Per on IT!

Binging together with Yahoo!

The search deal just announced by Microsoft and Yahoo! is great news for the internet.  

 

Users, advertisers and publishers alike will all win.  It can only lead to greater choice, better value, and more innovation. 

 

The deal, under which Microsoft’s Bing will power search on both Microsoft and Yahoo! sites, will create a real alternative to Google, which is currently overwhelmingly dominant in search and search advertising, commanding some 90% of searches in Europe alone. 

 

The Microsoft/Yahoo! deal will create the scale necessary to more effectively compete with Google’s super dominance.  It will attract more users to the combined platform; and those users will enjoy more relevant ads and better search results.  More users means more advertisers, and more advertisers means even more relevant ad results -- a self-reinforcing “virtuous” cycle where users and advertisers alike are big beneficiaries.  

 

Similarly, web publishers will have an alternative to Google that has the necessary scale to be attractive for their search syndication deals.  The new platform will be able to offer web publishers more competitive bids for their search syndication. 

 

Finally, and importantly, “search” itself will also win in the form of greater innovation -- Bing is already a breakthrough in innovative features, but the additional push that the deal will give to development and refinement of the search algorithms and other drivers of the platform will deliver even more rapid advances.  Searches will only become more relevant and useful.  

 

 

 

Regards, Per

Bayona - best restaurant in New Orleans?

One of the most rewarding experiences in New Orleans this week, outside the WPC '09 conference itself, was to enjoy the local cuisine.

 

I am a big fan of oysters and to be honest I think that the best way is to serve them raw. Even my three year old daughter sometimes tell me that we shall go to the local market and buy oysters - she's a big fan too!

 

But in New Orleans they are more often baked, or charbroiled and I must say that they make them so wonderful so I have changed perception and I will bring the best of oyster preparation 'NOLA Style' to my dinner parties back home in Sweden.

 

The very best restaurant I visited this week was Bayona where Ms. Susan Spicer rules the kitchen! And what a wonderful kitchen! Bayona must be one of the very best restaurants in Louisiana and their cuisine is more Southern than just Creole.

 

We sampled many dishes and everyone was a delight! If I should single out the Rabbit Roulade! Unusual was the pricing on great wine bottles - at Bayona they don't mark up the prices as in many other places so the whole dinner came at a nice price tag.

 

If and when Guide Michelin comes to New Orleans I bet that they will award Bayona at one of their stars!

 

Read more at www.bayona.com.

 

 

Regards, Per

VMware or Hyper-V? It's a no brainer for me!

 

 

Now there is even less reason to look at VMware when doing virtualization in the datacenter.

 

With Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 we will get Live Migration and that was the only 'tick box' that VMware could claim was their advantage. When I saw Bob Muglia doing a live migration I was truly impressed.

 

I know that many partners are now getting rid of VMware to the benefit of Hyper-V from Microsoft. The cost advantage is enormous - not only the cost for licenses but also the cost of operations makes a very compelling business case for Microsoft's Hyper-V!

 

Well done!

 

 

Regards, Per

Networking, networking, networking!

This week I have seen great keynotes (Allison Watson, Steve Ballmer, Bob Muglia and Kevin Turner) and I have also attended a few breakouts which all combined adds up to a busy week!

I have spent the bulk of the week doing networking and I know that I have not been alone in making networking a priority. What an opportunity with 8,500 people in the same building!

I have also had a few journalists interviewing me which is always a joy!

So the concept is crystal clear to me - people want to meet and WPC has now turned to be more of a networking conference than in past years! And partners love it! :-)

Regards, Per

News from WPC09 in New Orleans - Windows 7

I’m betting on Windows 7! Looks like a safe bet because this operating system will be the foundation for better serving customers!

With the new Windows 7 that is about to be available for the general public in October we will be able to significantly increase performance on computers running Vista and this will help customers to postpone hardware refresh.

But the biggest news is that it is easy to deploy Windows 7 and both legacy applications running on XP as well as Vista certified applications can run without any problems. No more worries about compatibility!

I think that customers and partners will rush to deploy Windows 7 making it the fastest deployment in history!

 

Regards, Per

Microsoft Partner Network announced today at WPC

Today in New Orleans at WPC 09 we got a great anouncement from Allison Watson! The Microsoft Partner Program as we know it will be transformed into Microsoft Partner Network!

I believe that this is great news for partners that try a little bit harder. With the new Microsoft Partner Network there will be opportunities for the ones that try a little bit harder to be recognized for doing that.

Competencies will be better aligned to the new age and partners will get even better support from Microsoft in doing business.

MSPP was great and MPN will be even greater!

Regards, Per