News
Microsoft Live Exec Quits Amid Live Messenger Launch
VP Martin Taylor resigns abruptly just as Live gets off the ground. Also: search tools for Exchange and SharePoint, a BPEL .NET server and an analysis tool for monitoring servers.
Though there probably isn't a connection between
Bill
Gates' announcement to retire last week and the
sudden
resignation of Microsoft Corporate Vice President Martin Taylor, it
does beg the questions, why and why now?
Taylor was selected to head marketing of Windows Live and MSN.com, which are
key to Microsoft's renewed push for Software as a Service, and was even scheduled
to talk with reporters about the latest Live developments, including the
debut of Windows Live Messenger, the Live upgrade to its MSN Messenger.
Microsoft's official word is that it doesn't comment on personnel
matters. Inquiring minds want to know -- and will find out eventually.
Unfortunately, other than that, it was a slow week in Microsoft news:
The EU said Thursday Adobe
hasn't yet filed a complaint against Microsoft shipping its new Office
suite without Adobe's PDF file reader.
Microsoft
is teaming up with Creative Commons to provide users with a copyright
licensing tool for Office, which lets users add copyright licenses to their
Word, Excel or PowerPoint files.
X1 Technologies announced Monday its unified search solutions for Microsoft
Exchange and SharePoint. X1 Content Connector for Microsoft Exchange
allows users to search for content across their inboxes, public folders and
personal archive files (PSTs). X1 Content Connector for Microsoft SharePoint
can search for multiple SharePoint sites, local files and local e-mail. http://www.x1.com
Active Endpoints Inc. released Monday its BPEL (business process execution
language) server for the Microsoft .NET Framework. ActiveBPEL Enterprise
provides BPEL design tools, execution and management capabilities, and run on
a range of enterprise deployment platforms. The core BPEL server executes as
a .NET service, delivering capabilities such as ADO connection pooling, CPU
clustering, fault tolerance and load balancing. ActiveBPEL's server consoles,
help subsystem and administrative APIs install into virtual directories in Microsoft's
Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0. http://www.active-endpoints.com
Draconis Software released Wednesday the latest version of its server
monitoring and analysis software, RSP. Version 2.1 offers various monitoring
metrics, an analysis engine that helps spot trends and performance bottlenecks,
remote agent configuration and incident tracking. http://www.dracoware.com