Premier Support Ireland

AD Disaster Recovery: Can We Afford to Wait?

Premier Support Ireland — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 11:38:00 GMT

If your home is within close proximity to an earthquake fault line, chances are you have accepted that you will experience an earthquake in your lifetime and have most likely purchased insurance to protect your home and belongings.

And during these current times of recession, most of us have come to understand how important it is to have some cash reserves in the bank just in case jobs go away and revenue streams dry up. Whatever the scenario, we all know it's always good to have a back up plan, a "Plan B" just in case.

Are you taking the same approach to the management of your Active Directory? In the world of AD, that earthquake or recession takes life in the form of an Active Directory catastrophic failure.

Close your eyes and imagine the havoc that would ensue if all of the sudden domain controllers could no longer perform directory lookups due to corrupted databases? How many calls would your service desk start receiving if users cannot log on to their machines?

"AD's central problem today has much to do with its longevity, and the fact that it rarely goes down. In fact, when it does go down, it takes every single part of your computing environment with it. " (Redmond Mag)

Do you have the insurance policy, er Disaster Recovery plans in place which would help you get services quickly restored in the rare, but disastrous occurrence of an AD failure??

No AD DR plans? First, read this great article to get the ball rolling.

Then, sign up or request info for our upcoming AD Disaster Recovery and Back Up workshop scheduled for June 25 - 28 in our Dublin Offices. The course covers how to avoid failures in the first place, but also a wide variety of disaster scenarios that can occur and how to make plans for recovery.

If your home near the earthquake fault line were severely damaged and contents ruined, what would you do if you had no insurance policy to quickly start over? How long would it take you to restore the lifestyle you and your family had before the disaster? Now think about this in the context of the AD estate you manage at your organisation. Can they afford to wait while you rebuild AD from scratch?

Resources:

http://www.packtpub.com/article/how-to-recover-from-an-active-directory-failure

http://redmondmag.com/articles/2010/02/01/avoiding-activedirectory-disasters.aspx

Windows 7 Training Makes Cents

Premier Support Ireland — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 11:51:00 GMT

We all know the arrival of Windows 8 is on the horizon and there's some big hoopla coming with it. And rightfully so--with the promise of a cool new user interface (especially optimised for touch screens), native USB 3.0 support and great new tools for developers to create a new generation of apps among just a few of the sweet new features coming with Windows 8, it's totally understandable that people are licking their lips in anticipation.

But hold on, wait a minute, most of our Enterprises have only just recently converted over to Windows 7, let alone Windows 8. Or maybe your company has just begun the migration process to Windows 7, coming off of XP or Vista. You might be one of those questioning the value of investing time and resources to getting your Windows 7 deployments up to scratch, and ensuring your IT staff who support it have the deep admin knowledge on the product, when Windows 8 is approaching over the next year. It's a fair conclusion at first glance, but to hold off getting the know-how you need on Windows 7 doesn't really make good sense. From a cost and support perspective for the enterprise customer, Windows 7 doesn't even reach the end of mainstream support until January of 2015. Yes, 2015. That's still 3 years away. Unless there is some unique, compelling reason to leap-frog forward to the future in the OS world, the majority of our companies will be looking to postpone increased investment in OS deployments until it becomes absolutely necessary from a support perspective. And...Windows 7 is pretty sweet itself:

Easier to install and less power hungry than Vista
Less annoying notifications and pop-ups
Designed with mobile devices in mind so Windows 7 is more energy efficient
Networking has been made alot easier. Share a printer and several machines
Searching for documents and files is even easier
32bit and 64bit versions available
Strong backwards compatibility with Windows XP programmes
Superb data backup features

So really, it makes a whole lotta cents to get your team sorted with the knowledge and skills they need to effectively manage Windows 7 for your enterprise as it's gonna be around for a long while. Premier Support Ireland is hosting a Windows 7 Essentials workshop from 24-26 January 2012 in our Dublin offices for eligible Premier Support customers. The course will cover security, enhanced user-experience features, as well as performance and troubleshooting tools. Spaces are limited, so be sure to contact us now to get more information and secure your place.

(Get Windows 7 SP1 now)

Sources:

http://www.cio.com/article/683478/How_Windows_8_Will_Challenge_Enterprise_IT

http://www.peats.com/cgi-bin/catalog_v2.cgi?id=26308&type=product

Using System Center for IT Service Management

Premier Support Ireland — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 15:54:00 GMT

“Providers of IT services can no longer afford to focus on technology and their internal organization;
they now have to consider the quality of the services they provide and focus on the relationship with customers.”

Last week Irish customers of Microsoft Premier Support Services gathered at our customer event and had the opportunity to watch demos of some of Microsoft’s latest technology as well as insights on how to better manage the IT services delivered within their own enterprises. Of particular interest was a great demo on integrating system Center to monitor and manage across the IT service lifecycle.

System Center’s built-in processes are based on industry best practices such as those found in Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) and the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), so it makes sense to leverage the technology you already have to start driving the IT service management improvement you are looking for within your enterprise.

Want to learn more? Check out some great demos available to see what you can accomplish with the System Center suite. Then contact your Service Delivery Manager to see how you can leverage your Premier Support agreement to get started.

Sources:

IT Service Management Forum (2002). van Bon, J.. ed. IT Service Management: An Introduction. Van Haren Publishing. ISBN 9080671347.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/servicemanager/archive/2010/01/13/system-center-service-manager-demos.aspx

Find Your Opportunity in the Cloud

Premier Support Ireland — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:30:00 GMT

With all the promise of exciting innovation and improved efficiencies that are to come from the IT world’s evolution to the Cloud, there also comes a bit of fear and hesitation with where the journey will take us. We as human beings are pre-programmed to resist change in certain capacities as a defense- mechanism to protect ourselves from looming threat. For many IT professionals, that perceived threat is that our expertise in the on-premise world will become obsolete, no longer needed. Often times the fears of job instability and loss of security can draw our attention away from the benefits that our organisation’s move to the Cloud will offer and thus make us resist this coming change.

