Windows XP SP3 and Office 2003 Support Ends April 8, 20145/14/2012Microsoft Announces the end of support for Windows XP and Office 2003  Why is Microsoft ending support for Window XP and Office 2003?
In 2002 Microsoft introduced its Support Lifecycle policy based on customer feedback to have more transparency and predictability of support for Microsoft products. As per this policy, Microsoft Business and Developer products, including Windows and Office products, receive a minimum of 10 years of support (5 years Mainstream Support and 5 years Extended Support), at the supported service pack level.
Windows XP SP3 and Office 2003 will go out of support on April 8, 2014, if your organization has not started the migration to a modern PC, you are late. Based on historical customer deployment data, the average enterprise deployment can take 18 to 32 months from business case through full deployment. To ensure you remain on supported versions of Windows and Office, you should begin your planning and application testing immediately to ensure you deploy before end of support.
What does end of support mean?
It means you should take action. After April 8, 2014, there will be no new security updates, non-security hotfixes, free or paid assisted support options or online technical content updates.
Running Windows XP SP3 and Office 2003 in your environment after their end of support date may expose your company to potential risks, such as:
- Security & Compliance Risks — Unsupported and unpatched environments are vulnerable to security risks. This may result in an officially recognized control failure by an internal or external audit body, leading to suspension of certifications, and/or public notification of the organization’s inability to maintain its systems and customer information.
- Lack of Independent Software Vendor (ISV) & Hardware Manufacturers support — A recent industry report from Gartner Research suggests "many independent software vendors (ISVs) are unlikely to support new versions of applications on Windows XP in 2011; in 2012, it will become common." And it may stifle access to hardware innovation: Gartner Research further notes that in 2012, most PC hardware manufacturers will stop supporting Windows XP on the majority of their new PC models. .
Get current with Windows 7 and Office 2010. This option has upside well beyond keeping you supported. It offers more flexibility to empower employees to be more productive, while increasing operational efficiency through improved PC security and management. It also enables your organization to take advantage of latest technology trends such as virtualization and the cloud.
Contact a software licensing expert today!
Phone: 1-800-444-9890
Email: sales@softwareone.com Adobe Creative Suite 6 announced, Volume Licensing changes and more!4/23/2012Adobe Announces Creative 6, Creative Cloud Team Offer and changes to Volume Licensing! Change is GOOD! Adobe is introducing many positive changes to its volume licensing programs.
- Lowering CLP threshold for Commercial and Government from 25,000 to 10,000 points
- TLP for Commercial and Education will be reduced to 1 level (Level 2 will be removed)
- Commercial Upgrade Plan through CLP only
Attend our May 8 Webinar to help you better understand these changes, how they affect your organization and what your options are moving forward. Register today.
Adobe Creative Suite 6 is Fully-Loaded!
Adobe Creative Suite 6 (CS6) delivers unprecedented performance with blazing-fast 64-bit native support and GPU acceleration. Groundbreaking new creative tools provide innovative ways to design for the latest devices. With exceptional power and precision, you can create inspiring experiences that go anywhere.
Take Creativity to new heights with Adobe Creative Cloud
Adobe Creative Cloud is your creative hub where you can explore, create, publish, and share your work using Adobe Creative Suite 6 components and online services to bring your ideas to life faster than ever before. Creative Cloud Individual and Team editions will be available later this year.
For organizations that are ready to try out the Creative Cloud today, Adobe has created the Creative Cloud Team Ready offer—a special purchasing option for organizations that want the latest creative technologies and a more affordable entry to Adobe CS6 software, plus the ability to access the benefits of membership as soon as possible.
Contact SoftwareONE today to discuss how these announcements can impact your organization. Phone: 1-800-444-9890Email: sales@softwareone.com
SoftwareONE is qualified to deliver efficient and effective Symantec Solutions 4/18/2012As a Symantec Value-added Specialist, SoftwareONE is uniquely qualified to plan and implement the most efficient and effective Symantec Solutions for your company! Working with SoftwareONE gives you the confidence of knowing your business is protected - right from the start. SoftwareONE recently achieved the following Symantec Specializations by demonstrating experience and expertise:
- Archiving and eDiscovery
As an Archiving & eDiscovery Specialist, SoftwareONE can help you control the cost and complexity of managing information volume.
- Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
Through our DLP Specialization, SoftwareONE can help you discover, monitor, and protect your company's confidential and proprietary information assets - wherever they are used or stored. We can also help ensure your organization stays in compliance with today's regulations governing data privacy and protection.
- Data Protection
When it comes to Data Protection, SoftwareONE is qualified to protect the integrity of your business-critical information by optimizing your company's backup and recovery processes.
- Endpoint Management
Symantec's Endpoint Management Specialization qualifies SoftwareONE to plan and implement leading-edge solutions that keep client and server assets secure by improving
management visibility and control.
- Enterprise Security
As an Enterprise Security Specialist, SoftwareONE can actively address complex IT threats - both internal and external, while protecting your organization from today's increasingly sophisticated threats.
SoftwareONE is also a specialist in SMB Security.
What does this mean to you?
By working with SoftwareONE as your Symantec Specialist, your organization benefits from:
- Accredited, proven advisors with extensive training and experience to provide expert solution planning, implementation, and servicing
- Access to market-leading Symantec products and services that only Specialized Partners can provide
- Inside technical knowledge of the latest, most effective Symantec Solutions on the market today
Contact SoftwareONE today to learn more about what our Symantec solutions can do for your business.
SoftwareONE and InterGrupo Strengthen the Software Licensing Market in Latin America3/30/2012SoftwareONE and Intergrupo announced a strategic engagement between their organizations that will provide customers throughout Latin America with greatly expanded software licensing services while enabling both partners to grow their respective focus areas. SoftwareONE and Intergrupo announced a strategic engagement between their organizations that will provide customers throughout Latin America with greatly expanded software licensing services while enabling both partners to grow their respective focus areas.
InterGrupo will move their software licensing and Software Asset Management businesses, as well as 55 licensing specialists in Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru to SoftwareONE. This move gives SoftwareONE, a global licensing solutions provider with locations in 48 countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Uruguay, a local presence in nearly every country in Latin America and will position them to further grow their market leadership position in the region. In support of this expansion, SoftwareONE will also establish operations in Bolivia.
“We are very excited about the opportunity to incorporate InterGrupo’s licensing business into our global, laser-focused licensing organization. It will enable SoftwareONE to provide customers throughout the region with access to an expanded software publisher portfolio, unmatched licensing expertise and the world class licensing and asset management tools customers increasingly need, and we will do this while continuing to deliver the outstanding service customers have come to expect from Intergrupo and SoftwareONE,” said Patrick Winter, CEO of SoftwareONE. SoftwareONE’s existing international customers will also benefit from increased local support, which will provide consistency of service throughout the region and will help them address many of the local taxation challenges they face.
InterGrupo, already one of the leading IT consulting services providers in Latin America, will use this step to expand their software development, IT management, business solutions, cloud solutions, and IT training solutions throughout the region. “I am very pleased to join SoftwareONE with our licensing business. Our customers will greatly benefit from their focused expertise and their expanded licensing services,” said Darío Solórzano, CEO and owner of InterGrupo. “This strategic step will also enable InterGrupo to focus on our core services areas, strengthening our organization for future expansion across Latin America.” To ensure a smooth transition of InterGrupo’s customers’ licensing support, Darío Solórzano, will act as an advisor and partner to SoftwareONE for the next three years.
About SoftwareONE
SoftwareONE is a licensing solutions provider with the unique combination of being truly global, fully-focused on software licensing and privately-owned since 1985. Our software licensing experts take a consultative approach to helping customers optimize their software spend, while enhancing their relationships with software publishers and local service providers. With year-over-year growth of greater than 40% since 2006, SoftwareONE is the fastest growing Microsoft Large Account Reseller (LAR) in the world, holding other elite sales designations with top software publishers such as Adobe, IBM, VMware, Oracle, Citrix, Symantec, McAfee, and many more. SoftwareONE is globally headquartered in Stans, Switzerland and employs more than 750 people in 48 countries. SoftwareONE’s fiscal year 2011 resulted in revenue of $1.5 Billion, with 2012 projections exceeding $2.1 Billion.
