2010: Server Upgrade Choices for the SMB

Many small to mid-range companies upgraded their server assets with the release of Windows Server 2003. The 2003 server was very popular and contributed to Microsoft retaining a 88% server market share, fending off Mac and Linux in this space for most of the decade.  However, as it’s now five years old, the 2003 R1 Server product is entering its extended support phase, meaning direct support costs from will go up and Microsoft will begin releasing only limited updates for licensing, compatibility, and new features.  Hardware warranties on this equipment have long expired, and many of the hard disks/arrays in these units will be reaching their MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure) ratings this year; their likelihood of crashing is much higher. So, small to mid-range businesses should soon be thinking about their strategy for retiring the legacy asset.

Surely, the state of economy will likely push these decisions out for another 12-18 months as business owners stay put with what they got and contend with larger problems. Analysts are seeing the results of fear and uncertainty when we look at the results of Microsoft’s last earnings report in June 2009: sales are down 17-percent from the previous quarter and profits are down 30-percent for the year. Okay, so you’re a small business: what are your options?

It used to be that I had only three answers to that question: one, do nothing – ride out the extended support period for the next five years and assume increasing risk of hardware failure; two, upgrade the existing platform and the operating system to the current o/s release; three, replace the server entirely. This year, I’m really happy to say that the small business has many more choices.

Windows Server Upgrade and Asset Replacement.

The default position for most will be upgrading or replacing their Windows Server 2003 with a Windows Server 2008 – whether or not they do it now, or, wait for Windows Server 2008 R2 scheduled to be released Q4 2010. Companies that would do this are tied to the Microsoft Windows product: software solutions they own are locally-installed apps that require a centralized server on their LAN to function, and they use Windows, and these companies are forced to upgrade to maintain support on those legacy applications. Or, maybe they’ll stay on the Windows platform because they know Microsoft and trust it. Either way, it’s the default choice.

Doing Nothing and Staying Put.

An alternative is to do nothing. I think a lot of SMB (small to mid-range business) consumers are going to stay with Windows 2003 for as long as possible; similar to what we’re likely to see with WindowsXP, Windows Server 2003 will be one of those microcomputer software products that will have an extreme, unheardof longevity encouraged by apathy for Microsoft’s licensing costs and complexity. Business owners will find no compelling functional reason to upgrade, may be risk-adverse with the economy the way it is, may distrust other choices presented to them, or simply have shallow pockets.

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Open Source.

The risk-tolerant SMB may look at the need for an in-house server because they have privacy concerns. They don’t want anybody else holding their files, mail, or mission-critical data; they want to hold this stuff close to their chest and mistrust cloud or hosting options. On the other hand, this consumer isn’t married to Microsoft: they just need a network appliance. Something that can perform backups and disaster recovery, centralize security, manage a database, file, and print services, and route email. Linux – particular the Ubuntu distribution – is a good choice here, either as an alternative to Windows with existing hardware, or an alternative o/s for a new machine. Up-front licensing costs would be much lower, and TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) would be comparable to a Windows Server. If the SMB is looking for a reliable appliance – just something that runs in the background and provides basic network services – and doesn’t have a dependency upon Windows in their application portfolio, Open Source is a credible option in 2010.

Private Hosting.

Some companies just can’t escape the need for a server – a Windows server or otherwise. They have mission-critical apps that are specific to their industry and they need to have that functionality. On the other hand, they don’t want to be saddled with the cost and expense of owning a server; they want to get out of “ownership” and into “rental” or “leasing”. They want to “rent” their capabilities, not “own” their capabilities, and cap their costs to a fixed-term, fixed-rate subscription expense that scales with their needs. Virtualization and terminal services make this option pretty attractive in terms of cost: some ROI projections see this as a 15-20% savings plus the added benefit of having your data and applications accessible anywhere you are, and, transferring the risk to a 2nd party.

Abandoning the Server – Cloud Computing.

Even more trendy is the fashionable idea of ditching the server entirely. Cloud computing is a more risk-tolerant model where we’d transfer your data and services to a 2nd party provider. Google, for example, could host and manage your email, your files, and information security and disaster recovery. The investment would be made in migrating the data away from servers to the 2nd party, then training and configuration expenses to get applications and devices to use the 2nd party. The ROI is fairly material: 30-50% savings as compared to owning your own server. Data is available anywhere, there are no licensing or up-front capital expenses (usage is billed by subscription, per-user), and the risk for managing your applications is transferred to the 2nd party provider. Again, instead of “owning” capability, the small business is “renting” capability, allowing for zero time to maturity and low barriers to entry – out of the gate, the small business can have the same technical capabilities as more mature competitors who paid a premium over the years developing their IT infrastructure.

