MidMarket Events : Products

Run IT on a Virtual Hard Disk

MMEvents — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:47:00 GMT

The Microsoft VHD format is the common virtualization file format that provides a uniform product support system, and provides more seamless manageability, security, reliability and cost-efficiency for customers. This month we are featuring the following hard drives:

Forefront codenamed "Stirling"

Exchange Server 2007 SP1

Windows Vista Enterprise 30-Day Edition VHD

Check out these and many more for download here.

Thanks,

Stephanie

Windows Server Virtualization Calculators

MMEvents — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 22:06:00 GMT

Here is a great tool to calculate/estimate the number of Windows Server licenses needed for your virtualization scenarios to help determine the most cost-effective edition of Windows Server. Click here to access the tool.

Thanks,

Indy

The Benefits of Software-as-a-Service Model

MMEvents — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 01:24:00 GMT

When you come out for our Momentum events this quarter, you not only get lunch but you get an ongoing discussion of Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite of products that can be hosted for your company. I came across an article that covers the benefits that I mention when I am speaking to you at our events. It has been published for a while but the benefits still apply and are right on the mark. Here is some of the article:

Analysts claim that by 2010 30% of new software will be delivered via a Saas model. Some of the benefits that you get out of going towards a Software-as-a-Service model include:

The cost of entry is low. Instead of paying lots of money to roll out complex technology across the entire company, customers can roll out just one test department of, say, 20 people. The risk is very low if it fails, and the company doesn't have to involve its busy IT staff.
The onus is on the vendor. If the vendor's software is broken, the vendor won't be getting money from any customer for long. The vendor is motivated to fix the problem.
The vendor works for the buyer. Customers don't have to rely on their IT departments to install an application. Everything is running securely at the vendor's location.
Less-risky investment. Instead of spending $60,000 all at once, for example, customers pay for the software monthly. The monetary risk is lower and less scary.
Vendors must provide a secure data environment, or they're out of a job. Most vendors understand that data must be backed up religiously, and security is the top priority. Customers' IT departments are typically pulled in many directions and can't be as focused on one technology. Customers can assume their data security is probably safer when it's hosted.

These are some good reasons for considering the Software-as-a Service model. The article also includes some questions that you can ask your software vendor when determining whether on-premise or hosted is right for your business. Read the entire article here.

See you in Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, and Washington DC this week. Go to www.msmmevents.com to register and get location information. Click on "Where is Momentum Today".

Thanks,

Stephanie

Social Networking is Going Corporate

MMEvents — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 00:44:00 GMT

As I was reading newspapers this past week, I came across a great article that gave some good insight as to how businesses are adjusting in order to continue to be successful and keep their workforces "together". Internal social networks makes sense as companies struggle with a slumping economy that has made travel cost-prohibitive even as workforces are spread out as never before. No, we are not just packing it in and going home or shutting down. Companies are asking themselves "How can we make our workforce more productive?" Well, the popularity of social networking has been used more and more over the past few months to improve productivity and communication among workers. Public sites include Facebook and Linked-in. An employee-only site, or intranet, is an excellent format for geographically dispersed organizations to communicate and elicit ideas from their peers and co-workers. Studies show that 85% of all employees work on projects with colleagues in other offices. Private social networks let people choose what they want to read and discuss, based on their participation, without being intrusive and annoying. They also cut down on unnecessary e-mail and instant messages among co-workers, and the sites can be accessed over the Internet.

So if you have been wondering just how you can keep your dispersed workforce together when travel may not be the best option, think about social networks. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 has great social networking capabilities and it enables you to maximize the use of what you currently have in your environment. There is no need to purchase another component if you are already running Office SharePoint Server 2007. If you are running Windows Sever 2003 or 2008, then you are already licensed to run Windows SharePoint Services v3, which is the prerequisite of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. It provides the foundation for having that centralized collaborative environment. Windows SharePoint Server v3 is a free download if you are currently on v2.

Maximize what you currently have and save money and increase productivity at the same time. I you want to know more about Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, please see our home page that has lots of resources for you – here.

Have a great weekend.

Stephanie

Silverlight 2 is Now Available!

MMEvents — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:03:00 GMT

This week we announced the availability of Silverlight 2, the industry's most comprehensive technology for creating and delivering .NET-based rich Web experiences. Many are already taking advantage of Silverlight's benefits to deliver truly amazing and differentiated Web experiences – ranging from HD video, unparalleled animation, interactivity via Deep Zoom, and the programming possibilities using the power of .NET technology.

In addition, many are taking advantage of our world class and cost-effective video streaming, application delivery, and developer and designer tools to create great user experiences on Silverlight. . You can download Silverlight 2 from http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/resources/install.aspx?v=2.0.30523

Enjoy!

