Microsoft Technology: Answers for StartUps

In one of the startup groups, there was a question on the commercials of doing a startup with Microsoft Technologies. Specifically, the question was:

“I would like to know the commercial implications on developing a solution on dotnet.
Is there a license one needs to purchase from Microsoft for developing a software on dotnet platform?
When the software is sold then does each commercial license of  software requires dotnet license to be purchased from Microsoft ?”

While many folks would already know about the above, I am reproducing my answer in order to help any startup out there looking for information on using Microsoft technologies. So here it goes:

Upfront, one thing should be clear as water -

.NET framework is completely FREE of cost to install.

The tools to develop on .NET is a IDE called Visual Studio may be needed to be bought. However, MS has come out with various programs that give out .NET Development tools for free. These options includes FREE Visual Studio and SQL Server Express products. The BizSpark program and WebSiteSpark program offers the development tools free for all startups. So, adopting .NET development tools may be made a  zero investment effort. 
.NET development shines out in the productivity boost it offers leading to quicker Time to Market for products/ solutions. In addition, the resources/ manpower on .NET can be hired for cheaper from the market. A certain degree of expertise can be assumed by folks who have .NET Certifications.

When your software is sold, the customer does need to buy infrastructure technologies supporting the solution (e.g. SQL Server, Windows Server). The customer doesn’t need to buy Developer tools (and I already mentioned that .NET is FREE to install for everyone).

Finally, costs to the customer on selling the software depends on the solution type you are building (e.g. if you are using SQL Server). There are free/ cheaper options available there as well. This would depend on the solution/ product you are building.

Are you a startup looking for any clarifications on .NET technologies? Please feel free to post a comment here and I will be happy to answer for you.

Making Social Networking sensible in Office

You’ve heard the buzz about Social Networking and how the “youngsters” are spending/ wasting time there. Mostly, you use Social Networking for keeping in touch with friends and family (read facebook or Orkut) by sharing pictures. You may have created a professional profile online at LinkedIn as well.

However, all this makes no sense when you are in Office. With all the meetings, replying to emails and meeting deadlines the social networking seems a real waste of time. And you may be right!

Now, Microsoft is attempting to make social networking relevant for businesses. Here’s how social networking can aid business:

1. When you receive an email from someone, you get to see their picture with the email. This will help you remember that person who you met at the last conference and who’s written to you now!
2. While you are reading about that person you get to see his latest updates from LinkedIn and Facebook. This gives you a sense of the person’s personality.

In my opinion, both of the above scenarios are extremely useful (I know that sales folks are jumping in their seats reading this!). This brings social networking right to the heart of your business/ account management. Where CRM vendors are still trying to integrate social networking that is useful, this FREE addition to your existing tools is highly recommended.

To get it working, it is a two step process. First, you need to have Outlook (2010/ 2007/ 2003) and will need to install an appropriate version of Outlook Social Connector (based on the what Outlook you are running). If you are running Outlook 2010, you don’t need to install anything as Social Connector is already installed.

Second, after installing Social Connector you will add various social networking services in there. The services that are currently integrated with Outlook include:

1. Facebook
2. LinkedIn
3. Windows Live
4. MySpace
5. SharePoint 2010

List of all providers are updated on this provider page.

Now, if you are still not seeing the Outlook Social Connector pane appear in Outlook, you can go to View –> People Pane  and set it to Normal.

You will get a new Social Connector pane. In that pane you will be able to see social updates that your colleagues made in social networking sites. But here’s the gotcha – The person will need to be connected to you on the site for you to get the updates from him. So, your social connector pane may look like:

Apart from viewing the updates from the contact, you can do the following:

1. Filter the updates based on the interaction type (e.g. social updates, IM updates, earlier meetings with person). You can use the section highlighted in green in the picture above for that.
2. Add the person to your social network from Outlook itself. Click on the “+” icon below the photo and choose the network you want to get added to. This is highlighted in black box in above picture.

The connectors still don’t allow you to update status from the interface. Also, the no. of connectors are too few. However, this maybe corrected in the future versions.

MS Outlook team has a blog post on the same.

Are you a user of any other email client – Notes or Thunderbird? What do you think of the above?

Enterprise India on Security Solutions

Sometime in January, I had the opportunity to attend a meeting with Vice President of Symantec in India – Shantanu Ghosh (he also has an interesting food & travel blog). We discussed the emerging challenges of security landscape in India. What was surprising is apart from viruses, spamming and phishing were equally troublesome for security professionals.

An interesting discussion revolved around the declining margins for security solutions. With plenty of FREE security solutions available in the market (including Microsoft Security Essentials), Symantec would be looking for new revenue models. That’s when it came to my attention that Symantec is a big player in the online archive and enterprise security solutions as well.

Since then, I had been looking to understand the challenges corporate India faces in the field of security? Recently, I discovered this abstrusely named report by Microsoft – Make Noise Check Noise. The report represents a wide variety of industries including software, telecom & engineering and included a wide variety of professionals (IT professionals, Business Decision Makers, End users and Developers). This report is based on a survey of over 1200 users in Nov 2009. So what does the report say?

1. The key drivers identified for security spending in India were driven by:
1. Data Security and Privacy
2. Protecting IT Infrastructure
2. Users voted multiple security vendors in an IT environment as one of the biggest headaches for them followed by Multiple Passwords for authentication.
   This is understandable as multiple vendors bring their own update policies, license agreements and different quality of support to the enterprise making their management most difficult. The hoops one has to skip when one forgets a password for an enterprise service are hidden from no one. The ones troubled by this most were the ones who create this complexity – the IT administrators.

The report does end with recommendations on what could security vendors focus on:

• Make Security solutions simple
• Simplify the management of the security solution
• Help customer understand vendor consolidation and its benefits

And now with Cloud services gaining ground in enterprises, there would be new challenges that the security vendors will need to start thinking about..

Indian Mobile Users still Far Away from Internet

Here’s a question that I have been asking whenever I have had more than a handful of people around me - “How many of you use internet on your mobile phone?” And invariably the response were horribly negative. We frequently hear the great number of mobile phones that Indian consumers have been lapping up.. will this communication revolution lead to information revolution? The answer reflects in the recently released report by IAMAI.

Here’s a quick snapshot of how the mobile usage in India looks like:

From the hugely touted Indian mobile penetration, only 0.4% users actively use Internet. And here is what my worry is: Mobile adoption in India is leading to telecom revolution while the larger information revolution is still far away.

The future of the mobile internet seems to hold some promise though. The young generation of school going and college going kids constitute around 68% of this mobile online population. When this generation grows up (probably in 10 years) they will grow this usage of theirs.

So, do we wait till then?

There are two main challenges I see in internet usage on mobile devices:

1. Availability of affordable mobile handsets. Only 27% of all Indian mobile users have internet capable devices.
2. Internet Usage rates on mobile devices are still too high. TRAI had helped reduce tariffs on mobile telephone usage leading to this explosion. It needs to take the next step and recommend lower tariffs for internet usage.

The potential of mobile computing can only come true if these last two last issues are successfully mitigated by policy intervention.

What do you think?

Saving your computer from Virus for FREE

For years, you have relied on ratings of various FREE anti-virus software to choose the one you want for your home PC. the choice has been mostly between AVG or Avira. If you were me, you would believe that one should pay for minimum 2 softwares on your PC:

1. Your Operating System i.e. Windows
2. Your Anti-Virus i.e. Norton/ McAfee

Now, Microsoft wants you to keep your computer safe for you. After including a world class firewall since Windows XP, Microsoft has now made available a FREE antivirus for your PC. This antivirus is called Microsoft Security Essentials. The antivirus is available as a FREE download from the link above. It is 4.28 MB of download for Win Vista/ Win 7.

Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for home PC and counters viruses, spyware, and other malicious software. The software runs in the background and silently monitors the files for all the malware. It schedules scans when the PC is most likely idle and interrupts the user only when there is an action required to keep their PC secure. The software updates itself automatically with the latest definitions without any user intervention. Many of the antivirus behaviours are configurable via the “Settings” tab including scheduled scans, turning real time protections on/ off, excluded file/ file types and many more. MSE is backed up by a series of web services, including telemetry data through the SpyNet service, Microsoft Update, and a separate signature update service.

The antivirus uses the same technology as the Forefront product family (meant for enterprise use). It employs practices like active memory swapping and CPU throttling to limit the impact on your PC performance, even on older or less powerful PCs. On my Windows 7 PC, the process (msseces.exe) takes zero CPU and 1.2 Mb RAM (small, fast and light).

You can install Security Essentials on Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 (both x86 and x64 machines). The minimum requirement for the PC though is 1 GB RAM. It does though require a “Genuine” PC check when you install the same. If you have any questions on installation or usage, a support forum is also available to post your queries. In case you discover viruses, spyware, Trojans, worms or other malicious software that were undetected by Microsoft Security Essentials you can send these files to Malware protection Center for analysis.

So take the guesswork out and install the MS Security Essentials TODAY!

P.S.: If you were running a BETA of the product earlier, please make sure that you update the same to the release build. The build no. is (1.0.1611.0) for the released product.

Gaming monster comes to India – Dell Alienware range

For all you PC gamers out there, there is reason to rejoice. The internationally acclaimed Alienware range is here in India!

Dell has launched its Alienware M17x and this represents premium performance in the Dell consumer product portfolio.  On to some specs of the the 17” monster:

• Up to Dual 1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 280M graphics processing units (GPUs)2 with SLI™ technology
• Configurable with Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme Quad-core overclockable Mobile Processor1
• Up to 8GB DDR32 1333MHz Memory
• 1TB3 7200RPM or 512GB of Solid State Storage Capacity (Raid 0)
• Optional Beyond HD resolution with a WUXGA 1200p (1920 x 1200) Edge-to-Edge LCD design
• Internal Wireless a/g/draft-n with MIMO (2x2) Technology
• AlienFX Illuminated Keyboard
• NVIDIA GeForce® 9400M G1 GPU with HybridPower™ technology
• Microsoft Windows Vista® (64 bit) [and free upgrade to Win 7 on availability]

My first impression of the machine was – it looks intimidating and big. With its alien face logo, front illuminated “bonnet” and lighted keyboard it reeks of aggression that gamers would dig. The size of the machine is not small either and it easily beats my Lenovo T61p in thickness. The machine is not light either. It is definitely something that you can’t be carrying around anywhere (i think this beast weighs over 5 kgs). So this fits more into desktop replacement category rather than portables.

The machine I got to play with had Vista Home Premium (64 bit) and scored a rating of 5.7 out of a max of 7.9. My existing workhorse T61p scores 5.1. The limiting factor in the rating was the hard disk score. So, my recommendation would be to go for 500GB SSD if you are going to buy this m/c.

If there is anything that I found lacking on the machine, it was the track pad on the device that wasn’t as responsive as one would expect it to be. Also, the body of the machine could have been given a better feel. currently it feels “plastic” like.

So, if you are enamored by this powerhouse you will need to shell out INR 1,40,000 + taxes. OK. I never said this was going to be cheap either! At this rate, it is only affordable for a serious gamer..

Alienware is the ferrari (on second thoughts – ford mustang) of the gaming world. Blazing with muscles second to none, it is a device that gets you the look!

Microsoft India launches Online Services

Cloud based services have been in focus for a few years now. From FREE online email services (e.g. hotmail, gmail) to paid online services (e.g. Google Apps, Office Online, Yahoo Premium emails), the adoption of these services has been steadily rising. The safety of these applications have been questioned (as exposed by recent Twitter docs leak)..

While Microsoft had launched its service in US way back, it has now launched these services in India. These services follow the initial launch of Hosted Exchange and Hosted Dynamics. These pay as you go/ subscription based services are meant for companies who want to avoid internally maintaining these basic IT services.

The service is being launched as Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite. This suite includes Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Office Live Meeting and Microsoft Office Communications Online.

Exchange Online provides email, calendaring and contact management. Sharepoint Online is a collaboration suite for managing content and workflows. Office Live Meeting is a online conference solution to host real-time meetings, training session and events. Office Communications Online provides Instant messaging and presence awareness to facilitate rapid connections between people.

Currently, the Productivity Online Standard Suite (that includes all the above) is priced at USD 180/ per user per month. Individual applications can also be bought individually. The service is providing FREE trails right now. The commercial launch will be in Oct 09.

Google the other player in this space provides the service at USD 50/ per user per year. However, this doesn’t include any conferencing facilities.

The service details can be accessed at: http://www.microsoft.com/india/onlineservices 

Technorati Tags: online,services,microsoft

My Election Wish 2009 #indiavotes

India is going to be voting soon. I have been thinking on how we can improve the whole political process and quality of candidates. The systemic issue with our voting process has been that educated people have stayed away from voting. IMHO, the reason being they don’t want to sweat out standing in a line or going to the nearest booth for lack of simple amenities.

I think there is a simple solution to the above available via technology. EC should make available voting via internet. If this made available, educated people who have access to internet and feel unmotivated to visit the election booth can vote via a very personal device – their computer. this would reduce burden on the voting booths and hence the expenditure for EC. also, the chances of fradulent/ bogus voting would be reduced as it will be difficult for anti-social elements to reach everyone’s home (rather than the voting booth).

I have heard people say that internet is not available for everyone. I agree and I am proposing this as an additional channel that people can vote through. I am NOT suggesting rooting out our traditional voting booths.

the next issue is that of verifying identity of people who vote via internet. until the National Social Security No. (NSSN) is not implemented, one could use PAN ID for this. A large section of people in India, who are educated, already posses their PAN ID. I already submitted my tax returns online last year. So, our income tax infrastructure is already ready for online usage. EC could simply link up the PAN IDs and make it available for voting.
to avoid duplicacy, EC would still need to link up Voter’s ID with PAN ID. or it could bring out a notification mentioning people without voter’s ID could self-declare and use PAN ID to vote online.

to me the challenge for implementing the above solution is political rather than technical. there exists little to NO political will to get this system implemented.

This is my election wish for the year!

What do you think?

Microsoft makes its Web Design tool FREE

Today, everyone has a blog. Everyone knows how to design a website (atleast with the right tools).

To support this new era, Microsoft is making available its web design tool FREE for everyone. This free tool (called Sharepoint Designer 2007 or SPD) has been made available at http://www.microsoft.com/spd to download. Sharepoint Designer is successor of the FrontPage tools that many of the people  are already aware of. In addition, this tool has excellent support for customizing the FREE SharePoint Services app that comes with Windows Server.

One might think that by releasing this software for free, Microsoft may be abandoning Sharepoint Designer. However, that’s not true. Sharepoint Designer will continue its development and next version will be released in the future.

While SPD is free, Microsoft also has a professional suite of web design tools available – Expression Web.

Lately Microsoft has been making available many of its tools available for FREE e.g. SQL Server Express, Visual Studio 2008 Express, Live Essentials, PhotoSynth, Accounting Express, Virtual PC, WW Telescope, Windows Defender, Windows Sysinternals and many more. IMHO, you can run your complete business with the above set of free products from Microsoft – NOT a penny to spend on MS software…

New Version of Windows Live Mobile released

Today Microsoft has released a new version of Windows Live client for Windows Mobile devices. If you are using any of the Live services – Live search, Messenger or hotmail, you want this locally installed on your Windows Phone as well.

the download can be accessed from: http://wl.windowsmobile.com.  The version currently available is v10.6.0046.0800.

the exciting addition to this suite has been inclusion of Live Messenger that was earlier taken out of the Live Mobile suite. so, now u can be on IM even when you are on the move. Live Messenger works well over GPRS networks and let’s u have text conversations with your Live Messenger contacts.

If you don’t want the client on your mobile, you can access Live services with web browser at: http://mobile.live.com

Technorati Tags: live,mobile,windows