tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22311364.post2698741997050390507..comments2024-03-29T02:13:29.411-07:00Comments on Small Biz Thoughts by Karl W. Palachuk: Azure May Not Be Right for Your Small Business ClientsKarl W. Palachukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10854725002875547297noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22311364.post-34829979621408827822017-01-09T07:10:43.016-08:002017-01-09T07:10:43.016-08:00Duh, one has to just click the ...MORE! link at th...Duh, one has to just click the ...MORE! link at the bottom of the tour list, stupid users... :-)Schyler Joneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02584322058990640603noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22311364.post-23819352578953653282017-01-09T07:08:46.411-08:002017-01-09T07:08:46.411-08:00Hey Karl, I do agree that to throw all of ours and...Hey Karl, I do agree that to throw all of ours and our clients eggs in one basket is dangerous. Cool as a lot of the Azure capabilities might be, none of these vendors care about us as partners, and really they don't care about clients. It's about profit of course, and if some component of Azure (or any cloud service) that we've hooked our clients on is unprofitable, then Microsoft will think nothing of pulling the plug. Anyway, not to digress or suggest cloud is bad, it is the way of the future but your point is spot on - different situations (and clients) require different approaches.<br /><br />Meanwhile, I hope to attend a Road Show - anything planned for the northeast? Hmmm, with the temp here in the single digits maybe a February visit to Miami is worth considering, lol. Anyway, question about the Cloud Pack 5 - does it include on-site work (e.g. customer's PC fails to boot into Windows, or for whatever reason remote access is not possible)? Schyler Joneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02584322058990640603noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22311364.post-45367128758568020532017-01-09T04:48:15.366-08:002017-01-09T04:48:15.366-08:00There are several options. The easiest is probably...There are several options. The easiest is probably Robocopy. During synchronizing, you can run it during specified off-hours and let it have 20 threads. Just make sure it's finished emptying the cache by the time everyone gets to work in the morning. <br /><br />After everything is synched, you can run it once a day around 11PM. You'll be amazed at how few files actually change in a day (a few hundred) for a ten-user office.<br /><br />Set up the Robocopy job to spit out a log file and check it from time to time to make sure it's doing its job. I do it daily, same as any other backup. My batch file includes time and date stamps at the beginning and end of the job.Karl W. Palachukhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10854725002875547297noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22311364.post-10749572782915036172017-01-08T20:06:21.810-08:002017-01-08T20:06:21.810-08:00What is your method for backing up the Jungle disk...What is your method for backing up the Jungle disk to the 'server-lite' option you offer in the cloud 5 packs?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06555730822104928112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22311364.post-86365690825879971272017-01-06T16:38:25.260-08:002017-01-06T16:38:25.260-08:00Seems to me, my friend, that you assume there'...Seems to me, my friend, that you assume there's a guaranteed future with Microsoft. Having gone through twenty years of MS partnership, many of us don't see that future as a given. In fact, I think it's quite legitimate to assume that Microsoft will take our clients and leave us out of the equation at every opportunity.<br /><br />If you and I take these positions to their extreme, most partners are within one standard deviation of the mean. So it's certainly not a "given" that they should embrace the all-Microsoft-centric position. After all, you can't argue that MS cares a whit whether my business lives or dies. But to me it means everything.<br /><br />Note, also, that I'm selling Microsoft Exchange mailboxes licenses (through Intermedia, Appriver, etc.), plus O365 (through Intermedia, Appriver, etc.), plus active directory (through Intermedia, Appriver, etc.). I could be using the Azure storage, but I consider it far more difficult to deploy and administer than many other solutions. <br /><br />Bottom line: Microsoft is getting their license revenue. But as the reseller implementer of these solutions, I'm making a huge profit and I can quickly switch to other solutions if need be. <br /><br />My two cents.Karl W. Palachukhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10854725002875547297noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22311364.post-79830589755363417082017-01-06T16:14:03.528-08:002017-01-06T16:14:03.528-08:00Agreed but to me the premise appeared to be that y...Agreed but to me the premise appeared to be that you 'shouldn't' rather than you 'couldn't'. That maybe my failure in translation given the funny way you people interpret the Queen's English.<br /><br />However, I will also stand by my point of the solution you are talking about is simply solving it for today. What happens when the customer wants to grow. Being proactive and moving to Azure is going to provide far more flexibility as well as the opportunity to up sell services. An IT provider's job is to provide the best possible solution for a customer now and into the future based on their experience.<br /><br />So sure, you can do the solution without Azure VM's but I still contend the you really should be consider the solution with Azure, even if you don't do VMs as the opportunity is simply so massive and benefits are so huge.<br /><br />My experience is that most resellers are trying their best to avoid Azure rather than actually embrace it. It really should be your first option for customers already on the Microsoft platform, for so many reasons. To my mind, why would you really consider services that can be offered already in the one MS cloud? More vendors doesn't mean more profit, it means more headaches. Director CIAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02081999248380689857noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22311364.post-6726665330081182252017-01-06T05:08:43.627-08:002017-01-06T05:08:43.627-08:00Thanks for the comment, Robert!
I'm not sayin...Thanks for the comment, Robert!<br /><br />I'm not saying that Azure is never the right answer, or that it's not the right answer for some technicians.<br /><br />But the question started with an assumption that cloud = Azure. I wanted to show how one might build a great cloud offering without it. <br /><br />For the client proposed here, Office 365 will be used, and the Azure file storage might be the cloud storage used. This client doesn't need VMs. And, again, pretty much everyone who resells O356 also offers active directory.<br /><br />You could do a lot with Azure. But you can also do a lot without.Karl W. Palachukhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10854725002875547297noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22311364.post-40137594153785792412017-01-05T15:07:13.137-08:002017-01-05T15:07:13.137-08:00I would suggest that not looking at Azure is in fa...I would suggest that not looking at Azure is in fact playing the short game. Azure is far more than merely VMs. You get Azure with all Office 365 tenants. From there you can certainly add VMs but you can also add data backup, file storage, advanced rights management and more.<br /><br />An Azure/Office 365 combination will give users a single identity to access everything. It provides the reseller the opportunity to not only sell products like Azure and Office 365 licensing but gives them the opportunity to easily up sell products like the Enterprise Mobility Suite, Microsoft InTune, Azure AD Premium and so on. Azure and Office 365 are the products that keep on giving for resellers.<br /><br />So not looking at an Azure solution is simply playing the short game and taking the small up front revenue I believe. Playing the long game and developing Azure products and services provides the opportunity for long term revenue via fully integrated identity and services from a single supplier.<br /><br />The main reason resellers shy away from Azure is that they don't understand what Azure actually is capable of. And best of all with Azure and Office 365? You can script THE LOT and automate everything! That's when you really start being cloud smart, when you use software to do all the hard work.Director CIAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02081999248380689857noreply@blogger.com