Overnight Microsoft news is dominated by their Q4 2014 (MSFT financial year is July-June and just started FY 2015) returns.
- Microsoft Reports Positive Q4 Earnings: Cloud services grew 44%, and beat overall revenue expectations. Shares are now at $44.83 each – after a decade of around $25 under Ballmer. Mary Jo Foley has a better breakdown here.
- Windows 8.1 Update 2 Rumored To Appear on August 12: "Update 2" which is probably going to be called "August 2014 update for …" is rumoured to be out next month as another "service pack". It should also be released for WS2012 R2.
- Microsoft Fixes Flawed ISOs of SQL Server 2012 SP2: Microsoft indicated late last week that it has fixed a problem with SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 2 that may have affected some of its TechNet or MSDN subscribers. Woops!
- SPLA – Back to Basics: Understand hosting/leasing licensing. This is a must-know if building on top of Azure.
- Microsoft Partners – Activating Your Azure Benefits (Free Stuff!): This short video will show you how to activate your benefits for free monthly credits as well as some resources that can help you get started.
- How to link Azure RemoteApp to an existing VNET: Now we’re talking – enable remote/latent network access to legacy apps hosted in Azure.
- Stop Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines in Parallel using PowerShell: A critical must-know IMO.
- Why Blade Servers are the Wrong Choice: An article I wrote for Petri.com based on lots of problems I’ve seen or heard about.