Microsoft is extending an offer giving free support to small businesses that upgrade to Vista. The deal will now run to the end of the year, with support offered until 31 January.
The offer, marketed as Small Business Assurance, was originally set to expire at the end of September. It’s not clear why Microsoft is extending the deal; in the FAQ section on its website about the offer, it appears to have simply changed the date in the question about why there’s a time limit in the first place. The answer still doesn’t get particularly specific:
Windows Vista Small Business Assurance is designed to help our small business customers make the transition to Windows Vista today. As Windows XP availability begins to wind down, we want small businesses to know we’re behind them to provide special support during this transition period.
The scope of the deal remains unchanged: it’s still limited to US companies with a maximum of 25 PCs or 50 employees, and is still telephone support only.
Most significantly, the deal still only applies to the Business and Ultimate editions of Vista. As we reported last week, while three-quarters of home users have opted for the Premium edition, a surprising 57% of ‘low-end business PCs’ are now running the Home Basic edition.
From Microsoft’s perspective, these aren’t buyers who need to be talked into buying Vista; instead the key to increased revenue is making sure they opt for the more expensive flavors. Keeping the support deal exclusive to the upscale editions could theoretically sway the smallest of businesses.
The problem with this logic is that there’s a good chance businesses running Home Basic do so because they want to keep both hardware and software costs down, so simply don’t have the computing power to reap any benefits from the small business or Ultimate editions. And in any case, there’s still the risk that making free support seem such an important bonus simply draws attention to the problems buyers perceive they might get in running Vista.
Source:vista.blorge.com/2008/10/13/small-business-vista-support-deal-extended/
Monday, October 13, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2: Powering Small Businesses
Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 (SBS 2003 R2) is an update release to the award-winning SBS 2003 product, providing new features to address the growing needs of small businesses.
Keep Your Business Up and Running: SBS 2003 R2 helps secure your network, keep it up and running, and protect your business information, allowing you to spend more time focusing on your business and less time and money on technology issues.
Do More with Less: SBS 2003 R2 offers the technology and tools to help you run your business more efficiently, improve employee productivity, and reduce costs.
Connect with Customers: SBS 2003 R2 helps you communicate in new ways and take better care of your customers by providing tools that help you stay more connected, look and interact more professionally, and manage your customer relationships more effectively.
Get the "Green Check" of Software Health with SBS 2003 R2
SBS 2003 R2 delivers all the current product benefits plus new features, including:
The "green check" of software health indicates that your computers running Microsoft software are up to date or the daily report details actions necessary for attaining "green check" status.
Simplified update management to keep your PCs and servers current with the latest updates, enhancing the security of your network, so you can have peace of mind.
Improved e-mail productivity: increased mailbox limits from 16 gigabytes (GB) to 75 GB, so you can get more from your e-mail communications.
Reduced costs and increased flexibility through expanded client access license (CAL) rights: SBS 2003 R2 entitles you to access additional servers in your network (Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Workgroup, Microsoft Windows Server), saving you money and offering you more flexibility in growth.
How Can You Get SBS 2003 R2?
SBS 2003 R2 is available through original equipment manufacturers (OEM), system builders, resellers and select retailers. Microsoft Partners, especially Microsoft Small Business Specialists, are trained to help.
For Existing Customers
Customers with SBS 2003 can take advantage of the following programs:
SBS customers with Software Assurance are able to obtain SBS 2003 R2 without purchasing a new server license1 for a nominal shipping and handling fee.
SBS customers without Software Assurance are able to purchase a version upgrade SKU via retail, which will enable them to cost-effectively upgrade from any previous version of SBS (4.0, 4.5, 2000, 2003) to SBS 2003 R2. Learn more.
Source:microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/r2/default.mspx
- Benefits of SBS 2003 R2
- Get the "Green Check" of Software Health with SBS 2003 R2
- How Can You Get SBS 2003 R2?
- Learn More
Keep Your Business Up and Running: SBS 2003 R2 helps secure your network, keep it up and running, and protect your business information, allowing you to spend more time focusing on your business and less time and money on technology issues.
Do More with Less: SBS 2003 R2 offers the technology and tools to help you run your business more efficiently, improve employee productivity, and reduce costs.
Connect with Customers: SBS 2003 R2 helps you communicate in new ways and take better care of your customers by providing tools that help you stay more connected, look and interact more professionally, and manage your customer relationships more effectively.
