How did it feel to beat Google?

Every time I pass the Microsoft Silicon Valley campus in Mountain View, I'm amused and amazed that a Microsoft campus is in close proximity to Yahoo, Google, and other Silicon Valley bellwethers. The talent here is amazing!

If you haven't done so already, check out BingTweets, which fuses Bing's search results and real-time content from Twitter.

The San Jose Mercury News carried an interesting story over the weekend about how Bing's Silicon Valley-based team beat search engine giant Google to real-time search. Interestingly, Microsoft engineers Chad Carson and Eric Scheel, and their boss Sean Suchter— formerly VP of Search at Yahoo, planned it all aboard Alaska Airlines Flight 321 enroute to Seattle. The new search team at the Silicon Valley campus includes heavyweights like database expert and former IBMer Ashok K. Chandra— "a professorial presence who sounds like a poet when he compares creating computer algorithms to the view from the summit of Mount Whitney", and Shubha Nabar, a "newly-minted" Ph. D. from Stanford.

Excerpt:

By the time Flight 321 was over Oregon, the group in Row 6 had evolved from a technology klatch to a cabal of plotters who scrawled a schematic tangle of boxes on a sheet of paper to map out something no big Internet search engine had yet achieved. The three members of Microsoft's new Silicon Valley search team would try to make their company's Bing a window into America's stream of consciousness, serving up the chatter on Twitter and blog posts, with the latest updates on everything from celebrity gossip to breaking news.

Another interesting factoid many here in Silicon Valley may relate to— the plan didn't involve a PowerPoint.

The afternoon of the Seattle flight, Suchter stood before his boss in Redmond, Harry Shum, and pulled the dog-eared sheet of paper from his back pocket. This, Suchter told Shum, handing him the marked-up page, is what the team wants to do.

"I know I've got to get worried when you're giving me your plans drawn on a piece of paper and not in PowerPoint," Shum said. But he approved the effort.

When asked how it felt to beat Google, Suchter responds:

That was fun— retroactively. We didn't know we were going to catch them. We kind of though we would, but who knew?

More in Microsoft's Challenge: 90 days to beat Google on mercurynews.com.

Gmail discovers benefits of SSL, defaults to HTTPS

Google seems to have discovered the benefits of using SSL to encrypt HTTP traffic. In a blog post on the Gmail blog, Engineering Director Sam Schillace explains that Google has finally started valuing security over latency, and enabled HTTPS by default.

Gmail has always been using SSL to encrypt the authentication credentials sent from the login page. However, past the login page and accessing messages, all communication has been in the clear. Users have been accessing their messages over an unencrypted session. Users could choose to use SSL for the entire session, but since encryption would make Gmail slower, Gmail did not use it by default.

The latest change means the entire session will be encrypted by default.

If you haven't enabled SSL for the entire session before, you may see more latency when accessing Gmail. Encrypting data requires more resources. As Schillace comments in the post:

Over the last few months, we've been researching the security/latency tradeoff and decided that turning https on for everyone was the right thing to do.

To Gmail's credit, it's the only free web email provider that appears to be offering the use of SSL for the entire session. Microsoft's Live Mail and Yahoo Mail offer SSL-encrypted login pages, but there's no option to use SSL for the entire session. It's about time they follow suit.

Microsoft and Research in Motion announce full BES support for Exchange 2010

Microsoft and Research in Motion have just announced full BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) support for Exchange 2010 - the earliest customers have been able to deploy BlackBerry smartphones with a new Exchange release— ever.

You'll need the just-released Update Rollup 1 for Exchange 2010, Exchange Server MAPI Client v6.5.8147, and BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.01 Maintenance Release 1 (MR1).

More from Paul Bowden in BlackBerry Enterprise Server fully supported on Exchange 2010 on the Exchange team blog.

Prevx Apologizes: So-Called Windows 'Black Screen' not caused by Windows Update

Interestingly, after reporting last Friday 'Black Screen woes could affect millions on Windows 7, Vista and XP', and causing a furor amongst IT pros, users and the media, Prevx apologized for claiming a patch applied by Windows Update was the cause of the so-called 'Black Screen of Death'.

In last week's post, Prevx stated:

If you Google Black Screen then you will find a whopping 80 Million plus results, mostly dominated by people searching for a fix to this problem. Thousands of users have resorted to reloading Windows as a last ditch effort to fix the problem, avoid that at all cost. We hope we can help a good many of you avoid the need to reload.

Clicking on the link provided in Prevx's blog post, and the search results are nowhere close to the "whopping 80 Million plus results" Prevx claimed in its blog post. In fact, the number is inflated by almost 100%, and there's a good chance it's not 40 million users facing the issue, or even 20, 10, or 1 million.



On Monday (11/30), Microsoft said it is investigating the issue. A Microsoft representative also said:

Based on our investigation so far we can say that we're not seeing this as an issue from our support organization. The issues as described also do not match any known issues that have been documented in the security bulletins or (knowledge base) articles."

On Tuesday (12/1), Microsoft's Security Response Communications lead Chris Budd said in a statement:

The company has found those reports to be inaccurate and our comprehensive investigation has shown that none of the recently released updates are related to the behavior described in the reports.

Microsoft also said it had not been contacted by Prevx before going public with the issue. More in Microsoft: November security updates are fine on News.com.

Prevx backtracked in a follow-up post yesterday (12/1):

Having narrowed down a specific trigger for this condition we've done quite a bit of testing and re-testing on the recent Windows patches including KB976098 and KB915597 as referred to in our previous blog. Since more specifically narrowing down the cause we have been able to exonerate these patches from being a contributory factor.

Prevx apologized for the faux pax. However, its original post and the follow-up apology says nothing about informing Microsoft about a potential issue caused by a patch.

Tempting as it is to rush to blog and tweet about a critical bug or security issue one may have discovered, the responsible behavior is to contact the vendor, report the issue and request or even demand an investigation and a fix. As a customer you have every right to do so, and depending on the severity and impact of an issue, expect a fix within a reasonable time frame. If the vendor does not investigate or provide any explanation, go public.

This is not to say that the "black screen" issue many users may have been facing isn't real, but it's no excuse for insufficient testing, irresponsible reporting, and inflating the impact (quite dramatically in this case).

Office 2010 Beta: Outlook 2010 Shines

Now that Office 2010 Beta is officially available for download to TechNet and MSDN subscribers, here's a quick shout out to the Outlook team for what's shaping up to be an excellent, super-impressive, fabulous new release of Microsoft Outlook!

I've always preferred web-based apps, including Outlook Web Access (OWA) in the past, and Outlook Web App (still OWA!) in Exchange 2010. Like most IT pros, I use many different computers during the course of a day - laptops, desktops, servers, virtual machines, and RDP sessions. OWA is a natural fit for this type of usage.

But Outlook 2010 has won me over for its user experience, features, and user experience (in that order). Web-based e-mail apps/providers, with the exception of OWA 2010 of course, do not provide a comparable experience, and although a lot of emailing is now done on "Exchange ActiveSync-capable" mobile devices, if you have to use email on a real computer, there's no better way to email than Outlook 2010.

Want to check out how cool Outlook 2010 is? There's a video for that. Play it full screen to clearly see Outlook 2010 quick demos.

Exchange Server 2010 Released

Microsoft announced the release of Exchange Server 2010 today at Microsoft TechEd 2009 in Berlin. The release marks the first version of Exchange Server designed for the cloud, and provides customers the option of deploying it on-premises— the way Exchange Server has always been deployed, or use it as a service hosted by Microsoft, or a combination of the two.

Exchange Server CVP Rajesh Jha posts on the Exchange team blog:

This has been an incredible engineering endeavor that no one else in the industry comes close to delivering. Today, we've successfully scaled Exchange 2010 to more than 15 million Outlook Live accounts around the world and, moving forward, to millions more with Exchange Online. Our promise to deliver a seamless Exchange experience on premises with the server, in the cloud as a service or a combination of the two truly gives customers choice and peace of mind.

More in Exchange Server 2010 is now available worldwide! on the Exchange team blog.

Want to take Exchange 2010 for a test drive? Microsoft provides multiple ways for trying Exchange 2010. You can try Exchange 2010 by downloading the 120-day trial, or the pre-configured virtual machine for use with Windows 2008 Hyper-V. You can also experience Exchange 2010 and Office Communications Server 2007 R2 free for 60-days by signing up for the Unified Communications Virtual Experience.

Exchange Server 2010 120-day Trial: Build 14.00.0639.021
Exchange 2010 Release Candidate VHD: Exchange Server 2010 VHD image: This is a pre-configured VHD image which gets you started on your Exchange 2010 evaluation quickly without having to setup everything from scratch. Requires Windows 2008 Hyper-V.

Some links to get you started on the road to Exchange 2010:

• Overview | What's New | Documentation
  
• Licensing: On-Premise Licensing for Exchange Server 2010
  
• Pricing | Licensing & Pricing FAQ | Purchasing Options
  
• Exchange 2010 Forum
  

Windows 2008 R2 Support Coming for Exchange 2007

Exchange 2007 will be supported on Windows Server 2008 R2, Kevin Allison, GM Exchange Customer Experience, posted on the Exchange team blog today. With the general availability of Exchange 2010 just around the corner, Microsoft had earlier decided not to update Exchange 2007 to support its latest server operating system. Exchange 2007 is supported on Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, and Windows Server 2008. This change in course is a result of customer feedback.

An update to Exchange 2007 will be released some time next year to enable full support for Windows Server 2008 R2. More in Supporting Exchange 2007 on Windows Server 2008 R2 on the Exchange team blog.

Another Gmail Outage

After a widespread outage earlier this month, Google's Gmail web-based email service is reporting yet another outage today— this time affecting only "a small subset of users". More from Stephen Shankland in Gmail outage hits 'small subset of users'.

Gmail Outages And Cloud Availability

Google's Gmail service had yet another widespread outage on Tuesday at 12:30 PM which lasted more than 3 hours between 100 minutes (according to Google) to 2 ½ hours (according to PC World). News of the outage quickly spread like a wildfire on social media networks, where it quickly earned the epitaph of Gfail. A great day for Twitter and Facebook! Even by Google's own account, it was a "big deal".

Google's Ben Treynor, VP Engineering and Site Reliability Czar, apologized for the outage in a blog post on the Gmail blog, and explained the technical details of what caused it. I like his well-crafted response for most part, and although he calls it as it is ("Gmail's web interface had a widespread outage..."), when your web interface is the primary or only interface used by most customers to access your service, for customers the service is down.

With each outage, I've reminded myself that in spite of the best efforts of system and service architects to build as much high availability and quick recovery mechanisms in place, outages do occur— just as they do in your on-premise systems and services, and that there's nothing to be alarmed about unless it forms a pattern.

The latest outage, and the reported reason for it— a capacity miscalculation according to News.com's Tom Krazit, makes me a little uncomfortable. I use Gmail (there, I said it... just as I use Hotmail/Live, Yahoo!, several flavors of Exchange Server, and other POP/IMAP-based messaging systems), but using it as the primary email system for business, even for free, would be a difficult decision.

As organizations consider the move to the cloud, high availability is one of the many factors that must be carefully considered, and the potential of widespread loss of productivity must be factored in when calculating the cost savings. Additionally, if you rely on a cloud-based e-mail service, an outage like this also brings to a standstill the frantic e-mail and collaboration activity that goes on inside an organization that's dependent on e-mail. What adds to further loss of productivity is the fact that most users using a web-based e-mail service do not have a local copy of their data. Gmail, and other web-based e-mail providers do provide access to e-mail accounts using POP/IMAP e-mail clients, which allows you to download messages to your computer. But when was the last time you used a POP/IMAP client to access your web-based e-mail service?

To make the situation worse, if you depend on the same cloud-based service for your productivity apps such as word processing, spreadsheets, etc., you may as well have taken the day (or at least the few hours) off. Nik Curilovic reports in Gmail Now Really Down - Can I Get My Email Back Please (Update: Its Back) on TechCrunch.com:

I use Apps For Domain for everything - my contacts, my email, my todo list, my chat, my documents and more recently, my phone. As soon as it went down, I noticed in less than a second. I am now completely stuck, after a few months of being impressed by how I was able to run my entire life on Google.

Gmail is covered by the Google Apps SLA, which promises an uptime of 99.9%. Going by the proverbial "Nines of High Availability" calculation you've no doubt heard many times over in high availability presentations, three nines (or 99.9% up time) allows approximately 8.76 hours of unplanned down-time in a year. Yesterday's outage consumed more than one third of that.

Gmail's Site Reliability Manager, Acacio Cruz, says in a Current Gmail Outage post on the official Google blog:

Obviously we’re never happy when outages occur, but we would like to stress that this is an unusual occurrence.

PC World's JR Raphael notes:

While "frequent" would probably be an exaggeration when it comes to describing Gmail outages, "unusual" might be missing the mark by a hair, too.

Raphael chronicles Gmail outages in Gmail Outage Marks Sixth Downtime in Eight Months.

The total downtime, as stated by Raphael in the above article, is approximately 71 hours or more! The three longest outages lasted 30 hours, 24 hours, and 15 hours respectively. Yesterday's outage was world-wide.

To Gmail's defense, with the highly distributed nature of web-based services that have a global reach and are likely spread over many data centers in different parts of the world, a single user wouldn't have been affected by all outages. But it's an alarming number nevertheless. If you were affected by all the outages, it would translate to less than 99% availability (99.97% availability allows you little over one day of downtime), a figure most organizations wouldn't be comfortable with. On the flip side, Google would've rewarded you with 7 days of free service, "at no charge to customer" according to the Google Apps SLA— if you notify Google within 30 days from the time you become eligible for the credit.

If your organization require a higher SLA for its messaging system, and you've deployed high availability configurations to achieve higher uptime, this cloud clearly isn't for you.

How does Gmail's SLA and uptime stack up against your organization's internal SLA for e-mail? Will your users be satisfied with Gmail's report card?

Exchange 2007 SP2 Released, Adds PowerShell v2 and Exchange 2010 Support

Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 is now available for download. SP2 adds support for Windows Powershell v2, and allows coexistence with Exchange Server 2010.

SP2 also adds support for VSS backups of Exchange 2007 on Windows Server 2008. More in Details of Exchange 2007 SP2 in-box backup when running on Windows Server 2008 on the Exchange team blog.

There's also support for monitoring named properties. For background, see Jason Nelson's post Named Properties, X-Headers, and You. As Jason notes in Named Properties, Round 2: What lies Ahead

(In SP2) ...No x-headers are ever promoted to individual properties if a client has not already requested (and mapped) them.

Finally, head over to Service Pack 2 Preview: Get-NamedProperty for more details on how to use Get-NamedProperty.

Exchange 2007 SP2 updates the Active Directory schema. Details of schema changes, including new attributes and classes, and modifications to existing ones can be found in Active Directory Schema Changes (SP2).

Note, once you install SP2, you cannot uninstall it without uninstalling Exchange 2007 from the server.

Microsoft recommends upgrading Exchange 2007 servers in the following order:

1. Client Access Servers (CAS)
   
2. Unified Message (UM) servers
   
3. Hub Transport servers
   
4. Edge Transport servers
   
5. Mailbox servers

More details and important deployment considerations in Exchange 2007 SP2 Release Notes.

Released: Exchange 2010 Release Candidate

Microsoft has released Exchange 2010 Release Candidate— a feature-complete version of the next release of Exchange Server. It is available for download here. You will be able to upgrade from the Release Candidate to the RTM version, due later this year.

Looking back, Exchange has come a long way in its 14-year history. Microsoft's Michael Atalla notes in a blog post on the Exchange team blog:

When we shipped the first version of Exchange about fourteen years ago, IBM/Lotus dominated the space. According to a 2008 Ferris research report, Notes/Domino share has dwindled to a mere 10% in enterprises, while Exchange has grown to 65% market share across all organizations and continues to grow with more than 4.7M starting the switch to Exchange last year. In fact, Exchange is now is approaching $2B in annual revenues. If Exchange were a standalone business, it would be the 9th largest software company in the world. We expect that momentum to accelerate with Exchange 2010, the most compelling version yet.

More in Exchange Server 2010 Release Candidate Available Today!

Exchange 2010 is a 64-bit only release— Microsoft released a 32-bit version of Exchange 2007 for testing and training, during Exchange's transition to the 64-bit platform. Not surprisingly, in-place upgrades from previous Exchange Server versions are not supported. (In-place upgrades stopped being supported from Exchange 2007, and most Exchange folks do not prefer or use this method for upgrading Exchange servers.)

There is a lot to look forward to in Exchange 2010, and end-users will enjoy the many new features. I am particularly excited about the new Outlook Web App (yes, the new OWA. Note, the acronym remains the same), the productivity-boosting conversation view that'll help users better manage their email, MailTips, the new self-help features including users' ability to track messages from OWA and manage distribution groups. There's plenty to look forward to for IT pros and organizations as well, and we'll continue to look at these new features on Exchangepedia.

The 'Catastrophic' Windows 7 bug and security vulnerability that never was

Perhaps I should've used a different headline for this post. Something like "InfoWorld's conspiracy to derail the Windows 7 product launch". But that would be giving in to exactly the temptation I want to highlight— the one many bloggers, writers, and editors fall victim to, or otherwise find hard to resist in the quest for more pageviews.

Somewhere in the blogosphere, someone reports a "critical Windows 7 bug". One tech writer sees it as a "catastrophic bug" in Windows 7 which could "derail the Windows 7 launch".

Although the writer didn't discover the bug, and I'm not quite sure if the headlines are the writer's own or the handiwork of an over-zealous editor, but the outcome is an article with a sensational headline that screams for attention— Critical Windows 7 bug risks derailing product launch.

The sub-headline is equally interesting: An apparent fatal flaw in the NTFS driver stack may bring Microsoft's Windows 7 impending victory parade to a grinding halt.

What's wrong with Windows 7? In the writer's words:

The bug in question -- a massive memory leak involving the chkdsk.exe utility -- appears when you attempt to run the program against a secondary (that is, not the boot partition) hard disk using the "/r" (read and verify all file data) parameter. The problem affects both 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and is classified as a "showstopper" in that it can cause the OS to crash (Blue Screen of Death) as it runs out of physical memory.

Sounds like a serious security vulnerability, and the writer suggests it is exactly that.

Also worth considering: This command can be executed in a nonelevated context under the looser Windows 7 UAC implementation (Vista requires elevation of this command via the normal user consent dialog before continuing). Not only is this a potentially catastrophic bug from a functional standpoint, it also opens up a new attack vector for malicious code. Hackers may be able to use this unprotected command to destabilize a system (by consuming almost all available RAM), and in extreme cases, cause it to fail altogether.

As reported, Microsoft has not been able to reproduce the bug.

I waited till I actually had the RTM code, and had the time to install and try this out on a couple of computers. Not only have I not been able to reproduce the blue screen, but as you can see in the following screenshot, UAC actually does prevent you from running chkdsk! And this is plain vanilla Windows 7 RTM with no updates, hotfixes, or changes to UAC settings.


Figure 1: UAC prevents running chkdsk /r on a computer with Windows 7 RTM.

