Bay Underground Malware on the Internet

Malware, called all kinds of malware or causing troubles such as advertising software (adware), spyware (Trojan, spyware), type the code risk control and help control the computer remotely to the bad (the computer was brought into the system Zombie, botnet), type the code helps fraud (phishing) ... is becoming big danger. The Internet has more than half a million websites are showing Malware infection who surf the web.

One of the new weapon helps Malware is a rapidly developing social networks (social networks) such as MySpace to help Internet users can easily create websites for individuals as their blog. Social networking is a new concept appeared recently for the website only provided for the user environment to create personal blogs and connect with each other according to preference. Own social network protection is sure to create the blog can not be brought to Malware blog.

However, creating blogs can take on their path (link) to other sites with attractive introduction to deceive viewers. Just click this link to see the trap can order as it is the site contained Malware or provide free software with very useful but the shell peeled harmful Trojan is extremely dangerous .

According to the statistics of companies writing anti-spyware software Webroot, many sites on the personal social network like MySpace by creating a user with more information to different virtual trap John's web surfing. "Each like to see people under click always attractive, such as software, film and free hot cause you can not deny downloading your computer. Of course, gift with their product is free Trojan, spyware that the price people pay to surf the web for volatility is not your cheap little time.

Until this time, the specialists have Webroot's statistics list of sites containing 527,000 John Malware trap users, more than 100,000 pages over the same period last year. With the number of sites Malware much like the numbers the computer, as in most households, infected with one or more spyware in more than 30 spyware most popular today. Spyware is also quite common in business. Webroot has surveyed nearly 20,000 businesses in 71 countries and found a computer in the company also infected 19 different types of spyware.

Technical writing spyware is continuous improvement with the ability to automatically hide to avoid anti-spyware software to detect and destroy as well as record type keyboard (keylogger). Most recently, a Trojan called Zlob the use of dummy as software code resolution video update for the Microsoft. However, the link to download the program again this leads to a site that the hacker, a series of Malware is downloaded and installed to the computer's victims

Are all Antivirus softwares safe?

According to a report from Microsoft, fake security software is growing on the Net. The number of vulnerabilities it is down from 2007, except for its own applications. Each semester, Microsoft, like other publishers, publishes its report on information security. It must be said that the U.S. firm has an advantage in weight to take the temperature of Risk: the collection of information is based on 450 million computers worldwide.

First observation fake security software have proliferated on the Internet. These applications exploit the fear of the Internet, usually by displaying messages alerting an infection. Once the antivirus installed, it will attempt to extort money from the user. These fake security tools can also steal personal data and information as well.

Win32/Renos virus totaled 4.4 million infections in the recently past time. Microsoft has detected malware and family Win32/Spyware Secure 260 000 computers between July and December 2008. This represents an increase of 87.4% in six months. Win32/Renos, another one of these programs gave rise to 4.4 million infections worldwide over the period (+ 66.6%). The sources of threats largest number of infections in the second half are the various Trojans. Trojans (various, downloaders and injectors) account for more than 50% of infections.

The situations vary significantly between different countries of world. In Brazil, the threat most common (greater than 50%) consists of programs sniffer passwords and monitoring tools. In Korea, the worms that cause the most infections (28%). The Trojans (all categories) remain the most serious threat. Another finding of the report Microsoft application vulnerabilities continue to pose a major risk to security, even though the numbers tend to decrease. Between 2007 and 2008, the total number of vulnerabilities of high index (52% of all faults) fell by 16% compared to 2007.

This downward trend in the number of vulnerabilities appears forget Microsoft applications. Between the first and second half of 2008, the publisher notes an increase of 67.2% of faults for its products (42 security bulletins about vulnerabilities 97). From 2007 to 2008 it rose by 16.8% with a total of 78 security bulletins encompassing 155 vulnerabilities. On the Operating System, Microsoft said in its report noted a rate of infection correlated with the length of the OS. Plus an operating system is old and the more successful attacks increases. The infection rate for Windows Vista is much lower than its predecessor, Windows XP, regardless of the configuration; specifies the document. The rate of infection of Windows Vista SP1 is for example 60.6% lower than Windows XP SP3. A fact that Microsoft checks on both client OS on servers.

