OnQ

On Day 3: Security

The last session of the conference for me is the repeat of Dana's security seminar. If you haven't seen Dana's sessions, you're really missing something. The main focus of his presentation was on using two-factor authentication. Two-factor authentication is comprised of something you have and something you know. For example, your bankcard - you have the card and you have to know the PIN.

One of the key issues facing small business IT shops is how to manage the administrator passwords for the systems you manage when you have an employee leave the company. If you change the administrator password, you also have to change the password for services that run as administrator, plus change the passwords of any additional admin accounts that may have been created, and this can take a very long time, especially if you have a large number of servers or a lot of turnover.

With a centrally-managed two-factor authentication solution, the need to change administrator passwords is either significantly reduced or eliminated because you can disable the OTP (one time password) for the departing employee in the central system and lock that user out of the systems you manage.

Some vendors who have solutions for two-factor authentication:

www.cryptocard.com (cryptocard) - bill@cryptocard.com ask for starter kit referred by Dana
www.rsasecurity.com
www.authenex.com
www.securecomputing.com
www.aladdin.com
www.actividentity.com
www.verisign.com (
www.vasco.com (VASCO)
www.passgo.com (Defender)
www.scorpionsoft.com (Anvil)

Dana demoed several implementations of two-factor security on live systems, including a new product from Scorpion Software that adds two-factor authentication to Remote Web Workplace.

One audience question - what about biometrics? Dana pointed out the "gummy bear attack" that gets past fingerprint scanners.

Now for the afternoon activities...

On Day 3: CRM Project Planning

I sat in on Anne Stanton's CRM Project Planning session this morning. CRM is an avenue I'm looking into, and I've worked with Anne on a couple of leads for CRM application implementations. She focused specifically on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM product, but the basic concepts can apply to all CRM applications in general.

Anne started showing a project proposal template that she uses as a building block (living document) to work with a potential client and discussed the different phases of a CRM implementation. (Note to self and others - CRM implementations are more involved that just installing the software.) She then covered the basics of what it takes to install CRM SBE onto SBS. CRM SBE does integrate well with SBS, because it integrates with many of the components of SBS, but there are some "fun" points dealing with ISA.

Anne followed next with a deep dive into the implementation process. One of the most important phases, if not the most important, is the data migration process. This is taking all the existing data the client has and migrating it into the MS CRM app. One of the key aspects of data migration is data cleansing - making sure that the data you're importing is ready for importing - this is where some of the pain points of the entire project are really evident, because if the client data is not really "clean" this phase can take an extensive amount of time.

Audience question: How do you price data migration? Sit down with the customer to see where they are and try to find out how many records they have. If they have a small number of records, it might make more financial sense to have a temp re-key the records in the system, but a larger number of records might require some outsourcing for custom programming to get all the records imported.

Next, Anne showed some of the different planning templates. These documents have screen shots of each and every piece in the interface that you go over with the client and find out what they need or not in the interface and you can note in the template what changes you need to make. The template also breaks down the structure of the record so you can see what the individual fields are and what the data type is for each field. These templates are available for download from the Partner web site as a ZIP file.

As you're going through configuration, document everything that goes on during the research and deployment phases. Scope creep can really impact the project, but if you sufficiently document every request, at least you have the information that can back up any questions the client may have during the process.

Now on to the next magical session...

On Day 2: Entertainment

I had a wonderful opportunity this evening to really do something very cool, at least for me. I got to see my home town Texas Rangers play the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field. The game went thirteen innings, and while my team ended up losing, it was a great game and worth the time. Oh, and did I mention that because of a few connections, I ended up watching the game from the Owner's Suite? Oh yes, it was suite indeed!

Now to get some sleep and try to rest up before tomorrow. No vendor hall, so I'll be able to attend at least a couple of sessions...

On Day 2: Vendoring Again

OK, so even though I thought I would attend sessions in-between the market expo times, once again I ended up spending the day as a vendor at the Community booth. The good news, I was able to move a number of books not only at the table but also to people who will order online because they had no more room in their outgoing luggage. The bad news, I really missed out on some of the side sessions and mingling that are so valuable at this conference.

Later tonight, I'll have a different activity that I could only take advantage of in Seattle. More on that later...

On Day 2: Keynote

Day 2 of SMB Nation 2006 opened with a keynote speech from conference organizer Harry Brelsford on the global reach of Microsoft's Small Business Specialist certification program. Actually, it was more of a group participation effort than a talking slide deck. Bob Hood announced Arlin Sorensen as the SBSer of the Year. Harry summarized the events of the last year for SMB Nation the company including the interviews of members of the worldwide community on SMB Nation TV (and no, he didn't just stand there and play videos, but did have a couple of the interviewees come up and share a little about their activities with the audience). Harry discussed the activities of the SBSC implementations in Italy and Denmark. Jeremy from Auckland, New Zealand, discussed the way MS New Zealand is handling the SBSC memberships by making it more exclusive than general admission. Beatrice came up and discussed some of the lessons they learned in Amsterdam and EMEA in general. The general consensus from the different nations was that the different leads of user groups and other groups are keeping in contact with each other on a daily basis to help grow not only their businesses but their market as well.

Now back to the vendor hall to sell books for a bit while getting ready for the Mac talk...

On Day 1: Changes

Well, after the keynote session this morning, my experience at SMB Nation took a very quick left turn. As such, with the exception of participating in the MVP Panel session, I did not attend another session during the day tracks so, as such, I have nothing to report on those.

You see, yesterday I spent the day as a vendor, and it was quite a different experience.

This year, Harry agreed to let me sell copies of the SBS 2003 Unleashed book at the conference, specifically at the Community table (booth 108 for those at the show, in the back corner near the food extras). So right after the keynote, during the scheduled 45-minute "market expo" time, I headed back to the community booth, set up the display, and suddenly became "Eriq Neale, Vendor" instead of "Eriq Neale, Speaker and Attendee."

