OnQ : Conference

On Growth

eriq — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 22:07:00 GMT

This change in our economic climate is generating different reactions from different people, no huge surprise. Over the last few months, I've seen several different approaches from customers, peers, and other contacts. Some have chosen cut back their marketing and advertising spending as a way to save cash flow. Others have started spending more in marketing and advertising to generate more customer leads and referrals. Some have cut staff, others have added sales staff. Some are taking the same approach to business that they have for years, others are looking over their business models and seeing if change makes sense to them.

I'm not here to tell you that there's any right or wrong way to approach your business. What works for me may not work for you, and vice versa. The same tactics that work in a large metropolitan area may not work in a smaller, more rural, closed community. The same approaches that are working well in Texas may fall flat in Michigan.

But one thing is constant - technology is constantly changing. Microsoft released SBS 2008 last year, and in case you haven't figured it out yet, it's not the same as SBS 2003. IT Professionals who make their living supporting customers who run SBS are having to learn the differences in Server 2008 from Server 2003, Exchange 2007 from Exchange 2003, etc., etc., etc. Windows Server 2008 Foundation was announced last week, and while it's based on Server 2008, it's got some key differences that will make it more of a niche solution than an across-the-board solution for many consultants.

So what are you doing to keep up with the changing technology? What are you doing to learn about new solutions or opportunities for your business? One thing I'm fairly certain of is that if you're not open to change, you're going to get left behind at best. So how do you keep up?

My background is in education. I started my career in the higher education arena, and I've always approached every job or business opportunity as an educational opportunity. Either as a way to learn for myself and grow as a person, or as an opportunity to help another learn and grow. In business, it's often referred to as continuing education. Many industries require people holding certain certifications to take a number of continuing education classes each year to maintain their certification. That's not the case in the IT industry, and while I'm not advocating any sort of formal continuing education system for IT service providers, I know that the good ones are always pushing themselves, keeping up with the latest trends, tools, technologies, etc.

Many of us will take the approach of trying to learn things on our own. That's my own primary method for education. I sit down in front of a new tool or a problem or a challenge and I work my way through it until I get to the other side. Others are book learners and gain their perspectives from reading anything and everything about a topic that they can get their hands on. Still others are visual learners and choose to watch others do things to pick up skills and techniques. And still others learn almost by osmosis, by being around others who are well-versed in an area and learn from interactions with them.

As you look to the challenge of growing your business or your personal skill set, let me offer two events that may help you learn in the short term so you can make decisions to help you in the long term. The month of May has two events geared towards helping IT professionals and their organizations grow by offering discussions and presentations on growing your business, learning about new technologies, and interacting with your peers. These are the SMB Nation Spring event in Montclair, New Jersey May 1-3, and the SMB Summit in Dallas, Texas, May 15-17. Both of these events have a number of speakers chosen specifically for their expertise in certain areas that are of interest to the IT Professional community these days. The SMB Nation Spring event is set more as a regional event, but the SMB Summit is intending to draw a national audience. If you're not already considering attending one of these two events in May, I would certainly give it another thought.

Why?

Check out the web sites for both events and see who the speakers are and the topics they are presenting. If there are not multiple sessions that apply to you or your business, I'll be very surprised. Think about the opportunities you will have to interact with the speakers outside of their presentations. Think about the opportunities you'll have to interact with your peers outside of the sessions and event activities. I will be speaking at both events, but that's not the primary reason I'm going to each - I'm looking forward to seeing the other sessions that are being offered; I'm looking forward to interacting with a number of the other speakers; I'm looking forward to the hallway conversations I'll be able to have with the other attendees. I expect to gain a great deal of insight into my own business and other ventures by interacting with the other people who will be at these events.

If your interest is piqued but you're still not sure, check out what other speakers for the SMB Nation event are saying: Harry Brelsford talks about the shift to becoming a trusted advisor in this blog post. Dana Epp of AuthAnvil fame talks about his presentation for the SMB Nation event in this blog post.

Of course, if conferences are not your thing (although if you haven't been to one of these events, you really don't know what you're missing) or if your travel budget won't allow you to attend these events, you still have a number of options open to you for continuing education. Check out the 5W/50 webcasts. Check out Karl Palachuk's SMB Conference Calls. And, of course, I have to mention the Third Thursday webcasts at Third Tier.

