Announcing the 11th Annual UC Roundtable at Microsoft Ignite!

I'm pleased to announce the 11th Annual UC Roundtable at Microsoft Ignite 2018 in Orlando!

A one-of-a-kind conference deserves a one-of-a-kind opportunity to network with your peers.

The purpose of the UC Roundtable is to gather Exchange, Office 365, and Skype for Business/Teams admins, MCMs, MVPs, Exchange product group members, architects, and experts for a free-flowing discussion about issues, questions, and experiences related to collaboration. If you work with these technologies you need to be here!

Monday, September 24th from 7:00PM to 8:30PM EDT

Download the event to your calendar

We'll be meeting in the outdoor area of Marlow's Tavern at 9101 International Dr, Lower Level -- just a short 10 minute walk from the Ignite convention center.

The UC Roundtable is going old school again this year! This will be a no-host event. Order your own beer or a bite to eat before you leave for the evening's parties. Please RSVP to jguillet@expta.com so I can tell them how many people to expect.

Help spread the word on Twitter and I hope to see you there!

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Congratulations 2018-2019 Microsoft MVP!

I'm very pleased to announce that I have been given the Office Servers and Services Microsoft MVP Award again for 2018-2019. I have been awarded every year since 2009, so this will be my 10th consecutive year.

The MVP Award is an important recognition to me and I'm honored to receive it. It includes several benefits, but the most important one to me are all the interactions with the great product groups at Microsoft. These relationships allow me to reach out to specific product team members to provide feedback and get clarification on product features and behaviors.

It's a mutually beneficial partnership -- under NDA, Microsoft is able to talk with MVPs about product futures, provide access to technology adoption programs (TAPs) to test new software, and solicit our MVP feedback. As MVPs, we are able to provide important and honest feedback to the product teams about how new features and behaviors will affect our customers, beta test new software and file bug reports, and be advocates for you, the customer.

This has been somewhat of a nerve-racking award cycle. As Microsoft truly morphs into a cloud services company, its priorities are changing faster than ever before. Longtime MVPs have been notified that they were not going to be awarded this year because their community events do not align with Microsoft's vision. Entire groups that focus on on-premises technologies have been cut from the MVP program. I understand why, but I am sorry to see them go.

Another program change is that the re-award cycle changed from quarterly to yearly. I used be awarded on April 1 every year (I always worried that my award email was an April Fool's joke), but now all MVPs are awarded the same date, July 1. That means that the MVP leads have to review hundreds or thousands of MVPs at the same time. That takes a lot of work by them and I appreciate it.

If you think that you or someone you know deserves to be an MVP, you can learn what it takes to be an one and nominate them from the Microsoft MVP Site. Microsoft reviews and awards new MVPs every month, with a renewal cycle on July 1.

The MVP Award adds value to my IT consulting business, EXPTA Consulting. It's evidence that Microsoft values my leadership in the community and real-world experience, which I bring to each and every engagement. Customers know that I provide the best results as their trusted advisor.

I feel great!

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Join me at the Microsoft Tech Summit in San Francisco March 19-20!

Please join me for the Microsoft Tech Summit San Francisco March 19-20, 2018 at the Marriott Marquis in downtown San Francisco. Register here.

On Monday, March 19, I'll be at the "Ask The Experts Networking Hour" at 5:45PM PDT. This will be an opportunity for attendees to interact and learn from industry peers and representatives from Microsoft.

Then on Tuesday, March 20th, I'll be presenting, "Running Exchange hybrid over the long term" at 10:45AM PDT.

When you connect on-premises Microsoft Exchange Server to Exchange Online through a hybrid environment, are you creating a short-lived bridge to migrate to the cloud? Or will this hybrid live on indefinitely, waiting for internal and external policy to support a cloud-only reality? Either way, make sure you catch this session to learn best practices of running a hybrid Exchange environment. Topics addressed include: maintaining hybrid across patching cycles and upgrades; accommodating changes to network models; adapting during acquisitions and mergers; and more.

While I'm there, you can reach out to me to see how EXPTA Consulting can help you with your IT projects. Please join me and I look forward to seeing you in San Francisco!

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Announcing the 10th Annual UC Roundtable at Microsoft Ignite!

I'm pleased to announce the 10th Annual UC Roundtable at Microsoft Ignite 2017 in Orlando!