The community booth was a really happening place to start the morning. I'm working the booth along with folks from SMBTN, the SBS MVPs, and the SBS User Group community. Others have placed materials on the community table, including Jeff Middleton (an invite to his Saturday night party at Pub 85), Dana Epp (a discount for his Firewall Dashboard product), and a few other items. We had quite a few reps from SMBTN present to start the vendor time, and Handy Andy, who represents most of the groups represented by the "community" designation, hung out there quite a bit as well. At times, it was rather crowded inside the booth.

My plan was to set up and be available to sell the book during the "vendor time" and then break out with everyone else to attend some of the sessions. There were still a large number of attendees wandering the vendor hall at the start of the next session, however, so I opted to stay in my vendor hat for that session. There was only one presentation of the four being offered that I was sort of interested in, and if I didn't miss it, it wouldn't be the end of the world. And it wasn't.

After that session was the lunch break along with more vendor time, and the vendors were offered the option of getting lunch before the lunch rush came through, and I took advantage of that offer. Good thing I did, because once the crowd started through, the vendor hall was a madhouse again. Overall, I had a large number of people come by the table, see the book, and let me know that not only did they have it, but also they found it to be really valuable to them. I also heard from a number of user group members that they had finally received their eval copies within the last month (we've only been trying to get them out to user groups since January, and it finally came together, thanks in great part to Tim Barrett!) What I didn't do, however, was sell a single copy before the start of the afternoon sessions.

Which I also missed. I fully intended to go to Dana's session on security, but at the end of the lunch rush, I was exhausted, so opted to stay at the booth, just because it would be easier. And good thing I did, because that's when the book sales started. During the third session and the following market expo period, I sold several copies to grateful recipients. I was also able to get the majority of the authors in attendance at the show (except Chad Gross - I'll get you tomorrow) to sign the two copies I'm keeping for myself with all the author signatures.

I did break after that to sit in on the MVP panel discussion, which was taped by Tim Barrett and will probably be available for offline viewing later, so I won't dwell on the content here. But in the course of the discussion, a question about Group Policy came up, and we were able to point out that the book has two chapters on Group Policy. I mention that because immediately after the panel discussion, I sold another set of books to people who wanted to read up on GP because they heard about it in the panel discussion.

We packed up the booth right at 7pm and made our way over to Wayne Small's world record server build attempt on SBS R2. Sorry, Wayne, but I was exhausted from a long day of playing vendor, so a group of us cut out before the end and I headed back to the hotel and will crash as soon as I get this entry done.

So it was a very different experience for me this year over last for the first day, and I'm going to change it up a bit tomorrow and get more of the community feel again. But for now, I've got to wrap up and get some shut-eye so I'm rested and ready for my Mac talk tomorrow.

On Day 1: Keynote

The conference is ready to start. Some folks had a bit of an adventure getting here via one of the shuttles, but I'm sure that story will appear in at least one other blog, and since it didn't happen to me, I won't recount it here. Enjoyed the SBSC breakfast and got to meet several folks in person who I've had the opportunity to interact with online.

The keynote room, the Kodiak at the MS Conference Center, is pretty full, so attendance for the entire conference looks like it will be pretty good.

Right at 9am, Seattle time, the opening video started, including talking heads from MS buttering up the attendees with the importance of the SBS community members and how MS is working to support the SB community.

Harry made basic introductions about the conference and then introduced Marie Huwe as the keynote speaker, who addressed increasing profitability in the small business segment. Quite frankly, this was a bunch of marketing speak, which makes my eyes go fuzzy, so it's tough for me to say much more than that. She did touch on both Partner Finder and the IAMCP (International Association of Microsoft Certified Professionals). The also touched on the Small Business Plus program which will have some enhancements over the existing Partner Finder product.

The call to action at the end of the keynote:

• Become a Small Business Specialist
• Install Office and Vista betas and take online training
• Expand your network: blogs, user groups, partner forums
• Expand your client base by using one component of the five small business campaigns.

A number of questions were addressed in the panel Q&A, but nothing really groundbreaking.

On Arrival

First, a disclaimer. When I originally booked my flight from DFW to SEATAC, it was before the London airline threat discovery and prevention and the related elevated security alerts. So, at the time, a 6:30am departure flight didn't seem like such a big deal. However, in retrospect, what the $%@#^ was I thinking???

Anyway, I did manage to get a couple of hours of sleep prior to the alarm going off at 3:30am so I could shower and finish packing before the shuttle arrived to pick me up at 4:00am. Don't know why I rushed, he didn't show until 4:15. Seeing as how I thought that would put me at the airport at 5:00 or after, I was worried I might not have enough time.

Well, for starters, there is NO traffic going to the airport at 4:15am, so we made the trip in 30 minutes. Second, I did figure out that only insane people take 6:30am fights to Seattle (via Denver) from DFW, and we're fewer in number than the general population might otherwise acknowledge. So, by 5am, I'm not only at the airport, I've already gone through security and have taken a seat to wait for the next 1.5 hours to start boarding. And while I used to be a big fan of Soledad O'Brien, seeing her spout the same tripe that insists on being called news these days every half hour for the next 90 minutes was enought to put me in a really foul mood.

Fortunately, the flight was better, both legs actually. Somehow, I was the only person on the flight from DFW to Denver that was continuing on to Seattle, and while I was expecting to just wait on the plane, I got asked three different times if I'd be more comfortable leaving the plane and waiting in the lobby. Since I knew the next leg was completely full, and I hate waiting in lines in general, I passed.

Got into Seattle with no difficulty, found my obnoxious green bag with no difficulty, and found my step-brother in his blue Cooper Mini with no difficulty. Got to the hotel, checked in, and immediately took a nap.

Now that I'm back up and awake, I can honestly say that this is one of the nicer places I've stayed in my recent travels. I don't think I'll mind the location for the next 6 nights.

