Not simple

I recently procured a WD Sentinel backup NAS that included Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials. You can read about the unit from Wayne Small’s blog, however I’m just going to give you my experiences with getting the things integrated into my network.

 

First of all I must say that the hardware is very impress. Small, neat, and quiet. So I plugged the unit into the network and went to admin page to do the setup. For some reason it hadn’t picked up an IP address from the DHCP server. So I powered the unit off and on, then gained access. Next I answered all the setup question and left the thing to complete initializations.

 

A few hours later the device LCD panel said it was still initializing so I logged into the console. I tried to create a new user but could allocate that user any shares. I check the status and the report that came back didn’t show anything.

 

I then decided to install all the required updates (300MB+) as the box effectively runs Windows Server 2008 R2 server. After a few reboots the box was all up to date. Now when I logged into the console I could see all the shares and create some users.

 

I installed the Storage Server Essentials client software on a Windows 7 workstation and that all went fine. I then tried to back up this very basic machine from the server using the console. After 3 attempts I gave up. Every time it got to 13% and then just stopped.

 

Abandoning the Windows 7 PC for a MAC I tried to install the client software but every time I was told the software as already installed and I would need to uninstall first. I couldn’t the see the MAC in the Storage Server Essentials console so I abandoned that for the time being and moved on a Windows XP machine.

 

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Even here the installation of the client software once again bombed out with an ‘unexpected error’. I looked at the troubleshooting link and that wasn’t much help. So I again abandoned that effort.

 

You know what worked really well? Simply browsing to the network location of the WD Sentinel and copying files up. Works a treat on Windows 7, MAC and Windows XP. Which kinda leads me to why I’m writing this post.

 

To all you Windows Server fanboi’s out there, let me tell you this is simply too hard for the average consumer (and small business). I’m sure that I’ll be able to work out all the problems but guess what? I really don’t want to. My expectation is, outta the box, turn on, install software, working and the experience so far has been far from this. My technology expectation these days is that being of average intelligence I should be able to set something like this up without assistance in short period of time.

 

Anything with Windows Server on it is complex and honestly has no place in the hands of a consumer (and I would contend a small business). An IT Professional, an enthusiast? Sure, as they have the time and enjoy the mucking about. Every day I’m becoming more and more aware of how far these technologies are becoming removed from the real world where people simply want things to work. That’s why Apple is doing so well. It is not what they do, it is what they don’t do. Windows Server is a great piece of software and has a huge amount of functionality BUT it is complex and when things go wrong they go wrong big time and the effort required to fix them is simply too much for a the average consumer. As a consumer I want simpler not more complex. Less choice is fine as long as it does its job.

 

If I had been an average consumer I would have returned this device in total frustration by now and that would have been a pity as it is a great device. I’m sure that I can get it all humming along eventually but really for the market it is aimed at I shouldn’t have to go through this now should I?

Adding a new user to SharePoint Online

One of the most common issues I find people have initially with SharePoint Online via Office 365 is adding new users. Most think that simply creating a new users and assigning them a SharePoint license automatically gives them access to SharePoint Site Collections. It doesn’t. Why? Because what security rights do you provide that user in SharePoint? Are they going to be an administrator or are they going to be a ‘normal’ user? That’s why they need to be added manually to each Site Collection.

 

Basically, all you need to do is login to the SharePoint Site Collection as a SharePoint Administrator and give the new user permissions. How about rather than telling you I show you via this video I’ve just uploaded to my YouTube channel.

Cloud security


One of the most common reasons people cite for being concerned (or downright afraid) of putting their information into ‘cloud’ services is security. Interestingly, most of their reasoning is based on hearsay and hysteria. Many in fact simply parrot back what they have read or heard somewhere. What I’d like to do here is provide a little bit of balance to the argument and some alternative points of view that I think many naysayers haven’t considered.

1. Security is a journey not a destination. When human beings are involved, nothing will ever be perfect. There will be oversights, errors and mistakes. That is simply a fact. This means that it can happen whether the information is stored locally or whether it is hosted. I will however point out that the chances of error are reduced (you can never eliminate them) when you have multiple people and processes looking at the systems. This is probably more likely going to be the case for hosted environments in large data centres than on a single server at a customers premises.

2. If you are using email you are already sending information insecurely. Emails are generally sent in plain text with no encryption and with no guarantee of delivery. In most cases you have no idea that the person who is reading your email is the one that you sent it to. Some surveys note that up to 20% of legitimate email never gets delivered to the intended inbox. But does this stop people using email? Certainly doesn’t seem to. So, on the one hand people are worried about saving their information on hosted servers yet they freely send that same information in emails, without security to someone they hope is the right person at the other end. If you were so worried about your information being secure you wouldn’t use email now would you? The reality is that the functionality of email far outweighs, for most people, any risk of insecurity.

