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Google vs Microsoft: Office 365 Battle?

Microsoft Office 365 has taken market share from Google Apps and Google isn’t taking it lying down. Are we looking at the start of a price war?

Google apps vs Microsoft

According to an August 2015 report, Microsoft Office 365 has surpassed Google Apps and now controls more than 25% of the enterprise market—triple the enterprise market share the company held just a year ago. That is some serious growth and it hasn’t gone unnoticed by the folks at Alphabet (aka Google).

Details

On October 19, 2015, Rich Rao, head of global sales for Google Apps for Work announced a new program specifically designed to turn the tide against Microsoft Office 365’s advance.

In a nutshell, enterprises with preexisting contracts for a competitor’s office suite (read Office 365) looking to switch to Google Apps can do so and not pay any additional fees until the competitor’s contract has run its course. In essence, switching enterprises will pay Microsoft’s contract while they use Google Apps.

When the preexisting contract is over, enterprises sign a new contract with Google Apps. The announcement also suggests that Google will pay some of the transition costs through a special program offered by its Google for Work Partners service.

This is a bold move by Google and it signals that the company is reeling from the sudden surge of Microsoft Office 365. I don’t think Google was expecting this level of competition for its Google Apps suite.

Microsoft’s response

The ball is now in Microsoft’s court. There should be some kind of serious strategic response offered by Microsoft—that is, if it intends to maintain the growth of Office 365 in the enterprise market. Letting the tremendous advances in its market share over the last year erode would be irresponsible.

One strategy Microsoft may consider is lower subscription prices.

The basic enterprise version of Google Apps carries a subscription price of $5 per user. The basic enterprise version of Office 365 carries a subscription price of $8 per user. That $3 difference can really add up for a large enterprise and there may be some wiggle room for Microsoft to lower the per-user price for its service.

Cola wars. Pizza wars. We have seen major international companies take part in price wars in the past, and in the end, not much has been resolved. So I don’t think lowering their subscription prices is really the best strategy for Microsoft.

There is another way.

It’s all about collaboration

The basic applications offered by Office 365 and Google Apps—word processing, spreadsheets, emails, calendar, etc.—are similar. Office 365’s applications do have more features and deeper capabilities. Of course, Google Apps claims its lack of features is a good thing because its apps are simpler to use.

However, in this day and age, the real battleground for enterprise markets exists in features outside the basic office suite. The real battleground lies in cloud and collaboration services, including collaboration tools, storage, video communication, and document sharing. The cloud is where Microsoft and Google are going to fight their battle for productivity suite superiority.

And cloud is where Microsoft has been winning handily for the past year or so. I believe the new cloud and collaboration emphasis of Office 365 has taken Google by surprise. I think Google has realized that Microsoft has upped its game and that it can’t coast into increased enterprise market share by merely offering a lower-price, simpler productivity suite.

It may have been an indirect battle before, but Microsoft and Google are now engaged in a mano a mano fight for enterprise market share in the productivity software category. It will be interesting to see how this strategic battle between two superpowers plays out. I just hope each side takes appropriate steps to avoid collateral damage.

Have questions?

Get help from IT Experts/Microsofts Cloud Solutions Partner
Call us at: 856-745-9990 or visit: https://southjerseytechies.net/

South Jersey Techies, LLC is a full Managed Web and Technology Services Company providing IT Services, Website Design Services, Server Support, Network Consulting, Internet Phones, Cloud Solutions Provider and much more. Contact for More Information.

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Windows 10 Upgrade: 5 Microsoft Tactics

To achieve its goal of getting one billion people onto Windows 10, Microsoft is getting more forceful in how it pushes Windows 7 and 8.1 users towards its new OS.

Windows10

Microsoft wants Windows 10 on one billion devices by 2018 – and its tactics for hitting that ambitious goal are about to get more aggressive.

From next year, Microsoft will be more direct in pushing Windows 7 and 8.1 users to upgrade to its latest OS, in an attempt to bolster the 110 million-strong Windows 10 userbase.

