Great Lakes Computer Corporation

Managed Service Provider

Archives for March 2015

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Do I Really Need to Scrap SBS 2003 When It Works So Well?

SBS 2003Nobody wants to spend money on upgrading a server or moving to another solution when the one they use works so well. But with the End Of Support for SBS 2003 looming, it is, sadly, not really a choice.  I believe that this conversation on Microsoft’s TechNet sums up perfectly what many SMB’s are asking right now about moving off of SBS 2003:

Q. Hi. We run a smallish firm (network of about 16 computers plus server) with SBS 2003 and Microsoft Exchange Server. I appreciate that it is all getting long in the tooth, but as a legal firm, it does everything we want and operates perfectly. Our server is running very well, we have had zero problems with it, unlike previous servers which we had had issues with.

Our IT providers are pushing the panic button because of the cessation of support for SBS 2003 in July 2015. According to them, the world will come to an end and there are essentially hordes of evil hackers just waiting for that date to attack SBS 2003 users. That’s a slight exaggeration, but close to the mark.

I’m reluctant to move from something that runs perfectly at zero cost to something that might not at significant cost, especially if it involves the cloud. But those suggestions to the IT people (who are desperate to sell a new server even though the current one runs like a dream) meet with almost hysteria. I’ve tried searching to find out what the real risks and probabilities are, but nearly all of the fearmongering on the web is put up by hardware sellers. It might not be fearmongering, it might be completely true, but essentially there are two beneficiaries to all of this, hardware vendors and software providers, and I’d rather get a rational assessment from someone other than that.

Could anyone point in in the right direction for an assessment of the risks, and options for replacement?

The experts agree to move off of SBS 2003

There are numerous replies to this question on the forum, but they all pretty much say the same thing… It is time to plan to make the switch. Here is one that sums up the response nicely:

A. I will have to side with your IT providers. The big question you have to ask yourself, could you run your business if something were to happen? How much more would it cost you, financially and business functionality if your server were to go down?

I do completely understand about the ideal of not fixing what is not broken, to a point. If it was that old inkjet printer sitting on your desk, ok, that old CRT monitor, ok, but your server, which is mission critical, that raises doubt and it is not worth the risk. I highly doubt that the day MS drops support anything will happen, but you should plan to replace it not too long after, also not to mention, your server has probably been in production for awhile, hardware doesn’t last forever. For all of my small businesses, that I provide support for, have a budget, that I setup for them and each month they put money aside for instances like this.

Also something else to keep in mind, old hacker and malware code is starting to make a comeback, some code that is older than 10 years, much like what your SBS 2003 was built off of, prime example is heartbleed. So another thing to keep in mind, after the July 2015 date and MS does find a vulnerability, you will not got patched/updated.

If you have a good UTM (Unified Threat Management) device and a good updated AV solution, and current workstation OS’, then I say you can buy yourself some extra time, but budget to replace it.

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6 Biggest IT Needs Companies Should Outsource

IT SupportYour company, whether a law firm, manufacturing plant, or an SMB of any sort, has many IT issues that need to be addressed. But how do you decide which are the most important and whether you should outsource them?

Take a look at this list of commonly outsourced IT problems:

    1. Computer/printer repair – If you’re like most companies, you buy brand-name systems from large manufacturers. Do you really want to ship your PC to them and wait a couple weeks for the fix?  In some cases, you have to. But in most you don’t. You could have your computer or printer offline for just a couple hours instead of a couple days.  Local maintenance contracts could be a huge benefit to you.
    2. Tech Support for Software – Most likely, you have a system in place for managing your company’s finances, documents, and clients or cases. Those systems work well, but not always perfectly. Usually, you have to outsource your support for them.
    3. Data Backup & Storage – You might backup all your information on-site (big mistake!). You should have a backup on-site, and in at least one other off-site location. Or you should be on the cloud. However you choose to manage your backups, they need regular testing. You will be served best outsourcing the whole process.
    4. E-mail Storage & Service – How much e-mail does your firm or company get? How many years do you have to save your e-mails, just in case they’re needed again? Do you really want to be responsible for saving, managing, and organizing them all? What about their security? What happens if someone hacks you and steals them? A lot of work goes into safely storing e-mail..
    5. Antivirus & Data Security – With hackers constantly poking and prodding your IT infrastructure for weaknesses, this may be the biggest IT function to outsource. Hackers love to target smaller law firms and SMB’s because they know that in general, the security’s much weaker.
    6. Network Assessments – Just how ready is your computer network to support your existing user base? Network assessments give you that information and much more. You’ll also learn the current strengths and weaknesses of your security. You’ll get an intimate understanding how your network performs, and what changes need to be made to improve performance.

IT Outsourcing Can be an Adventure, but It Doesn’t Have to Be!

It’s important to have an IT support team in place that you can trust. And when you get the right one, you save lots of money on operational costs and get the ability to scale fast.

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10 Things to Know Before Moving to Office 365

Office 365With Microsoft’s Small Business Server 2003 making its grand departure from the world of support and updates in July 2015, it is time to consider your options if you have not done so already. One option many companies are considering is Office 365, and with good reason. It is a convenient solution, great for remote and mobile employees, with low maintenance and low costs, not to mention ideal for collaboration and disaster recovery plans. But like anything, it is not without its faults.

