David Mackies Blue Brain

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Too Easy

Now off to leave mine…

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EBS seems to have a focus from the Hardware Vendors

I’m thinking this Essential Business Server thingy we have is gathering vendor support like crazy. I have already talked about the Sun Sizing Document for Virtualization which covers both Virtual and Physical configurations.

I’m always impressed by the quality of the IBM Red Books and the freely available information in these. When I did some NetApp training earlier this year the IBM Red Book – IBM System Storage N Series was pointed too as an alternate study source. I must say this is an excellent resource.

You can imagine I’m pretty happy with this one too, I assume Redpaper because it doesn’t run to 700 pages like the N Series one but it is a good guide to deploying Essential Business Server 2008 on IBM Blade Servers.

While I make no secret of the fact that if I had to choose between Microsoft’s and IBMs implementation of a similar technology so far I’ve not found one I’d choose against the Microsoft one.

I am however loving the whole xSeries range and you can believe these are the servers we pitch right now and so far can’t see why this would change soon, and in EBS 2008 environments we are taking a good look at the BladeCenter S.

Cloud could make you look bad

OK I saw this headline and thought here we go…

IT warned: Cloud could make you look bad

Aussie government CIOs will soon face increasing pressure to explain why in-house ICT services take so long and are so expensive to deploy compared to cloud-based services, Ovum has said.

In a research note, director Steve Hodgkinson warned the cloud "will come to be viewed as the fastest, cheapest and easiest way to source basic commodity ICT services"….

I do agree Private cloud is the way for the Commonwealth to drive efficiency but it will require some very interesting collaboration and some leadership. Of course there will be issues with connectivity among security domains (I assume there is not a recommendation for a cloud service per classification) and management of that access, perhaps it will require security clearances for MANY more Public Servants and Professional Service Providers or build the many networks with air gaps between.

My point is IT deployment in Government takes time because of Architecture, Design, Build Engineering, Testing, Deployment and Maintenance. Solutions are Integrated, Data Protection is in place, there are SLAs, Security and Access Management is in place and there is a responsibility to the Users and Executive (Departmental and Government).

So what are my examples of cloud making CIOs look bad…

• How about 72 Hours without email? and having the Vendor say “there are no SLAs (service level agreements) offered on managed exchange, POP e-mail or webmail services.”
• A cloud services vendor making data available to other customers, the week before running workshops for Government IT Managers asking for their business?

I have other reservations and these are logistical and usability issues

• What about Identity Management? We use many applications in our business and I’d like to manage all of our Identity requirements. I know if you use a username and Password pair users make them all the same which is not optimal.
• What about customisation? This moves away from the cloud providers selling space / time on a cookie cutter basis and would drive up cost.
• and of course a cloud service we use has broken features and has not been updated in several months but our cloud dream is tainted by users asking when we will have some of the issues fully resolved. Yes this is a beta and we see promise so we persist BUT not really the promise of the cloud delivering no admin worries, rapid development / deployment and worry free user experience. One of the features is the out of cloud backup so no we don’t run EVERYTHING on this service.

So for me I think Government CIO’s may look bad in Delivery and Cost but better than the OOOOPs sorry but no SLA that makes the majority of cloud offerings cheap and agile.

Can we measure with the same stick????

Give me a cloud service providing 3500 Users with Email, Document sharing, filtered Internet, reliable and timely printing plus a Finance and CRM System. And compare an on premise solution.

People need to take scale into account and service level too.

So rolling my eyes I think here we go, Cloud Services Providers are the ASP’s of this decade this is NOT a panacea and far from the brave new world those with a cloud service to sell would have you believe.

IT warned: Cloud could make you look bad - Internet - iTnews Australia

Channel Life – Reseller Profile in CRN this Month

Well after talking with Sholto about the media, I took a punt and spoke to him in the context of a reseller profile for CRN Australia. Well those of you who know me well understand I can talk under water and being perpetually 15 years old this is can be quite the concern. We covered many topics and spoke for about 40 minutes and exchanged a couple of emails.

I must say that I am really happy with the article but there are a very small number of things that are not quite right and we know how I am about things being just so but really they are small and folk probably wont even read in the detail I do, so all good

I do think that me reading the article before it was published would have made it perfect, and really I would not have changed a thing except the bits that were not quite right. That said I understand why the passage in my previous post is what it is, but in the case of this article it is a very Davidesque piece and I’ve been told that the article reads like a conversation with me. Very spooky.

· Can I request to see an article before it is printed?

You can ask, but a journo won’t show. If every interviewee was able to see the article beforehand, inevitably they would want to make changes, and then the difference between journalism and public relations disappears. The media’s promise to its audience is to give an independent assessment of the topic or person in question. However, in some cases you can ask to see your quotes, which are the parts of the interview the journalist intends to use. These can only be checked for accuracy; it is not an opportunity to censor your own comments.

