All posts by Rob OShaughnessy

Featured, Miscellaneous IT, VMware, vSphere

Important! VMware’s Kickoff News and Promotions

By Rob O’Shaughnessy

Opening week for the NFL, apple cider donuts and VMware product announcements are all signs that autumn is finally here. I’m not sure what I’m more excited about, no more vRAM entitlement conversations or the Patriots new look offense. Being a big sports nut and self-titled President all things Boston Sports in greater Los Angeles I should say the Patriots, but not having to explain vRAM and this many gigabytes is what you get with that edition and 12-month average and high water marks, etc. etc. etc. is going to be nice.

VMware announced version 5.0 on August 22nd last year so I spent a whole year’s worth of breaths talking about vRAM. I want those breaths back VMware!!! I could have used that time to eat apple cider donuts. I digress. So some of you may have heard the announcements, or got a sprinkling of the announcements, or may not even know what I’m talking about, but that’s okay, because what I’ve put together is a little short list of important stuff to know in the world of VMware.

vSphere:
First and foremost vSphere 5.1 was released and this update will just be licensed by the socket. VMware is no longer requiring vRAM entitlement, so the days of thinking about the numbers 32, 64 and 96 are now gone. In addition, the other good news is that vSphere 5.1’s pricing did not change. There is also a new edition to the vSphere family. VMware has added vSphere Standard with Operations Management, so now there are four editions of vSphere to choose from:

vSphere Standard
-vSphere Standard with Operations Management
-vSphere Enterprise
-vSphere Enterprise Plus

It addition to adding vSphere Standard with Operations Management to the product line-up, VMware has also included it into their Acceleration Kit portfolio, so along with the Standard, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus Acceleration Kits, there will also be a vSphere Standard with Operations Management Acceleration Kit. These four kit options will include 6 processor licenses of the vSphere edition of your choice and vCenter Standard Server. One change to note is that the vSphere Standard Acceleration Kit used to include 8 processors, but it now just includes six. Last, all the Accelerations Kits and the Essentials Plus kit will now include the vSphere Storage Appliance at no additional charge. Sweet!

Desktop Products:
Desktop Products such as View, Workstation and Fusion have had a price increase of 10%. Also announced is VMware View’s new management product vCenter Operations Manager for View. This product is available as an add-on component for VMware View Enterprise and Premier. Using the same concurrent user license model as VMware View, packages are available in increments of 10 and 100 concurrent users.

vCloud Suites:
VMware also made the announcement of their new vCloud Suites, which combine VMware’s top products into one bundle. VMware is offering 3 editions:
vCloud Suite Standard – $4,999: vSphere Enterprise Plus, vCloud Director & vCloud Connector, vCloud Networking and Security Standard
vCloud Suite Advanced – $7,495: vSphere Enterprise Plus, vCloud Director & vCloud Connector, vCloud Networking and Security Advanced, vCOps Advanced
vCloud Suite Enterprise – $11,495: vSphere Enterprise Plus, vCloud Director & vCloud Connector, vCloud Networking and Security Advanced, vCOps Enterprise, vCenter Chargeback Manager, Configuration Manager, Infrastructure Navigation, vFabric Application Director and SRM

So an interesting thing to point out: Looking at the Standard Edition of vCloud Suite you’ll see that it retails for $4,999 and includes a bunch of stuff like: vSphere Enterprise Plus, VMware vCloud Director, VMware vCloud Connector, VMware vCloud Networking and Security Standard. On the other hand vSphere Enterprise Plus alone retails for $3,495 so for another $1,504 the vCloud Suite Standard Ed will get you vSphere Enterprise Plus and all that other stuff. It’s sort of VMware’s version of Super-Size Me.

Promotions:
VMware is offering some nice promotions to this as well and here are a couple of popular ones to note. For a full list of all VMware’s promotions there is a nifty app you can download on your phone: http://www.vmware.com/go/promoapp

vCloud Promo:
Upgrade from vSphere Enterprise Plus to vCloud Suite Standard for free!
Or, Upgrade from vSphere Enterprise or Enterprise Plus to vCloud Suite Advanced or Enterprise for around 35% (it’s 32-38% depending on the edition you currently own).
Available until December 15, 2012.

