Category Archives: Miscellaneous IT

EPP, Miscellaneous IT, VMware

You Down with VMware’s EPP? Yeah You Know Me

By: Rob O’Shaughnessy

Remember the last time you were at Chuck E. Cheese, whether you were there with your kids or by yourself (maybe you like Jasper T. Jowls rhythm guitar or you just like the pizza) and you wanted to play skee-ball or whack-a-mole.  To pay for those and the other arcade games, you didn’t just shove a dollar bill into the machine, but rather, you had to use the Chuck E. Cheese tokens.  Remember those? They were brass coins with Sir Chuck’s face on it.  You probably still have some in your change drawer next to that Canadian dollar you’ll never use.  For Chuck E. Cheese it was their own currency that you could use to purchase Chuck E. Cheese products and the more tokens you purchased the better discount you received on Chuck E. Cheese goods.  It’s a simple concept and I guess VMware must have talked to Nolan Bushnell because VMware has started their own token-based purchase program that can be used to buy VMware licensing just like a kid would use a 1000 tokens to purchase a fuzzy head troll.

VMware has always offered two licensing purchase programs that were on opposite sides of the spectrum.  There is the VPP (Volume Pricing Program) which is geared towards small to medium sized end users that requires a minimum purchase of $25K MSRP.  On the other side, VMware offers their ELA (Enterprise License Agreement) for large organizations looking to spend upwards to a million dollars or more on VMware licenses.  But what about the middle class customers who didn’t have a licensing program that provided discounts to fit their needs.  Now for those types of end users looking to spend between $250K to $1M and didn’t want to jump into an ELA and are too big for VPP, well VMware now has you covered.  Introducing the new EPP (Enterprise Purchase Program!!!).  I just rambled on about Chuck E. Cheese tokens.  Can you guess what VMware is doing?

VMware just announced their new EPP which is a purchasing program designed for mid-level end-users that offer discounts and greater flexibility without the complexity that sometimes comes with an ELA.  It’s a vehicle that allows end users to buy tokens that are redeemable online for a broad range of VMware product licenses and associated production support and subscription (SnS) during a three-year period and is suited for those looking to make a strategic and long term investment with VMware.  Basically, it’s a program designed to fit a customer who may be too big for a VPP program and too small to sign up for an ELA—the middle guy/gal.

EPP is a token-based program where end users purchase a set of tokens which can be redeemed for most VMware software licensing products.  SnS is automatically added where applicable.  The token to dollar ratio is frozen on a per deal basis and the MSRP is $100 per token.  So we’re talking about a minimum order of 2,500 tokens to get into EPP which is $250,000. The tokens last for 3 years and there is no refund for unused tokens.  End users can distribute their tokens among their projects or departments giving them flexibility to choose their own products whenever they want.

Basically an end user would purchases a bunch of tokens and these tokens go on the MyVMware portal allowing one to redeem these tokens to pick and choose whatever licensing products they need.  The end user doesn’t have to go to their reseller to get a quote and place a licensing order.  With EPP, it’s prepaid and one just redeems the licensing they need off their portal.  Just like a kid at Chuck E. Cheese can run around using his or her tokens to pay for arcade games until he or she runs out or throws up and is forced to go home.  I suppose that since Chuck E. Cheese sells beer, this could also happen to an adult.  Here’s a little caveat though, tokens can’t be used for PSO, renewals or anything else besides software and SnS.  Customers can add tokens to an active contract at any time (minimum of $50K worth for additional tokens).

Features:

An end user would purchase tokens from a VMware partner (like us) as a sku and a quote would be created depending on how many tokens are needed.  There are different skus for different discount levels.  The more tokens one buys, the better discount they get on the token ranging between $250K – $600K.  The end user can then redeem their tokens on their MyVMware portal for VMware licensing products.  The SnS starts when the end user redeems a license and is co-termed to the end of the program term.  EPP grants access to future products ensuring one gets the “latest and greatest.” The license is immediately delivered.  When end users redeem their tokens the license keys are delivered to the MyVMware account.  Once an EPP is started, the end user has 3 years to use their tokens.

So what are the benefits to you, the end user?

For one it’s the Discounts.

EPP offers significant discounts specifically designed for mid-tier enterprise customers. The more tokens purchased the better discounts received on the tokens.

Mix & Matching Anytime. EPP provides the flexibility to mix and match VMware products.  It allows one to purchase any combination of SW licenses within the 3 year term of the EPP.   The flexibility to purchase any time gives you the ability to adapt to fluctuating business and project needs.  If more licenses are required and the tokens have run out, additional tokens can be purchase at the original discounted price.

