NEW YORK - Oct. 22, 2009 - Today Microsoft Corp. announced the worldwide availability of its new Windows 7 operating system. Windows 7 delivers on a simple premise: make it easier for people to do the things they want on a PC. The new operating system offers a streamlined user interface and significant new features that make everyday tasks easier and allow people to get the most out of computers of all styles and sizes.

“With Windows 7, there’s never been a better time to be a PC,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. “Together with our partners, we’re bringing more choice, flexibility and value to the market than ever before. With Windows 7, you’re sure to find a PC that fits your life.”

Building Windows 7 has been a collaborative process from the beginning, with Microsoft’s engineers and designers working with customers and partners to build an operating system that delivers on the vision of the PC, simplified. In a speech in New York, Ballmer thanked the millions of volunteers who helped improve the product by testing early versions.

“A project with the global customer reach of Windows can only be done as a team,” said Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division at Microsoft, speaking at a launch event in Tokyo. “We are grateful for the valuable contributions from customers, partners and developers around the world that helped make Windows 7 such a collaborative project.”

On Sale Worldwide Today

The global availability of Windows 7 is joined by an unprecedented array of new PCs and software programs. With more PC options available for customers today at a wide range of price points starting under $300, customers can choose the PC that fits their personality, style and needs, from netbooks, ultrathin notebooks and highly interactive multitouch laptops to all-in-one desktops and high-end, water-cooled gaming machines.

A newly launched section of Windows.com called PC Scout will guide users through selecting and purchasing the right PC. Customers can purchase PCs with Windows 7 or software upgrades online or in-store from technology retailers or at the new Microsoft Store, launching today in its first retail location in Scottsdale, Ariz., and expanded online. Retailers and technology partners are also featuring a series of limited-time offers for customers looking for great deals on Windows 7-based PCs, devices and software. Information on these offers can be found at http://www.windows.com.

To show how Windows 7 simplifies the PC, today Microsoft is launching the next wave of its global “I’m a PC” campaign. The global enthusiasm of Windows users is also contributing to the way many people around the world will experience Windows 7 for the first time. Tens of thousands of customers have volunteered to host launch parties or meet-ups beginning today, showing off Windows 7 to friends and family members.

Simplifying the PC

Over the past 18 months, feedback from more than a billion opt-in customer sessions and 8 million beta testers validated Microsoft’s research on how to simplify everyday tasks. Here are a few of the many ways users will experience a more simplified PC with Windows 7:

Simplifies Everyday Tasks

• Taskbar. The go-to spot for launching programs and switching windows, the taskbar has been completely redesigned to help users work smarter, cut clutter, and get more done, with features such as thumbnail previews of Web pages, documents — even running video.

• HomeGroup. Users can easily share their files and printers with other PCs running Windows 7 in their home.

• Windows 7 Device Stage. This shows the status of all connected devices such as cameras and mobile phones, and makes it easier to synchronize and manage them.

• Photos and videos. Windows Live Photo Gallery and Windows Live Movie Maker (available via download) offer customers great, free options to edit photos and videos and easily share them with loved ones.

• Snap. Users can drag an open window to the screen’s border to automatically re-size it. Snap two different windows to the left and right borders for a perfect comparison.

• Shake. Users can click on a window pane and shake the mouse to minimize all other open windows, then shake the pane again to restore the windows to their original sizes.

• Internet Explorer 8. Microsoft’s fastest, easiest and safest browser ever offers smart new features such as Instant Search, Accelerators and Web Slices to help users get more out of the Web.

Works the Way Users Want

• Faster on, faster off. Every Windows 7 user will benefit from the focus on underlying performance, faster startup, resuming and shut down time, and enhanced power management.

• Mobile made easier. All of a user’s mobile computing settings are in one place with the Windows Mobility Center.

• Protecting the PC. Safeguarding the data on a PC is easier with advanced backup capabilities and the free Microsoft Security Essentials download to help protect users against viruses, spyware and other malicious software.

Makes New Things Possible

• Windows Touch. Users can interact with the PC with a touch-screen monitor, using their fingers and multitouch gestures.

• PlayTo. Users can stream their digital music, videos and photos to other PCs or devices such as an Xbox 360 console connected to the TV.

