MS to change Office 365 support?

CRN, Channel Reseller News, has just reported that MS are set to revamp the structure for Office 365, by giving sales and support responsibilities to distributors.

This will mean rather than customers purchasing directly from Microsoft and them giving resellers a rebate, resellers will purchase from distribution partners as they currently do for other items such as Office & Windows via the Open license models. They go on to say that distributors will also provide end user support but MS will retain ownership of the billing functionality; which raises two points for me:

1) End User Support: MS have invested quite heavily in their support teams and, in my experience, they are really good. Quick, knowledgeable, keen to help etc…it strikes me as odd that Redmond would look to move away from that and put it on the channel. Perhaps distributors will have the option to offer end-user support but I would imagine that MS will keep that support element.

2) Billing: Selling it through the channel but Microsoft keeping the billing seems overly complicated. A sales cycle would be:

• Distributor buys from MS
• Reseller buys from Distributor
• Customer buys from Reseller

and payment would follow that back through the channel so I’m not sure where MS would fit in?

Feel free to offer your thoughts on all the above too!

I think it will, overall, be a good move to include the channel more in this but hey, I’ll see what new info we get at WPC and let you know

Tabbed Conversations in Microsoft Lync

If you’ve been using Microsoft Lync for any length of time you’ll that, while it’s a great product there’s one slight issue with it…you end up with IM windows all over the place.

For some, that might not be an issue but it winds me up quite often and now it seems it’s not just me as Microsoft have made a Tabbed Conversations download available.

I’ve been using this for a few days and I like it…it reduces the clutter on the desktop and keeps it all tidy.

It’s a small download to run and install the add-on & the tabs will appear when you restart Lync. Grab it here:

http://lync.microsoft.com/Adoption-and-Training-Kit/tools-and-apps/Pages/Tabbed-Conversations.aspx

Office 365 Update

I’m not sure when this update happened but the “Kiosk Worker” SKU for Exchange on Office 365 (K1) now gives you a 1GB mailbox…an increase from the previous limit of 500MB.

A nice little update from Microsoft there…

Claim your 25GB in SkyDrive

As you may well have seen, Microsoft’s SkyDrive has been revamped with a Windows app, new features and the ability to purchase extra storage – all bringing it in line with DropBox and Google Drive.

It’s always offered 25GB free storage but going forwards, this will be reduced to 7GB – which is still plenty for most people I’d say. However, if you’re an existing SkyDrive user you loyalty is being rewarded as MS are giving you the chance to keep your full 25GB.

When you log into SkyDrive you should see this:

A couple of clicks and Boom:

Nice and simple.

Windows 8 Editions

Microsoft have announced the editions of Windows 8 that will be available:

• Windows 8
• Windows 8 Pro
• Windows 8 Enterprise
• Windows RT

Let’s take a look at each edition and what you get.

Windows 8

This is the new incarnation of “Home Premium” as it cannot join a domain or be managed via group policy. New/updated features include:

• Updated Windows Explorer
• Updated Task Manager
• Better multi-monitor support
• Ability to switch languages on the fly (previously ENt/Ultimate edt only!)

 

Windows 8 Pro

This is, as the name suggests, the new “Professional” offering of Windows and it brings with it a few new things:

• Boot from VHD
• Client Hyper – V
• Bit Locker & Bitlocker to Go

Now the first 2 are pretty cool and will come in very handy but in my opinion, that 3rd one is the biggie:

Hard Drive and USB encryption built in as part of the OS!

Previously Bitlocker was available only as an Enterprise feature which required SA to be purchased on top of the Windows 7 Pro SKU, and for the last almost 3 years we’ve had customers asking:

“Why isn’t this in the Pro version?”

so it’s great that it now is

Windows RT

This has previously been known as “Windows on ARM” or “WOA” and is exclusively for devices powered by ARM processors. These devices will typically be thinner, lighter and have better battery life than regular devices so it’s aimed very much at the tablet market.

One of the interesting features is that Windows RT is listed as including Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote). No more solid information has been given on this, leading to some speculation. Over on LinkedIn, Paul DeGroot has said:

I imagine it will be something akin to what is built into Windows Phone, certainly not equivalent to the full desktop version but more than capable of handling what users need to do when they’re out and about – perfect for tablets once again and a great USP against Apple & Android devices.

