SMB Nation | SMB IT Professionals
The Place to Start-up and Start Over!
Recently, I hosted a weekly webinar where the topic was about Active Directory. It was a geek walk down memory lane! One of the first books that I wrote, Active Directory Planning and Design, was written in the late 1990s, based on Windows 2000. It was a seminal work introducing Active Directory, network directory services, and even Group Policy Objects (GPOs) to the SMB IT Pro community. These were heady times, and the future was bright.
Earlier this week, in true Microsoft fashion, the tech giant announced (on a national holiday here in the U.S.) that it acquired Nokia. This followed another big announcement in the wireless world with the Verizon Verifone deal occurring just a day earlier…so now what’s next? Will Microsoft possibly be interested in acquiring a wireless network yet? Perhaps it could be “the Apple darling” AT&T, which was the first carrier to offer the iPhone when it arrived on the scene in 2007?
It started as a first date in February 2011 when Microsoft made a small strategic investment in Nokia. Here is how it ended: Microsoft got married over the weekend to Nokia’s Devices and Services unit for a dowry of $7.2 billion. That price includes $2 billion for patents. On paper, it makes perfect sense. But for every action, there is a reaction.
The maturity of the SMB community is starting to show. In a new series of articles, I detail the current shakeout amongst IT Pros, vendors and other community members that isn’t in any way wrong, it’s just a reality. I’ll explore master MSPs built for scale, lifestyle consultants built for pleasure. Plus I’ll explore the sales agent and contractor community. I’ll even talk about how to “hang on fast” and how you can try to avoid the middle class trap that I’m about to reveal to you.
Who better than Eric Townsend (pictured) to offer observations on the Windows XP migration matter? Widely recognized as the busiest man in the channel, his professional life mirrors that of the George Clooney character who travels 1 million+ miles in the movie “Up in the Air”! Even with his super busy schedule, we were able to corner Townsend earlier this week for a wide-ranging conversation about April 8, 2014 and the Windows XP migration matter.
Sources close to the top have confirmed that Windows 8.1 has released to manufacturing (RTM) and is on the way. The rumor, which is now fact, was leaked last Friday (perhaps to defer attention on the retirement announcement concerning Steve Ballmer). Like many readers, I’ve been running the Windows 8.1 Preview on a few machines for the past few months. I even have my sons and wife playing around with it on the family PC in the TV room. The consensus: We like it!
Actually, it was a brilliant move on Microsoft’s part, when they announced Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s pending retirement (last week) on a slow news day--a Friday in late August. Better yet–the Ballmer news competed with the Windows 8.1 Release To Manufacturing (RTM) rumor, so it was diluted. It’s right out of the Washington DC political playbook: Release bad news on a Friday in late August!
Just when you thought August was a slow news month, along came Tim Rains’ blog last week, in which he called the day after April 8, 2014, when extended support for Windows XP terminates, as the “endless zero day.” His comments were picked up by several news outlets, including Mary Jo Foley, EyeOnWindows (formerly Windows 8 Update) and Redmond Channel Partner magazine. So I reached out to Rains to get the story behind the stories.
We recently spoke with Dell Cloud Client Computing regarding its cloud-based virtual desktop solution, Dell Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) On Demand. The platform includes features from Desktone’s secure multi-tenant VDI platforms delivering session-based desktops, published applications, persistent or non-persistent Windows 7 or XP desktops, RSA secure authentication, among others. Dell has expanded DaaS On Demand to Channel Partners for the first time and is offering a free trial so customers can quickly and easily experience the benefits of delivering secure, fully-featured virtual desktops to users without the infrastructure cost.
It’s true that you are only as good as your last act. Prove and improve your PowerShell programming prowess by participating in the first-ever “night school” to be held this year at the 11th Annual SMB Nation Fall conference. Why? Because we love you, and want to arm you with the means and methods to live in a power world without wizards.
It’s true that BlackBerry has been in the news lately, but I’m not going to rehash the conversations currently being played on CNBC. You can go see those for yourself. Rather, my monthly series, “How BlackBerry is that?” continues where my teen-age son, and I, seek out the most interesting BlackBerry stories of the year. Hands down, for August, it was the AgNerd!
Thank you for being our customer! Last night, at our 13th annual SMB Nation / WSTA / PSSBS picnic, everyone at SMB Nation was reminded that we are a community and have great customers that support over ten families.