Dawn

Making Sense of Unified Communications

MMEvents — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:03:00 GMT

During the event in Gettysburg, we had a great discussion of the Unified Communications technologies. Here are the discussion high points, and some additional licensing information:

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 is the first Microsoft product to combine enterprise-ready IM (instant messaging), presence, conferencing via Live Meeting, and VoIP (Voice over IP) telephony in a fully integrated unified communications solution. Office Communications Server 2007 provides rich presence capabilities, enhanced support for group IM, and easy deployment and management tools. Office Communications Server 2007 also includes real-time conferencing hosted on servers inside your organization's firewall and a full-featured, software-powered VoIP solution that can stand on its own or integrate easily with an existing PBX infrastructure.

Office Communications Server 2007 is available in two editions, Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition:

Standard Edition. Hosts all server components, as well as the database for storing user and conference information, on a single computer. Standard Edition provides full functionality for small organizations.
Enterprise Edition. Separates server functionality from data storage to achieve higher capacity and availability. An Enterprise Edition pool typically consists of two or more Front End Servers, which are fronted by a hardware load balancer and connected to a Back-End Database. (It is also possible to deploy a single Front End Server without a load balancer.) Optionally, certain conferencing components can be deployed on separate computers for higher capacity and availability. Enterprise Edition is appropriate for medium, large, and very large organizations.

Thanks!

Dawn

Second Shot now offers two incentives to get certified!

MMEvents — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 02:20:00 GMT

Today, Second Shot provides the benefit of a free retake if you fail a Microsoft Certification exam.

From October 15 – December 31, 2008, you will also be rewarded for passing the exam!

If you pass, you can now use the Second Shot offer to enjoy 25% off a different exam!

The Offer – 3-easy steps :

Register for Second Shot offer and sit for the exam by December 31, 2008!
If you fail the exam you will receive a free retake exam that can be utilized until June 30, 2008

3. If you Pass, you will get 25% off a second exam. You have until February 28, 2009 to utilize the discounted exam.

Note: If you pass the first exam but fail your 25% off second exam, you will not get a free retake on your second exam.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/offers/secondshot/default.mspx

Thanks,

Indy

Windows Essential Business Server 2008 (EBS) –Part 1

MMEvents — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 05:11:00 GMT

What is Windows Essential Business Server?

Windows Essential Business Server (EBS) offers an integrated business solution for midsize businesses. Those of you are familiar with Windows Small Server (SBS) can easily relate to Windows Essential Business Server (EBS) as the big brother of SBS. Unlike in SBS, EBS allows you to install entire solution/software (Active Directory, Exchange 2007, System Center Essentials, etc) on multiple servers. Let's take a look at the primary business goals of the EBS solution;

Designed and Priced for Midsize Businesses

Simplify your daily activities with a Centralized Administration Console that gives you a single point of access to your IT environment.
Enjoy significant costs savings compared to stand-alone products.
Be productive while working both in and away from the office with remote access, anti-spam, and antivirus protection, and improved messaging technologies.

Less Complexity, More Control

Automate your routine tasks and proactively manage your IT environment—all from a single point of access.
Reduce installation steps from days to hours with an integrated setup that includes workloads optimized out of the box for enhanced security, performance, and reliability.
Simplify your licensing with a single server license and Client Access for all included products.

Integrated and Predictable Platform

Enjoy easy plug-ins of your line-of-business applications. View, deploy, manage, and administer your third-party applications all from one starting point.
Help reduce your vulnerabilities that often create havoc with an infrastructure set up to Microsoft Best Practices.
Help proactively manage and address security concerns from a dedicated security page in the administration console.

Windows Essential Business Server (EBS) comes in two editions. In part 2, I plan to highlight solution and feature comparisons.

Thanks,

Indy

Microsoft Hyper-V Download Available

MMEvents — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 01:15:00 GMT

Following the broad product, partner and customer announcements from its "Get Virtual Now" launch last month, Microsoft Corp.'s CEO Steve Ballmer today announced the final release and availability of Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 in front of a crowd of 700 IT professionals during a TechNet Server and Tools event keynote address in London.

"Customers have been telling us that virtualization is a top priority, but they continue to face multiple barriers to adoption, such as costs, complex tools and limited certified virtualization professionals," said Zane Adam, senior director of virtualization strategy at Microsoft. "In response, Microsoft is breaking down these barriers through new training programs and services, interoperability, centralized management tools, and a broad partner ecosystem built around the Windows hypervisor to help make virtualization ubiquitous. Microsoft's new virtualization products will help customers get virtual and manage their virtual and physical assets across datacenters and desktops."

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008, a bare metal hypervisor-based server virtualization product, is now available as a no-cost Web download at http://www.microsoft.com/Hyper-VServer. Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 provides a simplified, reliable and optimized virtualization solution for customers to consolidate Windows or Linux workloads onto a single physical server or to run client operating systems and applications in server-based virtual machines in the data center. Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 allows customers to leverage their existing provisioning, updating, management and support tools, processes and skills.

When would virtualization benefit your environment? It's a great choice for customers who want a basic and simplified virtualization solution for consolidating servers as well as for development and test environments. Hyper-V Server 2008 only offers the most basic of virtualization features, making it ideal for:

Test and Development
Basic Server Consolidation
Branch Office Consolidation
Hosted Desktop Virtualization (VDI)

Download it today and let us know how it works for you.

