Monthly Archive for June, 2011

How to Build e-mail Continuity into Microsoft BPOS

Published on June 30, 2011 in How To. 2 Comments Tags: Anti-Spam, Anti-Virus, BPOS, Business Productivity On-Line Suite, Configuration, DNS, Downtime, E-Mail Continuity, Exchange Defender, Failure, FOPE, Forefront Online Protection for Exchange, GFI Max Mail Archive, GFI Max Mail Protection, Hosted Exchange, Inbound, Microsoft, MX Record, Office 365, Outage, Outbound, Quarantime, Reflexion, Setup, SMTP, Spam Filtering.

I’ve spent a lot of time advising IT companies on their options in regards to offering Cloud Services to their client base lately. That conversation usually begins discussing one of the most popular Cloud services – Hosted Microsoft Exchange, and in particular, the Business Productivity On-Line Suite (BPOS).

Thanks to the massive Microsoft marketing machine, a lot of clients are actively approaching their IT provider and asking about BPOS – thus forcing the whole Cloud services conversation where in many cases, the IT supplier is reluctant to begin talking about Cloud.

With the recent release of Microsoft Office 365, those types of conversations are going to becoming more and more common.

For most IT companies I’ve spoken with, one of the concerns they have with Hosted Exchange services is that they will “lose control”. Whilst they accept that no longer having to monitor and maintain Exchange Servers is something they won’t miss, they are concerned about how to react if something goes wrong.

The BPOS outage experienced by Microsoft last week adds fuel to this argument.

The advice I give to clients around Hosted Exchange outages is that they need to set their clients expectations early on in the conversation. Whilst it’s likely that as time goes by services like Microsoft BPOS will benefit from greater uptime as Microsoft learn and adapt, outages are happening – and IT companies shouldn’t gloss over this fact with their clients.

So the next question that comes up is typically “What can we do when a Hosted Exchange service does go down?”

The answer is to prepare for that situation well in advance by using an e-mail continuity solution. Such a solution will mean that in the event of your “main” Exchange Server (in this case, BPOS) going off-line – you can still manage live e-mail through your continuity server, which is located somewhere else in the Cloud.

In effect, the Cloud backing up the Cloud.

As a BPOS user myself I was intrigued to see how this type of solution worked with BPOS. For years my own MSP used e-mail continuity solutions such as Exchange Defender and Reflexion, which basically re-direct your clients MX record to the e-mail continuity solution, which in turn (and after filtering the e-mail for Spam and viruses) delivers the e-mail to your clients mail server. If your clients mail server is not available, the e-mail is held until your clients mail server is back on-line and the e-mail can be delivered. No e-mail is bounced. In the meantime, your client can access these e-mails through a web interface – enabling them to stay connected.

I’ve been testing the GFI Max Mail Protection (formerly known as Katharion) product recently so I set about seeing if I could add e-mail continuity to BPOS with Max Mail. The answer is, I could, and both Microsoft and GFI made this easy to achieve.

Configuring BPOS and GFI Max Mail Protection to co-exist

After setting up a partner account with Max Mail (you can watch the setup guide video here) and configuring the appropriate domain names and users through the Max Mail Control Panel Web-Site, I set Max Mail’s primary Destination Mail server to BPOS’s Mail.Global.FrontBridge.com on SMTP Port 25.

Through my domain hosting company (in my case, Heart Internet) I then re-directed my domain’s MX records to those provider by Max Mail within their Control Panel on the domain settings tab. These settings differ for each domain you’re configuring, but in my case I set a Primary MX record of tubblog.co.uk.pri-mx.uk0109.smtproutes.com with a Priority of 10 and a Secondary MX record of tubblog.co.uk.bak-mx.uk0109.smtpbak.com with a Priority of 90.

I then waited for the MX record to be fully updated within DNS, typically this takes 24 hours – during which time some e-mail is delivered directly to Microsoft BPOS, whilst other e-mail is filtered through GFI Max Mail Protection before being sent to BPOS.

The good news is – everything worked, and without having to change any client side settings at all!

Whilst Microsoft BPOS already has e-mail filtering built-in thanks to Forefront Online Protection for Exchange (FOPE) – in my experience, GFI Max Mail Protection is much more effective – letting less spam through to end-users and creating fewer false positives.

Additionally, BPOS does not allow access to their e-mail quarantine directly, whilst Max Mail allows users to login and view their quarantine, releasing messages that they want to read.

BPOS also sends out an e-mail quarantine report every 3 days, and as I understand it from the BPOS Technical Support team, this setting can’t be changed. GFI Max Mail allows up to 3 quarantine reports to be scheduled *per day* – allowing the very paranoid to constantly track their quarantine.

One note on the GFI Max Mail Protection quarantine e-mails. FOPE within Microsoft BPOS captures these as possible spam – so make sure to add the domain @reporting.smtproutes.com to your BPOS Whitelist to allow these messages through FOPE.