• Internet TV. New content providers and an improved interface make it even easier to watch TV on the PC.

• Rich gaming and graphics. Windows 7 includes performance enhancements that take power gaming and entertainment to a new level, with 64-bit support and DirectX 11 graphics.

• Location-aware printing. Documents are sent to the right printer whether it’s at home or at the office. And with Offline Files users can work offline and automatically synchronize between a PC and documents on their office network.

LOS ANGELES — Oct. 5, 2009 — At Adobe MAX, Adobe’s worldwide developer conference, Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced further advancements to the Adobe® Flash® Platform. Adobe unveiled Flash Player 10.1, enabling rich Web content, video and applications to reach more users across a broader set of devices than ever before. In addition, Adobe announced new HTTP streaming technology for video delivered on the Flash Platform, demonstrated upcoming features of Adobe® AIR® 2 software, released a second beta of Adobe® Flash® Builder and Flash® Catalyst software, and made available new Adobe Flash Platform Services for collaboration.

“We’re excited to be launching such a broad spectrum of advancements to the Flash Platform at Adobe MAX 2009,” said Kevin Lynch, chief technology officer at Adobe. “By delivering rapid innovation across tools, runtimes, services and servers, we are enabling the large and vibrant ecosystem of designers and developers to drive the Web forward with rich content and applications.”

Runtimes Deliver Consistency Across Desktops and Devices; Inside and Outside the Browser
Adobe unveiled Flash Player 10.1 today, which provides a consistent runtime across desktops and mobile devices and is supported by close to 50 participants in the Open Screen Project. Flash Player 10.1 support is expected to be available for a series of mobile platforms including Google Android, Blackberry, Symbian, Palm webOS and Windows Mobile. (See separate press release)

Adobe AIR 1.0, the Flash Platform runtime for delivering Web applications outside the browser, has significantly expanded its penetration with over 200 million installs since its release last year. Adobe AIR 2, previewed today at MAX 2009 and available in beta later this year, will allow for entirely new applications in the desktop context, providing developers with more features to take advantage of desktop operating systems, such as enhanced support for mass storage devices, peer to peer networking and UDP networking.

Tools Provide End-to-End Workflow for Design and Development Productivity 
Using Adobe Flash Builder and Flash Catalyst, developers and designers can now work together more productively to create rich, engaging experiences. Adobe Flash Builder, based on the open source Flex® framework, was released today on Adobe Labs as a second beta, complete with a powerful set of new features to enable rapid, rich Internet application (RIA) development. The second beta refines many of the new Flash Builder code editing and testing features, simplifies connectivity to Java services and improves the ability to work with the new “Spark” Flex framework components, enabling a more productive workflow between designers and developers and complete customization of RIAs. In addition, Flash Builder is integrated with the new LiveCycle® Enterprise Suite 2 (see separate press release) to allow developers to more easily create enterprise RIAs and connect with enterprise systems. For more information on Adobe Flash Builder and to download the second beta, please go towww.adobe.com/go/flashbuilder4.

Also released today as a second beta, is Adobe Flash Catalyst, a new professional interaction design tool that easily integrates with the development workflow and enables designers to rapidly create expressive interfaces and interactive content without writing code. New features include the ability to easily add video to projects with custom playback controls, add sound effects for additional user feedback, incorporate easing controls that provide smoother motion and the ability to export projects that run outside of the browser using Adobe AIR in addition to SWF output. For more information on Adobe Flash Catalyst and to download beta two, please go towww.adobe.com/go/flashcatalyst.

The Adobe Flash Platform is tightly integrated with the Adobe Creative Suite® 4 product family, the industry-leading design and development software for virtually every creative workflow.

Servers for Seamless Streaming of Online Video Content 
Adobe has also unveiled plans to add new protocol support for media delivery with HTTP streaming on the Flash Platform, including integration of content protection powered by Flash Access 2.0 software. Code-named Zeri, the HTTP technologies will be an open format based on industry standards and will provide content publishers, distributors and partners the tools they need to utilize HTTP infrastructures for high-quality media delivery in Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2 both on desktops and devices. Customers today use Flash Media Server 3.5 software for interactive media experiences, high network efficiency, smart caching technology and real time communication and will now have the flexibility to use HTTP streaming. Zeri will support all available media codecs supported today and will continue to support high quality live and recorded media with adaptive bit-rate and network DVR support to the Flash player. With Project Zeri and Flash Media Server 3.5, the Flash Platform delivers the next generation of high quality media experiences at scale.

