Microsoft to tie Yammer, Skype to its CRM application

Microsoft is preparing to release an update to its Dynamics CRM Online software that will feature a new user experience as well as tie-ins to its Yammer social networking software and Skype communication platform, the company announced Thursday.

In addition, Microsoft is planning to release a mobile CRM application in mid-2013 that will run on Windows 8 and iPad devices, said Seth Patton, senior director of product marketing.

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The CRM Online update is coming in December and will feature new "role-specific" user experiences incorporating prebuilt processes that "guide sales and service professionals through pre-defined lead, opportunity and case management processes," Microsoft said in a statement.

But the interfaces are completely "opt-in," with Microsoft remaining committed to users who prefer to use the Outlook interface, Patton said. They are also "fully configurable" to a user's personal preferences, he said.

Meanwhile, the Yammer integration represents "the first phase of integrating Yammer as a social layer" within Dynamics CRM, Patton said. Users will be able to post messages from Dynamics CRM to Yammer, and vice versa.

Rival CRM vendor Salesforce.com has included the Chatter social software within its CRM system for a couple of years now, but Microsoft isn't necessarily playing catch-up, according to Patton. "We're looking to take advantage of the fact that [Yammer] has broad viral adoption," and Microsoft will make it "super-seamless" to use Yammer with CRM, he said.

Users will also be able to make Skype calls from within the CRM interface.

Other new features in the December update include support for the Firefox and Chrome browsers on Windows PCs, as well as Safari on Macs, Microsoft said.

Microsoft is also adding additional platform-level features, such as support for customized .NET workflow services and APIs (application programming interfaces) for bulk data loads.

Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris' email address is Chris_Kanaracus@idg.com.

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Amazon drops cloud prices, again

Amazon Web Services, fresh off an outage that brought down big-name sites such as Reddit and Imgur, today announced an 18 percent price reduction for its virtual machines, the 21st time the leading infrastructure as a service (IaaS) vendor has dropped prices since launching its cloud in 2006.

In addition to the price drop, AWS released a new series of Elastic Cloud Compute instances with high input/output qualities. They're optimized, AWS says, for media encoding, batch processing, caching and Web serving. The extra-large instance (m3.xlarge) comes with 15GB of memory and 13 ECU -- which are Amazon compute units -- across four virtual cores. A double extra-large instance has 30GB of memory with 26 ECUs on eight virtual cores. The service debuted in the Northern Virginia US-East region, but AWS plans to roll it out to other regions early next year.

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Small instances went from $0.08/hour to $0.065/hour, medium instances went from $0.16/hour to $0.13/hour, large instances went from $0.32/hour to $0.26/hour, and extra-large instances went from $0.64/hour to $0.52/hour

Dan Feld, who manages sales and business development at AWS consultancy Newvem and is a former AWS exec with the same role for Amazon in Europe, says the price drop for the small instances is a significant move for a lot of customers. According to a sample of 40,000 instances that Newvem monitors for customers, m1.small is the most popular type, making up more than 25 percent of instances. All of those customers will have a drop in prices. Along with the price drop, AWS is filling out its product portfolio with higher-end instance types as well, he says.

"Amazon sure doesn't want to make it easy for competitors," says cloud analyst Paul Burns of Neovise about the company's 21st price drop in six years. As processing performance continues to improve, Burns says AWS has taken the approach that it will pass those savings on to customers whenever it can, as opposed to waiting for some major breakthrough in performance or cost.

It's the same idea on the new instances. The high-end instance types follow a trend by AWS in recent years. AWS has rolled out high-performance compute options, cluster compute instance types, and now these new large and extra-large high-memory offerings.

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ARM, Microsoft collaborating on 64-bit Windows version

ARM is working with Microsoft to tune the Windows OS to work on processors based on ARM's 64-bit architecture, an ARM official said this week.

Ian Forsyth, program manager at ARM, could not comment on a specific release date for the 64-bit version of Windows for ARM processors, but said ARM is continuously working with software partners to add 64-bit support.

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"ARM works with all its OS and ecosystem partners to inform them on next generation technologies and enable their support," said Nandan Nayampally, head of ARM's processor marketing division, in an email statement. ARM's TechCon show is currently going on in Santa Clara, California.

Specific product support questions would need to be directed to the partners, Nayampally said. A Microsoft spokesman in an email declined to comment on specifics of the 64-bit version of Windows RT, saying it had no information to share at this time.

Microsoft last week released Windows RT, an OS that is 32-bit and works with ARM processors, and also released Windows 8, which works on x86 processors and is 64-bit. ARM this week announced its first 64-bit processor designs, Cortex-A57 and Cortex-A53, which are based on ARM's Armv8 architecture. The chip designer said that it expects servers and mobile devices based on the processors to reach the market in 2014.

Windows RT is on tablets with 32-bit processors from Nvidia and Qualcomm. Microsoft's Surface and Asus' Vivo Tab RT tablet have Nvidia's quad-core Tegra 3 processor, while Dell's XPS 10 and Samsung's P8510 Ativ Tab have Qualcomm's dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor.

