The World According to Mitch

Technorati Tags: Michael D. Alligood , Mitch Garvis , Mitchell D. Garvis , EBS Consultant , Essential Business Server , SBS , SBSC , Certified Small Business Specialist , Small Business Server I had dinner with a colleague this evening, Michael D. Alligood from Jacksonville, Florida.  Michael has...

Formatting a computer is so easy that anyone can do it.  Maintaining a secure, well-managed infrastructure is not; it requires not only someone who understands computers, but a good deal of common sense.  The goal of SWMI.CA is to educate people on the best ways to do this, whether they use...

I owe a great debt to Microsoft Canada (Damir!) and Hewlett Packard Canada (Laurie!) who came through to supply me with a server for my last two projects.  If you happen to find yourself in the market for a server for a small to mid-sized company I cannot think of a better product than the HP ProLiant...

In 1625 King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden ordered his shipyards to build (among others) a mighty fighting ship called the Vasa. He gave very specific instructions for what he wanted in this ship, how he wanted it outfitted, and made it clear that it should be the mightiest ship on the seas, and it was...

I was sitting in a cafe minding my own business the other day when I overheard a couple of network administrators discussing the benefits of virtualizing their server room.  As this is a topic about which I am quite passionate I was delighted to hear the 'buzz'... the fact that organizations...

One of the great advantages to MVP Summit is the information that is made available to us; speak to any MVP and chances are they were in no fewer than a dozen sessions over the course of four days, not to mention all of the break-out sessions, the Open Space sessions on the first day, and a plethora...

So what is Essential Business Server (EBS) ?  In simple terms EBS is a complete corporate network for mid-sized companies in a box, or rather in three or four boxes depending on the version.  Let me explain: In the beginning there was the PC.  And of course Microsoft looked up at the PC...

For years I have been saying that Small Business Server was the best solution for small businesses that did not have huge IT budgets; it allowed them to take advantage of the same enterprise-level tools such as Microsoft Exchange Server, SQL Server, and SharePoint Server without having to purchase several...

This past Monday I had the opportunity to present what I call a 'Let's Get Excited' presentation to an architect audience at Microsoft Canada.  I was asked to showcase several new features of Windows Server 2008, due to launch on February 27th. While preparing for the presentation I...

One evening this week at the dinner table Theresa and I were discussing some of the steps that we took to protect Aaron (our nine year old) while he surfs the Internet.  He piped up that he did NOT like any of these measures, and I told him that he had better get used to them, because they are not...