So I’ve now got two levels of e-mail filtering, a stronger quarantine system in Max Mail Protection than BPOS, and the next time a BPOS outage occurs, I’m able to continue working with my e-mail through the Max Mail web-page.

There’s also the potential to add Outbound e-mail Filtering through Max Mail in conjunction with BPOS for a belt’n’braces approach and for auditing purposes. Additionally, there’s also the opportunity to use the GFI Max Mail Archive product for full archiving of inbound and outbound e-mails too.

Conclusion

When a client has an en-site e-mail server, it is going to be experience downtime. Be that because of hardware failure, broadband outage or any number of other issues.

For IT companies who who are moving clients to Hosted Exchange services such as BPOS, the same is true.

IT Companies still need to be asking clients the question “How important is e-mail to you?”.

For most small businesses nowadays, e-mail is very important – so adding continuity is a no-brainer, and will save a lot of gnashing of teeth when the inevitable downtime does occur.

What is a Microsoft SBSC PAL?

Published on June 14, 2011 in Advice for MSP's. 2 Comments Tags: Account Manage, AMITPRO, Business, Community, IT, Microsoft, Microsoft Partner Network, MPN, PAL, PAM, Partner Area Lead, SBSC, Small Business Specialist, SMB, TAM, Twitter, Worldwide Partner Conference, WPC.

It was this time last year that I wrote about “Successfully Partnering with Microsoft” and my honour at being appointed Microsoft UK Small Business Specialist Community Partner Area Lead (What a mouthful! Let’s call it SBSC PAL!).

Well I’m equally honoured to say that I’ve been asked to take up the role for a further year, alongside Guy Gregory of London based, The Final Step and new PAL, Chris Timm of Basingstoke based TCG Computer Services.

New PAL Chris Timm has been doing a great job of running the Thames Valley SBSC Group, and is a well known face within the UK IT Community. Guy Gregory, who has recently moved from Derbyshire to London, combines a high level of Technical expertise with a keen understanding of the needs of the small business market – ideally placing him to help other SBSC’s to join up those two areas of knowledge.

I’m chuffed to be re-appointed a PAL as I’ve long been championing the fact that SBSC’s need to be much more than simply good Technicians to thrive. Whilst I sold my IT business in 2010, and I no longer do Technical geek work on a day-to-day basis, I now spend the majority of my time working with SBSC’s to help them grow their own businesses. Key to business growth is establishing strong relationships with your vendors, and for most IT businesses they have no bigger vendor partner than Microsoft. The PAL role enables me to help partners understand how I nurtured and then leveraged a strong relationship with Microsoft to grow my own business, and how they in turn can do the same.

But what is a PAL?

I received a wonderful e-mail from my friend Amit Wason at Creative Business Systems, a Microsoft Gold Partner specialising in Dynamics NAV, that asks just that question:-

“Hi Richard,

Just wondering what a PAL is. This is not a deep philosophical question about friendship, but rather more about seeing your name in Microsoft Small Business newsletter saying you are one of the Partner Area Leads (PALs).

Are you now ‘with’ Microsoft or working in this capacity under your own name?

Is this geographic area specific? It says that you “represent the feedback of the Community and provide guidance” – to what exactly?

I only ask as I do not know anything about this role!”

In answer to Amit’s question and to shed some light on the PAL role – here’s some background.

Way back when Microsoft first created the Microsoft Small Business Specialist Community in around 2006, they also appointed a series of Partner Area Leads (PAL’s) globally. There are PAL’s in Germany, the USA, Australia and plenty of other locations where Microsoft has a strong presence.

These PAL’s, who were also Microsoft Partners themselves, were typically seen as a conduit between Microsoft and the SBSC Community. Microsoft can be a big beast, and so PAL’s, who it was felt peers could more easily approach, were empowered to help communication between Microsoft and it’s SBSC Partners. It’s a two-way dialogue, with PAL’s sharing Microsoft messages, and Microsoft listening to PAL feedback.

Though the role is aimed at Small Business Specialist Partners, as PAL’s we tend to work with any Microsoft Partners – from Community members all the way up to Gold Partners. My own personal view is that I think the role is especially important for helping un-managed Partners (i.e. those without specific Microsoft Account Managers to turn to for advice) to get more from their relationship with Microsoft.

The role is unpaid and is not expensed – so when PAL’s visit your user group, host a webinar or write a blog post that helps you – they are doing so out of their own time and pocket. PAL’s are most certainly not Microsoft employees.

There are three PAL’s in the UK who are somewhat geographically dispersed. I’m in Birmingham, Chris is in Basingstoke and Guy is in London. Historically, we tend to work with Microsoft Partners who are closest to our home office – although nowadays the PAL’s are typically aware of each other strength’s and so re-direct queries from partners to the PAL most appropriate.

The sort of queries we receive as PAL’s from fellow Microsoft Partners can range from how to find certain resources in the Microsoft Partner Portal, to sharing our expertise in leveraging Microsoft Technologies for a Partner’s business growth. Guy is well known in the Community as “Mr. BPOS” for instance, and any BPOS or Office 365 queries I receive I tend to forward on to him.

