March, 2011

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Thanks for everyone for coming out to the Columbus event on the 24th.  Thanks for all of the great questions and feedback from the event.  As promised here are some resources and the Q/A from the event.

I will also be placing the slides here: TechNet Slides: Transforming IT from Virtualization to the Cloud and here: TechNet Event Slides

I also wanted to share with you another place to get your Azure questions answered: Windows Azure Office Hours. There are a lot of people that are interested in the cloud, but they don't know how to get started. Maybe they just have a lot of questions before they decide to get going. This is what we are here for. During office hours we will have the door wide open. Come on in, toss out your questions, and we'll help you anyway we can. The office will be staffed with cloud computing experts from Microsoft, and some of our leading partners. No agenda, just show up and pitch us your questions. No Registration. No emails. No commitments. Just show up. Go here to learn about the hours:

Windows Azure Office Hours.

You can also get a 30 day trial (no credit card required!!!) of Azure by use the code TNAZURE at Windows Azure Pass: http://www.windowsazurepass.com

Q: What about HIPAA compliance and the cloud?
A: Security and compliance is one of the hottest topics centering around the cloud.  There are a few resources to look at:

• Windows Azure and HIPAA Compliance
• Biggest cloud security “hot spots” according to this article: “The Microsoft cloud undergoes annual audits for PCI DSS, SOX and HIPAA compliance, as well as internal assessments throughout the year. The Microsoft cloud has obtained ISO/IEC 27001:2005 certification and SAS 70 Type 1 and II attestations. “
• Older article but good general info: Securing Microsoft’s Cloud Infrastructure 

Q: Where can I find information about HIPPA compliance for Microsoft products (SharePoint, Exchange..etc.)
A: SharePoint: http://www.microsoft.com/industry/healthcare/healthplans/moss.mspx  Exchange: http://whitepapers.msexchange.org/enterprise-applications/hipaa-compliance/ 

Q: What about Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), for Office 365
A: Yes, Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), FERPA was achieved for Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS the predecessor to Office 365), so I would imagine the certification would carry over.

Q: What is the upgrade path to Office 365?
A: The transition center is a great place to start: Welcome to the Microsoft Office 365 transition center 

Q: Is there an ETA for SBS essentials?
A: While I have not seen a ETA an update, here is the place to check: The Official SBS Blog,

Q: How do we handle legal discovery if the data is in China data centers and the suspect is in the US?
A: All I know is that we follow all local laws and regulations. There is eDiscovery at the app and data level, and then at the customer level. If the court showed up at a datacenter with the right paperwork, we would assist them in what we have to do. We even have a team that handles this full time. While I do not understand the political differences, but they are there.

Q: How do you accomplish a hybrid deployment with SharePoint on-premise and the SQL DB in the cloud (SQL Azure)
A:  Here is a great set of articles talking about cloud deployment and hybrid deployments with SharePoint and SQL Azure: CASI Kit Part 6 - Integrating SQL Azure with SharePoint 2010 and Windows Azure

Q: What is the bottleneck of the cloud?
A:  Bottleneck to me means performance and this would most likely mean bandwidth, not the badwidth out of the data centers, but your connections bandwidth.  If you are trying to upload 1TB of data, then that will take as long as you have bandwidth available. There aren’t really any other things I can think of I would call a ‘bottleneck’

Thank you to everyone who attended the event in Cleveland, I had a great time and a lot of great conversations, here is the Q/A and resources from the event.

I will also be placing the slides here: TechNet Slides: Transforming IT from Virtualization to the Cloud and here: TechNet Event Slides

I also wanted to share with you another place to get your Azure questions answered:  Windows Azure Office Hours.  There are a lot of people that are interested in the cloud, but they don't know how to get started. Maybe they just have a lot of questions before they decide to get going. This is what we are here for. During office hours we will have the door wide open. Come on in, toss out your questions, and we'll help you anyway we can. The office will be staffed with cloud computing experts from Microsoft, and some of our leading partners. No agenda, just show up and pitch us your questions. No Registration. No emails. No commitments. Just show up.  Go here to learn about the hours:

Windows Azure Office Hours. 

