IT Pros! As I’m sure many of you may have heard we ran a series of competitions across the 2013 series of Tech.Days Online. Up for grabs was a fantastic array of prizes to giveaway to the lucky winners including:
· A HTC Windows Phone 8
· A Sony VAIO Laptop
· A HP ElitePad 900
We are delighted to announce that the winners are:
Eddie Vermeer - Winner of the Windows Phone 8
Allan Chambers – Winner of the Sony Vaio Laptop
Mark Jeffries - Winner of the HP ElitePad 900
Congratulations to the winners! Remember there are still some fantastic prizes up for grabs when you enter the TechEd challenge including a fully funded trip to sunny Madrid!
By Vicky Lea
When it comes to purchasing licenses there are a number of different channels that you can purchase through. These are FPP (Full Packaged Product), OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) and Volume Licensing. So what are the key differences between the channels, and what impact do they have on your licensing rights? Because it is the usage rights you receive with the software that mainly distinguish between the channels.
Let us start off by looking at FPP licenses.
FPP licenses are purchased from retail and provide a quick and convenient way for customers requiring less than five licenses to purchase their software. Licenses sold through FPP are either full licenses or upgrade licenses. A full license does not require any pre-existing versions of the software to be on the machine it is installed on, whereas an upgrade license allow you to cost effectively upgrade to a newer version of software that you are already licensed for.
When you purchase FPP software you are entering into an agreement with Microsoft stating that you will adhere to the usage rights associated with the software. These rights include detail such as downgrade rights, which you generally do not get with FPP software, how many devices you are allowed to install the software on, whether you have the right to move the software to another computer (transfer rights) or not and nowadays whether you are allowed to use the software for commercial use or not.
The usage rights for FPP software are laid out in the Microsoft Software License Terms document, which can be downloaded from this site: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/IntellectualProperty/UseTerms/Default.aspx.
Microsoft does also provide limited support services for software that has been licensed via the FPP channel, details of which can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/common/international.aspx.
OEM software is software that comes pre-installed when you purchase a new computer. So for instance when you purchase a new PC it might come with an OEM licensed copy of Windows 8 Pro pre-installed on it. One of the key benefits of this is that you then know that the software has been installed correctly and is working properly and if there are any issues it is the responsibility of the computer manufacturer or installer to provide support rather than Microsoft.
Again, OEM software usage is ruled by the Microsoft Software License Terms document. So for instance it will detail that with Windows 8 Pro licensed via OEM you do get limited downgrade rights in that you can downgrade as far back as two earlier versions if you so desire, either to Windows 7 Professional or Windows Vista Business. But that there are no transfer rights, so the software may not be removed from the PC it was originally installed on and installed on another, however, you are allowed to transfer the PC complete with the OEM licensed software to a new user if required.
The third channel you may purchase software through is Volume Licensing. There are a number of volume licensing agreements you can purchase through and these agreements have been tailored to suit the differing requirements of all sizes and types of organisation. There are agreements aimed at the small to medium sized business in the form of Open and Open Value, and agreements aimed at medium to large organisations in the form of the Select Plus and Enterprise Agreements.
Usage of software purchased through these agreements is controlled by a number of factors; the agreement itself may contain some usage rights specific to purchasing through that agreement, but the usage rights per product can be found in the Product List document and the Product Use Rights (PUR) document. You can download the Product List and PUR from here: http://www.microsoftvolumelicensing.com.
For example, with an Enterprise Agreement the transfer rights for software are detailed in the Enterprise Agreement document itself, stating that licenses may only be transferred once they have been fully paid for and that they can only be transferred to affiliates or a third party as part of a divestiture or merger. So it is always important to check the agreement documents as they will detail rights that are specific to the agreement itself, but what about the more general terms?
Well this is where documents such as the Product List and PUR come into play. The Product List provides monthly information about Microsoft Software and Online Services licensed through the volume licensing agreements, and details software availability through the different agreements, as well as Software Assurance migration paths, step-up licenses and available promotions. The PUR goes into detail on the general volume licensing terms for each licensing model plus any product-specific use rights. All these documents together can be used to determine the license terms for products purchased through specific agreements.
For example, when you purchase Windows 8 Pro through Volume Licensing the license is an upgrade license only. Meaning that the device must already be licensed for a qualifying operating system before installation of the Windows Upgrade. The Product List contains all the detail behind this including a list of the qualifying operating systems per agreement. Whereas the PUR goes into more detail on where Windows 8 Pro may be installed and who can access the software either locally or remotely.
Other important product rights you receive when purchasing your licenses through volume licensing are re-imaging and full downgrade rights. Downgrade rights again are detailed in the PUR, and you may find detail on re-imaging rights in the specific agreement documents. However, there is a very useful re-imaging brief that goes into all the detail you may need and you can download that from here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/D/4/3D42BDC2-6725-4B29-B75A-A5B04179958B/Reimaging.pdf.
So to wrap up, we have seen that there are a number of different ways for you to purchase your licenses, and the availability of software does vary through those channels, but the main impact on the licenses of buying through FPP, OEM or Volume Licensing is the usage rights you gain with the software.
This is one scenario and licensing situation. Each customer scenario can vary by deployment, usage, product version, and product use rights. Always check your contract, and the current Products Use Rights document to confirm how your environment should be fully licensed. The blogging team does not warrant that this scenario will be the right licensing solution for other similar cases.