One of the big differences with Windows RT is that X86/X64 software and desktop software cannot be installed on it, again keeping it focused on the tablet market…just like the iPad iOS and responding to people’s claims of Windows being too “bloated” to run on a tablet.

There is also a lot of noise being made about the name “Windows RT” and how it’s rubbish and no-one will know what it means etc. but I genuinely feel that’s people just complaining for the sake of it.

• What does iOS mean?
• What does Ice Cream Sandwich mean?

Nothing yet devices with those OS’s are still selling pretty well so I really don’t see it being a problem

The Windows Team Blog post has got a great, although not exhaustive, comparison chart between the 3 above versions here:

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2012/04/16/announcing-the-windows-8-editions.aspx

 

Windows 8 Enterprise & enhanced Software Assurance

Microsoft have kept the Enterprise edition of Windows going, reserved as always for customers purchasing Windows 8 Pro with Software Assurance.

As you’ve seen above, 2 features previously restricted to Enterprise have been moved into the Pro SKU (BitLocker and Multi-User Interface) but the other key differentiators from Windows 7 are there including:

• Direct Access
• Branch Cache
• AppLocker
• VDI Enhancement

as well as a couple of new ones:

• Windows 8 App Deployment – “Domain joined PCs and tablets running Windows 8 Enterprise will automatically be enabled to side-load internal, Windows 8 Metro style apps”
• Windows To Go – “a fully manageable corporate Windows 8 desktop on a bootable external USB stick.”

That second addition aims to ease the pain around BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), which going to be a huge thing over these coming months and years.

Microsoft are also adding new benefits to Software Assurance on Windows 8 Pro, which will include:

• Windows To Go Use Rights: Windows To Go will allow companies to support Bring Your Own PC scenarios and will give employees who need to work from home more secure access to their full corporate environment. With Windows To Go use rights under Software Assurance, an employee will be able to use Windows To Go on any company PC licensed with Windows SA as well as from their home PC. Additionally, through a new companion device license for SA, employees will be able to use WTG on their personal devices at work.
• Windows RT Virtual Desktop Access (VDA) Rights: When used as a companion of a Windows Software Assurance licensed PC, Windows RT will automatically receive extended VDA rights. These rights will provide access to a full VDI image running in the datacenter which will make Windows RT a great complementary tablet option for business customers.
• Companion Device License: For customers who want to provide full flexibility for how employees access their corporate desktop across devices, we are introducing a new Companion Device License for Windows SA customers. For users of Windows Software Assurance licensed PCs this optional add-on will provide rights to access a corporate desktop either through VDI or Windows To Go on up to four personally owned devices.

These again make strides towards addressing the changes being brought about through BYOD and remote working.

You can see more info on the Windows Team Blog here:

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/business/archive/2012/04/18/introducing-windows-8-enterprise-and-enhanced-software-assurance-for-today-s-modern-workforce.aspx

That said, it will be interesting to see what changes (if any) are made to Office licensing (most probably through SA again) to bring it into line with BYOD needs…but that’s a separate topic

SQL 2012 Core Factor Table

You may well have seen by now that SQL 2012 bring with it a big change, moving from “Per CPU” to “Per Core” licensing. (Read more here.)

Well there’s one more bit that hasn’t been widely announced but can make a fair difference in certain scenarios, and that is the “Microsoft SQL 2012 Core Factor Table”:

What?

There is a minimum of 4 core licenses per physical processor so the above table shows that:

1 x Single Core = 4 Cores

2 x Dual Core = 4 Cores

which fits the model. However you can see that there is special dispensation for certain AMD processors where each physical core is worth just 0.75 cores when it comes to SQL. S0 that means:

6 physical cores on an AMD 32XX CPU = 4.5 SQL Cores*

*I believe this would be rounded up to 5…and you have to buy in multiples of 2 so doesn’t alter anything…but if you have an 8 core CPU of the above kinds, you’d then only need to buy 6 SQL cores (8*.75=6).

This does add an extra bit of complexity to correctly designing an SQL solution but hey, that’s what us licensing gurus are for right?

I do wonder how this will affect decisions when companies are speccing up hardware for SQL deployments. Will previously 100% Intel houses start looking at AMD chips for the SQL cost savings they can bring?

