Private Clouds are increasingly important to the efficient operations of your business. The System Center 2012 products provide everything you need to build, secure, maintain and manage your Private Cloud. You can get all of the latest Betas, Release Candidates and Evaluations by clicking one button!
Good Morning Folks!
I am ramping back up after lots of travel and the holidays to get some great new information on the blog. For this entry, I would like to introduce you to the Microsoft Private Cloud Solution Hub. This is THE landing page for all things Private Cloud related for our solutions.
As you know, Hyper-V for Virtualization and the System Center Suite for management, deployment, monitoring, reporting and more, make up a very robust solution for deploying Private Clouds on Microsoft Platform. You can download and test these solutions at no charge from these links --
Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1 Trial – If you Need a full operation system for management plus addition networking features, choose this trial download. Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 – If you want a hypervisor only virtualization solution, choose this download. System Center 2012 – This download link allows you to download all or just some of the System Center components for evaluation.
Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1 Trial – If you Need a full operation system for management plus addition networking features, choose this trial download.
Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 – If you want a hypervisor only virtualization solution, choose this download.
System Center 2012 – This download link allows you to download all or just some of the System Center components for evaluation.
The Private Cloud Solution Hub provides guidance, white papers and other useful information on how to get started with Private Cloud using Microsoft technologies. You can find links to growing private cloud communities, training for VMWare professionals who want to learn Hyper-V virtualization, and much, much more.
Cheers!
Hiya Folks! Somehow I managed to talk the Microsoft Learning and Certification team into letting me do a small 5 minute blurb at the end of their current Technet Radio Series. I am not sure how long the series will be running, but I know there are several in the works to talk about the value or certification and the changes that are being made to the certification program.
You can find my clip at the end of each segment. Usually about 5 mins long tops.
About This Video
Today, we welcome the folks from Microsoft Learning as they kick-off their new series “Cert Talk” with host J Seymour. Tune in as J welcomes Liberty Munson, Sr. Program Manager and resident pyschometrician for the team, as they discuss how exams are created, scored, maintained and protected, as well how new Microsoft Certification exams will look like over the next few months. Also be sure to watch for Sr. IT Pro Evangelist Chris Avis, as he gives some tips on Private Cloud certification exams you can take.
Click here to read the article “How Microsoft Ensures the Integrity of its Certification Program”
If you're interested in learning more about the products or solutions discussed in this episode, click on any of the below links for free, in-depth information:
Resources:
Videos:
Last Deck! We also had some special guests in to deliver a brief session on Cloud Computing, Identity Management, and where Microsoft Forefront Identity Manager (FIM) fits in.
Here are the slides from the second session I delivered in Bellevue on November 14th. Again, a lot more slides than what you saw. I also included some slides on storage given the questions that came up during the live session.
For additional information on Virtualization, please look at the Microsoft Virtualization site. This site includes information from all of the topics we discussed:
Operating System Virtualization using Hyper-V Application Virtualization Enterprise Desktop Virtualization Presentation Virtualization ….and much more.
Operating System Virtualization using Hyper-V
Application Virtualization
Enterprise Desktop Virtualization
Presentation Virtualization
….and much more.
Mark Minasi, of Minasi Research and Development, is a well-known speaker and instructor on Windows Client and Server technologies. He has over 20 years of experience in the industry and has spoken at hundreds of conferences and events. He also teaches courses around the country on a wide variety of technologies.
I had the pleasure of interviewing mark at the 2011 Windows Connections Conference in Las Vegas a few weeks ago where he keynoted and delivered several sessions. In our interview, I asked Mark “Tell me about 3 technologies that really get you excited right now”. Anyone who knows Mark, knows that he is going to talk about way more than three things!
In Part 2 of our interview, Mark talks about iPads and the tablet computing revolution, Cloud Computing, The Big Bet by Microsoft on Windows 8 Client, and some technical features of Windows 8 (Driver Coalescence, and Battery Life improvement). Mark also goes out on a limb with a few Windows 8 Predictions.
Download WMV Download | WMA | MP3
You can view Part 1 here.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Mark at the 2011 Windows Connections Conference in Las Vegas where he keynoted and delivered several sessions. In our interview, I ask Mark - “Tell me about 3 technologies that really get you excited right now”. Anyone who knows Mark, knows that he is going to talk about way more than three things!