**Customers can qualify for this promotion in one of two ways. Customers must:
1. Have an active Support and Subscription (SnS) agreement to vSphere Enterprise or vSphere Enterprise Plus made prior to August 27, 2012 and at time of upgrade, and must complete their upgrade transaction with VMware before the expiration of the promotion.
2. Or, reinstate SnS to vSphere Enterprise or vSphere Enterprise Plus before December 10, 2012, have active SnS at time of upgrade, and complete their upgrade transaction with VMware by December 15, 2012 mbennett@unum.com mbennett@unum.com
**New purchases of vSphere Enterprise or vSphere Enterprise Plus made on or after August 27, 2012 are not eligible for this promotion.

vSphere Std w/ Ops Promo:
Upgrade to VMware vSphere Standard with Operations Management and save 30%
Available until December 15, 2012

View 5 Premier Bundle Promo:
Get 25% off View 500 pack or 18% off View 250 pack
Available until December 15, 2012

VC Ops for View Promo:
25% discount on vCenter Operations Manager for View 10 and 100 packs
Available until December 15, 2012

Horizon App Manager Bundle Promo:
50% off Horizon Application Manager with purchase of View Premier
Available until December 15, 2012
Purchase a minimum of 100 pack of View Premier and get 50% off the license list price for Horizon Application Manager.

Microsoft, Miscellaneous IT

News on Windows 2012, Office 365 and Canadian Police

I had the pleasure of attending the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto, Canada earlier this month and worldwide it was as 16,000 attendees squeezed into the Air Canada Center for Microsoft’s morning key note speeches.  That’s the most that arena has seen inside its snug confines since Vince Carter was dunking on opposing players, or I guess when Vince Carter could dunk period.  It was a week where Microsoft spent making some big announcements, covered some important changes and showcased some new products “Eh.”

The first major announcement was Microsoft’s Office 365 cloud solution which later this year will be available for purchase under the Open Licensing Program.  Office 365 was released last summer and has been solely available for customers to purchase online, although partners like GreenPages would assist with quoting the subscription, ultimately customers would purchase the monthly subscription directly from Microsoft, which can be a little painstaking and nevertheless confusing (like this sentence is).  Now with the announcement that Office 365 will be available through volume licensing, we’ll be able to invoice the customer directly like we would with an on-premise product, making the process much simpler for you.  Now you’ll have another avenue to purchase the subscription.  Most likely it will be available through the Open Value program and details are still being ironed out, so be on the lookout as we’ll provide the latest information as to when this will be available through volume licensing.

The other news is the announcement of Windows 8 set to be released to manufacturing in August and general availability in October.  Microsoft is very excited about this new release as they said it is the most anticipated release they’ve had since XP.  They showcased some pretty nifty touchscreen laptops with Windows 8 Professional loaded on which, I would have loved to bring back to the States, and I would have, assuming the Royal Canadian Mounted Police didn’t finally catch up with me at the Boarder.

The biggest news is the upcoming release of Windows 2012 which is scheduled for General Availability in early September and will offer new enhancements centered around Hyper-V. Along with the new features there are some major licensing changes, loss of an edition (nice knowing you Enterprise) and upgrade paths if you have current Software Assurance.

The first change with Windows 2012 is it will move to a more consistent licensing model and each edition will have the same exact common features, however the editions have been reduced.  With Windows 2012 there will only be two editions: Standard and Datacenter. Windows Enterprise, on the other hand, has been cut from the team and will not be at training camp when Windows 2012 debuts.  So you’re probably wondering, if Standard and Datacenter have the exact same features and can perform the same tasks than what is the difference between the two?   It’s all in the licensing, but before we get into the licensing, let’s check out the new features in Windows 2012 Standard edition which previously were only available in the premium editions.

Both Windows Standard and Datacenter will include these features among others.

