Microsoft Surface with Windows 8 Pro: It’s Here!

February 11, 2013 Leave a comment

For most of the months of October through December, while I was on tour talking about Windows 8, the new Office 2013 & Office 365, and Windows Server 2012 the most common question I heard was not about any of these products… it was something like ‘So where’s your Surface? Why don’t you have a Surface? When will you have a Surface?’ It was grinding… not because I didn’t want one… I did, and badly.  However I knew that if I bought myself a Surface with Windows RT in November my wife would never let me go back in February to buy myself a Surface with Windows Pro.  So I waited… patiently.

Of course, as a Virtual Evangelist for Microsoft Canada there was speculation that they would give me one… but that didn’t happen.  In December I watched with envy as all of my friends and colleagues got theirs – every Microsoft employee got one, but alas, I am a contractor so I didn’t.

Earlier at the beginning of summer I had promised my son that he could have one when they came out, and so in November I asked him if he wanted the RT version, or if he wanted to wait for the Pro version.  Of course he opted for the RT version, and so he got one as a late middle-school graduation present.  I took my wife with me to buy his device, and she was so enamoured with it that we bought two that day – hers being an early Christmas present.  Still and all, I could look, but unless they needed technical support I could not touch.

And then a few weeks ago the general availability date was announced: February 9th.

I called my main contact at the Microsoft Store in Yorkdale Mall (Toronto) and confirmed that they would be going on sale on that day.  I asked if he could put one aside for me, and his response was ‘yes… but I can only hold it until the end of the day on the 9th so make sure you come that day!’  I was willing to do him one better… since the shipment was obviously arriving well in advance of that day, why not simply let me come pick it up a few days early and we’ll keep it between us?  ‘Not a chance… not even one minute before the 9th!’ (And of course no, they were not planning a midnight event, so I would have to wait until morning!)

Then I had an idea. ‘Friend, what if I were to come in early the morning of February 9th, buy the very first Surface sold in Canada, and record it for my blog in the store before you even open?’  He thought that was not only doable, but was a great idea.  I put it in my calendar, and remembered to confirm with him on the 8th to make sure he hadn’t forgotten me… which I feel bad about because he never would!

Mother Nature decided to test Mitch…

February 8th, for those of you who were not paying attention, recorded the largest single-day snowfall in southern Ontario in nearly a decade.  Everyone on every media from Television to Twitter was saying that if you didn’t have to go out… don’t.  The road crews would be out in full force, but it would likely take them throughout the weekend to clear the minor arteries and possibly into next week for crescents, circles, and such (in one of which I happen to live).  Knowing that I needed to drive out the following morning I bribed my teenaged son to shovel the driveway in the early evening.  He did enough to make sure that I would be able to get my car out.

Of course, what are the chances that the tiny little circle, an off-shoot of a crescent off a tertiary road in Oakville, was going to be ploughed in time?  Fortunately Mayor Rob Burton follows me on Twitter and knew that I was planning to head out this morning, and made sure that our little ‘Griffith Place’ was cleared.  Okay, he did no such thing, but HUGE kudos to the road crews of Oakville, Ontario that cleared the street late last night! 

At 6:15 on Saturday morning I headed out; I brushed 35 centimetres of heavy snow off my car and headed out, all the while listening to the reports on the radio of accidents along the way (I witnessed three of them and passed seven others on the 403 and 401).  I was not to be stopped!  I drove the treacherous highways ‘low and slow’ as I was taught for these conditions, and as I will teach my son next year.  It took me nearly an hour to get there and park, but I did so safely.

Almost there…

I was surprised that I got to the store at 7:15am, and there were already people waiting in both lines (one line for people with the ‘golden ticket’ and one for people without)!  I got my gear set up in the ‘theatre’ area.  I set up my video camera on my tripod, only to realize that the battery was dead.  No problem, I had plenty of time to go, so I plugged it in and let it charge.  I set up my Surface with Windows RT (ironic that after all that waiting a colleague at Microsoft actually did get me one!) and several of the available accessories on the table where I would shoot.  All I needed now was the Surface Pro…

At 8:15 Friend brought out two devices – one for me, and one for another VIP customer named Mike who already has a Surface with Windows RT, but really wanted the Pro and was glad to be getting it this morning before he heads off to Europe.  Friend ran my credit card through, and once the POS system told him the sale was approved he e-mailed me my invoice and I was off to the races.