Mis-stepping with the media (Hopefully) Never Again - David Mackies Blue Brain

Perhaps the Segment Brackets are a little askew

I thought I had a good handle on what Server to sell to what sized customer until I got this flyer in my action pack, so why do I care?

SBS 2003 R2 seems to be the perfect package for 5 to 60 Users, I even have some 2 User clients using this and they don’t blink about the investment.

So now we are in the Windows 2008 Era and we have a different set of brackets and I thought they were well defined even though I thought they might not be priced adequately so here is my understanding:

• Home Server: 1-10 Users
• Foundations Server 2008: 1-15 Users
• SBS 2008: 1-75 Users
• EBS 2008: 50 – 300 Users
• Windows Server 2008 with Full Server Products: 300 Users  ----> Really Big Numbers

Microsoft published sizing as above:

• Home Server: Consumer
• SBS 2008: 1-10 Users
• EBS 2008: 11-249 Users
• Windows Server 2008: 1 User ----> Really Big Numbers

What am I thinking?

• Home Server = SOHO Server: 1 – 10 Users
• Home Server = SMB Backup Server: in Groups of 1 per 10 Workstations
• SBS 2008: (8) 11 – 60 Users
• EBS 2008: 50 – 300 Users
• Windows Server 2008 with Full Server Products: 280 Users  ----> Really Big Numbers

AND no I don’t know where the Microsoft Numbers came from but I did think What The????

This blog is a precursor to the follow up posts about solutions as I’m getting all excited again

So if I virtualized SBS 2008 what about the faxing?

I think we will want to virtualize all the SBS 2008 Builds we do moving forward and it seems that the biggest question people are having is around fax services, I have been thinking about the standard approach for our customer networks and one answer is as follows…

This is not the only answer and probably not the best answer but it will likely be “our” answer

We used to sell just normal Laser Printers and we thought of MFDs as an expensive Scanner on a cheap printer, that was until we discovered the Samsung Devices that is

We bought the CLX-6210FX for our internal printing and scanning needs and I think it is a funtastic little box especially since we scan in duplex to a shared volume on our SBS 2008 box and then OCR and manipulate them later, but the best thing has been the faxing. I was never too happy with having to scan signed documents and then print to the SBS fax printer. Now I just send the fax directly from the fax machine, and of course I can print to fax just like I did with the SBS Print driver.

But how do I get faxes distributed to our SBS Users?? Really simply we just configure the fax machine to forward All faxes to a Distribution Group on the server exactly like we used to when directly using the SBS Fax.

Naturally if the client needs a smaller slightly cheaper model there are the CLX-317xFN models which support manual duplex and I assume all the same configuration options but for a few hundred extra dollars having a 50 Page ADF with Duplex scanning and printing, I’m pretty sure we will be only selling the CLX-6210FX

BTW the fax forwarding is simple to configure check it out in the graphic.

Now I just Need to fix the Backup Problem as elegantly.

Presenting to C-SIG (Canberra Security Interchange Group)

Rocky is Waaaay out of town this month so I’m going to do a session that is a bit free form ”Improving the security context of any network with Core IO adoption & Trends I want to Promote in SMB“

So why a bit free form well I could say to improve your security do the following 10 things and it would be a three minute session. My plan is much more serious and as we step through the four Core IO Maturity Phases we will examine why I think properly deployed and maintained Infrastructure is a security topic.

Come see if I can make a good argument 17:30, 1st April 2009. Microsoft Canberra Office, 44 Sydney Avenue Barton. Yes I’ll put the slide deck up here when I’m finished

This new iPod thingy

I still don’t understand the mechanics of minimum spend,Please Explain?

I still don’t understand the mechanics of minimum spend, to maintain accounts in the distribution channel… (this has been a topic in some of our community mailing lists since the event so I’m going to try to cover why I’m confused in another post.) ... and here it is. This has still come up in our SMB Community Group Lists even today.

I have been concerned about the minimum spend required to keep an account with some Distributors in the local market and how as an industry segment there is such wide variation, I had the opportunity to speak with a number of folk from Ingram Micro at Expotech and the answer I got to my question about the minimum spend policy left me wondering still. Let me recount some of the conversations and why I’m confused.

Firstly Synergistic Network Solutions sells time and skill, we only sell product in support of projects. Sometimes when we enter into longer engagements where we are providing advice the conflict prevents us from offering product. There maybe times when all our staff are in the kind of engagements where we can’t really offer products as a traditional reseller for several months. It is times like these when we are at risk of account suspension because we don’t trade through our reseller accounts.

Having clarified our terms of reference we understand there are rules and being suspended is in keeping with those rules, however from the perspective of sales pipe when we can’t get access to product and pricing we can’t quote for work and this means we don’t trade through our accounts. Quite the self fulfilling prophecy.

So what did people say when I asked this question…

I have been told the minimum spend requirement is to control costs, as I see it holding a record in a Data Base is a very near zero cost proposition. Can you explain the policy from a cost to the distributor perspective?

