In this issue learn how En Pointe’s Cloud Computing Services can help supercharge your teams productivity and work together through PCs, browsers, even mobile phones. You’ll also learn about upcoming webinars around Online Services, promotions, latest information on product launching and more!
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If you’re looking for a way to supercharge your team’s productivity, all you have to do is look up. Cloud computing gives you the ability to get all your colleagues together, no matter where they are, and collaborate naturally.
With En Pointe’s Cloud Computing suite, your team can connect through an effective system of tools, all managed by Microsoft. Your people can work together through PCs, browsers, even mobile phones. En Pointe’s Cloud Computing suite is designed to seamlessly integrate email, video conferencing, instant messaging, shared calendars and SharePoint.
And, with Cloud Computing, you don’t need to spend thousands up front to upgrade all of your hardware. Simply subscribe to Cloud Computing through En Pointe for a small monthly fee per seat. En Pointe’s Cloud Computing can help your business. Click here to contact En Pointe Technologies.
Special Offer: First 50 customers to activate Microsoft’s Exchange Online 30-day FREE Trial will receive a $100 Amex Gift Card, complimentary IT Assessment and a $2500 services voucher *
Save up to 15% on software Assurance for the entire duration (all three years) of an Open Value agreement for all products on the renewal order.
Dates: April 1, 2010 through June 30, 2010
Products Include: Windows HPC Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 HPC Edition
Description: Offer includes Up to 25 percent savings to Open License, Open Value, Select License, Select Plus, and Enterprise Agreement customers on Windows HPC Server 2008 and the Windows Server 2008 HPC Edition operating system server license and Software Assurance packs.
Save up to 15% on software Assurance for the entire duration (all three years) of an Open Value agreement for all products on the renewal order.
Dates: April 1, 2010 through June 30, 2010
Products Include: Windows HPC Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 HPC Edition
Description: Offer includes Up to 25 percent savings to Open License, Open Value, Select License, Select Plus, and Enterprise Agreement customers on Windows HPC Server 2008 and the Windows Server 2008 HPC Edition operating system server license and Software Assurance packs.
Through September 30, 2010, offer Microsoft Open Value, Microsoft Open Value Subscription, Microsoft Select License, Microsoft Select Plus, Microsoft Enterprise Agreement, Microsoft Enterprise Subscription Agreement, Microsoft Campus Agreement, and Microsoft School Agreement customers up to 30 percent savings on Microsoft Forefront Online Protection for Exchange per-device and per-user monthly subscription licenses.
A Cost-effective way to upgrade to the Windows 7 operations System and Microsoft Office 2010.
Every 2007 Microsoft Office system license covered by Software Assurance includes rights to the same edition of Microsoft Office 2010 upon its release. Learn more
Upgrade Plus Promotion
Dates: January 1, 2010 – June 30, 2010
Products Include:
Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007, Microsoft Office Small Business 2007, and the Windows 7 Professional operating system.
Description:
In addition to the up-to-date discount of up to 50 percent savings on the first annual payment for estimated retail prices of existing desktop platform product licenses of the current (N) version (Office Professional 2007, Office Professional Plus 2007, Office Small Business 2007, Office Standard 2007, and Windows 7 Professional) or previous (N-1) version (Office Professional 2003, Office Small Business 2003, Office Standard 2003, and Windows Vista Business), customers who sign a new Open Value Subscription or Open Value Subscription for Government agreement will also receive the up-to-date discount on N-2 versions of existing desktop platform licenses (Office Professional XP, Office Small Business XP, Office Standard XP, and Window XP Professional).
The Beta release of Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Microsoft Project 2010, and Microsoft Visio 2010 are available for Download. Take advantage of the simultaneous Beta availability of these new technologies to experience the great functionality that they offer together. Download it; deploy it internally in your organization, at home, and with friends and family. Learn more
This is an important and exciting milestone as it provides you with an opportunity to provide us with feedback and gain valuable hands-on experience before the release to manufacture later in the first half of the calendar year 2010. This next wave of business productivity tools have been designed to deliver the best user experience across the PC, mobile phone and browser. By installing it today, you can start familiarizing yourself and your customers with some of the great new enhancements.
Achieving New Levels of Reliability and Performance
with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010
with significant advances in our technologies and services and Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010, you can achieve new levels of reliability and performance while controlling the cost and complexity of delivering a business class e-mail solution. Exchange Server 2010 helps lower IT costs with cost-effective storage options, enables the mobile workforce with rich mobile access to their entire inbox, and manages the risks of costly exposure with expanded information control and archiving.
Windows® 7 Professional and Microsoft® Office 2007 Professional Plus work the way you want, so you can get more done and safeguard your work. Save 20 percent on Microsoft Office 2007 for a limited time. We can help you meet the current economic challenges and be prepared for future growth.
Microsoft recently announced that there will be an increase in the pricing of the processor licensing of SQL Server 2008 R2 when it launches in the first half of calendar year 2010. There will be a 15% increase in the processor pricing of SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition and a 25% increase in the processor pricing of SQL Server 2008 Standard. There will be no change to the Server/CAL licensing model of SQL Server.