The following videos were filmed in the Microsoft Store Theatre in Yorkdale Mall, Toronto.  I want to thank Alison (the store manager), Friend (who knows who he is, and Emily (who is the Community Development Specialist, and therefor in charge of the theatre area and all of the presentations and parties held there.  They were filmed on February 9th, 2013 between 8:30 and 9:00 in the morning.  The only edits that were done to the video were for the sake of time and flow.  All opinions, mistakes, errors, and omissions are mine and mine alone, and I have made no effort to alter the video to hide them.

Opening the FIRST Surface Pro sold in Canada!
Turning on and setting up my Surface Pro.

Filed under Microsoft Store, MIcrosoft Surface, Microsoft Windows, Uncategorized, Windows 8 Tagged with , , , , ,

The Dawn of a New Day

September 4, 2012 5 Comments

As I sit in my office getting ready to close up, it is a little after 10pm, September 3rd, 2012.  That makes tomorrow a very important day in the world of IT.

Microsoft has announced that on September 4th, 2012 they will make Windows Server 2012, the newest generation of one of the most successful back-end software franchises in the world, available for purchase – in other words, GA (General Availability).  For those of us on the front line evangelizing the product, it is a very exciting time.

For myself it is doubly exciting, because as of September 4th, 2012 I am officially joining the Evangelism team at Microsoft Canada – albeit in a less direct way.  My new title is Virtual Technical Evangelist – Windows Infrastructure.  I have known about this for some time but have kept it quiet for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is superstition.

For the last year I have begun to work much closer with the Evangelism team, with presentations, tours, and blog articles on Server Virtualization, Windows, and many other topics.  I have surprised many people in the last few months when I told them that I do not actually work for Microsoft Canada, but with them.  My new title simply means that I will be doing more of the same – teaching people and groups about Windows (Server and Client), helping them dispel some of the myths, showing them how to use the technologies better.

It is a very exciting time to be a Technical Evangelist.

Because of the switch I want to put a few things straight.  Very little is actually going to change.  I will still be running SWMI Consulting Group, and will still be available for private engagements.  I will continue teaching both Microsoft and some non-Microsoft technologies in classroom settings.  I have spoken with Stephen Rose and Simran Chaudhry, and have assured them that I will still be a Microsoft MVP, and will continue to be an active member of the STEP (Springboard Technical Experts Panel) team, presenting on Windows 8 across the country and, when invited, around the world.  None of that is changing.

Something else that is not changing is probably what makes me the ideal candidate for this new (I am the first!) position: my passions.  If you have heard me speak or read my articles you know a lot of what I am passionate about, and none of that is changing.  I am still a passionate advocate of Hyper-V and the Microsoft Virtualization story, including the Private Cloud managed by System Center 2012.  I am still a passionate advocate of migrating clients and users off Windows XP, and will continue the countdown right through April 14, 2014 (by the time you read this the countdown will be to 580 days until #EndOfDaysXP!).  You can read it on my blog from time to time, or if you want a running countdown you can follow me on Twitter at @MGarvis.  These passions and focuses are not being redirected because of the position I am taking, rather I was selected for the position because my passions and focuses are exactly where a Technical Evangelist (Virtual or otherwise) for Microsoft should be.  I have not focused because I have been paid to.

Another passion of mine that will align me to the role is my passion and belief in the IT Pro (and other) technical communities around the country.  I will continue to support those communities – whether they are on-line or in person, user groups or otherwise – in the same manner and with the same passionate zeal that I have in the past, dating back nearly nine years.  I hope that going forward I will be able to do so from a more official position than I have, but even if that does not happen my support for user groups and their leaders (and aspiring leaders) will not change.

