Mary-Jo Foley recruits Aidan Finn!

Mary-Jo is on holidays and recruits Aidan Finn to replace her?

"I’ve asked a few illustrious members of the worldwide Microsoft community to share their insights via guest posts on a variety of topics — from Windows Phone, to Hyper-V. Today’s entry is all about Hyper-V Replica and is authored by Aidan Finn”

Aidan Finn is a Microsoft Valuable Professional (MVP) with an expertise in Virtual Machine. He works for MicroWarehouse Ltd, an Irish Value Added Distributor, as a Technical Sales Lead, working closely with Microsoft and VARs in Ireland. He blogs on aidanfinn.com, tweets as @joe_elway, and has written or contributed to books such as Mastering Hyper-V Deployment (Sybex, 2010) and Microsoft Private Cloud Computing (Sybex, 2012).

This guest post by Aidan explains Hyper-V Replica, a new feature in Windows Server 2012.  The up and coming new version of Windows Server includes loads of new features that will see Microsoft  leapfrogging VMware for all your virtualisation requirements.  Hyper-V replica is just one of them.

Well done Aidan for being considered one of a few illustrious members of the worldwide Microsoft community 

Here’s his post: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/one-of-windows-server-2012s-secret-weapons-hyper-v-replica/12707?tag=mantle_skin;content

Enjoy

Learn along with Dave is ending

Let me open with a big congratulations to last week’s winners (Damian Niezgoda, Michael Maher and Anthony McCarville) all of whom are getting a 32GB USB drive as their prize for completing my Microsoft Virtual Academy challenge - to pass the Office 365 for the IT Pro - Lync Online, SharePoint Online & Deployment exam.

I started this little initiative back in February as a way to get you excited about learning (again?) and to give you an extra incentive and some guidance.  I’ve been kicked off of my top spot on the Top Ten list for Ireland and have given away loads of TechNet Subscriptions and weekly prizes.  I did promise to keep this going until the Summer, which officially was the 1st May.  I still had a few prizes left and it’s been colder in the last few weeks than it was at Christmas!  Summer is finally here (it was 23 degrees in Belfast yesterday) and the forecast is looking good.  This will be your last MVA Challenge

So, get your version of this screenshot into my inbox by the end of May (by close of play on Thursday May 31st).  Your challenge is to pass the Understanding Microsoft’s High-Availability Solutions test.

I hope I have been successful, that you’ve enjoyed playing along and that you’ll continue learning without my little incentives.

Unfortunately I can’t open this up to the world – you’ll have to give me an Irish address to claim your prize (North or South).

The Microsoft Virtual Academy – Prizes just for learning!

This week’s winners were Brian O’Hanlon, Jonathan Flack and Joe Glynn.  They each won their choice of either an Umbrella, a Rain Jacket, a Mini-Toolkit or a 32GB USB memory stick – and all they had to do was learn!

This week’s Microsoft Virtual Academy challenge is to pass the Office 365 for the IT Pro - Lync Online, SharePoint Online & Deployment exam.

Send me your version of this screenshot before 09:00 on Monday 21st May to be in with a chance of winning a prize.

Unfortunately I can’t open this up to the world – you’ll have to give me an Irish address to claim your prize (North or South).

SQL Server User Group meeting in Dublin on the 23rd May @ 18:30

Always On offers a huge leap forward in terms of High Availability. This session is a demo-based introduction to the high availability changes in SQL 2012 emphasising key features and benefits.

The event is free to all. However, registration is mandatory for safety and security reasons.

Register here: http://www.mtug.ie/Home/tabid/38/ctl/Details/Mid/369/ItemID/100/Default.aspx

VMware’s CTO, Dr. Stephen Herrod says “a lot of individual products that don’t work well enough together yet”

And it’s on a YouTube video!

scroll to the YouTube video at 3:12

“VMware Cloud Infrastructure Suite is really more of a marketing term. Those of you know our products deeply know that they don’t fit this well together as they need to. Some of them have multiple databases, some don’t look the same, some install differently, and what I can’t stand that is Site Recovery Manager doesn’t currently work with vCloud Director. So, what we are basically able to say is that we created and acquired companies that led to a lot of individual products that don’t work well enough together yet.”

Enjoy

Oh, and if you’re in the market for a “real” Private cloud – here’s your solution:

I’m still giving away prizes just for learning!

Last week’s Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) challenge was to pass the Office 365 for the IT Pro – Platform course.  The three winners are: Jonathan Flack, Paul Mateer and Brian Milton.  Well done guys, your prize is on its way to you (either an Umbrella, a Rain Jacket, a Mini-Toolkit or a 32BG USB memory stick).

This week, we’re going to continue learning about Office 365.

So, to be in with a chance of winning a prize, login to the Microsoft Virtual Academy and pass the Office 365 for the IT Pro – Exchange Online course.

Send me your version of this screenshot before 09:00 on Monday 14h May to be in with a chance of winning a prize.

Unfortunately I can’t open this up to the world – you’ll have to give me an Irish address to claim your prize (North or South).