Here’s how Microsoft is about to crank up the pressure to make the switch.

1. Windows 10 will automatically begin installing itself

From “early next year”, Microsoft will change the status of the free Windows 10 upgrade so it is classified as a Recommended Update.

Given that most home machines are set up to install Recommended Updates automatically, the change to Windows 10’s update status will lead to most Windows 7 and 8.1 machines beginning the upgrade.

However, Microsoft says that before Windows 10 is installed users will need to manually confirm the installation, giving them a chance to pull out.

Business users should be able to prevent the upgrade from automatically starting using tools such as Windows Server Update Services.

For those on metered connections, Terry Myerson, Microsoft’s executive VP of the Windows and Devices Group, said people “have the option of turning off automatic updates” before going on to say that such a move is unwise because of “the constant risk of internet threats”.

Those who don’t like the new OS will have 31 days to roll back to their previous version of Windows. To go back, select “Start Button->Settings->Update and Security->Recovery and Uninstall Windows 10”.

2. Upgrade notifications will be made more obvious

Despite Microsoft sticking a ‘Get Windows 10’ icon on the taskbar of most Windows 7 desktops, many customers apparently still can’t figure out how to initiate the upgrade.

Myerson says since launching Windows 10 the number one complaint has been ‘How do I get my upgrade?’.

To address the difficulty some users are having, Myerson said Microsoft will change “our notifications to be more approachable and hopefully clear, and sometimes fun”.

3. Upgrades will happen immediately

The process of initiating the upgrade to Windows 10 has also been streamlined.

In the weeks after Windows 10’s launch earlier this year, Microsoft required users to first reserve a Windows 10 upgrade, which would then be installed at a later date.

Microsoft has now replaced that two-step process with an immediate upgrade. Users clicking on the ‘Get Windows 10’ icon will now be given the option to ‘Upgrade Now’ to begin the upgrade process straightaway.

4. Simpler upgrade from unsanctioned copies of Windows

Myerson admits surprise at how many people running copies of Windows 7 and 8.1 that have not been authenticated then go on to buy Genuine copies of Windows 10.

Based on this experience, Microsoft plans to make it a “one-click” process for people running unsanctioned copies of the OS to “get Genuine” via the Windows Store or by entering an activation code bought elsewhere. The offer will be trialled in the US and, if successful, may be extended to other countries.

5. Upgrading multiple machines to Windows 10 will be easier

Those looking to upgrade several Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 machines to Windows 10 will soon find the process gets more straightforward.

Microsoft’s Media Creation Tool is used to create an image that can be run off a DVD or USB stick to upgrade qualifying machines to Windows 10.

According to Myerson, you will soon be able to use the tool to create a single image that will allow any number of 32-bit or 64-bit, Home or Pro machines to be upgraded and which will also allow for clean installs “wherever you have a Windows license”.

Have questions?

Get help from IT Experts/Microsofts Cloud Solutions Partner
Call us at: 856-745-9990 or visit: https://southjerseytechies.net/

South Jersey Techies, LLC is a full Managed Web and Technology Services Company providing IT Services, Website Design Services, Server Support, Network Consulting, Internet Phones, Cloud Solutions Provider and much more. Contact for More Information.

To read this article in its entirety click here.

Professional Email Tips: 5 Rules

Tips and advice for making the best use of this medium.

email

E-mail is a great tool that has become both a blessing and a curse. Designed to enhance productivity in the workplace, it slowly had the reverse effect. Today, e-mail is ubiquitous, much easier to use, and often abused. It’s time to focus on how to turn e-mail back into an effective management tool for 21st century executives.

Don’t use it to do your thinking for you. Writing e-mails at work is not like doing calculus at school. At school you needed to show that your logic flow was part of the answer. With e-mail, assume no one is interested in how you came to your conclusion. They are only interested in what impacts them and their work and anything on which they need to take action.