3. If you are using a device that has access to the Internet, that can browse web pages and receive emails that device is already connected to the ‘cloud’. Further more, if you can get to the ‘cloud’, the ‘cloud’ can get to you. So how worried are you about that server you have on your premises that is connected to the Internet? How secure is the information stored there? How do you know that someone isn’t stealing that information while you are reading this? Generally, you won’t. Sure you have firewalls and other security protection on your equipment but how do you KNOW it is working? Do you employ someone to monitor it constantly? Probably not but large hosting firms do. They can afford to invest a significant amount of money in security and pay the best people to monitor it. Their challenge is no different from yours but chances are they have significantly more resources on tap that someone running a server as part of their business does.

4. The Patriot Act applies everywhere a US company operates. So many people I hear say they want their data stored locally so that it won’t be subject to the US Patriot Act. The reality is that any US based company is subject to the Patriot Act no matter where they operate. That means that if Microsoft or Google had data centres here in Australia (which they don’t currently) they would still be subject to the US Patriot Act. Aside from that, there are far reaching agreements between international law enforcement agencies to provide access to data outside their jurisdiction upon request. And even further to that, local intelligence agencies, like ASIO in Australia, typically already have the right to access your data without your knowledge. Don’t believe me? See:

ASIO Powers – http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/100781/asio_given_power_hack_systems/
“The legislation allows ASIO operatives to hack into PCs and corporate networks to retrieve data, and add, delete, or alter data in the “target” computer, while being immune from prosecution under the Crimes Act hacking provisions.”

and they have had this power since 1999! (Pre 911!).

5. Why worry about hacking our information when they can tap our phones? Many people are paranoid about their information security but give no thought to the fact that their phone conversations could be tapped. Many readily carry on a conversation on their mobile with the person at the other end and the fifteen people in the immediate vicinity. If they were truly paranoid about all their information they would be more judicious about using the phone wouldn’t they? Again, the convenience far outweighs the risk of a breech but that still doesn’t mean it can’t happen, it still doesn’t mean it won’t. How can you maintain information security if you are going to blab it out next time you receive a call in a public place eh?

6. We use the hole in wall (ATMs) to get money when we need it. We use Internet banking as a convenient way of managing our money. If you were truly concerned about security wouldn’t you squirrel you money under your pillow and not trust the banks? You could but most don’t. Why? Because there are far more benefits with trusting your money to bank. They can centralize it and implement better security, they can make it available to you a more convenient places and locations (read ATMs) and so on. Is there a risk that your money will be stolen? Certainly, but again the convenience outweighs the risk. I understand that money is different from information but in a lot of ways the model we understand and use that is modern banking is very similar to ‘cloud’ computing. That seems to work pretty well for most people despite its flaws.

So there you have it. A few of my thoughts on the whole ‘cloud’ security argument. There will of course be people who reject all these and continue to argue that on premises is the only way to be secure. I hope that you can at least see in some little way that such an argument has less and less validity when you do a like versus like comparison without the emotion that seems to litter so many discussions around today on ‘cloud’ security.

I’m sure back in the day, many people questioned how the automobile could replace the trusty horse. Guess what? We don’t see many horses on our roads these days do we?

Office 365 video testimonials

Here’s two more good Office 365 video testimonials

CIAOPS podcast listeners grow

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Here are the stats from my podcast over the past few month. Firstly, I have no idea why April 2012 is showing the same level as March 2012 (April fool’s joke maybe?). But aside from that you can see the recent strong growth in listeners which is very pleasing to see. There was almost 600 episode downloads in March 2012. I would certainly attribute that to firstly the highly quality of people that have graced the microphone, to whom I’d like to say thanks. Secondly, the success of these numbers is obviously around the number of people who have taken the time to listen to the broadcasts. To them as well I also say thanks.

 

When I started doing the podcasts last year I never figured that one the most difficult challenges I would face would actually getting people to appear. Even to this day I really have to beg people to come on with me. There are so many very clever people out there with a huge amount of knowledge to share and I would have thought this podcast a perfect medium for them to share that. All shows are pre-recorded over Skype and done at a time that suits the guest. I really try and make it as painless as I can for people to come on the show but still I struggle to obtain guests.

 

As always I’d love to hear feedback from listeners as whom or what they’d like to hear on the show. I’d especially love to hear from people who’d be interested in being a guest but any feedback is also greatly appreciated. Remember, I’m happy to cover any topic that you’d like to discuss so don’t be shy.

 

I once again thank all those who have been guests and all those who have listened to an episode. I look forward to providing more episodes as soon as I can find more guests! All previous episodes can be found at:

 

http://ciaops.podbean.com

It’s a dev world


In technology we all constantly hear that world is changing. However, what I’d like to focus on here is what I believe to be an even more subtle change in the demand for IT.