You can also get a 30 day trial (no credit card required!!!) of Azure by use the code TNAZURE at Windows Azure Pass: http://www.windowsazurepass.com

Q: Can you configure Identity Services with Office 365
A:  Yes, and you can learn more here: Install and configure the Microsoft Online Services Identity Federation Management tool 

Q: How do you do AD integration in Office 365?
A: You can use your local AD and synchronize it with 365 here is some more information: Manage directory synchronization 

Q: What about level 1 security in Azure?
A:  Level 1 can be achieved take a look at this case study: Zuora Azure Case Study 

Q: Where can I find more information on Hybrid cloud deployments?
A: There is a great article here: Hybrid Cloud Solutions With Windows Azure AppFabric Middleware 

Q: What is the difference between Hyper-V and Private Cloud?
A: Hyper-V is generally used for local virtual solutions however when you add automation and self service and leverage a highly virtualized environment you get a Private Cloud 

Q: How do you set permissions in Office 365 in SharePoint Online?
A: Setting permissions is very similar to setting permissions on premise here is a good article. Roadmap: Grant permissions for a site 

Q: Are there are differences between Office 365 and Office on-premise?
A:  Aside from some fundamentaly differences like you cannot have a .pst with Outlook Web App.  There are a few, this blog post does a good job showing some of the highlights: Office 2010 and Office Web Apps Compared Ultimately you will pick the version that works for you and your users.

Q: How do you do configure BES with Exchange Online?
A:  One way you can accomplish Blackberry sync is with the Blackberry Internet Service (BIS).  To learn more take a look here:  BlackBerry with BPOS / Exchange Online

Q: Is SCVMM in MSDN Subscription?
A: I checked around and it appears that yes SCVMM is in MSDN. 

Q: Is there a comparison between Live@Edu and Office 365?
A: Live@edu will be transitioning to Office 365 for education take a look here for more information: Office 365 for education

Here are the slides for the TechNet Event: Transforming IT from Virtualization to the Cloud.  I will also be placing the slides here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/matthewms/p/tnslides.aspx 

To download a copy of a slide deck:

1. Click on the bottom right of the PowerPoint to “View full-size presentation”
2. In the new browser window go to the menu and click File –> Download a copy

Session 1 Cloud Essentials

Session 2 Public Cloud

Session 3 Private Cloud

As many of you may have noticed, I have not been blogging a lot of lately, and probably have wondered where I have been?  Aside from vacation in Disney World for the marathon, I have been heads down finishing my second book!!!!!!  This book is on one of my favorite IT Professional tools, PowerShell!   You can pre-order the book here (hopefully it will be out in Mid-May):

Automating Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 with Windows PowerShell 2.0 

So why is the book needed and different.  PowerShell is a tool that I have found in my travels, that not a lot of folks know about.  From IT pro’s, to developers to lifetime scripters.  In some cases you may be scared or do not even know where to start.  Well I got together with my good friend Sarah and we wrote a book to help demystify this fantastic tool for everyone.  We took a practical approach to PowerShell to provide the tools and knowledge to beginning using PowerShell almost immediately in your environment.  The book providers not only a primer to this powerful language but also provides several real-world examples that you can learn from to start managing your Windows Server 2008 R2 environment.  Sarah also wrote several appendices to provide how PowerShell can be used in application development, and help explore the term .NET on the command line.   You can read about her writing experience here, and why this language is important for the developers in all of us:

• The Adventures of Book Writing, Part 1
• The Adventures of Book Writing, Part 2

The power is in your hands! Start working smarter, not harder, by automating Windows Server 2008 R2 tasks with PowerShell 2.0.   You can pre-order the book now (and like Sarah if you want me to sign it I gladly will): Automating Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 with Windows PowerShell 2.0.  I look forward to hearing from you!

Also coming soon to our blogs look for a series on PowerShell!

