Vlad Mazek – Vladville Blog

Time to build that autoresponder, not going to be able to make it to the Microsoft WWPC this year in Houston. Already got two meeting requests, too.

This is going to sound very hypocritical, but if you’re not me, you should go. It’s the best advice I can offer you. I am not going primarily because my new young family takes priority over out-of-town trips but in the equal amount the business is way too hot at the moment with the opportunity to stay at home and close being far higher than to go out and network for it. This is the first time that this has happened in my business, we have so many new projects, new people starting, new product lines coming online, going global, designing a new retail offering, two factor auth.. really just an incredible time for OWN.

Don’t fool yourself, this would not have been possible had it not been for the high profile people and conferences that have helped get us to this point. Networking is crucial. I really hope you consider things like WPC and TechEd because without a shadow of a doubt, they are the best. Yes, they cost a little more, but for a very good reason – they bring out the best. It has been my long time argument on this site that you need to aim high, not settle for the entry level just because that is where you think you fit the best and get immediate gratification. There is no such thing as get rich quick and get problems solved quick in this business, its a journey with long term plans and projects, and conferences are about much more than addressing your immediate needs and problems – so do yourself a favor and take a leap. Trust me, you’ll figure out SBS 2008 just fine and if you need a specialized conference to teach you that its probably a good indication that you need to seek a new career.

Time to stop playing in the wading pool and step up…

One of the more frustrating things about Windows 2008 Server Core deployments is the lack of .NET and consequently the lack of PowerShell. This is frustrating to those of us that have a ton of servers because now the management surface of a Windows 2008 network doubles – for the servers that can be managed via PowerShell and v2 remoting features, and the core ones that can’t.

Which is why you have to check out this blog post – Dmitry outlines how to get PowerShell installed on Windows Server 2008 Core. Not to mention all the other .NET 2.0 code that can now be piled on top of the Server Core installation!

These Microsoft rants are starting to get tiring, don’t you think? I feel like every morning brings in another disappointment from my largest partner, and since they don’t seem to be talking about changing or sending me a cease & desist letter I think it’s time I stopped beating this dead horse.

It’s a little bittersweet to be honest, I love Microsoft, they have very impressive workers and processes, I continue to copy them in a number of ways as I grow my company and to be honest, I really would have loved to have a job there in the long, long ago. Today, they are a tired, frustrated, directionless mass of incompetence and if you read their blogs you’re starting to see the frustration build too.

Steve Clayton recently asked on twitter (paraphrasing): “Why does Microsoft get beaten up about every piece of beta software but Google is instantly forgiven?”

On the face of it, poor Steve is seeing a double standard. There is only a slight distinction. Google is a search advertising company with at best a few years of software writing expertise that addresses big pains for free. Microsoft is a 30 year old software enterprise, with talent and history to the beginning of computing time. Microsoft ought to be held to a higher standard. But even when the playing field is leveled, Microsoft is a company that buys solid commercial products, destroys them, puts them through years of alpha, Customer Technology Previews, betas, release candidates and sprinkles in a little bit of pullback and re-release magic. No company should be allowed to slide for taking stable products and destroying them through the process of rebranding, sorry.

You want forgiveness Steve? As a Microsoft partner of 13 years, I have forgiven you for Windows 98. I have forgiven you for ME. I have forgiven you for the ::$DATA dumping raw ASP code into the browser. I have forgiven you for the SQL slammer, Nimda, Code Red. I have forgiven you for deadend products, one after another, stuck in perpetual unstable condition. I have forgiven you losing your focus and starting to compete with me, your partner. I have forgiven you for the unethical treatment of your partners and being generally predatory towards your consumers and partners. I have forgiven you for your licensing.

There comes a time when even I am not able to forgive you, I think you need to address this with a higher power.

Just to make sure that we’re all on the same page here, I do not feel like I am better than Microsoft or that Microsoft owes me anything – believe me, I know who the bitch is. However, the problem with being a street prostitute without a pimp is that when you’re out and about trying to make a dollar and the customer pushes you on all the problems and lack of direction, you have nothing to provide them with. I need Microsoft (as a pimp) far more than Microsoft needs me as a Vista/Server/Office-pushing whore.

Yes, Microsoft is that incompetent. Here, check this out. They gloated about this mega data center push, how they signed up a 70,000 seat Coca Cola customer to Exchange hosting. Look at the email they sent out the other day:

Again, this is not a joke. This is a dead serious official letter sent to the Microsoft customers indicating that they are likely to be out for about 24 hours lights-out total outage. Not to some ancillary vapor bullshit service like Mesh or Grove – but to the entire Microsoft productivity suite that supposedly Microsoft manages for them.

Apple ads are becoming true. Why even bother? Is there any sign, public sign, that anything is getting done? Because www.microsoft.com makes it seem like things are A-ok. Why am I wasting my time trying to bring this to your attention?

In that light, I want to thank and apologize to Microsoft for my rampant frustration. Last year Steve Ballmer promised me that Microsoft Online will open up a whole new set of opportunities for Microsoft partners. I didn’t know that he meant their incompetence would make me look like a shining star – but thank you, we’re now heading towards double-digit headcount increases on a monthly basis and we’re pushing ahead. Thanks to Microsoft.

I’m going to dedicate more time to working with Microsoft SMB and Microsoft SBSC partners and try to focus on the positives because.. well.. it doesn’t sound like this is helping anyone and until you can come out in a public way and explain to your customers why they should trust you I don’t intend to either.

Rock on.

Someone the other day mentioned to me that I’m being unfairly tough about Microsoft lately. So I am going to say something nice and leave the comments wide open and encourage you to provide the end to my blog post. If you do, the ten most creative endings get a Shockey Monkey shirt:

Microsoft today released Virtual PC 2007 SP1, the groundbreaking customer virtualization product that still doesn’t include 64bit guest support because….

Post your response in the comments. Let’s see if I’m just a basher or if we as a community are just horrible people.

One of the Microsofties and I often argue about Microsofts lack of (inability, unwillingness) advertising in the mainstream media. This is really a double edged sword and any change could potentially piss off a large number of customers or partners so here is my take on why Microsoft’s marketing, for the lack of a better word, sucks:

Microsoft has never successfully marketed to end users.

Microsoft has always perfectly targeted technology decision makers.

Microsoft excels at marketing things like servers and workstations to those that are in the market to buy and manage them for a business. They even do a fair bit of promotions and incentives around the office.

However, look at the mainstream media advertising for Vista for example. When was the last time you saw a TV ad for Microsoft *anything* – how about the ads for Blackberry and Mac? I saw at least a dozen of them last night during the NBA playoffs.

Why doesn’t Microsoft market to the mainstream? Well, for one, Microsoft software is generally too difficult to use. Chalk it up to “choice” and the complexity that comes from it. The more choices the people have, the more uneasy they get on an impulse buy. Don’t think buying a shiny laptop with the purple back cover is an impulse decision? Do I want one with a big screen, small screen, big drive, small drive, laptop, tablet, blah. Try the same at an Apple store.

The second reason, que flamethrowers SPFs, is that any attempt to market something that goes around the gatekeepers gets met with huge resistance. Look at Microsoft’s online offerings – most people believe they will be put out of business if Microsoft markets them to end users in a significant way. Who needs a server if they can get Exchange and SharePoint for $10?

So what is Microsoft to do? From a purely impartial point, I say take the money and don’t ask any questions. Microsoft makes bulk of its money from sales of office software to businesses – windows client, server and office suites. So, do you just take all the money pouring in or do you go out of your way to change what has worked up until now and risk pissing off a large part of your partner base?

The decision seems fairly easy when you put it this way.

However, Microsoft should be afraid that mainstream advertising actually works and in the same way that it is not willing to back its partners and its brand in a very public way from an all out assault by Apple and Blackberry, it’s partners too will take the easy way out. You want a Mac and a Blackberry? Deal. Who are we not to take your money? After all, we make money on services and as my pal Dave says: “I will manage anything that can be measured.”

Microsoft did a lot of right things over the years, it earned the loyalty of a lot of people and adoration of a lot of IT professionals. But if you have been reading this blog over the past few months, you’re starting to see that brand leadership and loyalty is starting to crumble. Not due to anything that the partners are doing, but by a combination of things that Microsoft is doing and a stack of things that they are not doing enough.

Microsoft, through people in roles like Kevin Beares and Eric Ligman, needs to find a way to open up a conversation with a larger audience. The main problem is that the message that is reaching us, is not reaching the customer.

And for what its worth, the message that you read here is directly influenced by the pushback from the partners and customers. I’ve got no horse in the Blackberry vs. Windows Mobile race, I’m just showing you the odds.