What do you have to do to entered to win? It’s a simple question with a twist – to find the answer you need to search within the Office 2010 beta, rather than online.
Here goes: In Word 2010 (from the Microsoft Office 2010 beta) you now get a view of Office ‘Backstage’ when you click the ‘File’ button. In ‘Backstage’, what are the three headings hanging under the ‘Info’ section? Download the Office 2010 beta @ www.officeitpro.com and figure it out :)
Email your answers to endaf@microsoft.com. Winner announced next month.
Please note the Zune product range is currently not supported in Ireland.
It is another Patch Tuesday and I just got an email from Rick Claus from Microsoft Canada’s IT Pro Evangelist team telling me about a new way to get the message out. In a very Canadian (and Irish) way, 3 guys got together over a pint or two and came up with a brilliant idea. Create a simple overview of the new released patches in plain English for the IT Pro, to make it easy to understand what is at risk and what needs to be patched.
Goals:
The Podcast is available from the links below and includes Pierre Roman (IT Pro Advisor / previously a Senior Technical Account Manager), Bruce Cowper (Chief Security Advisor) and Rick Claus (Senior IT Pro Advisor), all from the Microsoft Canada team.
Give it a listen and tell me what you think. Email me at wilbour.craddock@microsoft.com if you like the idea.
Direct Download:
Disclaimer: This podcast was produced with the best information available to us at the time of recording. Your primary source for all things Security Bulletin related should always be the Microsoft Security Response Center blog.
In Depth Webcast on this bulletin will take place: Wednesday, April 14th - 11:00 a.m. PST (UTC -8). (Registration link):
Bulletins discussed for April 13th, 2010:
Podcast Participants: Pierre Roman, and Bruce Cowper.
New Twitter feed
I wanted to let you know that the MSRC has launched a Twitter feed @MSFTSecResponse http://twitter.com/msftsecresponse
they will use this account to augment the content from the blog. For example, they will use the account to rapidly respond to emerging issues while they are gathering information for a more complete blog post. In addition, they will also use the account as a way to push content to their followers quickly.
Microsoft Security Compliance Manager (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc677002.aspx)
The Security Compliance Manager is the next evolution of the Security Compliance Management Toolkit (SCMT) Series. We’ve taken our extensive guidance and documentation and incorporated it into this new tool, enabling you to access and automate all of your organization’s security baselines in one centralized location.
The Security Compliance Manager provides centralized security baseline management features, a baseline portfolio, customization capabilities, and security baseline export flexibility to accelerate your organization’s ability to efficiently manage the security and compliance process for the most widely used Microsoft technologies.
PodSafe music from PodSafe Music Network @ http://music.podshow.com/. Artist: Derek K Miller, song - “You’re the Big Sky - rock guitar instrumental”
cheers
Thanks to all of you that made it to the Office + SharePoint 2010 Roadshow this week. We had some excellent technical presentations and demos from our presenters and plenty of good questions from the audience.
We had close on 350 attendees for the IT Pro sessions in Dublin and Belfast. Many thanks to the NCI for the use of their fantastic facilities in the IFSC on Monday.
Following the events, I wanted to share the content that was seen by in-person and online attendees on the days.
Firstly, the slides can be found on my skydrive. The on-demand video recording of the Dublin event, can be found here.
The best places to learn more about the topics covered at the Roadshow are:
The brand new TechNet 2.0 Website
Office TechNet website
SharePoint Engineering Blog
Office Engineering Blog
Also, you can a separate post with details of the Galway and Cork events next week.
Finally, check out this post to learn how you can download the Office 2010 beta to be in with a chance of winning a Zune HD (32gb).
See you next time!
Best place to download the Office 2010 beta is www.office.com/beta
Dublin, Monday May 17th, 2010
The annual Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) takes place in Las Vegas this week providing deep technical information and training on the latest IT Management solutions from Microsoft, Partners, and Industry Experts.
We are delighted to bring the best of the Microsoft Management Summit to you in Ireland on Monday, May 17th. This full day, interactive event will provide you with an understanding of the latest technical updates on Desktop, Datacenter and Cloud management features and solutions from Microsoft, featuring speakers from the States and the UK, local customer case studies and hands on experience with the technology.
You will find further details of the event below:
Registration: Click here to register
Date: Monday, May 17th
Venue: The Auditorium, Microsoft European Development Centre, South County Business Park, Leopardstown Dublin Ireland. Click here for directions.
