The weather has chilled somewhat in the UK this last week and the SQLBits Conference is coming up fast… with snow forecast next week we thought that it would be a great idea share some love for the conference and keep a few of you warm and cozy. So we’re offering up 3 NorthFace fleeces in our competition to keep you warm this winter. They are pretty awesome and come complete with the SQL 2012 logo on the left shoulder. (To show off your geek credentials!)
For a chance to win a fleece:
Each tweet, retweet and share that you generate will result in an entry into the competition. But remember you must be following us or have joined our Facebook page.
The competition closes at midday GMT on Tuesday 14th February when we will announce the three winners! Good luck!
Please note this competition is open to UK residents only. Prizes are non-transferable and a cash alternative will not be given.
By Thomas Lee – PowerShell MVP
Thomas is a UK IT Pro, with over 40 year’s experience in the IT field. He’s presently a PowerShell MCP and is very busy doing writing, consulting and training around some of the key Microsoft technologies including PowerShell, Lync and Windows Server/client. In his spare time, he lives in a small cottage with wife, daughter, a nice wine cellar and a large collection of Grateful Dead live recordings.
Without doubt, 2012 is the year when YOU need to learn PowerShell. And if you already know something about PowerShell, then it’s a great time to learn even more! I know I say this a lot to everyone who will listen, but I really do believe that now is a great time to hone up your PowerShell skills. Let me tell you why and how you can do this.
We’re in that period between major product releases – Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 have shipped and is now being widely deployed. Of course not everyone is using the latest, but lots of firms are or are planning to in the near future. You might be one of them, and using PowerShell will help you in deploying and managing these two products.
The next major OS product release will not happen until the end of this year (plus or minus) when Microsoft are expected to ship Windows 8 (server and client). And with the new OS comes Office 15, including new versions of the Office productivity suite plus new versions of Exchange and Lync. The next versions of System Center (particularly System Center Virtual Machine Manager) will feature PowerShell too. What’s more – PowerShell is being adopted by third party vendors too – Firms such as Symantec, VMware and Cisco are all adopting PowerShell as their key management interface.
Windows, Exchange and Lync are based on the use of PowerShell. Each application comes with a GUI that provides some parts of the overall management interface. But to do it all, you will simply need to know PowerShell. With these new releases PowerShell becomes ever more pervasive across the application stacks.
So how do you learn or learn more about PowerShell? As is so often the case with PowerShell, you have options. As I see it there are two broad ways you can learn PowerShell – or any product for that matter. The first is via self-study – reading on your own, testing what you know by using the product then reading more, etc. The second is to attend a training course.
Self-study is the way most of the more advanced folks learn – they are often learning the product while the product is still being developed, long before there are any training courses. The self-study option is certain a possible one – there is a mountain of introductory, intermediate and advanced material just a search engine query away. I use Twitter to search for anything related to PowerShell to find at least some of the better on-line resources and I use my search engine to find more about specific topics.
As for training, here you have a raft of different types of training. A good place to start is with Microsoft’s Official Curriculum course 10325A. This is a great course, but I’m biased as I was the Tech editor and I teach this around Europe! This 5 day class provides a good introduction to PowerShell itself and to the cmdlets found in Windows Server 2008 R2.
If you want a shorter course, I run a variety of beginner through to advanced courses, including a 2 day weekend PowerShell PowerCamp. The PowerCamp covers as much as the 5 day class would, but in two very intensive (and modestly priced) days. The next PowerCamp is being held on April 21-22 at Microsoft’s Cardinal Place offices in London Victoria. We’ll be covering the basics of PowerShell and I’ll be including more on PowerShell 3.
If Hands-on training is not your thing, then there are a number of video options. Train Signal has a series of PowerShell videos, for example. And Plural sight currently has a couple of video courses with more in production (I’m the author of one and am currently writing a second). Video learning can be a great way for novices to supplement their existing knowledge as well as for folks new to PowerShell.
What ever approach you take, it’s time to get to grips with PowerShell and take your IT Pro skills to a new level.
