IT Project work can generally be split into two categories, user facing and behind the scenes stuff. With either type it is important to properly plan everything that you need to do along the way.
Both Lewis and Andy are visually impaired engineers who have mastered the use of Windows Server 2012 R2 using voice synthesizers and a Braille Display to work quicker and smarter...
The conundrum which is the Internet of Things and the many innovations coming from its emergence. How does SharePoint fit in? Does it fit?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 1 April, 2014
Introducing SmartClippy – the smart paperclip that connects everything in your life
We live in a world where new technologies arrive daily – it can be a struggle just to keep up. But what if there was a way to just … attach … new innovations to our lives? To usher in this new era of attachments, Microsoft is turning to an old friend with some new tricks up his sleeve.
Clippy has been there for Microsoft Office users since Office 97 – but with support for Office 2003 and Windows XP ending on 8 April, it’s time for everyone’s favourite office assistant to take on a new role.
“Microsoft announced the date for the end of Windows XP support back in 2007, so I’ve had a lot of time to plan my next move,” said Clippy. “And now I’m excited to finally announce the next chapter in my life. I’m going back to basics and doing what paper clips like me are born to do: Attach things to other things.”
Today Microsoft is proud to introduce SmartClippy, the one paperclip for everything in your life.
SmartClippy is available now at leading electronics retailers, fine stationery stores, not-so-fine stationery stores, your company’s supply cabinet, behind sofa cushions and in bins.
A thronging SharePoint 2013 site can generate a lot of new content. The improved social features in SharePoint 2013 can generate dramatic amounts of new, frequently changing content in a large organisation. When you couple this with the ubiquity of this content in SharePoint, this could cause an awful lot more database access and page slowdown than with previous versions.
To the rescue steps forward the Distributed Cache service. Based upon the AppFabric Cache Service, this is a requirement for SharePoint that is installed by the pre-requisite installer as part of your farm setup.
It’s not just social data that benefits from being cached. The Distributed Cache service also caches Newsfeeds, Microblogging, Conversations, Security Trimming, OneNote client access and more! In fact, it even takes away the necessity of farms that use Claims Authentication to implement session affinity load balancing.
First of all, download and read the Distributed Cache planning overview from Microsoft. When you install AppFabric as part of the SharePoint 2013 pre-requisites, it will automatically allocate 10% of the current available RAM to the cache. If you manually install the pre-requisites yourself, make sure you use the /gac switch when you install AppFabric. When you are building your farm, if you find you have already installed AppFabric before you run the pre-requisites installer, it is strongly recommended that you uninstall AppFabric first.
Servers running the Distributed Cache service are referred to as Cache Hosts. Every SharePoint farm needs at least one server running this service. By default, as you build your farm, the Distributed Cache service gets started on each server you join. When you have more than one instance of this service running in a farm, you have a Cache Cluster. In practice, when you have built your farm, you then proceed to switch off the Distributed Cache on any servers that you decide shouldn’t run that service, using the PowerShell cmdlets below.
Each item of data stored by the Distributed Cache is stored once only, and exists only on one server at a time. It’s worth noting that although AppFabric supports high availability, the SharePoint implementation of the Distributed Cache does not. If one of your cache servers dies, the cached items will be lost. In practice this means that performance will be reduced for that data until another Cache Host in the Cluster picks up that data.
Do not administer the Distributed Cache through the Service window in Administrative Tools under Control Panel, or through the AppFabric for Windows Server application on the Start menu. This could get the Distributed Cache service into a state where you might need to rebuild your farm!
There are two modes in which you can run the Distributed Cache service. You can run it as a dedicated service, with no other SharePoint services running on that server. Alternatively, you can run it collocated with other SharePoint services on the same server. For large scale production use, the recommendation is to have dedicated servers hosting your cache.
Microsoft recommends you avoid starting a Distributed Cache service instance on servers that are already running SQL Server, Search, Excel Services or Project Services.
If you plan to have more than one Cache Host, the first server added should be configured to allow inbound ICMPv4 traffic. If you are using Windows Firewall, you can enable this in PowerShell with the Set-NetFirewallRule cmdlet. The name of the rule is “File and Printer SharePoint (Echo request – ICMPv4-In)”. Notice also that it doesn’t take a Boolean ($true), but rather the string “True” as an argument to the -Enabled parameter. Don’t forget to Import-Module NetSecurity first, though!
Once the Distributed Cache service instance is started on any server in your farm, it will become part of your Cache Cluster.
The right way to start the service is with the Add-SPDistributedCacheServiceInstance PowerShell cmdlet. You run this on a SharePoint server you would like to add to your Cache Cluster, which makes the current server a Cache Host. Simply stopping the service instance would cause the contents of the cache on that server to go missing, degrading performance.
If you need to remove a server from the Cache Cluster, the safe way to do this is first to use Stop-SPDistributedCacheServiceInstance with the –Graceful parameter. This transfers any cached data to another server, and can therefore take some time to perform. Afterwards you can safely run Remove-SPDistributedCacheServiceInstance to make the current server a non-Cache Host.
