We’ll be attending the IP EXPO conference again this year and the IT pro team has been working hard to cover everything you want to hear from us.

We’d love to see you at Microsoft Stand # 366, where we’ll have a gaggle of Microsoft UK experts across such topics as Windows Server 2008 R2, Virtualisation, System Centre (private cloud), and Windows Azure, SQL Azure and Microsoft Online Services (public cloud).

Highlights include:

Zane Adams,  General Manager of Azure and Middleware, delivering the Microsoft keynote Microsoft Cloud Computing: IT-as-a-Service – Taking Care of Business

Technical breakout session in the Cloud Services and Applications Theatre: Microsoft Cloud Platform: Enterprise-Class Architecture, delivered by Steve Plank, Architect Evangelist – Public Cloud

For Crying Out Cloud – Show Me What’s in the Cloud for Me! A Cloud labs session delivered by our Private Cloud technical duo, Matt McSpirit, Partner Technology Advisor and Simon May, IT Pro Evangelist

Register for IT Expo here – the IT pro team looks forward to meeting you.

Here’s the latest update from the TechEd Europe team.

Join the discussion at TechEd Europe  – propose your BOF session by October 10

Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) sessions are open discussions on technology related topics moderated and organised by the INETA Europe / GITCA Community.    Propose a topic and join the conversation - BOF organisers are accepting your topic submissions through October 10. 

Connect with your fellow attendees and expand your networking opportunities by thousands
Opt-in to the Tech·Ed Europe 2010 Delegate Directory and let people know you're attending the event! This is your chance to make connections with the people that share your professional background and interests before, during, and after the conference. You can choose the information you want to share with other delegates - blogs, social network accounts, email, or more. We'll publish the directory in October, but you can sign up at any time. If you didn't join the directory during registration you can still sign up by returning to the registration site and accessing the Returning Services Menu, Attendee Directory.

There’s a lot going on with Internet Explorer at the moment with the IE9 Beta having just launched and you might be wondering what the best course of action is for your business.  Well we just published some guidance on what to do, but I’ll summarise it for you.  Roll out the Windows Optimized Desktop: Windows 7 with IE 8, Office 2010 and Silverlight using the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) to help.

What you shouldn’t do is wait for Internet Explorer 9 or delay your rollout in any way.  Why? 

Because your business will lose out in the short term when it could be making strides in efficiency.  And everyone* loves Windows 7 as this lifehacker poll shows.  And also, there will always be v-next.

Internet Explorer 8 is a great browser for the corporate desktop, it’s secure, it’s manageable and it’s really easy to roll out.  It will also be easy to move to IE9 when you have IE8 rolled out and we’ll have tools when we go to full release to help with that migration and additional group policy settings to help with management.  I’m reminded of iconic “Don’t Panic, Carry on” posters, mugs and other tut.

That said, evaluate everything with IE9 starting now – there’s no need to wait to make sure stuff works, like your intranet sites, it’s a pay it forward exercise.  Get to know HTML5 and other improvements and if you need to test sites along side IE8 then you can use the Platform Preview (version 5 was released at the same time as Beta)

*everyone is hyperbole but most people do

Simon’s becoming quite a partner in crime with me on the UK TechNet blog, and a very good one he makes, too. Visit Simon’s own TechNet blog to find out more about him and his part in the Microsoft UK IT pro team.

The Windows Small Business Server 7 (SBS7) Public Preview is now available for download. Built on Windows Server 2008 R2, the new edition of the all-in-one solution server for small businesses will include Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 SP1, Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010, and Windows Software Update Services. Small business customers will find significant security and management enhancements over previous versions, as well as much richer features for providing file-and-print, email and Internet services to employees.

Download the Windows Small Business Server 7 preview.

To learn more about Windows SBS7, visit the SBS site.

The new software update 1 for Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) 2010 Service Pack 1 provides a number of functionality updates and other improvements. Get an overview, system requirements and instructions from the Microsoft Download Centre.

The great video Showcase site on Microsoft.com hosts thousands of videos and other rich media content that hundreds of thousands of customers worldwide view every day. In this article you can see how Microsoft Information Technology (MSIT) quickly built and deployed the Social eXperience Platform (SXP) on the Windows Azure technology platform to enable social media capabilities across Microsoft.com.

Microsoft has adopted a “we’re all in” strategy for the cloud. As part of this strategy, MSIT is migrating Microsoft.com to the cloud via Windows Azure. SXP is one of the first technologies that MSIT has built and deployed in the cloud by using Windows Azure. This article focuses on the decisions that the SXP team made when creating the Windows Azure-based service. The article also discusses the many advantages that Windows Azure provides and also discusses lessons learned.

Take a look at the article and learn more about Showcase here.

New TechNet Virtual Lab, anyone? This one will help you to install Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010 on a Windows Server 2008 R2 server. Here’s the official lowdown – in perhaps the longest sentence ever written…

After completing this lab, you will be better able to install Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway (UAG) on a Windows Server 2008 R2 server, perform the initial configuration of the Forefront UAG server using the Getting Started Wizard, configure Active Directory as the authentication repository, create a portal trunk for application and network access, use the portal trunk to publish Microsoft Exchange, configure Forefront UAG to publish a remote desktop server, enable remote access to the internal network using the Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol (SSTP), deploy an ISATAP IPv6 router to the internal network, configure Forefront UAG as a DirectAccess server, integrate Forefront UAG with Network Access Protection (NAP) for policy validation, and install a second Forefront UAG server and configure a Forefront UAG array.

Time for Friday’s round-up again, and it’s TechNet Flash week, so it’s been a busy one for the blog. Here’s what we’ve been getting up to over the past five days.

On Monday I took a quiet little browse around the new lightweight TechNet Library, which is faster and easier to explore in its new guise. Have a look and see what you make of it.

Tuesday’s posts turned up some great resources to help you deploy Windows 7, and also brought news of newly announced sessions and speakers planned for TechEd Europe 2010. Are you signed up?

It’s a wonder Wednesday‘s five posts didn’t wear me out for the rest of the week, but it was all in a good cause. We brought you news of the Microsoft Lync Server 2010 RC download, invited you to attend some ALM events and take part in the TechNet Blog Treasure Hunt to win a copy of Office Professional 2010. But that’s not all…the lovely (wonder if he’s reading this) Simon May wrote a great post outlining Silverlight’s value to IT pros for the TechNet Flash newsletter and also – big news – put together a super piece for the Internet Explorer 9 beta release. Got all that?

Thursday, thankfully a quieter day. Continuing the IE9 beta theme, I went poking about in TechNet and found the Internet Explorer TechCentre, which is well worth a bookmark.

TechNet Flash landed on the blog today, having made a better late than never appearance in our inboxes at about midnight last night. Barbara, my partner in newsletter crime, held it back especially so we could get the IE9 info in, and I’m glad we did. My inbox is filling up fast with your responses to the TechNet Treasure Hunt – thanks so much for getting involved, it’s good to have some fun now and again, don’t you think?

Have a lovely weekend, folks.

Here is the fruit of this fortnight’s labour – have a read for a chance to win a copy of Microsoft Office Professional 2010, check out the IE9 beta and find out how Silverlight can bring light into your life as an IT pro.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Flash to get the latest news delivered straight to your inbox.

We’re  unashamedly going a little bit IE9 crazy at the moment. Join in the fun, why don’t you? Bookmark the TechNet Internet Explorer TechCentre and get your hands on a stack of technical tools, tips and downloads.