Useful Links:
Scripting Center
Download Windows PowerShell 2.0
Windows PowerShell Quick Reference
Windows PowerShell Script Repository
Script Center Library
Back in December Simon and I invited a few friends along to help us beta test a different kind of event, an IT Camp. The idea is simply to do smaller, more interactive events where discussions and questions are encouraged. The presenters, (Simon and I) being a bit more in the background. The first of these events went down very well, but in this spirit of interaction we were keen to understand what we could do to make the camp even better. Having made some changes based on the feedback from that test event we are now ready to go on the road and our events team are looking out for regional venues so we can come and see you rather than you travelling down to London or Reading.
There are actually four types of camps designed to complement the online resources we have on the Microsoft Virtual Academy site:
Camp 1. Server Virtualisation. This is for those unfamiliar with the latest version of Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2. We will explore all the basics including networking and clustering and run through a short introduction to using System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Camp 2. An Introduction to Microsoft’s Private Cloud. This builds on the first camp and explores all the key features in System Center 2012 that enable cloud like processes and capabilities in your own data centre. Camp 3. Server Migration. Specifically the tricks and tools from migrating your various server workloads from Windows Server 2003 to 2008 R2, Camp 4. Consumerisation of IT. This explores the issues and benefits of integrating your users’ own devices with your infrastructure, such as slates, smart phones and laptops.
Camp 1. Server Virtualisation. This is for those unfamiliar with the latest version of Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2. We will explore all the basics including networking and clustering and run through a short introduction to using System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012
Camp 2. An Introduction to Microsoft’s Private Cloud. This builds on the first camp and explores all the key features in System Center 2012 that enable cloud like processes and capabilities in your own data centre.
Camp 3. Server Migration. Specifically the tricks and tools from migrating your various server workloads from Windows Server 2003 to 2008 R2,
Camp 4. Consumerisation of IT. This explores the issues and benefits of integrating your users’ own devices with your infrastructure, such as slates, smart phones and laptops.
You’ll see more coming out about this in the TechNet newsletter and the various dates and venues are on the IT Camps page on the UK TechDays site, shortly, but I wanted to specifically mention that the first of these camps will take place in Leeds on 28th Feb. This will be a Camp 1 server virtualisation event. Our plan on the day is to work together to build a Hyper-V cluster using your machines as well as our own kit. You don’t have to use your own machine if you don’t want to but if you have a laptop with 20Gb of free space on and 4Gb of RAM and it can run Hyper-V then we’ll take you thought the steps to set up Hyper-V without affecting what you have on there already.
If you follow the links you’ll see that this event is by invitation and this is because we want to try and ensure the right people attend as it is limited to 70 delegates. So who are the right people? For this event it will be Techie IT professional types, who are only now becoming interested in what Microsoft is doing with server virtualisation, perhaps because they are using something else or their business for whatever reason is only now considering a move to use this technology, i.e. it’s not really for Hyper-V experts. If this sounds like you or a colleague then drop me an e-mail and I’ll send you the code, and you’re in.
As part of the Britain Works program, Microsoft’s DPE and Citizenship teams have been working with training company QA and e-skills UK to develop a year-long Modern Apprenticeship in Software Development.
According to the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, small and medium-sized enterprises (between 0 and 249 employees) accounted for 99.9% of all enterprises in 2011. In their Quarterly Labour Market Review, e-skills UK state that there are fewer candidates and a rising number of IT job openings. The number of advertised vacancies for IT&T staff rose to 105,000 positions with the primary roles sought by employers being Design and Development jobs.
Trinity a Microsoft Gold partner was one of the first partners to get involved in the Microsoft Apprentice Program. They are a medium size business which offer a Range of IT services including; outsourcing deals, offer one off consultancy, development and installations for organisations in both the public and private sector. We had the opportunity to chat Chris Drinan (JT) and Ben Freedman, Junior Developer who participated in the apprentice program to find out how Trinity got involved and the overall benefits of the program to both the company and the apprentice.