As PAL’s, we also get to know a lot of people both within Microsoft and externally. Many queries we receive as PAL’s end up with us connecting two Microsoft Partner’s together to collaborate on a piece of work or a project.

The PAL is also invited to attend the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (which this year takes place in Los Angeles) and those PAL’s who have chosen to invest their own time and travel costs in attending can then sit down with key Microsoft executives to get a peek behind the curtain and put Partner feedback forwards.

Talking of Partner feedback – make no mistake about it, PAL’s feed back what is good… and what is not so good to Microsoft. PAL’s hear feedback from Partners. PAL’s feed back that feedback to Microsoft. Microsoft listen, and to their credit, act upon this feedback. The feedback given as PAL’s in the past has help change the contents of Partners Action Pack Subscriptions, generated the creation of specific Microsoft training resources, and even saved the SBSC designation within the Microsoft Partner Network.

So there you have it – an overview of a Microsoft Partner Area Lead, or PAL.

Make a point of connecting with your countries Partner Area Leads or Leads and reach out to them. You’re unlikely to find a peer who knows more about Microsoft and how to work with them, and this will be useful for helping you grow your own business. Ask them questions, give them feedback – learn from them.

Or at the very least, meet a new friend PAL.

Microsoft to kill off Windows Mobile 6.5 Services

Published on June 9, 2011 in Computers and Internet. 8 Comments Tags: 6.5, Backup, Lookout, Microsoft, Mobile Security, MyPhone, Windows Mobile 6.5, Windows Mobile Marketplace, Windows Phone, WinMo.

I wrote earlier this year about my decision to stick with the Windows Mobile 6.5 platform for the short-term. It serves my purpose, and I’ve no been compelled to upgrade.

Well, the writing is now very much on the wall as Microsoft have started retiring WinMo 6.5 services. Yesterday, I received this letter from Microsoft:-

“Shut-down of Windows Marketplace for Mobile Web Site and My Phone Service Notification

June 8, 2011

Dear Windows Mobile 6.x customer:

Microsoft will be discontinuing the My Phone service for Windows Mobile 6.x. We will also be discontinuing the Windows Marketplace for Mobile web site. Because you may be affected, please review the details below:

Windows Marketplace for Mobile Web Site To Be Discontinued

The Windows Marketplace for Mobile web site at http://marketplace.windowsphone.com will no longer be available starting on July 15, 2011. After July 15, 2011, you will no longer be able to browse, buy or download applications for Windows Mobile 6.x phones via the Windows Marketplace for Mobile web site.

The Windows Marketplace for Mobile service will continue to be available on your phone, however. You will continue to be able to browse, buy and download applications for Windows Mobile 6.x on your phone.

My Phone To Be Discontinued

On August 7, 2011, the My Phone service will stop saving content from phones to the My Phone service. If you rely on the My Phone service to back-up the content on your Windows Mobile 6.x phone, you will be affected.

Starting on August 7, 2011, Microsoft will begin moving your My Phone content to Windows Live SkyDrive. SkyDrive is Microsoft’s free online storage service that helps you access and share your files such as photos and Microsoft Office documents. Contacts, calendar entries, text messages and photos will be moved to SkyDrive for you. Once moved, you will be able to access this content by logging into SkyDrive using the Windows Live ID that you used to register for the My Phone service.

Other content types, including videos, music, documents and favorites will not be moved from My Phone to SkyDrive for you. If you want this content, you must save it from the My Phone service to your local PC.

On October 6, 2011, the My Phone web site at http://www.microsoft.com/myphone will no longer be available. On this date, you will no longer be able to log in to the My Phone service to access your content stored to the My Phone service. Microsoft will continue to store your My Phone content for one (1) year. Physical copies of your content can be shipped to you upon request until October 5, 2012.

Take Action

To learn more about the My Phone service shut-down, including information about your content moving to Windows Live SkyDrive and how to save other content to your local PC, please visit this web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2557520

Microsoft is committed to making this transition easy. In the meantime, we want to sincerely thank you for your use of Windows Mobile 6.x.
-The Windows Phone Team”

Well – Windows Mobile Marketplace I won’t miss at all. It was woeful, and only had a few hundred apps – you were always better off using Handango or similar sites to find new apps.

Microsoft MyPhone I actively used, but thankfully won’t miss thanks to using the awesome free Lookout Mobile Security – which does the same job, only better.

So if I won’t miss those services, why the irritation?

I guess because in both cases, it’s disappointing that Microsoft have pulled these services when there are plenty of WinMo 6.5 users still actively using them.

My own WinMo 6.5 handset, a HTC HD2, is only just out of contract – and I know many others who have similar handsets and are still under contract to their Mobile Network Operator and so unable to upgrade to newer devices and Operating Systems.

I am, of course, not surprised by this move and indeed I understand that Windows Phone is now very much Microsoft’s focus, but in my opinion this sort of move doesn’t engender loyalty or trust.

I’m also a little bit sad that after so many years using the Windows Mobile platform, that my next ‘phone will more than likely be a non-Microsoft O/S.