If you get a Health Analyzer Rule violation in Central Administration saying that “The Distributed Cache host may cause cache reliability problems” it is likely that a Distributed Cache service instance has been stopped on a server without removing the server from the Cache Cluster. To resolve this, you can either start the service instance again using the Add-SPDistributedCacheServiceInstance cmdlet, or remove it with Remove-SPDistributedCacheServiceInstance as above.
Getting the memory allocation right is critical to SharePoint performance. We change the amount of memory allocated per server to get this right. If you later change the amount of installed RAM, the Distributed Cache service does not update its memory allocation automatically.
In a small farm with fewer than 10,000 users, Microsoft recommends allocating 1GB of RAM for the Distributed Cache. This can be either a dedicated server or collocated with other SharePoint services, such as the Web Application Service. Beyond this the recommendation is dedicated servers for the cache. A medium farm with fewer than 100,000 users should look to allocated around 2.5GB for the cache, and a large farm with up to 500,000 users should set aside around 12GB of RAM allocated for the cache.
The Distributed Cache service actually uses twice the allocated amount of RAM, using the extra for housekeeping.
It is a very strong recommendation that you should not allocate more than 16GB to any one Cache Host. This may cause the Cache Service to timeout during housekeeping operations and become unresponsive for several seconds at a time. If you need a cache size of greater than 16GB, it is better to use multiple servers in a Cache Cluster. You can have up to a maximum of 16 hosts in a Cache Cluster.
For the large farm example, we would use the Update-SPDistributedCacheSize cmdlet with the –CacheSizeInMB parameter specifying 12 as the amount of RAM to allocate. If you need to find out how much RAM is currently allocated, you can issue the Use-CacheCluster and Get-AFCacheHostConfiguration cmdlets.
When AppFabric is installed as part of the SharePoint pre-requisites, it is configured to run under the credentials of the server farm. This is far from ideal, and will eventually trigger a violation of a Health Analyzer Rule. To avoid this, you can change the account used by the Distributed Cache service. In the example below, we’re retrieving a managed account that has already been registered with our farm, called “CONTOSO\my_managed_account” with the Get-SPManagedAccount cmdlet. We then set that as the ManagedAccount property of the ProcessIdentity object of the Distributed Cache (“AppFabricCachingService”) SPService.
It is possible that after invoking the .Deploy() line in the above PowerShell script you will encounter an error such as “TCP port 22234 is already in use.”
Further attempts to work with the cache might also generate errors such as “Specified host is not present in cluster”:
You may even receive error messages saying “cacheHostInfo is null”.
Not to worry! Microsoft has an article on how to repair a broken Cache Host. First you need to get a reference to the broken Distributed Cache service instance, for example by filtering the results from Get-SPServiceInstance passing in the name of the affected host as the Server parameter, and then invoking Delete() on the service instance. Finally, you can restart the service instance with Add-SPDistributedCacheServiceInstance as below:
The Distributed Cache service is an enabler for many of the new social features in SharePoint 2013. We couldn’t have the rapid, almost real-time conversations in SharePoint’s feeds and microblogging features without it. Although it is tricky to configure, the Distributed Cache service is something you need to plan for in your SharePoint 2013 farms, and is best implemented with dedicated servers.
By Vicky Lea
When it comes to purchasing licences 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 licences.
FPP licences are purchased from retail and provide a quick and convenient way for customers requiring less than five licences to purchase their software. Licences sold through FPP are either full licences or upgrade licences. A full licence does not require any pre-existing versions of the software to be on the machine it is installed on, whereas an upgrade licence 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 Licence 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 8.1 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 Licence Terms document. So for instance it will detail that with Windows 8.1 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 licences 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 licences 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 licence terms for products purchased through specific agreements.
For example, when you purchase Windows 8.1 Pro through Volume Licensing the licence is an upgrade licence 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 8.1 Pro may be installed and who can access the software either locally or remotely.
Other important product rights you receive when purchasing your licences 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 licences, and the availability of software does vary through those channels, but the main impact on the licences 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.
Microsoft official and Community tech events coming your way this August and beyond. Which event are you going to? Let us know via @TechNetUK.
Featured Event
MVP Windows Server 2003 End of Service Roadshow.
In early September 2014, MVPs and Community Leaders will be sharing their expertise to help you understand the technical and business impact of the end support for Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2 and Small Business Server 2003. A lot has changed since 2003 and so have the Microsoft product offerings, giving you greater functionality and flexibility. The evening will cover the following:
The Roadshow is visiting:
To stay up to date with MVP Windows Server 2003 End of Service info follow our official hashtag: #UKMVPCLOUD
12th November, Birmingham: UC Birmingham User GroupCome along to the UC Birmingham User Group hosted by Andrew Price, Steve Goodman of The UC Architects Podcast alongside Jason Wynn. The UCBUG is the first dedicated User Group in Birmingham to the world of UC. We will be covering Microsoft Lync, Exchange, Office365 and Private Cloud at our meetings with guest speakers from across the Midlands and beyond.