Virus help

Now-a-days millions of viruses, Spyware, Woms, Malware etc. present, and new originating day-by-day continuously. Some kind of viruses type are:

Viruses - A virus is a small piece of software that piggybacks on real programs. For example, a virus might attach itself to a program such as a spreadsheet program. Each time the spreadsheet program runs, the virus runs, too, and it has the chance to reproduce (by attaching to other programs).
E-mail viruses - An e-mail virus travels as an attachment to e-mail messages, and usually replicates itself by automatically mailing itself to dozens of people in the victim's e-mail address book. Some e-mail viruses don't even require a double-click -- they launch when you view the infected message in the preview pane of your e-mail software.

Trojan horses - A Trojan horse is simply a computer program. The program claims to do one thing (it may claim to be a game) but instead does damage when you run it (it may erase your hard disk). Trojan horses have no way to replicate automatically.

Worms - A worm is a small piece of software that uses computer networks and security holes to replicate itself. A copy of the worm scans the network for another machine that has a specific security hole. It copies itself to the new machine using the security hole, and then starts replicating from there, as well.

Symptoms of virus infection on your computer:

> Programs take longer to load. Memory-intensive operations take a lot of time to start.

> A change in dates against the filenames in the directory. When the virus modifies a file the operating system changes the date stamp.

> Increased use of disk space and growth in file size-the virus attaches itself to many files.

> Strange characters appear in the directory listing of filenames.

> Strange graphic displays such as falling letters or a bouncing ball appear on screen.

> Abnormal write-protect errors. The virus trying to write to a protected disk.

> Programs may hang the computer or not work at all.

> Junk characters overwrite text in document or data files.

Best way to recovery your all virus infection is Install good antivius software and Scan your whole computer with it. Some good Antivirus are:

> Notron
> Macfee
> AVG
> BitDefender
> F-secure
> Trend Micro

iYogi Acquires Clean Machine Inc.

Larry Gordon, Founder of Clean Machine appointed as President Global Channel Sales at iYogi

New York, NY, May 11th, 2009 : iYogi, a global direct to consumer and small business remote technical support provider, today announced it’s acquisition of Clean Machine Inc, a provider of remotely administered PC security and performance management services. Clean Machine will operate as a separate brand under the iYogi services umbrella along with the recently lunched Support Dock (www.supportdock.com) and its comprehensive range of 24/7 technical support services for computers, printers, MP3 players, digital camera, routers, servers and more than 100 software applications. Larry Gordon, Founder of Clean Machine is appointed as the President of Global Channel Sales for iYogi.

iYogi will integrate technology and innovation that Clean Machine Inc. has developed for delivering an enhanced service experience by proactively managing the health and security for PC's and Apple Computers. This acquisition also broadens iYogi's access to key markets through Clean Machine's existing partnerships. Larry Gordon's past experience and successful track record will accelerate iYogi's expansion through his focus on global alliances.
Commenting on the acquisition of Clean Machine Inc., Uday Challu, CEO & Co-founder of iYogi, said,

"This acquisition will help iYogi to enhance our customer experience and extend our market reach to the millions of consumers that are challenged by the increasingly complex technology environment. Clean Machine's proactive maintenance and management of PCs in home and small business environment will be our launch platform for building the next generation of managed services for consumers."

"We are delighted to have Larry spearheading partnerships and global alliances for iYogi. His incredible experience in marketing, sales and building global alliances will help forge partnerships with retailers, multiple service operators, software publishers, original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and other such companies that are at the frontlines for managing tech support issues for consumers and small businesses",

added Challu.

With more than 20 years of experience, Larry Gordon has played a variety of strategic roles in marketing, sales and building alliances. Larry was the Executive Vice President at Capgemini and Kanbay. He was also VP of Global Marketing for Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH), a leader in global IT services and Director of Marketing for New York based Information Builders.

