Kevin Remde's IT Pro Weblog
"Huh?"
For a couple years now I've been singing the praise of "these three little letters that, if you remember nothing else from my presentation, I want you to remember: BDD!" Business Desktop Deployment.
BDD is one of many "Solution Accelerators" Microsoft makes available. As the name implies, these are product or area focused tools that help accelerate you towards a solution - providing both guidance and the tools required to bring you up-and-running quickly with some solution. Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) is/was a very powerful set of such knowledge and tools all around making it easy to create LTI or ZTI (Light and Zero Touch Installation) deployments of Windows Desktops and applications.
"You said, 'was', Kevin. Is the BDD gone?"
No. It's not gone. Not yet. But it is being replaced by "Microsoft Deployment". So.. do a search-and-replace of everything I've ever said about BDD and replace it with MD.
Microsoft Deployment (Release Candidate 1 just went live TODAY on the Microsoft Connect site - details on how to get it below) is the next version.
"Why the change? What's new?"
Well, in a nutshell, this new tool (and new name) refers not just to deploying desktops. It's about deployment. Period. We also had a Solution Accelerator called Windows Server Deployment (WSD) which, as the name implies, was all about deploying servers. (duh!) That, too, is becoming a part of the new Microsoft Deployment Solution Accelerator.
Here are a list of "What's new" that I received in an e-mail about it just under an hour ago:
New Features in Microsoft Deployment
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 support, with the following features:
Lite Touch Installation (LTI) support for Windows Server 2008:
Lite Touch Installation (LTI) enhancements:
Lite Touch Installation (LTI) multicast support:
"Cool! How do I get it, Kevin?"
It's an open beta download right now. You get it by signing up for the Microsoft Connection Deployment program in Microsoft Connect.
If you're already a member, you can go straight to the download here.
Now I'm off to edit my slides. I've got BDD all over the place...
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"$100? One-hundred dollars? Really?"
Yes, you read me right. From now through May 2008 you can save $100 on any TechNet subscription. ANY TechNet subscription.
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Hi all!
Here I am sitting at home for a few more hours before heading to the airport to get on a plane to Texas to deliver TechNet Events on Tuesday and Thursday.
"Texas?! You don't usually cover Texas!"
Well, I am pleased to be able to cover some events there now.
For those of you who don't know, we recently did a little shift-around of responsibilities on the Microsoft Across America - TechNet Events team. It was agreed all around that, rather than all of us doing Core Events, Webcasts, managing User Group Relationships, and doing events for partners, and trying also to focus on other efforts, we should split the team into specialties. So, a few guys (Harold Wong, John Weston, and Michael J. Murphy) are now focusing on building and supporting the IT Pro Community, Keith Combs and Matt Hester are taking more of a specific product or technology-area focus.
So, in what we call the Central Region of the U.S., that leaves my buddy Shawn Travers and I able to focus primarily on our "core events"; which means we'll be doing less preparation and delivery of the one-off events, and many more of our main TechNet Events.
We'll still be working with User Groups and Partners and doing other events - but definitely not as many as we were in the past. And we'll have our Community Champs to help manage those relationships and work with our schedules.
"So.. What does your schedule look like, Kevin? Where will you be traveling to for TechNet events?"
I'm glad you (I) asked!
Here I'm taking advantage of a plug-in for Windows Live Writer that lets me search for and insert events from the event site Eventful.com. Of course, it did require me to enter my events into the site first, but once they're there, they can be easily plugged-in to blog posts like this one.
I've also posted my "Save the Day" TechNet Resources for these events here.
And of course, if you want to find the full list of events, plus events going into the next quarter (when they go live), you need to save www.technetevents.com as one of your favorites, or subscribe to the RSS feed from there.
One more time, for those who missed it before...
RTM = Released to Manufacturing
"And what is SCDPM?"
SCDPM is System Center Data Protection Manager 2007. It's a new version of the DPM product (first released last year), and contains several incredible improvements.
Last week, at a Microsoft Across America team meeting in Phoenix, AZ, I had the privilege of attending a presentation by Jason Buffington on all the benefits of the new DPM 2007.
Folks... seriously... this is going to make backup, recovery, and archiving of your application data and files SO EASY.
If you read nothing else about DPM, at least check out Jason's blog post about the RTM, and the details on why this version will change how you think of backing up your company's knowledge assets. But you should also check out the DPM team blog , too. And here's the new DPM site as well.