Skip to Content

Free TUAW iPhone app -- try it now!
AOL Tech

enterprise posts

Filed under: Business, Utilities, Office, Google, IBM

Google makes it easier to ditch Lotus Notes


If your company uses Lotus Notes, and has been considering switching to Google Apps, you're in luck. Google has just launched an easy migration tool that allows you to bring all of your Notes data over to the equivalent Google Apps. In a blog post, Google explains that the migration tool is simple and complete enough for enterprise use, and that a 30,000-person company has already used it to switch over.

The tool is a Lotus Notes database, which means IT pros who are used to notes shouldn't have much trouble with it. It migrates everything from Notes to Google Apps: email, calendars, and contacts. This is welcome news to folks who are still stuck with the quirky interface and sometimes-frustrating incompatibility of Notes, but will it get companies to switch? The success of Google Apps in the enterprise market might not be about how easy it is to switch, but about how comfortable businesses are with moving their data to the cloud.

Filed under: OS Updates, Windows, Microsoft, Commercial, Beta, Windows x64

Microsoft to OEMs: cut off free Vista to Windows 7 upgrades at 25

When pricing information for Windows 7 upgrades first appeared, it sounded like more good news for consumers. The leaked Best Buy memo offered a price of $49.99, and Windows 7 fanatics everywhere cheered. That, coupled with the free upgrade coupons OEMs were offering to consumers sure made it look like Microsoft was going to be extremely aggressive with pricing.

Fast forward, and now we know that the rock-bottom price is for pre-orders only and retail copies will set you back $119.99 for Home Premium and $199.99 for Professional. That's only $10 less than Vista upgrades ran initially, and hardly what I'd call aggressive.

Further disappointing news is that Microsoft has now instructed OEMs to cap free upgrades on volume purchase at 25 units. While that's plenty of room for smaller businesses, it's a sharp two-finger salute to medium and large business.

Four small businesses can get 100 free upgrades, but your large enterprise has to pay for the extra 75?

Ouch.

That's not really the kind of announcement that will make IT administrators jump at the chance to get new metal running Windows 7.

[via Daily Tech]

Filed under: Business, E-mail, Google, Microsoft

Google Apps now syncs with Microsoft Outlook

If you're running Google Apps (Premier or Education editions), but you still use Outlook for email, you're in luck. Google Apps now syncs with Microsoft Outlook, so you can keep right on using it, and get your gmail messages, too. It's not just email that syncs: calendars and contacts do, too.

As you'd expect, syncing works both ways: you can bring your Google Apps data into Outlook, and send your Outlook or Exchange data to Google, and it's apparently only a 2-click process. Google Calendar in Google Apps also now supports the free/busy functionality of Outlook's calendar, so you can schedule meetings with all of your contacts, regardless of whether they're on Google or Outlook. Does this mean more business users are going to be switching to Google Apps?

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware, Windows x64

Desktop Central packages 11 handy tools for sysadmins


Manage Engine develop a number of excellent products for network administrators. Even better, some of their tools - like Desktop Central - are completely free.

Desktop Central is a handy application that packages several useful utilities for sysadmins, including remote task management, software inventory, remote command prompt, wake on lan, and remote shutdown/restart. Reporting tools (users/groups, disk space, inventory) support exporting their results to CSV or plain text.

The tools are most useful in a domain setting, though several of them will work just fine in a workgroup setup as well.

Desktop Central is free, but you will have to put up with an advertisement for Manage Engine's enterprise software on the main screen. It's a minor distraction, and doesn't appear elsewhere.

Filed under: Business, web 2.0

Mozy now offering Enterprise backup

Online backup provider Mozy has just introduced its enterprise backup solution, aptly named MozyEnterprise. We'd like to first point out that the name "MozyEnterprise" commits not one, but two egregious web 2.0 transgressions: cute misspellings of common words and removing all spaces from the name.

How's the service itself, you ask?

MozyEnterprise is offered as a fee-based subscription service. It remains an online backup solution, though Mozy has pumped up the security features: 448-bit Blowfish encryption and 128 bit SSL encryption, with the additional option of private encryption keys.

Other enterprise-themed features include:
  • Administrative console: Centrally manage end-user backups from any location through a web-based administrative console.
  • "Hot" backup of Exchange, and SQL server
  • Snapshot support: Restore from multiple file versions saved up to 30 days in the past.
  • Automatic or scheduled backup
If you're the network administrator of a large company, why don't you "mozy" on over (har-har) and check it out?

[via Web Worker Daily]

Filed under: Business, Windows, Linux, Yahoo!, Freeware

IBM and Yahoo! launch free enterprise search product

IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition
Taking an unexpected jab right at Google's Enterprise Search Appliance, IBM and Yahoo! have teamed up to launch IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition, a free search solution that will index "up to 500,000 documents and over 200 file types in 30 different languages." OmniFind Yahoo! Edition will run on Linux (Red Hat Enterprise and SUSE Enterprise, to be specific), Windows XP, or Windows 2003 Server. The minimum requirements specify 1GB of RAM and 80GB of hard drive space, but the recommended specs call for dual 3Ghz processors, twice the RAM, and 250GB of mirrored disk space. Google's "Mini" search appliance, by contrast, starts out at $1,995 including hardware, and tops out at 300,000 documents for $8,995, and its more full-featured search appliance starts at $30,000.

Yahoo! and IBM tout the OmniFind system's ease of setup, ("Go from installer to searching in minutes"), so for organizations who can gather the hardware and install the software themselves and need to index fewer than half a million documents, Google's appliances' bang to buck ratio suddenly doesn't look very healthy.