Make your request clear. When publishers lay out a newspaper, they place the most important news “above the fold.” You should think the same way about your e-mails, especially when you are making requests. If you ask for something, always put that request, including names and dates related to it, in the first two or three sentences of your e-mail. Do not assume that the reader will read far enough to see the request buried in all of the detail.

Limit emotion of all types. Humor can cut through a lot of noise when you communicate, and it can help a team rally around a common thought or issue, but it rarely belongs in e-mail. This is especially true of sarcasm, which is very easy to misinterpret. The reader almost never understands what you are trying to communicate.

Use the save button before the send button. When we were young and got angry, people told us to count to 10 before saying anything. When you need to be cool and show that you have a levelheaded approach to problems, the last thing you want to do is send an e-mail. If you are writing an e-mail about an emotional or difficult topic, such as a performance review or a follow up to a contentious meeting, save the e-mail. Then, come back to it in 30 minutes or even the next day and decide whether you want to send at all.

Use the phone. These days, an e-mail lasts forever and there is no such thing as privacy in the workplace. In many cases, the laws and regulations governing publicly held companies require strict adherence to document retention rules. If you don’t want someone else to read what you wrote, don’t send it via e-mail. Also, if the subject matter you want to discuss is important and sensitive or personal, a phone call or face-to-face discussion is always the better option.

The bottom line. E-mail is a great tool for communicating, although we are never as effective as we think we are going to be. Remember to stop and think before hitting “send.”

Have questions?

Get answers from Microsofts Cloud Solutions Partner!
Call us at: 856-745-9990 or visit: https://southjerseytechies.net/

South Jersey Techies, LLC is a full Managed Web and Technology Services Company providing IT Services, Website Design Services, Server Support, Network Consulting, Internet Phones, Cloud Solutions Provider and much more. Contact for More Information.

To read this article in its entirety click here.

Facebook Debuts Separate Chat App

(Credit: CNET)

Facebook today doubled down on its mobile efforts with a new mobile application that breaks out its messaging service into a single app.

Dubbed “Messenger,” Facebook is making the app available for both Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. Users can log in with their Facebook credentials to get access to existing chats and message threads from Facebook for interacting with them on the go. Included is group messaging, along with a component that lets users share photos and their location.

“The Messenger app is an extension of Facebook messages, so all your conversations are in one place, including your texts, chats, e-mails, and messages. Whether you’re on your phone or on the Web, you can see the full history of all your messages,” Lucy Zhang, Beluga co-founder and Facebook engineer, said in a post on Facebook’s blog.

For all intents and purposes, the app is the same as Beluga, a group-messaging app Facebook acquired in March. In fact, the team that made Facebook Messenger is the same one that made that application, and the feature set reflects that. Nonetheless, this app is not replacing Beluga, according to Facebook.

“Nothing is going to change for Beluga right now,” a Facebook representative told CNET. “The apps will remain separate. We’re considering ways to possibly migrate Beluga messages over to Facebook Messenger but have no specifics to announce at the moment.”

The move to break out messaging is of special note, given the murmurs of Facebook doing something similar for photo sharing. A report in June from TechCrunch pulled together screenshots of such an app in the works that would combine sharing elements akin to apps like Instagram, Color, Picplz, and others, while tapping into Facebook’s photo servers. That differs substantially from Facebook’s existing mobile strategy, which has been to pull the various site features together into one experience, similar to what’s available for desktop users.

Notably missing from this iteration, and Facebook’s other apps, is video chat–a feature it launched as part of a partnership with Skype last month. In a question-and-answer session following the unveiling of that feature at Facebook’s headquarters, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the two companies would begin work to bring that feature to mobile phones immediately.

Update at 2:25 p.m. PT: You can grab the app from iTunes here. Android users, can get it here. The company is also offering to send download links directly to your device from its Messenger home page.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20090207-93/facebook-rolls-out-standalone-mobile-chat-app/#ixzz1UeJ2DzJ9

BigBeagle.com: Save 15% Today

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Surface Studio, Win10 Creators & More

Microsoft announced a slew of new goodies at its Windows event in New York. Catch up on everything from the Surface Studio all-in-one to the Windows 10 Creators Update here.