The Tools I Use… Productivity Tips

Published on June 7, 2011 in Advice for MSP's, Advice for Small Business owners and Personal Development and Health. 14 Comments Tags: Blogging, Blogs, Bookmark, Draytek, DropBox, Facebook, Firefox, Flip HD, FON, Home Media, HTC HD2, iPod Touch, Jeremy Epstein, Keyword Listening, Kindle, LinkedIn, Live Mesh, moTweet, Networking, Outlook, Productivity, Samsung nc-10, Security, Social Connector, Social Media, Social Networking, social networks, Sony, Synchronisation, Tips, Tools, TweetDeck, Twitter, Twitterrific, Windows 7, Windows Mobile 6.5.

In the webinar I recently presented in for MSP Business Management entitled “Effectively using Social Networking to build your IT Support business” (now available to view on demand) – one of the most frequent questions that came up was “Which tool do you use for Social Networking?”

Those questions that I didn’t have time to answer on the webinar, I promised to follow up with a blog post.

Add that in to the fact my friend Jeremy Epstein over at NeverStopMarketing recently encouraged me to write a blog post about the Tools I use (you can read about the tools Jeremy uses here) – and I felt compelled to write this blog combining the two ideas!

There may be a lot of overlap in the list below, but it’s more of a brain-dump than a fully blown article – still, I hope you find some useful tips! It’s a big old blog post, so I’ve divided it into sections so you can pick and choose what you read.

I’d be interested in hearing about the tools you use – feel free to post comments below, links to your own blog post, or reach out to me via Twitter.

***

Reading Blogs

I *used* to use Google Reader to manage my blog subscriptions through RSS feeds, but the truth is that nowadays I only tend to read articles that come to my attention through two channels.

Firstly – My iGoogle Homepage – this is my Web Browser “Start” page and has three columns, with my GMail, Daily Quote, a Currency Converter and Google Latitude displayed – in addition to a load of my favourite blogs. I also have three other tabs entitled “Self-Development”, “Technical” and “Entertainment” that I frequently browse through to read some of my other favourite blogs in those specific areas. These favoured blogs are always somewhat in flux – if a blog hasn’t been updated for a while, it’ll drop off my screen and another will take it’s place.

Secondly – Twitter. I tend to graze many of my favourite blogs by knowing that the author will let me know when an update is available to read. If you’ve got a blog and you’re not automatically updating your Twitter feed to let people know about new articles, you’re missing a trick.

When I’m on the move I don’t tend to read blogs unless I’ve found them through Twitter.

You can already see that Twitter is central to a lot of things I do!

Twitter

Talking of Twitter, I use TweetDeck as my main Twitter feed on my PC with many Twitter groups to enable me to read what is relevant to me – you can read more about my “strategy” for managing Twitter here.

I also read Twitter a lot from my iPod Touch, using Twitterific, and from my HTC HD2 using MoTweet. Both have really nice interfaces that I’m comfortable with.

Devices

I’ve use an iPod Touch – at home, around the house. Mostly for web-browsing, reading the odd e-mail and reading Twitter – but also with the eBay App and for a few games (such as Stick Cricket!).

I also have a HTC HD2 running Windows Mobile 6.5. Why use such an old device, I hear you ask! Here’s the full answer!

On the PC front, I have three computers. My main PC is a Lenovo Thinkpad T400 laptop PC running Windows 7 Ultimate, which is tethered to a Docking Station and a single 19” TFT Monitor when at home. Yes, I hear the gasps that I’m not using a Multi-Monitor setup…

When out and about, I primarily use my beloved Samsung nc-10 Netbook running Windows 7 Starter Edition, carried around in my (in)famous brown mini-Rucksack (or “Man-Bag” as it’s been called) which also contains a Virgin Media 3G Dongle, and an international travel adaptor with USB charger and a selection of USB Cables for charging gadgets on the go.

If I’m on a journey without Wi-Fi (such as flying) then I’ll use Googlemail’s Off-Line facility and Microsoft Outlook in Off-Line mode to work through items.

I’ve toyed with moving from a Netbook to a Tablet, but the iPad doesn’t appeal to me and there isn’t much in the way of competitors out there… yet.

I also have a Gaming PC connected to a KVM (Keyboard/Video/Mouse). It’s not used so-much anymore – apart from my favourite, Age of Mythology!

I own an Amazon Kindle (3G and Wi-Fi version) and take it just about everywhere. Anywhere I think I may have some time to kill between appointments (think the Doctors Surgery, Barbers, waiting for the GG to finish clothes shopping…) the Kindle goes with me.

I love the way it allows me to download and read books anywhere, and it automagically syncs my books.

I also use the Kindle Reader on my PC and iPod Touch, both of which allow me to continue reading short bursts of a book when my Kindle isn’t to hand.

On the subject of book-reading, I use GoodReads.com to listen to friends recommendations, and to write my own book reviews which I then share with Twitter and Facebook.

