Here at TechNet HQ we’re beginning to wind down for the holiday season, and whilst browsing around the interwebs I’ve come across a new article by Rory Cellan-Jones on the BBC Website about the importance that Technology has had to play in major events this year. He touches on some really interesting subjects, including the state of the UK’s broadband and mobile infrastructure as well as Silicon Roundabout in East London and a £15 computer.
This got me wondering about my personal Technology highlight of the past 12 months and almost instantly my mind turned to social media, as it does far too often! In particular, the way that Twitter has taken off this year is of great interest. Its use to add a communication ‘back-channel’ as an interactive dimension to a number of more traditional mediums such as Television and print has provided much interesting reading.
Incidentally, TechNet UK now has a renamed Twitter channel, come and check out what we’re up to @TechNetUK! What is your Top Tech from 2011? Give us a Tweet or let us know in the comments!
On behalf of the whole team past and present, thanks for reading the Blog this year. Here’s hoping you have an enjoyable last few weeks of 2011 and we’ll see you on the other side!
SQLBits, the UK’s SQL Server technical conference and the second largest SQL Server conference in the world, is undoubtedly the place to be if you’re keen to improve your SQL Server knowledge and find out what’s new in SQL Server 2012!
Over nine previous conferences since 2007, SQLBits has gained a reputation as the event for SQL Server professionals in the UK: almost 800 people attended each of the two previous conferences. It now attracts the leading SQL Server experts from around the world as speakers as well as senior members of the SQL Server development team from Redmond; in Brighton last year the guest of honour was none other than Steve Wozniak, founder of Apple and tech industry legend.
SQLBits 10 will be taking place at the Novotel London West in Hammersmith, London on the 29th-31st March 2012, and will also be the official launch event for SQL Server 2012 in the UK. Here’s what will be happening on each of the three days:
Thursday 29th March will be a training day, featuring a number of day-long preconference seminars delivered by well-known SQL Server trainers such as Adam Machanic, Kevin Kline, Denny Cherry and Stacia Misner. You can see a full list of what’s on offer here.
Friday 30th March will be a conference day featuring hour-long sessions delivered by the best speakers from the SQL Server community
Saturday 31st March will be the traditional SQLBits community conference day, with a wide range of sessions covering all aspects of SQL Server at all abilities.
The agenda for Friday and Saturday will be published in early 2012. Full details on booking and pricing can be found here, but the important thing to remember is that the Saturday conference day is free to attend!
To find out more about what’s happening at SQLBits and to register, go to http://www.sqlbits.com/
We hope to see you in London!
Just when you thought you had met everyone on the TechNet UK team we bring you another blog post! This one’s another video one at that! The final member of our team is Andrew and we caught him at the TechNet IT Pro Camp and asked him our 10 questions. I do wonder what would happen if we had a psychologist analyse the answers to our questions! I’m sure there are more insights than appear on the surface.
Many of you have probably already seen Andrew present at numerous TechNet UK events across the country but this video provides some fun insights into the person behind those presentations! See him empty out his pockets and reveal who he was inspired by when he was younger!
Find out how Andrew answered our 10 questions!
If you would like to find out about the rest of the team then just click on the links below:
Dan Pilling
Sarah Lamb
Alex Guy
Simon May
Do say hi to the team and follow us on Twitter! We love hearing from you and finding out what is catching your interest!
Cloud services certainly feel like a hot topic everywhere at the moment with a range of feelings being voiced on the topic. The definition, business value, and technology benefits of the "the cloud" have been one of the core topics that have been hotly debated in recent months. Most agree that cloud computing can accelerate innovation, reduce costs, and increase business agility in the market which is a great place to start the conversation.
In 2012, cloud computing will transition from hype and discussion, to part of every enterprise's reality, and IT is uniquely positioned to lead this transformation and help business reap the benefits of cloud computing.
To help you get real-world answers, We would like to invite you to an interactive virtual event designed to help you explore your cloud options. Plus, you'll be among the first to hear the latest private cloud news from Microsoft.
Transforming IT with Microsoft Private Cloud Tuesday 17 January 2012 16:30-18:30 (UK Time)
> Register Now
Here's what is planned for the event:
Be sure to forward this invitation to your IT leadership team and those that you think would find this of interest. I hope you can join us in this interactive discussion.