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One Windows

Microsoft’s big event in New York on Tuesday included plenty of new Surface hardware, but nevertheless, it’s easy to see why the company called this a Windows event rather than a Surface shindig.

Windows and devices chief Terry Myerson kicked things off with a tantalizing glimpse of the features that will debut with the new Windows 10 Creators Update, scheduled to release in the spring. The rest of event was dedicated to new Surface gear designed specifically to marry powerful, thoughtful hardware with the best of those new software features. But don’t take my word for it! Here’s everything Microsoft announced at its October 26 Windows event.

 

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Windows 10 Creators Update

As I said, the freshly revealed Windows 10 Creators Update, scheduled to arrive in early 2017, kicked off the show. The update’s built around three key pillars: the creation and manipulation of 3D content, sharing your Xbox Live gaming experiences, and easily communicating with others—hence the name.

 

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Surface Studio

Microsoft’s first-ever desktop PC is the paragon for all those Windows ideals. The Surface Studio all-in-one mixes stunning physical design and impressive internal hardware, focused on creating the best experience possible for professionals and content creators. From an ultra-slim 4,500×3,000-resolution screen with “True Scale” 1:1 image recreation, to the ability to lay at a 20-degree angle for natural positioning while sketching, to the 6th-gen (Skylake) Core i7 CPU and Nvidia GPU powering it all, the Surface Studio is laser-focused on helping you get things done. (And showing off Windows in the best possible light, naturally.)

These tidbits are just the tip of the iceberg. If you like what you see, the Surface Studio starts at $3,000 and is available for preorder now.

 

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Surface Dial

The Surface Studio’s content-friendly design and Windows 10’s new content creation tools are amplified by the Surface Dial, a radical puck that can control Microsoft’s new PC. It’s primarily designed to work in conjunction with Microsoft’s Surface Pen. Priced at $100, you can preorder it now.

The Surface Dial doesn’t have any buttons of its own. Instead, using it reveals an interface wheel customized for specific applications, with selections occurring as you twist the device back and forth. You may cycle through tool-tip brushes in an image editing app, for instance, or rewind and fast-forward through written notes in Office. A virtual version of the Dial appears even if you don’t place the puck directly onscreen, letting you zoom, scroll, and adjust various options like screen brightness and volume. Mark Hachman’s Surface Dial hands-on explains it all.

Support for the Surface Dial will be baked right into Windows 10, and the accessory will be compatible with the existing Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 4, and Surface Book.

 

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Surface Book i7

Handily enough, Microsoft also revealed a newer, more powerful version of the Surface Book, the aptly named Surface Book i7. The Surface Book i7 swaps in a sixth-gen Skylake Intel Core i7 processor and an Nvidia GTX 965M GPU to deliver twice the power of the most potent original Surface Book, and (Microsoft claims) three times the power of the beefiest 13-inch MacBook Pro—though Apple’s expected to roll out new Macs tomorrow.

Microsoft also managed to up the Surface Book i7’s battery life to a claimed 15 hours, despite the additional firepower, thanks to a redesigned cooling system and, well, more batteries. The Surface Book i7 starts at $2,400 and is available to preorder now.

 

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Paint 3D

Windows’ venerable Paint app is being dragged into the 21st century. The Windows 10 Creators Update adds Paint 3D, a Windows Store app designed from the ground up to create 3D images even out of 2D pictures.

Paint 3D includes numerous tools for editing three-dimensional images. It also integrates with a new Windows 10 3D-scanning app dubbed Windows Capture 3D, which allows you to digitize real-world objects. Microsoft plans to introduce a “community” hub on Remix3D.com for shared 3D images, plus it’ll let you drag your creations out of Minecraft. Microsoft Office applications will also support 3D images after the Windows 10 Creators Update rolls out.