(Click the image above for a larger version)
Earlier this week, Lenovo flexed its PC prowess and proved pessimists wrong with its PC Plus strategy. In short, it’s kicking ass across the board in a segment that is witnessing macro-declines and soft market conditions. I’ll share the “numbers” below after a bit of analysis.
We heard today that Windows 8.1 will be released on the morning of October 18. We first reported that Microsoft was going to release a Windows 8 update known as “Microsoft Windows Blue.” Then this past May, the company said it would be releasing an update known as Windows 8.1, which will be a free update to Windows 8 for consumers through the Windows Store.
As yet another Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference has recently passed, you can’t escape the annual comparison, birthdays and anniversaries. That being said, let’s focus on the actual end-of-life for Small Business Server and a “check-in” on how the Small Business Competency (SBC) is faring.
SBS END-OF-LIFE
Today is August 8, and there’s just eight months left before the April 8, 2014 end-of-life/service deadline for Windows XP (plus Small Business Server 2003, Office 2003 and anything Server 2003 including Exchange). Yesterday, I was having a conversation with an analyst about what April 8, 2014 really means…will that date live in infamy?
Our apologies in advance for interjecting a “sophisticated investor” conversation into the SMB IT Pro community. However, those of us serving small businesses on Main Street can learn something from Wall Street. It’s true, as you will discover.
Necessity is truly the mother of invention. As part of my ongoing series interviewing SMB IT leaders on the Windows XP migration matter (and the fast-approaching April 8, 2014 deadline), one of the most interesting stories I’ve bumped into concerns my discussion earlier this week with Chris Frey, Lenovo’s SMB czar!
Initially, I anticipated a standard press interview wherein Lenovo would trumpet its recent earnings (record revenue, market leadership over HP and Dell, 16-straight quarters of profitability, etc.). And we were supposed to talk about a mobility kit. However, the conversation got much more exciting very quickly when Frey hooked the “Lenovo Mobility Kits for Business Partners” to the end-of-life for Windows XP. More on that in a moment.
By Harry Brelsford, Founder and Chairman, SMB Nation
The greatest opportunity in a calendar decade is upon us. An epic epoch awaits you. Perhaps the most significant work this technology generation is calling you. What is it? It’s Microsoft’s decision to end-of-life Windows XP, Microsoft Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2003 all on April 8, 2014. It’s Y2K all over again.
Did you know the great threat and opportunity to many of your SMB customers lurks a mere 250-days from now?
You should be keenly focused on the April 8th opportunity – something many SMB IT Pros liken to the Y2K madness of a generation ago. Think about it. You have a “statuary deadline” announced by Microsoft for Small Business Server 2003 and the end-of-support. Our research shows that literally every SMB IT Pro has at least one client STILL RUNNING SBS 2003!
Welcome to our new “Thought Leadership” series on the Windows XP Migration matter. Between now and Windows XP end-of-service deadline of April 8, 2014 (about 250-days from this writing), we will reach out to leaders in the SMB IT community with the main goal of better understanding the Windows XP migration opportunities (and threats) for all stakeholders involved. This includes you, the SMB IT Pro, who is a reseller, VAR, consultant and geek.
Our kick-off article is my recent interview with Dan Schwab, Co-President at well-known North American distributor D&H. Let me just say that I agree with Dan for reasons you’ll see in the next few hundred words.
D&H Distributing told us today that they will conduct their New England 2013 Technology Show on August 6 at the Boston Marriott Quincy Hotel, Quincy, MA. The distributor said they will expect close to 500 attendees and more than 60 participating vendors for this event. Registration begins at 11:00 a.m., with seminars initiating at 12:00 p.m. The exhibit floor opens at 3:00 p.m.
Carbonite said that it is bringing enterprise-class database server backup capabilities to the small business market with the introduction of Enhanced Server Backup. Enhanced Server Backup delivers the best of both worlds – the speed of local backup plus the ultimate safety of cloud backup.
Rusty “Cowboy” Brown, longtime SMB Nation member from Jackson Hole, WY, has it right. He directs K2 Technologies as an MSP and is an avid skier and outdoorsman. He’s got the work/life balance thing down pat and understands the value of attending professional conferences as part of his continuing education. He also has the “freshie” rule, which I’ll translate. When the powder snow exceeds nine inches at Jackson Hole, he stops work and goes skiing.
(Click on the image at right for a quick vid)
In business, there is a work-a-day concept called “bread and butter” work. Highly trained lawyers stoop low to write wills to pay the rent. It’s understood and a necessity to running a small business.
