Want to read how to test and tune your website from the microsoft.com IT insiders? Read this fantastic post. It's written by an IT guy, for an IT guy, and packages up the problem and solution in a way that is super usable.
Now if only a small percentage of the rest of the technical content world were as useful...
Read about how the processes and tools Microsoft IT uses to support regulatory compliance in the new IT Showcase whitepaper: Creating a Systemized Approach to Regulatory Compliance at Microsoft .
Others who downloaded Creating a Systemized Approach to Regulatory Compliance at Microsoft also downloaded:
Register now for the FREE upcoming webcast from Microsoft IT insiders on using Business Scorecard Manager.
Check out the new Microsoft Product Licensing Advisor (MPLA), nifty new FREE tool that:
Provides Volume Licensing program comparisons and guidance.
Simplifies Microsoft product selection through a series of questions.
Produces a downloadable report and estimated retail price (ERP) quote in Microsoft Word or Excel. Lets you review your report offline, and save your quote to send to someone, or get in touch with a real-live person.
Launch the Microsoft Product Licensing Advisor
Check out the new microsoft.com homepage for pre-sales info on Virtual Server R2, including the home page, Product Overview, reviewers guide and datasheet. There is a new community set up too where you can find featured blogs, MVPs, top KB articles, and other relevant links: Community page for Virtual Server.
The Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 SLA Scorecard for Exchange released yesterday. This solution, along with the Microsoft Services engagement, are based on Microsoft IT best practices from running the messaging environment inside Microsoft. This idea is a potential turning point for Microsoft IT Pro space. I am intensely interested to see how successful it is. Check it out and leave feedback here.
Solution Documentation and Service Management Guide
MOM 2005 SLA Scorecard for Exchange
Exchange Service Management Guide
Downloads for Solution Components
Jesper has launched a site to promote his book (written with Steve) Protect Your Windows Network here. Here's a teaser to get you to go look.
THINK ABOUT IT...
Consider, for instance, next time you go through an airport security check, who would be capable of causing more damage: a 92-year old grandmother with a pair of cuticle scissors, or a 22-year old martial art black belt? They will confiscate the cuticle scissors, but they will allow the martial arts champion on the plane without putting him in shackles first. Some secure facilities will confiscate USB drives (and GPS receivers—why in the world?) “for security reasons” but they allow 80 gigabyte FireWire-1394 drives through because the security personnel cannot imagine any “threats” associated with digital music players. Many organizations have a password policy that requires users to use passwords too long and complicated to remember (and then routinely complain about the expense of resetting locked-out accounts); they block any kind of information gathering from down-level systems; and they do it all on computers that have not been patched for over a year!
Configuration errors drive security vulnerabilites, support costs, and downtime. Fix this with the new SMS 2003 Desired Configuration Monitoring (DCM) solution. DCM is a powerful solution to maintain a consistent configuration across all server roles and hardware types and ensure that all servers have required software updates, service packs, and drivers installed. This solution will monitor most Microsoft Windows Server System applications and hardware configurations and will run on any server application where configurations can be accessed through Microsoft Active Directory, Window Management Instrumentation, metabase, file system, and registries.
Read more about it here.
Others who downloaded Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 Desired Configuration Monitoring also downloaded:
The Windows Desktop Search (WDS) Administration Guide is now live. WDS allows your users to search their computer about as fast and as easily as they search the Web. The Desktop Search results window includes rich Windows Explorer features so they can quickly preview, filter, and act on search results. MSN Search Toolbar V02.06 is optimized with features that help enterprise IT Pros deploy and manage the installation of WDS across all users and computers in their organizations, including group policy settings you can find in the admin guide.
Shelly Bird has a great (and bravely honest) column just released on the November online TechNet Magazine on why you should use LUA.
Excerpts to get you to read it (out of context - you should read the whole article):
"There is a special kind of arrogance involved to insist that it is absolutely necessary to run all daily business with an account that has local administrator rights. It’s like riding a motorcycle down the highway, hair flowing in the wind; it feels great, except for the fact you are at the mercy of any flying object. Running as power user is like driving a convertible. Running as a normal user is that safe little car with the airbags—if you hit something, it might crack the windshield, but you’ll keep driving and get to your destination.
"Not only that, but there is something degrading about willingly relinquishing that Admin power, a nagging suspicion that doing so is a sign of weakness, an inability to hold one’s IT liquor. Only hardcore security consultants run as Non-Admin, and we all know they’re kind of paranoid.
The MOM team continues to push out connector goodness, letting IT Pros in shops that are NOT 100% Microsoft hook stuff up to MOM.
For example, Eileen blogs today about the Citirix Management Pack. And on TechNet you can use the Management Pack and Product Connector Catalog to do a flitered search using criteria for the software you need to optimize MOM and SMS with your other applications. In this catalog, you will find downloadable management packs created by Microsoft, as well as information about connector software provided by Microsoft partner companies. Many of the management packs have been localized in several different languages.
On top of that Microsoft provides a tool called the Management Pack Notifier that will notify you if updates to previously installed management packs are available for download, making it easier for you to keep up with the most current releases of over 200 management packs. Nifty, neh?
And, check out what the Scripting Guys are doing with MOM, all the cool kids are doin' it.
blogs.technet.com launched April 1 2005 with about 80 IT Pro bloggers. Today we have 198 non-zero posting bloggers. The blogs launched on Community Server 1.0.
They said we were daft. They said IT Pros were not like the blog-crazed devs that were busily driving the blogosphere over on blogs.msdn.com. They said no one would notice or care. IT Pros, pressed for time, would find no value in blogs, never set up RSS readers, and wouldn't engage in conversation that could drive improvement for Microsoft.
Were they right? let me know by leaving some comments here.
According to Technorati my blog is worth US $3,951.78, Scoble is worth $11,855.34. The Exchange team blog? $52,502.22.
After all the metrics are gathered and analyzed, and we make judgements based on them, what keeps me going are comments like these (caught over on MSDN forums BTW):
... the introduction of blogs.technet.com has saved my sanity (and an hour a day ) so anything else that separates dev from pro (allowing me to focus on specifics whilst maintaining a consistent interface so I can dip into the dark side) is welcome.