But what we also know is that when we choose to “look on the bright side” when dealing with these fears, we might realize that we can begin to minimise them by educating ourselves on what the Cloud evolution really means so that we can start involving ourselves in the process. The more we know, the more we can contribute and the more likely we will be called upon to be a key player in the journey.

“Companies that instill the knowledge and understanding their IT professionals and developers require in making the transition to

cloud based skills will enable transition to the cloud both more successfully and more profitably."

In that light, the imminent question we must ask ourselves is:

What can we do to prepare?

Microsoft has recently published a white paper, outlining the essential skills IT professionals should consider enhancing as the landscape of the IT world continues to take flight into the Cloud.

Does your career fit into any of the following roles? Read below to get an idea of skill development needed for specific IT management functions:

"Critical Skills by IT Job Role"

The following are job roles and skills the IT professional can invest in:

Business liaison: Move skills up the stack in the decision process. Hone expertise to the business from within IT. Move into design and architecture roles. Determine whether to focus in-house or off-premise, define options whether the organization decides to stay on-premise or moves to the cloud.

Datacenter manager: Reposition datacenter skills toward the hosted datacenter. Enhance automation skills. Work in standardized environments and with standardized applications as an option. Become good at management applications, scripting, and performance optimization. Acquire best practices skills, such as information services technology management.

Security specialist: Help businesses move core business processes and data securely to private, public, or hybrid cloud solutions. Security specialists need to stay abreast of new security models and technologies, such as data protection skills, privacy standards, securing message integrity (encryption, digital signing and malware protection), federated identity management, authentication methods, and auditing. Organizations need to have security- and compliance-certified employees.

Software architect: Serve as a link between the organization’s technical and business staff. Architects are asked to design and build complex distributed systems that exist both outside and
inside an enterprise and the cloud. They need to acquire the new skills required to build infrastructure, platform, and software clouds. They need to understand how to design and construct multi-tenant and virtualized systems that can manage thousands of simultaneous users and isolate higher levels of the stack from physical component failures.

Finally, the move to the Cloud will lead to dramatic transformations in how Business units communicate with the IT Unit at firms. Conversations between the entities will become less and less focused on discrete pieces of technology software and hardware, and more and more about the value-added services that are supported by the behind-the-scenes work of the IT unit. It won’t be just about technical skill in the very near future. Make no mistake, we all (regardless of our role in the IT front) must continuously develop our own soft skills as IT professionals will become increasingly called upon to serve as communication ambassadors for IT to other business units.

It would be a worthy investment of time to seek out courses that will help develop the essential soft skills we will need as it becomes more and more about articulating business value in the context of IT management. For the technical skills outlined above in the role-based descriptors, consider leveraging your Premier Support agreement with Microsoft to get access to affordable, high-quality training by Subject Matter Experts. Premier Support has access to a pool of world-class engineers who are highly-skilled at sharing their expertise in all areas, including virtualision, security compliance and protection, scripting & automation, as well as process optimisation.

Ready to get started? Give Premier Support Ireland a shout, and start finding your own opportunity in the Cloud.

Sources:

Resistance to Change:

http://changingminds.org/disciplines/change_management/resistance_change/resistance_change.htm

Microsoft Cloud Whitepaper:

https://partner.microsoft.com/global/40175589?msp_id=rssgloballearnsol156

Microsoft Embraces the Consumerisation of IT!!

Premier Support Ireland — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:08:00 GMT

A series of technology trends is leading to rapid progress and change in the technology we use at home, which in turn is influencing how we expect to use technology for work and driving the consumerisation of IT. As these technology trends converge with social and business trends, the role that technology plays throughout our lives will continue to evolve.

The computing ecosystem. Our view of what defines a computer is changing as previously “unintelligent” objects are gaining intelligence, becoming connected, and joining the ecosystem of computing. We are entering the era of an “Internet of things” in which almost any object can be connected to the Internet and collect data that contributes to a global web of knowledge. Virtually every type of product is becoming part of the computing ecosystem—from cars, phones, and houses to scales, cameras, power meters, and televisions. Many of the computers you’ll interact with in the future will be in devices that we don’t think of as computers today. In effect, computing is becoming increasingly invisible. The explosion of data. The
immense number of digital devices in our world is driving an explosion in data. Deep analysis of this vast amount of data is enabling computers to begin to understand the physical world and to behave in a more human way, anticipating our needs and understanding our intentions.

Natural interaction. More natural ways to interact with technology are rapidly emerging—multitouch, voice, vision, gestures, and many more. This means that for the first time, computing will adapt to us and demonstrate some degree of “intelligence.” This trend will see computers shift from being tools to being helpers, performing tasks on our behalf based on an awareness of the environments we are in and the context of our actions. Ultimately, this will enable computing interfaces that are far more natural and increasingly simple to use, helping eliminate the learning curve of today’s technology.

Pervasive displays. New display technologies will give rise to displays that are light, portable, flexible and cheap. We’ll carry a screen around with us as easily as we carry a magazine today, and we’ll take for granted the fact that screens are embedded wherever they might be useful—whether we’re at home, at work, on the move, or in public spaces. And ubiquitous connectivity will automatically link our information to those screens when we want to use them.

Social computing. Social computing has already changed how we create and maintain our connections with others. But the world of social computing remains highly fragmented. The lack of integration creates frustrating disconnects that are inevitable when we are forced to switch between services and applications to stay up to date. Social computing will undergo a dramatic transformation as technology advances make it possible to weave our social lives more deeply and more seamlessly into every aspect of our digital lives, so that information from our social networks can provide insights to guide us in the real world and online. Social networking itself will also change, becoming far more visual and less text-centric.

Cloud computing. With its massive data centers, cloud computing delivers virtually infinite resources, providing the storage capacity and processing power to tackle some of the world’s toughest problems in healthcare, the environment, energy, scientific discovery, and many other fields. A hub for all data and information, it will enable us to capture, store, index, parse, and recall as much of our day-to-day lives as we choose to share. It will also provide a platform for orchestrating the flow of information and technology across our lives so that we always have instant access to the tools and information that we need. Fundamental breakthroughs in massively parallel computing will enable us to see patterns in data that can make actionable intelligence more prevalent.