So when I introduce the concept of performing Windows XP migrations before the April 8, 2014 end-of-life (and support) deadline, I want you to listen to me with an open mind and heart. Now hear this: WINDOWS XP MIGRATIONS ARE YOUR GREATEST REVENUE OPPORTUNITY FOR THE NEXT YEAR! (Do you understand what I just said?)
We heard today that PEER 1 Hosting (not to be confused with retailer Pier One) has formed a strategic alliance with Dell to deliver cloud services in Canada. The Web hosting provider, which is the newest addition to Dell’s recently announced public cloud partner program, will service the critical Canadian market and help Dell provide its customers with choice and capabilities.
Spiceworks is working to assist SMBs in start-up mode with the introduction of “Built in Spiceworks,” a program designed to help B2B startups get to market and grow their businesses faster. The program pairs startups with hand-selected groups of IT professionals from Spiceworks’ network of 2.5 million to provide the feedback and advice companies need to develop and market the latest B2B products and services.
MegaPath Corporation is now offering Business Ethernet services that provide companies with a true business-class alternative to cable services. The company says that Ethernet services are immediately available in 517 Central Offices (COs) with speeds up to 50X10 Mbps, with availability in 700 COs and speeds up to 150X10 Mbps targeted by end of 2013.
Not surprisingly – there is a mobile payment trend starting to impact how you can buy goods and services at both community and farmer’s markets. You know what I’m talking about – the white tents in public spaces on Saturday and Sundays, typically promoting local farmers, organic goods and artists. What I like about the individual merchants using payments systems such as Square is that I can more easily be a customer because I always have my debit card (but not always cash).
Smarter minds reading this blog will recall the “Third Way,” which was a political strategy contrived between Bill Clinton and Tony Blair to find middle ground between liberal and conservatives (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way).
As I spoke with Dan O’Farrell, Sr. Director, Product Marketing at Dell Cloud Client Computing, and Manish Bhaskar, Director, Product Management at Dell Cloud Client Computing discuss the Dell Wyse WSM cloud computing paradigm, I felt like I was seeing a “third way” to deploy cloud-based virtual desktop solutions to customers. In reality, I was supposed to share the WSM 6 release (more on that in a moment. But first I want to introduce you to a “third way” to deploy cloud desktops (the other two being VDI and VPN). WSM is software that supports virtual desktops (http://www.wyse.com/products/software/cloud/WSM). It’s like having all the security and management ease of VDI *but* having local processor activity. In effect, the Wyse dumb terminal is now smarter.
Exigent Technologies today launched its new service TurnKey Cloud, which makes it easy and affordable for New Yorkers and New Jerseyans (who are SMBs) to quickly and confidently adopt cloud computing solutions.
Available immediately, Exigent’s TurnKey Cloud services are purpose-built for SMBs and include customizable, cloud-based infrastructure solutions and data center services that ensure business availability and enable smaller companies to consume information technology as a service (IaaS), rather than a continuous expenditure.
StorageCraft today said that it released the latest addition to its line card of ShadowProtect BDR products. The company’s new Edition 5 version is loaded with various new features, such as support for Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8.
The platform is designed to provide system administrators with unlimited disaster recovery, data protection and system migration for every Windows system in a company’s IT environment without having to install any software. ShadowProtect IT Edition also allows administrators to recover data anywhere, at any time, enabling a business to continue operations following a disaster.
Why? Why didn’t Microsoft do this the first time? It was as simple as a Start button!
This past weekend, I geeked out in my man cave (maybe I should call it a man cove as I live on an island) and installed the new Windows 8.1 Preview. I completely document the Windows 8.1 Preview deployment experience here in a 10-minute video. You will witness the “real world” as I seek to go where no Harrybbb has gone before: using Windows 8.1. I encountered a few challenges along the way, including the inability to redirect the installation to Drive D, and how the installation must be completed on a monitor in landscape, not portrait mode.
This year’s Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) is interesting to me as it allows a moment of reflection. Ten years ago, WPC 2003 in New Orleans was focused on SMB and the Windows Small Business Server 2003 (SBS) launch. In 2013, on day one, I was hard-pressed to “hear” the term SMB in any of the keynotes. Sure, Tami Reller, CMO and CFO-Windows, mentioned SMB once in passing, but it wasn’t the same. Rather – the conference messaging pillars were much more focused on the enterprise with BIG DATA, Cloud, Enterprise Social and Devices and Mobility. You will see more SMB messaging in the breakouts and Cindy Bates “Regional Keynote” on Thursday but it’s not 2003, baby.
