It’s 6 Months later. What should you do about the end of life for Small Business Server?

Posted on January 23, 2013 by cypgrp

Hiding the announcement like a politician hides bad news, Microsoft announced the end of life for their Small Business Server (SBS) last July. It’s now nearly six months later, and they are still trying to figure out what the replacement for Small Business Server should really be. Just this month, Microsoft has changed the licensing rights for those that purchase Small Business Server 2011 with Software Assurance. The original announcement gave Software Assurance purchasers rights to one Windows Server 2012 Standard license, one Exchange 2010 Standard license and the associated CALs to match the Small Business Server CALs. The new announcement gives the purchaser rights to two Windows Server 2012 Standard licenses along with the Exchange 2010 license. Additionally, you will be able to upgrade to Exchange 2013 if you wish.

One other announcement that has been made by Microsoft is how to transmogrify Windows 2012 Server Essentials into a normal Windows 2012 Server environment. Transmogrification (yes, this is a real word according to Microsoft), can be simply accomplished by activating a Windows 2012 Server Essentials environment with a Windows 2012 Server product code. There are no additional charges outside of the CAL requirement for every user/device connected to server. This act also increase the number of computers that can be backed by the Essentials server up from 25 to 75

So what does this really mean to the business owner? The choices have become more numerous than before which really means you need an expert to determine what is best for your business. Let’s assume that you are moving from SBS 2003 to something. What should you choose?

One choice would be Small Business Server 2011. Although you can no longer purchase Software Assurance for the product, you can still purchase it until July of this year. Jeff Middleton of IT Pro Experts argues that SBS 2011 will have validity for the next five years. I think this is a valid assumption if you think your company will grow within the restraints of SBS (75 users).

Another choice would be to move to either Small Business Server Essentials 2011 or Windows 2012 Server Essentials for your internal server as long as you will stay within the 25 user limit. For this size business, I would recommend an outside mail server such as Microsoft Office 365.

For larger businesses, you could go to a Windows Server version and either have your email hosted in-house or in the cloud. In doing analysis for a number of different clients, I have found that the conversion costs to cloud email versus keeping mail in-house break even at about 5 years.

These are just high level overviews of what choices are available. There are many variations within the choices I have mentioned. If you have more questions, let me know an I will try to address them.

What are your younger employees thinking about IT Policies?

Posted on January 3, 2013 by cypgrp

Cisco has released their “Connected World Technology Report 2011“. This was a worldwide study of 1,441 College Students (age 18–24) and 1,412 End Users (21–29) who completed an online survey between May 13 and June 8, 2011. The study covered 14 countries with about 200 entries per country. The End Users were screened were college graduates or higher, employed full time in a non-IT role, and worked for an organization that employs 10+ people worldwide. The purpose of the study was to examine the behavior and expectations of the world’s next generation of workers and how their demands for information access are changing business communications and the future of work.

Among other findings, the 2011 Cisco Connected World Technology Report revealed:

One of every three college students and young employees believes the Internet is as important as air, water, food, and shelter.
Two of five said they would accept a lower-paying job that had more flexibility with regard to device choice, social media access, and mobility than a higher-paying job with less flexibility.
Regarding security-related issues in the workplace, seven of ten employees admitted to knowingly breaking IT policies on a regular basis, and three of five believe they are not responsible for protecting corporate information and devices.

When looking into the detailed answers of End Users from the US, your current employees, some things definitely pop out.

