Microservers: are you watching?

Written by Dave Sobel

Have you thought about the idea of Microservers?

With all the emphasis on "Cloud Cloud Cloud", the idea is to minimize as much on premise hardware as possible.    Do you truly need hardware on premise?    Many, many times, the answer is becoming no.

The answer isn't ALWAYS no, however.    Sometimes, there is a need to do deliver a solution that has an on premise component. If your idea is to minimize that by using Cloud Services, how do you solve the dilemma?   How do you deliver something that is on premise without sacrificing all that you have built up in Cloud Services?

Microservers are designed to address this.   We want a minimal solution on premise, but that doesn't mean we want to cut corners.   Minimal doesn't mean no features -- it just means only the right amount of features.   A microserver is just that.  The idea is a low power, low usage server that still included redundancy, particularly of the harddrives.  Wikipedia has a great article on the topic.

A small, server appliance, typically "headless" can be the on-premise piece of the equation for those customers that need it.     And, before you start thinking the best idea is to just sell them, they can be delivered as a service.   Karl has talked extensively about the idea of Hardware as a Service.    This can easily be thought of as a "private" or "on premise" cloud... and microservers deliver this very effectively.

Are you talking with your hardware partners?   Have you asked about microservers?

Aurora: What it means for you, and what to do now

Last Updated on Thursday, 29 July 2010 08:50 Written by Dave Sobel

Since I just got back and am almost caught up on action items coming out of Microsoft's Worldwide Partner conference, I had some notes and thoughts for those involved in Cloud Services to consider.

If you don't know what Aurora is, Aaron Booker with Varvid.tv and I sat down to talk about it. It's not a long video.  Go watch.   I'll be here when you're done.

Aurora builds upon the idea that technologies like Windows Home Server can be used very effectively in the business world, but that security and management are important to create a service offering in a small to medium sized business.    I'm a big believer in this product, as it is a bridge to the cloud, and positions the service provider as the perfect bridgekeeper.

One of the big customer issues with "the cloud" is the need for a line of business application that is designed to work on premise.  Karl has done a great job outlining his approach to delivering a comprehensive cloud service, but the missing link is often how to address this need.  Aurora, by providing the Windows Server 2008 R2 base, combined with Active Directory, offers the ability to place the line of business application within the local area network.

The management and integration make Aurora the perfect option to link your cloud services to your customer, and can serve as the integration point between those services and the customer's on premise needs.

I'm sure you're looking to get a copy of the code, and I encourage you to sign up for the Beta, which is coming out soon.  Now, before you think you're done and need to just wait for the beta, it's time to do something else.

How many cloud providers are you working with now?  Someone for hosted Exchange, hosted Sharepoint, offsite storage, offsite backup, spam controls... the list goes on and on, right?   Now, how many of them integrate to Aurora?

This is the time to start talking to your cloud providers and find out which ones will be well positioned to use the new platform.   If they aren't ready, find out why.  Ask them to start integrating.   There is an SDK they can use to learn about Aurora, and integrate their solution to the platform.  This preparation will pay off -- not only will you be learning the platform during the beta period, but you'll want to know which solutions you can add to the platform to take it to market.

Are you getting ready for Aurora?

First Post: An Introduction by Dave Sobel

Written by Dave Sobel

Greetings to the cloud-based and SMB community.   At the recent IT Pro conference in New Orleans, Karl and I discussed getting involved with the CSR, and I gladly signed up.

For those who don't know me, my name is Dave Sobel, and I'm CEO of Evolve Technologies and SMB Virtualization.  Evolve is based in Fairfax, VA, and we server small to medium sized customers in the Washington DC metro area.   Evolve employs about 10 people in the DC area, serving customers as small as 3 people and as large as 150.   I've been in the IT industry for about 16 years now, doing work from supporting networks to designing security solutions for Fortune 500 companies, with a variety in between.  I've been focused on the SMB space for about 8 years now. We embraced virtualization about 5 years ago, and the cloud over 4 years ago.    Evolve hasn't had any on premise servers in about three years, and for the past twelve months or so we haven't owned a single piece of server gear for our production environment.

I'm the author of "Virtualization: Defined.  A Primer for the SMB Consultant", co-created a DVD/CD training set with Karl on virtualization, wrote a chapter in Powerful Ideas for Partners from Peers,  and I'm a frequent contributor to Channel Insider and CRN.   I serve on TechTarget's virtualization advisory council, and am a Microsoft MVP for Virtualization.    I write a blog at www.smbvirtualization.net on Virtualization and another on the industry.   I've spoken at numerous conferences, including Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference, SMB Nation, SMB Summit, IT Pro Conference, HTG Summit and several other industry and customer facing events, as well as user groups and webinars.    I'm an active member in the IT community, and a member of the HTG5 peer group and facilitator for HTG11, based in the UK and Ireland.  I've been the moderator for the Yahoo group "SMBVirtualization" as well.

I like to approach IT from an "enterprise" perspective, bringing the best of an enterprise approach to IT to the SMB.   I combine that with a healthy dose of business, and try and present some perspective on bringing the two together.   I hope to bring my insights and thoughts on how we deliver cloud services and how they can best be delivered to our customers.

I welcome questions, trying to engage this into a conversation rather than a lecture.  I'm at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Glad to be joining on this cloud journey!

Welcome to the Cloud Services Roundtable Blog!

Written by Karl W. Palachuk

• The Network Documentation Workbook (now an ebook)
• The Network Migration Workbook: Zero Downtime Migration Strategies for Microsoft Networks (with my brother Manuel)
• Managed Services in a Month
• The Super-Good Project Planner for Technical Consultants
• Service Agreements for SMB Consultants: A Quick-Start Guide to Managed Services
• SAN Primer for SMB with Harry Brelsford with Ryan J. Klein
• Relax Focus Succeed® A Guide to Balancing Your Personal and Professional Lives and Being More Successful in Both
• And I am the editor of a handful of other books