Ubiquitous connectivity. Increasingly we will be connected at all times to people, information, services and applications without requiring any specific action on our part. This will liberate the information that we have created ourselves and unlock any information from any source that might be relevant to where we are and what we are trying to accomplish, bringing everything we need together seamlessly in the form that is most useful.

Premier Support can help you get started or quicken the pace with which your organisation embraces the changing face of organisational IT services management in the face of the consumerisation of IT.

-Upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 today. This is also the best way to start preparing for the next generation of Windows as virtually all applications that run on Windows 7 will run on Windows 8

-Start planning your migrations to System Center 2012 and Active Directory 2008 R2

-Work with us to complete an Optimization/Readiness Assessment of your core infrastructure, your business productivity infrastructure, or your application platform

-Let us help you envision how Microsoft can help with the consumerization of IT with envisioning sessions and architecture design sessions

For more information or to get started, drop us at Premier a line so we can help.

To PowerShell or Not to PowerShell....?

Premier Support Ireland — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:29:00 GMT

Ever wonder if it's worth the bother to invest time in learning Powershell?

-“It’s safe to say that the single most important skill a Windows administrator will need in the coming years is proficiency with Windows PowerShell.”-

(TechNet, October, 2009)

Windows Powershell makes task automation possible by allowing Windows Admins to to perform tasks on local as well as remote systems. "Ok, great, but do I need it?" you may ask. The answer is yes. Here's why:

1) It ain't going anywhere. Windows Server 2008 R2 and in Windows 7 have PowerShell version 2 enabled by default. Why? Because moving forward, many add-on products will be based on PowerShell. Additionally, almost all Microsoft products can be managed through Powershell. Imagine the Master-of-the-Universe possibilities here.

2) You can only do the basics from the GUI. Any fancy testing or customisation must be done through Powershell. In fact, many of the functions you already perform through the GUI are actually built on top of PowerShell and generates Powershell code to complete the task at hand.

3) PowerShell makes interactivity possible. Microsoft is establishing PowerShell as a common thread in its newer releases of server products. You need to stay ahead of the curve with this inevitable trend. The more innovative skill set you have on your bench, the more agile and responsive your IT team can be.

(source: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-reasons-why-you-should-learn-to-use-powershell/1073?tag=rbxccnbtr1)

Convinced that it's time to get on the PowerShell bandwagon? Register for our upcoming PowerShell Essentials Workshop (Premier Support Customers only) on October 6-7 in Dublin. See the syllabus below:

Description:

PowerShell v2 Essentials

is designed to introduce IT Professionals to the world of PowerShell v2. PowerShell is an extremely powerful command shell and scripting language, which provides system administrators a consistent method of administering Microsoft products. The course introduces key PowerShell concepts and uses a mix of instructor-led delivery and interactive lab sessions. By the end of the course candidates will understand the essential features of PowerShell and have the foundation knowledge required to create their own scripts in order to dramatically reduce administrative overhead.

Topics include:

Module 1: Introduction

 Module 2: Fundamentals

 Module 3: Pipeline

 Module 4: Scripting

 Module 5: Security

 Module 6: Objects

 Module 7: Remoting

 Module 8: Errors and Debugging

 Module 9: Active Directory

Protect your Enterprise from Poorly Configured AV Software

Premier Support Ireland — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 15:21:00 GMT

If you’re in the IT management world, you already know that proper configuration of Anti Virus software is critical for the security of your enterprise. Just like you wouldn’t dare run and do a cannonball jump into the waters of the River Liffey without a full body bio-hazard suit and face-mask, you wouldn’t dare manage your IT estate without some form of trusted Anti-Virus software working to protect it.

But, did you realise that Anti-Virus software that is not configured appropriately can also harm those applications it is working to protect? Poorly configured Anti-Virus software can grind your applications to a halt, or worse it could cause corruption to critical databases. That said, however, it can be difficult to find a single source of recommendations on how to best configure the various applications and products that your organisation uses.

Let your friends at Premier Support Ireland help you make this daunting task a bit easier…follow this link and check out the guidelines and recommendations on how to configure your AV software with a range of Microsoft products. Better still, subscribe to the list using your favourite RSS reader and you will receive alerts as the list changes.

A word of caution: These recommendations are just that…recommendations. We advise reviewing these articles with your security experts before making any changes. Also, please follow change management best practices if you decide to make changes to production platforms. If you need any assistance please contact your Service Delivery Manager (aka TAM). We’ll be more than happy to assist you adopting the right exclusion model for your enterprise.

How Can Service Catalogue and Service Mapping Help Me Stop Fire-fighting?

Premier Support Ireland — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 20:57:00 GMT

Each day is a game of fire-fighting in your world as a systems analyst or manager in your organisation's IT department. Whether it’s faulty hardware or monitoring that’s been shut off and failed to signal critical alerts, you spend day in, day out wondering if your organisation’s ad-hoc approach will ever improve. You know the potential that a well-managed IT environment can provide to your company, but for you the idea of a proactively managed system –where all the little fires are kept from happening in the first place, and you can spend your time instead envisioning and creating the future-seems like a pipedream.

We Need to Stop Fire-fighting:

What we need to do is to start thinking about our IT systems as a collection of services provided to the company, rather than discrete components of technology. What does this mean? A good example would be looking at the service of Messaging that we provide to colleagues at our companies, rather than focusing narrowly on individual components like health of your Exchange server or security patching which support the Messaging service. These things are obviously important, but they are meaningless if they don’t support a specific service of value to the company. People don’t care that our Exchange server is down or doesn’t have the latest security patching. They care that they can’t send off that time-sensitive email to a customer company exec who’s about to sign a killer sales deal.

Why it Matters:

When we start to think of what we do in the IT department as supporting a variety of business services, then we can start to a) be more efficient in how we manage and troubleshoot problems and b) start to make more sense to the non-technical leaders in our company, by using our services offered as a means to have conversations which shape the strategy and direction of the company overall.

