Maureen O'Gara

Microsoft is going to let users move some of their licensed Microsoft server software to Amazon's cloud under its newfangled Microsoft License Mobility with Software Assurance program. It says they can move Windows Server application licenses between their on-premises environment and AWS. In a blog Microsoft goes off on an Azure-ignoring riff saying, "This is a game changer because now you can get industry leading enterprise-grade software from Microsoft and run them on the highly reliable, scalable on-demand infrastructure from AWS - it's the best of both worlds....Imagine the possibilities!" The recognition extends to Exchange, SharePoint, SQL Server Standard and Enterprise, Lync, System Center and Dynamic CRM. Microsoft says users can either buy new licenses or migrate their existing licenses including their Volume Licenses. There are no associated mobility fe... (more)

Cisco Seems to Remember It’s in the Switching Business

Cisco, which has been having trouble moving its switches up against competition from HP and Juniper et al, updated the Catalyst 6500 Tuesday, its most popular product even, generator of some $42 billion in revenue the last 12 years with 700,000 installations out there somewhere, a seeming indication that it had gotten some focus back on its most important business. The widgetry promises to let users plug the upgrade into existing chasses. Meanwhile, HP claims market share gains in networking at Cisco's expense. Cisco's switching business was down 9% in the April quarter to $3.3 bil... (more)

PCs Weak Except Apple’s

IDC says PC shipments worldwide - not counting tablets which are eating into PCs - were up 2.6% in Q2, short of the 2.9% the researcher's May forecast. Gartner's findings look worse. It said PC sales were up 2.3%, a far cry from the 6.7% it predicted. HP is still the biggest vendor with 18.1% of the global market, followed by Dell with 12.9% and Lenovo leapfrogging a struggling Acer, down 10%, to claim third place with 12.2% market share. IDC said spending is still cautious. While things looked brighter in emerging markets, US sales were down 4.2% against a tough compare, hit by ... (more)

Anybody Making Book on Rockstar Keeping the Nortel Patents?

As far as the courts are concerned the historic auction-winning Apple-Rockstar Bidco cash bid of $4.5 billion for Nortel's 6,000 patents and patent applications can close. In a joint video-conferenced hearing Monday the bankruptcy court in Delaware and the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Toronto that were supposed to review the controversial acquisition waved it through. Proving himself a master of understatement one Nortel lawyer reportedly told bankruptcy court judge Kevin Gross, "I don't believe a dollar was left on the table." According to the AP Gross called the price ... (more)

Heroku Hires Ruby Creator

Heroku, Salesforce.com's bought-in Rack-/Ruby-on-Rails-based Platform-as-a-Service, has hired Ruby creator Yukihiro Matsumoto as its chief Ruby architect expecting he'll make the language friendlier. Heroki couldn't help point out that Ruby runs many of the world's most popular brands like Comcast, Best Buy, AT&T;'s Yellow pages, Hulu and Twitter. Heroku itself reportedly powers more than 150,000 apps written by Ruby developers. The start-up says "Matz" will continue working as research fellow at the Network Applied Communication Laboratory, an open source systems integrator in... (more)