About InterGrupo
Established in 1995, InterGrupo is one of Latin America's leading IT Consulting Services Providers. They are headquartered in Medellin, Colombia, and they have operations throughout the country, giving the company the geographical presence to be able to serve more than 400 corporate customers per year. Additionally, they serve international customers through offices in Spain, the United States, Ecuador, Peru and the Dominican Republic. They work hard to provide customers with solutions that enable them to transform their operations and build new business models around state of the art technology, allowing them to cut costs and improve the efficiency of their businesses. Intergrupo’s mission is to be the leader in the delivery of IT consultancy services, custom software development and the integration of state of the art technology products and services, all combined with an excellent customer experience and a continuous promotion of the professional and personal growth of each one of our more than 700 IT professionals.
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 now available3/21/2012Versatile and powerful graphic design software Whether you’re an aspiring artist or an experienced designer, CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite X6 is your trusted graphic design software solution. With its content-rich environment and professional graphic design, photo-editing and website design software, you have everything you need to express your style and creativity with endless possibilities.
Quickly feel at home with built-in help, training videos and professionally designed templates. Then, create with confidence—everything from distinctive logos and signs to custom websites, web graphics, billboards, car wraps, flyers and more! Show your true design style!
Set up and start smoothly
Enrich your designs with extensive built-in learning tools, allowing you to start quickly and design with confidence. Gain new knowledge from valuable video tutorials and tips, insights from experts and an inspiring guidebook.
Create layouts with ease
Give your projects a high-quality look with over 1,000 premium fonts, 1,000 professional, high-resolution digital photos, 10,000 versatile clipart and 350 professional templates. Efficiently organize your design assets with Corel CONNECT X6, a content finder that instantly locates content on your computer, local network and websites.
Design with style and creativity
Create beautiful designs for print and web with a complete set of drawing, bitmap-to-vector tracing, photo- editing and web graphics tools. Manage styles and colors easily with property dockers and convenient features, such as Style Sets and Color Harmonies.
Work faster and more efficiently
Save time and money with all of the powerful applications in one complete graphic design suite. Plus, enjoy the speed of multi-core processing and native 64-bit support, allowing you to quickly process larger files and images.
Easy sharing with market-leading compatibility
Output to a broad variety of media—from signs and flyers, to business cards, car wraps, web graphics and much more. Re-purpose and share your creations with support for over 100 file formats, including AI, PSD, PDF, JPG, PNG, EPS, TIFF, DOCX and PPT.
Contact SoftwareONE Today to learn more about Corel. New Lower Prices for Office 365 3/15/2012Microsoft announced effective immediately it’s lowering the prices of most of Office 365 for Enterprise plans by up to 20% for new and renewing Office 365 customers. Microsoft Office 365 takes the industry's most recognized set of productivity and collaboration tools and delivers them as a subscription service. Since the Office 365 launch last summer, companies like JetBlue, Patagonia, Campbell Soup Company, Groupe Marie Claire, and Tata Steel Europe have all deployed the software, and as a result increased productivity and lowered costs. Microsoft is regularly delivering new value to Office 365 through monthly updates and rapid expansion into 22 new markets. The current global footprint has grown to 64 geographies - with more to come!
Microsoft also announced price changes to Office 365 for Education. In line with Microsoft's longstanding commitment to education, they will be making the A2 service plan FREE, and not only to students, but also to faculty and staff. A2 includes the core capabilities of Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync, along with the Office Web Applications. Exchange Online and Lync Online are available today for academic institutions and the full Office 365 for education service will launch this summer.
Office 365 Academic plans:
Contact SoftwareONE today to learn more about Microsoft Office 365
Introducing Windows 8 Consumer Preview3/2/2012Windows 8 delivers great features for businesses that deliver experiences users want, offers new possibilities for users to be mobile and productive practically anywhere, and provides IT with more secure, easy-to-manage intelligent infrastructure. Built on the solid foundation of Windows 7, Windows 8 helps businesses unleash the full power of their people while meeting modern users’ expectations of technology. With seamless connections to people and information, full-screen immersive apps, and built-in malware resistance, strong authentication, and data encryption, Windows 8 provides a great user experience along with a more secure and manageable platform. Windows is reimagined to best support people’s unique working styles.
