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10月31日 Aimed at Microsoft Partners, Microsoft are currently advertising their "Virtualisation Unplugged" tour of the UK in various cities. As someone who has recently begun tackling Virtualisation, I'll be in attendance at the Warwick event - hope to see you there! *** "Join our virtualisation expert, James O'Neill, alongside our trusted partners for Virtualisation Unplugged - a full day technical session in which you'll discover a full set of virtualisation solutions, from desktop to data centre, that will improve business continuity and maximise ROI throughout your organisation. As well as guiding you through Microsoft's virtualisation strategy, Virtualisation Unplugged covers: - The importance of green IT
- Building your virtualised environment with Hyper-V
- Managing your virtualised environment with System Center
- Virtualising your desktops (VDI) and applications (MDOP)
- What's new in Terminal Services 2008?
Virtualisation Unplugged will be taking place at 9 locations across the country including: - 11 November, Esteem - Edinburgh - Balmoral Hotel
Register - 14 November, ISC - Cambridgeshire - Duxford Imperial War Museum
Register - 17 November, SCC - Warwickshire - Heritage Motor Centre
Register - 19 November, Esteem - Leeds - Oulton Hall Hotel
Register - 21 November, Eurodata - London - IoD Hub
Register - 26 November, ISC - London - British Museum
Register - 27 November, Silversands - Reading - Microsoft Campus
Register - 20 January 09, BT Lynx - Barlborough - Lynx Customer Briefing Centre
Register - 22 January 09, BT Lynx - London - BT Tower
Register Due to the current virtualisation buzz we expect places to be extremely limited, so reserve yours now. Reserve your place at Virtualisation Unplugged now" 10月30日 I've heard from a few fellow SBSC Partners that when they went to apply for the subsidised Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 Training, aimed at UK Partners and taking place in London in November that they found the event totally booked up. Ouch - you snooze, you lose! :-) The good news is, an additional set of dates (also located in London) have now been announced - full details can be found at the UK SBSC blog - Small Business Server 2008 - New Partner Readiness Course (1st - 3rd December). I've also raised with UK SBSC Manager Emily Lambert the possibility of whether there could be any similar training events outside of London for us partners t'North of the capital - and the good news is that this is now very much in consideration! With any luck Microsoft will be replicating the Training Event in Birmingham and perhaps even Manchester and another City outside London. If you're interested in such training then it might be a good idea to leave a comment below or get in touch so we can let Microsoft know we think additional regionalised sessions such as these are a good idea! Incidentally, there is a ton of links to other Training Resources for MS Partners to be found at Emily's blog - Training Available to UK Partners - so if you've not checked that out yet then what are you waiting for! 10月22日 Harry Brelsford (author of many SMB books including "Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best Practices") and Jeff Middleton (the undisputed King of Swing Migration) are heading to London on December 5th for a SMB Nation Europe event. Harry's Blog has the full details but you can read more below. Early bird registration fee is $150 and you can register for the event on-line here. Us Brits involved in the SMB Community are always complaining about the number of events our US colleagues get to attend, but how we don't get the chance here in the UK! So here's your chance to see two of the most recognisable names in the Community speak in person! Harry had already given me an early warning of the date to put in my diary, and once the GG got wind of a potential shopping trip to London it turned into an excuse for a weekend in the big City post-event! There's also a few of the "usual suspects" from AMITPRO talking about using this trip as a good excuse to get together and have a post-event knees-up, so if you decide to make the trip - get in touch and I'll be sure to keep you posted on the necessary pub locations arrangements! "Speakers:
• Harry Brelsford (Bio at www.smbnation.com)
• Jeff Middleton (Bio at www.sbsmigration.com) Location:
Microsoft London (Cardinal Place)
100 Victoria Street
London
SW1E 5JL Agenda:
December 5, 2008 – Microsoft Central London
8:30am-9:30am Delegate Registration
9:30am – 10:00am Microsoft Introduction
10am – Noon How SBS 2008 Saved The Economy (Brelsford)
Noon – 1:30pm Lunch and HP (Essential Business Server, HP Partner Program)
1:30pm – 3:00pm Migration Techniques for 2008 (Middleton)
3:00-3:30 Afternoon Break with AutoTask!
3:30-5:00 Migration Techniques for 2008 Platforms (Middleton)
5:00pm End of Day Delegate Pass = $200 USD
Save $50 USD with EARLY BIRD ($150 USD total cost to delegate) until November 15, 2008! Speech Content
Title: Business Development: How SBS 2008 Saved The Economy! Your Next Blue Ocean…
By: Harry Brelsford
Date: December 5th
Time: 10:00AM – Noon (GMT-0) Attend this fast-paced analytical “pocket MBA” lecture on Small Business Server 2008 business development approaches specifically related to Blue Ocean Strategy. You will learn:
• SBS 2008 Pillar and Foundation Messaging
• Being the Trusted Business Advisor (TBA)
• Assessment(s) with the Microsoft Small Business Assessment (SBS 2008 Case Study and Group Exercise)
• Trusted Business Advisor Certification
• Multi-vendor enablement in SBS 2008 ecosystem
• Goal: A defined set of SBSers capable of delivering business-centric IT solutions.
• SBS 2008 and Red Ocean\Blue Ocean
• SBS 2008 and a method for developing and implementing sustainable Blue Oceans
• Partner Panel
• Summary Title: Migration Techniques for 2008 Platforms By: Jeff Middleton
Date: December 5th
Time: 1:30 PM – 5:00 PM Gain a practical and strategic view of the technical issues from Jeff Middleton, the Founder of SBSmigration.com. This session will educate you about the good and bad ahead for deploying SBS 2008 or EBS 2008 to existing or new customers. This technical assessment will be a guide to what you can expect to include in the scope of your customer proposals, staff preparations, and the underlying skills that will be essential to your success with production deployments. 2008 Platforms: SBS 2008 versus EBS or Windows
• The WESS Product Family Overview
o From 1 to Many: Choosing your Server Platform Directions
o Suite Value vs Technology Comparisons
• The “Essential” Product Elements
o Windows 2008, x64, & Hyper-V Story
o The WESS Application Family in SBS and EBS
o Elemental Differences from SBS 2003 R2 to SBS 2008
• Migration & Transition Project Challenges
o The Microsoft Concepts
o The Swing Migration Concepts Deployment Optimization: Predictability, Time, Quality
• The Transition Timeline & Value Budget
• The Value-Add of Quality & Predictability
• Establishing Roll-Back, Pause or Completion Goals
• What’s implied in EBS & Multi-Server Deployments? Discussion: Techniques, Traps, and Scope Concerns for SBS 2008 Deployment
• Essential Elements in the Migration Path
• Where is the Automation?
• Learning the Project Path with Practice
Q&A: Strategies, Technologies and Preparations Wrap-Up" 10月8日 James Baker is the UK Channel Sales Manager for Symantec covering SMB. If you're an IT provider then you may have met James manning a Symantec stand at an event, or at a user group meeting - James recently visited us at an AMITPRO event in Solihull to discuss Symantec's Small Business offerings. James understands the SMB market in a way few other Sales Managers I've met do, and, bless him, he takes some incredible flack in good humour from many of us Small Business IT company owners. We've moaned about Symantec's lack of Partner Support and Training, lack of Partner NFR products, p*ss-poor Consumer Anti-Virus products, and let's be honest, we've probably even blamed Symantec for the sinking of the Titanic, the Credit Crunch, and the failure to put a Monkey on Mars (yet). Yet the man takes it all in his stride with a smile, is open and honest about Symantec's short-comings (yes, Norton Anti-Virus sucks, and yes, it's going to take a long time for Symantec to shake that image) and discusses how Symantec can improve it's image by working with it's partners. We've seen some real progress in how Symantec engages with the SMB Channel, thanks in no small part to James' work. Earlier this year Symantec made NFR (Not-for-Resale) products available to it's Partners of all levels, so we could try the myriad of Symantec products in-house before offering them to our clients, and now, good as his word when he promised to improve Partner Training, James has e-mailed me to let us know about a series of Technical Training events Symantec is running around their Backup Exec 12.5 and Backup Exec System Recovery 8.5 products:- "Following on from the success of the recent Symantec Endpoint Protection Technical Training events, I’m pleased to announce training dates for the new versions of Backup Exec 12.5 and System Recovery 8.5. This training is FREE! These sessions will give an overview of the new features in BE 12.5 & BESR 8.5 – covering off support for SBS 2008 & EBS 2008, as well as the products capabilities with Backing Up Hyper-v and VMware environments, cold restores in BESR8.5, plus granular recovery of Exchange and SharePoint. More info on the new product capabilities can be found at: www.backupexec.com Dates & venues Newcastle Friday 24th October Grey Street Hotel Liverpool Friday 31st October Marriott Hotel Birmingham Friday 7th November City Inn – Brindley Place Edinburgh Friday 14th November The Westerwood London Friday 21st November The Strand Palace Hotel Reading Friday 28th November The Madjeski Stadium Dublin Friday 4th December The Clarion Hotel To register for one of these events please click on the registration link below: http://www.emea.symantec.com/uk/beroadshow/" I'll be in attendance at the Birmingham event, as here at Netlink IT we use both Backup Exec and Backup Exec System Recovery (we still hate the name - LiveState Recovery sounded lots better - but can't deny it's a great product!) in nearly all of our client sites - so it'll be great to see what the latest versions of these products can offer. Now if James can just sort out Symantec's SMB Support offerings for us all long suffering Partners, we'll have no choice but to elevate him to SMB "Man of the Year"... :-) 10月1日  Here's some notes and links I gathered from my recent trip to the InterOp Expo in New York, in no particular order!
- One of the keynote speeches was from the always interesting Tim O'Reilly where he spoke on mobilising people and devices to aid world issues - a topic I found fascinating. He gave some really interesting examples including Washers and dryers at universities Twittering their availability, and Plants instrumented to alert you when they're dry and it's time to water them. He suggested that we can all contribute, and mentioned that Developers may spend less time developing "applications to throw sheep at one another" and more time developing positive ideas for communication.
One specific point I took away from the speech was that we're all making choices to act or not to act, and we usually only act when we believe in something - when really that shouldn't be the main criteria. The example he used (and one I have used in arguments myself - if not in such eloquent terms as O'Reilly) is Global Warming. Even if you don't believe that Global Warming is real and even if Global Warming doesn't come true, working towards it's goals (Recycling, Energy Conservation, etc) provides a positive outcome for all involved - so why not do it anyway? This attitude can apply to both your business and personal life. There is a good video interview with O'Reilly, post-Keynote speech, where he elaborates more on the business benefits of Social Responsibility - well worth a view, especially so if you just read that last paragraph and couldn't "see the point"...  - Lenovo are to start producing servers in the SMB space. There are more details about the new Lenovo ThinkServer here. They've got a suite of "easy" software tools on the machine that simplifies installation, updating, and management of the server plus a premium level of support for the first 90 days of ownership. Interesting, and further competition in the SMB Server space is welcome - although I'm unsure whether these plans cover the UK market.
- Here at Netlink IT, we currently deploy Diskeeper to our client sites to deal with Defragmentation issues - but were very impressed with the good folk at Raxco Software who produce PerfectDisk. We'll be having a conversation with their UK office to see whether there is an opportunity for us there.
- Microsoft were in force announcing their new Springboard Series. In a nutshell - Springboard is a way of digging through the ton of technical information that MS provide to get to the stuff you need, quickly. The complaint with MS has never been lack of info - it's always been information overload, so this is a welcome move.
- Some of my fellow delegates (thanks Sarah, Julie!) took the Mickey out of me something rotten for my constant Twitter updates, photographs being sent to Flickr, and generally Web 2.0 geekery whilst in NYC - but when I was in the Expo itself it was happening everywhere! There was a constant stream of photos on the InterOp Flickr site, and although it took me a few minutes to realise it during one Seminar, the Twitter notes I was reading off my Laptop screen were being generated... by the chap sat next to me. <grin> InterOp also provided a great networking web-site enabling you to meet fellow delegates easily, and there were a ton of blog updates and videos to accompany the Expo too.
- The Wi-Fi access is in the Expo itself ranged from excellent on the
 whole to terribly shabby at times - with failing DHCP leases and poor signals in certain prime locations at the Expo. To be fair, the organisers did warn of Wi-Fi blackspots and It guess it could have been my beloved Eee PC that was at fault, but even if it was, I can't stay angry at the Linux based Love of My Life for long... - I can't really believe I'm writing this... but the Vendor's Booth Crawl - in which many Vendors offered free beer at their stands - saw me chat to a ton of Vendors and drink, zero - yes Z-E-R-O - pints of free beer. Too many Martini's the night before, as I recall. Urgh.
- Not surprisingly, SaaS, Green Computing and Social Networking were hot-topics - more on a couple of seminars I attended on those subjects shortly.
- It's probably old news to many Technorati, but I came across Whrll - a location based service which has an app for the iPhone amongst others. Further investigation required!
- Finally, the InterOp NOC (Network Operations Centre) was an amazing sight to behold as I pressed my nose to the glass surrounding that area. If you're a geek (and if you're a regular reader of my blog then yes, that means you) then you'll love this video describing the largest temporary network in the world!
Oh, and there's an InterOp Expo in Las Vegas, Dubai, Tokyo, Mumbia and Moscow too - I wonder if I can make any of them too... :-)
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