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Our first meeting was Wednesday, September 10th, 2003 at 3 pm at the Microsoft Office. We celebrated our 2nd Anniversary in September, 2005.
August 11, 2010 - Technology Wizards
ShadowProtect
Dave Stufflebeam, StorageCraft
Dave Stufflebeam from Storagecraft will be our featured presenter. Storagecraft is best known for its ShadowProtect line of products. This will be a technical-based presentation, so it will be a perfect time to have your questions answered.
July 14, 2010 - Technology Wizards
Migrating to the Cloud and More!
Karl Palchuk, KPEnterprises
An excellent presentation by Karl on the Cloud. He didn't just tell us that the cloud is coming and that we'd better accept it. Instead he told us why and how we should embrace and prepare for the cloud, both from a business and technical perspective. He also talked about some of the downsides and limitations of the cloud, especially with the options that are available today.
NOTE: It’s that time of year again to re-apply for membership with Technology Wizards. Our membership year runs from July 1st – June 30th. You can receive a $20.00 discount on your annual membership if you submit your completed application with payment by the end of our meeting on July 14th. You will need to complete a 2010-2011 Membership Application/Renewal form and submit it with your payment. The form can be obtained here: 2010 - 2011 Application Form.
July 13, 2010
Evening with Karl Palachuk
LIVE seminar - Introduction to Zero Downtime Migration and Migrating from SBS to The Cloud
Karl Palachuk will be hosting a local event the evening of Tuesday, July 13th.
Focus here is on cloud services and moving from SBS to the Cloud . . . with zero downtime.
More Info and Registration at SMB Books.
Tuesday, July 13th
6:30 - 9:00 PM
Portland, OR
Zero Downtime Migrations will help your company
• Make more money
• Sell more services
• Differentiate yourself from your competition!
And, of course, the skills and techniques used in a ZDTM (Zero Downtime Migration) will raise your technical ability to a new level!
Seminar Includes:
• An Introduction to Zero Downtime Migration Strategies - with lots of room for your questions!
• Migrating from SBS to The Cloud
• Town Hall Q&A Session
Only $49 per person.
Register Now: http://www.smbbooks.com
Register now to ensure your spot. You won’t want to miss this event!!
June 9, 2010 - Technology Wizards
Microsoft Office 2010
Chris Avis, Microsoft
Chris Avis from Microsoft returns to get us up to speed on Microsoft Office 2010 – TW Style. Some of the planned topics include:
• What’s new or different?
• What would compel our clients to purchase?
• What are the benefits to upgrading?
• 32-bit vs. 64-bit – Which should be installed?
• Realistic Hardware Requirements
• Deployment
• How existing environments might be impacted
• Upgrade paths
• Suite Contents
• And much more!
NOTE: It’s that time of year again to re-apply for membership with Technology Wizards. Our membership year runs from July 1st – June 30th. You can receive a $20.00 discount on your annual membership if you submit your completed application with payment by the end of our meeting on July 14th. You will need to complete a 2010-2011 Membership Application/Renewal form and submit it with your payment. The form can be obtained here: 2010 - 2011 Application Form.
May 5, 2010 - Technology Wizards
Round Table
NOTE: Due to a scheduling conflict at the Microsoft Office, our May Technology Wizards meeting will be held one week early on May 5th, 2010. Please make a note in your schedule/calendars.
We know that this year will most likely be a year of upgrades for both desktops and servers. Many of you have some real world experience with migrating to SBS 2008 and have plenty of stories (pain and success) to share, while several of you are prepping to do your first one. So Wednesday’s meeting will be a Round Table Discussion focusing on SBS 2008 Migrations, and possibly a few other topics of interest.
In addition to our “Real World” SBS 2008 Migrations discussions, some additional topics we hope to discuss will include (time permitting):
• Changing Business Models and Needs
• SMB Clients Reaction to Cloud Computing
Also, a brief survey will be conducted in preparation for the FY 2011 5W/25 Webcast series. Mike Iem would like our group to let him know:
• What topics you want to hear about. He would like to get some data on specific topics and/or speakers you like.
• Business
• Sales
• Technical
It’s that time of year again to renew your membership with Technology Wizards. Our membership year runs from July 1st – June 30th. You can receive a discount on your annual membership if you complete your reapplication by the end of our meeting on July 14th. You will need to complete a 2010-2011 Annual Membership Application form and submit it with your payment. The form can be obtained here: 2010 - 2011
Application Form.
We are lining up some terrific presentations for the summer months you will not want to miss. Details will be given at this meeting.
April 14, 2010 - Technology Wizards
Microsoft Partner Program
Ken Shafer, Agape Computing
Twitter
Russ Grover, SBITS.Biz
Join us when we review and discuss the changes to the Microsoft Partner Program, and have Russ Grover show us how we can effectively use Twitter in our businesses.
March 10, 2010 - Technology Wizards
BackupAssist
Michael Farquhar, BackupAssist
Michael Farquhar from BackupAssist will be presenting live and in person! We have had some great discussions on BackupAssist and it has been several years since our last BackupAssist presentation. Some of the included topics will be Hyper-V backups, Exchange, SharePoint, Off-site backups, and their Partner Program.
Michael provides technical support for BackupAssist, so this is a fantastic opportunity to get all of your technical questions answered!
February 10, 2010 - Technology Wizards
Managed Services
Erick Simpson, MSP University
Our featured subject will be Managed Services and we are honored to have Erick Simpson from MSP University presenting.
How to Position and Build a Business on Managed Services
Join Erick Simpson for an informative webinar on selling Managed Services. What are the secrets to building a successful, profitable Managed Services Practice? What key deliverables comprise a rock-solid base upon which to build additional annuity-based services? How should Managed Services be positioned and priced for maximum profit? How can delivering Managed Services be used to become the Trusted Advisor and sell 40% more services and solutions to clients much more easily? Learn the answers to these questions and more in this session, as well as the effects that economic downturns can have on traditional IT business models and how to leverage Managed Services to help Solution Providers weather adverse market conditions.
This is a great opportunity to get all your questions regarding Managed Services answered, whether you are a seasoned veteran looking for adjustments, just getting started, or pondering the move. MSP University (and Erick in particular) has written several books on Managed Services and they now focus exclusively on helping VARs and Consultants like TW Members succeed in Managed Services.
Note: Erick’s presentation will be conducted via Live Meeting as he is unable to personally attend.
January 30, 2010
Hyper-V 2008 R2 Partner Day
On Saturday, January 30th, Microsoft & Technology Wizards is holding its Hyper-V 2008 R2 Partner Day: Practical Knowledge for Successful Deployments at New Horizon’s Beaverton Office, register now, space is limited – Register now before all the seats are gone!
This is a day of Live Builds; Instruction; Demonstration; and, Tips & Tricks on Hyper-V for fellow Microsoft partners who want to use Hyper-V within their practice. You will see deployment, optimization and management of Hyper-V, all with a focus for how to use Hyper-V within a Microsoft focused IT practice from a fellow practicing Microsoft partner. Watch & Learn as the Hyper-V Role is deployed on Windows Server 2008 R2 and while Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 is installed.
This is not a Hyper-V versus VMware day.
This is not a hands-on day.
This is not a test preparation day.
This is an “I can do ‘that’” day.
This is a Partners sharing with Partners day.