A one-of-a-kind conference deserves a one-of-a-kind opportunity to network with your peers.

The purpose of the UC Roundtable is to gather Exchange, Office 365, and Skype for Business admins, MCMs, MVPs, Exchange product group members, architects, and experts for a free-flowing discussion about issues, questions, and experiences related to Exchange, Office 365, and Skype for Business. If you work with these technologies you need to be here!

Wednesday, September 27th from 6:00PM to 7:30PM EDT

The UC Roundtable is going old school this year! This will be a no-host event. Order your own beer or a bite to eat before you leave for the evening's parties. Please RSVP to jguillet@expta.com so I can tell them how many people to expect.

We'll be meeting in the outdoor area of Marlow's Tavern at 9101 International Dr, Lower Level -- just a short 10 minute walk from the Ignite convention center.

Download the event to your calendar.

Help spread the word on Twitter and I hope to see you there!

Read more ...

Meet with EXPTA Consulting at Microsoft Ignite

It's less than one week to Microsoft Ignite in Orlando, FL. I hope you’re as excited as I am to attend and hear about all the new hotness that Microsoft plans to deliver. I’ll be speaking Wednesday 12:30-1:45PM at "The Epic Exchange Preferred Architecture Debate" with a panel of experts. I hope to see your there! I’ll also be available throughout the conference for meetings to discuss how I can help you with your current and future IT projects.

Click here to setup a meeting with EXPTA Consulting at Microsoft Ignite

EXPTA Consulting can assist your organization with:

• On-Prem Solutions – Including Exchange and Active Directory health checks, mitigation, and upgrades. We recognize that not all customers can or want to go to the cloud. Let me help you upgrade and make the most of your on-premises solutions, based on my many years’ of experience and best practices. I provide turnkey solutions or I can work with your IT staff and provide training and support.

• Office 365 Solutions – Let EXPTA Consulting help you get the most from Office 365. We can help with data migrations, tenant to tenant migrations, EM+S, interoperability and integration solutions.

• Identity Design and Solutions – Safe, secure, and easy to use Identity management solutions are the key to a successful deployment. I can help design and implement the best identity solutions to meet your organization’s needs. 

Recent EXPTA Consulting customers include an international college Office 365 migration, a large Federal agency identity project, a mid-sized business insurance brokerage Exchange 2016 upgrade, private equity firms, and consulting/hosting providers. Set up a meeting to see how we can help you!

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Proud to announce I'll be speaking at Microsoft Ignite!

Come join Ross Smith IV, Lin Chen, Mike Cooper and me at Microsoft Ignite in Orlando for, "The epic Exchange preferred architecture debate" on Wednesday at 12:30pm EDT.



Here, we plan to talk about what is the best, DAS or SAN? Are SSDs on the way in or are slow spindles here to stay? Should you give up and migrate to the cloud? What about virtualization?

Come listen to experts from inside and outside of Microsoft debate the various Exchange architectures that can be deployed on-premises and hybrid.

This is an open panel discussion where you can ask questions and learn about architectures and topologies that defy the preferred architecture, such as some of those listed in the Exchange Solution Reviewed Program (ESRP). We'll discuss the ESRP and it's role in Exchange architecture design.

I'll also be a panelist at the session, "Microsoft Exchange: Through the eyes of MVPs" on Thursday at 4:00pm EDT.

Microsoft says,

"We've assembled an amazing set of Exchange MVP luminaries, representing scores of years of experience, to share their unvarnished truth about all things Exchange. You won't want to miss your chance to ask questions and hear this panel's expert opinions. Hiring this set of experts for 75 minutes would cost you a fortune, but by attending this session, you'll only pay the small fee of having to listen to them occasionally poke fun at Microsoft - and each other."

I hope to see you there!

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Congratulations 2017-2018 Microsoft MVP!

I'm pleased to announce that I have been given the Office Servers and Services Microsoft MVP award again for 2017-2018. I have been awarded every year since 2009, so this will be my ninth consecutive year.



The MVP Award is an important recognition to me and I'm very pleased to receive it. It includes several benefits, but the most important one to me are all the interactions with the great product groups at Microsoft. These relationships allow me to reach out to specific product team members to provide feedback and get clarification on product features and behaviors.

