Stories by Mary Branscombe

Why aren’t you managing your Macs?

The iPad Pro isn’t Apple’s only way into business. Macs are showing up at work in larger numbers, but all too often, they’re left unmanaged. CIOs need to make sure IT knows that Macs aren’t going away – and that they can be managed.

Written by Mary Branscombe05 Oct. 15 15:33

Is BYOK the key to secure cloud computing?

Amazon, Adobe and Microsoft offer it but how realistic is it to “bring your own keys?” Do you want your business to have the burden of managing and securing your own cloud encryption keys?

Written by Mary Branscombe28 Sept. 15 14:43

Why Power BI is the future of Excel

Excel isn't going away, but it's going to stop accumulating extra tools like barnacles. Instead Power BI Desktop will become the self-service analytics hub.

Written by Mary Branscombe03 Sept. 15 15:51

How to get the most out of Windows 10 enterprise security features

The enterprise edition of Windows 10 may be available only a day after the consumer version, with some immediately useful improvements for business. But some of the most important security features in Windows 10 Enterprise will either be included in a major update (that you can think of much like a service pack) that will ship sometime this fall, or will rely on enterprises and online sites and services making some substantial changes to move away from passwords. That means that, as with most upgrades, getting the most from Windows 10 security improvements will require planning.

Written by Mary Branscombe30 July 15 23:45

Are you ready to support Windows 10?

Sometime after July 29, Windows 10 is going to start showing up in your business as employees either bring new PCs to work or upgrade their existing machines. Microsoft says it has had millions of reservations for the free Windows 10 upgrade. But despite the launch date, that's not going to happen overnight.

Written by Mary Branscombe29 July 15 23:53

Why you need to care more about DNS

When you say Domain Name System (DNS), you might think, naturally enough, of domain names and the technical details of running your Internet connection. You might be concerned about denial of service attacks on your website, or someone hijacking and defacing it.

Written by Mary Branscombe15 July 15 23:57

How Office 365 balances IT control with user satisfaction

At the end of 2014, Microsoft bought Acompli, creators of a popular email app that it quickly rebranded as Outlook. The familiar name doubtless drew in more users, but it also gave IT teams a set of expectations about the security and management options a product called Outlook would have.

Written by Mary Branscombe07 July 15 23:53

When it comes to mobile apps, IT is ‘slow, poor and weak'

When 80 percent of employees say mobile technology is critical for getting their job done, but the same number say they haven't asked their IT department for the apps they need because they don't think they'd get what they need, that's a sure sign of trouble.

Written by Mary Branscombe24 June 15 23:24

What does the future hold for Microsoft Dynamics?

Alongside the news that the Microsoft teams that make devices like Surface and Surface Hub will now be in the same division that makes the operating system on which they run, Microsoft's latest reorg moves Dynamics to the Cloud & Enterprise group (Microsoft Dynamics is the company's line of ERP and CRM applications). That shifts it from the Applications & Services division that builds productivity products and cloud services like Office 365, and puts it alongside Azure, SQL Server, Intune, Power BI, Visual Studio and BizTalk.

Written by Mary Branscombe24 June 15 00:11

Are you ready for developers to be your new IT buyers?

Over the last few years, thanks to the cloud, technology buying within businesses has changed. If your business uses Salesforce, for instance, it's likely because the marketing team signed up without ever asking IT about it and the service spread inside the company until you had to formally evaluate and standardize on it. Your CFO might have been the reason you're now using NetSuite. Get used to the same thing happening with developers as well, and this time for services beyond what you might normally think as part of the IT department's purview.

Written by Mary Branscombe02 June 15 23:52

Why you still need to care about software licensing

Microsoft might promise free upgrades for Windows and simplify its volume licensing with a new agreement, but the influx of cloud services, new devices and mobile apps means software licensing continues to be complex. A recent lawsuit should remind you that you can't afford to lose track of what software your company is using.

Written by Mary Branscombe13 March 15 04:44

Can You Reclaim Your Email With Microsoft Office Graph Tools?

There's little competitive advantage in running your own mail server anymore; that's one reason Office 365 is growing so fast. But with tools like Delve and Clutter, Microsoft is keen to position it as a way to get more value out of communications -- especially as the anti-email movement gains credibility from the popularity of enterprise messaging services like Slack.

Written by Mary Branscombe03 March 15 07:22

How machine learning ate Microsoft

At the Strata big data conference yesterday, Microsoft let the world know its Azure Machine Learning offering was generally available to developers. This may come as a surprise. Microsoft? Isn't machine learning the province of Google or Facebook or innumerable hot startups?

Written by Mary Branscombe20 Feb. 15 02:27
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