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The Department for Education (DfE) has launched an initiative to support schools with remote learning.

An industry coalition headed by Microsoft and Google and its partners – including XMA, are to support the DfE providing remote e-learning platforms, devices and connectivity, for educational establishments across the UK.

Subject to eligibility, the scheme offers grants of up to £2,000 to schools to help fund the implementation of a ‘Digital Education Platform’.

Is your school eligible?

Schools that want to access the scheme need to meet the following minimum criteria:

• Schools in England with a partially provisioned or without a Microsoft Office 365 or Google Suite digital environment will be eligible for funding to help them implement a Digital Education Platform for a fixed cost of £2,000 per platform.
• Schools in England in a Multi-Acadamy Trust (MAT) of up to 10 schools will be eligible for £1,000 per school to configure a MAT wide approach (single platform for whole MAT).

If you’re eligible, great! Here’s what you need to do:

Firstly, select Microsoft/Google and XMA  as your preferred partners. We are best placed to help you deliver your Digital Education Platform. We have over 30 years experience of delivering IT solutions into the Public Sector, and have won awards for doing so! We are also an accredited top tier Microsoft Gold Partner and Cloud Service Provider. Our schools team are on hand to answer any questions you may have, and guide you through the process of application.

A New Approach

In today’s world of software-defined datacenters, infrastructure is increasingly complex and change is constant. The potential for change-related risk to applications is greater than ever before. In spite of the abundance of tools available, IT administrators lack the ability – and time – to study all the known or unknown configuration issues in their vSphere infrastructure. They struggle to understand whether changes – intended or accidental – result in smoldering performance and availability issues waiting to ignite.

Further, when things go wrong, there’s an inability to replay the changes over time to correlate events or trends that caused the current problem. This creates a significant drag on administrator effectiveness especially as they are thrown into firefighting mode to minimize the impact of unexpected application disruption and related costs.

The goal of CloudPhysics is to provide organisations with an analytics-driven approach to managing infrastructure that enables administrators to preempt emerging hazards and gives them the confidence to act boldly to reduce risk and waste in their vSphere environments.

To learn more , please fill in your details below to receive a free copy of the CloudPhysics whitepaper.

XMA’s Infrastructure Solutions Team are seeing a growing interest in dHCI from HPE.

XMA Solutions Director for Infrastructure – Jen Norman – and her team of Datacentre Architects take a closer look..

We’ve been designing and installing Hyperconverged Infrastructure solutions for some time now, and between Myself and my Datacentre team we have over (*cough) 115 years (*ahem) engineering experience between us.  So when HPE came to us with a disaggregated hyperconverged infrastructure solution last year, apart from repeating the name several times over to ourselves, we got onboard and got involved.  Now we are privileged to have completed our first dHCI live production solution deployments earlier this year.

What could you be facing?

So maybe your VMware system is running out of storage capacity, your servers are dated and you can’t upgrade to run the latest versions.

Ok. Well you’ve done some research and investigation. You want a hyperconverged replacement where you can run concurrent workloads, and like the idea of being able to scale out storage or compute separately. BUT it would be great if you could get this delivered, supported and managed as a single product.

What else might you need?

Well as standard, you want a storage system that has options for encryption, compression and deduplication, application consistent snapshots and advanced replication (ether synchronous or asynchronous) with near all-flash speed and sub-ms latency for always-on apps. That’s a given.

Definitely VMware clusters running on the latest compatible server hardware and block level storage.

A complete turnkey solution? One that is monitored from the application to the storage, proactive alerting and with the ability to predict and prevent infrastructure problems before they happen.

Nothing less than a system designed for 99.9999% availability – no single point of failure, hardware redundancies with the ability to tolerate 3 simultaneous drive failures!

And you’re pretty sure that Procurement will want the choice on finance options – including future proofing, cloud like financing, with integrated support.