You have to wonder how many non-professionals are interested in 3D image creation, but there’s no doubting that Paint 3D looks mighty nifty—and like a perfect match for the Surface Studio and Surface Dial’s capabilities.

 

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Windows Holographic VR headsets

You’ll be able to view those 3D creations through Microsoft’s own HoloLens, or via an onslaught of Windows Holographic-compatible VR headsets apparently coming from Dell, HP, Lenovo, Asus, and Acer.

“These headsets will be the first and only to ship with inside-out, six-degree-of-freedom sensors,” said Microsoft’s Terry Myerson. “Unlike every other VR headset on the market today, this means there will be zero need for a separate room. Zero need for a complicated setup.”

 

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My People

Microsoft wants to make your friends the center of your Windows experience with My People, a feature that borrows from Android and iOS. In the Creators Update, five important contacts will appear as profile images in your taskbar. You’ll be able to drop files onto these contacts to immediately share items, or click the contact to interact in a specific app like Mail, Skype, SMS, or Xbox Live. Handy!

 

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Live PC game streaming

Microsoft’s muscling in on Twitch. The Windows 10 Creators Update adds the ability to easily start broadcasting your Xbox Live games via the operating system’s Game DVR toolbar, sending notifications out to your pals and fellow club members to let them know when you’re online. Once they hop into your stream they’ll be able to chat with you, as with every other streaming service out there.

The service is powered by Microsoft’s recent Beam acquisition and looks dead-simple to use. It’s easy to envision Windows 10 Game DVR livestreaming becoming popular on consoles, but Microsoft faces an uphill battle on PCs, where Twitch and tools like Nvidia Shadowplay and OBS already enjoy massive, entrenched user bases.

 

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Custom tournaments and fancy audio

Microsoft’s tying console and PC users closer together with custom tournaments powered by Xbox Live’s Arena platform. Next year, you’ll be able to create your own custom gaming tournaments, controlling everything from the games, to the rules, to the players, to the start times. Previously, Area tournaments were only created by Microsoft and its official partners.

The Xbox One S, which is itself powered by Windows 10, is adding support for bitstreaming Blu-ray audio pass-through and Dolby Atmos. Soon, those 4K videos and games will sound just as glorious as they look.

 

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Surface Mouse and keyboards

The niche Surface Dial isn’t the only Studio peripheral Microsoft announced today, though none of the others made it onto the stage during the big event. Microsoft quietly launched a Surface Mouse and a pair of desktop Surface keyboards—one standard, the other ergonomic—to complement its premium all-in-one PC. All three match the gray aesthetic of Microsoft first-ever desktop PC. The Surface Studio includes a Surface Mouse and basic Surface Keyboard, however.

You can preorder all three on Microsoft’s Surface accessories page, with shipments scheduled for early November.

Have questions?

Get answers from Microsofts Cloud Solutions Partner!
Call us at: 856-745-9990 or visit: https://southjerseytechies.net/

South Jersey Techies, LL C is a full Managed Web and Technology Services Company providing IT Services, Website Design Services, Server Support, Network Consulting, Internet Phones, Cloud Solutions Provider and much more. Contact for More Information.

To read this article in its entirety click here.

VPN Error 850: EAP Authentication Issue

Are you getting this error message when connecting to a virtual private network (VPN) from a Windows 8 Machine?

Error connecting to VPN NAME.

Error 850: The Extensible Authentication Protocol type required for authentication of the remote access connection is not installed on your computer.

VPN-Error850

The Authentication method need to be fix in a view quick steps.

  1. Go to the Control Panel and in the top right corner, set View by: Small Icons
  2. Open Network and Sharing CenterNetwork and Sharing Center
  3. Then Click Change adapter Settings
    Change adapter Settings
  4. Right Click the VPN Connection and click Properties
    VPN-Error850-1
  5. Click the Security tab
  6. Select the correct authentication protocol. If it is a Microsoft PPTP implementation then try the following configuration.  Enable the radio button for Allow these protocols and enable CHAP and CHAP v2: VPN-Error850-1
  7. Click Ok and Try the VPN again.