Over the next few weeks we will be crossing the nation with the launch of Windows Server 2012, and following that we will likely do the same with Windows 8.  Interspersed with both we will be bringing IT Boot Camps and user group events to you in your city, so stay tuned;  it may be an exciting time to be a Virtual Technical Evangelist, but it is a really exciting time to be an IT Pro and community member in the Microsoft ecosystem in Canada.  We look forward to helping you along the journey! 

Filed under Evangelism, IT Pro Connection, Microsoft, Microsoft Canada, Microsoft Windows

Are You Intune? You can be for only $99!

November 6, 2011 Leave a comment

If you are with a Microsoft Partner in Canada, then this training is for you!  I will be delivering a one-day hands-on class on Windows Intune: Implementing and Supporting Technical Training across Canada.  Because it is sponsored by the Microsoft Partner Network the cost for this one-day session is just $99… and that includes breakfast and lunch!

The schedule for the day is broken down into four modules, each with their own lab:

Module 1: Windows Intune Overview

  • Solution Cloud Services and Windows 7
  • Windows Intune and Support for Windows 7 Fits Your Business
  • Comparing Windows Intune with Other Products
  • Windows Intune Geographic Availability
  • Signing Up for Windows Intune
  • Overview of the Windows Intune Administrator Console
  • Types of Administrator
  • Managing and Securing PCs in Any Location by Using Windows Intune
  • Windows Intune Workspaces
  • Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack
    Lab 1: Learning Account Basics for Windows Intune

Module 2: Managing Windows Intune Client Computers

  • Understanding Groups
  • Using Groups
  • The Windows Intune Update Process
  • Update States
  • Managing Updates
  • Working with Non-Microsoft Updates
  • Deploying Updates
  • Windows Intune Policy Concepts
  • Windows Intune Policy Templates
  • Creating and Deploying Windows Intune Policies
  • Managing Endpoint Protection
  • Installing over Existing Antivirus Software
  • Best Practices for Creating and Deploying Windows Intune Policies
    Lab 2: Managing Groups, Policies, and Updates

    • Module 3: Deploying and Installing the Windows Intune Client

  • Windows Intune System Requirements
  • The Windows Intune Client Installation Package
  • Using the Installation Executable (.EXE) File
  • Lab 3A: Installing the Windows Intune Client
  • Working with the Windows Installer (.MSI) Files
  • Best Practices for Working with Client Installation Files
  • Windows Intune Deployment Routes
  • The Standard Windows Intune Client Installation Process
  • The Offline Windows Intune Client Installation Process
  • Windows Intune Components
  • Troubleshooting a Windows Intune Client Installation
  • Uninstalling a Windows Intune Client
  • Removing Windows Intune Client Components
    Lab 3B: Validating a Windows Intune Client Installation

Module 4: Deploying software to Windows Intune Clients

  • Software deployment overview
  • Software deployment considerations
  • Installing the Windows Intune Software Publisher
  • Preparing software installation files
  • Uploading and configuring the deployment package
  • Client download and installation
  • Monitoring deployment status
  • Best Practices
    Lab 4: Software Deployment through Windows Intune
    Monday, November 21, 2011: Toronto, ON
    Tuesday, November 22, 2011: Montreal, QC
    Thursday, November 24, 2011: Vancouver, BC
    Friday, November 25, 2011: Calgary, AB
    Spaces are limited so book now… I look forward to seeing you there!

Filed under Microsoft Canada, Microsoft Windows, Partner Training, Windows Intune

End of Days for Windows XP.

August 12, 2011 Leave a comment

Quite a number of people have asked me why I continue to tweet the number of days until Microsoft ends support for one of it’s most successful operating systems ever, Windows XP.  Especially knowing that we seem to be a long way off – today is Friday August 12, 2011 and we are 969 days away from that day, nearly three years as someone recently pointed out.