Plan for tonight is to have dinner with my stepbrother and his wife and kid, and I think we're heading down to the piers (i've got a hankering for Red Robin - yumm), then come back to the hotel and hook up with my MVP buddies and other assorted attendees who will be in town tonight. But I can't stay up too late, as I have to get ready for the live eOnCall broadcast tomorrow morning at 8am local time (that's still 10am Central).

Now to find some munchies to hold me over until dinner...

On Preparations

OK, it's that time of year again. Time to pack the bags and get ready for the annual venture otherwise known as SMB Nation. This year is a bit different for me than last year, for a couple of reasons:

1. I'm staying longer.
2. I'm presenting this year.

Yep, I really haven't had time to really shout it from the mountaintops, but the Mac in SBS presentation is going to see the light of day in Redmond this year, and what an interesting story there is behind that. But I won't shed light on that until after the presentation is done.

Also, I'll be selling copies of the SBS 2003 Unleashed book for anyone who hasn't picked up a copy yet. And signing copies for those who want that done, too. Several of the authors who contributed to the book will be at the conference: Amy Babinchak, Tim Barrett, Susan Bradley, Henry Craven, Chad Gross, and Anne Stanton. Others may be in attendance, I just don't know for sure. i'm sure those who are there won't mind signing copies, either, but you will have to at least ask nicely.

So, starting after I get to the hotel and wake up from my flight tomorrow, the SMB Nation coverage begins. Until then, I have a lot of packing to do...

On Amsterdam: Day 2, Jeff's Disaster Recovery Presentation

The last session of the conference I attended was Jeff's new Disaster Recovery presentation. Jeff let us know right up front that this was not a "best practices" session. Instead, he tackled something a little different.

Disaster recovery and disaster preparations are linked. Disasters don't always happen suddenly - they usually happen slowly and over a long time. Jeff related his experience of relocating his wife's company from New Orleans to Texas in response to Hurricane Katrina. He set up a set of slides for the group to discuss if there was interest in the room. These are the topics that were discussed:

• • Myth - you can have no other domain controllers in an SBS domain. Not correct. You can have multiple DCs in the domain, so long as the SBS server holds all the FSMO roles and there can only be one SBS server permanently installed in the domain.
• • Myth - replacing the SBS server NIC is not allowed. This is a holdover from earlier versions of SBS but is no longer the case. This "feature" was dropped in SBS 2000. You can replace NICs in the box, either through booting in Directory Services Restore Mode or by doing the loopback adapter trick.
• • Myth - You cannot move a drive image directly to new hardware. You can, and in some cases it will actually work. Must have:
  • • compatible HAL
  • • accurate boot.ini, consistent boot device order
  • • boot critical drivers are already installed
  There are also 3rd party imaging products that are making this an easier task.
• • Myth - You cannot restore the system state to new hardware. This actually does work, and is different than restoring a drive image. Domain controllers present challenges for AD restore, Exchange SQL, and Monitoring. A baseline install or same hardware ASR disk to prepare for a system state restore. ASR disks do not work for bare metal restore to different hardware.
• • Myth - You cannot do a "drive slide move" into new server hardware. Same rules apply as with the previous two points.
• • Myth - You can repair a server by reinstalling a service pack. Reinstalling a Service Pack generally will not repair missing files and registry entries for an OS. An in-place upgrade as a repair tool generall will be helpful, and reinstalling application service packs is also generally helpful.
• • Myth - Bare metal restore to "known good condition"? short filename restore breaks cause problems with registry/filepath alignment. 2003 is the only OS that can do this successfully. Cold drive imaging is the only solution for true restore to previously good condition. If you do a restore for anything older than 2003, you really need to look at a drive image restore then a file restore from tape to avoid this problem.
• • Myth - IDR and recovery automation. Independent Disaster Recovery is a generalized name for 3rd party product tools to "boot to restore" or "click to restore" IDR systems can have "fragile" requirements and really, really must be tested. Jeff doesn't like this and doesn't use it himself. IDR really needs to have identical hardware, software, etc., and, again, must be tested.
• • Myth - SBS server is too dirty to migrate, I must wipe it and rebuild. Corruption of AD is really rare and shoudl not be assumed. Group policy can cause a lot of problems if its not done correctly, but if you have a good understanding of group policy, you can work through it (it may just take time).
• • Can you save a domain from a dead DC? "Graveyard swing migration" can pull back not only the server but the entire domain. A recovery server can be replaced by Swing Migration with a clean server, and still preserve the domain. Backup DC and recovery of a dead DC provide similar recovery options.
• • Myth - A large C partition is the best! Please, please, please no! Disaster recovery is faster if you have multiple partitions since you really only have to restore/recover the system partition (provided the other partitions are still OK).
• • Myth - OEM media can only build a new domain. So long as you get OS media from the vendor and not "recovery CDs." Most vendors will give you standard install media. OEM media cannot be used for in-place upgrade repairs of non-OEM installations.
• • Last Known Good to recover from SP or patch update failure. Eh, probably not. "Last Known Good" only restores previous system registry settings, but not other hives or driver files. System state restore is the only option for a genereal roll-back (which doesn't always work). Some 3rd party products might be able to do "delta" rollbacks on drive writes.
• • Myth - You can best do a disaster recovery by having cold hardware on site. Since you can restore to different hardware successfully, this is not really an issue.
• • Myth - SBS FSMO roles are risky. Not exctly. By default, all DCs in a domain have exact copies of the AD database by default. Global Catalog roles are not required to move a complete replica in a single domain model.
• • Myth - SBS is a bad disaster reecovery risk. Jeff doens't think so. Challenge comes in that SBS is a DC, is an Exchange server, etc., and it's tough to pull a machine down and rebuild from scratch. But since we can use drive imaging, system state backup, and application data backup, we can get the server back up fairly quickly.
• • Mystery - product activation does not prevent you from replacing a DC motherboard. You will need to reactivate it, but you can get it going again. But what about OEM restrictions on server OS software? it's possible that a vendor may put a set of restrictions on the replacement of certain components that might require you to purchase a new license.
• • Mystery - An Exchange store mount has failed, and probably has corruption in the data. Not necessarily. There are lots of reasons that an Exchagne store won't mount. Forklifting an Exchange database to an older version of Exchange will generate really ugly errors. Disk permissions on the volume where the databases reside, along with permissions on the MDBDATA folder, can also keep the database from mounting.
• • Mystery - Is there no predictable way to recover Exchange databases? Yes, it's possible that doing a physical repair (hard recovery) could seem to trash data. If there is corruption in the database, the hard recovery is going through and finding data that's good and keeping that, which might look like data has gone missing. Always always always make a backup copy of the databases before you run the hard repair.
• • Mystery - Is it critical to have all the Exchange log files in order to recover the information store intact? No. The log files are really additional disaster recovery information. The reality with SBS servers is that the information in the log files is written to the databases very quickly.
• • Mystery - Backup skips files, does that mean it's not a complete system state backup? No, most of the files it skips are created dynamically or are other files that will be handled in other ways.