The answers were generally based on these main areas:

• Protection of channel, essentially non IT companies buying Christmas Presents;
• Cost of account management;
• Credit Card Processing cost;
• Cost of admin if paying by EFT

OKay then Synergistic Network Solutions sounds pretty IT focused, so the channel does not require protection from us;

If I have a logon to a pricing site and only engage with the web presence, I don’t see an Account Management cost;

Both payment costs are only realised when we actually order something, and if we sat above the buying threshold these costs would be the same if we payed by Credit Card or EFT.

So I’m still pretty confused about the policy and how it applies, plus I see this is still a hot topic in the channel so am kind of watching where this leaves Single Man SMB Focused companies.

One idea we had but discounted was to dump the price lists of our 5 Major Distribution Partners into an online store and add 2% plus a fee for credit card and drop shipment, that I suspect would solve our product flow issue but would be the thing the channel would need to be protected from. This is not in keeping with our business objectives so of course this is not in our plans.

To be clear Ingram Micro is not the only Disti that has a minimum spend requirement but they are the only ones I miss being able to quote through when our account gets suspended.

Perhaps we can form buyers groups to help with this but I’m sure there are large numbers of small businesses in our situation and I am still VERY CONFUSED

PLEASE EXPLAIN??

Mis-stepping with the media (Hopefully) Never Again

I’ve said some dumb things in my life and sometimes even to the media, so with some trepidation about saying things I might regret, I was chatting with Sholto Macpherson Editor of CRN Magazine at ExpoTech in Canberra. A day or so later I asked him for some advice about the media, I posed some questions and he graciously agreed to let me blog it. Here is the whole transcript of the media relations topic…

Good to talk with you on Wednesday, this can either be an idea for you to write or also happy to do it through my blog, but I think folk don’t really know how to deal with the media, at least I don’t. So how do we get the basics out there?

My questions would be…

·         How do I control what gets printed?

The short answer is, you can’t. It’s the difference between PR, whom you pay to put out a message that you have control over, and the media, which reports the facts as accurately as it can. At least that’s the theory. People talk to the media for a variety of reasons, but the reason why companies spend so much effort on launches, events, etc with the media is because audiences take more notice of what a journalist says than they do a paid-for ad. There are many other reasons which I’ll go into in an article.

·         Can I control what is and what is not on the record?

If the interviewee asks the journalist to keep his/her comments off the record, and the journalist agrees, then the journalist should honour that promise. Of course, like in any business, there are unscrupulous journalists, but generally you can feel certain that if you want to make a private comment it’s not going to appear as headline in the next issue.

·         Should I consider everything will be printed?

That’s a very good assumption and a useful guide to thinking about what to say, even though it will almost never occur. It’s like how the internet is one big magazine – only put online what you are happy for your mother to read.

·         Can I request to see an article before it is printed?

You can ask, but a journo won’t show. If every interviewee was able to see the article beforehand, inevitably they would want to make changes, and then the difference between journalism and public relations disappears. The media’s promise to its audience is to give an independent assessment of the topic or person in question. However, in some cases you can ask to see your quotes, which are the parts of the interview the journalist intends to use. These can only be checked for accuracy; it is not an opportunity to censor your own comments.

·         What tips would you give to deal with the media?

Well that is all we discussed so far as this was really a quick brain dump and of course I’d like to see an article about media in depth. Other questions I asked included…

Additionally publicity avenues ·         How do we get press releases picked up?

·         What is of interest to you and not just self promoting drivel?

·         What style format etc is a good thing? Or don’t you care because you will edit the copy?

and of course I look forward to reading those answers in CRN in the fullness of time, it has made me think more about leveraging one of my Clients who just happens to be a Small PR Firm, so maybe I have a little bartering to do with Anita soon.

One last thing in a follow up email Sholto asked me what my answers might be since “– as a blog writer, you are in the media too! “

Well I don’t really think of my self like that, I’m really just a Techo with a big mouth, big opinions, and a tendency to use a reference to the Tism song “5 Yards” directed at my self when I behave badly.

Here are the basic rules for me: all answers to my original questions…

• I post to the blog you print it ;-D OK really I’ll often ask if I say “fred nerk said “ If you don’t like a post let me know I’ll replace it with *** David had a 5 Yards Moment *** (not happened yet)
• Everything is NDA unless I got it elsewhere first. Again If you don’t like a post let me know I’ll replace it with *** David had a 5 Yards Moment ***
• Even if I’m wearing a shirt / button that says “I’m Blogging this” probably not I tend to remember the things that stick in my mind, and chances are you will have said crap can we keep this between us by then. BTW it is more likely that I’m in a “nobody reads my blog” TEE-Shirt if truth be known, my only loyal reader is the Google search spider.
• Nope but since you set your RSS reader to update Mackie.is-a-geek.net every 5 Minutes you could be the one and only hit If you don’t like a post let me know I’ll replace it with *** David had a 5 Yards Moment ***
• Again not the media just a guy with a blog that VERY FEW people read.

