February 2010 - Posts

Which Server is Right for SOHO or Micro-biz customers?
26 February 10 02:06 AM | ronaldg

As most of you know, I seldom do the standard “cut-paste” thing for this blog and like to at least put my own spin around things, but this is something I ran across (the Q&A section below) that I think may be valuable, or at least interesting, to you even without my inimitable input or masterful massaging (a little alliterative humor there)…and I apologize for losing the source of this info, I would be more than happy to give credit for the Q&A if only I hadn’t lost the link to the source where I found it.  I ran across this Q&A while I was preparing a recent SMB (small and medium business) server platform and products presentation.

Here’s a great link for info on WHICH WINDOWS SERVER SOLUTION WORKS FOR YOU?

Also, I’d like to give a shout out to David Overton’s great blog around this same topic: http://davidoverton.com/blogs/doverton/archive/2009/08/20/server-line-up-for-small-businesses-and-home-is-increasing-in-options-or-complexity-for-some.aspx

Now for the Q&A…

Q: What about Windows Server Foundation, does that replace SBS?

A: No. Windows Server Foundation is fulfilling the need for a cost-effective, general purpose server designed for organizations with less than 15 users. Windows SBS provides small businesses with an end to end solution beyond the server OS for small businesses with up to 75 users. The availability of both products is another great example of Microsoft’s commitment to the SMB segments offering greater choice and value over any other company.

Here’s a link to the Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation home page

Q: How is Windows Home Server different from Foundation Server?

A: Windows Server Foundation 2008 R2 is an entry level general purpose operating system designed specifically for business use (running business applications and securely sharing information and resources) and usually requires an experienced IT professional to set up and manage. Windows Home Server is designed for general consumer use and therefore does not require an experienced IT professional to install or support. Because of its simplicity, price point and key features, Windows Home Server is a great alternative for both home based businesses or small offices with up to 10 users who need an easy way to back up their PCs, centralize files, and access their files remotely.

Q: What is the recommended first server for small businesses?

A: Not all small businesses are the same; therefore Microsoft offers a portfolio of servers to choose from. As an example: Windows Home Server, while a great server for the home is also a great option for home-based businesses or small offices because of its ease of use and simple client back-up. Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation is a great cost-effective entry level server operating system for businesses that need to run line of business applications, centralize their information and protect their data. Windows Small Business Server is a great first server for businesses who want an end to end solution that gives them secure remote access to support remote working, more control of employee access to business information, as well as a more effective and professional way to communicate internally and with their customers. SBS 2008 is also an ideal platform to run line of business applications because the premium edition includes a database.

Q: What is the portfolio of servers for SMB?

A: Whether your business technology needs are on-premise, virtualized, in the cloud or hosted, there is a ‘just right’ Windows Server offering for every customer need, size and geography.

Product SKU	Product Description & # Users Supported
Windows Home Server	Entry level server for home-based and small offices who need an easy way to back up their PCs, centralize files, and access their files remotely. Up to 10 Users
Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation	Entry level server operating system for running business applications and securely sharing information and resources. Up to 15 Users & 1Proc System
Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard	Advanced server operating system with built in virtualization capabilities for increased reliability & security. Unlimited Users
Windows Small Business Server 2008	Designed and Priced for Small Business All in one server suite for enhanced productivity and a more professional business image. Up to 75 Users
Windows Essential Business Server 2008	Designed & Priced for Midsize Business Enterprise class server suite for enhanced manageability and security. Up to 300 Users
Windows Server 2008 R2 EE	Advanced server operating system with built in virtualization capabilities and high availability for increased business agility. Unlimited Users

Q: How does Windows Server 2008 Foundation compare to Window Server 2008 Standard.

A: Both Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation and Windows Server Standard 2008 R2 are general purpose operating systems. Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation is targeted at small businesses with less than 15 users, who buy low end hardware and want basic capabilities such as file/print share, offered by a product such as Windows Server Foundation. Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard provides businesses with more advanced capabilities such as built-in virtualization (compared to Foundation) and has no user restrictions. Windows Server Standard supports server hardware with up to 4 Physical processors.

ronaldg’s ramblings (on this blog site) going away
26 February 10 02:01 AM | ronaldg

As I’m sure you’ve figured out from some of my colleagues blogs excerpts on the TS2 blog home page, we’re moving off of this site/server and over to the TechNet Blog site.  This should happen around the end of March, so stay tuned here for at least the next 30 days or so as I’ll have some more posts on here before the move.

We are also moving to a team blog scenario and I don’t know exactly how that will look yet, but hopefully it’ll be more convenient for those of you who follow several or all of the other TS2 team blogs.  Of course, it should reduce the number of redundant blogs, but I actually try not to blog about things that I know others are also blogging about, still I think it’s a good thing, and you will have access to an expanded array of topics and styles.

You should be able to find the new site at http://blogs.technet.com/uspartner_TS2Team and I see that some of my compadres have already started the ball rolling on our new site.  You will notice that the author is identified in small print at the bottom of each post in the following format:

Posted by MSFTTS2 | 0 Comments

Filed under: BPOS Software Plus Services, Steve Deming

and each post will have a tag, so you use those to follow your favorite poster or topics via the RSS feed options provided.  In fact, you will likely want to use the Browse by tags (example below, and author is a tag) functionality to help you filter the results you want from what I suspect will be a prolific site.  And hopefully you’ll see me on there shortly.  I’m planning to put my first post up by end of next week.   Thanks, see you in the new location shortly.

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WooHoo!
02 February 10 07:42 PM | ronaldg

Microsoft Outpaces Apple in Customer Satisfaction

Yep, that’s right.  Just couldn’t pass up the chance to blog about this.  If you’re interested, I’m sure you’ll read the entire article, so I’ll do some summarizing here but not do any wholesale cut-paste.  My main reason for doing this post isn’t so much to brag about the obvious inference of the title (you believe that, don’t you?), or to add to the already great buzz around Windows 7 (hereafter referred to as Win7), but rather to point you to some (more) 3rd-party evidence that you can also show to your customers to help them overcome some of their Vista stigma or, in many cases, help them be more confident in rolling out what they likely perceive as “new technology” (but we both know that Win7 is leveraging all the reliability and security of the Vista platform while hopefully overcoming some of the negatives).

As you’ll see, this article is from Bloomberg.com and it centers around a “Chart of the Day” which in this case is a chart showing the results of satisfaction surveys done by a London-based research firm YouGov for both Microsoft and Apple around satisfaction with their most recent OS upgrades (Windows 7 and Snow Leopard [SL] respectively).  The chart is essentially an overlay of the two surveys which purports to show, by percentage of positive “grades”, the relative customer satisfaction levels with the 2 products.  The basis of the article headline is that, since shortly after it’s release in Nov, Win7 has achieved higher percentages of positive grades than it’s rival (indeed, at the end of CY2009, according to the chart, Win7 was trending up and was at almost 75% satisfaction while SL remained consistently below 70%).

Some of the things that I noticed (from the chart) that I thought I’d point out are:
- after it’s release, SL briefly spiked up to just over 70% but then plunged to well below 60% (Win7 has never gone below 60%), then did another peak (to only around 65%) before diving again back under 60% until gaining back to launch time levels of mid-to-upper 60%.
- Win7 launched at about the same mid-60% range as SL but has not had any plunges like SL, it did dip a couple of percentage points but not even as much as the second plunge of SL which was smaller than its first. 
- I’ll be honest, I’m not doing research into why the dips happen (to find the “rest of the story” like I usually do), I just find it interesting that SL has only had better percentages for a few brief spikes all along the 7-month continuum, even when Win7 was still in pre-release.

Of course, you can draw your own conclusions from the chart, and I’m not going to try and push this as some be-all-end-all proof of anything, but what I do want to point out is that I think, with all the halo-effect and general positive perception that Apple seems to enjoy, and with the lack of halo-effect and some of the (unfounded) negative perception, which you know I’ve commented on in this blog over time, that most folks (meaning your customers) would be very surprised to find out that Win7 enjoys a level of satisfaction that’s, in fact, comparable to (yea, even perhaps beats) Mac’s latest OS.  Man, I wish we could come up a commercial around this.

You know I dislike anecdotal evidence being put forth as some sort of “leading indicator”, but in this case the quote was from an analyst for Directions on Microsoft and those folks are the real deal, so when they say something I generally find it much more credible that than average supposed expert comment that I typically see.  And, his quote that “People who were thinking about buying a new PC are more likely to do so now. You’ll see slightly better sales.” is supported by what I see and hear all over the press.  So, again, back to my back premise here – hopefully you can use articles like this one to show your customers that now is the time get off that legacy stuff and get onto the current generation OS technology, and hopefully they will feel comfortable with Win7 knowing that it actually does enjoy a high satisfaction level amongst those who have actually used it.  That’s what I’m talking here.  You know as well as I do that when many of them take the step up they’ll be glad they did (on several levels) and hopefully you’ll reap the benefits as their Microsoft partner and trusted advisor.

Interestingly, Apple declined to comment, go figure.