Easy Management allows the tokens to be redeemed by anyone in the company designated by the customer’s “Fund Owner” (who is an individual in the company who enrolls in EPP and has the authority to purchase, receive and redeem EPP tokens in the MyVMware portal…basically the Nucky Thompson of the company.)  Say the desktop group needs more View licenses. The Fund Owner can set them up to have their own set of tokens to make a purchase. EPP provides access to Future VMware products.

Last, Quick Processing because since EPP is a sku, it can be processed as quickly as VPP and doesn’t require processes required to purchase an ELA.

How EPP Works:  3 Steps

1.)    An end user enrolls in the VPP online enrollment portal at www.vmware.com/go/purchasenow  New customers are required to enroll in either VPP, VPP & EPP, or EPP Only.  EPP Only option is for customers previously enrolled in VPP.  When enrolled, the end user will receive a VPP membership number and approved company name.

2.)    The end user receives a proposed purchase order from their reseller.  The proposal includes the: A.) Estimated amount of tokens that the end user would use over a 3 year term, B) the EPP discount, and C.) EPP Sku.  The end user then communicates the approval of the purchase order to their reseller.

3.)    After the EPP order is processed, tokens will be available on the end user’s MyVMware portal.  End Users can redeem the tokens for SW products receiving the licensing immediately.  When redeeming the tokens the Fund Owner must name a reseller who helped them with the redemption.

The EPP on MyVMware Site:

All the information to redeem tokens after the purchase has been made is on the end user’s MyVMware site.  The site includes an interactive GUI tool that allows the Fund Owner to manage and redeem the tokens.  The Fund Owner(s) will purchase VMware licensing products with their tokens.  The price of the product is on the site and will automatically include the SnS.  The Fund Owner can also create sub funds for different departments to use.  For instance they can create a bucket of funds for the desktop group or the server group and provide access to the site so those users can redeem their bucket of tokens for their own products.  The Fund Owner can transfer tokens between sub funds if a group happens to run out or a group has a surplus they’re not using.   The portal includes charts that detail how many tokens are left and a countdown on how much time is remaining on their EPP.

This is definitely a new and unique way of purchasing VMware.  If you’re interested in learning more about EPP please contact us.

Miscellaneous IT, Project management

Listen. Observe. Question. The Art of Complex IT Project Management

 

By Melanie Haskell, Project Manager, GreenPages Technology Solutions

Managing complex technology projects requires cooperation from multiple resources, spanning different departments and management levels, technology manufacturers, and organizations. Due to the complexity of the modern IT environment, project management in this industry is much more than coordinating phone calls and assigning tasks. The ability to communicate effectively (listening, observing, and questioning) is crucial to positive IT project outcomes.

 

How do I get a networking engineer to provide me a daily status report? How do I explain that disaster recovery between sites depends on bandwidth between those sites?  How do I ensure the project I’m working to deliver is in line with the customer’s expectations?  How do I know if the customer wants to mitigate the risk of BYOD?

There are three simple rules of effective communication when managing complex IT projects:

•             Listen

•             Observe

•             Question

Listen

I was recently attending a webinar on the Importance of Listening and the presenter mentioned an interesting exercise. Ask a person three or four times to recite the word “White,” then ask them what cow’s drink. Nine times out of ten, the person will say “Milk,” not “Water.” This illustrates what happens when people try to solve, rather than listen. If you get ahead of yourself in an IT project, mistakes happen. As an IT Project Manager, my role is to not just watch for this behavior in myself (making an assumption about how a customer will test applications in a VDI pilot for example) but also in other project stakeholders. Perhaps a CTO wants additional storage up and running by the end of the week but the IT Director states he does not have the resources to meet that deadline. What is meant by “up and running?” and what “resources” does the IT Director need to meet the request? Is it a people shortage, bandwidth issues, manufacturer backorder, rack space? A project manager that listens well, can untangle the issue to keep the project on track.

Observe

Effective IT project managers have the ability to quickly gauge stakeholders’ level of technical knowledge, area of expertise, level of responsibility, etc. so they can tailor any message to be clearly heard and effectively understood. But another important skill is the power of observation. Project Managers need to ensure all stakeholders are engaged. I was recently in a meeting where I watched someone subtly tune out another person because they thought that person was discussing a topic that was not in their particular “wheelhouse.” But in the modern IT environment, we cannot function in IT silos any longer. Not only is everything connected from a technology standpoint, but all IT projects are also business projects. Effective project managers use observational skills for better project outcomes by minimizing knowledge gaps and ensuring all stakeholders are engaged.

