Microsoft Unveils MED-V 1.0

The first version of Microsoft's desktop virtualization tool was announced last week.

The tool, called Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) 1.0, is not a standalone product, but one of six applications in the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP). In order to get MED-V 1.0 (along with the whole MDOP 2009 suite), a Software Assurance license is required.

Organizations typically can use MED-V to run older applications on a newer Windows operating system. The "legacy" apps and OS become a virtualized desktop.

"MED-V bridges the application compatibility gap between current versions of Windows and legacy Windows-based applications by allowing enterprises to move desktops completely to newer versions of Windows," explained Steve Thomas, senior support escalation engineer at Microsoft, in a team blog.

Desktop virtualization isn't the same as application virtualization. Desktop virtualization addresses the incompatibility between an application and the operating system.

Application virtualization, on the other hand, deals with the incompatibility between two applications. It lets the two apps run on the same operating system while in virtualized runtime environments. Microsoft's App-V, part of MDOP, enables application virtualization.

MED-V essentially helps IT pros upgrade the Windows OS without interrupting the flow of business. The benefits of MED-V 1.0, according to Microsoft, include:

Central creation, deployment and updating of PC images throughout the enterprise; Provisioning virtual images and user policies by business affiliation and requirements; Accelerating OS upgrades; and Simplifying IT integration by allowing two IT environments to run concurrently.

Subscribers to TechNet or MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) can evaluate MED-V 1.0, along with Software Assurance licensees. Microsoft volume licensees can get it here.


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Five 'Critical' Patches Planned for Tuesday

After some comparatively light patch rollouts in past months, Microsoft's April Patch Tuesday promises a fuller slate with eight security bulletins. Five are rated "critical" and two "important," with one rare "moderate" patch.

This month's round of security updates may have the most girth of any since October. The rollout is expected to include hotfixes for Windows programs and services, DirectX, and ubiquitous Microsoft applications such as Internet Explorer (IE), Excel and Word. All of the critical items have remote code execution implications. The important items are designed to stop two instances of elevation-of-privilege incursions. Finally, the moderate patch protects against denial-of-service attacks.

Critical Fixes
The first critical bulletin is described as a Windows fix and affects Windows 2000, XP and Windows Server 2003. Meanwhile, the second critical Windows patch touches on all supported Windows client and server OSes.

The third critical fix deals with the DirectX versions 8.1 and 9.0 running on Windows 2000, XP and Windows Server 2003. DirectX consists of application programming interfaces used for multimedia on Windows-based PCs, including game, video and audio applications.

The fourth critical fix expected on Tuesday will update IE versions 5.01, 6 and 7 running on Windows 2000, XP and Vista, as well as Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. IE has been at the center of recent hacker activity affecting older versions of the browser, plus the recent IE 8.

The fifth critical bulletin to come will fix Excel, affecting Microsoft Office 2000, 2003, 2007 and XP, along with Office 2004 and 2008 for Macs. Security analysts speculate that this Excel fix could be related to a hole in the popular spreadsheet app for which Microsoft issued a security advisory in February. That advisory warned users that exploits were in the wild, potentially affecting all supported versions of Excel.

Important and Moderate Items
The first important fix for this month will pertain to Microsoft's Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MSDTC). The MSDTC is a Windows-based administrative tool that acts as a conduit for information and commands passed over the network via resource managers, SQL Server databases and various other file systems. This fix updates the MSDTC facility program across every supported Windows OS. It's designed to block hackers from infiltrating a system and upping their administrative privileges to change MSDTC configurations, Microsoft says.

The second important fix will affect Microsoft's Forefront Edge Security platform and the Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server. ISA is a server application deployed to stave off malware and firewall-compromising attacks. This fix is supposed to deflect a denial-of-service onslaught where hackers can change access control parameters and lock enterprise administrators out of these programs.

Finally, the lone moderate item in the rollout will affect all Windows OSes and is designed to circumvent elevation-of-privilege attacks.

All of the eight patches may require restarts.

IT pros interested in nonsecurity updates channeled through Windows Update, Microsoft Update and Windows Server Updates can find support in this Knowledge Base article. It provides guidance on IE 8 system updates, along with junk-mail filter upgrades and malicious software removal tool tweaks.


