Security: A Sample E-mail How-To Guide For End Users

With the plethora of e-mail born Office documents with active macros in them to pull down malware/ransomware we sent out the following e-mail to all of our clients for distribution internally.

***

Good day everyone,

It’s gotten to the point now where we are considering a universal restriction on incoming Office Documents. By that we mean plucking them right out of the e-mail via ExchangeDefender by default.

We have somehow travelled back to the 1990s where the bad guys are setting up Office documents with a Macro, an automatic script that runs when the document gets opened, that goes on to pull down their nefarious malware or ransomware.

Here are some steps to help protect us:

1. Microsoft Office has a Save As PDF feature built-in. Please have all outside folks send a PDF instead of an Office document
1. This is especially critical for Resumes. All job postings _must_ request PDF and note that Office documents would be deleted on the spot!
2. If collaboration is required for Office documents use ShareFile
3. Preferred over Dropbox since security is questionable with the Dropbox service
2. Most Office documents that have Macros built-in have an “m” in the extension
1. 
2. Save the Office document to Downloads and verify!
3. If extensions are not shown then right click the file and left click on Properties
4. 
3. Users _should_ be prompted:
1. 
4. Obviously, the answer should be to NOT click that button
5. If they do, there is one last cause for pause
1. 
6. This is what happens if I try and click on something that is Macro driven _before_ clicking Enable Content
1. 

Along with the need to be mindful of any Microsoft Office attachments in our e-mail we should also remember the following:

1. Never click on a link in an e-mail without at the least verifying its destination:
1. 
2. Hover the mouse cursor over the link to verify
3. As a rule: Never, ever, click on a link in an e-mail. Go to the web site after opening a new browser window (IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari)
2. It may _look_ like it came from someone you know but never trust that. Call and ask!
1. There are a few exceptions to this rule thus make sure to hover your mouse over the link before clicking!
2. Advanced users can check the headers
1. 
2. 
3. Follow the flow from origin server to destination server
3. Don’t save important site’s information in the browser
1. Banking IDs and passwords
2. CRA and critical site’s IDs and passwords
3. Do not disable the secondary question for any computer
1. Banking sites use this feature to help protect the account as one example
2. Answer the question, it only takes a couple seconds and could save your savings!
4. Never call the 800 number that comes up in a Search for Support!
1. Go to the manufacturer’s web site and click on the Support link to find the correct phone number
5. Never believe a pop-up message that says your computer is infected with something!
1. And never, EVER, call the 800 number on that pop-up!
2. Don’t click anywhere, close and save your work if needed then, reboot!
3. Do NOT click anywhere in the pop-up window. Looks are deceiving as all areas of that pop-up = YES/ACCEPT/CONTINUE
6. Never volunteer a credit card number or banking information to anyone
1. Social Security/Social Insurance Numbers too!
2. Folks can garner a lot about us online. Never volunteer any information when asked via any incoming call/e-mail/forum
3. Always call them back!
7. Caller says they are from the bank, CRA, or other seemingly critical business?
1. Ask for their badge number, an 800 number to call, and an extension
2. Open a browser and verify the 800 number belongs to the bank/CRA/CritBiz.
3. Then call them back after hanging up if the number proves true!

While the above list is far from complete, by following these guidelines we can greatly reduce the chances of a malware or ransomware infection.

And, as always, e-mail or call if you are not sure about something!

***

Please feel free to use this as a template for training users!

Have a great weekend everyone. It’s +10C here and much like an awesome Spring day!

Philip Elder
Microsoft High Availability MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Some Thoughts On Security Layering for SMB and SME

We are by no means masters of security for our SMB and SME clients. Since we have to wear many hats we sometimes need to bring folks in that can help us to fine tune the security layers in our client’s networks.

Here are some of the Pearls (blog category) that we have garnered over the years. This was posted originally to the SBS2K Yahoo List and has been modified for this post.

***

Layering is important.

Some examples follow.

Windows Firewall

• Windows Firewall is managed by Group Policy
• All Profiles: ON
• All Profiles: Block ON
• All Profiles: Logging ON
• All Profiles: Pop-Up for new services ON
• DOMAIN Profile: Custom Inbound rule sets for required services beyond the default.
• Private and Public Profile: INBOUND BLOCK ALL
• If data sharing is required then a small and inexpensive NAS should be set up

Mail Sanitation and Continuity

ExchangeDefender (xD), for us, is one of the principle ways we keep bad stuff outside of the network.
Why allow it to hit the edge in the first place? Plus, it eliminates SMTP Auth attacks as the WAN IP is not published via MX among other attacks. Interested? Ping us and we’ll set you up.

Edge (Router)

A solid edge device, we use SonicWALL, with a BLOCK ALWAYS rule for ALL outbound traffic is a key element. Rule sets for outbound traffic are very specific and tailored to a client’s needs.

• Examples:
• DNS queries to non on-premises DNS servers are blocked. All DNS queries must go through the on-premises DCs.
• On-Premises edge only or DCs can have the DNS Forwarders set to DNS filtering services.
• SMTP traffic outbound only from the on-premises Exchange server. Or, local copiers/MFPs to ISP SMTP server IP only
• Inbound is HTTPS via ANY
• SMTP via xD subnets only.
• RDP on ANY port should NEVER be published to the Internet.
• RD Gateway with Network Level Authentication is a must today.
• Any exceptions require a static IP on the source end to allow inbound rule filtering based on IP.
• Look up TSGrinder if not sure why…

Ransomware Protection

Third Tier’s Ransomware Protection Kit is another layer of protection. Everything is contained in this kit to deploy a very tight layer of protection against today’s Ransomware.

Microsoft Office Group Policy Security

Office Group Policy structures with Macros disabled by default, non-local sources blocked, and other security settings for Office files provide another layer.

• This one gives users grief because they need a few extra steps to get to the documents.
• We’ve started requesting that clients have a PDF only policy on their Jobs listing pages and such.