On Amsterdam: Day 2 (session 3)

I sat in on David Overton's (the keynote speaker) session titled SBS 2003 - Level 501. This was a troubleshooting/scenario session. Also known as why not to do a demo running a beta of Vista with a beta of Virtual PC to host a beta of SBS 2003 R2.

• • Adding search to WSS using SBS Premium edition (this is based on R2)
  • • Follow the install instructions (sqlinstallsteps.htm on the Premium Technologies CD)
  • • Make sure to install the Full Text Search Engine unless you really, really don't want search capabilities
  • • Using Ifilters to add functionality (such as seaching PDF files using the Adobe Ifilter, if you install Office (but not Outlook) the TIFF Ifiliter will get installed and you can search FAXes if you set up FAXes to get stored in Sharepoint)
• • Adding URL/site blocking/allowing to ISA 2004
  • http://www.isaserver.org/articles/2004firewallblocklist.html
  • http://www.isaserver.org/articles/2004domainnamesets.html
  • • if you suffer "creeping death" on an ISA server (more and more sites become unavailable, you may have inadvertantly blocked DNS queries going out from the SBS box
• • Group Policy Management
  • • user objects on SBS box are not in Users container, they are in MyBusiness->Users->SBSUsers
  • • If you want to add group policies to a set of users, you'll need to create a new Organizational Unit (OU) and add the GPO to the new OU
• • Windows Mobile 5 - blew right through this rather than getting actual demo, notes are published on a web site
• • Site to site scenario - running multiple servers in an SBS environment
  • • http://uksbsguy.com/r.ashx?7
• • Sharepoint goodies
  • • would have seen more on this if the SQL install/upgrade had completed before this part of the session, which was the end

Unfortunately, technical difficulties really hampered the effectiveness of this presentation.

On Amsterdam: Day 2 (wakeup through lunch)

Today we saw the demise of one of the sessions before anything started. Mark Mulvaney was supposed to do a talk on the Technology Assessment toolkit (which I was intending on attending) but he decided to shorten his presentation to about 10 minutes and include it in Susanne's presentation on the SBSpecialist community. So, that's where I ended up.

Susanne described the work she has done with the UK groups to get groups up and running and effective. To help explain the concept of community to those who aren't familiar with it, she enlisted the help of Tim Barrett and Christopher Rue, via prerecorded video capture, to help explain how they are getting value out of their community ties. Hopefully these videos can get posted somewhere, becuase not only are they good, but if you know Tim and Chris, you'll get even more enjoyment out of watching them (you'll just have to trust me on this).

Robbie Upshaw talked about the UK user groups from the MS perspective. It was interesting to hear his take on it, and I'd be interested to see what the US take on this is, too.

Mark Mulvaney did his bit on the technical assessment toolkit. Granted, he is right that a full session on the interface would have been dull and boring (yes, watching someone talking about cliking here and selecting this menu there would have been dull) but I would have been interested to hear more about the toolkit and practical applications. [Note: I've used the toolkit with one potential client and made the sale, so I have some familiarity with it, but I would have liked to hear more about it.]

I opted to skip the 70-282 training session (took the exam back in 2004) and was planning to attend Karl's network book discussion, but I could get absolutely no network connection in the room, and as I was checking e-mail right before heading in, I got an e-mail from one of my remote clients and needed to work with him.

So, had a nice lunch, catching up on e-mail and blogging, and am now getting ready for the afternoon sessions.

On Amsterdam: Day 1 (update from Marina)

Marina attended the Exchange session yesterday while I was off learning about SLAs. Here are her notes:

Exchange Sp2

Mobile: Local and remote wipe mobile device
Push email: ms mobile 5 with MSFP (Messaging Security Feature Pack)

Mailbox size: 75 gb

Spam: automatic updates imf
Sender ID filtering

Msfp locks security preventing to drop the sbs certificate: needs registry hack

Desktop: upgrade to activesync 4.1
Establish partnership with mobile
Use activesync 4.1 to install msfp
Choose certificate

Mobile administration web tool:
Creates another default website

Spf record puts ip address of mail server in dns. Receiving mailservers verify if IP is mailserver with Sender ID filtering.

Ta.

On Amsterdam: Day 1 (recap)

Wrapping up the summary of Day 1 right before I head off to sleep. Wireless access has been spotty in the conference area, so I haven't been able to update as much as I had planned.

Jeff Middleton's Swing Migration session followed a break following the keynote. If you haven't had a chance to experience Jeff's presentation on Swing, you are really missing something. I learn something new every time I sit through it.

Lunch was a disappointment. We met in the "vendor hall" and had sandwiches and drinks. I had something that I thing was sliced salmon with some sort of cream style spread on a bun. I'm a total novice to European cuisine, so I must admit a huge ignorance to what may or may not have been offered, but the supposed salmon looked more appealing than anything else that was offered, and that's not saying much. But again, that's probably more me than a reflection on the facilities.