In Part 1 of our interview, Mark talks about Windows Server 8, Windows PowerShell, Active Directory, Claims Based Authentication and much more!
Way back in August, I wrote a blog entry entitled – The New Wave of Industry and Microsoft Certifications. I made a few key points in that post -
1) Certifications are valued by employers 2) Certifications are valuable for employees 2) Cloud Computing will require a refresh in skill sets and demand new certifications
1) Certifications are valued by employers
2) Certifications are valuable for employees
2) Cloud Computing will require a refresh in skill sets and demand new certifications
You are going to see more and more from Microsoft about new certifications and how they apply to the changes coming in the industry. In fact, we just posted some information to the Microsoft News Center about how we are taking steps to fight brain dump sites, eliminate certification mills, and protect the integrity of the Microsoft certification process.
Here is an excerpt -
REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 10, 2011 — Certification, as an industry-recognized validation of skills, is a proven differentiator — whether the individual is a seasoned professional looking to demonstrate his or her value to the organization or someone hoping to break into the industry for the first time. Over the past 19 years, Microsoft has invested heavily in training and certifying individuals on Microsoft technologies so they can differentiate themselves from others.
By earning a certification from Microsoft, individuals demonstrate that they possess relevant skills that are in demand from employers. For example, Business Insider recently highlighted a high-tech job board that had over 10,000 job opportunities for candidates with Microsoft developer skills. Earning a certification also provides the opportunity to connect with a global community of over 6 million other Microsoft Certified Professionals (MCPs) and access valuable career-building tools and training to help individuals realize their full potential and obtain meaningful employment that is so important in today’s economic climate.
You can read the full article here -
Microsoft Ensures Integrity of Its Certification Program
Slides from my Windows Connections Session on Hyper-V and Dynamic Memory
Slides from my Windows Connections Presentation on RemoteFX
Good Day Folks!
Lots of requests for the slides I presented at Windows Connections this year. Here are three quick posts to the slide decks. You can click the slides to download from my Slideshare location.
My daughter got married this past weekend and I felt like I had aged another 10 years.
I watched this video and it took me back to my childhood dreams and all those years went away.
You just have to see the cool stuff that Microsoft Research is working on…..
The science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke made the statement which comprises the title of my post in 1961. That was 50 years ago. Think of the myriad of technologies that exist today that may have been considered magic 50 years ago.
Wireless phones with long life batteries that send not only voice but high resolution video. Oh yeah! They double as still and video cameras. All in the palm of your hand. That same device being able to store tens of thousands of songs for instant playback. Videos too. Computer game virtual worlds so immersive and realistic that people spend almost as much time there as they do in real life. Desktop computers that hold as much processing power in one box in 2011 as all of the computing devices on the planet in 1961. Electric Cars. Blu-Ray players. Ultra-thin flat screen TV’s
But, if you happen to be a science fiction reader, you have probably come to the realization that it is only a matter of time before what gets written down, becomes reality. What is really cool is when you happen to be around to see that transition take place.
For those of us born in the 50’s and 60’s, we have seen Dick Tracy’s wrist watch video-phone and the Star Trek Communicator become a reality with the smartphone. In the 1960 version of, “The Time Machine”, there is a scene where H. George Wells spins a small silver ring on a table and it displays a video recording. Basically the CD/DVD/Blu-Ray we have today.
Magic…..
As noted, its when you get to see the cool stuff of your dreams and fantasies come true that it becomes bit mind-boggling. With that, I encourage you to take a look at my buddy Brian Lewis’ blog. He showed me this video a few weeks ago and all I saw was………..magic.
Quantum Trapping “Levitation”
On November 14th, I will be in Bellevue, WA to deliver two sessions on how to get yourself ready now for implementing a Private Cloud in your IT department. I will be delivering the same two session in Portland, OR on Nov 18th.
Get Ready for Tomorrow, Today - Hyper-V Virtualization for the Cloud Virtualization is one of the critical elements of networks operations of all kinds. Virtualization is a key to cloud operations. Joins me as we discuss the key components of virtualization that provide the operational foundation for both Public and Private Cloud.
Private Cloud 201: Microsoft Private Cloud Tools and Technologies So you have heard the private cloud story from a 101 level and you want to know more. Join me as we discuss Private cloud in greater detail with a focus on the tools and technologies that make Private Cloud such an appetizing IT and business opportunity for businesses both large and small.
