12/22/2008
Dave Sobel, CEO of Evolvetech and HTG 11 Facilitator will be visiting a number of SBSC Groups to Present about using Virtualisation in the SMB Environment. The schedule is as follows :
Presentation Abstract Virtualization: What you need to know to get your business ready
Virtualization is a game-changing new approach to infrastructure. Learn what you need to know to start implementing projects using virtualization technologies, particularly as it relates to SBS and EBS. This presentation will walk you through real life techniques and experiences to get you ready to deliver solutions. A complete restore into a virtual machine from raw backup will be part of the presentation to show you the power and flexibility of virtualization. Not just for the big boys, this is the next generation of infrastructure. Dave Sobel Bio Dave Sobel is the founder and CEO of Evolve Technologies, a consulting firm providing information technology (IT) and computer networking services to small businesses in Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Evolve Technologies is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and the first Microsoft Small Business Specialist located in the Washington, D.C. area. Dave has over ten years experience in Internet services and consulting. In 1996, he founded Evolve Technologies, established a successful Web hosting facility and won a USA Today award for his reality-based Web site. Evolve integrates virtualization solutions into SMB solutions, and offers education materials for SMB providers. His first book, “Virtualization: Defined. A Primer for the SMB Consultant” will be released in January 2009. Dave has spoken at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, SMB Summit, SMB Nation, CompTIA, XChange, and numerous other events. He serves on the Leadership Council for the HTG Peer Groups, and as facilitator of the HTG11 group based in the UK. 12/2/2008
Peer groups are recognized as one of the best ways to enable growth and strengthen companies. In his book, "The Breakthrough Company: How Everyday Companies Become Extraordinary Performers", Keith McFarland discussed how everyday companies use peer groups as a kind of "scaffolding" to make it to the next level.
In the technology space, HTG Peer Groups (www.htgmembes.com) are leading the way in providing a forum for technology industry resellers who are serious about implementing a model for success in their own businesses through sharing and collaboration of best practices.
No single company has a monopoly on good ideas. Other IT companies like yours have the same issues, ask the same questions, and face the same problems. We network similar companies based on their size, number of employees, relative lines of service, ownership structure, and markets served to find unique solutions to common problems. Because HTG peer groups are national in scope, members are not operating in competing markets. The result is an intimate network where the expectation of confidentiality is an underlying facet of the group’s inherent design. The agenda for each meeting is designed around the felt-needs of the group and toward meeting the concerns and issues that face you in a fast-paced, increasingly complex business.
The groups are a recognized force in the industry, being profiled in magazines like Redmond Channel Partner, (http://rcpmag.com/features/article.aspx?editorialsid=2445)
The peer grouping experience has arrived in the UK, as HTG has recently launched it’s first face to face group made up entirely of UK based IT solution providers. The first, highly successful meeting was in London, and the meetings for Birmingham in January are already being planned. Topics that were discussed included customer acquisition, hiring, marketing, managed services, and service metrics, and upcoming meetings include discussions around sales mastery, employee benefits, and transitioning from sales to service. There will be opportunity for the group to interact with US and Canadian based groups during the year as well, and participate in an HTG exclusive conference in April.
Richard Tubb of Netlink IT wrote in his blog “I came away from the two days literally buzzing with ideas and plans, reams and reams of notes and a number of new relationships with fellow business owners.”
The group is looking for additional members, and has a limited number of seats available for this face-to-face peer group experience. The process is simple – applications are accepted on the www.htgmembers.com website, or you can speak with the facilitator, Dave Sobel of Evolve Technologies, to learn more about the groups and find out how you can get involved. Dave can be reached at dave@evolvetech.com, or UK : +44 (0)20 8002 9740 x111, or US 1 703-426-7100 x111. 11/4/2008 Gold Certified SBSC Partner, NCI Technologies, is a finalist for the CRN Awards on 13th November 2008 in the SME Reseller Category. So, why not consider voting for them?
| Reseller awards will recognise excellence in the delivery of solutions, service and support to end user customers, taking into consideration the reseller’s ability to deliver real benefits to the user organisation, and to meet customer objectives in terms of improved efficiency, ROI and investment protection, and cost reduction. Companies that demonstrate innovation in developing and bringing-to-market new concepts and solutions will also be candidates for these awards. | 11/4/2008
The latest edition of MAPS is landing with SBSC Partners as we speak and this is a pretty special edition as it contains the RTM versions of SBS 2008 Std Ed and EBS 2008 Std Ed. Some people have been asking why only standard edition? Well, Premium Ed is only the edition of another Windows Server 2008 Std Ed and SQL Server 2008 Std Ed version, which you get in the subscription anyway!
One thing that continues to annoy me is that Microsoft is not making available the Demo Showcase 2008 Virtual Images and have again provided the Simulations. Whilst the simulations are useful in that you do not need a serious computing power to run them, they are canned demos which lack flexibility and customisation. The Virtual Server images (available to Certified/Gold Partners) are on the other hand extremely useful and customisable to build scenarios which match to your customers business.
We want Microsoft to provide the Demo Showcase VMs to SBSC Partners because they are a great selling tool!
UPDATE
I might have jumped the gun on the Demo Showcase VMs as I believe these will be included with the SBSC Toolkit to ship with MAPS. Sorry! 11/2/2008 Kate Bevan a technology journalist for the Guardian Newspaper has written a review of setting up and configuring SBS 2008, which has some comments by Gareth Hall, the Microsoft UK Server Product Manager.
Emily Lambert, the UK SBSC Programme Lead has more details on her blog. |