I own a Flip HD camera that I use to record video interviews for use on the blog and YouTube.

At home I use a Draytek Vigor 2600G Wi-Fi Router, and have the house flooded with under floor Ethernet cabling. Every room has at least two Ethernet points, terminating in a Netgear 48-port Switch within a cabinet in the loft that is protected via UPS Battery Backup.

I also use a FON Router at home to securely share a portion of my Broadband with anyone who cares to use it.

Bookmarks and Synchronisation

If I find an article that is of interest to me, but I don’t have time to read it there and then – I use Instapaper to save it for later.

If I come across the article on Twitter, I favourite it. My Twitter favourites automatically get added to my Diigo feed.

I use Diigo for all my Web-Browser bookmarks. A small Javascript bookmark (the Diigolet) button sits on my Firefox favourites, where I can tag bookmarks with easy to find Keywords for future use. I used to use Delicious for this, but then Yahoo threatened to pull it so I moved to Diigolet.

XMarks (formerly known as FoxMarks) is installed on my Mozilla Firefox browser on every PC I use. It synchronises my Web Browsing History, Cached Passwords and Open Tabs between different PC’s – thus making sure my browsing experience is uniform across PC’s.

I use Windows Live Mesh 2011 to sync important documents between my various PC’s, and DropBox when the Apple Mac-loving crowd want to exchange files with me. Both are great tools and just “work” to enable me to get on wherever I am.

Web Browsing

You’ve already worked out that I use Mozilla Firefox as my primary PC web-browser. I love the add-on’s it offers – including IETab 2, which allows me to load those annoying sites that insist on using Internet Explorer within Firefox. Other Add-On’s I use are

On my HTC HD2 device, running Windows Mobile 6.5, I use Opera Mobile 10.

Calendar/Contacts/Email/Tasks

I *live* in Microsoft Outlook. It is my trusted source for organising my personal and professional life. I heavily use Task Lists and I’m a big proponent of David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” (GTD) methodology for staying organised. On my PC’s I have Microsoft Outlook 2010 installed alongside GTD for Outlook.

I also use Outlook Notes, synchronised between my WinMo and PC, and every appointment (personal and business) goes in my Calendar.

I keep my work and personal e-mails separate though, and use GoogleMail for my personal mail (richard@tubbweb.co.uk). Every few months I’ll sync my Outlook Contacts with my Googlemail Contacts to keep the two up to date – I’d love to find a way of doing this automatically.

Microsoft BPOS is my hosted Exchange service. What can I say other than it’s reliable and it just works! Everything gets sync’d over the air to my PC’s and to my WinMo device.

I also use the Outlook Social Connector on my PC’s to get additional insight about what those who are writing to me are talking about.

Blogging

I use Windows Live Writer – a free tool from Microsoft and the best blogging tool I’ve come across.

I use the Zemanta plug-in for Live Writer to help create links, although I do find it a bit flaky.

This blog is hosted at WordPress.com.

As a blog article is published, it is automatically posted to Facebook by WordPress.com. I then manually create a short-link using Bit.ly and publish a link to the blog article to LinkedIn, Twitter, Google Buzz and occasionally, MySpace.

For leaving comments on blogs, I use a mixture of Disqus, Google Profile and OpenID. I much prefer being able to login using Twitter though.

Facebook

I use Facebook primarily for personal use, but have a lot of “business friends” on there too. I use Facebook lists to ensure the right people see the right content, and regularly browse Facebook a few times a day to keep up to date.

Keyword Listening

I use Google Alerts to keep posted on a variety of keywords, ranging from the vanity (my name and my URL) to business to local interest (“Weoley Castle”).

I also use SocialOomph to keep track of more business related keywords (“IT Support”, “Managed Service Provider”, clients names, etc)

Tweetdeck comes in handy again here for tracking #Hashtags during certain events – Conferences, etc.

Note Taking

I use OneNote, but I’m not as religious at using it as I’d like.

I carry an old fashioned pocket notebook with me most places, as I find it easier to scribble thoughts down during meetings – and it seems people don’t get offended when you write down notes using pen and paper, whereas typing on an electronic device can be misconstrued as a lack of interest in the meeting.

I heavily use SnagIt for grabbing screen pics and modifying them for use in blog articles.

I’ve already mentioned I use both Task Lists and Notes in Microsoft Outlook – and I do so across a variety of platforms all synchronised back to Outlook.

Spreadsheets, Word Processing, Presentations

It’s Microsoft Office 2010 all the way for me. Excel, Word and Powerpoint. I love the way they integrate into Windows Live Skydrive for collaboration.

I very rarely use Google Apps, but it’s occasionally useful for very small documents.

When I’ve produced content, such as a White Paper or presentation, it’ll get uploaded to Scribd for future reference.

Communications

As I work from home I use a Siemens Gigaset Dual-VoIP/POTS telephone in the home office. This allows me to have both my Business Telephone (hosted with VoIPfone.co.uk) and Home Telephone (Virgin Media) on the same line, and distinguish between incoming and outgoing calls on them.

