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Mitchell Ashley
Will iPhone 4's FaceTime See Much Face Time?
Written on Wed, 06/09/10 - 5:11pm
In many ways the iPhone 4 launch was a tale of two cities; Apple innovating with elegant hardware improvements in size, weight, screen and antenna, and Apple playing catchup with other features lagging in the iPhone OS, such as multitasking, folders, and unified email inbox. The wild card in all...
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3 Most Important Announcements about Microsoft's Azure Cloud
Written on Wed, 11/18/09 - 9:36am
Microsoft's Ray Ozzie significantly blew past the basic Exchange, SharePoint and SQL database hosting services with the Azure announcements at PDC 2009 yesterday.
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Net Neutrality - Somebody Get John McCain A VoIP Clue Phone
Written on Mon, 10/26/09 - 9:56am
Net Neutrality vs. John McCain. Consumer vs. Ignorant Politician. Party affiliations aside, anyone proposing we allow carriers to clamp down and determine what content we can run through our Internet and ISP connections probably still has their secretaries print out emails for them. Would you allow Verizon...
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Netbooks: Popular but will you buy a Netbook next time?
Written on Tue, 09/08/09 - 10:26am
I've carried an ultraportable Sony VAIO laptop with me now for two years and so far I've resisted all temptations to buy a netbook. I carry my VAIO laptop with me everywhere, .. I mean everywhere.., so much so that my laptop backpack is starting to look a personal version of Quasimodo's hump. Some wonder...
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Virtualization Day: Virtual Machine Manager R2 RTM and Windows 7 XP Mode
Written on Mon, 08/24/09 - 2:13pm
It must be Virtualization Day at my office as right in the middle of test out XP Mode on Windows 7 with some VoIP software, Microsoft announces System Center Virtual Machine Manager R2 is RTM (released to manufacturing). We have a number of projects in the office centered around virtualization, including...
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5 Reasons To Use SharePoint Instead Of Emailing Excel Files
Written on Thu, 08/06/09 - 3:04am
In the SharePoint consulting I do, I try to look beyond just basic uses of SharePoint, where SharePoint acts as a basic replacement for shared folders on file servers. SharePoint can of course do document storage and does bring some added features beyond a file server, but if you're paying attention...
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The Moment of Truth Nears For Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2
Written on Thu, 07/23/09 - 2:02am
Get ready. With both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 in RTM, we're only weeks away of knowing if Vista is really behind us. Microsoft's going to put the full court press on getting as much Windows 7 sold and installed out there as possible. That includes changes in the partner program with specific...
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Microsoft Office 2010 Takes On Google At Its Own Game
Written on Tue, 07/14/09 - 3:10am
The surprises from Microsoft just keep coming. The most interesting aspect of this week's Microsoft Office 2010 announcements was that the online web version of Office 2010 apps will be free. That's free from three perspectives; free to users with a Windows Live account, free Microsoft hosted Office...
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Microsoft's Big Bet On The Cloud and Search
Written on Tue, 06/30/09 - 9:37am
Microsoft's set to bring online two new data centers, one in Chicago and the other in Dublin with 700,000 and 300,000 square feet of space respective. One of the things that's been talked about quite a bit, and that I also find fascinating, is Microsoft's use of cargo like containers. Just like you and...
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Sorry…The EC2 Cloud Is Full, Come Back Later
Written on Mon, 05/04/09 - 2:52am
We all envision the cloud to be an on demand resource where at anytime we can add computing and storage capacity at the drop of the hat. Simply bring on as many virtual servers or as much disk storage as needed, when needed. That’s one of the most important value propositions of cloud computing and...
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Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 Bring Us DNSSEC. Will We Use It?
Written on Tue, 04/28/09 - 3:21am
Network security always seems to be driven by the latest "thing", whether that be a virus or a bot like conficker, or a technology like NAC (Network Access Control) that was in vogue was for several years. Security is hot technology and hot ulnerability/attack driven, at least that seems to...
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Conficker & Our "Cold War" View of Malware
Written on Wed, 04/01/09 - 2:28am
Conficker. How and why has it spread so successfully? If there's any kind of IT security threat service providers and businesses are prepared for, it's the mass infection worm or virus that overloads networks, mail servers and desktop computers with malicious consequences.
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CS Degree? Constant Learners and Self-SysAdmins Are Required
Written on Tue, 03/31/09 - 10:22am
I enjoy the conversation sparked by the Network World article Does A Computer Science Degree Matter Anymore? I've hired lots of software developers and IT professionals and whether they have a degree or not isn't usually a top factor. When you can, developing a technical screening questionnaire...
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IT Security: Who Watches The Watchers?
Written on Mon, 03/16/09 - 4:05am
The situation with D.C.'s IT security is huge mess. Yusuf Acar, acting chief security officer following Vivek Kundra's exit to take the Federal CIO position, is now in the hands of the FBI on bribery charges from an alleged under the table deal with security vendor AITC.
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Windows 7 Post-Beta Leaks - Why You Should Care
Written on Fri, 03/06/09 - 2:00pm
If you're a BitTorrent user you might have noticed that another Windows 7 post-beta build (7048) has been circulating in the wild for curious downloaders.
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Great Week To Reduce That IT To Do List
Written on Mon, 12/29/08 - 11:38am
I always enjoy working the week between Christmas and New Years. It's a great time to take care of those projects you can't do while the office is full and busy with business and people. It's also nice to enjoy a little bit quieter atmosphere around the office, and maybe spend time hanging...
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Job Hunting - Send Me In Coach
Written on Tue, 12/02/08 - 1:52am
Economy. Recession. Layoffs. Yuck already, let’s get on with reving up this economy again and creating lots of new jobs. Think positive. Lets find you a job. If you’re actively in the job market, I have an important idea for you: find a job search coach. Getting that next job might be hard or it...
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PDC 2008: .NET, Hosting & Identities
Written on Mon, 10/27/08 - 1:07pm
Microsoft PDC 2008: Sitting here in row 4 of the press section (John Fontana/NWW is just a few seats down). I'm impressed at the breadth of what Microsoft is announcing here at PDC. Windows 7 has taken a back seat until tomorrow. The focus here is on Windows Azure, Microsoft's cloud platform,...
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Podcast: It takes a village in the cloud
Written on Wed, 10/22/08 - 8:54am
Not to be undone by others in the industry, Savvis announced its SaaS Platform initiative at the end of September. Because Savvis is one of the first top-tier companies to put such a comprehensive program together, I asked Bryan Doerr to join me on the Converging On Microsoft podcast. Savvis has taken...
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That Bump In The Night Was OCS Kicking Out Your PBX
Written on Thu, 10/16/08 - 1:10am
Tuesday, Microsoft launched R2 of Office Communications Server 2007. But rather than a minor upgrade, there's some heavyweight features that moves OCS into the ranks of a viable PBX replacement. In OCS 2007 R2, Microsoft is filling out the product with the capabilities most needed to realistically...
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About Converging on Microsoft
Mitchell Ashley has a diverse background in software development, network engineering, information security, mobility, collaborative technologies, and IT management and operations. An early adopter of social media in business, he began blogging about security and information technologies in 2006 at theconvergingnetwork.com. Mitchell is VP of Information Technology at CableLabs in Louisville, CO, and previously held positions as CIO, CTO and VP Engineering at prior companies.
 

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