Trinity got involved in the apprentice program very early on as the CEO, Steve McDonagh was particularly keen on getting people straight out of school and into the work place. They found that by taking on university graduates the skills they picked up were often not immediately applicable to the workplace. Steve shared his thoughts about the idea of a software apprentice program with Microsoft and a few other gold partners. The idea evolved and Trinity were invited by Dominic Gill from Microsoft and Ben Sweetman at QA to go along to some early think tanks on what kind of training could be useful on the programme. QA helped develop the apprenticeship program with formalised training, recruitment of apprentices and also managed to secure some government Investment.
Trinity hosted one of the first regional selection days in Coventry, 12 people invited and 9 turned up on the day of which Ben was one of them and ended up being chosen for the position at Trinity. There are 800 applicants on the programme nationwide. Chris said ‘The selection process was difficult, what you were eyeing up is the candidates potential because at that stage they haven't had any proven experience at all.’
However taking on Ben was a huge benefit to his team and Trinity as bringing on an apprentice means that you are able to train them up with the way the company does things without any bad habits that they could have picked up along the way. Offering this huge opportunity to a 16 year old straight out of school will mean there is a strong tendency that they will become very loyal employees.
Ben was always interested in ICT and was keen to find an opportunity where he could learn on the job. There were very limited opportunities so Ben enrolled on college course whilst still looking for an apprenticeship. When he found this one he was really interested and already had a little development background through playing with VB and Scripts. Ben applied for the role and was offered the apprenticeship with Trinity.
During the apprenticeship, Ben demonstrated to the whole development team that he was more than capable of learning his role at Trinity. He has passed 3 MS certifications and has a MCTS already! He is now on the track to be coming an MCPD (professional developer). Being early days, he is still developing his skills and still has a big learning curve ahead of him however he has established his credibility within the team. Ben has recently completed the apprenticeship and is now a junior developer Trinity. They have not yet brought on any other apprentices at the moment but plan on taking someone else on later this year.
Ben also really benefited from the apprenticeship. Ben said, ‘I wasn’t sure what to expect, it was all completely new, but wanted to get working knowledge and be trained. The apprenticeship far exceeded my expectations.’ There were so many opportunities for Ben to learn and develop. He went on residential training courses every 8 weeks, participated in regular onsite training, 1 to 1 tuition with a tutor available to help.
One of the challenges Chris mentioned was Ben did not have any peers that could related to what he was doing. All permanent staff at Trinity were over 27 and Ben was only 17. There was quite a generation gap. Chris would recommend to other employers thinking of taking on an apprentice that if their IT department is large enough to consider taking on 2 apprentices at a time, for peer support and encourage a bit of competition between them. He also said that it is important not to stick them in the corner and forget about them. Somebody has to be delegated to act as a mentor. Mentoring can be difficult when everyone's busy but it is worth the time effort.
Through the program Ben has learned a lot, he has developed customer service skills, taken on a lot more responsibilities and feels he has grown personally, academically and in the workplace. His advice any person thinking of going on an apprenticeship was ‘Have an open mind, be confident as it is quite nerve wracking at first but no-one expects too much, you're only 16! Don't be afraid to ask stupid questions but there's no stupid questions, only stupid answers.’ Ben hopes to become a successful developer! Continue to enhance his knowledge and to build successful projects for Trinity and their customers. Trinity are very keen to continue supporting these schemes and Microsoft initiatives.
Chris Said
‘I would recommend any IT department to participate in the Microsoft Apprentice Program, you don't have to be gold partners, can be any organisation. It's worth trying out and 16 year olds aren't all hoodies and hanging round bus stops and in the park! This program is a viable way of securing long term employees.’
Useful Links
Join us for the upcoming launch of System Center 2012.
Learn about 2012's exciting wave of Microsoft Private Cloud product launches and announcements – starting with the release of System Center 2012.
Get the latest insights into the Microsoft Private Cloud and learn what's new in System Center 2012. The Best of MMS 2012 brings you the highlights from MMS 2012 conference in a choice of UK-wide one-day or virtual events.
Understand the Microsoft Private Cloud vision, strategy and roadmap, with deep dive sessions on managing your applications, infrastructure, desktops and devices plus sessions on service delivery and automation – opportunities you won't want to miss.
Experience how System Center 2012 lets you manage your virtual, physical and cloud environments from a single console using common and consistent management experiences that give you full control of your datacentre.
