SBSMigration.com

Microsoft Webcast: Understanding Small Business Server Swing Migration

Recorded: January 12, 2006
http://www.msusapartnerreadiness.com/WS_abstract.asp?eid=15003648

Do you sell SBS as a low-volume OEM System Builder or buy white-box servers?

Jeff Middleton has ten years experience building, selling and replacing custom servers for Windows and SBS deployments. This month Jeff is invited to join the Microsoft "Builder of Boxes" team webcast to look at uniquely profitable ways to leverage custom server installations with transparent "same domain" installations. That's right, Swing Migration using OEM product options including SBS 2003 deployment into an existing domain. System Integrators and consultants who prefer building or buying "customized server" products have a Microsoft channel option to provide a server built by you or to your specifications. A key point to be discussed is how it may be possible to bridge off-site server construction into a unique on-site delivery result for that customer that saves their domain, server name, Exchange Information Store and workstation experience for the users. This is the opportunity to put really profitable value-add into server upgrades with maximum control of the entire customer service opportunity.

A key point to be discussed is how it may be possible to bridge off-site server construction into a unique on-site delivery result for that customer that saves their domain, server name, Exchange Information Store and workstation experience for the users. This is the opportunity to put really profitable value-add into server upgrades with maximum control of the entire customer service opportunity.

TS2 Wednesday on the Web with Microsoft Partners

Wednesday on the Web: TS2 Partner Chat with Jeff Middleton on Swing Migration

This webcast in February 2005 includes Jeff Middleton as a guest of Microsoft Partner Team talking about Swing Migration. This is the closest thing to seeing my live presentation where I provide a complete narration on how Swing Migration. It includes most of the same bullet charts and illustrations I use in person, but without the animation sequences that help show the project flow graphically. At the end of the hour during Q&A, I was quite fortunate to have Bob Hood among the others who took a moment to offer a testimonial on their experiences. In fact, this webcast pretty well captures the the enthusiastic word of mouth embrace of Swing Migration together with a top down view of the total concept. It's an excellent one hour orientation.

Vlad Mazek's Podcast "SBS Show Episode #4 – Recovering SBS in Crisis"

http://www.vladville.com/sbsshow/

The second of a two-part episode focused on Disaster Recovery concerns, this conversation includes Jeff Middleton (SBSmigration.com) and Scott Buchanan (PDQ Computer) comparing IT Pro disaster response experiences in the aftermath of major hurricanes in their respective areas. Vlad Mazek and Christopher Rue chatted with Jeff only a couple of months after Katrina devastated much of the gulf coast including New Orleans, and for another perspective, Scott offers insights more than a year following up after four different hurricanes struck Florida just months apart in 2004.

Canada Community Outreach Tour (Fall 2005)

Note: This webcast from November 2005 is available at this time without an introductory web page.

http://www.microsoft.com/canada/technet/media/Technet11-02v3.wvx

"Katrina: The IT Pro Experience of Dealing with Catastrophic Crisis" is a sobering yet an enlightened look at the small business world, the responsibilities of the business owner vs. the IT Pro, and all the stress that unfolds in a crisis. I did this presentation first at SMB Nation 2006 as a substitution for my planned Disaster Recovery session. Rather than focused entirely upon technical process, this 2 hr session exposes the full reality of working through a catastrophic circumstance. I've tried to capture the experience of living through the fog of confusion, and in the same process, expose many issues through anecdotes of my own activities over a period of the days and weeks following Katrina. This isn't a presentation filled with bullet charts of "best practices", rather this exposes the sometimes tragic breakdown of what you thought best practices would protect you from. Some of the issues revealed have weight in questions about ethics, professional responsibility issues, and even drive to the root of what you may face in making choices about your own business and family in a tradeoff against the needs of your professional obligations. Along the way, you get my local perspective about Katrina and the continuing struggle for recovery in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. I borrowed some metaphors from the regional crisis to illustrate some aspects of IT Pro concerns in disaster recovery scenarios where managing expectations with responsible preparations and proactive resolutions are essential to satisfying, if not only saving anxious people in need of your help.