THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS DIVA

So you signed up for Karl's email blast?

If you aren't you missed some good announcements lately..

http://www.greatlittlebook.com/Mailing_List.htm

I took a break this year from Jeff's conference because of needing to stay home due to family requirements this year but the twitter and blog posts showcase a fun time  -- see Eriq Neale's posts here -- http://msmvps.com/blogs/onq/Default.aspx

http://twitter.com/search?q=sbsmigration

Did notice that Jason was complaining about not enough babes :-)  http://twitter.com/jleib/statuses/15014967738 but other than that....

Jeff Middleton's IT Pro Conference - The Final Report

Jeff took a break last year, so this is his third IT Pro conference in four years. And like the first two, it was a great three day festival of information and entertainment.

This year a lot of information was around virtualization, cloud options, and alternatives to the "old reality" that we've been selling in the SMB space. It's amazing how much of the new reality is around hosted solutions, virtualization, and cloud computing.

I thought there were some interesting and alternatives presented -- especially since many of the alternatives were alternatives to Microsoft products. The SMB community has been almost rabid supporters of SBS, Microsoft platforms, and Microsoft solutions. And while there have always been alternatives, some staunch Microsoft proponents are now giving "how to" presentations on other technologies.

One thing was mentioned several times from the stage: The cost of SBS 2008 was a factor in consultants moving to other alternatives. I have to admit this has not been an issue for me. With server hardware and labor, the price of the operating system just doesn't seem like a huge issue. But when we look back 18 months and see a monster recession combined with a big price increase, the argument certainly makes sense.

So there are alternatives to Exchange, Remote Web Workplace, and even MS virtualization strategies.

At the same time, there are some killer products from Microsoft whose time seems to be here. Foremost among these are Foundation Server and Windows Home Server.

Anyway, like most conferences, this one had great content. Unlike most conferences, this one was heavily populated by MVPs and some of the biggest thought-leaders in our industry. The hallway (and bar and balcony) conversations are always great. Here they were a little higher caliber than at many conferences.

Thanks again, Jeff. Let's do this again next year. :-)

Wed. June 2 Cloud Services Roundtable:

Mike Bayless - Details on Delivery the KPE 5-pack Cloud Offering

Join me as I interview Mike Bayless, one of the primary architects of the KPEnterprises 5-Pack Cloud Offering. Mike will field all your questions about how we get started, how we move folks to hosted Exchange, hosted storage, etc.

As we talk to more and more people we realize that the click-by-click details of how to get started are obvious -- AFTER you've done it. So we'll look at how we walk a client through the migration to a cloud-based office environment.

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/653656601

Free broadcast.

Wednesday, June 2nd
9:00 AM pacific / 12 Noon Eastern