Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 Beta 2 is the successor to Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 (MOM). It helps businesses address IT management challenges and allows for more focus on driving business success.
There were quite a few TechNet events this year that touched on MOM 2005 and there was a lot of interest in the product, so I thought you'd like to try out its successor as soon as it became available.
You can download it from the MOM beta site here.
You can now get the beta for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. This version of Exchange will be more secure, reliable, and offers 64-bit suppport.
Go to the TechNet beta central here and click on 'get the bits' to download the beta or to order it on DVD. While you're there you can also get access to all the resources to help you get more out of your beta experience.
There's a new presentation on IT’s Showtime! in it the SQL 2005 architecture is discussed in detail and compared to the SQL 2000 architecture. The topics covered include client APIs, wire protocols, storage engine, memory management, job coordinator, transactions, query execution engine, relational database interface and security.
Windows Deployment Services is the updated and redesigned Windows Server code named "Longhorn" version of Remote Installation Services (RIS). The technology assists with the rapid adoption and deployment of Windows. This session serves as an introduction and technical overview to the Windows Deployment Services feature area.
URL à http://www.microsoft.com/emea/itsshowtime/sessionh.aspx?videoid=208
Windows Vista: Securing Wireless Networks On It’s Showtime!
With Windows Vista, Microsoft delivers a more secure and manageable wireless platform. This session discusses the Vista wireless networking experience for IT pros as well as important improvements in security, manageability, extensibility and diagnostics. Vista takes the next step in wireless security by natively supporting the highest level of standards-based security (WPA2). By using wireless Group Policy and Scripting features in Vista, IT professionals will enjoy an easier client management experience. Additionally, improved end user support is provided through wireless diagnostics. Some of these new features are demonstrated during this session and your deployment questions will be answered directly by the program managers who own these features.
URL à http://www.microsoft.com/emea/itsshowtime/sessionh.aspx?videoid=201
Microsoft is still committed to releasing Vista to manufacturing this autumn, in order to allow volume licensed customers to obtain code by November.
We released the July Customer Technology Preview (CTP) this Monday (build 5472). The new build does not include any major changes to the Vista feature set or user interface. It consists primarily of bug fixes; tweaks to the User Account Control functionality to make it "less chatty"; and stability/performance improvements, especially around Media Center. Microsoft is promising it will release another public beta in the form of Release Candidate 1 (RC1) some time later in the third calendar quarter of this year (hopefully August). RC1 will be as broadly distributed as Beta 2 was.
On Monday Microsoft and XenSource announced cooperation on the development of technology to provide interoperability between Xen-enabled Linux and the upcoming hypervisor-based virtualization technology in Windows Server “Longhorn.”
Additionally, Microsoft and XenSource will work collaboratively to deliver closely integrated solutions on top of Microsoft’s virtualization offerings, enabling customers with heterogeneous environments a more complete experience.
To achieve this, the companies will begin working together on a technical collaboration project to help their mutual customers take further advantage of the increased reliability and simplified administration available on the Windows platform.
If you've ever had to diagnose Windows problems, you know who Winternals are - they're the guys who develop Sysinternals (tools like Regmon & Filemon).
More info here: http://www.winternals.com/
As part of the deal, we're naming Winternals co-founder Mark Russinovich a technical fellow. "Mark is one of the top five or 10 people in the world when it comes to Windows internals." Russinovich will be focused on helping Microsoft further develop the Windows kernel in his role as technical fellow--the top technical position at Microsoft with less than two dozen people holding such title. Russinovich said in a statement that he is excited to join the company whose technologies are so critical to so many businesses.
Microsoft is still exploring how best to integrate Winternals' products. Winternals' Recovery Manager, for example, has some similarities to the System Center Data Protection Manager tool that Microsoft released in September 2005. "We're evaluating how those would meet together,"
Last week we anounced software that turns older PCs into more modern and secure systems.
The software, known as Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs, is designed as a stopgap measure for companies with a significant number of older Windows PCs that they aren't ready to replace and that can't be easily upgraded to Windows XP.
More info here: http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/programs/sa/benefits/fundamentals.mspx
Formerly known by its Eiger code name, Windows Fundamentals gives those PCs some of the security benefits of XP but essentially turns the machines into thin clients, able to run only a few programs locally, with most software needing to run remotely from a server.
Microsoft developed Windows Fundamentals because corporate customers were looking for a way to get more years out of their PCs. "This gave them a key tool for expanding those life spans."
There is a catch: Windows Fundamentals is only being made available as part of Microsoft's Software Assurance licensing program.