The writer's implication of this being a catastrophic bug that opens up a new attack vector is not true. The command is not "unprotected"— Windows requires an elevated prompt to run chkdsk.

I also ran the command with an elevated prompt, and failed again! Chkdsk did consume a fair amount of available memory, but nowhere close to the "massive amounts of memory" reported by the writer. Needless to say, the much feared blue screen of death (BSOD) was never encountered. (As a sidenote, I've not seen a blue screen in a long time. The last time I saw it was when I knowingly installed an unsigned driver, bypassing Windows' warnings urging me not to do so! When was the last time you saw one?)


Figure 2: Chkdsk consumes a fair amount of memory, but nowhere close to 90%. It graciously releases memory when required for other tasks.

On further testing, I also noticed that chkdsk graciously released memory when the system required it for other tasks, such as running other programs [see screenshot]. This is not very different from how Exchange Server has historically behaved as far as memory consumption goes. Some tasks require more memory, and if more memory is available, perhaps it's intended to be used at some point?

As a more-than-reasonably-technically-savvy user, I do not recollect running chkdsk more than once or twice in almost a decade. Yet, a so-called bug that can't really be reproduced easily— or reproduced at all, somehow becomes a catastrophic bug that "risks derailing product launch". Noted author and ZDNet columnist Ed Bott responds with A killer Windows 7 bug? Sorry, no. Ed explains further why this is not at all what it's made out to be.

In an unusual response, Windows division president Steven Sinofsky left a comment on the blog that reported this issue. Says Sinofsky:

While we appreciate the drama of ‘critical bug' and then the pickup of ‘showstopper' that I've seen, we might take a step back and realize that this might not have that defcon level.

And as you may have guessed, that got faithfully reported by InfoWorld in Windows president tries to calm fears of critical Windows 7 bug. Yet another headline for InfoWorld, and no questions asked about who stoked the fear to begin with.

[Update: Steven Sinofsky explains how Microsoft deals with bug reports, partially in response to this issue. Read What we do with a bug report? on the Engineering Windows 7 blog.]

Having had my own brush with InfoWorld editors and writers in the past (Details in "Save XP" Campaign: InfoWorld responds, and the facts about downgrade rights), all I can say is— it saddens me to see what used to be a well-regarded technical journal for geeks (and still has some excellent experts and writers I admire) accelerate its pace towards becoming the MAD magazine of tech journalism.

Trust Thy Certificate? New SSL Vulnerabilities Revealed At BlackHat 2009

It's BlackHat time in Vegas, and I was expecting some interesting security revelations to make headlines, but not as serious as the SSL vulnerability revealed by independent security researcher Moxie Marlinspike. Moxie showed a way to intercept SSL traffic using what he calls a null-termination certificate. Reportedly, some programs terminate processing of a certificate's subject name when they come across a null character.

The implications? A certificate issued to www.paypal.com\0.thoughtcrime.org might be read as belonging to www.paypal.com. The risk isn't that users could be tricked into visiting a phishing web site— that seems pretty trivial these days. This vulnerability opens the door for more dangerous man-in-the-middle attacks that can go undetected and intercept data from supposedly secure sessions, such as those used for online banking or stock trading, amongst others.

Moxie demonstrated such a man-in-the-middle attack using code that allowed him to intercept SSL traffic undetected. What increases the risk— according to him it can be used to intercept FireFox update requests, which depend on SSL. It's not hard to guess the consequences of such a compromise. With a modified copy of FireFox and his tool, "...anytime you submit something to a site it sends me a copy", he revealed.

Are other browsers vulnerable? Yes, but not to a similar extent. It would be harder on Internet Explorer, since it uses code signing to ensure the authenticity and integrity of code.

Ready, Set, 7: Windows 7 Released To Manufacturing

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 were released to manufacturing (RTMed) today. These will become generally available on October 22nd.

IT Pros and developers with TechNet or MSDN subscriptions will be able to download the English version on August 6th, with other languages following on October 1st.

If you've been waiting to get a new computer with Windows 7 pre-installed, you may have to wait a little longer as most hardware manufacturers complete their shipping images.

UAE BlackBerry Update A Surveillance App

Unsuspecting BlackBerry customers in the UAE have been pushed out a surveillance app disguised as a BlackBerry update by telco Etisalat. Rather than improve BlackBerry handheld performance, the update emails received messages back to a central server! After downloading the app developed by Milpitas, CA-based SS8, a provider of communications intercept and surveillance solutions, users reported significantly reduced battery life, poor reception and in some cases, handsets stopped working altogether.

The telco in question calls it a "slight technical fault", saying that the "upgrades were required for service enhancements".

BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion said that it did not authorize the software installation and "was not involved in any way in the testing, promotion or distribution of this software application."

"Independent sources have concluded that it is possible that the installed software could ... enable unauthorized access to private or confidential information stored on the user's smart phone,' it said in a statement.

More in RIM Warns Update Has Spyware on WSJ.com.

Macs discover AutoDiscover: Exchange Server Support in Snow Leopard

Apple's iPhone and new Mac hardware announcements are certainly going to get a lot more airplay today, but there's something Exchange users (who use Macs) will welcome. Snow Leopard, Apple's forthcoming Mac OS upgrade adds Exchange Server support to the Mac.

From Phil Schiller's keynote at Apple's WWDC 2009, the following screenshot (courtesy Engadget) shows support for Exchange 2007's AutoDiscover web service, used to automatically configure Exchange clients such as Outlook 2007, and discover other Exchange services.



Recipients in the Global Address List (GAL) show up in the Address Book.



You can also drag a contact and drop in the Calendar to schedule a meeting. Of course, Windows/Outlook users have been used to this functionality for a while.



More details as they're made public, although if you don't want to wait for Snow Leopard to arrive, take a look at Exchange Server features supported by Entourage 2008, the equivalent of Microsoft Outlook for the Mac, and a part of Office 2008 for Mac.

Microsoft responds to VMWare's FUD

Much as I love blogging, I'm quite enjoying this unannounced break the past 3 weeks or so! A lot of interesting news, events (including TechEd 2009 in L.A.) and tidbits over the past weeks, and I'm sure you've kept up with it. (Incidentally, this also happened to be the first year in a long while when I actually took a break from TechEd!) What prompted me to end my unannounced break is the rather interesting turn the VMWare FUD has taken, with Microsoft's Jeff Woolsey, Principal Group Program Manager in the Windows Server Hyper-V team actually responding to VMWare on the Virtualization team blog.

Let's take a few steps back and look at the sequence of events.

Hyper-V Wows IT Pros and Critics Alike
It's no big secret that Microsoft's Hyper-V virtualization platform has wowed users and critics alike in its very first release. ZDNet's Mary-Jo Foley posted a review of the pre-release Hyper-V code (by Jason Perlow):

Even though Hyper-V is still pre-1.0 code, I think Microsoft has done a bang-up job with its hypervisor, and it may just turn this Linux freak a Windows 2008 junkie for running his own personal virtualization needs. While VMWare's ESX is still superior on a number of fronts, including its aforementioned VMotion technology and its more powerful cluster management tools, Microsoft has certainly sent a major warning shot across its bow and the bows of the respective Linux vendors, as well.

More in Review: Microsoft's Hyper-V puts VMWare and Linux on notice on ZDNet.com.

InfoWorld's Randall C. Kennedy, who can never be accused of writing a kind word for Microsoft by any stretch of the imagination, calls Hyper-V a "technically sound, well-performing hypervisor..." in Test Center reveiw: Microsoft's Hyper-V does the trick.

I've been using Hyper-V myself for a while now, and given how easy it is to deploy as a server role in Windows Server 2008, or as a standalone virtualization server using Hyper-V Server 2008, I'm admittedly a big fan and excited about where this train's headed.

Scott Drummonds' Video: VMWare FUD?
Back to the VMWare episode— On May 1, 2009, a video titled "Hyper-V Crashes in Consolidated Environments" is posted on YouTube by drummonds1974. The video, which seems to have been updated since then, leads with the following text :

On April 30, 2009, Microsoft TechNet and MSDN went down.
In 2008, Microsoft announced TechNet and MSDN migration to Hyper-V.
Are these two events related?

The video shows some VMs running on Hyper-V crashing, and the mystery voice-over informs you Hyper-V is running a workload "based on VMmark". VMmark, in case you aren't already familiar with it, is an "industry-standard" virtualization benchmark— developed by VMWare.

Of course, no technical details about the particular test or the scenario are provided in the video. Towards the end, drummonds1974 quips:

.. in one of our tests, we actually got the parent partition to crash, which brought down the entire server. Here's a bluescreen of that happening...

You can't be blamed for thinking "Perhaps a childish prank by a newbie sysadmin who just learnt a new trick or two?"

The final screen of the video boldly concludes: Consolidated workloads crash Hyper-V.

The video was posted by Scott Drummonds, Technical Marketing Manager at VMWare.

Microsoft responds
Jeff Woolsey responded to the video in Hyper-V Winning Daily/VMWare FUD Reaching New Heights. Excerpt:

The poster, who doesn't appear on the video, doesn't state what company he works for or provide any context. Gee, I wonder where he works.

and

On the Hyper-V team, we run thousands of stress tests per week and the stress tests we run are far more invasive than the test in this video. So, I consulted our Hyper-V Supportability Program Manager and dug deeper. I wanted to know if we've had any Hyper-V crashes reported. Here's what I found out.

Of the 750,000 downloads, we've had 3 reports of crashes under stress and with the same error code as seen in the video bugcheck (0x00020001). The solution in all three cases was to upgrade the server BIOS which solved the problem. This can happen as hypervisors interact very closely with hardware and BIOS updates generally inlcude updated microcode for processors ofteintimes to address errata.

In case you're wondering, VMWare has had similar crashes with older BIOSes as well. Here.

Round 2: Drummonds' non-response
May 15, 2009: (The timestamp can't be correct, because Woosley's response to this post is actually dated May 9th... !) Back at VMWare, Scott Drummonds responds with Video on Hyper-V Crashes. Scott states:

..The video and descriptive text have raised more questions than answers.

Now, like me, if you watched the entire video about 5 times in an attempt to get any answers, much as you would appreciate the conciseness of Drummond's video, it was devoid of any answers. Drummonds continues to bash Hyper-V in his response:

...the run rules were violated to make Hyper-V produce its best results...

Nice!

09 May 09 09:17: Over on the Virtualization team blog, Woolsey responds with Day Two of the Scott Drummonds VMWare FUD Fiasco. Rather than quote parts of it here, I'll let you read it and come to your own conclusion.

Of course, it doesn't end here!

Round 3: VMWare Responds, Again
May 14, 2009: VMWare's Bruce Herndon responds in Setting the Record Straight on the Hyper-V Video:

I am not exactly pleased to be writing on this particular subject in a public venue...

I can't help but comment here - Herndon is not exactly pleased about responding, but apparently, posting a public video on YouTube appears to be perfectly alright.

I had hoped that this whole kerfuffle would quickly die down, but it shows little sign of abating....

You hoped? Wihtout any details forthcoming for two weeks while a colleague from product marketing amateurishly bashes a competitor's product? As Woolsey points out,

In the meantime, VMware Sales Staff emails customers and would be customers to "check out this video" and VMware senior architects Twitter to "check out this video on You Tube"

Herndon ends his post with:

In the mean time, we intend to focus on helping to build amazing rock-solid products that our competitors can’t yet imagine.

Needless to say, I'm truly amazed by the attitude and tone of VMWare's posts!

Rather than reproducing Herndon's post and commenting on every bit, I'll let you head over to the Virtualization team's response from 17 May 09 10:01: VMware FUD Fiasco Part 3....

All I can say is— it's not the VMWare I know, and certainly not the many fine folks who work at its Palo Alto headquarters (I'm super-impressed with their new campus.. every bit as cool as Google's!). Perhaps the pressure of having real competition to deal with changes things? As Jason Perlow pointed out not too long ago:

Hyper-V represents the first stage of the mass-commodization of hypervisor technology, and if this beta release is any indication, it’s going to be a rough ride ahead for Microsoft’s competitors.

Windows 7's Windows XP Mode: Removing Application Compatiblity From The Equation

Earlier yesterday, Paul Thurrott and Rafael Rivera revealed a secret new feature in Windows 7— Windows XP Mode (XPM). XPM allows you to run Windows XP in a virtualized session, and includes a license for Windows XP SP3. As Thurrott & Rivera's blog post says:

Windows XP Mode dramatically changes the compatibility story for Windows 7 and, we believe, has serious implications for Windows development going forward.

Interestingly, XPM does not require you to run a separate desktop with Windows XP. Applications installed in the virtual environment are published to the Windows 7 host and shortcuts placed in the host's Start menu. Users can run Windows XP applications (installed in XPM) directly and transparently in Windows 7 desktop!

All I can say is— this is super cool! And although I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, it seems application compatibility is quickly headed to be a non-issue with Windows 7.

More details in Secret No More: Revealing Windows XP Mode for Windows 7 on Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows, and screenshots in Windows XP Mode for Windows 7 Screens.

Scott Woodgate confirmed it later in Coming Soon: Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC on the Windows Blog.

Released: Exchange 2010 Beta

The word is out— the product hitherto known as E14 has hit the streets as Exchange 2010 beta! Download it here (Note: 64-bit only).

As Exchange CVP Rajesh Jha points out on the Exchange team blog (read 'Presenting Exchange 2010'), the latest and greatest version of Exchange Server is built from the ground up with Software + Services in mind, and is already being used by 5 million Outlook Live users! In case you missed it, Outlook Live is the free email service available to universities, formerly known as Exchange Labs.

The reviews are already pouring in:

• InfoWorld: Exchange 2010 beta shines
  
• eWeek: Microsoft Exchange 2010 Beta Looks Solid from Core to Cloud
  
• Slideshow: Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Includes Welcome Improvements, where you can see some screenshots.

Exchange Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer: Test Exchange from outside the firewall

Exchange 2007 brought with it a number of Exchange shell cmdlets that let you test Exchange functionality (scroll down to the end of this post for a list of the test cmdlets). But how do you test Exchange services are actually available and usable from the Internet?

Have you longed for an Exchange cmdlet like Test-ExchangeConnectivity which could test your Exchange services such as Outlook Anywhere, AutoDiscover, Exchange ActiveSync, and SMTP from outside your firewall?



Now there is! Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer is a web-based service that lets you test Exchange functionality and availability from the Internet. Best of all— it's free!

Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer answers your Exchange operations questions, such as:

1. Can my Exchange server receive inbound Internet/SMTP email?
   
2. Can my Outlook Anywhere (aka "RPC over HTTP" in Exchange 2003) clients connect from outside the firewall?
   
3. Can my mobile users connect using Exchange ActiveSync phones/devices?
   
4. Does AutoDiscover work for Outlook 2007 clients?
   
5. Does AutoDiscover work for Exchange ActiveSync clients?
   
6. Are the certificates used for these services valid?

Head over to Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer at testexchangeconnectivity.com. More details, and a great video, in Announcing the release of Exchange Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer on the Exchange team blog.

Exchange 2007's Built-In Test Cmdlets
Here's a list of Exchange 2007 Test Cmdlets. Although these test cmdlets aren't intended to replace full-fledged monitoring software or diagnostics systems, they do allow you to test a lot of Exchange functionality quickly and easily, without having to fire up a console or browser!

1. Test-ActiveSyncConnectivity: Lets you test ActiveSync synchronization
   
2. Test-EdgeSynchronization: Test EdgeSync status of subscribed Edge Transport servers, including whether a specified recipient is synchronized
   
3. Test-ExchangeSearch: Test Exchange Search status/health for a specified server or individual mailbox.
   
4. Test-ImapConnectivity: Test IMAP functionality on a Client Access Server
   
5. Test-IPAllowListProvider: Test if an IP address is listed in an IP Allow List Provider (a DNS-based list, think of it as the opposite of an IP Block List Provider or RBL)
   
6. Test-IPBlockListProvider: Test whether an IP address is listed in an IP Block List Provider (aka RBL)
   
7. Test-Mailflow: Test mailflow, including mail submission, transport, and delivery, from the System Mailbox on an Exchange Server to another Exchange Server or specified email address
   
8. Test-MAPIConnectivity: Test MAPI connectivity to an Exchange server or a specified mailbox. A MAPI logon is performed. This test will also create a mailbox in the MDB for those freshly created/enabled mailboxes that haven't been logged on to.
   
9. Test-OutlookWebServices: Test AutoDiscover configuration for Outlook 2007.
   
10. Test-OwaConnectivity: Test connectivity to Outlook Web Access, including certificate validation.
    
11. Test-PopConnectivity: Test POP3 connectivity for a specified Client Access Server
    
12. Test-ReplicationHealth: Test the health of Continuous Replication
    
13. Test-SenderId: Test SenderID status for a specified IP Address (the sending host) and domain.
    
14. Test-ServiceHealth: Test the status of services set to start automatically.
    
15. Test-SystemHealth:
    
16. Test-WebServicesConnectivity:

Google Docs' Privacy Blunder: Shares Your Docs Without Permission

Just as I was beginning to warm up to certain kinds of cloud computing comes news of Google Docs' "privacy blunder". Google has sent a notice to a number of users notifying them that it may have inadvertently shared some of their documents with contacts who were never granted access to them. Jason Kincaid writes in TechCrunch:

According to the notice, this sharing was limited to people “with whom you, or a collaborator with sharing rights, had previously shared a document” - a vague statement that sounds like it could add up to quite a few people. The notice states that only text documents and presentations are affected, not spreadsheets, and provides links to each of the user’s documents that may have been shared in error.

Needless to say, information security and privacy is probably one of the biggest concerns for most organizations when considering a move to cloud services. I point this out not only because it's Google's security lapse today, but as we continue to move to more cloud-based services with different vendors, the possibility of such security incidents occurring with other service providers cannot be ignored.

More in 'Google Privacy Blunder Shares Your Docs Without Permission' on TechCrunch.com.

Revealed: Windows Mobile 6.5, Marketplace, and MyPhone Service at MWC

The moment finally arrived. At a much anticipated press conference at MWC 2009 in Barcelona, Spain, Microsoft revealed Windows Mobile 6.5, the next version of Windows Mobile software that will power smartphones from many mobile headset manufacturers such as LG and HTC.

Microsoft also announced Windows Marketplace for Mobile, an app store that will provide Windows Mobile apps, and MyPhone, a service to synchronize data on your Windows Mobile phone to the web.

Did pigs fly? Exchange embraces FireFox, Safari

It was a common belief Microsoft would never support the premium Outlook Web Access (OWA) experience on web browsers other than Internet Explorer (IE). OWA Premium, as you may already know, is the feature-rich OWA. Non-IE browsers such as FireFox and Safari have been relegated to the “reach” experience of OWA Light, with a reduced feature set. When asked if Microsoft would ever support the OWA Premium experience on other browsers, the common response from the skeptics has forever been: Sure, when pigs fly.

If Microsoft licensing ActiveSync to Google (earlier this week..!) was a precursor of things to come, this year may prove to be the Year-of-the-Flying-Pig!

