Microsoft Archives

Smoothing the (Sometimes) Bumpy Path to the Cloud

For all of its entrepreneurial spirit and historical legacy of innovation, Southeast Michigan isn't Silicon Valley. This region built its business foundation on hardware, in the truest sense of the word - big factories, big machines, big cars - and lots of it. Given our mindset, a transition from a self-run, in-house IT infrastructure to the new and seemingly nebulous Cloud environment doesn't seem like the most natural move for many. Nonetheless, that's what Michigan businesses are doing - and they're doing it in droves. For many if not most companies, the Cloud question has become a matter of 'when,' not 'if.' Businesses are looking past their crowded, cable-filled server rooms and envisioning a future of fast, secure, accessible-anywhere applications, data and services. These businesses are immediately faced with some critical questions: What information and services should they move the Cloud? What benefits might they expect to receive? When should ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:43+00:00

The Redmond Channel Partner Top 200: We’ll Feel At Home Here

Most of us are familiar with that special feeling that comes from time to time when you know you’re performing professionally at the top of your game. It’s beyond the sense of simply knowing you’re doing a good job – it’s the sense of hitting a home run, and being confident that you could immediately go out and do it again. That’s how I’m feeling about our Red Level team these days. Some recent news we received from Redmond Channel Partner, Microsoft’s knowledge-sharing site for Microsoft solution providers, is one of the main reasons why. We recently announced that Red Level had been named to Redmond Channel Partner’s “Top 200 Solution Providers” list, an annual index of the top 200 Microsoft solution providers in the USA. It probably sounds like “inside baseball” to anyone outside the IT field, but from our standpoint it’s pretty significant: The listing served as a ...

David King2023-02-16T16:01:44+00:00

#WANNACRY: A Happy Accident Is ‘Holding Back The Tears’ – For Now

An unfortunate truth about computer security is that would-be hackers only have to be lucky once, but data security specialists have to be lucky always. Today, it’s looking like we’re very lucky indeed – if only for the moment. If you’ve been following the stories (and the near-panic) surrounding the #WannaCry ransomware attack and have been concerned about your own systems’ potential vulnerability, the good news is that a British malware specialist’s quick thinking and good luck seems to have bought you some time. For those who don’t know, #WannaCry is a particularly malignant bit of malware currently being spread through some highly sophisticated phishing emails. When these are read and acted upon, they trigger the download of an application that proceeds to encrypt a computer’s contents and demand a 300 Euro ($329) ransom, payable in Bitcoin, for the favor of decryption. Here’s what’s made #WannaCry really worth crying about. Firstly, ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:45+00:00

Microsoft Teams and Collaboration Tool Landscape

The Situation: Productivity continues to be on the radar of many companies. A copious amount of time is wasted searching for data, the increased volumes of email and the fact users are asked to collaborate with 2x more teams than they did 5 years ago all lend to lost productivity. This time lost hurts daily productivity. The ingredients that make up our business world are changing faster and faster. Will we find a tool that helps? The Solution: IT leadership is asked to provide a tool that can help facilitate collaboration in an engaging, socially interactive way. From: The Ultimate Guide to Chat-based Tools http://bit.ly/2n3kB9O Evaluation of Existing Tools Microsoft has had a few products within the collaboration space. These and other third-party products have had various levels of success. Features fall into two major categories: Content: Management of content for reference, searching, and sharing. Communication: Connecting and communicating with ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:46+00:00

Here’s to Bright Ideas – And New Possibilities

As of today, Red Level is reaching an important milestone: We’re spending our last day in our old offices on Catherine Industrial Drive. Tomorrow, we begin a fresh, more expansive chapter in our story with our move to our new state-of-the-art offices in Novi. This new chapter takes us down the road to Grand River Ave. Our new offices are nearly triple the size of our former space, and boast not only a fresh new décor, but the latest game-changing technologies. I think we’re going to like it here. This move is the result of a lot of planning, a lot of deliberation, and a lot of hard work on the part of our team - and it signals a significant achievement for our company. Our growth hasn’t just pushed us beyond the capacity of our former quarters; it has progressed to the point that we can nearly triple the ...

David King2023-02-16T16:01:47+00:00

Don’t Be Afraid of the Cloud

I’m an old-school network guy. My career has been built meticulously architecting datacenters with the latest offerings on SANs, switches, servers, firewalls, and threat remediation. I read all of the articles that talked about how the cloud was the future and how it would change the landscape forever. In no way did I accept that any cloud offering would meet my high standards of performance or security. Then by virtue of a changing career path, I was afforded the time to learn the real truth about a concept I had completely dismissed. And as it turns out, it’s actually the most incredible platform that I was never able to architect myself. Microsoft has bridged the gap between my beloved on-premises network operations center and the cloud with rock solid hybrid solutions. This cleanses the palate for guys like me who needed to gain the trust of the technology as it ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:47+00:00

Six Keys to Effective Project Management

Most projects are about change – and change is seldom easy. Both individual people and organizations seem hard-wired to resist it, and often for good reason: It’s often messy. It’s usually difficult. And however careful the planning, preparation, and execution beforehand, there is often a sense of uncertainty about the results – if not about the outcome, then about the response to it. Easy or not, though, change is necessary – and actually, it is inevitable. If there’s one thing that seems abundantly clear in our mobile, technology-driven, fast-paced world, it’s that nothing stands still for very long. Change is the environment we live in - whether purposeful and directed or accidental and chaotic. The choice becomes whether to resist it, to succumb to it grudgingly – or to embrace it wholeheartedly, with a sound plan for turning it into an advantage. That’s what project managers are for: Making change ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:50+00:00

We’re Microsoft’s Heartland Cloud Partner of the Year

Excuse me if I seem a little bit proud at the moment. I am. Red Level has been named as Microsoft USB Champions Club Heartland Cloud Partner of the Year for 2016. Not for the first time, or the second, but for the third year running. In 2014, Red Level was named Partner of the Year and for the past two consecutive years, Cloud Partner of the Year. A true “hat trick”. What does that mean, you ask? Well, if you’re not in our line of work, that title might not mean a lot to you, but from where we stand it means a lot. In essence, it means that our company has been selected for outstanding performance when it comes to, in the Microsoft’s words, “arming the small business community with the right technology and services they need to be successful.” In practical terms, that means helping companies to ...

David King2023-02-16T16:01:51+00:00

Business Needs VISION. Here’s Where To Get It.

Great thinking is a good thing – but thinking alone isn’t enough. Ideas work best when they are shared and when they’re put into practice—and the TM Group’s 16th annual Vision Conference helps businesses, strategists, IT professionals, and consultants do exactly that. For more than a decade and a half, Vision – or, more formally, Microsoft Dynamics & NetSuite Conference and Expo - has been a hot date on Michigan professionals’ calendars. Most attendees return year after year to network, share, and learn in the company of some of their most inspired and inspiring peers. This year’s going to be no exception. On May 17th, the Suburban Showplace in Novi will host about two dozen laser-focused sessions exploring Microsoft Dynamics GP, SL, NAV and CRM features, functionality and technology, all keyed to the real-world needs of established and emergent businesses. It’s an event that Red Level team members are always ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:53+00:00

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