks to its experience at HMRC) and is deploying its consultants to test sustainable ideas, while Atos Origin is exploring green data centres and reducing energy consumption. The eventual winner will need to prove its vision for sustainability through a strong track record elsewhere in government and a willingness to be flexible on terms, pricing and delivery.

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BBC NEWS | Technology | US needs 'digital warfare force'

BBC NEWS | Technology | US needs 'digital warfare force'

The head of America's National Security Agency says that America needs to build a digital warfare force for the future, according to reports.

Lt Gen Keith Alexander, who also heads the Pentagon's new Cyber Command, outlined his views in a report for the House Armed Services subcommittee.

In it, he stated that the US needed to reorganise its offensive and defensive cyber operations.

The general also said more resources and training were needed.

The report, part of which was outlined in an Associated Press news agency story, is due to be presented to the subcommittee on Tuesday.

During the past six months, the Pentagon spent more than £67m ($100m) responding to and repairing damage from cyber attacks and other network problems.

Gen Keith Alexander's new department, to be based in Fort Meade in Maryland, will be part of the US Strategic Command - currently responsible for securing the US military's networks - and will work alongside the US Department of Homeland Security.

It is thought the new department would open in October and be at full strength in 2010.

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Windows 7 RC users get new IE 8 'tab responsiveness' feature | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

Lack of tab responsiveness is when a browser tab just spins when a page fails to open. It crashes my Flock browser on Linux Open Suse if I have too many pages open, the screen freezes trying to click on unresponsive tab

The new tab-responsiveness feature in the IE 8 in the Windows 7 RC is designed to provide Microsoft — and users — with more feedback when a tab fails to open. Instead of whirring endlessly, leaving users wondering whether a Web site is down; not working with IE 8’s default standards mode; or what, a new tab dialog box is designed to pop up, allowing users to shut down proactively an unresponsive tab.

Windows 7 RC users get new IE 8 'tab responsiveness' feature | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

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BBC NEWS | Technology | Can Twitter survive the hype cycle?

More news on Twitter:

Another growing Twitter community consists of brands and companies. Everyone from Starbucks to Verizon and from the Red Cross to United Airlines now has a Twitter account.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Can Twitter survive the hype cycle?

"Twitter has changed the way businesses market and communicate with customers," said Marketing Profs' Ann Handley.

"I am a Comcast customer and if I tweet about a problem, I will now get a response via Twitter. This is unprecedented in terms of the way companies have operated in the past. But there are still a lot of companies out there that are not sure how to leverage Twitter."

Twitter itself seems to be in a similar boat when it comes to making money out of the service.

"We are not feeling as dogged as people think about this issue," said Mr Stone.

"We are looking at this this year and want to start showing progress on the revenue front. Right now we have plenty of time and plenty of money in the bank and patient investors. We are here to build a lasting company."

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Microsoft moves ahead with plan for app virtualization for servers | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

Microsoft execs have been talking up the concept of application virtualization for years. It now seems they’re ready to put their roadmaps where their mouths have been.Microsoft’s App-V team is working on

Microsoft moves ahead with plan for app virtualization for servers | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

Microsoft’s App-V team is working on an app-virtualization product that will be optimized to run on servers, according to a recent job posting unearthed on the “Codename Windows” blog.

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BBC NEWS | Education | Computers enter learning 'core'

BBC NEWS | Education | Computers enter learning 'core'

Computer technology is to move centre stage alongside English, maths and personal skills in an overhaul of England's primary school curriculum.

These are the "essentials for learning and life" recommended by former school inspections director Sir Jim Rose.

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BBC NEWS | Technology | Web tool 'as important as Google'

Stephen Wolfram says his new search engine will be 'a paradigm for the web'
BBC NEWS | Technology | Web tool 'as important as Google'

A web tool that "could be as important as Google", according to some experts, has been shown off to the public.

Wolfram Alpha is the brainchild of British-born physicist Stephen Wolfram.

The free program aims to answer questions directly, rather than display web pages in response to a query like a search engine.

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BBC NEWS | Technology | MS Windows 7 goes on public test

BBC NEWS | Technology | MS Windows 7 goes on public test

A release candidate of Windows 7, the next major release of the world's most popular operating system, goes public in trial form in the next week.

Microsoft is hoping it can avoid the negative press that surrounded the launch of Vista, the last major Windows release, almost three years ago.

Windows 7 has been designed to be compatible with Vista so users do not have to invest in new hardware.

A commercial release of Windows 7 is expected in the next nine months.

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