Major McAfee Failure

We have just had a call from McAfee and have been told that there has been a major problem with a DAT update delivered yesterday.

Customers with VirusScan 8.8 who have downloaded DAT update 6807 or 6808 will experience PC issues: http://www.scmagazineuk.com/mcafees-defected-update-causes-user-chaos/article/255393/

 Any users who have not install these updates should update directly to 6809.

Anyone who has installed them will need to run a Hotfix : https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=KB76004

Microsoft SBS is Dead

SBS RIP - SBS Axed

It's true, at the time of posting Microsoft have decided to axe their portfolio of SBS (Small Business Server) products. 

The current incarnation, Small Business Server 2011, will continue to be available for most of 2013, but after that it will be no more.

SBS essentials will die,
SBS Standard will die,
and SBS Premium will die.

Microsoft have been repeating a mantra insisting that their coud suite, Office 365,will provide everything that a small or medium size company would need and more, but is not right for everyone and we want choice.

As a reseller, support company and advocate of Microsofts Cloud services, a large volume of our business is still with the SBS family of products.
So if SBS is dead, what can we do?
The on-premise alternative to SBS is to buy the separate Microsoft licenses - Windows Server and Exchange.

At the very least (when following best practise) you will need two Windows Server licenses and one Exchange license. The approximate license cost for a 15 user company would be about £2,750.00. This compares to a cost of approx' £1,400.00 for the equivalent SBS software.

So, why do customers continue to buy SBS over Office365? Simply because it works, it is affordable and it is tried and tested over many years. For the same reasons, they don't yet trust Office365.

I think that there is no doubt that Microsoft is the clear market leader in the small and medium business server market, largely thanks to SBS.  So it seems very strange to risk this dominant position to go toe to toe with Google Apps and other cloud offerings.

They key here is choice, if customers are faced with no choice, even the most ardent Microsoft fan is going to at least look at the competition to see how it compares.  Microsoft may find that some customers who would never stray from SBS will suddlenly shop around for the best cloud offering and they won't all buy into the Microsoft dream.

Windows 8 on its way....

Windows 8 on its way....

Reports from Microsoft suggest the Windows 8 will reach RTM in early August and should be available to the public in late october.

The even better news is that Microsoft seem to have taken a page out of Apples book and are offering an upgrade to the new PROFESSIONAL version for approximatley £25.00.  Which is a massive reduction on previous upgrade licenses.

It seems that you can upgrade from XP, Vista or Windows 7.

This will certainly be very popular with consumers and developers who are designing apps for the new Windows store.

Here it is from the horses mouth: http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2012/07/02/upgrade-to-windows-8-pro-for-39-99.aspx?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Ebeam me up!

Office365uk have just become an ebeam reseller and want to tell the world!

We were constantly having to take photos of whiteboard brainstorms, customer solutions and meeting ideas so that we didn't forget the information.... and then came Ebeam.

You just use the Whiteboard as usual and everything you draw, write, erase, etc is saved to a PC/laptop for later consumption.

This is a real alternitive to smart boards at a fraction of the cost. The following video says it all..

Get in touch for prices and information

Microsofts Virtual Push

Take a look at this.... I'm not sure that I even get it..... I think that Microsoft are telling people to virtualise, but I think I missed the message!

Perhaps this is designed for a US audience? Interestingly comments have been disabled for this video.... I wonder why.

The main charecter is Tad... who even has his own website..http://www.vm-limited.com/

Microsoft Price Increases

Further to our previous post, here is some more information surrounding Microsofts planned price increases.

The percentage increase differs between licensing models, see them listed below.  These price increases have been pencilled in for July 2012, although the SPLA increase has already slipped to January 2013.

Watch this space for any further news.

Microsoft SPLA – 33.4%

Microsoft OPEN – 7.5%

Microsoft  Open Value Subscription – 33.4%

Microsoft SELECT – 24.6%

Microsoft  EA / EAS – 26.7%

Microsoft  ISV – 33.4%

And up it goes again!

Further to the news that Microsofts Cloud productivity service "Office 365" has had a considerable reduction in subscription cost, we can announce that the price is about to go up again (for UK customers)!

Effective July 1st, the cost of the Office 365 suites will increase by up to 21%. 

Microsoft have reported that "these changes are due to sustained currency differences in the EU/EFTA region between Euro and Non Euro currencies." 

These increases are not limited to the Cloud service and similar changes have been annonced accross all lines of Microsoft software products.