Microsoft and Rackspace Form Cloud Alliance
Shira Ovide
“Microsoft Corp. and data center services company Rackspace Hosting Inc. are teaming up to ease customers over barriers to using Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing service.
Under an alliance set to be announced Monday, Rackspace will help companies start using Azure and guide them on how to squeeze the most for their money from Azure’s processing, data storage, databases and other services. Rackspace will help solve service or security problems and help companies combine Azure with their own computing facilities.”
Windows Server 2003 reaches end of life while Microsoft makes upgrading unattractive
Chris Merriman
“4,464 DAYS AGO Microsoft released Windows Server 2003 to manufacturers. Today marks its end of life, the point at which Microsoft will stop supporting it, patching its security breaches, making it warm milk and kissing its oweeys.
In many ways, this is an even more relevant end of an era than Windows XP which expired in April 2014, because each instance of Windows Server powers entire networks and virtual machines and is the backbone of entire businesses’ IT infrastructure.”
The Rise of Managed Third Party Cloud
Jason Verge
“The value proposition of a managed service provider has always been taking over laborious and complicated aspects of a company’s IT, so that the company may focus on core competencies. So what happens when these businesses want to leverage the benefits of cloud? Managed service providers are increasingly doing the same thing they’ve always done, but now atop of the big cloud platforms.
While still very much in its infancy, managed third party cloud managed services will potentially shake up the data center world. Managed services providers are often colocation customers. Who provides what value is shifting, and colocation providers need to position themselves to capture that shift. Managed services providers who are in early with third party cloud management stand to gain.”
The First Version Of Microsoft Corporation HoloLens Will Not Focus On Gaming
Larry Darrell
“Gaming will definitely be a big part of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) HoloLens, but it will not be the focus for the very first iteration of the augmented-reality device. According to Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella, the first version of the HoloLens will be about developers and enterprise scenarios and not gaming.
When asked where the initial demand for HoloLens would be, he said: ‘For sure in the first version, it’s going to be more about developers and enterprise scenarios.’”
Symantec: Spam falls below 50% of all email for the first time since 2003
Emil Protalinski
“Good news for all of us who still have to use email: spam rates are dropping! In fact, junk messages now account for just 49.7 percent of all emails.
The latest figure comes from security firm Symantec’s June 2015 Intelligence Report, which notes this is the first time in over a decade that the rate has fallen below 50 percent. The last time the company recorded a similar spam rate was back in September 2003, or almost 12 years ago.”