Services to Enable Real-Time Collaboration 
Recently introduced, Adobe Flash Platform Services are online, hosted services that allow developers to add innovative capabilities to Web applications with a predictable, cost efficient deployment model. Developers, advertisers and publishers are now using Adobe Flash Platform Services to make applications sharable, social and collaborative.

Today, Adobe added a new collaboration service to Flash Platform Services. Adobe® LiveCycle® Collaboration Service (formerly Adobe Flash Collaboration Service) provides developers and enterprises with the solution they need to easily build real-time, multi-user collaboration into existing or new rich Internet applications to drive revenue, and increase customer acquisition and retention. Powered by the Flash Platform and part of LiveCycle Enterprise Suite 2, the hosted service can be used to enable in-context collaborative experiences without being concerned about global deployment, maintenance and scalability.

About Adobe Flash Platform
The Adobe Flash Platform is the leading Web design and development platform for creating expressive applications, content, and video that run consistently across operating systems and devices and reach over 98 percent of Internet-enabled desktops. Flash Player 10 was installed on more than 93 percent of computers in just the first ten months since its release. According to comScore Media Metrix, approximately 75 percent of online videos viewed worldwide are delivered using Adobe Flash technology, making it the No. 1 format for video on the Web. Major broadcasters and media companies including Disney.com, MLB.com and DIRECTV rely on the Adobe Flash Platform for delivering video on the Web and the platform powers social network sites such as YouTube and MySpace. For more information about the Adobe Flash Platform visit www.adobe.com/flashplatform.

Stephen L Rose of Windows Team Blog announced availability of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010:

We are pleased to announce the release of MDT 2010 available for download here. 

MDT 2010 has been in planning and development for a little over a year and is our largest release to date with over 70% of our code changing since MDT 2008. MDT 2010 has also been tested throughout our Beta and Release Candidate versions by well over 10,000 IT professionals around the world.  We appreciate all of the feedback you have given and without your help this release would not have been possible.

Michael Niehaus did a great series of blog posts on most of the new features of MDT 2010. You can review those posts here.

Please make sure you review the release notes for instructions on how to upgrade from MDT 2008 or one of the beta releases of MDT 2010 here.

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR MAKING THIS RELEASE POSSIBLE!

Dell today introduced new products and services designed specifically to meet the needs of medium and small businesses by simplifying operations, reducing downtime, enhancing information security and reducing operating cost.

The new portfolio includes four 11th Generation Dell PowerEdge servers; Lifecycle Controller 1.2 embedded systems management; the PowerVault NX300 network attached storage (NAS) device; Dell Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) and Dell ProConsult services to help growing businesses achieve greater IT efficiency. The new solutions and services are available through Dell or any of the company’s more than 50,000 Global PartnerDirect Channel Partners.

Simple, Reliable and Secure Technology:

• Simple: Dell has developed an integrated set of hardware, software and services to help small businesses improve their efficiency.
  • Small businesses can enjoy easy set up, monitoring, and maintenance with the inclusion of advanced systems management technologies now on all Dell PowerEdge servers.
  • Dell Lifecycle Controller 1.2, simplifies the deployment of new server platforms by automating the operating system installation of local and remote servers for small businesses and large enterprises alike. It saves time and money by including the correct drivers for all the operating systems and components pre-loaded on Dell PowerEdge servers. Lifecycle Controller 1.2 further simplifies system management through integration with popular IT management consoles: BMC Software BladeLogic Operations Manager and Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager for fast and easy installation of one or more servers across networks.
  • The new Dell PowerEdge T110 and T310 tower servers and the R210 and R510 rack servers are equipped with the new Intel Xeon 3400 series processor for the performance necessary to run business workloads with the Microsoft Windows Server® 2008 R2 operating system to provide excellent value for smaller organizations:
    • The PowerEdge T110 is a customer inspired first server for small businesses, with a desktop sized chassis and the right combination of security, basic systems management for easy system monitoring and reliability.
    • The PowerEdge R210 is an ideal first rack server for a small business with space constraints or can be used as a specialized application server for larger corporations. Because of its small 15.5 inch chassis depth and its low wattage power supply, the PowerEdge R210 has the smallest energy footprint of any Dell PowerEdge server.
    • Dell servers are engineered to save energy and save you money. The PowerEdge R210 is 88 percent more energy efficient than the previous generation and the PowerEdge T310 is 65 percent more energy efficient than its predecessor.
  • The Dell PowerVault NX300 is an entry-level Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2008 NAS solution that offers the capability to store up to 4 terabytes of data in a single device while offering the flexibility to deploy additional NX300 arrays as storage needs grow. The NX300 includes Single-Instant Storage deduplication technology to maximize capacity and an intuitive management interface to help deploy quickly and make ongoing management more efficient.
• Reliable: Dell PowerEdge servers backed up by a comprehensive suite of Dell Uninterruptible Power Supplies are the cornerstone of a reliable IT infrastructure, and come equipped with rugged chassis, solid design, metal hard drive carriers and components to withstand all IT environments and help reduce downtime.
  • The PowerEdge R510 is an ideal 2U rack server for mid-sized business and remote offices that require an excellent balance of internal storage, redundancy and value in compact chassis.
  • Dell unveiled 28 new uninterruptible power supply products with an efficiency rating of up to 95 percent, providing reduced down time and enhanced reliability. The new UPS systems offer remote monitoring through Dell’s OpenManage management console and include downloadable flash upgrades and UPS management software. The line of UPS solutions include tool-less rack mounting, multi-language graphical LCD displays and improved acoustics.
• Secure: Dell provides security features, data storage and support services for data protection, data back-up and recovery to ensure business continuity and to help businesses operate efficiently.
  • The PowerEdge T310 offers growing businesses a tower server complete with optional advanced systems management capabilities including remote management, full redundancy and cost effective RAID options that help to prevent data loss by further protecting the way your data is stored on your internal hard drives.
  • The PowerEdge T110 tower server and R210 rack server offer the ability to add external eSATA storage directly to ease the transition of data from a desktop or workstation to a first server.
  • Dell ProSupport Data Protection Services such as Hard Drive Data Recovery and Certified Data Destruction help organizations protect their business operations by protecting their data through risk mitigation and improved data security.

Virtualization: 
Dell is delivering solutions and services to help simplify the adoption and use of virtual environments.

• Dell offers tested and validated Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Solutions with enhanced virtualization capabilities with Hyper-V™. Hyper-V with live migration is an easy solution for moving virtual machines from one server to another without any disruption or loss of service. In addition, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) enables Windows and other desktop environments to be run and managed on virtual machines on a centralized server.
• Dell has designed services specifically for medium and small businesses looking to cost effectively plan, deploy and manage growing IT environments, without requiring long-term consultative or outsourcing agreements. The Dell ProConsult Remote Virtualization Readiness Assessment helps assess IT environments to determine consolidation opportunities and provide recommendations for implementing an optimal solution designed to maximize performance and efficiency.

The new PowerEdge T110, T310, R210 and R510 servers are available starting in September atwww.dell.com/PowerEdge with a starting price of $599. The PowerVault NX300 is available in October onwww.dell.com/PowerVault with a starting price of $3,000. Dell uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) are available in October at www.dellUPS.com/ starting at $269.

PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 10, 2009 - HP today announced the latest version of its HP Exstream enterprise software, a single solution for streamlined design through delivery of customer communications across the enterprise, regardless of complexity, variability or output channel – including high-volume, on-demand and interactive document applications.

HP Exstream 7.0 includes more than 250 enhancements and emerges from a development cycle that included testing and deployment by more than 50 HP Exstream customers worldwide. The new release is already in production at several customer sites.