Get the "Green Check" of Software Health with SBS 2003 R2
SBS 2003 R2 delivers all the current product benefits plus new features, including:
The "green check" of software health indicates that your computers running Microsoft software are up to date or the daily report details actions necessary for attaining "green check" status.
Simplified update management to keep your PCs and servers current with the latest updates, enhancing the security of your network, so you can have peace of mind.
Improved e-mail productivity: increased mailbox limits from 16 gigabytes (GB) to 75 GB, so you can get more from your e-mail communications.
Reduced costs and increased flexibility through expanded client access license (CAL) rights: SBS 2003 R2 entitles you to access additional servers in your network (Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Workgroup, Microsoft Windows Server), saving you money and offering you more flexibility in growth.
How Can You Get SBS 2003 R2?
SBS 2003 R2 is available through original equipment manufacturers (OEM), system builders, resellers and select retailers. Microsoft Partners, especially Microsoft Small Business Specialists, are trained to help.
For Existing Customers
Customers with SBS 2003 can take advantage of the following programs:
SBS customers with Software Assurance are able to obtain SBS 2003 R2 without purchasing a new server license1 for a nominal shipping and handling fee.
SBS customers without Software Assurance are able to purchase a version upgrade SKU via retail, which will enable them to cost-effectively upgrade from any previous version of SBS (4.0, 4.5, 2000, 2003) to SBS 2003 R2. Learn more.
Source:microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/r2/default.mspx
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Trend Micro: Don’t buy antivirus software
Trend Micro’s consumer security product manager has recommend people not to buy antivirus products, including his own. But there is a method to his madness, he assures.
David Peterson, consumer segment director for Trend Micro’s ANZ business, said only a handful of the top 10 security threats these days are viruses, with downloaders, Trojans, keyloggers and phishing scams filling up the list.
As such, he believes standalone AV software is best suited for infrequent users of the internet such as dial up users, or those who want protection from nasties on USB keys.
He said standalone AV products are there because the market demands it. “I wish they wouldn’t. I don’t recommend buying antivirus products,” he said, referring to Trend Micro’s and its competitor’s products.
What is important is complete protection. “You are better off get Internet security suites,” he said.
Peterson has support.
“Trend is correct,” said Neil MacDonald, vice president and Gartner Fellow.
“Standalone AV is no longer sufficient for protecting endpoints; however, this does not mean that signature-based mechanisms don’t provide value. They just don’t provide the value they used to and the vendors haven’t adjusted pricing models to reflect the diminished effectiveness of standalone AV,” he said. “The ideal endpoint security product is an endpoint security platform that provides organizations with a variety of styles of protection for endpoints – firewalls, AV, anti-spyware, application control, device control, behavioral monitoring and so on. This enables organizations to pick and choose the styles of protection appropriate to the endpoint – which will likely be different combination for desktops, laptops and servers. Even among severs this will vary by role. “AV is just component of the endpoint security platform.”
Trend Micro joins a swag of security companies to release security suites this month. It’s claims Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security Pro 2009 is significantly faster than last year’s effort. Others released in September include BitDefender Total Security 2009 and BullGuard Internet Security 8.5.
Source:arnnet
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Microway Offers Scalable Server For High Powered Computing
Microway has introduced a scalable server that breaks the barrier for performance and memory size.
The company showed off its NumberSmasher vSMP on Monday at High Performance On Wall Street.
The server has 1,024 GB of shared DRAM for reduced simulation times, preprocessing, and parallel applications. The shared memory configuration is large enough so users can eliminate swap-to-disk for high-powered simulations in science, electronic design automation, mechanical engineering, and research.
The server allows users to manage critical workflows on a modular, scalable system that features Intel Xeon CPU and compiler technology. Intel's latest Fortran and C++ Compiler technology helps the NumberSmasher vSMP deliver more power with higher efficiency and lower total cost of ownership. Microway said that a single Linux operating system and remote server monitoring improve manageability and reliability while offering a choice of threaded or MPI parallelism.
The company recently sold its first NumberSmasher vSMP to the National Institutes of Health. The server was on sale at the conference for $19,995. It features a 16-core, 2U system, 128 GB DRAM -- 667-MHz, 4-TB disk. A modular scalable system offers up to 128 cores (with 32 Intel Xeon Quad Core 3 GHz CPUs -- E5472), up to 1 TB hot-swap hard disk drives and works on Linux OS and Intel Compiler Suite 10.1.
