Microsoft calls for stepping up vigilance against piracy

Muscat: Piracy remains a challenge in the Gulf region, a senior Microsoft official observed, adding that heightened awareness and vigilance would help rein back its threat steadily.

"We at Microsoft take the responsibility with the concerned governments to raise awareness level against piracy," Ahmad Al Dandachi, country manager, Microsoft Oman, said on the sidelines of the introduction of a wave of innovative new software solutions by the software giants at the Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah Resort and Spa on Sunday.

"Piracy hurts not only the software makers like Microsoft but the country's economy as well," he said praising the establishment of organisation to protect intellectual property rights in the region and in Oman.

Wilson C. Xavier, Windows business group manager for Microsoft Gulf, said that the rate of piracy control improvement was around one to two per cent annually in the region.

New offerings

Talking about the company's new operating system, Windows 7, Xavier voiced optimism about a smooth transition for not only Vista users but even for XP users. "We hope to see 60 to 70 per cent users in the world to migrate to the new operating system Windows 7," he said.

"The new Microsoft offerings, namely, Windows 7; Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 have been developed specifically to enable businesses to address their most pressing business concerns and strengthen their ability to deliver innovation to the marketplace," he added.

He stressed that the new generation of technology innovations work together to help reduce costs and complexity for businesses.