Bottom line, there are LOTS of opportunities for you to learn about new technologies, new business opportunities, new ways to market to customers, etc., etc., etc. If you're not taking the opportunity to update (or upgrade) your skills or your business approach, know that someone else out there is taking advantage of that opportunity. What's your plan? How are you going to keep up with, or better yet, stay ahead of your competition?

On Foundation

eriq — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:36:00 GMT

On April 1 (maybe not the best move), Microsoft introduced Windows Server 2008 Foundation, or at least that's the name of the product on the official product page. Sure, it won't be long before we're referring to it as "Foundation" or "Foundation Server" but I digress. The two important items I want to cover in this post are:

This product is not an April Fool's joke.
There is already a great deal of confusion about this product.

The first point is fairly self-explanatory. As to the second, yes, the official pages at Microsoft are a bit vague about the limitations of the product, and you do need to be aware that there are some specific EULA and product limitations for this system. Those details will be getting hashed out over time in cyberspace, and at least initially I don't think it's critical for the small business IT pro to get in a panic about knowing or not knowing what all of the limitations are. It's still going to be a bit before you can actually get the product from the OEMs (one of the restrictions), so you've got time to get the skinny on the details of the limitations. What is important to know up front, I think, is where this product really fits into the grand scheme of small business computing.

One common theme I've already seen hashed out in a number of forums is that Foundation is a direct competitor to Small Business Server and Windows Home Server. It isn't. In fact, it can be used to augment networks where Home Server or Small Business Server are already in place. One place where Microsoft does see a need to be filled is in the micro business space (if I can use that term, referring to the less than 5 user business or home business) where cash flow just doesn't allow for a business to implement Small Business Server. The micro business may not need all of the bells and whistles of SBS (perhaps they've already got hosted e-mail and/or SharePoint somewhere) but they do want or need a small server to handle a specific task, such as a central file server or print server, or even a LOB app server (especially if the app is not SQL based) or a small Terminal Server. While we haven't seen specific pricing on the software that the OEMs will be charging (as of the moment of this post), the idea is to have a small scale server available for a small business at a low price point. And in some cases, it makes sense. If a business is looking to purchase a small server in the $500 range, are they all that interested in purchasing an operating system that costs more than the hardware? Not according to the research that Microsoft has done.

So how can Foundation be used in a small business? Well, let's hit a few of the product specs and limitations up front to give you some background for this discussion.

Foundation is Windows Server 2008.
Foundation is limited to a single physical processor. That processor can have as many cores as possible, but Foundation will only be sold on single-processor systems.
Foundation is limited to a max of 8GB of RAM.
Foundation is 64-bit only.
Foundation is limited to a maximum of 15 users.
Foundation is only available through the major OEMs (Dell, HP, IBM, etc.) and not through the System Builder channel.
Foundation has no support for virtualization - it cannot be used as a Hyper-V host or guest.
Foundation can be a Domain Controller or a Member Server.

There are many other items not included in this list, but this gives us enough of a basis to discuss what roles Foundation could play as a solution for your clients. I'm going to limit the scope of the rest of this post using examples where the business has no more than 15 users.

If you already have an SBS server in place at a customer site, but you're needing to add a line of business application that you know isn't going to play well with IIS on the SBS server, Foundation might be a good fit. Since it's Windows Server 2008, it supports IIS (along with the other Server 2008 tools) and can be a member server in an SBS network. If the LOB application requires a SQL back end, it might not be a good fit for Foundation, thanks to the 8GB limit (SQL can be very memory-demanding).

Suppose you need to add a Terminal Server that will only be used by a couple of users in the business, and the applications they will be using on the Terminal Server are not memory-intensive. Foundation may make sense as a solution here. You will still need to purchase Terminal Server CALs and configure Foundation with the Terminal Services roles, but it will work.

Suppose you have a customer that has 4 computers in a peer-to-peer network looking for a server to centralize their shared data. They are happy with their current e-mail situation, and they're working on a tight budget. Foundation might make a good solution for them, as they can use it as a DC to use Active Directory for central authentication and file share security on the server.

These are just a few examples of how Foundation could be used to be a first server in a small organization or to augment services in an existing small network. In the new few weeks as the stories become clearer, I'll post some additional scenarios where Foundation could be used. In addition, I'm preparing for a presentation on Foundation server for the upcoming SMB Summit in Dallas in May.