After lunch, I sat through Mathew Dickerson's presentation on "Superior Service Level Agreements." As I'm still looking for solutions to this for my own business, I was curious as to his content. He related the history of how his company went through the transition of moving from a "break/fix" organization to a Service Level Agreement (aka Managed Services in other lingo). Honestly, not much new ground here, with one exception. The solution they developed (program structure, contracts, marketing materials, etc.) they have decided to license to other IT organizations. Hey, it beats reinventing the wheel. So, I'll be talking with him more about that in detail tomorrow.

A quick break and it was off to the MVP panel. There were 9 SBS MVPs in attendance at the conference today, and we got all of them in the front of the room. We had a slide showing that listed the MVPs and their countries of origin. Jeff gave a brief (that's funny to those of you who know Jeff) introduction to the discussion, then opened the room to the first question. This is the first question that was asked (and no, I'm not making this up - ask any of the MVPs who were in the room):

"I see Eriq Neale listed on the list. Is he here and which one is he?"

I can't recall the exact wording, because I wasn't expecting to BE the first question, but that was the jist of it. So I stood and acknowledged the asker, then commented on how that would be the easiest question we got to field all day. He actually asked a question about integrating Macs with Exchange, and I was able to ramble on about that for a while. The rest of the Q&A went smoothly, with all of the participants having an opportunity to field questions from the room. I'm not 100% certain that the European audience knew exactly what to do with an open forum for Q&A for the MVPs, because there were several long pauses waiting for questions. And even though we started the session late (and Harry gave us permission to go longer) we still ended up finishing at the originally scheduled time. Still, I think it was valuable for all who attended.

Following the MVP Q&A was the vendor forum where most of us mingled in the vendor room accompanied by finger food and alcoholic beverages. Then at 7, the activity broke. Some folks participated in the downtown Amsterdam scavenger hunt, but a few of us opted to remain behind. So I had a nice long dinner in the hotel restaurant with Jeff M, Mariette, Steve Foster, and Marina. Our dinner conversation spread to the bar after a while, and I left the proceedings around midnight local time.

Tomorrow I will probably attend the session on the Small Business Assessment toolkit, then the Network Documentation Workbook. Not sure what I'll attend in the afternoon. I'm sure it will depend on the mood and if there are any last minute schedule changes.

Until tomorrow...

On Amsterdam: Day 1 (wakeup through Keynote)

Wakeup call came in at 6:30am local time and, as confirmed by Susan B, I had to make sure to get some e-mail and blogging in before hitting the shower. Met up with Jeff M, Marina R, Steven T, and Monika or breakfast, then it was time to head upstairs and check in and get ready for the keynote.

No massive production like SMB Nation goes completely without some hiccups, and I was on the receiving end of one of them this morning - no printed name badge.

Got into the keynote room and found a seat near an outlet so Marina could hook up her power bar and get power for our laptops.

Harry started the keynote introducing the conference to the attendees. Since there are so many different countries represented by the attendees, Harry introduced the attendees by country (accompanied by the Olympic theme in the background). The UK had the largest contingent of attendees. Wow.

David Overton from MS UK delivered the keynote speech. Highlights include:

• • R2 is not necessarily a product that IT consultants are going to take to their existing customers for upgrade - it's really going to work best for new installs.
• • 6 new IDC whitepapers available - https://partner.microsoft.com/40025871 - for bundling technologies together in new sales/solutions for consultants to take to their customers
• • Technology Assessment Toolkit - not well heard of outside of US and UK; materials to help consultants present solutions to potential clients
• •SBS roadmap:
  1. 1. 1H 2005 - SBS 2003 SP1 released
  2. 2. 2H 2006 - SBS 2003 R2
  3. 3. Mid 2007 - 'Cougar' released - 64-bit ONLY
• • R2 contains server 2003, Exchange 2003 SP1, WSUS, ISA 2004 (premium only), Outlook 2003
• • big question relates to how the customer wants SQL - if they want SQL 2005, they need R2; otherwise, stick with SP1
• • WSUS is a key technology in R2 - an alternative way to get updates on servers and workstations
• • Exchange mailbox size increase included with Exchange SP2, along with new mobile enhancements (push e-mail, security, etc.)
• • Status reports now include information about system patches for updates - which systems are patches, which are not, and why (not on the network since X date, etc.)
• • you do not get Analytical Services with SQL 2005 workgroup in SBS 2003 R2
• • SQL 2005 WE in R2 does include Reporting Services, Report Builder, Management Studio, Log Shipping, Import/Export wizard, supports 3GB of ram (not limited to 2GB any more), native database encryption, SBS R2 CAL includes WG CAL
• • Expanded CAL rights
  • • access additional Exchange 2003 and SQL 2005 Workgroup in the R2 network (the servers must be joined to the SBS 2003 R2 network)
  • • customers will still need to purchase server licenses for Exchage and SQL, just not the CALs for them
  • • will not be required to purchase new CALs (ala SBS 2000 to SBS 2003)
• • how to upgrade to R2
  • • existing SBS customer if you have Software Assurance, you will not need to purchase a new server license, but your SA contract must be current when SBS 2003 R2 releases
  • • without SA, you will need to purchase a new license, can purchase the upgrade SKU
  • • new customers who purchase SBS 2003 between March 1 and 60 days after R2 releases, but you must purchase through OEM or system builder to get this (details to be confirmed)
• • can we stay on SQL 2000 after upgrading to R2? the answer is NO. (do not upgrade to R2 if you have to stay with SQL 2000)
• • what happens to server if I upgrade and I've already been running WSUS? rules are set to default, so back up your WSUS rules before upgrading because they will get overwritten

Harry introduced SMB Nation TV, a video blog site, smbnation.tv. Will start releasing a weekly show on the web, releasing April 15. In the first show includes an interview with Phillip Presnall (MS New Zealand), the Small Business Specialist manager in NZ. He discusses exercising discretion in SBSC enrollment and not just letting everyone into the SBSC "club." Also included is an interview with Debbie Engel from Portland, Oregon, Rodney Boyle and Henry Craven from Melbourne, Australia, Eric Ligman, from MS, Iam Phillips from London, Suzanne Lavine, Karl Palachuck, and Russell Haynes from San Fransisco, and finally Tim Loney and Beatrice Mulzer in Houston, TX. There was a lot of discussion among attendees related to the introductions Harry made to each of the video clips from the interviews that he presented.

