My colleague Sol pointed out this article which gives a nice summary of the Quickstart and some of the reasons why this was created and how the Partner Programme will be taking up the mantle from July 07 onwards:

http://mcpmag.com/features/article.asp?EditorialsID=703

The article also alludes to some of the challenges around Quickstart which will be ironed out with the Partner Programme for example Partner Networking.

Top Tip: if you want to be in the Search Specialisation from July onwards then make sure you have all your search specialists registered in Quickstart and that they have taken the courses and material as well as the certification exam :-)

What will this get you:

1. Help position your business for when customers come looking for search trained partners

2. Help us to offer you marketing, incentives and technical training courses

3. Help us to network your business with likeminded companies

Look forward to seeing you in there!

Enjoy!

Really great to see the importance of compute cluster server in Microsoft go right to the top! Check out the article in the April cover story of Wall Street & Technology. It features an interview with Steve Ballmer, in which he “discusses what high-performance computing, Vista and Excel Services 2007 can do for capital markets.” The article takes a broad look at Wall Street firms’ use and assessment of HPC, grid and SOA technologies to enable business operations. In addition to quotes from Microsoft, the article contains quotes from customers, partners and analysts.

Wall Street Journal article

(FYI it took me a couple of goes to get the website to launch - well worth the wait however!)

Enjoy!

You are cordially invited to join Microsoft, industry experts and your peers as Microsoft presents the UK User Group meeting for CCS, 27 April 2007 in Reading.

Are you doing clusters on Windows?

Come and spend a day with the users and developers of Microsoft Compute Cluster Server

On April 27, Microsoft is hosting the first UK user group for High productivity Computing using Microsoft's Compute Cluster Server, Microsoft's cluster operating system.  The day will feature presentations from users and developers, including the Microsoft development team, Microsoft Research and meetings with key Microsoft executives.  Users from engineering, finance, academia and manufacturing will be present.

Come and exchange experience and practices with your peers, and Microsoft. 

This is being organised by the UK Microsoft HPC User Group, chaired by Professor Simon Cox, School of Engineering Sciences, University of Southampton.

Networking:
This is an excellent opportunity for networking among your peers. Several members of the CCS development team will be on hand to discuss their work and receive your feedback, first hand.

Register by April 20^th, at this link:

We look forward to seeing you there! 

Following on from the huge take-up in training mentioned last week: HPC training...free...come and get it! we have laid on the following extra dates for you all:

https://training.Partner.microsoft.com/plc/details.aspx?publisher=12&delivery=229208 - April

https://training.Partner.microsoft.com/plc/details.aspx?publisher=12&delivery=229148 - May

The agenda is the same as before - just more spaces for the crew!

See you there!

Want to freshen your skills and get a reality check - read on! Came across this site a few weeks back and have been meaning to share with you all - Trizle

The whole blog is an interesting one with some really cool advice around lots of areas, I had a scoot around it this morning and came up with my top 7 (no reason why 7, might be lucky!) and grouped them for you:

Team Dynamics:

• How to Keep Your Superstars Rocking
• How to Destroy Your Superstars - 'The ridiculously-cool people want to kick ass if you let them' - love that comment!
• How to Boost Confidence Immediately

Business Dynamics:

• When to Buy Technology (for Startups)
• Why “Better” Products Don’t Sell

Winning:

• How to Find Innovative Business Ideas
• How to rock the competition

Great practical, straight talking advice, if you run teams, run channels or just like winning this is for you!

Enjoy!

So many years ago, Microsoft used to have a hard time around Security, it's been really great to see our progress in this area and now it's actually becoming quite a key differentiator for us. Check out the great post below from Jeff Jones - I used to work with him when I developed the security channel some years ago:

http://blogs.csoonline.com/windows_vista_90_day_vulnerability_report

The bit I liked was this:

Hmm maybe those Apple stores had better stop crowing about the reason you choose Mac OS is for security and a hassle free life - guys and girls come on in the water is warm!

So what does this mean for clustering and HPC - well many of you are looking at Microsoft for departmental reasons and many for the first time for high performance computing - don't let security put you off actually it should only turn you on to Microsoft!