Nearly Two-Thirds of End Users believe ‘Company-Issued Devices Should Be Available for Both Work and Play.’
When asked, US End Users were split evenly on whether their company should give the same equipment to everyone, or they should be given a budget to buy their own equipment, or they should have company supplied equipment but be able to use their own devices at work.
Over half thought they should be able to access their corporate network from their home computer and nearly as many thought they should be able to from personal mobile devices. A third thought they should be able to access the corporate network from any computer anywhere.
In an answer to that expectation, over half the End Users could access their corporate network remotely, but not always from all locations.
In deference to their international colleagues, nearly two-thirds US End Users would take a higher salary over the ability to work remotely.
About a third of US End Users report their company restricts access to Online games and Social Networking sites. Of those restricted, a third thinks it would be nice for work/life balance issues if these sites were available. While nearly as many think that they and their co-workers would waste a huge amount of time if the sites were available.
40% believe that their company IT policies need slight improvement or updating. Even though, over half believe the company policies are fair.
Only 34% always follow their company IT policies while another 53% say they follow those policies most of the time.
64% of those that break the company policies believe that they are doing nothing wrong.

Most of the US End Users responding to the survey were between the ages of 25 and 29. Half of the End Users worked for companies with more than 750 people. A third of the respondents worked for companies with less than 100 people.

So what can be drawn from this study? From the employee’s point of view, remote access is desirable and may lead to better productivity. There is no real consensus on who should supply end user equipment, but employers should be looking at or developing policies on Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) questions. But for most employees in the US, pay is more important than remote access and flexibility.

Employers should recognize that they need to define policies. Those policies can be restrictive if fair. Once policies are defined, they need to be updated on a regular basis.

There were a lot of other issues questioned in this study, but I believe these are the key points for the small business owner that is looking ahead:

Be aware that younger users expect more in IT connectivity.
They will basically follow the rules if the rules seem logical. Otherwise, they will find a way around them.
Times have changed. If you aren’t already doing it, you should look at restricting Internet access during your work day. Tomorrow may be too late because expectation of access is already there.
Make sure your employees understand their responsibility for the security of the company’s data and equipment.

How to check your user licenses in Office 365

Posted on November 19, 2012 by cypgrp

I recently got asked by one of my clients to check what users were on what plan in their Microsoft Office 365 account. You can imagine my surprise when Microsoft billing told me the only way to do this was to go down each user in the administrative portal, click on them and check the licensing page to see what license is assigned. I asked if there was a way to do this with Powershell and I got sent off to technical support. They found nothing that would do this in their quick technical answers and they would have to get back to me.

After a bit of research on my own, I ended up creating my own script to get the information. Here’s that script:

—————————————————————————————————

# Script to retrieve a licensing report from Office 365 and output it to CSV

# DISCLAIMER

# The sample scripts are not supported under any Microsoft standard support program or service.

# The sample scripts are provided AS IS without warranty of any kind.

# The entire risk arising out of the use or performance of the sample scripts and documentation remains with you.

# Created by Ted Giesler http://blog.cypgrp.com

Function Get-FileName($initialDirectory)

{

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName(“System.windows.forms”) | Out-Null

$OpenFileDialog = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.SaveFileDialog

$OpenFileDialog.initialDirectory = $initialDirectory

$OpenFileDialog.filter = “All files (*.*)| *.*”

$OpenFileDialog.ShowDialog() | Out-Null

$OpenFileDialog.filename

If ($Show -eq “OK”)

{

Return $objForm.FileName

}

Else

{

Write-Error “Operation cancelled by user.”

Exit

}

} #end function Get-FileName

# *** Entry Point to Script ***

# load the MSOnline PowerShell Module

# verify that the MSOnline module is installed and import into current powershell session

If (!([System.IO.File]::Exists((“{0}\modules\msonline\Microsoft.Online.Administration.Automation.PSModule.dll” -f $pshome))))

{

Write-Host “The Microsoft Online Services Module for PowerShell is not installed. The Script cannot continue.”

write-host “Please download and install the Microsoft Online Services Module.”

