This was a great meeting I was sorry to have to end it at 9:00, but both Scott and Steve were both caught in the parking lot a post meeting Q&A.

At Our October 2008 Meeting

I was not able to attend the October meeting. I was slaving away on the west coast, but Scott, our fearless co-leader was there bright eyed and bushy tailed.

Scott held an open session, for the unusually lightly attended meeting. Rumor has it that it was a really good meeting for those who attended; they actually got thrown out because they ran so far over time the restaurant folks wanted to go home :>) JR also reported on SMB Nation, he felt it was getting too large (my view also) and that the content had swung too far towards sales, he thought it need more tech content. Well there is no such thing as too much tech for HA :>)

 Fire Mountain Family Steakhouse 1180 S. Main Street, Kernersville, 27284, 336-996-0456 

Keep an eye on our website at www.tSBSg.org for updates

At Our September 2008 Meeting

At Our August 2008 Meeting

Here is a bit about the presenters and the presentation
Dr. Lawrence Teo, Founder and VP Development, and Ben Yarbrough, CEO, of Calyptix Security will address how to evaluate all-in-one security appliances with particular focus on strategies for transitioning into or growing managed services.  Dr. Teo, inventor of the AccessEnforcer, will provide unique insight into the world of network security solutions.  Calypitx Security, based in Charlotte, NC,  will also offer you a rare opportunity for unprecedented direct input into product development and its "go-to-market" strategy.  If you are interested in learning about a network control and security solution purpose built for the SMB market through the SBS channel, this is your chance to have your voice heard and tell Calyptix how to get it right. 

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At Our April 2008 Meeting

Fire Mountain Family Steakhouse 1180 S. Main Street, Kernersville, 27284, 336-996-0456 

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At Our March 2008 Meeting

We had the long awaited Symantec presentation. Scott McClung is responsible for the Carolinas midmarket territory for Symantec.  He explained the new focus Symantec launched on sub-1,000 employee customers in April to meet the growing needs from the customers and partners that represent this very large market segment.  They have enhanced the partner and customer experience in this space with additional tools, focusing on the message of "complete Windows protection", and by adding local and inside teams to support the midmarket.  He also went over the Symantec EndPoint Protection Suite, BackUp Exec and the new partnering opportunities with Symantec.

A bit about Scott in his own words, "I've been with Symantec (started with Veritas) for nearly 7 years now and moved to Charlotte to take this role in June of last year.  I'm certainly excited to help you and your colleagues learn what we're doing to help you better help your customers and I look forward to the 4th!"

Scott and Symantec were nice enough to buy Din Din for us, fulfilling  both our appetite for food as well as our appetite for knowledge.

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At Our February 2008 Meeting

In February we had a good round table discussion and then I was able to share some of what I learned in Chicago at the boot camp put on by Intel featuring their new Intel Modular Server Platform. Everyone was intrigued with this new product, I wish I could have had one to demo there instead of just the pictures from the marketing DVD they gave us.

This is some really cool technology and in my mind a natural fit for the upcoming release from Microsoft called Windows Essential Business Server which needs a minimum of 3 servers just to install but will most likely end up being 4 or 5 if you do a full suite and add a Terminal Server. The Intel Modular Server tops out at 6 compute modules, so that would allow the entire EBS Suite, a TS and a stand-by module for redundancy! With it's 14 bay internal SAN the only thing you need to add is a back-up device.

Fire Mountain Family Steakhouse 1180 S. Main Street, Kernersville, 27284, 336-996-0456 

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 In April we have Sharon M Chebatoris coming down to talk to us about Zenith Infotech's offerings.
Zenith Infotech has its North American HQ in Pittsburgh PA. Zenith provides Managed Services infrastructure AND Back Up Disaster Recovery solutions to small to medium IT Service Providers. Zenith does NOT have direct contact with YOUR end clients. They specialize in ways to scale your business while dramatically lowering the service delivery costs associated with managed services.

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At Our January 2008 Meeting

In January we had Chuck Traywick drive up to talk to us and he presented on 2 topics, first WSS 3.0 for Small Business and then Virtualization. He just did this presentation in SC and a similar one for the Charlotte SBS group and was very well received by both of them. I just peeked through the slide deck and the reason I think he was so well received was there aren’t many slides, it is mostly demo :>). Chuck is the owner of Infotronics.  They do networking, consulting, development and are focused on the SMB segment.

Well all the nay sayers said I should cancel the meeting as it fell on the first day of the year, but we managed to have a gret meeting with 18 folks present even though it was the first.