Month: August 2008

Body: No – I’m not talking about the fabulous SMBPreday at TechEd Australia (but hey it’s only a few days away now).  What I’m talking about is the one and only Harry Brelsfords SMBNation which is in October in Seattle. Harry could easily be suited up in a ringmasters outfit as he takes charge of the circus that is SMBNations Fall Conference 🙂 And I mean that in the nicest possible way. Come see the stars such as Susan Bradley, Jeff Middleton and the quiet but elusive Amy Babinchak and a crowd of others tell it to the people like … Continue reading Rollup Rollup – the show is about to start.

Body: Trend have just released the beta for the 5.1 release of Worry-Free Business Security.  The major components of this release are; What’s new in Worry-Free Business Security™ v5.1? Additional Microsoft Operating System support: Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 (Cougar) and Microsoft Essential Business Server 2008 (Centro) Support Microsoft Exchange 2007 Server on Windows 2008 Support Web Threat Protection Feedback Loop Support CSA memory reduction to under 40Mb (this is accomplished with the new Virus Scan API 8.9) Integrated install with Worry Free Remote Manager https://www.trendbeta.com/index.php?get=356&content=450 With the release of Cougar just around the corner, we need to get as … Continue reading Trend WFBS 5.1 Beta coming – SBS/EBS support

Body: I’ve been working at Microsoft now for a few days over the last two weeks.  My first day was last Wednesday and it was right into a team meeting around the WESS family launch here in Australia.  Now having been an outsider for so long, I’ve heard MS tell us that they value the community input greatly.  What impressed me greatly was that even in my very first internal meeting there was so much talk about "What would Dean do", "What would Stuart do" in reference to how we interface with our customers, and how Microsoft would expect us … Continue reading Microsoft takes community seriously with SBS and EBS launch

Body: Today SBS 2008 was RTM’d – aka Release To Manufacturing. This means it’s done, baked ready to come out of the oven and onto the production lines as CD’s. It’s been a long beta for this product and finally it’s done! This direct from Microsoft… We are very excited to announce the RTM of Small Business Server 2008 today! This is a huge milestone for the team here, as well as all of you who have played a pivotal role in providing feedback on this product. We on the product team want to say "THANK YOU!" for the hours … Continue reading SBS 2008 RTMs – Available Early October

Body: To the sounds of evil laughter, I’ve swallowed the blue pill 🙂 Well almost. Today I started working with Microsoft Australia. My role here will be Tech Specialist on SBS and EBS and I’ll be helping very much with the launch of SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 here in Australia over the next 6 months.  Robbie approached me to see if I would be interested in working with Microsoft to help build the SBS/EBS community here in Australia. I felt it was a chance I could not let pass to be able to work form the inside and help … Continue reading Moving over to the dark side.. 🙂

Body: One of the things that we all face in the SMB market is the way in which we attract new customers.  Most of the business we get is via word of mouth, but what about customers that you do not know, or markets that you do not yet have a contact in to provide that word of mouth?  Well that is where marketing comes in. I’ve been look at different ways to marketing my upcoming SBS 2008 book and I’m convinced that one of the best ways to do this is via the online communities and using online advertising.  … Continue reading Marketing your Small Business cheaper and smarter!

Body: I was doing an SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 Migration last week and had something very strange happened. I had a directory called Network Data that literally disappeared. Below you can see the Windows Explorer view shows no trace of the Network Data directory.  I initially thought that I had some disk corruption or something else, that is until I dropped to a CMD prompt and did a DIR listing as below.  You’ll notice that there is a Network Data directory.  You will also notice that there is is NO Start Menu folder. I looked into both the network … Continue reading Strange folder names during SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 migration?

Body: So I’m trying to help promote the SMB Pre Day for TechEd Australia on September 2nd and I thought I’d reach out to two community leaders Susan Bradley and Vlad Mazek for some extra help in getting the message out.  My request – simple – help let the community know about the event so we can drive registrations and get the latest/greatest.  So both Susan and Vlad decide to take matters into their own hands with the results of their blog posts below 🙂 Vlads – http://www.vladville.com/2008/08/to-robbie-from-the-city-of-angels-with-love-warning-not-safe-for-anyone-anywhere-anytime.html   Susans – http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/2008/08/12/heads-on-sale-in-australia-for-550.aspx     Susan, Vlad – thanks guys – … Continue reading Pay peanuts – you get monkeys….

Body: Graham Seach – local MS Access MVP and all round nice guy is running Australia’s 2nd OfficeDevCon event. He’s just launched the website and is keen to drive attendance.  The event will cover all manner of things relating to the Microsoft Office platform and will be one not to be missed. http://www.officedevcon.com.au/ Category: Conferences Published: 13/08/2008 9:00 AM Attachments: http://blog.sbsfaq.com/Lists/Posts/Attachments/219/image_2.pnghttp://blog.sbsfaq.com/Lists/Posts/Attachments/219/image_thumb.png

Body: Yes – that’s right there are only 21 days to go now before TechEd Australia kicks off, that means that you have to make up your mind NOW if you want to register for the SMB Preday which will really kick ass with international guest speakers flying from the USA to share with us the latest and greatest in content on SBS 2008 and EBS 2008.  RUN – NOW – this this site http://www.microsoft.com.au/teched/pre_days.aspx  Make sure you book in ASAP to the event before space runs out.  If you don’t go – then you will really miss out on … Continue reading 21 Days to go – will you miss out?