Author: rich_gibbons

Microsoft Licensing, products, Cloud, and more!
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Windows Server 8 beta also available


Windows Server 8 also has a preview available today so head over to:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/hh670538.aspx

to grab it.

Mary Jo has again got a quick list of some new features:

  • Users can choose Server Core Installation or Server with a GUI (the equivalent of the full installation option in Windows Server 2008 R2). Server Core is the default option.
  • Increased scale and performance for Hyper-V virtual machines. Up to 1 terabyte of memory – up from 512 GB in the developer preview. There’s also an increase in virtual disk size supported, to 64 TB, from 16 TB in the Dev Preview
  • Easier deployment of IIS 8
  • Surfacing of ReFS, the new Resilient File System, in Windows 8, as well as support for new storage and server cluster mangement technologies
  • Metro-Style Remote Desktop app and VOIP integration with Remote Desktop Services

 

The improvements around Virtual mMachines and the new ReFS file system are big news and our customers are asking about release dates already Smile

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WIndows 8 Consumer Preview is available


The Windows 8 Consumer Preview is here.

Microsoft have just announced the availability at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and the links are live over at:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/iso

There are apparently over 100,000 changes in this edition over the Developer Preview we saw a few months back! Mary Jo Foley tells us these include:

  • Addition of the “semantic zoom” panning feature (that Microsoft demonstrated last September, but didn’t include in the Developer Preview). This should make it easier for users to navigate Windows 8 with touch and with mice/keyboards
  • App bar that shows commands when users want them via a bar in the bottom of the screen
  • Replacement of the Start button with a Start preview thumbnail. The preview lets users to right click to get quickly to familiar Windows features, like Windows Explorer, Search, Desktop, etc.
  • Improved app switching by mousing to the top left corner of the screen to allow users to more quickly scroll through their stack of recently opened/closed/used apps
  • Consolidation of passwords and credentials into a single “Microsoft Account.” This should make it easier for users to move his/her settings to other PCs.
  • Inclusion of new previews of various Microsoft apps, including People, Mail, Calendaring, Messaging and SkyDrive apps. (Many of these seem to emulate the similarly named hubs on Windows Phone.)

(Check out her great post on Windows 8, Server 8 and more here – http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/its-windows-8-download-day-heres-what-we-know/12058)

I’m 62% of the way through my download so once it’s done I’m hoping I’ll get the chance to boot it up and see how awesome it is Smile

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Skype for WIndows Phone available


Microsoft’s 2011 $8.5 billion purchase of Skype has borne fruit in the guise of the beta “Skype for Windows Phone” app, with the final version expected to arrive in April.

Skype have tested and certified the app on the following devices:

• Nokia Lumia 710
• Nokia Lumia 800
• HTC Titan
• HTC Radar
• Samsung Focus S
• Samsung Focus Flash

From the Skype Blog:

“With Skype for Windows Phone Beta you can make free audio and video calls** to your Skype contacts over 3G and 4G or WiFi***, make affordable calls to landlines and mobiles using Skype Credit, create and hold one-to-one and group chats, and update your profile and account information, among others features.”

One thing to note is that the beta app will have only English language support.

Head over to http://blogs.skype.com/en/2012/02/skype_brings_voice_and_video_c.html to read more and to get the links to download the app…or hit this QR code using Bing Vision Smile

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Microsoft begin Office 15 Technical Preview


The latest edition of Microsoft’s flagship Office Suite has entered the Technical Preview stage. Currently known as “Office 15” (being the 15th “wave” of productivity products”*) the current beta edition has been released to selected customers, of course under NDA.

PJ Hough, Corporate Vice President of Development, Office Division said:

“Office 15 is the most ambitious undertaking yet for the Office Division”

and also:

“With Office 15, for the first time ever, we will simultaneously update our cloud services, servers, and mobile and PC clients for Office, Office 365, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, Project, and Visio. Quite simply”

This second point appears to indicate that there will no longer be a gap between new editions, and thus features, arriving on-premise and them being available to cloud users…a view which ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley seems to share:

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If this is the case then it’s good news for partners & customers alike.

There will be a public beta in the summer so only 5 or so months to wait to see what’s going to be in there:

  • Will there be a “Microsoft Accounting”?
  • Will there be an Office Suite that includes Visio and/or Project?
  • Will Word easily allow centralised building blocks for document creation?

Check out the Office blog post here:

http://blogs.office.com/b/office-exec/archive/2012/01/30/quot-office-15-quot-begins-technical-preview.aspx

*Well actually the 14th as they skipped 13 for reasons of superstition. So Office 2007 = Wave 12 and Office 2010 = Wave 14

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Blackberry Cloud Services Launches for Microsoft Office 365


This is great news. Microsoft’s Office 365 Online Services can once again play nicely with RIMs Blackberry mail service.

“BlackBerry Business Cloud Services is available at no additional charge to Microsoft Office 365 Enterprise Plan subscribers. This secure service, hosted by Research In Motion (RIM), directly links Microsoft® Exchange Online with BlackBerry smartphones to offer reliable, mobile access to synchronized email, calendar, contacts, tasks and memo pads.”