Source:informationweek.com
The company showed off its NumberSmasher vSMP on Monday at High Performance On Wall Street.
The server has 1,024 GB of shared DRAM for reduced simulation times, preprocessing, and parallel applications. The shared memory configuration is large enough so users can eliminate swap-to-disk for high-powered simulations in science, electronic design automation, mechanical engineering, and research.
The server allows users to manage critical workflows on a modular, scalable system that features Intel Xeon CPU and compiler technology. Intel's latest Fortran and C++ Compiler technology helps the NumberSmasher vSMP deliver more power with higher efficiency and lower total cost of ownership. Microway said that a single Linux operating system and remote server monitoring improve manageability and reliability while offering a choice of threaded or MPI parallelism.
The company recently sold its first NumberSmasher vSMP to the National Institutes of Health. The server was on sale at the conference for $19,995. It features a 16-core, 2U system, 128 GB DRAM -- 667-MHz, 4-TB disk. A modular scalable system offers up to 128 cores (with 32 Intel Xeon Quad Core 3 GHz CPUs -- E5472), up to 1 TB hot-swap hard disk drives and works on Linux OS and Intel Compiler Suite 10.1.
Source:informationweek.com
Monday, July 28, 2008
Microsoft to deliver SQL Server 2008 in August
The long wait for SQL Server 2008 is nearly over.
At its Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston on July 9, Bob Kelly, Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Infrastructure Server Marketing, told attendees that SQL Server 2008 will be on the August price list. He said that Microsoft will keep pricing the same for the new release as it is for SQL Server 2005.
Microsoft released the near-final Release Candidate (RC) 0 test build of SQL Server 2008 in early June.
Microsoft officially “launched” SQL Server 2008 in February, alongside Visual Studio 2008 and Windows Server 2008. Earlier this year, Microsoft officials said they were planning to deliver SQL Server 2008 by mid-2008. Company officials changed their guidance a couple of months ago, noting that Microsoft was planning to deliver the final SQL Server 2008 release in the third calendar quarter of 2008.
Kelly also announced that Microsoft has released the near-final Release Candidate (RC) 1 test builds of its Windows Essential Business Server 2008 mid-market server bundle, as well as its Windows Small Business Server 2008 product. Microsoft will make the RC1 builds available for download from the Microsoft Connect site, officials said. The company is planning the official launch of these two servers for November 12; the actual final code will likely hit before that date.
Microsoft also is planning some kind of “official” virtualization launch event in Seattle on September 8, Kelly said, without offering more specifics. On July 8, Microsoft made its Hyper-V hypervisor available on Windows Update for download.
Source:blogs.zdnet.com
At its Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston on July 9, Bob Kelly, Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Infrastructure Server Marketing, told attendees that SQL Server 2008 will be on the August price list. He said that Microsoft will keep pricing the same for the new release as it is for SQL Server 2005.
Microsoft released the near-final Release Candidate (RC) 0 test build of SQL Server 2008 in early June.
Microsoft officially “launched” SQL Server 2008 in February, alongside Visual Studio 2008 and Windows Server 2008. Earlier this year, Microsoft officials said they were planning to deliver SQL Server 2008 by mid-2008. Company officials changed their guidance a couple of months ago, noting that Microsoft was planning to deliver the final SQL Server 2008 release in the third calendar quarter of 2008.
Kelly also announced that Microsoft has released the near-final Release Candidate (RC) 1 test builds of its Windows Essential Business Server 2008 mid-market server bundle, as well as its Windows Small Business Server 2008 product. Microsoft will make the RC1 builds available for download from the Microsoft Connect site, officials said. The company is planning the official launch of these two servers for November 12; the actual final code will likely hit before that date.
Microsoft also is planning some kind of “official” virtualization launch event in Seattle on September 8, Kelly said, without offering more specifics. On July 8, Microsoft made its Hyper-V hypervisor available on Windows Update for download.
Source:blogs.zdnet.com
Monday, July 14, 2008
Technology Support Services
Is there anything more boring than other people's stories of their domestic IT disasters, and their desperate struggle to get an answer out of tech support? No, but I've suffered plenty of these tales in my time - and now it's your turn. Hopefully this will be brief and to the point - and for a technology correspondent to spend some time in tech hell can be instructive for both him and his audience.