Schedule for Saturday, January 30th:
9:00 AM - 9:30 AM Registration
9:30 AM - 11:30 AM Morning Session
11:30 AM - 12:20 PM Lunch Break
12:20 PM - 1:50 PM 1st Afternoon Session
1:50 PM - 2:10 PM Break
2:10 PM - 3:30 PM 2nd Afternoon Session
3:30 PM - 4:00 PM Wrap Up
Here is a list of the topics we will be covering:
Deploying Hyper-V Role via:
• Windows Server 2008 R2 (Full Installation) with Hyper-V ß Live Build
• Windows Server 2008 R2 (Core Installation) with Hyper-V
• Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 ß Live Build
Managing Virtual Machines:
• Hyper-V Manager ß Live Demonstration
o Virtual Network Manager
o New Virtual Machine Wizard
o New Virtual Hard Disk Wizard
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager
Practical Tips & Tricks:
• Virtualizing Windows Small Business Server 2008 ß Live Demonstration
• Virtualizing Remote Desktop Services (Terminal Services)
• Performance Optimization ß Live Demonstration
• Backups
Overview of Advanced Topics:
• Power Shell Hyper-V
• Managing Virtual Machine Storage
• Quick Migration
• Live Migration, Failover Cluster & Cluster Shared Volumes
• System Center Essentials and how it integrates into the System Center Virtual Machine Manager
• Hyper-V and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
The primary person in front for this event is Tim Carney. Tim is an MCP and Small Business Specialist and the President of EBT Solutions / SFBay-Link Network Services, Inc. Since 2002, Tim has been providing technology consulting services to emerging San Francisco Bay Area businesses and assisting other IT Professionals in designing Secure Infrastructure. During the 15 years prior to establishing his consulting business, he was the CFO and CTO for a 45 person Copier Sales and Services Business in Silicon Valley. Tim was the technical force in changing its sales focus from Telex to Facsimile, Fax to Copiers, Analog to Digital, and Stand-Alone to Connected. Tim’s areas of expertise include Small Business Server, Secure Infrastructure, Virtualization and Mobility Enablement. Tim is an Eagle Scout and has a B.S. degree in Business Management. As a leader in the local community, Tim has co-founded BASBiTS.org a San Francisco Bay Area users’ group for Small Business Information Technology Specialists. Follow Tim on his blog at SBS-Mobility.blogspot.com and on Twitter as TechmoTim.
When: Saturday, January 30th
Registration starts at 9:00 am
Main Event is from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm
Wrap-Up Event by 4:00 pm
Where: New Horizons
9800 SW Nimbus Ave, Suite 100
Beaverton, OR 97008
You Give: $20 per person
You Get: Relevant & Useful Information
Food & Drinks provided
January 13, 2010 - Technology Wizards
Round Table
Chris Avis, our Scheduled Presenter for today informed us that his basement flooded this morning and he will not be able to present at our meeting today, and we will need to reschedule his visit for our Windows Server 2008 R2 Post Launch Event.
Today’s meeting will now be centered on some good Round Table Discussions. We have not had some for several months due to the full length presentations we have had, so this provides an excellent opportunity.
December 9, 2009 - Technology Wizards
Board Elections
Windows 7 - Part 2
Chris Avis, Microsoft
We will hold Board elections at the beginning of the meeting, to elect 5 Board Members for 2010. Only current members will be allowed to vote – 1 person per company. If you are interested in running, or want to nominate someone for the board please contact one of our current board members.
Please note the following regarding our Technology Wizards Board and elections:
a. Our Bylaws state that our membership shall elect the 5 people who will serve on the Technology Wizards Board for the next calendar year.
b. When the newly elected Board meets in January, they shall vote to determine the positions that each elected Board member will serve in.
c. The Bylaws also state that the President must have served on the previous year’s Board.
Chris Avis, IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft returns for our Windows 7 Launch – Part 2. Chris will continue his presentation on Windows 7 and has customized the content, especially for our group. This should be a fantastic event that you will not want to miss!
Please Note: Discussions on a single topic in the presentation should be limited to a few minutes for the benefit of the entire group. You are welcome to contact Chris after the meeting if you would like further info on any topic.
November 11, 2009 - Technology Wizards
OpenDNS, GPO's
Matt Wilson, Brightstar Consulting
Backup with Hyper-V
Mark Hicks, Hicks Technology
Our own Matt Wilson of Brightstar Consulting, will be conducting a brief update up on Open DNS and a presentation on Group Policy Objects:
• OpenDNS update
• Pay product now available
• Changes in product offering
• My Experiences with GPO
• Who is GPO for?
• What is GPO?
• GPO as troubleshooting tool
• Technologies to make GPO more useful
• What you probably don’t know GPO can do
• How I use GPO for myself and my clients
Mark Hicks has been working with the latest version of Backup Assist Beta with the Hyper-V Restore Console and will show everyone how that works and why we might not need to run backups inside the VMs any more.
He’s also going to share a war story from last week involving Hyper-V and snapshots that could save someone else a lot of grief by avoiding the problem they ran into.
In addition, we will have some discussions on several relevant topics including, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Small Business Owners reaction to moving their businesses to the Cloud, etc.
October 13, 2009 - Technology Wizards
1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Windows 7
Chris Avis, IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft
Our October Meeting featured Chris Avis from Microsoft conducting a presentation on Windows 7. You can read Chris’ blog here: http://blogs.technet.com/chrisavis/
Due to scheduling conflicts for our presenter and topic, we moved the meeting to Tuesday and extended it one hour.
Date: Tuesday, October 13th
Time: 1:00pm – 5:00pm
This event was targeted at SBSCs, VARs, Consultants and Resellers.
The Portland Launch event was sold out before the registration site was made public, so we pre-empted the local launch event and hosted our own Windows 7 Launch event, 1 day earlier!
Realizing that there were many SMB VARs and Consultants that wanted to attend the launch event but were unable to, we extended our usual publicizing of our meeting. Our event was focused on Windows 7 only, and due to the subject, we extended it an additional hour.
Snacks and drinks were be provided at the meeting.
September 9, 2009 - Technology Wizards
OpenDNS
Matt Wilson, Brightstar Consulting
Backup Strategies - SBS 2008 / Hyper-V / VM / Image Backup
Mark Hicks, Hicks Technology
We will be featuring 2 very hot topics right now – OpenDNS and Backup - Emphasis on Options for SBS 2008 and Hyper-V.
Our own Matt Wilson of Brightstar Consulting, will get us up to speed on Open DNS and answer several questions:
• What is OpenDNS?
• Why should I use OpenDNS for myself and my clients?
• How can OpenDNS protect a network?
• How does OpenDNS fit with a managed service practice?
• What is going on with OpenDNS and all these denial of service attacks?
In addition, Mark Hicks of Hicks Technology, will follow that up with a presentation on Backup Strategies – Emphasizing SBS 2008 and Hyper-V. Mark has worked with a variety of tools and solutions and will share his expertise on the subject in a comparative style. A great discussion time with Q and A will be included.
Agenda
• Demo: Show all 4 products
• Compare and Contrast all 4 products
• Discussion / Q&A
Scenarios for discussion
• SBS 2008 “on metal”
• SBS 2008 “virtualized” (with Hyper-V)
• Other physical/virtual scenarios (Server 2008)
• Exchange 2007 SP1 on Server 2008
• Server 2003/2008 TS in a VM
Solutions Considered
• Windows Server Backup (WSB)
• Storage Craft Shadow Protect v3.4
• Backup Assist v5.2.x
• Kaseya 2008 BUDR (Acronis True Image 9.5)
Solutions Not Considered
• Backup Exec (CDP, System Recovery, etc)
• Latest version of Acronis True Image Echo
• Other file-based or image-based solutions
• Tape backup scenarios
August 12, 2009 - Technology Wizards
Exchange 2007 Recovery, Management and Other Tips and Tricks
Dave Shackelford, ThirdTier, Exchange-MVP
Many of you who attended our SBS Build Day in June may remember that Dave Shackelford conducted an in-depth, engaging presentation on Exchange 2007. Dave will be returning to Portland to dig even further into Exchange 2007 for us.
