EDITOR’S COLUMN
COMPANIES IN THE NEWS
A&O Systems and Services 20
EDITOR’S COLUMN
Accenture 20
ACCURAT 7
john.garratt@iteuropa.com
Acer 8
ACS 4
AC-Service 7
Actebis 8
Alcatel Lucent 5
ALSO 8
Microsoft driven by Europe
Arkoon 10
Ascom 9
Asidua 20
Azlan 1,3
bearing Point 20 M
icrosoft’s highly trumpeted response mid-March.
to the European Commission’s view of Most of the software hit by the upgrade are
brocade 5
its monopolistic position is the least it could security programmes that prevent Windows users
Cegedim 7
do, but may not be enough. The company will falling prey to viruses, trojans and booby-trapped
Cisco 10
Clarity 22
publish technical information for its most widely web pages, but includes Trend Micro and Novell
CMS Peripherals 22 used products, allowing developers to work with products.
Commtech 22
products such as Vista and Office without secrecy As our interview in this issue with one of
Computacenter 5,11
Convergys 7
agreements, royalty or licence fee. Microsoft’s leading European advocates shows, it
Datamatic 10
However, European Union regulators are less is fixing Vista, doubling the driver numbers and
Dell 1,8 than impressed, citing possible monopoly abuse showing workarounds on application areas. We
Digital Realty Trust 16
in the past. “The Commission would welcome any will publish the channel’s thinking on this in the
Digitex 9
DNS 5
move toward genuine interoperability,” regulators next issue, but we can say that, already some
EMC 22
say. “Nonetheless, the Commission notes that of the larger integrators such as Accenture have
Esprinet 8
the announcement follows at least four similar supported what Microsoft is trying to do.
GNT Group 8
statements by Microsoft in the past on the Some of the smaller partners, and those
HansaWorld 12
Hitachi Data Systems 10
importance of interoperability.” planning enterprise level roll-outs are taking their
HP 1,3,7 Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, time, however.
IbM 7,12,19
denied that the company was simply trying to And this week sees the launch of Windows
Ingram Micro 8,10,15
appease regulators, although he did admit that Server 2008, which, by coincidence, is the same
Juniper 11,22
Kedington Group 19
the strategy “reflects the reality of our unique time as the massive VMworld event in Cannes,
LAN Communications 19 legal situation”. In gets everyone stirred up
LogicaCMG 4
September, Microsoft about virtualisation. And the
Microsoft 12,14,20
lost an appeal against virtualisation (hypervisor)
Midia 22
The idea of virtualisation
Mindjet 7
a fine of nearly €350m
replacing large numbers of servers
aspects of Server 2008 were to
Network Hardware Resale 6 that the Commission
is still some way away
be among the more interesting
Nimons 22
handed down in 2004 parts. But they have been a bit
Novell 16
Oracle 8
when it was found to delayed.
Platespin 16
have abused its dominant market position. With Gartner’s publication of server numbers
Progress Software 12 But what is the channel to make of this? showing that In EMEA, server shipments totalled
Protectia Software 7
Perhaps Microsoft’s attitude can be judged from 2.7 million units in 2007, a 9.2% increase from 2006
Reksoft 32
S&T 7
the news that the software giant has released a and revenues totalled $18.1bn (€12.2bn) in 2007, a
SD WORX 7
list of programs that may be broken by the SP1 6.6% increase from 2006, the idea of virtualisation
Sercom 7
update for Vista. This Windows Vista update, in replacing large numbers of servers is still some
Sharptext 22
channels now, will be released to the public in way away.
SMC 9
SMG 1,3
Symantec 6
Tech Data 8
Trend Micro 11
Coming next in IT Europa
Unit 4 Agresso 4
Webroot 12
Westcoast 22 The Czech Republic has become a stepping stone you’d like us to cover, talk to us.
Westcon 11
for technology manufacturing, sales offices, Contact us now on +44 (0) 1895 45 45 95
Xsigo 5
support and repairs addressing eastern Europe. Or you can email me:
What about its own IT business? We take a close john.garratt@
look at how technology is sold in this country. iteuropa.com
If you have a channel topic or ideas or companies
2 29 fEb 2008
It0804 - 2-3_news.indd 2 27/02/2008 11:16:58
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