Register here
Be sure to keep up to date on TechNet social for more regular event updates. Why not tweet us and let us know which event you’re going to!
Neil Hodgkinson has provided a step by step guide to getting started with System Center 2012 Configuration Manager. This is part of a 15 part series which will cover the installation, setup, configuration and usage of Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager. To find the additional articles in the series please take a look at Neil’s site.
http://SCCM2012 IIS Default for group policy is not needed if you are using SCCM push, read more about it here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb632380.aspx
Remote Differential Compression for site server and branch distribution point computers
Site servers and branch distribution points require Remote Differential Compression (RDC) to generate package signatures and perform signature comparison. By default, RDC is not installed on Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 and must be enabled manually.
Use the following procedure to enable Remote Differential Compression for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 and now 2012
Delegate Permission to the System Management Container
Open Active Directory Users and Computers. Click on view, select Advanced Features. Select the System Management Container, and right click it, choose All Tasks and Delegate Control.
When the Welcome to Delegation of Control Wizard appears click next, then click Add. Click on Object Types, select Computers. Type in your SCCM server name and click on Check Names, it should resolve.
Click Ok, then Next. Choose Create a Custom Task to Delegate, click next, make sure this folder, existing objects in this folder and creation of new objects in this folder is selected.
Click next, select the 3 permissions General, Property-Specific and Creation-deletion of specific child objects are selected then place a check mark in FULL CONTROL, and click next then Finish.
Extent the AD schema for sccm
Perform the below on your Active Directory server, simply browse the network to your AD Server server \\adminserver\c$ and copy the contents of SC2012_SP1_RTM_SCCM_SCEP and find \SMSSetup\Bin\x64\Extadsch.exe, right click and choose Run As Administrator.
Open SQL ports
Create an OU for your SCCM server and allow port 1433 and 4022 for SQL replication with group policy – Select Computer Configuration, Policies, Windows Settings, Windows Firewall with Advanced Security and select Inbound Rules, choose New and follow the wizard for opening up TCP port 1433, repeat for port 4022.
If using group policy refer to step 2 below Image
To open a port in the Windows firewall for TCP access
To open access to SQL Server when using dynamic ports
Install .net frame work and IIS WCF activation and BITS
In Server Manager select Features, Add Features, Select .NET Framework 3.5, also select WCF Activation and when prompted answer Add Required Role Services click next and next again. (Make sure the BIT and IIS service is running/restart after install).
SQL Server 2012
Install SQL on D:\Program Files... and when running setup.exe right click and choose Run as Administrator, Select all options on install, click on the account name and enter the admin username and password.
Click next and finish install (takes a long time).Make sure SCCM computer is a member of the built-in administrators.
Check TCPIP properties for listening IP address in SQL Server Configuration Manager Start up the SQL Server Configuration Manager, and expand SQL Server Network Configuration on the left pane, highlight Protocols for <Instancename> and double click on TCPIP in the right pane
Click on IP addresses
Change IP2 to enabled yes
Leave default IP
Change IP4 to enabled yes
SQL Memory Configuration
http://technet.microsoft.com/library/ms191144%28SQL.105%29.aspx
The logon account for the SQL Server service cannot be a local user account, NT SERVICE\<sql service name> or LOCAL SERVICE. You must configure the SQL Server service to use a valid domain account, NETWORK SERVICE, or LOCAL SYSTEM. SEE BELOW PIC
Installation of System Center 2012 Configuration Manager with SP1
Here is the download link for the Assessment and deployment kit http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30652 this is one of the prerequisites.
Also restart your server
When the wizard appears, click on Install, click next and then select Install a Configuration Manager Primary Site
Click next, and then create a folder on your D/E Drive called rc_updates
Click next on your Language of choice and enter your site installation settings install on D/E not C:
Install as the first site in a new hierarchy
Click next, leave the FQDN as default
Select Configure the Communication method on each site system role and review all setting.
Client Computer Communication Settings (HTTP or HTTPS). Select Configure the communication method on each site system role.
Any warnings can be fixed after the install
Make a brew this part can take a while!
After the install has finished restart the server.
The next step in the guide we will be going through the different discovery methods and creating boundary Groups.
Head on over to http://www.technodge.co.uk for more Deployment guides.
Neil Hodgkinson has been working in the IT industry for 14 years with 9 of those working in the education sector, I have worked with many versions of Windows Server, Exchange and Group Policy . Over the last few years I have been specializing in Deployment methods starting with Microsoft's deployment tool kit and the migrating over to Microsoft System Center, the Holy grail of servers- for Endpoint Protection, Deployment, App Control for windows 8 and the ability to manage smart phones.
I also do a lot of free consultancy for all the local primary schools on the best way to deploy and control their windows environment Via system center and Group policy's.
IT is a passion and I feel you have to be passionate about the IT industry for things to keep things moving forward.
Part of the Microsoft Licensing Logic series from the Microsoft Licensing team. Just when you think Microsoft licensing is straightforward and you’ve got a pretty good grasp on it, along comes SQL Server which has historically been the exception to the licensing rules. However with SQL Server 2012 we did a great deal of simplification so it’s easy to understand the basics. You’re going to approach licensing differently depending on whether you’re deploying SQL Server in a physical or virtual environment.
