Learn iT! and Corporate Training Group announce joint training venture in NYC called Learn iT! with Corporate Training Group.

Responding to market opportunity and customer demand for high-quality, customizable training, San Francisco’s Learn iT! and New Jersey’s Corporate Training Group, Inc. have formed a strategic partnership. The new enterprise – Learn iT! with Corporate Training Group – is based in New York City and will provide live, instructor-led training for Information Technology, End User Applications, Professional Development and Project Management.

The new company will have the capacity to deliver training through three different platforms –public classes at their 330 W. 38th Street location, on-site at client locations, and remotely, using state of the art technology (including webinars and remote conferencing) to connect students to live courses via computer.

Learn iT! is a San Francisco-based company that has provided IT and Professional Development training since 1995. It was founded by Walter Lembi – a local businessman who, after experiencing a very frustrating day trying to learn Microsoft Excel, decided a computer learning school was in order. His son, Damon took over as CEO in 1997.

“By partnering with Corporate Training Group, we are able to fulfill my father’s dream and establish a formal presence in New York City, the business capital of the world, “ says Lembi. “We trained over 250,000 workers in 2012, giving companies and individuals the opportunity to develop tangible skills that provide a solid return on their training investment.”

Corporate Training Group, Inc., with multiple offices in New Jersey, was founded in 1991 by Lisa Eyerkuss. Lisa, a trainer herself, realized the need for highly customized quality training for Fortune 500 companies in the Metro area and began CTG with this as her mission. CTG is a certified Woman-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE), Small Business Enterprise (SBE), and Woman Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). These certifications allow the firm to participate in government and corporate contracts with set-aside quotas.

“Our partnership with Learn iT! allows us to offer more training options,” said CTG President and CEO Lisa Eyerkuss. “Today’s businesses have diversified training needs. Having one company able to address those needs – through both in-person and remote platforms – positions us as a thought leader in the training industry.”

The partnership was the brainchild of a meeting at the 2012 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto. Lembi and Eyerkuss knew each other through their participation in the Mi-Training Partners consortium, and a chance conversation led to a series of meetings.

“It made perfect sense,” says Lembi. “Corporate Training Group has some of the best Microsoft Trainers in the world, and with us already being a Microsoft Gold Partner, as well as having the best Professional Development training team on the west coast…the synergy was obvious.”

Learn iT! with Corporate Training Group is currently open for business.

Corporate Training Group, Inc. (CTG)

Corporate Training Group’s instructors and consultants possess exceptional presentation skills and true business applicability using the software tools they present. CTG provides standard and client specific technical training, as well as end user training within Microsoft technologies, Global Migration training, and other vendor specific and proprietary applications.

CTG has enjoyed 22 years as an independent company and has multiple locations in the tri-state area. CTG President and CEO Lisa Eyerkuss has built an organization that provides business benefit and return on capital investments through a process of skills transfer and talent development.

Learn iT!

Based in downtown San Francisco, Learn iT!, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for Learning Solutions, has served the training needs of businesses, government agencies, and individuals since 1995. CEO Damon Lembi drives a team that is dedicated to making learning efficient, valuable, and enjoyable.

Learn iT! also manages a carefully selected network of nationwide instructors, allowing them to provide training on a national scale or for major rollouts.

Learn iT’s business philosophy is driven to make life better for everyone they come in contact with. Employees and management share a commitment to innovation, teamwork, and purposeful action. They understand that Learn iT! affects the lives of all of those they serve, and they continuously remind themselves to remain accountable and treat others as they would like to be treated.

It’s no surprise that Microsoft SharePoint is among the most widely deployed platforms for enterprise collaboration, with more than 125 million licenses sold to more than 65,000 enterprise customers.

Right now, though, the question on everyone’s mind is whether or not to upgrade to the 2013 version.

We think you should — for these four reasons.

1.     Improved User Experience and Usability

Using SharePoint 2013 is easier for information workers (i.e. end user, power user, and business user) to perform functions that required the skills that IT professionals and developers have.

For example – information workers now have the ability to create search query rules by selecting conditions and correlated actions using drop-down menus in a query builder tool.

The interface of SharePoint 2013 has also been improved significantly from a usability perspective.

For instance, when you create a new team site, SharePoint 2013 displays a “Get started with your site” section that consists of six blue-colored boxes of actions you can perform. As you hover your mouse over each blue-colored box, a brief description appears that gives you a quick idea of what each action does.

As a result, you won’t have to spend time thinking that much anymore on how to get started and can focus more on productivity and execution.

2.     Social Features

Social features in SharePoint 2013 have better business value. Each user’s “My Site” is now made up of three distinct hubs: Newsfeed, SkyDrive Pro, and Sites.

Newsfeed provides you with quick access to people, documents, sites, and tags you’re following.

SkyDrive Pro allows you to save files in the cloud, access files anywhere, and share files with other people.

Sites tracks all of the SharePoint sites you follow. You can create new team sites quickly on your Sites page also.

SharePoint 2013 also integrates Yammer – a private social network that allows for social networking outputs such as team collaboration, employee engagement, and increased business agility. One of Yammer’s visions is to make companies more open and employees more connected in SharePoint 2013 – making this a natural partnership.

3.     Search Features

Search is one of the central components to a SharePoint user and has become more user-friendly in SharePoint 2013 than ever before.

Navigation Enhancements and Search Centers are some of the many new search features in SharePoint 2013. For example – using a Result Source (the combination of a SharePoint 2010 Federated Location plus a Search Scope) guarantees the appropriate search results that meet specific conditions. A result source can be created by an information worker using a form-based approach of completing questions in SharePoint 2013 instead of relying on Search service application administrators.

4.     More Cloud-Based Functionality

Microsoft is integrating their cloud vision in SharePoint 2013 by using some of their new add-ons, such as SkyDrive Pro and Office on Demand.

Office on Demand lets you use Office applications on PCs that don’t have Office installed with the SharePoint 2013 Online version. This cloud-based functionality like this reduces costs for organizations to maintain hardware and software on-premise.

Simply put, upgrading to SharePoint 2013 is a smart business investment that adds value and benefits to any organization. Good luck with your SharePoint 2013 upgrade journey!

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 Jose Castro is the Director of Information Systems and SharePoint Administrator here at Learn iT! He represented Learn iT! at the MS SharePoint Conference 2012 in Las Vegas, and often attends local SharePoint user group meetings in the Bay Area.

If you’re a long time SQL shop, and have been running SQL Server 2000, 2005 or 2008 for many years, you may have asked yourself, “Is it time to upgrade?”

Well, we can emphatically answer, “Yes!”

Here are our top four reasons to move up and out of the older versions and into SQL 2012.

Reason 1 – End of Life

SQL Server 2000 and 2005 are still widely used, and with good reason. SQL Server 2000 was one of the best product releases from Microsoft.

However, SQL Server 2000 is now 12 years old. On April 9, 2013, SQL Server 2000 will no longer be supported by Microsoft. But that alone is not necessarily justification to upgrade. If a SQL Server has been running fine for many years and hasn’t required vendor support, then then there is a good chance it will continue to run for many more years.

A more significant issue is that the hardware on which these SQL Server instances run is in many cases reaching its end of life. Old hardware is much less forgiving than old software. Hardware wears out. Old disks crash. Over time, components can become unstable.

Many of these older systems have to have upgraded hardware, and you may have trouble getting the old OS and SQL to run on some of the latest 64bit hardware. And if you are upgrading the hardware you should also upgrade the SQL Server platform to give you the maximum potential life for your new investment.

Reason 2 – SQL Server 2012 Licensing

SQL Server 2012 changes the way in which SQL Server is licensed.

• SQL Server 2012 changes from per socket based licensing to per core based licenses. Modern CPUs can have eight or more cores. This can represent a dramatic increase in the number of licenses required and potentially a dramatic increase in license costs.

• SQL Server Enterprise licensing is changing so “per seat” based licensing is no longer an option. Per core is the only option – which may again represent a dramatic increase in licensing costs.

While some licensing arrangements, such as software assurance, may mitigate some of the impact of these changes you should definitely speak to your license provider to understand how these changes will affect your organization.

Moving to SQL Server 2008 R2 now may give you the window needed to take cost optimization measures such as consolidation before upgrading to SQL Server 2012.

Reason 3 – Upgrade Paths

A technical limitation is that SQL Server 2000 will have no direct upgrade path to SQL Server 2012. This means upgrades from 2000 to 2012 will have to undergo additional steps to upgrade to either SQL Server 2005 or 2008 temporarily.

This may be manageable for small upgrades but a lot of extra planning and testing will need to be undertaken to upgrade at scale. Taking the benefits discussed above into consideration, an upgrade now to get you onto the current version may well be worthwhile to avoid a more complicated upgrade path in future.

Reason 4 – SQL Server 2012 is Awesome!

The other three reasons are good for business, but when you compare the enhancements in 2012 to the older versions – this version is awesome! You’ll quickly see that it has the full implementation of the BI suite, and it iss simple to implement security, auditing and encryption.

Oh and don’t forget the refined interface. Most people only use a small portion of the SQL product. But put the whole SQL suite together, Database, SSAS, SSRS, SSIS, Data Mining, integration to SharePoint, Excel 2010, and Power Pivot –and it’s seamless and consistent.

And those are the best reasons of all – Seamless and Consistent.

If you’re thinking about a migration or new implementation, give us a call at Learn iT! We offer the full SQL 2012 course lineup, and can get you and your team up to speed and on your way to understanding what makes SQL 2012 the most exciting database platform available.

So you’re ready to take the DIY plunge? Or maybe you have some experience administering sites, but would like to add some advanced functions or features?

Have no fear – Learn iT! Anytime has put together an awesome training course that will have you launching and administering your own WordPress website or blog in no time. Our videos are designed to help non-techie users become proficient and productive quickly. Click here to watch a sample video.

And with Learn iT! Anytime, you can learn at your own pace with our “Introduction” module, or go to a specific segment to get right to where you need help.

WordPress is an amazing tool — we like to say that it’s both free, and priceless! Make sure you know how to get the most out of it.

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Learn iT! Anytime brings renowned Learn iT! San Francisco training to you on video. Our site provides self-paced training in the following subject areas:

• Microsoft Office
• Graphic Design
• Web Design
• Desktop Software

Learn iT! Anytime students receive access to our entire library of video-based learning — including printable material, suggested homework, support materials, and the ability to ask an instructor questions.

While there are many reasons to upgrade to Server 2012, one primary feature stands out – Centralized Management.

Whatever your server management responsibilities are, Server 2012 will greatly enhance your capabilities and management scope by allowing you to manage multiple servers from one central console.

Server Manager 2012

The core management utility, Server Manager 2012, now allows for simultaneous analysis, management and administration of multiple servers, including virtual servers, on one console. You can target individual servers or multiple servers in groups for administrative tasks, feature management, and more. These server group assignments can also be extended to include virtual servers. Virtual servers can populate server groups alongside physical servers, so your management services can seamlessly impact both physical and virtual platforms at the same time.

There are also many core functions that utilize 2012 Centralized Management functionality. Some of the 2012 enhancements include:

• Networking services such as DHCP IP Address Management (IPAM) and clustering can be administered remotely by centrally integrating with a new enhanced ADDS model.
• ADDS enhancements now provides for Directory Services cloning and streamlined provisioning of multiple Domain Controllers at one time.
• Server 2008 R2 tools such as Direct Access, VPN Reconnect and Branch Caching have enhanced management consoles.
• Storage clustering and File Share services have some tremendous enhancements that provide for greater flexibility and fail over capacity.
• IIS 8.0 supports both ASP.Net 3.5 and 4.5 simultaneously by provisioning ASP.NET services to specific application pools.
• PowerShell 3.0 has commands specifically tailored for multiple server administration.
• System Restore is now a Server function.

I am also in agreement with the Microsoft pundits that say one of the most outstanding features of Server 2012 is its enhanced ability to administer Virtual Private and Public Cloud services.

Virtualization and Private Cloud Services

Server 2012 Hyper-V and System Center Virtual Machine Management now offer several different ways to combine virtual and physical services into one management interface. As a result applications can now be simultaneously accessed and managed through in-house, cloud, and hybrid virtual networks.

Virtual machine deployment is also simplified. Virtual machines can be created, copied and moved across cloud networks from one SCVMM console. Federation Identity Management with Forefront can now also centrally service multiple cloud networks, and provide single-sign-on authentication access to different cloud networks.

Server 2012 Virtual Machine Management now also offers live migration. That means virtual servers can maintain operations while being replicated and updated in multiple could environs at the same time.

Hyper-V also supports VMWare ESX as well as NFS, so it’s now a cross platform virtual provider.  And for hosting providers, virtual network clusters are now capable of supporting as many as 4,000 virtual machines per cluster.

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Server 2012 isn’t even in a full release state yet, and I’m sure there will be more productivity features that Microsoft will introduce when the final product arrives. As for now – I’m very excited about the core operations of Server 2012 – and I think you will be too.

You can check out Server 2012 at our First Look Clinic.

If you want to try out some of these features, you can also visit the Server 2012 Virtual Labs, which step you through the most important features using VM’s hosted by Microsoft.

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James Dalton is a Learn iT! Microsoft Certified Trainer with over 15 years of experience as a solutions developer, consultant, and teacher of networking, applications and Microsoft server solutions for various universities and private companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. His certifications include Microsoft IT Pro for Server 2008, SharePoint, and Windows 7.