EOL Notice: Windows Server 2012R2 – Oct 10, 2023

Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 will end on October 10, 2023. After this date, these products will no longer receive security updates, non-security updates, bug fixes, technical support, or online technical content updates. Microsoft has migration guidance for both cloud and on-premises solutions. Jan 3, 2023

This is a good time to sit down and take a look at how you are using your current server in your network environment. We are seeing many of our smaller clients that use a server primarily as a file storage device that provides a centralized access for all of their employees and we can make a very good case for replacing the server with some of the cloud services that you may already be using, specifically with the Microsoft Office 365 environment.

We have had great success in moving some of our clients from an on premise server to SharePoint Cloud with the Office 365 licensing environment. SharePoint is available if you have Office 365 Business Basic or Business Standard licensing. We would use Azure for your authentication of your users in place of your server so that we can set up the right controls for accessing SharePoint file structure. It takes a little forethought in designing the best control but this is all part of the services that we can provide you during the migration from your on premise server to a cloud SharePoint environment.

Be sure to give PAconnect a call to give you a free evaluation of what the best solution for you would be.

Thinking about creating a Media Server in your Home?

It is great to have all the information and entertainment that you want right at your fingertips on any device that you pick up and at the location that you currently are at. Is this plausible? Of course it is!

Gizmodo put together an interesting article on “How to Build an Ultimate Movie and Music Server” that provides the basic components that you need to consider in creating your own home system. Most of the people in our office have put together some kind of NAS (network attached storage) box that creates a a storage area for all your videos, photos and music. Most of us are also using a server application called plaques which has android Apple and many other clients that can be called upon to connect to your media storage server.

When putting together your NAS device make sure you take in consideration the amount of media that you are putting in the box. To be surprised how fast you can fill it up. There are some great suggestions in the article for the base components and some suggestions on what types of drives that you should use.

There are lots of ways to collect your media that always consider adhering to your local  copyright laws.

Other How To Articles:

• Put together a home media server - This Old Nerd
• Starting a Plex Media Server - Everything you need to know
• Mastering Your Plex Media Server
• YouTube search for other Plex Support

Choosing the Right Office 365 for SBS Server Customers

With the release of Server 2012 we no longer have a Small Business Server offering. We have sold a lot of this product in the past both in the Standard and Premium versions. This product was a real resource hog though but it gave big server features at a very reasonable price and this made it in many cases very desirable.

Microsoft has launched its new hosted Exchange product called Office 365 to help fill the gap this has left. The cloud suite, which features Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Lync Online, could provide an ideal upgrade path for Windows Small Business Server (SBS) customers. Exchange Server was one of the most often used features of Microsoft SBS product. The Server 2012 Essentials package will give you basic server function but has a few limitations. First there are no virtualization rights and second you are limited to a total of 25 clients. The pros are that it is optimized for cloud connectivity, has a simplified interface, is priced around $500 and comes with licensing for the 25 clients.

This is perfectly paired with one of the following: Hosted Exchange Online ($4/user/mo), Office 365 Small Business ($6/user/mo) or Office 365 Small Business 365 ($15/user/mo). So what are the differences?

	Hosted email (Exchange Online) Step up to enterprise-grade email that’s easy to manage and affordable	Office 365 Small Business Help your business thrive with web-based communication and productivity services	Office 365 Small Business Premium Work better virtually anywhere, at your desktop or on the go
	$4.00 user/ month	$6.00 user/ month	$15.00 user/ month
User maximum:	Unlimited	25 users	25 users
Office applications: Subscription to Office for up to 5 PCs/Macs per user.			Desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access, Publisher, and Lync.
Office Web Apps: Create and edit Office files via a web browser.	(View Attachments Only)	·	·
Office Mobile Apps:  Use Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on select mobile phones and tablets.			·
Hosted email: Get business-class email, shared calendars, 25 GB of storage space per user, and the ability to use your own domain name.	·	·	·
Web conferencing: Conduct meetings over the web with HD video conferencing, screen sharing, and instant messaging.		·	·
Public website: Market your business with a website that is easy to set up, using your own company domain name. No additional hosting fees.		·	·
Spam and malware protection: Premium anti-malware protection and anti-spam filtering.	·	·	·
Community and phone support: IT-level web support and 24/7 phone support for critical issues.	·	·	·
Guaranteed 99.9% uptime: Peace of mind that your services are available with a guaranteed 99.9% uptime, financially backed service level agreement (SLA)	·	·	·

