Do you know a student looking for a career in application development? The Microsoft DreamSpark Program provides students with Microsoft Professional Development tools for free! Students can build and deploy apps to Windows Phone Marketplace for free through DreamSpark. Windows Phone 7 is coming to the Irish market in late October/November with the major mobile companies, so why not be one of the first to have a Windows Phone App ready for download on the Marketplace?
More Resources:
Windows Phone Developer Blog
Windows Phone 7 Developer Training Kit
Windows Phone Developer Home
Silect are an ISV building Management Packs tools and plugins specifically for the System Center Operations Manager ad Configuration Manager. This is a valuable read for anyone looking to deploy SCOM as MP’s real make or break the success of the deployments success.
What is a Management Pack and how does it affect my System Center Operations Manager environment? Management Packs (or MPs) are the building blocks which form the foundation of your System Center Operations Manager deployment. Individual MPs exist for each operating system, workload, application or IT service being monitored or managed by Operations Manager. MPs contain rules, monitors and discoveries that tell Operations Manager what to do, when and how to handle any exception that is detected, such as generating an alert. Agents deployed by Operations Manager receive instructions that are encapsulated within MPs on how to discover different systems and workloads. Once discovered, monitors and rules are deployed that the agent uses to assess the health, performance, configuration and security of those systems and workloads, the status of which it then reports back to its management server. Rules are also used to collect data from a monitored node to be stored in a data warehouse for Operations Manager reporting purposes. MPs contain the best practices knowledge to discover, monitor, troubleshoot, report on and resolve problems for a specific technology component.
Want to know more? The Whitepaper is to be found here.
If you have a big printer available and spend a lot of your time working in Windows Server 2008 technologies then you may want to print these posters off for the office wall
Remote Desktop Services Component Architecture Poster This poster provides a visual reference for understanding key Remote Desktop Services technologies in Windows Server 2008 R2. It explains the functions and roles of Remote Desktop Session Host, Remote Desktop Virtualization Host, Remote Desktop Connection Broker, Remote Desktop Web Access, Remote Desktop Gateway, RemoteFX and Remote Desktop Licensing.
Windows Server 2008 R2: Hyper-V Component Architecture This poster provides a visual reference for understanding key Hyper-V technologies in Windows Server 2008 R2. It focuses on architecture, snapshots, live migration, virtual networking, storage, and import/export.
Windows Server 2008 R2 Feature Components Poster This poster provides a visual reference for understanding key technologies in Windows Server 2008 R2. It focuses on Active Directory Domain Services, Hyper-V, Internet Information Services, Remote Desktop Services (including Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)), BranchCache, and DirectAccess technologies. In addition, updates to core file services and server management are illustrated. You can use this poster in conjunction with the previously published Windows Server 2008 Component Posters.
Windows Server 2008 Component Posters These two posters, originally published in the July 2007 issue of TechNet Magazine, provide a strong visual tool to aide in the understanding of various features and components of Windows Server 2008. One poster focuses exclusively on powerful new Active Directory technologies, while the other provides a technical look at a variety of new features available in Windows Server 2008 (such as Server Core, Network Access Protection, and more).
