David Coursey

At the risk of seeming ungrateful, I have to wonder whether Microsofts free anti-spam add-on for Exchange servers is really such a good deal. Sure, it is for me, right now, but isnt this the sort of “good deal” that got Microsoft into trouble with the feds over Netscape? The same sort of “good deal” […]

The best thing about Microsofts new Intelligent Message Filtering add-on for Exchange Server isnt that its free—its that it really works. Of course, having the ultimate “nice price” makes choosing IMF almost a no-brainer. I have been using IMF for several days—too early to really make a determination—but the early results have been excellent. If […]

Customers sign up, may or may not pay a customization or setup fee, and then pay for the software on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis—much as they pay for any other business service. Pricing is often variable based on how much service the customer consumes, allowing the commitment to expand or contract as business […]

At the SIIA Enterprise Software Summit last week, I had the chance to talk with senior executives from both MySQL and Red Hat Inc. This was fun, as neither company had been close to my hit parade in years past. What I learned from my conversations with them was the importance of separating the religion […]

How has the enterprise software business changed in the post-dot-bomb era? If theres one thing, its that theres now an emphasis on right-now value. Perhaps thats because customers are more in-charge of their vendor relationships than they have been in the past. It used to be that enterprise vendors—hardware and software both—and their corporate IT […]

Its easy enough to say good riddance to Microsofts wireless hardware business. When they first came around—ahead of the September 2002 release of the gear—to show me their “easiest to install” Wi-Fi devices, I told them in no uncertain terms that it was a mistake to get into the business at all. Why? The world […]

So why does my colleague John (never forget the middle initial “C”) Dvorak hate instant messaging and chat so much? After reading his recent column, I had to admit that he made some valid points. Online chat can soak up huge amounts of time and accomplish nothing or actually get you into trouble. No question […]

Social networks are a good thing. Everybody should have one–and everybody I know does, in some form or fashion. But whether you need an online social network and, particularly, whether you need one whose primary purpose is separating you from your money is another question entirely.I am talking about the LinkedIns, Friendsters, and Orkuts of […]

Think about the offshoring issue for too long, with too open a mind, and I promise youll go nuts. This in not a simple issue, no matter how much the bumper stickers, politicians and some corporate CEOs would like it to be. The nationalistic American viewpoint seems to be that anything—NAFTA, guest worker visas, offshoring—that […]

What happens when an IT department discovers its users have built their work lives around unapproved applications? Worse, what happens when these same users want not just IT approval but applications development help? This is the sort of intraoffice blasphemy that used to result in … well, as Monty Python says, “No one expects the […]