In a video just posted on the Exchange team blog, KC Lemson announces full browser parity in Exchange14, the next version of Exchange Server, and ExchangeLabs— the services offering already running on Exchange14. The video includes a demo of Exchange 14’s support for FireFox, and Safari, in all its premium goodness. This puts all the three popular browsers on par for accessing Exchange14 using Outlook Web Access.

ExchangeLabs, the hosted Exchange service (aka "Exchange-in-the-cloud", or the "cloud offering") Microsoft provides for free to students and alumni is now called Outlook Live. It already hosts 3.5 million mailboxes, and is now available to faculty and staff as well.

Also demoed in the video is the new Conversation view of email threads, something that's been on many users' wishlists. The ability to view an entire conversation together, being able to delete it together, and Exchange14’s implementation should make our lives more productive dealing with the ever-increasing volume of email.

Wait, that’s not all – Outlook Web Access/Outlook Live also includes integrated instant messaging, bringing email, voicemail, and instant messaging (IM) into a single client. Now you can see presence information integrated within OWA, and start a conversation from within the browser window.

To find out more and watch the video (including what may be the first-ever demo of Exchange features on a MacBook Pro :-), head over to ‘Introducing Outlook Live for schools – and cool new features for everyone’ on the Exchange team blog. Make sure you post what you think of the dramatic intro music in the video! :)

Newsweek: Could Silicon Valley become the next Detroit?

Unless we spend more on technology and science, companies like Apple, HP and IBM could be eclipsed by foreign rivals, according to this article in Newsweek. It's not the first time we've heard that, and it won't be the last— but equating Silicon Valley with the U.S. auto industry and projecting it may land in a similar state in the future should send chills down your spine even if you are not vested in the technology industry.

Prith Banerjee, Senior VP at HP and Director of HP Labs, the company's central research organization, says:

The rest of the world has been rapidly boosting spending on science and technology, while the United States has been, in effect, scaling back. There is a perfect storm headed toward our tech industry.

More in Silicon Valley’s Fork in the Road on Newsweek.com.

Google joins the Exchange ActiveSync bandwagon

Google is the latest addition in a long list of Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) licensees.

In what may be one of the briefest press releases ever, Microsoft announced Google's licensing Exchange ActiveSync as "a clear acknowledgement of the innovation taking place at Microsoft". Google will use ActiveSync for its Google Sync service announced today.

After Apple's embrace of ActiveSync for its iPhone, will Google add ActiveSync support to its Android mobile phone OS? The licensing agreement announced today does not cover Android, as CNET's Ina Fried reports in Microsoft, Google in rare technology pact.

CNET's Idea of Tech News

Although otherwise very readable publications/sites, some tech media outlets increasingly come up with news that really isn't news, and certainly not worthy of publication. For instance, this item in CNET's News.com: Georgetown University bans use of Windows 7 beta

Given such media coverage, you can't be blamed for wondering: "Wow, there must be something wrong with Windows 7 to prompt Georgetown to ban it!".

The fact that it's a beta, and the title of this apparently newsworthy (according to someone at CNET) item says so, doesn't quite register.

The writer quotes Paul McDougall's report from InformationWeek. It's a practice which, as you may have noticed over the past few years, absolves the quoting reporter of any responsibility to give it a serious thought or otherwise use common sense! Needless to say, "<Blah> bans the use of Windows 7 beta" is an excellent headline, bound to result in more than its fair share of page views. It sells.

Of course, there's no debate about the underlying facts - CNET's simply reporting what's been reported by another reporter in another publication! InformationWeek's original headline beats what CNET came up with: Windows 7 Beta Flunks Out Of Georgetown! It even comes with a juicier sub-title: University's IT department nixes downloads of Microsoft's new operating system.

A look at the source
To find out what Georgetown's University Information Services (UIS) really stated in its policy, let's head to the source doc on UIS' web site:

Microsoft Corporation recently released a "beta", or "pre-release", version of its new operating system, Windows 7. However, UIS strongly discourages using it.

The UIS doc goes on to explain what a beta is, and why you shouldn't install Windows 7 beta. The doc cites Microsoft's Windows 7 web site:

Microsoft's Windows 7 Web site states emphatically that there are risks associated with installing beta version of Windows 7 and that "it's not a finished product."

The doc goes on to state UIS' policy on software support.

Not trusting my own eyes, and my reading and comprehension skills, which told me the word "ban" did not show up in the UIS doc, I also used the search feature in both Internet Explorer and FireFox. As suspected, both browsers failed to find the word "ban" in the doc!

To ensure I was well into the "beyond reasonable doubt" territory, I reached out for the dictionary (the online one @ Dictionary.com), and looked up the words discourage and ban. I am now convinced, beyond a reasonable doubt, that "discourages", even when prefixed with "strongly", is not the same thing as "bans".

Unfortunately, CNET isn't the only media outlet that falls to the temptation of putting headlines and page views before fair reporting. Overall, CNET continues to do a great job of reporting tech news. (I miss Brian Cooley on CNET Radio— an important part of Silicon Valley culture for many, during the tail end of the dot com boom.)

Testing beta software
Windows 7 beta continues to receive some balanced (read "favorable") coverage, even from the naysayers.

Nevertheless, there's a reason beta software is called beta, and what's OK for an engineer at Intel may not be OK for the average non-technical user at large. Although the Windows 7 beta is remarkably stable, performs well, and is "production-ready" according to many testers and reviewers, it's not a great idea to run a beta on your "production" PCs unless you're prepared to support it yourself.

If you really want to test or play with beta software, get yourself a test box, or use virtualization software to run it in a virtual machine.

Extended Email Outage At The White House

One would have thought the email woes that plagued the previous administration would be a thing of the past. Apparently not.

Members of the still-transitioning Obama team have been without email for over eight hours, thanks to a "server outage". Ironically, even the tech-savvy Obama administration is not immune to the perpetual email woes at the White House. "Yes, Virginia, the Commander-In-Chief is without email!" Or, as CNN puts it, the "Outlook Server" went down.

Every time I come across another such incident, I can't help but wonder about the state of messaging systems, archiving, high availability, and disaster recovery at the White House. The former administration has had all sorts of trouble with all of these, and it seems to have extended to the new, tech-savvy Obama administration.

What do the White House IT operations folks go through when these events take place? It's hard enough to tell a Manager, CIO or CEO of a mid-size company that the email won't be up for 8 hours, but how do you tell the President of the United States? Particularly a President who refuses to be without a BlackBerry?

On the positive side, press secretary Robert Gibbs, who apologized on live television for the email outage, thinks working the old-fashioned way in a world without email is certainly a lot less stressful:

"I haven't had a less stressful day in five years," Gibbs joked, pointing at the BlackBerry on his desk and noting that it would make a good coaster. "The president can have my BlackBerry as far as I'm concerned."

More from Michael D. Shear in E-Mail Outage Forces White House to Operate the Oldfangled Way on WashingtonPost.com.

Gartner refutes IBM's Notes marketshare claim

In a recent press release ahead of its annual LotusSphere conference, IBM claimed that Notes is narrowing the lead Microsoft Exchange has. Garnter analyst Tom Austin says:

I don't believe that in either revenue or user seat share, that IBM is closing the gap [with Microsoft]. The gap is getting bigger and bigger.

and:

IBM may be adding Notes users, but its share of the installed base is getting smaller.

Interestingly, the Gartner statistic cited by IBM from "Gartner Dataquest's most recent report from 2008" indicating a 40% share worldwide for Lotus Notes, compared to Microsoft Exchange's 48%, was for 2007 shipments according to Austin.

The statistic is gone from an updated IBM press release.

More in 'Au contraire: Exchange's lead over Notes actually 'getting bigger and bigger,' says Gartner' on Computerworld.com.

Just posted: Exchange 14 video on Exchange team blog

The first public sighting of E14, aka Exchange 14, has been reported on the Exchange team blog! KC Lemson and Jim Lucey from the product team tell you more about the exciting developments around E14 in a video.

Head over to the team blog to see Exchange 14 in action!

Switcher's Lament: CNET Editor's Case Against The Mac

It's been a fun year watching those cute Apple commercials urging you to switch to a Mac. Yes, many of us love Apple's beautifully engineered hardware, and may have fallen for the charms of an iPhone (although strictly as a case study in usability... :), but switching to the Mac OS as your primary computing platform? I'm not so sure.

Having run Windows Server 2003, Active Directory, and Exchange 2003 on a Mac Mini in the past, I've come to love the form factor. They're virtually silent and virtually invisible— great for that lone server at home. However, if you need to run a few servers, Mac Minis can quickly get very expensive. Using Hyper-V on a loaded server is more effective.

Another great application for the Mac Mini form factor - Media Center PCs, aka HTPCs. Sony's great-looking HTPCs are available in a similar form factor. They are comparable, if not more attractive than the Mac Mini. But at $1350, the VGX-TP20E/W— the cheapest of Sony's HTPCs is priced more than what you may have paid for a decent high definition television this past holiday season!

Nothing against OS X per se - it has some nice usability touches, along with its own set of quirks. However, if you're used to using Windows, switching isn't exactly as easy as those Apple commercials make it seem.

CNET Editor Rafe Needleman laments:

But I moved us to Macs to avoid this kind of hackery....after two weeks of resisting, I am dropping back to Vista on my MacBook, at least during this critical week, when I will be covering both MacWorld and CES and will have no patience for a computer that gets in my way and apps that don't work the way they should.

Interestingly, Needleman arrives at the same conclusion as I did: Apple's hardware is great for running Windows Vista. It is also overpriced for running Windows Vista. More in Switcher's lament: The case against Mac on News.com.

Over the past year or two, we've come across quite a few switchers who continue to run Windows Vista or Windows XP using Bootcamp, Parallels, or something else. Very alluring, but thanks for now! I'd rather run Windows on a real PC.

McCain Campaign Sells Loaded BlackBerry Smartphones

As part of winding down operations, the McCain-Palin campaign ended up making yet another security foible - the campaign sold 10 BlackBerry smartphones without wiping them clean. According to Fox News, the devices with confidential campaign data on them were sold for $20 each. More in McCain Campaign Sells Info-Loaded Blackberry to FOX 5 Reporter.

SeaDragon Mobile: A Microsoft app for the iPhone?

A Microsoft App for the iPhone? Yes, that's right. LiveLabs became the first group within Microsoft to launch an application for the iPhone. It's called SeaDragon Mobile. It's available on Apple's AppStore. More on LiveLabs.com.

Released: Update Rollup 5 for Exchange 2007 SP1

Update Rollup 5 for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 has been released. Download it here.

As noted in previous posts, Exchange 2007 updates are cumulative and release-specific.

Fixes for the following issues are included (details in KB 953467):

• 925371 Domino Server does not see attachments in meeting requests from Exchange Server 2007
  
• 939037 By default, managed content settings apply to the root folder and all subfolders in an Exchange Server 2007 environment
  
• 949722 An Event 800 event message does not log the username of users who ran the Get-MessageTrackingLog command in an Exchange 2007 environment
  
• 949893 You cannot create a new mailbox or enable a mailbox in an Exchange Server 2007 environment on February 29, 2008
  
• 949895 Exchange Management Shell crashes (stops responding), and Event ID 1000 is logged when you perform a cross-forest migration from Exchange Server 2003 to Exchange Server 2007 S949895
  
• 949901 Exchange 2007 users cannot send e-mail messages to a mail-enabled public folder in a mixed Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007 environment
  
• 949968 Unified Messaging does not handle the diversion header correctly in Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1
  
• 950272 The formatting of a plain text message is incorrect when you print the plain text message by using Outlook Web Access in an Exchange Server 2007 environment
  
• 951267 An exception occurs in Exchange Management Console when you preview AddressList in an Exchange Server 2007 environment
  
• 951273 The received date and the received time of IMAP messages are changed to the time of migration after you migrate mailboxes to an Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1-based server
  
• 951505 You may receive an error message when you run the Update-SafeList cmdlet in an Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007 mixed environment
  
• 951564 Exchange 2007 S951564 Update Rollup 5 supports the addition of new items to context menus in Outlook Web Access 2007
  
• 951710 You receive error messages or warnings when you change an Active Directory schema so that the Company property supports more than 64 characters
  
• 952097 Update Rollup 5 for Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 introduces events 12003 which can be used to clarify ambiguous Event messages
  
• 952583 Japanese DBCS characters are corrupt when you reply to a message or forward a message in an Exchange Server 2007 S952583 environment
  
• 953619 A public folder conflict message cannot be delivered, and event error 1016 is logged, when the public folder name contains DBCS characters in an Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 environment
  
• 953787 You receive an error message when you try to move Exchange 2000 mailboxes or Exchange 2003 mailboxes from one forest to an Exchange 2007 server that is located in another forest by using the Move-Mailbox command
  
• 953840 Event ID 5000 occurs, and the IMAP4 service may crash, on a server that is running Exchange Server 2007 with Service Pack 1 when you use a third-party application to migrate POP3 and IMAP4 users
  
• 954036 Hidden folders or files are listed when you view a UNC file server by using OWA in an Exchange 2007 environment
  
• 954195 The task originator is not notified of task changes and task progress in an Exchange Server 2007 environment
  
• 954197 Exchange 2007 CAS cannot copy the OAB from the OAB share on Windows Server 2008-based Exchange 2007 CCR clusters
  
• 954270 Message class changes during conversion when a digitally signed Message Disposition Notification is received by a server that is running Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1
  
• 954451 An appointment item cannot be opened by a CDOEX-based application if the item is saved by Exchange Web Service together with the Culture property in Exchange Server 2007
  
• 954684 You cannot use an Outlook 2007 client to display or download an attachment when you access a message that includes an inline attachment from Exchange Server 2007
  
• 954810 An Exchange 2007 room mailbox stops processing requests after the resource booking assistant receives a delegated meeting request from an Exchange 2003 user
  
• 954887 You cannot add a Mail User or a Mail Contact to the Safe Senders list in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 by using OWA client
  
• 955001 Error message when you use the IMAP protocol to send a SEARCH command that has the CHARSET argument on an Exchange 2007 server: "BAD Command Argument Error"
  
• 955196 Log files are not copied to the target server in a standby continuous replication environment in Exchange Server 2007
  
• 955429 VSS backup application causes the Information Store service to crash repeatedly on an Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1-based server
  
• 955460 The start time and the end time of a meeting request are incorrect when a delegate uses Exchange Web Service to send the request in an Exchange 2007 environment
  
• 955480 Meeting requests from external senders are displayed as Busy instead of Tentative in an Exchange Server 2007 environment
  
• 955599 Event ID 10 messages fill up the Application log on an Exchange 2007 CAS server if an Exchange Server 2003 mailbox owner makes an Exchange Web Service call
  
• 955619 A user cannot access the mailbox by using a POP client or an IMAP client through Client Access Server in an Exchange Server 2007 environmen
  
• 955741 A message stays in the Outbox, and the message is resent until it is deleted manually on Windows Mobile 6.1-based devices in an Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 CAS proxying scenario
  
• 955946 If a private message is submitted by a SMTP sender, the sender receives an NDR message from the Exchange 2007 server
  
• 955989 The SPN registration of a cluster fails, and Error event IDs 1119 and 1034 are logged in an Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 environment
  
• 956199 The last character of a user’s Chinese display name is truncated in the Offline Address Book on an Exchange 2007 server
  
• 956319 The W3wp.exe process may crash on an Exchange 2007 CAS server after you use Entourage to send a message that is larger than 48 KB
  
• 956573 Event ID 1032 is not logged in the Application log when users send e-mail messages while they are logged in to Outlook Web Access as another user in Exchange Server 2007
  
• 956582 Exchange Server 2007 Update Rollup 3 does not update the Outlook Web Access Logon.aspx file after you modify the file
  
• 956613 The W3wp.exe process intermittently stops responding and Event ID 1000 is logged in Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1
  
• 956709 Some recurring meetings may be missing when you view the meetings using Outlook Web Access in Exchange Server 2007
  
• 957002 The Edgetransport.exe process may crash intermittently on a server that is running Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1
  
• 957137 The reseed process is unsuccessful on the CCR passive node after you restore one full backup and two or more differential backups to the CCR active node
  
• 957813 A Non-Delivery Report is generated when you try to send a high priority message that is larger than 250 KB in an Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 environment
  
• 957978 The OAB generation is unsuccessful and Event IDs 9328 and 9373 are logged in the Application log in a Windows Server 2008-based Exchange 2007 Single-Copy cluster environment
  
• 958855 The Edge Transport service crashes repeatedly, and an event error 1000 is logged repeatedly on a server that is running Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1
  
• 958856 Event ID: 7012 occurs when you search message tracking logs on an Exchange Server 2007-based server
  

Congratulations America: Electing The Tech President

Earlier tonight, as the major networks called the election and Senator John McCain gave a graceful concession speech, history was made in more ways than one. Not only did the nation elect its first African American president, it also voted for what could potentially be one of the most tech-savvy administrations ever. It's great to see a candidate aspire to be the Tech President, as the Wall Street Journal notes.

The Obama campaign executed well on several fronts. BarackObama.com was voted as the best campaign website by the Web Marketing Association. Although his technology plan is not very different from Senator McCain's plan— Senator Obama unveiled his during a visit to the Google campus in Silicon Valley almost a year ago. The McCain plan was revealed in August 2008, a few weeks before the election.

The Obama campaign made impressive use of social media— blogs, abundant online videos, YouTube, Facebook, downloadable widgets, buttons, wallpapers, etc. have been communicating the vision of a more tech-savvy candidate for a long time. Gamers who fired up Electronic Arts' Burnout Paradise on their Xbox 360 consoles were greeted with a virtual billboard by the campaign. One can't help but wonder how the Obama campaign's iPhone app contributed to building an enviable online community, and the record online campaign contributions will make an interesting case study in innovative use of technology in a political campaign.

Undoubtedly, technology has played a crucial part in this campaign. The contrasts with Senator McCain's (with the deepest respect) "self-admitted computer ignorance" is striking. It's no surprise that the Facebook generation finds a candidate who has "never felt the particular need to e-mail" less appealing than the campaign they can connect with at the touch of a cell phone icon.

Congratulations, Mr. Tech President elect!

We can hope we won't be talking about missing email in the next four years.

Microsoft TechEd 2009: Move back to 1-week format

Microsoft's premiere technical education and networking event, Microsoft TechEd 2008 was held over a 2-week period— one week for the developer audience, and the second week for IT professionals. Based on attendee feedback, TechEd reverts to the familiar 1-week format in 2009.



TechEd 2009 will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, CA, from May 11-15. Yes, after a year in Boston, and 3 years in Orlando, it's back to the west coast.

Exchange CVP Terry Myerson heads to Windows Mobile

As reported on the Exchange team blog, Terry Myerson, CVP for Exchange is heading over to Windows Mobile.

Terry came to Exchange in 2001.

Rajesh Jha, CVP for Microsoft Office Live, will be heading Exchange.

Related posts and links:

• iPhone, meet Exchange: Apple announces Exchange ActiveSync support
  
• Apple licenses Exchange ActiveSync for the iPhone
  
• Microsoft Exchange Labs
  

Introducing Windows 7

Yes, the product so far known by its codename - "Windows 7", will officially be called Windows 7.

It's the first time the official/final/release version of Windows will have the same name as its codename.