To prevent my day getting constantly interrupted by British Gas, Virgin Media and other Telemarketers who ignore my registration with the Telephone Preference Service, I use a TrueCall device which has pretty much stopped nuisance calls dead.

On the Mobile Phone, I use MagiCall to undertake the same function – dropping calls from those who can’t take no for an answer from continuously interrupting me.

Instant Messaging is via Windows Live Messenger. I rarely use it for personal reasons anymore (Facebook chat has superseded that) but it’s a great tool for keeping in touch with my business contacts.

I use Skype heavily, both for International calls, calls when travelling and for Video calls. I’ve got a Microsoft LifeCam VX-3000 in use as a Webcam, and the ability to both see and be seen by my colleagues adds a authentic dimension to Skype calls.

I also use OoVoo for IM and Video Conferencing, and it works just fine – but I’ve seen no uptake on it outside one particular client.

For Technical Support for the family, and the occasional remote control I use LogMeIn. I’m warming to TeamViewer since it’s been acquired by GFI though.

Security

Once built, PC’s are backed up with ShadowProtect Desktop from StorageCraft. I can then wipe PC’s and start from a Base Image if needed.

Critical data from each of my PC’s is synchronised to another within the house using SyncBack SE. This data is often encrypted using TrueCrypt.

All data is also backed up to the NAS, and this data is in turn backed up to Mozy Home, Amazon Cloud Storage and iDrive as well as being burnt off to DVD-R once a quarter and stored in a Fireproof safe.

My Mobile Phone is backed up on a monthly basis by Sprite Backup, both to mini-SD Card and to the NAS. My mobile is also protected by Lookout Mobile Security, which as well as stopping nasty’s, backs up my SMS and other information to the Cloud and has some additional tools to protect against Theft or loss.

Every electronic device in the house is marked with UV pen, and registered on Immobilise – the UK National Property Register.

We also have a number of CCTV cameras around the exterior of the house which record footage to a Geovision Server. Reassuringly, all we ever seem to record is local Fox Cubs play-fighting on the lawn, and Spiders making webs across the lenses of cameras. Money well spent then.

On individual PC’s I use Microsoft Security Essentials, my pick of the Anti-Virus products.

All my passwords (which are unique for every site I use) are stored in KeePass, which is synchronised between my devices using Windows Live Mesh 2011.

Finally, my GoogleMail, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter are backed up by Backupify. Yes, I use a Cloud Service to backup Cloud Services.

Photos and Videos

I mentioned I use YouTube thanks to my Flip HD camera.

I upload just about every photograph ever to Flickr, both for sharing with friends and family, and to use as an on-line backup of my photo library. I rely on the tagging facility here.

I also use a lot of photographs from Flickr under the Creative Commons license, to drop into my blog articles and presentations.

Lots of photographs find their way onto Facebook too, especially from my Mobile Phone.

PhotoBucket is used when I’m uploading photographs solely for use on eBay listings. The ability to use PhotoBucket’s HTML facility is invaluable.

I use the Image Resizer Powertool and Paint.Net to edit photographs locally.

If I’m editing videos locally, I’ll use Windows Live Movie Maker. Free, and relatively powerful.

Entertainment

I use an aging Topfield TF5800 as a dual-tuner Freeview PVR. It runs a number of cool 3rd party apps that enable me to record the Television programmes I want.

This is attached to a Sony Bravia KDL-40W4500 Widescreen Television, a Sony Blu-Ray Player and a Sony ST8-DG820 Multi-Channel AV Receiver with what feels like a billion input and output sockets.

Also in the living room, we have a Nintendo Wii (which admittedly, I only seem to play Donkey Kong and Monopoly on) and an Xbox 360 which I use to play games on-line with friends on XBox Live. Attached to the XBox 360 is also a HD-DVD unit, which allows me to play DVD’s from the loser in the Blu-Ray –vs- HD-DVD format wars.

We won’t talk about my “retro gaming” room, which has everything from Atari’s to Commodores to Dreamcasts. That’s a blog post all of it’s own…

For home media, I run a D-Link DNS-320 NAS box with 2 x 2TB HDD’s mirrored. This stores nearly all of our Music CD’s, Podcasts and many movies and other videos.

All of our audio media is kept in a structured and tidy fashion thanks to MediaMonkey (Paid for edition) on a PC, and TwonkyServer on a server. I try to avoid the horrible iTunes wherever I can, be it’s sometimes necessary.

In the living room I also run as Acer Aspire R3610 with Windows 7 Home Edition installed. Thanks to CoreCodec this can play HD content from the network to the Television.

I’ve mentioned I’ve got an iPod Touch, which I use for Music. I also own a Microsoft Zune HD, which tends to get used for Podcasts in the car. The HTC HD2 also gets used for Podcasts when I’m walking.

We’re big fans of DAB Radio, so radios are scattered around the house (including a Roberts SolarDAB in the bathroom). One of my follies is a set of yacht speakers flush into the bathroom walls, fed by a Pinnacle Soundbridge HomeMusic wireless steaming device. It’s nice to listen to good music whilst soaking in the bath.