Don't believe just me on this, after all, even Symantec are highlighting the Microsoft progress.. http://www.internetnews.com/security/article.php/3667201

Enjoy!

Many of you will know about the huge benefit of Excel Services in the Financial Services Sector - fancy knowing more then check out this paper from HCL about their plans around Excel Services for Financial customers - great for use in a clustered environment too!

“Within Financial Services and other industries, Excel is the glue that links the
majority of the business processes of an organisation together. However, it has been
the curse of the compliance department. Excel Services is now redefining the way
that financial services companies build solutions and manage their compliance
requirements, making like easier for the industry “, says James Burns, CTO Financial
Services, Microsoft UK.

http://www.hcltech.com/pdf/Enabling%20Compliance.pdf

Enjoy!

Real stats on how to save money and help save the environment:

· Reduce the carbon dioxide generated by an organisation, equal to 45 tonnes per year for a business with 200 desktop PCs. 

· Deliver savings on energy bills of up to £46 per desktop PC per year.

Enough said, read this:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2007/mar07/03-21vistapowermgmt.mspx

Enjoy!

Was on the tube yesterday and saw this rather cool ad about the Information Revolution, Steve also captured this in his blog: Get a free Information Revolution t-shirt as did Valley Wag with a slightly more jaded view point.

Some great videos from people talking about the information revolution and the benefits and concerns that we could all have in this field, check out the following neat video from a journalist talking on the topic:

http://www.information-revolution.org/videos.php?video=journo.flv&id_num=5&textVid=0

Of course if you do want the T-Shirt then grab one here: http://www.information-revolution.org/requestshirt.php

Interesting stuff for the future of your rights, be they copyright or just personal rights. So i guess questions I could ask would be as follows:

1. Could these view points be aimed at any successful company?(I remember the passport days and the trouble Microsoft got in when we asked everyone to sign in using Passport - privacy and trust issues aplenty)
2. Does the rise of the Search Engine make the importance, availability and prevalence of personal data on the web all the more important?
3. Should Government respond through policy or how can we control what people know versus have access to?
4. Should we all just chill out and let the market determine what happens ?(guess we should ask Amnesty for some stories there)

A hugely interesting topic and not one I want to take this blog into too far, but keen to highlight the topical nature of the technology areas I work within and the nature of future access to information.

Enjoy!

Just seen this post over on LiveSide 'Comcast unhappy with Google, may use MS Search?' Now it would be very easy for me to start crowing about the business proposition that Microsoft has, the account teams, the customer care, the security development lifecycle allowing us to compete strategically by business processes we follow etc but I smell procurement voodoo going on here!

Allow me to digress for 30 seconds if I may: today I had a double glazing salesman over to check out my place for some new windows - now did I hand over a signed cheque with the first chap who walked in the door - nope I went to tender (short process took 2 days) and got a few quotes - then we all bartered.

Now I imagine back in the 20th century when the first double glazing arrived, maybe people like me had no choice and so the salesman could be the King of armchair sales. Well, guess what - choice brings competition and a better commercial deal for customers - I am of course only talking about double glazing... :-)

So what do I think about the Comcast article? Blimmin' great, it means we are at the table - who would have thought it from reading some of the blog posts over the weekend!

Bring it on!!

Huge huge thanks to my mate Matt for helping me make this blog look soooo much better! Really needed the 'pimp my blog' experience! If you fancy checking out Vista, Virtualisation and more then check out his blog Peering through Windows.

Enjoy!

Just a quick post this one - anyone fancy joining the first HPC User group then great event here to come along to: 

Timings

08:30 Registration

09:15   Introductions

09:30   TBD- Windows Compute Cluster Server introduction

10:00   Prof Simon Cox- Tools, Technologies and Platforms for High Productivity Computing"

10:30   Break

10:45   Prof Mike Giles- Monte Carlo calculations in finance"

11:15   Graham Twaddle, Corporate Modelling- “Clusters as Mainframes: Batch Processing”

11:45   Ryan Waite- Microsoft Roundtable

12:30   Lunch

13:30   Fabrizio Gagliardi- Technical Computing at Microsoft

14:00   Prof Andy Keane- CFD and design optimisation on Compute Cluster Server"

14:30   Break

15:00   CFD on CCS, TBD

15:30   Ryan Waite- Compute Cluster Futures

16:00   Close

 Fancy it then register here: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032334086&Culture=en-GB

 See you there!