"I am excited to join a company that shares a common mission to Clean Machine in creating a global brand for delivering the best technical support to consumers and small businesses. We also share a common approach of utilizing highly skilled talent with leading edge tools, thereby delivering services at incredible price-points, with high margins for our partners",

said Larry Gordon, the newly appointed President of Global Channel Sales at iYogi.

ABOUT IYOGI

Headquartered in Gurgaon, India with offices in New York, USA, iYogi provides personalized computer support for consumers and small businesses in United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. IYogi's 24/7 phone and remote technical assistance, spans across a comprehensive range of technologies we use every day from a wide range of vendors. Utilizing its proprietary technology iMantra , and highly qualified technicians, iYogi delivers amongst the highest benchmarks for resolution and customer satisfaction. iYogi is privately held and funded by SAP Ventures, Canaan Partners, and SVB India Capital Partners. iYogi was recently awarded the Red Herring Global 100 Award, recognizing it as one of the 100 most innovative private companies driving the future of technology. For more information on iYogi and a detailed list of technologies supported, visit: www.iyogi.net.

ABOUT CLEAN MACHINE

Clean Machine Inc. is a NJ-based and incorporated company that helps consumers and small business owners easily manage and protect their computing environments safely and cost effectively. The company is has a unique, powerful and inexpensive PC concierge service. Specifically, each customer is assigned a highly-trained tech concierge who remotely examines their computer system on a scheduled and very secure basis. The PC concierge will immediately fix software-based problems and prevent new threats to the customer's computing environment including offensive pop-ups, browser redirects and slow performance, and then provides a detailed report. Clean Machine's proprietary Radar(TM) technology (Remote Access Detection Audit and Repair) allows its expert technicians to remotely resolve any problems, eliminating the need for customers to go through the frustrating process of speaking with a tech support expert, and still having to do the work themselves. In other words, the Clean Machine PC concierges do it all. For more information on Clean Machine please visit www.pccleanmachine.com.

iYogi Announces Launch of Monitoring and Performance Tool For SMBs

iYogi – a leading provider of technical support services with horizons in the US, UK, Canada and Australia – today announced the launch of its exclusive server monitoring tools for small businesses. The new product offers integrated technology solutions to surmount the users’ unique IT support requirements thereby enabling them to derive and share information, data, enable network performance analysis, and security trends critical to plan and mana ge their set of servers – 24x7.

Uday Challu, iYogi’s CEO commented, “Holding a significant niche for itself in the computer support industry, iYogi has always known to be on the forefront of adapting breakthrough technology to exceed customer service expectations. This time we have developed a tool offering value-add functionality which will help small business customers maximize the business outcomes of IT.”

iYogi’s monitoring tool provides real time observation and monitoring solutions to ensure more robust and reliable IT support and infrastructure for small buinesses. Small Business owners also get a comprehensive assesment of their IT environment to meet technology needs with the scalability for future growth and create preventative measures based on quick analysis of network device alerts, pre-failure indicators, performance benchmark and security issues.

The new Monitoring and performance tool will provide small business with the opportunity to test all technical and non-technical aspects of their servers and help them to strengthen overall IT infrastructure. The array of services will include: Patch Management, Security Auditing, Site Inventory, Real Time Alerting Script Based Management, and Rights Management Services for all critical server issues.

“Irrespective of the business being small or large, when the consumer chooses iYogi, he leverages the potential of an elite taskforce of Microsoft Certified System Engineers and Cisco Certified Network Associates, ready to service their critical assets, using the most advanced network asset tracking and Performance monitoring”, adds Challu.

Another factor where the Company aims to distinguish itself from its competitors is product pricing. Embracing the concept of service quality, iYogi offers competitively priced technical support services at no-haggle, low prices.

As for its small business support, the Company has integrated its exclusive Monitoring and Alerting Services under one price umbrella of just $480 annually. per server i.e. $49.99 per month. The price is certainly hard to find anywhere else.