Windows 8 helps bridge the gap between users who want a more personal and meaningful experience and IT professionals who want a more secure, manageable operating system.
Important New Business features:
- Line-of-business App Development - Create your own Apps for Windows 8
- Start Screen - With the new start screen, business data is at your finger tips
- Touch-first Experience - The improved touch experience helps businesses expand into new working scenarios.
- Choice in form factors - Windows 8 scales across a variety of device and architecture types, from high-powered 64- bit desktops, to lightweight ARM-based tablets.
- Internet Explorer 10 - Explorer provides a new browsing experience for the corporate workforce with Windows touch devices while the desktop version of Internet Explorer allows enterprises to continue using existing line of business applications.
- Windows To Go - Windows 8 includes the ability to provide users with a full corporate copy of Windows (along with user’s business apps, data, and settings) on a USB storage device.
- Mobile Broadband - Built-in mobile broadband features in Windows 8 natively supports 3G and 4G telecommunication, which enables mobile workers to get connected to the Internet immediately.
- Cloud-connected - When you sign in to your Windows PC, your device is instantly connected to the people, files and settings you care about.
- BitLocker Drive Encryption - BitLocker drive encryption helps protect corporate data on mobile PCs that include a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip.
- Remote Desktop Services - Connecting to remote computers is easier and more secure with Remote Desktop Services (RDS). RDS allows multiple people to concurrently log into a shared server and work in an isolated session.
Download a copy of Windows 8 Consumer Preview Product Guide for Business to learn more about what Windows 8 can offer.
Snagit 11 Now Available2/28/2012Capture anything on your screen with the ultimate screen capture tool. With Snagit 11, you can record screen videos, enhance your images, work efficiently, and share to even more destinations. Capture anything on your screen with the ultimate screen capture tool, TechSmith Snagit 11.
More Capture Options
Video Capture
Clearer communication.
Show them what you do, and how you do it! Using .mp4 video format you can now create screen videos for demos or quick reviews, and share them instantly to YouTube, Facebook, and more!
Enhance Image Captures
New Stamps
Catch even more attention.
Add some flair to your screen captures with new and improved stamps! Get them straight from Snagit and download more here.
Work Efficiently
Centered Canvas
More work space.
When your capture pops up in the Snagit editor the canvas now automatically creates a border around your image, giving you plenty of room to add annotations, arrows, and other effects.
More Zoom Options
Find the perfect size.
Snagit now auto-zoom’s into your captures so they immediately fit on the canvas and offers more zoom proportions for you to edit your images to the perfect size.
Spell Check
Create error free callouts.
Never misspell a word in your screenshot again! Snagit will tell you what you’ve spelled wrong and help you create consistently error free callouts.
Paste from Clipboard
No more guessing.
Copy and paste from within Snagit and it will automatically make the canvas the right size for your capture. No more guessing!
Easier Resizing
Choose what’s right for you.
Whether you resize by pixels, inches, centimeters, or percentage… it’s easier than ever to edit the size of your capture for a smooth finish every time.
Share Instantly
Video Outputs
Share your videos quickly.
When you’re ready to share your Snagit video, you can choose from Camtasia Studio for editing, Screencast.com, YouTube, FTP, Facebook, or Twitter.
New Image Outputs
Send your images to even more destinations.
Share your images with anyone! Choose from the usual lot, plus the new additions of Facebook, Twitter, and Evernote.
Contact a software licensing expert today! Phone: 1-800-444-9890Email: sales@softwareone.com Microsoft Lync Mobile Apps are Now Available!1/25/2012Lync mobile apps enable you to stay connected, communicate and conference on the go. Mobile apps for Microsoft Lync 2010 take the power of unified communications mobile—including rich presence, instant messaging, audio conferencing, and calling features from a single, easy-to-use interface.
Key Features
- Join conferences with a single touch; no access code or pin number required.
