If Microsoft put together a welcoming committee for Google’s new CEO Larry Page as Page assumed his new job recently, it couldn’t have done a better job.
First the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant took the wraps off its Office 365 beta, which turns out to be far and away better than any single aspect of Google’s Google Apps offering.
Now, Microsoft announces it's buying Skype for $8.5 billion, and Page and Google have never looked weaker and more vulnerable from a solution perspective. The information technology world is changing faster and more meaningfully than it ever has, and Google now is far behind Microsoft in key areas and could rapidlty lose its advantage in another.
To wit:
Microsoft now has potential to embed Skype audio and video calling into Office 365, Outlook and Web mail products. While Google has for some time integrated audio and video into Gmail, it hasn’t picked up momentum in this space -- largely because Skype has maintained fierce user loyalty. Microsoft now has that 170 million Skype installed base in its column, and that’s one big bat it can use to beat up Google;
Once this deal closes, Microsoft will immediately have a presence on tens of millions of smart phones that now have Skype Mobile -- the powerful video-and-audio calling that works even at 3G speeds. That presence will even include Android phones -- which had previously been Google’s playground.
Skype Mobile now becomes a gateway on Android phones into Microsoft’s Office, SharePoint, Exchange and even SQL Server. That means Microsoft’s current installed base across all products need not abandon its IT investment regardless of which smart device platform it selects to reach the edge of network.
Microsoft, as part-owner of Facebook, is now positioned strongly to drill Skype deep into the world’s largest social networking platform. Facebook with voice and video baked in would be a more powerful Facebook, and it will bear watching to see if a Microsoft-Skype duo becomes a trio with Facebook; MCTS Online Training - MCITP Online Training
And, for Microsoft Chairman and CEO Steve Ballmer, here’s the beauty part: Microsoft can now integrate its Bing search technology into Skype on both the desktop and smart platforms.
Read the views of online Certification Experts, which provide the real questions and correct answer and explanation for the students / professionals who are seeking or enhancing their level of expertise. more at certkingdom.com
June 11, 2011
June 10, 2011
Google, Facebook promise new IPv6 services after successful trial
Google leaves IPv6 on for YouTube; Facebook adds IPv6 to developers' site; Yahoo sees 'minimal risk' to IPv6
One day after completing a successful 24-hour trial of IPv6, Facebook, Google and Yahoo said at a joint press conference that they would begin permanently supporting this upgrade to the Internet's main communications protocol on some of their key websites.
Joined by two content delivery networks -- Akamai and Limelight, which also pledged their commitment to IPv6 deployment -- these popular websites proclaimed the World IPv6 Day trial to be a resounding success. All three companies said they had handled a significant increase in IPv6 traffic on June 8 without suffering serious technical glitches.
IPv6 features an expanded addressing scheme, so it can handle vastly more devices connected directly to the Internet than its predecessor called IPv4. However, IPv6 is not backward compatible with IPv4, which means website operators have to upgrade their network equipment and software to support IPv6 traffic.
Google said it has decided to leave its main YouTube website enabled for IPv6 for the time being. Since 2008, Google has supported IPv6 on separate websites -- such as www.ipv6.google.com -- rather than on its main websites.
"We saw 65% growth in our IPv6 traffic on World IPv6 Day," said Lorenzo Colitti, IPv6 Software Engineer at Google, who pointed out that Google added IPv6 support to several new services including Orkut for the trial. "This event has really been successful in galvanizing the community."
"At Facebook, we saw over 1 million of our users reach us over IPv6," said Don Lee, senior network engineer at Facebook. "There were no technical glitches in this 24-hour period. We were encouraged by the many positive comments on our blog. ... It is really interesting to see how passionate people were about IPv6 around the world."
Because of the positive results from World IPv6 Day, Facebook has decided to support IPv6 on its Website for developers, which is www.developers.facebook.com.
"We will continue to adapt our entire code base to support IPv6," Lee added. "IPv6 will allow the Internet to continue its amazing development."
BY THE NUMBERS: IPv6 traffic surges at launch of World IPv6 Day
World IPv6 Day was held yesterday and was sponsored by the Internet Society. The event attracted 400-plus corporate, government and university participants that deployed IPv6 on more than 1,000 websites for the day.