For more information on iYogi Small Business Support, visit http://www.iyogibusiness.com/

Contact Details:
Company Name: iYogi Technical Services Pvt Ltd
Address: iYogi Inc.
12 Desbrosses Street
3rd Floor
New York, NY 10013
Toll Free no:1-800-237-3901
Work Number: 1-212-229-0901
Fax Number: 1-888-867-2715
E-Mail: awadhesh.singh@iyogi.net

iYogi Secures $9.5M in Series B Funding Led by SAP Ventures, With Follow-on Investment from Canaan Partners and SVB India Capital Partners

iYogi Secures $9.5M in Series B Funding Led by SAP Ventures, With Follow-on Investment from Canaan Partners and SVB India Capital Partners
iYogi, a Direct-to-Consumer and Small Business Technical Support Provider, Paves the Way for Personal Offshoring to Become India’s Next Success Story

New York, 24 July, 2008: Personal Offshoring, which is driving the next wave of India’s outsourcing success story, got a huge boost today when iYogi - a remote technical support provider from India - raised $ 9.5 million in Series B financing from SAP Ventures, a division of SAP AG, Canaan Partners and SVB India Capital Partners, a venture fund affiliate of Silicon Valley Bank.

iYogi (www.iyogi.net) delivers technical support services directly to consumers and small businesses and is the first, global, technical support brand based out of India. The company offers its customers an unlimited, annual service subscription for $119.99 per desktop that includes support for a wide range of technologies, including PC hardware Microsoft Windows operating system, software applications, peripherals and multifunctional devices.

“Personal Offshoring has created new investment opportunities in India with incredible growth potential,” said Doug Higgins, partner at SAP Ventures. “It is very exciting to see companies like iYogi challenging the traditional enterprise-focused offshore-service delivery model by creating a consumer-focused, direct-to-customer personal offshore model. iYogi is one of the fastest-growing companies in this market segment, and we look forward to working with them to create India’s next success story.”

“Our focus on the customer experience has helped us achieve a 93 percent satisfaction rate across more than 50,000 customers,” said Uday Challu, CEO of iYogi. “We are delighted to have the support of three terrific investors as we increase our market share and continue to provide the best technical support experience possible for our customers.”

iYogi will use the funds to fuel its expansion into 12 new regions, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, and to increase its delivery of new services including PC recovery, anti-virus/spyware, data back-up and PC optimization.

“As consumer technologies grow in sophistication, consumers will be seeking the kind of home IT support services – including remote services offered by companies such as iYogi – to help them solve their most complex problems,” said Kurt Scherf, vice president and principal analyst, Parks Associates. “In primary research, we found more than one-third of consumers are willing to pay for competent and professional remote support services, and 60% express a strong interest in software solutions – what we refer to as ‘PC Dashboards’ – that automate many basic PC performance enhancement and troubleshooting features, solving many PC-related problems before they even are noticed by end-users.”

iYogi had previously raised $3.1 million in Series A financing from Canaan Partners and SVB in April of last year. “iYogi is one of the most promising investments for Canaan Partners,” said Alok Mittal, managing director of India at Canaan Partners. “Third-party, vendor-independent technical support is an exciting new service category, witnessing explosive growth. Customers are looking beyond the traditional vendor-provided support to remote channels for better problem resolution, faster service, and greater overall satisfaction. iYogi has created an incredible value proposition and price offering for its customers that is hard to beat.”

”Several next generation outsourcing companies from India are delivering a range of personal offshoring services for individuals and small businesses in the U.S. including online tutoring, tax preparation, remote executive assistance and research services,” said Suresh Shanmugham, managing director of SVB India Capital Partners, a venture fund affiliate of Silicon Valley Bank. “iYogi has leveraged the technical skills available in India along with process expertise to scale as a global technical support provider for millions faced with increasingly complex technology”.