A User Focused Effort

IMNSHO, A/V at the endpoint has become virtually useless today. Things seem to be a lot more targeted on the virus side with ransomware taking over as the big cash cow. We still install A/V on all endpoints. :)

What we are saying, is that the principle portion of the risk of infection comes via the user.

A well trained user means the risk of infection drops substantially.

A user’s browsing habits and link clicking are the two key areas of training we focus on. Sites visited are another.

We suggest to clients that a company policy of allowing browsing for business related tasks only while connected to the company’s network resources. This policy can further reduce exposure.

Part of our training regimen is a somewhat regular e-mail from an outside account to users to test them and challenge them is a good idea every once in a while.

• Link hovering to discover the true destination
• Attached Word doc with *BUZZ WRONG* when opened
• Just because it SAYS it’s “FROM” someone we know doesn’t mean it is!

Backup Protection

Oh, and protect the backup loop (blog post on closing the backup loop)!

BTW, we just heard about another NAS based backup that was ransomware encrypted as a result of the destination folder being open to users.

Anyone, and I mean ANYONE, that has a backup structure, whether NAS or HDD based, that allows users and admins access outside of the backup software username and password setup needs to close that loop NOW. Not on the To Do List, not for tomorrow, not next week, but NOW.

Just in case: Close that Backup Loop Now.

Hyper-V Standalone Setups

One more point of order: In standalone Hyper-V settings leave the host in workgroup mode.

No one on the network should have the admin username and password to that host. No. One. It should be documented somewhere but not public knowledge.

Please feel free to add the layers you use to this post via comments.

Thanks for reading!

Philip Elder
Microsoft High Availability MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Some Thoughts on Microsoft in the SMB Space

If one approaches this post from an emotional level, that is built on all of the angst, struggles, and pain born of the Cloud drums out of Microsoft, that is their message but also the many products and services cancellations, over these last three or so years then it would not be hard to go down a very not-so-happy path.

So many bridges between Microsoft and us IT Solution Providers that work on the front lines of the SMB IT space (by our definition SMB is 1-75 seats or so) have been burned or even out-right blown up.

Many of us have struggled with the angst over where we were going to take our business and what kind of business model we would have two, five, and even ten years down the road. After all, we are in it for the long-haul right?

Why We Do IT

This post is more a reflection of the SMB IT Provider that is in the business out of passion for the products and services we get to work with. But, most especially for the joy it brings us to have a set of very happy clients on the other end of our IT practices.

That is our greatest reward. That is clients whose businesses are in the business to make money and do so as efficiently as possible on their IT because of what we do for them.

For us, the reality has come home to roost that Microsoft is much less a partner today than a competitor.

Yes, we are still building our solutions on the Microsoft stack and will continue to do so. Our solutions absolutely rock utilizing the products we do. We will continue building solutions that our competitors, like Microsoft and other large IT Solutions providers, could hardly hope to develop for their clients.

Why?

Because we as small business IT Solutions Providers live, breath, and work in the SMB Trenches. We understand small business in a way that a Gartner Survey or any other such knowledge peddlers could never hope to. This is because we _are_ a small business.

We small businesses are _not_ consumers, pro-sumers, or any other such "consumer" of goods and services.

We _produce_ products and services for others to consume. Or, we develop and sell products and services for other businesses to utilize in their _production_ of goods and services (Business to Business).

Microsoft's Value in SMB

So, what value do we see in Microsoft in today's SMB IT marketplace?

• Products/Features
• Hyper-V
• Virtualization solutions have become affordable, both on VMware and Hyper-V, as a result of the competition between the two.
• All one needs to do is watch VMware's stock and current restructuring efforts to see the impact Hyper-V has had on their margins.
• Stack builds on a single box save our clients a lot on hardware, power consumption, cooling, and noise.
• Clusters are very affordable for our clients when truly commodity based hardware (Intel Server Systems) are utilized over Tier 1.
• Windows Server Essentials Experience Role
• Finally, the Remote Web Access portal, RD Gateway, and other SBS-Like goodies can be dropped into a Windows Server Standard server setup.
• Storage Spaces
• Still new, but with lots of potential to impact how we do things for our clients with larger data sets.
• Exchange
• Despite the poor start to the product at what was probably Early Preview bits branded as RTM, Exchange Server 2013 is an awesome product with great potential for on-premises mail and BYOD management.
• Partner Program
• Loss of the Small Business Specialist program.
• This is probably the "nail in the coffin" as far as the Cloud message to SMB IT Providers.
• Competency Program structures drive us to expand or further distance ourselves from the Partner Program
• Some of us are not comfortable with the idea of hiring on.
• Plus, there are any number of other reasons for us to remain where we are at for now.
• There are opportunities though. We just need the vision, time, and energy to pick them out and develop them.
• Cloud, Cloud, Cloud, Cloud (Monty Python-esque theme here :) )
• The drums are still beating.
• The message is becoming all the clearer: Folks in SMB do not require any outside IT help. You can do it all yourself!
• Cloud Essentials Program
• Better get on board and start playing around with the freebie credit for Azure as this is one spot where we can develop some business opportunities.
• TechNet
• Now, keep in mind that folks that are Open Licensed will continue on with their TechNet subscriptions that are a Software Assurance benefit.
• The loss of TechNet for lab use is most certainly of concern, but one has to wonder why it was terminated.
• IMNSHO, we are at a point where the passionate SMB IT Provider, and Microsoft, have received yet another black eye due to the unscrupulous folks that abuse the system.

We are of the opinion that the current wave of Microsoft products, with the exception of Office 2013, are probably some of the best that we've seen in years.

Yes, mousers cried foul over the loss of the Start Button in Windows 8. But keyboarders never missed it. :) And yeah, there is a bit of a training struggle for folks to understand that there are two "rooms" if you will in Windows 8.

Microsoft "Partner"

With all of the changes that we've seen in Microsoft over these last two to three years we really have to wonder where they are going to be in two, three, or even five years.