Question

As an IT Project Manager I work with many different customer contacts (at varying levels of an organization) daily. If I am working with a linear and nimble IT environment and I need a port opened on the firewall, most likely all I need to do is ask.  However, if the project involves a customer environment that is layered (maybe ITIL certified)  and has a team of 8 people responsible for network security and I need that same port opened on their firewall, I need to approach the request very differently (and probably have to wait for a Change window).  If  I am working with the Executive Administrative Assistant of a law firm and ask if all equipment has been received, racked, and cabled and is ready for the engineer to arrive onsite, I need to provide a deeper level of detail in my question than if I were asking the same question to an IT Manager.

By employing strong communication skills—listening, observing, and questioning—IT project managers can ensure successful, effective IT project outcomes.

 

Miscellaneous IT

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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.

Miscellaneous IT

Mind the Gap – Service-Oriented Management

IT management used to be about specialization.  We built skills in a swim-lane approach – deep and narrow channels of talent where you could go from point A to B and back in a pretty straight line, all the time being able to see the bottom of the pool.  In essence, we operated like a well-oiled Olympic swim team.  Each team member had a specialty in their specific discipline, and once in a while we’d all get together for a good ole’ medley event.

And because this was our talent base, we developed tools that would focus their skills in those specific areas.  It looked something like this:

"Mind the Gap"

But is this the way IT is actually consumed by the business?  Consumption is by the service, not by the individual layer.  Consumption looks more like this:

"Mind the Gap"

From a user perspective, the individual layers are irrelevant.  It’s about the results of all the layers combined, or to put a common term around it, it’s about a service.  Email is a service, so is Saleforce.com, but both of those have very different implications from a management perspective.

A failure in any one of these underlying layers can dramatically affect to user productivity.  For example, if a user is consuming your email service, and there is a storage layer issue, they may see reduced performance.  The same “result” could be seen if there is a host, network layer, bandwidth or local client issue.  So when a user requests assistance, where do you start?

Most organizations will work from one side of the “pool” to the other using escalations between the lanes as specific layers are eliminated, starting with Help Desk services and ending up in the infrastructure team.  But is this the most efficient way to provide good service to our customers?  And what if the service was Salesforce.com and not something we fully manage internally? Is the same methodology still applicable?

Here is where we need to start looking at a service-level management approach.  Extract the individual layers and combine them into an operating unit that delivers the service in question.  The viewpoint should be from how the service is consumed, not what individually makes up that service.  Measurement, metrics, visibility and response should span the lanes in the same direction as consumption.  This will require us to alter the tools and processes we use to respond to events.

Some scary thoughts here, if you consider the number of “services” our customers consume, and the implications of a hybrid cloud world.  But the alternative is even more frightening.  As platforms that we do not fully manage (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) become more integral to our environments, the blind spots in our vision will expand.  So, the question is more of a “when” do we move in this direction rather than an “if.”  We can continue to swim our lanes, and maybe we can shave off a tenth of a second here or there.  But, true achievement will come when we can look across all the lanes and see the world from the eyes of our consumers.

 

Featured, Miscellaneous IT, Virtualization, VMware, VMworld

VMworld Recap: Day One

Day 1 at VMworld 2012 has been pretty action packed.  The first order of business was the official handing over of the reins from Paul Maritz to Pat Gelsinger as CEO of VMware.  Paul will remain involved as he is taking the Chief Strategist role at EMC which owns 80% of VMware so I would not expect his influence to go away anytime soon.  From conversations I’ve had with others both inside and outside of VMware, the primary reason for this move seems to be purely operational.  Paul is an absolute visionary and has taken VMware to some fantastic heights over his four-year tenure, however there have been some challenges on the operational side in executing on the great visions.  This is where Pat comes into the picture as he’s historically been a pure operations guy so I envision the team of Paul and Pat to do some great things for VMware going forward.