-Windows Server Failover Clustering

-BranchCache Hosted Chache Server

-Active Directory Federated Services

-Additional Active Directory Certificate Services capabilities

-Distributed File Services

-DRS-R Cross-File Replication

Along with the new features there is a new licensing model for Windows 2012.  Both Windows 2012 Standard and Datacenter will now be licensed by the processor and the days of per server licensing are now gone and the biggest reason for that is virtualization.  What differentiates the two editions is the number of Virtual Machines (VMs) that are entitled to be run with each edition.  A Standard edition license will entitle you to run up to two VMs on up to two processors.  A Datacenter edition license will entitle you to run an unlimited number of VMs on up to two processors. Each license of Standard and Datacenter will cover two processors so for example if you have a quad-processor host, you would purchase 2 x Two-Processor licenses.  The Two-Processor license cannot be split up, meaning you can’t put one processor license on one server and the other processor license on another, nor can you combine a Standard and Datacenter license on the same host.  The processor license does not include Cals.  Windows Cals would still have to be purchased separately.

Ok, now that I have dropped this knowledge on you, what should you expect moving forward?  Let’s talk about pricing and what this new model is going to cost you.  A Two-Processor license of Datacenter will retail for $4,809, which breaks down to $2,405 a CPU.  The current retail price for Windows 2008 R2 Datacenter per Processor license is $2,405 so nothing has changed there.  For Windows 2012 Standard, a Two-Processor license retails for $882.  For those of you who were accustomed to purchasing Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise for $2,358 MSRP so you could use the 4-VMs that came with it will notice that the price to get 4-VMs of Windows 2012 (2 x Two-Processor Windows 2012 Standard = $1,764) is actually going to be less than what Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise costs.  The issue will be for those who need Windows Standard for a physical server.  Since there is no Windows 2012 license for physical servers, you’ll have to purchase the Two-Processor license.  Currently, Windows 2008 R2 Standard edition runs for $726 retail so you will be paying more to use Windows on physical servers.

Once Windows 2012 is released, you’ll still be able to use prior versions, which is known as downgrade rights.  Windows 2012 Datacenter edition can downgrade to any prior version or lower edition.  Windows 2012 Standard edition gives you rights to downgrade to any prior version of Standard or Enterprise edition.

In addition, if you have current Software Assurance (SA) on your Windows 2008 R2 license you are entitled to Windows 2012.  If you have Software Assurance on Datacenter edition you will be entitled to Windows 2012 Datacenter edition.  Today Datacenter edition covers 1 processor and Datacenter 2012 license with cover 2 processors, so for every two current Datacenter licenses with Software Assurance, you will receive one Windows 2012 Datacenter edition license.  If you have Software Assurance on Enterprise edition, you will be entitled to receive 2 x Two-Processor Standard 2012 edition licenses, that way you still have coverage of 4-VMs.  Lastly, if you have Software Assurance on Standard edition you’ll receive one Windows 2012 Standard edition license for each Standard edition license you own.

As you’re taking this news in, there are a few things I’d recommend considering.  The first of which is if you’re looking to purchase Windows over the next couple of months prior to Windows 2012’s release, you should look at purchasing it with Software Assurance because that will give you new versions rights to Windows 2012 once it’s ships.  Keep in mind you don’t have to load Windows 2012 right away, but by having Software Assurance it will give you access when you decide to. Also, there may be instances where you need to add VMs to your host, specifically those running Windows Standard and the only way to add more VMs is to purchase additional Windows Standard licenses.  Secondly, if you think you’ll be adding a substantial amount of VMs in the future, but don’t want to invest in Datacenter today, what you can do is purchase Windows Standard with Software Assurance through these participating license programs: Open Value, Select and Enterprise Agreement and by doing so you will be eligible to  “Step-Up”  your Standard License to Datacenter.  Step-Up is Microsoft’s term for an upgrade.  This Step-Up license will allow you to upgrade from your Standard edition license to Datacenter edition, thus providing you unlimited VMs on that host.  Again the Standard license would have to have current Software Assurance and be purchased through the aforementioned licensing programs.

Obviously this is big news and will create many more questions and we’re here to assist and guide you through the purchase process so feel free to reach out to your GreenPages Account Executive for more details.

Miscellaneous IT

Office 2010 Has More Than You Think

Microsoft’s Office 2010 has been out for a couple of years now, but how many people actually know about it and its full capabilities? It’s like those people who are just discovering Ben and Jerry’s Chubby Hubby. I mean peanut butter inside of a pretzel inside of a pint of ice cream, is that even possible? I guess so because we landed on the moon. Well Microsoft Office 2010 has been around for some time as well and I bet a lot of people are still using older versions of Office mainly because, hey it works. Sometimes Microsoft’s biggest competitor is itself, but in this case Office 2010 does have some nifty features that older versions of Office don’t have, and I find that these useful features save me time during the day that I can spend doing more appropriate things, like say eating ice cream.