This, of course, are not the only Office 365 choices available but is a great start when thinking about using the Server 2012 Essentials package in an entry level server installation. If you want a full copy of Office and all the functions of an enterprise company the Small Business Premium package would be a great deal for you. It not only includes the hosted Exchange system but also has Lync for system to system communication and last but not least you can install office on up to five of each user’s devices. So if you have some mobile warriors that need to be able to work at the office, home and on the road from all of the devices this might be a really good fit.

Windows Server 2012 Editions–Licensing Overview

Cut right from Microsoft’s site:

Licensing Overview

Windows Server 2012 delivers a dramatically simplified licensing experience. Shaped by feedback from customers and partners, the new Windows Server licensing approach will help make choosing the right Windows Server easier while delivering the following benefits.

Simple

It’s easier than ever to determine the right Windows Server edition for you. Choose from just four editions of Windows Server 2012, based on the size of your organization and your requirements for virtualization and cloud computing.

Economical

All editions of Windows Server 2012 deliver excellent economics and ROI for your business. For example, Datacenter edition with unlimited virtualization rights provides the benefits of cloud-level scale with predictable, lower costs. Standard edition now offers all of the same enterprise-class features as Datacenter and is differentiated only by virtualization rights.

Cloud-optimized

Businesses today are rapidly adopting a hybrid approach across private and public cloud computing. Windows Server 2012 offers the right edition for you, no matter where you are on your path to the cloud; Datacenter edition for highly virtualized cloud environments, Standard edition for lightly virtualized environments progressing toward cloud, or Essentials edition for an ideal cloud-connected first server.

Intel AppUp Small Business Service Video

Intel AppUp Small Business Service Video
Grow your business with the Intel Hybrid Cloud Services

Intel AppUp SmallBusiness Service-Top10 Reasons

Intel AppUp SmallBusiness Service-Top10 Reasons to jump on board

Flip the Switch Sales Video

Intel provided video describing how you can leverage the Intel Hybrid Cloud service and the Intel AppUp Small Business Service subscription model.

Intel Hybrid Cloud Technology–A new way to do networking in your business…

Cost has always been an issue when trying to implement the right technology into your business. Intel has developed a solution that will help you keep your equipment and software up to date as well as affordable. This solution will allow us as a Technology Support Company to provide you, our clients, with reliable equipment that is easy to maintain and support both on a hardware basis as well as the applications that let you run your business well.

This new equipment is a support tech’s dream with built-in management features that allow us to perform quick reliable remote assistance on your equipment. As your needs change, or as you add new users and equipment the licensing is simple and straight forward. This solution provides a 3 year refresh cycle that helps us provide you with up to date hardware and software and the right tools on a monthly subscription basis. You will have less worries about having the most current tools to allow you to be competitive in your business marketplace.

Intel is working with many of the leading software manufacturers to provide applications that fit in with the pay-as-you-go subscription model. This small business solution scales with your business growth so you only pay for the services that you use. You won’t have a high up front cost to purchase the software and if the usefulness of the application comes to an end all we have to do is turn it off and you will no longer be billed for it.

Intel describes the benefits of the AppUp Small Business Service as follows:

• Cloud-like flexibility. Customers consume IT software on a monthly basis without a high upfront fee. Cost scales with number of users, offering a predictable, manageable way to pay for software. You can adjust your monthly software costs as business conditions and the number of users change.
• Remotely manageable. With an MSP managing the server, you get focus on managing your business rather your customers’ servers.
• Data control. With an on-premises server, you can keep data on-site and within your control.
• Lower solutions cost. Run multiple applications and add new applications while paying only for what you use.

