Arriving at Insight I was astounded at the size of the event:

• 2000+ delegates
• 26,600 hours of Technical Learning
• 200+ breakout sessions

As expected, new storage hardware was discussed in detail with the new FAS2240 receiving a lot of attention.

The FAS2240 is aimed at the SME market and as such has a price to match. Perhaps the most impressive feature of this hardware is its scalability; capable of storing up to 432Tb with the ability to transform the FAS2240 into a standard disk shelf which can be incorporated without any data migration into a larger NetApp storage platform. This all fits in very nicely with the new “Start Right, Keep it Simple, Grow Smart” strategy.

Storage Efficiency technologies are an area that NetApp are very proud of. So much so that Dave Hitz (Founder and Vice President of NetApp worldwide) made it the topic for his breakout session and keynote speech. What was very impressive is some of the statistics that were covered:

Using FlashCache, SATA can be used instead of SAS to achieve the same performance meaning less than half the cost, power and rackspace. Oh and you get double the storage capacity!

Deduplication carried some very impressive figures, so far worldwide has saved NetApp customers over 5 Exabytes of data!! To put that into perspective that’s 5,000,000,000 Gb! The message with Deduplication was simple..

Just turn it on!

So what can we expect NetApp to bring over the next year or so?

Well, the term “infinite and immortal” has become more popular in recent months with NetApp folk, this is their vision of the future for their storage platforms. Infinitely scalable in both size and performance and immortal through hardware resiliency. Reflecting back on the breakout sessions I attended it’s clear to see that they’re on the right track.

With Data ONTAP 8.1 cluster-mode (due early 2012) linear scale-out performance can be achieved by simply adding another node which in turn adds to the overall reliability and resiliency of the storage cluster as a whole.

There is also a strong belief that ‘Big Data’ will be the cloud of 2012, with NetApp’s recent announcement of the e-Series aimed at High Performance Computing, Seismic data and full motion video data capture they may be ahead of the curve.

Since then, the development of this Operating System has been relentless. Including a name change to Windows Small Business Server 2011, a simplified user interface and interaction with cloud based services.

Official SBS Website http://www.microsoft.com/sbs

Features of SBS 2011:

• Simplified IT Management
• Automatic daily backup of client machines and servers
• Access Business Information from Virtually Anywhere, Anytime
• Built-in Document Collaboration
• Designed and Priced for Small Businesses

Despite going through some changes, SBS 2011 still remains available in two editions:

Standard – supports up to 75 users

This, like previous versions of SBS is an entirely on premise solution including Email, File and Print features.

Essentials – supports up to 25 users

This edition contains a minimal number of inbuilt feature and relies on cloud based offerings to provide functionality such as email eg Exchange Hosted Services.

For more information see the Official SBS Website at www.microsoft.com/sbs

An IT disaster recovery plan aims at just that – planning the ability to recover IT from a catastrophic failure, or a more likely a threatening event. IT premises being destroyed by fire is usually catastrophic for anyone, but the inability to access the same premises for even a limited time is also threatening and needs a contingency plan.

Enterprises are however realising that these days their business is usually entirely dependent upon their critical data, when in the past IT was often just an adjunct to the business process. Given sufficient planning, the IT process can now function from pretty well anywhere and play a big part in your business continuity plan.

Gardner Systems has joined the Liverpool Business Continuity Forum. This forum of Liverpool Businesses now has regular meetings of up to one hundred city enterprises. The Forum was launched by Steve Lambert of Liverpool City Council and now has an influential Advisory Board chaired by Neil Scales of Merseytravel. The Forum presents on all continuity issues, including security, health, weather and of course IT.

We hosted and provided speakers for the LBCMF event of 23^rd November and this month our MD Frank Coward joined the inaugural Advisory Board.

As part of our commitment to the challenge of business continuity on Merseyside, we are currently offering free consultation to interested parties. This has led to a number of local enterprises taking advantage of our hosted and back-up services.

A recent survey of SMEs by Symantec, has found 5%, around 240,000 UK firms, are not taking any steps to backup data and are leaving themselves exposed to risks of data loss and downtime. This is bad enough, but how many of the remaining companies have actually tested their back-ups? Gardner found one company diligently using a cleaning tape as a back-up! Funny until it happens to you………

If YES: We can provide you with a free, no obligations competitive quotation.

Whether you’re satisfied with current arrangements or not, Gardner Systems can provide you with a fully comprehensive comparison that will outline not only what you will pay, but precisely the level of support you can expect. Find out how Gardners can assist you in achieving business goals as well as reducing IT costs.