Sadly the reality that the desktop PC is not really going to disappear in a business setting does not seem to phase anyone in stratosphere management at large corporations like Microsoft. :(

To top it all off, IMNSHO, the server is _not_ going to disappear in the SMB space.  Nor will the need for on-premises mail.

However, with the advent of so many failed/bad Microsoft product updates lately on so many products, some bringing down Hyper-V Failover Clusters, one really has to wonder how far off the vision has gone from providing a rock solid on-premises product experience from RTM to retirement?

Hopefully the bad patching situation that has been happening lately is only temporary and Microsoft moves some development back into actually testing those updates before deploying them to the world.

After all, being in business is about the products and services right? It's about providing the best possible value to the end-customer/client isn't it?

Can folks _really trust_ a company to provide a great Cloud experience when it seems like the on-premises products and services may be on their death-beds? Why develop patches and _test_ them if there is no will to keep the on-premises products alive?

And that begs this question: Can we SMB IT Solution Providers trust a company that has not come right out and said it, but has essentially drummed the message all the more clearly in these last 12-18 months that the "end is nigh" for the SMB IT Solution Provider? SMB belongs in the Cloud after all. Right?

Be straight with us. Be clear with us. If we knew where we truly stood as a "Partner" of Microsoft we would be better able to make decisions about where we are and where we need to go in the new era of competition _with_ Microsoft.

Trust is based on honesty between the parties. The messages out of Microsoft have been so mixed, and sometimes outright confusing, these last few years that one is never sure where we stand anymore.

Most certainly we need to be very aware, and wary, of what is happening both within the companies that produce the products we utilize and then within the product groups themselves.

Business Opportunities

On the flip-side the current state of SMB IT can provide an awesome opportunity for us to advance our on-premises and hybrid solution sets and skillsets. While it may seem daunting at first, we can indeed continue to build our SMB IT practice and triumph despite the naysayer's constant messages!

And, perhaps in the midst of all of this we could end up growing our businesses into that Microsoft Partner Competency holder that would get noticed and direct Partner support (note the absence of the quotes).

In the end, we may not reach those competency levels and/or even get noticed.

But, we can go home at the end of the day, maybe work a bit in the evening for our clients, knowing full well that there is a great group of folks, our clients, on the receiving end of our products and services that are very happy with us and what we do.

And that my friends is why, for the most part, we can sleep well at night eh? ;)

Well, maybe most nights. We are, after all, small business owners so the occasional sleepless night is a prerequisite! :D

Thanks for reading.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

SMB Kitchen – Presenting at the SMB TechFest in Orange County, CA October 19th!

I’m excited to announce that I will be doing some presenting at the upcoming TechFest in Orange County, California! :)

• SMB TechFest

Amy Babinchak will be delving into the changes we are seeing in our industry and how she is working those changes into her own IT practice Harbor Computer Services.

Boon Tee will be looking at Hyper-V Replica and how it can be deployed in all manner of businesses.

Susan Bradley is going to present on a wide variety of security issues that SMB faces today and some of the tools that can be used to address them.

I will be delving into the materials I have already posted to the SMB Kitchen on Hyper-V, clustering with Hyper-V, with a special focus on selling Hyper-V clusters into SMB starting at the 15 seat level and above.

We will also have a Q&A session at the end where folks will be able to ask us questions.

And, of course, we will have lots of time to kibitz throughout the event!

If you can please join Amy Babinchak, Boon Tee, Susan Bradley, and myself for an excellent business and technical focused non-marketing fluff day. I can guarantee you there will be pearls to be had! :D

• SMB TechFest Pricing and Registration Info

Oh, and we will have whiteboards for discussion times! W00t!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMB Kitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Microsoft Slaughtering It’s Own Cash Cow?

We in SMB IT have been hearing the Microsoft Cloud Drums for quite a few years now.

In the first year or two the call was along the lines of how great Microsoft’s new Cloud was to be and how we were all going to do well selling it.

Well, in SMB IT that pretty much fell flat on its face once it became apparent the SMB IT Provider was not be be billing the customer Microsoft was.

Plus, where was the SMB IT Provider supposed to fit in to the picture anyway?

The drums kept beating but the SMB IT Solution Provider did not listen.

Microsoft made some changes in their sales model for the Microsoft Cloud product line that allowed the SMB IT Provider to bill their clients, but uptake was probably very slow if at all.

Off to conferences and Webinars we go where “Partners” trumpet their great success selling Microsoft and other Cloud Vendor’s wares. How great their success was they were proclaiming but in the end we received a lot of fluff with little substance.

The drums are still beating today. However, they no longer beat for us to take up the call and sell Microsoft Cloud.

IMNSHO, they now beat the message to the end customer to avoid working with us altogether.

You don’t need the SMB IT Provider! You can do it all yourself! We’re making it really easy for you!

To be fair, Microsoft pushed really hard to get the SMB IT Provider on board with training and certification. They spent hundreds of thousands if not millions on getting us to on-board with the Small Business Specialist Community and the certification structures it required.

Those of us that took up to that beat, that is the SBSC and all it entailed, did really well and Microsoft took great pains to support us.

Unfortunately, in the end, the folks that drove Microsoft to create the SBSC and make efforts to bring things up to par kept on doing what they were doing: Giving Microsoft and other legitimate SMB IT Providers a black eye.

As much as the “Trusted Advisor” role has been poo poo’d by many behind the Cloud drum beating we are the ones that the SMB Business Owner will listen to over commercials, surveys, and Consumer Reports.

Yes, the ones responsible for the black eyes for both Microsoft and those SMB IT Providers doing the right thing will be the ones most hurt by their customers bailing away from the pain they’ve been in for however many years by adopting the Cloud over on-premises.

Why would those customers, that is the ones that have been repeatedly burned, trust us anyway? And why would they trust Microsoft to provide a Cloud service that say Google or Amazon may be able to do just as well if not better?