It's a mutually beneficial partnership -- under NDA, Microsoft is able to talk with MVPs about product futures, provide access to technology adoption programs (TAPs) to try out new software, and solicit our feedback. As MVPs, we are able to provide important and honest feedback to the product teams about how new features and behaviors will affect our customers, beta test new software and file bug reports, and be advocates for you, the customer.

This also adds value to my IT consulting business, EXPTA Consulting. It's evidence that Microsoft values my technical leadership and real-world experience, which I bring to each and every engagement, and customers know that I provide the best results as their trusted advisor.

I feel great!

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Introducing EXPTA Consulting!

I'm super excited to announce that I've started a new IT consulting practice, EXPTA Consulting, LLC.

With over 30 years' of experience and the highest certifications in the IT industry, count on EXPTA Consulting as your trusted advisor. We specialize in on-premises Exchange Server, Skype for Business, Office 365, and hybrid solutions that solve your business challenges.

On-Premises Solutions

We know that a lot of organizations can't or won't go to the cloud for many reasons. We offer expert professional services to keep your on-premises Exchange and Skype for Business infrastructure in top running condition, perform upgrades, and deliver innovative solutions for coexistence with other line-of-business applications. We provide greenfield deployments, as well as hybrid and migration services.

• Exchange Server and Skype for Business Server deployments, upgrades, and migration services
• Health checks and remediation
• Configuration and troubleshooting
• Unified Communications
• Active Directory health checks and remediation
• Public key infrastructure (PKI)
• Skype for Business hybrid services with Exchange Online
• Enterprise Voice implementation and configuration
• Legacy PBX integration
• Session Boarder Controller and gateway configuration
• Voicemail integration and web conferencing
• Dial-in conferencing
• Administrative training

Office 365 Solutions

We offer migration and configuration assistance for Office 365 customers including:

• Exchange Online and Skype for Business Online deployments, upgrades, and migration services
• Proof of concepts
• Hybrid services with on-premises
• Migration services
• Directory synchronization
• Identity solutions and Single Sign-On (SSO)
• Cloud PBX
• On-premises PSTN integration
• Hybrid services with Skype for Business/Lync Server on-premises
• Federation
• Web conferencing
• Dial-In Conferencing
• Licensing assistance
• Auditing and security

Contact us today to set up a free call to discuss how we can help your business succeed!

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Exchange Server Troubleshooting Companion Now Available

I'm pleased to have been the technical editor of the new eBook, Exchange Server Troubleshooting Companion. It's always enjoyable to work on a strong publication that I can stand behind.

The Exchange Server Troubleshooting Companion does much more than just give specific guidance about solving a particular problem. Any Bing or Google search can do that. This book teaches you the methodology and mindset required to troubleshoot any Exchange problem. It helps you understand the underpinnings of how Exchange works so that you can diagnose a problem quickly and accurately.

The author team includes fellow Exchange Server* MVPs, Paul Cunningham and Andrew Higginbotham. Between them, they have over 29 years of experience deploying, managing, and troubleshooting Exchange Server. You can read more about Andrew's take on the book on Reddit.

Veteran Exchange Server MVP Tony Redmond is the overall editor for the book, This keeps Tony busy with this project, as well as co-authoring Office 365 for IT Professionals. That's a good thing. We don't want Tony having too much time on his hands. ;)

I highly recommend both of these eBooks for your Exchange and Office 365 library. Both books are available in EPUB and Amazon Kindle formats. Please go to the exchangeserverpro website for ordering information.

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* Late last year the Exchange Server MVP category has been rolled up into the Office Servers and Services MVP group to align more closely with Microsoft's cloud-first vision.

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Update for the UC Roundtable at TechEd Orlando

I'm very happy to announce that I'm joining forces again this year with the Microsoft Certified Master: Exchange Program and F5 for the 5th Annual UC Roundtable!

 This is a great opportunity to meet and greet the Exchange MCMs, MVPs and the Microsoft Exchange Product Group at Micosoft TechEd in Orlando.  Appetizers and drinks will be served, compliments of our friends at F5!

Bring your Exchange and Lync questions for a fun evening of discussions around both products.  MCM Program Manager David Bjurman-Birr will be there to answer questions about the MCM:Exchange program, as will others, like me, who have gone through the program.

Formal registration details have gone out to those who RSVP'd to me.  If you sent me an RSVP and did not get the registration email, let me know at jeff@expta.com.

The date and time if the event will be

Wednesday, June 13, 2012.  6:00-8:00PM

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