Pedro Hernandez

Microsoft believes that the government, but not necessarily the National Security Agency (NSA), may stymie the IT industry’s efforts to safeguard corporate and user data. Top security executives at the company have put together their top predictions for 2014 for the Microsoft Security Blog. Paul Nicholas, senior director of Global Security Strategy for Microsoft’s Trustworthy […]

Microsoft has kicked off a public preview of its Read-Access Geo Redundant Storage (RA-GRS), a feature for the company’s growing Windows Azure cloud storage platform that improves access to data in the event of an outage. Steven Martin, general manager for Windows Azure, explained in a blog post that “RA-GRS provides read access to your […]

Microsoft has opened another front in its battle against Google with a tool that makes it easy for Gmail users to make the switch to Outlook.com. While not explicitly part of the company’s “Scroogled” campaign, an anti-Google marketing and outreach initiative, the company struck some familiar notes when it introduced the feature in a Dec. […]

Microsoft announced the Cloud OS Network, a group of more than 25 cloud services providers that are leveraging the company’s Windows Server software ecosystem to help businesses around the world float their own hybrid clouds. Cloud OS Network builds on the company’s efforts to transition its venerable Windows Server enterprise OS offerings into a cloud-enabled […]

Microsoft announced Dec. 11 that the company had sold more than 2 million Xbox One game consoles since its launch on Nov. 22 to good, but not glowing reviews. And as the clock ticks down on the holiday season, intense demand is making it hard to find at retail. The company boasted that “more than […]

Microsoft scored a legal victory in Europe after judges in Luxembourg’s General Court ruled against Cisco’s challenge to the software giant’s 2011 acquisition of Skype. Pointing to the existence of Skype rivals and Cisco’s own large presence in the enterprise video conferencing market, the Court—Europe’s second highest—said Cisco failed to show how the deal could […]

When asked by GigaOm founder Om Malik at the LeWeb ’13 conference in Paris to predict the direction that technology is headed in the next 10 years, Satya Nadella, executive vice president of Cloud and Enterprise for Microsoft, indicated that the present already offers some clues. He said that “this meme of digitizing everything is […]

Microsoft accounts will be tougher to hack, courtesy of new security features that the software giant is currently rolling out. On Dec. 9, Eric Doerr, group program manager of Microsoft Account, announced the arrival of new capabilities “that give you more visibility and control of your Microsoft account.” The move follows the earlier “release of […]

It’s Computer Science Education Week, and Microsoft is betting that exposing students to an “Hour of Code” will not only give the IT industry a lift, but will also radically change lives. Coding can have a dramatic effect on a person’s career trajectory, according to Peter Lee, corporate vice president and head of Microsoft Research. […]

Surface Pro 2 can get down to work, but Microsoft is betting that the tablet can also provide a powerful canvas for digital artists. “With the Wacom-enabled, pressure-sensing pen, Surface Pro 2 is the perfect device for those looking to sketch, draw and build models on the go,” stated Markus Weickenmeier, a manager for Microsoft […]

Microsoft has released a preview of new group management capabilities for Windows Azure Active Directory (AD), further narrowing the features gap between the on-premise and cloud-based implementations of the company’s user-management technology platform. “Admins can now add, delete and manage the membership of security groups directly in Windows Azure AD in the cloud,” Alex Simons, […]

Ford’s CEO, Alan Mullaly, may not let go of the wheel at the automaker in time to succeed Steve Ballmer when he retires from Microsoft. Mullaly, considered the frontrunner in Microsoft’s search for a new CEO, will stay with Ford throughout 2014. Bloomberg reported that Edsel Ford II, board director at Ford and great-grandson of […]