SQL Server Licensing in a physical environment.
SQL Server is available is three main editions; Standard, Business Intelligence and Enterprise. The Enterprise edition is licensed per core (no CALs required), Business Intelligence is licensed per server and client access licence (CALs) and the Standard edition can be licensed using either method. This is summarised below and hasn’t changed with the April 1st release of SQL Server 2014.
If you’re interested in the Business Intelligence aspects of SQL Server (and let’s face it, who isn’t), we’re holding an event in Reading on 1st May where you can hear about the latest innovations on Microsoft's high performance platform for real-time insights and apps covering SQL Server 2014, SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse, Excel 2013, Power BI for Office 365 and Azure. You can register here – hope to see you there.
Before I present a little flowchart which might make your decision easier, let me clarify a few things about per-core licensing. We are talking per-core here and not per-physical processor, unlike Windows Server 2012. Currently SQL Server 2012, SQL Server 2014 and BizTalk Server 2013 are the only products licensed per-core.
To find out the appropriate number of cores you need to licence, simply count the number of cores in each physical processor in the physical server. Software partitioning doesn’t reduce the number of cores you need to licence. Once you have that you need to remember three things:
For server and CAL, SQL Server works in the same way as any other Microsoft server + CAL product. Licence the server(s), determine the number of unique users and/or devices accessing the SQL Server and purchase the appropriate number and type of CALs. SQL 2014 CALs will allow access to all previous versions of SQL Server. Also you don’t require a separate CAL for every SQL Server; a SQL Server 2014 CAL allows access to all the SQL Servers within the organisation.
A simple way of determining the edition and licensing of SQL Server 2012 and SQL Server 2014 is below.
SQL Server Licensing in a virtual environment.
Regular readers of the licensing blog will be saying “I bet this has something to do with Software Assurance (SA)”. Well, you’re partly correct. I’m going to assume you're running Windows Server 2012 Datacenter edition on these boxes just for simplicity and I haven’t included details of the OS running in the Virtual Operating System Environment (VOSE). Licensing Windows Server has been covered in a previous blog.
For SQL Server Standard and Business Intelligence editions you can licence individual virtual machines (VMs) using the server + CAL model. Simply purchase one server license for each VM running SQL Server software, regardless of the number of virtual processors allocated to the VM. Then purchase the appropriate number of CALs.
For example, a customer who wants to deploy the Business Intelligence edition running in six VOSEs, each allocated with four virtual cores, would need to assign six SQL Server 2014 Business Intelligence server licences to that server, plus the CALs to allow access.
For SQL Server Standard and Enterprise editions you can licence individual VMs using the per-core model. Similar to physical OSEs, all virtual cores supporting virtual OSEs that are running instances of SQL Server 2014 must be licensed. Customers must purchase a core license for each virtual core (aka virtual processor, virtual CPU, virtual thread) allocated to the VOSE. Again, you are subject to the four core minimum, this time per VOSE. For licencing purposes, a virtual core maps to a hardware thread. When licensing individual VMs, core factors (i.e. the AMD processor 0.75 factor) do not apply.
Two examples are shown below (figure 1 and figure 2) for clarification.
Figure 1: (above) SQL Server core licences required for a single VOSE on a dual, four-core processor server.
Figure 2: (above) SQL Server core licences required for two VOSEs on a dual, four-core processor server.
With the SQL Server 2014 Enterprise edition (note: not Standard edition), if you licence all the physical cores on the server, you can run an unlimited number of instances of SQL Server, physically or virtually as long as the number of OSEs with SQL doesn’t exceed the number of licensed cores. For example, a four processor server with four cores per processor provides sixteen physical cores. If you licence all sixteen cores, you can run SQL Server in up to sixteen VOSEs (or the physical OS and 15 VOSEs), regardless of the number of virtual cores allocated to each VM. What if you want to run more than 16 VOSEs in this case? Well, you are permitted to assign additional core licenses to the server; this is known as licence stacking.
Here’s where Software Assurance comes into play. Licence all the physical cores with SQL Server 2014 Enterprise Edition and software assurance and your licence rights are expanded to allow any number of instances of the software to run in any number of OSEs (physical or virtual). This SA benefit enables customers to deploy an unlimited number of VMs to handle dynamic workloads and fully utilize hardware computing capacity. As with most SA benefits, this licence right ends if SA coverage on the SQL core licences expires.
Licensing for maximum virtualization can be an ideal solution if you’re looking to deploy SQL Server private-cloud scenarios with high VM density, Hyper-threading is being used so you’re looking at a lot of virtual cores to licence, or you’re using dynamic provisioning and de-provisioning of VM resources and you don’t want the headache of worrying about adjusting the licence count. As you can see in figure 3 (below) this can be very cost-effective.
Figure 3: (above) Options to licence SQL Server Enterprise in a virtual environment. In the top example you would need 8 core licences + SA for unlimited virtualisation whereas in the bottom example you would need 10 core licences and still be limited in the number of SQL VMs you could run.
