April, 2012

You don’t want to miss tomorrow’s TechDays TV episode.  A couple of weeks ago, we presented part 1 of Windows Server “8” Beta Getting Started:  What’s New in Hyper-V .  Since then the product name has been finalized – Windows Server 2012 – but all of the great features are still there. If you missed Part 1, you can watch it on-demand at the TechDays TV web site . That’s true for all...

Continuing with our theme of how to make use of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 , here we have the second post of a 3-part series for our French-speaking readers on how to manage drivers using MDT 2010 to help ensure your deployment of Windows 7 on your new PCs works well. The series is written by Yannick Plavonil , a Microsoft MVP based in Quebec. You can find this and more on his own blog ...

[ UPDATE: The final set of cities and dates for the Private Cloud Boot Camps has been announced. Learn more and register for the event in the city near you in this blog post . You will also find information on Windows Server 2012 Install Camps there as well. --- Damir] Last week in Las Vegas at the Microsoft Management Summit 2012 (MMS2012) we launched our Private Cloud technologies, including...

SQL Server 2012 introduces brand new query hints that allow you to implement query paging solution. In the past, we have used TOP operator to return the top number of rows from a table. However, OFFSET & FETCH options of the ORDER BY clause can give you more benefits than just the TOP operator.   Assume you have 50,000 records in a table and you want to query 1200 rows starting from 25000...

As I wrote in an earlier post , there is no better time to write your exam for 70-659 Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization, than now and particularly before May 31, 2012. So to aid in that endeavour, Joseph Yedid, an IT specialist with Enhansoft in Ottawa, has put together a series of posts focused on getting IT folk ready to pass this exam. Joseph writes his blog at www.josephyedid.com but...

The cavalcade of virtual hands-on labs just keeps on going!  Not only can you try out the features and capabilities of Windows Server “8” beta (now Windows Server 2012) as I blogged about this morning, we have also just released a series of 14 guided labs to allow you to get you familiar with Microsoft’s Private Cloud platform , including System Center 2012 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 . ...

Last week at the Microsoft Management Summit 2012 (MMS 2012) in Las Vegas, we announced the official product name and editions for Windows 8 client as well as the official name of the server counterpart - Windows Server 2012 (formerly Windows Server “8” ).  Now, we have not yet updated all of the web pages that say Windows Server “8” Beta to Windows Server 2012 but that is happening slowly but...

Continuing with our theme of how to make use of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 , here we have the first of a 3-part series for our French-speaking readers on how to manage drivers using MDT 2010 to help ensure your deployment of Windows 7 on your new PCs works well.  The series is written by Yannick Plavonil , a Microsoft MVP based in Quebec. You can find this and more on his own blog ...

This year I get the opportunity to connect with the sizeable contingent of customers, Partners and Microsoft Valued Professionals (MVPs) attending the Microsoft Management Summit 2012 (MMS 2012) in Las Vegas April 16-20. Each of the individuals I spoke to were very excited about what they will see and hear about Microsoft’s Private Cloud Platform , System Center 2012 , as well as upcoming technologies...

As I wrote in an earlier post , there is no better time to write your exam for 70-659 Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization, than now and particularly before May 31, 2012. So to aid in that endeavour, Joseph Yedid, an IT specialist with Enhansoft in Ottawa, has put together a series of posts focused on getting IT folk ready to pass this exam. Joseph writes his blog at www.josephyedid.com but...

This year I get the opportunity to connect with the sizeable contingent of customers, Partners and Microsoft Valued Professionals (MVPs) attending the Microsoft Management Summit 2012 (MMS 2012) in Las Vegas April 16-20. Each of the individuals I spoke to were very excited about what they will see and hear about Microsoft’s Private Cloud Platform , System Center 2012 , as well as upcoming technologies...

SQL Server 2012 introduces a brand new string function called CONCAT() . CONCAT() string function allows you to concatenate up to 255 string or variable values in to one single string. It requires a minimum of two input values when calling the function and takes care of implicitly converting the data values to a string by following the data type conversion rules of SQL Server 2012. This function would...

These days around the Microsoft Canada office and particularly in my little corner of the world, everyone is laser focused on getting IT folks downloading, learning and certified on Microsoft technologies…specifically private cloud technologies. And just to give you a bit of incentive, we’ve come up with The Skyrocket Sweepstakes . Y’know…for anyone in IT who wants their career to “take off”. What...

