rbance

Dirsync is a light version of FIM essentially. It was pushed so that you did not need to use or pay for FIM. An integrator will charge you about $6500 AUD (check conversion rate----MS may pay for this I hear!!! If you go to an integrator). You will need a certificate of some description and the cost of 2 or 3 servers (and maybe the cost to build a DMZ too).....

Apparently, the best thing to happen to Google mail and apps is the transition from Live@Edu to Office 365 (according to a lot of integrators).....tending to agree for now.....

After reading this I would recommend you work with an integration partner... There are a few differences (SkyDrive for one), but unless you have a good grasp of what is going on, do not attempt it. I have seen a number of problems with schools who have done so. Keep in mind, with SkyDrive, the live@edu data does not migrate, but is still available (just no password sync). You will not get SkyDrive Pro unless you have Wave 15 of Office 365 (depends on region). There is a Sharepoint online team site. This is daunting unless you have sharepoint skills (integration with on premise sharepoint is not trivial). Once the technical is sorted, then how do yo use it? We are looking at using SkyDrive Pro drives for Home drives and the Sharepoint Team Site as a Group Drive (all with appropriate permissions). Is it worth the transition??? Have a good look at what Google offers, have a look at a thing by Hapara....I am thinking no....(eventhough I have done it).....

When did you actually transition? My guess is that MS do not support that config at the time (I was looking online to see if they do yet and could not see it). Is your domain on 2012 or 2008 R2 function? (I am hoping to go to 2012 in December...and this was the only issue. (the rest is really a simple upgrade process)). Or did you just use a 2012 server with ADFS 2.0 (but still a 2008 R2 domain).

Pretty sure Office365 only works with ADFS 2.0 in 2008R2....not Server 2012...That was the case in January at least anyway according to Microsoft... Would be interested if you have it all working properly with 2012 ADFS and Office365...

Mind you..in saying this...the move to Google is looking really compelling, especially if the driver is BYOD and considering a WEB App only model for app delivery...

I have a hybrid model in my environment. Staff use on premise exchange and students use Office365. I did migrate from Live@EDU though....having moved here previously). Things to note; 1. You have to Federate the whole domain (in my case domain.school.com and stu.domain.school.com ...as an example). 2. All users have a onmicrosoft account (cloud based). 3. ADFS and ADFS proxy in DMZ (note: it did not work for 2012 last time I looked). 4. Using DIRSYNC, but am moving to FIM 2010 5. Need a cert for FS portal I can provide my build doco if that helps... Things to consider; 1. Reasons to keep staff email on premise (compliance and archiving was my driver...and cost of Office365 service). 2. Really wanted to separate staff from students. 3. Be flexible as staff may move to cloud eventually if things change.... Richard

I would look at Xirrus....for a start you will not 75 APs for this solution (I will take a guess and say 25)...get a survey from them to find out... Xirrus will do it for free and guarantee the coverage based on these results... I know the others are reluctant to provide a free survey..but my view is they need to (remember that yes you are one school.....but you have many contacts with other schools and potential customers for them.) Xirrus pricing is about $3900 AUD for the XR 2430 AUD and $1600 for the XR1230 AUD. These have dual band and can serve 240 (4 radios) to 120 (2 radios) respectively (although Xirrus will tell you more). Also, you will need to look at your core network and edge switches to make sure they are capable of handling the overall throughput placed on them from addtional devices (not just wireless). I would challenge the comment about nightmares with Xirrus.....but oh well..... From my experience the nightmares occur when you have not properly designed all aspects of the solution first (core and edge redesign as well).....and not doing a survey to get an idea of actual coverage and potential blackspots is a fatal flaw here.......

Get a survey done....I suspect Xirrus will do this very well.... Depending on what you have, one Xirrus AP could do 600 devices easy.....but then things like geography (coverage) play a big part which may cause an issue for you....and you may find a solution like Meru or Ruckus may work better.... What is your backend like? 1 GB ? 10GB? you may need to take into account the load on the network and the types of traffic you are expecting as well...if 100MB then web traffic would be viable but not much else... For my situation, Meru and Ruckus were not close....

There could be a number of things going on.... Make sure that profiles are small...large profiles will cause an issue.... Check what you AV does at startup.....check what else is going on at startup. It can be a number of things, and often it will be by trial and error... I would ask Xirrus to have a look at your school and do a free survey.....I would also look at your servers and network in general..it sounds a little old and in need of refresh...you do not want first class wifi using old infrastructure...it will only resolve the coverage issues possibly...and not performance for the end-user....Nothing less than 1GB per link and to desk...go 10GB at core and to edge if you can afford it...