Then you definitely need a HPE disaggregated hyperconverged solution (dHCI)

And you are not alone. Since its inception in 2019 we have seen successful installations in Local Government and Education, with interest and opportunities growing in the Corporate, Commercial Enterprise and Healthcare sectors.

 It’s a winning combination

You take the power and performance of the HPE Nimble Storage array, with its self-managing flash storage.

Add industry-leading HPE ProLiant Servers, include HPE storage switches, and deploy VMware vSphere.

Then this is all preconfigured as a turnkey solution!

Then automate with full-stack intelligence and policy-based automation for VM-centric management.

But here’s the best bit……

Add the power of HPE InfoSight over all this, and you have full-stack predictive analytics and support automation working for you that predicts and prevents issues. Infosight auto-routes any complex issue directly to L3 HPE Nimble support.

HPE have streamlined their support portfolio to offer four service levels that are easier to understand, easier to align to business needs which gives you visibility into IT assets and support status from anywhere.

You can flexibility and independently grow compute and/or storage – adding new dHCI compatible storage and/or servers when required – for scale-out upgrades that are non-disruptive and transparent to applications.

Eliminate over provisioning and add only the resources when needed. The Timeless Storage means no worries today or tomorrow with all-inclusive software licensing, flat support pricing, no forklift upgrades, and an option to receive a free faster controller upgrade after three years with Timeless Storage.

And, if you’re reading this thinking ‘well this sounds great but I’ve still got Gen9 (or 10) Proliant servers that are in warranty and I don’t want to replace them yet’.. Well HPE read your mind, (just kidding, they leave that to your home speaker system and asked Alexa what you thought), and have designed the solution so you can use the existing compute you already have in place, add a Nimble array and the dHCI software allowing you to convert everything in to a dHCI solution!

Is this Complex?

HPE Nimble storage arrays can be installed and be up and running in half a day requiring no external tools or software – we have completed installations where the HPE Nimble arrays that have been physically installed, configured, integrated and have test VMs running within hours ready for User Acceptance Testing (UAT). They can be All-Flash (AF) or Adaptive Flash (HF) for mixed, mainstream workloads, where cost-efficient flash performance is important. It is a Secondary Flash array for backup and DR while allowing you to put your backup data to work.

For the compute you have the HPE ProLiant Gen10 DL360 a performance driven dense server or DL380 for performance and expandability. These servers deliver security, agility and flexibility without compromise – with the knowledge that you can confidently deploy for virtualisation.

These are completed with a choice of Ethernet HPE storage switches to meet your budget and installation size.

Root Cause…. Could it be the network? A server fault or a storage fault?

Once installed HPE InfoSight can help you stop spending days searching for a root cause deep in your hybrid environment. Every second, HPE InfoSight collects and analyses data from more than 100,000 systems worldwide, and uses that intelligence to make every system smarter and more self-sufficient. The result? HPE InfoSight predicts and automatically resolves 86% of customer issues.

 Where to go for more information:

HPE dHCI

Why choose XMA?

We are an HPE Platinum partner and have trained and Certified HPE sales and engineers with Master Accredited Solutions Experts (top-level credential validates technical skills) with experience in building and sizing advanced enterprise systems. Continually staying up to date with the latest technology updates, strategies and programs. One of our core values is “customer focus”. We put our customers at the heart of everything we do. We don’t just provide technology we provide solutions.

Written by Jennifer Norman, Solutions Director for Infrastructure

On 1 April, Microsoft launched a new entry-level package, calling it Microsoft 365 F1 (F for Frontline). It bundles together the cloud-based productivity tools you need to be efficient and effective. To make way for this brand-new bundle, the product formerly known as Microsoft 365 F1 has been renamed Microsoft 365 F3. Office 365 F1 becomes Office 365 F3.

