SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 - Ready for Managed Services

Level Platforms announces immediate delivery of comprehensive best practices monitoring and management for the next wave of Microsoft products for small and midsize businesses.

November 13, 2008

Ottawa, ON, Canada – November 13, 2008 – Complementing today’s major announcement by Microsoft of a completely new base of core technology for small and midsize businesses, LPI Level Platforms Inc, the global leader in remote monitoring and management software for solution providers offering managed services, today announced the immediate availability of comprehensive best practices monitoring and management Solution Kits for Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 and the all-new Microsoft Essentials Business Server 2008 designed for the mid-market. 

Level Platforms Partners can now deploy comprehensive remote monitoring, management and reporting for SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 in minutes by downloading and applying the new integrated suite of Policy Modules.  These powerful new Solution Kits are available for both On Premise as well as Hosted versions of the award-winning Managed Workplace software.

The Solution Kit for Microsoft SBS 2008 consists of a set of best practices Policy Modules for comprehensive monitoring and management of virtually every feature found in both the Standard and Premium Editions.  In addition to extensive core server monitoring, solution providers benefit from comprehensive performance and reliability monitoring for the SBS 2008’s bundled SharePoint, Exchange, SQL and backup server technologies. New with SBS 2008 is Microsoft’s Forefront security for Exchange and Live OneCare, both now fully managed by Managed Workplace.  Solution providers can use Managed Workplace's policy modules to monitor Exchange security as well as any potential virus or spyware threats on the SBS and client workstations.  

For EBS 2008, the Solution Kit consists of additional Policy Modules for Systems Center Essentials (SCE) and Forefront Threat Management Gateway (Forefront TMG) health monitoring and threat detection.  As with SBS 2008, both Standard and Premium Editions are supported.  Note that with support for Windows 2008 and HyperV, Level Platforms solution providers have a complete 360-degree view of virtual environments required for effective management.  Managed Workplace is a perfect—in fact essential—complement to EBS 2008 because it provides the missing real-world management capabilities for desktops, networks, printers, VoIP, environmental control systems.  In particular, Managed Workplace now allows managed services providers to offer a competitive managed solution for midsize customers who are seeking ways to reduce costs in the current economic climate.

From its inception, Level Platforms has been fully committed to supporting Microsoft products and including same or next-day support for all major SMB products. Managed Workplace has long utilized Microsoft WSUS to deliver centralized patch management capabilities to solution providers, thereby avoiding the significant security risks associated with older proprietary patch management technologies.  In addition to Microsoft Servers and related server applications, Level Platforms monitors and manages Microsoft SMB products as well as over 300 products from 80 vendors. End-to-end management features include not only monitoring, patch management and extensive reporting, but also remote control, scripting, complete two-way integration with leading PSA/CRM products, extensive collaboration features, On Premise and SaaS implementations and much more.

Level Platforms also announced that in addition to the comprehensive management provided by the new Solution Kits, Level Platforms will also support Systems Center Essentials (SCE) installed as part of the EBS Systems Management Server.  Available in Q1 2009, solution providers will be able to receive critical alerts on their central dashboard, all fully integrated with Managed Workplace.

"All of us in the SBS community are looking forward with a lot of excitement to deploying SBS 2008 as well as new opportunities with EBS 2008," said Chad Gross, Chief Technology Officer of MSP Services Network based in Omaha Nebraska.  "Level Platforms has established their clear leadership in this market by really understanding the needs of the SBS community and delivering management solutions that work.  This is another home run for Level Platforms and the SBS community."

"Thousands of solution providers rely on Level Platforms to monitor and manage many tens of thousands of Small Business Server 2003 installations", said Peter Sandiford CEO Level Platforms.  "Now our Partners can immediately upgrade SBS 2003 installations knowing that their managed services business will continue to thrive and grow.  With this announcement Level Platforms has cleared the way for our Partners to continue to lead the SBS managed services market."

"Microsoft Essentials Business Server 2008 fills a big gap in the market by providing midsize businesses a single integrated solution." Mr. Sandiford continued.  "Our clear commitment to EBS 2008 means that solution providers are now able to provide a full range of comprehensive managed services as part of their sale of EBS.  We are committed to continue working in deep partnership with Microsoft to allow Level Platforms Partners to replicate their success in the SBS marketplace as Microsoft extends their winning technology to the midsize business market."

The Onsite Manager, the single agentless software component located at the customer site, can be installed on any Windows Server including installation directly on the Small Business Server 2008 and Essentials Business Server 2008 servers themselves, effective in December.

About Level Platforms
With 3000 Partners in 30 countries, Level Platforms is the leading provider of managed services software for IT solution providers servicing small and midsize end customers through its award-winning agentless remote monitoring and management software, Managed Workplace.  Level Platforms provides everything a Managed Services Provider needs to remotely monitor and manage their complete end customers' IT environment through a single web-based central dashboard – the platform for today, and for tomorrow.  Level Platforms has earned recent recognition as Microsoft’s Worldwide Small Business Solution Partner of the Year as well as the Microsoft’s Worldwide ISV Sales and Marketing Partner of the Year. 
For more information, visit Level Platforms at http://www.levelplatforms.com/.

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Media Contact
Cristina Nunes
Tel: 613-232-1000, extension 247
Email: cnunes@levelplatforms.com

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