As referenced last week, the long awaited public beta program for Windows Essential Business Server 2008 is now open. Woo-hoo! This is a key milestone in the launch timeline & following yesterday's pricing announcement...

Who are the Australian SBS MVPs? Don't even know what an MVP is? Well here's your chance to find out. The Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award is given to select individuals around the globe in recognition of their voluntary involvement & leadership...

          TechEd 2008 early-bird registration has opened. As per my earlier post I'm happy to announce that we've secured a full SMB Pre-day! This will be filled to the brim with deep technical content around Small Business Server...

And so it come to pass that after 7 years, 7 months & nearly 7 days at Microsoft, I've finally got around to publishing a blog. What follows will be my own thoughts, perceptions, comments & updates on all manner of things connected to the Microsoft...

Third in our series of Australian Small Business Server MVPs is Dean Calvert of Adelaide. Dean's well-known to the worldwide SBS community through his work leading the Adelaide SBS user group & more recently, via his role as the Small Business Specialist...

We're just over 2 months out from the Australian TechEd 2008 SMB Servers pre-day & so the agenda is almost locked. Speakers are almost locked, giveaways are almost locked, sponsors are almost locked & we've almost reached 25% of our attendee target...

Microsoft today released the US pricing for Small Business Server 2008 & Essential Business Server 2008 . Full details on the press release here . In summary, the pricing of the new products is as follows: Windows Small Business Server 2008 Standard...

Get in quick as spots are limited - the first official public showing of Small Business Server 2008 & Essential Business Server 2008 in Australia. With the public beta of EBS 2008 now available & SBS 2008 coming on May 29th (Aussie time), now...

Second in our series of Aussie SBS MVP profiles comes Mick Malloy - aka Super Gumby (don't ask me). Open, passionate & refreshingly honest, Mick is a prolific contributor to the worldwide SBS forums such as http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sbs2k &...

It was good to finally take the wrappers off Small Business Server 2008 last night as local SBS MVP Wayne Small took the Sydney SBS SMB IT Pro group through the first Australian demo of the new kit. Lots of great feedback, ideas for further training &...

Great FAQ for Partners just released covering Small Business Server 2008 & Essential Business Server 2008 - check it out: Windows Essential Server Solutions Partner FAQ The Wayne & I have just finished the Sydney SBS/EBS Partner training &...

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...

Hot on the heals of the EBS 2008 beta , the Small Business Server 2008 public beta is now available for you to download. Using RC0 code, this is your first chance to have a play with the software you've been reading about for the last couple of months...

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...

Hard times. Nervous times. Companies losing confidence & the economy in turmoil. What to do? There's a very strong argument that says organisations should pull back, consolidate, stop spending and just ride out the storm. And that absolutely makes...

I ran the Sydney Half Marathon last weekend & whilst I finished the 21.1km without dying, it really didn’t do too much for my ego. A) It took nearly 2 hours, even though it’s supposed to be one of the easier courses around B) I was lapped by several...

Henry Ford famously quipped that if he had ever asked his customers what they would have liked, they would have said a faster horse. What's this got to do with Small Business Server? Well, not a lot actually apart from the fact that it provides a nice...

As part of our continuing channel readiness efforts please see below details of our upcoming SBS user group tour (unfortunately the Sydney meeting has been & gone - next one on Tuesday, Dec 9th). Entry is free & details on the good work that these...

Just received word that the exclusive SBSC Toolkit shipping with the October Action Pack will include 15 additional CALs for SBS & EBS. Nice. The kits will be at the Microsoft post office from October 24th & so should be with you a few weeks after...

As of tomorrow (Friday), I have exactly one week to go until I finish my MBA . Why am I telling you this? Well, just so as you know that I may be a bit hard to catch over the coming seven days & not as responsive as I'd like to be as I finally climb...

After much planning & taking into account the feedback from the SMB Servers pre-day at TechEd, I'm happy to announce the first round of SBS / EBS hands-on labs has been released: Small Business Server 2008 Essential Business Server 2008 Microsoft...

Now that EBS 2008 has RTM'd , I'm pleased to announce the local Australian estimated retail prices. The specific SKUs & dealer pricing will be available via distribution from November 1st however I acknowledge that partners need to see at least indicative...

Hot on the heels of the hands-on labs we announced last week, you can now check-out the recently recorded Partner Academy Live Technical Training series. Recorded at Corp with a mix of demo & talking-head PPTs, each hour long, downloadable session...