- Stay connected, while controlling your availability; see who's available at a glance and connect over IM, email or a call; set your own status and notification settings so you can stay in touch while protecting your "off-work" time.
- Communicate with others using a single, consistent identity. Call-via-work allows outbound calls using your Enterprise Voice number, making it easier for others to recognize calls from the Lync mobile client.
- Connect with confidence through channel encryption, transport layer security (TLS) support, and perimeter/internal network protection that help safeguard your communications.
To take advantage of this update, you will need to update your Lync Server 2010 implementations. This update will require some planning and we would like to help you with a complementary Lync Mobility Briefing.
Product End-of-Life statement for GFI BackUp1/19/2012GFI will no longer support, develop or sustain the GFI BackUp product line. GFI will not develop or change any code related to GFI BackUp for support or any other purposes.
Due to changing company development targets and goals, GFI Software will discontinue all the commercial versions of GFI BackUp in 2012. The product will no longer be sold, but fixes and patches will be made available to current customers holding a valid maintenance agreement.
End-of-Sale
All commercial versions of GFI BackUp reached their End-of-Sale date on January 1, 2012. Consequently GFI will not sell, market or provide copies of all the commercial versions of GFI BackUp after this date. Additionally GFI will no longer renew any maintenance agreements for existing GFI BackUp customers, nor honor sales
quotes that may have been made available and not yet actioned to customers.
End-of-Technical Life
GFI will continue to provide support to all GFI BackUp customers holding a valid maintenance agreement for 12 months after the End-of-Sale date. Consequently GFI BackUp will reach its End-of-Technical Life on January 1, 2013. Following this date, GFI will not develop nor change any code related to GFI BackUp, for support or
any other purposes.
End-of-Product Life
GFI BackUp will reach its End-of-Product Life on January 1, 2013. Following this date, GFI will no longer develop or sustain the GFI BackUp product line.
Microsoft System Center 2012 Announced1/17/2012System Center 2012 helps you manage your IT environments across traditional datacenters, private and public clouds, client computers, and devices. Microsoft announced a major new development in the Microsoft private cloud strategy and core management platform, the launch of Microsoft System Center 2012. System Center 2012 allows you to manage your virtual, physical, and cloud environments from a single console, using common and consistent experiences that provide full control across your existing datacenter investments.
Optimized for service delivery and providing both flexibility and control, the Microsoft private cloud enables you to experience IT as a Service on your terms. Adopting a more service-driven IT model can help you provision services faster—freeing up resources and enabling greater business agility to respond quickly to customer demands.
As part of the System Center 2012 release, Microsoft is simplifying how you purchase and gain access to the economic benefits of the cloud by offering two editions:
- System Center 2012 Standard Edition, for managing environments with no or low density virtualization
- System Center 2012 Datacenter Edition, for managing high density virtualization environments
With these streamlined purchasing options and enhanced private cloud capabilities, Microsoft is also announcing changes in the licensing and pricing of System Center 2012.
We will be holding a special webinar on Thursday, February 9 to explain more of the details around this announcement.
Contact a software licensing expert today!
Phone: 1-800-444-9890
Email: sales@softwareone.com
Microsoft Releases Security Bulletin (Out-of-Band) to Address Vulnerabilities in .NET Framework 1/4/2012Microsoft released MS11-100 to protect customers against the industry-wide issue described in Security Advisory 2659883. The security update resolves a publicly disclosed, remote unauthenticated Denial of Service issue in ASP.NET versions 1.1 and above, on all supported versions of the .NET Framework.
Microsoft is currently unaware of any attacks targeting ASP.NET, but we encourage affected customers to test and deploy the update as soon as possible. Consumers are not vulnerable unless they are running a Web server from their computer.
This security update resolves one publicly disclosed vulnerability and three privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft .NET Framework. The most severe of these vulnerabilities could allow elevation of privilege if an unauthenticated attacker sends a specially crafted web request to the target site. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take any action in the context of an existing account on the ASP.NET site, including executing arbitrary commands. In order to exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must be able to register an account on the ASP.NET site, and must know an existing user name.
