Small Biz Big IT

Paul Schnackenburg is a small business IT consultant, whose primary platform is MS Small Business Server. He is also a TAFE teacher and a writer. This combination means Paul can explain technology from real life professional experience. He'll talk about IT in the SMB space a fair bit, but he'll also digress into other topics such as cool, new technology or IT certification.

		The Writing is on the Wall The era of small business IT consultants may be drawing to a close thanks to fast broadband, cloud services, Net PCs and universal plug and play.
		Honey, I've virtualized the old business When one of my small business clients needed to keep an old legacy application going, we virtualized it on an old PC so that it would still be available.
		Windows Server 2008 R2 - the second coming? 'm just getting a handle on plain Windows Server 2008 and here is R2 on the way (currently in beta). Microsoft announced R2 at the Professional Developers Conference in LA.
		A hidden gem in Windows Server 2008 Group Policy Preferences, a centralised way of configuring logon scripts, editing registry keys and file settings is one of the hidden gems in WS2008.
		Hyper-V Server is here – the good, the bad and the ugly Microsoft's free standalone Hyper-V server has just been released, yet another weapon that Redmond is throwing into its battle for the virtualization space.
		Microsoft's slipstreaming misses obvious candidate Slipstreaming updates an OS image on the server, but Microsoft's announcement that IE8 can be slipstreamed begs the question: what about SP1?
		Internet Explorer 8 brings some real changes I wasn't that excited about Internet Explorer 8 until I had a look at a beta and realised major changes to the browser are afoot.
		How to check the security risks of your business IT Microsoft's free Security Assessment Tool is a good way to check whether your business IT is secure or not.
		Head in the clouds - small business's fatal attraction to cloud computing Many businesses are moving into the cloud, where someone else hosts their email, data and applications. But sometimes the cloud can disappear.
		Making the "local hero" your friend, not the enemy One thing is certain in Small business IT consulting, sooner or later you have to face the "local hero". This is the in-house IT person working at your small business client.
		Dealing with Sharepoint infestations Are Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) installations spreading uncontrollably in your network? Here is what you do.
		Becoming a Managed Service Provider MSP stands for Managed Service Provider. This seems to me to be as pivotal a shift as when we went from command line to GUI operating systems.

Paul's Internet links

• SBS Down Under