Hmmmm when clients talk like this

Who am I kidding that is what we do in effect when we don’t produce good doco, Luckily Karl has made his Network Documentation Workbook available as an E-Book

Expotech Canberra - What did I learn? and Random Musings

Wednesday night was the Ingram Micro ExpoTech event in Canberra (Sydney is Next Week)

So what was I expecting and what did I get... Well First off thanks for the prize from the jelly bean guessing competition, and just so you know I’ll be reprising (re-gifting) this at an up coming SMBiT Professionals – SYDNEY SBS 2008 build event.

So what are the things that stood out for me:

• I still don’t understand the mechanics of minimum spend, to maintain accounts in the distribution channel… (this has been a topic in some of our community mailing lists since the event so I’m going to try to cover why I’m confused in another post.)
• Trend Micro is not far from a very cool new feature in Worry Free Business Security 6.0.
• EMC now owns Iomega and naturally their low end NAS devices have their NFS feature set Certified for vmware. Hmmmm wonder about performance and sizing issues.
• DLink have released their Response Point based Phone System and it will be a closed channel which is really going to help ensure the product launches well. We are certainly going to be getting that application in and get the training done ASAP.
• AND lastly Sholto and I had a bit of a chat and of course I’ve had a couple of missteps with the media in the past, and would like to know a bit more about the relationship with a journalist, what is and what isn’t a fair expectation for what will appear in an article. Hmmmm I might see if he is up for a bit of a guest post or interview.

Spending Time with Nick King – Yeah more than I thought, and different.

Spent some time with Nick King from the Windows Essential Sever Solutions team in Redmond, and while I was expecting some folk to monopolise the evening with discussions around some of the training challenges we have had in the last 6 months or so, this was a very small part of the conversation.

Some of the things that were covered were:

• Advanced Installation using the XML file on a USB key method
• The Windows Essential Business Server Preparation and Planning Wizard and how we can use it to do health checks on other networks making it much much more than a Migration Preparation tool
• Challenges of selling SBS 2008 against SBS 2003
• Some conversation around Home Server as a backup server and very small network solution (*** Update *** I’m now wondering if Foundation Server will be a 2008 based Home Server, which would rock)

But here is the main thing at least for me Nick spoke about a Sales Basket price and contents, some of it is linked to services compared to the hardware and software in the deal. Nick said although the product group does extensive research into the mix of this basket and other metrics, they would struggle with not coming across as telling partners how to suck eggs.

Well let me just say I’m happy for you to teach me anything if it makes our business better so teach away, I think this is one aspect of trade craft that is sorely missing in the SMB space. Now lets see how we can deliver this is a way that really helps technical business owners drive the business parts in a more strategic manner.

In Sydney doing NetApp Training

Two things are of interest with this:

• It is amazing how fast prior knowledge returns
• The difference in Partner Satisfaction when you are given the opportunity to get the same training as the new vendor employees and at no charge. This might be a possible conversation point with Nick at Microsoft on Wednesday night.

So far I’m pretty happy with the time spent, even though it is a refresher for me this will prove to be a worth while use of resources.

I can easily see myself getting through the NCDA - NetApp Certified Data Management Administrator exams in the next few weeks.

*** Update *** I did not put my Partner Satisfaction Point to Nick because we talked about much more Important things

SECURING WINDOWS ESSENTIAL BUSINESS SERVER 2008 (APPROVED) and other interesting security things

You may recall Kai Axford was a presenter at TechED AU 2007 on the Gold Coast, well back then he did a session on “Securing the Small Business” well turns out he will be doing and EBS 2008 session @ TechED USA 2009 so it kind of makes me wonder if we might see him out here in September?

SECURING WINDOWS ESSENTIAL BUSINESS SERVER 2008 (APPROVED) 
=================================================== 
It's about time! Microsoft has just released the multi-server solution targeting the mid-size business after years of enterprise and small business love. Your thinking about making the move to EBS...but what about security? Is this a "full featured" Forefront TMG? How do the filters work in my Exchange Server security? What flavor or System Center do I get and how do I use it? Join Kai Axford, a Sr. Security Strategist with Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group as he demonstrates and discusses this mid-size product in a highly interactive and engaging session. 

Of course while on Kai’s Blog I clicked around a bit like you do, and found something very interesting. This is the process of sign in and out of children at Kai’s church which let me tell you is far superior to the entry exit process of any Company or Government Department I have ever visited. I wonder who devised this process and how it was agreed to.

Security

Your child’s safety is of the utmost concern to us. That’s why we take such great care making sure our children’s buildings are as safe and secure as possible. With this in mind, please follow these five easy check-in procedures:

Check-In Procedures

1. Get a QuickPass
   Pick up your family's new QuickPass key tags at any security booth or in the Children's Ministry offices.

