I'm in Houston for the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference this week & there are quite a few announcements coming out. First & foremost - November 12th will be the official public launch date for both SBS 2008 & EBS 2008 . Full details...

Meet Lingan Satkunanathan, our keynote speaker for the TechEd 2008 SMB Servers pre-day on Tuesday, September 2nd. Lingan is the Senior Program Manager for Essential Business Server 2008 meaning he knows the thing inside out, backwards, upside down &...

I'm very happy to announce that every attendee of our SMB Servers day at TechEd Australia 2008 will receive a free copy of the soon to be released Small Business Server 2008 Standard . Not kidding. Yours to take & use to make your first sale on the...

I'm a big fan of show & tell & never is this more important than when trying to translate technology wow into business needs. How do you explain the benefits of Remote Web Workplace to someone with no concept of accessing their info from out of...

Another great Dilbert today (or maybe I just got bored on the plane coming back from WW Partner Conference in Houston - with thanks to Scott Adams ). Anyway, personal insight coming so look away now if you wish. :-) It's particularly relevant to me for...

New article just published on apcmagpro.com by Paul Schnackenburg - long-time IT writer, MCSE & Small Business Server user since v4.0. I really enjoyed reading through this article & whilst there will always be some differences of opinion in such...

Working on the SBS/EBS launch plan, catching up on some MBA reading & getting ready to watch the Swannies once again snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory, & two things strike me: I really need to get out more on Sundays, and Most of the...

I was in in Brisbane overnight for the Synnex reseller roadshow (lots of interest in SBS 2008) & so was flying back to Sydney this morning. What followed was three very annoying examples of customer non-service, all of which have me vowing never to...

                          Here at the Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston & there's a whole area dedicated to SBS 2008 & the new Essential Business Server 2008. Lots of vendor...

Well The Wayne & I have wrapped up the first round of SBS / EBS training & we've posted the presentations below. Wayne's presentations in particular will be useful as there's loads of background information never before seen in Australia. Given...

Good news - the long-awaited DVDs of the SBS 2008 & EBS 2008 betas have arrived. :-) If you've already requested one you should receive your copy in the next couple of days. If you'd like one (either SBS, EBS or both), then send me a mail with your...

Microsoft's VP of SMB, Michael Risse, gave the keynote in yesterday's SMB Partner Forum at the WW Partner Conference in Houston - check here for details. Whilst the deck is obviously designed to be presented live (ie there's space for a demo), I've kept...

Lots of comments & discussion at the moment around Microsoft's recent Software + Services updates & announcements at WPC. Whilst the specific details are still being worked out for Australia, what is clear is these changes are part of the ongoing...

Very timely Dilbert today :-) (with thanks to Scott Adams ) Given the imminent release of SBS 2008 & EBS 2008, now is the time to really start thinking which of your customers (if any), you'll look to upgrade to the new platform. And why. From a tech...

Just announced, Microsoft's FY08 revenues exceeded $60 billion for the first time. As per the earnings announcement , this represents an 18% year-on-year increase & a 32% increase in earnings per share. There's been lots of chatter lately around our...

Great post from my colleague David Overton in the UK. There's loads more on his blog, but the nuts of it are here: " Details of the process can be found in the Windows Small Business Server 2008 technical library .  One of the MOST IMPORTANT...

Both the Small Business Server 2008 & Essential Business Server 2008 betas are proving very popular in Australia & so if you haven't already, now's the time to get started with them. We're currently ranking fourth worldwide & accounting for...

The much anticipated Windows Home Server PowerPack 1 was released overnight - download it here . Power Pack 1 (love that name) provides a bunch of new stuff including: Support for home computers running Windows Vista x64 editions Backup of home server...

Just saw this on the Australian Reseller News site & in the interests of balanced coverage, thought I'd share. Although inaccurate in some regards, it's still a worthwhile read to see how the channel press is perceiving the new release. Note, the...

Less than 6 weeks to go & we're getting close to 50% capacity at the TechEd 2008 SMB Servers day on September 2nd. Latest agenda here & so secure your spot today. Yes, I'm going the hard sell. And yes, $550 is a lot of money. But if you sell SBS...

And the nominations for 2008 Small Business Specialist of the Year are: Business Computing Australia Calvert Technologies Comcity Technology Evolve IT Australia We had a record number of entries this year with consistently high quality, so even being...

UPDATE - in an earlier post today I included the very tentative RTM & in-market dates, which I should not have done. These have now been removed & I'll include details as soon as I can. Robbie     In a follow-up to yesterday's post around...