Good week, bad week

Who has been jumping for joy and who has been begging for mercy in the last seven days

Good week

Microsoft resellers
They say that good things come to those who wait, and this week Microsoft partners have finally been rewarded for their patience.

After eight months of head scratching following the vendor's pledge to hand over billing rights for Office 365, resellers' dreams came true this week when the product appeared on Microsoft's Open and Open Value programme price list for March.

At its Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto last summer, crowds of partners whooped and hollered at the prospect of adding their own margins to the suite, but were left deflated for months while the vendor shrouded the move in mystery. But finally, the software Fairy Godmother has granted her subjects their wish for, er, more bills. Hooray?

Redstone
Team CRN has always abided by Bill and Ted's logically suspect mantra that two heads are better than one: it's double the pleasure, and triple the fun.

We were glad to see this week that integrator Redstone feels the same way, announcing it is to split in two. The managed services business will be reborn as a separately listed entity, dubbed Redcentric, while the infrastructure projects arm will retain the Redstone name.

Company chiefs outlined that the move would allow the higher-margin services business to achieve its true value with investors. Excellent! Party on, dudes!

Cybercriminals
IT journalists cannot move for emails highlighting the growing threat posed by the new bogeyman of IT security, advanced persistent threats (APTs).

Research from IT body ISACA suggests more than one in five firms have now been hit by these sophisticated, stealthy and unrelenting attacks often used by pesky cybercriminals to pinch intellectual property.

But it seems end users are still in the dark as to how to fend off APTs, often relying on anti-virus and firewalls when they should be deploying mobile security controls and network segregation, ISACA said. Bad news for end users. But where there's mystery, there's margin, meaning Johnny Reseller stands to benefit.

Bad week

Spandex manufacturers
Spandex manufacturers this week received the worst news since Mr Motivator disappeared from British TV.

Organisers of monster tech expo CES have published guidelines for the 2014 show, with potential exhibitors warned that use of so-called booth babes may reflect poorly on them. Tech firms are urged to give "thoughtful consideration" to the issue of nubile young women in hot pants and high heels. Ahem.

But CES chiefs have stopped short of an outright ban on flesh-flashing lovelies, claiming they don't want to be associated with "a Talibanesque ban on exposure of the skin".
We're not averse to booth babes per se, but we strongly believe that the big vendor bosses should show solidarity by giving us an equally revealing peek at the junk in their trunk. Hands up who wants to see Steve Ballmer in Speedos? Hello? Anyone?

Mike Lynch
You have to admire Mike Lynch's bulldog spirit. Fittingly, given his billing as the UK's answer to Bill Gates, the under-fire Autonomy founder is resolutely pressing ahead with his $1bn fund for British tech start-ups.

According to the Telegraph, Lynch has already doled out some of his dosh to Cambridge-based fraud prevention and marketing analysis vendor Featurespace, whose key products are named Nevis and Snowdon.

But it seems Lynch still has his own mountain to climb in relation to his spat with HP as the UK's accounting watchdog, the FRC, announced it is investigating Autonomy's pre-acquisition accounts. Talk about kicking a man when he's down.

Apple maps
Apple has been accused of a variety of wrongdoings over the years, and this week its ill-fated Maps application came under fire - almost literally.

The Country Fire Authority in Victoria, Australia blamed the vendor's Maps software for causing its Fireready bushfire information application to fail, leading to what it calls "potentially dangerous situations".

While we have no doubt the problem could have had serious consequences, we wonder what else Apple will take the flak for. We have a row of empty coffee cups on the CRN newsdesk - whose fault is that?