Swiss IT Professional & TechNet Blog : Products

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 JDBC Driver 1.1 Community Technology Preview June 2006

MJDorner — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 15:11:00 GMT

Download the Community Technology Preview (CTP) version of the SQL Server 2005 JDBC Driver 1.1, a Type 4 JDBC driver that provides database connectivity through the standard JDBC application program interfaces (APIs) available in J2EE (Java2 Enterprise Edition).

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=f914793a-6fb4-475f-9537-b8fcb776befd&displaylang=en

Now Launched Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2

MJDorner — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 11:43:00 GMT

Small Business Server 2003 R2 was launched at our world wide partner conference.

SBS 2003 R2 will be available for purchasing in August (English and German versions; additional languages will be available in following months.). It is offered in two editions: standard and premium.

With the update release we are also changing the access licensing rights of SBS to allow you to use your SBS CALs to access SQL Server 2005 Workgroup or Exchange 2003 running on a second server. The current version limits the SBS CAL to access the server suite from only one server. SBS comes with five client access licenses free.

The updated SBS R2 offers following enhancements:

automated, network-wide patch and update management
increased mailbox limit up to 75 gigabytes
a new feature called "Green Check," which informs customers whether or not they are running up-to-date Microsoft software
Daily report on status of desktops and server(s) running Microsoft software

The premium edition also includes SQL Server 2005 Workgroup Edition and ISA Server 2004. In addition to the enhancements, Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 includes Windows Server 2003, Exchange Server 2003, Microsoft Office Outlook, Windows Sharepoint Services, Shared Fax Service and Routing and Remote Access Services (RRAS).

Read more about the Windows Small Business Server R2

Optimize Your Core Infrastructure: Manage Complexity, Achieve Agility, Protect Information and Control Access, On It’s Showtime!

MJDorner — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 10:48:00 GMT

Join Bob Kelly as he discusses the Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI), Microsoft's long term strategy that couples a model-driven approach with a complete, integrated set of technology solutions to enable IT to manage complexity and achieve agility. Kelly also outlines Microsoft's comprehensive set of security and access solutions, designed to enable IT to address the ever-changing landscape of technology threats so they can protect information and control access across their organization.

German: http://www.microsoft.com/switzerland/technet/de/itsshowtime/sessionh.aspx?videoid=220

French: http://www.microsoft.com/switzerland/technet/fr/itsshowtime/sessionh.aspx?videoid=220

Update to Exchange Server 2003/2000 Permissions May Affect Mobile Communications

MJDorner — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 18:02:00 GMT

New Exchange fixes may disrupt Blackberry, Goodlink and other services.

A change made to the “Send As” permission in Exchange Server 2003 and 2000 could affect mobile communications and other add-on applications for Exchange Server. Find out how to quickly identify affected accounts and to correct permissions, if necessary.

Internet Explorer 7 - Beta 3 now available for download

MJDorner — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 15:39:00 GMT

Beta 3 of Internet Explorer is now available for download. You can get it from:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/default.mspx

You also find a host of information on the IE7 webpage:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie7/technology/default.mspx

BizTalk Server 2006 Documentation Update

mtruempy — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 11:20:00 GMT

check out the latest and greatest documentation material for BizTalk Server 2006 including an updated .chm file, updated config/install guides, new code samples and links to the BizTalk Dev/Tech Center and to other interesting related content.

Core Documentation | Download

For this release, we are publishing a .chm file for download. Among the many things you will find:

Complete documentation for all BizTalk Server Line of Business Adapters, including new tutorials, one for each adapter. See the section "Using Adapters."
Troubleshooting guidance for each of the native BizTalk adapters. See the section "Troubleshooting Adapters."
Troubleshooting Instructions for how to capture a memory dump. See the section "How to Capture a Memory Dump of a BizTalk Process."
Disaster recovery instructions for backing up and restoring your BizTalk Server and databases. See the section "Backing Up and Restoring BizTalk Server"
Updated Tutorials. See the section, "BizTalk Server 2006 Tutorials"
Information for improving fault tolerance. See the section "Planning and Architecture"
Updated Developer's Reference that now includes the BAM namespaces that were not included in the RTM documentation. See the section "Developer's Reference"

Updated Installation, Configuration, and Upgrade Guides | Download

The installation instructions explain how to install BizTalk Server 2006 on Windows XP, Windows 2000 Server, or Windows Server 2003 in a single server or multiserver environment.

New BizTalk Server 2006 Code Samples | Download

We have posted 31 new code samples to the BizTalk Server Developer Center since RTM.

Publishing and Consuming Web Services with SOAP Headers
BAM and HAT Correlation
Consuming Web Services with Array Parameters
Extending the BizTalk Server Administration Console
Viewing Failed Tracking Data
Inserting XML Nodes from Business Rules
Using the Mass Copy Functoid
Using Role Links
Split File Pipeline
Using Enterprise Library 2.0 with BizTalk Server
Consuming Web Services
Console Adapter
Delivery Notification
Using Long-Running Transactions in Orchestrations
Using the Looping Functoid
Mapping to a Repeating Structure
Parallel Convoy
Policy Chaining
Recoverable Interchange Processing Using Pipelines
Using the Table Looping Functoid
Using the Value Mapping and Value Mapping (Flattening) Functoids
Direct Binding to an Orchestration
Direct Binding to the MessageBox Database in Orchestrations
Using a Custom .NET Type for a Message in Orchestrations
Writing Orchestration Information as XML Using the ExplorerOM API
Correlating Messages with Orchestration Instances
SSO as Configuration Store
Atomic Transactions with COM+ Serviced Components in Orchestrations
Exception Handling in Orchestrations
Implementing Scatter and Gather Pattern
Using the SQL Adapter with Atomic Transactions in Orchestrations

BizTalk Server 2006 Developer Center and TechCenter

On, May 1st, we launched the BizTalk Server 2006 Developer Center. This project constituted a complete rebuild of the previous BizTalk Server 2004 Developer Center. For May and June we featured orchestrations. This included new code samples, an FAQ paper on orchestrations, and in-depth content surfaced from the core documentation. With the re-design of the site it’s easier than ever to learn to develop, deploy, administer, and use BizTalk Server 2006. For July we will be focusing on Adapters!