Great news on the HPC e-learning side around new webcasts for Schlumberger and ESi working with Microsoft CCS:

Live HPC Webcast: High Performance Computing for Oil and Gas with Schlumberger’s ECLIPSE on Windows Compute Cluster Server.

April 17, 2007 * 11:00am PST

Join us for an informative and exciting webcast on high performance computing successes in the Oil and Gas industry. Windows Compute Cluster Server (WCCS) has changed the game. Learn how Microsoft WCCS facilitates the use of small clusters within a homogeneous Windows environment making the power of cluster computing available to individual workgroups and small exploration and production companies.  Presenter, David Gorsuch, Portfolio Manager for Schlumberger’s Reservoir Engineering Software Business will discuss in detail how Schlumberger's ECLIPSE product on WCCS provides an innovative and effective solution to reservoir simulations and computational modelling.

Register Today!

Live HPC Webcast: ESI Accelerates Mechanical Simulations with Windows Compute Cluster Server

April 27, 2007 * 8:00am PST

Crashworthiness simulation software is an essential element of the crash and safety value chain.  Join us to learn how Microsoft partner, ESI Group is making strides in simulation testing with Windows Compute Cluster Server. ESI’s PAM-CRASH 2G and Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 accelerates calculation speed and provides a powerful and cost-effective platform for running crash analysis simulation.  Learn how this technology combination offers a cost-effective parallel processing solution for testing that would otherwise require large system resources.

Register Today!

Now you don't have to sit through a boring presentation day - you can do it from the comfort of your own desk/chair or sofa!

Enjoy!

Hat-tip to Steve for spotting this new resource for SharePoint Search: SharePoint Server 2007 Search: Deep Diving,includes all of the following:

• Enterprise Search Strategy and Opportunities (SharePointServer2007SearchDeepDiveA.exe)
  This session starts with an overview of Microsoft's enterprise search strategy, reviews the various products that it affects, and outlines what is new in SharePoint Search for the 2007 Microsoft Office system. Lastly, it discusses opportunities for partners building on the platform.

• SharePoint Search Extensibility (SharePointServer2007SearchDeepDiveB.exe)
  This session addresses the core extensibility scenarios in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) search, such as customizing the user interface, custom search using client applications, and crawling new repositories, including line-of-business data. It also covers the administration object model.

• Protocol Handlers and IFilters (SharePointServer2007SearchDeepDiveC.exe)
  Learn about the overall architecture of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) search. Protocol Handlers and iFilter interfaces are described in detail with code examples.

• Customizing and Extending Search in Office SharePoint Server 2007 (SharePointServer2007SearchDeepDiveD.exe)
  Learn how to customize Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) search user interface and build search based applications in this session. Branding, Web parts and extending search using the object model and Web services are discussed.

• Business Data Search (SharePointServer2007SearchDeepDiveE.exe)
  The Business Data Catalog (BDC) enables search to reach into line-of-business repositories and provide integrated search results. Learn about the Business Data Catalog including the design motivations, scenarios, and the apis.

• SharePoint Search Deployment Scenarios(SharePointServer2007SearchDeepDiveF.exe)
  This session reviews both Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 search topologies, and various deployment scenarios such as a collaboration environment, enterprise portals, and internet facing portals

The full download can be found here: download

Enjoy!

I really like the Execupundit blog and came across this Career Manifesto. Some great words of wisdom from Michael Wade. Some of the most frustrating things I find in business, both the one I work in but also people I meet from other companies (ironically called representatives ;-)), are comments like the following:

1. Well the Director hasn't arranged a meeting with me yet?
2. Nobody understands the impact of my role and they are focussed on the wrong things
3. What world are 'that' team in?
4. How could you possibly work for 'that' company and sleep at night?

