Nightshade2k

Filter 7/8 i would not mind if there seemed like a light at the end of the tunnel, going to get the backup connection routed out of the core i think in the future so at least theres an alternative method for net traffic, way too reliant on O365 and Azure now to lose access in this way sadly, maybe SB will fix it by monday who knows!

Schools Broadband have had issues since Tuesday 14th now were at friday 17th and the issues continue! and my school is effectively crippled, the issue being our backup line also goes through their core systems so if there core is crippled were doomed, since we are reliant on Office 365 4 days with unusable internet is like cutting ones arm off. Have been told several different things across the days. 1) its you not our end 2) its a DDOS 3) its the lightspeed filters not load balancing 4) its super patch day and everyone i cramming MS updates 5) its one of our Core Edge devices have spent pretty much most of my week getting key docs off of peoples onedrives its that bad using my tech teams combined might of 4G connections. As soon as we can leave i think its going to have to be back to the LEA.

I took the decision to weigh up the Schools Broadband option today versus the EIS provision, tbh the gentlemen i spoke to Tom, seemed pretty reasonable and it gave me a little more confidence around considering a switch if necessary knowing i can cover the safeguarding aspect off with familiarity on lightspeed and fortinet, like most IT Staff there is always (reasonably) a fear factor in taking the jump but if it works out more economically viable and can cover the same level of service its worth the risks, plus i really need to consider the redundant line now that we are seeing increased use of O365 and Azure.

Also going through this debate given the cost of the LEA provision now in Kent with additional lines costing 3k per annum seems very pricey not sure whether the NEN freebies are worth it (Audio network, British Pathe etc) considering how little they are used here.

Hi Guys, not even sure where to ask about this so AV and Multimedia seemed like a good punt, but i'm wondering does anyone have a smart PA setup where you can program not only pips to play at lesson changeover (we have this to a degree already on a digital electronic timer, but also go one further and at times also play music for a set duration? If you do could you let me know what equipment you use and whether you pipe this through your existing analogue/digital tannoy systems. Ta muchly

We run both WDS and MDT on the same VM on Hyper-V at our school and have had no issues, we currently deploy Win 7 via MDT and the nice thing once setup we just have to repoint to the Win10 ISO in MDT to make the change over to Win10. Downsides to MDT deployment really is a) network speed and b) hard drive speed, if your using SSD devices you will notice a significant difference.

There is a new Azure Calculator for Education Pricing coming out at the moment, i think from what ive read/heard/gathered info on and based on our own use of VLSC i understand it that while windows for the most part becomes free due to win10, your main payment will be in O365, the idea being with azure connections in place you would move to SaaS (software as a service) and use remote web apps connections, the issue is i dont think or feel you would yet move fully to cloud based services although a lot can be done! Your higher costs will come with licensing the same old legacy apps that cant be cloud maintained for example SQL based programs etc and so SQL licenses and local Hyper-V licensing is going to hurt after the deadlines pass. I forget the guy that gave a speech about it but its nicknamed SoSaas (Same old software as a service). Ive seen Sims Clients pushed out by webapp and run well with Solus 3 for example, but the ramifications for putting a whole Sims database/server in the cloud is a bit mind boggling. I certainly also dont trust the new Capita hosted option either. Anyway i digress, im off to meet MS this friday with our reseller to discuss our licensing changes we were already using o365 and were planning to move to office as a service anyway on Win10 Start menus so for us at least its not as scary but there are still too many unknowns!