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Oh let the joy of Windows Phone 7 finally begin!  I love making my buddy Keith jealous: Sprint HTC Arrive Reviewed 

In the three years I have been doing this I rocked this year and nailed 3 out 5 predictions.  Although one is still TBD here is my recap and results:

Total 3/5

1. San Francisco 49ers will make the playoffs.  When you look just at the division they are in, Seahawks, Cardinals, and Rams.  I really think this is their year, while I do not know how they will do in the playoffs, I know the will be in.  They area solid team overall, and the only question mark is Alex Smith which makes me worry about this prediction.
   Result 0: Who would have though this division would send a sub 500 team to the playoffs, more importantly came down to 1 game that sent the Seahawks to playoffs, just a bad division
   
2. Green Bay Packers will be in the Super Bowl.  They have it all, talent, depth, and more importantly experience.  Aarons Rodgers, just seems to get better every year, and the defense is solid, and look for them not to do a whole lot.  With the offense going to score lots of points, and I mean lots of points.  They will beat the Saints in the NFC title game, to make it to the Super Bowl, but lose to prediction #5
   Result 1 : They went and won and I was in Fiji watching this
   
3. No Lockout for 2011,   This is simple in my mind, there is two much on both sides of the equation to have another lockout,  Both sides will get this figured out before the end of the season or shortly after the season ends.  Not one of my typical predictions, but it is bold.
   Result 1 : While this is still TBD, I will give myself credit, there will be football next year.
   
4. Jets will make AFC Title Game: I really like this team, or maybe it is the HBO in the hotel and hard knocks that has me all excited.  I like this team, and with Revis just resigning, I think they are going to be great on defense.  I also think Sanchez will be good going into his 2nd year, although this bucks the trend for the sophomore slump.  Why I like that, the Jets are a running team, with Greene, McKnight and hall a famer Tomlinson, they are going to a great running team.  While they will make the title game, they will fall one game short of the Super Bowl, because they are going to lose to the….
   Result 1 : They made the game and lost to the Steelers.
   
5. Cleveland Browns are going to win the Super Bowl!   Yeah I know I make this prediction every year and we finished last in the division.  However, we did finish with a  4 game winning streak.  I also think all the bad elements are out of the locker room, and we replaced inexperience with proven veterans.  I think the President Holmgren, he will look to keep the team solid and fundamentally sound.   We are going to surprise a lot of folks this year, and as always:  GO BROWNS!
   Result 0:  While they did not even make the playoffs, they were not last in the division and all the games they lost (except one) by 7 or less points.  So the Browns were a tough out, and expectations are high for next year!

GO BROWNS!!!!

Thank you to everyone taking time out of your St. Patricks day celebrations to spend 4 hours with my talking about the cloud and Microsoft’s offerings, I had a great time and lot of fun.  I hope everyone did as well.  I look forward to seeing all of you next time I am in the motor city.  We had lots of great questions and you will find them answered below.  As always if you need more information or clarification let me know!

I also wanted to share with you another place to get your Azure questions answered:  Windows Azure Office Hours.  There are a lot of people that are interested in the cloud, but they don't know how to get started. Maybe they just have a lot of questions before they decide to get going. This is what we are here for. During office hours we will have the door wide open. Come on in, toss out your questions, and we'll help you anyway we can. The office will be staffed with cloud computing experts from Microsoft, and some of our leading partners. No agenda, just show up and pitch us your questions. No Registration. No emails. No commitments. Just show up.  Go here to learn about the hours:

Windows Azure Office Hours. 

Q: What happens if the Fabric Controller “crashes”?
A: Well aside from having worry about the dinosaurs roaming the earth.    The fabric controller is highly replicated throughout Azure, and ultimately if this service was to go down (highly unlikely) there is redundancy underneath to restart the service.  While this is an interesting question, I put it in the category of what would happen if the Internet crashed.

Q: What if all of your instances crash?
A: This is where the fabric controller will take action and restart your servers on new systems.  This is why you see the error message to load at least 2 instances when you upload your Azure application.

Q: Where are the replicas stored (same DC, same container, or just anywhere in the affinity group?)
A: The replicas are stored in a variety of locations and to clarify there are only replicas of the data (2 to be specific) not of your application.  This simply means that when you upload your application, make sure you have at least two instances.

Q: What cloud security certifications does it currently have?
A:  This is one the great conversations we had regarding Azure and the cloud.  There is some great information here about the security principals of Azure: Windows Azure Security Overview also this article (from 2009) mentions the accreditations that Azure has(The Microsoft cloud has obtained ISO/IEC 27001:2005 certification and SAS 70 Type 1 and II attestations. ) Microsoft Azure: Security in the Cloud 

Q: How does denial of service attack impact the SLA?
A: Built into Azure there is a Denial of Service detection engine to help them from preventing these type of attacks, here is a great interview and how this comes together: Doug Hauger: Inside the Windows Azure Platform Business Model 

Q: Will we publish statistics of DoS attacks?
A: Not that I aware of.