A good first step is to listen to the wisdom of ITIL and start spending some time to create a Service Catalogue and a Service Map. By listing the services your IT department provides to the company, and then outlining all of the technological dependencies that make each service possible in the first place, you’ll immediately have greater visibility of what it is that you manage. Here’s an idea of what a Service Map might look like:

This, however, is a complex example of Messaging as a service. It might be easier to start by looking at it like this:

With the above example, we can see all of the puzzle pieces that come together and must function properly in order for your Messaging service to go uninterrupted. Using this example, you could start grouping help desk calls recieved based on Messaging (as a service) being affected and not just the particular technology/area with the error. We can start having conversations about where we are efficient with Messaging and where we could stand to improve and where we might need more help. By being able to gather data in a Services dashboard each week/month/quarter, we can start to have better conversations about what is working for the company, and what is not.

Think of all of the services your IT department provides to the company at large….Isn’t it time they start getting the visibility and proactive management they deserve? Isn't it time you stopped being a fire-fighter? Contact us to learn more about how Microsoft Premier Support can help you build the Service Catalogue and Service Mapping you need.

So you think you know Configuration Manager...?

Premier Support Ireland — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 18:34:00 GMT

How much do you REALLY know about System Center Configuration Manager?

Take our quizzes and find out! Test your colleagues, too, to find out who the true SCCM champ at your organisation is.

A wide variety of subject areas within SCCM are covered, so you can assess the skill level of various teams who touch this platform. These areas include:

Configuration Manager 2007 Client Installation Quiz
Configuration Manager 2007 Client Management Quiz
Configuration Manager 2007 Client Site Assignment Quiz
Configuration Manager 2007 Desired Configuration Management Quiz
Configuration Manager 2007 Internet-Based Client Management Quiz
Configuration Manager 2007 Native Mode Quiz
Configuration Manager 2007 Network Access Protection Quiz
Configuration Manager 2007 Wake On LAN Quiz
Configuration Manager 2007 Software Updates Operations Quiz
Configuration Manager 2007 OSDeployment Quiz
Configuration Manager 2007 What’s New Quiz
Configuration Manager 2007 Software Updates Configuration Quiz
Configuration Manager 2007 Mobile Device Management Quiz
Configuration Manager 2007 Fundamentals Quiz
Configuration Manager 2007 Client Roaming Quiz
Configuration Manager 2007 Software Updates Interop Quiz
Configuration Manager 2007 Setup Quiz
Configuration Manager 2007 Software Distribution Quiz
Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 Quiz
Configuration Manager 2007 R2 Quiz
Configuration Manager 2007 Discovery Quiz
Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) Quiz
Configuration Manager 2007 R3 Quiz
Configuration Manager 2007 Active Directory Domain Services Quiz
Configuration Manager 2007 Documentation Quiz

Download the quiz application now and get started!

If you find an area where you might need some brushing up, let us know and we’d be happy to find a Premier training course that would fill in those gaps.

Happy quizzing!

Stay Out of the Dark...With Microsoft Desktop Player

Premier Support Ireland — Tue, 31 May 2011 09:17:00 GMT

In our earliest of times, our Celtic forefathers made use of transparent crystal stones and balls to intercept visions of the past, present and future. Today in 2011, you can use your very own Microsoft crystal ball to get the latest and greatest information on virtually any Microsoft technology your heart desires.

Officially named the Microsoft Desktop Player (Beta), this tool allows you to enter a search query on the product or technology you wish to explore and the result is a plethora of available resources, broken down by category such as webcast, podcast, whitepaper and links. No longer are you confined to a life in the dark--you can be the one who is ahead of the game with the latest developments and trends.

Desktop player installer is available for download to your pc or you can access it directly from your browser. **HOT TIP: Be the coolest blogger in town by imbedding the player on your own site for others to use! Check out ours here on our Premier Support blog—from the home page, down the left hand side column (look for the crystal ball!)

Anxious to give it a go? Well, wait no longer. Your crystal ball of information is here, at your disposal.

(Source: http://bit.ly/k7lSuE)

Feeling Neglected? Let the Microsoft Security Scanner Get You Back on Track!

Premier Support Ireland — Mon, 23 May 2011 09:40:00 GMT

Do you ever feel like this?

At work, your IT systems are state of the art. Your company makes it a budget priority to have the best computing tools available to stay ahead of the competition, and you appreciate working for a company that lives in the future, and not the past.

What’s more, the processes you have in place to monitor and maintain the health of employee desktops, in particular, are first class; everyone’s always on the latest version of software and security updates & patches are integrated to all terminals on a smooth, regular basis. The word “virus” is dead within water cooler office chats at your company, as you’ve implemented the Fort Knox of security barriers against system attacks. In fact, the update and security processes are so good and so seamless that none of the workers who use their fancy desktops even stop to realise just how good they have it. They don’t understand or appreciate all the painful behind the scenes work you and your team have put in place over time to make their experience as stellar as it is.

You’re quite proud of the way things are run in your IT department, but sometimes you wish you could save a little of this love and attention for your own home computing systems. Why should everyone else have it so good when at home you’re stuck in the dark ages?

Feel neglected no more--Microsoft is here to help! We can’t help you with the new computer you need (that’s on you, pal), but we can help you make a start to an improved home computing experience by getting some some process and rigour around your own security and updates. Microsoft has recently introduced the Microsoft Safety Scanner. It’s an easy-to-use tool which detects and cleans your system with the same set of signatures and technology used by Microsoft Security Essentials and Forefront End Protection.

“All you need is to download the 32-bit or 64-bit version via your favourite web browser and run Microsoft Safety Scanner. It will detect and remove malware, and potentially unwanted software, for you. There is nothing to install, it’s as simple as that. And because it is just one executable, you can also easily copy it from one computer and run it on another. This is especially useful when your access to security websites is blocked by malware on the infected machine.” (Tony Kwan, Microsoft)

Sources:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/mmpc/archive/2011/05/12/presenting-the-microsoft-safety-scanner.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx

Fix It Center Pro -- your own EASY button

Premier Support Ireland — Fri, 06 May 2011 18:49:00 GMT

This message is for YOU. Yes YOU. We know who YOU are.