Here is an article from TechRepublic.com that discusses 10 things you should know before jumping to Office 365:

If you’re planning a move to Office 365, expect a few surprises. Brien Posey shares some of the gotchas he encountered during the transition.

A couple of weeks ago, I was forced to begin using Office 365 for my own organization. It wasn’t something I had planned on doing. In fact, I didn’t get to spend any time planning. But it happened nonetheless. Construction in my area was causing numerous power and Internet outages, and I had to move my email offsite because I was losing too many messages.

All in all, the move to Office 365 has been a good thing. Even so, a few things caught me by surprise. So I wanted to pass along a list of things to consider before subscribing to Office 365.

1: Migrating is not a simple process
If you have an on-premise Active Directory environment and you want to perform a migration, it won’t be an easy process. Exchange Server 2010 SP2 includes a wizard that reduces the number of steps from roughly 50 down to six, but the migration process is still tedious and requires a lot of advanced planning. Because I have only a couple of users in my organization, I opted to start fresh rather than migrating my user accounts.

2: You may have to start over with spam filtering
One of the biggest things that surprised me was that spam filtering suddenly became an issue. Prior to subscribing to Microsoft Office 365, I was using GFI Mail Essentials. I had spent a great deal of time fine-tuning my spam filters so that I rarely received any spam. Office 365 uses Microsoft Forefront Online Protection for Exchange. Although Forefront is a decent spam filter, I had to take the time to configure it.

3: Outbound email addresses might change
When you subscribe to Office 365, all user accounts have a default email address that ends in .onmicrosoft.com. While it is possible to use your own domain, simply accepting mail for your domain name isn’t enough. Outbound messages will continue to use the .onmicrosoft.com domain unless you make some configuration changes, which are far from intuitive.

4: You can say goodbye to third-party utilities
Many organizations use third-party utilities to manage Exchange Server. If you are using any such utilities and they’re designed to be installed directly on an Exchange Server, you won’t be able to use them with Office 365 (unless you keep an Exchange Server on premise). Microsoft does not allow you to install software onto the Office 365 servers.

5: You might have DNS issues
When you add a domain to your Office 365 account, you will receive a list of DNS entries that you must make for the domain to function correctly. Although most of these DNS entries are relatively straightforward, Microsoft Lync requires some SRV records to be created.

This shouldn’t be a problem for those who have Microsoft DNS servers, but it can be problematic for non-Microsoft DNS servers. For example, my ISP manages my DNS entries. The ISP had no idea how to create the SRV records because it uses a Linux DNS server. That isn’t to say that the DNS entries won’t work with a Linux DNS server — but if someone else manages your DNS, you might have trouble getting the necessary DNS records created.

6: You may have to use different management tools
Because I didn’t keep any on-premise servers, managing Exchange through the Exchange Management Console was no longer an option. Office 365 uses the Exchange Control Panel as the primary Exchange Server management tool. Likewise, user accounts are created through a proprietary interface rather than through the Active Directory Users And Computers console.

7: You might have to reset file server permissions
As I mentioned earlier, my goal was to outsource my entire Active Directory domain. In doing so, however, I was left with orphaned on-premise file servers. If you find yourself in a similar situation, make sure that you have a plan for your file server data before you decommission your domain controllers. I moved all my file data to an NAS appliance, but that isn’t going to be an ideal solution for everyone. In any case, just remember that if you are outsourcing everything except for your file servers, you probably won’t be able to use Active Directory accounts for managing file access.

8: Prepare to be bombarded with phone calls and email messages
One aspect of the transition that really surprised me was that I was bombarded with phone calls and email messages from Microsoft. While I appreciate having the opportunity to ask questions about the transition, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

9: You might not be able to immediately connect users’ mobile devices
One of the issues I ran into during my transition was that even though I was able to bring my mailbox online quickly, the logistics of the transition kept me from connecting my Windows Phone to my mailbox for several days.

The reason for this is that prior to the transition I had an on-premise domain and an on-premise Exchange Server. Rather than working through a co-existence scenario and migrating everything, I decided that it would be easier to start fresh. This meant that if I had immediately connected my phone to my new Exchange mailbox, my contacts, calendar entries, and old messages would have disappeared from my phone (which would have been a big deal).

So I had to create a PST file on my PC and move all my mail, contacts, and calendar entries from Outlook to my PST. Once that was done, I disjoined my PC from the on-premise domain and then connected Outlook to my new Office 365 mailbox. Then I copied all my PST data to the new mailbox. At that point, I was able to connect my phone to my mailbox without having to worry about losing access to my contacts and other data.

Obviously, this won’t be a concern for organizations that work through the “real” migration process. But smaller organizations that choose to abandon their on-premise domain will have to consider this.

10: Expect a loss of control
Finally, moving to Office 365 means giving up some level of control. For example, you won’t have any control over the patch management process, software upgrades, and other similar administrative tasks you may be used to performing on-premise.

Need some professional guidance and expertise on your migration off of SBS 2003?  Contact Great Lakes Computer today for assistance.

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