Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled

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• The Enterprise, The iPhone, and the Role of Silverlight

  With its recent announcement to support ActiveSync on the iPhone , Apple is clearly going after the enterprise user. The problem, as Colin puts it, is that the decisions that consumers make decisions on a radically different set of criteria than organizations . Lack of Exchange support was surely holding back enterprise adoption, so that move was both obvious and inevitable. The fact that they are also supporting remote wipe is a bigger deal than most might realize too - security is a major concern for large enterprises, and for a long time Blackberry was the de facto device in large part because of this. (Windows Mobiles devices weren't allowed at my last job until the Remote Wipe feature was enabled). Fundamentally, I think we're moving to a model where enterprises are going to demand a certain baseline for devices to play in their garden. Features like over-the-air Exchange connectivity, remote wipe, and support for .NET, Java, and Flash are quickly becoming non-negotiable. It... Posted Mar 27 2008, 09:00 AM by Tim with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Rants, Gadgets, Microsoft, .NET, Enterprise, Apple, Programming

• Looking at Google's acquisition of Postini

  Last week, Google (GOOG) purchased Postini for $625m . Jason calls this Google's most enterprisey acquisition yet - and despite all the other acquisitions, it's "the first evidence . . . that Google is ready to take the kid gloves off outside of the ad-driven model." Cote says that $625 million is not flippant , and regardless of whether you consider this a move to "directly compete" with Microsoft (MSFT), it does mean (especially when considering other efforts like Google Gears) that "Google is a threat to Microsoft". Fred, as an existing Postini customer, outlines what he'd like to see Google do with Postini . Fred focuses on mail because, let's be honest, that's what they're best known for. But as Jason suggested, I think the acquisition goes beyond this. InfoWorld coverage of the acquisition outlines this broader application. Postini provides on-demand security, archiving, and policy enforcement services, primarily for e-mail and... Posted Jul 17 2007, 11:35 AM by Tim with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Business, Microsoft, Google, Enterprise

• Google launches Google Apps Premier Edition

  As rumored yesterday , Google made a major announcement : a subscription package of premium, hosted business applications. (Man, Arrington's sources are scary good). The service combines GMail, Google Calendar, Google Talk and Google Docs & Spreadsheets for $50 per user annually. I still insist that Microsoft is well positioned to compete with a hosted version that integrates with existing Office apps. There are elements about a hosted Office that are appealing, but there are just as many that are not - particularly in publicly traded enterprises. Aside from potential downtime issues, you're placing a lot of trust in Google and its security ( which may not be the best idea ). No word on any plans for a self-hosted server like their search appliance - to me, that would be key for broader adoption and erase a lot of these security and compliance concerns. Getting back to Microsoft, I'm still puzzled that they haven't done more with Foldershare. By integrating this technology with a Office... Posted Feb 22 2007, 06:04 AM by Tim with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Software Development, Security, Web 2.0, Business, Microsoft, Google, Enterprise

• A word of warning about Vista upgrades

  Unlike past versions of Windows, the Vista upgrade edition requires you to have XP already installed . (That is, you can literally upgrade, but you can't do a clean install). Hopefully that version of XP doesn't need to be activated, because the upgrade process apparently invalidates your XP key . (Luckily, a workaround has been found to allow a clean install, but it requires installing Vista twice). I know piracy is a big issue for Microsoft, but there has to be a better way to handle this (and let's be honest, they don't exactly have a good track record on past attempts ). Like DRM, these hurdles tend to piss off legimate users more than preventing piracy, because those who are determined to steal their OS will find ways to do so . I wonder if we'll end up with future operating systems built on microtransactions . You want search? $10. Power management? $5. Posted Jan 31 2007, 10:59 AM by Tim with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Microsoft, Enterprise

• SQL Server installation problems on Vista? (Failed to compile the Managed Object Format)

  I've been having issues installing SQL Server 2005 tools (i.e., Management Studio) on Vista. I know it works because I was able to get it installed on my tablet also running Vista - I just couldn't get it on my desktop. I thought it might be related to SQLEXPRESS installed as part of the VS.NET 2005 install, but that didn't seem to fix anything. As it turns out, this is related to a corrupt WMI repository - and the fix is quite easy. C:\Windows\system32>winmgmt /verifyrepository WMI repository is INCONSISTENT C:\Windows\system32>winmgmt /salvagerepository WMI repository salvage failed Error code: 0x8007041B Facility: Win32 Description: A stop control has been sent to a service that other running services are dependent on. C:\Windows\system32>winmgmt /salvagerepository WMI repository has been salvaged As you can see, I had to run it more than once - but it eventually fixed the problem. I clicked Retry and the install went through fine. Hope this saves time for anyone else running... Posted Jan 22 2007, 05:48 PM by Tim with | with 28 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Software Development, Microsoft, .NET, Enterprise, Programming