The truth is that if you have one or two or even ten computers under your responsibility then planning and implementing the deployment plan of a new operating system is not that difficult or time consuming.  However if you have hundreds or thousands of them – numbers not uncommon even among small business IT consultants who service several clients, let alone IT Pros managing desktops for MORGs, LORGs, and Enterprises – then it is something that takes a great degree of forethought and planning.  Issues such as application compatibility, hardware lifecycles, and licenses must be determined, managed, and accounted for. 

How many companies are out there who don’t actually know what they have?  I often ask at my seminars what reasons people have for not having moved to Windows 7 yet, and among the most common (along with cost and application compatibility) is that it is daunting.  The thought of what people need to consider for such a project can be overwhelming if you don’t know what you have, because frankly how can you know where to start?

I used to work for a man named Jacob Haimovici who always said that if you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it.  It is absolutely true, especially in the world of IT where so often you cannot touch your assets, and the assets you can touch may contain any number of disparate components (hardware). 

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit is a free tool from the Microsoft Solution Accelerators team is your first step to having an easier life as an IT Pro.  It is an agentless inventory, assessment, and reporting tool that can securely assess IT environments for various platform migrations—including Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and even virtualization with Hyper-V.  It inventories your environment including hardware and software, and lets you know what you have.  It creates spreadsheets for you of all of your assets, and lets you know what components are ready for Windows 7, which need mitigations, and which will need upgrading or replacing. 

I ran the MAP tool on the network at Meadowgreen Academy in Mississauga, Ontario before I embarked upon my migration plan, and determined quickly that none of their video cards supported Aero Glass; also a number of the machines did not have enough memory.  These were easily mitigated with a purchase order, and the school administrator was pleased that I discovered all of this up front, and did not wait until it was too late and they had to decide with a proverbial gun to their heads.

The MAP toolkit will also prepare the proposal documents with graphs and charts that speak the language of CxOs, which so many IT Pros cannot do.  Even those who do to a man hate preparing reports and proposals, so the MAP toolkit can be a real godsend.

I was golfing with a client in California a year ago and he told me he had to do a network inventory that afternoon for a new client.  When I asked him what tools he used he told me ‘a pen and paper.’  After I told him about MAP, he told me that before he took me to see the client he needed to run it by the boss.  The boss wanted to see it in action, so I pulled out my netbook (that’s all it takes – fully contained on a 1 GB netbook!), plugged it into their network.  Once they supplied me with the credentials the tool took a few minutes to run and generate the reports.  They were astounded to see the cost savings they could realize by virtualizing their servers!  When we looked at the count of client computers they told me I was off by five… until we determined that the sales team were at an off-site… with their laptops.

Of course, you may need more, and if you do, there are plenty of courses available to help you with your skills, including the highly popular ‘Updating Skills for Windows 7’ by Raymond Comvalius and myself, published by MVP Press.  There are certifications for Windows 7 as well as for Windows deployment, and if you look up the exam 70-681 you will see what the prerequisites are to become an MCTS: Windows 7 Deployment.  If courses aren’t right for you, check out books like Mastering Windows 7 Deployment by Aidan Finn, Darril Gibson and Kenneth van Surksum, which covers everything you will need, and more!

If you are the type to just hack away and figure it out, Microsoft has a whole plethora of free and simple tools that will help you with your deployment plan, including MDT, WDS, WAIK, SCCM, App-V, ACT, and more.  As we say, you can’t spell Deployment without them!  Believe me, once you take the first step, deployment is not as daunting as it might seem now.

Filed under Article, CanITPro, Deployment, EndOfDaysXP, MDT, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Windows

MCITP: Server Boot Camp, Virginia Beach

July 20, 2011 Leave a comment

It was REALLY last minute… on Friday I got a mass e-mail from a training provider scrambling to replace a trainer who had cancelled at the last minute.  By some miracle of scheduling I was available; after a few hours of back and forth e-mails I booked my flight for Sunday to be at the training facility Monday morning.

All boot camps are hectic.  The pace is often ridiculous… it is frantic to rush through 15 days of classes in 10 days, but with a group of students as good as these, who have met the prerequisites and have the drive and the discipline, then it can be done.  We completed the first course (6421: Configuring and Troubleshooting a Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure) in four days instead of five, and the students all wrote the exam Thursday evening and Friday morning.  All passed (one needed to use his Second Shot Free, but that’s what it’s there for!) the first exam (70-642) and earned their first certification (MCTS: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuration) and were psyched and energized to tackle two more courses over a six day period.