November 14th - Bellevue, WA – Click to Register
November 18th – Portland, OR – Click to Register
I will also be hosting IT Camps on the same days in the same locations for those interested in driving and contributing to the content we discuss. For this round of the IT Camps we will be providing a group of topics for you to choose from as well as let you suggest your own topics. We will then take a vote to see which topics are the most in demand. We will then deliver presentations as well as solicit feedback from the audience on the topics selected. I will be leading these sessions and will have a large number of virtual machines and demo environments at my disposal to help with the open discussion on the topics YOU select. We hope this format will encourage you to bring topics to the table that YOU want to hear about and that are important to you – right now. I can’t guarantee that we will be able to address all requested topics, but we are going to try!
You can register for the IT Camp events in two ways --
Seattle (Bellevue) IT Camp via the Microsoft Events Web Site or via Eventbrite.
Portland IT Camp via the Microsoft Events Web Site or via Eventbrite.
Please register and feel free to invite your fellow IT Professionals to the IT Camps as well as the Technet Events!
Yesterday I posted about the “Single-Click” Download of all of the System Center 2012 Beta/RC technologies. I mentioned this in several of my sessions at Windows Connections yesterday and received feedback from some people that they were still more interested in downloading just a few of the products instead of all of them at once. So I am re-posting links to those items to make it simple to find everything in a single blog post.
System Center 2012 Suite Download Link
The above link will let you grab ALL of the System center 2012 products with a single registration and a few more clicks. below you will find a very brief description of each product that is a part of the big download. You can also download the individual products by click the name of each below.
*** Special Note – These are ENGLISH only for the time being….sorry! ***
System Center 2012 Configuration Manager RC - provides comprehensive configuration management for the Microsoft platform that can help you empower users with the devices and applications they need to be productive while maintaining corporate compliance and control. System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection RC - built on System Center Configuration Manager, provides industry-leading threat detection of malware and exploits as part of a unified infrastructure for managing client security and compliance that can help you simplify and improve endpoint protection.
System Center 2012 Configuration Manager RC - provides comprehensive configuration management for the Microsoft platform that can help you empower users with the devices and applications they need to be productive while maintaining corporate compliance and control.
System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection RC - built on System Center Configuration Manager, provides industry-leading threat detection of malware and exploits as part of a unified infrastructure for managing client security and compliance that can help you simplify and improve endpoint protection.
System Center Operations Manager 2012 Beta - provides deep application diagnostics and infrastructure monitoring that can help you ensure the predictable performance and availability of vital applications and offers a comprehensive view of your datacenter, private, and public clouds. System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 Beta - provides unified data protection for Windows servers and clients that can help you deliver scalable, manageable, and cost-effective protection and restore scenarios from disk, tape, and off premise. System Center Orchestrator 2012 RC - provides orchestration, integration, and automation of IT processes through the creation of runbooks that can help you to define and standardize best practices and improve operational efficiency. System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 RC - provides virtual machine management and services deployment with support for multi-hypervisor environments that can help you deliver a flexible and cost effective private cloud environment. System Center App Controller 2012 Beta - provides a common self-service experience across private and public clouds that can help you empower application owners to easily build, configure, deploy, and manage new services. System Center Service Manager 2012 Beta - provides flexible self-service experiences and standardized datacenter processes that can help you integrate people, workflows, and knowledge across enterprise infrastructure and applications.
System Center Operations Manager 2012 Beta - provides deep application diagnostics and infrastructure monitoring that can help you ensure the predictable performance and availability of vital applications and offers a comprehensive view of your datacenter, private, and public clouds.
System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 Beta - provides unified data protection for Windows servers and clients that can help you deliver scalable, manageable, and cost-effective protection and restore scenarios from disk, tape, and off premise.
System Center Orchestrator 2012 RC - provides orchestration, integration, and automation of IT processes through the creation of runbooks that can help you to define and standardize best practices and improve operational efficiency.
System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 RC - provides virtual machine management and services deployment with support for multi-hypervisor environments that can help you deliver a flexible and cost effective private cloud environment.
System Center App Controller 2012 Beta - provides a common self-service experience across private and public clouds that can help you empower application owners to easily build, configure, deploy, and manage new services.
System Center Service Manager 2012 Beta - provides flexible self-service experiences and standardized datacenter processes that can help you integrate people, workflows, and knowledge across enterprise infrastructure and applications.