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The previous iteration of Microsoft Online Services had a chargeable BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server) element hosted by MS which, after a little while became free of charge.

In the run up to Office 365 being launched, the decision was made that RIM would take over hosting the Blackberry services which seemed sensible to me. The odd part is that Office 365 went live in July 2011 but RIM said it would be at least 6 months until they were ready.

This led to a scenario where many people were “waiting until BES arrives” before genuinely evaluating Office 365, particularly in the mid-market space. It’s great to see that this is available and will give our teams another great thing to talk about with our clients Smile

Go and find out more info here:

http://us.blackberry.com/business/software/cloudservices/

and/or grab the Technical PDF, which compares the different flavours of Blackberry Services here:

View the Feature and Technical Overview

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System Center 2012 Licensing Changes


System Center 2012 is getting closer and today saw Microsoft release details of the new licensing models.

Currently the various System Center products (SCCM, SCOM, SCSM, DPM etc) can be purchased individually or as bundles, from 2012 however it’s bundles only. There will be 2 flavours:

  • Standard
  • DataCenter

with the difference being the number of OSEs (Operating System Environments) that can be managed:

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Following DPM 2010’s lead there will now be no more console server licences or SQL needed, simply Management Licences for the endpoints being managed.

Determining the number of licences needed will involve knowledge of the virtual environment & physical processors, similar to SQL:

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System Center 2012 has a much greater focus on “The Cloud” and as such:

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This enables organizations to move to a hybrid infrastructure much more easily.

What if I already have System Center?

If you have System Center with Software Assurance that is current at the time of 2012 General Availability you will receive the following grants:

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What about Client devices?

More changes abound here too, there are now 3 Client ML offerings:

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It’s important to note that, as with the Server MLs:

“Components included in the Client MLs are not available separately”

Opinion

Overall I think this is a good move. Again, Microsoft are modifying their licensing to make it more dynamic, more future proof and more accessible to companies going forwards.

Yes, there will be situations where it works out more expensive for some companies but for the vast majority this is a great move…they’ll have the ability to deploy a wider range of System Center products with streamlined licensing, which is good for everyone Smile

That said, I’m off to review a number of proposals to see how they map to the new models and what changes need to be made – good times! (Thing is, I actually mean that Winking smile)

Any questions, let me know.

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Microsoft takes action against Comet for Counterfeit Windows


I’ve just seen this and it’s quite surprising:

“Microsoft Corp. today issued proceedings against Comet Group PLC for allegedly creating and selling more than 94,000 sets of counterfeit Windows Vista and Windows XP recovery CDs. The alleged counterfeits were sold to customers who had purchased Windows-loaded PCs and laptops.”

That is a huge number of copies and also from a large, well established high street name.

Website “TheNextWeb” have a statement from Comet which reads:

“We note that proceedings have been issued by Microsoft Corporation against Comet relating to the creation of recovery discs by Comet on behalf of its customers.

“Comet has sought and received legal advice from leading counsel to support its view that the production of recovery discs did not infringe Microsoft’s intellectual property.

“Comet firmly believes that it acted in the very best interests of its customers. It believes its customers had been adversely affected by the decision to stop supplying recovery discs with each new Microsoft Operating System based computer. Accordingly Comet is satisfied that it has a good defence to the claim and will defend its position vigorously.”

Their argument that it was in the best interest of customers won’t hold much/any weight if it’s found to infringe upon Microsoft’s IP rights. Microsoft will of course be very certain that this is the case and won’t have launched this suit without proper forethought and fact checking.

I do find this quite encouraging in a way, as it shows that Microsoft are not just targeting the small, local retailers (who tend to be the ones involved in things like this) but also scrutinising the big, well established retailers too…which can only be better for the industry and customers in the long run.

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Lync Mobile & Office 365


Lync Mobile is out for Windows Phone and other platforms right now. If you can’t find it in the marketplace on WP, hit this link:

Download Lync 2010 for Windows

I’ve been using Lync for a few months now and LOVE it, it makes connecting with people at partners so much easier. I use Lync Online via Office 365 (as I also love the cloud) and was very keen to get this all hooked up.

I downloaded the app this morning but couldn’t get it working at all so I turned to my greatest friend in times if tech support need, Twitter. Lo & behold, the ever awesome @bibbleq came through and I was up & running within 5 or so minutes!

All the info I’d seen online concerned adding CNAME records to DNS servers but, as it’s in the cloud, I didn’t have access to that…so I was a bit stuck. Turns out that MS just need to update the DNS at their end but if, like me, you’re impatient to get start then follow @Bibbleq’s advice:

Add

https://meet.lync.com/Autodiscover/autodiscoverservice.svc/Root

as the “External Discovery address” and you’ll be all sorted.