What’s new in Licensing for SQL Server 2014?
Just two subtle changes: one for high availability scenarios and the other for multiplexing with SQL Server Business Intelligence edition.
The rights to install and run a passive fail-over SQL Server have now moved to be a Software Assurance Benefit. This is a licence right for SQL 2012 and earlier with the license terms listed as an exception under each SQL edition to which it applies. With SQL 2014 the fail-over servers terms will move to the Software Assurance Benefits section and thus only apply to SQL covered with SA.
The second update is for Business Intelligence Edition. We’re relaxing the multiplexing policy so it no longer requires a CAL for users or devices that access the BI server
Mobile First, Cloud First, Data Driven – Register for the SQL Server 2014 and Power BI for Office 365 Launch event on May 1st at our offices in Reading.
We say this in every blog but as you can imagine, there’s a lot more detail to SQL licensing so please listen into our monthly licensing spotlight calls where we cover this and other topics (you can view archived calls here).
Other Licensing Logic Articles:
Did you find this article helpful? Let us know in the comments bar below, or reach out via twitter @TechNetUK.
As a wise individual once said, “Don’t change yourself for the job, change the job to suit you”. This is a piece of advice that we’ve taken to heart recently, but don’t read into that, this isn’t a public resignation post. Rather, if you’ve read Andrew’s blog post on Careers Advice for the IT Professional along with a number of other articles focusing on careers, you’ll know that recently we’ve been placing a heavy emphasis on helping IT folks like you excel in the workplace.
Writing blog posts is all well and good, but for the most part they’re a fairly one-way conversation. That said, I encourage you to comment below, even if only for the satisfaction of proving me otherwise! In the meantime, we’ve been beavering away preparing a number of pilot Career Evening events, so that you can come along and have a chat about where you’re currently at, where you see your career going and how you’d like to get there.
So, what went down?
We held the first of these events in London earlier this month, focusing on careers in SQL and SharePoint, and were thrilled to be joined by thirty-odd attentive individuals from a range of industries and backgrounds. This variety of experience was also reflected in the speakers we lined up for the evening, including representatives from the worlds of Training, HR and Consultancy, an Apprentice, an MVP and everybody’s favourite Microsoft Evangelists!
Couldn’t make it? We’ve got your back.
If you were unable to join us on the night, but are keen to find out more about the areas we covered, help is at hand. For your reading pleasure, we’ve summarised each of the presentations below, including a little extra comment from Tom on Apprenticeships. You can also download the PowerPoint presentations as .PDFs below if you’d like to dive a little deeper. The slides include a number of handy links to further resources, so are definitely worth exploring.
After providing an introduction to Global Knowledge (GK), Linda discussed the learning delivery methods available and the importance of certification as evidence of your skills, which can be invaluable whether in role or seeking a new positi on. She then covered the range of SQL Server and SharePoint certifications available, including MCSA, MCSE and MCSD and their associated exams. This was followed by a review of the Instructor-Led training available and the exams to which each course corresponds.
Emma shared the employer’s perspective on finding your next role, with a whole host of great tips on how to conduct your job search, market yourself to potential employers and present yourself at interview.
For his session, Tom gave an overview of the Apprenticeship programme and discussed the many benefits (both professional and personal!) of undertaking the course. I think it’s fair to say the room found his talk particularly inspiring, so instead of my interpretation, here’s a few words from the man himself:
“The Microsoft Apprenticeship is the result of Microsoft’s commitment to increase UK IT Skills, an area in which the UK is rapidly falling behind other countries across the world. The apprentice spends 12 months based at a Microsoft Partner firm (e.g. Adatis) whilst receiving training and qualifications from a learning provider, at the end of which they are fully qualified as an MCP IT Professional, have a number of Level 3 (A-Level Equivalent) Qualifications, 12 months workplace experience, an average salary of £20000, with no University debt and a 90% chance of continued employment with their Apprentice employer. There are a number of different pathways on offer, including Desktop, Database, Server, Developer and Telesales, all focussing on different job functions to meet different role requirements.”
Sounds pretty great, right? For more information about Microsoft Apprenticeships, visit the Get On website, and check out Tom’s slides below.
The final section of the evening was more of a discussion than it was a presentation, with Steve sharing his experiences of taking the plunge into business ownership and the importance of involving yourself in the tech community. As the owner of Specialist SharePoint training company Combined Knowledge, Steve highlighted the virtues of gaining deep technical knowledge in a specific area and the importance of carefully selecting the path you want to take. He also explored the importance of Job vs. Salary vs. Lifestyle, an area you can read more about in Andrew Fryer’s recent article on optimising your work-life balance.
Download Linda, Tom and Steve’s sessions. Download Emma’s session.
We received a raft of great feedback from everyone who attended, in particular requesting that we put a stronger focus on product roadmaps and how future changes might impact your choice of career path. We’ve learnt a great deal running this first event, so you can rest assured the next two will be bigger and better.
