Microsoft News Tracker

(Via Bink.nu) Microsoft’s Ian Thomas reveals if not all, then at least a little bit:

I should know by now that you can’t hide anything from the Internet. So it doesn’t come as any great surprise to me that blog posts are starting to appear that have spotted that there is now something live on the Internet under the name of ‘Gatineau’.

As the observant amongst you will know, Gatineau is the code-name for our forthcoming web analytics tool. Earlier this month we took an early version of the code live onto the Internet as part of a closed Alpha program for a very limited number of our existing customers - so no, I’m afraid you can’t get a login ID to take a look at this stage.

Hit the the link for what few details he can reveal, but it’s based on technology obtained from DeepMetrix and they are hoping for a beta in a few months and release during 2007 as part of the Digital Advertising Solutions package, paralleling Google Analytics.

According to comScore the Web search share rankings for the USA for December were:

1. Google: 47.4% up 0.4%
2. Yahoo: 28.5% up 0.3%
3. Microsoft: 10.5% down 0.5%

The usual caveats apply, but when it comes to search, nothing seems to be breaking Microsoft’s way.

In the battle between Microsoft and Open Source competitors, some of the most reliable allies of Open Source have been various governmental entities. The latest evidence is a European Commission sponsored study that has just reported its findings on Open Source software and guess what:

The European Commission has issued a ringing endorsement of open source software, producing a confidence-boost for businesses considering the deployment of Linux and other free software.

In a lengthy report into business deployments of open source software, published in full late last week, the Commission said that in “almost all cases” savings would be made by switching from proprietary to open source software.

The bold findings come in stark contrast to assertions by Microsoft that Linux savings are a myth.

The Commission’s work is based on detailed analysis of open source projects in six European Union countries.

“Our findings show that, in almost all cases, a transition towards open source [produces] savings in the long term cost of ownership,” said the report, which was authored by academics at the United Nations University in Maastricht, Netherlands.

I have to observe that there is actually a disclaimer that the report findings do not necessarily reflect the position of the Commission, but:

The European Commission has taken several strides towards encouraging the development of open source software.

In October, it granted €3m (£2m) towards a project, called SQO-OSS, to test the quality of open source software. And just days before, the Commission extended its open source web portal, the Open Source Observatory, to develop interoperability between applications.

Microsoft isn’t the only “closed source” company mentioned and you can read the 287 page report for yourself to judge the validity of the relevant results versus Microsoft’s efforts, but the the startling thing is that this a nominal government entity (two if you count the United Nations University) intervening in what should be purely a purely commercial squabble. Of course, to the governments involved it isn’t like deciding whether Oracle or Microsoft’s database product has a lower TCO, because it’s all bound up in a variety of political agendas relating to nationalism, capitalism, socialism, and who knows what other -isms.

Such political agendas are a fact of life for large businesses and Microsoft has proved more adept in recent years in dealing with them, but it can’t help but serve as a distraction. I’m sure the folks in Redmond will shortly be burning the midnight oil developing a rebuttal for this report and spreading the word to their customers. There’s already been some early flak suppression from the Institute for Software Choice. But speaking of political agendas, the last US election brought the Democrat party control of Congress and since many in the party were quite critical of the 2001 Microsoft antitrust settlement (e.g. here), one wonders how long it will be before Microsoft pops up on their radar screen.

Microsoft has announced new alliances in some far flung areas of the empire:

Microsoft and Teradata Collaborate to Offer Business Intelligence Solutions for Mutual Customers:

Jan. 15, 2007 — Microsoft Corp. and Teradata, a division of NCR Corp., today announced they are working together to optimize interoperability between Microsoft® business intelligence solutions and the Teradata® Enterprise Data Warehouse to help information workers gain access to, analyze and report on critical data more quickly, and help streamline the delivery of business intelligence applications.

As part of this effort, Microsoft and Teradata are collaborating to enhance interoperability between the Teradata Enterprise Data Warehouse and Microsoft SQL Server™ Analysis Services, targeting availability of the technologies for the end of the first quarter of 2007. In addition, interoperability collaboration efforts with Teradata will include SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services; SQL Server 2005 Integration Services; and the 2007 Microsoft Office system including Microsoft Office Excel® 2007, Windows® SharePoint® Services and Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007. The worldwide relationship includes plans for joint sales and marketing activities across multiple industries, beginning with the retail sector.

I hadn’t thought of Teradata in years until I recently saw that NCR is trying to spin them off:

Teradata was the sixth-largest vendor of data warehousing tools in 2005, holding 4.4 percent of the market, according to a research report from IDC released in August. Teradata held a 10.3 percent market share in the data warehousing management segment, where the business generates most of its software revenue, IDC said.

SGI and Microsoft Join Forces to Expand High-Performance Computing:

Jan. 11, 2007 — Leveraging SGI’s expertise in high-performance computing and Microsoft Corp.’s strategy of making HPC more accessible to a broader marketplace, SGI (NASDAQ: SGIC) and Microsoft today announced that SGI will offer Microsoft® Windows® Compute Cluster Server 2003 on SGI® Altix® XE cluster systems based on quad-core and dual-core Intel® Xeon® processors. SGI Altix XE cluster systems with Windows Compute Cluster Server will be available beginning in March 2007.

SGI is another company I haven’t paid attention to recently except for nostalgia.

This morning Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is delivering the keynote at the National Retail Federation Annual Convention & Expo and not unexpectedly there are some coordinated Microsoft announcements:

Microsoft Launches New Versions of Point-of-Sale Software and Complete POS Solution With First Data and HP:

Today at the National Retail Federation Annual Convention & Expo in New York, Microsoft Corp. announced the release of Microsoft Dynamics™ – Point of Sale 2.0 and Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS) 2.0, furthering Microsoft’s commitment to delivering best-in-class solutions that combine ease of use, rich automation, and outstanding integration with other Microsoft® products and technologies. Microsoft also announced a complete PC-based point-of-sale and integrated payments solution that it will deliver with First Data Corporation and HP.

More details on the latter in First Data, Microsoft and HP Deliver a Completely Automated Point-of-Sale Solution for Small Retailers.