   

2. Go to a Check-In Booth
   Check in your child at any one of our convenient check-in locations. (Note: Grades 4-6 will be allowed to check in without a parent. They must be checked in to enter the Children’s Building.)
3. Get Your Child's Nametag
   You will receive a nametag displaying your child’s name that is to be placed prominently on your child’s clothing. (Access to the Children’s Building will not be granted without a nametag)

   

4. Get Your Check-In Receipt
   In addition to your child’s name tag, for all children birth through grade 3, you will be given a printed "receipt" for child pick-up that bears a randomized alphanumeric code. This code will also appear on your child’s nametag.

   

5. Get a Parent's Nametag
   Parents must also print a nametag for themselves. You may also print optional asset tags to label your child's belongings.

Access to the Children’s Building will not be allowed without a nametag and a receipt.

Security - Children's Ministry - Prestonwood Baptist Church and of course http://blogs.technet.com/kaiaxford/archive/2009/02/01/hello-baby.aspx

Windows 7 Key Dates??

***Warning***  this came from a MSPP Team blog in Sweden so take it to be as Authoritive  as any other product delivery schedule 9 months out… at least it is from a Microsoft Team. Meaning that what is info for Partners and the General Public often moves, so while it is from a good source this has some propensity for movement of the goal posts.

Ok I assume you don’t read Swedish and “Translate with Windows Live” was as useful as a pocket in the back of a singlet, BUT Google was my friend…

This is not really the point so from the translation here are the things I think are worth crystal balling, and apparently from Michael Bohlin, one of the Product Managers:

• A Release Candidate will be out around the beginning of April
• RTM around October 3rd 2009

So why do I care about these dates?

Well Release Candidates are pretty much fully baked feature wise so get those bugs in on Connect.Microsoft.com nobody to blame but yourself if you don’t get what you want.

RTM in October usually means OEM Machines for Christmas, but also if history is a guide Upgrade Insurance on Vista Sales in the May / June through October timeframe so no more waiting before buying this will help sales of Vista Machines and really I don’t need another reason for my clients to delay, do you?? Does that mean SA on machines between now and then I guess for us that would be a yes.

Friday, January 30, 2009 12:53 PM by MSPP-teamet

Några händelser inför lanseringen av Windows 7

Det kommer frågor om hållpunkter inför lanseringen av Windows 7

Jag frågade Michael Bohlin, produktchef, här är några datum mer eller mindre spikade.

26 februari, TechNet och TrueSec med Microsoft Windows 7 Summit.

17-18 mars, TechDays i Västerås, vårt största Windows 7 event under våren.

31 maj Microsoft själva installerat.

Tidig april, efter CEBIT, kommer RC.

Juni, juli, augusti, Sommarkoll med många presentationer.

RTM och företags lansering som det ser ut just nu Q3 2009. Snittet av alla interna gissningar här på kontoret just nu är 3 okt kl 11.10.

Februari 2010 i kartong i handeln.

Löpande information från Michael Bohlin den 7:e varje månad ( många lördagsmail blir det). Konceptet är utarbetat utifrån 7 Summits.

Detta är företagslanseringen. Arbetet med konsumentlanseringen ligger parallellt.

/Lotta Båth

Microsofts partnerblogg : Några händelser inför lanseringen av Windows 7

Ubuntu Pocket Guide Available as a Free Download

Wow is this the week of the free book and never let it be said that I ONLY wear Microsoft Underwear, so the other day I blogged about the Microsoft Virtualization Book from Microsoft Press and now while reading lifehacker I’ve found a pocket guide on Ubuntu.

Which reminds me Hey Wayne where is your SBS 2008 pocket guide up to?

In the midst of the current financial crunch, the popular, free Linux distribution Ubuntu has never looked more attractive. If you've considered switching, a free copy of the Ubuntu Pocket Guide is the perfect place to start.

Written by Keir Thomas, author of Ubuntu Kung Fu, Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference covers all the beginner-to-expert knowledge you'll need to make the move to Ubuntu.

We've featured excerpts from Thomas' Ubuntu Kung Fu two times at Lifehacker, and the Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference offers the same level of Ubuntu expertise to anyone interested in or already living the Ubuntu life.

• Focuses on core competencies and background knowledge needed to be an expert Ubuntu user;
• Readable, accessible, and easy to understand—even if you've never used Linux before;
• 100% new and original! Written from the ground-up to cover Ubuntu 8.04 and 8.10.

Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference is available from Amazon for $10, but—best of all—the book is also available as a free PDF download from the official web site. Can't go wrong with free.

Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference

Ubuntu: Ubuntu Pocket Guide Available as a Free Download

Free Book on Virtualization Solutions

I’ve been doing quite a bit of Microsoft Virtualization recently so downloading this book was a “Where do I click?” Moment for me. It is 452 Pages long so quite comprehensive I’d think, if I find it one of those have to keep it with me kind of resources I’ll be getting the print version, just like the NAP and Power Shell scripting guides I have in a box in the truck.