Q: How to backup to cloud?
A: Here is a good article talking about how to do this and a third party tool to use: Backup to Windows Azure Storage in 3 Easy Steps 

Q: Can I backup .pst with Office 365?
A: If you are running Outlook 2010 locally, then you backup the .psts. I have not tested but the Microsoft Outlook Personal Folders Backup utility can do this for 2007 and folks have said it works for them.  To learn more take a look here: How to automatically back up your personal folders file in Outlook 

Q: Can I have a logon message for my Office 365 logins?
A: I am not sure you can do this, and I may have missed something simple, but I do not see away to do this unless you are using AD as  a part of your Office 365 solution.  The login message then would come from AD, and is not really coming from Office 365.

Q: Can I have extranet anonymous access to my SharePoint online (for customers)?
A: No, I have not seen this feature available for SharePoint online, but I also think this is a reflection of lack of customization of SharePoint Online.

Q: What about legacy applications and Azure?
A: If the application can run on Windows Server 2008 or later, it should be able to run in the cloud.

Q: What is the lifetime of Azure applications?
A: The lifetime of applications is determined by the setting you use for the configuration of the OS in Azure.  There are two settings:

• You can choose to upgrade the guest OS automatically. With this option, Windows Azure will automatically upgrade your VMs to the latest release of the guest OS in the OS family, once it becomes available. Setting your service to upgrade automatically is recommended as a best practice. (Note Automatic upgrading from one OS family to another is not supported.)
• You can manually upgrade the guest OS for your service at a time of your choosing using the Windows Azure Platform Management Portal.

If you manually upgrade then you can control how your applications base OS is set.  To learn more take a look here: Configuring Settings for the Windows Azure Guest OS

Thank you to everyone who ventured out to Grand Valley State last Tuesday!  Thank you for making the drive more importantly thank you for all of the questions you asked during the event!  I have put together the Q/A from the session.  If you have any additional questions please comment and I look forward to seeing you again next time I am in town!  Thanks to my teammate Kevin Remde for doing a majority of leg work on these as I travelling around Michigan.  Thanks Kevin!

I also wanted to share with you another place to get your Azure questions answered:  Windows Azure Office Hours.  There are a lot of people that are interested in the cloud, but they don't know how to get started. Maybe they just have a lot of questions before they decide to get going. This is what we are here for. During office hours we will have the door wide open. Come on in, toss out your questions, and we'll help you anyway we can. The office will be staffed with cloud computing experts from Microsoft, and some of our leading partners. No agenda, just show up and pitch us your questions. No Registration. No emails. No commitments. Just show up.  Go here to learn about the hours:

Windows Azure Office Hours. 

Q:  Is there a SCVMM lite?
A: Not really however there is System Center Essentials 2010 which has some virtualization management features that come from it. It also includes other IT systems management products specifically designed for midsized businesses.

Q:  Can you use Microsoft® Hyper-V™ Server 2008 R2 with SCVMM?
A:  Yes. It’s seen as just another virtualization host.

Q: Where is the future of bandwidth going with the hosting providers?
A:  This is the debate of the day, all we can sort of predict is that is will be faster, and more reliable, how the different providers bill is TBD.

Q: With Office 365 can you use your own domain name?
A: Yes take a look here for more information:  Manage domains and domain properties

Q: What if I am a current BPOS customer?
A: There is a great website to help you out located here: Office 365 transition center 

Q: Is there pricing for Office 365?
A: This was a question I did not do my homework on, and yes there is pricing, see below:

• Pricing is listed on this site for Small Business, Enterprise, and Education.  Office 365 Home Page
• Office 365 fact sheet that also lists prices: Office 365 FAQ

Q: How does Lync interact with PSTN outbound and switches, what standards does lync support?
A: Currently my understanding is that Lync is not yet a phone switch replacement.  It is for messaging, audio, video for within your own org, or with federated relationships to other orgs.  It doesn’t yet tie to your local phone switch, nor does it (yet) connect to any phone companies. 

