Full of I.T.

Breaking News: Some Big Desktop Virtualization Announcements

2010-03-18T13:09:00Z

~~I don’t know what it is yet, but I hear it’s going to be important.~~

~~At 9:00am PST today, the “Desktop Virtualization Hour” site will have a live broadcast/webcast, where I’m told there will be some exciting news around~~ ~~Desktop Virtualization~~.

~~I’ll watch, and report back here with an update when I have the details. Stay tuned, or watch with me.~~

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Update: Here is the official announcement: http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2010/mar10/03-18DesktopVirtPR.mspx

VERY EXCITING STUFF!

The announcements really came in three parts:

New technologies
Simplified licensing
and a renewed alliance with Citrix Systems, Inc.

New Technologies
Many of you have complained to me (and to Microsoft about XP-Mode in Windows 7, and the requirement for hardware/CPU virtualization support. Today we have removed that barrier.
Let me say it another way: If you have older hardware that doesn't have virtualization support on the CPU, you WILL NOW be able to use XP-Mode on Windows 7.

“Wait a sec… ‘Now’? Really? Now? No update required?”

Yes.. NOW. If you are already using XP-Mode, you’re fine. If you weren’t able to before, then the version you can download as of today will include the switch that allows it to run without the hardware-supported virtualization.

Another new technology announced today, that is coming in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. It’s called RemoteFX. This is an improvement/addition to the RDP (Remote Destkop Protocol) that will support multimedia, 3D graphics, and full Silverlight fidelity in a remote desktop session. Imagine the old Terminal Services session now supporting rich graphics! Yes.. I even saw my friend Michael Kleef demonstrate full AERO desktop capabilities like AERO Peek and AERO Flip-3D, and the new "Street-Side View" in Virtual Earth. Event HD video! Amazing. So, virtualized desktops basically won’t look virtualized any longer. How about that?

Another benefit coming in SP1 on the Server/Hyper-V side will be support for something called Dynamic Memory. Under Hyper-V, you'll be able to configure virtual machines to dynamically adjust memory allocated to them, based on performance. So, you can set a minimum and maximum, and let the machines adjust up or down as their load requires. So if you’re hosting dozens of virtual desktop machines in a VDI implementation, you’ll be able to make better, more efficient use of your virtualization host memory.

“So.. when can I get SP1?”

Sorry – Microsoft didn’t announce any timeline for SP1 yet. Stay tuned.

Licensing, Simplified!

Beginning July 1, 2010, if you have Software Assurance on your Windows Clients, you won't have to buy a separate Virtual Desktop Access license in a VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) environment. Thin clients will sill need a VDA license, but if you already have an SA covered Windows Client, you won't need an additional VDA license for that client. SA covers it.

Another big bit of news today is that companies will now have an option to extend virtualization licensing out to remote or home-based employees. Home PCs, Kiosks, and their mother-in-law's PCs. Now you will have "roaming rights". These rights will also include licensing for things like Software Assurance-covered Microsoft Office applications. “Beginning July 1, 2010, Windows Client Software Assurance and new Virtual Desktop Access license customers will have the right to access their virtual Windows desktop and their Microsoft Office applications hosted on VDI technology on secondary, non-corporate network devices, such as home PCs and kiosks.”

A renewed relationship with Citrix
We announced a couple of new promotions along with Citrix Systems:

VDI Kick-start program - to lower the barrier to entry. Offering $28/user for up to 250 devices. Sweet.

VMware View Rescue Program - For customers that rushed into VMware's VDI solution and experienced problems, you can trade in your un-used licenses! Up to 500 of them! “Through the Rescue for VMware VDI promotion, eligible customers can trade-in their VMware View licenses with same number of Microsoft VDI Standard Suite subscription and Citrix XenDesktop VDI Edition annual licenses”

Also, some additional technological collaboration was announced. For example, Citrix HDX being able to detect RemoteFX capabilities on the server and taking advantage of it for an even greater, richer media experience.

More details about the offers and the collaboration can be found on this special website: http://www.citrixandmicrosoft.com/

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“Kevin.. The webcast discussed Application and Desktop Virtualization solutions like App-V and MED-V that are in the MDOP. But what if I want to start trying out App-V , MED-V or VDI right now? I don’t have MDOP. How can I try this out?”

Are you a TechNet Plus Subscriber? If so, your subscription allows you to download the MDOP (Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack) it and try it out. (And if you’re not, CLICK HERE to find out more about the subscription, and take advantage of the near-$100 savings promotion that ends at the end of March 2010!)

What's not in the announcement that you would have liked to see, Kevin?
I want to be able to run 64-bit guest machines in MED-V. We haven't yet addressed that. I presume that it's not
I want

IT Manager Community Talk with Kevin – Why is Office 2010 going to be the best Productivity Platform?

2010-03-16T16:36:00Z

“Yeah, Kevin.. what’s so cool about Office 2010?”

Lots of things. I sure don’t want to have to write them all up here; though I’m sure I will eventually. But today, if you’re an IT Manager, and if you have time, you should definitely attend our IT Manager Community Talk , because I’ll be speaking with Adam Carter about that very topic.

CLICK HERE to register for and attend the live discussion, or to listen to the recording afterwards. (We’ll have it up on TechNet Edge later, too.)

WAG – It’s like Bacon Flavored Dog Treats for the IT Professional

2010-03-15T13:00:00Z

WAG = Windows Administrator Groups

Last week I decided to try something new, and it’s catching on in a big way. I wanted to create a new set of user groups for IT Administrators who primarily work with MIcrosoft Windows-based infrastructures. So I came up with the acronym WAG.

I’m also a recent big fan of LinkedIn. And based on the example/success of people like my friend John Weston and others, I decided to use the LInkedIn groups capability to create the Windows Administrator Groups group, and to create sub-groups for various geographies. The idea is that people can join the parent group and any subgroups they want to be a part of, and the subgroups will lead to the formation of regularly meeting WAG user groups.

“So, if I’m in Omaha, I should join the Omaha WAG?”

That’s right! I’ve created WAGs for several of the cities I visit on a regular basis. (Minnesota, Des Moines, Omaha, St. Louis, and Kansas City.) I really want to help form or support IT Pro user groups in those cities – whether or not they are focused on Microsoft solutions. But I am betting that a general administration group would be very valuable in a lot of cities. We all want a place to get together and share best practices, see presentations from skilled professionals, and generally network with your IT Pro peers. (And sharing some Pizza and Beer now and then is good, too!) On behalf of Microsoft, I cover the States of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri. So I’m hoping to form and support groups in any-or-all of those states.

“What if I’m not in one of those locations, but I still want a group in my area?”

Then I want to hear from you, too! I’m creating subgroups for anyone that wants one – until we reach the subgroup limit in LinkedIn. So if you’re interested, send me a note or create a new discussion in the WAG discussions, and I’ll create it. In fact, if you’re interested in being the manager of your subgroup, I’ll be happy to let you do that as well. I’ve already created subgroups for Chicago, Heartland, Northern California, and Toronto, Ontario. I will also likely get my Microsoft counterparts involved in helping you support those groups.

“So.. are these groups always going to be Microsoft-lead groups?”

NO! My goal is not to continue to be the leader of a bunch of user groups! Quite the opposite. My goal is simply to help get the snowball rolling down the hill and in the right direction. Ultimately I will continue to support the group, but leadership and direction ultimately need to come from the local community. (Sure.. I’ll come and speak to the group whenever you want me.)

So..

Join WAG group in LinkedIn
Start a discussion and request a subgroup
Join a subgroup that pertains to your location
Get ready to consider meeting as a user group

..and get your WAG on!

Want my business card?

2010-03-12T20:02:23Z

http://gettag.mobi/

I’m having so much fun playing with Microsoft Tag. Try it out on your smartphone. (go to http://gettag.mobi) The software drives your phone’s camera to take a quick scan of the tag, and then does something with it, like open a web page, or download a vCard. For example, the colorful tag above, when scanned, will let you save my contact information to your phone.

Next time I print business cards, I’m going to put this on them. I’d love to have it on a T-Shirt, as well.

“Kevin.. this isn’t new.”

I know. It was introduced over a year ago. But I’m just getting around to investigating some cool social-networking uses for it.

(As of this writing, this same tag is my profile photo on Twitter.)

UPDATE: I’ve customized it. Now it has my photo in it.

Breaking News: Microsoft Forefront Identity Manager 2010 (FIM) is released

2010-03-04T23:09:57Z

“FIM 2010? Is that a new product?”

In name, yes. But “FIM has evolved from Microsoft Identity Lifecycle Manager (ILM) 2007, which was previously Microsoft Identity Integration Server (MIIS) 2003, which originated from Microsoft Metadirectory Services (MMS).”

“Wait.. Who are you quoting there?”

I’m quoting Alan Le Marquand and his very informative blog post about the release.

“So, FIM 2010 is an identity manager?”

As the name implies.. yep. Some organizations (you know who you are) have more than one directory of user accounts to manage. That’s tricky.. creating them for new employees, keeping them in sync, making sure they’re all disabled or deleted in a timely manner if the employee leaves, etc. And add to that the prospect of managing certificates, or even just the upkeep of employee information. Wouldn’t it be great if employees had a way to manage some of that information in a self-service way?

So, in a nutshell, FIM 2010 helps you focus more on the higher-level security aspects of your infrastructure, and focus less on managing user identities in those more complex scenarios.

I highly recommend you check out Alan’s post, as it contains links to related TechNet webcasts, Technet Edge videos, and other useful tidbits.

Questions (and answers) from our Omaha TechNet Event

2010-03-04T13:15:02Z

We had a great time in Omaha! Thanks to all of you that came to our TechNet Event last Thursday.

As usual, I had a few questions that I wanted to find the answer to so that I could put them here in my blog. Here they are:

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“In Windows Azure you say that the fabric controller watches for what servers are running, and can recover a role instance if it sees that the server is down. But what assurance do we have that the fabric controller won’t go down?”

I am told that you can check the XML file and look for the setting: <disk_merge_pending type="bool">False</disk_merge_pending>

Beyond that I wasn’t given any details. I hope that helps.

“I had a virtual machine with a hard disk on a running server that ran out of space. I needed to expand it, but couldn’t do it while the machine was running, and then couldn’t because there were snapshots. I needed to delete the snapshot and let it merge first. The merge took quite some time - which my customers didn’t appreciate at all, since I am hosting web services for them. What should/could I have done (if anything) to avoid this?”

Well.. obviously the first thing you do is always to consider treating your virtual hard disks as having a definite limit that you need to watch. Yes, it’s nice that you have the option to expand the disk, but as you saw, there are limitations as to when you are allowed to expand a disk. So the best approach is to monitor the disk usage just as if it were a physical piece of hardware.

That said, the people at Microsoft who are responsible for Hyper-V definitely know about these issues that some people are having with snapshot-delete / offline-merges. They won’t tell me whether they’re addressing this in future versions, however. I do hope they are.

“I want to build servers and deploy Windows Storage Server, but I’m unable to attain that software, because I’m not a big enough reseller. Is this something that may change someday?”

Unfortunately I was not able to get a reply from anyone responsible for making this decision. Very frustrating.

RTW: Exchange Pre-Deployment Analyzer and the Exchange Baseline Configuration Analyzer 2.0

2010-03-04T12:03:52Z

A couple of new tools are available for those of you either in the planning stages of an Exchange 2010 deployment, or looking to verify the configuration of your Exchange organization’s configuration:

Exchange Pre-Deployment Analyzer - Brief Description

The Exchange Pre-Deployment Analyzer performs an overall topology readiness scan of your environment and provides you with a list of decisions that need to be made before you deploy Exchange Server 2010.

Get the Pre-Deployment Analyzer HERE.

Overview

“You can use the Exchange Pre-Deployment Analyzer to perform an overall topology readiness scan of your environment. When you run the Exchange Pre-Deployment Analyzer, it provides a detailed report that will alert you if there are any issues within your organization, which could prevent you from deploying Exchange 2010. For example, the Exchange Pre-Deployment Analyzer will notify you if you haven't deployed the minimum required Exchange service pack on all your existing Exchange servers.”

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MCBA 2.0 - Brief Description

“Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer 2.0 (MBCA 2.0) can help you maintain optimal system configuration by analyzing configurations of your computers against a predefined set of best practices, and reporting results of the analyses.”

Get the MBCA 2.0 HERE.

Overview

“Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer 2.0 (MBCA 2.0) can help you maintain optimal system configuration by analyzing configurations of your computers against a predefined set of best practices, and reporting results of the analyses. Best practices are developed by a product development team or domain experts, and are packaged in the form of a best practice model. Models are available as separately-downloadable packages that can be run and analyzed by MBCA. MBCA lets users work with best practice models in a consistent, user-friendly way.”

If you can read this, it wasn’t you!

2010-02-25T22:33:00Z

Have you heard of “Botnets”?

“You mean those legions of computers that are being controlled by criminals because they’re running malware that their owners don’t even know about; perhaps to use them to send spam e-mail?”

Exactly. And if you’re reading this post right now, you can breathe a little easier knowing that you aren’t currently operating on behalf of a particularly nasty network of infected computers.** This week Microsoft petitioned for and received the ability to block the access to several domains that are listed as known sites working on behalf of the criminals involved in the “Waledac" botnet.

This blog post spells out what we did:

“The takedown of the Waledac botnet that Microsoft executed this week – known internally as “Operation b49” – was the result of months of investigation and the innovative application of a tried and true legal strategy. One of the 10 largest botnets in the US and a major distributor of spam globally, Waledac is estimated to have infected hundreds of thousands of computers around the world and, prior to this action, was believed to have the capacity to send over 1.5 billion spam emails per day. In a recent analysis, Microsoft found that between December 3-21, 2009, approximately 651 million spam emails attributable to Waledac were directed to Hotmail accounts alone, including offers and scams related to online pharmacies, imitation goods, jobs, penny stocks and more.”

For the full text of the complaint (including an interesting list of the 273 domain names that have been blocked), check out the actual document: “Microsoft Corporation v. John Does 1-27, et. al.”, Civil action number 1:10CV156

What do you think? Personally, I think it’s great when we’re able to help track down and hopefully eventually punish these criminals. Anyone with an e-mail mailbox who gets spam should appreciate that we’ve been able to detect and help stop some of it.

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**Note: Even though you aren’t going to be sending anymore e-mails on behalf of these particular criminals, you may still be infected. “People running Windows machines also should visit http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.aspx, where they can find Microsoft’s Malicious Software Removal Tool, which removes Waledac. We also recommend that Windows users install and maintain up-to-date anti-virus and anti-spyware programs such as Microsoft Security Essentials and turn on auto updates and firewalls. For our part, we will continue to work with both our industry partners and government leaders to explore possibilities for reaching out to the owners of compromised computers to advise them of the infection and remove malicious code from their machines.”

Do your kids know what YOU did today?

2010-02-24T22:35:48Z

As a parent of four (count ‘em! 4) kids, three of whom are in High School or College, I think it’s great when someone provides easy-to-use resources for young adults to help them figure out what they want to do with their working lives in the near future. So I’m thrilled to see this really well-done “S2B Career Streams” site go live.

“S2B?”

That’s “Student-to-Business”. The idea is to address the fact that students have a lot of questions about what sorts of jobs are available in the Computer Sciences. So we want to make it easy for them to find out more about what kinds of jobs are out there.

Here’s a portion of the blurb I received in e-mail about it:

It’s hard for students to understand the wide variety of careers in the technology industry and even harder to know that their choices are connected to jobs when they graduate. Developer, technical sales, business analyst, Web designer... Students are asking: What do people in these careers do? What skills are needed to get started? How do you get experience? Are there jobs if you have the skills? At the same time Microsoft's partners and customers are asking: "Why can't we find the employees we want with the skills we need?"

To address these gaps, we are thrilled to announce the launch of Microsoft S2B Career Streams. Career Streams will introduce students to a variety of technical careers that are in demand today and tomorrow in the Microsoft community. It will help them get the skills they need to get started in a technical career and offer them opportunities to gain that vital first work experience.

Check out the site, and forward the link to your kids if you think they’ll find it useful. Or simply use it to find out more about the “other jobs” that are out there.

And hey, if you like what you see… Consider becoming a fan on Facebook, or following on Twitter.

(…and as an added bit of fun.. click on all of the displayed video links one right after the other, and listen to the mayhem. It’s hilarious!)

Questions (and Answers) from our Kansas City TechNet Event

2010-02-24T00:41:58Z

When I deliver a presentation, or during the breaks, I’m invariably asked a question that I can’t answer.

“A single question? Really?”

Okay.. SEVERAL questions. (Who’s counting?!) The point is that I consider it a valuable learning opportunity. I write the question down and then later find the answer. Hopefully the person asking will check my blog and get the answer, or they’ll e-mail me and I can get the answer to them.

Today was no exception. My great Kansas City (Overland Park) audience had some super questions. Most of them I could answer.

“Most? Really?”

Yes, really. (Stop picking on me!) And I do have a few that I wrote down because I wanted to either find the answer, or give more details on the answer to these great questions.

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Question: “If I buy, for example, Enterprise Edition of Windows Server 2008 R2, I understand I get 4 licenses to use as virtual machines. Where do I get product keys for those? Or how do I activate them?”

It depends upon how you bought the Server license:

For volume license customers, they have two types of keys that are offered to them; KMS and MAK. KMS will take care of activating them auto based on that activation method. The MAK key has a lot of activations and that number is based off of their agreement.
Full-Packaged Product and OEM customers are given two keys; physical and virtual. The activation limit on the virtual key is set for each edition. For instance, with Standard you have the right to use activate 1 VM. The key will allow you to activate 1 time. Enterprise it’s 4, and Datacenter is unlimited.

Question: “How easy is it (or is it even possible) to expand the size of a .vhd file?”

It’s actually pretty easy. Ben Armstrong (the “Virtual PC Guy”) documents it like this:

Hyper-V adds the ability to increase the maximum size of a dynamically expanding or fixed-size virtual hard disk. To do this you need to open the Edit Virtual Hard Disk Wizard (by selecting Edit Disk... from the Hyper-V manager), select the virtual hard disk you want to expand, select Expand on the Choose Action page and then enter the new size of the virtual hard disk that you want.

Three things to note:

You can't do this to a virtual hard disk that is associated with a running or saved stated virtual machine.

You shouldn't do this to a virtual hard disk that is associated with a virtual machine that has snapshots (as you will invalidate the snapshots).

After expanding the virtual hard disk there will be an empty space at the end of the virtual hard disk. You will either need to create a new partition to use the new space, or expand an existing partition into the new space.

Question: “When I create a snapshot and then later remove (delete) a snapshot, I want a merge to happen. But it won’t happen until I stop the virtual machine. That’s not an option for me, because this server needs to be running at all times. And I also am programmatically taking snapshots daily for a fallback option. I don’t want to give that up, but when I finally do shut down the machine the merge takes forever. What can we do about that?”

I posed this question to an internal Virtualization discussion list, and the response from a couple people was “Snapshots are not supposed to be (or not designed to be) a backup solution”. To this I pointed out that you weren’t using it as a backup, but as a convenient “just in case” rollback option.

That said, the reality is that there isn’t any way to do what you want currently using snapshots. Merges can’t happen unless the machine is turned off. Sorry I don’t have better news for you.

Question: “Clustering changed in Server 2008 in removing support for SCSI disks. iSCSI or Fiber-Channel only. What are my options in Hyper-V? And is Microsoft going to fix this in future versions of Hyper-V?”

Due to my personal lack of experience with clustering, I wasn’t able to give you a good answer because, to be honest, I didn’t fully understand the question.

A quick BING on “windows server 2008 r2 cluseter hyper-v” found some good resources. Hopefully you’ll find your answer there. And as for future versions of Hyper-V and what they’ll support or fix, I really can’t say.

Question: “In XP we configured the ‘default’ options in images that then were populated when we rolled them out. How is this done in Windows 7?”

Take a look at this screen snip:

This is the list of folders that are found under C:\Users\Public by default. Notice that I’m showing the hidden folders (they display slightly dimmed), and that they include the kinds of folders that we might pre-populate so that the items within them (Favorites, Libraries, the Desktop) will be available to all new user profiles. I think that’s what you’re looking for.

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Thanks again to my Kansas City TechNet Event attendees! I look forward to seeing you next time.

Thursday – it’s Omaha! (If you haven’t signed up yet, there’s still time.)

Are you moving to Windows 7? Are you looking for IE6-to-IE8 Migration Information?

2010-02-18T14:03:00Z

“Hey Kevin.. I want to deploy Windows 7, and hear good things about IE8, but I don’t know how to start evaluating what I need to make the move off of Internet Explorer 6. I am sure I have at least one critical application that might not work in IE8, and need to know what it takes to plan for and perform the upgrade.”

Chris Jackson (“The App Compat Guy”) is hosting a set of webcasts that will help you answer those questions, and give you a good summary of the options you have as well as the tools available. And it’s not just one webcast held at one time, but at several times so that you can attend the one that fits your schedule best, and get your questions answered LIVE as well.

From an announcement I saw about the webcast:

You are probably excited about the new Windows 7 operating system, and the Windows Internet Explorer 8 Web browser comes as part of the package. You may have seen the demos of new features and tools that are available, but you are still using Internet Explorer 6. The demos are sometimes simplified, with pages with a single issue conveniently fixed using a click of a button. But it is definitely not that easy. You could have thousands of apps, many of them packaged, or you could be prevented from accessing the code because it is part of a product you bought.

Attend this demonstration-heavy webcast, have your questions answered by the experts and learn what IT professionals do in real-world scenarios to configure, manage, deploy, and ensure the compatibility of their Web applications with Internet Explorer 8.

Click this link to sign up for a webcast that best fits you schedule. Each session will include a 45-minute pre-recorded session, with live chat Q&A with an IE expert during the session, and 15 minutes of phone Q&A at the end. Times have been varied to maximize coverage across international time zones.

The LINK above is the webcast “month view” calendar, on which you’ll find the links to the webcasts. But if you’d like to know the specific dates and times…

“What are the specific dates and times?”

I was just getting to that. Here they are:

Tues, Feb 16 10 am PST
Fri, Feb 19 3pm PST
Mon, Feb 22 1 pm PST
Tues, Feb 23 8 am PST
Wed, Feb 24 6 pm PST
Thurs, Feb 25 10 am PST
Fri, Feb 26 12 pm (noon) PST
Mon, Mar 1 11 am PST
Tues, Mar 2 7 pm PST
Wed, Mar 3 4 pm PST
Thurs, Mar 4 8 pm PST
Fri, Mar 5 2 pm PST
Sun, Mar 7 10 pm PST
Tues, Mar 9 6 am PST
Thurs, Mar 11 7 am PST
Sun, Mar 14 9 pm PST
Tues, Mar 16 9 am PST
Thurs, Mar 18 12 pm (noon) PST
Mon, Mar 22 1 pm PST
Tues, Mar 23 5 pm PST

So look for these on the calendar. Register. Register for more than one. Attend, learn, and ask your questions. And move to IE8 when you’re ready!

Webcast Coming Up: Forrester on Windows 7 ROI

2010-02-17T13:37:31Z

Are you still on the fence about Windows 7? Are you wondering whether it is worth your time? Are you wishing you had some proof that would help you convince your boss that now is the time to start rolling it out?

“How did you know?”

I’m a lot like you. And I got an e-mail about this webcast coming up on Monday, Feb 22, 2010 entitled “Momentum Webcast: Windows 7 Enterprise Return on Investment: New Forrester Study and Model (Level 100)”. Here is the webcast description:

Event Overview

On the fence with Windows 7 operating system adoption? In this challenging economic climate, every IT investment needs to show a strong, tangible financial return. To help organizations assess the business value of migrating PC infrastructures to Windows 7, analysts Ben Gray and Jeffrey North of Forrester conducted an in-depth study of 12 enterprise early adopters. This informative webcast details the results from these industry thought leaders and illustrates how the new Forrester Total Economic Impact model can be used to estimate Windows 7 savings in a variety of organizations. We discuss the impact Windows 7 has on operating costs, client manageability, help desk calls, remote PC management, power consumption, management automation, and compliance; and we show you how to use the Total Economic Impact model.

Presenters: Benjamin Gray, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research and Jeffrey North, Principal Consultant, Forrester Research

You can register to attend the live webcast, or to watch the recording from the webcast, HERE.

Breaking News: System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 (DPM) Release Candidate - Now Available!

2010-02-10T14:07:58Z

Jason Buffington announced on his blog that DPM 2010 RC is available for download.

Get it HERE.

“What is Data Protection Manager?”

It’s one of the Microsoft System Center set of tools for Enterprise-class IT Management. Basically DPM is Microsoft’s solution for data protection (backup, recovery, and archiving). It works natively with our biggest products (Exchange, SharePoint, SQL, Virtualization) as well as Operating Systems (both client and server) to provide a powerful backup and recovery solution.

“What’s new that’s coming in DPM 2010?”

Check out the video interview with Jason on the DPM site.

Watch that site, plus Jason’s blog, for additional news around this product.

Do you like Pizza? What about the Super Bowl?

2010-02-05T22:40:33Z

http://ieaddons.com/en/search/?search=pizza

Both Domino’s Pizza and Papa John’s Pizza have come out with new Web Slices for Internet Explorer 8 in advance of the Super Bowl on Sunday, as this is one of their busiest times of the year.

I think every kitchen PC should have those slices on the IE8 Favorites bar.

“What’s your favorite pizza, Kevin?”

I honestly like Papa John’s, as far as delivery pizza goes. But I love the deep dish pizza at several restaurants (Green Mill, Old Chicago, and Boston Pizza)

Wow… is anybody else hungry?

Which is it?

2010-02-03T18:39:08Z

Just saw this on my Windows Media Center…

Good for a chuckle, I thought.