You won’t want to miss this incredible opportunity!
Plan to join us when Dave will dig deep giving you the insight needed to
successfully manage and recover Exchange 2007. Topics covered will include:
• Adding new inbound mail domains
• Working with certificates
• Item-level Exchange restores with SBS 2008 native backup
• An overview of dial-tone recovery
• Looking at Exchange storage
• Effective Exchange problem resolution
Dave Shackelford is a very busy freelance Exchange-focused consultant working out of Olympia, Washington. He also works with ThirdTier.net and was a contributing author to the SBS 2008 Unleashed book. David is the creator of the TrainSignal Exchange 2007 Administration video courses. He’s also an Exchange-MVP who contributes quite a bit on the Tek-Tips.com forums.
July 8, 2009 - Technology Wizards
Unique Offsite Backup Solution
Praerit Garg & Kevin Brown, Symform
Russ Grover
SBITZ.biz
Plan to join us as Kevin Brown and Praerit Garg from Symform will introduce us to us a unique and cost effective approach to remote backups.
In addition, our own Russ Grover will conduct a presentation on Windows Foundation Server and a short presentation on using PayPal for your business.
Remember that we have started a new membership year July 1st and you can apply or renew your membership for the discounted amount of $100 if paid and submitted with a completed, signed Application/Renewal form by the end of our meeting on Wednesday, July 8th.
Presentation Overview
Three C’s for Data Protection
Comprehensive, Convenient, and Cost-effective
A data protection solution must succeed across three dimensions in order to meet the needs of SMBs:
Comprehensive – it must address all facets of data protection – human errors, hardware/software failures, disasters such as theft, fire, flooding, etc.
Convenience – it must be set-and-forget. SMBs are strapped for resources so any solution that requires constant care will not be effective.
Cost-effective – last, but not least, it must fit an SMB budget. SMBs have a very limited budget for IT overall – a few hundred dollars per month is pretty typical. Data protection is only one part of the overall IT budget. Any solution needs to have a price that doesn’t change dramatically month to month - particularly with ever increasing amounts of data.
In this presentation we will:
• Evaluate existing technologies/solutions in the market
• Present a new model for distributed cloud computing
• Demonstrate the Symform solution
Speaker Bio
Praerit Garg, President and Co-founder
Praerit Garg is the President and Co-founder of Symform. Prior to Symform, Praerit was a Senior Director in Microsoft's Server and Tools division where he built and managed the Dynamic Systems Platform & Tools team. Praerit also led an acquisition and integration of a software company developing Group Policy tools.
Praerit is a co-inventor on 14 U.S. and international patents and a co-author of IETF RFC 3645, Web Services WS-Trust and WS-Secure Conversation specifications. He holds an M.S. in Computer Science from Purdue University and a B.E. (with Honors) from Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani, India.
June 10, 2009 - Technology Wizards
Karl Palachuk
Managed Services / Cash Flow Management
Karl Palachuk will be our featured speaker for our June Technology Wizards meeting, where the double-billing focus will be on “Managed Services – How to get it done and sell it” and “Cash Flow Management for Success”.
Managed Services – How To Get It Done And Sell It
Concerned about selling Managed Services in a down economy? Karl’s Managed Services in a Month has been wildly popular. Karl presents his successful story and methods live to attendees, answering all your questions about structuring and selling Managed Services.
Cash Flow Management for Success
This portion will focus on making sure your accounting package structure is configured properly to ensure that you get the reporting data you need to manage your business properly, whether it is for internal needs, obtaining financing, or possibly considering selling your business in the future.
June 9, 2009
Evening with Karl Palachuk
LIVE seminar - Introducing the Zero Downtime Migration
Note: This is not an official Technology Wizards event. Rather, it is an additional seminar that Karl Palachuk is putting on in conjunction with him being the featured speaker at our Technology Wizards meeting the next day.
Tuesday Night (June 9th), Karl Palachuk will present an incredible event on Zero Downtime Migration and Project Management. You must register for this $49 event, but if you use the code ZDTM06, you will get in FREE! This event will be held from 6:30pm – 9:00pm at the Fairfield Inn and Suites in Lake Oswego. (Note the registration site incorrectly says Beaverton). See details and registration link below.
Project Management in a Managed Service Business
We all work projects. But do we all work them profitably and efficiently? Whether you're 100% managed service or just getting started, come and learn the most important elements of keeping project labor on the "billable" side of the ledger.
Zero Downtime Migration Strategies
Join one of the authors of The Network Migration Workbook for an introduction to SBS Migration that will make your business more profitable and your clients a lot happier. Is ZDTM really possible and practical in your business? Attend and find out.
Fairfield Inn & Suites Portland South/Lake Oswego
6100 South West Meadows Road
Lake Oswego, OR 97035
June 6, 2009
Advanced SBS 2008 Build Day - Partners showing Partners How to Successfully Deploy SBS 2008
Portland: Saturday, June 6th from 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM PDT in Portland, Oregon at the local Microsoft PacWest Office hosted by Technology Wizards
Announcing a special one day event for Microsoft partners in the Portland area – the Advanced Small Business Server 2008 build event is a great technical education opportunity. This will be a level 300/400 event!! (Not overview or marketing spin, nor for the faint of heart!)
Note that our Portland event features customized content (compared to other similar SBS Build Day events being held) to ensure that we get the additional and deeper level content that has not been presented in previous SBS 2008 events.
There is so much still to learn about SBS 2008, Exchange 2007 and Virtualization, you definitely won’t want to miss this event!
At this event, you’ll learn:
• Why it’s critical to use the Answer File for every install, even when you are not migrating.
• How to easily test Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync with or without AutoDiscover.
• Why you may not want to use AutoDiscover.
• How to configure networking for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2’s Hyper-V.
Also, if you can’t fill in the blanks then you need to attend:
• I will use the ___ for every install, even when I am not ___
• You mean ___ and ___ don’t work if I don’t run this wizard? But, I already have ___ setup.
• I see why I really need a ___ and not use the ___!
• I didn’t know I could use the Computer Connect site to connect a ___ box to my domain.
• I know ___ and ___ are important but I didn’t know I needed to use them in a specific order.
The Portland event topics include:
• Answer File Gotchas
• SBS Wizard Gotchas
• Computer Connect Gotchas
• Advanced Management Console
• How-to Securing SBS/EBS Networks & Best IT Practices – Dana Epp - MVP
• SBS 2008 Q&A – Susan Bradley - MVP
• Migration Wizard Tasks Caveats
• Exchange Management: Tasks beyond the SBS Console
• Recovering Exchange on SBS 2008: Backup and Disaster Recovery
• Troubleshooting Mail Hassles on SBS 2008
• Mobility with SBS 2008 – Gotchas when Migrating
• Virtualizing SBS
• Eat Your Own Dog Food: An IT Pro's Network with Hyper-V (presented depending on availability of time)
In-Person Speakers:
• Tim Carney – Microsoft SBS 2008 Fan http://sbs-mobility.blogspot.com and co-founder of BASBiTS http://www.basbits.org
• Dave Shackelford – Microsoft Exchange MVP 2004-2008 and creator of the Exchange 2007 Training video series http://www.trainsignal.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=86
Scheduled Speakers via Live Meeting:
• Susan Bradley – Microsoft SBS MVP and SBS Diva http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley
• Dana Epp – Microsoft Security MVP and owner of Scorpion Software http://www.scorpionsoft.commakers of AuthAnvil
May 13, 2009 - Technology Wizards
Kevin Royalty
Business Opportunities With Windows Home Server
Plan to join us as Kevin Royalty (SBS-MVP) will give us a different approach to Windows Home Server. Kevin will show us how WHS can be used in the business place.
