REDMOND, Wash. — July 9, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that it has settled 3,265 copyright infringement cases around the globe during the past year. At the end of its fiscal year on June 30, the cases totaled 35 across 19 U.S. states and 3,230 international cases across 42 countries.

“Software counterfeiting negatively impacts local and global economic growth, stifles innovation, and puts consumers and businesses at risk,” said David Finn, associate general counsel in the Microsoft Cybercrime Center.

The majority of Microsoft enforcement cases have resulted from consumer tips and reports, and since 2005, the company has heard from more than 450,000 customers who reported counterfeit software, which was often riddled with malware and viruses or did not work as they expected.

Among the settled cases was Microsoft’s agreement with the Ningbo Beyond Group of China, which had allegedly infringed the software company’s copyrights in Microsoft’s Windows, Office, Server and Visual Studio software.

“In addition to our other cases, Microsoft is pleased to have resolved this matter,” Finn added. “We look forward to the Ningbo Beyond Group also resolving important claims filed this January by the California attorney general in a manner that ensures future compliance with California law and sets a positive example for Chinese companies doing business in California.”

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

SQL Maestro Group announces the release of PostgreSQL Maestro 13.7, a powerful Windows GUI solution for PostgreSQL database server administration and database development.

The new version is immediately available for download.

Top 10 new features:

1. Support for foreign data management objects.
2. Improved support for composite types.
3. Keyboard-interactive SSH authentication.
4. Enhanced SQL Dump wizard.
5. New Nullable Column Checker tool.
6. New Start Page with quick access to recently connected databases.
7. Advanced metadata filtering abilities.
8. Improved SQL Editor and Script Runner.
9. Highlighted key columns and multi-column lookup editors in the data grids.
10. Colored profiles in Database Explorer.

There are also some other useful things. Full press release is available at the SQL Maestro Group website.

HOUSTON — July 9 , 2013 — Large companies and SMBs use business social tools — defined as technologies that enable business collaboration and communication, such as intranets, video conferencing and social networks — in dramatically different ways, leading to very different selling motions and partner opportunities, according to new research released today by Microsoft Corp. at its annual partner conference.

The study, conducted by research firm Ipsos among nearly 10,000 end users at SMBs and large companies in 32 countries, found that, in addition to using solutions such as intranets and instant messaging services, SMBs are more likely to utilize multiple external social tools for professional purposes. Large companies, on the other hand, are more likely to deploy fewer, more prevalent collaboration tools.

Social tool usage July 08, 2013 Results of the IPSOS study on enterprise social tools

Downloads: Web

“Social collaboration technologies represent a growing opportunity for partners with strong demand from end users at both large companies and SMBs,” said Jon Roskill, corporate vice president, Worldwide Partner Group, Microsoft. “However, each segment uses these technologies in different ways, with SMBs seeing public FTP/cloud storage, external social networks, blogging platforms while large companies clearly prefer intranets, team sites and videoconferencing. These differences represent huge opportunities for partners, and we’re committed to helping them capitalize on the potential in this space. We believe Microsoft has the expertise, the portfolio and the vision to make the future of workplace collaboration a reality.”

Other unique differences called out in the study include the following:

• Although the top use for social tools in both large companies and SMBs is communicating with colleagues (selected by seven in 10 of all end users surveyed), those at smaller companies use social tools for a broader range of tasks, including communicating with customers, clients or vendors and researching customers, clients and competitors. In contrast, end users are large companies are more likely to use social tools for finding an expert of information within their company.

• Barriers to adoption still exist across large companies and SMBs. For both groups, security concerns (71 percent of end users at large companies vs. 60 percent of SMB end users) and productivity loss (58 percent at large companies vs. 59 percent at SMBs) were identified as the top risks.

• End users at large companies are more likely to say their IT department can be a barrier to using social tools (41 percent at large companies vs. 36 percent at SMBs).

• Those at large companies are also more likely to say social tools are restricted at their workplace because of concerns about company image (27 percent vs. 21 percent at SMBs) or data loss (25 percent at large companies vs. 22 at SMBs).

“The consumerization of IT has changed the fundamental way in which businesses communicate, with enterprise social tools now following a ‘bring your own device’ model into the workplace,” said Rebecca Sizelove, associate vice president, Ipsos Public Affairs. “However, there are distinct differences between how SMBs and large companies adopt these tools, and technology decision-makers still require a certain amount of education around the benefits social tools can provide. This creates opportunities for technology vendors to educate and sell to businesses of all sizes.”

About the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference

The Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) is a four-day event taking place July 8–11 in Houston that celebrates the accomplishments of the company’s global partners and gives a preview of the coming year for Microsoft. This year’s event attracted more than 14,000 attendees from 150 countries around the world.

Clips of executive keynote speeches and details on additional news at WPC are available at http://www.digitalwpc.com or the Microsoft Partner Network Virtual Newsroom at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/partnernetwork.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

HOUSTON — July 8, 2013 — Partners with more than 50 percent of their revenue related to the cloud have been benefiting from higher gross profit, more new customers, increased revenue per employee and faster overall business growth, according to a new IDC study, sponsored by Microsoft Corp., released today at the company’s annual partner conference.

The study underscored the transformation taking place in the business world as more organizations of all sizes move their technology infrastructures to the cloud. In fact, according to the findings, cloud-oriented partners, defined as those that generate more than 50 percent of their revenue from the cloud, grow at double the rate, accrue new customers more than two times faster and generate 30 percent more revenue per employee compared with noncloud-oriented partners.

“Cloud alone hasn't caused these impressive numbers, though that is absolutely part of it; top-performing partners were visionaries that took on cloud technologies before their peers,” said Darren Bibby, program vice president of Channels and Alliances Research, IDC. “We’re at the point in the industry’s overall cloud transition where partners that don’t move some of their business to the cloud likely won’t survive. And some partners that are getting ready to sell their business or retire may be OK with that. Most won't be.”

Study r eveals c ustomers p refer s ingle c loud s ervice p rovider

IDC research also revealed customer buying preferences that highlight the importance of a comprehensive cloud vendor and the ability to offer various deployment options:

• Sixty-three percent of customers expect to have a single cloud service provider to meet their needs.

• Sixty-seven percent expect to purchase a wide variety of cloud services from a single vendor.

• Seventy-four percent expect their cloud service provider to be able to move a cloud offering back on-premises if needed.

“IDC’s data reveals that businesses prefer to buy end-to-end IT solutions from a single cloud vendor and want to work with a company they have an established relationship with. With Office 365 now on a $1 billion annual revenue run rate and more than 250,000 customers using Windows Azure, with thousands more added every week, our partners are in a prime position to support this,” said Jon Roskill, corporate vice president of the Worldwide Partner Group, Microsoft. “This research validates our belief that the most successful partners are the ones that offer a hybrid approach to IT. Microsoft is the only vendor equipped to help partners offer their customers a suite of on-premises and cloud solutions in both public and private cloud environments. By offering a hybrid approach, it better addresses customer needs and, in turn, helps our partners make more money.”

The full study and more details, such as a related infographic, can be found at

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/download/presskits/partnernetwork/docs/IDCMicrosoftCloudInfoDoc.pdf .

About the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference

The Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) is a four-day event taking place July 8–11 in Houston that celebrates the accomplishments of the company’s global partners and gives a preview of the coming year for Microsoft. This year’s event attracted more than 14,000 attendees from 150 countries around the world.

Clips of executive keynote speeches and details on additional news at WPC are available at http://www.digitalwpc.com or the Microsoft Partner Network Virtual Newsroom at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/partnernetwork.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.