In addition to the Developer Center, we also launched the BizTalk Server 2006 TechCenter. The TechCenter provides easy access to BizTalk Server 2006 technical documentation, downloads, and community, as well as to IT Pro favorites such as the Events & Errors Message Center. Each navigation page within the technical library includes quick access to search BizTalk Server newsgroups and knowledge-base articles as seen, for example, on the Getting Started page. Among many things, the site contains:

Virtual labs
The end-to-end tutorial as downloadable Word docs
New content on Clustering BizTalk Server
Links to the Installation Instructions
Links to the Production Documentation published on MSDN

Other Content

In addition to the fixes introduced, we have also been busy over the past few months producing, updating, and publishing other valuable content. This includes:

Windows Vista Customer Preview Program to be closed on Friday, June 30, 2006

MJDorner — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 15:07:00 GMT

The Windows Vista Customer Preview Program will close to new orders in the evening of Friday, June 30. For registered customers who have already received a Product Key by this time the download sites will remain open until Friday, July 14. This also affects all TechNet Beta Central registered users who did not yet get a Product Key. The reason being that we have reached our program capacity. We apologize for any inconvenience.

ISA Server 2006 Release Candidate Is Now Available

MJDorner — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 12:08:00 GMT

Download the latest version of the Microsoft solution for firewall, VPN, and Web caching. With ISA Server 2006 you can protect your IT environment from Internet-based threats while providing your users with secure, anytime, anywhere access to Microsoft applications and data.

Download

Detailed Information

Watch Overview Webcast (German only!)

Choosing Exchange Server 2003 Hardware for Reuse with Exchange Server 2007

MJDorner — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 17:57:00 GMT

When selecting hardware for your computers running Microsoft Exchange Server today, there are a couple of things that you should consider in order to make sure that you can reuse the hardware for Exchange Server 2007.

Get the details

Commerce Server 2007 RTMs -- general availability planned for Aug 1st 2006

mtruempy — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 12:15:00 GMT

The latest and greatest version of Commerce Server has been released to manufacturing (RTM) and is planned to be generally available in price lists from August 1st 2006.

The 2007 version of Commerce Server especially makes "Connected Commerce" scenarios very easy to achieve thru its webservices interfaces to all subsystems and BizTalk Server Adapters. Synchronizing your Catalog data from SAP to your e-commerce solution has become a matter of configuring.

for more information, documentation and an evaluation edition of Commerce Server 2007 check out: http://www.microsoft.com/commerceserver

CommerceServer 2007 will also be presented at the WebSummit 2006 in Zurich -- for details see: http://blogs.technet.com/chitpro/archive/2006/06/23/LAST_CALL_for_WebSummit_2006_on_Tue_27th_June_2006_at_WTC_Zurich.aspx

Now Available: Systems Management Server 2003 R2

MJDorner — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 11:43:00 GMT

SMS 2003 R2 is now available. Included in SMS 2003 R2 is the ability to update custom line-of-business and third party applications as well as to provide scanning for almost 100 critical system vulnerabilities. Together, this new functionality promises to help simplify the process of keeping systems updated and more secure.

Download the Evaluation version today at www.microsoft.com/smserver/default.mspx and look for it on the August pricelist.

Microsoft Forefront - The new brand for our business security products

MJDorner — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 00:13:00 GMT

The new Microsoft Forefront family of business security products helps provide greater protection and control over the security of your network infrastructure. Forefront’s products easily integrate with each other, with your IT infrastructure, and can be supplemented through interoperable third-party solutions, enabling end-to-end, defense-in-depth security solutions. Simplified management, reporting, analysis, and deployment enable you to more efficiently protect your organization’s information resources and secure access to applications and servers.

To provide you with further choice and flexibility, Forefront products will be available as stand alone solutions or as part of the Enterprise Client Access License (CAL) suite, Exchange Enterprise CAL or an integrated security product suite.

Read more about the new family of products on: http://www.microsoft.com/forefront

Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 RTMs

MJDorner — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 23:52:00 GMT

Our Operating System to run parallel high performance computing applications for complex tasks - Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 - has hit the release to manufacturing (RTM) milestone and will be generally available in the next couple of weeks.

You can find more information about this product at:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/ccs/default.mspx

E-Learning: What's new in Microsoft Office Excel 2007

MJDorner — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 13:13:00 GMT

This online course introduces the new features and functionality in the latest version of Microsoft Office Excel. There have been substantial changes to the user interface in this spreadsheet application, and this course can help you get up-to-speed quickly. This course covers the new features that enable you to organize and analyze business information in Office Excel 2007.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/elearning/course/4623.asp

“Watch the very best of WinHEC” on IT’s ShowTime!

MJDorner — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 13:21:00 GMT

Windows Vista Beta 2, Windows Server platform directions, major trends, innovative technologies and more were shown at WinHEC 2006 in Seattle. Now you can watch a selection of WinHec technical sessions as well as the 3 keynote presentations by Bill Gates, Will Poole and Bob Muglia, on IT’s ShowTime! by TechNet.

French URL: http://www.microsoft.com/emea/itsshowtime/winhec2006.aspx

German URL: http://www.microsoft.com/emea/itsshowtime/winhec2006.aspx