Why the Events Business is Rapidly Changing (For the Better)
Slowly, but surely, the events landscape is changing for the better. What we’ve learned in our partnership with Varvid and observing other events is the emergence of a hybrid model that allows you to attend in-person, virtually or both.
For example, our recently completed SMB Nation Spring Conference actually had more attendees online than in-person. It made for a more diverse and complete inclusive experience for all. Each attendee model has its pluses and minuses but overall the hybrid event synergy we witnessed was 1+1=3.
Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Hear Ye!
Now is the time to download the latest SMB Nation magazine edition. In Issue 7-4, we focus on the following hot topics:
The timing couldn’t have been better following the NSA whistleblower matter. I recently met with Microsoft executive Tim Rains to review his new study titled “Bridging the Gap: Cloud Computing Delivers Surprise Silver Lining for Business,” which focuses on security and reliability. But first–a wee bit of background on the whole trustworthy computing initiative inside Microsoft.
Click on the image at right to view my chat with Tim Rains.
What a difference a year makes. Last year at this time, on July 5, 2012, Microsoft announced the end-of-life (EOL) for the acclaimed Windows Small Business Server (SBS) product line. It was a shot heard around the world and dominated community discussions for several months. Yesterday (June 30, 2013) was the shot no one heard. It’s interesting how such a trending topic faded so quickly.
Earlier this week we asked you, our tribal members, for their support the bi-partisan bill—the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 (S. 744), which will hit the Senate floor earlier this week. If passed, the bill will help to alleviate chronic shortage of skilled workers qualified in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Now, we are happy to report that the Senate has passed the Act, and is currently urging the House to follow suit.
eFolder told us today that it has established its new eFolder Partner Referral Program, which aims to reward its partners with $1000 for every successful referral.
The program was created as a result of eFolder, with the guidance of its Partner Council, implementing a system that is designed to eliminate the frustrations and barriers that often come with vendor-imposed referral programs.
ADTRAN kicked off the first phase of its ProCloud managed services program with a hosted and fully-managed Wi-Fi service offering. It’s no worries with the ADTRAN ProCloud Wi-Fi services—it’s a managed, business-class Wi-Fi service, built on ADTRAN’s multi-tenant Bluesocket virtual WLAN solution.
And the acquisitions keep on rollin in…AirWatch said today that it has acquired Motorola Solutions’ MSP (Mobility Services Platform) business for an undisclosed sum of cash.
Analyst firm Gartner has released a study revealing that traditional worldwide PC shipments are expected to decline 10.6 percent by the time the year is out; tablet shipments are expected to jump a whopping 67.9 percent by the time we ring in 2014!
Today marks one year since Microsoft announced its acquisition of Yammer, a provider of enterprise social networks. Since the acquisition, Microsoft’s enterprise social momentum has accelerated in all areas, including new users, paid customers, user engagement, innovation, and the ecosystem of partners selling and connecting to the Yammer platform.
DoubleHorn Communications said that it is now offering an Avaya-centric Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC&C) solution. The offering combines DoubleHorn’s Avaya-compliant managed SIP Trunks with either Avaya Aura Communication Manager 6.2, Avaya Aura Session Manager 6.3 or Avaya IP Office 8.1, and includes the MyDoubleHorn Communications Platform, providing additional control over the UC&C environment. DoubleHorn is a Technology Partner in the Avaya DevConnect program.
Earlier this week, McAfee released a study revealing how organizations worldwide are unable to harness the power of Big Data for security purposes. According to the report ‘Needle in a Datastack’, businesses are vulnerable to security breaches due to their inability to properly analyze or store big data.
Spiceworks released today the results of a new survey highlighting how cloud-based applications are forcing SMBs to balance IT requirements with employees’ needs for anytime, anywhere access to information. The report,“Catching up to the Cloud: Steady Migration Into Cloud-based File Sharing, Email and Productivity Services,”was sponsored by LogMeIn, showcases the growing adoption of cloud-based applications at SMBs and how both companies and their employees play a role in the selection of most services.
Cbeyond has released the results of its Summer 2013 Cbeyond Business Leader Snapshot, a blind survey of 711 executives who run a business with 1-250 employees. The survey was released at a most fitting time, as this is National Small Business Week! Check out our related blog on this topic that we posted up earlier this week on this cool celebration.
