I am not saying that Drupal is a bad choice and in many ways it makes sense. Tim O’Reilly as always has a great overview of this decision. I don’t really know anything about Drupal and I am not against using Opensource as this blog and the Ardent iSys site uses Wordpress which is a great solution for content managed sites.

However, what seems to have been lost is that another high profile US Government site actually went from using Drupal to using Sharepoint, namely the Recovery.gov site which is meant to highlight how the stimulus money is being spent by the US Government. It is interesting to read the reasons for this choice although this switch has not been cheap costing $18 million. However, I have not heard how much the Whitehouse site switch cost?

ShareThis

This hands-on workshop provides students with the necessary knowledge to plan and implement Windows Small Business Server 2008. Students gain first-hand knowledge on topics such as installing, migrating, monitoring, securing, and backing up data. £200 per delegate.  Register Here

London 26^th Oct, East Midlands 9^th Nov, London 30^th Nov

Implementing and Administering Windows® Essential Business Server 2008 (4Days)–Various Dates and Locations

This hands-on workshop provides students with the necessary knowledge to plan and implement Windows Essential Business Server 2008. Students gain first-hand knowledge on topics such as installing, migrating, monitoring, securing, and backing up data. £200 per delegate. Register Here

London 26^th Oct, Edinburgh 2^nd Nov

ShareThis

ShareThis

Great work from Rich to get this exposure for himself, his business and his customers. He’s currently at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans and you can follow him at his blog or on twitter.

It goes to show you the great FREE PR you can get when engaging proactively with Microsoft!!

ShareThis

The Midlands SBS Group Leader, Steve Wright, who is also one of the new SBSC PALs for the UK has some videos of his WPC09 experience in New Orleans so check that out as well on his blog or on twitter.

So the things I’m expecting to be announced are :

• More details as to the new Microsoft Partner Programme
• Windows 7 (will they announce RTM?)
• Sharepoint Server 2010
• Office 2010
• Silverlight 3 (already released but expecting more announcements around it)
• Visual Studio 2010?
• Pricing details of Azure? ( …or will they leave that until PDC?)

These are some of the things I’m expecting, so we’ll see over the coming days.

ShareThis

You can check the video out here and comes courtesy of Ian Smith at http://twitter.com/irascian

Thanks to him for recording these and putting them online. They are in three parts.

ShareThis

——————–

A last minute webinar, but others cancellation is our gain! As SMBVirtualization.net kicks off our webinar series, we’re starting with a blast with a great guest — Ryan Morris from IPED. Come join us for a discussion on the future of IT delivery.

The Future of the IT Partner

Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/757508595

SMBVirtualization.net welcomes Ryan Morris, Practice Director, WW Channel Development & Education, Institute for Partner Education & Development. In the midst of all the upheaval in financial and real estate markets, and the general unrest in all sectors of the economy, one thing has become painfully clear: the old ways of doing things as a solution provider business no longer apply. The basics of being in your business have undergone a set of fundamental changes that affect every aspect of your activities – from technical services to sales operations, from customer relationships to your core value proposition. Market factors such as technology maturity, increased competition, and service delivery models continue to shift dramatically. And while it’s critical to understand the impact these changes will have on your individual business, it’s even more important that you embrace one fundamental reality: these changes are both significant and permanent – the market is never going back to the way it was before.

Title: The Future of the IT Partner

Date: Friday, July 10, 2009

Time: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EDT

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements

PC-based attendees Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

ShareThis

•Supporting the SBS/EBS launch events in the UK with Microsoft

•SBS 2008 Migration Workshop with David Overton (only one in the UK)

•Online participation/communication for SBSC Partners through blog and online technical communities

•Member of the newly formed Microsoft UK PAC

•Technical Director of Ardent iSys showing good growth in providing software solutions based on MS Technologies e.g. ASP.NET MVC

•Published Case Study for Windows Mobile

•Provided free OfficeLive Training to community/charity organisations with great feedback in conjunction with Leicestershire Cares

I have done much more than this in the background in terms of feedback to Microsoft and trying to help SBSC Partners with problems and queries. Probably some of the lesser known things that I achieved were the release of the Demo Showcase VMs and System Centre Virtual Machine Manager (Enterprise Ed) in the SBSC Toolkit.

Microsoft has created a PAL Alumni Page on the Microsoft Portal and we continue to have access to the PAL Groove site. The new Global PALs I am sure will bring new ideas and perspective to things and continue to help build our Community further.

ShareThis

See Scott’s blog post on this.

I am booked to go on this, so if you’re going see you there. We are looking to use ASP.NET MVC on a new client project.

ShareThis

It’s always good to have a change, to get new thinking and have a different perspective. It was one of the reasons I stepped down from leading the Midlands SBS Group AMITPRO last year and Steve was voted to takeover. He’s certainly taken the Group on to where we have regular paying members and a gradually increasing base of members. As a Group we continue to enjoy close co-operation with Microsoft and other vendors.

I remain convinced that the collaborative approach that epitomises the SBS Community is a key component for business success. Therefore, it is important that we support Steve and Andy going forward and that we let our thoughts be known. They are successful business owners, so they know what it is all about in having successful strategies.

I also want to thank and pay tribute to my fellow PAL Gareth Brown of Sytec who has been a good friend of mine and a great advocate of SBSC. What many people have not seen and appreciated is that we both lobbied very hard within Microsoft as to the value of SBSC with the help of Robbie Upcroft.

Things have changed for me massively is my business life and I have a great partnership with Ashish in our business Ardent iSys, which continues to grow and develop very nicely and is Microsoft Certified Partner.

Mostly, I have made a number of very good friends within my couple of years as a PAL and worked with some amazing Partners who made up the other PALs from the Globe. It’s been a huge honour to be among some of the best of the best. From July, I will become an Alumni PAL and I’m sure I will provide my input from time to time to Microsoft.

Ashish and I are part of the newly created Microsoft UK Partner Advisory Council, so our input continues. I will continue to be a regular contributor to AMITPRO and I have my blog and twitter feed if you want to follow it.

ShareThis