Exit

}

$getModuleResults = Get-Module

If (!$getModuleResults)

{

Import-Module MSOnline -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

}

Else

{

$getModuleResults | ForEach-Object

{

If (!($_.Name -eq “MSOnline”))

{

Import-Module MSOnline -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

}

# Connect to Microsoft Online Service

Connect-MsolService -Credential $cred -errorAction silentlyContinue -errorvariable $er

$users = Get-MsolUser -all

# Setup the output file

$defaultfolder = $Env:UserProfile + “\documents”

$outfile = GEt-Filename ($defaultfolder)

$header = “userPrincipaName,usageLocation,isLicensed,accountSKUid,servicePlan1,provisioningStatus1,servicePlan2,provisioningStatus2,servicePlan3,provisioningStatus3,servicePlan4,provisioningStatus4,servicePlan5,provisioningStatus5”

Out-File -FilePath $outfile -InputObject $header

# Write-Host $header

foreach($usr in $users)

{

$lineOut=$usr.UserPrincipalName + “,” + $usr.usageLocation + “,” + $usr.isLicensed + “,”

foreach($lic in $usr.Licenses)

{

$lineOut = $lineOut + $lic.AccountSkuID

foreach($s in $lic.ServiceStatus)

{

$lineout = $lineout + $s.ServicePlan.ServiceName + “,” + $s.ProvisioningStatus +”,”

}

Out-File -FilePath $outfile -Append -NoClobber -InputObject $lineOut

# Write-Host $lineOut

$lineOut = $null

}

Write-Host -ForeGroundColor BLue “Please review your output file at ” $outFile

————————————————————————————————————————–

This script will create a comma separated file showing each user and each license category that user has a license. Unfortuantely, this does not match nicely to the Office 365 plans. You will have to add the specific licenses together to try and match your Office 365 Plan licenses.

Hopefully this will help others looking for the same type of answers.

How are you most likely to get attacked by Malware?

Posted on November 15, 2012 by cypgrp

Recently the Microsoft Trustworthy Computing group released their Microsoft Security Intelligence Report covering the first half of 2012. It is interesting to look at where most malware comes from and what has been the most vulnerable software.

The most prevalent method of malware distribution according to Microsoft had been what they call “unsecure distribution chains.” Fallowing in this category are websites that distribute “free software”, both legal and not legal. Some of the popular software names listed by Microsoft as containing malware include:

keygen.exe
mini-KMS_Activator_v1.1_Office.2010.VL.ENG.exe
AutoCAD-2008-keygen.exe
SonyVegasPro Patch.exe
Nero Multimedia Suite 10 – Keygen.exe
Adobe.Photoshop.CS5.Extended.v12.0.Keymaker-EMBRACE.exe
Call.of.Duty.4.Modern.Warfare.Full-Rip.Skullptura.7z
Guitar Pro v6.0.7+Soundbanks+Keygen(Registered) [ kk ].rar

They also listed a number of movie named files that contained Malware, including:

The Avengers 2012 720p BDRip QEBS7 AAC20 MP4-FASM.avi
Prometheus 2012 DVDRip.avi
Wrath of the Titans 2012 DVDRip aXXo.avi
Battleship 2012 DVDRip.avi
What to Expect When You’re Expecting 2012.BRRip.XviD-KAZAN.avi
The Hunger Games 2012 TRUE FRENCH DVDRIP XViD FiCTiON L S79.avi
Sherlock.Holmes.2.A.Game.of.Shadows.2012.DVDRip.XviD-26K-0123.avi
The Five-Year Engagement 2012 HDRip XviD-HOPE.avi
Project X 2012 TRUE FRENCH DVDRIP XViD FiCTiON L S79.avi
Amazing SpiderMan 2012 DVDRiP XviD.avi

When looking at what got attacked by malware, the report notes that of the 3 categories, core operating systems, browsers and applications, most malware attacked applications and least attacked were core operating systems, In the application category, Java and Java Script were by far the most attacked, followed by Adobe readers and Adobe flash.

What was even more interesting is that when looking at the implementation of updates of these four applications, over 50% of users were missing the latest updates. In the case of Java, over 90% of users did not have the latest updates installed.