The book covers:

• Microsoft's Virtualization Solution
• Hyper-V
• VMM 2008
• App-V
• Terminal Services
• MED-V and VDI
• User State Virtualization
• Building a Virtualization Infrastructure

So I guess I have some reading to do, perhaps I’ll turn the screen to portrait on my Q1U and maybe spend “Australia Day on the couch”

McAfee VirusScan Disabled ShadowProtect backups

Ouch One thing that is meant to secure systems disables another, sure this has happened before with other products, but does this point to the need for more monitoring?

In this case I would think most folk would have set the email alerting to report failures, catch is that if the application is not running then no email generation, do we really need to report success or perhaps monitor the status of services we rely on with other management tools.

None of my clients use McAfee but I'm now thinking of how I would know if the same thing happened in our systems. Let me know what you have in place to alert you to these kinds of things.

Partnerships, Program Tier and Value

You might notice that on the Partner Program Re-Enrolment page there is an option to go back a level in the program. Hmm not sure that I’d give that option, if I were designing the site I’d not want folk thinking about that button but now that we have seen it we really do need to perform some due diligence around what it might mean to drop back to Registered Member, retaining our SBSC Status of course.

There are a number of Certified Partner Membership Benefits I’m sure we don’t use and perhaps are unaware of but we have two months to look hard at them.

Let me explain my thinking right now and I’ll update the post in March when we decide which way to jump.

The Certified Partner fee is approximately $3500 AUD and Registered Member Level is free, so perhaps I should look at what I lose going down a level in the program:

• Partner Account Manager (PAM)
• 5 Support Incidents
• MSDN and TechNet Subscriptions
• Volume Licences
• a Ticket to Australian Partner Conference
• Full version of the Demonstration Toolkit

So what value do I put on these benefits?

• The PAM was a non benefit to us for many years and we didn’t even know who they were for a long time, so we would not have missed them until late last year when we decided to engage better, they are still in Sydney while we are in Canberra, so a local PAM would be better for us but this is not a program level issue so not what we will base a decision on;
• We have not used a Support Incident ever but the Safety Net is comforting;
• We really would only miss TechNet, as we only use it to download product for demos and lab work;
• We do use the Licences but can acquire licensing other ways as a Registered Member;
• We do not go to Partner Conference we don’t see going to Tropical Resorts where we could get the same information from other sources as value, we see this as a Sales Jolly only if there were to be an education component, the conference would be in a convention centre in Sydney, Brisbane, or Melbourne and not treated as a holiday. We run a Technical Services Business and frankly TechEd is more value to us but we can’t choose it as a benefit instead;
• Now that TechNet does not expire we build our own Demos.

I DO NOT want this to sound like a Bash of the Certified Partner Program Level but to be Certified and go to TechEd we spend a little over $5000, just for one attendee, so what if we become a Registered Member with Small Business Specialist Community (SBSC).

As I said SBSC is a given in fact here is our Yellowpages Online Ad, Note our use of the SBSC Logo also note our use of my MCTS in SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 these are truly part of our go to market for 2009.

So lets see our benefits in Registered Member land with SBSC

• PAM?? No but in AU there is a conduit through the Channel Development Manager;
• If we subscribe to TechNet Plus we get 2 Support Incidents;
• TechNet Plus Direct $512.00;
• Licensing to run my business? Microsoft Action Pack Subscription $699.00;
• Don’t want to go to Partner Conference in current form;
• Now that TechNet does not expire we build our own Demos.
• TechEd Tickets are between $1800 and $2000 depending on timing and offers, we can send one engineer to TechEd and still be ahead of the Certified Partner Fee.
• For the same budget we can send Two People to TechED a huge benefit to us.

So have I pressed the button yet? NO

Please leave comments if you see huge benefit in us renewing at Certified Partner Level, BTW if we really worked hard we could renew at Gold but the same arguments would be true.

Starting the conversation about how to get the best bang for buck out of our partnerships is something lots of people are doing . Let me say for the money we can do better by changing how we partner, and Microsoft totally make this possible and have done a great job for the SBSC Registered Members and I say everyone should look to that level of membership at least.

Free Clustered VMs on Hyper-V Server 2008 R2

OK reading the Windows Virtualization Team Blog : Beta of standalone hypervisor: Hyper-V Server 2008 R2,  Bryon Surace mentioned some enhancements in Hyper-V Server R2 Beta

Building on the solid virtualization platform of Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008, the R2 Beta release adds some highly anticipated features including live migration, increased memory/processor support, and an updated configuration utility.  Let’s take a closer look at each of these: Let me just be excited about the high availability aspects ok

• Failover Clustering/Live Migration: With the addition of host clustering technology, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 beta provides support for unplanned downtime and planned migrations.  Live migration enables customers to move running virtual machines between servers without any perceived downtime or dropped network connections.