While we and our client population may not be in the majority as far as SMB IT, we do represent a substantial number of small to medium businesses and the directions they take with the IT infrastructure.

A sales driver within SMB is the excited Geek coming in with a new product that perfectly fits in to their client’s business model. In fact, the Geek would have a demo prepared that directly relates to _that specific client_ without even thinking about it.

That situation translates into sales. _Lots_ of sales. And business owners talk.

Perhaps I’m overestimating our worth here? Maybe I am but then again, maybe I am not.

The drums today are beating “You SMB Business go Cloud. Period.”

We are cautioning our clients that a hybrid approach may be a better rule of thumb for so many reasons. Think PRISM for one and the Patriot Act for another.

Now, given the Microsoft’s position for us is all-in for the Cloud one has to wonder how long it will be before Microsoft removes the “choice” in SME and Enterprise environments?

Meaning, how long before Microsoft makes on-premises a lot more expensive than their Cloud offerings to in effect remove that option?

Certainly the restructuring that has happened around a services model this new Microsoft fiscal year may indicate such.

• MyNorthwest.com: Investors sue Microsoft, say they were misled regarding poor-selling Surface RT

Most certainly Microsoft is at a crossroads.

Depending on the tact they take over the next 12 to 24 months we could see a vastly different company down the road that may in fact be more like Apple was before it was bailed out or like RIM is today.

Drum beating the message and forcing us in SMB into a direction because as single units we are essentially powerless against them is one thing (though we’ve been seeing that we are not so powerless after all over this last year or so).

However, trying the same tact with SME and Enterprise businesses may well fall flat on its face.

No one person or business has ever liked being shoe-horned into an option.

If given no option by a vendor, then it is more likely that another will be found, or much to the possible surprise of Microsoft, and others before them, the business may carry on and/or build what is needed from within.

Most certainly changes are afoot and we need to be very aware of what is happening around us!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Windows Azure – Client OS Policy Update and SMB IT

We have a lot going for us in the Hybrid Cloud/On-Premises solution set as we grow our product knowledge and develop solutions to blend the best of both worlds.

However, this is one announcement that really hits home for us in SMB:

• Microsoft: Windows Azure

There’s no guarantee that the above link will be functional at a later date so:

Dear Customer,

We recently published an updated support life cycle policy for Windows Azure Cloud Services for web and worker roles. This email outlines these new policies and the associated timelines for migration:

• Guest OS 1.x deprecation (retirement deadline: June 1, 2014).

• 60 days auto-upgrade policy for Cloud Services using manual OS upgrade option for Guest OS version.

• Retirement of Windows Azure SDK for Cloud Services versions 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5 effective June 1st 2014.

Changes to Guest OS families
The Guest OS 1.x family based on the Windows Server 2008 operating system is being retired. We are providing 12 months advance notice to you. The official retirement date for the Guest OS 1.x family is June 1, 2014. After that date, you’ll no longer be able to deploy new web and worker roles with family 1.x deployments, and your existing family 1.x deployments will be automatically moved to a supported Guest OS family.
Please plan to transition your Cloud Services deployments that use the Guest OS 1.x family to the following supported Guest OS families:

• Guest OS family 2.x (based on Windows Server 2008 R2)

• Guest OS family 3.x (based on Windows Server 2012—recommended)

Customers who are using the Guest OS 1.x family don’t need to redeploy their Cloud Services because an in-place upgrade from version 1.x to 3.x is supported in the Windows Azure SDK 2.0. If you don’t upgrade by the June 1, 2014, deadline, you’ll automatically be upgraded to a supported Guest OS family.
Changes to Guest OS version
On June 1, 2013, the new Guest OS Version support policy becomes effective. Starting June 1, you have 60 days to upgrade your Cloud Services deployments to the current or prior Guest OS version in each supported Guest OS family.
As soon as possible, please start the transition of your Cloud Services deployments to one of the following supported Guest OS versions:

• Guest OS family 2.x supported releases: 2.13 (Release 201210-01) and 2.14 (Release 201302-03)

• Guest OS family 3.x supported releases: 3.1 (Release 201210-01) and 3.2 (Release 201302-03—automatic upgrade is recommended)

The official retirement date for all previous Guest OS versions is August 1, 2013. Any Guest OS deployment that’s not running one of these supported Guest OS versions at that time will be automatically upgraded to the current Guest OS version.
Changes to Windows Azure SDK for Cloud Services
We’re also announcing the retirement of the Windows Azure SDK versions 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, and 1.5. The official retirement date for the above SDKs will be June 1, 2014. After that date, you’ll no longer be able to use these SDKs to author and deploy new Cloud Services (web and worker roles). Further, Customer’s Cloud Services authored & deployed using deprecated Windows Azure SDK will not be covered under Windows Azure Cloud Services SLA. Customer’s Cloud Service will not be covered under support contract as well.
Notifications
The OS and SDK retirement dates will be communicated to customers through an MSDN or RSS feed:
MSDN: Windows Azure Guest OS Releases and SDK Compatibility Matrix

RSS feed

To get more details, refer to the support life cycle policy.
Thank you,
Windows Azure Team

We run a lot of legacy applications at client sites. Accountants and lawyers have applications that just don’t play nice with more modern 64-bit operating systems.

What does the Azure Team mean by “in-place” upgrade anyway? As in upgrade that production VM operating system from Server 2008 to Server 2008 R2 or 2012 RTM via in-place?

We are most certainly not sure what is meant by this but we stopped in-place upgrades in the NT 4.0 and Server 2000 era for a reason.

We have an advantage, at least at this point until software vendors force everyone into their Cloud services, in that we can customize our IT Solutions for the client’s environment.

In this case, Windows Azure has a limitation in the solution set flexibility that we can provide. Plus, the situation with the drop of one OS means that the client would probably be forced into some sort of cost/support scenario for their Windows Azure hosted environments.

In a positive economic situation this may not be too much of a hurdle for an SMB to overcome.

However, if the economies of the world sour even further that monthly nut for Cloud services may put a real damper on the business’s ongoing monthly cash flow.