VaultLogix said today that is going to offer a free month of its backup services to all new customers signing one-year contracts from now through July 31, 2013.
Not a month shall pass without a BlackBerry Z10 update; a few items to report this month.
(Click on the accompanying image to hear more about Harry Jr.'s full BlackBerry Z10 review).
Yesterday marked the beginning of National Small Business Week, which since 1963, has been recognizing the critical contributions of America’s entrepreneurs and small business owners. In conjunction with the Small Business Administration (SBA) Microsoft is hosting its National Small Business Week activities, which began yesterday at its Redmond Campus.
Late last week Microsoft broke bread with Apple when its Office 365 application was released on the Apple App Store (read our blog here for the back story). Here is my experience thus far using the application.
Note: Click on the accompanying image for a quick video on this new app.
ClickFuel, the provider of Fuel Station, a marketing analytics and performance management solution for SMBs today released its new iOS mobile app, Market Link, a lead tracking tool available for SMBs through ClickFuel’s media partners. For SMB owners, responding too slowly to a potential customer could mean losing out on revenue that is important to the growth of the business. ClickFuel’s app helps SMBs track, grade and respond to incoming leads, providing a vital tool to help grow businesses on the go.
If you didn’t already know, today marks Small Business Week across the US. SMB Nation is supporting this celebration, which is kicking off today. In fact, industry players, such as Microsoft have partnered with the SBA to hold the first of various events celebrating this week.
In addition, in support of this special week, various companies in our space are offering special deals and incentives. Phone.com said it will offer a free second phone number promotion for small businesses. Available to new customers for a limited time, the second number - commonly used for toll-free or fax lines - is one of the company’s most requested features.
We heard today from Intronis that it is expanding its support for virtualized environments via immediate availability of its Spring Release ’13. Simultaneously, the cloud backup provider announced the opening of its latest data center in Montreal, Canada.
New features within Intronis’ Spring Release ’13 include QuickSpin, a data recovery tool that offers advanced data restore and localized recovery support for virtualized machines. Priced at a fixed per-host cost, QuickSpin offers Change Block Tracking (CBT) for speedier incremental backups, flexible data retention and archiving settings, as well as 256-bit AES encryption for maximum data protection.
Earlier today, it was announced that AVG Technologies has agreed to acquire the business of LPI. Below are a few thoughts on what MSPs should be thinking about going forward, now that the papers have been signed, and things will undoubtedly change in the near future.
Trustworthy? I know both companies well, and when you introduce an acquisition into the mix, it can alter the culture of the combined companies. In fact, if you don’t mind a Pocket MBA moment, most mergers fail due to cultural (not financial) reasons. Grading trustworthiness, I’d give LPI high marks and AVG nearly the same. I do think this merger makes more since than the worst-kept-secret-in-the-SMB-channel possible merger of Symantec = LPI (obviously this acquisition did not occur). You grade Symantec for yourself as a long-term, trustworthy channel vendor, and you’ll have your overall answer about the goodness of fit between AVG and LPI.
(Pictured): Peter Sandiford, LPI's CEO, announced this morning that his company was acquired by AVG Technologies.
Veeam Backup Management Suite Now Available to Hosting, Managed Service and Cloud Providers as a Monthly Per-VM Rental or for Purchase
Veeam Backup Management Now Available Monthly to Hosting, MSP, Cloud Providers
Veeam Software said that it has expanded its Veeam Cloud Provider (VCP) program with the addition of Veeam Backup Management Suite. The VCP program offers flexible monthly and perpetual licensing to meet the needs of hosting, managed service and cloud providers.
The Veeam Cloud Provider program currently has more than 3,000 participants worldwide. Monthly rental by the virtual machine (VM) is available in more than 70 countries from more than 50 Veeam rental resellers, while perpetual licenses are available from thousands of Veeam resellers around the world.
IceWEB Storage Corporation, known for its Unified Data Storage appliance for cloud and virtual environments, as well as IceBOX BYOD Private Digital Cloud Solution, is keeping cool with the release of IceBOX version 2.0.
This new software release provides critical features and updates to the best Private Digital Cloud solution in the marketplace, IceWEB, Inc.’s IceBOX.
The list of new features includes:
GFI Software today announced the latest release of its GFI MAX Managed Antivirus solution, incorporating the latest VIPRE anti-malware technology, and the launch of a free malware removal service for MSPs using the product.