Some of the topics include:
• Franchise locations
• “Key machine” backup in any sized business
• Any business too small for SBS
• Changes since its initial release
• Add-Ins
• New hardware available for it today
Many of you may remember Kevin Royalty’s contributions at our Middleton Migration Event.
April 8, 2009 - Technology Wizards
Eriq Neale
Key Things About SBS 2008 For The SBS 2003 Crowd
Eriq Neale, author of SBS 2008 Unleashed, will inform us of various things to consider when deploying or migrating to SBS 2008. Eriq will also answer your additional questions about deploying, managing and supporting SBS 2008.
March 11, 2009 - Technology Wizards
Round Table - SBS 2008 Lessons Learned So Far - Round Table Discussions
It has been several months since the release of Small Business Server 2008, so it’s time to catch up a bit with what we have learned so far. We will be featuring a round table style discussion focused on SBS 2008 – Lessons Learned So Far. The discussion will most likely include other topics as well, such as a review of Migration Methods, Backup, Business Practices, etc.
We will also be gathering your requests and specific topics of interest to give to our April presenter, Eriq Neale, author of SBS 2008 Unleashed.
March 5, 2009
Middleton Migration Event Presented by Technology Wizards
Thursday, March 05, 2009 from 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM (PT)
Shilo Inn - Portland Airport
11707 NE Airport Way
Portland, OR 97220
Featuring Jeff Middleton, SBS-MVP, Kevin Royalty, SBS-MVP, and Steve Banks, SBS-MVP
Understand the differences between clean install vs. migration.
Learn what the key components and issues are, how to save hours and days of frustration, and how to recoup precious time.
In this one day, you will learn more than you could by reading books, listening to podcasts, attending webinars and many conferences.
This is THE event with Jeff Middleton you've all been waiting for and we have broken the barriers of constraints by offering a full day seminar - including lunch.
February 11, 2009 - Technology Wizards
Highly Reliable
Kathy Raye Freemonth
Kathy Raye Freemonth of Highly Reliable Systems was to be here in person with samples of their comprehensive mix of Hot Swappable Hard Drive Backup Systems and Solutions. Unfortunately Kathy Raye was not able to make it due to a sudden illness, but was able to speak to us via phone, and since the samples had already been delivered to us we still had a very good presentation.
For those not familiar with the company, Highly Reliable Systems is the manufacturer of Disk-to-Disk, Hot Swappable backup systems known as "High-Rely" which make a terrific alternative and complement to other backup strategies. Kathy Raye also let us know about their Reseller program.
One of our members, Walt Bell, also spoke to us about his extensive experience with Highly Reliable
Systems and their products, and some of the unusual things he's done with them.
We made a special announcement about our upcoming Migration Event with Jeff Middleton, with event details and sign-up information to follow.
January 14, 2009 - Technology Wizards
Calyptix
Kristen Wild, Bend Sanders
For our first meeting of 2009 Ben Sanders and Kristen Wild of Calyptix told us about the
Access Enforcer line of All-in-one Security Appliances with Active Directory integration, and about the Calyptix Reseller program.
At the Board meeting following our regular meeting the Board elected it's positions for the coming year. They are
Ken Shafer - President
Matt Wilson - Vice President
Walt Bell - Secretary
Ray Belt - Treasurer
Mark Hicks - Member at Large
December 10, 2008 - Technology Wizards
Kaseya
Steve West
Our annual Technology Wizards’ Board Elections took place, with Matt Wilson, Walt Bell, Ken Shafer, Ray Belt, Rusty Lee, and Mark Hicks running for the 5 positions. Matt Wilson, Walt Bell, Ken Shafer, Ray Belt and Mark Hicks were elected in a close vote. Congratulations to all of them. At next month's Board meeting they will vote amongst themselves to determine which positions they fill for the coming year.
Our featured presentation was on Kaseya, conducted by Steve West – a former area VAR. This was an excellent presentations that largely focused on the technical aspects of Kaseya, and how to deploy and use it with clients. Based on the amount of questions that our members had there was a lot of interest in the subject.
November 12, 2008 - Technology Wizards
Windows SharePoint Services v3
Brian Williams, Advantech NW, Inc. and
Raymond Belt, The ProComp Group
This month’s meeting was focused on Windows SharePoint Services Backup and Recovery and was presented by 2 of our members - Brian Williams and Raymond Belt. It covered real world scenarios of what to do when something happens to the SharePoint database.
We also discussed an important change to the way each of us will have to conduct business beginning January 1st, 2009 due to implementation of Oregon's eCycling law.
October 8, 2008 - Technology Wizards
SBS 2008
Mark Hicks, Hicks Technology
Mark Hicks, of Hicks Technology, talked to us about, and demonstrated, SBS 2008. He brought with him a full network, including server, firewall, virtualized clients, and a laptop so saw the real thing in as close to a real world setting as could be managed. This was SBS 2008 Technology Wizard style!
Some of what Mark covered:
- Quick intro on Hardware
- A little snippet about Hyper-V scenarios
- A couple of minutes on the “build process” (including answer files)
- Run through the wizards on the Home tab
- Add User Accounts
- Connect computers to the SBS Domain
- Quick overview of Share Point in SBS
- Remote Web Workplace 2008 (features, customization, etc, etc)
- Outlook Web Access 2008 (look at most/all of the new features, show web-doc viewing, etc)
- Demo Backup Recovery
- Look at SBS reports (schedule, custom reports, etc)
SMB Nation was the previous weekend, so we got to hear about it from some of our members who were there.
September 10, 2008 - Technology Wizards
Technology Wizards 5th Anniversary
Response Point, SMB Nation 2008
Harry Brelsford, SMB Nation
We had our first meeting exactly five years ago, on September 10th, 2003. To celebrate we had cake this year, and Harry Brelsford brought gifts.
Harry Brelsford gave us a live presentation on Microsoft Response Point including a demonstration! He went PowerPoint-less, and concentrated on talking about the equipment and software, including showing us how easy it is to setup and configure, along with a few of the gotchas.
In addition, Harry gave us the latest information regarding the upcoming SMB Nation Conference, including a special discount for our members and attendees.
August 13, 2008 - Technology Wizards
Round Table Discussion
Our August meeting featured a round-table discussion on a number of business and technical topics including:
- Vendor Support (i.e. Microsoft, Zenith InfoTech, Symantec, etc.)
- General Support
- Where do the Techs go when we’re stumped?
- SBS 2008 Prep
- Managed Services
- Certification
- Training
- Technical Issues
July 9, 2008 - Technology Wizards
SBS 2008
Ken Shafer, Agape Computing
Our July meeting was about SBS2008. Ken Shafer presented an overview of SBS2008. Some of the material had already been available to us, some was based on new information released in the last few days, including information on projected release dates, licensing, migration, new features, etc. This will be the first new release of SBS since Technology Wizards was formed and there was naturally a lot of interest. There was also good discussion related to SBS2008 and what it will mean for our futures, including backup issues and concerns.
July is also our annual membership meeting. Renewals are still being processed, but we got a very high percentage of existing members renewing, and several new members joining.
June 17, 2008 - Technology Wizards
Considering Vista Adoption or Deployment? - Get The Facts!
Our June meeting was held on Tuesday, June 17th from 11:00am – 2:00pm at the Microsoft PacWest Office.
This was a community-wide educational event targeted at IT Pros, Resellers/Consultants and IT Business Decision Makers considering whether or not to deploy or recommend deploying Windows Vista for business use, or trying to figure out how to recommend to technical or business decisions makers whether to upgrade or not, and why.
This event focused on providing real facts regarding adoption or deployment of Windows Vista in businesses. It was not an opinion-based or sales/marketing event, but an educational event.
We covered many of the features and benefits of Windows Vista with a real-world approach. We also heard about some of the challenges and solutions, including deployment and features of Service Pack 1.
In addition, a panel discussion will gave an opportunity to get questions answered that were lingering.
May 14, 2008 - Technology Wizards
Groove for Technology Wizards Members Launch, SBS 2008 Preview, Harry's call about SMB Nation
The vast majority of our May meeting was devoted to the formal launch and member training on our latest membership benefit, a Groove workspace where members can participate in threaded discussions on any topic, share resources such as files, presentations, white papers, links, etc. It's been a long time in coming and generated a lot of discussion and questions.
Ken Shafer gave a very brief introduction to SBS 2008 and a slide deck he has with far more information on SBS that he will be posting to the Groove site. There is going to be much more information on SBS 2008 in upcoming months.
We had a short roundtable discussion, most of which was on the upcoming June meeting which will be a community event on Windows Vista. We have a lot of work to do, including planning for presentation content, as well as various issues such as event venue and all the other logistics that will be necessary to pull this off. More discussion to come on Groove.
At the beginning of the meeting Harry Brelsford called in and briefly talked about upcoming things, including SMB Nation in September.
April 9, 2008 - Technology Wizards
Heroes Community Launch Event
Our April Technology Wizards Meeting was a “Heroes Community Launch” event focused on Windows Server 2008. This was a great opportunity to get a jump-start on Windows Server 2008, and a preview of the Launch Event planned for May 6th. We covered a lot of content in a short time, giving us a good introduction to Server 2008 and whetting our appetites for more. We had some great giveaways for all in attendance and some terrific stuff in the drawing just for Technology Wizards Members at the end of the event.
March 12, 2008 - Technology Wizards
Business Round Table Discussion
Our meeting featured Round Table discussions on a variety of Business Topics. No Tech talk this time, just business topics. In the past our round table discussions have focused on technical topics, with business consideration becoming involved when they impacted the technology. We turned things around this time and focused on business topics, with the technical considerations becoming involved only when they impacted the business.
Topics discussed included:
- Peer Groups
- Growing your business
- Key Performance Indicators and other Metrics
- How do you see the Market changing?
- Single Points of Failure
- Overcoming Burnout
- Impact of SBS 2008 and EBS 2008
- Transitioning clients to Vista, Office 2007
- Future of Managed Services
- Partnering with your competition
February 13, 2008 - Technology Wizards
Business Contact Manager with Technical Services Template
Larry Betz, Gateway Solutions
Our meeting featured Larry Betz from Gateway Solutions (a current Technology Wizard member), showing us how to take advantage of Microsoft Outlook with Business Contact Manager using the Technical Services template for BCM included in the Action Pack. Larry also gave us a short introduction to CRM 4.0.
January 9, 2008 - Technology Wizards
Microsoft Software Licensing
Eric Ligman, Microsoft
This month’s meeting was focused on Microsoft Software Volume Licensing Programs. Eric Ligman, Senior Manager Community Engagement, Microsoft was our featured presenter.
Many of our members had questions regarding Volume Licensing options, configurations, and benefits including why should they sell Volume Licenses to their small businesses customers.
Volume Licensing programs. OPEN Business. OPEN Value. Software Assurance. Benefits. Downgrade Rights. Upgrade Rights. Home Use Rights. Employee Purchase. E-Training. How to sell. These and many more topics were covered including a brief introduction to the new OPEN Value Subscription introduced January 2nd.
Eric Ligman is the community lead for the Partner Community Manager Team. His role is to be the liaison between Microsoft Headquarters and the Partner Community Managers in the field. This includes: setting strategy and initiatives, providing resources and information, and communicating promotions and offers for the team to deliver out to the Microsoft Partner Community. Eric is also the person who funnels information from the Partner Community Managers back to Microsoft, and he runs the Microsoft Small Business Channel Community (Web Site, Blog, and User Group).
(NOTE: Be sure to visit the OPEN Value Subscription announcement link and register for one of the upcoming webcast training sessions conducted by Eric, the first will be this Thursday, January 10th at 9:00am).
December 12, 2007 - Technology Wizards
SBS Troubleshooting Best Practices, Tips, Tricks and Solutions
Our meeting was focused on SBS Troubleshooting Best Practices, Tips, Tricks and Solutions. This was in the form of a moderated “Community Sharing” opportunity. This was a great time to share and learn from each other, and had been highly requested.
We kicked off the session with what Ken Shafer has learned about troubleshooting memory leaks. Mark Hicks contributed some ideas from his wealth of Enterprise and Small Business experiences.
In addition to our regular meeting topic we held Board elections. One current board member, Tom Rich did not seek another term on the Board, while the remaining four members, Ken Shafer, Matt Wilson, Walt Belt, and Ray Belt chose to run for another term. A fifth member, Brian Williams wanted to run for the board, and as the full board is composed of five members, all five were voted for as one slate. The slate was elected to be 2008's Board by unanimous voice vote.
Please note the following regarding our TW Board and elections:
a. Our Bylaws state that our membership shall elect the 5 people who will serve on the TW Board next calendar year.
b. When the Newly Elected Board meets in January, they shall vote to determine the positions that each elected Board member will serve in.
c. The Bylaws also state that the President must have served on the previous year’s Board.
Please note: The BCM presentation originally scheduled has been postponed due to a scheduling conflict.
November 14, 2007 - Technology Wizards
Microsoft Windows Home Server
Kevin Beares, Microsoft
Microsoft's Kevin Beares talked to us about Microsoft Windows Home Server. Kevin is from the Windows Server Solutions Group and his title is: SBS, Centro, and Windows Home Server Community Lead.
Some of the questions answered included:
- Hardware needed to run WHS (not just technical specs, but ideally, what type of hardware – i.e. like we would have for a typical Windows 2003 server, or closer to a beefed up workstation)
- Ideal hardware components
- What’s not needed
- How to complete an installation of WHS
- What to do after basic installation of WHS
- What can WHS offer in a home networking environment
- What can WHS offer in a small business environment
- Can WHS be connected to a SBS network
- How to manage WHS after installation
- Basic list of known issues and resolutions, etc.
- WHS Technical Toolkit
- Places to find additional support (newsgroups, blogs, MVPs, etc.)
October 10, 2007 - Technology Wizards
Highlights from SMB Nation 2007
At this month's meeting we continued our tradition of sharing the knowledge gained at the annual SMB Nation event. Some of our members shared what they learned and observed at this amazing event. It generated some interesting discussion in addition to the new information we be heard about.
Topics included the following:
- Two factor authentication with AuthAnvil and RWW-Guard, by Brian Williams, Advantech NW
- The 3 Step Sales Process, by Jeff Dempsey, President, Advanced Business Computing Solutions, Inc.
Jeff has the following additional credentials:
Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft Certified Business Management Solutions Professional
Microsoft Certified Business Management Solutions Specialist
- Karl Palachuk’s Technology Dump and Project Planner, by Tom Rich, MCP, Microsoft Small Business Specialist, Mt. Hood Computer Services, Inc.
- Haas (Hardware as a Service), by Tom Rich, MCP, Microsoft Small Business Specialist, Mt. Hood Computer Services, Inc.
September 12, 2007 - Technology Wizards
Business Best Practices
This meeting focused on Business Best Practices and was conducted in a Round Table Discussion format. Some of the topics we covered included:
- Managed Services Plans
- Business and Technical Tools for Running and Managing Your Business (i.e. CRM or CRM-like process and applications)
- Managed Services Tools and Applications (i.e. Zenith InfoTech, AutoTask, Shockey Monkey, OwnWebNow, PanaLog, etc.)