More from Mike Nash on the Windows Vista team blog.

T-Mobile G1: The 80s called...

The launch of T-Mobile's G1 phone, based on Google's Android OS, was arguably the biggest news event on the planet the day it happened. Although I'm mostly indifferent to Android, I couldn't help but chuckle at some of the media coverage and commentary.

Reader colamix comments on the G1 review on News.com:

The 80s called, they want their form factor back.

Engadget, on the G1's lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack:

Hey, that's pretty awesome that Amazon's thrown together an MP3 store app for the G1, isn't it? What would be even cooler still, though, is if you could actually listen to those tracks without a crazy dongle hanging off your phone.

Here in Silicon Valley, it's hard to avoid the myopic world-view of Google, Apple and other valley-based tech companies. San Jose Mercury News' Chris O'Brien tries to put things in perspective in "Why we'll all soon forget about Google's Android":

But isn't Android, the latest wonder to come tumbling out of the Google Innovation Factory, going to change the world? Or at least the world of mobile phones?

Nope. And Tan's response provides a little perspective on the immense hype Android has generated in Silicon Valley. Around the globe, Android is barely a blip on the radar. And that's unlikely to change.

Instead, expect Android to remain the latest in a long list of Google curiosities introduced amid great fanfare, only to quietly fade into the background.

Released: Update Rollup 4 for Exchange 2007 SP1

Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 has been released. Download it here.

Fixes for the following issues are included (details in KB 952580):

• 942649 Description of the commands that support the UseRusServer option that is imported in Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1
  
• 944831 You cannot configure Exchange Server 2007 so that the simple display name appears in outgoing messages
  
• 945854 A meeting reminder is still active when you configure Outlook to send no reminders to an Exchange Server 2007 user
  
• 945870 TAB symbols may be converted incorrectly to spaces in Exchange Server 2007
  
• 948896 Certificates that contain wildcard characters may not work correctly on an Exchange 2007-based server
  
• 948897 An attachment incorrectly appears as the body of the e-mail message in an Exchange Server 2007 environment
  
• 948923 Users do not receive information in DSN messages in Exchange Server 2007 with Service Pack 1
  
• 949512 An embedded message is removed from the attachment list on Exchange Server 2007 if the embedded message subject ends with .com, .exe, or any other blocked extension
  
• 949782 An In-Policy request that is forwarded to delegate appears as an Out-Of-Policy request if a user submits an In-Policy meeting request against a room mailbox of Exchange 2007 server
  
• 949858 The provisioning process cannot be successful when you use Microsoft Identity Lifecycle Manager (ILM) 2007 to provision user objects for Exchange Server 2007
  
• 949926 Error when you use an IMAP4 client or a POP3 client to log on to a delegate mailbox of Exchange Server 2007: "800cccd1"
  
• 950076 After you move a mailbox from Exchange Server 2003 to Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1, you cannot edit rules in Outlook Web Access
  
• 950081 Error message when users use an SMTP client to send e-mail messages in Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1: "454 4.7.0 Temporary authentication failure"
  
• 950138 You are prompted for your credentials three times and you receive an error message when you use the Outlook Anywhere feature to connect to an Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1–based server that is running Windows Server 2008
  
• 950198 You can enable AfterConversion snapshot for all messages if pipeline tracing and Content Conversion Tracing are enabled
  
• 950235 The IMAP4 or POP3 worker process may stop responding on an Exchange 2007 CAS role that is working with an Exchange 2003 back-end server
  
• 950409 The reminder is triggered earlier than expected when an Exchange Server 2007 server receives an iCalendar meeting request message over an SMTP server
  
• 950622 Messages are converted to a very small font size in Outlook Web Access and in Outlook 2003 when you use Exchange Server 2007
  
• 950976 Event ID 115 may be logged intermittently on a computer that is running Exchange Server 2007 with Service Pack 1
  
• 951067 Event ID 7034 may be logged in the Application log in Exchange Server 2007 when an MAPI application tries to access a mailbox in a certain way
  
• 951156 The message body of some appointments appears garbled after you use a mobile device that is running Traditional Chinese edition Windows Mobile 6 to synchronize appointments that was created in Outlook Web Access for Exchange Server 2007
  
• 951251 A MAPI application does not work correctly if Exchange 2007 is installed on a Windows Server 2008 server
  
• 951594 The W3svc log reports the incorrect number of attachments on an Exchange Server 2007 server that has deployed Exchange ActiveSync Service (EAS)
  
• 951747 An error occurs when you use the Export-mailbox or Restore-mailbox command to migrate certain mailboxes on Exchange Server 2007: "error code -1056749164"
  
• 951864 Some users must enter their credentials when they access rights-protected messages even though you have deployed the Rights Management Services (RMS) prelicensing agent on an Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1-based server
  
• 952152 The Autodiscover service for ActiveSync in an Exchange 2007 environment does not work for users in sites that do not have the ExternalURL property set
  
• 952250 You encounter a long delay for each mailbox when you run the "Move-Mailbox" or "Set-Mailbox" command on an Exchange Server 2007 computer
  
• 952682 Log file drives on the SCR target may eventually fill up and cause replication failure in Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1
  
• 952924 Error message when Exchange users try to access public folders that are hosted on Exchange Server 2003 by using Outlook Web Access for Exchange Server 2007: "Outlook Web Access is unable to open public folders"
  
• 953312 The "Open Message In Conflict" button is not available in the conflict notification message for Exchange Server 2007 users
  
• 954058 You can change the method for transfer encoding after you apply Update Rollup 5 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1
  
• 954205 Event ID 1113 is logged in the Application log on a Unified Messaging (UM) server when users contact the UM server by using secured connections
  
• 954237 The IMAP service crashes intermittently on Exchange 2007, and Event ID 5000 is logged
  
• 955208 Event ID 5000 occurs when the Exchange IMAP4 worker process crashes intermittently in Exchange Server 2007
  
• 956775 CopyItem and MoveItem Operations in Exchange Web Services can return the Item ID after you install Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1
  
• 957133 Description of improvements in functionality that occur in Exchange Web Services operations after you install Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1

Microsoft: "High Priest of Secure Software Development"

From a company most frequently bashed for the security woes of the world, Microsoft has morphed into what CNET calls the "high priest of secure software development", which is now helping others develop secure software.

The Trustworthy Computing Initiative started six years ago is paying off.

More in 'Microsoft becomes high priest of secure software development' on News.com.

Announced: Virtualization support for Exchange Server 2007

Exchange Server 2007 is now supported on Hyper-V and other (read "Non-Microsoft") hypervisors validated under the Microsoft Server Vitualization Validation Program. Vendors participating in the program: Citrix, Cisco Systems, Novell, Sun Micrososystems, and Virtual Iron Software.

The new support policy for Exchange in virtualized environments: Microsoft Support Policies and Recommendations for Exchange Servers in Hardware Virtualization Environments.

• What's supported: Exchange Server 2007 SP1 running on Windows Server 2008
  
• Supported Exchange 2007 Server Roles: All except Unified Messaging
  
• What Hypervisor: Microsoft Hyper-V, or any hypervisor validated by MSVVP
  
• Not supported: Differencing disks and expandable virtual disks
  
• Not supported: Taking VM snapshots (these aren't application-aware)
  
• Not supported: Combining Exchange's clustering features (SCC and CCR) with availability features from the virtualization layer, such as Hyper-V's quick migration.

A change has also been made to licensing policies allowing transfer of licenses for server applications (such as Exchange and SQL Server) between servers as frequently as required. This was earlier restricted to 90 days. This facilitates virtualization, where VMs running these server applications can be easily transferred from one server to another. More about the change in licensing policy in the Volume Licensing Brief titled Application Server License Mobility (Word DOC).

More details about the announcement in the Exchange team blog post: Microsoft Virtualization and Licensing Announcements

Released: Update Rollup 3 for Exchange Server 2007 SP1

Update Rollup 3 for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 has been released. Download it here.

Fixes for the following issues are included (details in in KB 949870):

• 937436 Error message when an Exchange 2007-based user sends a meeting request to a resource that is located in a Lotus Domino resource reservation database: "Error autoprocessing message"
  
• 941770 How to disable the "Sent by Microsoft Exchange Server 2007" branding sentence in an Exchange Server 2007 DSN message
  
• 945453 You cannot log on to Outlook Web Access in an Exchange Server 2007 environment, and you receive an error message: "HTTP Error 403.4"
  
• 947573 It takes a long time for the Exchange Management Console to load in an Exchange Server 2007 organization that was deployed in a multiple-domain environment
  
• 949206 ( The e-mail address of a contact does not appear in the Outlook Address Book after you use Exchange Web Services to edit the contact in Exchange Server 2007 with Service Pack 1
  
• 949549 Error message when you import a .pst file by running the Import-Mailbox cmdlet in Exchange Server 2007: "Unable to make connection to the server"
  
• 949778 The icons that represent TIFF attachments may not be shown correctly if the e-mail message is viewed by using Outlook Web Access 2007 in an Exchange Server 2007 environment
  
• 950153 A storage group may not mount after you move the resources from the active node to the passive node while the backup is in progress in Exchange Server 2007
  
• 950674 Web services sends meeting request information that has an incorrect time if a delegate modifies an appointment in an Exchange Server 2007 environment
  
• 951263 The heading of the "State" column is translated incorrectly in the German version of the Exchange Management Console in Exchange Server 2007
  
• 951293 Error message when you enter logon credentials after an Outlook Web Access session times out in Exchange Server 2007: "Server Error in '/ExchWeb/bin' Application"
  
• 953539 The W3wp.exe process may intermittently stop responding, and event ID 1000 is logged in Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1
  
• 950120 You cannot control the behavior of attachments on mobile devices by using the ActiveSync policy in Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1
  
• 951094 You cannot run the New-X400AuthoritativeDomain cmdlet successfully in an Exchange Server 2007 environment if an X.400 address contains a space character
  
• 953747 MS08-039: Vulnerabilities in Outlook Web Access for Exchange Server could allow elevation of privilege
  
• 950930 You cannot resolve a sender name or a recipient name when the name belongs to an alternative domain tree in Exchange Server 2007
  
• 950758 OVA announces "Unrecognized caller" in an Exchange Server 2007 environment even though Outlook and Outlook Web Access correctly resolve the caller address
  
• 951563 External e-mail message senders receive an NDR when you select the Turkish language setting on a computer that is running Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1
  

Released: RDP Client for Mac 2

If you're a Mac user, connecting to Windows servers and desktops just got a lot better. The much anticipated RDP Client for Mac 2 has been released.

The RDP Client for Mac 2 is available in 8 languages (including English). Download it here.

New features include multi-session support, new Network Level Authentication (NLA) that completes authentication before establishing an RDP session, a more Mac-like UI, wide-screen resolutions, automatic reconnects, and printing support (ability to print documents from a RDP session to the locally attached printer on your Mac).

This comes close on the heels of Microsoft Messenger for Mac 7 (M3?), released in late April. It's compatible with Office Communications Server 2007, and includes Bonjour support— go to the Office for Mac team blog to find out more.

While we're still on the subject, have you looked at Office 2008 for Mac? If you're already using it, let me know what you think!

Released: Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V

While I was away yesterday, Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V made its public debut (RTMed in Microsoftese). I know what you're thinking: Let the Microsoft PR storm begin, VMWare has a better virtualization product, and other unbloggable thoughts... :).

I've been using Hyper-V for a few months now, and all I can say is— it's been a great experience way before RTM, and I am impressed! Of all things Hyper-V that impress me, I'm blown away by the performance - it flies! This, on a desktop class machine (one that meets the CPU and other requirements, of course, but poorly-configured to be used as a server/Hyper-V box that's running quite a few virtual machines).

Next, the simplicity and ease-of-use. As InfoWorld's Randall C. Kennedy puts it:

As with most Server 2008 "roles," enabling Hyper-V was a simple matter of ticking a check box in Server Manager and picking a NIC for use by the virtual network manager.

Read more of Randall's review in Test Center review: Microsoft's Hyper-V does the trick.

Scott has a post with plenty of links to Hyper-V resources and blog posts— Hyper-V has RTM'd and is Available!

As Scott mentions in the post, Microsoft will have a support statement about Exchange Server and virtualization 60 days from Hyper-V RTM. This was announced at TechEd IT Pro in Orlando little over 2 weeks ago.

Released: Transporter Suite v08.02.0053

An updated version of the Transporter Suite— a set of tools for interoperability and migration from Lotus Domino and generic POP/IMAP servers to Exchange Server 2007, has been released.

Download Transporter Suite v08.02.0053 from here.
Updated release notes are here.

If you're getting started on an interop or migration project, take a look at Resources for Interoperability and Migration from Lotus Domino.

HTC Touch Diamond: Cure for iPhone Envy?

While I was out at TechEd last week, the new 3G iPhone was announced. From the previous announcement, we knew it'll have EAS support. While many await the new EAS-capable, 3G iPhone, and yet many debate on whether it'll make inroads in the enterprise, there's something else on the horizon that's quickly becoming the object of desire for many folks. Yes, I'm talking about HTC's Touch line of Windows Mobile phones, and the HTC Touch Diamond.

Looks like an exciting new version of Windows Mobile? It's actually the current version of WinMo— v6.1. With HTC's own shell on top called HTC TouchFLO™ 3D. Yes, you can touch, swipe, shake, rattle, and roll. :)

A glance at the features:
- 2.8" LCD
- HSDPA connectivity
- 3.2 Megapixel camera
- 4Gb memory
- Integrated GPS

To top it all, the dimensions— it's 11.35 mm thin and weighs all of 110g, with batteries!

More info about the Touch Diamond on the HTC web site.

Engadget reports spotting the Touch Diamond at CompUSA. I'm waiting to get my hands on one of these.

Update: Available on CompUSA.com, unlocked, for $779.

Released: Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2007 SP1

Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Update Rollup 2 has been released.

Description of the roll-up can be found in KB 948016. Besides all the fixes from Update Rollup 1 (for SP1), this rollup includes fixes for the following issues:

• - 940462 The public folder store may take several minutes to mount on an Exchange 2007 server
• - 944153 Exchange Server 2007 does not have Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format (TNEF) capabilities for POP and IMAP protocols
• - 945917 You receive an error message when you try to access the Outlook Web Access global address list in an Exchange Server 2007 environment
• - 947346 Exchange Server 2007 mailbox users cannot retrieve the free/busy information for Exchange Server 2003 mailbox users in a large Exchange Server organization that has more than 100 administrative groups
• - 947360 Error message occurs, and users cannot access the free/busy information after you use the Import-Mailbox cmdlet to import data to a mailbox in Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1
• - 947391 The contents of .pst files are not imported into Exchange Server 2007 mailboxes when you use the Import-Mailbox cmdlet
• - 947451 A recipient sees unexpected text in the top of an e-mail message that you send in Exchange Server 2007
• - 947458 The Edgetransport.exe process may crash on an Edge server that is running Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1
• - 947551 The Edgetransport.exe process may crash intermittently on an Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 Edge server
• - 947577 If you try to connect a mobile device to a mailbox server through a server that is running Exchange Server 2007, the mobile device may be unable to connect
• - 947646 Event ID 12011 is logged every time that the MSExchangeTransport service starts after you install Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 on a computer that is running the German version of Windows Server 2003
• - 948047 An event ID 1080 message is logged in the System log every three seconds after you run the Set-ExchangeServer command to set the static domain controllers on an Exchange 2007 cluster node
• - 948297 The OOF template may be delivered as an attachment in an Exchange 2007 environment when you use the "Reply with Template" option in Microsoft Outlook
• - 948332 Failover takes a long time to finish in an Exchange Server 2007 cluster continuous replication environment
• - 948374 The EdgeTransport.exe process crashes intermittently, and event ID 1033 is logged in Exchange Server 2007
• - 948666 When you try to migrate a mailbox from Exchange Server 2003 to Exchange Server 2007, the Exchange Management Shell may stop responding
• - 948830 The MSExchangeSyncAppPool application pool crashes on a server that hosts an Exchange Server 2007 Client Access Server role
• - 948831 A user may be unable to synchronize with an Exchange Server mailbox from a mobile device when a Client Access server has been upgraded to Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1
• - 948844 An exception occurs, and event IDs 4999 and 5000 are logged when you modify the Outlook Web Access user interface
• - 949186 When you try to run the Restore-mailbox cmdlet on a server that is running Exchange Server 2007, you receive an error message
• - 949193 The address rewrite agent does not rewrite the address for Out of Office (OOF) messages in Exchange Server 2007
• - 949463 An exception error is generated after you run a Set-AttachmentfilterListConfig command together with the ExceptionConnectors option on an Exchange 2007 SP1-based server
• - 949541 You cannot log on to Outlook Web Access Light, and an error message occurs in Exchange Server 2007
• - 949703 Error message in Outlook when you click the signature icon of a signed e-mail message that an Exchange Server 2007-based Edge server receives: "The digital signature is invalid"
• - 949726 After you install Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1, the Set-ExcecutionPolicy task causes an error message, and event ID 103 is logged
• - 949772 If you run the "isinteg -dump" command against a dismounted store on a server that is running Exchange Server 2007, the Store.exe process stops unexpectedly
• - 950123 Error message after you apply Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 in a Japanese environment: "Public Folder Management Console is not an allowed Snap-in"

PWN to OWN Contest: Vista gets compromised

Update on the PWN to OWN contest at the CanSecWest conference. After the MacBook Air got compromised in 2 minutes, Shane Macaulay claimed victory over the Fujitsu laptop running Windows Vista. Yes, Windows Vista was compromised at the tail end of Day 2, at 7:30 p.m., thanks to a vulnerability in Adobe Flash.

More in PWN to OWN: Final Day (and another winner!) on TippingPoint.

The list of conference sponsors includes both Adobe and Microsoft.

Mac, meet PC: PC, the Mac's already hacked!

The Event: CanSecWest's PWN 2 OWN contest, Vancouver, Canada
The Contenders: Mac OS X Leopard, Microsoft's Windows Vista, and Linux.
The Challenge: Compromise the OS
The Prize: $10,000 + laptop
The Winner: Charlie Miller

Apparently, the OS that's safer by design is the first to get compromised, after the rules were relaxed a little bit. 2 minutes is all it took, according to a report in InfoWorld (yes, still one of my favorite tech news sources). Excerpt:

Contest rules state that Miller could only take advantage of software that was pre-installed on the Mac, so the flaw he exploited must have been accessible, or possibly inside, Apple's Safari browser.

And:

Shane Macaulay, who was Dai Zovi's co-winner last year, spent much of Thursday trying to hack into the Fujitsu Vista laptop, at one point rushing back to his Vancouver area home to retrieve a file that he thought might help him hack into the system.

But it was all in vain.

More in Gone in 2 minutes: Mac gets hacked first in contest on InfoWorld.com.

This comes little over a week after Apple released what is labeled a massive patch, a monster patch, a mega-update, or a mega-monster security update by the media (Yes, that makes me feel like Jon Stewart now). The patch contains 90 fixes according to these reports.

Last year's contest winner, Dino Dai Zovi, exploited a vulnerability in Apple's QuickTime to take home the prize.