Office 2010 includes a lot of interactive and collaborative technology that ties into other products such as SharePoint, Lync and InfoPath, but the reality is not everyone has fully invested in those other products so one may think, what’s the point of going to Office 2010 because we’re not going to even use those other products at this point. Well the good news is Office can do more than just play with those collaboration products; in fact it actually has a lot of subtle useful tools that make the everyday work experience just a little bit easier on you.

Email is a very important messaging tool that that we know and love, in fact we probably interact through email more than our phones, so Microsoft has provided some practical tools to make our daily use of email a little simpler. One is the Out of Office message. Like Marty McFly Office 2010 can also see into the future. Once you add a contact name into the “To” Box, Outlook will let you know that your contact is out of the Office so as you’re about to type your message you can decide to abort the email all together or format your message differently knowing that the person you’re about to send it to may not immediately read their email. Doc Brown would be proud. Office also has Mail Tips, where it lets you know that you’re about to Reply to All, which is nice to know just in case you’re about to send a very regrettable email to everyone in your company. HR would be proud. It also has a Forgotten Attachment detector. If you’re sending out an email that reads please see attachment, Office recognizes that you’ve written the word “attachment” in the body of the email so it will let you know to actually attach the file if you have forgotten to do so, because as you know it’s always rewarding when the person you wrote the email to asks “what attachment?” Doh! Homer Simpson would be proud. Lastly, when someone sends you a meeting request, Outlook shows you what other meetings are sandwiched between your meeting, that way you can see how much of a crazy day you’re going to have or how much time you have to recoup from you lunch food coma. Yikes, I have a ½ hour to suck down a 5 Hour Energy! Dyn-o-mite!!! Jimmie Walker would be proud.

If you’re still running an older version of Office, one of the great things about Office 2010 is that it allows you to work anywhere. It’s incorporated a lot of functionality into mobility products such as the Windows Phone and iOS devices. If you’re stuck in a cab in NYC and have to make a few edits to a presentation, Office 2010 allows you to view and edit PowerPoint presentations and Word documents on the fly right on your phone as Microsoft has made an investment in the fidelity of the product to make the application look exactly the same on the phone as it is on a PC. However, it’s much smaller especially if you’re using the Derek Zoolander ridiculously good looking tiny phone. In addition if you don’t have a collaboration tool like Lync or WebEx, Microsoft has built in presentation capabilities right into Office 2010 which allow you to broadcast PowerPoint presentations on your PC or phone right on the web through a shared URL.

Office 2010 also added hundreds or more commands, which at first is a bit overwhelming, but they did it in such a way that it’s organized into a variety of tabs on a ribbon. For instance if you click on a picture it brings you right to a tab where you can make any edits to that picture on that tab without having to jump around all over the document.

Lastly if you purchase Office 2010 with Software Assurance you’ll receive a whole bunch of other benefits, the first of which is Office Home Use Program which lets employees download a copy of Office for their personal PC for $9.95. The cool thing is the employee has a full functioning copy of Office that they can use at home for work or let their kids do their science projects on. Ok, so maybe it’s not that cool, but from a manageability standpoint when an employee downloads Office the employee would sign a separate EULA from the one provided to the company under their Volume License Program. With this agreement the employee would be required to remove the Office from their PC if they were to leave the company, keeping the company off the hook in trying to retrieve the Home User license. In fact, if someone does leave, the employer can redistribute that Home Use license to another employee. Also, with Office 15 coming down the pike, Software Assurance would provide new versions rights to have access to Office 15, when it’s finally released, allowing the end user to enjoy the new features of Office (which may include touch capabilities).

If you’re on an older version of Office and are looking to upgrade, now is a great time to do so. With the purchase of Office, as well as other products, Microsoft is offering their Big Easy promotion which provides subsidy dollars for implementation of future solutions and products including software and services. Basically, depending on the quantity and type of software you purchase, Microsoft will give you money back in the form of a check that you can use for future purchases!