By Chris Harris
Combining forces, Microsoft and Hortonworks were excited to provide all the hackers access to the HDInsight Service during the London Yahoo! Hackathon weekend. The hackers got a chance to learn about Hadoop and really put the new Hadoop Azure service through its paces.
Windows Azure is a cloud computing platform and infrastructure, created by Microsoft, for building, deploying and managing applications and services through a global network of Microsoft-managed datacentres. Sitting on Azure, HDInsight is Microsoft’s Hadoop-based service that brings a 100% Enterprise ready Apache Hadoop solution from Hortonworks to the cloud. HDInsight gives you the ability to gain the full value of Big Data with a modern, cloud-based data platform that manages data of any type, whether structured or unstructured, and of any size.
To get ideas flowing, the Hortonworks team kicked the morning with a walkthrough of common Hadoop patterns. If you are looking for idea of a new Hadoop project of your own, you can check out the slides at https://speakerdeck.com/cj_harris5/hadoop-at-yahoo-hack-day.
For the hackers that wanted a Hadoop deep dive, the team delivered a workshop that cover Hadoop tips and tricks. If you are processing data in Hadoop today, you may want to check out the Pig and Hive tips at https://speakerdeck.com/cj_harris5/hadoop-workshop-at-yahoohack
Just in case you missed it, The best of MMS UK event is coming up very soon, the infrastructure track is now full but there are still spaces available devices track.
We recently announced the availability of new solutions to help enterprise and SMB customers manage hybrid cloud services and connected devices with greater agility and cost-efficiency.
System Center 2012 SP1, Windows Server 2012, Windows Azure and Windows Intune are key solutions that deliver against our Cloud OS vision to provide our customers & partners with a modern platform to address their top IT challenges.
We will be hosting the Best of Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) UK 2013 on Tuesday 21st May 2013 at Microsoft London, Cardinal Place, 80-100 Victoria Street, London, SW1E 5JL.
This 1-day event will provide you with the opportunity to attend the “best” sessions from MMS 2013 interact with our sponsoring & exhibiting partners, and understand the next step forward in our Cloud OS vision, strategy and roadmap:
· Desktop & device management for empowering people-centric IT
This is an opportunity you won’t want to miss!
Invite Code: 602315
Sustained User Adoption is vital to ensure people using SharePoint remain productive and proactive. Pro-activity is key, since the reliance on SharePoint support will grow based – success breeds success; on solving user queries, meeting and solving business information and collaborative challenges using SharePoint, delivering solutions. A significant number of queries will come from the use of Microsoft Office with SharePoint. Particularly since virtually all interaction with content in SharePoint will come from the use of Microsoft Products such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and even moving beyond into the lands of Project, Visio, OneNote (the list continues).
If you want sustainable User Adoption, amongst other techniques, focus on the information workers core toolset – Microsoft Office. For information workers to remain SharePoint productive, to make them more empowered, to give them a sense of achievement, you should consider informing and evangelizing to them the Microsoft Office Specialist certification, of which SharePoint is part.
Check out this page for more information
By workers doing this course, benefits include aiding SharePoint Service Delivery. This is because the worker becomes more capable, and this capability extends again to their peers. This aids SharePoint support, because then you have a line of defense in terms of resolving Microsoft Office queries.
And note, virtally importance is the addition of SharePoint as part of the Microsoft Office Certification. Yes, workers can become SharePoint Office Certified. This means that they have the ability not only to learn the product, but also to add this onto their skillset as valid proof that they can use, and pass on their skills of using SharePoint because they have achieved.
Some links for you to check out:
And if you don’t believe how important this is, see the following clip which gives you ample reason why this certification is so important.
 
Geoff Evelyn is a SharePoint MVP, and likes to be known as a “Hands on” Technical Evangelist and works as a SharePoint Solutions Architect. He has published many articles, guides and books about SharePoint. With over 25 years of experience in information systems, he is a Fellow of the Institute of the Analysts and Programmers, a Fellow of the Institute of Computer Technology, a Member of the Institute of Management Information Systems, a Prince 2 Practitioner, with MCDST, MCSD, MCTS, MCITP Microsoft certifications and is M.O.S (Microsoft Office Specialist) Certified.
With my job title of Evangelist I often get asked about what my roles, both inside and outside of the Microsoft firewall. In the 2 weeks I have presented to the Leeds VM User Group (www.vmug.org.uk), done a careers chat at a Science college, produced and presented at TechDays Online nd attended SQL Bits 11..
So it’s a lot of presenting, blogging and explaining stuff. Of course you can only blog about what you know about, so Simon and I spend a lot of time learning how Microsoft technology works, and talking to IT Professionals about what they are doing and the challenges they face. I hope this gives some credibility both online and in person and given you are reading this that seems to be working. Our knowledge acquisition goes on all the time but occasionally it's good to commit longer periods of time to it and so we get the opportunity to go to things like TechEd in Madrid. For me this checks all the boxes and gives me the chance to hang out with the Microsoft product teams who present at this sort of event.
As an Evangelist I don’t have to pay for my flights, hotel or entry fee, Microsoft pick all of that up for me. In return I will write posts, work up ideas for future presentations and share stories good and bad about how our products are actually being used.
The question is do you fancy being evangelist for a week and come out with our team to Madrid on Microsoft expenses? if you do then you’ll want to enter the TechEd Challenge
From here you can either enter a draw for a place or compete for one of three further places by writing a blog post to show off your evangelist skills. Full details of the prizes are here, good luck and hopefully see you there