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=C2B9E44E-0BBD-47CB-BC09-B3D48BE7F867&displaylang=en
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) has been designed specifically to help meet the challenges of any business and the needs of all the different groups with a stake in the messaging system. Exchange Server 2007 SP1 is a mission-critical communications tool that enables employees to be more productive and access their information anywhere and anytime while providing a messaging system that enables rich, efficient access to e-mail, calendar items, voice mail, and contacts. For the administrator, Exchange Server 2007 SP1 provides advanced protection options against e-mail security threats, such as spam and viruses, as well as the tools to help manage internal compliance and high availability needs. In Exchange Server 2007 SP1, several new features and improvements will extend the Anywhere Access capabilities of Exchange Server 2007 to help make employees more productive on whatever device they’re using, provide additional Operational Efficiency tools for administrators seeking a streamlined management and deployment experience, and enable advanced Built-in Protection for more robust high availability and compliance scenarios. Improvements in Exchange Server 2007 SP1 include:
Anywhere Access • Integrated Exchange Unified Messaging functionality with Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. • Outlook Web Access additions, including public folder access, S/MIME support, personal distribution lists, and mailbox rules editor. • Webready document viewer supports Microsoft Office 2007 documents in addition to Microsoft Office 2003 documents. • Extended language support in Outlook Web Access with Arabic and Korean spell checking. Operational Efficiency • Support for Windows Server 2008 deployments, including benefits in flexible clustering, advanced networking, and simplified management. • Additional tools in the Exchange Management Console, including public folder management and configuration options for clustering and POP/IMAP access. • Improvements to the Exchange Management Shell syntax and import-export PST in the move-mailbox command. • Wider variety of web services for application development, including public folder access, delegate management, and folder level permissions. Built-in Protection • Addition of Standby Continuous Replication (SCR) for site resilient high availability deployments. • Extended Exchange ActiveSync policies for mobile policy enforcement. • Information rights management pre-licensing by the Hub Transport role. • Secure Real Time Protocol (SRTP) support in the Unified Messaging role. • Support for IPv6 when using Windows Server 2008
Get SP1 here
The Irish Internet Association (IIA) Cloud Computing Working Group is running a survey in association with Sysco and ReadyDynamics.com, to gather information and increase understanding of cloud adoption in Ireland. To participate, please visit www.readydynamics.com/survey. Each respondent will receive a copy of the results when they are published, a complimentary copy of the Whitepaper (Cloud Business) and the chance to win 2 tickets for the Cloud Computing Summit, on the 9th September 2010 in Croke Park, Dublin
To find out more click here.
To take the survey click here.
cheers
The Windows User Group is back with a day-long event featuring updates on the latest in Microsoft IT infrastructure. Join us on Friday, September 10th in the Microsoft Auditorium in Leopardstown to hear expert speakers talking about Windows Server, virtualization, Exchange, unified messaging, and System Center for the small/medium enterprise. This day will give you valuable information that will educate you on what benefits new technologies from Microsoft will bring to your business.
The agenda is
You can register and attend the event for free.
Date: Friday, September 10th, 2010
Location: EPDC-2, South County Business Park, Leopardstown, Dublin 18
Registration: 08:45 to 09:15 with a strict start time of 09:15
The detailed agenda and speakers’ bios are as follows:
Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2: Dynamic Memory and RemoteFX (90 Minutes – 09:15 until 10:45)
Speaker: Aidan Finn (MVP: Virtual Machine), Infrastructure Team Lead with System Dynamics
Webcast: LiveMeeting
Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 is around the corner. It introduces some new features that will be of huge interest to anyone that is interested in Hyper-V or Remote Desktop Services (including Citrix software). Memory is often the main constraint in virtual machine to host density. Dynamic IT provides a new mechanism for configuring virtual machines with a variable amount of memory. Aidan will discuss what over commitment is and how it is bad. He’ll then introduces you to the mechanics behind Dynamic Memory and show it in action. Aidan will also introduce you to RemoteFX. This is a new solution to provide high quality graphics, such as 1080p video, to Remote Desktop clients. This will be used in Remote Desktop Services and compatible Citrix solutions.
About Aidan Finn:
Aidan is the Infrastructure Team Lead with System Dynamics, a consulting services company located in Dublin that provides IT infrastructure and business intelligence expertise. He has been working in IT since 1996 and has specialised in working with Microsoft infrastructure solutions including Server, desktop, System Center and virtualisation. Aidan is an MCSE and a Microsoft Valuable Professional with an expertise in virtualization. Aidan co-wrote Mastering Windows Server 2008 R2 (Sybex), is the lead author of Mastering Hyper-V Deployment (Sybex), and is contributing to Mastering Windows 7 Deployment (Sybex). You can find his blog at http://www.aidanfinn.com.
Service Pack 1 for Exchange 2010 (90 Minutes – 11:00 until 12:30)
Speaker: Nathan Winters (MVP: Exchange), Unified Communications Lead with Grey Convergence
Exchange 2010 SP1 was announced at TechEd US 2010 and contains some exciting enhancements to Exchange 2010. This session will first set the context for these new features and then walk you through what is now possible:
· Demo
· Questions & Answers
About Nathan Winters:
Nathan Winters is the unified communications lead at Grey Convergence, a specialist Microsoft partner for unified communications and collaboration. Nathan has been working in IT for eight years and specializes in unified communications with a focus on Microsoft Exchange and Office Communications Server. Nathan has consulted at numerous Fortune 100 companies across a variety of vertical markets.