So the small biz has a lot to consider over the next twelve months – especially if you tack on problems associated with workstation upgrades and Windows 7. Here’s a real chance, I think, for competitive advantage: business can either stay the course and own their assets, and pay a premium for similar services that their competitors can acquire at costs up to 50-percent lower; or, businesses can strategically adopt open, hosted, or cloud solutions that take advantage of mobile computing, low licensing and maintenance expenses, and risk transfer; or, the small biz can do nothing – stay put and hope for the best. I think, in today’s economy, staying put is exactly the opposite that somebody would want to do, and strategically-applying technology to dramatically reduce costs and liability… in some shape or fashion… would be the better option.

R

Living Outside the Box – Part Deux

Some of my readers might remember my experimentation with open source solutions back in February. My mission: identify and use open source products instead of common ISV (Independent Software Vendor) products from Microsoft. I wanted to try out the alternatives so I could talk about them honestly with students and clients.

So, in another post that’s just part of an on-going process, I’m going to outline what I’ve done to radically re-think my computing environment: living outside the box.

Workstation:

I reformatted my production machine and installed Ubuntu 9.04. Ubuntu is an open source (free) alternative to Microsoft Windows. Ubuntu installed in less than eighteen minutes and updated in seven; it identified every single one of my peripherals and automatically provided drivers. I was productive immediately. If I compared their installation times, Ubuntu installed six times faster than Windows Vista and even did a better job at providing drivers. It’s also performed cleanly with no reasons to shut it down, nor has the system stalled or suspended for any reason. The machine is more responsive than it was under Windows.

Software Applications:

Using Ubuntu has been a breeze because you’re able to receive software packages through an Add/Remove feature built in to the operating system. Ubuntu’s common distribution allowed me to quickly find and install tools, utilities, games, and Internet software that I need to do my job. All installed and uninstalled cleanly. A couple of applications of note that I found real useful:

• Twhirl: A great Twitter solution that installed cleanly on Ubuntu.
• Pidgin: An instant messaging application that interfaces with all major IM engines. So, I’ve got an instant messaging system that is a common interface for Google’s Talk and Yahoo!’s IM. Once it installs, it’s almost native to the Ubuntu o/s desktop, so it was a very seamless experience getting it installed and using it.
• Skype: The popular Internet phone service has a Linux distribution. It took minutes to get it installed and it configured easily with my mic and soundcard. A couple of clicks and I was signed in.
• Scanner Utility: A generic scanner tool, this thing recognized my USB flatbed scanner instantly and I was off to the races.
• Amarock and LastFM: I was familiar with both of these applications before I moved to Ubuntu, but it was a relatively painless experience getting these guys up and running for music.
• PDF Printer: Ubuntu has a PDF printing solution available in its software distribution. It installs a PDF-printer so you can output anything from the o/s to PDF. Pretty slick.
• VirtualBoxOSE: The open source version of VirtualBox that is received through the Ubuntu installation was pretty good at getting me started with installing a virtual machine for Windows – see below. Eventually, though, I ended up uninstalling it so I could install the latest parent version of VirtualBox.

Internet Browsing:

FireFox is a part of the Ubuntu distribution. I guess the only thing that I could complain about that is there’s a price for such a pleasant painless experience with Ubuntu. Its software distribution is governed by a “benevolent dictator” that doesn’t necessary feel compelled to rush out and distribute the latest and greatest FireFox (now in it’s 3.5 release), so I’m stuck in a lesser 3.12 release until it’s approved. If I felt gutsy, I could try decoupling this install and put in the 3.5 release on my own, but, eh: why push it? That’s the trade off you get for more or less guaranteed interoperability.

Productivity:

Ubuntu also ships with OpenOffice 3.1. It was able to open up my Microsoft Office 2003 and 2007 documents right away. I’ve also been able to open up student docs created in MsOffice, and exchange docs with colleagues and clients without complaint. Now, OpenOffice isn’t entirely seamless with MsOffice – there have been obvious (and sometimes problematic) results when opening up Word, PowerPoint, or Excel docs in OpenOffice. The interface is a little different and it’s been a chore to take on that learning curve.

Ubuntu’s native email client is Evolution. In order to get it to work the way that I want, I’ve had to install a couple of plug-ins, but what I’ve got now is a suitable Outlook replacement. It handles my three mail accounts and RSS feeds; I was able to import all of my Outlook *.pst files into Evolution so I have all of my former mail and mail history; it handles my Contacts in several contact folders/lists, my Calendars, and my Memos. Evolution has many similar features to Outlook like rules, filtering, and search capabilities. Again, a learning curve, but it’s been all-together a fairly pleasant experience.

