Had a marketing rep from Microsoft come and speak to us last week

[Oldgamer]

We had a Marketing Rep last name Swonke come out and speak with us the other day about Windows 8 and give demonstrations and answer questions.

It was interesting because he said that Microsoft and their Skydrive is something that they are pushing because they offer Corporations, companies, small businesses the ability to get their IT issues up and running without having to "stand up" servers, through their Skydrive. Basically Microsofts people will handle all your IT needs, and issues on their servers on the Skydrive. He said this would be at an annual or monthly cost, but would actually lower the costs associated with buying computers and the windows server programs, hiring the IT people to do the managing and maintaining.

In addition, there Microsoft 365 is a product that said companies, and individuals pay a monthly or annual fee for to use, and they no longer will be giving the actual program on hard disk out. The idea is to get everyone use to letting them handle your software and storage of data on their end.

The Microsft 365 demonstration was pretty impressive. He did mention that if you aren't online you still have access to your Microsft data.

I got the impression they are pushing hard to take over the IT technical end for companies.

He also said the main reason they created the windows phone and tablet were for security reasons.

They found that everyone brings their own devices and connects to company data, email etc through those unapproved devices which in most cases are a headache for IT, because of security issues. Where as the Microsoft devices are secure and set up to be efficient and secure without the same problems as the other non microsoft devices.

Anyway, I was curious as to what most other IT tech support folks think about this. Do you think that big companies such as Microsoft are changing the landscape and the need for companies to hire their own IT support?

 

[lxskllr]

What happens when you buy into MS products and services, and later decide you don't like MS products and services? All your eggs are in one basket, and you have all the flexibility of a tungsten rod.

 

[Oldgamer]

What happens when you buy into MS products and services, and later decide you don't like MS products and services? All your eggs are in one basket, and you have all the flexibility of a tungsten rod.

That question was brought up, basically the guy said they will give you a certain amount of time to get all your data, and place it somewhere else. But good grief what if your company has a shit to of data on all the MS servers?

Then how much time do the give you? Can you imagine the headache?

In addition he mentioned the serious security they have in their large server areas. He said not even the Microsoft CEO could get in without serious security checks, and authorization, but still companies are vulnerable to losing "sensitive" data if anything happens. However he said they have more than one place and location, so if one server area takes a hit or goes down, the users won't know it because the other server locations pick it right up and carry on.

 

[Stone Rain]

The headache of customer lock-in is what has kept MS's profits going for a long time.

"It's a pain to switch away..so why bother? Just keep paying us!"

 

[Oldgamer]

The headache of customer lock-in is what has kept MS's profits going for a long time.

"It's a pain to switch away..so why bother? Just keep paying us!"

I can see where a company would save money in the long run by just allowing them to set up everything for you (as a customer you wouldn't have to get servers standing up) its all done for you by MS.

My question or concern is, if this is something they plan on pushing hard, and it starts to become successful what is the fate of those currently employed by companies for IT needs? Poof there goes many jobs.

 

[techs]

Anyone else do a WTF when MS said use their software for security purposes?

 

[unokitty]

We had a Marketing Rep last name Swonke come out and speak with us the other day about Windows 8 and give demonstrations and answer questions.
...
Anyway, I was curious as to what most other IT tech support folks think about this. Do you think that big companies such as Microsoft are changing the landscape and the need for companies to hire their own IT support?

First rule of IT: Never believe a salesman.

Now, ask yourself has Microsoft ever done anything worthwhile other than Windows and Office?

If your interested in the cloud, you might want to view:

The Six Main Benefits of Cloud Computing with Amazon Web Services

Cloud is going to have a huge impact on IT.

Microsoft may always be around. But, like IBM, its best days are behind it...

Uno

 

[ViviTheMage]

What happens when you buy into MS products and services, and later decide you don't like MS products and services? All your eggs are in one basket, and you have all the flexibility of a tungsten rod.

Isn't that the case for ANY platform you invest in...

 

[lxskllr]

Isn't that the case for ANY platform you invest in...

Not necessarily. If you buy a RedHat service agreement for servers you own, anyone can service those boxes if you aren't happy with RedHat. You can also alter the software to your specifications.

The overall point you may be making has some validity. If you've invested in RedHat, it's non-trivial to switch to Windows if desired, but the RedHat platform has more flexibility to conform to the user. There's no getting around spending money, but spending it on a dead end tunnel is unwise for companies, and should be illegal for governments.

 

[StrangerGuy]

"If you think XP decade-long holdouts are bad, how are you guys going to handle the even more numerous Win 7 holdouts?!"

 

[Stone Rain]

Anyone else do a WTF when MS said use their software for security purposes?

Yup :biggrin:

 

[Oldgamer]

Anyone else do a WTF when MS said use their software for security purposes?

That is exactly what this guy was pitching, was how much more secure these MS products are. How unsecure all little devices like various tablets, and smartphones are and how MS has solved that security issue.

Anyway, interesting perspectives from everyone. I do think they are try to get in on the action of Google, Redhat etc.

Now how popular, or how fast it catches on (people using MS Skydrive and other services) will be interesting to watch.

I personally won't pay a monthly/annual premium to use the new MS 365 product, I am happy with my MS 7 actually.

 

[Oldgamer]

First rule of IT: Never believe a salesman.

Now, ask yourself has Microsoft ever done anything worthwhile other than Windows and Office?

If your interested in the cloud, you might want to view:

The Six Main Benefits of Cloud Computing with Amazon Web Services

Cloud is going to have a huge impact on IT.

Microsoft may always be around. But, like IBM, its best days are behind it...