My favorite is the following: 'I have had such a hard day' - yeah, really, well tell that to the children who don't have a bed to sleep on at night or the person who has just had their house repossessed, or the mother who has just lost her child. Sometimes a sense of perspective can be an amazing thing.

I am reading a book by Daniel Goleman called Social Intelligence at the moment, a great read, taking longer than I want (and yes Steve aware you want to read it this year...! :-)) One of the most interesting insights is the manner in which a bad atmosphere and or friction/pressure in an environment can adversely affect your health.

If you don't like it, don't get on with it - then it really can eat away at you - have the courage to get off the bus and stop being a mood hoover, you might just save your own sanity. 

Nice refreshing video here showing you a relaxed Steve and his views on Google as well as his joining process into Microsoft:

Ballmer: Google's growth strategy is 'insane'

Kind of cool and candid - hope you all have a great weekend!

Enjoy!

Made me smile, feels like this sometimes in business :-)

So I guess a few things have been niggling away at the back of my mind around the new kids on the block and I want to put a few ideas out there, around the whole experience piece:

• I like to eat out in a restaurant cared for by an owner, chef and a good waiter and or waitress - I would struggle to have that same experience in a layby cafe
• When I ask for replacement windows I like to have an experience whereby I get a service, including all the essential elements so that I have a set of fitted windows, with woodwork/metalwork of my choice with glazing that match by specification and fitted to my expectations - I wouldn't ask an art school graduate to do this role - the result might look cool but would it really deliver on the experience side?

You get the point so I wont labour it any further, the key here is the experience of the end user. Often the areas that count are the back up and support to make that experience worthwhile and memorable. So how is this relevant to Google around Enterprise Search?

• Their business is 80% direct but who cares and why is this important:

The beauty of a channel business (like Microsoft's which is 97% indirect) is the ability of a company to get their software tailored for the vertical and or target audience be they small businesses, legal firms, finance analysts or any other of the myriad of businesses that our partners sell into. What does this mean? The customer gets what they want in the format they desire - in short - it's all about a better user experience.

I hear what you are probably thinking - sometimes I want to speak to the horses mouth - dealing direct with a business is a great way to get future insight. At Microsoft that is easyish (no rose tinted spectacles here) but in the areas of security, specifically the ways we make software and the way in which we stand behind what we do this is really really important. So what is our experience for customers and partners: in short it's as businesses expect:

'Microsoft products are supported by Customer Support and Service and the MSRR (Security response) team. Through those two channels they have the support structure needed to address any service request that comes to us at any hour of the day from anywhere in the world'

Why do we do this at a huge cost to ourselves but equally huge value to our customers? - simple:

• We make software - software is our business - it's all we do - so we care

Beware the company who sells you one thing in order to get something else - maybe they just want to get to know you so they can sell more of another service. In this hypothetical example ( :-)) - this could be an advertising business who uses software as a tactic to get more of their core strategy into a market - advertising.

Why?

The software business is worth around $140bn globally, the advertising business around $580bn - now ask yourself do Google really care about the software you consume from them?

Sound far fetched? - check this out:

Worry 2: Service level agreements. Since I put Microsoft Office on my PC I know it's going to work. For a hosted service, even one run by Google, I want to see what the SLA looks like. The issue: When I read the terms and clicked on the SLA link I got a 404 error. For this experiment, I overlooked that small item and continued the sign up. If I were a small business I wouldn't have.

Some of the related links you might like to review can be found here:

• The Microsoft Software Development Lifecycle - Advantage Microsoft by Michael Howard
• Read the fine print of Google Office
• The Cost of Lost Data: The importance of investing in that “ounce of prevention”

Enjoy your Friday!

Great deal been announced to highlight Live Services on OEM laptops starting with Lenovo - covered well by my friends over on LiveSide:

Microsoft announces Windows Live deal with Lenovo

Also, in the press here:

Lenovo loads up on Windows Live Search

But I guess the deal that we all heard less about was this one which could indeed give greater scale and coverage than even the Lenovo deal:

Nokia to put Microsoft search on mobiles

Really nice to see our friends over on Live delivering the goods and hitting scale through OEM!