On-premises offers the SMB the assurance that their business can keep operating, even after pulling the MSP plug (hopefully they _own_ the licensing and equipment), for a year or two when things are tight.

And, that on-premises solution set can be paid for while the cash is there. :)

And, BTW, note how Windows Azure gets around the actual “Windows Server” product life cycle by creating their own Azure version 1, 2, 3, etc?

 

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

How to Acquire an SMBKitchen Project Subscription

We’ve received a number of questions about the subscription for the SMBKitchen Project.

First, the subscription cost is $180 for the _calendar_ year. That cost is broken down over twelve months. So, subscribe in January and the cost is distributed across the 12 months. Subscribe this month and the January through April payments will be required. From there the cost will be distributed over the remaining months at $15/Month.

The fee covers all content on the site, live author’s chats where our subscribers get Q&A time with us, freedom to ask the authors questions on subscription content, and so much more.

The sign-up process is as follows:

1. Click into the SMBKitchen Project site.
2. Click the Sign up for a subscription link.
3. Click the Register button.
• 
4. Put your name, e-mail address, and password to access the site in.
• 
5. An activation e-mail will be sent to that address. Please confirm.
6. Log on to the site.
• 
7. Click the Payments button.
• 
8. Click the Make a Purchase button.
• 
9. Click the Subscription button.
• 
10. Change the Subscription option to 1.
• 
• Scroll down a bit to see the option to purchase additional months up front.
• 
11. Click the Check out with PayPal button.
1. From there the routine is straight forward.

A Welcome Letter, and Article Summary, and an Invitation to the next SMBKitchen Project event will arrive in your Inbox shortly after that.

Each category will have a number of articles, how to videos, author chats, and other content for you to access.

Our goal with this project is to give current IT solution providers the best possible tool set to provide on-premises and hybrid on-premises/Cloud solutions that can be delivered today and tomorrow.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Some thoughts on possibly migrating to Windows Server 2012 Essentials and Cloud

This post is a copy of a comment left on Susan Bradley’s post here: A Social Question About the Future of SMB Servers.

In our move from SBS to the Stack we've seen about a 15% increase in overall licensing costs for our clients (Open Value Agreement with the 3 year spread payment option).

Most businesses can absorb a 15% uptake on their server side licensing costs. Those that can't have other problems needing to be dealt with first.

We've done a few 2012 Essentials with Exchange 2013 greenfield deploys and are relatively happy with the results barring a few deadly misses in Exchange 2013 RTM.

Many of you may have used our SBS 2003 to SBS 2011 Standard migration guide. It's one of the busiest pages on our blog. One of the reasons that guide and the others that we have was put together was due to the terrible documentation from so many different Microsoft sources for the whole process.

Why should the SBS to W2012E migration documentation be any different? It is not, in fact as already mentioned it is worse than before.

The biggest drawback to bringing a well thought-out SBS Standard setup into a W2012E via migration is the huge step back we would take with the AD/GPO structure.

SBS 2003, 2008, and 2011 Standard all had a beautiful OU structure that was easy to manage with simple to deploy targeted GPO settings.

With W2012E we lose all of that and in the end had to resort to WMI filtering to gain some of the targeting we had previously.

Since RDS has been a part of our client's licensing makeup since Day 1 with us we will be avoiding W2012E. RDWeb on 2012 or even 2008 R2 works well as a landing page. Users can then open their RemoteApp or log on to their internal desktop PC or dedicated VM.

DirectAccess gives our clients the ability to access their files seamlessly. Again, all are on Desktop OS SA+MDOP with Enterprise on their laptops. So, this is a fairly seamless transition from VPN.

Yes, the solution stack is a bit more complex. But, and I mean BUT, we gain access to the ability to put together solutions that we could only have dreamed of with the one-box solution SBS gave us.

Is W2012E a worthy successor of SBS? In all reality we are comparing Apples to Oranges here. IMNSHO W2012E is a blip on the road to the Cloud in Microsoft's eyes.

It is up to us to build and provide the best on-premises SBS-Like IT Solution our clients need.

While many Cloud vendors, including Microsoft, can’t seem to see beyond their particular vision for SMB IT over the next five to ten years those of us on the ground have a _very different_ vision of what SMB IT is all about.

To us, the Cloud tends to be a cookie cutter solution. That is, the customer must fit their business structures _into_ the Cloud Vendor’s product confines.

SMB IT is anything but cookie cutter.

When we are invited into a small business to have a chat with a business owner or business IT contact about their IT needs and how to address them we have a distinct advantage over Cloud.

1. Face-to-Face time. We build a business relationship with our business contacts _and_ their users.
• This is one area of SMB IT that surveyors, enterprise oriented vendors, and others always seem to miss or outright get wrong.
2. We tailor an IT Solution to the client’s very particular needs.
• We don’t modify their business processes to fit a cookie-cutter solution.

The idea here for us is to take what the business has already built up in the way of business processes and workflows and help them grow more efficient.

The attitude that SMB IT belongs in the Cloud, whether it be from Microsoft, Cloud vendor, or Cloud Proponent is at best misplaced.

I really wish folks would stop telling us that on-premises IT Solutions for SMB should not exist anymore.

Ultimately, the decision is up to the small business owner and IT management to decide what is best for their company.

We prefer to give SMB IT an on-premises virtualized solution stack that incorporates all of the SBS Standard goodness across two to four virtual machines (VMs) as an option and then _let the market decide_ whether Cloud or on-premises is right for them.

The EOLd Essential Business Server in a virtualized setting would have been a great product to build a virtualized product stack today with almost the entire greenfield deploy being wizard driven. A solid migration story may have changed that product’s longevity too.

It is our end-game here at MPECS Inc. to provide the best on-premises solution stack that our client’s IT budget can buy.

And, with our blog here, as well as others, and the SMBKitchen initiative it is our goal to provide SMB IT Solution Providers with the best Microsoft Stack solution _your_ clients can buy along with the skillset needed to properly deploy and maintain that solution set!