I listen to Spotify at home on the PC, but not too often, and only the free edition.

…

Phew! An extensive list, but there are probably others. I can see myself adding these over-time as people ask me about them – so feel free to ask me directly.

Now …how about adding yours in the comments below?

Looking at Managed Anti-Virus for MSP’s

Published on June 2, 2011 in Advice for MSP's. 0 Comments Tags: Annual Renewal, Anti-Virus, Autotask, Best of Breed, ConnectWise, Dashboard, GFI Max, Hound-Dog, Integration, IT, Kaseya, License, Managed Anti-Virus, Managed Services, MAV, MSP, Multi-Tenanted, Policies, Recurring Revenue, Remote Monitoring Management, Renewals, Reporting, RMM, Small Business, Smart Scan, Sunbelt, Trend, Vipre, Worry Free Business Security, Worry Free Remote Manager, xSP, Zenith Infotech.

Last year I gave a series of presentations to a number of SMB IT User Groups about my belief that one of the keys to growing a successful IT Managed Service Provider (MSP) is to move away from the “big bang” model, and to instead be looking for recurring revenue opportunities.

Never is this more apparent than with Anti-Virus products.

I know I’m not alone in saying that managing and maintaining Annual Anti-Virus renewals is a chore. You’ve got numerous problems, not least of which is the admin overhead of expanding the Anti-Virus (AV) license when a new workstation or user is added to a client’s network. Sending multiple invoices throughout the year with Pro-Rata costs for new licenses is a chore, and worse, if pro-rata *isn’t* available from your AV Vendor of choice, you’ve got a whole heap of licenses with different expiry dates to manage.

From a clients perspective, Annual AV renewals are a pain because they are inflexible. With the economic downturn of recent years, I’ve seen MSP clients who were reluctant to sign-off on an Anti-Virus renewal for x amount of licenses because their gut-feeling was that in 3 months time they’d actually only need x minus 3 licenses, due to reductions in staffing. As the MSP you get into that sticky situation where you’re chasing the client to renew their license renewal in order to keep their network safe, but the client themselves are in no hurry to sign off.

Then there is the fact that traditionally Anti-Virus Vendors offer juicy incentives to new clients to lure their business away from competitors. Your client approaches you to say he’s seen an offer for Anti-Virus that is half their current Anti-Virus renewal rate – and you have to spend time trying to persuade them to stick with the solution they’ve already got.

So it’s fair to say that Annual Anti-Virus contracts are typically are a chore, for both MSP and client.

Then there is the actual Anti-Virus product itself. Many products are not aimed at the MSP market. For years, AVG Anti-Virus was one of my MSP’s favourite products for the Small Business market, because it was aggressively priced and reliable. But as we added more and more MSP clients the reality struck us that we were doing a lot of remote administration across a variety of admin interfaces – very inefficient. Wasn’t there any way to administer all of these clients sites from a central console? With AVG, the answer was sadly no.

The Anti-Virus product any MSP chooses to work with nowadays should be fully multi-tenanted. In other words, you should be able to manage as many functions of the product as possible (starting virus scans, dis-infecting files, responding to alerts) from a single interface covering all your clients, rarely having to remotely connect to a clients server through Remote Desktop or a similar tool to perform functions.

So as an MSP you want a multi-tenanted Anti-Virus product that does not bill on an Annual basis.

The solution is a rolling Anti-Virus contract with an MSP aware AV Vendor. My own MSP moved away from annual renewals to monthly recurring contracts around two years ago, and life became much easier – both from a technical management and an administration perspective.

At that time we moved on to using Trend Worry Free Business Security under the Trend xSP model. Put simply, Trend provided us with a license code which enabled us to install to as many end-points as we chose, be they workstations, servers or machines that were off the main company network – very useful if the Managing Director or his family want their home computers covered and managed by their MSP!

Each month, we would bill the client for the number of licenses that they had used. If a client added or removed machines during a month, the number of licenses for the following month would be amended appropriately.

Once a Quarter, we reported back to Trend on the number of licenses we had used during that quarter – and paid our bill appropriately.

From our perspective as an MSP, we were never laying down cash for AV renewals on behalf of our clients because we’d already received payment from our client on a monthly basis. We didn’t have to pay the Vendor for their licenses until the end of a Quarter, we were much more efficient from an administrative perspective, and we made a tidy profit to boot.

I’m also a believer in the more line items you have on the monthly invoice you send to a client, the “stickier” you are likely to be with that client. Always be letting the client know the reality of the wide variety of work you do for them every month, to help them understand the value in your relationship with them.

From the clients perspective, they had the flexibility of only paying for what they used and as they paid monthly they didn’t have to suffer the “big bang” of annual Anti-Virus renewals.

What’s more, as an MSP working with a MSP savvy Vendor in Trend, we were given a single web interface (Trend Worry Free Remote Manager) that allowed us to be much more efficient about managing our client machines from a Technical perspective. From that web interface our engineers could respond to Virus alerts, remotely kick-off virus scans, amend AV engine settings and monitor the status of dozens of client sites from a single location.