A while ago it was all about services. Many resellers went down the managed services route and provided their customers with a fixed fee for service. The customer could more easily budget and the IT provider received a known income every month. This was all great but it hastened the process of consumerization of theses services. It was a bit like an insurance policy in that the IT provider worked to ensure as little disruption to the customer as they could. For most consumers this now meant they saw very few issues and sadly became lulled into this becoming the norm. Any IT provider worth their salt had raised the bar when it came to service.

Problem was that customers now questioned why they were paying ‘so much’ for things to run like this (as they do with insurance policies). All they tended to see now were the dollars going out the door every month and diminished value in return. Thus, they agitated for lower costs and looked to competitors offering the same perceived service but at a cheaper cost. To their minds, there was no difference between company A monitoring a server as there is company B monitoring that same server but at a lower cost.

This consumerization has been accelerated with the growth in online services such as Office 365. Theses products are typically sold around their cost saving benefits and focus the consumers attention at a per month per user cost negating any migration or ongoing support costs. This has been borne out with my own recent experiences with people looking to migrate their email to the cloud. Most are under the mistaken impression that migration costs, planning, support and training are all included in the per month price they pay. Some reseller businesses even pander to this mistaken impression by absorbing such cost upfront in that they can recoup these later down the track. There is no questioning that this is a valid business strategy but it relies on the being able to absorb these upfront costs. This doesn’t make it a suitable model for most smaller resellers who can ill afford such risk.

This is why I contend that the era of services is fast coming to and end for smaller players. You cannot survive in the service business now without volume. The business model that this thriving is development. Look at the exploding world of devices that each have their own application infrastructure around them, the Apple Apps store, Zune Market, Android Marketplace and so on. My understand is that soon even the upcoming releases of Microsoft software, such as Windows 8, will come with an integrated apps store.

Development gives you the advantage of leverage. You can write it once and then sell it many times. The risk is generally all in the upfront with development but it is fast becoming the model that consumers understand and accept. They understand buying a product or a thing but now struggle with buying an intangible like a service.

Let’s look at this in the context of Office 365. What development can you really wrap around email? Probably not a lot and therefore it is doomed to simply become another thing that is consumerized. Where the problem lies for resellers is that if all the customer wants is a hosted email service then the decision is simply going to be about cost, pure and simple. If you can’t do it for the cheapest price then chances are you are going to loose that business to someone else who can absorb more of the upfront costs and offer it cheaper initially to win the business. For the smaller resellers this is very hard to counter.

The opportunity (and there is always one) is to consider products that facilitate development. Products that allow resellers to build in smarts and intelligence that they can then sell multiple times. In the Office 365 space this certainly means SharePoint. Problem is getting people interested enough in SharePoint beyond just the cost savings they make by moving their emails to the cloud. Generating such interest is also no mean feat, and is almost impossible for people not using SharePoint already in the own business.

In summary then, my current thinking tends to lead me to the conclusion that we are fast approaching the end of the service era in IT (at least in the smaller end of the market). I’m not saying that the need for service will disappear, what I am saying is that service opportunities are being commoditized where the only the big players in the market can gain advantage. I’m saying that many resellers will have trouble making money out of products (like email) which don’t offer development opportunity. I’m saying that if you want to flourish and grow then you need to seriously consider applications which support the ability to build and extend, thereby creating a point of differentiation that customers will pay for.

Episode 26 – Ishai Sagi

Time for another Need to Know podcast to hit the airwaves and in this episode I’m joined by SharePoint MVP Ishai Sagi to talk about some of my favourite subjects, SharePoint and Office 365.

 

We discuss the power of SharePoint, especially in the SMB market and ponder why it hasn’t been as readily adopted as it could be. We discuss the huge opportunities around SharePoint and Office 365 for customers and resellers.

 

Have a listen and let me know what you think. You’ll find this episode at:

 

http://ciaops.podbean.com/2012/03/27/epsiode-26-ishai-sagi/ 

 

and previous episodes at:

 

http://ciaops.podbean.com

 

I am always on the look out for guests for the podcast. So if you’d like to discuss a topic, it doesn’t have to be about technology, please contact me (director@ciaops.com) and share you knowledge with the audience.

Desktop to Cloud event

I am proud to announce that the CIAOPS Desktop to Cloud event has now opened for registrations. Information and registration can be found at www.desktoptocloud.com.au. You can obtain a 50% early bird discount to the event by using the promotional code EARLYBIRD prior to the 5th of May.

 

This event will consist of two tracks, one for consumers and one for IT Professionals and will provide the latest information on desktop software like Windows 8, Office 2010 as well as information about cloud technologies such as Office 365 and Windows Intune. It will be provided by a range of speakers and include all meals, parking and WiFi access.

 

Desktop to Cloud

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Date: Saturday 19th of May 2012

Time: 8.30am to 5.30pm

Tracks: A = Consumer, B = IT Professional

URL = www.desktoptocloud.com.au

 

I am also interested to hear from anyone who may be interested in speaking at the event. Please contact me (director@ciaops.com) for information about submitting a session.