About SAP Ventures
SAP Ventures invests in innovative and disruptive software and services companies globally. We pursue opportunities across all stages for outstanding financial return. Our goal is to bring substantial benefit to all parties by facilitating interaction between portfolio companies and SAP and its ecosystem of customers and partners. SAP Ventures has a successful track record of building industry-leading companies by partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs and top-tier venture capital firms since 1996. For more information, visit www.sapventures.com.

About Canaan Partners

Canaan Partners is a global venture capital firm specializing in early-stage information technology and life sciences companies. Founded in 1987, Canaan Partners has $2.4 billion capital under management and has invested in more than 240 companies, completed 63 mergers and acquisitions, and brought over 50 companies public. The firm catalyzes the development of innovative mobile, Internet, CleanTech, networking, semiconductor, enterprise software and services, biotechnology and medical technologies to build next-generation market leaders. Canaan was an early investor in Acme Packet (APKT), Aperto Networks, BharatMatrimony.com, Blurb, DoubleClick (DCLK), ID Analytics, Match.com and SuccessFactors, along with dozens of other market-leading companies. Canaan is headquartered in Menlo Park, California and also has offices in Connecticut, India and Israel. For more information visit: www.canaan.com.

SVB India Capital Partners Fund and Silicon Valley Bank

SVB India Capital Partners Fund is a $54 million equity fund that is focused on Indian companies and co-invests across industries and stages with top-tier venture capital firms. Silicon Valley Bank is the premier commercial bank for emerging, growth and mature companies in the technology, life science, private equity and premium wine industries. Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., the company serves clients around the world through 27 U.S. offices and five international operations. Silicon Valley Bank is a member of global financial services firm SVB Financial Group, with SVB Analytics, SVB Capital, SVB Global and SVB Private Client Services. More information on the company can be found at www.svb.com.

About iYogi

iYogi is the first direct-to-consumer and small business technical support service from India. Providing an annual unlimited subscription to technical support for $119.99 per year, iYogi now boasts more than 50,000 customers. The company employs 450 professionals servicing customers in the U.S., U.K., Canada fast expanding to 12 new geographies across the globe. iYogi’s resolution rate of 87 percent and customer satisfaction rate of 93 percent are amongst the highest published benchmarks in the industry. For further information, please visit www.iyogi.net.

SAP and all SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. iYogi shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

SAP and all SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries.
All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.



Contact:


Company Name:
iYogi Technical Services Pvt Ltd

Address:
iYogi Inc.
12 Desbrosses Street
3rd Floor
New York, NY 10013

Toll Free no: 1-800-237-3901

Work Number: 1-212-229-0901

F ax Number: 1-888-867-2715

It's not Online Vista Tech Services: Windows Server 2008 gets nod from IT

It may look like Windows Vista. It shares the same code base as Vista. It even rolls in Vista's first Service Pack. But in terms of customer adoption plans, Windows Server 2008 is no Vista.

A new Computerworld survey shows that 63% of the 403 respondents plan to adopt Microsoft's new server operating system. This contrasts with the intention of some IT organizations to skip Vista entirely and move directly to Windows 7 on the desktop. According to an of 372 IT professionals conducted by Sanford C. Bernstein in May, companies expect just 26% of their PCs to be running Vista by the beginning of 2011, down from an estimate of nearly 68% of computers based on a similar survey a year ago.
"I haven't seen any shadow of Vista being cast over Windows Server 2008," says John Enck, analyst at Gartner Inc. Most industry watchers, in fact, agree that deployment is not a matter of if, but when and where.

IT executives say that for the most part, Windows Server 2008's many new features won't compel them to change their normal refresh schedules to adopt it right away. "It's just an evolutionary step from Server 2003," says Rick Redman, senior IT analyst for the city of Amarillo, Texas.

