Windows Server 8 Essentials available three days ago

Finally, the small business and home users are able to purchase this OS after the release. It was several days after Windows 8’s release but it may seem that to some other companies, the whole operating system was already a disaster for desktop users. Your best bet will be to get rid of the freaking Metro tiles and stick back to the desktop usage just like using Windows 7 but that bet is for laptop and desktop users.

• Built-in Disaster Recovery: Because Windows Home Server and SBS Server look kind of identical to each other, Windows Server 8 Essentials is a combination of two. This tool is useful for both business and homes where even home users can protect their home stuffs and work stuffs from disasters like fire, theft or flood. Using the cloud technology from Microsoft, its backup service helps keep data safe and secure even if one hardware should fail. In non-technical terms, you can prepare a series of paper-written documents just for disaster recovery preparation as if you’re preparing the data survival kits. For business, the redundancy is huge but for home users, will you make backups to, like other families or something?
• Consistent productivity: The connection should be easier around the network at home or at work in a small business company but by using the third-party start menu tool, you can save your ass even more like trying to use the powerful and centralized data storage and sharing features in the traditional desktop way.
• Cloud Solutions: Office 365 is one of the examples for home and business use for cloud technology but there are other solutions for your needs, with seamless integration and centralized administration.

In addition to the news about this release, there are other news about Windows Azure powering one of the games from Microsoft Games Studios as well as the reimagation of the other Windows and the expansion of Windows Server 8 to China. You can check out there at http://blogs.technet.com/b/stbnewsbytes/archive/2012/11/01/november-1-2012-news-thursday-windows-server-2012-essentials-generally-available-today-windows-azure-powers-halo-4-and-more-server-and-tools-news.aspx as this blog post is focused on the release of Windows Server 8 Essentials.

Windows Server 8 Essentials reached RTM

Just like Windows Server 8 in other editions, the Essentials edition is a significant milestone in the developers’ efforts to cloud-enable small businesses and home offices. It is  designed to protect business data to allow highly secure access to information you need from virtually anywhere by using almost any device and to offer the flexibility to choose which applications and services you want to run on-premises and in the cloud and besides, it is made even easier before to run itself in a hosted environment. However, since the Essentials is likely to be a combination of Small Business and Home Server editions, I may believe that the target audience for this may be different. Mostly, the small business users may seem to be using it but for Home Server users, you can still take the opportunity to try provided that the add-ons and apps are for both types of users commonly and especially for the features.

The release date will be in November 1st after it had just reached RTM yesterday so in the meantime, you can try out the trial copy from the Evaluation Center and if you’re an MSDN or Technet Subscriber, you can download the Essentials edition from those sites as well. Now, here are the quick product highlights the developers may want to share:

• Enable a dynamic, modern work style with access from devices by using Remote Web Access and take advantage of Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 devices for a superior experience with rich modern “My Server” apps. Oh come on, how much factors do you need for Remote Web Access? I already have an external router that has the UPnP support which is good for media viewing but even then, there were still technical problems when trying out the prototype version of Windows Home Server 7 and Small Business Server 7. I don’t even know if this technical problem will occur in this as well.
• On-site backups with Windows Azure Online Backup for peace of mind enjoyment? Now this is where things are quite uncommon and small business users will have to learn about Windows Azure technology before using this online backup feature as I believe that Windows Azure is likely to be for business users and not home users. Your best bet will be to establish your home office somewhere in your home and then start working on whatever work you have from the company you work at. That’s how you can use this technology for personal backup as a business user. You can also utilize integrated support for the new Windows 8 File History feature and I don’t know if this is like Volume Shadow Copies or some sort.
• Oh, hosted service provider for email and collaboration option? This one again is for small business users but for users of both types, you can probably choose Office 365.
• Storage Spaces may be useful for both types of users and THIS is one common feature and it is also in Windows 8 as well as other editions of Windows Server 8. In case you need multiple storages for storing data, this one is for you.
• Line-of-business applications can be run that you depend on by leveraging the greatly improved application compatibility, with the logo certification for all Windows Server 8 editions. Man, this one is gonna be confusing unless there are like multiple logo certifications for all Windows Server 8 editions. Also, this product highlight may seem to be for small business users.
• If the needs of your small business grow, you can upgrade to Windows Server 8 Standard edition which gives you the standard features of Windows Server 8 in case you may want to use Windows Server 8 Standard edition for whatever purpose. You can also use the Standard edition for home use but I don’t know if you can install that on your home servers.