Gloat not, Windows Vista and Linux. You are expected to be hacked by today— and when that happens, it will be further proof that vulnerabilities exist in all systems. That's the nature of software. When it comes to millions of lines of code, "bug-free" and "vulnerability-free" software is a myth. What really matters is how easily these can be exploited, how quickly the vendor responds and releases patches to fix vulnerabilities.

As far as Windows Vista is concerned, it has an enviable track record so far.

India not looking to ban BlackBerry, keen to resolve issue

India's Dept of Telecom (DoT) says it has asked Indian wireless carriers to specify a timeframe by which they will resolve all security concerns. India is not looking to shutdown BlackBerry services, but it is keen to resolve the issue.

There has been a lot of speculation about the DoT having given a 15-day notice to carriers and RIM to allow snooping or face a shutdown. The Economic Times says "all players offering BlackBerry in India said that that the government had not issued any such directives."

Excerpt:

DoT is looking at various possibilities, including asking RIM to create a mirror image of all emails and data sent on these devices in India and store the information for at least six months to address the concerns of security agencies.

DoT is also looking at other options such as asking RIM to migrate all data traffic originating from Indian mobile networks to servers in India.

More in "DoT calls up BlackBerry providers".

"Save XP" Campaign: InfoWorld responds, and the facts about downgrade rights

Note to readers: I haven't had to keep a post on hold for as long as I"ve kept this one, contemplating whether I should post it or not. After much thought, I've decided to post this, because it is important to know the facts about downgrade rights, and to clarify my position on this debate.

InfoWorld responded to my previous post (read InfoWorld's campaign to "Save Windows XP").

In a blog post titled Exchangepedia Blog Author calls "Save XP Campaign" Childish!, InfoWorld columnist J. Peter Bruzzese writes:

However, in the overall scheme of things will it budge the folks at Redmond to reconsider its plans? Not if Bharat Suneja, an MVP for Exchange and tech guru who publishes the popular Exchangepedia Blog site has anything to say about it. He has done his own research on the matter and his opinion should be heard!

Thanks for the kind words Peter - much appreciated.

To put it on record, I am not for or against Microsoft extending the deadline for Windows XP OEM and retail sales. I called Peter the saner voice (of InfoWorld) - he gets the gist of what I wanted to convey in the post:

The point Bharat is trying to make: Windows XP is an operating system that has lived past its prime, and Microsoft isn't about to pull the plug on it any time soon. (Users can move to Vista on their own timeline).

In my post, I pointed out Microsoft's Product Lifecycle Policy for Windows XP, including the facts that Windows XP mainstream support won't end till April 2009, extended support will be available till April 2014, and Volume License customers can use their downgrade rights if Windows XP licenses are no longer available from retail or OEM channels. (As it turns out, downgrade rights are not restricted to Volume License customers.)

In fact, Microsoft will soon release a new service pack— Service Pack 3, for Windows XP. You can download Release Candidate 2 of the service pack here.

InfoWorld Editor Galen Gruman comments
InfoWorld Editor Galen Gruman left a comment on the post here. What she has to say (relevant portions highlighted and bolded for emphasis):

For the record, as the InfoWorld editor who's responsible for the "Save XP" story and related content, there's one big error in this well-reasoned post: XP will not be generally available after June 30 if you are *adding* computers or people. We never said this was an issue of support. It is true that if you have a site license to Vista, you have downgrade rights to XP. But most small businesses and no individual buyers have these rights. They cannot get XP after June 30. And unless they bought new of two specific types of Vista -- the full, not OEM, versions of Vista Business and Vista Ultimate -- they do not have downgrade rights. GIven that practically everyone who buys a computer has just an OEM copy of Windows, they do not in fact have downgrade rights to XP and cannot add new XP licenses to their mix of XP systems. This forces them to have a mix of XP and Vista, whether or not they are ready for Vista. It was this concern that we heard repeatedly in the last year and led to this story. And why we advocated that XP be available for sale indefinitely -- meaning not forever but until the market as a whole is much more ready to move.

Thanks for commenting Galen. Having read your follow-up article "The "Save XP" manifesto: Time to get past the distractions", I agree with some of the arguments presented (and greatly disagree with others), and the underlying reasons for the "Save XP" campaign. However, your basic premise that setting a date for end of availability of OEM and retail licenses for Windows XP is like Microsoft giving users an eviction notice is simply not true!

I understand that the main issue Galen has is not about existing Windows XP users or computers, but about availability of Windows XP for new computers or users. Carrying the analogy further, that's more like Microsoft saying we aren't accepting new lease applications for this old, run-down apartment that is scheduled to be torn down. You can, however, lease a unit in this brand new complex we built across the street.... It is far from an eviction notice for existing tenants.

The facts about downgrade rights
As far as the downgrade rights Galen referred to (highlighted) in the above comment and in her follow-up article are concerned— she deserves the benefit of the doubt. There's clearly some misunderstanding on her part, and it probably isn't her fault. (Update: Based on our email exchange, I know she has tried to get a definitive answer to this.) Navigating Microsoft's web of licensing options and agreements can be be challenging, even for MVPs. However, to be fair to Microsoft, I was able to get the answer by searching the web, and a single follow-up call to Microsoft Pre-Sales and Licensing. The response was clear and unambiguous.

Downgrade rights are not limited to large enterprises. This Microsoft Volume Licensing Brief [download] (dated January 2007) titled Microsoft Select License, Open License, Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) License, and Full Packaged Product (FPP) License Downgrade Rights says:

Can I downgrade my OEM version of Windows Vista Business to Windows XP Professional?
Yes. OEM downgrade rights for desktop PC operating systems apply to Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate as stated in the License Terms. Please note, OEM downgrade versions of Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate are limited to Windows XP Professional (including Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and Windows XP x64 Edition). End users can use the following media for their downgrade: Volume Licensing media (provided the end user has a Volume Licensing agreement), retail (FPP), or system builder hologram CD (provided the software is acquired in accordance with the Microsoft OEM System Builder License). Use of the downgraded operating system is governed by the Windows Vista Business License Terms, and the end user cannot use both the downgrade operating system and Windows Vista Business. There are no downgrade rights granted for Windows Vista Home Basic or Windows Vista Home Premium.

Translation: If you buy a computer and it ships with Windows Vista Business or Ultimate preinstalled by the manufacturer, also known as an OEM license, you can downgrade to Windows XP Professional. You do not need a Volume License of any kind to do that - end users, small businesses with or without an Open License, and larger businesses - again, with or without a Select or Enterprise License, can downgrade to Windows XP Professional, and use it for as long as they wish.

Microsoft confirms
A quick call to Microsoft Sales/Licensing confirmed that. You are welcome to do so yourself, by calling 800.426.9400. Select option 5, then option 3. In a follow-up call, Microsoft also explicitly and unambiguosly stated that users can use the OEM media (CD) or the one that came with a prior purchase of a FPP (retail) version to downgrade. Organizations with a volume license can also use their volume license media to downgrade. "The media is not important here, the license is", added the Microsoft rep.

If you're having trouble finding your Windows XP CD or need to order a replacement copy, you can do so by calling 800.360.7561 if you bought the retail (FPP) version. The cost is $23, or $29 with taxes and shipping. Volume License customers can order CDs by calling Volume License Fulfillment at 800.248.0655. When asked how long the replacement CDs will be available, and whether these will still be available after Windows XP is no longer sold, the rep responded: "They will be available for quite a while. No plans for discontinuing that yet."

Though well-intentioned, some of the arguments presented by Galen are not as valid. Once again, I am neither for or against Microsoft continuing to sell Windows XP, nor profess that users move to Vista whether they're ready or not. However, the implication that Microsoft is forcing users to move to Windows Vista, and terms like eviction notice used in such articles, do not present the issues in the right perspective.

Given the facts about Microsoft's product lifecycle, support policies and downgrade rights, is Microsoft's stance wrong here? Or does InfoWorld's Save XP campaign amount to unfairly criticizing Microsoft, as InfoWorld's own columnist J. Peter Bruzzese states in "Save XP? Why bother?"?

PS: Tom Sullivan's response, and comment about MVPs

I was equally annoyed and amused by InfoWorld Editor Tom Sullivan's response in "On the necessity of InfoWorld's 'Save XP' campaign". Tom says:

As Peter Bruzzese points out, the author of Exchangeapedia, Bharat Suneja, suggests that the campaign won't inspire Microsoft to change its plans and keep Windows XP alive beyond June 30.

Suneja, it's worth explaining, is a Microsoft MVP. A rare breed, indeed, these disciples are devout enough that, while attending an MVP Summit back in 2001, a pair of them even got married in Redmond, Wash. and read vows from their Pocket PCs.

That said, Bruzzese writes that Suneja "has done his own research on the matter and his opinion should be heard." I agree, and particularly when he explains that mainstream support will end on April 14th, 2009, and extended support will be available for five years from that date, till April 8th, 2014, both points IT shops should research. Suneja writes, in his post, "Windows XP doesn't seem like a product that's being retired prematurely."

That, obviously, is a matter of some debate. Contrarians can easily point to the reality that Vista sales are not exactly going like gangbusters.

Tom, All I can say is, I wish you had read my original post before commenting. Perhaps that's just one of those good old journalistic niceties that we simply don't have time for any more. :)

If you did read my original post, please accept my apologies.

MVPs are also some of Microsoft's sharpest critics. An excerpt from the article in Computerworld:

Paul DeGroot, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, a research firm in Kirkland, Wash., agreed that MVPs are both "in Microsoft's camp" and its "best critics" at the same time.

"They criticize from a position of deep knowledge about the products and how customers use them," DeGroot said. "So when they say something, they know what they're talking about, and they're not inclined to take cheap shots. They'd rather fix things than lay blame."

MVP or not, my opinion and criticism of InfoWorld in this matter wouldn't have changed. It is sad to note that what is otherwise a well-regarded tech journal is increasingly sounding like the MAD magazine of tech journalism on this topic.

India wants access to BlackBerry encryption algorithms to fight terrorism

India's half a million BlackBerry users may have to live with the prospect of the Indian government having easy access to their wireless communication.

India says it needs access to RIM's encryption algorithms, used to encrypt email sent and received by BlackBerry smartphones, to fight terrorism. The Indian government is delaying a license to offer BlackBerry services to wireless carrier Tata Teleservices, and may cancel the licenses already issued to other Indian wireless carriers— Vodafone Essar, Bharti Telecom and Reliance Communications, if RIM doesn't comply by March 31st. The Information Technology Act of 2000 provides the government of India the right to intercept electronic communications for security reasons.

It's no secret that terrorists are increasingly using the internet and email to communicate. Bringing BlackBerry handhelds under the scope of lawful interception shouldn't come as a big surprise, but it does pose interesting questions for RIM.

The Department of Telecom's intent and its notice to carriers is anything but abrupt. The DoT had requested access some time last year. The March 31st deadline is an extension to the earlier deadline of December 31st. DoT officials are meeting with carrier execs and RIM officials to resolve the issue.

More in "BlackBerry under security scrutiny in India" on washingtonpost.com.

What makes the whole episode more interesting are reports that the Indian government wants significantly weaker encryption keys to be used across the board. If true, this could make security of online banking and e-commerce transactions questionable, and may even pose threats to India's growing outsourcing sector. ISP Association of India President Rajesh Chharia says "Routine check-ups are fine with us since the issue is one of national security. All ISPs must, and will, cooperate. What is of concern, though, is the fact that we have been asked to reduce the encryption from 128-bit to 40-bit, which is ridiculous.” (More in "BlackBerry security issue makes e-com insecure").

As similar incidents involving India's bureaucracy have proven in the past, better sense does eventually prevail in India (Read previous post: "Update: India blocks access to blogs"), but not before giving massive doses of anxiety attacks to those concerned.

iPhone, meet Exchange: Apple announces Exchange ActiveSync support

Finally, Apple announces Exchange ActiveSync Support.

Phil Schiller, Apple's Senior VP of Marketing, announced minutes ago what many have suspected all along - Apple chose to go with Microsoft by licensing EAS. Schiller demonstrated EAS on the iPhone, including the ability to remotely wipe an iPhone.

Without taking names, Phil also criticized the BlackBerry approach of routing mail through its datacenter, and the accompanying risks and reliability issues. Devices compatible with EAS, including devices running Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS, can synchronize email, calendar, and contacts directly with an Exchange Server.

Terry Myerson, Microsoft's corporate VP for Exchange, met Schiller daily for 2 weeks to make the agreement possible. Says Myerson, "When it comes to mobile phones, Windows Mobile still delivers the premier mobile e-mail experience for Microsoft Exchange Server, by delivering the Outlook experience on a mobile phone and with the most complete support for Exchange’s many enterprise device management policies. But, we also partner with many mobile device makers – including Apple – and believe that by making Exchange an open platform, our customers and partners, ultimately, will be the beneficiaries."

Update:
- The new iPhone 2 firmware with ActiveSync support will be released in June.
- Apple is accepting applications for its iPhone Enterprise Beta Program

iPhone, meet Exchange: Will Apple make them talk?

March 6 is here, and the iPhone's software roadmap, including the much talked about "enterprise features" should be public in a few hours, along with the release or another announcement of the iPhone SDK.

In the past, there have been plenty of rumors and some "confirmations" about Apple having licensed Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) protocol (read previous post "Apple Licenses Exchange ActiveSync for the iPhone?"). If Apple does announce availability of EAS on the iPhone, will it become the new smartphone of choice in the enterprise?

It may not be an easy task. IT departments would need to be convinced about security and manageability of the device. Being the closed device that it has been since its inception, it will be interesting to see whether (and how) Apple provides this much needed control to IT.

ActiveSync isn't the only option available to Apple. iPhone users can use IMAP protocol to connect to mail servers that support it, including Microsoft Exchange. However, the experience isn't quite comparable to EAS or RIM's BlackBerry, and IMAP isn't supported in many organizations.

Given the high penetration of RIM's BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) in organizations world-wide, making a version of RIM's BlackBerry Connect software available on the iPhone would instantly make it much more attractive to enterprise users. BlackBerry Connect allows non-BlackBerry devices to work with BES (read previous post: "RIM does a BlackBerry on Windows Mobile").

Yet another option would be to buy or create its own middleware - the Apple version of a BlackBerry or GoodLink server. It's hard to see what Apple would gain with such an approach - it wants to sell more iPhones, not compete with the big boys RIM and Microsoft.

Another important question Apple will need to answer— will the iPhone finally become carrier-independent? Tethered to a single wireless carrier with a slow wireless data network, it is unlikely to get as serious a consideration as it otherwise would if IT could simply buy the device and configure it to work on any carrier - either out-of-the-box, or perhaps using a configuration tool provided by Apple. Apple's "fixed battery" approach isn't likely to win it many fans in IT, and has attracted lawsuits in the past.

Whichever route Apple decides to take, time is right for the iPhone to make its enterprise move.

InfoWorld's campaign to "Save Windows XP"

I've been an avid reader of InfoWorld for as long as I can remember. It is one of the finest trade publications out there. In case you've missed it, they've been running an online campaign to "save Windows XP". A few weeks ago, they announced that 75,000 XP users had signed up for it (Read "75,000 demand Microsoft keep Windows XP going"). If you look at the numbers, it's a tiny fraction of the overall number of Windows XP users.
Update: The last update from InfoWorld is dated Feb. 28th- the number reported is 97,280.

InfoWorld says its readers want Microsoft to keep selling and supporting Windows XP indefinitely. Given that Windows XP was released back in 2001 - almost 7 years ago, is Microsoft wrong in ending support for a product that has certainly lived past its shelf life? If you work in the software industry, dealing with today's rapid-fire software releases, it's hard to imagine supporting something that old!

From Save Windows XP! The clock is ticking:

Millions of us have grown comfortable with XP and don't see a need to change to Vista. It's like having a comfortable apartment that you've enjoyed coming home to for years, only to get an eviction notice. The thought of moving to a new place -- even with the stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, and maple cabinets (or is cherry in this year?) -- just doesn't sit right. Maybe it'll be more modern, but it will also cost more and likely not be as good a fit. And you don't have any other reason to move.

Reading the above, you get the impression that somehow Microsoft can and is actually forcing existing users of Windows XP to stop using that OS past June 30th, 2008. That is completely untrue! All Microsoft is saying is - this product has reached its end of life, and we will stop selling it by that date. It really has no impact on existing users who want to continue using it.

The fact is: your licensed copy of Windows XP doesn't come with an expiration date.

If you have an XP license today, or buy one by that date, you can install it on any computer you buy two, five, ten, or any number of years from now, provided the hardware is compatible. This does not apply to OEM licenses sold to computer manufacturers like Dell, HP, or Gateway - which are tied to the computer they ship with.

Microsoft's Windows Lifecycle Policy: Selling Windows, And Supporting It

Microsoft's Windows Life-Cycle Policy states that:
- Direct OEM and retail licenses will be sold till June 30th, 2008.
- System Builder licenses will be available till January 31st, 2009.
- The policy further states that "licenses will continue to be available through downgrade rights available in Volume Licensing programs after end of general availability".

Though Microsoft will stop selling Windows XP based on the above timeline, support for the operating system isn't going to end when that happens. Microsoft Support Lifecycle explains Microsoft's support policies, including what mainstream and extended support mean. According to the Microsoft Support Lifecycle for Windows XP:
- Mainstream support will end on April 14th, 2009.
- Extended support will be available for five years from that date, till April 8th, 2014!

For a product with General Availability dating back to December 31, 2001, Windows XP doesn't seem like a product that's being retired prematurely.

On a second look, InfoWorld's case isn't so much for Windows XP, as it is against Windows Vista. Running alongside the Save Windows XP articles: Why people hate Vista and Time to dump Windows?.
Update: To be fair to InfoWorld, they've also recently published "How to deploy Windows Vista".

A quick look at some of the arguments against Windows Vista:

Vista a resource hog? Yes, Windows Vista requires more resources - and the last time I looked around, today's PC hardware was more than adequately equipped for Vista. Most decently-configured laptops, including the entry-level ones that sell for way under a thousand bucks, ship with dual-core processors and 2 Gigs of RAM. And under a thousand bucks get you what can be considered a state-of-the-art quad-core desktop with 3-4 gigs of RAM. In fact, a few weeks ago I was pleasantly surprised by the price of 4 Gigs of RAM for my laptop - $79!

Vista isn't designed to run on yesterday's hardware, and there's no reason for Microsoft to be apologetic about it. It's the same hardware + OS + apps purchase cycles we've been used to for a long time now. What do you want to buy the next time your three or five-year-old computer dies, or you simply get fed up with it and want something new? Do you look for a single-core Pentium 4 processor that can run Windows XP well - assuming you can find one? (As a sidenote, I'm writing this on a single-core Pentium 4 box running Windows Vista, and doing fine, thank you! I also had a 400-Mhz (yes, Mhz... ) PIII box with all of 256 Mb RAM running Windows Server 2003, AD, and Exchange Server 2003 for years, till it died last year.)

It's the same cycle as buying microwaves or vacuum cleaners - they get old, stop working, or simply get in the way and impair users' productivity. When that happens, you go out and buy a new one, generally in the same price range or perhaps a little cheaper, but something that has all (or most of) the bells and whistles - the right stickers, logos, and features that a contemporary microwave or vacuum cleaner would have.

