ShadowRAM: November 14, 2005

Dell says the Athlons now in its inventory are available only in retail packaging and not in Dell systems. But the company is “constantly evaluating” new technologies.” What&'s the dealio? Sun, HP et al, offer some AMD-based lines. The prevailing wisdom is Dell uses the AMD threat to keep Intel prices and terms in check.

Info-Tech Research wants to put the kibosh on Skype in the enterprise. The group claims more than 17 million workers now use Skype&'s—now eBay&'s—freebie VoIP service. What&'s so bad about free? Well, the researcher says this practice raises security concerns that should frighten all IT folk. “Unless an organization specifies where Skype use is acceptable and outlines rules … that&'s 17 million opportunities for a hacker to invade a corporate network,” the firm wrote last week. Killjoys.

Microsoft finally unveiled the SQL Server/Visual Studio 2005 tandem—the world&'s oldest new products—in San Francisco last week. The seemingly endless delays gave the associated “Rock the Launch” event a weird reliving-the-past gestalt. How apt that aging rockers Cheap Trick kicked off the morning with a decibel level worthy of the Concorde.

CEO Steve Ballmer didn&'t want to dwell on the past, though, announcing that Microsoft and SAP will work together to drum up SQL Server 2005 sales. But maybe he spoke too soon. At least one SAP flak on hand for the launch was startled at the accompanying slide. And Microsoft has been subsequently unready to talk about particulars of that statement. The only deets thus far: The field sales orgs of both companies will jointly target opportunities in enterprise companies. In SAP&'s case, that means direct sales only, since the channel cannot offer mySAP ERP. On the Microsoft side? Good question. The company says it has no information at this time.

Speaking of which, the most external of internal Microsoft memos by Ray Ozzie ironically shows that the Internet has beaten Windows. (Note to Brad Silverberg: You were right—you were just right too early!)

Says one source who parsed it carefully, “Ray is saying you no longer write to Windows APIs, you write to richer Web APIs aka Internet Services,” he notes.

Another says Microsoft is setting up three user scenarios, one featuring fat client/thin network (Office desktops); another thin client/fat network (MSN or Office/Windows Live); and a roll-your-own combo in which enterprises figure out their own mix. And Microsoft is figuring out how to profit off all three.