Malware protection in GFI MAX – which is already used by MSPs to protect more than 250,000 endpoints worldwide – is based on the award-winning VIPRE from ThreatTrack Security and can be delivered as a stand-alone service or as part of the GFI MAX RemoteManagement portfolio. Managed service providers using the latest version of GFI MAX Managed Antivirus will now get a malware removal service FREE of charge, such is the company’s confidence that the new and improved anti-malware technology in VIPRE can stop tough and hard-to-detect malware.
In developing the 11th Annual SMB Nation Fall conference (fall.smbnation.com), we surveyed our best customers on what content was in demand. One conversation with Andrejs Zommers from AMZ resulted in the following insight. He shared that a few years back, AMD conducted a one-day roadshow that had a cohesive content framework, the likes of which he hasn’t witnessed at other events, including SMB Nation. He spoke of how the first session in the morning tied to the second session, and so on. By the end of the day, the final session related to all of the prior sessions, and the attendees left knowing something. As he spoke, I know he spoke the truth. Why? Because I attended this AMD event with Van Aubuchon, a longtime friend of SMB Nation.
Happy Friday, folks!
I would like to ask for your help. Microsoft VFI, a community dedicated towards fostering education and political representation for the SMB IT space, has an important request: to write a letter on the STEM education matter.
Leading MSPs don’t want me to tell you about the following for these reasons:
SO WHAT IS THE SECRET?
Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. The 11th annual Fall conference has been re-architected incorporating community feedback on what you want a three-day, independent SMB technology conference to be. It’s resulted in a new approach to align with new emerging technologies, business models and conference formats.
Born in the cloud, Autotask continues to articulate a surprisingly clear cloud strategy. That was my take having dissected Autotask from top to bottom this week at its Fifth Annual Autotask Community Live! event in Scottsdale, AZ. Top cloud takeaways that are of a concern to both MSPs and SBSers are noted below.
Pictured at right: Mark Cattini on stage earlier this week at Autotask Community Live!
His mother would be proud. As a young boy growing up on the streets of Brooklyn, who would have imagined that Len DiCostanzo would now, in 2013, be taking the stage (as Autotask's SVP for Business Development) in front of hundreds of attendees at Autotask Community Live! held at the 5-Star Princess Fairmont Resort in Scottsdale this week.
It is always a validation when a technology solution spawns a cottage industry of new jobs surrounding it. For example – a lifetime ago, the first release of Visual Basic resulted in employment advertisements in the Sunday paper for VB programmers! Myself and the VB team at Microsoft were dazed and amazed. Such is the case with Autotask, a PSA solution for MSPs. The company is holding this week its 5th annual conference, for Autotask Live users, at the Princess Fairmont in Scottsdale, AZ, and reporting more than 600 attendees.
In an interview earlier this week with Thomas Gallivan, Vice President of Marketing at Western Digital, I had the chance to learn more about the company’s new Sentinel RX4100 device, as well as how WD plans to function in the SMB Channel. Needless to say, it was an interesting conversation. I learned that WD is currently celebrating 15 months in the SMB space, where they are supporting SMB Storage Servers.
There is a famous line I recall from the hit HBO series “The Sopranos,” that ended in mid-2007, about having fun where you can find it. When I recently interviewed executives from both Concur and Regus, I couldn’t help but think that we should all find synergy where we can. That is – the recent partnership between Concur and Regus is true synergy.
What a long, strange trip it’s been. We helped Cisco develop “Thunderbolt,” which later became the basis for the OnPlus product. OnPlus is/was (more on that in a moment) a remote network management tool to remotely monitor, manage and maintain small business networks. Think of it was an RMM with MMM!
Dell said that it will now enable Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V as a viable hypervisor choice for the OpenStack cloud platform. This development, which is the first instance of a technology vendor enabling Windows Server Hyper-V hypervisor on OpenStack for private clouds, will give customers additional flexibility and choice to run OpenStack workloads within their existing Windows Server environments.
Welcome to the real world. Sure, there are plenty of early BlackBerry 10 mobile device reviews being posted up. Fancy test labs are dissecting and reverse engineering the hottest mobile device on the market. However, at SMB Nation, we’re taking our testing the streets and have been giving the product a real world test.
Pictured: 14-year-old Harry Jr., with his BlackBerry Z10 device.
There are two things I look forward to each quarter. First: The quarterly earnings report for numerous companies on CNBC, the financial network. Second: The quarterly update from Cindy Bates. The first can disappoint; the latter never does.
(Pictured): Cindy Bates accepts her SMB 150 Award at this year's Awards Gala earlier this month at Microsoft's Redmond Campus.