Thanks,

Stephanie

Microsoft Unified Communication

MMEvents — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 03:31:00 GMT

Like many businesses, you may have already made significant investments in communication tools such as an email fax system, or an expensive PBX. Good News! Using Microsoft Unified Communication tools is not a rip and replace solution. In most cases, Microsoft tools such as Office Communications Server and Office Communicator work with what you already have, decreasing your overall cost and time to implementation. In addition, using Microsoft Unified Communication tools can increase efficiency and improve collaboration. To learn more check out the following:

www.microsoft.com/uc/default.mspx

Thanks,

Dawn

Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor 1.0

MMEvents — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:17:00 GMT

Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor is designed to help Windows XP users identify whether their PCs are ready for an upgrade to Windows Vista, which edition of Windows Vista meets their needs, and which features of Windows Vista will be able to run on their PCs. Download..

How Do I achieve best Windows Vista Experience?

MMEvents — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 04:23:00 GMT

Hardware and Device selection:

Microsoft logo'd products list (formerly known as Windows Vista Hardware Compatibility List) site provides the best way to select appropriate hardware for your Windows Vista PC. Please take time to read about the difference between "Certified for Windows Vista" and "Works with Windows Vista". While "Certified for Windows Vista" logo provides greater out-of-the-box experience with required drivers and updates, "Works with Windows Vista" logo devices primarily rely on hardware or device manufacture to provide the necessary drivers, updates and software.

http://winqual.microsoft.com/hcl

Software and Hardware Selection:

Windows Vista makes the selection of Hardware and Software much easier. You can simply do a search on Windows Vista for "Windows Marketplace" or visit http://www.windowsmarketplace.com

Customers can leverage Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0 to determine which applications are compatible with Windows Vista. Also, you can use the toolkit do the following:

Verify an application's compatibility with a new version of the Windows operating system, or a Windows Update, including determining your risk assessment.
Become involved in the ACT Community, including sharing your risk assessment with other ACT users.
Test your Web applications and Web sites for compatibility with new releases and security updates to the Windows® Internet Explorer® Internet browser.

Small Business Server 2008 Released to Manufacturing

MMEvents — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 01:25:00 GMT

For all of you who have asked about Small Business Server and when it is releasing, you will be happy to know that it released to manufacturing on Tuesday of this week. So what this means is that we have finalized the bits and the process of creating media, building packaging and delivering the product to distribution channels begins. As mentioned in previous conversations, it will be widely available by our November 12th launch date.

To find out more about Small Business Server here.

Have a good weekend.

Why Upgrade to Vista?

MMEvents — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:08:00 GMT

Heard the buzz yet about the Mojave Experiment? Wondering what benefits you might see from upgrading your organization to Windows Vista? Dan Woodman, a member of the Momentum team, is currently working on a blog series outlining the new features in Microsoft's flagship operating system, Windows Vista. Learn why Vista is better than Windows XP. Discover how Windows Vista can boost your organization's productivity. Understand why Vista is the best choice for your business. Read the whole series here.

Why I Don’t Think iPhone is Ready for Business

MMEvents — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:52:00 GMT

As you all know, we on the Microsoft Across America team are truly mobile employees who need to have access and be productive from anywhere. I have heard folks say how cute the iPhone is and I also had a business friend state that he purchased one and had to give it to his wife because it was not giving him what he needed. I got to play with it for a little and here are the main reasons why I could not use an iPhone as a productivity tool:

Search capability – I get several e-mail messages. On the iPhone there is no way to search and find an email from a few days ago. I must continuously scroll until I locate the desired message. That is not good if I have more than 10 messages in my inbox; which most of us do. On my Windows Mobile, I can just start typing the letters of what I am looking for and it is found immediately for me. I can even search my Exchange server for mail from last month, 90 days, or any of my mail on the server. I can't spend minutes looking for e-mail. That is lost time.

Attachments – Attachments are at the very end of the e-mail message. If there is a long thread, I have to scroll down to the very end of the e-mail thread to get the attachment. Ok, the scrolling feature is cute but not when I need to get to something quickly. On my Windows Mobile, my attachments are at the beginning of my e-mail just under the subject.

Photos-I cannot associate photos with my contacts. I have several contacts and for a lot of my business contacts I associate their photo with their contact information. This is a great feature on Windows Mobile. I also collect a lot of business cards at my events. To avoid having to sort and manage hard copies of business cards I take a photo of the card and store them all in One Note Mobile, which syncs to my laptop. I am now able to search all of the business cards in One Note.

Web Browsing – You must scroll to read the entire line of text. Ok, this is fine for the first line but if you are reading an article online you are constantly scrolling back and forth to read that article. The text on my Windows Mobile device is automatically formatted for me to fit my screen.

Applications – iPhone has over 500 applications available for the iPhone. Windows Mobile has over 2,000 applications available for Windows Mobile. Business applications for realty, medical, sporting. Our Partners are ensuring that the business person can go mobile and have access to business applications.

Enterprise ready, not quite for the business person who wants to be productive while away from the office or a laptop. The things that I take for granted on my phone just amazes me when looking at the others.

Find out more about Windows Mobile here.