Providing SMB businesses with an SMB IT Solution built on the Microsoft Stack that runs stable and provides the same SBS like experience they are all used to is one of the _only_ ways we can push back against the Cloud’s onrush.

Remember, value is not about the lowest price. If it was, Wal-Mart would be the _only_ retailer on the block and Mercedes Benz, BMW, and Cadillac would be out of business.

And, cost of “ownership” is always higher when someone else owns the equipment. That is one reality that has yet to be made concrete in the SMB Cloud initiatives.

One more thing, Susan and I have been having an ongoing conversation since the above was posted. Might be wise to have a boo yourself. :)

• Susan Bradley’s post here: A Social Question About the Future of SMB Servers

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Cisco SA520 and SA540 Small Business Pro Line EOL

And EOL with a full dead stop!

• End-of-Sale and End-of-Life Announcement for the Cisco SA520 Security Appliance

Service and support comes to a full stop on April 30th, 2014.

Cisco is recommending the ISA500 Series Integrated Security Appliances.

• Cisco Small Business ISA500 Series Integrated Security Appliances

Now, as a rule our preference it so utilize ExchangeDefender to sanitize all e-mail prior to it getting remotely close to the production network.

We then have the ability to allow the ExchangeDefender server’s subnets inbound for SMTP traffic thus avoiding SMTP authorization attempts.

And, because we tend to have only one MX record registered we don’t have to worry about spammers pumping spam into secondary MX servers which in some cases will not have any or very little spam protection.

Our primary goal is to filter all inbound and all outbound WAN based traffic. That is, we set up whitelists for Internet bound and server services bound Internet traffic.

Besides filtering inbound SMTP traffic we set an outbound SMTP rule to be allowed only from the on-premises Exchange server as well as other server(s) on the network. If a user gets compromised by something that tries to spew e-mail via SMTP it stops there and we get a call for a machine that’s dragging its feet. :)

We have applied for an ISA550 demo unit from our Cisco rep at D&H Canada. Once we receive it we will post our experience with it as well as a configuration guide.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Fall SMB Nation Presentation Video is on Our YouTube Channel

We posted my SMB Nation Fall Conference video on our YouTube channel..

SMB Nation Fall 2012 Conference Presentation

The slides for the presentation is here on the SlideShare site:

 

SMB Nation Fall Conference 2012 from Philip Elder

There may be a blank there. The link goes to the presentation deck though.

Please do take the time to have a listen. I believe it will be worth the time. Plus, I end with a real bang!

Thanks for reading. :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Windows Live Writer

SMB Nation Fall

I will be speaking at the upcoming SMB Nation Fall Conference.

• SMB Nation Fall Conference

For those that are planning on attending please note that the Early Bird discount ends tomorrow. So, save a few dollars for an evening event and pick up a conference ticket now.

We will have a good sit-down session together to discuss where we are going and what we are doing about the current state of IT in SMB.

My goal with this session is to get the brain juices flowing to inspire hope for the future of our SMB IT Business.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

SMB Nation Fall: Taking My IT Support Business to the Next Level

It's official, I will be at SMB Nation's fall conference in Las Vegas.

• SMB Nation Fall Content

The following blog posts are an outline of the planned discussion:

• A little SBS History Lesson. What SBS Has Been, Is, and Always Will Be 
• SMB Solution Sets Going Forward 
• One Little Feature Where In-House/On-Premises Kills Cloud 
• The SMB Market - The Astute Small Business Owner 
• The SMB Market - IT Commodity or IT Contact?
• Small Business Owners Take Risks - Huge Life Changing Risks

Believe me when I say that we have been going through a lot of soul searching in the last six to nine months. We MVPs were just as much in the dark about the goings on around SBS and the product group's directions as all y'all out there.

As of today we see a lot of opportunity for us in the current SMB IT environment for those that have honed their skillset and are continually working on them.

We see an even larger opportunity for the IT Support Shop that provides a consistent On-Premises IT Solution experience for their clients. Let's talk about that.

Let's talk about the real-world experience of Cloud, Hybrid, and On-Premises IT Solutions for our clients. While our client's preferences at this time are for On-Premises we do have a number of clients that are Hybrid and a few that are almost completely in the Cloud.

The goal for the session will be to have a fairly solid understanding of what our client's options are, what our options are as the IT Solution Provider, and to have a big to medium picture road map in place for us going forward.

• On-Premises, Hybrid, and Cloud Solutions
• What are they and how do they work for our clients and us?
• Vehicles to specialize
• Training, Certification, More
• Business Plan
• 1 Year, 3 Years, 5 Years
• Where do I want my clients to be in 5 years?
• Where do I want to be in 5 years?

With all of the angst over the changes, the Cloud being pushed really hard, and uncertainty all around we need some hope. And hope is what we intend to bring about in this session.

Thanks for reading! :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Going to attend the Microsoft Exchange Conference in Orlando

As part of our need to develop our skill set on the various products we will be configuring for our clients going forward we are starting with the one that can be the most challenging: Exchange

• The Lost Conference: MEC 2012

We will spend time on Exchange 15 (2013) learning how to install and configure the product. We will also be able to spend time with Exchange 2010 and its configuration.

We will also be looking to explore the built-in Exchange high availability features and their configuration. Multi-site Exchange configurations can be an important offering for a larger client with multiple sites looking to provide e-mail resiliency.

In the end, it is time to put some time and money on the line to gain skills.

Doing this is very important for both our company but also our clients.

When discussing the "Why" a prospective client should be dealing with us having a repertoire of training and certification demonstrates very clearly to them that we are serious about the solutions we deliver.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Small Business Owners Take Risks - Huge Life Changing Risks.

Note that this blog post comes just after hearing the news about our attempts to secure a mortgage for the last couple of weeks so it may be a bit pointed in nature. :)

***

We just spent the last week and a half to two weeks in limbo not knowing whether we had a home or not to go to at the end of September. We had sold our home in anticipation of purchasing one just outside of the city.

