I just found out about this and had to pass it on! John and I have been colleagues for years and I am certain that this will be an incredible training. This intensive one week event is designed to give attendees the skills required to architect, deploy and manage a Microsoft centric environment. By the...

TechEd 2013 North America will take place June 3-6 in New Orleans. TechEd is Microsoft’s premiere conference for IT Professionals and Enterprise Developers, offering the most comprehensive technical education across Microsoft's products, solutions, tools, and services. I have had the privilege...

Another great month and another great series.  This month we are going to be talking about Windows Azure IaaS .  As many you may know on April 16th 2013, the Windows Azure team announced that Windows Azure Infrastructure Services (Virtual Machines and Virtual Networks ) was released for General...

In Part 3 of the Windows Azure IaaS series I discuss with Keith Mayer common scenarios in which IT Pros may use Windows Azure as a hybrid solution between their on-premise and cloud service needs. Tune in as we discuss disaster recovery and storage as well as how to migrate your SharePoint environment...

When you first start working with provision your private cloud, you will need to learn how to provision the physical hardware or bare metal of your environment.  Learning how to provision bare metal systems allows you to deploy physical systems to serve various roles.  In regards to the private...

I had the privilege to sit down and talk with Yuri Diogenes and Tom Shinder to talk about Windows Azure IaaS .   We chatted about the overall capabilities to configure and deploy VMs, security functionalities and recommendations during the migration process. I also did a quick demonstration...

When you start to think of building a private cloud into your datacenters, you might naturally think you need run out and buy a SAN. While you still may want to go buy a SAN, with Windows Server 2012 you do not necessarily need to. In Windows Server 2012 there has been a tremendous amount of improvement...

Build your very own Virtual Network in the Cloud for FREE with the Windows Azure cloud platform, and Enter for a chance to win one of the following fantastic prizes: One Grand Prize: Ticket to TechEd 2013 North America in New Orleans, LA ( $2,195 retail value ) PLUS a $500 VISA Gift Card. Two...

When you are working with Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V you will want to keep an eye on your servers to make sure they are running properly and they are maintained. In this post I am going to show some of the things that are built-in the server, specifically with PowerShell. More importantly you are...

As I wrote in October of last year, SMB is dramatically improved, to learn more about SMB take a look at this article: 31 Days of Our Favorite Things: SMB 3.0 the Glue in Windows Server 2012 .  In this post, you will take a closer look at how Hyper-V and SMB.  Bob takes a look at some of the...

Here is a part 17 and Tommy does a great job at taking a look at System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager (VMM).    He shows how it works with Hyper-V and what you can monitor about your virtualization environments  Check out his post here: Virtualization Experts Series – Virtualization...

To download a copy of a slide deck: Click on the bottom right of the PowerPoint to “View full-size presentation” In the new browser window go to the menu and click File –> Download a copy Session 1: System Center 2012 SP1 and Azure IaaS Overview Session 2: Upgrade To Windows Server 2012 Session 3...

In part 13 I talked about how to cluster your Hyper-V hosts.  You can read that here: 20 Days of Server Virtualization- Your Hyper-V Hosts and Clustering an Availability Story (Part 13 of 20)   In this part Keith takes a look at how to cluster your guest operating systems take a look at his...

One of the features in Windows Server 2012 that got greatly enhanced is the Failover Clustering. See the bottom of this post for a list of all the new and improved features. In today’s part we are going to take a look at how Hyper-V takes advantages of some of these enhancements and how you can...

As some of you may know I am extremely excited about Windows Azure IaaS and the virtual machines feature (currently in customer preview). During my sessions I get a lot of the same questions about how Windows Azure IaaS works. Well I had a chance to do an ask the experts session a couple of weeks ago...

One of the services we introduced in Windows Server 2008 R2 was the iSCSI services (which was a free download)  In Windows Server 2012 this is built-in and easy to install.  You can also do a majority of the work in PowerShell.  In this part Keith takes a look at the iSCSI services and...

As IT Pros, we absolutely love building with new technology! In February, my fellow IT Pro Technical Evangelists and I have been worked together on an article series for Migration and Deployment of Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows Azure and System Center 2012 SP1 to help get you started. Here...

Today get two posts for the price of one.  Dan and Chris take a great look at Dynamic Memory in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V .  Dan’s post takes you thoroughly through the feature he even does a comparison of Hyper-V Dynamic Memory vs. ESX Overcommit.  He does a great job take a look at...

Well another month and another series!  This month we are going to be going through Virtualization and talking about how Windows Server 2012 has changed the game when it comes to Virtualization.  This month we are going to take a look at all great things you need to know.  In this first...

Here is the latest info on the Microsoft IT Camp series as we dive into how to get your datacenter ready for the cloud and beyond. Join us at a FREE Microsoft IT Camp for hands-on labs, demos, and interactive discussions with Microsoft technical experts. Here’s your chance to learn more about...

Here are all the parts of the series for Windows Server 2012 virtualization. Remember to take a look at Hyper-V server: Try Hyper-V Server or Windows Server 2012: Try Windows Server 2012 The Hyper-V Primer – 20+ Days of Server Virtualization You Want to Hot-Add What?! - 20+ Days of Server...

Want to go to MMS on Microsoft’s dime?  Want a chance to win free stuff?, Want to have your knowledge tested?  Then take on the: Microsoft Trivia Challenge! How does it work? Download. Play. Win.  Go here to sign up: Microsoft Trivia Challenge   between January 15, 2013 through March...

As some of you noticed we have been delivering another series this month focusing on Deployment and Migration on several scenarios. This post is do you caught up some of the great posts we have delivered over the last couple of weeks. 6. Requirements for a fresh Windows Server 2012 Installation...

Introduction to Windows Server 2012 Migration Tools One of the fantastic tools we included in Windows Server 2012 are the migration tools. If you are familiar with Windows Server 2008 R2, then you are familiar with these tools. The tools can easily help you to migrate either to a Windows Server 2012...

Today Kevin takes you on a tour of how to test Windows Server 2012 Storage Spaces in Windows Azure .  He does a great job of taking you step by step through the process.  We also talked about Storage Spaces in our 31 days of Our Favorite Things series we did in October.  You can check...