VladCast 5, the SMB ITPRO world condensed into a loud 5 minute podcast:
– Less than two weeks left to get to SBS Migration Conference
– Interested in Cougar? Ask your SBS group leader for a beta invite.
– Changes with Longhorn
– Susan’s Patch-week: WSUS3, WSUS v2 Client
– Contest: Post the authors name, book title and why you’d read it!Play VladCast: [audio:http://www.vladville.com/media/VladCast5.mp3]
Add feed to iTunes / File Attachment: VladCast5.mp3 (1883 KB)
The more Carly changes, the more they HP the same.
While iMate is well on its way to provide the third OS upgrade to their iMate JasJar PocketPC (from 2003 to WM5 and now to WM6) the HP strikes again – denying updates to their entire customer base. And while all the WM5 devices can be easilly upgraded to WM6 because it’s the same underlying operating system (WindowsCE 5.0/5.2), HP yet again leaves it’s customers with fairly pricey paperweights.
The message: Ignore HP.
While I got burned by HP years ago, I still do not have Vista x64 drivers for any of the printers we use. HP continues to sell equipment with outdated technology while pricing it at a premium. Are consumers dumb enough not to notice the difference? Apparently, yes.
The next time you login to Shockey Monkey support portal at OWN you’ll notice a new tab. Development.
The Development tab is a bug and feature wishlist tracker that will allow us to take public feedback on features you are looking for. It will also provide you with the ability to report any bugs that you may encounter and allow others that are experiencing the same bug to see if it was opened already (known problem). Feature wishlist, as the name implies, let’s you request features you think our software should have. Just like the bug tracker, each wishlist is open for public updates allowing anyone in the system to comment on the bug or on the feature, giving our entire customer base an input into the type of software and features we develop. Anotherwords, we won’t R2 you – you’ll see exactly what type of a customer we’re developing solutions for because the name of the person will be printed on it.
Please allow me to point out the message here that is far bigger than Shockey Monkey:
We are doing this not just for Shockey Monkey, but for our entire software and service portfolio. That means no more “there was no interest”, no more “I’ve never seen that before” or “this is only happening to you”
Is this the kind of message you are sending to your customers and partners? If not, do you understand why you need to have a customer-facing portal thats more than just trouble ticket junk and shiny charts? So if you don’t have Shockey Monkey, maybe you should.
-Vlad
P.S. This is what I’ve been up to this week, so if you didn’t get your Shockey Monkey turned up since weekend ended, now you know why 
Microsoft has announced that several cool virtualization features will be dropped from what was promised for Longhorn release. Bink quotes a seemingly angry quote complaining about the lack of live migration, no hot-adding of resources, CPU core limitations, etc.
I’m sure there are many that will be very disappointed about this move.
I am not one of them.
Even though my business is based on the Microsoft virtualization platform (not Vmware) from a customer and partner scenario I am not looking forward to Longhorn’s virtualization feature set. That is not what I find exciting about the new server.
What I am particularly excited about is the new IIS 7 modular configuration and management, the new Longhorn Core Server free of the usual junk. Given the past year or so, I’d just like a reliable platform that Longhorn promises and they can release all the “cool” features when they feel they are ready.
This worked really well for the SBS Show but as I put more and more stuff out directly here on Vladville I’m finally starting to give in to the constant requests for a mailing list – again. The reason Vladville came to life in the first place was because I was tired of managing the mailing list with a few hundred replies every time I sent a piece out. But there is a high demand and let’s face it, a large majority of you (80%) is not reading this blog via RSS.
So, would anyone care to recommend a mailing list service? I’m a little opposed to freebies (no Google, no Yahoo) because of their terms of service so is there anything out there that is competitive with Constant Contact?
Second month in a row without a major Microsoft patch incident – patches apply properly, systems reboot as intended, no BSoD’s, no application incompatibilities. Just like it’s supposed to work.
Are we starting to see a trend in improved patch release management at Microsoft?
I was invited to present content at Sacramento SBS User Group and Kansas City SBS User Group a while ago. I didn’t add either to my calendar, so when both Karl and Jason emailed me yesterday to see if I was ready I knew it was the time to test what’s know as the MVP race condition: “Can an MVP talk for more than 5 hours straight without sucking all the air out of the room and losing consciousness in the process?” We’ll find out tonight.