View the First Line Worker Comparison Chart along with the full April updates here

Some licensing products are being rebranded. The plan is to phase out the name ‘Office’ over time and migrate everything to ‘Microsoft’. From 21 April this starting with the following business products:

If you have any questions or need any help with Microsoft Licensing please contact our CSP Business Manager, James.Thorogood@xma.co.uk, or alternatively speak with your dedicated account manager or call our sales team on 0115 846 4000

XMA and HP are proud to have sponsored the 2020 Manchester Youth Buzz Awards, donating Laptops and Microsoft Office licences to recognise the category winners. The Youth Buzz awards recognise the positive work and contributions young people aged 11 to 19 make to Manchester. The donation of these prizes provided with the category winners with life changing technology, and in some cases, their first ever electronic device.

The event organisers were over the moon with our contribution in partnership with HP:

Yvonne O’Malley, wrote “We have received fantastic feedback from sponsors, finalists, winners and VIP guests which has been overwhelming, with everyone saying how much they enjoyed the event and how privileged they felt to have taken part. Your partnership to the event was key to its success, it was fantastic to witness the response of the young individuals and community groups who received the laptops and the impact it had on them. Partnership plays a crucial part to the Youth Buzz Awards and without the valued contributions, it simply could not take place.”

David Naraynsingh, wrote “I just want to echo everything Yvonne has said, the laptop donations were greatly received and contributed significantly to the overall success of the night , I have already received very positive feedback from the winners on the difference having a laptop will make to their lives in particular for school and college. Also, receiving a laptop gave a great importance to all the winners and finalists for the reasons why they were nominated and what they had achieved”.

The evening was a great success, most importantly, the finalists had a wonderful evening celebrating their inspirational achievements.

We are happy to confirm that XMA have been named an Apple Authorised Education Specialist (AAES), one of just eight organisations awarded the status by Apple in the UK.

As an AAES, we have been officially recognised as an expert provider of Apple solutions to the education sector. With over 30 years’ experience as a Public Sector Reseller, we have provided endless value to our education customers, aiming to empower educators to work better through the use of technology

To find out more about the XMA Apple partnership and how we deliver these services to our education customers, visit our Apple in Education page here

With the majority of students across the country now learning from home its evident that teaching from home requires a different approach to teaching from school. Join us as we answer 5 useful questions that teachers have been asking with Google tutorials on how to enhance this new learning experience.

How do I make lessons accessible to all?

• Students can use voice typing to enter, edit and format text in Docs and slides, all with out a keyboard- Tutorial
• Teach your students to use assistive technology in G Suite, like voice typing and braille support- Tutorial
• Explore the range of accessibility features on Chromebooks- Tutorial
• Students can enable subtitles on Hangout Meet- Tutorial

How do I keep students engaged?

• Encourage discussions by having students post questions and comments in Google Classroom- Tutorial
• Arrange 1:1 time in Google calendar and allow students to book time in for individuals or small group sessions- Tutorial
• Demonstrate concepts using Jamboard or have students collaborate on brain storming activities- Tutorial
• Utilise guardian notifications in Google Classroom to provide regular email summaries- Tutorial

How do I teach remotely with video calls?

• Use Hangouts Meet to create video calls and invite the entire classroom- Tutorial
• Use audience Q&A in Google slides to get real time questions from your class- Tutorial
• Livestream your lessons and create a calendar invite for the whole class- Tutorial

How do I teach remotely without video calls?

• Use Google Classroom to set assignments, encourage collaboration and support communications with students- Tutorial
• Create a class website for your students to host lesson information, videos and more- Tutorial
• Create an online quiz for your class in Google forms- Tutorial
• Provide your students real time feedback in Google Docs using the comment feature- Tutorial

How best can I keep in touch with other teachers?

• Stay connected with virtual coffee break events in Google calendar and invite others via Hangout Meet- Tutorial
• Use Hangout chat to stay connected with colleagues via instant messaging- Tutorial
• If you’ve got resources to share, do so via Google Drive- Tutorial
• Share all staff updates using Google groups to keep all teachers informed- Tutorial

For more information on the tools needed to support your school with distance learning contact our team of education experts: schools@xma.co.uk

Lenovo X1 Carbon: Reinventing Portability. 

We set a task for our Corporate Account Manger Ben Davies to switch his old machine for a shiny, new Lenovo X1 Carbon Device. Ben told us more about his role, what he needs from a device, and how he got on with the X1 Carbon. Could this be the perfect device for remote working? Let’s find out…

Ben Davies

“I’m a customer focused Corporate Account Manager for XMA. The most important part of my role is ensuring my clients get the best standard products and services they require.

For my job I need a light and powerful machine. When I am at home or in the office, I have multiple business applications, large databases and spreadsheets open at any one time. I need all of these to run seamlessly to ensure I can work efficiently for my clients. When I am working externally, such as visiting my clients, I need a device that looks professional, whilst being able to handle long periods of presenting, for this, the X1 Carbon ticks all the boxes. It is lightweight, powerful and looks slick. A highlight has been the battery life, this is great for remote working.

Here are my top 3 findings:

1: Mobility. The mobility of this device is fantastic due to it being extremely light and with a fantastic battery life.

2: Performance. The performance of this device is great, I’m a lazy user and want Teams, Outlook and numerous other business applications open all the time. Thanks to the performance of the X1 Carbon, I have been able to use these all together consistently.

3: Design. When meeting with my clients, I am often asked about this device due to its slick design – it has opened up some great conversations! I have had some horrendous looking devices in the past and it doesn’t set the right tone in front of customers. The X1’s finish gives me a head start.”

Hopefully Bens experience helps guide your decision-making process when searching for the best device for your remote workers. Here is some more information on the Lenovo X1 Carbon:

ThinkPad X1 Carbon: Carbon-tough yet ultra-light.

Key features:

Wherever the road takes you.

The X1 Carbon Gen 7 is 6% thinner than its predecessor at only 14.9mm thin, weighing only 1.09kg. This lightweight device reinvents portability. This device delivers high performance with the 18-hour long battery life, enabling productivity on the go.

Small product, huge power.

The Lenovo X1 Carbon is powered by 8^th Gen Intel® Core™ processors and up to 16GB memory. The PCIe solid-state drive (SSD) delivers fast performance, to boost productivity.

Built for life’s extremes.

Like all ThinkPad Laptops, the X1 Carbon Gen 7 is tested against 12 military-grade requirements and over 200 quality checks to ensure it will run in extreme conditions.

A laptop as well-connected as you.

X1 Carbon Gen 7 keeps you online, even without Wi-Fi when you choose the optional LTE-A card and the WWAN technology.

Secure your data.

The X1 Carbon keeps your business data and privacy safe with the comprehensive suite of ThinkShield security features such as ThinkShutter and Fingerprint login. The discrete Trusted Platform Module (dTPM) encrypts data and works in conjunction with Windows 10 Pro security.

For your eyes only.

As part of the ThinkSheild security, there are a combination of hardware and software options available to work together to ensure what’s on your display is for your eyes only, such as PrivacyGuard and PrivacyAlert.

Available to buy on our XMA Store

Say “hello” to a secure, simple, cloud-ready future

Modernise with the latest versions of Windows Server on HPE Gen10 and benefit from improved security, greater efficiency, and access to the cloud.

Windows Server 2008 went end-of-support January 14th, 2020.

Windows Server 2008 is an operating system produced by Microsoft. In the past, if you had a problem with your server, either you, your IT partner, or your software vendor had the ability to reach out to Microsoft to get:

• Technical support
• Help troubleshooting issues
• Patches or updates

Microsoft will no longer provide this support.

If your business runs software on the Windows Server 2008 operating system, neither you, nor your IT vendors, IT service providers, or custom/third-party software application developers will be able to contact Microsoft for help even if the issue originates in Windows Server 2008.

Upgrade to Windows Server 2019 today with Windows Server on HPE Gen10

The Benefits

In addition to cybercrime protection, new systems are significantly more efficient. With Windows Server 2008, virtual machines consume so much CPU and memory that only a small number of VMs can run on each physical server. With modern Windows Server technology, it’s possible to run hundreds or thousands of containers on each server. Fewer servers = lower costs and less complexity.

Old servers play a large role in rising IT costs because they drive up the #1 cost issue for most data centers: software license and support fees. Moving to the latest HPE Gen10 servers will help control this significant expense. Since most software is licensed according to the number of processor cores:

faster servers = fewer cores = lower software license costs.

Download our InfoGraphic to find out more

Migrate straight to the cloud?

Microsoft will offer extended security updates for customers who migrate their legacy applications to the Azure cloud and run them on virtual machines. Is that the best solution for you?

Migrating your entire legacy environment to run in virtual machines in the public cloud still leaves you with outdated applications on an OS that loses support as soon as you leave Azure. And VMs in the cloud require extensive ongoing management for many of the features that are automated in cloud-based applications, including configuration sizing, securing, patching, and maintaining. A migration of Windows Server 2008 to VMs in the cloud is a short-term fix that will need to be resolved for your business to truly benefit and move forward.

The better alternative

When a legacy Windows Server 2008 environment is modernised on HPE Gen10 Servers with a current version of Windows Server, you get the added security against cybercrime, the efficiency of cost-saving technologies, and the benefits of a hybrid cloud platform. Exciting HPE products like Synergy, SimpliVity, and the Apollo System for AI and Deep Learning provide powerful tools so that you can successfully address the IT challenges that were never imagined back in 2008. It’s time to move forward.

Contact us today to find out more about which solution is best for your business

With more and more of us needing to work from home, we wanted to collate some resources and share some links to items that should help organisations and end users get started quickly!

Definitely check out the ‘Remote Work Checklist’ from Microsoft. We found the most important one was setting up your workspace… even if you’ve got an orthopaedic mattress you can’t ‘Work from Bed’ for 3 weeks [if not longer]! Also get that video on! Turning the video on your Teams call can really makes a difference as it ensures all members stay focused and always good to get some human interaction and also prevents working in your pyjamas!

Teams hints and tricks

Watch the Welcome Video to get an overview of ‘What is Teams?’

Download Quick Start PDF Guide as a cheat-sheet for Teams basics

Watch the short Quick Start Videos for a walkthrough of Teams

Learn how to use meetings in teams

Check out the Teams training portal or the Bite-sized Video Tutorials for Teams training.

Other helpful Windows / Office hints

Windows 10 keyboard tips and tricks (windows + D is my fav new command!)

Office 365 training centre – hints, tips and much more on demand

Windows hints and tips

FREE Training sessions!

XMA and Spongy Elephant have partnered to share £FREE training modules that can enable you to use Microsoft’s remote learning/working tools more effectively.

• Create the perfect Team from the start and add members in a variety of ways
• Understand the Microsoft Teams interface and how to use powerful features like commands
• Discover how conferencing works in Teams with Teams virtual meetings
• Learn how to minimise the “noise” of notifications and alerts to limit distractions

Offer code – Free4XMA access your training here https://lnkd.in/dvpyrt9

Once you’ve mastered the basics, you can sign up to this free 1 hour session to help ‘Run effective meetings with Microsoft Teams’

Here you can learn how to make your meetings engaging, productive and effective.
Use Teams for your entire meeting experience, including:

• Sending agendas and setting context before the meeting, creating momentum
• Sharing live applications and taking meeting notes, keeping attendees engaged during the meeting
• Posting files and action items after the meeting, ensuring timely follow-through
• Record your meeting, making it easy for those who couldn’t attend to get caught up
• Keep important meetings at your fingertips by pinning them for easy access
• Assess which audio and video devices are best for your meeting needs