Category Archives: Microsoft

Featured, Microsoft, Miscellaneous IT

March Madness Final Four: NCAA Basketball & Microsoft Ending Extended Support

By Rob O’Shaughnessy, Software Licensing Specialist, Pre-Sales Technical Support

It’s the Final Four for the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament, and if you’re like me and your bracket is busted the only thing to root for is a potential happy hour deal at your local watering hole. By midnight on Tuesday morning a victor will be crowed, and there will be fans celebrating their teams win on the court (and winning bets) and fans mourning their loss both on the court and perhaps in their wallet.

On April 8th the season will be over and a new beginning of sorts will occur as teams prepare for the loss of their star players to the draft and or graduation. Some of these players have been loyal to the school and had productive years as players and students. They’ve given it their best to succeed and they should be commended for their efforts, but, as reality sets in, one must understand that it’s time for them to go. Newer, fresher players will replace them because the talent will continue to get better. It’s just the nature of the beast…

Ironically we’re in the Final Four days until Microsoft stops supporting iconic products of Exchange and Office 2003, Windows 2003 Server and Window XP Professional. On April 8th Microsoft will graduate these products and focus their attention on their more current offerings. There are still a lot of customers running these products, and why not, they’ve worked great, but the reality is they are over 10 years old and in four days will no longer be supported. If you’re someone using these products and are looking to make an upgrade, what can you do?

Microsoft has offered, and continues to offer, its products to be purchased through its various license programs. Microsoft technology can still be purchased as a perpetual license and be hosted on premise. In addition, Microsoft also offers some of their products through Office 365, which is their cloud technology sold via a subscription model versus owning a perpetual license. With regards to on-prem/perpetual license vs. cloud/subscription: each customer will have their own preference to choose which licensing model makes sense, but I can tell you this, Microsoft’s investment is in the cloud and they are making Office 365 a very attractive option. Don’t believe me? Let’s look at the numbers.

One of Microsoft’s more popular products is Office Professional Plus. To license Office Pro Plus with 3 years of Software Assurance (SA) in the Open Value program it would retail for $954 a device. After the 3 year SA period is up the renewal price for 3 more years of SA is $444 MSRP. Over a 6 year span the price to license a single desktop of Office Professional Plus is $1,398. By getting Software Assurance you’ll be receiving the latest editions that come out as well as Home Use Rights, which allows employees to purchase Office Professional Plus for personal use at a very cheap price.

Now the very same Office Professional Plus through Office 365 retails for $12 per User per Month, which is $144 a year. Over a 6 year period the price of Office Professional Plus through Office 365 would be $864, which is a $534 savings compared to purchasing through the aforementioned volume license option. Office Professional Plus through Office 365 is licensed per user and each user can run it on up to 5 business devices. So an employee can run a copy on their work computer, their Mac, home PC etc. Now, let’s say you don’t want Software Assurance and wanted to look at just the license cost of Office Professional Plus. Well, that would run you $508 per device. To compare, one could purchase Office 365 for 3 years for roughly the same amount, get the latest technology on 5 devices and true-up or true-down the user count depending on how many users need to run Office.

To take it a step further, Microsoft also offers different Office 365 bundles and one of their more popular bundles is the E3 Plan which includes Office Professional Plus, Exchange, SharePoint and Lync Online Plan-2. This is also licensed per user and runs for $20 per User per Month or $240 a year. When you look at the technology baked into that bundle it’s hard not to see the attractiveness. Plus, since you’re not loading the SW on your own infrastructure, money can be saved on hardware costs.

Lastly if you’re an SMB customer, Microsoft is running a promotion called the SMB Advantage where you can receive subsidy dollars on purchases of Office 365. From now until the end of May, Microsoft will cut a check for 15% on MSRP for Office 365 orders in April and 10% for orders is May. In addition, if the E3 or E4 Plan is purchased, Microsoft will kick in another 10%, so it would be 25% subsidy for April and a 20% for May. To put it in perspective a 100 user purchase of the E3 Plan in April would be a $6,000 subsidy check. This can be used for services, more software or even hardware. Please reach out to your GreenPages Account Executive for more details and to see if you’re eligible.