Jim Thomas, director of IT operations at window manufacturer Pella Corp. in Pella, Iowa, says Microsoft's new virtualization hypervisor, is interesting. But other than that, he says, there's "not a whole lot" that he finds compelling. And Hyper-V is and immature to warrant rushing ahead to convert his 425 Windows servers, he adds.
Overall, however, IT decision-makers give the operating system a qualified thumbs up and plan to move to it as part of the normal server refresh cycle, which typically ranges from three to five years. Some customers, for instance, phase in new servers by replacing one-third of their machines each year; others replace all of their servers at once.

"We're coming at it much more from a normal rollout of an operating system," says Bob Yale, IT principal at The Vanguard Group Inc. in Valley Forge, Pa. Vanguard has about 1,200 Windows servers, most of which are running Windows Server 2003.

Overall, 59% of Computerworld 's survey respondents who said they plan to adopt Windows Server 2008 (WS '08) expect to get started within the next 12 months. More than half -- 55% -- expect to complete the transition within two years. The highest level of interest came from respondents at midsize organizations with 100 to 1,000 employees; 69% of them said they expect to get started within the next 12 months.

Selective service
In most cases, the early adopters are deploying WS '08 selectively in a bid to leverage specific new features in the operating system. While more than half of respondents in our survey said they will follow the usual upgrade schedule, about one in four said they will accelerate adoption for some applications. One in three respondents said that online vista tech services their organizations have a business need for a new feature in WS '08.

Mike Moore, IT principal at Vanguard, says his company has implemented a few WS '08 machines where the new features filled a business need. For instance, Vanguard has servers in place that leverage WS '08's new (NAP) features. "We'd like to extend that further with the more-granular policy servers that Windows Server 2008 provides," he says. But he doesn't expect to get serious about WS '08 rollouts until sometime in 2009.

Neither does the city of Amarillo's Redman, who says he'd like to see a base of documentation and best practices before moving forward. "The biggest problem is getting useful technical articles out of Microsoft that don't have a lot of marketing hype," he says.

But Ward Ralston, senior technical product manager for Windows Server 2008, argues that plenty of resources exist today. He points to the and to the as examples.
Redman expects to begin migrating to WS '08 within a year. For now, however, he'll stick with Server 2003 when the need for new servers arises. While it's not hard to install the new operating system, it's quite a bit of work to load the fixes and patches and deal with technical support, he says. "If this one is working, why break it? We have 1,500 other things to do," he notes.

Early adopter Pacific Coast Cos. in Cordova, Calif., upgraded three server-based applications to WS '08 while participating in Microsoft's beta program. The applications, which include an estimator, a design application and a quality-control application, are all hosted using Terminal Services and have been stable. Because they're critical, however, administrators perform a preventive reboot every month, just to be safe, says enterprise architect Matt Okuma. But he'd like to see the operating system season a bit before he migrates other applications. "Would I run an SAP portal on Server 2008 right now? Probably not," he says.

Like Vanguard, Pacific Coast plans to selectively deploy WS '08 as a replacement for third-party products. "We don't want a fancy environment for network access protection. We just want to know when someone unauthorized has accessed our network," Okuma says.
His organization has also deployed Windows Server 2008's Terminal Services, with its ability to publish applications, as a replacement for his Citrix environment, which was hosted by a third party. The new setup saves on licensing and maintenance costs and performs better. "We've offloaded the cost and maintenance of Citrix. That's why we went to Server 2008," Okuma says. It was, he adds, a "no-brainer."

Broader deployments at Pacific Coast will likely start with Active Directory servers, but that's at least a year away. "We'll stick with Server 2003 in the interim," Okuma says.

Virtual possibilities
is probably the most talked about new feature in Server 2008. But with the hypervisor and management tools just emerging from beta, most organizations don't take Hyper-V seriously -- yet. "It's on our watch list, but not on the critical path to our virtualization strategy by any means," says Vanguard's Yale.
"Down the road, I think Microsoft will crush VMware, but they're far behind VMware at this point," says Okuma. He currently has 150 Windows servers, most of which are running virtualized Windows Server 2003 sessions on VMware products. Many of those virtual servers are "Tier 0" virtual machines, where server recovery would be time-consuming. "I would not move them to Hyper-V at this point," Okuma says.