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It cannot be easy for them.  The pace that the curriculum dictates I maintain is frenetic.  They are all drinking from the fire hose, and many have been learning concepts that they will never have the opportunity to implement or work with in their day to day jobs.  However the morning of Day One they all answered the questions I ask of every class, starting with ‘Why are you here?’ They all have their reasons, and since their employers all sent them most of them revolve around ‘I need the certifications and/or training to keep my job.’  I respect that.

During the two week class two of the seven students have celebrated birthdays.  These were marked by the class going to lunch together, happy birthday wishes, and (very small) token presents.  Neither birthday boy/girl missed class because they were out partying or celebrating too late.  Several times over the fortnight smartphones have vibrated with messages of the world coming to an end back at the office… yet nobody took time off of class because they understand the importance of learning.  When labs break they work out how to fix them, or ask for help (first of their fellow students, then of me).  When concepts are unclear the fellow students help clarify.  It is wonderful to watch.

None of them have complained about the pace, none has shied away from homework and I have not once heard a complaint about the extended work days and early morning.  As Master Lee (see my previous post about Master Lee’s Joonbi Taekwondo) taught his new student last night, our ability to succeed hinges on our willingness to work hard to achieve our goals.  As Grand Master Kim makes us recite before and after class, Everything is up to my mind, Sir!

These students know all of that, and have the work ethic, and now the certification, to prove it!

Way to go class!

Filed under Article, Blog, Boot Camp, Bootcamp, Certification Exams, Certifications, Certs, Classroom, Exams, Genesis of an IT Pro, Industry, IT Pro, MCITP, MCITP: Server Administrator, MCP, MCT, MCTS, Microsoft Learning, Microsoft Windows, SWMI Consulting Group, Trainer, Virginia Beach, Windows Server 2008 R2

Choose Your First Certification Exam Wisely

July 18, 2011 Leave a comment

As I peruse the articles that I have written over the past ten years I occasionally come across one that is interesting or relevant today.  I wrote this article when I was working with CertGuard, and it was published in November, 2006.  If you are an IT Pro starting down the path to certifications, this may be relevant to you! -M

<November, 2006>I have gone on and on about the importance of that first cert exam, but I have read a lot of comments recently that made me realize how important exam selection can be to that successful first exam.

If your decision to get certified is based on professional necessity – i.e.: your boss said you need to get certified in order to keep your job, the choice may have been made for you, i.e.: ‘We have Windows Server 2003 running our networks, we want you to pass 070-290: Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment.’ Simple and done, you know what your first exam is.

If you have made the decision yourself to follow a certification path on your own, or your bosses have given you incentive to get certified, you should pick your first exams wisely, because they can be a real defining factor in the future of your certification path. (If you have read my articles you will know that I picked the wrong exams for my first two tries when I started out, and instead of getting certified within weeks or months it took about sixteen months for me to pass my first exam, another fifteen months until I passed my second.

A lot of us (yes I said US) think that we know more than the average bear and love a challenge, we decide to do something stupid like pick one of the hardest tests to write first, figuring that once the hard ones are done you can coast. THIS IS A BAD STRATEGY. Cert exams are not only tough, but they are also (probably inadvertently) designed to be cumulative to some degree or another. That is, information you learn for 70-290 may appear in 70-291, or be expected knowledge whereas information specific to 70-291 will never appear in 70-290. If you study for the first and pass, that means you will probably have a good basis for that assumed knowledge in the second exam.

Before everyone jumps all over me I know and agree: Microsoft Certification Exams are not linear, and there is no official ‘recommended path’. That being said there is that fall-over knowledge. An OS or Server exam would not cover routers and sub-netting (at least not in depth). The Infrastructure exams on the other hand will assume that you know Server inside and out. The core exams are numbered (nearly) sequentially for a reason, and any competent counselor will tell you to start at the bottom and work your way up.