New MDOP family Member: UE-V

MDOP, the add-on available to organizations with Windows 7 Pro w/SA that gives a number of great desktop management tools, has a new member coming to join it’s ranks:

User Experience Virtualization (UE-V)

What does it do?

“By implementing UE-V, IT departments can enable a consistent experience for users who have multiple devices provided by their company or choose to bring their personal PC or tablet to work. Now users can change their device and keep their experience without reconfiguring applications each time they login to Windows 7 or Windows 8. “

So you can deploy an app to multiple devices at the same time, keeping the same configurations across the board…improving the user experience and reducing the load on IT – both of which are key as IT continues to become more of a leading part within organizations

Office 365 Price Cuts

Office 365, Microsoft’s online services offering has had a price cut.

Effective immediately, the new pricing is thus:

     Was £6.50         Was £10.50      Was £15.75        Was £17.75

K1 has stayed the same but K2 has been reduced from £6.50.

The E3 SKU has been reduced by 16% and E1 by 19%.

Other pricing:

The US price lists I’ve seen show that additional SharePoint storage has been reduced by 92%, from $2.50 to £.20! The UK site doesn’t currently contain pricing for this but I’ve asked for UK costs, so I’ll update this post once I hear back.

Some people will say these cuts are due to it not being as popular as hoped but I believe Microsoft’s reasoning about economy of scale & improved efficiency being the key drivers. We’re seeing some really great interest in Office 365 so far this year so I’d advise taking the naysayers with a pinch of salt

Symantec Backup Exec 2012 Changes

Backup Exec 2012 has been released and brings with it a few changes.

1) There is now an “Agent for Applications & Databases” which protects

a. SQL

b. Exchange

c. SharePoint

d. Active Directory

e. Oracle

f. Lotus Domino

2) There is extended Mac support with the “Agent for Macintosh”.

3) There are now 2 server options:

a. Backup Exec Server Edition – Same as always.

b. Backup Exec Server V-Ray Edition – This includes the ability to backup all virtual Application & Database servers without requiring the additional options inside each VM. There are then 2 variants of the V-Ray Edition:

i. 2 to 6 cores per CPU

ii. 8 plus cores per CPU

· Point 1 makes it easier to license for organizations with multiple App & DB servers.

· Point 3 can make licensing much easier & cost effective for companies with heavy use of virtual App & DB servers.  The move to core based licensing won’t really add any complexity – just remember to count up the number of cores before requesting/providing a quote.

It’s interesting to see another vendor make the move to core based licensing to better fit with virtualization…I wonder who else will do this too.

You can learn more at:

http://www.symantec.com/backup-exec

Microsoft Windows Server 8 Online Backup

The Windows Server 8 beta has been out for a week or so and people are still finding new features in the Operating System.

Aidan Finn has uncovered an Online Backup Service that is available as an installable component of Windows Server 8.

What is it?

Microsoft Online Backup Service (as it is known) is an installable service to back up files & folders to the cloud.

Why is it?

Microsoft Online Backup Service provides a new way to deliver business continuity benefits to Windows Server "8" Beta customers by providing a backup solution that requires no upfront hardware cost (other than an internet connection).

Extra Points:

One thing to note straight away is that this isn’t a free service…not even Microsoft can backup everyone’s data for free! That said, the current beta IS free and is limited to around 10GB.

Here it is in the start menu:

Encryption passphrases must be at least 16 characters long and:

 

Recovering Data

Any server running Windows Server "8" Beta can recover data from Microsoft Online Backup Service onto any server running Windows Server "8" Beta connected to the Internet.

Thoughts

It’s interesting to see this as Computer Associates (CA) have just launched an online backup service that using Microsoft Windows Azure as its cloud platform. I’m not sure, off the top of my head,how these 2 services stack up features wise but I’m going to try and find out Will Microsoft’s service be positioned more as a low end, entry level package while CA take the mid-market/Enterprise sector?

 

You can download the Online Backup Beta Guide document here:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/confirmation.aspx?id=29005

Aidan’s great original post can be found here:

http://www.aidanfinn.com/?p=12179

Thanks to Mary Jo of ZDnet for tweeting this