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Windows 7 Will Have an XP Downgrade Option

Microsoft will permit Windows 7 Professional edition downgrades to Windows XP Professional, according a report by veteran Microsoft watcher Mary-Jo Foley published on Monday.

A Microsoft spokesperson told Foley that downgrade rights apply to "previous versions of Windows, not just the most recent predecessor" (namely, Windows Vista). The ability to skip editions of Windows actually has been long-standing policy, as described in Microsoft's EULA, a company spokesperson explained to me.

The downgrade rights are restricted to specific OS editions. The present migration scenario is from Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate to Windows XP Professional. Those with other Vista editions, such as Home Premium and Home Basic, don't have those downgrade rights. Furthermore, Vista users are restricted to moving to XP Pro, XP Pro x64 or XP Tablet PC editions, a Microsoft document (PDF) explains.

Renewed questions about downgrade rights popped up after an AppleInsider story reported a leaked HP memo that read, "The Win 7 Professional to XP Pro downgrade OS will also discontinue on April 30th 2010." Microsoft would not confirm that date, according to Foley, although the company did confirm that it will be possible to downgrade to XP from Windows 7.

If the date is true, IT pros will be able to purchase new PCs with Windows 7, but downgrade to XP, for another year. It might give some IT departments more time to upgrade their shops from XP.

The policy is somewhat wrapped in confusion because Microsoft's hardware partners typically must provide XP media to their customers wanting to downgrade. The availability of such media determines whether the OEM can fulfill the downgrade rights promise, as noted in a story by Gregg Keizer.

The OEM or the end user can install the OS downgrade, according to the "Windows Vista Downgrade Rights" document. The media (CD or DVD) to install the downgrade comes from "the retail, OEM/System Builder, or volume licensing channels," according to the document.

Microsoft extended the date for OEMs to offer new PCs with downgrades to XP through July 2009. System builders can offer new PCs with downgrades to XP through May 30, 2009.

However, there are apparently loopholes even in those dates. An HP FAQ suggested it might offer XP Pro downgrades through 2012.

"Through HP's PC Customization Service (PCCS) -- HP can install the customer’s XP Professional image on a system with a Vista Business Edition COA/Pre-install for as long as HP continues to offer and pre-install Vista Business Edition (we estimate that to be through 2012)," the FAQ explains.

Technically speaking, the availability of XP on new PCs (other than through Vista downgrades) has ended, except for low-cost netbook PCs running XP Home edition. Microsoft describes its XP license availability here.

HP's FAQ explains that Vista users can only downgrade to a "generic XP Pro" version. A spokesperson from HP explained by e-mail that this version "is the XP image that we always put on our systems and it includes HP drivers, etc." Furthermore, HP doesn't charge extra for providing this downgrade media, the spokesperson added.

However, some OEMs may charge for doing the downgrade or providing the downgrade media. For instance, a lawsuit (PDF) was filed against Microsoft by a Lenovo PC owner who paid $59.25 to downgrade from Vista Business edition to Windows XP Pro.

The tussle over XP downgrade rights comes even as mainstream (free) support for XP is dwindling. Mainstream support will end next week on April 14. Users can still buy extended support for XP, but that extended support offer will end on April 8, 2014, according to a Microsoft support page.


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Zend Releasing Enterprise-Grade PHP Server

Zend Releasing Enterprise-Grade PHP Server

Zend Technologies will release its commercial-grade server for PHP applications on Tuesday.

The Zend Server product, previously in beta, is designed to bring high-levels of reliability, performance and security to enterprises running PHP-based Web applications.

"The release of Zend Server marks the culmination of a four-year strategic investment that leverages PHP as an open source, cross-platform development language that hits a sweet spot in the market," said Zend CEO and Cofounder Andi Gutmans in a telephone interview.

Gutmans said that PHP currently holds 35 percent to 40 percent of the Web applications development market share. PHP is the development language of choice for Web 2.0 pioneers such as FaceBook and Yahoo, he added.

It took additional work to move PHP into the Windows world and mainstream enterprise application development. Cupertino, Calif.-based Zend created a new set of development tools, a framework to build applications and collaborated with Microsoft.

