Boca Raton, FL- April 24, 2013 - Nine Lives Media, a division of Penton Media, recently unveiled the MSPmentor 501 (http://www.mspmentor.net/top501), a global list honoring the world’s top 501 managed services providers (MSP). Champion Solutions Group was ranked #117 among the 2013 MSPmentor 200 North America Edition, which covers the top 200 managed services providers (MSPs) in North America.

The MSPmentor 501 report recognizes top managed service providers based on a range of metrics, including annual managed services revenue growth, revenue per employee, managed services offered and customer devices managed.

“MSPmentor has honored the top 100 MSPs annually since 2008,” said Amy Katz, president of Nine Lives Media, a division of Penton Media. “The managed services market continues to grow swiftly. Small, midsize and large MSPs worldwide deserve greater recognition for their accelerating momentum. The new MSPmentor 501 Global Edition and MSPmentor 100 Small Business Edition, along with our regional lists, fulfill that mission.”

For the full release, visit: http://mspmentor.net/managed-services/mspmentor-501-top-501-managed-services-providers-list-unveiled

The Service Upgrade for existing customers to the New Office 365 platform has been marketed by Microsoft as a non-disruptive update. However, as mentioned at the recent Cloud Champ Summits, over the past month we’ve been hearing from partners/customers that in some cases, the update has required the reconfiguration of EVERY users Outlook profile which can be a cumbersome process. MS Online support has finally pinpointed the problem to incorrect Autodiscover settings in the public and/or internal DNS settings of the affected customers. Following is an article describing how to test if autodiscover is configured correctly for each of your domains. We recommend testing each of your customer’s autodiscover domains prior to their upgrade to ensure a successful upgrade occurs and that each of your user’s Outlook profiles automatically connect post upgrade.

http://community.office365.com/en-us/wikis/manage/correcting-autodiscover-and-dns-settings.aspx

Because MS Support has identified the problem, they have assured us that going forward customers will no longer be upgraded if they have incorrect autodiscover settings. We still recommend taking the above measures as you will have to make these changes regardless (only if autodiscover is misconfigured). Also we want need to make sure that you or your client version is supported and running the latest update. The easiest way to accomplish this is by running Windows Update. The following clients are currently supported.

• Outlook 2013
• Outlook 2010 SP1 with November 2012 Cumulative Update
• Outlook 2007 SP3 with November 2012 Cumulative Update
• Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition
• Outlook for Mac 2011

Here’s another issue that you need to know about: When Exchange Online gets updated to the new platform, FOPE is not immediately updated to the new gateway platform: EOP (Exchange Online Protection). In some cases, a your FOPE is not upgraded to EOP until a month after your Exchange Online upgrade. Everything SHOULD work as before during this “In between” phase, however the customer/partner will no longer have easy access to their FOPE settings. A few FOPE related links are up on the community, check here: http://community.office365.com/en-us/wikis/office_365_service_updates/resources-for-admins.aspxand below are linked:

• Exchange Online and Exchange Online Protection Service Upgrade - FOPE Admin Center Access
• Feature Differences Between FOPE and EOP
• Learn more about the migration status report
• Login to FOPE Administration Center After Service Upgrade
• Service Upgrade Changes for Policy Rules

A few more things: Some are asking why autodiscover needs to be corrected if it was working before. We have heard that some customers were directed by support to change the autodiscover record at some time in the past to correct some other issue. That was supposed to be temporary but many left it… And some customers/partners have not used autodiscover and set the Outlook settings manually. A potential fix is running a repair on the email account in the Mail Account Settings, rather than having to reconfigure the entire profile. This prompts the user to enter their password and then Autodiscover seems to connect and the problem gets resolved. Once Outlook is opened again, the user gets prompted one more time for the password and all is well. This way a new OST is not created.

As promised, here is the latest update on the announcements from VMworld 2012.   

By Erika Tracy
August 23, 2012

CRN has recently reported rumors that VMware is changing the vRAM entitlement model for the vSphere licensing and this will be announced next week at VMworld.  The licenses will now be structured on a per processor model, as it had been in the past.  No longer will you have to add up all the vRAM in your virtualized pool to determine the amount of licenses.  No longer will you have to worry about additional licensing if you’re adding memory to an existing server. At this time, this does not appear to have any effect on the editions of vSphere and its features and functionality.

We have also heard, and want to share with you, that product sets currently licensed per VM (i.e. VC Operations, SRM, etc) will also be changing to a per processor model.

Keep in mind, that this is not an official announcement.  Champion will be at VMworld next week and we will be sure to blog all of the updates for you, as they happen, for those of you that are unable to attend.  

Stay tuned for more!

Microsoft Recognizes Champion Solutions Group – 2011 Microsoft Cloud Partner of the Year

Champion Also Receives Microsoft’s 2011 Cloud Practice Award

Boca Raton, FL— July 22, 2011 Last Week, Microsoft proudly announced the 2011 Partner Award winners during a ceremony at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Los Angeles, CA. The Field Partner Awards Program gives Microsoft the opportunity to recognize its top partners at a global event. It acknowledges the extraordinary contributions of Microsoft partners serving small, mid-market and enterprise commercial customers throughout the past fiscal year.

Champion Solutions Group was recognized as the 2011 Microsoft Cloud Partner of the Year. Champion was honored among the top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology.  Champion also received Microsoft’s Cloud Practice award.

“Champion is honored to receive these prestigious awards from Microsoft,” commented Chris Pyle, Champion CEO. “This summer has been special to our organization. Champion received the Business Transformation Award from CRN Magazine, named one of the  “30 Cloud VARs That Get It” by Everything Channel’s CRN Magazine, and was recognized as one of the Best Places to Work by the South Florida Business Journal. These awards are an acknowledgement of Champion’s commitment to our clients to take cost out of their model while making the organization more productive, compliant, and secure.”

Champion was recognized for providing outstanding solutions and services, as well as demonstrating excellent cloud project management for their clients. The Cloud Partner of the Year Award recognizes that Champion is seen as an innovator in the area of Cloud in their respective markets.

About Champion Solutions Group
Champion Solutions Group is an Independent Solutions Provider focused on cloud and virtualization services and data management solutions that reduce costs, increase productivity, and improve application availability for more than thirty years.  Champion’s active customer base has grown by 42% in the past twelve months. Headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, Champion services organizations along the east coast and into Pennsylvania, and Ohio.

For more information, please visit Champion at championcloudservices.com or call us at 1-800-771-7000.

Boca Raton, FL, January 21, 2011- South Florida Business Journal announced today that Champion Solutions Group has been selected as one of the 2011 Best Places to Work. This honor is awarded to the top ranked companies for their efforts of creating an engaged and supportive workplace and Champion is among the top 15 selected in its category. Champion has now been awarded this recognition twice, having also been selected in 2009.

BOCA RATON, FL - (February 9^th, 2010) - Champion Cloud Services, a unit of IT services delivery provider Champion Solutions Group, today announced an innovative enterprise-class data recovery program that promises to remake the Disaster Recovery (DR) realm: "Cloud Continuity" DR services. Leveraging the groundbreaking benefits of cloud computing, Champion's Cloud Continuity services allow enterprises-especially growing mid-market businesses-to utilize an on-demand DR capability that delivers exactly the amount of IT resources needed, at the very time they're needed most.

Click on the following link to view the full press release:
http://www.championsg.com/champion.nsf/pages/nr_pr_SSPR_020910

Boca Raton, FL 12/15/09 - Champion Solutions Group, a leading IT services delivery provider, today launched Champion Cloud Services, a new division that will offer consulting services to help companies leverage cloud computing to more efficiently deliver IT services to end users. Champion Cloud Services employs a unique holistic approach that factors in the goals and objectives of the business as well as IT considerations to determine and implement the right cloud-based solution for each individual client.