We are adjusting our prices for Standard and Enterprise based on the added value of features we are adding including, but not limited to, Master Data Services, StreamInsight, PowerPivot, and data compression. Microsoft SQL Server continues to be the only major database vendor who does not alter price per core for multi-core processors. As processing power and capabilities of hardware increase, licensing SQL Server per processor continues to be a good option for many application scenarios, where SQL Server is up to a third the cost of Oracle.
SQL Server 2008 pricing has remained flat since 2005, with new features and functionalities included out of the box for no additional charge.
If you purchase SQL Server 2008 EE with SA now, you’ll be able to lock in at today’s pricing for the next 2 releases while still being able to upgrade to the latest version.
For more information on how you can take advantage of today’s pricing contact your En Pointe Account Executive or email us at teammicrosoft@enpointe.com.
What’s New in SQL Server 2008 R2 Editions
Built on SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 R2 delivers higher mission-critical scale, more efficient IT, and expanded reporting and analytics through self-service business intelligence. SQL Server 2008 R2 introduces two new premium editions to meet the needs of large scale datacenters and data warehouses. SQL Server 2008 R2 Datacenter Edition and SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse Edition
New Premium Editions Datacenter
Built on SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise, SQL Server 2008 R2 Datacenter is designed to deliver a high-performing data platform that provides the highest levels of scalability for large application workloads, virtualization and consolidation, and management for an organization’s database infrastructure. Datacenter helps enable organizations to cost effectively scale their mission-critical environment.
Key features new to Datacenter:
Application and Multi-Server Management for enrolling, gaining insights and managing over 25 instances
Highest virtualization support for maximum ROI on consolidation and virtualization
High-scale complex event processing with SQL Server StreamInsight
Supports more than 8 processors and up to 256 logical processors for highest levels of scale
Supports memory limits up to OS maximum
Parallel Data Warehouse
SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse is a highly scalable data warehouse appliance-based solution. Parallel Data Warehouse delivers performance at low cost through a massively parallel processing (MPP) architecture and compatibility with hardware partners – scale your data warehouse to tens and hundreds of terabytes.
Key features new to Parallel Data Warehouse:
10s to 100s TBs enabled by MPP architecture
Advanced data warehousing capabilities like Star Join Queries and Change Data Capture
Integration with SSIS, SSRS, and SSAS
Supports industry standard data warehousing hub and spoke architecture and parallel database copy
Investments in Core Editions
SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise delivers a comprehensive data platform that provides built-in security, availability, and scale coupled with robust business intelligence offerings—helping enable the highest service levels for mission-critical workloads.
The following capabilities are new to Enterprise:
PowerPivot for SharePoint to support the hosting and management of PowerPivot applications in SharePoint
Application and Multi-Server Management for enrolling, gaining insights and managing up to 25 instances
o Master Data Services for data consistency across heterogeneous systems
Data Compression now enabled with UCS-2 Unicode support
Beginning July 1, 2011, Microsoft will no longer sell new Select License Agreements. Customers can choose between Select License and Select Plus until this date. Select customers can choose to migrate to Select Plus during this time and maintain their current Select price level. Existing Select License customers can continue to renew their Select License Agreement after this date.
What should you do?
For an overview of this licensing change, a program comparison, and information on migrating to Select Plus contact your En Pointe Account Executive or teammicrosoft@enpointe.com
Software Assurance Update on Employee Purchase Program Retirement
Microsoft will retire the Microsoft Software Assurance Employee Purchase Program (EPP) in November 2010.
EPP was first introduced in 2003, and its customer use has gradually declined. For all Software Assurance customers eligible for EPP, the number of individual product licenses purchased on average by organizations is less than one. In addition, the vast majority of product licenses purchased are for Microsoft® Office, making up 90 percent of the EPP orders today. During the same timeframe the Home Use Program (HUP) for Microsoft Office has provided millions of organizations' employees with Office at home via a convenient download service, providing Microsoft Office at cost recovery at around $10 per employee (local currency pricing varies). We believe this offers your employees an easier and more affordable program for using Microsoft Office at home.
Retirement Steps EPP will continue to be available between now and November 2010, with the current range of products and the Windows® 7 operating system. From April 1, 2010 to June 30, 2010 the Windows 7 operating system products in EPP will be available at a 10% reduced rate of standard EPP pricing, as a one-time offer. Starting in June 2010, the Home Use Program will upgrade to include the latest version of Office - Office 2010 Professional Plus, while Office 2007 SKUs will remain available through EPP.
Recommended Steps
If your organization actively uses EPP, we recommend that you notify your employees so that they can use EPP as needed before November 2010. We also recommend you evaluate using the Home Use Program for providing Microsoft Office to your employees. You can find further details on the HUP site at http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/software-assurance/home-use-program.aspx.If you have any questions about EPP retirement or using HUP, please contact your Microsoft representative.
