Microsoft SAM Self Audit
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@coliver said:
@brianlittlejohn said:
So I was contacted by Microsoft (3rd Party representing Microsoft) to do a SAM Self Audit. Has anyone filled out the Spreadsheet that they send out?
I had a question filling this out and was curious what MLs thoughts were.
One of the questions asks if you are using Virtual Server technology within your environment.
Notice how the V and S are capitalized, so to me that is referring to a specific product eg. Microsoft Virtual Server and not virtualization in general.
What are your thoughts?
I'm going to say that is just a bad form. They probably mean virtualization as a technology.
While that is a reasonable guess, we have to realize that this is a Microsoft form and Virtual Server is a Microsoft product. If they asked "Do you use Windows" we would not assume that they mean panes of glass but that they meant an MS product by that name, right? No different there. To assume that MS confuses the names of their own products on their own audit seems to be absurd.
Also, if there was to be a situation where you had to make a statement in court, a court could only read this one way. Not that a self audit gets taken to court, but should it ever be used as evidence, just because something "feels like a mistake" doesn't mean you should treat it as such. It is absolutely clear what it says, even though we have a decent chance of guessing that they were idiots and it means something else.
But it just feels really wrong guessing that MS screwed up something so basic around their own product name!! And no one calls them "virtual servers", that wording is very odd as well which leans towards them truly meaning the MS product by that name. The whole wording of the sentence is odd unless they mean their product. "Virtual Server technology" as a statement really only sounds right if they mean their product by that name.
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@brianlittlejohn said:
@scottalanmiller They didnt include Microsoft anywhere else when referring to products eg. Exchange SQL WIndows
Exactly. Everything is consistent and supports it being a product name. It's a form about MS products, makes sense that they are auditing MS products. I think it would be very wrong to assume that MS got their own product names wrong, uses really odd terminology, got basic capitalization wrong on a form where this would come up constantly, etc.
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@brianlittlejohn said:
So, the company doing the SAM audit actually replied back to me and confirmed it is Just Microsoft Virtual Server.
These audit forms are pointless, they dont ask about any vm's or anything.
Oh, ha ha. So they actually confirmed this. I was writing the reply when this got posted.
This is one of those cases where I feel like people would be like "SAMs just being pedantic again and this isn't how real people would read this."
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@scottalanmiller yea, I kinda wasn't expecting a response back from them, hence the post... I think the company actually doing my SAM audit for Microsoft is in New Zealand.
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I'm in the same situation that you right now, they sent me the Excel file "Deployment Sumary SMB v4.xls" to be filled.
The excel file It's terrible, have a lot of errors, always get error before save.
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@iroal It is horrible... its out of date as well.
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@brianlittlejohn said:
So, the company doing the SAM audit actually replied back to me and confirmed it is Just Microsoft Virtual Server.
These audit forms are pointless, they dont ask about any vm's or anything.
Does anyone still use that product?
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@Dashrender I hope not.
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I need attach some Oem licence Pictures to the Excel, They say is compulsory, but I do now how to do it.
It's the worst Excel file I've seen in my life, full of errors, macros crash everytime...
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Now the file is corrupt, macros fail and don't let me see the data in the sheet.
I've to repeat all again..... JODER....
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@iroal said:
Now the file is corrupt, macros fail and don't let me see the data in the sheet.
I've to repeat all again..... JODER....
Email them back and say send me the new spreadsheet.
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@Dashrender said:
@brianlittlejohn said:
So, the company doing the SAM audit actually replied back to me and confirmed it is Just Microsoft Virtual Server.
These audit forms are pointless, they dont ask about any vm's or anything.
Does anyone still use that product?
That's what they are trying to determine
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@iroal said:
Now the file is corrupt, macros fail and don't let me see the data in the sheet.
I've to repeat all again..... JODER....
- Email them back and say you don't use Excel and unless they provide licensing for such you can't use this file.
- Report them to Microsoft as clearly a scammer because MS would not be using non-working files to collect information.
- Email them and tell them to use a neutral format like LibreOffice so that you can respond.
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The Excel have a lot of Macros It only works with Excel.
Only way I get to work is using Xp and office 2003, impossible make it works with Office 2013 and W 8.1.
Thanks you Microsoft for waste my time.
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@iroal said:
The Excel have a lot of Macros It only works with Excel.
Only way I get to work is using Xp and office 2003, impossible make it works with Office 2013 and W 8.1.
Thanks you Microsoft for waste my time.
Hence... not likely actually legit. Seriously, call MS and ask them to audit the situation. This sounds like a scam. That or Microsoft is sending a VERy strong statement that they are not supporting Windows 10 and Office 365. Call them and ask which it is.
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If I was in that situation, I would consider this a scam. I don't think that it is reasonable that MS doesn't support MS products.
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I went through this last year or the year before.. I don't recall a bunch of macros in there.
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I helped our sister company do this at my last position. It was just a super simple Excel file.
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I've talked to a lot of people that have done this and it was never technically problematic.
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Why do you still have XP and Office 2003... this is a bad idea even when you aren't trying to open questionable Excel files...