The good news is that the annual BlackBerry conference, known as BlackBerry Live (formerly BlackBerry World) was held in Florida last week. The bad news is that because Florida is so pleasant, events held there always compete with the sun and beach. However, that didn’t stop our own Chris Bangs from attending as press and filing this report.
To this day, there is still an opportunity for a “void filler” to satisfy the demand for telecom in small business, created by the abrupt departure of Microsoft Response Point in 2009/2010, and the slow fade of the Cisco small business phone systems a la its refocus on the enterprise. The very first one in the world was awarded to Jamison West (pictured at right in white shirt), a Seattle-based MSP, as part of the SMB Nation Spring Conference prize drawings.
AVG today added two new applications in its mobile portfolio-- AVG Cleaner and AVG Image Shrinker. The aspps are now available for free for Android smartphones and tablets.
AVG Cleaner allows users to monitor storage availability on their device and clean cache and unnecessary browser history files to free up memory and make more space. The application includes tools to automatically monitor device memory and storage, remove files, and schedule regular clean ups to keep the device running smoothly.
We heard today that Yahoo! and Tumblr have made plans to agree on Yahoo!’s $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr…in an “interesting” admission, Yahoo! said in a media statement that it plans to “not screw up” the acquisition!”
Per the agreement and its promise not to screw it up, Tumblr will be independently operated as a separate business. David Karp will remain CEO. The product, service and brand will continue to be defined and developed separately with the same Tumblr commitment to empower creators.
Earlier this week, HP announced its pledge to assist government agencies to maximize storage investments with new offerings that include the next generation of its MSA entry disk array, enhancements to the HP StoreEasy Storage portfolio and a new program for HP channel partners.
The new HP MSA 2040 Storage system simplifies management and improves performance up to four times faster than traditional external disk storage solutions. The enhanced HP StoreEasy Storage portfolio enables SMBs to efficiently manage and protect increasing amounts of file data without the need for special skills.
Inspired by this week's news that Google is unifying storage across its products, Barracuda Networks announced is getting bold with a new program designed to increase the amount of free cloud storage for its own Copy users from 5GB to 15GB. Copy is a new online file syncing, sharing and storage service built on the secure Barracuda Cloud. Since its public debut less than 90 days ago, Copy already is approaching half a million users worldwide.
Spiceworks revealed in a survey that while SMBs show strong support for BYOD initiatives, they still see the technology as a security threat due to employee loss, theft of misuse of mobile devices.
The Spiceworks study “As BYOD Becomes Mainstream, Complexity Increases for SMBs,” revealed that 61 percent of SMBs have implemented a BYOD policy. However, despite this shift toward greater support, only 37 percent are managing or plan to manage mobile devices using a mobile device management (MDM) offering. The independent study was sponsored by Fiberlink, a leading provider of mobility management solutions for businesses.
Long-time SMB Nation friend Matt Landis, a Microsoft MVP in the Lync telecom/UC area, posted up the results of an informal survey about higher education and the computer guy. The results are disturbing and warrant further analysis. When asked about graduate school, his IT experts universally replied NO THANKS! You can read his original work here.
I disagree. Consider the following...
The role of IT in setting strategic priorities and achieving business success is growing for companies around the world, according to new research released today by CompTIA. According to the trade organization’s research, more than three-quarters of businesses say technology is important or very important to their success; the majority plan solid increases in IT spending this year; and four in 10 have expectations of hiring new IT staff in 2013.
CompTIA’s International Technology Adoption & Workforce Issues study is the result of a survey of more than 1,250 business and IT executives in countries around the world, some with mature economies and others, maturing.
Birch Communications alerted us this morning that it has signed an asset purchase agreement to acquire select customer and network assets from Lightyear Network Solutions, Inc.
As a provider of data, voice and Wi-Fi telco services to SMBs, Lightyear is expected to close this, its 18th acquisition since 2006, during Q3 this year.
As part of my political exploration and participation in the Microsoft “Voices for Innovation” (VFI) political trade association and its closely related PAC, I’m invited to the best free lunches on the block. Seriously – VFI works with the PAC to bring in super speakers to Microsoft Redmond. This is my third such lunch event and the featured speaker this time was Sidney Rittenberg.
VaultLogix is now offering a free trial of its business-class MobilePlus service, which provides backup, recovery and data protection for mobile workers’ Windows and Mac laptops and desktops.