PCs are no different. In fact, thanks to Murphy's Law and the underlying technology breakthroughs, we generally get a lot more bang for our buck with every upgrade cycle.

If your microwave/vacuum cleaner/PC isn't broken yet (or more importantly, if you aren't fed up with it, and it isn't getting in your way), there's really no reason to buy a new one. Unless you like buying new computers every couple of years, or sooner, and can afford to do so.

Drivers: Yes, drivers. Somehow Microsoft is to blame for the perceived lack of drivers. Personally, I haven't come across any piece of hardware recently - a display card, printer, or other peripheral that does not sport a driver for Windows Vista, or otherwise caused any compatibility issues. For most part, everything works out of the box.

Security: Security, you say. Seems like Windows Vista has proved its credentials on that front. Agreed, UAC can be a little annoying at times, and gives Apple a great talking point for its commercials, but that doesn't take away from the fact that Vista is a much more secure OS than Windows XP ever was. In fact, Vista does very well on this front compared to other OSes, including Apple's. Read previous post about the 6-month vulnerability report "Numbers talk: Vista most secure OS of all?", or grab the more current one-year vulnerability report.

User Account Control

It is easy to criticize the UAC feature without getting a good understanding of what it does and the problem it's intended to solve for IT departments. After years of extolling the virtues of not logging on using an account with administrator privileges for day-to-day stuff, I love UAC! It ensures administrator privileges are not available to your session all the time - even if you're logged in as an administrator. Not only does this protect computers from malicious code, it also protects users from themselves. When you do need to perform a task that requires administrator privileges, you are prompted for it.

Security has a cost - often measured in user inconvenience. Many security products and features come with some inconvenience to users. The argument shouldn't be about whether to have UAC, but about the ability to fine-tune it to an organization's security requirements. Arguably, this could be refined further to allow more granular control, but being aware of the options already available, including the ability to turn it off using Group or Local Policies helps.

The following graph from the one-year vulnerability report shows vulnerabilities found in Windows Vista, Windows XP, Red Hat Linux, Ubuntu, and OS X in the first year of release. It's clear what the numbers reveal, though many of us often tend to get more influenced by anecdotal evidence- particularly in this context.


Figure 1: Vulnerabilities found in Windows Vista in the first year of its release compared to other operating systems

Vista is slow: One of the more common arguments against Vista, slow is a relative term. Slow as compared to what? Running on the same hardware as my Windows XP computer, performing the same tasks, I haven't noticed this slowness. If you benchmark performance results, Vista can be proven to be slower than anything. The questions to ask: - When was the test conducted? What version of Vista? What kind of hardware? What kind of applications? And more importantly, how slow was it really?

Yes, you may lose a few percentage points in performance, but there are gains in usability and new features.

I wouldn't blame InfoWorld for wanting to ride the "Bash Vista" bandwagon - it's fashionable to do so. To our relief, there are some saner voices out there. Like InfoWorld's own columnist, J. Peter Bruzzese. Peter writes in his Enterprise Windows column - titled "Save XP? Why bother?":

The fact of the matter is, Vista is incredible. I've been working with it since Beta 3, and I won't return to that cartoon-looking XP for anything. Not only is it more secure than XP, it includes a host of invaluable new tools and applications (more on those in a bit).

Yes, Vista is more resource-intensive than XP. Yes, upgrading from XP to Vista requires putting some cash on the table. But Vista beats XP hands down, and the Save XP campaign amounts to unfairly criticizing Microsoft for adhering to a core capitalist practice: retiring an old product to sell newer, better ones.

That "yucky Windows"

My 4-year old son agrees with Peter's assessment about XP. For the few days that I had a loaner Media Center PC running Vista, not only did the little one get quite comfortable with it, he fell in love with it. When it was time to get my XP Media Center PC back from repairs, there were angry protests about having to deal with the "yucky Windows" (that would be XP!) that one doesn't ordinarily associate with someone his age.

Though a lot of it has to do with the aesthetics - the "X button that glows" when he wants to close a window and Gadgets that expand his vocabulary - isn't the UI and usability a big reason why we choose to use Windows and the exact topic Apple can't stop talking about when it comes to OS X?


Figure 2: Windows Vista's Media Center interface

I finally upgraded the box - the last one I had with Windows XP, to Windows Vista on the last day of 2007. The delay was in large part because of the vendor - name withheld, mislabeled the TV tuner driver, causing a lot of confusion amongst its customers.

As a sidenote to this sidenote, Media Center is probably the most mission-critical app of all, as far as end-users/home users are concerned... an email outage at work is probably something you can survive and live to tell the tale. A "TV outage" at home is an event unmatched in its criticality, perhaps deserving a designation higher than P1/S1.

What kind of supporters is InfoWorld touting with its Save XP campaign? Let's turn again to Peter's column:

If you read a lot of the comments that people have been adding on the Save XP pages, you might note that an awful lot of people say, "Go to Linux," or "That's why I use Linux." You know, I've never heard a Mac user complain about Apple or their Mac, nor a Linux user complain about Red Hat or whatever version they are using. That's not to say they don't have problems; they just keep the discussion among themselves. But they are having a field day watching Microsoft users fight each other. Ever think they're the ones stirring up this whole Save XP campaign?

Come on InfoWorld, it's time to give up the skepticism, and that childish campaign. Users are moving to and using Windows Vista, and that will only accelerate going forward, now that SP1 is here. Users and organizations who want to continue using Windows XP can take their own time to upgrade - Windows XP will still be available for the foreseeable future, and supported for a much longer period (as stated in Microsoft's product lifecycle policies referenced in this post).

Zenprise and the BlackBerry Blackout of 2/11/2008

At Zenprise, we do not revel in outages and issues that cause service disruptions or service deterioration for our customers. However, when such incidents do occur - whether in the Exchange messaging infrastructure or in BlackBerry service, we take pride in the fact that Zenprise is able to help customers by providing early warnings and timely alerts about such outages, or conditions that may lead to one.

The accolades are coming in, from customers and prospective customers alike. The difference between having Zenprise and not having Zenprise on the afternoon of 2/11/2008 couldn't be clearer.

An email from a satisfied customer - the Canadian subsidiary of a large consumer electronics manufacturer:

Dan, zenprise is amazing. For Feb 11’s network outage. I was alerted immediately. When I called Rogers, they are not even been informed by RIM at that time. Thanks for the good monitoring software.

Figure 1: The end-to-end view of BlackBerry service shown in the Zenprise Console. Alerts for connectivity issues to RIM's SRP network and a high number of pending messages for a user are displayed in the above screenshot of the User Dashboard

An email from another organization that was affected by the outage (not a Zenprise customer):

“After having to call 2 different carriers the other day and waiting on hold for about 20 minutes each, I am ready for a change. These IT engineers and managers that are at their laptop most of the time don’t understand how much our execs and sales people that are out on the road depend on their Blackberry. When RIM had the outage, our entire Management lead team was out of the office and every one of them only had their Blackberry with them. Needless to say, an hour after he called me the CIO was not too happy when I finally was able to give him a definite answer that the problem was with RIM’s network. I have been trying to decide whether to send your message up to him, but I think I just answered my question as to whether I should. I’ll get back to you within a week to give you an update.”

Not to forget the accompanying media attention:


BlackBerry Outage Caused by Upgrade

TMCnet: Zenprise on BlackBerry Outage


InformationWeek: RIM Confirms BlackBerry Outage, Investigates Cause


ZDNet Exclusive: BlackBerry outage indicated by IP address connect refusals


CNBC: BlackBerry Outage Caused by Upgrade


BlackBerry Outage Caused by Upgrade


InfoWorld: Outage knocks BlackBerry users offline


BlackBerry Cool: North American outage reported


PC World: RIM's BlackBerry Service Getting Back to Normal


BlackBerry outage leaves 8 million users disconnected


Why Your Blackberry Crashed



Outage blamed on upgrade

BlackBerry service out in N. America: Zenprise customers benefit from proactive detection

North American users of the ubiquitous BlackBerry service are hit by another outage - it's second major one in less than a year. The extent of the outage isn't known, nor an ETA available from RIM. Update: According to Bloomberg, 8 million users are impacted - about two third of its 12 million users.

Users of Zenprise for BlackBerry benefited again from the proactive troubleshooting approach of Zenprise, that can provide advance notifications for many issues before they turn into deterioration of service or outages impacting users. Zenprise notified customers about the outage at 12:26 PM PST, before wireless carrier AT&T learnt about it. More in "North American outage reported" on BlackberryCool.com.

The last major outage was back in April 2007, also automatically detected by Zenprise users (read previous post " Zenprise proactively detects BlackBerry N. America outage!").

Reuters has more (as do a lot of other web sites): RIM reports "critical" BlackBerry outage

Update: The outage ended at 6:45 PM Eastern, according to Bloomberg.

Sony Ericsson jumps on the Windows Mobile bandwagon with Xperia X1

If you're in the market for Windows Mobile smartphones, your choices are going to grow at a rapid pace this year. Amongst the more exciting announcements at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona - Sony Ericsson's first Windows Mobile phone, the Xperia X1. Yes, Sony finally jumps on the WinMo bandwagon.

The Xperia X1's all-metal body fits an arc slider design, a QWERTY keyboard, a 3-inch wide WVGA screen (800x480, compared to the iPhone's 3.5 inch diagonal at 480x320), a 3.2 megapixel digital camera that also does 30fps vga video. The phone supports aGPS, WiFi, quad-band GSM/Edge and UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA.

The X1 supports a Touch interface, in addition to a 4-way key and an optical joystick. At 17mm, it's not as svelte as the 11.6mm iPhone. However, if it's the convenience of a full QWERTY keyboard (as in a "hardware keyboard" you can actually type those reasonably long emails on), a fast 3G network, Windows Mobile OS and Exchange ActiveSync support for mobile email you're interested in, this certainly looks like one attractive device.

The X1 will be available in the second half of this year, and probably won't be tied to a single wireless carrier.

More X1 details, specs and pictures on the X1 minisite. Also take a look at this image gallery on Engadget Mobile. As usual, Engadget's doing great job of covering these events, and the accompanying avalanche of new products and announcements.

Zenprise alerts customer about data outage at AT&T

The end-to-end view of BlackBerry® service provided by Zenprise has always been of (a lot of) interest to me. Besides detecting specific issues impacting users, Exchange and infrastructure issues affecting BES, what has been particularly exciting is our ability to detect issues with RIM's SRP network, and also those with carrier networks in use by Zenprise customers.

Both of the above types of outages are rare, but when they do occur, the resulting user impact, help desk calls, and time spent troubleshooting before narrowing it down to RIM or the wireless carrier results in many wasted man hours.

Zenprise for BlackBerry has successfully detected (and provided advance warning for) a RIM outage in the past (read previous post: "ZDNet: Zenprise gave indications 2 hours before the BlackBerry outage").

Reproducing the equivalent of a RIM outage in a test environment isn't difficult, but how does one reproduce a carrier outage? Could we ask AT&T, Verizon or Sprint to turn off their wireless network so we can test Zenprise? Or just have them switch off the data network? Of course, there are other more realistic workarounds in test environments, but how do we validate this in real-world situations?

What just popped in this morning from my Google Alerts should make Zenprise, and our customers, very happy:

My company just installed the Beta Version of Zenprise Tuesday of this week. This morning we started getting requests where our Blackberry users were not able to send messages. Instead of our regular ‘reboot the BES to fix all’ process we normally would follow, I was able to see that the all the devices affected were from the AT&T network. I immediately contacted our AT&T rep and she was able to confirm an outage that was affecting the central and northeast regions. Although we have not purchased Zenprise yet, this was an excellent real life proof of concept of its ability to save my team hours of time troubleshooting.

More in Data outage nails AT&T subscribers

The Saga Continues: White House Says It Routinely Overwrote E-Mail Tapes From 2001 to 2003

The saga of Messaging Records Mismanagement continues, with interesting bits and pieces surfacing every once in a while. Elizabeth Williamson and Dan Eggen report in the Washington Post:

From 2001 to October 2003, the White House's practice was to use the same backup tape each day...

Although the White House said in the filing that its practice of recording over the tapes ceased after October 2003, it added that even some e-mails transmitted through the end of 2005 might not have been fully preserved. "At this stage, this office does not know" whether additional e-mails are missing, said the affidavit filed minutes before a court-ordered deadline of midnight Tuesday night by Theresa Payton, chief information officer in the White House Office of Administration.

Not sure if the email messages that "might not have been fully preserved" are part of the 5 million missing messages reported earlier.

Read "White House Says It Routinely Overwrote E-Mail Tapes From 2001 to 2003" on WashingtonPost.com.

Zenprise at Fenway Park: How the 2007 World Champion Boston Red Sox's IT Shop Keeps BlackBerrys in the Game

I haven't posted too many updates from Zenprise lately. Zenprise v3.3 will ship soon, and the regular stream of customers throughout the year has been a great validation of Zenprise's approach to monitoring and real-time troubleshooting of Microsoft Exchange Server and BlackBerry environments.

The exciting news - standing here during the attendee party at TechEd 2006, I couldn't have thought of this possibility. Yes! The Boston Red Sox became a Zenprise customer earlier this year (Go Red Sox!).

Al Sacco writes about the Red Sox's Zenprise experience in this CIO magazine article.

Excerpts:

Twenty-four/seven connectivity is a must for the 2007 world champion Boston Red Sox's behind-the-scenes champions, and the team counts on a mobile device management (MDM) product from Zenprise to ensure that its BlackBerrys never strike out.

"Within four days of having the product in, we were able to correlate root cause and be able to show ROI from that," Conley says. "Within a month, a problem that was ongoing for five to six months just disappeared." Better yet, he notes, fewer people were calling his team with problems. Instead, the Zenprise tool began offering early warnings on issues so he could report them to users before noticeable problems appeared.

Conley says that since the day his team installed Zenprise for BlackBerry, the Red Sox IT staff has been able to find root causes for every BlackBerry-related issue they've encountered, major or minor, and promptly address those issues with confidence that the suggested fixes will work.

Today, Conley has only one person who spends any of his time—a mere 10 percent—on BlackBerry support. Zenprise does the rest, he says. A year ago, two IT staffers handled BlackBerry support and the organization had only a quarter of the devices it supports today.

Read more on CIO.com: "Eyes on Zenprise: How the 2007 World Champion Boston Red Sox's IT Shop Keeps BlackBerrys in the Game".

Redmond on Exchange's Evolving Strategy

Tony Redmond outlines his perspective of how Exchange will evolve over E14 and onwards in this Windows IT Pro article. The key areas, according to Redmond, are automation, virtualization, mobility, Unified Communications, Information Management, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Read "Exchange's Evolving Strategy" on WinItPro.com (requires subscription).

Released: ForeFront Security for Exchange SP1

ForeFront Security for Exchange SP1 follows Exchange Server 2007 SP1 out the door. FSE SP1 is compatible with Exchange Server 2007 SP1. It includes support for Windows Server 2008, IPv6, and improved content filtering.

Exchange Server 2007 SP1 and ForeFront Security for Exchange

- Before you upgrade Exchange Server 2007 to SP1, make sure you either upgrade ForeFront Security for Exchange to SP1, or uninstall it.
- If ForeFront Security for Exchange is upgraded to SP1, you must stop all ForeFront services before upgrading Exchange Server 2007 to SP1.

Download it here.

Released: Exchange Server 2007 SP1

Great news, in words of Exchange TAP Program Manager David Espinoza: "Exchange Server 2007 SP1 has left the building". The "pack of goodies" is Build 240.06 - download it here.

(Read the announcement on the team blog, with feedback from TAP customers, including Zenprise.)

Congratulations to the Exchange product team for shipping an unusual service pack, loaded with improvements in performance, functionality, plenty of new GUI admin interfaces in the EMC (more details in "New Exchange Management Console Features in Exchange 2007 SP1"), and quite a few new features.

On top of the list for most folks is the eagerly awaited Standby Continuous Replication (SCR), which uses the Database Continuous Replication technology to replicate Storage Groups from clustered/non-clustered sources to clustered/non-clustered targets. Designed to provide datacenter redundancy - the source and target can be on different subnets, in different AD Sites altogether.

Additionally, LCR - used to replicate Storage Groups to another volume on the same server - no longer requires 2-3x the disk IOPS on volumes where the replica is stored. LCR can also use the Transport Dumpster now (restricted to CCR earlier).

Support for Windows Server 2008 also allows Exchange Server 2007 to leverage the new Failover Clustering features in the OS - allowing CCR clusters to span across subnets, making CCR clusters across WAN links easier to deploy.

Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) comes with plenty of improvements as well - users with WinMo (i.e. Windows Mobile) 6 devices will be happy. Administrators will like the number of new settings in ActiveSync policies that allow increased control of devices. (Read previous post "Exchange Server 2007 SP1: Take control of your Windows Mobile devices").

OWA users get Public Folder access, S/MIME support, Personal Distribution Lists, server-side rules, and monthly calendar views, amongst other improvements.

Complete list of features available in "What's new in Exchange Server 2007 SP1".

Make sure you read the SP1 Release Notes before upgrading.

Clichés aside, this is the best Exchange service pack ever.

Messaging Records (Mis)Management at the White House

ORDERED that defendants shall preserve media , no matter how described, presently in their possess or under their custody or control, that were created with the intention of preserving data in the event of its inadvertent destruction. Defendants shall preserve the media under conditions that will permit their eventual use, if necessary, and shall not transfer said media out of their custody or control without leave of this court.

In the continuing saga of what can be seen as MRM (Messaging Records Mis-Management), U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy has issued the above temporary restraining order (PDF) blocking the White House from destroying backups of their email. The order is the result of a motion filed by the watch-dog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

The story: About 5 million missing messages from March 2003 to October 2005, a critical period that includes the Iraq invasion, the 2004 election and hurricane Katrina. (For more details, read previous post "Email Archiving and Compliance: Learning from email issues that plague the White House")

Washington Post's Dan Froomkin has more in his column "Where are the emails?".

Excerpt:

"The judge's order 'should stop any future destruction of e-mails, but the White House stopped archiving its e-mail in 2003 and we don't know if some backup tapes for those e-mails were already taped over before we went to court. It's a mystery,' said Meredith Fuchs, a lawyer for the National Security Archive."

Within days of its release, Leo makes waves on PCs

Within days of its release, Apple's new Leopard OS is running on PCs - the non-Apple kind. The OSx86.com forums are buzzing with posts on how to make it run on different motherboards with different chipsets and graphic cards. It should come as no surprise if we see threats of lawsuits flying, in a typical response that characterizes Apple.

Not sure why Apple tries so hard to fight such random acts - when PC users are as eager to use Apple's OS, it can leverage the fact in its PR war against the rest of the world (OK, that's mostly Microsoft... ) - and its brilliant commercials. "Hi, I'm a PC.. and I'm running OS X Leopard" - it's not too hard to imagine that, and it wouldn't do too much harm to Apple's hardware sales. In fact, like Microsoft, if Apple realizes there's plenty of money to be made in software (it doesn't need to look too far to grasp the potential revenue and profits... last week Microsoft announced quarterly numbers that are off the charts... !), it should rather encourage such activity.