So, 10 days ago my wife's e-mail - connected to a domain she bought from our ISP seven years ago - just gave up the ghost. She's a reasonable woman but this left her close to despair. I was deputed to fix things - replacing our 17-year-old director of IT who was out with his mates.
First call was to the ISP. I've no wish to inflict public humiliation in them so let's call this company "Tunnelvision". We've been with them for 12 years but I've grown more and more unhappy with their prices, broadband speeds and service - especially since they were taken over by a larger company who we shall call "Monteverdi". I had suggested moving - but my wife was reluctant, fearing that moving her website and e-mail would be a nightmare.
But the nightmare did indeed begin with a call to Tunnelvision's outsourced call centre somewhere in the Far East. They could only tell me there were no general problems with the network and our issue would be addressed by a "second-line engineer" within a day. When we grew impatient and called back 24 hours later, the story had changed. There was an issue affecting a number of customers - and we should not expect to hear a result for 48 hours.
My patience snapped - and I decided on swift executive action. We were going to switch ISPs - but that would take around 10 days, and in the meantime we would move my wife's domain to another hosting company. She was impressed by my new-found decisiveness.
I contacted a hosting company - this one had 24/7 UK-based support - to get the domain to a safer place. They told me this could happen in a couple of days and then the e-mail would be up and running again. All we had to do was forward an e-mail to Tunnelvision asking them to change the name servers on the domain. So we sent off the e-mail, along with a letter sent by registered post, and we waited. And waited.
Three days on, with nothing happening, I began an extraordinary series of phone calls all around the Tunnelvision - or rather Monteverdi - empire. First, customer service. "Not us, speak to our domains registration business." "Nothing to do with us," said the next lot, "speak to the hosting company, Tunnelvision Solutions." No solution there either: "Never heard of your domain, go back to customer service." "Sorry, we know nothing about domains," said customer service, "speak to technical support in the Far East."
Then a long, long call to technical support (interspersed with much Vivaldi while on hold) which ended with the message that the only option was to e-mail domains@tunnelvision.net. "But that's where we started three days ago," I screamed. "Is there no phone number for the domains department?" No.
In desperation, I started posting messages on the Twitter micro-blogging service about our problem. Within minutes, lots of kind Twitters were proffering advice, much of it very learned. But without a response from Tunnel vision, we could do nothing. Then a few hours later came a call from the company itself. Their PR people had spotted my anguished Twittering and wondered if they could help. Yes, yes, yes, please! But that was Thursday. Friday brought no advance - except for an request to resend the original e-mail detailing the required change in name servers.
On Monday morning I'm still awaiting the call to say the domain has been successfully moved. And if it isn't done today, I will be sleeping on a park bench tonight - there's only so many excuses I can make for my failure to get the domestic IT set-up running smoothly again.
So a typically boring tale - but with some lessons informing my future purchasing.
1. Customer service, not just price or speed, should be a major factor when choosing a supplier.
2. I want to be able to speak to my supplier, night and day - and get a clear response. In future I will test companies' call centres before I sign up.
3. I will be wary if a supplier is taken over by another firm. "Hosting is no longer a core part of Monteverdi's offering," was what one person at the firm told me. In other words we may have taken your supplier but don't expect us to care about all that tedious stuff you bought from them years ago.
4. Shouting about bad customer service can work. I was lucky this time - my ravings were spotted by a PR person who recognised my name. All anyone can do is make as much noise as possible.
5. Err, I'm sure you too have a long tale to tell about your domestic IT nightmare - but can it wait a few days? I'm still getting over mine.
So, 10 days ago my wife's e-mail - connected to a domain she bought from our ISP seven years ago - just gave up the ghost. She's a reasonable woman but this left her close to despair. I was deputed to fix things - replacing our 17-year-old director of IT who was out with his mates.
First call was to the ISP. I've no wish to inflict public humiliation in them so let's call this company "Tunnelvision". We've been with them for 12 years but I've grown more and more unhappy with their prices, broadband speeds and service - especially since they were taken over by a larger company who we shall call "Monteverdi". I had suggested moving - but my wife was reluctant, fearing that moving her website and e-mail would be a nightmare.