Of course for these examples I have taken what I know best – the MCSA/MCSA courses as my example. However if you want to start slower than that – maybe you do not have a great deal of knowledge or experience in servers but know that certifications are the way to go then Microsoft recently released a cert that may be more your speed. The Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST) material is based entirely on Windows XP and the applications that run on it, while teaching a decent introduction to Active Directory technology (on a relatively desktop-centric basis). If you consider yourself a real Windows XP guru then these two exams will be a good launch-pad for a successful certification path. A number of friends of mine have gone this way to start out, and have been proudly signing their names as My Name, MCDST, MCP and that’s okay – I know that when all I had was MCP I signed it everywhere!

In short find the exam that you have the most background understanding of, study until you are ready, then go get certified. Every exam is a stepping stone to something greater but it is a long process, and there is no advantage to starting the hard way. Nobody will ever be more impressed that you passed Infrastructure before Server or Active Directory before Desktop. If you know Active Directory better than anything then by all means try that exam first, but chances are you will want to start smaller. MCP take a single exam, and (as I learned the hard way) it might as well be the easier exam to get your feet wet – don’t try to drink from a fire hose!

Good luck and now go out and get certified!

Filed under Article, CertGuard, Certification Exams, Certifications, Certs, Exams, Genesis of an IT Pro, IT Pro, MCP, MCT, Microsoft, Microsoft Learning, Microsoft Windows

Gartner agrees with me… Hyper-V is for real!

July 6, 2011 3 Comments

In September Microsoft Canada contracted me as a Virtual Partner Technology Advisor, tasking me with evangelizing Microsoft virtualization solutions.  One of the reasons I was such a good fit for the role is that I am very familiar with both Microsoft’s and VMware’s server virtualization solutions – I teach and consult on both platforms.  I am a VMware Certified Professional (VCP 4) as well as a Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) Virtualization Administrator.

For the past ten months I have (in an official capacity) espoused the benefits of Hyper-V and the Microsoft Server Virtualization Solutions.  I have visited over thirty partners and given a dozen or more presentations to user groups; I have taught at least five full classes of 10215A to partners and end users alike, and I continually hear the same question from IT Pros and users alike: ‘What you are telling us and showing us is nice, but can Microsoft really compete head to head with VMware for market dominance?  Are they really a legitimate player in the virtualization space that has for so many years been dominated by a single player?

My answer has been yes every time, and each time Microsoft releases new versions of Hyper-V – first 2008 R2, then this past winter Service Pack 1 – they come closer to technological parity.  The closer they come to being an equivalent technology (and they are now closer than ever!) the more the deciding factor is going to start coming down to price… and man, does Microsoft ever win in that category!

Of course it is easy to see me as biased, but I’m sure we all agree that Gartner is unbiased.  According to their latest (June 30, 2011) Magic Quadrant for x86 Server Virtualization Infrastructure, Microsoft has firmly taken a position in the Leaders square.  For years VMware alone occupied that coveted position (based on rankings along the X-axis of completeness of vision, and the Y-axis of ability to execute).  VMware (who it should be noted are still the leaders)  has Microsoft and then Citrix nipping at its heels.

According to the report:

Citrix and Microsoft have joined VMware in the Leaders Quadrant by increasing vision and execution respectively. Although market share leader VMware continues to set the standard in products and the pace in terms of strategy, Microsoft has increased its market share (especially among midmarket customers new to virtualization), and Citrix is leveraging its desktop virtualization strengths and its free XenServer offering to expand its server virtualization share. The road map from virtualization to cloud computing is rapidly evolving, and executing will be very important during the next year as this market continues to rapidly evolve and grow.

Interestingly one of the factors that many of the companies I have spoken to with regard to this choice – price, and the ability to make a profit off the solution – is called out in the report as both a key strength and a weakness ‘…when it comes to influencing the channel to promote its product, rather than its competition.’  Because Hyper-V is a free product (or, more accurately, is a component of a product that the client is already buying), there is nothing more to sell… the partners cannot mark up another product. 