Q: How does legal discovery work for Office 365?
A:  From the Office 365 Blog Office 365 for enterprises: Part 5 - IT Control and Efficiency:

“In terms of managing the technology itself, Office 365 provides a simplified, streamlined, Web-based management tool. You retain control over user management and service configuration so you can tailor services to the way your company does business. You can even automate management tasks and reporting using Remote PowerShell. Finally, role-based access control enables you to delegate specific capabilities to specialist users, for example, enabling a compliance officer to perform multi-mailbox search so IT staff doesn't have to.”

Q: What are the encryption standards for Office 365?
A: In a general sense they’re no different than Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, and Office 2010 Pro Plus.  Additionally, Office 365 applications are accessed through 128-bit SSL/TSL encryption .

Q: Do the VM's you load into Azure have to be Windows?
A:  Yes, specifically Windows Server 2008 R2, with some additional configuration prior to loading it.

From Windows Azure Compute:

“A Virtual Machine (VM) role runs an image (a VHD) of a Windows Server 2008 R2 virtual machine. This VHD is created using an on-premises Windows Server machine, then uploaded to Windows Azure. Customers can configure and maintain the OS and use Windows Services, scheduled tasks etc. in the VM role. Once it’s stored in the cloud, the VHD can be loaded on demand into a VM role and executed. The VHD can be used as the base image for all instances of a VM Role. Learn more about the Windows Azure VM Role”

Q: Is there a Hyper-V (SSP) appliance?
A: No.  There are hardware solutions from HP/Dell/Fujitsu etc, but not an appliance as such, and right now those devices are not available for the general public that I am aware of.

Q: Is there a feature comparison for SQL Azure vs. SQL Server 2008?
A: There are a few out there not sure how thorough they are but take a look here:

• SQL Azure Overview
• SQL Azure vs. SQL Server Comparison Available

Just one week after Microsoft Management Summit 2011 (MMS), Microsoft Learning is hosting an exclusive three-day Jump Start class specially tailored for VMware and Microsoft virtualization technology pros. Registration for “Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals” is open and will be delivered via virtual classroom on March 29-31, 2010 from 10:00am-4:00pm PDT. Our last two events -- Windows Phone 7 Jump Start and Developing Cloud Applications with the Windows Azure Platform" -- were very popular, so please register today for all three sessions.

This cutting edge course will feature expert instruction and real-world demonstrations of Hyper-V and brand new releases from System Center 2012 (many of which will be announced just one week earlier at MMS). This course is designed for Data Center Managers, IT Professionals, IT Decision Makers, Network Administrators, Storage/Infrastructure Administrators & Architects. Attendees are in for a treat because this course will be team taught by two of the most respected technologists in the field:

Symon Perriman | A Microsoft Technical Evangelist covering Virtualization, Windows Server, System Center and Private Cloud technologies, Symon is a recognized expert in high availability, failover clustering, network load balancing, storage solutions, mobile, domain and web services. Symon contributed to several technical books for clustering, virtualization and SQL, wrote technology articles for Business Today, and is the founder of Microsoft’s Failover Clustering & Network Load Balancing Blog.

Corey Hynes | An IT Infrastructure consultant with more than 15 years in the field focusing on operating system virtualization, management and deployment. Corey has been working with products such as Hyper-V, VMware, and XEN extensively since they were introduced. Currently, Corey is working with Microsoft and Citrix to help partners design and architect enterprise class VDI implementations using XenDesktop and Hyper-V. Corey is also the owner and lead technical architect for holSystems, an online VM hosting engine for training and demo providers, which hosts thousands of VM instances in a custom thin provisioning engine, available on-demand worldwide.

Register now for all three sessions!
Session 1 | March 29, 2011 from 10am-4pm PST
Session 2 | March 30, 2011 from 10am-4pm PST
Session 3 | March 31, 2011 from 10am-4pm PST

Please help us spread the word by posting this tweet: Mar. 29-31 "Microsoft #Virtualization for VMware Pros" @SymonPerriman Corey Hynes http://bit.ly/JS-Hyper-V @MSLearning #Hyper-V