There are plenty of folks out there who will not buy Mac boxes, though Apple makes by far the best boxes in the business. Why not sell them an excellent operating system, in a manner that's fully documented, supported, and encouraged? And perhaps that may win a lot of converts to its box business as well.

It's sad to see Apple making iPods and iPhones that work with both platforms - OS X and Windows, make boxes that run both OSes, but it doesn't want its OS to run on non-Apple boxes, nor on virtualization platforms like VMWare. (Read "Leopard hacked to run on PCs" on MacWorld UK).

Notes v/s Exchange: Networking's 50 greatest arguments

Network World has an article on Networking's 50 Greatest Arguments. Interestingly (and as expected...), Microsoft is the subject of many arguments in the list, including Netware v/s Microsoft networking, Windows v/s OS/2, Microsoft v/s U.S. Justice Dept., IE v/s Netscape Navigator, Windows v/s Unix, Mac v/s PC, and the inevitable Lotus Notes v/s Microsoft Exchange.

Surprised to find no traces of Windows v/s Linux, BlackBerry v/s Windows Mobile, amongst others.

Dvorak on Rethinking Microsoft

John Dvorak says there's plenty of upside for Microsoft and it's time to rethink our attitudes towards the company's stock. More in Rethinking Microsoft on TheStreet.com.

Released: Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007

Microsoft has released Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 (i.e. Microsoft Systems Center Operations Manager 2007).

The Management Pack can be downloaded from here.

Novell credits Microsoft for booming SUSE Linux sales

Novell reported a 243% jump in sales of its SUSE Linux operating system, crediting its alliance with Microsoft. Interesting development, after the initial teething issues the two companies have had with their relationship, and the open source community's quick kneejerk reaction (not that it wasn't expected... ) to it.

Gmail flaw allows forwarding messages to attacker's mailbox

As I sat watching a cool video put together by "Gmail fans" yesterday, reports of a flaw with Google's popular web-based email service were beginning to appear. The flaw allows an attacker to create a filter to forward a victim's messages to any email address specified by the attacker.

Scary stuff - Gmail is one of the email services I use.

More in "Gmail zero-day flaw allows attackers to steal messages" on InfoWorld.com.

Little over a week ago, Google Docs' new Presentations feature, a would-be competitor for Microsoft PowerPoint, reportedly revealed email addresses of users collaborating/viewing a presentation. Not a very serious flaw, imo, but it had privacy experts concerned.

This is not as much about pointing out Google's vulnerabilities, but more about realizing that web-based software, just like software that runs on your PCs or servers, can have vulnerabilities. Additionally, so can the infrastructure of web-based service providers.

I was recently notified by another web-based service provider that their databases were compromised, but they're making sure no major damage is done (or some such verbiage that I can't seem to recollect but didn't make much sense at all when I read it). I should monitor my credit reports, it added further. Thanks, that makes me feel very comfortable. Where do I send the bill from the credit monitoring service?

The Gmail collaborative video wasn't nearly as bad.

Zenprise in Network World's '9 Wireless Network Companies To Watch'

Zenprise was named as one of the '9 Network Wireless Companies To Watch' by Network World.

From Network World:

Why it’s worth watching: Zenprise for BlackBerry software was launched in February 2007. Two months later, when RIM’s North American BlackBerry network crashed, Zenprise customers were perhaps the only people on the continent who knew hours before anyone else that 1) there was a problem, 2) it was serious, and 3) it was in RIM’s NOC. What everyone else saw as a third-party service that customers were dependent upon, Zenprise understood to be a critical enterprise asset that customers needed to manage like any other. The software makes it possible to actually enforce service-level agreements and improve support to mobile e-mail users.

Entourage 2008: OOFs coming to the Mac

With the release of Office 2008 for the Mac, Entourage users will be able to use Out of Office messages just like the rest of the world (i.e. Windows users with Microsoft Outlook) have been doing forever. Entourage 2008 supports Exchange Server 2007's enhanced OOF functionality, including the ability to schedule OOF start and stop times in advance, and set-up separate OOF messages for co-workers and external recipients.

Nevertheless, Entourage 2008 doesn't come close to Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 as far as features go. There's no capability to schedule resources, and no MAPI (recently rechristened "Outlook-Exchange Transport Protocol"), amongst a long list of other features on Entourage users' wish list. More in Lead Program Manager Andy Ruff's post "Office 2008 Enterprise Series: OOF Coming to Entourage" on the Office for Mac team blog.

One more thing: iPhone's 33% cheaper in 10 weeks

Did you rush out to buy the cool new and way overhyped 8 Gb iPhone on Day 1 for $599? You must love Jobs' announcement this morning - the music player + cell phone + web surfing + email (sans Exchange ActiveSync, of course.. ) device just got a 33% price cut. You can now have it for $399!

No Exchange ActiveSync support announced yet - that's rumored to be in the works with another 33% price cut in early 2008... :)

Exchange Server 2007 SP1: Take control of your Windows Mobile devices

Microsoft announced availability of SP1 Beta 2 as a community technology preview (read Exchange product group GM Terry Myerson's post "Announcing Service Pack 1 Beta 2 for Exchange Server 2007"). Yes, the much awaited bag of goodies that SP1 promises to be is now within reach, if you're a TechNet Plus or MSDN subscriber.

SP1 greatly enhances policy-based control of Windows Mobile devices - ActiveSync policies now have enough settings to please most IT security folks and administrators who require more control over mobile devices.

Here are some screenshots.


Figure 1: The Password tab now allows you to enforce encryption on storage cards inserted in Windows Mobile devices



Figure 2: New Sync Settings tab allows control of messasge sizes (that can be synched to device), restrict synch when roaming, allow/disallow html mail on device, restrict attachment downloads and control attachment sizes (that can be downloaded). You can also control how many days/weeks worth of past email and calendar items can be downloaded to WM devices.



Figure 3: New Device tab allows control of device components like Wi-Fi, camera, removable storage cards, infra-red, and Bluetooth (including ability to limit Bluetooth connectivity only to hands-free headsets), restrict RDP sessions from device, restrict synchronization from a desktop, and restrict internet sharing from device.


Figure 4: New Advanced tab allows control of browser usage, consumer mail (i.e. home/personal email accounts), unsigned applications and unsigned installation packages, and also restrict which applications can and cannot run on a device, (comparable to some Group Policy settings that can be applied to Windows desktop/client and server operating systems)

As the screenshots above state, the settings on the Device and Advanced tabs require an Enteprise CAL for each mailbox that has these settings enabled.

Windows Mobile shops have a lot to be pleased about with SP1, as Exchange ActiveSync + Windows Mobile get ready to give BlackBerry a run for its money.

Xandros licenses ActiveSync and MAPI

Linux vendor Xandros has licensed ActiveSync and Outlook-Exchange Transport Protocol, formerly known as MAPI. This will allow its Scalix mail server to push email to Windows Mobile (and other ActiveSync-enabled) devices, and Microsoft Outlook clients will be able to talk to Scalix using their native protocol. InfoWorld has more: "Xandros expands Microsoft partnership".

Other ActiveSync licensees include DataViz, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Palm, Motorola, and Symbian.

Whether Apple belongs to the above list of ActiveSync licensees has been the subject of never-ending speculation since before the launch of its iPhone cell phone + PDA + music player, which does have Exchange as one of the options for configuring mobile email, but is currently limited to using IMAP4 (read previous post: "Apple Licenses Exchange ActiveSync for the iPhone?").

NetCraft: IIS gaining ground on Apache

Internet research firm NetCraft reports Microsoft's IIS web server is now gaining ground on its open-source rival Apache. Out of close to 128 million web sites surveyed this month, 34.2% use IIS - an increase of 1.4%. Apache's marketshare slipped by 1.7%, to 48.4%. More in NetCraft's August 2007 Web Server Survey.

Update:
Eric Lai reports on Computerworld.com: "Survey: Apache could lose Web server market lead to Microsoft by 2008".

Lai quotes open source proponent Bruce Perens: "But businesses that use IIS are bringing trouble upon themselves, he argues. "My own Web server running Linux does not have a firewall, it's been on the Net for 10 years and has never needed one. Try running any MS operating system naked on the Net that way."

First thing, hats off for running the same server for 10 years! (I'm interested in finding out who the vendor is, since my own boxes don't live nearly as long...)

For an open source proponent, Peren's view is hardly surprising. I've hosted an IIS server on the web (the one on which this blog was previously published) for 3+ years - with (gulp!) no firewall! Windows is an easily securable platform than many open source proponents realize. The built-in IPSec support provides adequate protection, imo. (Check out Steve Riley's 2-part article on TechNet about IPSec and usage scenarios: Using IPsec for Network Protection). Coupled with some basic server hardening steps and implementing the security policies available in Group Policy/Local Policy, you can run a Windows+IIS server on the internet and not lose sleep over it. (No, I'm not recommending you try this at work). :)

Mozilla promises to patch in 10 days

In a sign of further security goodness, Mike Shaver - Mozilla's Director of Ecosystem Development, claims Mozilla will fix all vulnerabilities in (his own words) "10 [expletive] days".

The caveats: provided there is "responsible disclosure", and the claim is for critical vulnerabilities.

As a FireFox user, what's troubling is the fact that Mozilla has to make such claims at all. This comes in the wake of its recent security woes and playing "it's your vulnerability" with Microsoft (read previous post "FireFox 2.0.0.6: Mozilla fixes the IE security hole that wasn't").

"It is an audacious claim" (InfoWorld quotes Sophos technology consultant Graham Cluley), and as such claims go, it's at a high risk of falling flat on its face. Like Apple's recent claim about its Safari browser (read previous post "Safari, Meet Windows: Apple's cool browser comes with security holes").

You can see the claim scribbled by Shaver on the back of his business card here. Also read "Mozilla vows to patch any critical flaws in 10 days" on InfoWorld.

Disclaimer from previous post: Given that this is the second post in a row about FireFox, it should be no surprise that I continue to use FireFox as my preferred browser, in addition to Internet Explorer and (gulp!) Safari!

Apple: Time to iPatch your iPhones

Within weeks of the iPhone's launch, it's time to patch your iPhones! Yes, Apple has released a bunch of fixes for Mac OS X and the just-launched iPhone. The iPhone patches get delivered to you next time you synch your iPhone with iTunes.

FireFox 2.0.0.6: Mozilla fixes the IE security hole that wasn't

You've probably heard about the FireFox patch that fixed a vulnerability caused by IE? Here's more.

July 10: Mozilla's head of Security Strategy Window Snyder writes: "Today security firm Secunia released an advisory on a security issue found (apparently) simultaneously and independently by Greg MacManus and Billy Rios based on a previously reported issue in Safari found by Thor Larholm.

Any Windows application that calls a registered URL protocol without escaping quotes may be used to pass unexpected and potentially dangerous data to the application that registers that URL Protocol. This could result in a critical security vulnerability."

July 18th: Mozilla claims it has fixed the vulnerability in 2.0.0.5, which wasn't really it's own. Window Snyder writes on her blog - "This patch for Firefox prevents Firefox from accepting bad data from Internet Explorer. It does not fix the critical vulnerability in Internet Explorer. Microsoft needs to patch Internet Explorer, but at last check, they were not planning to."

She adds: "Mozilla recommends using Firefox to browse the web to prevent attackers from taking advantage of this vulnerability in Internet Explorer".

Turns out 2.0.0.5 didn't really fix the vulnerability in FireFox!

Microsoft's Jesper Johansson responds in his blog post titled "Hey, Mozilla: Quotes Are Not Legal in a URL". Jesper cites RFC 3986, an internet standard that defines how URLs should be formatted.

July 30: Mozilla releases another update - FireFox 2.0.0.6. Here's more on what's fixed: "Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2007-27". (You probably see where we're going with this.... :)

From Window Snyder yesterday (7/30): "We’ve just released Firefox 2.0.0.6 which contains a security patch to mitigate the issue described here. The patch enables percent-encoding for spaces and double-quotes in URIs handed off to external programs. This reduces the risk of malicious data being passed through Firefox to another application that may then trigger unexpected and potentially dangerous behavior."

After crying out loud "It's really Microsoft's fault... ", Mozilla and Snyder didn't really make as much noise about this new patch.

Disclaimer: Given that this is the second post in a row about FireFox, it should be no surprise that I continue to use FireFox as my preferred browser, in addition to Internet Explorer and (gulp!) Safari!

Apple's security woes: Has less than 7 days to fix iPhone vulnerability

The company that designs its products "to be secure from day 1" is facing some security headaches of its own.

First, the vulnerabilities in its beta release of Safari browser for Windows, ironically discovered on "day 1", within hours of Apple Wizard-In-Chief Steve Jobs announcing it with much fanfare (read previous post "Safari, Meet Windows: Apple's cool browser comes with security holes"). Followed up by vulnerabilities in its cool (but way-too-overhyped) new iPhone. On Monday, Independent Security Evaluators revealed a vulnerability and a "a proof-of-concept exploit capable of delivering files from the user's iPhone to a remote attacker".

Part of the interesting Q&A on ISE's web site (linked above):
Should I turn my iPhone off and lock it in a drawer until Apple fixes this?
Not unless you plan to do the same to all the other computers you own. The iPhone is an internet connected device running a relatively full featured software suite: this research shows that it is vulnerable just like many other similarly capable devices, both PCs and embedded systems.

Does this add credence to Apple's position that 3rd party applications are not allowed on the iPhone for security reasons?
We don't think so. Almost all of the security engineering effort on the iPhone seems to have been spent protecting the revenue model, rather than protecting the user (which is, of course, an entirely understandable position). For example, a constrained environment is used to prevent users from loading new ringtones onto the phone, but the applications are not run in a constrained environment to contain damage caused by hackers who exploit them.

ISE's Dr. Charlie Miller will reveal more details in a presentation on Monday (Aug 2nd) at BlackHat. Apple has fewer than 7 days to patch the iPhone, according to InfoWorld. More in this report "Black Hat spurs Apple to patch iPhone".

Microsoft's "Creative Product Naming Dept" Does Exist

The "Creative Product Naming Dept" that I've talked about several times here [read a previous post "It's Official - Exchange "12" is now Exchange Server 2007"] does in fact exist at Microsoft! CNET News.com cites recent product names like Silverlight, Popfly, and Surface as evidence that Microsoft "has put in place a concerted effort to improve its product naming". David Webster, a Director at "product naming expert" Siegel+Gale, was hired as GM of Brand Strategy two years ago.

Read more here - "Microsoft looks to improve its name game".

A cool name isn't all that takes for a product to succeed, as highlighted in this list of 10 products with cool names that turned out to be disasters, or didn't "succeed as expected in the marketplace". Ironically, at the top of the list is Microsoft's Zune portable media/music player - read "10 tech disappointments...with cool names" (The Zune doesn't really deserve that spot... it's a decent first attempt by Microsoft).

Interestingly, Exchange had cooler code names like Titanium (Exchange Server 2003), Platinum (Exchange 2000) and so on, till Exchange Server 2007 - codenamed "E12" (no, E12 wasn't that bad, but not quite as interesting or exciting as Titanium, Platinum, Longhorn, Wolfpack, etc.). Perhaps a little late in the game to change the code name for the next version of Exchange, given how far in advance these things are planned.

As far as actual product names go, Exchange isn't likely to see any changes either. E14 will probably be called "Exchange Server [year it'll be released in]", and given Exchange is arguably one of the better Microsoft brands out there, there's little reason to change it.

Nevertheless, if you have any ideas for cool names, please do post it in the comments or send me an email.

Apple Licenses Exchange ActiveSync for the iPhone?

Has Apple finally seen the light, and licensed Exchange ActiveSync from Microsoft? Will iPhone users be able to get Exchange email pushed out to their iPhones using DirectPush?

Gadget blog Engadget.com reports on rumors that indicate what many thought nearly impossible (but certainly something that would make a lot of sense for Apple - read previous post "iPhone buzz refuses to die down after a Mac-less MacWorld") may already have happened. Thanks to fellow Exchange MVP Dustin Smith for pointing this out.

Sounds interesting, but till this is confirmed by either Microsoft or Apple, rumor it is. Given Apple's tendency to keep such details secret, such an announcement or confirmation may not happen till the moment the device is released. The Engadget post claims it may be announced tomorrow. If it does indeed happen, the question most would want answered is - will it be available in the shipping version of the device on June 29th, or perhaps a downloadable update at a later date.

Update: ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley confirms it here: "The iPhone will be compatible with Microsoft Exchange, after all"

It's great to see Apple play nice with Microsoft - (ignoring iTunes and QuickTime), there's Bootcamp, the utility and drivers that allow Intel-based Macs to support running Windows in a dual-boot configuration, and Safari browser for Windows a few days ago.

iPhone with Exchange ActiveSync - sure sounds tempting!

Are privacy concerns about Google overblown?

Most folks view privacy differently, and have varying levels of concern (or the lack thereof) about it. Nevertheless, the growing footprint of Google services that we live with, including the pending acquisition of Double Click's significant advertising network and Google's new services like Street View, and the ongoing expansion of Google's footprint to cover almost every aspect of our lives is certainly a cause for concern.

When Google initially came up with its concept of context-sensitive ads in a web-mail service (Gmail), many privacy concerns were raised. It hasn't been very long since then, but in terms of expansion of the footprint of Google's services in our lives, it seems like a really long time. Perhaps we're looking at a different Google now!

I like and use many of Google's services, but articles like "Is It OK that Google Owns Us?" by Lisa Vaas on eWeek.com provide some food for thought, and a need to pause and do a sanity check.

Yes, privacy issues are fodder for endless debates - stuff like "if I don't have anything to hide, why should I care?" has endlessly been thrown around in such debates. However, the increasing signs of a big brother tracking our online activities and remembering it for what many folks think is an unreasonable amount of time, *along with identifiable personal information* should be a cause for concern.

Safari, Meet Windows: Apple's cool browser comes with security holes

One of the 12 reasons Apple says "you'll love" Safari for Windows - "Now you can enjoy worry-free web browsing on any computer. Apple engineers designed Safari to be secure from day one."

Apparently, it didn't take security researchers/experts like Thor Larholm, David Maynor and Aviv Raff too long to uncover the security holes in Safari for Windows, including couple of critical remote code execution vulnerabilities by simply visiting a web site. In fact, it happened within hours of Apple CEO Steve Jobs announcing availability of the Windows version of Beta 3.

More in this article titled "Researchers find flaws in Safari for Windows" on SearchSecurity.com.

Will Windows Vista's security features protect us from Safari's vulnerabilities? I can't wait to watch a spoof of Apple's security commercial - "Apple's browser will weaken system security. Cancel or Allow?".

Nevertheless, having installed the beta on a Vista box, I am super impressed by its rendering performance - it's blazing fast!

I like it's Private Browsing feature - when turned on, it doesn't add web pages visited to the browser's history, doesn't use AutoFill, and searches are not added to the Google search box. And the minimalist interface goes with Apple's simplified and generally elegant design.