Looking at infections by operating system, Windows XP had the highest percentage of infections at 9.5% of estimated installed computers while Windows 7 SP1 64-bit had the lowest at 3.1%.

So what should a user learn from this report?

Be careful what you download. You may get more than you asked for.
Install your updates. Not just Microsoft ones but Java and Adobe are key.
Run a current operating system. The newer the OS, the less likely you are to get infected. Remember, support for Windows XP ends April, 2014.

Office 2013 Pricing puts the screws to small businesses

Posted on September 27, 2012 by cypgrp

Microsoft has announced pricing for the newest version of the popular Office Suite of products. Like the announced death of the popular Small Business Server, Microsoft is killing off many of the advantages of popular Office suites. For Office 2013, all the purchased suites will be single license suites. This will remove two of the three licenses included in the Office Home and Student suite and one license in the Office Home and Small Business suite.

In its place, Microsoft is recommending their new subscription series of Office Suites. The Office 365 Home Premium subscription will give you 5 licenses, 3 times the amount of SkyDrive storage (20 GB added to the free 7GB), and 60 minutes of Skype phone calls for $8.33 per month. You will be billed $99.99 at an annual basis. The Office 365 Home Premium subscription includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access and Publisher. The subscription covers both Mac (excluding OneNote, Access and Publisher) and PC versions of the product.

The Microsoft Office 365 Small Business Premium suite offers the same products and throws in Lync. Like the old Office Home and Small Business suite, the licenses are per user, but can be installed on 5 devices. The Office 356 Small Business Premium user will get a 25GB Outlook mailbox, the ability to host online meetings with audio and video using on-click screen sharing. They will also be able to setup a public-facing website for no additional fees. The cost per user is $12.50/user/month and is billing annually at $149.99.

In the Micorosoft announcement page (http://blogs.office.com/b/office-news/archive/2012/09/17/the-new-office-365-subscriptions-for-consumers-and-small-businesses.aspx) information on traditional retail box purchase options are found in a single paragraph at the bottom of the announcement. Office 2013 Home and Student is now a single license product selling at $139.99. No pricing information was given on any of the other options.

So what does this really mean? I really don’t work with home users, so I will not make any assumptions on how long people go between updates, so I can’t really compare the subscription price to the box price. Currently, Office 2010 Home and Student is a 3 license product selling on the street for $121.99. With a license to license comparison, that is a 246% price increase (99.99 * 3 = 299.97 / 121.99).

I can make assumptions from a small business perspective. Most of my clients are on a 5 year replacement plan. So my typical user has one, possibly two installations of Office; one being a workstation and one being a laptop. The majority only have one instance, so for this example, we will ignore the second “mobile” license included in Office 2010 Home and Small Business and the extra 4 licenses in the Office 2013 subscription. Comparing the Office 2010 street price of $247.99 to the new subscription price for a 5 year time span, we have a 302% (149.99 * 5 = 749.95 / 247.99) price increase.

So what am I recommending to my clients? Buy now before you pay through the nose.

Don’t be Collateral Damage

Posted on September 9, 2012 by cypgrp

The last few months have seen some real interesting news in the area of computer security. First there was the Stuxnet virus that attacked Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Then there was the announcement of the Flame virus that not only could affect software, but could turn a computer into a fancy eavesdropping device And just this week, Tech Central.ie reported a cyber-security think tank has published a manual studying how international law applies to conflicts in cyberspace, where the laws of conventional warfare are more difficult to apply. The manual comes from experts working with the Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE), an institute based in Tallinn, Estonia, founded in 2008 that assists NATO with technical and legal issues associated with cyber warfare related issues.

As the political party conventions have ended here in the US, both parties are talking about Cyber Security as a national threat. The White House is circulating a draft of an executive order aimed at protecting the country from cyber-attacks according to The Hill’s Technical Blog. The Republican Party has responded with a plank in their platform calling for voluntary cooperation between companies rather than another governmental organization.

