Hyper-V Server R2

I'm currently attending a conference with a lot of people who own the same kind of companies that I do. It's a fun experience to get to talk to other people who do what I do and face the same things as I do every day.

While the conference is marketing centric, you can't stop IT guys from talking about technology. One conversation that has come up a lot is in regards to virtualization. I'm currently working on two separate virtualization projects for clients. We had to choose a horse, so to speak, between Microsoft and VMWare when it came to the different platforms.

Needless to say, I chose to hitch my cart to the Hyper-V horse in this race. We've seen Microsoft enter markets as the underdog in the past and become the dominant player within a few years. I feel that the virtualization market is going to play out the same way.

You can really tell that they're out to win by the features that they are offering for free. In the past, any kind of clustering required Windows Server Enterprise. If you're using the Hyper-V role on top of Windows Server 2008, you still need Enterprise or better in order to take advantage of the clustering capabilities.

However Microsoft also has a free product called Hyper-V Server 2008 R2. Included for free are some features that are not available with Windows Server Standard running the Hyper-V role, including Cluster Shared Volumes.

Using this free technology, we are able to create highly-available clusters for our clients. With so much running on any one physical machine now, the hardware becomes much more valuable. Using Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) along with shared storage like iSCSI or Fibre Channel, you can protect your critical systems making sure that even with the total failure of a complete server, you can keep on running.

Our "bread and butter" is small businesses, many of whom are too small to really need this level of virtualization. But I really enjoy working with my larger clients and getting to play with this kind of technology. That's not to say that we don't get to use Hyper-V with our smaller clients. We have many SBS 2008 servers running Hyper-V child machines, and even a few SBS 2008 systems running AS the child machine.

Whether you're using VMWare, Hyper-V or any other technology, virtualization is an amazing technology and I can foresee a day where everything we work on is a virtual machine in some form.

Small Biz Thoughts by Karl Palachuk: Pricing: Don't Settle for 1%

Small Biz Thoughts by Karl Palachuk: Pricing: Don't Settle for 1%

Karl has some of the best insight into the SMB consulting arena. Occasionally I will find something that he has written that perfectly expresses how I feel about a topic. This is one of those times.

Thanks again Karl!

Selecting a Mobile Device

One of the questions I am routinely asked in my line of work has to do with selecting a mobile device. Most of the time, people don't know quite what they need. They just need "a BlackBerry or something".

We can debate all day how much somebody actually needs something like this (my advice: RUN AWAY!). But in the end it comes down to what they want to do with it.

Some people actually need/want the full PIM (Email / Contacts / Tasks / Appointments / Notes / etc) sync ability that comes with something like a BlackBerry, Treo or Windows Mobile device. However, some people just want a qwerty-style keyboard so they can compose text messages a lot easier.

For the purposes of this post, I'm going to focus on those people in the former category (the latter group can proceed to their preferred cell phone store - there are TONS of them).

Most people expect me to just tell them in 3 words or less what they would need. It would be simpler for me too if the answer could be condensed into something like, "an iPhone", "a BlackBerry", or "Verizon XV6800". In reality the answer is a lot more complicated.

My response to them usually has to do with a few factors:

• If they have a preference of device (RIM / Palm / WinMo)
• What they use for email (Exchange / Hotmail / GMail / POP)
• What they need to sync (Email Only / Full PIM)
• Are there any special applications they need (ACT / GoldMine)

If they're running an Exchange Server that's at least version 2003, the simplest thing is to have them get something running Windows Mobile 2005 or later. Aside from the small issue of setting up SSL properly on their server, installation is a breeze. You get a mostly familiar interface, a whole slew of applications, and real-time push synchronization - just like what BlackBerry made famous.

For those people who just really want a BlackBerry (and I'm one of them), you have a couple of options. If you only need to sync email wirelessly (and can wait until you're by your PC to sync everything else), you can configure your email settings right on the handheld. It is very easy to setup and can talk directly to Outlook WebAccess, GMail, or just about any other email service (coming soon for Hotmail).

If you need full PIM sync in real time wirelessly, RIM (BlackBerry) has made it very cheap to install a small BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server) which can run on your SBS or Exchange server without much hassle. Just make sure the person installing it knows what they're doing, or you can wind up in trouble fast. It's free for the first person and $99/seat after that. Compared to my first 5-user BES license which ran close to $1500, that's a steal. Go beyond 10 users and you'll want to look at a full BES Enterprise install though.