“We selected HP Exstream to replace our legacy document automation solution,” said Jim Lucanish, general manager of O’Neil Data Systems, a Los Angeles-based technology-driven publishing company. “With HP Exstream 7.0 and the high-speed HP Inkjet Web Press we have a single solution to provide more robust personalized communications for our wide range of customers – whether they want statements, welcome packets, personalized newspapers or election ballots.”

Improved support for interactive document applications

Enhancements such as the ability to automate sections and paragraphs and the inclusion of bar codes can be used for complex interactive document applications, including fully personalized transactional documents and contracts, agreements, policies, letters and business forms.

Rich content can now be retrieved by the HP Exstream LiveEditor directly from enterprise content management (ECM) and business process management (BPM) systems, web applications, and SharePoint, and then sent back to these sources for updates after editing.

Other significant capabilities include security features such as confidential masking of information, role-based editing and expiration certificates, as well as many new user productivity tools, including custom dictionaries in multiple languages and extended workflow and repository capabilities.

Significant enhancements for on-demand communications

The new web services interface eliminates the need to program Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) connectivity, and support for PDF digital signatures and 128-bit encryption ensures secure and credible delivery of documents.

This release also includes new connectors for delivery of on-demand communications through email and cell phone (SMS) channels, as well as other significant enhancements for .NET and J2EE deployments.

Fully enhanced remote collaboration

The completely upgraded remote collaboration capability in HP Exstream 7.0 makes it easier, faster and more cost-effective for marketing and business users to incorporate fully personalized messages into documents at run time using a web browser.

The new console allows customers to fully customize the interface to support their brands, including color, text and images. Additionally, this release improves productivity for document Smart Proofing and provides users the ability to customize documents with text and images, add inserter bar codes to control production processes, and gain control over campaign message timing.

Extended support for global document applications and U.S. section 508 compliance

HP Exstream 7.0 expands support for multilingual customer communications, including PDF enhancements for region-specific font subsetting, reference fonts and Asian font packs, as well as multilingual tagging.

Double-byte character set (DBCS) support has been extended for Linux and SISO data viewing, and now enables PowerPoint, RTF and single-file HTML output. Additionally, this release adds reading tools for the visually impaired, ensuring PDF output is compliant with section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act.⁽¹⁾

Expanded design and production capabilities further reduce costs

HP Exstream 7.0 includes numerous enhancements that allow enterprises to further improve overall productivity and reduce total cost of ownership, including:

• New conversion utilities for migrating from legacy document composition systems such as DocuMerge, DocuMaker and Top Down
• Extended support for QuarkXpress and RTF designs
• Improved output compare tools for testing
• Ability to embed bar codes into automated tables
• Wizard-based charting and new chart types
• Advanced Function Presentation (AFP) output improvements for color support, outline fonts and DBCS

“Today’s announcement strengthens HP’s unmatched integrated workflow solutions portfolio and continues our commitment to delivering market-leading innovations in enterprise document automation technology for companies around the world,” said Jon Firooz, senior director, Enterprise Software Strategy and Market Management, HP. “Our goal is to continue providing high-quality, global technology leadership so our customers can meet their complex business challenges today and in the future.”

HP Exstream is currently deployed at more than 500 customer sites worldwide in a variety of industries, including financial services, banking, insurance, utilities, government, telecommunications, service provider, travel and hospitality, and retail. Now being offered through the HP Managed Print Services portfolio, HP Exstream will be offered to an even broader base of enterprise customers. The combining of these capabilities further extends the customer support for mission-critical solutions.

More information is available at www.hpexstream.com. HP also will be demonstrating HP Exstream 7.0 at PRINT 09 in Chicago in booth No. 6658.

Amazon added a new feature called Virtual Private Cloud to their Web Services.

Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) is a secure and seamless bridge between a company’s existing IT infrastructure and the AWScloud. Amazon VPC enables enterprises to connect their existing infrastructure to a set of isolated AWS compute resources via a Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection, and to extend their existing management capabilities such as security services, firewalls, and intrusion detection systems to include their AWS resources. Amazon VPCintegrates today with Amazon EC2, and will integrate with other AWSservices in the future. As with all Amazon Web Services, there are no long-term contracts, minimum spend or up-front investments required. With Amazon VPC, you pay only for the resources you use.