This year I get the opportunity to connect with the sizeable contingent of customers, Partners and Microsoft Valued Professionals (MVPs) attending the Microsoft Management Summit 2012 (MMS 2012) in Las Vegas April 16-20. Each of the individuals I spoke to were very excited about what they will see and hear about Microsoft’s Private Cloud Platform , System Center 2012 , as well as upcoming technologies...

This year I get the opportunity to connect with the sizeable contingent of customers, Partners and Microsoft Valued Professionals (MVPs) attending the Microsoft Management Summit 2012 (MMS 2012) in Las Vegas April 16-20. Each of the individuals I spoke to were very excited about what they will see and hear about Microsoft’s Private Cloud Platform , System Center 2012 , as well as upcoming technologies...

This year I get the opportunity to connect with the sizeable contingent of customers, Partners and Microsoft Valued Professionals (MVPs) attending the Microsoft Management Summit 2012 (MMS 2012) in Las Vegas April 16-20. Each of the individuals I spoke to were very excited about what they will see and hear about Microsoft’s Private Cloud Platform , System Center 2012 , as well as upcoming technologies...

This year I get the opportunity to connect with the sizeable contingent of customers, Partners and Microsoft Valued Professionals (MVPs) attending the Microsoft Management Summit 2012 (MMS 2012) in Las Vegas April 16-20. Each of the individuals I spoke to were very excited about what they will see and hear about Microsoft’s Private Cloud Platform , System Center 2012 , as well as upcoming technologies...

This year I get the opportunity to connect with the sizeable contingent of customers, Partners and Microsoft Valued Professionals (MVPs) attending the Microsoft Management Summit 2012 (MMS 2012) in Las Vegas April 16-20.  Each of the individuals I spoke to were very excited about what they will see and hear about Microsoft’s Private Cloud Platform , System Center 2012 , as well as upcoming technologies...

This post is the fourth and final post in a 4-part series for our French-speaking readers on how to use MDT 2010 to deploy Windows 7 in your environment. The series is written by Yannick Plavonil , a Microsoft MVP based in Quebec. You can find this and more on his own blog – Revue du Geek . Let me know what other topics you would like covered in the future. Leave a comment or send an email by clicking...

As I wrote in an earlier post , there is no better time to write your exam for 70-659 Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization, than now and particularly before May 31, 2012. So to aid in that endeavour, Joseph Yedid, an IT specialist with Enhansoft in Ottawa, has put together a series of posts focused on getting IT folk ready to pass this exam. Joseph writes his blog at www.josephyedid.com but...

Next week is the beginning of a lot of great activity around Microsoft’s Private Cloud technologies, System Center 2012 , and Windows Server “8” beta .  Most of these are events that you can attend, some are online and all are a great way to dig a little deeper and find out more about what we have to offer for IT professionals to implement, manage, and monitor their Private Cloud infrastructure...

I remember getting my first MCSE certification in the mid-1990s and feeling really proud of the accomplishment.  Many of my peers at that time also pursuing an MCSE felt that it was a certification that would increase their likelihood to get hired over a candidate that did not hold the certification.  Things were good and we were all doing well.  Over the years, the MCSE was replaced...

In an ideal world, hard drives and other hardware never fail, software is never defective, users do not make mistakes, and hackers are never successful. However, we live in a less than perfect world and we should plan and prepare to handle adverse events.   In today’s topic, we will focus on best practices for backing up large mission critical databases. Performing and maintaining good backups...

This post is the third post in a 4-part series for our French-speaking readers on how to use MDT 2010 to deploy Windows 7 in your environment. The series is written by Yannick Plavonil , a Microsoft MVP based in Quebec. You can find this and more on his own blog – Revue du Geek . Let me know what other topics you would like covered in the future. Leave a comment or send an email by clicking on the...

As I wrote in an earlier post , there is no better time to write your exam for 70-659 Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization, than now and particularly before May 31, 2012. So to aid in that endeavour, Joseph Yedid, an IT specialist with Enhansoft in Ottawa, has put together a series of posts focused on getting IT folk ready to pass this exam. Joseph writes his blog at www.josephyedid.com but...