It’s not just on a national policy level that major security issues. Google has admitted that its online mapping service cars snatched data from private wireless hotspots. Considering that a recent study done by the University of Illinois found that only half of all users change any defaults at all on the most popular brand of wireless router, can the company that has an informal motto of “Don’t be Evil” be really trusted with what they have found?

I haven’t even touched upon the criminal or simply vandalistic element that we have all seen over the last few years.

We have all heard about collateral damage in war zones. I would contend that if you are on the Internet, you are in a war zone. Are you already or are you going to be “collateral damage”? Have you reviewed your defenses for this new age? What could you afford to lose if you are hit, even if you weren’t the target? Contact your IT Professional and have them check your environment. And when the cost estimates arrive, balance not just the cost dollars, but also the potential dollars that could be lost if you become collateral damage.

Apple beats Samsung in court. So what.

Posted on August 28, 2012 by cypgrp

I’m sure many of you have heard that Samsung lost a patent infringement suit in California Patent Court earlier this week. Yes, we may be paying more for smart phones for a short while. Yes, Samsung may have overstepped “taking design inspirations” from the iPhone. Yes, this may have a ripple effect on all the other patent suits that are pending between the giant technology companies. But all of this is nothing new.

As nearly everyone that has been in the tech industry knows, everything is “stolen” from someone else. Apple “stole” their user interface from technology developed by Xerox in their PARC research lab. But Xerox couldn’t figure out how to sell that technology. Microsoft was “inspired” by the Apple user interface and developed Windows™.

Back when I was in software development, I used to say that there was no such thing as an original program. Every program was copied something from somewhere else and then stuff was added to the original. I’m sure that even the “first” program was just a set of instructions that was translated to something a machine could do.

Innovation should be rewarded. But now, companies claim innovation and pay lawyers to prevent anyone from saying it isn’t. I have a friend that was awarded several patents for things he did when working in the telecommunication industry. He told me that he didn’t think what he had done was anything really special, but the lawyers made it look special so they could stop anyone else from coming up with the same answer when confronted with the same problem.

I cannot really see that a rectangular shape for a phone is patentable. Many phones before the iPhone were basically a rectangular shape. The dimensions of the rectangle of a phone or proportions between the dimensions are probably more a function of human ergonomics and technical requirements. Are ergonomics now patentable? Are companies going to sue people because a shape feels comfortable and they make something in that shape?

In the technical world, innovation really comes from using something you learn (so someone else did it first) for something different than what it was originally intended. Or taking something that already is and finding a way to automate it. If this infringes on patent law, then patent law needs to be changed.

Why I joined the MDA lockup

Posted on August 22, 2012 by cypgrp

I’m not really one to push donations for charities, for that matter I don’t like doing collections! But when I received the call from MDA to join their Lockup fund raiser to support MDA Summer Camp, I decided that this was one time I could reach out to ask others to donate their hard earned money.

MDA Summer Camp holds a special place in my wife’s and my heart. For those of you that don’t know, I had three brother-in-laws with Muscular Dystrophy. I never knew them not to be quadriplegics resigned to live life in a wheelchair. The” boys” would come back a haunt me if I made this into a “feel sorry for them” piece. So let me just say that high point of every year for them was the MDA summer camp.

Jeff and Kevin Brinkman

MDA Summer Camp gives both the families and those stricken with the disease a chance to have a “normal” life for a week each year. The campers get to have a week away from their families and to have as normal a camp experience as they are able. Think about what it takes to take a person in a 500 pound wheelchair out on a boat to go fishing. Then have to do everything for that person because they don’t have the ability to do it themselves. That is what MDA does for the campers. The aides that work MDA camp are really dedicated to their charges. Two aides once flew to Florida on their own dime to drive one of my brother-in-laws (one was in the hospital at the time and the other had died) from Tampa Florida back to Chicago for “Adult” camp (most those stricken with the disease never live to adulthood). Back then, Chicago was the only location in the country that ran an Adult camp, now there are none.

