This just in…
This is my 8th Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award (2008-2015).
Here’s a copy of the 2015 Executive Recognition Letter:
Microsoft, thank you very much for this award!
MVP Award for 2014
I got a nice email from the friendly folks at Microsoft yesterday:
This is my 7th Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award (2008-2014).
Here’s a copy of the Executive Recognition Letter:
Thanks Microsoft, and I’d especially like to thank my MVP Lead, Michelle Campbell for her hard work and dedication to the community. You rock!
Windows Storage Spaces 2012 R2 Resources
Tonight (Wed 12/18/2013) I had the privilege of giving my talk on
“Performance Benchmarking in Storage Spaces 2012 R2” for the
Cincinnati Networking Professionals Association (CiNPA).
For those who attended, and those interested in Storage Spaces, here are the resource links mentioned during the presentation:
Video – Storage Spaces: What’s New in Windows Server 2012 R2
http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2013/MDC-B218 
Blog – Step-By-Step: Deploy Hyper-V on SMB 3.0
http://blogs.technet.com/b/canitpro/archive/2013/12/18/step-by-step-deploy-hyper-v-on-smb-3-0.aspx 
Download – Iometer
http://iometer.org/doc/downloads.html 
eBay – Dell PowerEdge C1100 (2 proc, quad core, 24 GB, 1U) for $335
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Poweredge-C1100-1U-2X-XEON-QC-L5520-2-26GHZ-NO-HDD-24GB-DDR3-Tested-/261199263261 
Blog – Step-by-step for Storage Spaces Tiering in Server 2012 R2
http://blogs.technet.com/b/josebda/archive/2013/08/28/step-by-step-for-storage-spaces-tiering-in-windows-server-2012-r2.aspx 
Training – Free MVA Networking Fundamentals course
http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/training-courses/networking-fundamentals 
Training – Free MVA Windows Server 2012: Storage
http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/training-courses/windows-server-2012-storage 
Training – Free MVA Windows Server 2012 R2 Storage Jump Start: New Choices
http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/training-courses/windows-server2012-r2-storage-jump-start-new-choices 
Video – Using Microsoft Visio 2013 for Network Documentation (Parts 1-3)
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHNEDoncMGU
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVGtlkcR71I
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-odeJEtQ-U
Misc – My Pinterest #Bacon Collection
http://www.pinterest.com/timbarrett/insane-bacon-stuff/ 
Free eBook – Secrets of PowerShell Remoting
Title: Secrets of PowerShell Remoting
Author: Don Jones with Tobias Weltner and Dave Wyatt
Publisher: PowerShell.org
Published: Nov 2013
Pages: 92
PDF: SecretsOfPowerShellRemoting.docx
Size: 6.58 MB
Price: FREE
Download URL: Click here for download
DESCRIPTION
The authors set out to write this guide because they were getting a lot of questions about some of the trickier bits of PowerShell Remoting, and wanted to provide an authoritative resource for people seeking to configure Remoting properly for a variety of situations. The guide was started by Don Jones, and Tobias Weltner came aboard to provide a great deal of additional material and improvements. Along the way, numerous members of the PowerShell community contributed their expertise as technical reviewers, suggested additional content to include, and so forth – truly making this a collaborative, group effort.
This eBook is updated so check the download URL above from time-to-time to check for newer / updated versions.
Also, other free eBooks from PowerShell.org can be found here:
http://powershell.org/wp/newsletter/
- Secrets of PowerShell Remoting
- Creating HTML Reports in PowerShell
- The Big Book of PowerShell Gotchas
- Making Historical and Trend Reports in PowerShell
- The Community Book of PowerShell Practices
If you really want to follow what’s going on in the PowerShell community, check out the PowerShell.org and following Don Jones on Twitter: @concentrateddon
Blast From The Past – Microsoft MVP Summit 2012
While online today, I finally found a copy of the Microsoft MVP Summit 2012 group picture taken at the Seahawks stadium in Seattle:
Nick and I got seats early to intentionally sit down while everyone else was standing up acting crazy.
Sitting still must have taken quite a bit of restraint for Nick…
…considering how he acted the rest of the Summit.
An MVP By Any Other Name
The last 12 months have seen some pretty major changes at Microsoft (which I won’t rehash) and the changes continue:
“Effective July 17th, 2013, the technical expertise Small Business Server will be renamed to Windows Server for Small and Medium Business. Please note this is a MVP Program expertise change only and has no impact within the product team structure.”
(Excerpt of an email from my MVP Lead – quoted with permission).
So, is that only a name change?
I don’t think so.
Here’s why.
Everybody who keeps an eye on Microsoft knows they’ve been spending gobs of money to try and get education out to the Partners.
Examples:
- Microsoft Virtual Academy – Over 100 courses
http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com - TechNet Virtual Labs – Nearly 300 virtual labs with pre-built VMs
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/virtuallabs - Channel 9 – Over 1,000 videos of live tech events
http://channel9.msdn.com/Browse/Events?sort=recent - Early Experts Certification Self / Group Study Materials
http://earlyexperts.net
That’s just to name a few resources, and there are plenty more on the way. And all of those resources above are FREE.
What’s my point?
I’m not saying that Small Business is going away, but I am saying that with the amount of resources Microsoft is making available the Medium Business is more approachable than ever for the SMB folks. You have to adapt your skillset and your mindset. The medium business tools can be used for both small and medium businesses. In fact, that was the original intent behind SBS!
Look back in time to when SBS was born. Internet wasn’t mainstream yet. ISDN was expensive. Nobody had smartphones or tablets. Everything has changed. And it will continue to change, probably even faster than it has before.
To borrow a quote from the movie Hanna, “Adapt or die.”
Yes, that’s harsh. But ignoring the truth, the reality of the market and product set we now work with, the new opportunities and threats from a financial and security standpoint – it’s a recipe for disaster.
My recommendations to you, gentle reader:
- Learn PowerShell – It’s your friend
http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/liveevents/PowerShell-JumpStart - Learn about the cloud offerings (Office 365 & Azure) and how to deploy them
- Learn about Windows Server 2012 & 2012 R2 Preview
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/virtuallabs/bb512925
Bottom Line: On-premise is far from dead. But if you don’t continually fill your technical gas tank with proper business coaching, someone else who’s in a position to deploy the new technology might just end up driving away with your customer.
KYSBSUG May 2013 Meeting – Hyper-V Replica
The votes are in, and the topic has been decided by you.
Mark your calendars for this week
Date: Thu May 9, 2013
Time: 6:30 PM Eastern – 8:30 PM Eastern
Venue: Money Concepts
Address: 323 Townepark Circle, Louisville, KY 40243
Topic: Hyper-V Replica in Windows Server 2012
Presenter: Tim Barrett
Description: This month we’ll show how to setup Hyper-V Replica in Windows Server 2012 and we’ll show Hyper-V replica in action.
Registration: Registration for this event is NOT required.
Voting – May 2013 KYSBSUG Meeting
There are some really cool features in Windows Server 2012, almost too many to choose from.
We’d like the group to vote on which topic YOU would like to see presented at the next KYSBSUG meeting in May 2013 in Louisville, Kentucky USA.
Here are the topics:
- Hyper-V Replica
- Hyper-V Over SMB
- Hyper-V Shared Nothing Live Migration
- Windows Server 2012 Storage Spaces
If you would like to attend this meeting in person in May 2013, please cast your vote via this quick survey (no login or email address required):
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RP9MYPF
Microsoft MVPv6
I got a nice email from Microsoft on Tue Jan 1, 2013:
Dear Tim Barrett,
Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2013 Microsoft® MVP Award! This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in Small Business Server technical communities during the past year.
The Microsoft MVP Award provides us the unique opportunity to celebrate and honor your significant contributions and say "Thank you for your technical leadership."
Mike Hickman
Director
Community Engagement
Microsoft
This marks my sixth year receiving the MVP Award (2008-2013) and I certainly don’t deserve it (just ask Rob Pearman, he can vouch for that ;-).
Thanks Microsoft! And a special thanks goes to Michelle Campbell, my MVP Lead! I really look forward to 2013 – it should be quite an interesting year.
Free Exam 70-410 Study Group in Louisville
In cooperation with Keith Mayer (from Microsoft) we’ve just announced a FREE study group for the first exam (of three) in the MCSA 2012 certification track.
Registration is open now for folks in the central Kentucky and Southern Indiana area who would like to attend.
But you need to hurry – registration closes on Wed Oct 17, 2012!
Details can be found here: