Perceived missteps may have hit a tipping point for Ballmer

He has been in hot water over a variety of issues, including Microsoft's position in the tablet market

An accumulation of perceived missteps under Steve Ballmer's leadership may have hit a tipping point this year, leading to Friday's groundshaking announcement that Bill Gates' former right hand and heir, as well as Microsoft's fiercest cheerleader, will step down as CEO within the next 12 months.

In recent years, Ballmer has been the target of critics over a variety of issues, including their dissatisfaction with the company's stock performance, Google's dominance in search advertising, the perception that Microsoft reacted late to cloud computing and its weak position in the tablet and smartphone OS markets.

[QUIZ: Steve Ballmer said what?!]

Most recently, Ballmer has been in hot water over Windows 8, a major upgrade of its flagship OS that many perceive as a flawed release. Billed as a product of historic importance, Windows 8 represents Microsoft's attempt to improve Windows' anemic participation in tablets and smartphones, where Android and Apple's iOS dominate.

However, Windows 8, which began shipping in October, has been heavily criticized due to its radically redesigned user interface, which is based on tile icons and optimized for tablets and other touchscreen devices.

Windows 8 also has a more traditional Windows desktop interface for running legacy applications, but many consumer and enterprise users have complained that toggling between the two interfaces is clunky and inconvenient. There has also been an outcry about the removal of the Start menu and button.

Microsoft plans to release an update for the OS, called Windows 8.1, in October. It addresses these complaints and several others, but there is a concern that the fixes may be too little, too late to salvage the OS's reputation and that it might end up being a fiasco like Windows Vista.

Some critics maintain that attempting to build a single OS for desktops, laptops and tablets was a strategic mistake because Microsoft has ended up instead with a product that isn't good enough for any of those devices. Apple's strategy, by contrast, has been to have Mac OS for its desktops and laptops, and iOS for the iPad, iPhone and iPod.

Another focus of criticism for Ballmer has been what many consider a bad strategy related to the company's Office cash-cow franchise of refraining from releasing a full-fledged version of the suite for iOS and Android. Seen as a move to protect Windows, critics of this strategy say Microsoft is leaving billions of dollars on the table by not giving users of iPads and Android tablets a full version of Office.

Ballmer has also shouldered the blame for the controversial and so far not very successful decision to have Microsoft manufacture and brand its own tablet, the Surface, an attempt to mimic the model popularized by Apple with its combination of iOS and the iPhone, iPod and iPad devices.

The move has upset the company's hardware partners, because they view it as unexpected competition from Microsoft. Beyond that, the first Surface models haven't sold well.

In its fourth quarter, which closed in late June, Microsoft missed Wall Street's revenue and profit expectations while taking an almost $1 billion charge related to the dismal sales of the Surface RT, the model that runs Windows RT, the Windows 8 version for ARM chip devices.

The other Surface model, the Pro, which runs x86 chips, has been criticized for being too expensive and for being a battery hog.

In mid-July, Ballmer shook up the company's executive ranks with a broad reorganization billed as necessary to reinvent Microsoft as a devices and services company, and evolve from being a provider of packaged software.

The goal is to make Microsoft function more cohesively and be more efficient and innovative so it can better compete against rivals like Apple, Oracle, IBM and Google.

The reorganization, which is being implemented now, dissolved the company's five business units -- the Business Division, which housed Office; Server & Tools, which included SQL Server and System Center; the Windows Division; Online Services, which included Bing; and Entertainment and Devices, whose main product was the Xbox console.

Those business units are being replaced by four engineering groups organized by function, around OSes, applications, cloud computing and devices, and by centralized groups for marketing, business development, strategy and research, finance, human resources, legal and operations.

However, the plan has also met with skepticism among those who believe that it will lead to less accountability, less clarity and ultimately less agility.

Others maintain that the "One Microsoft" mantra at the center of the reorganization is misguided because the opposite approach is needed, namely to reorganize it into more independent operating companies because it now houses businesses and products that are too different -- like the SQL Server enterprise database and the Xbox console.

Ballmer's departure will be a historic turning point for Microsoft. Ballmer, who is 57 and joined Microsoft in 1980, has been CEO since 2000. In a statement, he said the decision to step down wasn't easy, but that he believes it is the right one.

In particular, he's convinced Microsoft should have a CEO who is on board for the entire "transformation" process set off by the reorganization announced last month.

"Our new senior leadership team is amazing. The strategy we have generated is first class. Our new organization, which is centered on functions and engineering areas, is right for the opportunities and challenges ahead," Ballmer wrote.

