James Moody: Geek in Paradise

I came home this evening to this dandy gem sitting in my inbox.

Improving the Windows Vista experience for you and your customers

Microsoft is constantly looking for ways to improve our programs and products to help Partners sustain business profitability for long-term success.
Guided by the valuable suggestions and feedback from our partners, we have been working hard to improve Microsoft Windows Vista, culminating in the upcoming Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1). We’ve also heard concerns about how we have supported Partners with Windows Vista and have identified ways to improve the Partner experience.
Here’s what you can expect from us over the next few months:

• Delivery of Microsoft Windows Vista Business with SP1 via a Special Action Pack shipment to Partners worldwide soon after SP1 RTM. The kit will include full-install licence keys (not upgrade) in regions where Partners have not already received them, to make it easier for you to deploy the final release of Windows Vista Business SP1 for internal use.

• One full-install licence key for Windows Vista Ultimate with SP1 for internal use, so you can learn more about this product’s benefits and features for customers who need a single PC to fulfil their work, travel and entertainment needs. We plan for this software to be delivered in your regular Action Pack quarterly update (April/May 2008).

• A comprehensive set of readiness resources to enable you to sell and support Windows Vista solutions for your small or mid-sized business customers as Windows Vista momentum builds with the release of SP1.

• Exciting incentives and promotions that reward you for learning, using and selling Windows Vista.

This change to the Action Pack is something that Action Pack subscribers have been wanting for the past year when Vista Business Upgrade was included in the Action Pack. This will cut the installation time in half by giving us a full version OS versus the Upgrade, which required us to install, then upgrade that installation to be able to activate with the Key provided. Having SP1 integrated within the DVD will be another welcome addition.

I, for one, will be happy to finally be able to install Ultimate on my laptop for the added security of Bitlocker.

Are you looking forward to the Action Pack changes as well?

Tags: Microsoft Microsoft Partner Action Pack Vista Vista SP1 Vista Business

Head on over to Heroes Happen Here and get yourself registered to attend the launch event for Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008. The event is being held in Honolulu, HI on April 30th for those of us in the islands. You mainlanders will have to go to the above site to see when yours takes place.

There are several different tracks planned:

1. Data Platform IT Pro
2. Developer
3. Infrastructure IT Pro
4. Partner
5. Technology or Business Decision Maker

I’ve signed up for the Partner Track, for which they don’t have a synopsis laid out for yet. Hopefully they get that updated within the next few weeks so I have an idea of what to expect going in.

I enjoyed last year’s Vista/Office 2007 launch event as well as the TS2 Seminar held a little while back, so I’m anxious to see how this one turns out. I’d like to see them sneak in some info on SBS 2008 "Cougar" as well.

Charles Van Heusen of the TS2 team has a write-up on SBS 2008 "Cougar" to fill in the gaps a little more to help tide us over until more information is released.

Hope to see you there!

Tags: Microsoft Server 2008 Visual Studio 2008 SQL Server 2008 Launch Event SBS 2008 "Cougar"

As I posted earlier, Honolulu happened to be graced with a TS2 seminar 2 days ago. It’s about time!

Woody Walton was the presenter for the topics that included Managed Services, System Center Essentials, Exchange 2007/Communicator/etc. and Forefront line of products. He did an excellent job of getting the pertinent information out to the attendees.

He demo’d System Center Essential 2007 for us, and although I have it in my Action Pack, I haven’t had the chance to install it and play with it yet. The demo got me drooling however, so that may be on the list to do once I finish an office move for one of my clients.

The majority of the Forefront presentation was on the Client Security offering. Since I’ve been using it in the home office, I had a good working knowledge of it already, and managed to net me a SBS 2003 neoprene CD holder for answering the only question presented to us. I r smart. He did let us know that the next line of Forefront products being developed are under the code name "Stirling", for those fascinated by code names.

He also gave us a live demo of the automated voice attendant used to access his e-mail, calendar, voicemail, etc. back in Redmond. I had only read about the feature so seeing it in action was pretty impressive. He did run into some problems with it recognizing his voice input since he was using speaker phone, but I got the gist of the usefulness of the offering. He also ran a video of a "Devil wears Prada" spoof demonstrating the power of the complete offering. Great display of the possible uses of the technology, and funny to boot. The Roundtable hardware looked very cool for those that teleconference with multiple people present in 1 room. Availability is very limited for the Roundtable device though.

Also covered were various VOIP phones, including the Catalina USB Phone and a phone with Communicator embedded, which traverses firewalls. He stated he has a co-worker that’s taken the phone overseas, plugged it into the hotel internet, and was then able to access his information back at the office. Very cool technology.

During our 1 break, I made it down to introduce myself and see if he recognized the Blue Monster, which I use on my business card. He hadn’t, so I explained to him the basics and gave him the info to find more on it. He was very intrigued, to say the least and said he’d definitely get more info on the little guy. I also made him aware that "Centro" had been given a name that morning, which he wasn’t aware of at the time. He probably wished I hadn’t told him, as he referred to it by the full name the rest of the seminar instead of "Centro" (luckily, he had covered what he needed of "Centro" before the break, so it wasn’t much). Sorry!

All in all, a great experience start to finish. Some of the attendees (Microsoft Partners) were making snide remarks and chuckles as he covered some of the material, so I can see now where Vlad gets his "riff-raff" from. A minor annoyance, but nothing that detracted from the entire experience.

On the way out, I talked with one of the guys that sat at the table (didn’t get the name as they were packing it up) and he said TS2 had plans to make it out at least twice a year now. Good news considering they hadn’t been out since I became a Partner over a year ago.

Here’s to seeing more events in Hawaii!

I have another post coming soon covering something I found very interesting in the IT market here in Hawaii. Surprised the hell out of me, for sure.

Tags: Microsoft TS2 Exchange 2007 Communications Server Communicator Forefront Managed Services Action Pack Stirling SBS 2003 VOIP RoundTable Catalina Centro Business Essentials Server Blue Monster Honolulu Hawaii System Center Essential

It’s the first day of the World Wide Partner Conference in Denver, CO and Microsoft isn’t wasting any time letting the world know of what’s coming down the tubes to a PC near you.

Dynamics Live CRM will be released to customers early for a trial period before switching to a paid subscription per user model. Trial users will get to test drive the Professional version of the offering, with an Enterprise version coming in 2008. Pricing will be competitive with other offerings on the market. Testing is expected to begin this quarter so head over to CRM Live to apply now.

The Dynamics line of products will be extending better support and training to Partners, as well as offering a new product called the Entrepreneur version to allow companies to start using the Dynamics suite earlier in their lifecycle.

They also outlined a slew of new products/tools/services coming to better enable Partners to meet the needs of their clients. The One-Stop Licensing tool is something I can’t wait to see as it’s something that I’ve been a tad confused with for awhile. As part of that announcement, they announced the Official launch date of Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 to be on February 27, 2008.

Expanded Partner opportunities for those in the Information Worker Business.

There’s probably more that I’m missing at this time, but I have work to do. You can follow the Conference at Digital WWPC or follow Steve Clayton’s Live Blog of the event.

Off to upgrade Who’s We Studios to Vista!

Tags: Microsoft WWPC Partner CRM Dynamics