I'm going to go off topic here, but it's my blog and I can do what I want. If you don't like it, I'll refund what you paid me for reading it.

Next week is the ConnectWise Partner Summit.

I did a piece with Channel Insider, and got to talk about the need for backups again.

http://www.channelinsider.com/c/a/Commentary/Microsoft-Danger-TMobile-Outage-Highlights-Need-for-Backup-Even-in-the-Cloud-231246/

It’s been an interesting time for services. Microsoft/Danger/T-Mobile lost some of their user’s data recently when an outage turned into a data loss. Users who hadn’t backed up their Sidekick data were out of luck.

In the continuing pieces with Tech Target, a piece about how to keep your skills sharp around virtualization.

http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/generic/0,295582,sid94_gci1371347,00.html

I had to pass this on.

http://blogs.technet.com/seanearp/archive/2009/10/08/p2v-baby.aspx

It just does not get any easier than this.

I'm presenting an updated version of my presentation from WPC as a 5W25 webinar, and wanted to let everyone know about it.

Go visit http://www.mssmallbiz.com/training/ and sign up for my session.

Virtualization is becoming mainstream, and are you ready with your practice? Learn from Dave Sobel, author of “Virtualization: Defined. A Primer for the SMB Consultant”, how to build your consulting practice, get trained and offering solutions, and solutions you can start delivering right away.

In follow up to my posts about moving Evolve to the cloud, I did a piece for Channel Insider I thought came out very well.

http://www.channelinsider.com/c/a/Commentary/Virtualizations-Impact-on-Managed-Services-676629/

Do you agree?

Can you tell I'm cleaning out my inbox?

CompTIA has announced their "Industry Mentors" Program, where you can get lots of great information about industry experts on a variety of subjects from Marketing to Human Resources to Security to Virtualization. And you might already know the virtualization guy...

It's available from the CompTIA Member Resource Center, and you can find out more at http://www.comptia.org/membership.aspx

I have an opportunity for readers out there.

Microsoft recently asked me if I had a SMB case study which was around Business Servers (Windows Server, Foundation Server, SBS & EBS) and Virtualization & Management (System Center Essentials & Virtual Machine Manager).

They're looking specifically for SMB case studies.

Erick Simpson emailed me the link to his new book's pre-order availability, and I had to share it.

Pre-Order MSPU's new book The Best NOC and Service Desk Operations BOOK EVER today!

I own all of Erick's books, and consider them must-reads for doing Managed Services... and I continually allude to managed services being the base that virtualization is built on.

Go buy it.

I got a great note from Randy Spangler with Merit Solutions, and he brings up some great questions.