SBS 2008 Unleashed Book

SBS 2008 box shot standard edition Back in 2005 I was privileged to be one of the co-authors of “Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 Unleashed”. As I’m sure most authors can attest, working on a book is a very unique and eye-opening experience.  It takes a lot of time, work, testing, research and commitment to crank out a book, but in the end you have something tangible to show for all the effort. You make some great friends and learn something about yourself along the way too.

Then we skip forward several years and Eriq Neale invited me to be one the co-authors once again. This time the book was titled “Windows Small Business Server 2008 Unleashed.” I looked at the calendar and figured, “Wow, this is really awesome. We’ve got *tons* of time – the operating system isn’t even baked yet!” So I signed on. Interestingly, time moves quickly. Very, VERY quickly. And as SBS 2008 got closer to being finished and as work on the book continued, it seemed like every movie on TV was about an author with looming publishing deadlines or writer’s block like Duplex or Stranger Than Fiction. No pressure. 😉

At any rate, as the book project moved along, you could really see it transform slowly from an idea, into an outline, to a rough draft, through revisions, technical and grammatical editing, screen shots, page layouts, and eventually all the way into a finished book. And while you’re writing and doing testing and research, the software itself (code named “Cougar”) changes. It goes through various builds, into private and public betas, Release Candidates and eventually it becomes the final RTM code for SBS 2008. Believe me, it’s a pretty long trip!

So, the writing has been done for a while, and now comes the waiting part. The book is being printed and shipped, but I haven’t held a hard copy in my hands yet. And today it was cool to get an email from Amazon.com that really hit home:

Windows Small Business Server 2008 Unleashed

All of the sudden the book seems much more real. 🙂

Getting to this stage was a group effort, and I was just one person in a large team of folks that made this project happen. The whole team worked really hard through deadlines, daily responsibilities, lots of writing and zillions of emails.

The writers of this book include:

And here’s what’s in the book:

Table of Contents:

  1. Welcome to Small Business Server 2008
  2. Planning for the SBS 2008 Deployment
  3. Installing and Configuring SBS 2008
  4. DNS, DHCP, and Active Directory Integration
  5. Internet Information Services 7.0
  6. Remote Web Workplace and Other Remote Access Solutions
  7. SharePoint and Companyweb
  8. Exchange Management
  9. Exchange 2007 Client Connectivity
  10. Exchange Disaster Recovery
  11. Group Policy in SBS 2008
  12. User and Computer Management
  13. Macintosh Integration
  14. Additional Servers
  15. Managing Workstations Through Group Policy
  16. Monitoring and Reporting
  17. Managing Server and Workstation Security
  18. Backup and Disaster Recovery
  19. IPv6 Overview
  20. PowerShell
  21. Advanced Installation Options

Windows Small Business Server 2008 UnleashedI’m sure I speak for everyone on the writing, editing and publishing teams when I say that we’re really proud of this book! And I’d like to send a special “thank you” to Eriq Neale and Acquisitions Editor Loretta Yates for letting me be on the team again,
and for not killing me when they wanted to. 😉

We look forward to seeing the book hit the shelves and we’re certain that it will help people understand and support this amazing new operating system.

I hope you enjoy it!

Title: Windows Small Business Server 2008 Unleashed
Publisher: Sams Publishing; 1 edition (December 6, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0672329573
Paperback: 816 pages
Language: English
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Buy.com | InformIT / Sams

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Webcast – Vista Objections and Solution Selling

It seems like everybody has an opinion about Vista these days, and more often than not, it’s a negative opinion based on press / advertising / word of mouth / and perception rather than hands-on experience (think ‘Mojave Experiment’).

If you’re a Microsoft Partner and you’d like to know how to handle these objections and get the most out of Windows Vista, be sure to sign up for the following two webcasts and join Ron Grattopp as he presents:

“Windows Vista: What you need to know about selling it and how to combat the negative perceptions and objections”

In addition to discussing Vista objections, Ron will also show how to implement a “solution” approach to selling Windows Vista. And there’s an added bonus if you attend both seminars.

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Watch the SBS 2008 Launch Live – 11/12/2008

Click here to watch the SBS / EBS 2008 launch on 11/12/2008It’s been five long years since SBS 2003 was released (and over two years since SBS 2003 R2 came out).

Tomorrow is the big day:

Windows Small Business Server 2008 and Essential Business Server 2008 launch event!

You can tune in LIVE!

Details:

    See you there! 🙂

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    Training – Free Microsoft Hyper-V eLearning

    Windows Server 2008 Robot Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard (and may be sick about hearing) of Microsoft Hyper-V. I know that Flavor Flav said “Don’t believe the hype” but this is one of those instances where you should listen.

    If you *are* listening and would like to get some free training on Hyper-V, here’s the perfect opportunity. Microsoft is giving away 4 free online eLearning classes, and if you haven’t tried the updated eLearning stuff lately, it’s pretty good.

    You can click on the individual clinics below or snag all 4 courses in
    Collection 6333: Exploring Microsoft Virtualization Technologies.

    Individual clinic links:

    Note: This training is designed to be done at your own pace, whether that’s all in one shot, or 30-45 minutes per day. It’s totally up to you. And one of the really nice things about the Microsoft eLearning classes is that they have an E-Learning Offline Player, so you can view all of the content (except for the virtual labs) on your laptop anywhere. Very handy!

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