Business:

I had to ditch QuickBooks because it doesn’t come in a release for Linux. So, I actually purchased an annual subscription to Intuit’s cloud computing product where I can access my QuickBooks stuff online. Unfortunately, I was dismayed to learn that the online product can only be used by FireFox or IE running on Windows… and there I was, thinking that I had cleverly solved that problem!

I also can’t avoid that I have to work with Microsoft Access. So, I had to install a virtual machine. The free virtual machine, VirtualBox from Sun Microsystems, was just released in its 3.0 edition and it had a number of fixes that allowed me to overcome some technical limitations with the OSE version distributed with Ubuntu. After some tech-head study and fixes, I was able to install the 3.0 version, and then installed three virtual machines: XP, Vista, and Windows 7 RC. Under the XP VM, I’ve installed Access, and I can toggle between that my Ubuntu desktop in real time. That also allowed me to access my QuickBooks account online. Getting the virtual machine to work the way that I wanted was probably the first real technical challenge to overcome.

Finally, along with that came the issue of my online lectures. One of my universities that I work with requires the use of Adobe Connect Pro/Breeze/Flash to deliver the lecture. What I found was that Flash incorrectly identified my mic by looking at the first soundcard in my driver list in the o/s, and it doesn’t allow to switch or pick from the available devices, so I couldn’t deliver my lectures on the Ubuntu system. I’m now playing with VirtualBox to see if I can’t pass through my mic that way… this was probably the second technical hurdle that I’ve had to toy with.

Music:

Listening to everyday music through Amarok is just fine. I was also able to get my iPod to sync against my music. Where I ran into trouble is play-back on iTunes-purchased music which is digitally-encoded and licensed to be read by the iTunes player. The Amarok player can’t read DLR-encoded *.m4a’s. My next technical problem will be learning how to strip that digital license away from my music so I can use it freely in Amarok.

Backup and Disaster Recovery:

Ubuntu was able to detect my personal UPS just fine, and provided an advanced power management dialog natively to manage it. I have to say that my next-next technical issue will be to setup backups: I’ve tried numerous products without success so far. It’s on my list of things to do!

Enterprise Architecture:

Earlier this year, I transferred all of my mail handling away from a hosted Exchange box to Google Apps for $50/year. That was 1/4 of what I was paying annually for the same service, and Google handles all of my antivirus and antispam filtering. Meanwhile, through using Evolution, I integrated my Calendars, Contacts, and Mail through Google Apps. What this means is that my mail folders, calendar and appointment events, my contacts, and all of my regular PIM information gets synchronized to Google in the background. That allows my iPhone then to hit Google for each of these functions and set them as the default Calendar, Mail, and Contact list. Instant, airless synchronization that I hadn’t been able to get with my Blackberry and couldn’t have gotten without investing in BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server).

Also, I was able to transition my web services away from IIS in favor of a LAMP configuration running WordPress; much thanks to my host and developer, Workshed, for that! I’ve been able to integrate my Google Docs, Analytics, and Adsense with WordPress and manage my website more like a configurable application, saving me oodles of time and money, and allowing me to concentrate on what really matters: generating content.

Summary:

So what we have here is a near complete abandonment of Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Live Messenger, Internet Explorer, QuickBooks, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Windows Server, and iTunes. I’ve been able to find reasonable alternatives that provide the same functionality and have, in my estimation, could have potentially saved me over $4,000 in commercial software licensing.

I have to say that the experience this year has also reinvigorated my passion for working with computers. Linux isn’t my strong point, and it’s taken me a little bit to learn what I can do with it, and it’s been exciting to be exposed to somthing new and to try to make it do what you want it to. Reminds me of when I was first exposed to DOS. It’s been a real kick in the pants! Further, though, I’m able to talk to students and clients alike now about legitimate, open source/cloud computing options that they have in comparison to commercial software.

R

Free

I wanted to take a few minutes this week to talk about a great book that just hit the shelves from one of my favorite contemporary business and technology authors, Chris Anderson, Editor at Wired Magazine. His latest book, “Free”, explores the business strategies behind digital media and explains how less is more. A lot more. And “Free” is, in fact, free: downloadable for squat on your iPhone with the Kindle App, or, on your Kindle.