Your team is overworked and understaffed, and sometimes it feels like it would be a miracle to know which end is up. Trying to prioritise attention to issues with the numerous IT projects on your plate is much like having to choose between dealing with that nagging migraine you’ve been suffering from for several months or that rusty nail you just stepped on.

You know you need some extra fire-fighters to help put out some of the bigger flames around you right now, but the thought of slowing down and taking time to call in for help sounds…impossible.

We have the answer. We have what YOU need:

Your very own EASY button!

“Fix it Center Pro Beta ushers in a new level of support for Enterprise customers. It is a standalone web application that helps IT Professionals research and find support-related content more effectively so that they can quickly diagnose and resolve break-fix issues. Fix it Center Pro Beta provides flexible yet seamless end-to-end support experiences—from self-help troubleshooting to assisted support with Microsoft—that help save customers time and money”

(source http://bit.ly/9tq3eZ)

It’s as easy as logging into the Microsoft Premier Online Portal with your normal credentials, and clicking the Fix It Center Pro button link!

Watch this cool video to learn more!

For IT pros using the Microsoft Premier Online (MPO) website, Fix it Center Pro Beta provides options for identifying and resolving issues. You can:

Resolve issues on their own by manually browsing content using Bing-scoped searches and finding key solution assets recommended by support engineers through Support Entity Association Management (SEAM) web services;
Direct Fix it Center Pro to automatically analyze the data collected from the computer via Unified Diagnostic Ecosystem (UDE), report back the analysis results, and provide recommended solutions for any problem found;
Submit a support request directly from a self-help diagnostic, which is automatically passed to a support professional.

So now YOU have what you were looking for all along. EASY.

Medieval Helpdesk...in 2011?

Premier Support Ireland — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 10:07:00 GMT

(Please visit the site to view this video)

Do your IT operations need updating?

Your Premier Support Ireland team can help you and your organisation achieve first class operations in your IT environment by implementing Microsoft best practices that cover people, process and tools aspects to optimize the environment and prevent issues from occurring. We offer a wide range of Prevent and Optimise services which focus on key areas such as Online Service Mapping, Change and Configuration Management, and Service Catalog Design. Let us know how we can help!

We also offer training courses on Microsoft Operations Frameworks ("M.O.F.") which integrates popular IT service management methodologies to help you establish, maintain, and support business-aligned IT services. Sign up for MOF to achieve greater availability, reliability, and security in your mission-critical IT services.

Unleash the Power of Unified Communications!

Premier Support Ireland — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 12:57:00 GMT

Find and communicate with the right person—anytime, anywhere, on any device with a single user interface for IM, email, presence, voice, video, and application sharing
Protect your IT ecosystem with the spam and virus-fighting capabilities of Exchange
Simplify management and scalability while maximizing IT resources and extending investments
Increase IT control and visibility to meet changing business requirements

Short on time? Watch how Sprint, a US-based mobile communication services provider, saves $9m a year with Microsoft Unified Communications.

Like to read? Check out this case study to learn how Telecom Italia uses Microsoft Unified Communications to strengthen its enterprise networks and simplify administration.

If you, too, want to get Unified, let us know! We can help you understand your current state of communications, help create a vision of where you want your organisation to be in the near future and work with you to build a plan to get there as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Change is Good! … with ACT and the Update Compatibility Evaluator

Premier Support Ireland — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 18:36:00 GMT

Your mother always taught you that procrastination was the root of all evil. Better to tackle those sometimes annoying, pesky challenges head on as they come, rather than waiting for them to mount. Like a bag of popcorn that has been left a little too long in the microwave, tasks left unattended often times explode right before our eyes, and the spoils left behind are far worse than we could have imagined.

It is no different in the world of IT security updates. While the Microsoft product teams work hard to deliver highly secure products they are not perfect and security updates are a fact of life. OK, we know they can be a right pain in the a$$. No one likes orchestrating system restarts across numerous workstations or servers, and of course there’s always the fear that mission critical or heavily used applications are going to be adversely affected. All understandable reasons to put off deploying security updates indeed, but all too often we don’t stop to look at the big picture and see what kind of a sticky situation we are setting ourselves up for:

-Ignoring security updates leaves your systems vulnerable to attack and when that happens, there is surely a lot more headache in store when it comes to repairing the damage-

In fact, if you embrace the change process you will find that you will end up with a much healthier environment all round as you will get good at change. Getting a monthly, recurring, maintenance process in place for desktops and servers will serve you well in the long run and make all change, not just security updates, much easier to do.

One of the biggest challenges you face when tackling security updates is finding a way to test whether the update will work on your desktops and servers without issue. The standard approach is to simply deploy the update to a group of test machines and get someone to test the applications installed on it. This can be time consuming and a bit hit and miss.

What if there was a tool to make test security updates seem a bit less daunting, and made it easier to deploy the updates your systems need? If there were less pain involved with the process, would you put a stop to your update procrastination? Enter ACT (Application Compatibility Testing) Tookit and the Update Compatibility Evaluator.

Try this out:

Set up a test rig with:
- A couple of PCs
- Standard desktop builds
- Install all customers’ custom applications
Install ACT
- Build ACT Database of applications
Now run UCE – Update Compatibility Evaluator
- Analyse the results in ACT

(What is UCE? - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766043(WS.10).aspx)

While it will take a bit of up front investment to master the tool, the benefits of this approach are as follows:

1. It reduces any uncertainty about the deployment of Windows updates. UCE provides compatibility information, enabling you to successfully test your high-risk applications and to fix any issues before deploying the update within your organization.

2. It increases the adoption rate of Windows updates. Because you do not have to be concerned about potential compatibility issues, you can deploy the updates more quickly, providing greater security to your organization.