We accepted a bid from the buyer of our current home and the seller of the place we were looking at accepted ours.

Of course we had "Subject to Financing" in our bid contract. But, needless to say we, that is Monique and I, did not count on the amount of pain securing the mortgage for the place we bid on was going to cause us.

So, we had a possession date for our home at the end of September with no ETA on financing for the place we were bidding on. If the financing did indeed fall through then we were in a _really_ bad place needing to be out of our own home with no destination set.

Banks, Lenders, and SMB Owners

It is a fact of life for the small business owner that the banks do not like us. We are too high a risk for lending.

The statistics of the number of failed businesses in the first three years relative to the number of successful ones make the balance scale look like a 1 tonne brick on the _fail_ side while the successful side has a few feathers.

That balance scale does not change much for the survivors of the first three years either. The number that make it to the six or seven year mark are but a sliver of those that made it past three.

So, here we are after ten years for MPECS being incorporated and my being self-employed and we _still_ hit the credit roadblock with the banks and some lenders.

The primary difference as we see it between us and someone that makes a salary or wage is that they have a steady paycheque every two weeks while ours fluctuates with the amount of work being done.

As we all know, cash flow is king in a small business. We see that as one of the main reasons for an SMB to _not_ put services into the Cloud.

Yes, the cash needed for an SMB IT Solution will be up-front. But, once that solution is in place the ongoing maintenance plan can be put on hold (depending on the MSP) if the economy slows down.

One cannot put the Cloud Service Provider on hold for payments.

It means that despite owning an incorporated company we SMB owners need to sign away our first and second born along with the contracts in our blood before we can get any reasonable amount of credit to work with (pun obviously).

Lenders prefer to secure credit against us personally, not our incorporated entities in our area of the world. The same may be true in other areas of the world. Say no to Personal Credit Reports and the lenders say no to any credit.

Indeed, just recently after having to sign away our firstborn for our first company credit card five or six years ago we had to go through the entire jump-through-the-hoop process to get a credit increase on that card even after five or six years of activity with balances paid off every statement cycle.

A perceived SMB cash crunch situation is one reason we get a plethora of "Canadian Small Business Grants" e-mails and phone calls from folks looking to take advantage of us in some way due to SMBs being more than likely cash hungry.

Securing A Mortgage

Now, besides getting married for life one of the biggest decisions one makes is to secure a mortgage on a place to live.

We had run the gamut of trying to secure a lender for the purchase of our first house (about 2-3 years after MPECS was born) with the end result being nada, zilch, zippo.

We were fortunate that our Realtor knew a mortgage broker, Phil LaRue, that pulled one out of the hat for us by securing a hand-shake mortgage with GMAC at a premium over the bank's rates back then.

He then did it again for us when we purchased our current home. But, not without a number of hoops to jump through yet again.

This time around we had to jump through _a lot_ of hoops before lenders would take us seriously. Yet, even after all of this time no banks would even consider looking at us.

So, here we are a week and a half later after signing the paperwork to get the ball rolling on the purchase and we have finally heard back from the mortgage insurer (CMHC was the final roadblock) that they will insure our mortgage.

Our Subject To Financing conditions are almost removed.

Can you imagine how stressful that last couple of weeks have been?!?

SMB "Experts" Know?

This constant fight with financing our lives for the last ten years is something that someone, or some SMB "Expert"organization, that has never owned a small business may never get.

Folks that receive a paycheque do not need to worry about whether they can get credit or not (barring bad exceptions to the rule of course ;) ).

One cannot know the taste, texture, and all-around goodness of an Anchovy Pizza unless one has actually eaten one. Period.

One cannot know what it is like to lose one's child (previous blog post) unless one has actually gone through that experience.

Someone that has spent their life studying a particular subject, even secured a PhD in it, may know a lot _about_ the subject but may have very little clue how it _feels_ until they actually _live_ through it.

We are not knocking those folks and their ability to help us out here. We have had some amazing professionals help us out throughout our lives. That's not the point of these paragraphs.

Our point is this: There are some experiences in life that one can know a lot about in so many ways but may have no clue about _living_ it and _experiencing_ it.

That's why "Experts' is in quotes here with regards to owning and running an SMB business or multiple businesses.

One cannot know the real risks involved owning and running a small business until one's family is hanging on the brink of being homeless. Or that next business need is sitting on the shelf due to not having credit available.

There are too many examples to list here but we believe that you, our readers, get our point. :)

Our Small Business

The all-around experience of owning and running a small business is much more rewarding as we are working on _our_ dreams and not someone else's dreams.

We would be very hard-pressed to find a small business owner that is not passionate about the products and services that they provide.

And therein lies one of the _most critical_ of elements of providing IT products and services to other small business owners that we have mentioned in this blog before.

A small business owner providing products and services to another small business owner _understands_ what it takes to purchase those products and services.

We understand the need to trust others to provide us with the best possible information and direction when it comes to aspects of our business we may have no clue about.

Thus, there is a connection between us that is not there for a large organization's sales people and technical support folks that try and provide products and services to small businesses.

This face-to-face connection is one of the main reasons that the Expert IT Solution Provider has done so well over the last ten to fifteen years.

We share the passion and can provide an excellent IT experience for our small business clients.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

MPECS Inc.'s Entry Level, Mid-Level, and Premium Level IT Solution Sets

We have a number of IT Solution sets in our repertoire.

Here are three IT Solutions we have posted on our blog to give you an idea of where we can start through to a high end Hyper-V Failover Cluster based on the Intel Modular Server.