ManageEngine said today that it has added change auditing and mailbox access monitoring to Exchange Reporter Plus, its Exchange server reporting software. Now, Exchange Reporter Plus can report and alert on critical Exchange events that carry security or compliance implications. In turn, organizations can use Exchange Reporter Plus to implement or enhance an email security and compliance program that easily demonstrates regulatory compliance and prevents data leaks.
Sophos today announced the availability of Sophos UTM Connected, the latest version of its UTM solution. This release introduces expanded UTM managed endpoint protection with unique Web in Endpoint functionality, broader wireless coverage for large scale wireless deployments and higher performance networking.
You and I have chosen a “geek life,” and we must live with the consequences. That means the SMB landscape changes very fast and can surprise even ardent analysts, much less day-to-day practitioners. Almost in a stealth mode, Dell has acquired several capable SMB players as it works to build a comprehensive solutions portfolio.
Shortly after returning from the SMB 150 awards and the SMB Nation Spring Conference in Redmond, WA, prominent and long-time SMB community member Alan Shrater passed away quietly at his home on Wednesday afternoon, May 8th.
(At right): Alan Shrater at Microsoft Redmond this past weekend.
Every conference has a certain vibe. The just-completed 7th annual SMB Nation Spring Conference is no exception. The last session on the last day (“KEY4 Microsoft SMB: Strategies for On-Premise and Cloud Solutions-Hybrid IT - Kevin Beares, Steven Banks and Cliff Galiher”) summed it up best: Eat your broccoli.
We released the new PC Pitstop white paper at the SMB Nation Spring conference. I know the details intimately as I wrote the paper! It is focused on how a well-respected and accepted end point protection suite known for its footprint in the consumer and SoHo market. Bottom line is that the white paper relates to the new PC Pitstop MSP program. It’s a portfolio addition you should strongly consider.
A tip of the hat to our partner ChannelProSMB for its recent SMB Forum in Long Beach, CA. SMB Nation happily supported this second year show. The show presented a balanced attendee/sponsor mix fortified by top speakers. My expectations as a sponsor on the floor were managed and I will repeat. Just my little “Yelp” to get this party started.
Recently I worked yet another weekend horsing around with our CRM system. As part of that database maintenance, I peeked and poked my way around our corpus. In that journey, I discovered that we have over 54,000 customer records. It immediately brought to mind the 1980s “Once in a Lifetime” song from the Talking Heads. In that sonnet, the singer utters: “How did I get here?”
SMB Nation magazine moves to an all-digital format
I just had a telephone call with a longtime industry leader in the SMB community, and I told him that, after seven years in print, SMB Nation magazine was evolving to the digital format favored by readers everywhere. Beyond the traditional arguments for digital content we all know, such as environmental concerns, there are however, even more compelling strategic reasons I want to share with you here regarding this change.
Recently I shared the story that my testing the BlackBerry z10 mobile device had me visit the local AT&T store at the Silverdale Mall to get a new SIMM chip. All good.
At last week’s Channel Pro SMB’s SMB Forum conference, I was again surprised by how attendees visiting my booth are once again, discussing telecom. It seems like just yesteryear we were VoIPing with Microsoft Response Point and the Cisco 3xx line. But this time the conversation is different; it’s more mature. The reality is no one would promote PSTN in a digital world. It’s all sorted out over the years.
Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Hear Ye!
Now is the time to download the latest SMB Nation magazine edition. In Issue 7-3, we focus on the following hot topics:
Click here to download the 7-3 issue!
In case you’ve actually been on an extended Spring break and perhaps missed our recent communication, the Spring Conference is May 3-5 at Microsoft Redmond!
Late last month, Microsoft OEM executive Peter Han (Vice President, US OEM) provided a sneak preview of the April 1 “Touch Win” campaign. Ironically, it’s not an April Fool’s joke. Rather, the “Touch Win” campaign is being adopted by distributors such as D&H Distributing, and DMRs such as CDW.
The one constant in SMB technology is change. That’s what attracted us to this field in the first place!
So when Fine Solutions announced last week it was spinning off a division, FineMSP.com, it made perfect sense. The idea was that, after months of organizing, building and transforming, FineMSP.com is a stand-alone full independent IT services provider (services including full IT support, one-click contact options, portal access).
Some things never get old. Attending one of D&H Distributing’s live events is one of those things. Always good food and lectures, the show, held four times per year in different North American cities, just completed it West Coast show in Los Angeles, last Wednesday, March 14.