Uno

Yes this is exactly what the MS rep was saying, exactly the same thing but sales pitching the MS product(s).

 

[Broheim]

Now, ask yourself has Microsoft ever done anything worthwhile other than Windows and Office?

tons of stuff.

visual studio is the most polished IDE I've ever used.
Lync is a great and flexible product.
the system center line is completely unmatched when it comes to streamlining corporate IT.
C# is a much better language than java.
the list goes on.

but the single greatest thing is the neat and effortless integration (AD I want to marry you and have lots of little ldap babies), I can't possibly stress just how goddamn important that is when you've got that many different server products running and that many users.

now as for microsoft running my infrastructure... thanks, but no thanks, I'd like to be in control as it's my ass on the line.

 

[Oldgamer]

tons of stuff.

visual studio is the most polished IDE I've ever used.
Lync is a great and flexible product.
the system center line is completely unmatched when it comes to streamlining corporate IT.
C# is a much better language than java.
the list goes on.

but the single greatest thing is the neat and effortless integration (AD I want to marry you and have lots of little ldap babies), I can't possibly stress just how goddamn important that is when you've got that many different server products running and that many users.

now as for microsoft running my infrastructure... thanks, but no thanks, I'd like to be in control as it's my ass on the line.

Interesting..

 

[child of wonder]

"The CLOUD!!!!!!!"

Who is going to care more about your business critical applications and data? Your own internal IT staff or tech support employees in India that you have to call when there's a problem with the cloud? What kind of SLA can a cloud provider offer vs. an internal IT staff? What kind of responsiveness to issues do you get calling a call center vs. your own IT staff? If your cloud provider screws up and loses data, how easily can you "fire" them and move to another? How will that impact your ROI having to switch providers? What kind of network improvements do you need to ensure you can always reliably reach the cloud? What kind of uptime does your internet provider guarantee? Are you comfortable with the US government using the Patriot Act to access your data if they choose and the cloud provider is not required to inform you?

There are all huge questions one has to ask before moving to "the Cloud." Don't get me wrong, public cloud providers are great and we'll see more and more workloads and data moving there. Most companies will probably move to a hybrid cloud scenario where they put less critical apps and data in the cloud and keep business critical internal.

Bottom line, "the Cloud" isn't some panacea to all that ails IT and it's upsetting to hear from some business analysts how companies should move everything to the cloud and lay off their IT staff. There's way, way, WAY more to it than that.

 

[PottedMeat]

 

[iamwiz82]

My previous company was using OCS hosted by MS. MS then said OCS is going away, you have until a day we specify to move it. One day I logged into OCS and it popped up telling me that day was in one week. WTF.

 

[Pardus]

 

[Nintendesert]

Not necessarily. If you buy a RedHat service agreement for servers you own, anyone can service those boxes if you aren't happy with RedHat. You can also alter the software to your specifications.

The overall point you may be making has some validity. If you've invested in RedHat, it's non-trivial to switch to Windows if desired, but the RedHat platform has more flexibility to conform to the user. There's no getting around spending money, but spending it on a dead end tunnel is unwise for companies, and should be illegal for governments.

Lol figures you'd start banging the Linux/Unix drum.

 

[postmortemIA]

tons of stuff.

visual studio is the most polished IDE I've ever used.
Lync is a great and flexible product.
the system center line is completely unmatched when it comes to streamlining corporate IT.
C# is a much better language than java.
the list goes on.

but the single greatest thing is the neat and effortless integration (AD I want to marry you and have lots of little ldap babies), I can't possibly stress just how goddamn important that is when you've got that many different server products running and that many users.

now as for microsoft running my infrastructure... thanks, but no thanks, I'd like to be in control as it's my ass on the line.

VS is a joke. It has no flexibility, and its code parser/navigator is stupid. People who know their stuff laugh when hear "VS is best IDE ever". It simply means you haven't used better one.

 

[Imp]

I know nothing about servers, but this reminds me of the official, department wide email sent out yesterday about how we used up our 200 GB Sharepoint limit and were supposed to start deleting large files, ASAP. If I recall correctly, we have "reached a critical point"... I was asked to personally upload about 10-20 Gb worth of shit on there for a major project.

 

[OutHouse]

First rule of IT: Never believe a salesman.

Now, ask yourself has Microsoft ever done anything worthwhile other than Windows and Office?

If your interested in the cloud, you might want to view:

The Six Main Benefits of Cloud Computing with Amazon Web Services

Cloud is going to have a huge impact on IT.

Microsoft may always be around. But, like IBM, its best days are behind it...

Uno

Guess you never heard of ms sql or exchange, or 2008 r2 server software

 

[mikeymikec]

I can see where a company would save money in the long run by just allowing them to set up everything for you (as a customer you wouldn't have to get servers standing up) its all done for you by MS.

I can see that situation being a big waste of money as well. If a company doesn't think they have to be competitive / work hard for the money you're giving them, they'll get lazy.

@ child of wonder

Yeah, I don't understand what the current hard-on is for the cloud. Google Play Books is an e-book reader / cloud service for Android phones, and if I wanted to build a library I would have to trust them with keeping it in the long term. I liked how their app worked (in terms of reading books), but I definitely don't like their storage policy or their "our way or the highway" attitude (e.g. it will only read e-books from them).

 

[child of wonder]

Guess you never heard of ms sql or exchange, or 2008 r2 server software

Or System Center 2012 and Hyper-V 2012.

I'm a VMware guy and will be taking the VCDX defense this year but I'm also learning Hyper-V. It's going to eat market share.