Bottom line, Foundation can be a valuable addition to the small business IT professional's solutions catalog. In cases where the cost of putting in an additional 2008 server into the network has been financially prohibitive for the smaller customer, Foundation may now make that type of solution more fiscally reasonable. Stay tuned for more information.

On Sydney and Security

eriq — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:36:00 GMT

I’m finally getting back in the swing of things following the week I spent in Sydney with my wife and friends. We headed down to Australia for the SMB Security Summit put on my Trend Micro and SBSFAQ.com, and a bit of sightseeing as well. It was a long trip, and I have a renewed respect for the efforts our Australian counterparts to come to the US as often as they do. I certainly couldn’t imagine making another trip like that for quite a while, despite my issues with flying in general.

But I gladly went to the conference, not only to help out my friend Wayne Small, who offered me an opportunity to speak and share my expertise in the forum, but also to learn. Every chance I have to participate in an event like this is more than just an opportunity to give back to the community, but it’s a great chance for me to listen to other experts and either get reminded of issues that have slipped to the back of my mind, or to acquire new information that I didn’t have before. Being able to mix and mingle with the likes of Dana Epp, Amy Babinchak, Susan Bradley, Wayne Small, Dean Calvert, and many, many others and pick their brains about issues I’m facing with my company or my clients was a fabulous opportunity.

There were several common themes that prevailed during the myriad of discussions both in and out of conference that week. Two of the key ones were the importance of least privilege and improving authentication. Clearly, Dana’s AuthAnvil offering from Scorpion Software was a big point of discussion for bringing affordable and easy-to-manage two-factor authentication into the micro and small business arena. But more than just a sales pitch, Dana makes a clear case for the importance of two-factor authentication and how implementation of such a system can significantly improve security for even the smallest operations.

The interesting take on least use privilege, however, was not from the user perspective, but from an administration perspective. Amy and I discussed in our session on security and remote support the importance of realizing that as more and more IT shops begin to provide remote support to their widening client base, those shops cannot and should not increase the security risk to their clients in order to make it easier for them to support those clients. There was a lot of good discussion during our session stemming from some very insightful questions, and I think we all came away from the day with a good sense of things to think about within our own firms as we move forward.

One practical point that I’m starting to implement in my operation is the use of AuthAnvil to help protect those servers we support who have port 3389 open to the Internet, even temporarily. With a combination of an additional administrator-equivalent account on the network, installation of the AuthAnvil software, and a requirement that access to the server be protected by two-factor authentication, we can significantly reduce the risk of having port 3389 open to the Internet as well as increase the level of documentation when these sites are accessed. That, and it gives us an “in” to discuss two-factor authentication with our clients and work to really help them reduce their own security vulnerabilities.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the conference and helped make it a real benefit to those who were able to attend. Thanks for the insightful questions that got us all thinking, and thanks for the opportunities to not only help others improve their own operations, but to help me bring my own ship in a little tighter as well.

On Travel

eriq — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 13:02:00 GMT

I've had a number of opportunities to travel this year, from the MVP Summit in Seattle in March, to Jeff Middleton's Conference and Cruise in New Orleans in May. Normally, I'd be making the annual journey to SMB Nation in Redmond in September, but because of one extra trip, I won't be making that journey this year. Instead, I'll be taking my wife and heading to Sydney, Australia, to Wayne Small's SMBFocus Conference. It's still early in the information stages, but Wayne has a pretty good idea where he wants to take his conference, and I'm excited to be a part of it. If you're in Australia or anywhere near Australia, or if you've been looking for a reason to get to Sydney, you need to get by and check out this conference. It will be worth your time and effort, I promise.

On Confirmation

eriq — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 13:45:00 GMT

It's official! Mr. and Mrs. Neale are registered for the IT Pro Conference in NOLA in May 2007. If you've ever wanted to meet the "man behind the Mac" this is your best chance in 2007. Not to mention that there's going to be a whole lot of other intelligent and interesting people at the conference. And if you wanted to get your copy of Small Business Server 2003 Unleashed autographed, a few of the book's authors will be on hand and may very well accommodate you. Rumour has it that you may be able to pick up a copy of the book at the conference if you don't already have one. (What do you mean you don't already have one?) If you haven't done so yet, why not hop on over and register now? It promises to be a whopping good time, not to mention very informative.

Still have questions? Listen to the interview with Jeff Middleton about the conference...