Windows Server 8 was here yesterday and so was the Cloud OS

OK, I didn’t even notice it but it seemed that the Building Windows 8 and Office Next blogs don’t seem to be updating a lot today but then, Windows 8 and its server variant had already gone RTM all along last month. The server OS is designed to put the spotlight on the transformational shift underway across the entire IT ecosystem. This transformation is being driven by the exponential growth of devices used for smarter, more personalized applications, which in turn cause the explosion of data and the need for more computing power. Can this server OS power the cloud technology with the help of Windows Azure so that we clients can get the cloud technology and apps from that?

With cloud computing technology, you’re able to share data between your devices and servers behind the cloud computing service. In addition to data, there is also the easy account connection in which one service makes use of your social networking accounts and email accounts which make your accounts grow and spread like cells.

Windows Server 8 features the new storage technology with advanced storage, networking, virtualization just like its predecessors, automation and end user access capabilities. But with such simple GUI and features like that, can this operating system perform even faster? In fact, why the hell do you want the Metro GUI for Windows Server 8? On the servers, it’s gonna be awkward to use starting from the Start Screen, Logon screen and even the Charms Bar which is kind of worse to the users ever since the Start Button is gone. Login screen is fine but what’s worse for Windows Server 8 compared to the original Windows 8 is that, you’ve really got to put up with the Start Screen, Charms Bar and even the applications in both Metro and Non-Metro styles which may overall cause a business catastrophe. At least for Windows 8, there are already solutions for us, the desktop, laptop and tablet users in which for desktops, you can get rid of the Start Screen, Charms Bar, left Metro toolbar and ability to drag from top part of the screen to the bottom to close the app with some tools that can be discovered at AskVG. Where-else for tablet users, having the Desktop app is a no-no because it can be tedious for that.

So, what will cause the technical catastrophe for business? Well, for tablet users, remotely accessing the servers may make things kind of worse and especially for the servers running Windows Server 8 and besides, there’s no reason for you to access the servers like that because the intentions are pointless like that. Your best bet will be to get rid of the Start Screen, Charms Bar and even the hot corners for Windows Server 8 no matter which platform you’re going to remotely access. Then once you’ve gotten rid of those, you can use the desktops and laptops to remotely access the servers running Windows Server 8 just like accessing the servers running its predecessors.

Now with the latest Windows Azure technology, Windows Server 8 is able to use the advanced cloud technology as the cloud server OS which manages the apps on the cloud. You can simply proceed to those sites the server is powering and obtain the cloud service from there and that’s about it.

So the mess is still there. Having to do tablet-like interactivity on the server and normal computers is a no-no. It’s kind of pointless for tablet users to remotely access the servers and in fact, you’re forced to put up with such interactivity like that so what’s is left. Well, for installation and uninstallation process of the roles and features, it may seem that the process is not doing anything or perhaps it is corrupted that it is not doing anything and that was the worse problem I got when using the Beta version stored in the virtual machine with its virtual hard disk stored in the USB hard drive the other time. At least for Windows Server essentials series like the Small Business Server Essentials series and Home Server series, you can get interesting add-ons for the server and then using them to have the server do the managing work for you but even then, even Windows Server 8 Essentials will face the same technical catastrophe for your home and the small business companies.

Office 15 Blog

As the beta version of Microsoft Office 15 will be demonstrated in July 16th or so, they have opened a new blog called the Office Next blog or Office 15 Blog. It seems that the Windows 8 blog was like a hit that they've decided to make another blog.
Previously, there was a technical preview version of Office 15 but that wasn't even publicized. Now, the beta version of Office 15 will be released sometime this summer. Another release from Microsoft this summer is Windows Server 8 Essentials which is the successor to Windows Home Server 7.

By the experience of Office 2k10, there were improvements so far when using PowerPoint. First, the performance is improved when performing such complex animations compared to Office 2k7 which is kind of choppy. Second, there are formula changes in Excel 2k10 so that you can note the differences between the various criteria of the formulas. For example, you want the Standard Deviation formula to be numeric only, I think that you should enter like this, STDEVPA as STDEV.P is the default Standard Deviation formula without whatever formula criteria you want. Other than these examples, I don't know the other differences between Office 2k10 and 2k7 as I had upgraded from Office XP to Office 2k10 personally the other time to try out the new features. Will Office 15 be much better than Office 2k10? We'll find out after this weekend.
However, the downside against this excitement is that there was extreme major CME hitting us yesterday which could be more dangerous than the past like we must be prepared for electrical shut-off to prevent such crazy overloading of the electronic appliances. It might range from a standard disaster to a mega one but hopefully, that's not to worry about this downside as we have other things to get us excited of.