For the families, they get a week where they do not have to plan their lives around doing for someone that can’t do for themselves. This gives them a chance to live like you and I do on a daily basis for just a short time.

I need your help to reach my bail! The MDA Lock-Up takes place on 09/26/2012, but I’m raising my bail before I go to jail! All you have to do is click here to make a secure, online donation today. Your support will help families living in our community with muscle disease, and help guarantee that I get out of jail. I will be sure to add you to my list of contributors.

Please support me in this important goal by visiting my fundraising page and making a contribution. Your tax-deductible donation makes a difference to the hundreds of kids, adults and their families who live right here in our local community.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Those that work in the Shadows

Posted on August 18, 2012 by cypgrp

Now that the Olympic Games are over, I think congratulations should go out to all the five hundred and some odd US athletes that competed in the games. Having relatives that could have gone to that level in their prime, but choose to study more than train, I have an idea of the sacrifices those that qualified to compete in the games have made.

And also congratulations to the City of London for pulling off a spectacle and event of that level without any of the major problems that were predicted by the nay-Sayers before the games started.

As we in our daily lives discover, those that look the best have done the most work in the shadows, the background, out of sight. That’s why a lot of times your IT consultant will recommend something you have never heard of to resolve a concern. Many times the names you have heard in the IT world are focused on things you, as a small business, are not concerned with. They may have a product, for example in anti-malware, that you have heard of for years, but their focus is on the enterprise market and not the small business.

What are the ramifications of the difference in focus? Typically it is the resources that are required to run the given application or service. Although this is changing as businesses grow and technology gets less expensive, multiple single application servers are not the norm in the small business environment. So, even in a world of virtualization, single servers for a given application may be out of reach.

That is why an IT consultant that specializes in small business is the best choice for a small business. They spend the time with the unknown vendors to find the right application for their clients. These applications may not work in the enterprise world, but are a best fit for the small business world. In many cases, these consultants will go out of their way to find a solution that may not pay them as much, but is the right solution for the client.

Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform.”

–Susan B. Anthony,
American activist

Death of an era for Small Business IT

Posted on August 2, 2012 by cypgrp

On the 5^th of July, a day usually used by politicians to hide bad news, Microsoft announced the end of the Small Business Server (SBS). In its place, Microsoft presented a “lite” version of their Windows Server product that included the very popular Remote Web Access feature. But there would no longer be a bundled package including Exchange and Sharepoint.

Over the last month, many things have been said and written about the Microsoft decision. Complaints have been made that Microsoft has turned their back on many of the larger businesses that were using SBS. But the truth of the matter is that SBS is a complex environment and always has. I would suspect that the support costs of the product were much higher than most of Microsoft’s product line. After all, to be a true expert in SBS, you had to be an expert in the server operating system, active directory, Exchange and Sharepoint. Most IT professionals working in larger businesses would specialize in one of those products, but not all of them. I remember being approached by a senior level support person from a national IT firm and being told “We install and support SBS. But we don’t install the Exchange or Sharepoint components because they are too complex for small business.”

Microsoft has cited the movement of email and file support to the cloud as one of the main reasons for the change. I suspect that is true for a lot of reasons. One that I have not seen mentioned is the change in perspective of the newer generations starting their own or taking over businesses. These generations have been the leaders in the move to smart phones, tablets, and always being connected. They don’t remember dial-up and a complete lack of inter-network capability.

This blog sounds like the regret at the end of an era. But it is not. It is an honest view of the facts and the understanding that an era has changed.

I’m not sure what the new era is going to be like, but it will be different. What I will point out is how the new era is based on what was done in the old era and what lessons were learned then. From my perspective of computing, what is new was old. It is just polished to look more shiny.