I would also suggest checking out the following -
Windows 2008 R2 with SP1 Evaluation - This is the foundation upon which your Microsoft Private Cloud gets built. You know the operating system. You know the user interface. But did you know that Hyper-V Virtualization is built in? It is! Download it and check it out! Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 with SP1 - Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 is the hypervisor-based server virtualization product that allows you to consolidate workloads onto a single physical server. It is a stand-alone product that provides a reliable and optimized virtualization solution enabling organizations to improve server utilization and reduce costs Deploying and Managing Windows Azure Applications - System Center enables IT Professionals to use existing skills and tools to monitor and manage applications on Windows Azure without purchasing additional hardware or software. The Windows Azure Application Monitoring Management Pack bridges the gap between System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 and applications running on Windows Azure, enabling IT Pros to use System Center Operations Manager to manage applications on Windows Azure. In this evaluation, users will follow a step-by-step guide to deploy a sample application to Windows Azure and then use System Center Operations Manager to monitor and manage that application. Microsoft Virtual Academy - Not sure how Office 365 fits into you IT Management plans? Maybe you are a VMWare administrator and you need to know how Microsoft’s Hyper-V solutions can help you? Or, maybe you need to know more about Windows Azure and how it may benefit your organization? Check out the Microsoft Virtual Academy for self-paced training on all of these and more. Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization – Exam 70-659 - Think you know Hyper-V Virtualization? Prove it! I recently passed this exam and afterwards realized that even after working with Hyper-V and Virtualization for many years that there are several areas I still need to pay more attention to. This exam can help pinpoint the areas you may need to focus on in your production environments. Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007, Configuring – Exam 70-400 - Think you know how to manage your system with SCOM? Prove it! – I will be taking this exam (and passing!) in the next few weeks. I have implemented a SCOM 2007 lab on my home network and it has really opened my eyes to some of the issues I have on my machines. Not to mention that I need FEWER machines in my home network!
Windows 2008 R2 with SP1 Evaluation - This is the foundation upon which your Microsoft Private Cloud gets built. You know the operating system. You know the user interface. But did you know that Hyper-V Virtualization is built in? It is! Download it and check it out!
Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 with SP1 - Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 is the hypervisor-based server virtualization product that allows you to consolidate workloads onto a single physical server. It is a stand-alone product that provides a reliable and optimized virtualization solution enabling organizations to improve server utilization and reduce costs
Deploying and Managing Windows Azure Applications - System Center enables IT Professionals to use existing skills and tools to monitor and manage applications on Windows Azure without purchasing additional hardware or software. The Windows Azure Application Monitoring Management Pack bridges the gap between System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 and applications running on Windows Azure, enabling IT Pros to use System Center Operations Manager to manage applications on Windows Azure. In this evaluation, users will follow a step-by-step guide to deploy a sample application to Windows Azure and then use System Center Operations Manager to monitor and manage that application.
Microsoft Virtual Academy - Not sure how Office 365 fits into you IT Management plans? Maybe you are a VMWare administrator and you need to know how Microsoft’s Hyper-V solutions can help you? Or, maybe you need to know more about Windows Azure and how it may benefit your organization? Check out the Microsoft Virtual Academy for self-paced training on all of these and more.
Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization – Exam 70-659 - Think you know Hyper-V Virtualization? Prove it! I recently passed this exam and afterwards realized that even after working with Hyper-V and Virtualization for many years that there are several areas I still need to pay more attention to. This exam can help pinpoint the areas you may need to focus on in your production environments.
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007, Configuring – Exam 70-400 - Think you know how to manage your system with SCOM? Prove it! – I will be taking this exam (and passing!) in the next few weeks. I have implemented a SCOM 2007 lab on my home network and it has really opened my eyes to some of the issues I have on my machines. Not to mention that I need FEWER machines in my home network!
If you look at my How to Build a Private Cloud for Free post and my Private Cloud Toolbox all in One Blog Post posts, one thing you will notice is that I have a bunch of links to the downloads you need to build the Private Cloud. The links all work and that is one way to get everything. However, it does mean you have to be logged in with you Live ID for each download and there are a LOT of clicks to get all of the pieces. In short – it is very cumbersome.
I am happy to say that I now have a single link you can click on to down load ALL of the System Center 2012 pieces in one much shorter process.