On Amsterdam: Live Internet Radio

Just wrapped up the live broadcast of eOn Call, featuring an interview with Marina Roos of smallbizserver.net fame. This show almost didn't happen, though, becuase of internet connection issues. At 9am CDT, we connected via Gizmo to the braodcast booth in Denton and got a good signal going. Then the internet dropped out. It took 20 minutes and a panic call to the front desk, but eventually the network connection came back. Then about 15 minutes before the show, Gizmo freaked and while the folks in Denton could hear me, I couldn't hear them. Fortunately, that was resolved by hanging up and calling back.

The next connection stayed up all through the broadcast. And we didn't have any show host meltdowns, either. You'll be able to listen to the show at the eoncall.com web site here in a few days.

Now to grab dinner, chat a bit, and then get some much needed sleep. Conference officially starts tomorrow.

On Amsterdam: Leg 1

Only took me two tries to find a location in Chicago O'Haire airport that had a decent wireless signal. Fortunately I caught an earlier flight out of DFW, so I have longer to find a good wireless spot and catch up on e-mail and blogging.

Have I mentioned publicly how much I hate flying? I hate flying. Well, not flying per se, just takeoff, landing, and any time there's turbulence. Unfortunately on the flight out of DFW, there was turbulence during takeoff, some parts of the flight, and the last 10 minutes before landing. So I'm taking precautions before the second leg that takes me to Amsterdam.

I got to witness a few cool things on the flight in, however. We passed over one plane a few thousand feet below us going the opposite direction. if I hadn't looked out the window just then, I would have missed it. I also saw another flight running parallel to us, not headed to Chicago, and got a picture (I'll link the pic in when I get to Amsterdam and can buy a USB cable for my camera since I forgot to pack it). I also saw a number of brush fires (pics coming later) and realized that Chicago and its suburbs are definitely into baseball - I lost count of how many ballfields we flew over after about 55.

Next post from Amsterdam sometime on April 5. Probably before the radio broadcast (be sure to tune in to http://www.apostleradio.org at 10AM CDT) but that will depend on a lot of factors. Getting ready for the show is priority one tomorrow.

Until next time...

On Amsterdam (part 1)

Three weeks from today, teh SMB Nation Amsterdam conference starts. So what are my first throughts about the conference? It's not meeting the M&M's in person. It's not hobnobbing with SMBers from across the pond. It's not even that I'll be avoiding places where you can get those funny little cigarettes (which, interestingly enough, comprised a full chapter in a travel book on Amsterdam I thumbed through the other night at Barnes & Noble).

Nope, my first thought, even though I'm not a drinker, is "can I get a good margarita in Amsterdam?"

On Fortunes (Part 2)

How successful has this trip to SMB Nation been for me? Besides getting to meet in person lots of different folks I've come to know electronically for the past year or so, besides getting to spread the word about the upcoming book, besides getting lots of great info about how to grow my practice, I've apparently got karma on my side, too.

I've already mentioned the fortune I got last night that basically told me I'll be attending SMB Nation Amsterdam (or whatever it will be called), I picked up another fortune from a delightful Thai restaurant I went to with my family tonight:

"You have an important new business development shaping up."

OK, OK. Put down the sledgehammer. I get the hint...

On Closure

Wow. It's hard to believe it's been three days of conference. In some ways, it feels longer, in others, well, it's just flown by. I just got back to the hotel from the Microsoft Conference Center and am waiting on my stepbrother and his family to come pick me up for dinner. I plan on being back in time to join the rest of the crew for the evening festivities, since I don't have to get up until local time tomorrow.

While I wasn't at full steam today, I at least managed to accomplish the following:

Had breakfast with several of the SBS MVPs and a few others. Gavin and Kevin Weilbacher traded sharing video clips (including Pink Five and the Ford Sportka bird meets hood ad) following a discussion of Monk, Spinal Tap, Best in Show, and other Christopher Guest vehicles.

I stuck with the marketing track all day. In the first session, I sat next to Christopher Rue and Marie McFadden and right behind Anne Stanton. At least this time I wasn't worried about Anne throwing things at me from behind. The session material was pretty good, but nothing to write home about.

In the second session, Amy Babinchak came to the back of the room to join us. I also realized I was sitting in front of Vlad Mazek, so I got nervous about flying projectiles again. This session wasn't as impressive, as the speaker kept trying to explain technical processes to us (like anyone in the room wasn't familiar with GoToMyPC). On a side note, did anyone else notice that the laptop featured in the promo for GoToMyPC was actually a PowerBook? Priceless.

Amy and I headed off to lunch, and for the longest time, we were the only two people sitting at our table. I almost had a high school flashback of sitting at the "uncool" lunch table, which would have been completely wrong anyway since Amy and I both possess the cool gene. Mike Turczyniak (one of my clients actually) joined us, and finally the table filled out. Thanks for breaking the potential curse, Mike.

I was expecting the highlight of my day to be Jeff Middleton's session at lunch, talking about Katrina and what he's hoping to do moving forward. This was the first time I had heard Jeff speak, but he lived up to his reputation. I still can't fathom what has happened in that part of the country, much less what it must be like for Jeff. Don't worry, Jeff, as we've already discussed, I'll help out in whatever way I can, whether it's in New Orleans or Ft. Worth.

I headed next into Anne's presentation on making business affiliations. What an amazing presentation. Anne is so good at what she does, and she's a polished speaker on top of that, so the presentation could be nothing short of outstanding. Did I work in enough superlatives, or should I add some more? And right after her presentation, when I should have headed over to the next slot but instead decided to pester Anne, I bumped into Jonathan Spoer from LA. The meeting would have been just a footnote except that Jonathan has a client in my hometown of Denton and has spent quite a bit of time there, and will likely be back soon. Jonathan and I will talk about the possibility of me being a local backup for him in the next week. Just reinforces Anne's topic.

