Robert Stanek is an American author and visual artist whose career spans more than three decades. Robert Stanek has published works of fiction and nonfiction across a wide range of genres. His books have been translated into dozens of languages and distributed internationally through traditional and independent publishing channels. Over the course of his career, he has written hundreds of titles and has appeared on numerous sales-based and platform bestseller rankings.
I’ve been a writer for 30 years, having finished my first novel in 1986, and I’m no stranger to the ups and downs that come with the business. Heck, even though my work won awards in the interim, I didn’t truly break into publishing until 1995 when my first full-length work of nonfiction catapulted its way onto bestseller lists. That work was followed by a dozen other bestsellers, nearly all of which were published by Macmillan and distributed to the world by Simon & Schuster, that is until the business turned and I found myself at a crossroads.
The year was 1998 and I turned away from full-time writing for a short while to work for a Seattle-based startup. Around the same time, I jumped ship from Macmillan and an opportunity to write for Microsoft arose. Microsoft was working on a new series of books called Pocket Consultants. They needed writers who could write fast, clearly, concisely, authoritatively and just as important meet crazy timelines not just once or a few times but always. Surprisingly, always hitting timelines isn’t something many writers can do.
I went over to Microsoft without any hesitation. They loved my writing so much that my style became the Pocket Consultant style and soon I had not just one contract with them but three, then four. I not only hit my timelines while writing clearly, concisely and authoritatively, I consistently walloped them.
Microsoft loved this. Soon the Pocket Consultants and I were synonymous. In the years that followed, I wrote dozens. Not only were the books read in print by millions (thank you, readers!), articles and extracts from the books were posted on Microsoft websites and read by millions more.
Pocket Consultant was in fact a $100-million+ brand in its nearly 20-year run. Peanuts to Microsoft where only the word that starts with b (billions) matters, but an amazing success story nonetheless. And it all started with a few people working behind the scenes who believed in me, my writing style and my unique approach to the various subjects I write about.
The people working quietly behind the scenes know who they are. If you have any of my Pocket Consultants you know who they are too—they’re listed on the copyright page. They include Anne Hamilton, Lucinda Rowley, Karen Szall, Juliana Aldous, Martin DelRe, Maureen Zimmerman, Jeff Koch, Valerie Woolley, Julie Miller, Denise Bankaitis, Maria Gargiulo, Rosemary Caperton, Melissa von Tschudi-Sutton, Carol Vu, Chris Nelson, Jean Trenary, Devon Musgrave, and many others (apologies for any misspellings or omissions).
What readers may not know, however, is just how important those working behind the scenes are to writers. Some who read my work may think that Microsoft’s #1 author for the past twenty years lived at the Redmond Campus. The truth is much different, especially as I’m a very independent cuss. I didn’t write dozens of books by being a social butterfly either. I met my schedules, by putting my head down, blocking out the distractions, and working. That meant the social butterfly stuff was done for me by others, who acted in my best interest around Redmond campus even though I was never there.
In those two decades of work for Microsoft, five people in particular were my biggest champions and spokespersons:
Anne Hamilton
Lucinda Rowley
Karen Szall
Juliana Aldous
Martin DelRe
All of them were there at the beginning pulling for me and a few of them were still there nearly two decades later at the end doing the same. So while I was breaking new ground, setting the pace for the publishing world with the revolutionary series called Pocket Consultants, these were the people who had my back and best interests at heart. In life and publishing, that’s not just rare, that’s otherwise unheard of.
So today as Pocket Consultant sunsets, I look back and smile. All the years, all the words, all the books were worth all the time, all the effort, all the sacrifice.
To all the readers out there, great things are still happening. I hope you’ll hang in there with me as I blaze new trails with Stanek & Associates.
Thank you for reading,
William Robert Stanek
williamstanek at aol.com
PS
If you’re using Office 365 and Exchange Online, I hope you’ll buy my books on these subjects. Good starting points? Sure...
Well, I didn't win PowerBall, so I better keep writing. :-) Two BRAND NEW releases to share for my IT Pro Solutions series.
I really like the covers on the IT Pro Solutions books. Beautiful, IMHO (and I hope you agree). It's the first time I've had full creative control. The interiors are just as gorgeous too. Your support needed to spread the good word so please let others know and share if you can.
You'll note something new on the cover too: Recognition of my son's contributions. Will has been my go to technician and check reader for years, setting up my development environments with each and every product build and performing preliminary technical review. He's the guy triple-checking every reference, step-by-step and procedure from GUI to shell, after my own double-check. As I stated in my Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 book published by Microsoft, he's instrumental to my writing process and now he has an expanded role in the full process from start to finish.
First up is Office 365 & Exchange Online: Essentials for Administration (IT Pro Solutions). This book is for all those who've moved to the cloud. The book puts expert advice for Office 365 and Exchange Online right at your fingertips. Chock full of PowerShell too and weighing in at 56,000 words and 308 pages, the book is organized into 10 chapters:
Chapter 1. Working with Office 365 & Exchange Online 1 Getting Started with Office 365 & Exchange Online 1 Navigating Office 365 2 Getting Started with Exchange Admin Center 4 Understanding Office 365 Licensing 8 Using Windows PowerShell with Office 365 & Exchange Online 10 Getting Started with Windows PowerShell 10 Understanding the Default Working Environment 12 Learning About Cmdlets and Functions 14 Connecting to Exchange Online Using PowerShell 15 Exploring How the Shell Uses Remote Sessions 16 Establishing Remote Sessions 17 Using an Interactive Remote Session 18 Creating and Importing a Remote Session 20 Connecting to Windows Azure and the Office 365 Service 22 Cmdlets for Windows Azure Active Directory 23 Working with Exchange Online Cmdlets 26 Cmdlets Specific to Exchange Online 26 Using the Exchange Online Cmdlets 29 Chapter 2. Getting Started with Users and Contacts 33 Working with Users and Contacts 33 How Email Routing Works: The Essentials 35 Managing Recipients: The Fundamentals 35 Finding Existing Mailboxes, Contacts, And Groups 39 Finding Unlicensed, Inactive and Blocked Users 43 Chapter 3. Managing Users 44 Creating Mailbox-Enabled and Mail-Enabled User Accounts 44 Working with Logon Names and Passwords 44 Mail-Enabling New User Accounts 45 Removing Mail-Enabled User Accounts 50 Creating Office 365 User Accounts with Mailboxes 51 Setting or Changing Contact Information for User Accounts 53 Changing Logon ID or Logon Domain for Online Users 55 Changing a User’s Exchange Alias and Display Name 56 Adding, Changing, and Removing Email and Other Addresses 58 Setting a Default Reply Address for a User Account 59 Changing A User’s Web, Wireless Service, And Protocol Options 60 Requiring Users to Change Passwords 62 Deleting Mailboxes from User Accounts 64 Deleting User Accounts and Their Mailboxes 65 Chapter 4. Managing Contacts 68 Creating Mail-Enabled Contacts 68 Setting or Changing a Contact’s Name and Alias 71 Setting Additional Directory Information for Contacts 72 Changing Email Addresses Associated with Contacts 74 Deleting Contacts 77 Chapter 5. Adding Special-Purpose Mailboxes 79 Using Room and Equipment Mailboxes 79 Adding Room Mailboxes 85 Adding Equipment Mailboxes 88 Adding Forwarding Mailboxes 90 Working with Archive Mailboxes 93 Adding Archive Mailboxes 93 Managing Archive Settings 97 Adding Arbitration Mailboxes 102 Adding Discovery Mailboxes 103 Adding Shared Mailboxes 104 Adding Public Folder Mailboxes 107 Chapter 6. Managing Mailboxes 112 Managing Mailboxes: The Essentials 112 Viewing Current Mailbox Size, Message Count, and Last Logon 113 Configuring Apps for Mailboxes 113 Hiding Mailboxes from Address Lists 116 Defining Custom Mailbox Attributes for Address Lists 117 Restoring Online Users and Mailboxes 118 Repairing Mailboxes 121 Managing Delivery Restrictions, Permissions, and Storage Limits 122 Setting Message Size Restrictions for Contacts 122 Setting Message Size Restrictions on Delivery to and from Individual Mailboxes 122 Setting Send and Receive Restrictions for Contacts 123 Setting Message Send and Receive Restrictions on Individual Mailboxes 123 Permitting Others to Access a Mailbox 125 Forwarding Email to a New Address 130 Understanding Storage Restrictions on Mailbox and Archives 131 Understanding Deleted Item Retention 132 Chapter 7. Configuring Groups for Exchange Online 134 Using Exchange Groups 134 Group Types, Scope, And Identifiers 134 When to Use Dynamic Distribution Groups 137 Working with Exchange Groups 138 Group Naming Policy 138 Understanding Group Naming Policy 139 Defining Group Naming Policy for Your Organization 140 Defining Blocked Words in Group Naming Policy 142 Creating Security and Standard Distribution Groups 143 Creating a New Group 144 Mail-Enabling Universal Security Groups 148 Assigning and Removing Membership for Individual Users, Groups, and Contacts 149 Adding and Removing Managers 151 Configuring Member Restrictions and Moderation 153 Working with Dynamic Distribution Groups 156 Creating Dynamic Distribution Groups 157 Changing Query Filters and Filter Conditions 161 Modifying Dynamic Distribution Groups Using Cmdlets 163 Previewing Dynamic Distribution Group Membership 165 Other Essential Tasks for Managing Groups 166 Changing a Group’s Name Information 166 Changing, Adding, or Deleting a Group’s Email Addresses 167 Hiding Groups from Exchange Address Lists 169 Setting Usage Restrictions on Groups 170 Creating Moderated Groups 173 Deleting Exchange Groups 175 Chapter 8. Configuring Groups for Office 365 177 Getting Started with Groups in Office 365 177 Creating Security Groups in Office 365 179 Working with Security Groups in Office 365 181 Managing Security Group Membership in Office 365 182 Creating Distribution Lists in Office 365 183 Managing Distribution List Membership in Office 365 185 Adding and Removing Distribution List Owners 187 Creating Office 365 Groups 188 Managing the Properties of Office 365 Groups 190 Modifying the Membership and Ownership of Office 365 Groups 192 Changing the Naming Information for Groups and Lists 193 Controlling Group Creation 193 Deleting Groups in Office 365 Admin Center 196 Chapter 9. Working with Exchange Clients 197 Mastering Outlook Web App essentials 198 Getting started with Outlook Web App 198 Accessing Mailboxes and Public Folders 200 Working with Outlook Web App 202 Enabling and Disabling Web Access for Users 206 Configuring Mail Support for Outlook 208 Understanding Address Lists, Offline Address Books, and Autodiscover 209 Configuring Outlook for the First Time 209 First-Time Configuration: Connecting to Exchange Online 211 First-Time Configuration: Connecting to Internet Email Servers 213 Configuring Outlook for Exchange 216 Adding Internet Mail Accounts to Outlook 217 Repairing and Changing Outlook Mail Accounts 217 Leaving Mail on the Server with POP3 221 Checking Private and Public Folders with IMAP4 and UNIX Mail Servers 223 Managing the Exchange Configuration in Outlook 224 Managing Delivery and Processing Email Messages 225 Using Server Mailboxes 225 Using Personal Folders 225 Repairing .pst data files 230 Repairing .ost data files 232 Accessing Multiple Exchange Mailboxes 233 Logging on to Exchange as the Mailbox Owner 234 Delegating Mailbox Access 235 Opening Additional Exchange Mailboxes 237 Granting Permission to Access Folders Without Delegating Access 239 Using Mail Profiles to Customize the Mail Environment 242 Creating, Copying, and Removing Mail Profiles 242 Selecting a Specific Profile to use on Startup 244 Chapter 10. Customizing & Configuring Exchange Security 247 Configuring Standard Exchange Permissions 247 Assigning Permissions 247 Understanding Exchange Management Groups 248 Assigning Management Permissions 252 Configuring Role-Based Permissions for Exchange 256 Understanding Role-Based Permissions 256 Working with Role Groups 262 Managing Role Group Members 267 Assigning Roles Directly or Via Policy 269 Configuring Account Management Permissions 276 Index 279 About the Author 287
Next up, is Exchange Server 2016 & Exchange Online: Essentials for Administration (IT Pro Solutions). This book is for all those working with Exchange Server & Exchange Online whether you are using on-premises only, online only or a hybrid implementation of the two. Throughout the book you'll find examples using both the GUI and Windows Powershell. Weighing in at 95,000 words and 454 pages, the book is organized into 12 chapters:
Chapter 1. Welcome to Exchange 2016 1 Getting Started with Exchange Admin Center 2 Navigating Exchange Admin Center Options 2 Accessing Exchange Admin Center 5 Authenticating and Proxying Connections 8 Getting Started with Exchange Management Shell 9 Running and Using Cmdlets 9 Running and Using Other Commands and Utilities 10 Using Cmdlet Parameters and Errors 11 Using Cmdlet Aliases 12 Working with Exchange Management Shell 12 Starting Exchange Management Shell 13 Using Exchange Cmdlets 14 Working with Object Sets and Redirecting Output 15 Chapter 2. Working with Exchange Online 17 Getting Started with Exchange Online 18 Navigating Exchange Online Services 18 Understanding Office 365 Licensing 22 Using Windows PowerShell with Exchange Online 23 Getting Started with Windows PowerShell 24 Understanding the Default Working Environment 26 Learning About Cmdlets and Functions 28 Connecting to Exchange Online Using PowerShell 29 Exploring How the Shell Uses Remote Sessions 29 Establishing Remote Sessions 31 Using an Interactive Remote Session 31 Creating and Importing a Remote Session 33 Connecting to Windows Azure 35 Cmdlets for Windows Azure Active Directory 37 Working with Exchange Online Cmdlets 39 Cmdlets Specific to Exchange Online 39 Working with Exchange Online Cmdlets 43 Chapter 3. Getting Started with Users and Contacts 46 Working with Users and Contacts 46 How Email Routing Works: The Essentials 48 Managing Recipients: The Fundamentals 49 Finding Existing Mailboxes, Contacts, And Groups 56 Finding Synced, Unlicensed, Inactive, and Blocked Users 60 Chapter 4. Managing Users 62 Creating Mailbox-Enabled and Mail-Enabled User Accounts 62 Working with Logon Names and Passwords 62 Mail-Enabling New User Accounts 63 Mail-Enabling Existing User Accounts 69 Managing Mail-Enabled User Accounts 71 Creating Domain User Accounts with Mailboxes 72 Creating Online User Accounts with Mailboxes 80 Adding Mailboxes to Existing Domain User Accounts 82 Setting or Changing the Common Name and Logon Name for Domain User Accounts 87 Setting or Changing Contact Information for User Accounts 88 Changing Logon ID or Logon Domain for Online Users 90 Changing a User’s Exchange Server Alias and Display Name 91 Adding, Changing, and Removing Email and Other Addresses 93 Setting a Default Reply Address for a User Account 95 Changing A User’s Web, Wireless Service, And Protocol Options 95 Requiring Domain User Accounts to Change Passwords 97 Deleting Mailboxes from User Accounts 98 Deleting User Accounts and Their Mailboxes 100 Chapter 5. Managing Contacts 104 Creating Mail-Enabled Contacts 104 Setting or Changing a Contact’s Name and Alias 107 Setting Additional Directory Information for Contacts 109 Changing Email Addresses Associated with Contacts 110 Disabling Contacts and Removing Exchange Attributes 113 Deleting Contacts 115 Chapter 6. Adding Special-Purpose Mailboxes 116 Using Room and Equipment Mailboxes 116 Adding Room Mailboxes 122 Adding Equipment Mailboxes 125 Adding Linked Mailboxes 128 Adding Forwarding Mailboxes 131 Working with Archive Mailboxes 134 Adding In-Place Archives 134 Adding Online Archives 138 Managing Archive Settings 139 Adding Arbitration Mailboxes 145 Adding Discovery Mailboxes 146 Adding Shared Mailboxes 147 Adding Public Folder Mailboxes 151 Chapter 7. Managing Mailboxes 156 Managing Mailboxes: The Essentials 156 Viewing Current Mailbox Size, Message Count, and Last Logon 157 Configuring Apps for Mailboxes 160 Hiding Mailboxes from Address Lists 163 Defining Custom Mailbox Attributes for Address Lists 164 Restoring On-Premises Users and Mailboxes 165 Restoring Online Users and Mailboxes 169 Repairing Mailboxes 172 Moving Mailboxes 173 Importing and Exporting Mail Data 173 Performing On-Premises Mailboxes Moves and Migrations 176 Performing On-Premises Mailbox Moves 180 Moving Mailboxes Within a Single Forest 182 Moving Mailboxes Between Forests 187 Managing Delivery Restrictions, Permissions, and Storage Limits 192 Setting Message Size Restrictions for Contacts 193 Setting Message Size Restrictions on Delivery to and from Individual Mailboxes 193 Setting Send and Receive Restrictions for Contacts 196 Setting Message Send and Receive Restrictions on Individual Mailboxes 196 Permitting Others to Access a Mailbox 198 Forwarding Email to a New Address 203 Setting Storage Restrictions on Mailbox and Archives 204 Setting Deleted Item Retention Time on Individual Mailboxes 207 Chapter 8. Managing Groups 210 Using Security and Distribution Groups 210 Group Types, Scope, And Identifiers 210 When to Use Security and Standard Distribution Groups 212 When to Use Dynamic Distribution Groups 213 Working with Security and Standard Distribution Groups 214 Group Naming Policy 215 Understanding Group Naming Policy 215 Defining Group Naming Policy for Your Organization 217 Defining Blocked Words in Group Naming Policy 218 Creating Security and Standard Distribution Groups 219 Creating a New Group 220 Mail-Enabling Universal Security Groups 225 Assigning and Removing Membership for Individual Users, Groups, and Contacts 226 Adding and Removing Managers 228 Configuring Member Restrictions and Moderation 230 Working with Dynamic Distribution Groups 233 Creating Dynamic Distribution Groups 234 Changing Query Filters and Filter Conditions 239 Designating an Expansion Server 240 Modifying Dynamic Distribution Groups Using Cmdlets 242 Previewing Dynamic Distribution Group Membership 244 Other Essential Tasks for Managing Groups 245 Changing a Group’s Name Information 245 Changing, Adding, or Deleting a Group’s Email Addresses 246 Hiding Groups from Exchange Address Lists 248 Setting Usage Restrictions on Groups 249 Creating Moderated Groups 251 Deleting Groups 253 Chapter 9. Managing Addresses Online and Offline 255 Managing Online Address Lists 255 Using Default Address Lists 255 Using Address Book Policies 256 Creating and Applying New Address Lists 259 Updating Address List Configuration and Membership Throughout the Domain 264 Previewing and Editing Address Lists 265 Configuring Clients to Use Address Lists 267 Renaming and Deleting Address Lists 268 Managing Offline Address Books 269 Creating Offline Address Books 269 Configuring Clients to Use an Offline Address Book 271 Setting the Default Offline Address Book 272 Changing Offline Address Book Properties 272 Designating OAB Generation Servers and Schedules 274 Rebuilding the OAB 277 Deleting Offline Address Books 277 Chapter 10. Configuring Exchange Clients 279 Mastering Outlook Web App essentials 280 Getting started with Outlook Web App 280 Connecting to Mailboxes and Public Folder Data Over the Web 282 Working with Outlook Web App 285 Enabling and Disabling Web Access for Users 290 Configuring Mail Support for Outlook 292 Understanding Address Lists, Offline Address Books, and Autodiscover 293 Configuring Outlook for the First Time 296 First-Time Configuration: Connecting to Exchange Server 298 First-Time Configuration: Connecting to Internet Email Servers 301 Configuring Outlook for Exchange 303 Adding Internet Mail Accounts to Outlook 305 Repairing and Changing Outlook Mail Accounts 305 Leaving Mail on the Server with POP3 309 Checking Private and Public Folders with IMAP4 and UNIX Mail Servers 311 Managing the Exchange Configuration in Outlook 312 Managing Delivery and Processing Email Messages 313 Using Server Mailboxes 313 Using Personal Folders 313 Repairing .pst data files 318 Repairing .ost data files 320 Accessing Multiple Exchange Mailboxes 321 Logging on to Exchange as the Mailbox Owner 322 Delegating Mailbox Access 323 Opening Additional Exchange Mailboxes 325 Granting Permission to Access Folders Without Delegating Access 327 Using Mail Profiles to Customize the Mail Environment 330 Creating, Copying, and Removing Mail Profiles 330 Selecting a Specific Profile to use on Startup 332 Chapter 11. Customizing & Troubleshooting the Exchange Shell 335 Running and using the Exchange Management Shell 335 Managing the PowerShell Application 345 Customizing Exchange Management Shell 347 Performing One-to-Many Remote Management 350 Using a Manual Remote Shell to Work with Exchange 352 Preparing to Use the Remote Shell 352 Connecting Manually to Exchange 2016 Servers 355 Connecting Manually to Exchange Online 357 Managing Remote Sessions 358 Troubleshooting Exchange Management Shell 359 Chapter 12. Customizing & Configuring Exchange Security 362 Configuring Standard Exchange Permissions 362 Assigning Permissions: Exchange Server and Online 362 Understanding Exchange Management Groups 364 Assigning Management Permissions 370 Understanding Advanced Exchange Server Permissions 375 Assigning Advanced Exchange Server Permissions 378 Configuring Role-Based Permissions for Exchange 380 Understanding Role-Based Permissions 380 Working with Role Groups 388 Managing Role Group Members 395 Assigning Roles Directly or Via Policy 397 Configuring Account Management Permissions 404 Managing Advanced Permissions 407 Adding Custom Roles 407 Adding Custom Role Scopes 410 Adding Custom Role Entries 413 Working with Shared and Split Permissions 418 Using Shared Permissions 418 Using Split Permissions 419 Index 425 About the Author 435
This is the fourth in a series of articles based on the popular Cloud Matters lecture series I’ve been giving to executives and their top staff at global Fortune 100, 500 and 1000 companies since 2012. These articles are for working pros at all levels and are delivered without icing and sprinkles.
Cloud Matters lunches happen, so do Cloud Matters lectures. Before a lunch or lecture with management and their teams, someone usually introduces me to everyone. I’ve only been introduced one time as “that guy that wrote all them books that are sitting on your desks,” but I kind of liked it. Much better than the usual about how I was Microsoft’s top author for nearly twenty years, wrote a hundred plus authoritative books, or how I’m one of the world’s leading authorities on Microsoft enterprise and cloud technologies.
The numbers aren’t why I write or lecture, but people really seems to like the numbers.
Ten million "William Stanek" readers. Check.
Twenty years of "William Stanek" books. Check.
$100 million in top-line sales for my Microsoft books. Check.
It’s important to realize that I don’t write the hyperbole. Those are all things the marketers, publishers, press etc wrote about me—and none of it is why I do what I do. I do what I do because I love sharing what I know and helping others succeed. If I can enhance careers and save companies money while I’m doing it, even better.
At the end of the day, what Cloud Matters is all about depends on the needs of the company and their teams. For $XYZ an hour plus expenses some expect earth-shattering revelations and may not even realize until they send the inevitable “Thank You” note how valuable the advice offered was or how much money they saved by getting an additional opinion before committing to this or that cloud project.
Sure, there are plenty of management consulting companies in the cloud space but they’re not necessarily independent authorities, and they’re not necessarily selling the cow, the milk and the farm at the same time. The truly shrewd ones though they recognize the value of independent opinion, independent review, independent oversight and everything else Cloud Matters offers. They’re the ones filling my calendar.
So where is Cloud Matters going this year? This year it’s going to Japan, China, Korea, France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Great Britain, Scotland, Canada, and around the USA. If your company is in any of these locations and wants a Cloud Matters lunch or lecture, now’s the time.
This is cloud matters, part 4. If this strikes a chord with you, I hope you’ll follow, share and sign your company up for Cloud Matters.
Thanks for reading,
William Robert Stanek
williamstanek at aol.com
PS
AND YES, I WOULD rather be home writing than lecturing. Help me stay home and write by supporting my books. My upcoming books include:
This is the second in a series of articles based on the popular Cloud Matters lecture series I’ve been giving to executives and their top staff at global Fortune 100, 500 and 1000 companies since 2012. These articles are for working pros at all levels and are delivered without icing and sprinkles.
The title question is a zinger, delivered with a grin when I’m told a client has gone with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and states they are paying X dollars for Y number of servers with Z discounts (or whatever other arrangements they’ve made). Of course, to be fair and honest, I do the same when clients tell me they’ve gone with Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, VMWare, OpenStack or whatever. Because clients paying X for Y with a side of Z are getting gouged every day.
As an outside advisor, I don’t negotiate deals or terms for my clients, though I probably should. Companies like Cloudyn and its many lookalikes are charging a commission of 2 to 3 percent of the cloud-bill for the same, and minting new millionaire employees as fast as the Denver mint ships truckloads of coins in the process. Meanwhile, I simply tell my clients what I know when asked, without charging fees in perpetuity for the know-how.
What I know is this, well at least part of what I know, because one can’t give away the cow without charging for the milk. Companies that move to the cloud are getting taken to the cleaners, literally, and have been for years. This is especially true for the early adopters, and it’s still true with pricing for cloud services dropping like a stone into a river.
The problem is bad, has been bad, and will continue to be bad. The sort of bad that comes from negotiating the price of your 60-proc E10K servers to the decimal point while letting Oracle decide how much to charge for the db12 licensing. Hey, what the heck, roll the dice with your cloud licensing too. After all, you’re saving money, right? Right?
Call when the sticker shock sets in, because it does and will. The dozens of companies that have jumped into the cloud cost-management game are counting on it. They make bank off the money they save clients, and like I said earlier, they’re getting filthy rich in the process. I suppose I should cash in too. Heck, why not? Everyone else is swimming in the pool; they don’t even seem to notice that big, fat, brown turd floating there. Hey, maybe it’s a chocolate bar, right? Right? Wink, wink.
Yeah, a little sarcasm and melodrama for your day. But sometimes that’s what it takes to get people to really listen, especially when you’re in a room full of people wearing watches that cost more than the car you drive—and I drive a pretty nice car, btw.
The deals most companies negotiate for cloud services are like those watches. Anachronistic. But hey, if you got the need, wear that Platinum Rolex Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona and overpay for your cloud services too while you’re at it. Me personally, I prefer the chestnut brown bevel with the ice blue face and not overpaying. That’s just me. I’m funny that way.
This is cloud matters, part 2. If this strikes a chord with you, I hope you’ll follow, share and sign your company up for Cloud Matters.
This is the first in a series of articles based on the popular Cloud Matters lecture series I’ve been giving to c-suite executives and their top staff at global Fortune 100, 500 and 1000 companies since 2012. These articles are for working pros at all levels and delivered without icing and sprinkles.
Whether your organization has moved, is moving, or wants to move to the cloud, odds are your management is congratulating themselves over all the money they are or will save now that they have or can fire all the IT staff, decommission all the servers, stop having to pay for so much tech training, etc. Just today, in fact, I saw another sky’s the limit graph in my LinkedIn feed showing the copious cloud savings for enterprises.
The graph showed a partially submerged iceberg. On the old school side of the graph, the iceberg was half out of the water, representing all the money enterprises were spending on IT staff, servers, training, etc. On the new school side of the graph, just a little tip of the iceberg was out of the water, representing all the money enterprises save when they move to the cloud by reducing staff, using someone else’s servers, etc. You know what my reaction to this was if you’ve ever been in one of my classrooms in the early days and seen me do a rolling on the floor belly laugh.
As a growing number of my clients have learned, moving to the cloud isn’t necessarily as cheap as Amazon, Google, VMWare and all those other companies would like you to believe. If it was, the dozens of professional cost-management companies designed to help enterprises save money on their cloud bills, like Cloudability, Cloudyn, CloudCruiser, CloudHealth, etc, wouldn’t exist. Clients in my lectures who were following along were getting these cost savings, and without having to give a 2 to 3 percent cloud-bill commission to a management company for the same. The others simply had money to spend that their shareholders didn’t really care about. (Yes, that's sarcasm.)
A growing number of clients are listening when I talk about not needing other managed cloud services either, like those from RackSpace, which recently laid off 6 percent of its workforce. As I’ve been telling my Cloud Matters clients, completely outsourcing the cloud or even parts of it to these management companies may not be in your enterprise's best long-term interest. There are many factors companies moving to the cloud don’t properly consider beforehand and these items, the ones the professional management companies won’t even speak of, can come back to bite you in the ass. Something else I’ve also been telling my Cloud Matters clients: Getting rid of the experienced in-house IT staff that your company has spent countless years and dollars building is a very, very bad idea.
Contrary to what Amazon, Google, VMWare and all those other companies would like you to believe, the cloud doesn’t run itself. Your company really does still need good technical professionals after your cloud move. Your company really does still need to allocate dollars to IT training, recruitment and retention. In my lectures, I tell my clients where and how to reposition IT staff for the future that’s coming like a full-on freight train. After all, we are in the cloud infancy and when Cloud 1.0 passes over to Cloud 2.0, you want your company to be ready.
Fair warning, I also tell my clients: If you eliminate your in-house IT, you are going to regret it. At some point, the operations of your entire company may be on the line and you will need IT. A real world example:
Some of my clients moved entirely to Office 365 and Exchange Online without even considering what happens to company operations when Office 365, Exchange Online and other internet services aren’t available. Not because Microsoft or any other datacenter is out, but because some construction worker cut through your city’s Internet backbone lines accidentally, and guess what this didn’t just take down one Internet service provider in the area, it took down them all because there was no other backbone in your area and all the service providers used the same one. Now what? Do you tell 15,000 workers to go home until the problem is fixed in 2-3 business days?
Think this can’t happen? Think again. This scenario actually happened at a startup I worked at in Portland, Oregon. The company I worked at didn’t have thousands of workers, but other companies in the area did. So with your entire operations in the cloud how much would it cost your company to be unable to do business for 24 hours? 48 hours? 72 hours? $5 million? $10 million? $25 million?
Would it put your company out of business? It sure might. Have you planned a contingency? Do you even know who and what backbone providers are in your area? Now that your 100% cloud, is there any experienced IT staff in your organization left who can answer this important question for you right now or should your shareholders flood the exit gates?
Something to think about, and perhaps even, go check on right now.
This is cloud matters, part 1. If this strikes a chord with you, I hope you’ll follow, share and sign your company up for Cloud Matters.
Thank you for reading,
William Robert Stanek williamstanek at aol.com
PS
Speaking of the cloud, if you’re using Office 365 and Exchange Online, I hope you’ll buy my books on these subjects. Upcoming releases:
