News and Updates

Planning changes to the software used by a company begins with an understanding of the product roadmaps of the relevant vendors and the nature of the changes and upgrades that are being planned.  Microsoft has important updates to its product portfolio planned for the next few quarters including the new Windows 8 operating system (for both computer and phone). New versions of Exchange, Sharepoint, and the Office business productivity suite, along with Office 365 are expected to include new features as well as Windows 8-driven functionality.

The Microsoft product roadmap is shown below, sorted by date.  This information is compiled from Microsoft directly, as well as other industry sources.

There are also some important end-of-life dates for Microsoft products.  As we wrote about last month,  (Time to Update Windows XP and Office 2003), end of support means there will be no new security updates, non-security hotfixes, free or paid assisted support options, or online technical content .  Continuing to use these products after support has ended potentially exposes you to avoidable and unnecessary security risks.

As you plan you for the adoption of any new software products and begin your review of your hardware and support infrastructure, please give us a call. We are a Microsoft Certified and can help you design and update your network infrastructure as well as ensuring you have the appropriate monitoring, maintenance, backup, and disaster recovery programs in place to protect your business.