The Best of MMS 2012 is the best possible opportunity to interact with Microsoft, key strategic partners and customers at ONE of THREE events.
TIME
AGENDA
08.30-09.30
Registration
09.30-10.00
Microsoft's Private Cloud: Built For The Future, Ready Now
10.00-10.30
What's New in System Center 2012
10.30-11.00
BREAK
11.00-12.00
Infrastructure and Fabric Management
12.00-13.00
LUNCH
13.00-14.00
Service Delivery and Automation
14.00-15.00
Application Management
15.00-15.30
15.30-16.30
Desktop and Device Management
16.30-17.00
Networking and Close
We look forward to seeing you in May.
Register now:
CAN'T MAKE IT IN PERSON? Join us for one of our two virtual events:
22nd March 2012, 10:00-13:00
21st June 2012, 10:00-13:00
You can also follow the conversation on Twitter by following @technetuk and the hashtag #mmsuk
Stena recognised an opportunity to upgrade their current Web Content Management System (WCMS) for four of their business units' public-facing websites to SharePoint 2010. ClearPeople had already delivered a SharePoint Document Management solution to Stena and because of their extensive experience with WCMS solutions and specialisation with SharePoint, ClearPeople were an ideal partner for this project.
Each of Stena's internal business units have a public facing website run by marketing teams within each department. A cross-organisational problem was that often the existing web solution required intervention from IT to make any changes. This prevented the timely and efficient management of content. Stena needed to select a solution that would solve the shortterm challenge of making content easier to manage. Stena also needed to support future requirements such as adding social media features to make their sites more engaging.
SharePoint was selected after a like-for-like comparison where it came out as the best value-for money over the competition. The marketing team selected SharePoint for its consistent user experience and ribbon feature, which now means that little training is required and the sites can be updated more quickly and efficiently. For the IT team, using SharePoint for both Stena's intranet and public facing websites, has meant that they have less platforms to support. SharePoint is also a strong platform for running multiple web sites and has strong integration capabilities. ClearPeople redeveloped the existing design and functionality for four of Stenas'
The main challenge for ClearPeople, was to migrate the websites, detailed below, from Microsoft CMS 2002 to SharePoint 2010. The goal was to ensure that the transition onto a new platform would be seamless for both web visitors and Stena's internal team. Furthermore, ClearPeople has extensive experience implementing websites in multiple languages and so were able to leverage this skill set to deliver one of the few SharePoint 2010 sites with multilingual capabilities. The web sites are: www.stena.com (English & Swedish) www.stenasessan.se (Swedish) www.stenarealty.com (English only) www.stenateknik.com (English & Swedish)
The following deliverables were provided:
The final solution included a comprehensive hand over of custom code and referenced code libraries developed by ClearPeople to Stena's own developers. ClearPeople conducted the hand over on-site to the global IT team in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Stena's content editors report that transitioning to SharePoint's ribbon based content management system was a welcomed changed. They are now able to update content without the assistance of IT, which makes their websites more relevant and useful for their intended audience. The design and existing content was migrated without issue, and the multilingual capabilities between Swedish and English enabled. Based on the success of migrating these four websites, Stena has plans to carry over other websites in the upcoming year.
Business Benefits:
Efficiency - ability to change and manage the sites without relying on IT Agility - able to extend and update sites to respond to evolving customers needs Flexibility - to make the sites more interesting and engaging Affordability - fit within the budget for existing and upcoming projects, as well as be able to add more sites effectively and at a lower cost
About ClearPeople Established in 2003, ClearPeople is a Microsoft Gold Competency Partner and one of the UK’s leading technology services companies specialising in the consultation, development and support of Microsoft SharePoint. ClearPeople’s experienced technical and creative teams provide solutions that are tailored to the specific and unique needs of their clients that are underpinned by robust and flexible technologies.
If you are looking for more Case Studies on Microsoft technologies like this one, pop over to our case studies site where you will find lots of informative and useful case studies.
We put Steve Plank in a room full of video equipment, computers and a whiteboard. Here’s what happened… He got really into explaining cloud computing and how to keep your business agile by explaining the advantages of scale through using cloud based architectures.