Wall Street's response has been enthusiastic, with the share price up almost 7 percent in late morning trading.

---

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

IIS 6.0 does not serve aspx pages out of the box

I have used ASP.NET for quite some time. I have probably always been lucky that the infrastructure or deployment person always enabled aspx on IIS for me. I use a Windows XP with IIS 5 sometimes or Vista with IIS 7. They do serve aspx pages by default, on XP once the .NET framework is downloaded and installed, there is nothing else to tweak.

On Friday afternoon, I had to deploy to an IIS 6 box on windows 2003, to my surprise, it didn’t serve any of the aspx pages. Even a small Hello World project on an simple label. I missed the happy hour with my colleagues and went home completely puzzle. Why? ASP.NET was already available when Windows 2003 saw the light. To my surprise there was nothing on the event log.

The answer came a few hours later and after few Google queries:

IIS 6.0: ASP.NET Is Not Automatically Installed on Windows Server 2003

1. Open IIS Manager, expand the master server node (that is, the Servername node), and then select the Web service extensions node.
2. In the right pane of IIS Manager, right-click the extension that you want to enable. In this example, this is Active Server Pages.
3. Click to select the Allow check box.

Add a New Web Service Extension to IIS 6.0

To permit IIS to serve content that requires a specific ISAPI or CGI extension that is not already listed in the Web service extensions list, follow these steps:
1.Open IIS Manager, expand the master server node, and then select the Web service extensions node.
2.In the right pane of the IIS Manager, click Add a new Web service extension under Tasks.
3.In the Extension name box, type a friendly name for the extension that you want to add (for example, FrontPage Server Extensions).
4.In the Required files box, click Add, and then select the path and the name of the file that will handle requests for the specific extension. After you select the path and the file name, click OK.
5. If the extension must be enabled immediately, click to select the Set extension status to allowed check box.
6. Click OK to save your changes.

---

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

9 Great Google Reader Replacements

These nine RSS feed readers all offer something different, whether it's speed, simplicity, social interaction, or DIY-level customization. Which one is right for you?

You want content from your favorite blogs, news sources, and sites of curiosities delivered to an inbox-like environment. You want to be able to scan those items, and perhaps read them, or maybe save them to read later. I do, too, and for a long time, I used Google Reader for my RSS feed-reading needs. But as of July 1, Google no longer provides that service.

Many of us who rely on RSS for news updates, streamlined leisure reading, and other direct delivery of information from the worldwide Web have been busy looking for the best service ever since Google announced it was taking Reader to the graveyard.

But not all RSS feed readers have the same features. Do you need a your RSS content to include Google Alerts? Is access to a native mobile app at the top of your list? Do you like your RSS reader service to suggest new content that you may not have otherwise found?

My personal quest for a new RSS feed reader led me to reevaluate what was important. Simplicity and a clean design came out on top. I also spent a long time looking at which readers included tools to help me organize my feeds. I don't use RSS for breaking news, so speed was a little lower on my list.

Support for OPML file uploads, on the other hand, seemed just as important as anything else, as that function is necessary for former Google Reader users to migrate at their own pace. Any reader that does not support OPML files requires connection to Google on or before July 1, and I feel like those services should do better by their potential users and give them more time to migrate. On the other hand, services that support OPML allow former Reader users to join any time, provided they've snagged their Google Takeout data and have their subscriptions.xml file ready to upload.

My colleagues and I at PCMag rigorously tested many alternatives to Google Reader. Two favorites came out on top, which became our Editors' Choices. But depending on what's important to you, a different service could fit your needs better. Take a look at these top services and our notes about their pros and cons to see which one will work best for you. And if nothing in this list tickles your fancy, see, "Top Free Picks: RSS Readers."

---

Microsoft MCTS Certification, MCITP Certification and over 3000+
Exams with Life Time Access Membership at http://www.actualkey.com

As Microsoft Marches Into Cloud, Its Already Complex Licensing Gets Even More Baffling

As Microsoft Marches Into Cloud, Its Already Complex Licensing Gets Even More Baffling

Earlier this month, when Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) executive Therese Connor told a gathering of partners that Microsoft's software licensing was "dizzying," she was talking about the explosion of product numbers, or SKUs, that arrived with Office 365.

As Microsoft pushes hard into cloud services and subscription revenue, it's aware that some customers are not ready yet. By adding a wide range of new licensing options that cover both cloud and on-premise software, Microsoft believes it's letting everyone move to the cloud at their own speed.

This seems like a logical approach, but licensing experts say Microsoft's licensing, which was already difficult for customers to navigate, has grown much more complex.

