Microsoft as She Be Perceived in Arabia
November 24, 2008
My newsreader is set to deliver me items from the whizziest consulting firms in the world. What I saw a few minutes ago surprised me. First, you have to read “Microsoft Brings Out Next-Gen Enterprise Suite,” which ran in Trade Arabia: Business News and Information here.
The article does a reasonable job of summarizing the major Microsoft server initiatives. The big gun is Microsoft’ virtualization technology, which has been a matter of some discussion. One consulting firm reported that it gobbled market share faster than my beautiful but dim boxer show dog. Then Paul Thurrott, publisher of a Windows information site and star of Twit network’s Windows Weekly reported that getting Hyper V to run was no easy task. I am confident Microsoft will get the bugs out of the software, probably already has.
Then the article sales into SQL Server 2008 territory. Microsoft has been investing in SQL Server for many years. Different consultants report different database vendor market shares. I have seen reports that peg Oracle as king of the data mountain. I have also seen studies that make DB2 the big dog. Trade Arabia references a study from the stellar consultancy Forrester, saying:
According to a September 2008 report conducted by Forrester Research, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 already has the strongest combination of price, performance, manageability, security and productivity.
Well, if Forrester and its legions of industry experts in most technologies uses the word “strongest”, I definitely know I have the received wisdom of the best brains money can hire.
The article concludes by describing Silverlight as he industry’s most comprehensive and powerful solution for the creation and delivery of applications and media experiences through a Web browser,”
Now, when I step back from the facts or assertions in the article, I recall that I am seeing more and more Microsoft cheerleading from the Eastern Mediterranean. My hypothesis is that Microsoft is making a push for sales and market share in this sector. I may be wrong, but I will keep my eyes open for more information on this topic.
But the larger issue for me is what is not in the article. Perhaps it was editing, but I keep thinking that Google uses its data management tools and MySQL. In fact, I recall hearing some talk at a recent conference that MySQL is the number one database in terms of Web applications. What about Flash? What about virtualization alternatives.
The Trade Arabia article is a masterful presentation of Microsoft technology as the only game in town. The problem is, I don’t believe it. But if big companies sniff this catnip, who am I to produce facts that get in the path of the baloney machines. This goose could become liver paste in a New York minute.
Stephen Arnold, November 24, 2008
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One Response to “Microsoft as She Be Perceived in Arabia”
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There might be a load of lipstick in that article but the SilverLight part isn’t just hype. I don’t see how a single-threaded Flash is on par technically with a multi-threaded SilverLight no matter how big an install base Adobe has. SilverLight could be even better had it not been Microsoft was taming it to avoid cannibalizing their own desktop business. And that’s just the presentation tier. Once the business and data tiers (where .Net and Sql Server come out of woodwork) are included, it really becomes “most comprehensive and powerful solution”. That statement is kinda earned, in my opinion.