Davesbs Blog

Today I signed up for the 44IN006 – Intensive – Microsoft Licensing Sales Specialist Training event, held in the new Microsoft Headquarters in Edinburgh.

It didn’t seem to be on any of the normal Partner Training sites. However, it was announced on the Tartan Tech Blog which many Scottish partners may have missed or don’t subscribe to!

Check here for great news/updates on Microsoft Scottish Region stuff: http://blogs.technet.com/tartantech/default.aspx

Also, it was pointed out on the new Microsoft Partner Network by Alan Hamilton: http://www.microsoftpartnernetwork.com/members/Alan-Hamilton/default.aspx

I am sure other similar courses are being held around the country. Check with local offices or ask on the Partner Network to keep up with training.

Anyway, this is a two day 9-5 course….all about licensing!!!! help!

I did a one day course about a year or so ago and found it sometimes hard going. Much of the stuff was about enterprise agreements etc but this course looks much more SMB-ish and splits the days into Licensing Programs and Product Licensing.

Last course I did gave the MLSS accreditation at the end but again this new course seems more thought out and less salesy. I hope! Also the exam will need to be taken afterwards to gain the MLSS so it’s not so much of a turn up and get another title.

I don’t know about you but I think that Microsoft licensing is like being able to read music. Some people get it straight away but can’t really explain it to lesser mortals and us lesser mortals will never get it and give up

I will be asking for specific solutions to SBS/SMB licensing scenarios so if anyone wants me to raise anything at the training, just ping me.

Cheers

Hi all,

Many apologies to all who have read and will read this blog. (I hope)

I have committed a cardinal sin. One I promised I wouldn’t, namely stopping blogging for a while.

This of course turned into months!

Some good reasons for this though:

1) Re-branding: change of company name and focus. Working on new website as we speak (well, write)!

2) Being diagnosed as having epilepsy at the age of 38 after an out of the blue seizure in October hasn’t helped things. Three more in one day two weeks ago completely knackered me and I am now on life-long medication! I have to thank my clients and friends in the Edinburgh SBS User Group and wider UKSBS community for understanding and support.

3) Some IT issues have so thoroughly pissed me off that I couldn’t bring myself to vent about them until now. One being Windows 7: UAC being diluted, all the different versions and not having Bit-Locker in the ‘Business’ version!

What the F**K is that all about!

Microsoft knew what people thought about the different versions of Vista causing confusion. They knew that Bit-Locker was wanted (and needed) in the business/Pro version of Vista and therefore Windows 7.

Fair enough (maybe), Bit-locker was new in Vista so they wanted to recoup development costs but now it has been out for ages so why not add it to the ‘Business’ version of Windows 7?

Check this out:

http://hiltont.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-microsoft-seems-not-to-understand.html

They have to stave off the attitude of dumb terminals and in the Cloud servers that we are all told are coming in order to sell fully featured desktop operating systems. What do they do, they leave out one of the most important features and then ask businesses to pay even more to add it in.

Johnny business owners says: ‘Na, I don’t think I’ll bother buying SA to get this Bit-Locker, after all I don’t need a new version of Windows cause all my stuff is stored on the internet or my office server. If I do, I will get a new OS with each new PC I fork out for so why pay again. I don’t think so Microsoft!’

I never, I repeat, never, thought that I would think about thin client desktops so soon.

I knew that I would have to consider Cloud computing but I honestly thought that Windows fully featured OS’s would still be around and ‘wanted’ by the buying punters for years to come, mostly because of the features they added that dumb terminals didn’t have.

Way to go Microsoft!