The 32-bit Windows RT OS has a limited memory ceiling, and a 64-bit Windows RT OS would expand the memory capacity in tablets and PCs. A 64-bit version of Windows on ARM would also bring it on par with Windows 8.

Nvidia is developing a processor core based on ARM's 64-bit architecture under the code-name Project Denver. Nvidia declined to comment on development of 64-bit software for Windows.

A Qualcomm spokeswoman said the company cannot comment at this time on specific product plans. However, Qualcomm is an ARM partner and helps explore and evaluate emerging technologies including 64-bit software support, the spokeswoman said in an e-mail.

Microsoft's interest isn't surprising since the move to 64-bit seems like a natural progression for ARM and supporting vendors, just as it was for x86, said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

But software would need to be written to support the 64-bit ARM instruction set, and porting many x86 64-bit applications is a challenge, King said. Existing applications that ran on previous versions of Windows do not run on RT.

"From a purely technical perspective, porting many common x86 applications to ARM is problematic," King said.

There are also questions on how developers will take the move from 32-bit to 64-bit, King said. But if customers want applications, the developers will deliver.

"These are some of the obvious challenges. Fortunately, everyone involved has a year or more to sort things out," King said.

Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductors for IDG News Service. Follow Agam on Twitter at @agamsh. Agam's e-mail address is agam_shah@idg.com

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Native mobile app dev vs. HTML5: Why not both?

The ongoing debate over how to best get applications onto mobile devices -- either through native deployments or writing a mobile Web application -- is going to remain a front-burner question for developers to ponder, given the pros and cons of both, developers say.

Developers see benefits to both approaches, as well as to hybrid applications that mix the two. Some application builders are using dev tools like Appcelerator Titanium, which compiles Web-based mechanisms like JavaScript to native code. Web-based, or HTML5, development provides a quick way to get some applications to multiple devices, developers say. But native development, such as with Objective-C for Apple iOS and Java for Google's Android devices, offers access to the full breadth of a particular device's capabilities, which is often worth the cost of having to develop the code (though not the underlying logic) independently for separate platforms.

The native experience is second to none
"The Web and HTML5 have come a long way, but they have not gotten to the native experience -- the UI, the multitouch, what users expect from an application -- yet," says Jesse Newcomer, mobile development manager at Homes.com.

Freelance developer Ketan Majmudar finds problems with the offline nature of mobile Web applications compared to native applications -- applications either have to talk to an online Web service to pull down data or need a data store bundled with them. "HTML5 as a technology is not mature enough yet. It's nearly there, but there's a lot of hoops you have to jump though," such as with data downloading, he says. Native applications, meanwhile, can have data stored in a bundle when an app is downloaded. "The majority of your data is in place."

"Native development will never go away. Objective-C developers will always be required," Majmudar says. Adds developer Paul Nelson, a systems engineer and Web developer at logistics services company Morgan Supply on Demand: "I notice speed and the ability to control memory more when you do native." He says Facebook made a "huge mistake" in creating an HTML5 application for iOS (an effort that did not succeed). "They have the money and the resources to make a native app."

Plus, native development sometimes is just necessary to access certain features, such as the Siri voice-command capability in iOS, says Jonnie Spratley, director of product design at mobile experience provider Appmatrix. "There will always be a need just because of certain features," Spratley says.

HTML5 and hybrid approaches take hold
Although developers concur on the strengths of native development, they can't overlook the easy option of Web development or hybrid development. "It's a spectrum -- not a binary -- choice," says Kyle Simpson, a JavaScript architect at Getify Solutions. "The spectrum of how much native you embrace versus how much Web you embrace is very different, depending on the company."

Recompilation technologies like Adobe PhoneGap and Appcelelerator Titanium let developers leverage Web development efforts on mobile platforms, Simpson notes. But well-liked tools like Titanium arent perfect. "Titanium does have its quirks that you have to work through," such as to get UI pieces to work well, Homes.com's Newcomer says.

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Beyond BlackBerry: Pentagon opens its door to iPhones, Android devices

In another blow to RIM's fortunes, the U.S. Department of Defense may be willing to consider smartphones other than BlackBerries if they can meet the government's tough security rules.

The DOD is inviting vendors to bid on software to secure non-RIM smartphones and tablets, according to a report by Reuters. The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) may award a contract in April 2013. The contract would cover 162,500 devices to start and ultimately reach 262,500.

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The request for proposals was posted Oct. 22, the day the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency announced it will end its contract with RIM to adopt iPhones instead, according to Reuters.

The DOD is not scrapping its BlackBerries, but expanding the devices it may allow for use. The Reuters story quoted a DOD spokesperson: "DISA is managing an enterprise email capability that continues to support large numbers of RIM devices while moving forward with the department's planned mobile management capability that will support a variety of mobility devices."

One of the companies bidding on the management software contract will be RIM itself, offering its BlackBerry Mobile Fusion application for managing Android and iOS devices.

The DOD's decision shows how dramatically the smartphone and tablet market has changed in the five years since the iPhone was first released. RIM has relied on its vaunted secure network connections, and device and operating system security to become the standard mobile device in many government agencies and security-conscious enterprises. It can no longer do so.

Apple has been steadily improving iOS security and management capabilities, adding on-device encryption, securing each device's unique AES encryption key, and adding programming interfaces for use by mobile device management (MDM) software vendors.

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Microsoft launches hosted ALM service

After a year in beta, Microsoft has launched its Team Foundation Service, a hosted version of its application lifecycle management (ALM) software. Its usage, for the time being, has been limited to five or fewer users, however.

"ALM has traditionally been known to be very enterprise heavy, but [this service] could be utilized by people who may not need enterprise scale but could still benefit from tools and services to manage their projects," said Karthik Ravindran, senior director of ALM marketing and management.

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There will be no cost for using TFS for five or fewer users, and it can be used for an unlimited number of projects. Subscribers to Microsoft MSDN's premium, ultimate and test pro plans will also get free access along with their subscriptions. Microsoft launched the service in conjunction with its annual developer-focused Build conference this week in Redmond, Washington.

Microsoft did not offer a date for when the service would be available for more than five users, nor how much the service would cost when it will be offered. The costs would be based on a combination of features and usage of computational and networking resources, Ravindran said.

Run on the company's Windows Azure cloud service, Team Foundation Service is a hosted version of the company's Team Foundation Server (TFS) ALM software. The service offers most of the capabilities of TFS, including version control, work item tracking, project planning and management, build automation, and continuous deployment. Building tools are still offered only in preview mode.

TFS supports not only the development of .Net software programs for Windows, but for other languages as well, including Java, PHP, JavaScript and PHP. The service can be incorporated into Microsoft Visual Studio, Eclipse and the Mac-centric Xcode IDEs (integrated development environments).

Microsoft is initially marketing the service to smaller ISVs (independent software vendors) as well as to larger organizations that may want to try ALM without purchasing the software. In the long term, Microsoft will offer the service as a full-scale replacement for on-premises ALM, or to be used in a hybrid mode where code management is shared between in-house servers and cloud services, Ravindran said.

The hosted service does not include all the capabilities of TFS, such as the ability to easily connect the ALM services with in-house deployments of other Microsoft server-based products, such as SharePoint, Ravindran said.

But one advantage that the hosted service would offer over TFS itself is that it is closely tied in with the Microsoft Windows Azure PaaS (platform as a service), Ravindran said. Someone building an Azure-based service can link the hosted ALM service directly with their Azure account, allowing them to "set up a continuous deployment where the bits can be seamlessly deployed into the Azure end-point," Ravindran said.

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What's the price of a new Windows 8 zero-day vulnerability?

It's not exactly the type of advertisement most people would understand.

For sale: "Our first 0day for Win8+IE10 with HiASLR/AntiROP/DEP & Prot Mode sandbox bypass (Flash not needed)." It's part of a recent message on Twitter from Vupen, a French company that specializes in finding vulnerabilities in widely used software from companies such as Microsoft, Adobe, Apple, and Oracle.

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Vupen occupies a grayish area of computer security research, selling vulnerabilities to vetted parties in governments and companies but not sharing the details with affected software vendors. The company advocates that its information helps organizations defend themselves from hackers, and in some cases, play offense as well.

Vupen has found a problem somewhere in Microsoft's new Windows 8 operating system and its Internet Explorer 10 browser. The flaw has not been publicly disclosed or fixed by the company yet.

Vupen's finding is one of the first issues for Windows 8, released last week, and Internet Explorer 10, although vulnerabilities have since been found in other third-party software that runs on the Windows 8.

Dave Forstrom, Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing director, said the company encourages researchers to participate in its Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure program, which asks that people give it time to fix the software problem before publicly disclosing it.

"We saw the tweet, but further details have not been shared with us," Forstrom said in a statement.

Vupen's Twitter message, written on Wednesday, implies the vulnerability would allow a hacker to bypass security technologies contained within Windows 8, including high-entropy Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), anti-Return Oriented Programming and DEP (data execution prevention) measures. The company also indicates it is not dependent on a problem with Adobe System's Flash multimedia program.

"Certainly, if the bug is confirmed, then this could be a black eye for Microsoft having their brand new and touted most secure platform already found flawed just after its public release," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations for nCircle.

The market opportunity for a successful exploit may be limited due to the recent release of Windows 8, but "on the other hand, nobody has confirmed this bug isn't also functional on older version of Windows or IE," Storms said.

Jody Melbourne, a penetration tester and senior consultant with the Sydney-based Australian security company HackLabs, said the vulnerability could be useful to third-party Microsoft developers interested in stealing code-signing certificates or source code.

So what's the vulnerability worth? It's hard to say. Vupen doesn't publish a public price list. But Melbourne said "the value of the bug will only increase with time, of course, the longer Vupen sits on it and if no one else stumbles upon it."

Send news tips and comments to jeremy_kirk@idg.com. Follow me on Twitter: @jeremy_kirk.

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