Windows 7 Ultimate, Enterprise and Windows 7 for Small Businesses

In the Windows 7 Pre-release (M3) Privacy Supplement, Microsoft mentions details for BitLocker Drive Encryption: “BitLocker Drive Encryption (BitLocker) is available on computers running Windows 7 Enterprise Edition and Windows 7 Ultimate Edition. Should your computer be lost or stolen, BitLocker protects your data, by helping to prevent offline software attacks. Turning on BitLocker encrypts the hard drive where Windows is installed, including all information that is stored on that drive.”

Confirmation of the Windows 7 Ultimate and Enterprise editions comes with a quasi-confirmation of additional flavors of the next iteration of the Windows client. This because the Windows Anytime Upgrade feature has survived past Vista.

Just as it was the case with its precursor, Windows Anytime Upgrade for Windows 7 will streamline the upgrade process between editions of the operating system. “Windows Anytime Upgrade allows you to easily upgrade your version of Windows 7, by directing you to a participating merchant website where you can purchase the upgrade,” Microsoft revealed.

However, in addition to Ultimate and Enterprise, Microsoft has also revealed that it is cooking a Windows 7 for Small Businesses edition. In a job posting for Senior Marketing Manager of one of the company's Partners Business Marketing groups, the Redmond giant is looking to “increase the effectiveness of partner co-marketing direct to Small and Medium Business customers and through partners extensive indirect channel partners, including distribution and breadth reseller network.”

Among the responsibilities of the new role, Microsoft mentions: “Communicate and generate Partner excitement for Windows Vista Business, Windows 7 for Small Business, Office Ready, Server channel programs, and new Server launches with Windows Small Business Server & Essential Business Server 2008.”

Until now, there has been no official word from Microsoft related to the way it plans to deliver Windows 7 SKUs. However, so far, moves from the company indicate that a drastic simplification of Windows 7 editions compared to Windows Vista might in fact not be a top priority, or even in the plans.

Source: news.softpedia.com/news/Windows-7-Ultimate-Enterprise-and-Windows-7-for-Small-Businesses-98375.shtml

Windows Small Business Server 2008 and Essential Business Server 2008 launched

With the release of Windows Small Business Server 2008 and Windows Essential Business Server 2008, smaller manufacturers are being invited to clean up their front office infrastructure.

The point: Microsoft’s enterprise-class server technologies are a far cry from the muddle of bolt-ons that passes for professional productivity tools in many companies – and it’s now designed and priced to help them compete more successfully while also saving money.

As Rob Harris of beta user Robby Gordon Motorsports. “If time equals money, then we’re saving a lot of money. Our race car business is very performance-based with things constantly changing. I attribute a lot of our growth to Microsoft’s server solutions and the impact they have on our company’s ability to perform in a competitive worldwide arena.”

“Around the world, SMEs are the engine that drives economic growth and opportunity,” comments Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. “To help these businesses succeed, Microsoft has focused on creating integrated, affordable server solutions that are optimized to meet the needs of companies with limited IT resources.

“Small Business Server and Essential Business Server deliver a comprehensive set of capabilities that will help small and midsize business thrive and grow.”

Designed for companies with up to 75 users or PCs, SBS 2008 is essentially an integrated server solution that provides many of the technologies used by larger companies, such as Windows Server 2008, Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

Meanwhile, EBS 2008 is designed for businesses with up to 300 users or PCs, and allows IT managers to have more control over their environment by reducing complexity and automating common tasks.

Microsoft says that, because both support Windows Mobile phones, SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 can significantly boost mobile worker productivity, providing remote access to business email, calendar, contacts and files.

Source:mcsolutions.co.uk/

Cisco slices up small business

Cisco Systems' two chief SMB executives Andrew Sage and Rick Moran both admitted that the company's share in the SMB is not large.

Both men who hail from Canada, an SMB country, are trying to change that in a big way.

Currently Cisco globally has just under $8 billion in revenue from the SMB.

The San Jose,-based company announced at its Channel Exchange event, held here, that it will make a $100 million channel investment to try and grow this market. With that investment, Cisco created the Small Business Technology Group to develop new products for this market in connectivity, security, remote access, productivity, customer interaction and customer support.

Moran, who is the vice president, small business solutions marketing for Cisco, described the market as an “unusual one to get to know”. For example Moran said that SMBs are a faster group to return from a down economy. “Customers here are like Sybil. They say they need help when they just hired five new people or when their phone system blew up and then that same customer could look upon new ways to expand their business. We have to address both sides of the need,” Moran said.

To that end, Cisco has segmented the SMB customer into three areas: Basic, Open to Guidance and Elite. Elites understand technology and they want to adopt it and they have IT staff. Moran said that Cisco does very well in this area and some of these customers become good leads for Cisco Certified Partners.

The buying patterns for all three segments are also hard to pin down. Cisco believes that the Basic customers buy from retail, while the Open to Guidance group may use retail, VARs, direct market resellers such as CDW or Insight or go to full service solution providers.

“The SMB has different needs than the other channels. There is no easy way to match customer type to a channel partner. Customers buy from who they want to buy from,” Sage said.

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Via:itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=50691

Hyper-V Virtualization with Windows Small Business Server 2008

You can use a virtualized server computing environment to address a variety of business goals that help improve business efficiency and reduce costs. The Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization technology provides software infrastructure and basic management tools that you can use to create and manage a virtualized server computing environment.

This provides an overview of virtualization in an environment based on the Windows Small Business Server 2008 software suite, and it discusses scenarios in which Windows SBS 2008 supports the Hyper-V technology. This does not discuss any other virtualization software or solutions. It assumes that you have a working knowledge of virtualization software in general and of Hyper-V in particular.

This document helps you understand and configure Hyper-V for your Windows SBS 2008 environment. This information is presented in the following sections:

• Virtualization and Windows Small Business Server 2008
• Licensing Considerations for Using Hyper-V in a Windows Small Business Server 2008 Environment
• Technical Considerations for Using Hyper-V in a Windows Small Business Server 2008 Environment
• Best Practices for Using Hyper-V with Windows Small Business Server 2008
• Known Issues with Running Windows Small Business Server 2008 in a Hyper-V Environment
• Scenarios for Deploying Windows Small Business Server 2008 in a Hyper-V environment

To learn more and to read the entire article at its source, please refer to the following page, Using Hyper-V with Windows Small Business Server 2008 (technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd239207.aspx)

Source:dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=9077