- Raising Professionalism Of Our Services
- Staffing Strategies
- Password Management
- Permissions Management
- When to say “No!” to Customers of Business Opportunities
Please bring examples and/or stories to share with the group.
Don’t be late as you may miss a topic that you want to get in on!
August 8, 2007 - Technology Wizards
SharePoint
Tom Rich, Mt. Hood Computer Services
Our own Tom Rich presented an open discussion about using SharePoint in business for real business purposes, including demonstrations of InfoPath. Tom discussed installing SharePoint v3 in an SBS environment, basic document library function and document library with InfoPath.
July 11, 2007 - Technology Wizards
Josh Epstein, Symantec
July also marked the beginning of our new membership year and was our annual "member renewal meeting".
Josh Epstein from Symantec was our featured presenter.
Josh did not come to show off any products, he came to work at rebuilding a good relationship between Symantec and its Partners / VARs / Resellers. Josh covered a few topics, including:
- Channel Strategy
- Channel Updates and Feedback (What’s Been Improved and What Needs to Be Improved)
- What’s Coming for the Small Business Partners (Programs, Incentives and Training)
- Q and A
Mostly, Josh came to LISTEN TO US.
This was a great opportunity, as through TW member feedback, Josh requested this opportunity to learn how he can be a better advocate for each of us as he has done for at least 2 of our members. Josh has really stepped up the efforts to restore and rebuild relationships and customer needs.
June 13, 2007 - Technology Wizards
Microsoft Office 2007 – Community Launch
Ken Shafer, Agape Computing
Ken gave us a very good presentation on Office 2007 Technology Wizards style. He gave us a very good look at deployment and deployment strategies, as well as use of Office 2007. He also gave us some very good ideas and suggestions for using Office 2007 not only for our clients, but in our own businesses as well. One added bonus was a look at Business Contact Manager 2007 and he could make use of it.
May 9, 2007 - Technology Wizards
Sara Speirs, Channel Manager-North America, Freedom9
Our featured presenter was Sara Speirs, Channel Manager-North America, Freedom9. Freedom9 provides network security, storage and other fine products. Sara has worked in the Networking Industry for 5 years. She started at D-Link on their corporate sales team building reseller and end user relationships. From there she moved into managing the Retail and DMR channel at D-Link networks and then just recently moved to Freedom9 to manage the North American Channel.
In addition to having an engineer conduct live demonstrations and answer technical questions, Sara covered the following topics:
Storage:
- New laws passed which requires all companies to archive
- Remote Back-up and Disaster Recovery as a business model
Remote Management
- Utilizing Freedom9 hardware on your customers networks to maximize efficiencies and minimize site visits
- How Freedom9 hardware can work with Level Platforms & Kaseya software
Security
- Using the Freedom9 unlimited user UTM firewall as a viable alternative to expensive Tier 1 solutions increasing the profitability for your company and saving your customers money while improving the performance on their networks.
This was a terrific opportunity to see what looks to be a terrific competitor to SonicWALL! as well as other products that can be a great addition to an SBS environment.
April 11, 2007 - Technology Wizards
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 – Introduction and Technical Overview
Raymond Belt, The ProComp Group
The focus of this meeting was our own community launch of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, presented by Raymond Belt (MCSE), President of The ProComp Group (and a member of Technology Wizards). This was a terrific opportunity to see Exchange Server 2007 (Technology Wizards style) and gain insight into Microsoft’s newest version and vision for Exchange, Collaboration and Convergence.
March 14, 2007 - Technology Wizards
System Center Essentials, Longhorn Server and Forefront
Tom Ford, PacWest Server Solution Specialist, Microsoft
We had a presentation on the new System Center Essentials by Tom Ford. Tom conducted a detailed review of System Center Essentials as a managed services solution for partners. He also updated us on Longhorn Server and Forefront Products.
Tom Ford, Server Specialist, Microsoft works in the Bellevue office and is dedicated to helping Microsoft Partners with technical and presales readiness of all of Microsoft’s Windows Server, System Center, Forefront Security and enterprise database and application servers including SQL, BizTalk and Commerce Server. Tom’s been with the PacWest field team for 1.5 years and with Microsoft for over 7 years in various services, support and product management roles including a stint in the Windows Server product group where he helped launch Windows Server 2003 and SBS 2003.
February 14, 2007 - Technology Wizards
Bill Jowlett, Exclaimer
Exclaimer provides a variety of solutions, including, but not limited to, antispam software, antivirus protection, email disclaimers and signatures, auto blocking and mail archiving. Mail archiving is becoming more and more important as businesses need to comply with regulations for email retention.
Windows Virtualization Systems - Windows Virtual Server 2005 R2 - Advantages to Small Business System Integrators.
Joe Engle, President / Chief Architect - JRE Consulting, Inc.
An overview and drill down into Windows Virtualization technologies and strategies. Understanding and creating a Virtual Server with 2005 R2 from scratch (hardware requirements, best practices). Discussion about how a virtual server can be very important to a Small Business System Integrator’s capabilities and how this technology may be useful in a small business environment.
January 24, 2007 - Technology Wizards
Moderated Discussion
NOTE: This meeting was rescheduled from our regular meeting date of January 10, which was cancelled due to weather.
The core topics for the January meeting were:
- Survey results from the impromptu survey conducted by Dennis York at our December meeting.
- Moderated Round Table Discussions - This was a moderated discussion by all who attended regarding various technical and business topics.
Topics included:
- Best Buy/Geek Squad - Competition or Partner Opportunity?
- Adding a second DC to an SBS environment and recovering the environment if the main server fails ... Include a fork lift migration
- Contact Management/CRM and how that all ties into service requests/scheduling, work orders, invoicing, etc.
- Usage of AutoTask or other similar products
- Software Licensing – What sells best, what are some of the best ways to sell it?
- SBS Installation or Support Tips
December 13, 2006 - Technology Wizards
Board Elections, Round Table Discussion
The core topics for the December meeting were:
- Board Elections - We elected our board for the coming year. All of our existing board members (Ken Shafer, Matt Wilson, Walt Belt, Ray Belt, Tom Rich) were willing to continue serving as board members. Joe Engel and Allen Bernstein were nominated for election, but they declined the nomination as the existing members were still interested in serving. A motion was made, and passed to reelect the existing board.
- Round Table Discussions - This was a moderated discussion by the members about various technical and business topics of concern to us. Matt Katzer did a short presentation that kicked off our facilitated discussions by showing us the tool he uses for SBS Quotes.
Some of the topics for the discussions were:
- Customers with illegal software – How do you respond?
- How many have actually sold white box laptops into a corporate environment on the newer Intel plan (Verified By Intel) and how did that work out in terms of reliability, support and customer acceptance?
- Software Licensing – What sells best, what are some of the best ways to sell it?
- Windows Vista Deployments – How soon? Why or Why not?
- 2007 Office Deployments – How soon? Why or Why not?
- Best SBS Installation or Support Tip
- WSUS or Native SBS 2003 R2 Green Check?
- Business outlook for 2007? Sales up or down?
December 6 - 7, 2006 - ITEC
Once more Technology Wizards had a booth at ITEC. Portland ITEC gives IT and business professionals convenient access to the most current and compelling technology solutions. The ITEC Exhibit Floor featured leading manufacturers, VARs, systems integrators and solution providers displaying the business technology solutions you need to expand, transform and upgrade your business.
ITEC's Insight Sessions were delivered by local experts familiar with the challenges and opportunities of Portland's business marketplace. This year's program focused on "Top 2007 Information Technology Trends for Your Business" and "2007 Security Threatscape - How to Stay Ahead of the Curve." The Insight Sessions were complemented by scheduled vendor presentations in special on-floor theaters that provide information of the latest technology solutions straight from the national and local suppliers who provide them.