Next Time…
3rd April – Datacentre and Client Infrastructure (Windows and System Center)
1st May - Cloud (Azure and Office 365)
The next Career Evening will take place on Thursday 3rd April, in just over a week's time. We’re going to be covering the world of datacentre and client infrastructure, with sessions from System Center industry experts, learning partners and recruiters. We’ll also be hearing from Zach, an Apprentice and IT Technician with Inframon, as well as poster-boy for Microsoft’s Britain Works programme! To make sure you don’t miss out, register at the links above.
The deal is you bring yourself and a desire to develop your career, we’ll bring dinner and drinks. So, the only question that remains is, what delicacies would you like to see at the next event? Let us know in the comments, or give us a Tweet.
When we get some time out from bringing you all the latest IT Pro news, events and competitions, we like to do our bit for charity here at TechNet. The Developer Partner Evangelism (DPE) Group at Microsoft, of which TechNet is a part, are undertaking a ‘Store Wars’ challenge in conjunction with Naomi House and Jacks Place Children’s Hospice. As part of the fundraising for this wonderful charity our team members have come up with two great opportunities.
Over the next couple of days we are holding two auctions, one for a days Architecture Design Session for your company in the Microsoft Technology Centre and one for a days Interactive Marketing Session with our experts. But here’s the catch – you don’t know what everyone else is bidding, so you have to bid what’s you think it’s worth!
The deadline to get your bid in is Friday 14th October at 3pm, for updates on the highest bids take a look at the @RomseySoft Twitter account.
Further information on the prizes, Naomi House and how to enter can be found below. Many thanks for your support.
A One-Day Architecture Design Session in the Microsoft Technology Centre
This session focuses on the objectives of your business and looks at how the latest Microsoft technologies can help you meet your goals and explore new business opportunities. We’ll provide architectural guidance, consultation on preferred practices, and risk analysis to chief technology officers, architects, and senior members of your development team. The ADS will be facilitated by senior Microsoft architects with deep knowledge of key technologies across client, server, database, mobile and cloud, and with extensive experience of aligning business requirements and technology strategy. For more information, please see the Microsoft Technology Centre website.
Make your Bid for the MTC
A One-Day Interactive Marketing Session - Marketing to the Next Level
Phil Cross and Sara Allison are 2 Marketers in Microsoft DPE and would be delighted to work with a partner for a day sharing insight, experiences and laughs in an interactive workshop session based on specific challenges you are facing. The outcome would be to give you some ideas and tangible steps to take your marketing to the next level. Obviously we are doing this to raise money for charity and whilst we are not professional trainers we do live and breathe marketing to a huge audience every single day.
Phil has many years’ experience in Marketing both outside and inside Microsoft, from product management through to driving customer satisfaction to thousands of IT Professionals and Students. Obviously to do this you have to be creative with channels and resources! Sara is the editor of the UK Microsoft Developer Network website, blog and newsletter, as well as Ubelly, the unofficial official Microsoft blog for developers who love the web. As well as enjoying developing creative stories to engage her audience, she’s also keen on using social media and good old face to face communication to listen to what people want to hear about and help spread the word.
Make your Bid for the Marketing Experience
About Naomi House
Every day, Naomi House helps to relieve the pressures faced by families caring for a very sick child who won’t live to become an adult. Since 1997 we have been able to provide a home-from home environment to over 600 families thanks to the support of thousands of individuals, hundreds of volunteers and many local companies. Your support can make such a difference. Whether you can donate money or time, we offer a range of ways to help children with life-limiting conditions and their families to enjoy precious time together at Naomi House. Naomi House relies heavily on donations. We receive over 90% of our funding from supporters across Berkshire, Dorset, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, West Sussex, Surrey and Wiltshire. Every donation, large or small makes a difference, to the children and families who receive support from us. Hundreds of children and families benefit from the work of Naomi House each year, your donation can help to ensure that we can continue to give them the support they need. For more information visit www.naomihouse.org.uk
Terms and Conditions
1. ELIGIBILITY: This competition is open to any person resident in the UK who is 18 years of age or older at the time of entry. Employees of Microsoft or its affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising or promotion agencies are not eligible, nor are members of these employees’ families (defined as parents, children, siblings, spouse and life partners).
2. TO ENTER:
Method 1 (For Prize 1) - Send an e-mail to v-rapeck@microsoft.com containing your contact details and bid amount, stating “MTC Charity Auction” in the e-mail subject line.
Method 2 (For Prize 2) - Send an e-mail to v-rapeck@microsoft.com containing your contact details and bid amount, stating “Marketing Experience Auction Bid” in the e-mail subject line.
Microsoft is not responsible for lost, corrupted or delayed entries. Only one entry per person will be accepted. No purchase necessary. Entry constitutes full and unconditional acceptance of these Terms and Conditions. Microsoft reserves the right to disqualify anyone in breach of these Terms and Conditions.
3. TIMING: This competition runs from 09.00:00 am BST on 10 October 2011 until 15.00:00 p.m. on 14 October 2011(inclusive). Completed entries must reach Microsoft no later than the closing date.
4. USE OF DATA: Personal data which you provide when you enter this competition shall be used for the purposes of this competition only.