Tonight’s presentation is free, live over the web and starts at 7:30 PM EST. It ends at approximately midnight EST. Here is the preliminary schedule.
7:30 – 8:30 EST: Exchange 2007 Overview (Level 100)
8:30 – 9:00 EST: ExchangeDefender, Shockey Monkey (Level 0)
9:30 – Midnight: Virtualized Services (Level 200), Shockey Monkey, ExchangeDefender, and other tools we make (and why) that IT solution providers are using to make more money. These will be product demo’s, not sales pitches.
Is there anything else you’d like to hear? Since we’re pretty much inviting SBSers worldwide, is there something you’d like to see? See you tonight, livemeeting info below:
Meeting URL: Livemeeting Address
Meeting ID: D7QS3H
Meeting Key: bn6’%~P
It sucks to lose, but when you lose big it makes you scratch your head about your approach.
May 6, 2007: Biggest Exchange loss in over 10 years. (at least in Vladville)
Comcast chose Zimbra to power it’s SmartZone portal. This is certainly a big loss for Microsoft Exchange but they will be OK, they are still in many ways untouchable by Zimbra when it comes to collaboration and the feature set.
Microsoft is the huge loser here. Conceptually. Ignore for the moment the financial loss here. Ignore even the boost this will give to Zimbra competitively, financially, marketing-wise, etc. Ignore the fact that none of these systems will run Windows, effectively wiping out a huge server deployment.
Ignore all those little details that hardly impact Microsoft.
Focus instead on the huge Las Vegas-style billboard this puts up to Microsoft: “Unbundle.”
Make no mistake, Microsoft didn’t lose this one on the cost – I’m sure they would have haggled it in. They didn’t lose this one on technology or feature set. They didn’t lose this one on the server stability and reliability.
They lost this one because, after years of alienating partners, Microsoft’s anti-competitive bundling strategy is starting to alienate it’s customers as well.
Comcast selected Bizanga, Cloudmark, Plaxo and Trend Micro. If you’ve ever seen my many presentations and tech dives on Microsoft Exchange 2007 you’re aware that there is very little acknowledgement of anything outside of Microsoft in that install or deployment. Microsoft Hosted Security, Microsoft Forefront, Microsoft Antigen, Microsoft LCS, Microsoft UM, Microsoft, Microsoft, Microsoft.
Today’s head-scratcher? Sometimes 12 million users customers want flexibility. Flexibility that Microsoft fails to demonstrate by forcing offering Microsoft-only solutions.
Dear Microsoft, you still need your partners. It might be a good time to start being nicer to us.
I always talk about the importance of integration and keeping constant contact with your partners and customers. Shockey Monkey is no different, but what if the overall look doesn’t fit the look of your site. How can you integrate Shockey Monkey into your own online identity?
Pretty neat, right? Speaking of neat, I’m extending the API at the moment to let my buddy Judd automatically open the contact in Shockey Monkey when a call comes in to his Asterisk VoIP. Feel the power of the monkey. Or the kitten gets it.
Eric writes about how SBSC partners will be recognized for their SBSC certification at a location basis instead of the organization as a whole. This is particularly useful for us bigger folks with multiple points of presence because we now have the ability to showcase our expertise in each location we have an SBSC qualified individual. (multiple locations = multiple listings = mo leads = mo money)
In less than two years that SBSC has been around it has really matured into a seriously relevant Microsoft program. For a list of additional changes please check out the blog post over at Small Business Community Blog.
Wishlist: Bring to USA some of the recertification requirements that UK has. There are too many people in the program already that barely passed 70–282 and with the bootcamp and paper-SBSC conferences popping up it could seriously damage the credibility of the program if a person that is 70% comfortable with SBS/Vista is allowed to continue advertising themselves as a certified entity years after they have been certified. While I’m sure things are wide open to grow awareness, participation and membership in SBSC I hope Microsoft soon considers measures that control the quality of the program’s members.
© 2005– Vladimir Mazek
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