Have questions?

Our small business team is here to help.
Call us at: 856-745-9990

South Jersey Techies, LLC is a full Managed Web and Technology Services Company providing IT Services, Website Design Services, Server Support, Network Consulting, Internet Phones, Cloud Solutions Provider and much more. Contact for More Information.

End of Support: Server 2003

end windows server 2003

 

A large number of businesses still run Microsoft MSFT -1.71% Windows Server 2003 and it’s unlikely they all will upgrade before Microsoft Corp. ends support on July 14, 2015, say analysts. Companies that don’t upgrade increase their cyber security risks because the company will no longer issue security updates and these systems will be more vulnerable to hackers.

Businesses worldwide run an estimated 23.8 million physical and virtual instances of Windows Server 2003, according to data released by Microsoft in July 2014. Analysts say the technology is more prevalent in industries such as health care, utilities and government. Yet it’s also still used in about 7% of retail point of sale systems, according to a report Thursday by Trend Micro Inc.4704.TO -1.11%

“Microsoft does not plan to extend support for Windows Server 2003 and encourages customers who currently run Windows Server 2003 and have not yet begun migration planning to do so immediately,” said Vivecka Budden, a Microsoft spokesperson, in an email.

South Jersey Techies offers various migration options to include Windows Server 2012 R2, Microsoft Azure, hosting partners and Office 365.

“It is going to be difficult to get this done in time,” said David Mayer, practice director of Microsoft Solutions at Insight Enterprises Inc.NSIT -1.12%, a provider of IT hardware, software and services.

Many of these same industries were impacted by the end of service for the Windows XP operating system on April 8.  Microsoft broadcasts these sorts of moves years in advance, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. But, the product was stable and for many companies there simply wasn’t incentive to update.

“In general, everyone has been slow to migrate, especially those with servers that are running applications,” said Rob Helm, vice president of research at Directions on Microsoft consulting firm.

The problem in industries such as health care and utilities is that companies run legacy apps written by vendors who still require Windows Server 2003. For example, there are smaller vendors in health care that have not kept up with development and application modernization, said a health-care CIO who asked not to be identified. A hospital may have an inventory of 100 to 500 different applications and many applications will still require Windows Server 2003, he added.

Electric utilities, for example, widely use Windows Server 2003. There hasn’t been much movement to upgrade those systems, said Patrick C. Miller, founder of the nonprofit Energy Sector Security Consortium and a managing partner at The Anfield Group, a security consulting firm. Instead, utilities are working to better secure and isolate those systems.

“I’m concerned about directory services such as application authentication and user permissions,” said Mr. Miller. “If you compromise an Active Directory server, you get access to everything.”

For now, analysts are recommending that companies work out their risk of exposure and make plans to first migrate those applications that will be most difficult. Companies should make plans to harden servers that can’t be updated. That might entail putting those systems on an isolated network, where they’d be less prone to outside attack, said Mr. Helm.

To protect and upgrade your home or business

 please contact us 856-745-9990 or click here.

 

VPNFilter Malware Hits 500,000 Routers

FBI warns against VPNFilter malware that targets over 500,000 routers

If you have a home or office Internet router, the FBI has issued an urgent request for consumers to reboot now to help disrupt a massive foreign-based malware attack.

Foreign cybercriminals have compromised hundreds of thousands of home and office routers and other networked devices worldwide, the FBI said in a May 25 announcement.

How to help defend yourself from VPNFilter malware:

Turn your router off, then back on. This may temporarily disrupt
the malware and potentially help identify already-infected devices.

Secure the device with a strong, unique, new password.

Upgrade firmware to the latest available version.

Consider getting the Norton™Core Secure Wi-Fi Router designed to
help defend against a variety of possible cyber threats,
including the VPNFilter attack, and is also designed to automatically
update its knowledge of known viruses and other threats.

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