5. SELECTION OF WINNERS: There will be two winners, one for each Entry Method. The winners will be the entrants who have submitted the highest bid through the methods defined above by the closing date. In the case of two identical bids for one Prize having been received, the winner will be the individual whose bid was received first.
Rachel Peck will notify the winners by email by 17 October 2011. If a potential winner cannot be contacted, through no fault of Microsoft, within FIVE (5) working days after the first attempt, an alternative winner with the next highest bid amount will be selected. The winner may be required to become involved in further publicity or advertising.
The winner must submit their winning bid amount through the Virgin Money Giving donation page here no later than 12:00:00 on 18 October 2011. Failure to submit your winning bid amount will result in an alternative winner being selected.
6. PRIZE: A total of two (2) prizes are available, one (1) per entry method.
Prize 1 - A one-day Architecture Design Session in the Microsoft Technology Centre. This session focuses on the objectives of your business and looks at how the latest Microsoft technologies can help you meet your goals and explore new business opportunities. We’ll provide architectural guidance, consultation on preferred practices, and risk analysis to chief technology officers, architects, and senior members of your development team. The ADS will be facilitated by senior Microsoft architects with deep knowledge of key technologies across client, server, database, mobile and cloud, and with extensive experience of aligning business requirements and technology strategy.
Prize 2 - A one-day Marketing Interactive Session- Marketing to the Next Level. Phil Cross and Sara Allison are 2 Marketers in Microsoft DPE and would be delighted to work with a partner for a day sharing insight, experiences and laughs in an interactive workshop session based on specific challenges you are facing. The outcome would be to give you some ideas and tangible steps to take your marketing to the next level.
Prizes are as stated and are not transferable. No cash alternatives available.
7. WINNERS LIST: The winner consents to their first name and surname being made publicly available. The winners surname will be available for a period of 30 days after the closing date by emailing Rachel Peck at v-rapeck@microsoft.com.
8. OTHER: No correspondence will be entered into regarding either this competition or these Terms and Conditions. In the unlikely event of a dispute, Microsoft’s decision shall be final. Microsoft reserves the right to amend, modify, cancel or withdraw this competition at any time without notice.
All Money raised will be donated to Naomi House; Microsoft will not accrue any financial benefit from this auction.
Each day we will announce the value of the leading bid through twitter using the account @RomseySoft.
Promoter: Microsoft Limited, Microsoft Campus, Thames Valley Park, Reading, RG6 1WG, England
Heinrich Van Der Westhuizen is a technology entrepreneur with more than 17 years’ experience in IT and has managed different businesses within Europe across multiple IT disciplines. Heinrich works for Digital Defence who provide mobile defence solutions.
Secure Mobile, encrypts and protects selected data and centrally enforces security policies on mobile devices – Secure Mobile is a true enabler for Mobility.
TechNet UK invited Heinrich to provide the details of what Digital Defence is as we know that many of you are interested in your staff being able to use devices on your systems anywhere. When looking at corporate owned devices the technology provided by Digital Defence provides a potential solution when looking at security for this environment. Hear from Heinrich about this technology and how it may be applicable in your organisation.
How Secure Mobile Works
Secure Mobile provides real-time encryption of persistent data using 128 or 256 bit AES encryption employing the XTS cipher mode which has been FIPS 197 certified. This is a relatively new cipher mode for encryption specifically designed for at-rest data. Persistent data refers to any data which remains persistent after a factory reset of a handheld device (i.e. storage cards or persistent local folders such as the /application folder on Motorola devices). The encryption is seamless to the user, meaning all encrypted data is encrypted and decrypted in real-time by use of a file system filter driver. Each file is encrypted using a different encryption key to another. Each file’s encryption key is determined by data part stored in a file’s contents, part (securely) stored in the device’s registry. The encryption key data is protected by device authentication which integrates with the Microsoft LASSD system.
Encrypted data access can be restricted to specific applications to ensure unknown (or undesired) applications will never be able to access the encrypted data. This is achieved by White Listing (and Black Listing) applications from execution and encryption access. All data connection ports are protected using Secure Mobile’s Access Control module. This ensures all means of transferring data to and from the device can be restricted to only secure channels. WWAN, WLAN, and USB channels can all be White Listed to ensure only specific secure networks (or connections) are used for data transfer.
How Secure Mobile Works II (File System Driver vs. File Vault)
Strictly speaking, we are not a “File Vault”. A File Vault is a single file that appears to the user as a folder location. So the storage folder is stored internally as a single file.
Secure Mobile uses a file system filter driver. This means we intercept all file reads and writes effectively acting as a second file system driver in the Kernel.
We only encrypt storage locations that remain persistent after a clean boot (factory reset). This includes local storage areas which are flagged as persistent (or permanent). On Motorola devices this is the “\application” folder.
We do not encrypt local storage folders that are wiped after a factory reset (i.e. the “\windows” folder).
Yes our solution is system wide. In this way, Secure Mobile is independent of any applications installed. Any time an applications tries to read or write data it is automatically decrypted and encrypted without the application needing to worry about it (or even being aware of it). Of course if you Black List an application from encryption then that application cannot read and write data to the locations marked for encryption.