So as you can see, Microsoft is very cloud centric, and it’s not too late to upgrade that older technology via avenues in place to help you do that. Please reach out (you can fill out this form or send us an email at socialmedia@greenpages.com ) if you would like more details and to see if you’re eligible. GreenPages can also assist you with any migrations needs and questions you may have.

Come Monday night, when Jim Nance is handing over the NCAA trophy and “One Shining Moment” is playing in the background, rest assure that Microsoft won’t be picking up your call to assist with your XP and 2003 support issues. Those products are done, they’ve graduated, but there are some better ones out there…it’s time to move on. It’s just the nature of the beast.

 

Editor’s Note: Rob picked Syracuse to win the tournament (terrible pick). Luckily he knows a lot more about Microsoft licensing than he does about college hoops.

 

 

 

Amazon AWS, Amazon Web Services, Cloud computing, Google, Microsoft, Microsoft Office, Opinion

A Big, Perhaps Watershed Week of Cloud Annoucements

  • Google harmonized its cloud computing business to a single entity, with a pricing model intended to hold customers by enticing them to build ever cheaper and more complex software. 
  • Cisco announced it would spend $1 billion on a “cloud of clouds” project. 
  • Microsoft’s new CEO made his first big public appearance, offering Office for the Apple iPad, partly as a way to sell more of its cloud-based Office 365 product.
  • Amazon Web Services announced the general release of its cloud-based desktop computing business, as well as a deal with to offer cloud-based enterprise software tools to industries like healthcare and manufacturing.

For more detail and opinions read this, and listen to this.

Journey to the Cloud, Microsoft, Tech News

90 Second Tech News Recap for the Week of 2/3/2014

 

Get your weekly technology new recap for the week of 1/27 in 90 seconds!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXOIAD_gFik

 

Download our whitepaper to learn how corporate IT can manage its environment as if it is “deployed to the cloud.” So, if and when different parts of the environment are deployed to the cloud, day-to-day management of the environment remains unchanged—regardless of where it is running: on premises or at a service provider.

Exchange 2003, Featured, Microsoft, Miscellaneous IT, Office 2003, Office 365, Windows XP Professional

ATTENTION: Important Information About Microsoft Ending Extended Support!

By Rob O’Shaughnessy,Software Licensing Specialist, Pre-Sales Technical Support

There are only a few months left before Microsoft ends its Extended Support for Windows XP, Office 2003 and Exchange 2003. On April 8, 2014 Extended Support will cease to exist. At this point you should be making arrangements to upgrade to the latest editions of Microsoft products so you can continue to receive the necessary support that Microsoft provides. If you’re looking to upgrade, here are some paths for you to take.

Windows XP Professional: Microsoft offers an upgrade price through volume licensing that allows Window XP Professional to upgrade to Windows 7/8 Professional. It’s worth noting that if you are running an older PC, you may want to test to see if it is compatible with the newer versions of Windows.

Exchange 2003: Microsoft doesn’t offer an upgrade price for Exchange; however, they do offer two options to get the latest edition of Exchange in your environment. The first is on-premise licensing of Exchange 2013. This would be loaded and managed locally and MSRP for Exchange Server is $708. In addition, each Device or User accessing Exchange would also require a Client Access License that starts at $68 for the Device Cal and $78 for the User Cal.

The other option to purchase Exchange is through Microsoft’s Cloud known as Office 365. Known as Exchange Online, this off-premise subscription license provides the same Exchange experience as on-prem but without having to have a lot of the local infrastructure in place. There are two options: Exchange Online Plan 1, which is $4 per User per Month and Exchange Online Plan 2, which adds enterprise features and is $8 per User per Month.

Office 2003: Similar to Exchange, Office doesn’t offer an upgrade price and also like Exchange, Office can be purchased as a volume license or through Office 365. The MSRP for Office Standard through volume licensing is $380 a license and for Professional Plus it’s $508. If you prefer the subscription-based model, Office Professional Plus can be purchased through Office 365 for $15 per User per Month. Office 365 requires a minimum of a year for the subscription. If you need to upgrade both Exchange and Office, Microsoft provides an Office 365 Plan that includes Office Professional Plus, Exchange Plan-2, SharePoint Plan-2 and Lync Plan-2 for $20 per User per Month. There are several volume licensing agreements and Office 365 Plans to choose from.