Time: 8:30am-17:30pm
An overview of the agenda for the event is as follows:
TIME
SESSION
8:30AM – 9.30AM
Breakfast & Registration
9.30AM – 10.30AM
Keynote: Virtualisation 360
Microsoft Virtualisation Strategy, Products, and Management Solutions for the New Economy
Ryan O’Hara, Director, System Center Group, Microsoft Corporate
10.30AM – 11.30PM
Configuration Manager: Version Next Overview
Jeff Wettlaufer, Technical Product Manager, System Center Group, Microsoft Corporate
11.30PM – 12.00PM
Break
12.00PM – 13.00PM
What's New Since the Release of Operations Manager 2007 R2
Paul Keely, SCOM MVP, Ergo Group
Service Manager Integration with System Center
Nigel Cain, Senior Program Manager, Virtualisation & Datacenter Management, Microsoft UK
13.00PM – 14.00PM
Lunch
14.00PM – 15.00PM
Opalis IT Process Automation: Introduction & Technical Overview
Greg Charman, Opalis Technology Specialist, Microsoft UK
Introduction to Systems Management in Midsized Organizations with System Center Essentials 2010
Wilbour Craddock, PTA, Microsoft Ireland
15.00PM – 15.30PM
15.30PM – 16.30PM
Technical Introduction to Data Protection Manager 2010
Anthony Tyler, Storage Technology Architect, Microsoft UK
16:30PM – 17.30PM
Managing Heterogeneous Virtualised Environments
17.30PM
Close
On April 29th, Microsoft Technical Fellow, Mark Russinovich, will be leading a discussion around the process of planning, testing, assessing and rolling out Windows 7 in an enterprise organization.
Mark will be joined by a panel of IT professionals who are currently in the piloting and deployment process, along with Microsoft subject matter experts who will speak in depth about the technologies. The event will be broadcast live over the web at 5:00 pm Dublin time, and will be available for on-demand viewing following the broadcast. The discussion will be open and candid, with the panel sharing insights, dispelling myths and getting down to the real story around technical adoption of Windows technologies. Specific topics will include the role of the pilot and the critical information it provides, best practices and tips & tricks for ensuring a successful effort, tools and technologies that will help automate the pilot and deployment processes, and conducting a frank post-pilot assessment. During the event, Mark will field questions coming in via the web from viewers across the globe. Questions can also be submitted in advance to vrtable@microsoft.com.
I am a very big proponent of solutions for the SME customer. I grew up in a family run business back in Canada and I know the challenges of these businesses. To Microsoft, a SME customer has less than 500 users….which means almost every business in Ireland fits this category. System Center Essentials 2010 (SCE 2010) provides IT professionals in mid-sized organizations with a unified physical and virtual management experience. It enables you to better secure, update, monitor, and troubleshoot from a single console, so you can efficiently and proactively manage your IT environment. With the 2007 release we saw limited adoption in Ireland as many people were working in a virtualized environment and they were choosing the Systems Management Suite Enterprise or Datacenter product as it included DPM.
The main addition to this second System Center Essentials release is the seamless integration of Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 technology, making it quick and easy for midsize business to begin realizing the cost-cutting benefits of server consolidation using virtualization. SCE 2010 will enable you to rapidly move from a physical to virtual server environment while maintaining the control and simple management you have come to expect from the product.
I have been singing the praises of the DPM since I landed on this side of the pond. System Center Data Protection (DPM) 2010, delivers unequalled data protection for Microsoft servers such as SQL Server, Exchange, SharePoint, Virtualization and file servers -- as well as Windows desktops and laptops. Microsoft has re-engineered DPM 2010 to be more scalable so that both midsize and enterprise-class organizations can take advantage of it.
Key additions in DPM 2010 include:
We are very excited about two offerings because we think they address a critical need among midsize businesses: the struggle to find great IT management solutions that are tailored to provide that elusive combination of rich features and ease of use.
As great as these individual products are, they would be even better combined and that message has been received. With System Center Essentials 2010 we will offer the standard SKU as well as SCE2010 Plus that will include DPM2010. We will have an update on the licensing and pricing for these products soon.
Until then, go check out SCE 2010 and DPM 2010.