"In 12 to 18 months, [Microsoft] will give VMware a run for their money," says Gartner's Enck. He thinks Microsoft will push Hyper-V into the enterprise through aggressive licensing practices. "It is very good at using the as a tool to shift the base," he says.
VMware also faces a competitive challenge from Microsoft for IT organizations that use more than one hypervisor. The of System Center Virtual Machine Manager, which offers some of the same tools found in VMware's VirtualCenter, will support not only Hyper-V but VMware ESX hypervisors as well when it's released later this year. And support for Xen is planned, according to Microsoft. VMware supports only its own hypervisor.
Right now, management tools are the No. 1 issue when it comes to virtualization, according to IDC. Microsoft's offering is not nearly as complete as VMware's, says Amarillo's Redman. But as it matures and the number of virtual machines under management continues to grow, System Center Virtual Machine Manager's flexibility will be increasingly attractive.

For now, however, most large companies are already committed to VMware. While 62% of large-company respondents in the Computerworld survey said they were using VMware for virtualization, nearly half (45%) of small companies and 29% of midsize companies said they weren't using virtualization at all yet. Gartner estimates that the installed base for virtualization as a percentage of all servers in use is still somewhere around 10%. That leaves plenty of room for Microsoft to move in.

"We think Microsoft will get big chunks of the market" and push out competitors, Enck says, leaving the market with two dominant players: VMware and Microsoft.

Scott Zimmerman, CIO at CenterPoint Properties in Oakbrook, Ill., is using VMware to host six of the real estate development and management company's 25 Windows servers. Zimmerman says he's very interested possibly using Hyper-V. "Is it a viable substitute? We'll want to find out," he says.

The city of Amarillo, with 100 to 150 Windows servers, is just starting to look at virtualization, Redman says. He's interested in Hyper-V but wants to see a broad community of support surrounding it before he'll consider deployment. "With VMware, a lot of people can help," he says.

Chad Mawson, IT manager at law firm Woods & Aitken LLP in Lincoln, Neb. agrees. He says he's seen "bits and pieces" of information on Microsoft's but notes that "there doesn't seem to be any real community base."
Overcoming VMware's entrenched position and customer loyalty won't be easy. "We're probably going to stick with VMware unless there's a huge price differential," Mawson says, noting that his ESX virtual machines are "incredibly stable." VMware isn't cheap, but that doesn't keep him up at night. "We get a good value for our money," he says.

Better living through Active Directory
and group policy are another area where users say even incremental improvements are welcome. Overall, however, the improvements in Active Directory, such as the new read-only domain controller and improved logging for change events, are minimal, says Gartner's Enck. More important improvements, including better integration with Lightweight Directory Services or non-Windows Kerberos implementations, aren't there yet.
Microsoft's Ralston counters that WS '08 includes more than 1,800 group policy settings that used to require the creation of custom scripts. "We closed the loop on all of those group policy features that were missing," he says. Microsoft also rolled in tools from its Desktop Standard acquisition, now called Group Policy Preferences, to automate the creation of group policies.

Woods & Aitken deployed a single instance of WS '08 for an Active Directory domain controller in a remote office that needed a new server. Mawson says the system is working fine, but he acknowledges that the deployment was a gamble. "It's more of a test in active use," he says. The enhanced group-policy management features are a step up, and Mawson intends to take full advantage of those features. He'll begin moving to WS '08 immediately but will only migrate as servers come up for their regular replacement, he says.

found the new Active Directory features sufficient to upgrade some servers. "The improvements in the Active Directory services [and] fine-grained password policies are really compelling," says Michael Lebiedzinski, director of infrastructure for the company s Global Wealth Platform. "In the past, different password policies were a driver to separate domains," he says. While the ability to fine-tune password policies drove the firm's adoption of WS '08, enabling domain consolidation was a secondary benefit, he says.
Others say they like the improvements but are in no rush to upgrade servers. "We've had talks about upgrading our Active Directory, but what do we actually gain from it? The risk is higher to go to 2008 than to just stay with 2003 at this point," Okuma says.

