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...

Josh Condie - Exchange Server 2013 will be available next week, and comes with many new features as well as improvements on existing features that are already familiar to those who have worked with Exchange Server 2010. In a nutshell: Great new experiences in the touch-friendly Outlook 2013, as well...

Josh Condie - Practice Accelerator is a Microsoft offering designed to help partners build a technical services practice around Microsoft solutions. Practice Accelerator is a comprehensive set of reusable tools, resources, and best practices introduced in training delivered via Microsoft Live Meeting...

  Josh Condie – If you have just begun to sell Microsoft Online Services such as Office 365 and are looking for the deep guidance to accelerate your new practice, then this course is just what you need.  You will learn about all of the programs and resources available to you and your customers...

  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 – Yesterday, Microsoft announced Office 365 for Government.  This represents a great opportunity for our SMB partner community, especially at the local and regional government level.  Small State and Local Government entities are the perfect candidates for secure and private cloud...

  Josh Condie - Practice Accelerator is a Microsoft offering designed to help partners build a technical services practice around Microsoft solutions. Practice Accelerator is a comprehensive set of reusable tools, resources, and best practices introduced in training delivered via Microsoft Live...

J.J. Antequino ---------------------------------- You’ve heard me say it before….. Lync is a killer app…. it’s a deal closer. Whether you use it in the cloud with Office 365 or install it on-premise, Lync will provide value to every business. Within the last month, I have visited with many partners who...

Rob Waggoner Steve Deming Steve and I sat down and put together a demo of Lync 2010. It’s one thing to talk about it, but seeing is believing. Take a look at this video and let us know what you think! Just a bit of background… During this demonstration, I...

Rob Waggoner Need a quick overview of the Microsoft Unified Communications Solution?  I’ve put together a video just for you! I mention a few items in the video, they are: Messaging Competency Communications Competency The Unified Communications Business Value Assessment Download Microsoft Lync...

  Woody Walton In my role as a Partner Technology Advisor for Microsoft Corporation I work as a generalist as it relates to our technology stack.  Basically, I am expected to know and be able to speak intelligently about all of our core business solutions across the full spectrum from productivity...

By Ron Grattopp ….. Hopefully, by now we’ve laid the foundation of why a customer should be interested in UC in general, as well as why they should specifically be interested in the Microsoft UC&C solution in particular. Before moving to our Lync discussion, let me again highlight a couple of key...

By Ron Grattopp    ….. OK, so last post I laid the foundation of “productivity” as the underlying theme on which we can then layer the messages around Unified Communication AND Collaboration.   The Collaboration component of UC&C is built around our rapidly growing SharePoint...

By Ron Grattopp    ….. My teammate JJ just did a great post on Lync (specifically Lync Online which you get with Office 365) where he pointed out, rightly so, that Lync is a game changer .   I’ve just come off several weeks of training for one of our major distribution partners...

  Got a question about Exchange 2010 and the Database size limit: The default database size limit for Exchange 2010 Standard Edition is 1024 gigabytes (GB), which equals 1 TB. There is no default database size limit for the Exchange 2010 Enterprise Edition. The Exchange store checks any database...

Posted by Charles Van Heusen I’ve been doing a fair amount of research for the past few months looking for a wireless headset solution that I could use as my primary headset in my home office to connect with my desk phone as well as a softphone solution to connect to Office Communicator 2007 and Lync...

Q: (from Willie) I know that the Enterprise CAL is not a prerequisite of the Plus CAL, but if the customer only wanted voice functionality would they still need the Standard CAL (I feel confident the answer is yes, but I could not find it in the licensing guide and I didn’t want to assume)? Is there...

  Exchange 2010 Upgrade and Deployment (HOLO)   This 300 level hands-on labs online course (including seven hands-on labs) will prepare learners with the knowledge to engage with customers to help them implement best practices for smooth Exchange 2010 upgrades and deployments. These hands-on...

Q: (from Bill) I was looking at a telephone system for which they demonstrated "presence." I asked if was compatible with Microsoft's presence, and he said it depended on whether MS is xmpp compatible. Is it? If not, what protocols does MS presence require? A: I had a great time researching...

  Gartner MarketScope for E-mail Systems, 2010 (Gartner Research, August 12, 2010)   Microsoft received a “strong positive” rating in the 2010 Gartner MarketScope for E-mail Systems . The report evaluates the major e-mail vendors and Gartner found “E-mail/calendar systems are the most important...

Are you connected ? Microsoft® Lync™, formerly Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) and Microsoft Communicator, delivers on the vision of a truly integrated communications experience.   Lync is about connecting people in new ways, anytime, anywhere.   Microsoft Lync ushers in a new...

Q: (from John) We are looking into Exchange 2010 and would like to get a list of all the differences between Enterprise and Standard versions.  Also, we need to know is some of the Enterprise features such as Integrated Archiving, Multi-mailbox search and legal hold, and advanced journaling are...

Q: (from Marc) I have a client who wants to do some discovery and possibly host it (SharePoint) themselves. A: If they want to pilot their own trial, we have a free download that you can host on their hardware: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ee388573.aspx If they just want to play with...

Q: (from Marc) We are at it again this time scheduled to do one on SharePoint 2010!  Are there any good decks that you may be able to recommend?  We would like to focus on the benefits and business value for SharePoint then probably end it with a virtual demo. A: When it comes to a SharePoint...

Q: (from Shawn) Will Exchange 2010 work on Windows Server 2003 R2? A: It appears my initial guess of “No” was right: Operating system ―Microsoft Windows Server 2008 x64 Standard and Enterprise Edition with Service Pack 2 or Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard and Enterprise Edition. From the Exchange...