So we just got a way to bring high availability to SBS 2008, EBS 2008 or even those funky servers that don’t support clustering.

Windows Virtualization Team Blog : Beta of standalone hypervisor: Hyper-V Server 2008 R2

Turn 3 into 1 Suns EBS Virtualization Guide

Since Essential Business Server was released I have had a few colleagues ask about the specs for EBS 2008 Environments particularly when virtualised.

Sun Microsystems have released a hardware guide that covers the Physical Server and Virtualised scenarios but also covers these in Small, Medium and Large sizing's for each deployment type.

Even if you don’t buy your servers from Sun this guide should translate to the other vendors too.

BTW sun has a Small Business Technology Solutions site this some other pretty interesting content.

The other thing I found interesting was the Try Buy Program where you can run a Sun server in your environment for 60 Days as a trial and get a discount when you decide to keep it. Any body want to have a free lab for two months?

Try Our Products Free for 60 Days and then Buy at 20 - 40% Off

How do you know how well a Sun product will work in your environment? You have to try it. Test it. Stress it. It's easier than ever to plug in Sun's coolest products free for 60 days, with full technical support. You pay nothing—not even shipping.  And, if you decide to buy your trial system, it is at 20 - 40% off. It's almost too good to be true.

Apply through May 31, 2009 to be eligible for discount pricing when you purchase your trial system. Details on discount pricing rules here.

New Business and Technology Assessment Toolkit

Look what is in the new Business and Technology Toolkit …

Yep EBS 2008 and SBS 2008 Assessments, yee haw.

The Business and Technology Assessment Toolkit Assess the business and technology needs of your small and midsize business prospects using our step-by-step approach. By getting to know your customers' business needs, you can recommend targeted solutions to help them meet their objectives. You'll be on your way to closing deals faster and securing long-term customer relationships.

The latest version of the toolkit offers a range of new features such as:

• New assessments to evaluate your customers' server, mobile, desktop, and Exchange needs and to help you identify solutions based on Windows Small Business Server 2008 , Windows Essential Business Server 2008,  Windows Mobile 6 , the 2007 Microsoft Office system, Windows Vista, and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 technologies.

• A product-driven customizable question bank that enables you to better tailor assessments to your customers' specific needs, based on your product and solution expertise.

• A Windows-based platform that's compatible with Microsoft Windows Vista the 2007 Microsoft Office system, and 64-bit processors.

• New decision tree functionality to better guide a customer in choosing which solution –Windows Small Business Server 2008, Windows Essential Business Server 2008, or stand-alone Windows Server

• New report generation for partners to customize and give to their partners

TrendProtect Toolbar

As you may be aware at Synergistic we really like the Trend Micro product Worry Free Business Security (WFBS) Advanced (WFBSA) and while we may do a walkthrough of the configuration not until WFBSA 5.1 ships later this month.

Here is something that has caused me some concern for a while now and I could not get an easy answer. How do you get the TrendProtect toolbar loaded on all the machines under management in a network using WFBSA?

Even when I asked one of the Trend Micro Presales Engineers at the vmware Virtualization summit, and while he made a very good argument about why I don’t need to use the toolbar, I said it was a week answer and would let him know how to deploy this Automagically.

So I’ve put a little effort into how to do it  because I’ll tell you for nothing there is no way I’m pressing that install button on every client we install.

By the way we don’t do the next > next > next shuffle for installing the client it self either but that will need to wait until after the 18^th of November 2008.

Back to the toolbar.

So first if we don’t need it why do I want it?

Consider wanting to go to Astalavista.com source of some very educational content that I have been know to go to from time to time just not from my Corporate Desktop. So I enter the url into Internet Exploiter and BANG “Dear user Trend Micro says you might want to think twice about this” or something like that ;-D.

Now what if I was going to go there via a search engine? If it were via Google (not Live Search) I could get pre-warned about the sites reputation and make a decision before clicking the like but only with the toolbar installed…

AND the Green TrendProtect icon is for the Google and Live Search sites NOT the search results. Notice the colour coded links in Google and NOTHING in Live Search perhaps this should be a feature request to Trend Micro as I use both engines to be honest.

OK still haven’t said how to do this.

Well I did capture an install Winstall LE and while it worked wasn’t too convinced repackaging in 2008 was the way to go so looked a little deeper…

So I looked at the actual toolbar and went to the about page  which takes you to the TrendSecure product page where you can download Version 1.2 of the client without actually owning Office Scan which is pretty cool and a great community service.

Still no closer to rolling out Automacially OK here it is…

Once I knew the Executable name TrendProtect_IE.exe I looked in my OFCScan share and Bingo \\SMEManaged01ofcscan\Web\ClientUtility\TrendProtect_IE.exe which is several months newer than the free download but the next steps work for both.