If Storage Cards are marked to be encrypted, then every single file on a storage card will be encrypted.
If Local Persistent folders are marked to be encrypted then every single file on local persistent folders will be encrypted.
Device Wipe with Secure Mobile
Secure Mobile provides the ability to set a security policy which will force a device wipe as a result of a "security compromise". Secure Mobile can force a device wipe if: - a user is locked out of the device after X failed login attempts. - a user has not used the device for X days. - a user has not connected the device to a pc for X days. Secure Mobile does not currently provide the ability to immediately "Remote Wipe" a device. Secure Mobile can be setup to keep data on storage cards during a device wipe. A device wipe will attempt to delete every file and registry entry. A device wipe will result in a mobile device which cannot be used due to the removal of key system files and registry entries. The result is that the device needs to be factory reset (clean boot).
Today, Microsoft announced its Cloud OS Network - a worldwide group of more than 25 cloud service providers serving over 90 markets, delivering services built on the Microsoft Cloud Platform. For enterprise and Government organisations in the UK, this means more choice and flexibility in the way they are able to deliver their applications and services. Specifically, with the Cloud OS Network we are enabling organisations to deploy their applications and services from a high quality trusted local service provider in conjunction with existing on premises and Azure assets.
Maurice Martin Director, Server and Cloud platforms, Microsoft Ltd explains: “Choice is key. UK customers now benefit from a true hybrid cloud model – being able to deploy services and applications in a consistent way across UK based leading service providers - Outsourcery, Capita, NTTX and CGI in conjunction with Azure. We recognise that for organisations with concerns regarding data sovereignty, specific industry regulations and additional specialised services - obtaining Microsoft Cloud services from a local UK provider offers them the best of both worlds. Working with our UK service provider partners via our new Cloud OS Network additionally means that together we can offer services that are fully compliant with UK Government security standards, allowing confidential data to be securely processed within our cloud ecosystem.”
Martin continues: “Ultimately what you are seeing here is the foundation for a national cloud infrastructure. We believe that the Cloud OS Network is unique since it enables one consistent platform across customer private clouds, public cloud (Windows Azure), and service provider clouds, with all three leveraging shared technologies for the virtualisation layer, systems management, development frameworks and identity solutions. This makes it easy for Government to work with multiple providers and enable workloads to move across clouds, dynamically if required, without technical friction.”
The Cloud OS Network will see partners provide infrastructure and application solutions based on a Microsoft-validated platform. The solutions can be highly customised and fully managed for customers and include varying levels of security, privacy and service levels to meet specific needs.
Piers Linney, CEO of Outsourcery explains what it means for the UK market: “The rate of cloud adoption continues to gather pace amongst our public and private sectors customers who are now seeking greater choice, flexibility and consistency between hybrid datacentre environments. Data sovereignty is also an increasing requirement, which is why customers such as London Business School have seen the value of Outsourcery’s O-Cloud Platform powered by the Microsoft Cloud Platform. In fact, as part of the Microsoft Cloud OS Network, we see a significant opportunity to increase our market strength by offering customers the most comprehensive set of cloud service capabilities available today. These capabilities are enhanced by global best practice from a select number of leading cloud providers.”
Andy Parker, Deputy Chief Executive at Capita adds: “We are pleased to be working with Microsoft as one of the few UK companies to offer its popular applications via private cloud. Capita Productivity Hub allows organisations to increase productivity by offering trusted Microsoft applications on the go and on their choice of device. In addition, the latest versions of these applications will always be available.
“Customers benefit from the knowledge that the applications are being used in a secure environment, plus the reassurance of all data being stored in Capita’s UK data centres. This is crucial for many organisations in the public sector and highly regulated industries. Capita Productivity Hub will be available via the existing Capita Private Cloud infrastructure, which offers customers access to more than 2,000 pre-tested cloud applications via a self-service portal, allowing them to easily tailor, monitor and manage services.”
Tim Gregory, UK President, CGI. Explains: “At CGI we always strive to be the best at what we do and help our clients to succeed. This partnership with Microsoft is a further demonstration of our commitment to provide clients with best of class solutions for their business, operational and bottom line challenges. We have already demonstrated the benefits of this partnership with our Secure Government Cloud which was launched last week and is already generating a huge amount of interest in the market.”
Philip Moss, Director at NTTX concludes: “NTTX is proud of its long-standing association with Microsoft and today’s announcement that NTTX is one of the small group of global partners involved in Microsoft’s Cloud OS Network is testament to the strength of this relationship. Our new generation of public and private cloud solutions, utilising the power and capability of Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Azure Pack and System Centre 2012 R2, provides highly available, feature rich solutions, which drive down operational costs and reduce the complexity and deployment lead times inherent in traditional solutions. NTTX combines its highly-advanced Cloud services delivery platform with a trusted, personal and highly responsive approach to customer engagement to deliver turnkey solutions that exceed customers’ needs, today and tomorrow, in the most cost effective manner.”