• A Virtualized SBS 2011 and RDS Setup Completed With Some Pics
• Entry level 1U 1S Intel Server System
• Virtualize 2 or 3 server OSs plus a couple of desktop OSs
• Designed for 5-30 Users
• Deployed 2 Node 2U Intel Server System Hyper-V Failover Cluster With Pics
• Mid-Level dual 2U 2S Intel Server Systems
• 4.5TB Central Storage
• Hyper-V Failover Cluster
• One server fails everything that was on it moves over to the other server.
• Designed to provide server resilience for 15-130 Seats
• Configurations customized for particular needs.
• Production Hyper-V Failover Cluster on an Intel Modular Server Pictures
• Premium-Level Tri-Node 2S Intel Modular Server System
• 3 Blade Servers/Compute Modules sporting dual Intel Xeon Processors per Compute Module.
• 3.6TB Built-In SAN Storage
• 4.5TB Central Storage Unit with Redundant SAS Connections
• Combined Storage: 8.1TB or thereabouts.
• Designed to provide server resilience for 35-175+ Seats
• Configurations customized for particular needs.

With today's Intel Server Systems, the Intel Modular Server, Promise Storage, and IBM Storage we can provide some highly customized IT Solutions for our clients and prospective clients.

For those that request on-site warranties from Tier 1 we would offer IBM Servers and their warranties.

With the advent of Windows Server 2012 and the awesome new Hyper-V features we can go even further with companies that have multiple sites using Hyper-V Replica as well as the now accessible DirectAccess feature that is in Windows Server 2012.

The On-Premises future looks very bright indeed! :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

A little SBS History Lesson. What SBS Has Been, Is, and Always Will Be

This post is my reply to John773 on the Spiceworks Forum.

***

John773: . . . The roadmap is about options, and SBS was synonymous with limits.

John,

Yeah, there were limits, but to the small business those limits were relatively _unseen_.

What small business did see was a server setup that gave them complete agility. They could be mobile, they could be in-house, they could be both. They could use any device they could throw at SBS to gain access to their e-mail, calendars, and so much more at that time.

SBS was _the_ platform to build a small business on. Period.

To folks out in the Enterprise and SME Space the "limits" of SBS could indeed be seen as such.

But realistically, to the small business owner the exact OPPOSITE was the case. SBS enabled them.

In 2003 with the release of the Remote Web Workplace we garnered attention from Enterprise because RWW was a Killer App. And it was. Now the business owner could have their cake and eat it too.

ISA for SBS 2003 Premium RTM/R2 was the cat's meow for dealing with many of the outlying threats of the day. All of our clients ran Premium with ISA providing needed edge protection.

Yeah, by 2008 that platform was indeed long in the tooth, but SBS 2008 gave us everything we already had plus access to our newly deployed RemoteApps via RemoteDesktop Gateway that was built-in to SBS 2008.

For 2008 RD Gateway was the killer app tied into the ability to deliver LoBs via RemoteApp.

Business owners liked the simplicity of one shortcut to open their bookkeeping anywhere or via link in the RWW portal. They liked RemoteApp for keeping data in-house while users were out and about.

For 2011 we gained the Folder Share feature in the newly branded Remote Web Access portal. We still had all of the goodness of the previous generations plus we could now download and upload files as required.

Now, here we are in 2012 and change is afoot.

What does that mean?

Well, it means that we can get Remote Web Access on a number of different platforms now (BBbyGramps for one).

We can virtualize the DC (Windows Server 2012 Essentials or Standard) and Exchange on two VMs to give us our 1 box solution but keeping things discrete.

No more BESx (if they are still around a few years down the road ;) ) blowing up the _entire_ platform! Or any other LoB running interference or hogging memory on the one box setup for that matter.

MOST IMPORTANTLY: It means _nothing changes_ for our clients!

We still provide the best IT solution that we can to enable them and their businesses! This whole situation is about our clients. That is why we do what we do. So, any Microsoft stack solution will need to address all of the features that our small business clients have been used to on the SBS platform but also incorporate some of the new ones like DirectAccess.

Enabling a small business was what SBS was all about and it hit a home run consistently for _ten years_ running! How many products can we look at in recent years can say that they have had a 10-15 year run of success?

In conclusion, in today's IT world I do in fact agree with you. SBS 2011 is limiting. There are just too many opportunities for customizing a stack based solution for our small business clients that were not there even three years ago.

However, historically I flat out disagree with you. From the moment SBS 2003 began to be deployed right through to the moment the last SBS 2011 Standard server is retired SBS will have more than met the small business owner's business needs built on IT Solutions.

***

Small Business Server met a specific need and met it very well. :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

The SMB Market - The Astute Small Business Owner

This post is in response to the article here:

• Cindy's Blog: Don’t fall prey to comparison games – it’s your business

Cindy,

Besides comparing one's small to business to other's, such as competitors, there is also the need to discover what is hype and what is not. Finding the pearls so to speak.

What's critical to an astute small business owner is having folks around them that are able to help them get past the hype to discover what is best for their business. This is especially true when it comes IT in SMB.

There's a lot of noise out there right now about the "Cloud being the best for SMB". Even posts in your blog and content on the Microsoft Business Hub site seem to make the Cloud a priority for small business before on-premises e-mail and collaboration systems.

This despite the message in this particular post that states On-Premises is a legitimate option for a small business.

Putting IT into a business, whether Cloud and/or On-Premises, is not like buying a car as much as Cloud proponents try to make it seem like a car buying experience.

In the end a small business needs to be a lot more agile in their use of the IT tools at their disposal than SME or Enterprise. Small businesses need to be able to make changes and customize their IT tools in ways that a "One Size Fits All" Cloud solution cannot provide.

On-Premises will always have the advantage over Cloud of being highly customizable to the _specific_ environment needed by a particular small business.

At some point the astute business owner will tune out all of the Cloud noise and look to their IT Trusted Advisor for direction. And that's a key differentiator in SMB businesses. The _astute_ business owner sees IT as a set of tools to further their business's goals. The consumer like business owner sees IT as nothing more than a necessary expense.

We Trusted Advisors aim our services at the former business owner not the latter one because we speak the same language in our small business attitudes and directions. We _understand_ each other in a way that larger IT companies and On-Premises/Cloud vendors may not get.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer