Analyzing 15,000+ IT Environments World Wide: what have we learned?
In the last 3 years Microsoft has been using the Infrastructure Optimization (IO) model, and has collected a lot of information from our customer base worldwide. In fact, approximately 15,000+ clients have been analyzed. Microsoft has dissected the 3 models, compiled the statistics and revealed the dependencies of each aspect. In this session Eduardo will go over the learning and dependencies that the analysis and 3 years of using the model have yielded. You will also see the dependencies each capability has within and across models, therefore demonstrating the value of a unified IT strategy.
http://www.microsoft.com/belux/technet/nl/chopsticks/default.aspx?id=786
Thin, Thick, Fat, Optimized Desktop… What do you use… What is Microsoft’s vision?
The market has gone from Thin to Thick, to Fat, to Slim… and now to Optimized… What have analysts said over time? How has this market grown? What is Microsoft vision? What are our current investment? During this presentation, Eduardo will go over the Optimized Desktop vision, and how this strategy focuses on meeting your current desktop requirements based on user persona's, rather than implying that one technology fits all. You will also learn more about Microsoft’s presentation, application, and hardware virtualization offerings.
http://www.microsoft.com/belux/technet/nl/chopsticks/default.aspx?id=788#
Momentum is a Microsoft program focused on supporting “early adopters” – IT professionals who bet on the newest technologies to drive business value for their companies and advance their career. And it is for free!
Program participants have access to the latest information and cutting-edge technologies developed by Microsoft.
Does this sound interesting to you? Then send me a mail (arlindo.alves@microsoft.com)
Do you want to learn more about Microsoft Licensing? Go ahead and check out the following TechNet Chopsticks videos where Patrick Viaene (Licensing Specialist) explains the different licensing possibilities and also focus onto Licensing in Server, Presentation and Applicatoin Virtualization environments.
Microsoft Licensing - Part 1: General Overview
The first part gives on overview on Microsoft licensing.
Duration: 28 minutes
Microsoft Licensing - Part 2: Licensing details, incl. SA benefits
The second part covers more details on the licensing, including Software Assurance (SA) benefits and product licensing.
Duration: 22 minutes
Microsoft Licensing - Part 3: Server Virtualization
The third part focuses on server virtualization licensing.
Microsoft Licensing - Part 4: System Center
The fourth part explains licensing of environments managed with Microsoft System Center.
Duration: 11 minutes
Microsoft Licensing - Part 5: Terminal Services, App-V (SoftGrid) and Virtual PC
The fifth part is about Windows Server Terminal Services, App-V (formerly known as SoftGrid) and Virtual PC.
Microsoft Licensing - Part 6: Summary
The sixth and last part is a quick recap of the content covered in the previous parts.
Duration: 9 minutes
Enjoy!
Here are the latest TechNet Chopsticks additions:
Import / export GPPE settings "office 2007 browserflags"
In this session we will illustrate how you can use the new import export feature in group policy preferences, how you can use this to change the default behavior of office 2007 opening in IE and the problem you may face when using the runas option with GPMC.
Speaker: Tom Decaluwé – http://www.it-talks.be Blog: http://trycatch.be/members/decaluwet
http://www.microsoft.com/belux/technet/nl/chopsticks/default.aspx?id=764
How to publish Outlook Anywhere and Outlook Web Access using ISA 2006 Sp1 and SAN certificates
In this video, Ilse will go through the process of getting a new SAN certificate from a CA, importing the received certificate, enabling it for the necessary Exchange services, and then exporting it for being able to import it on ISA 2006 Sp1. Ilse will finish the demo by publishing both Outlook Web Access and Outlook Anywhere using the Exchange Client Access publishing rules available in ISA 2006 Sp1.
Speaker: Ilse Van Criekinge – http://www.proexchange.be
http://www.microsoft.com/belux/TechNet/nl/chopsticks/default.aspx?id=763
Forefront Threat Management Gateway: Malware inspection
During this demo we drilldown into the TMG malware inspection feature. We will look at how to configure the definition download, the engine behind malware inspection, rule configuration, client experience and monitoring of malware inspection.
http://www.microsoft.com/belux/TechNet/nl/chopsticks/default.aspx?id=767#
IT-Talks: “The ultimate secure domain controller”
In december IT-Talks and Winsec run a joint event on Windows 2008 Security.
During this event we will focus on Windows 2008 Active Directory while zooming in on AD security, RODC deployment, server core and bitlocker The event will be split in 2 parts: IT-Short talk and Full day talk.
Event : IT-Short talk (intro to lab) Date and time: Tuesday 2 December 2008, start at 18u30 untill around 21u30. Event Location: Complex zebrastraat Ghent, Zebrastraat 32, 9000 Gent - http://www.zebrastraat.be Entry: Free Focus: During this event we will focus on the theory and design concepts around the topic in a demo driven event.
Event: Full Day Talk (hands-on practice lab) Date and time: Saturday 13 December, start at 10u00, ends around 17u30 Location: Spes Nostra - Koning Albertstraat 50 - 8520 Kuurne Focus: During this event we will focus on hands-on practice lab around the topic and recap on the theory and design concepts.
More detailed information is available at : http://www.it-talks.be/ittalks
To subscribe: send an email to Tom Decaluwé (mailto:tom(at)decaluwe.eu).
Interop: Authenticate Linux Clients with Active Directory
Many IT shops are divided into two camps—the Windows team and the Linux team—but we all have the same ultimate goal of providing high-quality and cost-effective IT services. One way you can do this is by sharing core software infrastructure. Think Windows and Linux don’t mix? See how you can configure Linux machines to use Active Directory for authentication.
Interop: Managing Macs in Your Windows Environment
Today, the likelihood of a homogeneous network has become increasingly remote. It’s in your interest not to limit yourself to a single platform. Instead, you can be known as the IT guy who can do whatever needs to be done—whether it be supporting Mac or Windows. Don Jones teaches what you need to know to set up a Mac on your Windows network, troubleshoot network problems, share files and folders among Macs and Windows-based systems, and configure Macs to use your network printers.
Interop: Interacting with Windows from a Mac Environment
How times have changed! These days it is fairly easy to bring Macs into your Windows network infrastructure. And with a little work you can even integrate some of the operating system services. Learn how to connect Macs to Active Directory, see how you can use Entourage with Exchange, integrate the Messenger for Mac 7 application with your Windows-based communications, and explore how you can bridge the platforms with virtualization.
Interop: Managing the Root Password on Your Mac
How do you give your Mac users the rights they need on an as-needed basis and improve security at the same time? Surprisingly, by enabling the root account. Find out how.
Active Directory: Understanding Proxy Authentication in AD LDS
Proxy authentication lets users perform a simple bind to an Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services instance but still have an association to an Active Directory account. This can be very useful: it gives developers full access to a user object without giving them access to the Active Directory account, and it allows products that require the X.500 format to be used with Active Directory. Here’s what you need to know about proxy authentication.
Exchange Online — Evaluating Software-plus-Services
The Infrastructure Planning and Design team has released a new guide, Exchange Online — Evaluating Software-plus-Services. Download the guide here.
We’ve heard your requests, and now we’re delivering! In addition to our continuously growing collection of IPD guides focusing on architectural design configurations, we are now introducing a variation of these guides. This new type of guide is designed to help you make decisions about what’s best for your organization from both a business and a technology point of view.
Considering an online solution for your organization’s e-mail services? The Exchange Online — Evaluating Software-plus-Services guide provides a clear comparison of e-mail technologies across on-premises, standard hosting, and dedicated hosting scenarios. Use the guide as a framework for evaluating the technical feasibility of Microsoft Exchange Online. An overall scoring assessment is provided for each option, identifying key mail services and requirements for your organization. Understand the impact of adopting software-plus-services, weigh the importance of each topic to your organization, and learn which offering will serve you best.
Infrastructure Planning and Design streamlines the planning process by:
Alex de Jong from NGN is shooting video’s at TechEd IT Professional and share what the attendees are experiencing at the event. On the fourth day of the event he interviewed one of the candidates of Speaker Idol. Further in this video you will also see an interview with two of the event’s top speakers, being Mark Minasi and Mark Russinovich.
In his third day video he is doing an interview with Ilse Van Criekinge who won Speaker Idol 2007 and she is talking about her session. Alex is also interviewing Andy Malone who won speaker Idol 2006.
Alex de Jong from NGN is shooting video’s at TechEd IT Professional and share what the attendees are experiencing at the event. On the second day he interviewed with Richard Campbell (www.runasradio.com) and with myself being a track owner for the Windows Server track.
Alex de Jong from NGN is shooting video’s, interviewing speakers, track owners and attendees to share with you what TechEd IT Professional is al about. In this Video Alex interviews an attendee and Steve Riley
I will be posting the interviews on a daily bases.
I’m sitting in Brussels airport waiting for my flight, which has been delayed by 1 hour, to travel to Barcelona where I will attend TechEd EMEA. While waiting I wanted to share my experiences with my brand new home server. yes I treated our family or should I say myself to a new Home Server. What is the first thing an IT Professional does after unpacking the box, right opening the home server and I must admit I liked the design of my Fujitsu Siemens Home server. The server contains two disks of 500GB and I have room for two more disks. I already used one of the additional disk slots and this was a very easy process. Just put your disk into the tray, connect the cables and close the tray again and you are done.
I plugged the network and power cable in and now I’m ready to start using my new home server. Let’s go to the process of installing and configuring the home server. First I needed to install the home server connector onto my client. After installing my client I got the following screen which mentions that my server is initializing.
After a minute or two I could start with the actual configuration.
The first step is to give this server a new name I decided to call it MEDIA, yes I know not very original.
Next I needed to fill in the password and hint information.
I will let my server use the automatic updating so I don’t have to worry about installing patches myself. Next I had the choice to join the “Customer Experience Program” and the “Windows Error Reporting” program, which I did because this way I’m helping Microsoft to improve the products even more.
That’s it my server is now ready to use, this took me no more that 5 min to complete. By using the Windows Home server console I can now start managing my server not that there is a lot to do but a few things have to be done. The first I noticed was this nice “SCALEO Power Management” plug-in where I can define the uptime scheme for my server and also define the backup times.
I decided to make sure my server was always up from 8:00AM till 1:00PM on weekdays and from 10:00AM till 20:00 during weekends. Further I configured the backup to run at 9:00PM every night. Next I started adding my clients to the server by installing the “Home Server Client Connector” after that I took a backup of all my machines so I can travel safely knowing that my data is secured at home.
As a last thing I copied all my media being videos, family pictures and MP3’s to the server and now I can stream them to my Xbox 360 which is connected through my wireless network.
Oh and by the way the disk I added was automatically configured and added to the Server Storage pool.
Overall I am very please with the user experience of my home server, in the next couple of weeks I will start adding more plug-ins to the server. I’ll share my experiences with you.