But the nightmare did indeed begin with a call to Tunnelvision's outsourced call centre somewhere in the Far East. They could only tell me there were no general problems with the network and our issue would be addressed by a "second-line engineer" within a day. When we grew impatient and called back 24 hours later, the story had changed. There was an issue affecting a number of customers - and we should not expect to hear a result for 48 hours.
My patience snapped - and I decided on swift executive action. We were going to switch ISPs - but that would take around 10 days, and in the meantime we would move my wife's domain to another hosting company. She was impressed by my new-found decisiveness.
I contacted a hosting company - this one had 24/7 UK-based support - to get the domain to a safer place. They told me this could happen in a couple of days and then the e-mail would be up and running again. All we had to do was forward an e-mail to Tunnelvision asking them to change the name servers on the domain. So we sent off the e-mail, along with a letter sent by registered post, and we waited. And waited.
Three days on, with nothing happening, I began an extraordinary series of phone calls all around the Tunnelvision - or rather Monteverdi - empire. First, customer service. "Not us, speak to our domains registration business." "Nothing to do with us," said the next lot, "speak to the hosting company, Tunnelvision Solutions." No solution there either: "Never heard of your domain, go back to customer service." "Sorry, we know nothing about domains," said customer service, "speak to technical support in the Far East."
Then a long, long call to technical support (interspersed with much Vivaldi while on hold) which ended with the message that the only option was to e-mail domains@tunnelvision.net. "But that's where we started three days ago," I screamed. "Is there no phone number for the domains department?" No.
In desperation, I started posting messages on the Twitter micro-blogging service about our problem. Within minutes, lots of kind Twitters were proffering advice, much of it very learned. But without a response from Tunnel vision, we could do nothing. Then a few hours later came a call from the company itself. Their PR people had spotted my anguished Twittering and wondered if they could help. Yes, yes, yes, please! But that was Thursday. Friday brought no advance - except for an request to resend the original e-mail detailing the required change in name servers.
On Monday morning I'm still awaiting the call to say the domain has been successfully moved. And if it isn't done today, I will be sleeping on a park bench tonight - there's only so many excuses I can make for my failure to get the domestic IT set-up running smoothly again.
So a typically boring tale - but with some lessons informing my future purchasing.
1. Customer service, not just price or speed, should be a major factor when choosing a supplier.
2. I want to be able to speak to my supplier, night and day - and get a clear response. In future I will test companies' call centres before I sign up.
3. I will be wary if a supplier is taken over by another firm. "Hosting is no longer a core part of Monteverdi's offering," was what one person at the firm told me. In other words we may have taken your supplier but don't expect us to care about all that tedious stuff you bought from them years ago.
4. Shouting about bad customer service can work. I was lucky this time - my ravings were spotted by a PR person who recognised my name. All anyone can do is make as much noise as possible.
5. Err, I'm sure you too have a long tale to tell about your domestic IT nightmare - but can it wait a few days? I'm still getting over mine.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Windows Small Business Server
Announced back in February, previewed and priced in May, the business products built on Windows Server 2008 from the Windows Essential Server Solutions product line (all-in-one IT solutions designed for small and midsize businesses) now have a release date. Windows Small Business Server 2008 (for up to 75 PCs) and Windows Essential Business Server 2008 (for up to 300 PCs) will be released on November 12, 2008, Steven VanRoekel, senior director of the Windows Server Solutions group at Microsoft, said today at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference.
The announcement comes as the Release Candidate 1 milestone for both products is almost finished. Those interested in prerelease versions of Small Business Server 2008 and Essential Business Server 2008 can still sign up to download and evaluate them.
VanRoekel also took the time to reveal that "AMD, Dell, HP, IBM, and Intel are all demonstrating systems at the Worldwide Partner Conference this week. Fujitsu Siemens Computers and Wortmann AG in Europe also plan to deliver products built on both of the solutions. HP, IBM and Intel are integrating their hardware management software with Essential Business Server."
Software development kits and other resources will be available to software vendors via sources like MSDN, and of course products and software currently compatible with Server 2008 should work just fine with Windows SBS 2008 and Windows ESB 2008. In the next year, Microsoft will be training more than 25,000 partners through events and online tools.
Microsoft is putting a lot on the line with the launch of these two products, and this doesn't come as a big surprise if you remember how big the small and midsize business market is and how steadily it is growing. See the interview with VanRoekel below for more insight on Microsoft's plan to move into this niche.
Source: arstechnica.com/journals
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