Last, although still a ways away, Windows Server 2003 R2 extended support will be ending on July 14, 2014.

 

If you are looking for assistance, here is how GreenPages can help:

Licensing: Our top notch licensing desk can assist you in understanding all the nuances of Microsoft volume licensing as well as Office 365. We can work with you to find what program fits best for your organization, help mitigate costs, and ensure your compliancy. We can run license history reports to make sure you’re appropriately licensed and review all the various licensing changes in products such as Windows, System Center and SQL.

Migrations & Professional Services: As a dual gold-competency Microsoft Service provider, GreenPages can assist you with the migration to a new client platform. This can include services to perform the following:
• Upgrading client computers from Windows XP to Windows 7/8
• Upgrading Office from 2003 to 2013
• Installing and configuring System Center technologies to incorporate upgrades to the latest technologies and implementing automated patching, remote control, software deployment, and Operating System Deployment (OSD)

Upgrading client operating systems and office packages can be the tip of the IT Iceberg. Let GreenPages help implement a lasting lifecycle management infrastructure for your environment.

When it comes to messaging, there are a number of scenarios to evaluate including
• Upgrade Exchange 2003/2007/2010 to Exchange 2013
• Migrate from Exchange to Office 365

Whether an on-premises upgrade is in your forecast, or you are ready to seize the opportunity to move toward a hybrid cloud environment and migrate to Office 365, GreenPages can help with these and other Microsoft projects.

Microsoft Extended Support Ending 4//2014

On April 8, 2014 Extended Support will cease to exist. Fill out this form and a GreenPages Representative will contact you with more information around how GreenPages can help with licensing, migration, and professional services challenges!








Collaboration, Document Management, DropBox, File Sharing, Google, Google Drive, Java, Microsoft, My Docs Online Desktop App, QuickBooks, SkyDrive, Web Folders, WebDav

Three App Strategies for Document Collaboration, When To Use Each

When you have a document or file which needs editing or updating by more than one person, in more than one place, controlling the process to avoid the dreaded “intervening update” problem can be a challenge.

In the early days of personal computers the answer was often the “sneakernet”. Create document or file, write to a diskette, put on your Chuck Taylors and walk it to your collaborator, then get it back the same way. Later, LAN technology allowed the file to be placed on a local server and opened across the LAN for editing, with a lock on the file at the server while editing is being performed. When needing to get beyond the local LAN email attachments could be used, or FTP if you had a pre-Web internet connection. Management of “check-in/check-out” and  resolving update conflicts was done by humans, not software.

Sounds like the stone age now, but it beat printing a document and editing with a red pen.

The advent of the Web and its browsers, along with widespread, always-on internet connectivity brought new opportunities for using that connectivity and various software design strategies to support collaboration.

There are three essential design strategies for addressing the problem: pure web app (think Google Drive, née Google Docs),  file syncing (think Dropbox), and local editing with central locking (think MS Office+Web Folders/WebDAV). Each has its pros and cons, and which approach will work for a given task depends on factors like file type, file size, editing feature set, and client platforms supported.

The Pure Web App Approach

A real web app runs in a browser using javascript and (more and more often) HTML5. This approach in theory can support any device that has a modern browser, including tablets and smartphones, as well as Macs, Windows PCs and Chromebooks. Perhaps the premier example of this approach is the applications available in Google Drive. Simple documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and drawings can be created, edited and shared easily. Collaboration is as close to instantaneous as networking technology allows. Documents are always in synch. The first time you co-edit a word processing document with a colleague on the other side of the world, and you see  edits in real time, you should pause for a moment and marvel at how amazing this technology is.

That’s the good. The bad includes:

  • Google buy-in (or buying into some other platform).
  • Limited document/file type support. Although you can now upload and download any type of file to Google Drive, you have to convert to a Google format to edit online. You won’t be editing Quickbooks files, for example.

This is using Google as an example. There are other services using the web app approach. SkyDrive from Microsoft for example, or Quickbooks Online from Intuit. The bottom line is all these online apps have limitations, never mind cost (Quickbooks Online costs between $12.95 to over $70 per month).