[Via CIO]

Filed under: Business, Blogging, Web services, Commercial

WordPress goes enterprise with KnowNow

KnowNow Wordpress Enterprise EditionAutomattic, the company behind open source blogging platform WordPress and free blog service WordPress.com, has struck a deal with enterprise RSS company KnowNow, who will begin selling KnowNow Wordpress Enterprise Edition (KWEE), a special version of WordPress MU (i.e. Multi-User, the same multi-blog software WordPress.com is built on) that will include special enterprise features like LDAP authentication and analytics.

WordPress CEO Toni Schneider has a post on his blog that describes the deal in greater detail. According to Read/WriteWeb, KWEE will be available both as a KnowNow-hosted package or as a distribution enterprise companies can install on their own servers.

Filed under: Audio, Business, Utilities, Video, News, Windows, E-mail, Office, Productivity, Web services, Microsoft, Commercial, VoIP, Social Software

Office Live and Office 2007, now they're thinkin'

Office LiveMicrosoft is great at catering to the enterprise. Their new Office system (2007) will follow this trend and deliver value to enterprise customers, I have no doubt. Microsoft is also catering to small businesses with Office 2007 as well. Microsoft realizes that small business owners also want the same kind of collaboration tools that enterprises have, but can't or don't want to have to pony up the costs for a server, so they are grooming Office Live to help with that idea. Small business owners will be able to collaborate using Microsoft-hosted share-point servers, and other features. Office Live today gives small businesses a website and project management tools to help them manage their business and online presence with less hassle then in previous years. This hybrid idea between Office Live and Office 2007 will be hard to beat.

Filed under: OS Updates, News, Linux, Novell, Commercial

SuSe Linux gets the download

SuSe Linux DownloadSince it's release on July 17th, 2006 SuSe Linux Enterprise 10 has been downloaded 165,000 times. There are some download numbers for your reading enjoyment. I dream of the day when someone downloads something I wrote that many times (and no not that obscure poetry from eleventh grade). Ok, now with our head back out of the clouds, SuSe's website (the enterprise edition at least) has racked up over 312,000 hits in 10 days. So far the response has been overwhelming. Novell is thrilled. I wonder, has anyone tried this version of Linux, meaning the SuSe Enterprise 10 edition in particular? What did you think of it, and why is it superior to previous releases of Linux? Personally I haven't used it, have you?

Filed under: Internet, Commercial, Freeware

AOL to launch AIM Pro for corporations

AIMAccording to CNet, today AOL (this blog's parent company) will launch AIM Pro, a new version of its instant messaging product aimed (no pun intended) at corporate users. AIM Pro will be free for anyone to use and will include all of the standard AIM features, plus integration with Microsoft Outlook's calendar and directory features and WebEx's voice, videoconferencing, and collaboration features. It also lets users use their professional email addresses instead of AIM screen names and has built-in SSL encryption. Later on, AOL plans to offer a premium version of AIM pro that includes "an IT management console, logging and regulatory compliance features." Regarding interoperability with other networks, which may be of particular importance to business users, AOL's VP of business services Brian Curry said, "I think we are slowly making our way there...We don't have anything to announce around that right now."

Filed under: Business, Developer, Office, Productivity, Web services, Commercial

Enterprise wikis?

wikis in the enterpriseWikis tend to appeal to the younger, hipper crowd. So what're they doing in the enterprise? Big business isn't exactly known to be agile and all social like that. InternetNews has an in-depth look at BizWiki, which bills itself as just that— a wiki for your huge business. I'm sure they'll do small too, but the concept of a wiki in very large organizations is a pertinent one. The Social Software Weblog picks up the discussion, noting wikis are best served lightly, in focused groups within an enterprise, not necessarily across it. Even Customer Vision, makers of BizWiki will cop to that.

Filed under: OS Updates, Windows, Microsoft, Commercial

Six(ish) versions of Vista, then?

The many flavors of
Windows VistaFirst they were, and then they weren't, but now BBC News is reporting that, Microsoft has really, officially confirmed that it will be shipping Windows Vista, to quote our own Victor Agreda, Jr., in "a rainbow of flavors." Ready? Start counting:
  • Vista Business
  • Vista Enterprise
  • Vista Home Basic
  • Vista Home Premium
  • Vista Ultimate
  • Vista Starter
You can head over to BBC News for all the deets, but here's the gist: It's pretty much what we've been expecting. Vista Business and Enterprise are pretty much what you'd expect. Home Premium does everything Home Basic does but tosses in the Aero GUI that we've seen in all the screenshots and "will also be able to connect their machine to an Xbox 360 gaming console"--expect it to be the version that ships on most OEM PCs. Vista Ultimate combines the features of all the other versions and, finally, Vista Starter is intended for low-end PCs in developing nations. Additionally there will be "versions made specifically for Europe that, in accordance with an EU mandate, remove the Windows media player," which are analagous to the "N" versions previously rumored. So that adds up to... yep, a rainbow of flavors.

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Microsoft Security Essentials
Chromium Pre-Alpha on CrunchBang Linux
Safari 4 Beta
10 Firefox themes that don't suck
IE8 RC1
Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party
Download Squad at the Crunchies
WordPress 2.7
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Windows 7 Hands On
Comodo Internet Security
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

More Tech Coverage

AOL Radio

Joystiq

TUAW

Daily Finance

Autoblog

Urlesque

Engadget

WoW

Switched.com

FanHouse