May 2008 - Posts
I've been holding this one for a little while so I could be clear of Alex's wrath before getting this one out there.
While at the Sydney SMB IT Pro Group earlier in the month the guys from Bright Point demo'd some HTC Phones, and it got some of us to talking about what makes a phone cool:
Naturally running Windows Mobile because all SBSers get the full integration out of the box with SBS 2003 R2 and soon SBS 2008;
Boys might like a big enough screen to remote a server and reboot it; Nerd Nerd Nerd 01010101;
But what do girls want?....
Well turns out it can still run Windows Mobile; must be "Candy Bar" format!! Why so it can fit in your Bra Strap, so when you are on the Dance Floor and you need to find your girlfriends you can find them of course.
To that I added the ability to turn all the Pixels Silver with a button so it can double as a Makeup Mirror.
Girl Specs thanks to Alex Giles, and I must say when I first saw her photo on Waynes SMB Focus Conference web site, I started hummming "We're going to Ibiza" and now I know why. Sorry can't find that photo and suspect Alex won't give me a copy ;-(
So here is the HTC Touch Diamond, seems to be all that a girl wants, AND even has photos of your girlfriends in case you forget what they look like <VBG>
We love you Alex don't change. Mark should be widely available in time for her birthday.
Well I have had some great things to say about Phil Patelis (in the
foreground) from XCentral of late, particularly where
it comes to his business acumen.
I caught up with the guys at CeBIT, and I bet Phil has been dreading this
ever since. Just before I took this picture Phil was looking at the 3D Monitor
at the Altech Stand, but he was squinting, moving his head and looking
generally confused. Meanwhile 4 of us are screaming across the show floor
"Put the glasses on".
So Business - Tick,
Figuring out new stuff - Susceptible to the Jedi Mind Trick
Don't worry Phil I still have a Blog about Smart phones should fit in your
Bra Strap for dancing post about another Sydney SBSer so your shame should be
short lived.
I blogged a long time ago about
what I thought "Could" be done to make the SCE removal palatable .
Gwen Zierdt left a comment saying "Good analysis on pricing. Stay tuned for some
potential licensing promos later this year. " and of course I am waiting
patiently. Now I wonder if I even care.
Here is what folk said to me Last
Tuesday night after the Sydney IT Pro Group "I'm glad SCE 2007 is out! I've got Kaseya
Licences to pay for" and this might well be the thing. Microsoft had the
opportunity to help partners manage their customers networks, with a tool
written by MS to help drive value and loyalty.
Now people use Kaseya which will
give in time Mac and Linux management natively, so once you can manage end nodes
with a single pane of glass there is no barrier to switching, and the partner
stickiness will be eroded by apathy to the needs of the partners to do what Microsoft asked them to do, Embrace Core IO and build management services for their
clients. MAC OS X support is already here (With support for Mac OS X, a UNIX operating system, the Kaseya Mac
Agent represents the first of many upcoming Agent releases such as
Linux and mobility device support.)
I have been a big supporter of the
idea of using SCE because our bigger customers already use SCOM and SCCM in the
Enterprise, now that I Virtualise everything unless there is a reason not to, I would look
at the Server Management Suite Enterprise where I would get SCOM, SCCM, DPM and Virtual Machine
Manager Bundled per Virtual Server and get the bigger product Suite, provided
our Vitalization platform is Hyper-V.
In SMB and Midmarket I think I don't care if SCE 2007 gets dropped from EBS 2008 either because our guys will manage our clients in both market segments and a Single Kaseya Console to manage everyone as a unit accross service levels this will work for us.
Had SCE 2007 been bundled in both SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 there would have been no contest but as it stands I need the client to buy the tool for me because as I understand it I can't use SPLA licences on machines I don't own.
Kaseya lets me install and uninstall agents across my entire client base even to the point where I can put an agent on a home users Laptop and provide them our Platinum support because we manage that machine in the same group with the same rules as all our other Platinum machines.
I'm pretty sure we won't be installing SCE 2007 in our EBS 2008 Builds because it would be a more difficult management task for us than if there were nothing there at all.
So we will look to trial Kaseya in a hosted platform (a collegue has an environment at $3.50AUD / Month per node) and stop worrying about SCE 2007 at all. We will continue skilling in SCOM / SCCM / SCDPM and SCVMM for larger closed environments but the stupport staff are differnet for us there so they will also use a Single Pane of Glass for their stuff but SCE 2007 has been killed in our environments which is a real shame.
OK now that every group I care about here in Canberra has pretty much folded or changed leadership, I thought I'd refocus on my roots and look at what is happening in the Old Sydney Town SBS Group. Yes the group has re-branded but more of that in other posts.
Grace Kerrison, Director of Mobility & Embedded Devices, Microsoft Australia spoke to the group about Windows Mobile and the SMB opportunity. How Telcos are developing strategies around Small Business mobility, her presentation was short because she wanted to engage with the group members about how they sell solutions and areas where we need help to sell mobility solutions. I was truly impressed buy her level of interest and left thinking some of what was said would make it back to planning sessions between Microsoft and the Various Telcos.
The discussion also teased out some ideas that made my 6 hour round trip truly valuable, and I must say the more I listen to what Phil Patelis has to say the more I take away, he has a considered perspective on things that I can apply to my business and almost always I go away thinking of course why didn't that occur to me, this guy is really an asset to the Sydney Group.
The Guys from BrightPoint presented about the various Smartphones being brought out by HTC and we had a short discussion about the Shift.
and of course the last thing which I wanted to save until last was how the Sydney Group showcases their members and gives them the opportunity to network and partner. This month Robert Crane was talking about his new Sharepoint Offering and with the little I have seen I'm fairly impressed.
I have been to a few meetings of late where someone has invoked Chatham House Rule and there were blank stares around the table so here is an explaination of the rule. I have essentially said that the [ANZ-SMB-ITS] group could run under the same kind of basis if it helps with openness.
The Chatham House Rule reads as follows:
"When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed".
The world-famous Chatham House Rule may be invoked at meetings to encourage openness and the sharing of information.
EXPLANATION of the Rule
The Chatham House Rule originated at Chatham House with the aim of providing anonymity to speakers and to encourage openness and the sharing of information. It is now used throughout the world as an aid to free discussion. Meetings do not have to take place at Chatham House, or be organized by Chatham House, to be held under the Rule.
Meetings, events and discussions held at Chatham House are normally conducted 'on the record' with the Rule occasionally invoked at the speaker's request. In cases where the Rule is not considered sufficiently strict, an event may be held 'off the record'.
ANZ SMB Information Technology Specialists (ANZ-SMB-ITS)
A community for Information Technology service providers specialising in the (SMB) Small and Medium Business space.
The aim of the community is to share information, provide peer support, open discussion and best practices in providing Information Technology infrastructures and services to (SMB) Small and Medium Businesses.
The group is NON-vendor specific and aims to discuss best of breed solutions that address the needs of SMBs cost effectively, manageably and reliability with a High ROI to both the SMB and the Service provider.
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Today I came along to the Dell Future of Computing day in Canberra.
The big takeaway today so far is around green computing.
The session I am in right now is Virtualisation and being delivered by David Allinson from VMware which will be great from a catching up perspective.
From a learning things standpoint there is a cool set of integrations between Openmanage and V3i which does nice fault automation. This is starting to look like the rationalised level of Core IO.
So this far, value is provided in Relationships and Technical things for us to think about and in a Canberra Market VDI might be a thing to look at. Site Recovery too, watch this space I would think.