Leslie Daigle, chief Internet technology officer for the Internet Society, said World IPv6 Day was designed to motivate service providers, website operators, hardware makers and software suppliers to test-drive IPv6 and to identify any remaining technical issues that need to be resolved with this emerging technology.
"It was perceived to be quite a successful day," Daigle said. "It was an amazing display of cross-industry participation. ... It's an important step in the Internet's progress. We are running out of IPv4 addresses, and IPv6 is definitely the way to move forward to make sure the Internet is a platform for innovation."
Google leaves IPv6 on for YouTube; Facebook adds IPv6 to developers' site; Yahoo sees 'minimal risk' to IPv6
One day after completing a successful 24-hour trial of IPv6, Facebook, Google and Yahoo said at a joint press conference that they would begin permanently supporting this upgrade to the Internet's main communications protocol on some of their key websites.
Joined by two content delivery networks -- Akamai and Limelight, which also pledged their commitment to IPv6 deployment -- these popular websites proclaimed the World IPv6 Day trial to be a resounding success. All three companies said they had handled a significant increase in IPv6 traffic on June 8 without suffering serious technical glitches.
IPv6 features an expanded addressing scheme, so it can handle vastly more devices connected directly to the Internet than its predecessor called IPv4. However, IPv6 is not backward compatible with IPv4, which means website operators have to upgrade their network equipment and software to support IPv6 traffic.
Google said it has decided to leave its main YouTube website enabled for IPv6 for the time being. Since 2008, Google has supported IPv6 on separate websites -- such as www.ipv6.google.com -- rather than on its main websites.
"We saw 65% growth in our IPv6 traffic on World IPv6 Day," said Lorenzo Colitti, IPv6 Software Engineer at Google, who pointed out that Google added IPv6 support to several new services including Orkut for the trial. "This event has really been successful in galvanizing the community."
"At Facebook, we saw over 1 million of our users reach us over IPv6," said Don Lee, senior network engineer at Facebook. "There were no technical glitches in this 24-hour period. We were encouraged by the many positive comments on our blog. ... It is really interesting to see how passionate people were about IPv6 around the world."
Because of the positive results from World IPv6 Day, Facebook has decided to support IPv6 on its Website for developers, which is www.developers.facebook.com.
"We will continue to adapt our entire code base to support IPv6," Lee added. "IPv6 will allow the Internet to continue its amazing development."
BY THE NUMBERS: IPv6 traffic surges at launch of World IPv6 Day
World IPv6 Day was held yesterday and was sponsored by the Internet Society. The event attracted 400-plus corporate, government and university participants that deployed IPv6 on more than 1,000 websites for the day.
Leslie Daigle, chief Internet technology officer for the Internet Society, said World IPv6 Day was designed to motivate service providers, website operators, hardware makers and software suppliers to test-drive IPv6 and to identify any remaining technical issues that need to be resolved with this emerging technology.
"It was perceived to be quite a successful day," Daigle said. "It was an amazing display of cross-industry participation. ... It's an important step in the Internet's progress. We are running out of IPv4 addresses, and IPv6 is definitely the way to move forward to make sure the Internet is a platform for innovation."
June 9, 2011
Active Directory Federation Services 2.0 - Glossary
This topic contains definitions of key terms that are used in customizing Active Directory® Federation Services (AD FS) 2.0.
claim
A statement about a subject; for example, a name, identity, key, group, permission, or capability, made by one subject about itself or another subject. Claims are given one or more values and then packaged in security tokens that are issued by a security token service (STS).
claim type
The type of statement in the claim being made. Example claim types include FirstName, Role, and PPID. The claim type provides context for the claim value.
claim value
The value of the statement in the claim being made. For example, if the claim type is FirstName, a value might be Matt.
claims provider
A claims provider is a type of identity provider that provides single sign-on functionality between an organization and other identity providers and relying parties.
identity provider
An organization issuing claims in security tokens. For example, a credit-card provider organization might issue a claim in a security token that enables payment if the relying party application requires that information to complete an authorized transaction.
identity provider – security token service (IP-STS)
A software component or service that is used by an identity provider that issues claims and packages them in security tokens.
information card
A visual representation of an identity with associated metadata that may be selected by a user in response to an authentication request.
managed information card
An information card provided by an external identity provider. By using managed cards, identity information is stored with an identity provider.
relying party
An application that relies on security tokens and claims issued by an identity provider.
security token
An on-the-wire representation of claims that has been cryptographically signed by the issuer of the claims, providing strong proof to any relying party as to the integrity of the claims and the identity of the issuer.
security token service (STS)
A Web service that issues claims and packages them in encrypted security tokens (see WS-Security, WS-Trust).
web single sign-on (SSO)
A process enabling partnering organizations to exchange user authentication and authorization data. By using Web SSO, users in partner organizations can transition between secure Web domains without having to present credentials at each domain boundary.