Some other key highlights from the Keynote are as follows:

  1. It is estimated that 60% of all x86 server workloads in the world are now virtualized and 80% of that 60% are virtualized on ESX/vSphere.
  2. There are now 125,000 VCP certified engineers worldwide, almost a 5-fold increase from 4 years ago
  3. The dreaded vRAM allocation licensing model for vSphere 5 is now officially dead with the release of vSphere 5.1.  VMware is going back to per socket licensing and neither RAM nor cores matter.  Personally, I am not sure this was a great move as I think most people were over the headache of vRAM and in reality I never saw a single customer who was adversely affected by it.  When Pat announced this, I think he thought the entire auditorium would roar in appreciation but that was not the case.  Yes, there was some cheering, but even Pat made mention of the fact that it wasn’t the full on reaction he expected.
  4. There are a lot of new certifications and certification tracks that were announced to better align with VMware’s definition of the new “stack.”  These tracks include the pre-existing datacenter infrastructure certs plus new ones around Cloud (think vCloud Director here), Desktop (View and Wanova/Mirage), and Apps (SpringSource).  I’ll be taking the new VCP-IaaS exam tomorrow so wish me luck!
  5. There was a light touch on both the Dynamic Ops and Nicira acquisitions.  Both of these have huge implications for VMware but really not much was announced at the show.  Both of these are very recent acquisitions so it will take some time for VMware to get them integrated but I am very excited about the possibilities of each.
  6. There was an announcement of the vCloud Suite, which essentially is a bundling of existing VMware products under a singular license model.  There are the typical Standard, Enterprise, and Enterprise Plus editions of the suite which include different pieces and parts, but the Enterprise Plus edition throws in about everything and the kitchen sink including….
    1. vSphere 5.1 Enterprise Plus
    2. vCenter Operations Enterprise
    3. vCloud Director
    4. vCloud networking/security (I assume this will eventually include Nicira networking virtualization and the vShield product family)
    5. Site Recovery Manager
    6. vFabric Application Director
    7. Lots of focus on virtualization of business critical applications and not just the usual suspects of SQL, Oracle, Exchange, etc.  There was a cool demo of Hadoop via Project Serengeti which automates the spinning up/down of various Hadoop VMs and this is delivered as a single virtual appliance.  GreenPages has done a lot in the business critical app virtualization space over the past couple of years and we remain excited about the possibilities that virtualization brings to these beefy apps.
    8. One of the big geeky announcements is around the concept of shared nothing vMotion.  This means that you can now move a live running VM between two host servers but without any requirement for shared storage, basically vMotion without a SAN.  This has massive implications in the SMB and branch office spaces where the cost of shared storage was very prohibitive.  Now you can get some of the cool benefits of virtualization using only very cheap direct attached storage!
    9. The final piece of the keynote showed VMware’s vision for virtualization of “everything” including compute, storage, and networking.  Look for some very cool stuff coming over the next 6 months or so in relation to new ways of thinking about networking and storage within a virtual environment.  These are two elements that really have not fundamentally changed how they work since the advent of x86 virtualization and we are now running into limitations due to this.  VMware is leading the charge in changing the way we think about these two critical elements and looking at very interesting ways to attack design and in the end making it much simpler to work with networking and storage technologies within virtualized environments.

Have to jump back over for Day 2 activities now, but be on the lookout for some upcoming GreenPages events where we’ll dive deeper into the announcements from the show!

Featured, Journey to the Cloud, Miscellaneous IT

Journey to the Cloud First Year: Top 10 Posts

Journey to the Cloud has now been around for over a year! We thought it would be cool to count down our Top 10 Posts since starting the blog. Let us know in the comment section if you think we missed one of your favorites!

10. Cloud Theory to Cloud Reality: The Importance of Partner Management by Robb Schlosser

In Robb’s one and only post he discusses the importance of partner management on an organization’s journey to the cloud.

9. Going Rogue: Do the Advantages Outweigh the Risks? by John Dixon

John reflects on a Twitter chat he participated in hosted by the Cloud Commons blog. Are all rogue IT projects bad things? Could this type of activity be beneficial? If rogue IT projects could be beneficial, should they be supported or even encouraged?

8. The Journey to the New IT: Four Key Observations by Chris Chesley

In this video blog (accompanied by text), Solutions Architect Chris Chesley discusses the four major transformations he has seen in IT. Users are now the focus, not applications or locations, Virtualization is now a commodity, Cloud is here, and Better technology, better ways of solving issues.

7. The Private Cloud Strikes Back by Trevor Williamson

When Salesforce.com’s JP Rangaswami made comments dissing the private cloud, Trevor Williamson responded with fire!

6. Thin on Thin Provisioning – Good Idea or Recipe for Disaster? by Chris Ward

Chris Ward discusses best practices of thin on thin provisioning. What is it? How do I use it? Positives vs. Negatives? Recommendations.