• Run \\SMEManaged01ofcscan\Web\ClientUtility\TrendProtect_IE.exe /a to build an administrative installation point. I’d put it in E:\ClientApps\TrendProtect
• Then just use Group Policy to deploy to all workstations if you don’t know how to do that wait until the post 18^th of November post of doing the whole system end to end.

Post 18^th of November means some time after so those who expect it earlier than the beginning of summer might be disappointed.

Enough said

Vista SP2 Goes Out in Limited Beta – And in no time at all it is leaked

OK just looked on Connect and I can’t find a way to get on this Beta so it would seem to be for TAP customers only which is what they said in MCPMag

Microsoft will release the second service pack for Vista "to a small group of Technology Adoption Program customers" today.

SP2 for Vista is being made available to selected testers for beta evaluation on Wednesday, according to Microsoft's Mike Nash, corporate vice president, Windows Product Management, in a statement released last week. The beta release will include updates for both client and server (Windows 2008), just as SP1 for Vista did in February.

So why is it that this guy has published a Registry Hack to enable download through Windows Update, hope he gets a take down notice and kicked off the TAP (If he is on it) man why is it that folk can’t respect an NDA these days, happy to be wrong but seems to me he is not being the partner he needs to be with the product team.

Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine Online | News: Vista SP2 Goes Out in Limited Beta

Hyper Venetian - I'm a little Disappointed

Last year at TechED Australia on the Gold Coast - IBM was handing out Lotus swag across the road from the convention centre, back then I thought it was tacky and was glad that I chose my partners better. Well just over a year later Microsoft has done the same cheap stunt on VMware and I must say for me it has back fired.

Microsoft has put up with the I'm a PC and I'm a Mac campaign with the grown up attitude I expected from them. So what has changed?

If every single competing vendor to Microsoft  were to hang out near Microsoft Conferences it would get old real soon but it really could be a case of my "Karma just ran over your Dogma" ok a stretch how about just desserts.

Congratulations! You came for VMworld and ended up here. Check out who else found our street team.

and of course if MS didn't think this was going to smell bad why "This site Hosted for Microsoft by Wexley School for Girls LLC. " and not on Microsoft.com

Really very disappointed by this.

The integration of HP BladeSystems with espresso machines, Zunes, and Xboxes is for entertainment purposes only.

The integration of HP BladeSystems with espresso machines, Zunes, and Xboxes is for entertainment purposes only, WTF did that really need to be said?? Happy to see a fun piece for EBS 2008 and HP C3000 Blades very cool.

I'm a PC and I integrate EBS 2008

SBS/ EBS Virtualization with Wayne & Lingan

Just sitting in the Wayne/ Lingan Virtualization show, the first thing that amazed me were the numbers compared to the numbers at the SMB servers session this morning.There must be 5 times as many folk, how can this be?

• Virtualization will be huge in SMB?
• SBS will not be as huge??
• Steve Riley isn't presenting right now?
• The word virtualization tricked enterprise guys into the room?

*** or just Wayne's Posse?

the session was really Ms Hypervisor 101 with SBS 2008 as a guest so yes good for a starting point & I hope it starts the conversation around M in SMB availability using Hyper V replication, SCVMM, adding perhaps DPM 2007, SCom & SCCM 2007 given that are bundled. @ an attractive price point.

so yeah a little 101 but maybe very worth the conversations afterward.

Very cool Lingan just had a SCVVM reference for source management (.iso files)

I'm Surprised he didn't mention the management bundle especially with the DPM integration in the EBS Console.

One reason TechED is worth it - NAP Deep Dive

OK I was talking with some guys on Tuesday Night and they had questions about why I came to all of TechED and didn't go home after the SMB Day.

Well aside from I have come to every TechED since Canberra a few years back AND...

I get to spend some time with folk I would otherwise not be able too AND.......

I go to lots of sessions across many tracks and sometimes I learn stuff I didn't expect like this afternoon.

I have done a NAP deployment for a federal Government client and thought I know quite a bit about it and it turns out my troubleshooting technique was the hard way...

You see we were doing 802.1x and the machines were not moving VLANs so we tailed the log files and checked Event logs made a change rinse repeat. So imagine my surprise to see a demo that included proof of what was happening on the client using EAP or DHCP filter in Microsoft Network Monitor 3.1 this could give me back billable days in future remembering many clients have separate guys who do the switch infrastructure.

"Oh yeah my issue with the previous deployment was the Compliant VLAN not being configured on a switch but on all the others so inconsistent results from different client machines

The other thing I saw in that session was the options to do enforcement via ACLs and not VLAN switching so I will be looking way more closely at vendor specific attributes.

And the last thing coming to a Network near you NAP Reporting solution out soon! Based on reporting services on SQL using the NAP Logs pointed at SQL instead of the default logfiles location

If I learn one more thing each day I might know three things but TechED will be both TechED AND TechFriends