Head over to his blog for more details on the above:

http://www.bibble-it.com/2011/12/12/office-365-basic-plans-quick-config-for-lync-mobile

and also a deeper look at Lync for WP7:

http://www.bibble-it.com/2011/12/12/overview-of-lync-mobile-for-windows-phone-7

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Microsoft SQL 2012 Licensing Changes


Microsoft have this week announced some relatively major changes to the SQL 2012 product line up and it’s licensing.

Editions

There are now 3 editions of SQL Server:

  • Standard
  • Enterprise
  • Business Intelligence

Licensing

Here’s the big change – there’s no more Per CPU licensing…now it’s by Core.

This is a major, although not wholly unexpected, move by Microsoft. Other vendors such as Oracle have long charged by the core but Microsoft have always stayed with physical sockets as their measure…until now.

I’ve been expecting this for a while, especially as 6-core processors become more commonplace and Intel keep making them more powerful. What once took 2 processors can now be done with 1 and what once took 4 now needs just 2, so Microsoft must have been seeing a decline in their SQL revenue over the last 18 months or so.

To break down the licensing:

Standard = Per Core or Server + CAL

Enterprise = Per Core only

Business Intelligence = Server + CAL only

You’ll notice that the new Business Intelligence (BI) edition is Server+CAL only so what should you do if you have external/anonymous users and/or a huge number of people accessing the BI server/s? SQL Enterprise Edition 2012 contains ALL features of the BI edition so use that to license by core.

Let’s go a little deeper into the licensing and see what else there is for us Smile

It’s worth noting that “Core based licences will be sold in 2 core packs.” but a big clause is:

“To license a physical server properly, you must license all cores in the server with a minimum of 4 cores required for each physical processor in the server.”

This means if you’re running with dual core CPU’s you’re going to have to buy more cores than you have. <—This will be a big cause of outrage I’m sure however it does mean that as you upgrade your server hardware and get CPUs with higher core counts, there won’t be a big extra licensing cost.

Transition to new Licensing Models

Whenever Microsoft bring out new versions of software and change the licensing rules, the big question is always “What if I need to buy new licenses in the meantime?” and we, as partners, have to work to make sure that we help customers future proof any investments they make in the run up to the new product release.

What’s the deal with the run up to SQL 2012?

  • After 30/06/12, no Enterprise Edition Server licenses will be sold. (EA/EAP customers will have until their next renewal after 30/06/12 to purchase additional server licences for current projects.)
  • All existing SQL Enterprise Editions licensed via Server + CAL with SA (Software Assurance) can be upgraded to SQL 2012 and the SA can be maintained to provide access to future updates.
  • Here’s a point to take note of:
  • Newly purchased Enterprise Edition (EE) 2012 server licenses and/or those server licenses upgraded via SA will be limited to server deployments with 20 cores or less.
  • Customers with processor licenses under SA can upgrade to SQL 2012 at no additional cost.
  • At the end of the SA term, processor licences can be exchanged for core licenses and the SA can then be renewed.
  • SQL Std & Enterprise Processor licensed covered with SA will be exchanged for a minimum of 4 core licenses or the actual number of cores in use.
  • SQL DataCenter (a version of 2008 that’s disappearing in 2012) will swap out for a minimum of 8 cores or the actual number of processors in use.

There are some other rules and guides around the ability to add core licenses mid term to an EA/EAP etc but I don’t want to make this section TOO big!

Pricing

Microsoft have released estimated pricing in dollars so let’s take a look at that and see how it stacks up to current 2008 R2 costs.

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So you’re looking at $7172 at a minimum for a SQL Std server which stacks up pretty well against the current processor licensing costs. I’m sure people will find scenarios where this is more expensive but they’ll surely forget to take into account all the new features like Project Crescent & Juneau that have been integrated into the new editions, and so I don’t think that price should really be the big thing here.

Any other editions available?

SQL Datacenter, Workgroup & Standard for Small Business editions are all being retired with the 2012 release.

Web Edition will only be available to hosters via SPLA (Service Provider License Agreement).

Developer, Express & Compact editions will continue to be available in the same ways as right now.

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Nokia & Microsoft Office 365


I today received an email from Nokia telling me that the “1st Nokia Partner Network Event” is imminent on the 23rd November 2011 at The National Space Centre, Leicester

I’ve never been aware of Nokia particularly having partners of the sort that would have events like this…as their business isn’t really the same as Microsoft, Adobe, SAP, HP etc., so it surprised me a little.

There are 3 breakouts:

  • Retailers/Online
  • B2B Dealer
  • IT Reseller

and it’s the 3rd one that caught my eye due to the first 2 sessions:

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So not only are Nokia making a huge play in the consumer arena with Windows Phone 7, it seems they’re going to start introducing their devices into the corporate space, by playing on some of the enhancements found within the recent Mango update. That update brought full support for Microsoft’s Office 365, their cloud based Exchange/Lync/Sharepoint offering, allowing WP users full access to Sharepoint lists and document libraries.

I’m keen to see where Nokia’s involvement with Office 365 takes them, us as partners and Microsoft too. That said I don’t think I’ll be able to attend the event…anyone out there planning on going that can take notes for me? Smile

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