Once released, and hopefully without new security bugs being discovered within hours of its release, Safari could be a serious contender for an alternate browser instead of Firefox. I would still need Internet Explorer for accessing Outlook Web Access and other Microsoft and IE-friendly sites.

Zenprise Wins Best Of TechEd 2007 Award

An interesting week in Orlando, as TechEd weeks generally are. The Zenprise team returned home with the Best of TechEd 2007 award! That's 2 years in a row - first time a start-up has won Best Of TechEd two years in a row! What's a cause for cheer for most of us - this time it's in the Mobility category, for Zenprise for BlackBerry! (Last year, Zenprise for Exchange won the Best of TechEd in the Messaging category - read previous post "Zenprise wins Best Of TechEd 2006 award").

It was great to see customers visibly excited about Zenprise for BlackBerry, and the new User Dashboard feature in Zenprise 3.1 (in beta right now, this is what attendees saw at our TechEd booth last week) promises to make the job of IT/messaging/mobility help desks a lot easier. For Exchange, the User Dashboard provides a quick snapshot of all the important user properties and real-time performance stats of a user's mailbox server. For BlackBerry, the User Dashboard shows BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry device-related properties and performance stats, and also an end-to-end availability state for a particular user. The dashboard also enables instant testing of a user's device.

The rapid-fire software release cycles of our times means we're working on some exciting new features for v3.2, in our mission to go where no Exchange and BlackBerry monitoring & troubleshooting products have gone before. :)

Zenprise Named Best of TechEd 2007 Finalist

Great news from the TechEd front for Zenprise - the just-released Zenprise for BlackBerry is a finalist for the Best of TechEd 2007 award in the Mobility category! That's 2 years in a row - probably a first for any company, for 2 different products in 2 different categories!

Last year at TechEd, Zenprise for Exchange was a finalist and won the Best of TechEd 2006 award in Messaging category by Windows IT Pro [read previous post "Zenprise wins Best Of TechEd 2006 award"].

Zenprise for BlackBerry brings the same automated troubleshooting, root cause analysis and performance management capabilities to Research In Motion's BlackBerry Enterprise Server for Exchange. It automatically detects problems that affect BlackBerry availability, performance, and integrity - including user-facing issues like one-way synchronization of Calendars, issues with carrier networks like Cingular, T-Mobile, Verizon, etc., and those affecting RIM's SRP network. (In fact, Zenprise was able to provide advance warning of RIM's recent network outage that impacted BlackBerry users in N. America. Read previous post "Zenprise proactively detects BlackBerry N. America outage!" for more details).

An added benefit for Zenprise for BlackBerry customers is the ability to manage BlackBerry from within the Microsoft Systems Center Operations Manager (SCOM) 2007 console, using the Zenprise Connector for SCOM 2007.

Clearly we're very excited about being a Finalist again for Best of TechEd 2007, and even more so about the next release of Zenprise for BlackBerry - currently in beta, and the interesting capabilities it brings.

Hilf: Don't look at Fortune magazine as the manifestation of Microsoft strategy

In an exclusive interview to InfoWorld magazine, Microsoft's Bill Hilf clears up the air [read previous article - "Bill Hilf: Free Software Movement Is Dead"] about Microsoft's open source strategy, and its patent infringement claims. According to Hilf, Microsoft's strategy hasn't changed. It's not on the litigation path. Ignore Fortune's spin on Microsoft counsel Brad Smith's interview.

"Our strategy from everyone in the company -- from [Steve] Ballmer to Brad Smith to me and everyone in between -- has always been to license and not litigate as it relates to our intellectual property. So we have no plans to litigate. You can never say we'll never do anything in the future, but that's not our strategy. That article spins it on the attack. The only new piece information in that article is that it just put a number on the patents", says Hilf.

Read the complete interview on Infoworld.com.

Bill Hilf: Free Software Movement Is Dead

This may add a lot of fuel to the platforms (Windows v/s Open Source and Almost Open Source But Never Free) debate, and will certainly balloon into a controversy of interesting proportions.

Bill Hilf, Microsoft's GM of Platform Strategy, said in a recent interview in Bangkok: "The Free Software movement is dead. Linux doesn't exist in 2007. Even Linus has got a job today."

Most Linux customers run a distribution - Redhat, Novell, Suse, or Mandiva. Most of the work done on maintaining the Linux kernel is done by developers working for these distributions. They are full-time employees, with 401K (and) stock options. What does it mean? It means that Linux doesn't exist any more in 2007. There is no free software movement. If someone says Linux is about Love, Peace and Harmony, I would tell them to do their research. There is no free movement any more. There is big commercial [firms] like IBM and there is small commerical [firms] like Ubuntu.

Why should one listen to this guy? Before he joined Microsoft, Hilf led IBM's Linux/Open Source technical strategy worldwide. Seems like he would know a thing or two about open source. :)

Read the complete interview - Microsoft director out to 'debunk mythology around open source' - on Bangkok Post's web site.

Personally, I find the terms "Open Source" and "Free Software" amusing. It's another branding war that Microsoft did not make any serious efforts to win. Free software is anything but free, at least for the wide majority of business users. Wait, I'm trying not to get drawn into this debate myself. It's an endless one.

In related news, Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith revealed to FORTUNE magainze that free software like Linux violates 235 of its patents.

Interestingly, Eben Moglen, longtime counsel to the Free Software Foundation says - software is a mathematical algorithm and, as such, not patentable. It's one thing to say the current (software) patents regime is a tad overdone, but to suggest that software cannot be patented at all - that leaves me in incredulous disbelief!

The world just became a lot more interesting place to live in. Let the rants begin.

WES 2007: RIM extends office phone sytems to BlackBerries

At its Wireless Enterprise Symposium - WES 2007 in Orlando, FL, Research In Motion announced the BlackBerry MVS (Mobile Voice System), a suite of products that extends enterprise PBX systems to BlackBerry devices, enabling users to have a single phone number and making BlackBerries part of the enterprise telephony eco-system - as extensions of their desk phones.

MVS allows users' BlackBerry devices and desk phones to ring at the same time, the ability to dial extensions from BlackBerries, make conference calls, and route outbound calls made from the device through the organization's PBX.

The system consists of:
1. BlackBerry MVS Client software installed on BlackBerry devices
2. BlackBerry MVS Connectors installed on an organization's BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Servers)
3. Ascendant Voice Mobility Suite (software gateway to PBX systems)

Interestingly, RIM will make these available later this month as free updates for existing BlackBerry devices and BlackBerry (Enterprise) Servers. (I'm guessing the Ascendant Voice Mobility Suite gateway for PBXes is what customers will need to pay for - Bharat)

More details on RIM's web site.

ZDNet: Zenprise gave indications 2 hours before the BlackBerry outage

Before the world knew: insider’s diary of BlackBerry service shutdown by ZDNet's Russell Shaw -- For two hours before the BlackBerry email outage two weeks ago, the Zenprise BlackBerry service monitoring system in place at the County of Alameda (Cal.) data center in the 1.5 million-populaton county seat of Oakland "gave us some indications connectivity was intermittent," senior server engineer Paul Hinsberg told me just a few minutes ago.

The engineer adds that as the afternoon progressed, the (scored) confidence levels of successful BlackBerry network connections as scored by Zenprise gradually descended from Very High-This Is Fixed to " 'I am completely sure I cannot connect. '"

Read the complete article (and get a glimpse of the performance chart from Zenprise for BlackBerry) on "The BlackBerry Beat" over on ZDNet.com.

RIM does a BlackBerry on Windows Mobile

Interesting announcement from RIM - it will offer the BlackBerry application suite for devices running Microsoft's Windows Moible 6, which will morph the Windows Mobile device into a BlackBerry at the touch of a button. Sort of.

Once installed, the application will provide users with a "virtual BlackBerry appearance" - including support for BlackBerry email, phone, calendar, address book, tasks, memos, browser, instant messaging, and other apps for BlackBerry. Users will be able to use BlackBerry email using a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) or BlackBerry Internet Service.

According to RIM, this will expand user's device options.

Though Windows Mobile seems to be gaining ground slowly, the BlackBerry juggernaut seems to show no signs of slowing down - the growth pattern continues.

However, RIM does seem to be sending the signal that the device itself isn't as important. Not too long ago, it extended BlackBerry email functionality to devices running Palm OS, in partnership with PalmSource. Users addicted to the Palm OS can use BlackBerry Connect software on their Palm devices, and get access to BlackBerry email. With BlackBerry application suite for Windows Mobile devices, users of both the leading (non-BlackBerry) smartphone/PDA platforms will be able to get BlackBerry service.

Competing smartphone manufacturers have recently stepped into RIM's turf. Motorola's MotoQ smartphone (another over-hyped but mostly disappointing product, imo. I was without a cell phone for a week, and switched providers when Verizon launched the Q) introduced Windows Mobile users to the "thumb wheel". Used to easily navigate through a list of email messages using a thumb, it has been one of the more distinguishing features of BlackBerries. (Along with what may be the first QWERTY keyboard on such devices that allowed users to easily type entire email messages using a thumb, the thumb wheel is responsible for "BlackBerry Thumb" - a term used to describe the soreness caused by "spending hours on a hand-held email device").

RIM's own devices increasingly display more design savvy - they're getting thinner & sexier, sporting better displays and more consumer-oriented features like GPS, voice-activated dialing, and ability to play music and video clips. (I like the BlackBerry 8800. I've given up on Windows Mobile devices for now - after having tried a number of them over the past year or two. As of now, I don't carry any mobile devices other than a plain old cell phone. I'm looking for a Windows Mobile device that's compelling enough... hopefully it'll show up this year - Bharat)

Nevertheless, the lure of Windows Mobile will be hard to resist for users, and for organizations considering deploying mobile devices. It offers the familiarity of desktop operating system that most of us use - making users feel at home instantly. Windows Mobile OS gets better with every version, and its integration with Exchange Server's ActiveSync feature allows organizations to deploy mobile email without having to invest in separate servers like RIM's BlackBerry Enterprise Server solution does.

It will be interesting to watch how RIM's BlackBerry application suite for Windows Mobile 6 fares.

It will be a lot more interesting if RIM offers the "BlackBerry experience" on the-yet-to-be-released-but-most-hyped-product-on-earth - Apple's iPhone [read previous post - "iPhone buzz refuses to die down after a Mac-less MacWorld"], which lacks any business email features. But I'm not holding my breath just yet.

RIM Reveals Cause of BlackBerry Outage

Research In Motion finally provided more details about the cause of its 14-hour outage starting Tuesday night. You can read more about it on Russell Shaw's The BlackBerry Beat blog on ZDNet, or News.com (RIM offers explanation for massive outage), or the publication of your choice - it's all over the place.

Judging by the explanation, I'm not surprised it took them 2 days to come up with that statement. :)

RIM has generally offered a reliable service - one of the reasons it is so popular and has most business folks (including many government ogranizations) addicted to it.

System and network outages happen, despite our best efforts, tests, and investments in high availability and redundancy. Most users understand this -as long as outages are not the norm in a given environment. What annoys users is the lack of information. From the user's perspective, it's more about "tell me when it's broken, tell me you're working on it, and if/when you know it'll be up, let me know". However, this type of communication has been lacking in RIM's efforts.

I haven't been able to find anything related to the outage on RIM's support web site. (Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places... if you've seen something, please post a link in the comments - Bharat)

BlackBerry Outage Cause of a Break-up!

In an interesting twist on last night's BlackBerry outage at RIM, Network World's John Cox reports how the extended outage resulted in one user's girlfriend breaking up with him. After a bad argument the couple had earlier in the day, user Rafael Paz' girlfriend sent him a few emails. When she did not receive a response, she "called it off", according to Paz.

The article also provides other examples of how many users suspected "something was wrong" (as opposed to the early detection by Zenprise), and talks about how Zenprise watched the whole disruption unfold through one of its customers, the County of Alameda, Calif.

Read the complete article titled "In-depth: BlackBerry becomes Crashberry as RIM’s net fails for hours" on NetworkWorld.com.

Zenprise proactively detects BlackBerry N. America outage!

BlackBerry® users in North America were without email last night (Tuesday April 17th), thanks to an extended system-wide outage in Research In Motion's network that handles email.

Zenprise customers report that Zenprise for BlackBerry automatically detected this outage in the BlackBerry SRP network at 5:19 PM last night, and were able to pro actively inform users about the outage and its underlying cause!

Interestingly, I did not find out about this outage myself until early this morning, when CNet's News.com reported it (No, I don't carry a BlackBerry with me... - Bharat). The report has since been updated to reflect the changed condition - BlackBerry e-mail is back, but problems remain.

This is another example of how Zenprise products - Zenprise for BlackBerry and Zenprise for Exchange - help IT departments in early detection of issues in messaging infrastructure along with their underlying root cause, and get step-by-step resolution instructions to resolve the issue. To state this using some marketing buzz words - it's a pro-active way of managing IT (one that I hope will spill over to other parts of IT infrastructure in the future - Bharat).

Needless to say, we are "very excited" about these capabilities of Zenprise. :)

Email Archiving and Compliance: Learning from email issues that plague the White House

Over the weekend, Wall Street Journal reported "White House Probes More Lost Emails" (external links do not work, WSJ.com requires subscription to read this article). The Journal's John D. McKinnon reports, "The White House, already under pressure to explain missing emails from officials using a Republican Party system, says it is investigating reports that many more emails might have been deleted from its own system."

A White House spokeswoman said Friday that it is possible several million emails could have been erased. How many million is "several" million? According to Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino, "a potential 5 million emails were lost", as reported by McKinnon.

That's not a small number by any means! Can you imagine the impact of losing as many emails from your corporate messaging systems?

What's even more interesting, another White House spokesman - Scott Stanzel said "we are aware that some emails may not have been automatically archived on the... server. However, we understand that such emails should have been preserved on backup tapes."

The Washington Post's Dan Foomkin writes in his White House Watch column, "Countless e-mails to and from many key White House staffers have been deleted -- lost to history and placed out of reach of congressional subpoenas -- due to a brazen violation of internal White House policy that was allowed to continue for more than six years, the White House acknowledged yesterday.

The leading culprit appears to be President Bush's enormously influential political adviser Karl Rove, who reportedly used his Republican National Committee-provided Blackberry and e-mail accounts for most of his electronic communication."

The political spin is interesting, even amusing to many. Let's put the political tones and context aside, and think of these as email issues for a moment. There are two issues here:

1) IT/Messaging Operations: missing messages from the archiving system. Is this a case of data loss that happened during "conversion" from one system to another, as stated in the White House response? It would be great to have more technical details, so us messaging types can relate and try to figure out what may have happened, and perhaps how to avoid such issues in our environments. Some may even be interested in knowing which vendors and/or products were involved.

2) IT/Messaging Policy: As indicated in most such reports in the media, many White House staffers used accounts on the Republican National Committee's (RNC) messaging system, instead of the official White House one. Again, removing the political context from this issue, this could be the worst nightmare for CIOs/Compliance Officers/executives in any organization - users bypassing your organization's mail system completely, using their personal/external accounts. All such messages that bypass your email system can not be archived by your super-smart archiving systems. You have no control over such messages, or their content.

Unfortunately, there's no simple technical solution to stop such email abuse - many organizations try different things, like blocking known/public/free web-based email systems, blocking outbound SMTP at the firewall for all computers except authorized internal mail hosts that need to send internet mail, amongst other such measures. Neither of these guarantee the absolute lockout of external mail services or systems - those inclined to do so may find the workarounds, depending on how well you've locked down such access.

Nevertheless, such measures do provide some sort of protection from use of "unauthorized mail systems". Additionally, putting such measures in place is proof that attempts were made in good faith to prevent users from indulging in such practice.

The other piece is Messaging/IT Policy. Some questions to ask: Does your policy explicitly state that users should not use such "unauthorized mail systems" to send/receive work-related messages, or prevent users from using external mail systems at all during work hours or from the office? Is the policy well-publicized in your organization? Do users sign an agreement stating they've read, know about and agree to adhere to such policies, when they join your organization and every time the policy changes? Does it communicate the possible consequences of such policy violations?

As a sidenote, as a user I would frown on policies that prevent me from checking my personal email from work - at least during breaks. This may be a job requirement for positions such as those in the White House (or large financial institutions, as noted in the comments - Bharat), but not very practical in many private organizations. A delicate balance has to be found that meets both requirements - that of ensuring all work-related communication happens through the organization's messaging system, while allowing use of personal email for personal purposes, particularly during breaks/non-work hours.

As it appears, White House staff is governed by such policies - the 1978 Presidential Records Act, according to McKinnon's report. Ironically, while the elected representatives are all for enacting laws like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and HIPAA, and the government all too diligent in enforcing them, an important arm of the government doesn't seem to be in compliance with laws that apply to it.

Messaging folks, and corporate IT & legal departments have a lot to learn from this incident - lessons best learnt from other people's experiences (...and at other people's cost?).

I suspect we will continue to hear a lot more more about this issue in days to come.

SearchCIO.com: BlackBerry troubleshooting a breeze for retail chain

SearchCIO.com just published this article by Andrew Hickey, titled "BlackBerry troubleshooting a breeze for retail chain", about how Zenprise for BlackBerry helps troubleshoot BlackBerry issues.

The level of interest of BlackBerry (Enterprise Server for Exchange) customers in Zenprise amazes me - needless to say, it's beyond my expectations... :)

Drumroll: MAPI is now Outlook Exchange Transport Protocol

Messaging Application Programming Interface - or MAPI, the equally loved (overstatement?) and hated protocol used by Microsoft Outlook to communicate with Microsoft Exchange Server, just got rechristened! It's now called Outlook Exchange Transport Protocol. Found this little tidbit burried in Paul Robichaux' blog.

Saw it mentioned as such on a Microsoft licensing web page not too long ago (linked from Paul's post), but I didn't really hear or read about the name change till I saw his blog post. As he notes in the post, "MAPI is dead as a name, but I suspect it'll be a loooong time before those four letters are expurgated from all of the existing MS documentation and support materials"... and from our collective memories, if I may add.

Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 Beta 1 available to subscribers

Microsoft has released Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Beta1 to TechNet and MSDN subscribers. Both the 32-bit (for test/lab use) and 64-bit versions are available on TechNet. MSDN shows only the 64-bit version.

If you subscribe to TechNet or MSDN, head over to either site to download Beta1. (Charged up with enthusiasm as you may be about SP1, it's not recommended to install beta products in production... :)

Meet Linux: The worst ever spoof of an Apple ad - by Novell?

Just came across Novell's Meet Linux ads - the worst ever spoof of Apple's brilliant "Hi I'm a Mac... " commercials. The production quality is poor, and the execution amateurish, imo. These look more like a a clip on YouTube put together by a bunch of teenagers with a camcorder, (and it probably is for all we know :) . Watch them on novell.com.

Hey Novell, wasn't the Apple, Mac and a pretty young thing concept already taken - by Apple itself? Apple's 'Better Results' ad features Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen, is better executed, amusing, and consistent with Apple's style.

You can find a whole bunch of "I'm a Mac" spoofs on YouTube - some of them are quite funny. If that's where Novell picked up its MeetLinux ads from, it could have certainly done a better job.