The File Synchronization Approach

File synchronization apps like Dropbox work by running applications on all your devices, with a special folder that communicates with their servers to propagate new and updated files to other devices. This works well when the only person involved is you, and you have multiple devices (work desktop, laptop, home PC, and sometimes mobile devices). Another plus is the ability to synchronize a wide variety of file types. Each device that will be used to edit or update a file or document will need the appropriate application installed on the device, and all copies or versions of the aforementioned application must be able to handle the internal format of the particular file. For instance, Quickbooks file formats for Windows and Macs are incompatible.

The typical problem for apps using the file synch approach is lack of “file locking” to keep two people from updating a file at the same time. Some file sync apps attempt to resolve intervening updates but usually with little success.

The Local Editing With Central Locking Approach

Server-based file locking apps keep the file on a central server, and use specialized server plus client applications to do the following each time a file needs to be edited or updated:

  • “Lock” the file on the server to tell other copies of the special client application that the file is “checked out” for update by someone else.
  • Download the file to a client application on a PC, Mac, or other supported platform (usually as a “temp” file).
  • Open the correct application for editing.

After editing the process is reversed:

  • File is saved locally in the temporary location.
  • File is uploaded back to the central server, where it replaces the old copy.
  • The “Lock” is removed so other users can take their turn at editing.

It is also a good idea for this approach to offer a “View Only” or “Read Only” copy of a locked file for others to look at (but not edit).

An early example of this approach is WebDAV (DAV stands for “Distributed Authoring and Versioning”). Microsoft refers to its WebDAV support in Windows as “Web Folders”, and supports locks and editing in Office applications such as Word and Excel. The problem with WebDAV and Web Folders is that virtually no other applications other than Office have implemented support for WebDAV locks.

A more general application that can support almost any file type while also supporting central file locking is available from My Docs Online via their java-based Desktop App. The Desktop App uses a “Lock & Open” to lock the file on the central server, downloads the file to a temporary location on the PC or Mac, and then launches the right application based on the file extension. When the editing session is complete the file is saved and closed locally, and then the user does a “Save & Unlock” in the Desktop App to send the updated file back to the server and release the lock.

The ability to support virtually any file type is a strong benefit of this design.

Potential issues with the approach include “network latency”. The bigger the file the longer it takes to download and open the locked copy, or sent it back to the server. The use of Java brings support for multiple operating systems, including all versions of Windows or Mac OS X, but does require Java be installed and kept up to date on the machine.

Choosing an App Whose Design Strategy Meets Your Needs

Which approach will work best for you? It depends on particular needs, and you may need more than one solution depending on particular file types or business processes involved.

If you and all your collaborators already have Google accounts, and if the goal is collaboration on a reasonably basic document or spreadsheet, it’s hard to beat Google Drive. If you mostly use Office, then SkyDrive might be a good fit, and so on. Consider a two-step approach, where, as an example, you use Google Drive to do the early drafts of a document when collaboration needs are heaviest, and then export to a more powerful desktop application for final production.

If your collaboration needs don’t require editing by multiple people, but mostly involve pushing updated versions of files and documents for viewing and reviewing, then a file synchronization app like Dropbox could work well.

If you are using specific file types like Quickbooks, CAD, as well as Excel, Word, or OpenOffice formats, and you need to let multiple people in multiple locations edit without fear of wiping out the edits of a colleague, consider an application like the My Docs Online Desktop App.

Cloud & IT Management, Guest Post, Microsoft, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Office 365, Office 365

Think Office 365 is a Maintenance-Free Environment? Not So Fast …

Guest Post by Chris Pyle, Champion Solutions Group

So you’ve made the move to Office 365. Great!

You think you’ve gone from worrying about procuring exchange hardware and storage capacity, being concerned about email recovery plans, and having to keep up with the constant maintenance of your exchange server farm and the backing up your data, to relying on Office 365 to provide virtually anywhere-access to Microsoft tools.

Sounds pretty good, and we won’t blame you if you’re thinking that your move to the cloud has just afforded you a maintenance-free environment, but not so fast.

While the cost-savings and convenience it may seem like a no-brainer, what many administrators often forget is that the cloud itself doesn’t make email management any easier – there are still a ton of tasks that need to be done to ensure usability and security.