3. It reduces your workload and cost. After you determine which applications are at risk, you can organize and focus your testing, making sure the applications are stable upon deployment of the update.

Take advantage of this tool, and help yourself get back on track by proactively managing your update processes. Stop procrastination right in its tracks, and don’t let those critical updates simmer any longer. After all, no one likes eating a bag full of burnt popcorn.

Resources:

ACT Download Page: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=24da89e9-b581-47b0-b45e-492dd6da2971&displaylang=en

Information on the Update Compatibility Evaluator: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc749197.aspx

Deployment Guidance: http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/3/3/d33a8f5d-a7e1-4bbe-b04d-7a688785a229/ACT5_Deployment_Guide.zip

Release Notes for ACT 5.5: http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/3/3/d33a8f5d-a7e1-4bbe-b04d-7a688785a229/ACT55_ReadMe.zip

What is Premier Support all about?

Premier Support Ireland — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 10:25:00 GMT

You already know how valuable an asset your Premier Support contract is to your organisation, but can you articulate this value to other key stakeholders? Thanks to our friends across the Irish Sea for putting together this handy little video, which helps put it all into perspective:

Go To Microsoft Showcase

Making them get IT

Premier Support Ireland — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 19:25:00 GMT

You know it, but they just don't get it. You're on the front line on the IT team for your organisation, but the guys in suits at the shiny tables behind the glass doors don't see what you see on a daily basis.

You live, breathe, eat and dream technology and IT systems, and you know how critical these things are to efficient, smooth-running operations on the level of the entire organisation. But why doesn't your CEO understand, for example, that large amounts of white space on Exchange databases can create critical outages in email transmission, and can be remedied if you're given the time to run a simple defrag? And it drives you nuts when they don't seem to understand why it's such a big deal when cluster file resources go offline or when cluster nodes don't fail over properly.

Sometimes, you might just start to feel like you aren't taken seriously. But there is hope. You can speak their language and start to make them get it:

“Today, an IT disruption can paralyze a company’s ability to make its products, deliver its services, and connect with its customers” (Harvard Business Review, 2003). Translation = if IT stuff breaks, the company loses money every second until it's repaired.
“Companies that manage their IT investments most successfully generate returns that are as much as 40% higher than those of their competitors” (MIT Center for Information Systems Research, 2004). Translation = Companies that take IT seriously earn 40% more profit than companies that don't.
“By 2012, IT contribution will be cited in the top three success factors by at least half of top-performing businesses” (Gartner, 2006). Translation = Companies who make IT a top priority will thrive, those who don't, won't.

Read up on more great research available and make the impact you're looking for by showing how your work translates to bottom-line profit matters. Once your organisation leaders understand how critical IT systems are to the company's success, it will be an easy task to get their buy-in as you look to invest time and resources into optimising your IT platforms and infrastructure. Companies that do this right realise better business-IT alignment, enhanced agility, reduced IT costs, better profitability, reduced regulatory and security risks and improved satisfaction with IT overall.

Take our Optimisation Self-Assessment to find out where your organisation stands today, and to get started in driving the improvements you know your company needs. And then be sure to contact your TAM to have them help you along the way.

Windows: A Trip Down Memory Lane

Premier Support Ireland — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 14:23:00 GMT

Premier Support Ireland offers a special treat for all of our Windows fans who have 10 minutes to spare in their work day....The following video provides a nice little trip down memory lane for those of us who've been around to see the evolution of the OS. Take a moment to sit back and enjoy:

(Please visit the site to view this video)

When you come back to reality, consider giving some thought to your own software upgrade processes within your organisation. Feel like you could use some help? Read our Proactive Operations Program for Software Update Management data sheet and let us know if you'd like more information.

Is Your Organization Suffering from Learned Helplessness?

Premier Support Ireland — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 12:11:00 GMT

We see it every day. IT organizations tasked with having to deliver more with less. A person leaves, their position isn’t filled. The workload spreads, the pain increases and BANG! Systems go down, the shouting starts. But ask yourself something: does it have to be like this? Is the feeling of learned helplessness crushing your IT organization?

The term Learned Helplessness was coined by Martin Seligman in the mid-1960’s following work on animal behavior that went slightly wrong. It began with a routine conditioning experiment involving dogs and harmless – though painful – electric shocks (please bear with me). The dogs were exposed in the first phase of the experiment to a pair of stimuli in quick succession – a tone followed by the aforementioned shock. The purpose was to condition the animals to associate the tone with the rather nasty experience of being shocked. To ensure the dogs remained in situ for the experiment, they were restrained so that when the tone sounded, there was nowhere to go – so much for the fluffy 1960’s you might say.

Once suitably conditioned, Seligman moved on to the test phase of his experiment and it was here that things went wrong. For this part of the experiment, the dogs were no longer restrained and instead an escape route was provided. Thinking the results were going to be straightforward, Seligman predicted that once the dogs heard the tone, they would bolt for the escape route and avoid getting shocked. Seligman was wrong. So wrong in fact that a new chapter of psychology had to be written. The dogs stayed put. They remained where they were despite having the option of avoiding the painful experience by using the escape route. Instead, they simply sat and accepted their fate. The feeling of helplessness had over-ridden their reasoning so that even when a solution was available to them, they sat still. And so the term ‘learned helplessness’ was coined.

And here’s the rub: it’s not just for dogs. Humans are just as easily afflicted with learned helplessness as their best friends. Manipulate a person’s environment for long enough – swamp them with requests for assistance, push systems until the break, place them in situations where they feel they have no control – and this feeling of learned helplessness starts to override the brains logic circuits. To the point that even when a way out is available, it’s rejected out of hand.

But simple adjustments to how you do business can have a major impact on the feeling of learned helplessness. Getting technology to work for you, rather than the feeling of working against you, can go some way to reversing the feeling and handing control back to an organization, even with less resources. Smart performance monitoring tools such as System Centre Operations Manager can be optimized to let organizations know in advance that an issue exists in their environment. Short-circuiting the problem before it manifests itself in the user population can reduce the stress on limited resources and go a long way to reducing fire-fighting and that feeling of always being on the back foot.