Anybody can achieve business agility if they spend enough money. Cloud computing allows companies to achieve it at a low cost: making the agile organisation that can make profit, take share and respond in a very dynamic way to new opportunities.
What top tips can you think of that would be useful to people considering cloud development but traditionally run their own hardware?
Regular readers of the TechNet Blog may remember that back in September Paul Cooke from Plymouth City Council won a competition we were running to come along and present alongside Andrew and Simon at the ‘Windows 7 Deployment – Why and How’ online conference. We were so impressed by Plymouth’s deployment story that when the opportunity came along to develop it into a fully-fledged case study we jumped at the chance!
Project Manager Paul and IT Architect Tom Unwin have been working with their team to implement a “desk hopping” scheme for office-based staff, aimed at provisioning eight desks for every 10 employees. This has involved upgrades not just to Windows XP, but also to the Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 backend, Office and their Meridan and Cisco IP telephone system. Through fully utilising their new Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA) Plymouth are moving to an end-to-end Microsoft stack, delivering Windows 7, Lync Server 2010, Office 2010 and Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010 with Windows Server 2008 R2.
Not content with just a case study, we’ve dug out some footage from the original online conference to bring you Paul & Tom’s reworked presentation as well as a previously unseen Q&A session.
Here’s a snippet from the case study of their results so far, for the full story head over to the Microsoft Case Studies website.
“Employee reaction to the new ways of working has been extremely positive. They can log on at any computer using the same settings and are benefiting from increased productivity. Over the next three years, the authority will significantly reduce office accommodation costs by selling or repurposing buildings it no longer requires. With its Microsoft Enterprise Agreement, the council will save 26 per cent on its licensing, which equates to an estimated £494,000 over three years. And, by deploying Lync 2010, Plymouth has avoided the cost of replacing or upgrading its telephone system—a major contribution to the council’s savings target of £30 million (U.S.$47 million).”
Here are those all important links:
If you like what you see, please do pass it on to your colleagues. You never know, it might provide your boss the necessary encouragement to begin an upgrade of your own!
Mark your calendars and to join us on March 8th, 2012 for the global launch of SQL Server 2012!
The SQL Server 2012 Virtual Launch is an exclusive, online event designed to give you an overview of the exciting new capabilities of and new opportunities around SQL Server 2012, while directly connecting you to customers. Maurice Martin, Server UK Lead, will welcome you to the event where you will discover how early adopters, customers, and partners are already benefitting from these new capabilities in SQL Server 2012! You will be able to visit the partner pavilion where 10 UK partners will be showcase further the benefits of the new release. SQL Server 2012 is a highly anticipated technology ensures mission critical confidence with greater uptime, blazing fast performance, and enhanced security features; breakthrough insights with managed self-service data exploration and interactive data visualizations; and cloud on your terms with extended on-premise and public cloud solutions.
Go Further. Forward. Faster. - with Microsoft SQL Server 2012!
Next Steps:
· Registration is now open! Visit the event site and register your team.
· Add the reminder to your calendar.
· Invite your customers using our customizable invite
· Follow the launch via Twitter @SQLServer.
Running for four years in Yorkshire, this March sees the successful Architecture Forum come south. Black Marble and Microsoft invite you to join us for an unique opportunity to learn about the latest technologies and best practices from luminaries in the field of computing with a focus on Architecture.
This year we have an exciting range of speakers covering how you can meet the challenging business environment, while still equipping Architects with the knowledge and tools needed to succeed.
Since the demise of the Architecture Insight Conference, no event focusing on Architecture and the Microsoft Platform has run in London – Until now that is!
The forum will cover the following topics: Microsoft .NET, Microsoft .NET Framework, Microsoft BizTalk Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft System Center and Microsoft Visual Studio.
The final agenda is yet to be confirmed, but we aim to stay close to the event that ran in December in Yorkshire and it is best suited to architects, IT decision makers and IT implementers.
Confirmed speakers include:
· Simon May, Andrew Fryer, Giles Davies, Simon Thurman (Microsoft)
· Gary Short, Danny Crone, Robert Hogg (external)
For more information and to sign up for this event please register here.