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Mitchell Ashley
Can You Work On A Virtualized Windows Desktop?
Written on Mon, 12/07/09 - 4:20am
I’m using a Macbook Pro laptop running OS X and I have Windows 7 installed on the Bootcamp partition. Normally this kind of setup only lets you boot up either Mac OS X or Windows, but with VMware Fusion 3 for Mac OS X I can run the bootcamp partition (Windows 7) as a virtualized guest operating...
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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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Microsoft's data cache technology, code-named Velocity, speeds app performance
Written on Fri, 11/13/09 - 10:35am
Microsoft is achieving impressive performance gains with "Velocity", the code name for a new Microsoft data caching technology currently in Community Technical Preview. Velocity is a distributed in-memory application cache technology that combines in-memory data caches across multiple servers, appearing...
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Microsoft's Delicate Balancing Act Between Cloud and Data Center
Written on Tue, 11/10/09 - 10:04am
TechEd's focus on Exchange 2010 this week is all about the efficiency gains through improved productivity, lower power consumption (thanks to Windows Server 2008 R2) and decreased storage costs of Exchange 2010. Thank the economy for the focus on efficiency gains. Upgrades like Exchange 2010 will get...
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Microsoft Is Perfect Example Why Executive Pay Is Broken
Written on Fri, 11/06/09 - 8:34am
Text message this morning from CNN: Unemployment hit 10.2% in October. Microsoft announced earlier this week another 800 employee layoffs to the 5,000 previously announced employee layoffs. If you look at Microsoft's financials you see why, a 14% revenue and 18% net income drop for the last reported...
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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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Just How Much Is Riding on Windows 7 For Microsoft?
Written on Fri, 10/23/09 - 9:09am
In a word, Windows 7 means "everything" for Microsoft's future. We can all talk about the insane number of SharePoint licenses sold, how well Windows Server 2008 has been put together, Bing's surprising rise in the search market, and exciting moves by Microsoft into Online Services for hosted Microsoft...
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SharePoint - Your Next (Current) Business App Platform
Written on Wed, 10/21/09 - 12:23pm
SharePoint. $1.3B revenue rate. 130 million user base. Even if you doubt the user and license counts (though not everyone thinks they are inflated) , SharePoint is a very successful product. If there's a success at Microsoft, it's definitely SharePoint.
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If The Cloud Were Really The Cloud Then Outages Would Be Rare
Written on Wed, 10/14/09 - 2:01am
Do we really have a cloud or just offsite Microsoft, Cisco and Linux hosting centers? I'm struck by what seems like a near constant barrage of news about cloud outages and service downtime.
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Podcast: Office Web Apps – Microsoft’s Nail in Google Apps' Coffin?
Written on Thu, 10/08/09 - 3:28am
Can Office Web Apps stave off customer migration to Google Docs? Google wants to take down Microsoft and Google Docs strikes at the very heart of Microsoft's application suite, Microsoft Office. Many users of Google Docs switched because of its sharing and collaboration features or they were looking...
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Cloud API Management Company Sonoa Woos Sam Ramji From Microsoft
Written on Wed, 09/30/09 - 9:39am
And the answer is... Sonoa.
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Number 1 Thing To Make Windows 7 Installs Easy
Written on Mon, 09/14/09 - 11:00am
I'd hate to think exactly how many times I've installed some version of Windows 7 since its debut back at Microsoft PDC 2008. There was the Windows 7 pre-public beta (that didn't have the new UI and menu bar), the Windows 7 public beta, the Windows 7 RC and the Windows 7 RTM. On my daily use laptop alone...
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Podcast: Are you doing what it takes to succeed at implementing SharePoint?
Written on Fri, 09/11/09 - 2:00am
I talked with Dux Raymond Sy, author of O'Reilly's SharePoint for Project Management and Innovative-E SharePoint consultant, on this week's podcast about what we can learn from successful and failed SharePoint projects.
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Podcast: Virtual Machine Manager + Hyper-V Live Migration = Enterprise Ready
Written on Mon, 08/31/09 - 3:11am
Hard to believe it's only been a few years since Microsoft launched Hyper-V. Even more amazing is the progress it has made in that short period of time. With the Windows Server 2008 R2 update we're seeing not just an improved Hyper-V, but Hyper-V with Live Migration. Live Migration is the one feature...
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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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Podcast: Essential Steps For Securing Hyper-V
Written on Mon, 08/17/09 - 1:31pm
During this week's Converging on Microsoft podcast interview with Mike Schutz, Director of Product Management for the Microsoft Windows Server Division, we discuss the relevant steps necessary to secure servers running Hyper-V.
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Microsoft Nokia Good Deal For SharePoint and Exchange
Written on Thu, 08/13/09 - 10:01am
Reactions to yesterday's Microsoft / Nokia are interesting, ranging from Microsoft's given up on Windows Mobile to Blackberries have much the same features today. Here are some more salient views by Gartner's Nick Jones. But the real hint of what's behind this deal are in the "collaboration and Office...
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SharePoint Grabs Attention of The New York Times
Written on Wed, 08/12/09 - 12:02am
You know something's hot when non-tech publications talk about a product technology like Microsoft SharePoint. Ashlee Vance of the New York Times has an article talking about SharePoint's success even with our downed economy. It's not popular these days to be positive about a market dominator like Microsoft,...
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Podcast: BestBuy.com Collaboration Manager Guides SharePoint Users To Success
Written on Mon, 08/10/09 - 10:23pm
My podcast interview with Sarah Haase, Collaboration Manager for SharePoint at BestBuy.com, touched on one of the central SharePoint questions most IT organizations deal with. Microsoft SharePoint is a much different tool than just about any other software product you'll provide end users.
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Is Open Source The Enemy Within Chipping Away at Proprietary Microsoft?
Written on Tue, 08/04/09 - 6:47am
Sam Ramji, Senior Director of Strategic Platforms at Microsoft, said some pretty unexpected things during his interview on my podcast this week. I've gone back and listened to the interview with Sam several times, each time picking up a new little tidbit, but also re-enforcing what I heard him say about...
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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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