Indeed while moving mailboxes to the cloud may be efficient and provide cost savings, it doesn’t mean administration ends there. Not by any means.

Not to worry, for starters Office 365 admins looking for a faster and easier way to handle mail administration tasks have a number of tools at their disposal, such as our 365 Command by MessageOps. 365Command replaces the command line interface of Windows® PowerShell with a rich, HTML5 graphical user interface that is easy to navigate and makes quick work of changing mailbox settings, monitoring usage and reporting (and did we say you don’t need to know PowerShell?).

From our users who manage about 1 million mail boxes we see the most effective 365 administrators break down maintenance and tasks into daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly buckets. Breaking down tasks this way simplifies work-flow, and the best part is that this can be easily implemented into your routine and should heighten the value and success utilizing Office 365.

Here are best practices for getting started:

Daily: Mailbox Administrators are constantly responding to any addition, change, and removal requests for their Office365 accounts. The most common are daily tasks that are quickly resolved, for example “forgot my password”, “need access to folder X”, “executive Y is on maternity leave, can you forward her files”, and so on:

  1. Modifying Passwords

  2. Modifying Folder Permissions

  3. Mailbox Forwarding

  4. Creating Single and Shared Mailboxes

Weekly: Weekly task groupings are geared toward helping Administrators keep a watchful eye on growth and scalability, security, speed and access. For example, checking for new devices that are being added to mailboxes, comparing them from previous weeks, and verifying that the user did indeed add a new device, and not incurring a potential risk of theft or fraud:

  1. Review Top Mailbox Growth by Size

  2. Review Office 365 Audit Logs

  3. Review Mobile Security

  4. Review Shared Mailbox Growth- (shared mailboxes only have 10GB limit!)

  5. Review the exact location of their servers and their mailboxes within the Microsoft data centers

Monthly: OK, now you’re cooking with gasoline — with those annoying daily tasks and cumbersome weekly tasks out of the way, top-level Administrators turn their full attention to security and access, which we can never have a lapse in attention:

  1. They run reports and lists of all users last login date. They are checking for people who may no longer be employed with the company, thus eliminating the need for that mailbox and its associated cost from Microsoft. Or if there is limited use, they could move the end user to a less expensive Office 365 SKU, again reducing their overall O365 costs.

  2. From a security standpoint, they are running reports to see who is forwarding their mailboxes to external mailboxes, such as sending their email to their home email account (Gmail/Yahoo/ Hotmail, etc.)

  3. Review password strength and the passwords that are set to expire on a monthly basis, ensuring their mailboxes are safe and secure.

  4. Review mailbox permissions, and review who has Send As privileges in their organization. They are confirming with the end user that they allowed these people to have the ability to send email as them.

  5. Review which employees have Full Mailbox access privileges. They confirm with the end user that they do want those additional users to have full access to their mail and calendar.

Quarterly: See how easy this is now? You’ve cleared out the clutter, and made sure every box on the system is secure. You’ve taken the steps to keep the system running fast and true, with consistent access and performance across the enterprise. Now kick back, light a fat stogie and do some light clean up and maintenance:

  1. Group Clean Up, review all email groups to ensure they have active members, as well as review which groups have people in them that are no longer employed, or contractors that are no longer involved, which groups aren’t being utilized, etc.

  2. Review the Edit Permissions list.

  3. Review Non Password changes in 90 days.

Conclusion

Just because you’ve moved to the cloud it doesn’t mean management and maintenance of your mail boxes stops there. Many of these best-practices would require the knowledge of PowerShell, but who wants to deal with that? Save yourself lots of trouble and find a tool that will manage these activities, streamline your work-flow and jump-start your productivity.

Chris Pyle headshot

Christopher Pyle is President & CEO for Champion Solutions Group. He is also an active member of Vistage International, an executive leadership organization, and is a Distinguished Guest Lecturer at Florida Atlantic University’s Executive Forum Lecture Series.

Featured, Microsoft, Miscellaneous IT, Windows

Time is Running Out: Important Price Changes of Windows 2012 R2

By Rob O’Shaughnessy, Director of Software Licensing

 

There’s some good news, and there’s some bad news.  The good news is Windows 2012 R2 is being released…the bad news you have to pay for it.

