No longer called Cougar

Ok, so Microsoft has finally gotten around to making SBS 2008 a real product. It even now has its own web site :

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver/essential/sbs/default.mspx

Still digesting exactly what all the information means but I thought this was interesting :

It has the following components as standard

Windows Server 2008 x64
Exchange 2007
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
Windows Live OneCare for Server <<– **
Subscription to Forefront Security for Exchange Server Small Business Edition <<– **
Integration with Office Live Small Business <<– **
Enhancements to mobile and remote working tools and management

So Microsoft is trying to make SBS 2008 an all encompassing product eh? I wonder how the people at Trend feel now they are getting cut out?

The whole press release is here :

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/feb08/02-20EBFamilyPR.mspx

I’ll write some more when I’ve had time to digest all this new info.

Advanced Sharepoint Videos and Whitepapers

Stolen from : http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2008/02/18/advanced-sharepoint-videos-and-whitepapers.aspx Title	Streaming Video	White Paper
Overview: Office SharePoint Server server farm architecture	None	Download
Overview: Configuring server farms	Watch	Download
Securing server farms	Watch	Download
Configuring performance options	Watch	None
Backup, Restore, High Availability and Disaster Recovery	Watch	Download
Operations and management	Watch	Download
Capacity planning	Watch	Download
Search architecture and configuration	Watch	Download

It’s all going to the cloud

Think about, why the hell would you spend all this money on high powered workstations, servers, backup, disaster recovery and so and so if you could simply access everything remotely? Isn’t it easier if someone else manages all that? That’s the idea about the current managed services craze for SMB resellers but I believe that it is quickly moving even beyond this.

Big players like Google are designing the future as being totally online. Need an application? Simply rent it for the time that you need it. Would you pay a few cents a day for an application that is always up to date, available anywhere there is an Internet connection and never needs to be backed up? If you don’t then I bet a whole swag of people you know do. Unlike techies, these people are by far the majority of computer users and all they want is an easier way to do their work.

If you don’t know about products like Skydrive, Office Live Workspace, Jungle Disk, Google Apps and so on then boy are you behind the times. Even something like hosted Sharepoint can function pretty well as a complete replacement for a file server allowing quick and easy collaboration for any location where there is the Internet (cafes, work, home, PC’s Mac’s, mobile devices and so on and so on). From where I sit it is only a (short) matter of time before these Internet based applications become main stream. They’ll be supported 24 hours a day 7 days a week from help desks all around the work that can remotely access your session and resolve any issues.

It’s a brave new world that we face as technology consultants to businesses both big and small. Those that see the light early will flourish and prosper but those that don’t will wither and die. Typically change takes longer to happen that you expect but when things change they change in a far greater manner that you ever expected.

As the old song goes, “the times they are a changing” but can YOU hear it?

Why I don’t beta test any more

For a long while I used to salivate over the latest software, alpha, beta, RC and so on. I just couldn’t wait to get it on a machine to test. Sometimes I’d spend hours and hours just fiddling (sad aren’t I?). Of late I have come to realise that this really isn’t a very productive use of my time.

Why? Well first and foremost I don’t get paid to test software. I have come to realise that software companies are doing themselves a huge favour by releasing beta software. For all the testing I did, generally I received no return for the time invested. In most cases I didn’t even get an acknowledgement! How dumb is that? Doing all this free work for someone else when I should have been earning income for myself meant I was a real sucker. I know that I’m not the only one who fell for this trick but hopefully now I’m awake to it.

Now, I’m happy to wait until the software is actually RELEASED before I even look at it. I’m also happy to wait for others to install the product so they can find all the bugs. There is no more bleeding edge for me. Why? Well, ask yourself how many of your customers are bleeding edge? How many MUST have the absolute latest? Probably not many (if any). Most these days are conditioned to wait as long as they can before implementing any sort of technology. Also ask yourself the question whether any of your customers would pay you to be bleeding edge? Again, probably not many at all.

If I get tempted to download beta software and fiddle I take a deep breath and ask whether I’m doing it to generate more revenue or doing it for interests sake alone. If I’m doing it just for interest sake that’s fine but really I have better things to do in my downtime that fiddling with software!

Vista Service Pack 1 – Who cares?

The big buzz is the apparent release of Vista Service Pack 1 but I say who cares? Not me that’s for sure. I do run Vista on my business workstation but I’m in no hurry to download and install it. I’ll let some other idiot download it and stuff up their machine before I do it.

Look, as far as I’m concerned Vista has been a total waste of time. No client we have wants it, most clients specifically tell us ‘don’t give me that F*&^ING Vista’ and personally I tend to agree. Vista is SLOW, it consumes so many systems resources that you need at least 2GB of RAM to make it work with any application, the interface is all different and heaps of important things are now in different locations. By and large it is a pain.

It was even more of a pain until I disabled the Aero interface and all the advanced features so it would run quickly. Now my desktop looks as boring as Windows 2000 and it still isn’t even as quick. So without the Aero interface why the hell would you buy Vista unless you had do? I expect after Service Pack 1 is released Microsoft is going to make it harder to obtain XP since for many Service Pack 1 is the theoretical point at which they install Microsoft software.

So if you look at it pragmatically, if you have Vista (sucker) then I’d wait and see what other people find with Service Pack 1 because I’m sure it is going to cause some issues and let me tell you that you don’t want to be the first to experience that pain. If you have Windows XP (lucky) then I’d say hang onto it with all your might because it is probably the fastest “supported” Operating system Microsoft currently has.

So whether you have Vista or XP I’d just get on with what you’re doing and let Vista Service Pack 1 wreck someone else’s system.

Restoring Exchange 2003 video

In celebration of reaching 50,000 views of the YouTube videos I have created and uploaded a new video (number 39) that shows the basics of Exchange 2003 restoration. Firstly, you’ll see how to create a ‘dial-tone’ Exchange database, which is basically an empty mail database that allows Exchange to run and allows users to get on with sending and receiving emails. The video also covers how to a complete restoration of Exchange server.

You can view the video by clicking here or going to the Videos – Links section of the Supportweb web site.

When you watch the video you’ll probably notice more zooming and panning shots. I think that I now understand how to do all this now but probably need some more time to get it smooth but overall it should be a little easier to follow exactly what I’m showing. The new version of Camtasia certainly has some great features and hopefully I’ll soon be able to implement the complete range to bring you a more professional output. I have also “optimised” this video for 320×200 which apparently is what displays best in YouTube. I’ll have to go back and do some comparisons to know for sure.

Another interesting issue is that it is becoming harder and harder to get the videos into the the YouTube restriction of only 10 minutes. I am finding that I have to cut more and more out (which is easy with Camtasia admittedly) but if the result seems a little choppy that is why. However, hopefully I think the overall quality is improving but as always I’m open to feedback on how to improve what I create.

So sit back and enjoy video 39.