I sat through the repeat of Susan and Dana's security presentation and, no offense to either, could not focus. I think it's more related to three days of solid sessions and a few late night (well, late night for me) activities, but I was just spent.

The MVP Roundtable was enjoyable, but you could tell by the sparse attendance (most people had left already) and the lack of energy in the room that everyone was gassed. Still, it was a fitting end to the conference, and I managed to pick up a few good tidbits there, too.

After dinner, I'll hunt down those who are sticking around for tonight and hang out with them. But for now, it's time to go hang with my new nephew. Oh, and his parents, too...

On Day 3

Got to the conference center with much less fanfare this morning - apparently they got the message (loud and clear) that the information about the bus times didn't get out to the attendees.

One of the sessions has been cancelled, and the voting has started for the "mystery repeat session" to take place at 3pm. (I'd look at doing that differently next year, but that's just me.)

Here's what I think I'm doing today:

Session 9C - SonicWall (not that I'm very interested in SonicWall, but I'm far less interested in the other sessions)
Session 10A - Creating Marketing Messages that Work
Session 11A - Creating Successful Partnerships
Session 12 - the magical mystery session

Late breaking news - the cancelled session has been replaced with a VoIP session - mayne I'll do that instead...

On Fortunes

I started hearing about SMB Nation Amsterdam today, and my first thought was "How can I get around to justifying that trip and conference fee?" I haven't been to The Netherlands in nearly 20 years, and I owe Marina and Mariette a visit. Besides, it might tie in well to pitch the book overseas as well.

So, in my usual mode of thinking, I say yeah, nice idea, not happening. But then I stopped into a local Chinese restaurant for a snack and open my fortune cookie: "You will step on the soil of many countries."

Hmmmm...

On Summaries

The "official" part of Day 2wo of SMB Nation 2005 is over, and I'm about to head down to the "unofficial" end of the day activities.

Today was a mixed bag for me, but still very much on the positive end. No doubts at all about the worth of coming to this event.

Things I came away with today:

Had a great chat with Christopher Rue of JMF Consulting while we waited on the 7:00am bus to arrive at 7:45. (OK, we found out much later in the day (at lunch actually) that the first bus out was not scheduled until 7:45 so we were just early. But that's going into my feedback - transportation is still not as smooth as it could be.)

Had a great breakfast with Henry and Ryan, which has already been blogged.

Sat through a good session on Service Contracts. Would have liked a little more detail on the "how" and not just the "why", but it was still encouraging and informative.

I ended up sitting through the SBS roadmap presentation, not because I really wanted to, but because I got to talking with Jay Weiss and before we knew it, the session had started and I did feel like trying to find the other room. Cal McLennan was late getting back to his seat, but otherwise there were no major disruptions.

I finally met Amy Babinchak, and we had a good chat at lunch. Also got to see Larry Lentz and Ian Watkins at the lunch table, then Vlad Mazek dropped by and I got to show him that not all Mac folks are ultra-evangelists. What he doesn't know, of course, is that I started spreading Mac-DNA to him when we shook hands. Hahahahaha.

Amy and I then went to see Wayne Small talk about mobile technologies with SBS. If you have a chance to see him in action, take it. Outstanding speaker, and he really knows the product. I was able to hit him up later with an EAS issue I've been working around for a few months, and he gave me a good lead on the true cause/resolution. Thanks, Wayne!

I went back and forth about sitting through Susan and Dana's Security presentation. I finally decided to stay with it, and boy do they make for an entertaining presentation! I'd love to say I learned a lot from them, but my brain was on overload at that point and just missed out. Not for any fault of theirs, however.

Note to self - sitting amongst a bunch of MVPs watching another MVP and a should-be-MVP was interesting in itself. This is a rowdy crew.

I got to meet many more folks whose names I've seen in various places, and I experienced that unsettling feeling several times when folks walk up to you and recognize you, but you have no idea who they are. Had a good chat with Les Connor about business growth and opportunities. Thanks for the encouragement, Les!

Now to track down the headache pills so I can survive through the evening. Should be fun, will report more later...

On Attendance

I've attended a session each time one has been made available (I finally broke down and sat through Wayne Small's mobile presentation) here at the session, and I admit I've been a very bad student. I've been reading e-mail, IMing, and blogging while I've been sitting through the sessions. Still, I've been able to pick up a bunch of good info and materials to review when I get back.

I also learned that they're doing SMB Nation Amsterdam in 2006. Gotta start saving pennies for that flight...

On Macintosh, Microsoft, and SBS

I'm sitting in the SBS Roadmap session, and someone asks if there will be any better Macintosh integration with SBS 2003 R2. Oh, wait, it wasn't me!

The short answer: no.

As explained by Charlie and Willie: You can get Entourage (the Mac e-mail client of Office 2004 for Mac) with your license of SBS, but you still can't get the CD with the boxed set. You can get the Connecting Macintosh white paper, but your better bet is to get the SBS 2003 Unleashed book for the best integration information.

Hey, at least they answered the question and didn't say, "We're not interested in Macs."

On Vegemite

So I was having breakfast with Henry Craven (SBS MVP, Melbourne, Australia) and a vendor, and the topic of vegemite came up. I've had the opportunity to try the stuff (which is a nice way of saying that I was tricked into trying it for the entertainment of those around me) and didn't like it (which is a nice way of saying that it was the most vile tasting stuff I've ever put in my mouth), but the vendor had never even heard of vegemite. I guess he'd never heard Men at Work, but we won't go there.

So about five minutes after the vendor rep left the table, Henry found Ryan Spillane who, as it happens, had a tube of vegemite on him. It's a small, small, small, small world...