Microsoft recently announced the release of Windows 2012 R2 which will be offering some new functionality described here Windows Server 2012 R2. However, along with the new release is some new pricing that will make you…well…read on.

Microsoft is releasing Windows 2012 R2 on November 1st and will be increasing the price of Windows Datacenter by 28%.  This is not a typo.  I’ll spell it out for you: Twenty-Eight Percent.  For you Twitter people that’s #twentyeightpercentholycow.

Now, only Datacenter is going up in price.  Windows Standard Server and Windows Cals will remain the same price.  Also, Windows 2012 Cals will be compliant with Windows 2012 R2 so if you own Windows 2012 User or Device Cals you don’t need to purchase new Cals.  So it’s just Datacenter right?  Yes…well almost.

Also going up in price is Windows Remote Desktop Services Cals (RDS) which will be increasing by 20% on November 1st.   Same deal here – if you own 2012 RDS Cals they will also be compliant with Windows 2012 R2. This means new Cals are NOT required for Windows 2012 R2 if you own Windows 2012 RDS Cals.

FAQ’s:

Q: Why is Microsoft doing this?

A: Because, they can.

OK, so here’s what you have to think about:

  • If you want to have access to Windows 2012 R2 and typically purchase it with SA, be sure to purchase the license before November 1st to avoid the price hike.
  • If you are looking at getting Windows 2012 and are not in position to purchase or don’t need SA, you can purchase the license before November 1st to avoid the price increase but you won’t have access to R2.
  • If you want R2 and don’t need to purchase SA, be sure to wait until November 1st to purchase it. Otherwise, if you purchase the license without SA prior to November 1st, you will not have access to R2.
  • Lastly if you need RDS Cals purchase them before November 1st

It’s coming up fast as the last day to purchase Windows 2012 Datacenter and RDS is Halloween night…scary huh?

These are important decisions for your company to make, so if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly roshaughnessy@greenpages.com

 

 

 

Amazon, Amazon AWS, Azure, Cloud Storage, File hosting service, Google, Microsoft, Nirvanix, Storage, Venture Funding

Nirvanix Shutdown: Collateral Damage in Big Players’ Price War?

The sudden shutdown of Nirvanix, an early but recently faltering participant in the “pure-play” Online Storage space dominated by the likes of AWS S3, Microsoft Azure and Google, is in large part a result of downward pressure on prices as the big players continually lower theirs. Amazon, for instance, launched S3 in 2006 and charged $0.15 per gigabyte-month. After many step-wise price cuts S3 is down to $0.095 per gigabyte-month.

Pure online storage is fast becoming the sole province of vendors who either enjoy economies of scale, or who treat their offerings as a loss-leader to get other business (or a combination of both).

Smaller players may have to add value in other ways to survive. Nirvanix was not profitable, and when their latest round of funding came up short it was the last nail in their coffin.

Cloud Services, Events, Microsoft, Parallels Automation, WPC

Best of Class clouds use Microsoft and Parallels because that is what customers want.

 

Did you know that there are over 400 services that can be sold through Parallels Service delivery platform? These are all based on the APS standard. It is important to have such a broad portfolio as the cloud needs of SMBs are quite diverse. At the same time, there are a core set of services that customers expect. They include Web Hosting, Email, Collaboration and Infrastructure. In most cases the preferred choice of customers are Microsoft products. This is why Parallels has always made sure that Parallels software and Microsoft software work well together and that we always have the latest and greatest versions available.

 

We make this happen by spending time with Microsoft engineers in the product groups and Microsoft sales and marketing in the field. It assures us that we are building solutions that are optimized for service providers and bring out the best of Microsoft products and services.

 

This has enabled above market growth rates from our service provider partners for Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Office 365, and Microsoft Lync.

 

This week we have updates for all of these products as well as a few more including Microsoft Lync Hosting Pack and soon, Microsoft Azure Pack for Hosting Providers.

 

If you want to offer Microsoft-based cloud services and offer them soon, let me know.

 

Thank you Microsoft for being a great partner.

 

John Zanni, Vice President SP Marketing and Alliances