Microsoft Executive Panelists:
Satya Nadella President, Server and Tools Business, Microsoft
Brad Anderson Corporate Vice President, Management and Security Division, Microsoft
Jacky Wright Vice President, IT Strategic Services, Microsoft IT
As some of you may have noticed we’ve been doing a few introductions to the team, some of which have been new people and others you have probably seen presenting or have read some of their content. We started the series by interviewing Dan Pilling then it was my turn… Yesterday we introduced Alex Guy and this time I’ve managed to track down Simon May!
I cornered Simon with my trusty video camera armed with my 10 questions! The idea here was to let you get to know the people as well as what they present. After all this will mean you don’t always have to talk servers and systems with these guys when catching up after an event!
See how Simon May responds to our 10 Questions!
If there’s something about the team or working at Microsoft that you would like to know then feel free to leave a comment on the blog and we’ll do our best to provide that insight into Microsoft.
Congratulations, after 20 brilliant videos and thousands of views, your great tips have successfully helped to save Sam’s job and convince her bosses to deploy Windows 7, starting now!
Along the way you’ve won loads of awesome prizes too, congratulations to all of our winners and thank you to everyone who submitted a video. Here’s all of our winning responses, including the 6th and final winner LG3UK who provided some great Business Value tips (although we’d like to have seen a Windows Phone!)
Also massive congratulations to JangidUK, whose Security video below achieved the highest number of views – a staggering 27,388 and counting! There’s a 3D TV and 3D Camcorder on it’s way to you.
Check out all the tips below and be sure to visit the Windows 7 TechCentre for more information about the points raised.
JangidUK - Security - Overall Winner, Most Views
thelongclimb - Ease of Use
yachtinglimited - Compatibility
TechieGirls - Security
JangidUK - Deployment
pauliddon - Manageability
LG3UK - Productivity & Business Value
This week has had a bit of a cloud and community theme with content about Windows Azure training in the New Year and the wrap up of the IT Pro Camp. It was great to meet some of the IT Pro’s in person, for me it was the first time I met many of you. I’m looking forward to meeting more of you in the New Year as well!
We have plenty of content to keep you going into the New Year! Look out for the rest of the introductions to the team including some video’s! Also you may have noticed we’ve updated our Twitter account name to @TechNetUK – it’s much easier to remember and gives you more characters to tweet us with!
1. What is your name and where do you come from? (Imagine this being said Cilla Black – Blind Date Style!)
Alex, originally from Chessington (Yes, where the World of Adventures is)!
2. How would you describe yourself using 3 tags?
Glastonbury, Techie, Microsoft-Convert
3. What is your favourite gadget?
After thinking long and hard, it’s probably my home PC. Sure it’s not as portable as my shiny smartphone, but when it breaks I can take it apart and fix it!
4. What would we find if we asked you to empty out your pockets?
Not a lot I’m afraid – being a student I don’t have very deep pockets! Just the usual phone, keys and wallet.
5. If you were on a desert island what 3 items would you take with you?
My tent, a good bottle of something strong and my phone, although I don’t get any signal in the office so I doubt it would be much use on an island.
6. What was your first Microsoft product and what is your favourite current product?
My first Microsoft product was Windows 95. My current favourite has to be Windows Phone 7 Mango, the interface is miles ahead of anything else on the market. Having used a HTC Mozart at work for the past few months I can’t help but feel my personal phone is missing something whenever I try and multitask on it now.
7. What did you want to do when you were little?
For reasons that are beyond me I wanted to be a Fireman. I’m certainly going to have to get down the gym if I ever want to fulfil that aspiration.
8. How many pets do you have/ or had and what were their names?
In total I have/have had about 7 pets – Jess, Spencer and Steve (Yes you read that correctly, Steve) who are/were all moggies. Smidge and Smudge the Rabbits and two Guinea Pigs whose names escape me.
9. What are you looking forward to in technology?
Really looking forward to the increasing competition in the consumer product space and all the great innovations that are bound to result from all sides.
10. What was your most embarrassing tech moment?
Just getting into home networking many moons ago and asking my long-suffering Mum to invest in a new PC. I thought I’d be able to configure it as what I thought was a ‘Server’ and that this would in turn, somehow, make our broadband connection faster. Who knows.