In 2006, Nathan founded the Microsoft Messaging and Mobility User Group UK, which holds regular meetings in the UK to discuss topics related to Exchange. In 2007, Nathan was named an MVP (Exchange Server) for his work with MMMUG and his regular contributions to the Mark Minasi Forum, and he has received the same honour each year since.
Nathan’s articles have been published on leading websites and magazines, including Windows IT Pro Magazine, MSExchange.org, Simple-Talk.com, Microsoft (TechNet Industry Insiders), and the MMMUG website.
You can contact Nathan at nathan@clarinathan.co.uk or through his blog at http://www.nathanwinters.co.uk
Communications Server 14 (90 Minutes – 13:15 until 14:45)
Speaker: John McCabe (MVP: Unified Communications), Technical Consultant with CDSoft
Communications Server 2010 (Wave 14) is Microsoft’s Next Generation Unified Communications Platform. It brings many new features including a completely new UI. John will bring you through the main features and some of the new supported scenarios available in this platform and discuss how you can even use it now to replace your PBX! This really will be a serious contender for businesses of all sizes.
About John McCabe:
John currently works as a Technical Consultant for CDSoft Limited providing solutions to the Irish Market Place across multiple industries. John has over 12 years in the IT Industry ranging different disciplines from security, networks and of course Microsoft Infrastructure. John has attained MCITP/MCTS/MCP in various tracks as well as a multiple other professional certifications. John was awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award in October 2009 for extensive community work and promoting the Microsoft Product Group.
System Center Essentials 2010: Enterprise Management for the SME Customer (90 Minutes – 15:00 until 16:30)
Speaker: Wilbour Craddock, Partner Technical Specialist, Microsoft
The aim of this session is to provide a technical overview of the key capabilities of SCE 2010, and how it provides an integrated management solution for SMB customers, from hardware right through to the virtual OS’s running on Hyper-V and applications/services in these VM’s. Attendees will gain valuable information around differentiating SCE with the other System Center technologies, which form part of the Server Management Suites, from both a technical, and pricing perspective. We’ll also cover DPM 2010; part of the new SCE Plus SKU, and how it provides a centralized, powerful SMB-friendly application protection and DR solution, protecting both virtualized servers, application workloads, and desktop data.
To help attendees understand the solutions better, we’ll be constructing a customer scenario to provide a complete solution that can be adapted for specific customer and partner engagements. This solution will include both licensing, and pricing information, to give a better idea of the overall solution cost, and ROI. We’ll focus on delivering a demo of this scenario, concentrating particularly on the virtualization management, PRO functionality, hardware integration, and overall management of the environment.
About Wilbour Craddock:
Wilbour is a former Windows Server MVP and Canadian User Group lead now working for Microsoft Ireland in the Partner Team and frequent speaker on the TechNet Ireland tours. Wilbour’s background is not that dissimilar from most IT Professionals, having started on a help desk and progressed through system administration to leadership roles in government organizations serving as a solutions architect overseeing development and deployment teams and helping set long-term IT strategies. He blogs with the TechNet Ireland team on the IEITPro blog.
Another Patch Tuesday (Wednesday for us Irish) has come and the Canadian IT Pro Team has release another episode of the The object is to keep it simple by letting you know in plain non technical language what the updates are, what they resolve and why you should care.
Have a listen directly from the embedded Silverlight player OR subscribe to the feed and download it to your iTunes / Zune software.
As always - if you have suggestions on making it better - please pass on your comments. Mail Rick directly – rick.claus@microsoft.com
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 OOB bulletin will take place: Monday, August 2nd - 1:00 p.m. PST (UTC -8). (Registration link):
Bulletins discussed for August 2nd, 2010:
Podcast Participants: Rick Claus and his dog Riley.
PodSafe music from PodSafe Music Network @ http://music.podshow.com/. Artist: Derek K Miller, song - “You’re the Big Sky - rock guitar instrumental
Wilbour