On Day 2

I'm having a little more trouble getting my sessions lined up for today that I had thought. Yesterday I made one change at the last minute, and was glad I did - I went to see Chad Gross' presentation on InfoPath and SharePoint, and boy did I come away with some great ideas. I also learned that he's leaving Seattle early this morning, so that was pretty much my only chance to meet up with him.

Here's what I think I'm doing today:

7:00am - head over to the conference center by bus
8:00-9:00 - breakfast, possibly a session with the Extranet Portal guys
9:00-10:15 - Service Contracts
10:45-12:00 - SBS Roadmap (I'll need info on this for the second edition of the book)
12:00-1:00 - roundtable lunch
1:00-2:15 - completely undecided, although I might to Wayne Small's Mobile presentation
3:00-4:15 - Securing SBS (how could I not sit through Susan/Dana's session since I heard them rewriting it last night?)
4:15-midnight - completely undecided (I've got offers to hit the Mariner's game in town, but lots of other stuff going on as well)

On Media

One of the things I learned a few weeks ago at one of my networking meetings was to take the opportunity to interact with the media at every opportunity you can. Jeff Crilley pointed this out in a session where he was pitching his Free Publicity book. So when a gentleman with a camera stopped me and asked if I had a few moments to talk with him about SMB Nation.

Of course I did.

http://www.smallbiztechnology.com/smbnation05/index.shtml

Yes, I've already e-mailed them about the spelling of my name.

On Equipment

So, the first lesson learned today was this:

Bring your laptop; bring your laptop; bring your laptop; bring your laptop.

The Executive Briefing Center at Microsoft is a nice facility. The interior design is similar to the design of the buildings I worked in at the Las Colinas site, but it's obviously on a much larger scale. The meeting rooms, especially the Kodiak room (where the largest presentations were held because it will seat over 400), are very well laid out. Each row of seats has a large table spread in front with power jacks for hooking up the multiple laptops. Which everyone else had. OK, not 100% of the attendees, but I was conspicuously without computing gadget.

Tomorrow, the PowerBook comes with me, and I'm certain I'll be the only SBSer present with a PowerBook. But, since I've got wireless built in, I'll be able to get on the wireless network along with everyone else and be able to check e-mail and blog in real time. Just what every conference attendee aims for, right?

OK, so I did ping Anne Stanton by e-mail when I was sitting right behind her in the keynote session and she was putting together a mail out for one of her groups back home. The network coverage on my PocketPC Phone was really good inside the facility, which did concern me a bit up front. But not any more.

So, if you happen to be looking for me at SMB Nation tomorrow (Saturday), I'll be easy to spot. I'm the weirdo who brought a Mac onto the Redmond campus.

On Day 1

Those in the Pacific Coast Time Zone by nature are not up yet, at least not those who are here for the conference. There are probably several Central and Eastern time zoners who are already up. Good morning, good morning, good morning.

I've got a few book-related issues that I need to deal with before I shower and get ready to start the day at the conference. The buses start leaving for the facility around 7am PDT, so I've got an hour or so before I have to really get kicked into gear.

Today's' schedule includes (from the Conference Schedule Page):
Breakfast and Registration (7am-9am)
Keynote Speaker (9-10:15am)
Session 2A (10:45am-noon)
Round table lunch (noon-1pm)
Session 3A (1-2:15pm)
Session 4A (3-4:14pm)
Small Business Specialist Community Overview (4:15-5:00)
Mariners Game/Roundtable/Networking (TBA)

Not to mention anything else that comes up. We'll see.

On Arrival

Fortunately, the flight landed without incident. We had several servicemen on the flight, and the passengers let them off first with a loud fanfare. It's incidents like this that remind me how proud and fortunate I am to be an American citizen.

Kevin Royalty was kind enough to squeeze me into his rented vehicle for the trip from the airport to the hotel, and I had a chance to visit with him, Allen Miller, a person whose name escapes me completely, and Tim Barrett, one of the authors on the book.

I'd say Seattle has changed a lot since I was last here, but considering I spent my entire honeymoon within walking distance of downtown, I can't compare since we drove nowhere past downtown to get to the Marriott in Redmond.

By the time I got to the hotel and got the key to my room, the Xanax was working in full effect, and I knew I had little time left to be conscious, so I headed downstairs, had a lovely New York Strip Steak (on the company account of course) then headed back up and barely figured out how to place a wake up call request before crashing. There was some big to-do in the hotel dining area that was probably full of conference attendees, but I was too exhausted to even try to see if I knew anyone by name or by face. That's what tomorrow is for.

For now, to catch some Z's. And wait for that 4am local time wake up call...

On Entertainment

This trip hasn't been completely dull, especially once my Xanax kicked in. I had the fortune of not watching the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. The clouds began to clear over the Rockies, so I got to see some terrain from my window seat. I had the opportunity to visit briefly with an armed service man returning to his home in Seattle from deployment in Iraq, and it was uplifting to hear his stories, but most exciting for him is that his 9 year tour of duty with the army is complete in November, and he will be retiring from the service at that point will his retirement benefits.

But most importantly, I'm not white-knuckling the flight. it's been mostly a smooth flight and we've only got about an hour left. Unfortunately, no food. Now I just have to figure out how much of the eating I'll be doing this weekend can be written off as business expenses.

I'm sitting right on the wing, so as soon as I can find a USB cable for my camera (shouldn't be too hard where I'm going). I'll up load the pictures as well as the blog posts. You'll get to see lovely shots of my wing view. Whee.

On Time

Two hours from departure time, and I'm finally wrapping up everything I need to do to get out the door on time. I'd better run through my list of stuff I need:

Clean underwear - check
Toothpaste and toothbrush - check
Appropriate outerwear for Seattle - check
Plane ticket - check
Identification - check
Hotel reservation confirmation - check
iPod, earbuds and power cord - check
Good engaging mystery novel - check
PowerBook, fully charged - check
Cameras and batteries - check
Cell phone - check
Cash - hmmm, better get to the bank with a - check