Chris is the author of the best-seller The Long Tail which really clarified thinking on how new media was impacting distribution in the information age; I’d like to look at “Free” as “Long Tail: Part II” because it’s a continuation of Chris’ thinking in this area. What “Free” does is explore pieces of the past to explain the future. Chris contrasts how some of the more successful physical brands we know today got their start by encouraging customers to try products at no cost. He then explains through economic models how consumers are affected by the difference between charging zero to one-penny. All the while, Chris illustrates how both digital content and physical products/services are getting distributed for free, and how real money gets made by offering somethin’ for nothin’.

What I like about this book – as well as The Long Tail – is that Chris takes an informed-techie, economist, and businessman perspective on this writing and explains complex stuff in understandable ways. It’s a stressless read; it can appeal to a diversity of audiences. This book discusses the Internet, iPhone applications, piracy and the distribution of copyrighted media, the Open Source movement, the role of Search in the information age economy, and the extraordinary macroeconomic transformations that are taking place all over the globe that are pushing free. What he does well in this book is synthesize what we intuitively know and relates our assumptions to facts. He presents meaningful case studies that translates strategy into bucks. Instinctively, for example, we know that giving away a free book online is a loss-leader for Chris, but what is the value of free exposure to Chris in terms of future book sales, Wired subscriptions, speaker fees, consulting engagements, social networking, or being recognized as an authority in this space?  Where is the break-even point between free and critical mass that brings even more sales, more attention, and more readership? Chris helps explain this in “Free”.

In business, perspective is everything. Perspective allows us to see and act upon opportunities or to understand when to take corrective action. Perspective give us insight into consumer expectations. Perspective informs us on our investing and education strategy. What this book brings us is perspective on the evolving economy.  I’d highly recommend this book to anybody in the information business, or, whose industry is undergoing a transformation from physical distribution to electronic distribution. I’d also recommend this to the disintermediated and disenfranchised (those who’ve been the victim of layoffs because the consumer can now self-service their experiences online and no longer need a broker, agent, clerk, reporter, or delivery person to obtain a product or service), and to students, so that they might understand some underlying trends. And from my perspective, “Free” is invaluable.

R

Email (In)security

This week, one of my clients talked to me about a strange set of coincidences. When he was discussing a specific topic in email, the next day, the exact same topic/phrase came back to him in the form of spam email, and the next day, the same thing. In fact, he could see a common thread of activity: whenever he’d mention a few specific keywords, the next day he could count on some spam to be reflected back at him and dropped into his junk mail folder concerning the same topic.

And this is no coincidence. Email is inherently insecure. When it travels across the Internet to a destination server, it travels in plaintext: unencrypted and easily “sniffed” off of the network as it passes by. It doesn’t help matters that this client’s mail server – about a year ago, prior to my involvement with the firm – was compromised as a relay server: spammers figured out how to route bad mail across their server, and even though that capability has been disabled now, their server has been the interest of spammers ever since.

So what do you do? How can you make email more secure? Two ways:

1. Digital Encryption. Most mail clients, including Microsoft Outlook, allow for the installation of an encryption certificate. The cert is used to secure the contents of your mail as it moves across the Internet, as well as verify your identity as “authentic”, so the reader can have confidence that you really sent the email. You can enable this feature in Outlook from doing a Tools, Options, Security, and enabling the encryption options; you’ll need a digital cert first though, and there are a number of commercial providers out there. You can learn more about encrypting email in Outlook as well as how to secure a digital cert for use with Outlook.

2. 3rd Party Applications. Voltage is one application that I’m familiar with, as well as PGP (Pretty Good Privacy). These programs are installed on a Windows workstation and work with the email client to secure email as it leaves the PC. There are also a number of open source solutions that you might be interested in but their installations are technical and sometimes confusing to end-users.

There’s also a couple of ideas concerning web-based email systems. Sometimes, users will get the wrong impression about the security of their email when using Yahoo!, Gmail, Microsoft’s HotMail, or any other web-based email solution. The creation and transmission of the email to the host is secured through SSL (that little lock-thing in your browser that tells you communication is safe), so mail that is dropped to these services is secured as it’s being created and transmitted. It’s not, however, secured as it leaves their mail server and transmits to a destination. So, as it moves away from Gmail and to a destination server, the mail is just as much at risk.

Another good rule of thumb is simply not to send confidential information in email. Make a phone call instead, or, send an encrypted attachment like an encrypted *.pdf, or, send a fax, which is inherently secure. Try not to share anything in email that you wouldn’t want the public to overhear. Avoid transferring passwords and account information in email. Always keep in mind that you’re “talking” in a public place, and it’s relatively easy for somebody to eavesdrop and pick up on your conversation.