5. How Cloud Computing is Like Transforming a ’68 Dodge Dart by Trevor Williamson

In order to break down the many different concepts of cloud and cloud technologies, Trevor compares a traditionally managed datacenter with a 1968 Dodge Dart. Video & Text.

4. Mobile Devices in a Cloud World by Ken Smith

In this post, Ken discusses security of endpoint mobile devices.

3. What Should I Do about Cloud? by John Dixon

Pick your poison… Public, Private, Hybrid, Community, SaaS, IaaS, PaaS… even XaaS (anything as a service!). On-premises, off-premises… or even “on-premise” if you want!

2. How a Cloud Infrastructure Can Save or Make You Money by Trevor Williamson

Everyone is wondering about the ROI of a cloud infrastructure. In this post, Trevor points to where the revenue benefits are found or where costs are typically saved in a cloud infrastructure vs. a traditional infrastructure.

1. Planning for Cloud Infrastructures: Build It and They Will…Not Pay For It? by Trevor Williamson

And at number 1…Trevor discusess the CAPEX and OPEX funding issues that are causing the biggest headaches in the industry!

 

What’d you think of the list?

If you’re looking for additional free resources check out this Private Cloud Preflight Checklist, this VDI Webinar Recording, or this Managed Services Article!

 

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.

Journey to the Cloud, Miscellaneous IT, Project management

Active Project Management; Facilitate, Don’t Dictate

It is estimated by the Project Management Institute that 90% of project management is communication. The tasks involved with setting up a project, identifying sponsors, defining resources, schedules, managing risks, and critical paths are all important elements of large complex projects. Facilitating the team’s communication channels is the single most important effort of a good project manager.

Rudyard Kipling once wrote “… the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.”

A wolf has to support the pack but also has to be able to survive on its own abilities. When building project teams the goal is to assemble a “pack” with different strengths and opinions that can perform at their own peak level. A high performance pack has strength through the members of the project team.  An effective Project Manager needs to assemble individuals into a pack (or work with an existing pack), provide constant and useful communication, and assist as needed to guide them to their end goal together.

Five tips for building a better wolf pack:

  1. Listen
  2. Value ideas
  3. Positive thinking
  4. Try to close all conversations by asking what you can do to help
  5. Have a sense of humor

Preparing for project kickoff meetings creates an opportunity to listen to the team and get them engaged. An important part of pre-planning a successful kickoff is soliciting the team’s input and providing opportunities to talk about the project’s risks, schedules, and goals. The sooner the project manager begins to listen to the team rather than detailing his or her own thoughts on the project, the more likely and quickly the team will become engaged. Soliciting input from a diverse set of stakeholders substantially increases the chances of full engagement of the project team.

In addition to the project management role of ensuring the project meets the triple constraints of Scope, Time and Budget, taking an approach as a facilitator and understanding and deploying your team as a collaborative resource and working to integrate their skills will provide a more complete 360 degree, holistic view to the project. The project manager plays an important role in encouraging and engaging opportunities for collaborative conversations. The team’s input will allow for better commitment and buy-in from the stakeholders and the team, and ultimately better position the team to successfully meet pre-defined project objectives.

A Project Manager needs to rely on previous project experiences as well as foundations built from credentials (e.g. PMP certification). Often, tasks don’t flow exactly as expected and decisions are often made outside of planned meetings; however it is important to leverage meetings as a means to collaboratively check-in with the team on any decisions made, the impact of the decisions, and to establish meeting minutes as the reference point for the projects. The meeting minutes provide an important, literal “power of the pen” which enables Project Managers to lead and guide the project team.

On a recent Virtual Desktop Infrastructure project installation, there was a new member representing the customer’s infrastructure function, and this caused a sudden shift in the project deliverables. While a customer is not always right, the customer is most certainly paying for your ability to understand, adapt, and communicate changes within the team and manage to the approved Scope. In this particular example, the focus shift was remediated by adjusting weekly meetings to a daily standing meeting which provided for relevant and timely inputs and buy-in from the diverse team members and allowed for a very quick process adjustment and consensus for achieving Scope deliverables.

A Project Manager also relies on the team to identify critical project information in order to ideally circumvent any issue before problems may occur. When issues do occur, facilitating conversations and soliciting input from the team, both informally and formally, are usually far more effective than a project manager declaring a solution. A project team where teamwork, loyalty, and communication are the norm can provide a “howling” successful project.