Just a quick one to point out the brand spanking new training available next week, mostly full already but there will be some more in May so get ready!

Agenda as follows:

If you fancy it then just click here and join in! If you are not already a certified or registered partner then you will need to join here at this website.

Enjoy!

Finding the energy performance of your servers gets you down, let alone costs you an arm and a leg, Intel may just have the answer?

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070312/20070312005400.html?.v=1

Press Release

Source: Intel Corporation

Intel Marks Energy-Efficient Milestone with 50-Watt, High-Performing Quad-Core Server Processors

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Further expanding its quad-core processor family line-up, Intel Corporation today announced two energy-efficient 50-watt server processors that represent a 35- to nearly 60-percent decrease in power from Intel's existing 80- and 120-watt quad-core server products.

Very interesting for HPC and Search server farms...huge implications for businesses in high density areas with energy capacity challenges!

Launched today, we had just a touch of legal playing around but have successfully launched the incentive today - huge thanks to the UK legal team in Microsoft for the great help they gave on this! See previous post: Announcing: High Performance Lovin' from Microsoft...trip to Denver anyone?

If you don't know what this is, are a partner in the UK and want to know more - then please send me a comment or mail and you would be more than welcome to join in!

Enjoy!

So I was having a look around at a few blogs over the weekend and I read the following really interesting post:

http://www.trizle.com/how-giving-rocks/ 

It made me think about using this blog to highlight a charity a few mates and I run in our spare time called the Silicon Cup - the idea is simple:

• 2 days of sailing per year in one huge event
• The IT Industry at large with their vendors, suppliers and customers - Vodafone, O2, Accenture, Doherty, TBS, SUN and IBM - you name it they come
• 800ish people, 80ish yachts ranging from World Class yachts to very very simple sailing boats racing and partying for 2 days
• Best value corporate hospitality money can buy

So far we have raised around £200,000 for children's charities over the last few years, if you fancy 2 great fun days in September and want to give something back then please get in touch with myself through the blog or directly through the Silicon Cup website - thanks!

Simple choice it's either me or the presenter...decisions decisions...

Now this really made me laugh out loud, Rowan from Fortify your Oasis has some absolutely superb points to describe those less skilled presenters:

• Ass Narcissism - "I’m just going to turn my back on you now and read all my slides off the screen. Enjoy the view!"
• Tolstoy wannabe - "I know that I can fit the entire text of War & Peace onto the next three slides. Thank God for sub-bullets!"
• Myopia - these presenters literally cannot see beyond the end of their nose and so fail to notice that their audience is either asleep or has gone home
• Tunnel vision - those who can see only the one person in the audience who is smiling and nodding out of sympathy, not the other 99 who have fallen asleep/gone home
• "I'm Eclipse Boy!" - "There must be some moth in my genetic heritage; but you can read the slide off my chest can’t you?"
• Hypoempathy - presenters who use the phrase, “Now this is a very important point” more than once never ask themselves the essential question - important to who?
• "Gotta sing, gotta dance" - "Sure, this topic could have been covered in an email, but what can I say? I just loooove being bathed in the glow of the data projector."
• Slide amnesia - a subset of Ass Narcissism, when the presenter seems surprised that a certain slide has popped up on screen and is forced to read it out word for word …
• Dispunctional - the presenter has no concept of time and is eating into the next presenter's slot or, worse yet, into coffee break
• Complarrogance - a rare condition, characterised by all of the above symptoms

The only one missing is:

• Jazz Hands - those people who imitate a puppeteer on speed whilst presenting (aka me :-()

Loving the work Rowan!

How many presentations have I sat in, that to be quiet frank bore the pants of everyone watching and listening? Hmmm and how many have I been presenting... :-)

Whilst looking for ways to brighten up both this blog and my presentations I came across this great site: http://www.thesimplegallery.com/pictures.php check it out and add a little sparkle to your presentations!

Enjoy!