As a special feature this year, one of our members was be a featured speaker for two sessions at ITEC on Wednesday, December 6th! Don Crawford of Don Crawford & Associates conducted two presentations on VoIP, VoIP: Build It or Buy It, Part 1 - How to Cut Costs by Deploying Your Own System, and VoIP: Build It or Buy It, Part 2 - When You Don't Want to Do it Yourself.
November 8, 2006 - Technology Wizards
Windows Vista - Part 2
Chris Avis, IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft
Chris took us deeper into Microsoft's forthcoming Windows Vista. Chris is a part of the official launch team and this was be a great opportunity to see beyond the surface of what we've seen so far and get our technical questions answered.
Chris is charged with speaking to anyone who will listen about Microsoft Products and Technologies. His focus is on Small to Enterprise level businesses and the way technology can make the lives of their IT Professionals easier and simpler. When Chris started his career as a contractor customer service representative in 1994 at Microsoft, he did not know who Bill Gates or Microsoft was prior to applying with the company. He had been an Apple user since the late 70's. Chris left Microsoft as a contractor in 1996 only to return 1 year later as a full time employee supporting networking technologies for Windows NT 4.0 Server and client connectivity. Chris was one of the original 10 that supported the Small Business Server products where he stayed for five years. In 2002, Chris took on the challenge of speaking to IT Pros and "evangelizing" the great products and technologies Microsoft delivers.
October 11, 2006 - Technology Wizards
The risk of patching, the risks of NOT patching
Susan Bradley - CPA/CITP, MCP, GSEC, Microsoft® SBS MVP
Is the risk of patching less than the risk of vulnerabilities? What's the process to evaluate the risks and threats of your client base? Do you have a process for evaluating Patch Tuesday and reacting to it? Do you have a tool in place to help you patch? Is your antivirus and firewall enough?
Susan Bradley, who used to patch her SBS 4.0 servers squinting her eyes and crossing her fingers hoping that the network would reboot joined us for a presentation on the Risks of Small Business.
Susan discussed how to read a bulletin, resources for patching, guidelines for how to set up patch testing and information on risks and the evaluation of the right course to take.....Patch? Mitigate? Or unplug the Internet and go back to pencil and paper?
Additionally, we got an update on Winternals from Kevin Connell of Endurics. The last word from Kevin is that Winternals will cease to be sold as of 10/18/06.
September 13, 2006 - Technology Wizards
CRM 3.0 SBE
Anne Stanton - The Norwich Group
September 11, 2006 - 2006 SBS User Group Tour
2006 SBS User Group Tour
The 2006 SBS User Group Tour was back in Portland on Monday, September 11th at the Microsoft Offices. Portland was the second stop on a very limited city tour. This year we again had a terrific opportunity to receive information about the future of SBS and give feedback and suggestions on the roadmap going forward.
Topics included:
- SBS 2003 R2
- Technology Assessment Toolkit V2
- SBSC
- First Server, Right Server
- Windows Vista
- Office 2007
August 9, 2006 - Technology Wizards
SBS 2003 R2
Tom Ford, PacWest Server Solution Specialist, Microsoft
Tom’s been with Microsoft 6 years and is super passionate about SBS and the small business partner community. He demonstrated some of the new features in SBS R2 and fielded our questions during this session. He also gave us an introduction and overview of the Small Business Technology Assessment Toolkit.
Performing Offline Updates
Wynn Smith, Computer Help
Wynn talked to us about an undocumented procedure for performing an offline update. Now you can protect a system from the internet without first connecting to the internet. Although it's as cumbersome as the old QChain days, it's actually faster than waiting for 50+ MB of downloads.
July 12, 2006 - Technology Wizards
Round Table, Open Discussion
Originally Anne Stanton was scheduled to talk to the group about CRM 3.0 Small Business Edition, unfortunately there were technical difficulties with the Live Meeting discussion that she was going to use and we were not able to get the presentation. We are working to reschedule this presentation.
We ended up having a wide-ranging members discussion that amongst other things touched on Microsoft's various Open Licensing programs, including Open Business, Open Value, and Software Assurance; methods and solutions for VPN or remote office needs; various firewall options, including the ongoing debate about "hardware" versus "software" firewalls. The only bad thing about the discussion was that we ran out of time and had to leave before we could explore everything that we could talk about.
Anne will be presenting via Live Meeting.
This was also our annual membership meeting and we collected many renewals and several new memberships.
June 14, 2006 - Technology Wizards
Windows Vista
Raphael Davis, Microsoft
Raphael Davis of Microsoft showed us Windows Vista and brought us up to date on the new OS and it's progress as well as the impact on those of us providing IT and SBS services to Small Businesses.
It was a terrific opportunity to see Windows Vista in action and gain some valuable insight.
Ken Shafer for Backup Assist
Ken covered how Backup Assist can be a great add-on for NTBackup in SBS environments.
May 13, 2006 - 2006 Pacific Northwest Regional SBS User Group Event
The 2006 Pacific Northwest Regional SBS User Group Event was held at the Microsoft campus in Redmond. This event gathered the following SBS Groups:
Puget Sound SBSUG from the Seattle area
Technology Wizards from the Portland area
VanSBS Group from the Vancouver, BC area
SSBSUG from the Spokane area
The event ran from 10:00am - 7:00pm and Steve Banks (SBS-MVP and PSSBSUG Leader) secured several sponsors making the event FREE to those who attended. Steve did a tremendous amount of work putting this event together!
The event was held in Building 43 at the Microsoft Campus in Redmond. This is where SBS Lives!
May 10, 2006 - Technology Wizards
Mobility
Mike Iem, The Ziem Group
Mike gave us insight into the Mobility Opportunities available with SBS and Windows Mobile 5. There is revenue to be made here. He also demonstrated how to create and deploy a mobile application.
York Major, GE Security
York demonstrated how Smartphones are being used as a productivity tool for Real Estate agents. He showed off a Smartphone application developed for use with Supra KeyBoxes.
Backup / Disaster Recovery Part 2
Fifteen Minutes with Wynn
Wynn Smith
Wynn Smith, one of our members, talked to us about NTBackup, it's strengths and weaknesses, and how some of those weaknesses can be compensated for without using a third-party backup solution.
April 12, 2006 - Technology Wizards
Backup / Disaster Recovery Theme
Yuan-Chi, Todd Carter, Symantec
Todd and Yuan-Chi spoke to us about Backup Exec 10d for SBS, Live State Recovery and Continuous Protection Server and provided a brief demonstration. They informed us of the new Symantec Partner Program and training available.
Jared Byrd & Marcelo Lopes, Computer Associates
Jared and Marcelo spoke to us about and demonstrated via Live Meeting Computer Associates solutions for backup and disaster recovery, including their Business Protection Suites for SBS. They also covered information on the CA Partner Program.
March 8, 2006 - Technology Wizards
WSUS (Windows Server Update Services)
Bobbie Harder, Microsoft
Bobbie Harder did a remote presentation on WSUS 2.0 in an SBS environment and gave us an advanced look at WSUS 3.0. In addition to her presentation we had an extensive Q&A session in which all parties learned a lot about the product and how it's being used in the small business arena.
February 8, 2006 - Technology Wizards
SonicWALL
Derek Kwan, SonicWALL, Pre-Sales Systems Engineer
Derek covered SonicWALL's products for the SMB space and answered many of our questions regarding their products, solutions, configurations, licensing, partner opportunities, etc.
Security Assessment Tool
Tom Ford, Server Solution Specialist, Microsoft
Tom walked us through the new Microsoft Security Assessment Tool.
Data Protection Server
Javier Cavillo, Storage Technical Specialist, Microsoft
Javier gave us an overview of Microsoft Data Protection Server.