Stripping down to the core
Server 2008 offers 19 role-based installations that strip down the operating system to only the components needed to perform a given function, such as DNS. "We removed everything that wasn't needed for those roles. No .Net Framework, no Media Player, not even a GUI," says Microsoft's Ralston.

Redman thinks that the Server Core roles such as Active Directory and DNS server configurations will be particularly useful for remote sites. "A stripped-down operating system has less of a footprint for viruses, etc.," he says. Still, he's not going to put them in ahead of the normal refresh cycle.

Some of the roles fall in areas where Linux has been a popular alternative, but Gartner's Enck doesn't think WS '08 is a Linux-killer. Server Core is limited to a few specific roles, making it less flexible than Linux, he says. And while Server Core versions are easier to administer and are more secure than full-blown Windows Server installations because of the smaller footprint, there's no clear cost benefit to moving off of Linux. However, Server Core could blunt further advances by Linux into the enterprise for those role-based services it does support, he says.
Internet Information Server
, part of WS '08, offers more security features. Like the rest of the operating system, IIS has been componentized. There are more than 40 different pieces that can be installed to build a Web server, says Ralston. IIS 7 includes many security improvements, he adds. For example, a remote procedure call can't write to the registry or file system anymore because the security token for the account it runs under no longer has those privileges baked in.
IIS 7 is the most interesting part of Server 2008 for Zimmerman at CenterPoint Properties. "All of our applications are Web-based, so we like to keep current," he says. He points to improvements in streaming-media capabilities and in how IIS interacts with Active Server Pages, as well as the ease with which WS '08 can propagate configuration updates to Web server farms, as compelling reasons to upgrade.

It's not, however, compelling enough to make an IIS migration a top priority. "We don't have the time and project plan to focus on Windows Server 2008 right now," Zimmerman says. For now, he will continue to deploy Windows Server 2003 as needed and gradually begin upgrading later this year, starting with noncritical servers, he says.

SP2: The new SP1
While it's typical for organizations to wait for the first service pack before deploying a new operating system from Microsoft, in Computerworld 's survey, just over a third of respondents said they'd wait for the next service pack before deploying WS '08. Small companies were the most cautious.

One reason may be the perception that WS '08 has already had its first service pack, since Microsoft rolled up Vista's SP1 into the initial release of the product. Indeed, Microsoft has announced that the first true service pack for WS '08 will be labeled "SP2."

But while Vista and WS '08 do share a common code base, the server OS is far more modular and has many features that aren't part of Vista. At best, Vista SP1 was a partial service pack for WS '08. "SP2 is the old SP1," says Vanguard's Moore. "I'm not convinced that they've fixed all of the quality issues. We'll wait until SP2." Vanguard will begin a gradual rollout only when SP2 finally ships, he says.

Pacific Coast's Okuma is also cautious. "Our organization will definitely wait" for SP2, he says.

But that's not stopping Mawson at Woods & Aitken. SP1 "was already integrated into Server 2008, so that didn't play into the decision for us," he says, adding that he has seen no crashes so far with his test server.

Zimmerman currently has WS '08 running on a test machine. "We like it," he says but notes that he'll wait for the next service pack. "We kind of hang out until [SP2 ships], unless there's some overwhelming argument that it's stable," he adds.

"Sometime after SP2 comes out, we will start to look at rolling through a refresh," says Moore. He expects to start sometime next year. The rollout will require six months of planning and 12 to 18 months to complete.

Perhaps the biggest reason why SP2 doesn't matter is that the update is likely to arrive before many organizations can initiate major deployments. Redman says SP2 is important but not a concern on his planning horizon: "By the time we get around to [deploying Windows Server], there usually is [a service pack]." The real bottleneck, he says, is evaluation and planning time. "It could take us six months to a year to finish looking at the features, play with them and see what it will buy us," he says.