Basic process improvements in how front-line personnel troubleshoot issues (take our Vital Signs Performance and Monitoring Workshop available through Premier Support, for example) and leveraging the tools that already exist in their environment for analyzing problems (tools that are surprisingly overlooked by many IT organizations), can expedite resolution times and improve service to your customer base. It also hands control back to your team.

But first, you as the customer have to realize there is a problem. Then you have to see the escape route. And finally you have to use it. Premier Support can provide myriad operational improvements and offers an escape route to the stress placed on your organization. We are your extra resource. Many of our customers take advantage of our Operations Strategic Review and/or our Proactive Services Maturity Review programmes to get a comprehensive grasp of their overall environment. Talk to your Technical Account Manager about what Premier Support can provide your organization through workshops, technology updates, optimization and tuning.

And by the way, no animals were hurt or injured in the development of our products. Which is always good to know.

Ready for the Future, Ready for BPOS

Premier Support Ireland — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 21:42:00 GMT

As the IT world embraces more and more the idea of moving into cloud-based communication and collaboration, you probably find yourself wondering when you will finally make the leap into the future as well. That nagging little voice inside your head telling you “it’s time” is starting to get louder and louder as you see more and more of your competitors moving in that direction and increasing their work efficiency. But keeping up with the Jones’ is not your style—you need hard, compelling facts before getting your organisation to jump on board. Here they are:

Microsoft Online is the set of online services from Microsoft designed for businesses. With this Software-plus-Services approach, MS Online Services brings together the best of cloud-based services and the software that resides on a world of devices. Business Productivity Online Suite is the first of a growing portfolio of Microsoft Online Services.

BPOS combines Exchange Online, Sharepoint Online, Office Live Meeting and Office communications Online to bring the tools you need together in one nice little package to keep your business plugging along.
The number of businesses on the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) more than tripled last year, and the Office 365 limited beta was over-subscribed within 24 hours. This is not a fad. This is the future.
BPOS saves money, increases productivity and keeps your IT apps current with the latest version upgrades (read more on this here).

Ok, so you’ve read the facts. It’s time to take the next step. Microsoft Services has created the BPOS Migrations Readiness Assessment to ensure an optimized performance and availability during an organisation’s migration to the Cloud with BPOS.

Measure your current environment against Microsoft best practices for BPOS readiness
Avoid costly mistakes and delays that can significantly affect the BPOS user experience

Get more info and schedule a BPOS Readiness Assessment by contacting your TAM or writing to us at pssirl@microsoft.com.

Advisory Call to the Rescue!

Premier Support Ireland — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 14:37:00 GMT

Colin works with the business development agency for his city’s local government, and looks after process improvement for the organisation’s IT department. He recently oversaw the deployment of System Center Configuration Manager 2007 in their environment, and he’s under a tremendous amount of pressure to make sure this newly upgraded platform is delivered without a hitch. Colin is fairly experienced with SCCM and feels pretty confident that smooth sailing is in store—however Colin does have some concerns related to the discovery and patching they’ve recently implemented. He’s less experienced in these areas but his supervisor nevertheless expects that Colin can produce a successful delivery of the entire upgrade project.

Anxious, Colin starts referring to his Microsoft Premier Support agreement and starts thinking about how he can leverage these services to give him the reassurances he needs. He starts reading through the latest Proactive training catalogue online (on the Premier Support Ireland blog!) and sees a lot of great courses covering SCCM monitoring, client health, troubleshooting and more. Although this information would be great to cover at some point, Colin doesn’t have time to focus on all that now—he really needs to just cut to the chase and focus in on the discovery and patching they’ve just implemented; he has a report-out meeting with his supervisor in 2 weeks and needs to impress! He calls his TAM straight away and requests a customised Chalk ‘n Talk session covering just discovery patching, and learns straight away that this will take a few weeks to get scheduled. Colin doesn’t have a few weeks and he now starts to panic. What can he do?? !!!

"Don't stress!", the Technical Account Manager reassures Colin. "A feature of your Premier Support agreement is the ability to have Advisory Calls with Microsoft engineers who are experts to specific platforms supported by Microsoft. I've got an engineer who can address those specific patching and discovery concerns you are having and offer advice to help keep you moving along with your SCCM roll-out. Let me get with the engineer and set up a phone conference to get those questions answered." With that Colin leaves the call with renewed confidence. He now feels relaxed and reassured that the meeting with his supervisor in 2 weeks will be a smashing success.

If you find yourself in a situation similar to Colin, get with your TAM straight away and they will find an engineer to come to your rescue, too. Or shoot an email to pssirl@microsoft.com for more information.

Stay Ahead of the Game with Proactive Offerings

Premier Support Ireland — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 11:53:00 GMT

Proactive training and advisory sessions are an integral peice to maximising the value of your Microsoft Premier Support agreement. They allow you to take an preemptive approach to IT management by learning the latest features and advances with the technologies you use to help your organisation thrive. Premier Support in Ireland offers two primary types of proactive trainings:

Workshops which provide a comprehensive, holistic view of a technology/application with a general focus genre (e.g. SQL Server Reporting Services). These workshops usually take place over 3 -4 days.
Chalk 'n Talks which provide a condensed, specifically targeted approach to common challenge areas within a technology/application (e.g. SQL Server 2008 Database Mirroring). These Chalk 'n Talks usually run 1 to 1.5 days.

Premier Support Ireland maintains an active catalogue of proactive training sessions which are scheduled based on feedback and requests from customers like you. Want to know what is currently on offer? Mark this blog link to your favourites, and click the catalogue link icon for 24/7 access to our proactive offerings (see the graphic below for help finding the icon on our homepage):

Don't see the course you want here? No problem. Get with your TAM or send an email to pssirl@microsoft.com and let us know what you are looking for. We have a wealth of solutions to keep you and your organisation ahead of the game!

Are you taking care of your Active Directory like it takes care of you?

