J.J. Antequino ---------------------------------- Some of you may remember that TS2 was a part of Microsoft Across America many moons ago.  Recently, I’ve had the good fortune to reconnect with a few members of the TechNet team, which was also a part of Microsoft Across America. It’s been great...

J.J. Antequino ---------------------------------- By now, I’m sure most of you are aware that SBS 2011 (Standard & Essentials) is the final version you will be able to purchase (through June of next year)…. but did you know that SBS blog is still alive and well.…. and it’s been updated to include...

Josh Condie – One of the most valuable resources on the Microsoft public domain that I consistently have partners thank me for exposing to them is the Exchange Supportability Matrix.  These are condensed, single page charts providing all the details necessary for implementing a “supported” Exchange...

J.J. Antequino ---------------------------------- If you are in one of the following cities, don’t miss the opportunity to hear about Windows Server 2012 straight from the mouths of our MVPs! Denver Monday, November 12, 2012 8:00 AM-12:00PM Mountain Houston Tuesday, November 27, 2012 8:30 AM-12:30 PM...

  Josh Condie – Below is the schedule for all of the upcoming Practice Accelerator sessions scheduled for next 3 months.  The cost to attend a Practice Accelerator session is now only five Partner Advisory Hours!  A high-value training offering that can help your business expand across...

Josh Condie – Microsoft has just announced the 2 certification paths to receive your MCSE for SQL Server 2012.  These tracks will be built upon the new technical certification redesign that Microsoft introduced just a few months back.  Following the April launch of SQL Server 2012, two new...

Rob Waggoner   Have you ever gone to install an application into a customer’s environment, especially a new customer’s environment, only to find that Active Directory, DNS, or even Exchange isn’t properly configured?  How do you handle that?  How many times has the customer responded to...

By Ron Grattopp …..Of course there will be lots of goodness coming in Windows Server “8” (WS8 for the rest of this post), in fact, we consider it transformational, that is, with WS8 our server technology is making a paradigm shift of sorts away from the traditional focus on an individual physical server...

Rob Waggoner   Here’s the default page for the Windows Server “8” Beta: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/windows-server/v8-default.aspx   The download location for the Windows Server “8” bits is located here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/hh670538.aspx?ocid=&wt...

Rob Waggoner I’ve put together a few quick overviews of different Microsoft Products. Today I wanted to share the overview of Windows Server 2008 R2.  While most of us have been using Windows Server 2008 R2 for a while, hopefully this video will provide a little refresher for you and your customers...

  Ron Grattopp ….. This sounded interesting so thought I’d share.  Microsoft has announced (via  a post on its Building Windows 8 blog ) that Windows 8 will introduce a new file system known as Resilient File System (ReFS) which will include a next generation on-disk storage engine. ...

J.J. Antequino ---------------------------------- Happy New Year everyone!  Hopefully you are already aware of this… but if not, we wanted to make sure you were! A little over a week ago, our SBS team posted : ===== It is our pleasure to announce that starting today the Office 365 Integration Module...

  By Ron Grattopp ….. A few weeks back I blogged about the launch of the SMB Server Experience and Server Selection Tools on the Midsize Business Solution page .  Well, now there is a new site, MyFirstServer.com that’s designed to be a customer-ready resource focused on the small business segment...

  Josh Condie – With the Release Candidate for SQL Server 2012 now available it is now more important than ever that Microsoft effectively communicate the significant licensing changes that are coming with the new release.  Below is the best, concise summary that I have seen. SQL Server 2012...

  By Ron Grattopp ….. I LOVE alliteration and catchy titles, and I hope this title caught your attention because I have some info to share about a new cloud service that I think you’ll want to know about (but probably don’t yet).  A while back I did a post where I mentioned my favorite movie...

  By Ron Grattopp ….. You’ll want to check out the brand new SMB Server Experience and Server Selection Tools on the Midsize Business Solution page (screenshot below) of the microsoft.com Server and Cloud Platform site.  These tools  just launched today and are a unique solution which...

  Woody Walton I love Windows Server 2008 R2!  Like you, I especially love the advanced capabilities resident in the Enterprise and Datacenter editions.  I imagine those of you out there pitching virtualization, high availably, and other similar solutions sell it frequently.  Of course...

Rob Waggoner Should they deploy Windows Server Standard, or Foundation, or should they deploy SBS? If SBS, which one Standard or Essentials? It makes me yearn for the days of Henry Ford when he said People can have the Model T in any...

Rob Waggoner If you bought Windows Server 2008 Foundation or Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation and you’re now out growing it, Microsoft is offering a limited time upgrade to Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard .  Until September 30th, 2011, you can “trade-in” your copy of Foundation for credit toward...

J.J. Antequino ---------------------------------- The SBS team updated their blog with a post that contains some new details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2011/06/30/sbs-2011-essentials-and-office-365-great-value-for-our-customers.aspx The Office 365 Integration module for SBS 2011 Essentials...

  Are you wondering if you should install the SP1 Service Pack for Server 2008 R2 on your SBS 2011 ? YES – it can and should be installed on SBS 2011 Standard edition. What about SBS 2011 Essentials ? – Great question – It is already part of Essentials out of the box. Note - If you download the...

By Ron Grattopp…..I’m excited to announce a limited engagement roadshow co-sponsored by Microsoft and Intel.  You can read the registration blurb below and then follow the “Register now” link to get more information on when and where we will be.  The big thing that will differentiate this tour...

J.J. Antequino ---------------------------------- The team has consolidated some of the most relevant PARTNER facing materials to help you sell SBS 2011: I have included a few of the highlights under each section below: Product References Windows SBS 2011 Family Brochure Why Upgrade to Windows SBS 2011...

  Hope you saw the announcement on the SBS Blog - http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2011/04/05/sbs-2011-essentials-evaluation-now-available-start-downloading-today.aspx SBS Essentials Evaluation Download: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/gg604826.aspx   SBS Essentials and...

J.J. Antequino ---------------------------------- I am absolutely excited that SBS 2011 Essentials is coming soon… and the fact that you don’t have to worry about any CALs makes me even more excited So while we are on the topic of not having to worry about any CALs… it’s only fitting that we take yet...