Category Archives: General

I’ve been awarded the 2016 Microsoft MVP Award

I received an email from Microsoft this morning, presenting me with the 2016 Microsoft MVP Award. This is the 7th time I have received this award. I’m glad that I have been able to make a difference in enhancing and enriching the IT experience for Small and Medium Businesses. Here is a snippet from the email.

MVP2016

Dear Boon Tee,

Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2016 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 Cloud and Datacenter Management 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.”

Patrick Malone
Director
Community & Advocacy Programs
Microsoft

 

Netgear Case Study on Wireless Infrastructure with ICHM

Netgear has published a case study on a recent project that PowerBiz Solutions completed with the International College of Hotel Management. Here’s the overview.

International College of Hotel Management overhauls campus wireless infrastructure with NETGEAR to significantly increase performance, reliability and student satisfaction.

The International College of Hotel Management (ICHM) is an educational facility in Adelaide, South Australia. Since 1992, and in partnership with the Swiss Hotel Association (SHA) and the South Australian Government, ICHM provide Australian and international students with access to business degrees specialising in hotel management. Students come from all over the world to participate in the globally recognised courses with graduates going on to work at all levels of management within the international hospitality and hotel industry. While studying, students are housed on campus, and have access to all of the college’s conveniences. While the school has always had a commitment in offering boarding students the best facilities possible while they pursue
their studies, its WiFi network was out-dated and unreliable. The IT infrastructure on campus was causing frustration amongst the students on campus as their demand for reliable wireless grew, and as such the college staff were regularly inundated with student complaints. After making the commitment to improve its on-campus amenities, Roger Stevens, ICHM’s Business Manager sought a system that would deliver a consistent and truly mobile wireless experience. To achieve this, ICHM approached PowerBiz Solutions, a leading computer/technology solution and managed services provider, to deliver a robust and integrated infrastructure while ensuring costs were kept under control.

You can download the whitepaper here – Netgear Wireless Infrastructure Whitepaper

I’ve been awarded as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for the 6th year

MVP Award 2015

Thanks to Microsoft for this award in the Windows Server for Small and Medium Business. I remain as passionate as ever about representing the small business community to be a bridge in helping Microsoft build better solutions in this area.

Here’s an excerpt from the notification email.

Dear Boon Tee,
Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2015 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 Windows Server for Small and Medium Business technical communities during the past year…

Join me on 30 Jan at the Adelaide MVP Community Camp 2015

I will be presenting a session titled “The Best of Both Worlds – Maximising Microsoft Technologies in Hybrid Deployments SMBs. The session is not just for IT Professionals. If you are a small business owner, there will be some great nuggets of information to take back to your business for further thought and planning with your IT provider.

You can register for the event here – https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032610275&Culture=en-AU&community=0

2014 Microsoft MVP Award

MVP_Horizontal_FullColor

I received an email overnight from Mike Hickman, Microsoft’s Director for Community Engagement, congratulating me on being presented with a 2014 Microsoft MVP Award in the Windows Server for Small and Medium Business expertise. The award is given to “award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others” 

I am honored to be receiving this award for the fifth year. It has been a privilege to represent the Small Business Community in this manner. I look forward to more engagement this year to better enhance the experience of the community in working with Microsoft products.

Disaster Recovery Planning for IT Pros

Here is a link to a blog series covering Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity. The series is presented by the USA based IT Pro Evangelists from Microsoft.

The topics covered are as follows:

  • INTRO TO SERIES: Disaster Recovery Planning for I.T. Pros
  • Disaster recovery for IT Pros: How to Plan, What are the considerations?
  • Value of Server Virtualization to Disaster Recovery Management.
  • How Hyper-v Replica can save the day
  • Create Backups of VMs in Windows Azure by using PowerShell
  • Cloud-based Backup and Restore for Windows Azure Virtual Machines
  • Is there value in testing your Disaster Recovery plan?
  • High Availability, Disaster Recovery, and Windows Azure
  • File Server Disaster Recovery to the cloud with Windows Azure
  • Desktop virtualization as a Work Area Recovery Option. How to set it up?
  • Windows Azure Hyper-V Recovery Manager (HRM)
  • Disaster Recovery Planning Checklist
  • Do I need an offline backup?
  • Planning for DR capacity with the Capacity Planner for Hyper-V Replica
  • Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity Series recap

You will find the series here – http://mythoughtsonit.com/2014/02/intro-to-series-disaster-recovery-planning-for-i-t-pros/

How to find your ideal business device – Small Business Selector

Intel has released a JPG infographic based on Manga characters showing how a small business user can make a decision on what kind of PC, laptop, tablet or device they should pick depending on their needs.

IntelSMBchoiceTeaser

The JPG can be viewed and downloaded here – http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/small-business/small-business-selector-tool-infographic.html

While you are at it, Intel has also put out some good articles and news information for small business owners. You can check them out here

Three new chapters for my book have been released

Today, I released three new chapters to my book, An Administrator’s Guide to Windows Server 2012 Essentials. The chapters cover the following topics.

  • Installing a Remote Desktop Services Server with Windows Server 2012 Essentials
  • Growing beyond 25 users with Windows Server 2012 Essentials
  • Virtualizing Windows Server 2012 Essentials on Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V

The chapters are free for registered purchasers of the book, or they can be purchased individually. You will find more information here at http://AdminGuide.ws2012e.us