Windows® CardSpace™ 2.0
Windows® CardSpace™ 2.0 is Microsoft's implementation of an Information Card selector for Microsoft Windows. See Information Card.
WS-Federation
The WS-Federation standard defines mechanisms that are used to enable identity, attribute, authentication, and authorization federation across different trust realms. For more information about WS-Federation, see Understanding WS-Federation at the MSDN Web site.
WS-Federation passive requester profile
WS-Federation Passive Requester Profile describes how the cross trust realm identity, authentication, and authorization federation mechanisms defined in WS-Federation can be utilized used by passive requesters such as Web browsers to provide Identity Services. Passive requesters of this profile are limited to the HTTP protocol. For more information about WS-Federation Passive Requester Profile, see the specification at the MSDN Web site.
WS-Security
The WS-Security standard consists of a set of protocols designed to help secure Web service communication using SOAP. For more information about WS-Security, see the OASIS site for the WS-Security standard.
WS-Trust
A standard that takes advantage of WS-Security to provide Web services with methods to build and verify trust relationships. For more information about WS-Trust, see the OASIS site for the WS-SX standard, which includes WS-Trust.
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claim
A statement about a subject; for example, a name, identity, key, group, permission, or capability, made by one subject about itself or another subject. Claims are given one or more values and then packaged in security tokens that are issued by a security token service (STS).
claim type
The type of statement in the claim being made. Example claim types include FirstName, Role, and PPID. The claim type provides context for the claim value.
claim value
The value of the statement in the claim being made. For example, if the claim type is FirstName, a value might be Matt.
claims provider
A claims provider is a type of identity provider that provides single sign-on functionality between an organization and other identity providers and relying parties.
identity provider
An organization issuing claims in security tokens. For example, a credit-card provider organization might issue a claim in a security token that enables payment if the relying party application requires that information to complete an authorized transaction.
identity provider – security token service (IP-STS)
A software component or service that is used by an identity provider that issues claims and packages them in security tokens.
information card
A visual representation of an identity with associated metadata that may be selected by a user in response to an authentication request.
managed information card
An information card provided by an external identity provider. By using managed cards, identity information is stored with an identity provider.
relying party
An application that relies on security tokens and claims issued by an identity provider.
security token
An on-the-wire representation of claims that has been cryptographically signed by the issuer of the claims, providing strong proof to any relying party as to the integrity of the claims and the identity of the issuer.
security token service (STS)
A Web service that issues claims and packages them in encrypted security tokens (see WS-Security, WS-Trust).
web single sign-on (SSO)
A process enabling partnering organizations to exchange user authentication and authorization data. By using Web SSO, users in partner organizations can transition between secure Web domains without having to present credentials at each domain boundary.
Windows® CardSpace™ 2.0
Windows® CardSpace™ 2.0 is Microsoft's implementation of an Information Card selector for Microsoft Windows. See Information Card.
WS-Federation
The WS-Federation standard defines mechanisms that are used to enable identity, attribute, authentication, and authorization federation across different trust realms. For more information about WS-Federation, see Understanding WS-Federation at the MSDN Web site.
WS-Federation passive requester profile
WS-Federation Passive Requester Profile describes how the cross trust realm identity, authentication, and authorization federation mechanisms defined in WS-Federation can be utilized used by passive requesters such as Web browsers to provide Identity Services. Passive requesters of this profile are limited to the HTTP protocol. For more information about WS-Federation Passive Requester Profile, see the specification at the MSDN Web site.
WS-Security
The WS-Security standard consists of a set of protocols designed to help secure Web service communication using SOAP. For more information about WS-Security, see the OASIS site for the WS-Security standard.
WS-Trust
A standard that takes advantage of WS-Security to provide Web services with methods to build and verify trust relationships. For more information about WS-Trust, see the OASIS site for the WS-SX standard, which includes WS-Trust.
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