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The Cloud is the buzz word of the IT industry; most companies are trying to position themselves to take advantage of the changing landscape of IT.We announced today Windows Intune, a means to simplifies how businesses manage and secure PCs using Windows cloud services and Windows 7, so computers and users can operate at peak performance. Customers subscribed to Windows Intune receive cloud management and malware protection services, upgrades to Windows 7. This is a natural progression for Microsoft.
From Hotmail to Windows Update, Microsoft has almost 15 years experience in cloud computing, hosting some of the world’s largest cloud services. Windows Intune takes advantage of the Microsoft Update and Windows Update infrastructure, one of the world’s largest cloud services, which pushes out a petabyte of updates every month to hundreds of millions of PCs. This should provide a level of confidence in the strategy for every customer to start.
Sounds very good so far, tell me more:
Here is what it does:
1. Help Manage and Secure PCs Anywhere - With the Windows Intune cloud service, customers can centrally manage and secure their PCs through a simple, web-based console - whether the IT staff or end-users are in the main office, branch office, or on the road.
2. The Best Windows Experience – Businesses can provide a better experience for their workforce that’s easier to manage by standardizing their PC environment. By upgrading PCs to Windows 7 Enterprise, businesses can make users more productive anywhere with a more intuitive UI and power search tools. Windows Intune also improves security with tools like BitLocker and BitLocker To Go to protect data, and streamlines PC management with new tools that help customers upgrade their existing PCs.
Fits Your Business – With Windows Intune, customers get big-tech results with a small-tech investment, minimal overhead and simple billing
Now I am interested, when can I get it? Well that is the good part…soon. As always, we announce these products in advance of the actual release date but there will be a public Beta and Release Candidate that will see Irish customers and partners able to try these new technologies. Stay tuned, and I will let you know when this will be available to try.
Cheers
I try to let you know of every free eBook that Microsoft Press releases and I came across another one today in preparation for the release of SQL 2008 R2.
This book is for anyone who has an interest in SQL Server 2008 R2 and wants to understand its capabilities. In a book of this size, we cannot cover every feature that distinguishes SQL Server from other databases, and consequently we assume that you have some familiarity with SQL Server already. You might be a database administrator (DBA), an application developer, a power user, or a technical decision maker. Regardless of your role, we hope that you can use this book to discover the features in SQL Server 2008 R2 that are most beneficial to you.
PART I Database Administration CHAPTER 1 SQL Server 2008 R2 Editions and Enhancements CHAPTER 2 Multi-Server Administration CHAPTER 3 Data-Tier Applications CHAPTER 4 High Availability and Virtualization Enhancements CHAPTER 5 Consolidation and Monitoring PART II Business Intelligence Development CHAPTER 6 Scalable Data Warehousing CHAPTER 7 Master Data Services CHAPTER 8 Complex Event Processing with StreamInsight CHAPTER 9 Reporting Services Enhancements CHAPTER 10 Self-Service Analysis with PowerPivot
Have you started to utilize Windows 7 XP Mode to get past Application Compatibility issues? This is a great tool for SME customers but one of the issues some people experience is setting up the VM’s for each user with the required applications on them, installing virus scan, etc.
A great little application was released on CodePlex that will allow for the simple duplication of the VM’s for distribution around the office to all the users. With a couple of quick clicks, you have a copy of the VM ready for use. XP More is a great example of the open source community for Microsoft products at work!
Select Duplicate
Select the output location and off it goes
A few minutes later, Viola….a copy of the VM ready to use
Given the number of Irish workers stranded in Europe, the US or further afield, I thought readers may find Microsoft’s Online Services worth looking into.
Has the cloud of volcanic ash led to cancelled meetings and disrupted your business? Are you and your colleagues finding it impossible to get to that important meeting?
If employees in your organisation are stuck abroad with no access to the office, you don’t have to wait for the restrictions to be lifted before you can get your business back to normal.
Microsoft’s hosted web conference service, ‘Office Live Meeting’, can help you and your employees be as productive working from in or outside the office. You can meet with your colleagues, customers and partners online and collaborate with them in real-time, regardless of location or rare climate conditions!
Sign up now for your free 30-day trial of Microsoft Live Meeting or any other Microsoft’s hosted alternatives for email (Exchange Online), IM & Presence Awareness (Office Communications Online) and Centralised resources & workflow management (SharePoint Online).
You (and your team) can be up on running on one or multiple Microsoft Online Services with 24 hours!
Click here to learn more about Microsoft Online Services or contact us today!
Let me know if you have any questions.