This security update is rated Critical for Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 Service Pack 1, Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 2, Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1, Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5.1, and Microsoft .NET Framework 4 on all supported editions of Microsoft Windows. For more information, see the subsection, Affected and Non-Affected Software, in this section.
The security update addresses the vulnerabilities by correcting how the .NET Framework handles specially crafted requests, and how the ASP.NET Framework authenticates users and handles cached content. For more information about the vulnerabilities, see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) subsection for the specific vulnerability entry under the next section, Vulnerability Information.
Recommendation: The majority of customers have automatic updating enabled and will not need to take any action because this security update will be downloaded and installed automatically. Customers who have not enabled automatic updating need to check for updates and install this update manually. For information about specific configuration options in automatic updating, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 294871.
For administrators and enterprise installations, or end users who want to install this security update manually, Microsoft recommends that customers consider applying the security update using update management software, or by checking for updates using the Microsoft Update service.
For more information about this inportant update please click here and contact your SoftwareONE Representative today! Sophos Endpoint 10 is here!12/15/2011What's new in Sophos Endpoint 10? Sophos built Endpoint 10 to give your business even better protection against malware infection and data loss. It’s complete security that businesses of all sizes can actually use - and it’s faster than ever before. Sophos is reducing your vulnerability to infection, giving your users the same protection wherever they are, and making securing data simple.
Security that's faster, easier and goes everywhere
- Better performance and protection that's virtualization ready. One of the fastest and lightest scanners in the business and optimized for virtual machines.
- Web protection that works however users browse and wherever they are. Sophos put malicious website scanning, malware scanning and inappropriate site filtering into our Endpoint agent.
- Know the threat, know what you need to patch. See which patches you’re missing and prioritize the ones that stop genuine threats.
- Easily deploy and manage full disk encryption. Sophos can protect your laptops and desktops with industrial strength encryption you can manage from a single console.
Contact SoftwareONE today to learn more!
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Announcement11/5/2011What's new with SQL 2012? The SQL Server 2012 release will simplify your options with three main editions that are closely aligned with how you use SQL Server across workloads. SQL Server 2012 will also deliver licensing which enables you to more easily take advantage of the benefits of public and private cloud through virtualization and license mobility. Microsoft’s new model will provide:
Simplified Licensing
SQL Server 2012 will offer two licensing options – one that is based on computing power, and one that is based on users or devices (see table below for the mapping of the new licensing options per edition).
Flexibility and Innovation
Cloud-optimized licensing with the ability to license a single Virtual Machine (VM) or license a server for maximum virtualization as well as the flexibility to move your VMs from server to server, or to hosters or the cloud.
Industry-leading TCO
We continue to provide outstanding value at any scale among all major vendors. SQL Server 2012 will offer compelling product features and capabilities within three main editions with no costly add-ons required to run your Mission Critical and Business Intelligence applications.
SQL Server 2012 Editions
Three main editions, namely Enterprise, Business Intelligence and Standard, will be available:
- Enterprise for mission critical applications and data warehousing
- Business Intelligence (new) for premium corporate and self-service Business Intelligence capabilities
- Standard for basic database capabilities, reporting and analytics
The Business Intelligence edition will include all of the Standard Edition’s capabilities, and Enterprise will include all of the Business Intelligence Edition’s capabilities.
With the release of SQL Server 2012, the following three editions will be retired:
- Datacenter – its features will now be available in Enterprise Edition
- Workgroup – Standard will become our edition for basic database needs
- Standard for Small Business – Standard becomes the sole edition for basic database needs
Key licensing changes with SQL Server 2012
With SQL Server 2012, we will offer the following licensing options:
- Core-based Licensing for Enterprise
- Server + CAL licensing for Business Intelligence
- Choice of core-based licensing or Server + CAL licensing for Standard
Contact SoftwareONE today if you have any questions about the new SQL 2012!
SoftwareONE Singapore wins the Microsoft LAR Partner of the Year award for the 3rd year in a row!10/28/2011SoftwareONE Singapore wins the Microsoft LAR Partner of the Year Congratulations to our SoftwareONE Singapore office for winning the Microsoft LAR Partner of the Year award in Singapore for the 3rd year in a row!
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