Finally, if you want more information on encryption and the vulnerability of email, here’s a book that’s a must-read: PGP & GPG: Email for the Practical Paranoid. It’s more of a technical book and definitely, I’d recommend it for students and technicians who’re interested in free, useful means of encrypting data and email on microcomputers. If you’re looking for an inexpensive means of learning more about a complex subject – along with some free, practical tools for application – this is a great book for you.

So, best wishes, and watch your emails.

R

The End of Work

Maybe I’m being too harsh with the title – perhaps “the evolution of work” would be better? Well, let me jump into the idea.

TIME Magazine’s May 25, 2009 cover story revealed the rapidly changing nature of the workplace. What was revealed was a stark contrast to how we’d perceive work today, and the story’s authors opined that the change would be quick, sudden, and nearly immediate; the most dramatic changes taking (at most) just a decade to come to fruition. Within ten years, TIME essentially postulated:

• Owning a building, cubicles, or any kind of physical facility would be too costly and anti-competitive; employers eager to take advantage of tax incentives and “go-green” mantras – even the inevitable rising cost of oil – will encourage telecommuting, decentralizing to district-sized remote offices closer to the suburbs, or outsource functions entirely to reduce footprint.
• Many workers will not have nor could expect a full time job from just one employer. Instead, workers will be self-governed contractors, freelancers, capable of engaging in knowledge-based work for anyone, and would therefore be in charge of self-marketing and promotion. One worker may work on contract for numerous of employees, or, for a placement agency that fills gaps for employers. Meanwhile, employees without the luxury of full-time employment, would self-manage their indirect benefits: pensions, retirement planning, medical and dental insurance… roles that have traditionally been filled by employers. Employers would embrace this idea because paying for indirect benefits and full-time labor for some levels of work is cost-prohibitive.
• The future is grayer – baby boomers will be financially unable to retire causing a bottleneck of Gen-X talent who’re reaching their management prime. Without guarantees for promotion or new responsibility, Gen-X may turn to more entrepreneurial ventures in this climate and start up nimble virtual organizations. Meanwhile, organizations will suffer a “brain-drain” of talent as Boomers and Gen-X’ers leave the organization or eventually retire.
• Compensation is less about money, and more about values. If you value time off, that could be part of the new compensation plan. Travel. Home-shoring. If you want more involvement with projects, or with non-profits to work for a cause, that could be your compensation. Money as a form of direct compensation will become less important.

What all of this points to is a re-design of employment; the end of work in the way that we know it. The United States is currently suffering its highest rate of unemployment in over a quarter century; this is by no accident. It is, I believe, part of the re-design. Many of the unemployed cannot expect to find a new job with an employer who is concentrating on being as productive or more with less. Employers will re-design work to remain competitive. Scarcity, and not abundance, will typify the next decade – perhaps even this century – and I think it should give today’s employer, student, and employee pause.

Is what you’re learning in secondary and post-secondary education training you to be independent, financially-savvy, a self-marketer, entreprenural, self-motivated, knowledge-based worker? This, I think, is questionable, particularly in secondary ed: we train students in high school to be good employees, and not good independent business folk, let alone a responsible consumer who can balance a checkbook.

Is what you’re doing right now prone to be disintermediated: replaced by technology or the subject of outsourcing? How are you providing value that goes beyond your functional worth to your company? To your customers? Question: what makes you indispensable? How are your skill sets and experience in working virtually, independently, self-directed, and a base understanding of technology to be valuable to employers in an age of scarcity?

If you’re an employer, how will your competitors leverage these ideas to gain cost advantages? How can you leverage employment both ways – even through hiring and incentives – to retain top-talent? How are you prepared to re-design your employment practices? In my line of speciality, how is your information system ready to cope with mobility, commuting, telepresence, and security?

In short, the changes made from the age of agriculture to the industrial age took a long time; even shorter was the transition from the industrial age to the information age. Now, I think we’re in for an extremely rapid economic and social transition from the age of information to the age of aggregation … it’ll be faster, hit harder, and be more competitively challenging for labor and for the owners of production than any other time in human history.

So the question is: are you prepared? Do you feel your employer is prepared? As a business owner, are you preparing to manage scarcity? As a student, how does what you’re learning today translate into valuable skills you’ll need in the upcoming workforce where full time employment is no longer guaranteed, but, a luxury? What would you want or need instead of money? What values do you have as it relates to indirect forms of compensation? How are our institutions prepared? Our economy? As always, your thoughts, feelings, and ideas are most welcome here – thanks for your time.

R