Premier Support Ireland — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 09:47:00 GMT

You know that Active Directory is the critical link to managing the identities and relationships which make up your organisation’s IT network. You know that Active Directory gives you the power to centrally configure and administer system, user and application settings. And you know your organisation has come to trust the reliability that this renowned Microsoft directory service provides. The question remaining then is: Are you taking care of your Active Directory like it takes care of you?

“Active Directory is a very stable, dependable directory service on the whole—IT administrators have come to place a lot of trust in this reliability,” says Paddy Baxter, Senior Technical Account Manager for Microsoft Premier Support Services in Dublin. “However, one thing we sometimes forget is that although it’s a highly dependable service, if any significant failure arises with Active Directory, severe disruptions to business operations can ensue.”

Failures in Active Directory can lead to a number of critical issues. Some examples include:

The inability of users to log onto their computer
Blocked access to server resources such as file shares and email (or any other application that relies on Active Directory)

Your Premier Support contract has hours built in for you maintain proactive control on the overall health of your organisation's IT environment. If you find yourself wondering how to make valuable use of any hours you may have left over after planning for other projects, your Premier Support Team in Ireland strongly encourages you to register for an Active Directory Risk Assessment and Health Check Programme. Designed for senior IT staff members and engineers in charge of supporting and managing a Microsoft Active Directory (AD) environment, this programme is delivered as a highly interactive engagement, complete with documentation, reports, and prescriptive guidance based on the reported findings. In other words, an AD Risk Assessment and Health Check Programme ensures that your directory service is up to scratch and reliable as you need it to be. In 2010, Premier Support delivered over 2500 of these assessments worldwide, proving that a lot of customers also believe it is a good thing to do.

Avoid the headache of an AD failure by taking simple steps to ensure it continues to take care of your organisation’s IT environment. And as Paddy cautions, “It’s good to remember that although probability of an AD failure is low, the impact of such a failure is huge. Better safe than sorry is the mantra—an AD Risk Assessment will keep you ahead of the game.”

For further information or to request registry for an AD RAP, please click here. Your TAM will follow up and get you going.

Kick Off 2011 with Best Practice Analysers

Premier Support Ireland — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 10:37:00 GMT

Let Premier Support Ireland help you welcome in the new year with problem free enterprise platforms!

Best Practice Analysers are free tools available for most Microsoft Enterprise products and they are used to determine the overall health of your platform. The tools perform read only scans against your environment’s servers and identify items that do not conform to Microsoft best practices. They should be run on a regular basis as part of your standard operations maintenance plan. Browse the following groups below to find the platform and analyser you need and follow the links provided to get started. After running the analyser, you will be able to tell if there are areas which need resolution in order to have fully optimised use of that platform. If you'd like some Premier Support help to achieve resolution, contact your Technical Account Manager so they can help you decide on the best Premier Support solution available (i.e. Logging a Case, scheduling a Workshop or onsite assessment, etc).

Windows Server

- Performance Analysis of Logs (PAL) Tool (reads performance monitor counter logs and analyses it using known thresholds)

- Best Practices Analyzer for Network Policy and Access Services for Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Edition (NPAS)

- Best Practices Analyzer for DHCP Server for Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Edition

- Best Practices Analyzer for HYPER-V for Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Edition

- Best Practices Analyzer for Application Server for Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Edition

- Best Practices Analyzer for Windows Server Update Services for Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Edition

- Best Practices Analyzer for Active Directory Rights Management Services for Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Edition

- Remote Desktop Services Best Practice Analyzer for Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Edition

- Best Practices Analyzer for File Services for Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Edition

- Microsoft DNS (Domain Name System) Model for Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer 2.0

SQL

- SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer

- SQL Server® 2008/R2 Best Practices Analyzer

Exchange and Unified Communications

- Microsoft Exchange Best Practices Analyzer v2.8

- Office Communications Server 2007 Best Practices Analyzer

Sharepoint, Project Server and Office System

- Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and the 2007 Microsoft Office System (Includes Project Server 2007)

Forefront, ISA and Security

- Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool

- Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway (UAG) 2010 Best Practices Analyzer Tool

- Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway Best Practices Analyzer Tool

- Microsoft Forefront Client Security BPA

- Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer

- Extended Security Update Inventory Tool

Developer

- Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server Power Tools with TFS BPA

- Team Foundation Server 2010 Beta 2 Best Practices Analyzer

- Best Practice Analyzer for ASP.NET

Miscellaneous (Small Business Server, Mobile Device Manager, Commerce Server, Biztalk)

- Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best Practices Anaylzer

- Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2011 Best Practices Analyzer

- Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 Resource Kit - Best Practices Analyzer

- Microsoft Commerce Server 2007 Best Practices Analyzer

- BizTalk Server Best Practices Analyzer

Let your Premier Support Ireland team know how you get on with these tools and how we can best help you reach your IT goals in 2011!

System Center Means Lean and Green

Premier Support Ireland — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 12:40:00 GMT

Today’s business mantra is “Go lean and go green.”

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 is quickly becoming an integral component to IT professionals’ overall IT strategy for their organisations. Designed to assess, deploy and update servers, clients, and devices across physical, virtual, distributed, and mobile environments, SCCM 2007 offers comprehensive vision and control over an organisation’s IT systems.

A recent case study shows that Palm Beach State College in the US saved over USD$ 500,000 by consolidating their technology with the help of SCCM and desktop optimisation (full article). Other companies like Lionbridge, a translation specialist, have developed a private cloud solution where a combination of Hyper-V and SCCM have allowed their existing virtualised environment to be leveraged as they move into the Cloud arena (full article)

With the eco-friendly benefits of virtualisation and cloud strategies already well established in the industry, it’s exciting to see how many of Microsoft’s technologies—such as SCCM 2007—are enabling companies to save money and reduce their carbon footprint all while gaining greater control over their IT environments.

Before you sign off for now, have a look at these must-have links for any IT professional to stay up-to-date on System Center:

System Center Official Page (overview, updates and general news)
System Center Support Team Blog (up-to-date answers and solutions to all your System Center queries)