Microsoft's flagship Windows, Office and Exchange offerings may face renewed challenges in the stratospheric battle to come.  
                    
			            - By Jeffrey  Schwartz
- 03/01/2011
 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Rahul Bakshi of SunGard Availability Services doles out managed services.
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Ellen Rubin's success with startups continues at CloudSwitch, a developer of a software appliance that enables companies to securely run applications in the cloud while remaining integrated with their datacenters.
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    The latest offering from RingCube creates a VDI client that can be customized for each user, but still enables pooled licenses, easy updates and centralized control of settings.
                    
			            - By Logan  Harbaugh
- 03/01/2011
 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    The push to the cloud is putting heavy pressure on virtualized datacenters to change with the dynamic times.
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Microsoft's flagship Windows, Office and Exchange offerings may face renewed challenges in the stratospheric battle to come.  
                    
			            - By Jeffrey  Schwartz
- 03/01/2011
 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    The best way to learn anything is by doing it. You want to learn more about VMware vSphere? Build a lab.
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    In case you haven't heard, the messaging at VMware nowadays revolves around cloud computing.
                    
			            - By Rick  Vanover
- 03/01/2011
 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Here are five random items that are worthy of comment.
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    A new microsite from CA aims to help its partners sell the CA Virtual portfolio and its customers to overcome "virtual stall."
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Amazon Web Services today launched a new offering aimed at easing the development and deployment of apps to the cloud.
                    
			            - By Jeffrey  Schwartz
- 02/25/2011
 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Flings, SDKs, open source stuff ... there's more to free tools than ESXi and the vSphere client. 
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Cisco is calling it quits on its cloud-based e-mail service that has been available for testing for the past year.
                    
			            - By Jeffrey  Schwartz
- 02/24/2011
 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Over the past few weeks, Microsoft has signed contracts with 14 state and local government entities for its cloud computing services.
                    
			            - By Paul  McCloskey
- 02/24/2011
 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Last week, Oracle rolled out enhancements to its Sun Fire x86 product, bolstering the company's line of enterprise-class rackmount and blade servers for private cloud and highly virtualized deployments.
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Opalis 6.3 can now manage clients through System Center Client Management Suite or Enterprise Client Access License.
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    With VMware vSphere 4.1 update 1 now generally available, what do you need to know about it and how do you upgrade to it? Let's find out.
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    CA Technologies last week updated its ERwin modeling tool with an eye toward broadening its use beyond database developers.
                    
			            - By Jeffrey  Schwartz
- 02/14/2011
 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Read the fine print to understand Hyper-V licensing, which comes with some caveats.
                    
			            - By Greg  Shields
- 02/14/2011
 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    A Microsoft official briefly noted on Thursday that Microsoft is planning two new options for IT organizations using Windows 7 -- but the catch is that Software Assurance (SA) licensing needs to be in place.