Microsoft Windows SBS Product Line to be Retired

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Thanks mate – will have a read.

I’ve just setup a test O365 environment. Must admit the SSO and directory sync wasn’t as complicated as what I believed it to be – from what I readed I need a federation trust to get SSO working but I was able to do everything with Azure downloads. Is this a new development?

 

Slightly late – but thread bump it is.

Most of my predications have worked out – I only have a handful of SBSs left in production and I hope this will be almost zero by the end of the year. I have a few corporate customers to migrate so this might hold up the SBS work.

Anyways the hosted voice solutions didn’t get as much momentum as what I wanted over the past few years. I found that having to depend on third party support if there was issue to be a hassle – also updates were sometimes pushed out without any notification which would mean having to reboot phones etc.

Now selling software based PBXs with SIP trunks – as long as the SIP trunk is working then everything else can be managed internally. I did install a few hardware PBXs but building up various systems with voicemail cards, etc. is starting to feel very old.

Should be getting more security work this year – could not keep up with the demand last year and it was work I was promoting before all this nasty virus stuff got into the news. Going to try and get more Azure work in if I can as well. The first install will be the internal network so I can push some of the hosted servers to the cloud but still have a connection to the internal domain.

Anyways – will be back in 2020 to update!

 

A good update @Sparky so worth the wait. Do you have any other predictions on your mind at the moment mate? I predict AWS will continue to dominate the cloud world but that Google's offering will gain momentum in 2018. I'm sure you'll shed a tear for SBS mate, I remember you used to roll it out constantly when I first found CF

 

Yeah – will be strange not to have any SBSs out there. My first SBS migration was using the NT version to SBS 2003! The SBSs I have left do need migrated – bloated Exchange databases, zero disk space etc. so will be good to get a new solution in there.

Immediate predictions are for security work across hosted and cloud platforms – I can see this happening for the next couple of years at least. With GDPR being implemented in May companies will have to invest in IT security if they haven’t already.

I think you are right about AWS – it will be interesting to see if Googles cloud offering gathers momentum over the next few years. I was having a further look at Azure AD today – I have used this with Office 365 installs for SSO but I would like to start looking at removing some domain controllers from branch offices and having clients connect directly to Azure AD. With the cost of high speed internet connections coming down this does look like a viable option.

 

Ok so not 2020 as yet but thought I would update anyways.

Just migrated my final SBS to Office 365 last week – sad to see it go but things move on in IT as we all know.

I have been pushing no server solutions this year when customers have backed the idea – basically all on prem data\email to office 365 and management of endpoints done through a hosted VM. Pleased to say that this has been a success so far but it is weird not having AD I must admit.

Also for the customers that do have on prem servers I have scaled this way back and removed many servers at remote sites. Example being a legal firm running Server 2008 R2 DC\File\print servers at several remote sites – I managed to get all remote sites internet connections running FTTC so I basically ran a robocopy script (old school) to move the data shares back to head office and then I could remove all the kit from each server room. It really does help with remote support as each server room only has a switch and firewall in there now.

Predications for 2020? I think Exchange will start to scale back – I only have a few left in production and the consultancy work for Exchange is really starting to slow down now.

Security and Cloud (Azure\AWS) will be more and more in demand next year that’s for sure.

For anyone just starting out and looking for entry level certs I would recommend looking at a Windows 10 cert and Network+

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/md-101

https://www.comptia.org/certifications/network