One of the points listed in the Gartner report under ‘Cautions’ is the ‘Hypervisor dependence on a running copy of Windows as a parent operating system’ can also be viewed as a strength, because of the sheer amount of different hardware types supported, ranging from high-end server farms used in the enterprise to laptops and white-boxes that IT Pros, enthusiasts, and students may have in their basement as learning platforms.  For a recent presentation I was forced to downgrade my VMware hypervisor to an older version simply because ESX 4.1 was not supported and would not even install on my demo box. To quote the report:

The most significant hypervisor difference continues to be Microsoft’s reliance on a parent operating system on each virtualization host — which carries the benefit of a proven driver architecture, but the burden of potentially more planned downtime for patching and maintenance (however, Microsoft’s patch record to date for its parent operating system has been good).

All in all, I think it is going to be hard for VMware to remain the industry leader for long.  Let me be clear: they make great products.  Whatever my beef may be with the company, I don’t have a bad word to say against their server virtualization technology.  However with Microsoft catching up as fast as they are (System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2012 is currently in beta) it is hard to see VMware remaining the industry leader for too much longer without coming up with something so dramatically new and unique as to vault them once again ahead of all other players.

I look forward to seeing vSphere 5 (possibly being released as early as July 12th); from what I have read mostly through unsanctioned sites it will be VERY interesting to see.  However I still don’t see it being worth the price difference. 

One thing’s for sure… it will be an interesting couple of years in the virtualization space!

Filed under Article, Blog, CanITPro, Cloud, Gartner Magic Quadrant, Garvis.ca, Hyper-V, Hypervisor, IT Pro, Microsoft Canada, Microsoft MVP, Microsoft Virtualization, Microsoft Windows, SWMI, SWMI Consulting Group, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, Virtualization, Virtualization Host, VMware, Windows Server 2008 R2

Office 365–Complex or Options?

July 4, 2011 2 Comments

Last week Microsoft officially launched its cloud-based infrastructure offering, Office 365.  As a virtual insider I have been using this solution for the past six months for my IT consulting firm, and frankly had forgotten that it was a beta offering.  That is because while the packaging may be new, all of the applications – both client- and server-side – are mature products that released to manufacturing long since.

I am not surprised by the number of negative reviews; the different offerings and price points are complicated to understand, owing to the sheer number of them.  For the do-it-yourself guy who is not very technical it may be difficult setting up the DNS records properly.  Some of the features available in the rich client versions are not available in the on-line applications.

While I may disagree with some of the criticism I want to be clear that I share your pain; this morning I finally opened the e-mail that essentially said that ‘The Office 365 beta program is over; we hope you have enjoyed using it… now it’s time to start paying for it!’ I was disappointed that there was no link in the e-mail that would lead me to where I could do that.

When I did log into my management site (portal.microsoftonline.com) I was greeted with a simple, discrete line up top reminding me that I had 42 days remaining in my free trial subscription.  I was pleased by this because it takes the pressure off somewhat… until I click ‘Buy now’ and am told immediately that I need the E3 level subscription for my company. 

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Fortunately a closer read let me know that I had other options… I have already purchased the Office Professional clients for my computers, so that would save me a ton of money.  So now I had to look at my other options:

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These are the bundles available… but there are so many components, what if I only want to pick and choose the ones I want?

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What… there’s more?  Wow, keep scrolling!

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Ok at least I am near the end… all I have to do is expand Additional Services and I’ll know everything…

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All of a sudden this is looking daunting and expensive… maybe I should just buy a license of Windows Small Business Server 2011 to run my infra… wait a minute!  I had one of those ‘smack my forehead’ moments.  Doesn’t Microsoft usually put together special packaging and pricing for small businesses?  Certainly the six of us who use our corporate e-mail (and SharePoint, and and and) would qualify as an SMB… let’s see if I can find that anywhere on the page…

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Okay, let’s click here and see what turns up…

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Now wait a minute… $6/month per user?  There has to be a catch… scrolling down I see this plan offers me all of the services I need (and still many that I don’t)… I am still looking for a catch!

I haven’t found one… If you have the Office client (which I do) or are willing to use on-line apps (which have most but not all of the functionality, and have the pesky disadvantage of not being available on airplanes) then smaller organizations are in luck. $72 per user/year is not a lot considering the time I would have to spend installing, configuring, and maintaining my own Exchange and SharePoint servers.

So what about the confusing options for Enterprise?  There are absolutely a lot of choices.  There are people who will always say that Microsoft can’t get anything right, and the people who poo poo these editions and tiers are the same people who would complain that if they had fewer choices they would be restricted in their options.

For smaller businesses it is a no brainer, and for larger organizations they will have to sit down and plan what options they need.  Does Office 365 need more thought than competitive options?  Sure… but it also offers more choice.

Filed under Applications, Apps, Article, Blog, CanITPro, Cloud, DNS, Garvis.ca, IT Pro, Laptop, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Windows, Office 365, Springboard, Springboard Technical Experts Panel, STEP, Windows 7

It was Twenty Years Ago Today!

June 15, 2011 Leave a comment

Ok, well it wasn’t, but I had the Beatles running through my head.  It is amazing what can remind you of the oddest things from the past…

In June, 1988 I was finishing Grade 10 and my last computer course on the Apple //e was behind me.  I had made the decision to sell my old Apple clone and buy a new PC – it was an IBM clone that I bought from my buddy Steven Rich.. it had 640KB of RAM and a 40MB hard disk.  It was absolutely amazing!

One of my best friends at the time was a kid named David Jedeikin.  David was, as I was, a computer fanatic.  He was one of the last hold-outs of the Atari 800 which I had gotten rid of in 1985, and he is definitely someone I respected when it came to computers.  He kept asking me what was so great about the PC?

It’s got 640KB of RAM!’

What do I need that much memory for?

It has a hard disk!

Yeah but it is still low-res graphics and has no sound.

It runs all of this great software!

But it still doesn’t have graphics that compare to my GR8 mode!

It does everything you could even possibly imagine!

Really?  Does it do Windows?

Yes!

Let’s put that conversation into perspective.  Today we live in a world dominated by Microsoft Windows.  Love it or hate it, there is no denying the impact that Windows has had.  It (along with Microsoft Office) are the only two consumer products in the history of the world used by over one billion people worldwide.  In 1988 Bill Gates was not a household name, and unless you worked with a very short list of applications (primarily desktop publishing) you probably had never heard of Microsoft Windows.

Like many IT professionals I make a decent living thanks to the preponderance of computers in the world.  Would we all be in the business without Microsoft Windows?  Well, maybe… Imagine an alternate History in which Microsoft didn’t make it big, either GEM or Apple or someone someone else would have won the war for the desktop. 

As a lot of people have pointed out to me, Microsoft doesn’t always get there first.  This is true with so many of the technologies I use every day – Apple released it’s GUI OS before Windows, and VMware pre-dated Hyper-V; several score companies released gaming systems before Microsoft came up with its X-Box and lord knows it took them a long time to get their smartphone right.  Before there was Microsoft Office Word there was WordPerfect, Word Star, and a hundred other word processors, just like Lotus 1-2-3 and VisiCalc pre-dated Microsoft Office Excel.

When people point these realities out they usually present them as a challenge.  That’s not how I see it though.  The truth is that first is not always best.  The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.  If you don’t believe me I ask how many of you listen to a Marconi radio, drive a Daimler, or enjoy your music on an Edison phonograph?

I haven’t spoken with David in a while, although I do plan to read his book.  I don’t know when he finally retired that old Atari of his, but I wouldn’t be surprised if his parents threw it out (or packed it away forever) when they moved off of Roslyn Rd.  I do know one thing though… whatever computer he is using today most likely does do Windows… if not in the way that he meant way back when.

Filed under Article, Blog, IT Pro, Microsoft Canada, Microsoft Windows, Springboard, Springboard Technical Experts Panel, STEP, SWMI Consulting Group, Windows 7

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