Buried somewhere in a press release about enterprise cloud solutions,
Microsoft let slip that with the launch of Windows Server 2012 R2, it
will release its Remote Desktop app not just on Windows, Windows RT and
OS X, but also iOS and Android later this month. This marks the first
time the popular remote desktop software has made it to the rival mobile
platforms, and could prove to be a shot across the bow to other apps in the same space. Michel Roth,
one of Microsoft's Most Valuable Professionals, adds that the OS X app
has undergone a major overhaul, the iOS version will support iOS 6 and
7, while the Android variant should support everything from Gingerbread
upward. We're not sure yet on when Microsoft's Remote Desktop will roll
out to the respective app stores, but we do hope Redmond is at least
giving some thought to making it available to Windows Phone 8 as well.
Press Release
Microsoft unleashes fall wave of enterprise cloud solutions
Oct. 07, 2013
New Windows Server, System Center, Visual Studio, Windows Azure, Windows
Intune, SQL Server, and Dynamics solutions will accelerate cloud
benefits for customers.
REDMOND, Wash. - Oct. 7, 2013 - Microsoft Corp. on Monday announced a
wave of new enterprise products and services to help companies seize
the opportunities of cloud computing and overcome today's top IT
challenges. Complementing Office 365 and other services, these new
offerings deliver on Microsoft's enterprise cloud strategy.
Satya Nadella, Cloud and Enterprise executive vice president, said,
"As enterprises move to the cloud they are going to bet on vendors that
have best-in-class software as a service applications, operate a global
public cloud that supports a broad ecosystem of third party services,
and deliver multi-cloud mobility through true hybrid solutions. If you
look across the vendor landscape, you can see that only Microsoft is
truly delivering in all of those areas." More comments from Nadella can
be found on The Official Microsoft Blog.
Hybrid infrastructure and modern applications
To help customers build IT infrastructure that delivers continuous
services and applications across clouds, on Oct. 18 Microsoft will
release Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2. Together,
these new products empower companies to create datacenters without
boundaries using Hyper-V for high-scale virtualization; high-performance
storage at dramatically lower costs; built-in, software-defined
networking; and hybrid business continuity. The new Windows Azure Pack
runs on top of Windows Server and System Center, enabling enterprises
and service providers to deliver self-service infrastructure and
platforms from their datacenters.
Building on these hybrid cloud platforms, customers can use Visual
Studio 2013 and the new .NET 4.5.1, also available Oct. 18, to create
modern applications for devices and services. As software development
becomes pervasive within every company, the new Visual Studio 2013
Modern Lifecycle Management solution helps enable development teams,
businesspeople and IT managers to build and deliver better applications,
faster.
Enabling enterprise cloud adoption
Recognizing that most enterprises will take a hybrid approach to
cloud, Microsoft wants to help customers utilize their investments in
on-premises software solutions toward the adoption of cloud computing.
On Nov. 1, Microsoft will offer Enterprise Agreement (EA) customers
access to discounted Windows Azure prices, regardless of upfront
commitment, without overuse penalties and with the flexibility of annual
payments.
As another part of this effort to reduce cloud adoption barriers,
Microsoft on Monday announced a strategic partnership with Equinix Inc.
Building on recently announced partnerships with AT&T and others,
this alliance will provide customers with even more options for private
and fast connections to the cloud. Customers will be able to connect
their networks with Windows Azure at Equinix exchange locations for
greater throughput, availability and security features.
Governments are among the most demanding enterprise customers. To
help U.S. federal, state and local government agencies realize the
benefits of public cloud computing, Microsoft is introducing its Windows
Azure US Government Cloud. This will offer U.S. government customers a
dedicated community cloud for data, applications and infrastructure,
hosted in the continental U.S. and managed by U.S. personnel. Windows
Azure has been granted FedRAMP Joint Authorization Board Provisional
Authority to Operate, making it the first public cloud of its kind to
achieve this level of government authorization.
Data platform and insights
As part of its vision to help more people unlock actionable insights
from big data, Microsoft next week will release a second preview of SQL
Server 2014. The new version offers industry-leading in-memory
technologies at no additional cost, giving customers 10 times to 30
times performance improvements without application rewrites or new
hardware. SQL Server 2014 also works with Windows Azure to give
customers built-in cloud backup and disaster recovery.
For big data analytics, later this month Microsoft will release
Windows Azure HDInsight Service, an Apache Hadoop-based service that
works with SQL Server and widely used business intelligence tools, such
as Microsoft Excel and Power BI for Office 365. With Power BI, people
can combine private and public data in the cloud for rich visualizations
and fast insights.
People and devices in the cloud
The proliferation of cloud applications, data and consumer devices is
moving many enterprises to a bring-your-own-device model. The new
release of Windows Intune, also available Oct. 18, combines with System
Center Configuration Manager to help IT departments give mobile
employees security-enhanced access to the applications and data they
need on the Windows, iOS and Android devices of their choice. This
unified management environment for PCs and mobile devices complements
the new access and information protection capabilities in Windows Server
2012 R2.
Further, with Windows Server 2012 R2 Microsoft is introducing the
Microsoft Remote Desktop app, available for download in application
stores later this month, to provide easy access to PCs and virtual
desktops on a variety of devices and platforms, including Windows,
Windows RT, iOS, OS X and Android.
Software as a service business solutions
The next major version of the company's CRM solution, Microsoft
Dynamics CRM Online Fall '13 will be available later this month, helping
make customer interactions more personal via contextual information for
deeper insights than the previous version, delivered on a variety of
devices.* The on-premises version is expected to be available later in
the fall for deployment either in-house or hosted by a partner. More
information is available here. In addition, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013
R2 is now available, offering small and midsize businesses
interoperability with Office 365, full multitenant support, and a range
of tools designed to support large-scale hosting of the application on
Windows Azure.
More information on Monday's announcements can be found at the Microsoft News Center.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in
software, services and solutions that help people and businesses
realize their full potential.
* Devices include Windows 8 tablets and iPad tablets with Microsoft
Dynamics CRM 2013; Windows Phone 8, iPhone and Android phone shortly
following the release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013.
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