If you are interested in this product you can check out its features and sign-up for the service via this page:

http://aws.amazon.com/vpc/

SOMERS, NY, - 25 Aug 2009: IBM (NYSE: IBM ) today announced availability of the IBM System Storage DS5020 Express, a new storage disk offering that delivers enterprise-class storage capabilities for midrange businesses.

Midsized organizations in a variety of industries, including retail, healthcare, insurance, government and manufacturing, are facing the same issues as larger organizations, which is managing, storing and securely analyzing an ever-increasing flow of data.  The IBM System Storage DS5020 delivers the high performance, availability and solutions to midrange businesses that enterprise customers are accustomed to, yet at a price point that’s designed for midmarket organizations.  

The System Storage DS5020 Express disk system includes an industry leading 8 Gbps Fibre Channel (FC) as well as iSCSI host capability that seamlessly integrate into existing and new infrastructures, while providing the balanced performance needed to satisfy the mixed workloads created by consolidation.  Balanced performance supports the needs of consolidated or virtualized environments such as IBM PowerVM, Microsoft Windows 2008 Hyper-V and VMware vSphere 4, while delivering outstanding response times.  (For more information on the System Storage DS5020 Express, visithttp://www.ibm.com/systems/storage/disk/ds5020/index.html).  

Its modular architecture and efficiencies help lower acquisition and operational costs as performance and configuration requirements can be met with minimal raw capacity.  And when it’s time to expand, the DS5020 can add incremental capacity with no downtime.  

The System Storage DS5020 will also be the first midrange disk product in the industry to offer self-encrypting drives, making it ideal for housing business-critical applications.  Full-disk encryption provides data security at the most basic level, the hard drive, protecting against many exposures and vulnerabilities at virtually no performance loss.  This expands IBM’s commitment to providing industry-leading security and encryption for both tape and disk.  Earlier this year, IBM announced availability of disk encryption with its high-end System Storage DS8000 line.  

“Midsized businesses are no different than their larger counterparts, as they are facing relentless data growth and shrinking budgets, which is why they’re seeking storage solutions that will help reduce costs through efficiencies, said Doug Balog, vice president, disk storage and business line executive, IBM.  “The IBM System Storage DS5020 Express addresses those needs, while its full-disk encryption also makes it ideal for hosting business-critical applications.”  

The DS5020 comes with four 8 Gbps FC interfaces for connectivity to hosts or storage area networks, and can support an additional four ports, which can be either 8 Gbps FC or 1 Gbps iSCSI.   The DS5020 supports up to 112 drives with EXP520 expansion units. Drive options include FC, self-encrypting FC, and SATA.   

The DS5020 supports all current premium features, including encryption, partitioning, FlashCopy, VolumeCopy and Enhanced Remote Mirroring.  

The System Storage DS5020 Express will be available September 4th, with prices starting at $22,500, which includes IBM service support and a three-year warranty.  

According to a recent IBM study, information management was ranked as the most critical IT priority for improving business performance by approximately 75 percent of participants.  The System Storage DS5020 Express is built to help midrange customers address their information management needs.  At a time when digital information is growing every day at a rate eight times the volume housed in all U.S. libraries, organizations need smarter ways to cope with today’s increasing information overload by turning this data into real intelligence.  To download the study, visithttp://www.ibm.com/press/attachments/ibm_midmarket_trend_study.pdf.  

For more information about Express Advantage and the new Express Advantage offerings, visithttp://www.ibm.com/expressadvantage.

Microsoft released Windows Server Update Services 3.0 Service Pack 2.

New Windows Server and Client Version Support

• Integration with Windows Server® 2008 R2
• Support for the BranchCache feature on Windows Server 2008 R2
• Support for Windows 7 clients

WSUS Feature Improvements

Auto-Approval Rules

• Auto-approval rules now include the ability to specify the approval deadline date and time for all computers or specific computer groups.

Update Files and Languages

• Improved handling of language selection for downstream servers includes a new warning dialog that appears when you decide to download updates only for specified languages.

Easy Upgrade

• WSUS 3.0 SP2 can be installed as an in-place upgrade from earlier versions of WSUS and will preserve all of your settings and approvals. The user interface is compatible between WSUS 3.0 SP1 and SP2 on the client and the server. 