The product wasn’t perfect, by any means. As an MSP we were not alone in becoming used to experiencing issues with Trend’s “Smart Scan” function which seemed to kill certain machines performance. There was still a need to remotely connect to clients servers to perform certain tasks which we’d have preferred to have completed centrally, and deployment still required work on the client site too. We’d also have liked the Anti-Virus reporting to have fed back to our PSA Tool (ConnectWise) to enable alerts to be managed through a single interface and reports to be delivered to our clients in a single uniform fashion – but these points aside, it was fair to say that Anti-Virus management with a Managed AV product such as Trend Worry Free Business Security was infinitely easier and more profitable than with traditional AV products.

Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to have a play GFI’s new Managed Anti-Virus offering – which integrates into their RMM tool, GFI Max.

GFI Managed Anti-Virus (MAV) has caused quite a stir in the MSP community since it’s release a few weeks ago, with lots of chatter on LinkedIn and Twitter about it.

The killer feature here is integration. If you’re an MSP running GFI Max as your Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) tool, that word “integration” is very significant!

GFI Managed AV is built on the Vipre Anti-Virus product, produced by Sunbelt Software. GFI acquired Sunbelt and the Vipre product in July 2010, and have been working on incorporating Vipre into their Managed Service Provider range since.

The product is priced aggressively, and MSP’s can bill their clients on a monthly basis for the product and receive payment from the client before GFI ask for their license payment.

Tracking license usage is very simple thanks to GFI Max’s strong reporting features. There’s no danger of an engineer deploying to a new workstation and your billing department forgetting to invoice – everything is automatically tracked.

From a technical perspective – rather than go over the features the GFI Managed Anti-Virus brings to the table, here’s a short video of the product that managed to sneak it’s way onto YouTube ahead of the actual product launch recently.

GFI Managed Anti-Virus

There are still some features that I’m sure MSP’s would very much like to see – for instance, there is rarely a MSP client who doesn’t already have an AV product installed, so a tool to automatically remove existing AV products before deploying MAV would be a boon. That said, many GFI Max users have already created scripts deployed through GFI Max to automate some of that process, and I understand the Developers at GFI are working on an official tool to achieve the same goal.

But the real benefits are seen in on-going management terms. Rather than you or your engineers having a separate interface to visit to manage AV (such as Trend Worry Free Remote Manager) they simply visit the GFI Max Dashboard and use the same familiar interface to deal with Virus Threat alerts, Scan Results and Virus Quarantine.

All issues and alerts are reported into this central dashboard, which means they can automatically get raised (and closed) as tickets within your PSA tool of choice – ConnectWise or Autotask.

The ability to set Anti-Virus Policies centrally is a time-saver, both in terms of setting up and the amount of on-going maintenance it minimises. I’ve seen many MSP’s who struggle to uniformly deploy AV using the same policies (such as directories to exclude from File Scans, etc). MAV uses a hierarchy similar to Active Directory, so you can amend policies at the Client, Server or Workstation level – but easily use a standard set of policies across multiple deployments.

The reason I’ve always personally been a very vocal raving fan of GFI Max is the simplicity of their products. As a very small MSP, there simply wasn’t time for me to take deep-dives into products before I started using them. As my MSP grew in size, I wanted engineers to hit the ground running rather than having to be extensively trained in a product. The GFI Max Dashboard is easy to learn and use, and now that ease of use has been made available for an Anti-Virus product too.

Whilst I’ve traditionally been a huge fan of “Best of Breed” for MSP’s when choosing products to deploy at their client sites, I’m rapidly warming to the idea of having many products within a single dashboard for the efficiencies it provides. What’s more, whilst I’ve no prior experience using Vipre as a stand-alone product so am still learning about it’s weaknesses, I’d be stunned if I found any other AV that was so much better than Vipre that I’d be persuaded to use it in preference to those integrated features we’ve covered.

If you’re an MSP using GFI Max as your RMM tool, then MAV is going to be a no-brainer for you to adopt. The benefits of having AV in the same interface your engineers are used to is the killer feature.

If you’re an MSP with no RMM tool currently in place, then MAV may persuade you to adopt GFI Max. You’re probably already frustrated with having multiple interfaces for all those different AV’s, and using MAV quickly kills that frustration off.

If you’re using a competing RMM tool such as Kaseya or Zenith Infotech which already has an AV bolted into to it, then you’re probably happy with it (and have invested a lot of time into getting it working as you like it) so I’d actually urge you not to check out GFI MAV for fear of becoming envious. Smile

The bottom line here is that if you’re an MSP or IT Support provider using a variety of Anti-Virus products across many client sites, typically on an Annual Renewal basis – then you’re probably not making life easy for yourself. Problems with billing, problems with administration, problems with maintenance.

Standardising on a product, especially one that is multi-tenanted and MSP friendly, brings many efficiency benefits and starts to help you to increase your recurring revenue stream.

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