[Related: Microsoft To Partners: Our Licensing Is 'Dizzying,' But Don't Let Your Customers Defect To Google Apps]

Before Microsoft launched Office 365 in June 2011, its Enterprise Agreement (EA), a volume licensing plan for large customers, included six products: Office, Windows client, Client Access License (CAL) Suites, Desktop Platform bundles, and subscriptions for desktop optimization and desktop virtualization.

After Microsoft launched Office 365, its SKU list saw a significant expansion.

Microsoft added new SKUs for the various Office 365 plans, as well as Windows Intune; Bridge CALs, a new type of license designed to help customers adopt cloud services; and the Companion Subscription License (CSL), an add-on that covers access to corporate desktops on up to four mobile devices.

So, how many new enterprise SKUs are there?

Before Office 365, Microsoft had 46 enterprise SKUs. After Office 365, this figure ballooned to 177, of which Office 365 and related cloud products such as Windows Intune account for 125, according to Paul DeGroot, principal analyst at Pica Communications, a Microsoft licensing consultancy in Camano Island, Wash.

Some Microsoft customers whose Enterprise Agreements are now coming up for renewal haven't yet seen the new SKUs. DeGroot predicts that some will be baffled by the expanded range of offerings.

"It's very hard work just figuring out what to buy, in what quantities," DeGroot said. "It was hard enough to figure this out before. Now?"

Tim Hegedus, senior analyst at Miro Consulting, a Woodbridge, N.J.-based firm that helps customers with Microsoft licensing, says confusion can occur when customers see the big list of SKU numbers Microsoft presents during the inception or renewal of an Enterprise Agreement.

Hegedus told CRN he has seen cases in which customers, confused by the multitude of options, have mistakenly bought more than one license for a single software product.

"The frustration for the customer lies in seeing multiple lines for the same number of licenses and not understanding how these line items interact or whether these license quantities are accurate," Hegedus said in an email.

For services like Office 365, it's fair to wonder how much customers would be willing to spend, in terms of time and resources, to figure out the licensing when there are simpler alternatives.

Microsoft is aware that its complex licensing is causing some customers to ditch Office 365 and other cloud apps.

In an invitation-only meeting with partners last month at its Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft's Connor said some customers have been "overwhelmed" by the complexity of Microsoft's licensing.

Some are going to Google, which has just two SKUs for Google Apps, Connor said at the event.

In competitive situations where Microsoft is going up against Google, this could become a problem, Pica's DeGroot told CRN.

"When a customer brings Google and Microsoft in to talk cloud, the Google rep is in for two hours and the customer understands it," DeGroot said. "The Microsoft rep is in for two hours, and the customer is actually more confused than before."

Office 365 is "a good product," but Microsoft's attempt to straddle perpetual licensing for fat clients while moving customers to the cloud is "complicated," DeGroot said. "Google has no interest in either perpetual licenses or fat clients, so they don't need to consider any current customer licensing investments," he said.

Microsoft's licensing is so challenging to decipher, the company has seen fit to build licensing expertise into its channel program. Microsoft has a volume licensing competency in the Microsoft Partner Network and a Microsoft Certified Professional Credential for licensing.

One Microsoft partner, who requested anonymity because he also works with Microsoft competitors, says the explosion of SKUs is actually driving more business his way.

"The many options has made our expertise more valuable, because we understand the customer's pain points and business problems," the source told CRN.

Sometimes, a mix of different SKUs is the best way to go. "If a company needs advanced archiving features for a particular group of employees, but isn't going to use the Outlook client, we can mix and match licenses to fit their needs," said the source.

Microsoft's view is that having multiple licensing options is the best way to cater to its diverse customer base.

"Customers tell us that, when it comes to their productivity needs, one size does not fit all," a Microsoft spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "We have customers that span the smallest of businesses to the largest of enterprises across varying industries all of whom have different layers of complexities within their organizations.

Ultimately, all these different product numbers are "something of a necessary evil," said Miro's Hegedus. They allow the same Enterprise Agreement to be used for both on-premise products as well as cloud-based services. This reduces the number of agreements that the customer would otherwise have to manage.

If they're willing to put in the legwork of going through all the Office 365 SKUs, or work with a partner, customers can find exactly which features and functionality they need, and avoid paying for ones they don't.

Reed Wilson, founder and president of Palmetto Technology Group, a Greenville, S.C.-based Microsoft partner, says it's fairly easy to figure out which version of Office 365 is the best fit for a specific customer.

"It can be daunting," Wilson said of the Office 365 SKU list. "But if you ask the right questions, you can find out what they need pretty quickly."

---

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com