Reports

• New Update and Computer Status reports provide the ability to filter on updates approved for installation. You can run these reports from the WSUS console or use the API to incorporate this functionality into your own reports. 

Software Updates

• Stability and reliability fixes for the WSUS server, such as support for IPV6 addresses greater than 40 characters.
• The approval dialog now sorts computer groups alphabetically by group name.
• Computer status report sorting icons are now functional in x64 environments.
• A new release of Windows Update Agent is included with WSUS 3.0 SP2 that provides improvements and fixes, such as support for APIs called by non-local system callers in a non-interactive session.

For more information about this release see the WSUS 3.0 SP2 Release Notes at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=139840.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?Fa...ang=en

And deployment guide is available from here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd93990...).aspx

WindowsNetworking team wishes all the best to all system administrators out there. May your networks never go down and your servers always stay running.

London, UK, July 28, 2009 – GFI Software, a leading provider of email and security solutions, has today launched GFI MAX, a remote management and monitoring software solution for Managed Service Providers (MSPs), Value Added Resellers (VARs) and IT support organizations. GFI MAX gives them the ability to monitor and manage their clients’ networks, while providing them with a recurring revenue stream.

GFI MAX is GFI’s first offering in the managed services sphere and follows the acquisition of HoundDog Technology™, a leading remote monitoring and management company in the UK.

GFI MAX is an award-winning suite of remote management, monitoring and support tools for IT support organizations and MSPs worldwide. MSPs will be able to use GFI MAX’s real-time systems monitoring, automated daily health checks, asset tracking, patch management, own-brand client reporting  and remote support solutions to build recurring revenues, drive down their operating costs and deliver best-of-breed IT support services.

“Small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) often do not have the resources to maintain 24/7 surveillance of their servers and network. The smallest of faults could lead to downtime and that translates into loss of business and productivity. The Channel can play an enormous part in helping SMBs to monitor their network and that is why we are launching GFI MAX, our first offering in the managed sphere. GFI MAX allows partners to perform remote monitoring and management of their clients’ network and in the process generate an additional revenue stream for them,” GFI’s CEO, Walter Scott said.

GFI MAX delivers a number of key benefits to Channel partners, including:

• The ability to provide superior, proactive service with round-the-clock client monitoring
• The chance to win more contracts by showing prospects ‘their’ advanced system for client care and the option to customize systems with their branding which they can use too
• An additional opportunity to sell to existing clients to make more money by packaging features
• A fast and easy setup with minimal effort and training, and no additional hardware.

A survey carried out among 200 MSPs and IT support organizations in June 2009 found that 9 out of 10 respondents use remote monitoring and management software to offer a faster fix response time, while 81% said they were able to save money by being able to do more from remote locations. A total of 78% said that using remote monitoring and management software allowed them to improve their business margins.

GFI MAX delivers an easy, affordable solution for IT support professionals and MSPs who are looking to take better care of their clients at less cost.

“We believe that there are thousands of businesses that would be more than happy to subscribe to a service provided by a Managed Service Provider, a Value Added Reseller or IT support company that is not expensive and gives them peace of mind, business security and added value. This is a win-win situation for the reseller and the client,” Mr Scott said.

“We are confident that GFI MAX is the catalyst for GFI to further expand our product portfolio using either on-premise or an on-line delivery model. We are looking at other acquisitions in the coming months that will enable us to continue to provide the best possible solutions to our partners and customers based on their infrastructure and needs at the time,” Mr Scott concluded.

For more information about GFI MAX, pricing and services available, go to: http://www.gfi.com/max.

About GFI

GFI is a leading software developer that provides a single source for network administrators to address their network security, content security and messaging needs. With award-winning technology, an aggressive pricing strategy and a strong focus on small-to-medium sized businesses, GFI is able to satisfy the need for business continuity and productivity encountered by organizations on a global scale. GFI has offices in the US, Malta, UK, Hong Kong and Australia which support more than 200,000 installations worldwide. GFI is a channel-focused company with over 10,000 partners worldwide. GFI is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. More information about GFI can be found at http://www.gfi.com.