After our meeting, Robyn Trembly, Partner Community Manager, Microsoft put on a free seminar for Microsoft Partners, entitled "Leveraging Microsoft's Security Assessment & Gateway's Technology Solutions to Increase Business."
Robyn is planning on holding a series of these events every other month after our Technology Wizards meetings.
January 11, 2006 - Technology Wizards
SQL Server 2005 Community Launch - Part 2
The second part of our SQL Server 2005 launch presentation. Our President, Ken Shafer, was the presenter this time. We saw an overview of the management and monitoring features in SQL Server 2005, including troubleshooting. Ken's demonstrations gave us a very good look at the greatly improved management interface in this latest release of SQL. This was different material from our December meeting.
Once more, we had exciting resource give-aways for attendees, including exam vouchers and copies of SQL Server 2005.
Robyn Trembly, Microsoft's Manager of the PACWEST Partner Community, was also be there by teleconference to tell us about the latest developments in the Microsoft Partner Community.
December 14, 2005 - Technology Wizards
SQL Server 2005 Community Launch - Part 1
Rob Westover, Microsoft
We learned about the latest release of SQL Server. Rob Westover, Microsoft (TechNet Presenter) guided us through Microsoft's latest release of SQL Server and spent some time talking about it's high availability features.. The Portland area Launch on November 17th was too full, so this was a great opportunity to get a good look into SQL Server 2005.
There were exciting resource give-aways for attendees, including exam vouchers and copies of SQL Server 2005.
We also did a brief recap of ITEC the previous week and our members' impression of the show and the contacts they had while working our booth.
We had several new visitors to the meeting, 3 of whom joined on the spot. Welcome to the latest Technology Wizards. Please look at their, and our other members contact information on our Consultants page.
December 7 - 8, 2005 - ITEC
ITEC
Once again Technology Wizards had a booth at ITEC. We generated a lot of interest, not only in the group, but in SBS and what it could do for some of the smaller businesses and groups that were at this annual technology event.
November 9, 2005 - Technology Wizards
Forensics And The SMB Technology Provider
We learned about computer forensics and what effect it may have on us and our clients.
Dennis York, YKO Technology, Inc informed us of things to consider when a potential forensics issue arises, education and tools available, including a demonstration, liability issues and other interesting related facts.
Matt Wilson, Brightstar Consulting, brought a personal experience to the table, helping us to better understand circumstances and potential pitfalls.
October 12, 2005 - Technology Wizards
ISA 2004
Raphael Davis, Microsoft
We learned about the latest component of SBS 2003 Service Pack 1 and got a more in-depth look at what it can be used for beyond the basic install that is a part of SBS SP1. The differences with ISA 2000, enhancements, and ways to lock down your SBS 2003 SP1 servers and networks.
We also held our annual Board elections at this meeting. Thank you for those of you who attended the meeting and participated in the election of our Board. The existing four Board Members were re-elected to their positions:
President - Ken Shafer
Vice President - Matt Wilson
Secretary - Walt Bell
Treasurer - Ray Belt
Tom Rich was elected as our Member-At-Large.
Thanks again to all who participated. We look forward to working together to make Technology Wizards a great resource for it's members, present and future.
September 14, 2005 - Technology Wizards
SMB Nation Recap
Some of the best content at the conference. Other member discussion and ideas.
Note: SonicWALL was scheduled to present on this day but they had to cancel just before SMB Nation and there was not time to arrange for a replacement speaker. We apologize to those who were planning to listen to SonicWALL.
August 10, 2005 - Technology Wizards
Small Business Specialist
Presentations by Microsoft, Synnex, and Harry Brelsford.
A grand introduction to Microsoft's new certification program for Small Business Specialists. We had presentations from Christopher Goebel, Group Marketing Manager, US Partner Programs at Microsoft regarding the NEW Small Business Specialist Program, Harry Brelsford promoting the program, his new book for the Small Business Specialist Program and for SMB Nation to be held in September 2005 at the Microsoft Campus, and Synnex informed us of their Roadshow.
The Small Business Specialist program is what we have been asking Microsoft to develop for years.
Harry had copies of his new book available along with the book by Karl Palachuk on Documenting Networks.
July 13, 2005 - Technology Wizards
June 8, 2005 - Technology Wizards
May 11, 2005 - Technology Wizards
April 13, 2005 - Technology Wizards
CRM
Patrick Lewis, Gateway Solutions
Our main speaker for the meeting, Patrick Lewis from Gateway Solutions, gave a great presentation on Microsoft CRM. He talked about how CRM works, how to sell it and how Gateway Solutions can be involved in providing support & service to our members.
March 14, 2005 - Technology Wizards
SBS User Group Tour
We met Microsoft Product Managers and other key players in the world of Microsoft Small Business Server.
February 9, 2005 - Technology Wizards
Microsoft Retail Management System
New West Technologies
New West Technologies is a Portland based Microsoft Business Solutions Partner and is recognized as one of the top certified Microsoft Retail Management dealers in the country with over 200 implementations.
December 8, 2004 - Technology Wizards
Becky Lymberis, Microsoft
Raphael Davis, Microsoft
Becky Lymberis is THE Partner Co-marketing Manager for Microsoft. We got to hear about some possible changes and improvements to the Microsoft Partner program, as well as provide our feedback and thoughts on being Partners, and ways that the relationship with Microsoft can be improved and enhanced.
This meeting took place immediately following the first day of ITEC, so special thanks and congratulations to the members and Microsoft employees who worked at the show that day as well as attending our meeting.
December 8 - 9, 2004 - ITEC
ITEC
Technology Wizards had a booth at ITEC this year. We generated a lot of interest, not only in the group, but in SBS and what it could do for some of the smaller businesses and groups that were at this annual technology event.
November 10, 2004 - Technology Wizards
Computer Associates
Security with eTrust, Storage, and Backup
October 13, 2004 - Technology Wizards
We had two speakers scheduled for this month, including one who was supposed to talk about document management systems. Unfortunately neither of them showed up, so we used the meeting as an opportunity for a member's roundtable, talking about many assorted business and technology issues.
August 11, 2004 - Technology Wizards
Yuan-Chi, Veritas
We had a spirited discussion with Veritas about their products, especially BackupExec. At our request Veritas created a document that highlights the differences between Backup Exec 9.1 and the version of NTBackup that is in both Windows Server 2003 and Small Business Server 2003.
June 7, 2004 - Technology Wizards
Windows XP Service Pack 2
May 3, 2004 - Technology Wizards
Notebooks, Wireless Services
Erik Stromquist, CTL
Security Overview
Kurt McClellan, Symantec
April 5, 2004 - Technology Wizards
March 1, 2004 - Technology Wizards
ISA Security by Bryan Miller
February 2, 2004 - Technology Wizards
The Top 12 Tips and Tricks You Should Know About SBS 2003
Harry Brelsford, SMB Nation
This meeting was the Official Book Release Party for Harry Brelsford’s new book, ‘Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best Practices’.
We celebrated with Harry as he presented "The Top 12 Tips and Tricks You Should Know About SBS 2003".
December 1, 2003 - Technology Wizards
Jason Mauer
Jason Mauer talked to us about SharePoint.
October 27, 2003 - Technology Wizards
September 3, 2003 - Technology Wizards
Our first meeting.
We established our initial dues, and made plans for a referral phone number, including how to manage it and how to distribute referrals to the members.
Robert Osborne, from Microsoft, spent nearly two hours presenting SBS2003 and issues surrounding it. He confirmed some things we already suspected such as the fact that Small Business simply isn't aware why they need a server to stay competitive. This means the potential market is large, but it remains a "potential market" because of the difficulty of selling into it. While half (49%) of all servers are sold to small business, fewer than a quarter of small businesses have bought a server.
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