Hi, I know this reply is really late, but from my perspective, nothing beats the Xirrus Arrays in terms of density and throughput. My only recommendation is to look at getting a WIFI survey done, which I know Xirrus do for free. Also, if going BYOD (or any other growth factors), it is a really good idea to look at how many clients (4 times number of users is a start for BYOD), then look at densities in buildings, then look at connections coming through the Edge switches, then what effect it will have on your network core. For this exact reason, I am looking 10GB links from core to Edge, and also looking at upgading my HP 5406 core to a Force 10 4810 core (using it for my data network and storage fabric needs). I would look at dual band wireless, and then what sort of authentication model you are using (Radius/AD). Are you going to implement dynamic vlanning so you can have a student WIFI zone? Are all your Edge swtiches dynamic vlan capable? will this zone be firewalled off from your production network and staff? what sort of traffic do you envisage on your network? do you need to upgrade your ISP connection? There are a lot of questions..... So while the WIFI technology is important....there are other equally important considerations in the overall design....

Just in general, the fanatical push to these things leaves me cold....from an enterprise "ready" point of view they are a long way away from being a viable solution. The deployment tools are not great....the licensing model is non-existant(what has been suggested by others here is illegal, but there is no other way for now...) and the management (via iTunes!!!!) is ridiculous..... When the Apple person said sync by iTunes from one computer...I nearly told him to get out..... I am asking staff what the actual requirement is, then showing how it can be achieved with the current technology standards/portfolio in place. The current support model is almost 3 times that of the mac/PC support models in my calculations..... I readily admit I am no expert on these things, but when the basic questions cannot be answered in a way I expect, then I cannot consider the item....

You can restore to any host or any data store...as long as all is connected from the host the backup server is on.....you can also restore at a file level to any location you choose as well.... The manual has good info on all these topics...worth a read...

The licensing is based upon your protected hosts and it is a per socket (not core) license. I have been using it extensively for a couple of years now.....really like it.....btw original screenshot is a successful backup it appears...and yes it is very quick... One thing to look at is whether to use reverse incremental instead of normal incremental for backups....

I think you have pretty much described what an Architect can bring to the table...but having the people skills to is important...something some tech's can struggle with at times...

I would also be looking for someone who also has Project Management skills (proven), IT Architect skills (TOGAF), and also someone with a knowledge of Enterprise Architecture concepts. You probably need 10+ yrs proven experience with large environments as well.

I think for a few years now (if you have the Lenovo SW) it would tell you that the Chinese battery replacement you have was not genuine......hmmm....oh well....hello Dell....

How many staff do you have.....guessing 3 or 4....

They are the same figures used by any outsourcer actually....I would use them to make a point that those numbers reflect what is happening in Industry (that is what they would want to charge you if they ran your shop so to speak), but they would do it with 4 and manage to the SLA only... I do it on 4 FTE for 1700 users, 900+ desktops/laptops, 2 sites, 26 servers, 40 printers, 35 network devices, 50 projectors and a phone system.......my number is close to 6 (without AV and phones) but the reality is you will not get the number.....Maybe use it to justify a third perhaps??? Thats what I did to get my extra FTE...

Agree with the previous comment....the problem is your trying to limit the movement of a device designed to be taken anywhere. If you could place a RFID tag inside the device then this would work....but I do not think you can do this...the chains are looking good.

I am suspecting you guys are needing closer to 6-8 fte in reality.....

What about getting a requirements baseline....I thought it would be important to find out what people need..then want...then work out a proposal with costs..... no use getting a Mack Truck when all you need to do is tow a caravan.....

I have 11 of these things on my site and they work very well.....I have the XMS module as well for management. I will also be getting more based on the site survey they carried out. Again...while Xirrus works very very well for me. They key is the site survey....you need to properly evaluate what works well for your particular situation... One school near me demonstrated something like 200 devices all streaming video through one Xirrus device...........that was pretty amazing......

We started over again....had minimal issues...new domain on 2008R2. Been through this process a few times and the pain is not worth it....plus a proper design and starting again gets rid of a lot of legacy issues.....

Keep in mind the above is ongoing support ratios....installs etc are separate again.... It is actually common to not count PC's but count the role of the PC or laptop user. The PC count methdology (which hasn't been used in industry for a while now), does not take into account the differences between users.... When I get thin clients, that ratio will be 1:700 to 1:800 + the ratio to support servers added to drive this as well... It is not an exact science, just a guide which can be negotiated. If you have lower FTE counts than the guide suggests, then you can change your SLA expectation ( I would hope). As an exercise, plug in the numbers that are relevant.....for projectors I would say that 1:500 may be a ratio that works (not a lot goes wrong here). Just by pluggin in your numbers and making a few assumptions I get a number of 5.8 staff.....