Application Categories include:

• Business Applications (intuit, Tally
• Healthcare Applications (gloStream
• Server O/S (Microsoft, SUSE Linux, Clear Center, Pragma Systems)
• Email/Collaboration/Instant Messaging (Workspace)
• Database (Apani)
• Firewall/Unified Threat Management (UTM) (Astaro, Asigra, GFI, SIOS)
• Back-up (StorageCraft, kineticROBOBAK, Vembu)
• Remote Management (Level Platforms, Lumension)
• Disaster Recovery
• VOIP-PBX (Fonality)

With all of the products and more becoming available weekly we are very excited about the affordability of this approach. Be sure to keep an eye on this blog to see more as we begin implementing this exciting new business solution!

Brochure

QNAP adds iOS streaming via WiFI and 3G

While this is the headline streaming through the technology blogs, QNAP (Quality Network Appliance Provider) has a great inventory of products to choose from for your network storage needs. While this announcement highlights some of the neat features in their latest home designed appliances that provide digital media streaming to more of your devices in your home, they are much, much more than a home media streaming company.

The QNAP TS-x12 Turbo NAS Product line provides an All-in-one NAS Server with iSCSI for SOHO and Home Users. The TS-412 appliance supports a 3-bay hot swappable  system with RAID 0/1/56/5+Hot Spare and JBOD. It also supports both 2.5” and 3.5” drives as well.

If you are looking for a repository for all of your Home Entertainment needs to share Photos, Music Movies and Videos, you can do worse than this device. With support for PS3, Xbox 360 or other network media players you will be able to stream full HD 1080p movies to your TV or Projector. You can even provide access to your digital media over the Internet by web browsers or iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or Android mobile devices.

Of course you will have file share and backup of all your network devices as with most NAS compatible devices. With DLNA and iTunes Server support.The NAS features high-speed data transfer of exceeding 70MB/s, fast enough to support multiple 1080p HD streams. The whisper-quiet design brings you the best cinema-grade home theater experience right in your living room.

QMobile is an application dedicated to iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Android users. You can view and play Terabytes of photos, music, and video files on the NAS by QMobile from anywhere regardless of the actual storage size of your mobile devices. You can also upload photos to QNAP NAS straightway from your iPhone for instant sharing.

If you are using a Surveillance system at home you can easily use this NAS device as a central storage area for your IP cameras. The Surveillance Station of QNAP NAS enables you to connect to multiple IP-based security cameras for real-time monitoring, recording, and playback. It supports leading network camera brands such as AXIS, D-Link, IPUX, LevelOne, Linksys, Panasonic, and VIVOTEK. By using particular models, you can use two-way video and audio monitoring and recording, and smart PTZ control to control the monitoring direction of the IP cameras by a web browser.

Versatility seems to be the watch word with these new devices by QNAP.

Signed On with NUUO Surveillance Solutions

Computer Connections has completed training and testing with NUUO a company that is dedicated to providing a stable and high-performance digital surveillance systems. Three key functions of any security surveillance solution are to provide setting and searching, guarding, and warning. NUUO's successful record of 13800 installation points in 60 countries, as well as its use by industries ranging from mass transit to education, as well as government projects, banks, hospitals, hotels, casinos, and enterprises all prove that NUUO solutions can make all three functions easy for end-users.

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How To Build an Awesome $500 Windows Home Server - Tested

It was a little convoluted path on how I got to this great technology website that has a wealth of information on it about, well, Technology. They have great How-To Videos and blog posts describing how to make technology items to add to your life, software that makes your products work better or smarter and general information about which is the best products to buy to meet the price/performance ratio best choice.

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Windows Server 2000 Reaches End of Support in July

Now is the time to start thinking about replacing that outdated Windows 2000 Server. July marks the date for support services of this version of Windows Server to be discontinued. Current Server Operating Systems offer so much more flexibility and function and you need the security that is part of the newer server opsys’s.

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Physical Memory Limits for Microsoft Server Operating Systems

Same reasons for as previous post. Here are the published memory limits for the different “current” Microsoft Server Operating Systems:

Physical Memory Limits in desktop operating system

I know this is old news but I just wanted to make this easily accessible for us to use as needed.