Please read the following from ThirdTier:

As we’ve done at SMBNation for the last couple of years, we bringing a pre-day Brain Explosion to the IT Pro Conference hosted by SBSMigration, on June 7th. You and can save 50% by registering this week. The details on how to register are in the blog post. I’ve pasted the content for you here.

Brain Explosion 2012 content revealed! 50% off registration until March 25th too.
http://www.thirdtier.net/2012/03/brain-explosion-50-discount-and-content-revealed/

Third Tier staff are known for the depth of knowledge they bring to your business. At Brain Explosion 2012 they’ve developed some very practical sessions that will leave you empowered to deploy.

IPv6 Right Now Presented by Cliff Galiher
In this session, we will cut through the theory and dig in to how IPv6 impacts today’s business networks. Cliff will give you practical tools to understand IPv6, deploy and transition your network, and support an IPv6 infrastructure including DNS, DHCP, and coexisting with IPv4. This session will leave with a better understanding and a few “next steps” to help bring your networks forward with this exciting advancement in technology.

Active Directory Management Presented by Brian Higgins
Active Directory is a complex and powerful system, and combined with the power and complexity of Group Policy it can be downright difficult to manage sometimes. Proper setup and configuration upfront can make management and troubleshooting of complex system like Active Directory (almost) simple. We will start this session by exploring some of the common topology mistakes when setting up Active Directory, and how proper topology layouts can make managing Group Policy much easier. Next we will dive deeper into some strategies behind planning your Group Policy deployments, and discuss some performance considerations when you create new policies. Finally you’ll learn how to create your own custom schema extensions to store custom information in Active Directory. I’ll show you how to use that schema extension knowledge to effortlessly, and automatically deploy and manage network printers to users in a completely new way.

Exchange 2010 Compliance and Archiving Presented by David Shackelford
Few small and midsized businesses that have clients in the medical, financial and legal professions are actually prepared to provide data to the courts in the event of a lawsuit or investigation. Those who have some measures in place still find e-discovery to be a very tedious process. In this session we’ll look at ways the Exchange 2010 feature set has made storing and retrieving archived emails easier and will also discuss some third-party solutions that have made compliance processes even easier.

Managing Data Encryption Presented by Jeremy Anderson
Jeremy Brings forth the Encryption as he discusses BitLocker. Addressing the physical security of your network, including laptops and tablets Jeremy will discuss Bitlocker and how to Implement and deploy it in your Active Directory Domain. How to back up the recovery keys into AD DS using the BitLocker Active Directory Recovery Password Viewer tool, and how to recover data from a drive will be discussed and demonstrated. New features, including Network Unlock and Partial Drive Encryption that is available in Windows Server 8 and Windows 8 will be discussed. Learn how easy full disk encryption is to deploy and use in your networks, and the security that it brings to your clients knowing that if they have a device lost or stolen, that the data is secure from theft.

Amy
ThirdTier – Support for IT Professionals
Need more help? http://www.thirdtier.net

This is a group photo taken during the 2012 Microsoft MVP Summit of many of the MVP’s who were involved with the SMB Community Roadshow events during 2011/2012.

I was fortunate to have attended and speak at the events in Greensboro NC, Chicago IL, Ft Lauderdale FL, and Tampa FL before my illness. By the way, that’s me on the far left of the front row!

I am honored to have been selected in January 2012 as a Microsoft MVP for the Small Business Server (SBS) product for the 9th year in a row. One of the real highlights of being an MVP is to attend the annual Microsoft MVP Summit. This year’s event is being held from Feb 27 through March 2, 2012 in Bellevue/Redmond WA.

MVP’s are selected for a particular product or platform – ranging from Microsoft Office products to Microsoft desktop and server products. We have opportunities during the Summit to meet and interact with MVP’s from around the world, as well as to have in-depth discussions with our particular Microsoft product team. Our SBS group has about 50 MVPs worldwide. We have a great time learning and sharing with one another.

I am thankful that I am well enough to travel to this year’s conference.

I’m honored to announce that Microsoft has renewed my status as a Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) for Small Business Servers for the year 2012. This is the 8th straight year that I have been so recognized.

And just to clarify any misconceptions, I am not employed by or work for Microsoft. Here is what Microsoft says about the MVP award:

We seek to recognize the best and brightest from technology communities around the world with the Microsoft® Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award.

With the MVP Award, we thank these inspiring individuals for representing the voice of thousands in the community through the powerful and independent feedback they give us, and for helping our customers maximize the potential of their software.