Zend has been working with Microsoft since 2006 to make PHP "a first-class citizen on Windows," Gutmans said. That technical collaboration led to Microsoft delivering a FastCGI component for its Internet Information Services (IIS) Server. In addition, Microsoft is now providing a SQL Server for PHP extension, Gutmans noted in his blog.

Zend Server is designed to sit on top of the server stack and provide added functionality to an Apache or Windows IIS server. Performance management, monitoring and security are some of its features, along with automatic hot fixes and PHP upgrades.

PHP, according to Gutmans, has the largest ecosystem of developers, and is less complex and more cost effective than Java or .NET. Popular applications such as Wordpress and wikis are examples of innovative PHP developments, he said.

"We have been evangelists for PHP since we started in1999," Gutmans said. "Our mission was to develop a product that would work across platforms and bring a business-grade PHP to the enterprise that developers could use out of the box."

Zend Technologies offers two PHP servers, which can be downloaded here. Both will be released to general availability on April 7.

Zend Server Community Edition is available as a free download and is designed for lighter noncritical server deployments. Zend Server for enterprise applications is a commercial Web application server and available as a free 30-day trial.

A Zend Server annual product subscription with Silver Level support starts at $1,195, according to a Zend spokesperson.


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VMware Pledges Savings Guarantee on Server Hardware Costs

VMware believes it can save you at least half on your server hardware through virtualization. It's so confident of the savings that the company is announcing that it will work for you for free if it can't meet that goal.

The offer was unveiled today by Palo Alto, Calif.-based VMware, the leading virtualization vendor. Under the plan, VMware's Professional Services organization will work with customers to deploy a VMware virtualization solution that saves at least 50 percent on server hardware costs. If it can't do that, VMware's services are free.

John Gilmartin, director of product marketing at VMware, said in an interview that this promotion "raises the bar in the marketplace." The offer is being made because of the recession, he added, and VMware is "recognizing the reality of the economic situation."

The program has a number of limitations. For one, it's originally targeted at U.S. companies only. Second, it's for enterprises with between 200 and 750 servers. Gilmartin added, however, that both of those restrictions could be lifted in the future if the promotion is as successful as VMware hopes it will be. "Think of it as pilot program," he said.

There's also the question of how "50 percent" is defined, and how disagreements between VMware and customers will be resolved. For instance, what if VMware said it achieved 53 percent hardware savings, while the client claims 47 percent hardware savings and says VMware's services are free?

VMware has a "process lined out within the terms and conditions for dealing with that type of situation," Gilmartin said. He doesn't think that situation will happen often, though.

"We think customers can achieve significantly more than 50 percent savings," Gilmartin said, including savings on related items like power and cooling that occur with server reduction.

He added that VMware is adequately staffed to meet the demand that the program could create.

"We've definitely planned for multiple engagements," Gilmartin said. "That's also a reason we've put the initial restriction of [the number of] servers -- to ensure we have the capacity to meet demand." The company also has "VMware Authorized Consultants"-- partners that deliver VMware virtualization services -- on standby to meet any overflow demand.

VMware is frequently cited by the competition -- and sometimes, customers -- as having the most expensive virtualization offerings on the market. Whether this changes that perception awaits to be seen.

VMware confirmed that the program went live on Monday.


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Microsoft Partner Phase 2 Adds IBM’s Hosted Apps

Microsoft Partner Phase 2 Adds IBM's Hosted Apps

Phase 2 International now offers online IBM Lotus applications to small-to-medium businesses (SMBs), adding to its various hosted service offerings, which already include a Microsoft solution stack.

The Honolulu-based company is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner that provides hosted solutions to SMBs worldwide. With its hard launch of its "Lotus on Demand" solutions on April 8, the company becomes a full-fledged IBM Business Partner too.

"The philosophy of Phase 2 has always been about bringing best-of-breed products to the market, and it's never been a vendor-biased type position," said Kevin Doherty, Phase 2's CEO.

The new hosted IBM solutions include Lotus Notes 8.5 for e-mail and Lotus Sametime, which is a standalone instant messaging/collaboration solution that integrates with Notes. (A plan for integrating Sametime with Microsoft Office Communications Server is in the works for this year, according to IBM.) In addition, Phase 2 offers IBM's Lotus Quickr, a document management platform that's Web 2.0 enabled. Doherty said that Quickr competes with Microsoft's SharePoint, calling it a "very capable platform" and "very simple to use," allowing customizations that don't require developer support.

Finally, the Lotus on Demand suite includes Lotus Connections, which is a social networking portal designed for internal company communications, although Doherty added that it also enables federation with outside organizations.

"We're very excited about the prospects of that product [Connections]," Doherty said. "Specifically, that's what's been the most difficult from a negotiation perspective with IBM because our goal was to bring this product to market for $2.99 a seat per month. They weren't really excited about that. If you wanted to buy single license for this product it's almost $200. So when they sell this project, it's usually a seven-figure project."

Doherty said that Phase 2 began talks with IBM's back in August of last year after IBM approached the company. Initially, Phase 2 was skeptical that it could offer IBM's hosted solutions for its SMB customers, since IBM's products are typically designed for Fortune 50, 100 and 1,000 companies. However, the SMB market is something that IBM is trying to address.

"IBM is very interested in this small segment of the market," Doherty said. "And by 'small' I mean by employee count -- it really encompasses about 80 percent of the businesses across the U.S. Frankly, they don't focus on it. They focus at the top, and we focus basically at the bottom, and that's why there's a synergy between the two companies and the partnership will work out."

IBM's and Microsoft's products do address two different markets, he added, and Phase 2 offers its SMB customers the option to use either. However, Phase 2's main focus is on its customers, who, in many cases aren't experts in software and just have problems that need solving.

"We have a lot of nonprofits," Doherty explained. "A lot of them aren't sophisticated or savvy from an IT perspective."

Offering IBM's and Microsoft's products has meant keeping two technical skill sets going at Phase 2.

"We really have established two firm camps within the company," Doherty said. "And they are two completely different skill sets -- one's .NET, the other's J2EE and Java. It's painful, but we've just got to roll with that."

The product lines have some gaps. IBM Lotus doesn't have a CRM product, whereas Microsoft doesn't really have a corporate social networking product, Doherty said. Still, Phase 2 is satisfied partnering with both companies. Microsoft is a little more advanced partner-wise because it has had its SPLA (Service Providers License Agreement) package available for three or four years. However, Doherty said that IBM "has been very supportive."

IBM launched its LotusLive solutions in January, eliciting critiques from Microsoft officials, including a claim that hosted Notes has scalability limitations. Doherty described how Phase 2 handled it.

"The Lotus Notes platform -- it's very sophisticated," Doherty said. "That can scale pretty good, but it does involve a lot of clustering and a lot of sets of clusters. So you can continue to scale, but does get a little bit complicated. But the same could be said about Exchange and your backend SQL clusters."

Phase 2 hasn't quite hit the wall when it comes to scaling out Lotus Notes.

"I think if we got to point where we were hosting hundreds of thousands or millions of clients, a lot of these problems would become more apparent," Doherty said. "But we're going to have to take a wait-and-see approach and hope we won't have that particular problem."

Phase 2 currently hosts applications for SMBs worldwide from its servers in Hawaii, Chicago and Washington state. Company info is available here.


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WSJ: IBM, Sun Talks 'Unraveling'

The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the proposed $7 billion dollar deal for IBM Corp. to acquire Sun Microsystems virtually collapsed this weekend.

Unnamed sources told the paper that price IBM offered -- ranging from $9.10 to $9.40 per share -- "wasn't the biggest issue." Instead, a combination of concerns, including how committed IBM is to the acquisition, reportedly left Sun's board "split" over the deal, with Sun co-founder and Chairman Scott McNealy in the against camp. This resulted in Sun turning down IBM's offer on Saturday, and IBM formally withdrawing the offer Sunday.

Reporters William M. Bulkeley and Don Clark wrote that the parties are still communicating via telephone, although the talks can be characterized as "confrontational," They also point out that even if successful, any merger could face difficulties from both European and U.S. antitrust regulators.

As of Sunday night, neither IBM nor Sun have commented on the report or the deal itself.

Read the full The Wall Street Journal story here.


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