If NO: We may be able to assist you in reaching business goals through enhanced efficiency of your IT giving you savings against your existing maintenance expenditure.

Either way, you have nothing to lose!!

Why not contact Gardner Systems and find out exactly how we can help you save money compared to your existing support costs.

Find out more here

Over the last few years we have seen demand for hosted software applications rapidly increase. Due to the success of Microsoft’s online services (Business Productivity Online Suite) they have decided to reduce the price in order to continue to deliver a competitive and compelling offer that will help to drive continued customer adoption. In addition mailbox storage has now been increased from 5B to 25GB.
From 3 November 2009 the new price structure for Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite is as follows:

Offer Original List Price New UK Price BPO Standard Suite £10.04 £6.71 Exchange Online Standard £6.69 £3.35 SharePoint Online Standard £4.85 £3.52 Office Communications Online Standard £1.67 £1.34 Live Meeting Standard £3.01 £3.02

You can visit the BPOS Official Website here

Opportunity for Your Business

1. The market is rapidly changing – IDC research forecasts +30% YOY growth, 2007-2011 for hosted applications. We believe that 50% of email seats in the small to medium size business segment and 20% in the enterprise market will be delivered via hosted email within five years. 2. We continue to offer rich cross and up sell opportunities with associated service opportunities. Our Software-plus-Services strategy means you can mix and match our products to deliver the perfect solution to your customers. 3. Selling Online solutions delivers increased sales margins for partners and provides annuity revenues. Microsoft Online Services deliver a 18% fee in the first year and 6% every recurring year. 4. You can earn revenues from implementing, integrating and managing a solution for your customers. A survey of 300 partners found that on average, for every £1 spent on licences, partners made more than £6 in service attach revenue and also benefited from shorter sales and delivery cycles. 5. You can deliver a secure and reliable service to your customers, providing a streamlined communications and collaboration experience, while leveraging economies of scale for infrastructure and utilities costs.

]]> http://blog.gardnersystems.co.uk/new-prices-announced-for-microsoft-bpos/feed/ 0 http://blog.gardnersystems.co.uk/training-for-the-latest-microsoft-products/ http://blog.gardnersystems.co.uk/training-for-the-latest-microsoft-products/#comments Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:16:13 +0000 Jason Fitzgerald http://blog.gardnersystems.co.uk/training-for-the-latest-microsoft-products/

As we have already announced, we are pleased to have SkillsGen on-site with us at our Wavertree offices.  Skills-Gen is a Microsoft Gold partner and one of the leading training companies in the North-West.  Gardner has an agreed bespoke and also an off-the-shelf training programme for all users. We cater for users who wish to do anything from just familiarising themselves with the new Microsoft technologies up to obtaining professional certified qualifications.  We can jointly agree work “coaching” and enterprise-wide certification.

Following our latest series of Microsoft events covering Windows 7, Exchange 2010 and Microsoft Server 2008 R2 we are pleased to announce that we can now offer training on these subjects.

For a detailed response to your own specific requirements, just call our technical sales team on 0151 220 5552 or email us at info@gardsys.co.uk.

We wanted to find out how good the price changes where, in short…fantastic! for example a FAS 2020 (NetApp entry level model) with 12 x 500Gb SATA drives is now less that £9,000, that’s about 1/2 the price they had been previously!

We think this brings NetApp’s outstanding and versatile technology right into the reach of  Small to Medium businesses, who want to see their business data more effectively managed.

 These pricing changes are on the FAS2000 series and announced by NetApp in the following Press Report.

“NetApp Expands Offering for Midsize Enterprise Customers with New Entry-Level Storage System and Aggressive New Entry Price Points

New FAS2040 Adds Increased Capacity and Performance to Award-Winning Family; FAS2020, with Its Reduced Price, Is Now More Attractive to Smaller IT Organizations

SUNNYVALE, Calif.—September 15, 2009— Showing its commitment to Midsize Enterprise and distributed enterprise customers, NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) today announced the new FAS2040 storage system, providing customers with increased performance and capacity to handle demanding Microsoft® Windows® consolidation and virtualization workloads all on the same system. NetApp also announced significant price reductions for its FAS2020 systems and associated software, which are now preconfigured with high-capacity drives and include all protocols. These systems provide excellent value for midsize customers while enabling channel partners to sell into a broader customer base.”

Good move NetApp.

The Full Official NetApp Press Release