Microsoft TechNet Ireland Blog : TechNet Website

SQL Event in Cork on 4th June

endaf — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:32:00 GMT

Reporting Services 2008 Architecture and End User Reporting

Summary

The first part of this session is a detailed look at architectural changes to the Reporting Services 2008 product and how they might benefit your reports.

The second part of the session is a demo based walk through of the new Report Builder 2.0. Focusing on the flexibility of the Tablix Format and end user charting.

We will also be taking a sneak preview of some of the new map based reporting capabilities to be introduced in SQL 2008 R2 shortly.

Speaker: Bob Duffy

Bob Duffy is a 16 year veteran of database technologies having worked closely with many enterprise customers in Ireland and Europe around SQL Server, Business Intelligence and dot.net and chalked up over 250 successful projects. Bob is currently one of eighteen Microsoft Certified Database Architects Globally, is an active speaker for SQL Server and is on the working group for the new SQL 2008 “master” examination syllabus.

Date: 04 June 2009 19:00 - 21:00

Location: Imperial Hotel, South Mall, Cork

Register and learn more here

Talking about Windows

will.craddock — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 00:48:00 GMT

, you heard of it?

Unless you live under a rock or don’t work in IT (in which case why are you reading this blog) you should by now have figured out that Microsoft has a new desktop OS coming soon. So if you are an ITPro and you have a new OS, then you have to be thinking about how am I going to deploy it, how am I going to secure IT and what benefits is it going to have for my business and users. Every business situation requires different deployment strategies, every business requires different security strategies and to make the right choices you need to hear about your options.

www.TalkingAboutWindows.com offers IT professionals genuine insight on Windows 7 from the Microsoft engineers who helped build the product such as Jon DeVaan, Gabe Al, Sharif Farag, and Mark Russinovich. Additionally, you will hear real world commentary from IT Pro Managers direct from the trenches; there is even a video from my good friend Mitch Garvis, Canadian MVP for EBS on his deployment experiences.

When you combine Talking About Windows and the Springboard Series – IT Professionals have a great deal of resources to help them consider their options and learn more about Windows 7!

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This site is about shared experiences. I am a very big promoter of the IT Community experience through online communities, local user groups and networking sessions like TechNet events. The best way to learn about new solutions is from people who have already experienced it. My recommendation is to get involved in any of the 3 community types mentioned, and start making contributions.

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(Note the 7-11 Big Gulp cups, this is based on my life and desk!)

Be sure to come back to www.talkingaboutwindows.com as they will be adding more engineering and customer videos in lead up to general availability of Windows 7 and keep in mind that the Release Candidate experience starts very soon :)

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Windows 7 Release Candidate and Windows XP Mode

will.craddock — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 12:55:00 GMT

There has been many rumours in the past few weeks around the release date for Windows 7 RC (Release Candidate). Last night the Windows Team made an announcement on their blog that should be good news to everyone who has been testing Windows 7 .

“I’m pleased to share that the RC is on track for April 30th for download by MSDN and TechNet subscribers. Broader, public availability will begin on May 5th.”

One of the new features that will be part of the Release Candidate review process is Windows XP Mode. Windows XP Mode is specifically designed to help small businesses move to Windows 7. Windows XP Mode provides you with the flexibility to run many older productivity applications on a Windows 7 based PC.

All you need to do is to install suitable applications directly in Windows XP Mode which is a virtual Windows XP environment running under Windows Virtual PC. The applications will be published to the Windows 7 desktop and then you can run them directly from Windows 7. Microsoft will be soon releasing the beta of Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC for Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate.

I had the opportunity to see this in action recently and it is absolutely amazing. On one of my past sites we were limited by the browser that could be installed on desktops due to compatibility issues with the JD Edwards. With Windows 7 and Windows XP Mode we would have been able to have an IE6 Icon on the desktop for the JDE client while still taking advantage of Windows 7 and IE8 for daily computing needs. This will help remove most of the application compatibility issues that limited the adoption of Windows Vista in small, medium and enterprise environments.

One interesting addition for VirtualPC under Windows 7 is the ability to control interaction between the parent and child host and USB devices. Anyone who has used virtual technology of any kind has struggled with using USB key drives, USB hard drives, etc. With this release you can select which running OS (VM) has control over the USB device, and change these allocations on the fly. Additionally, you are able to see the hard drives attached to the parent from within the VM, and just interact with them directly.

XP Mode consists of the Virtual PC-based virtual environment and a fully licensed copy of Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (SP3). It will be made available, for free, to users of Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions via a download from the Microsoft web site. (That is, it will not be included in the box with Windows 7). XPM works much like today's Virtual PC products, but with one important exception: As with the enterprise-based MED-V (Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization) product, XPM does not require you to run the virtual environment as a separate Windows desktop. Instead, as you install applications inside the virtual XP environment, they are published to the host (Windows 7) OS as well. (With shortcuts placed in the Start Menu.) That way, users can run Windows XP-based applications (like IE 6) alongside Windows 7 applications under a single desktop.

If you have a TechNet subscription, next week the FUN will begin. If not, then consider one as it truly is an IT Pro’s best friend for testing or wait for the public release on May 5th.

Let the RC testing begin!

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Microsoft Community Tech Days

ieitpro — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:47:00 GMT

The countdown is on for MS Community Tech Days!...only two weeks until Galway and Cork at the time of posting this (Galway 10th and Cork 12th March). Blindingly good technical content to be caught! Learn more and register @ http://www.microsoft.com/ireland/technet/techdays.aspx.

Tech Days are a collaborative effort between Microsoft and the IT Pro community to re-deliver the highlights of Tech Ed Conference to IT Pros across Ireland. Register now to avoid disappointment! The core content will focus on Infrastructure, BI and Unified Comms & Collaboration. Most of the sessions will be delivered by a combination of Microsoft and Community technical presenters and we promise they will involve as much time spent demoing the technology, as possible.

March will see the four-city tour stop for evening events in Galway and Cork, with full day events in Dublin and Belfast. Our special guest speaker in Galway, Dublin and Belfast is Rhonda Layfield, who was voted one of the best technical presenters @ Tech Ed Europe and North America. Don’t miss this amazing opportunity to get up-to speed on the latest Microsoft technology (technical level 300) at no cost! We hope to see you there. Learn more and register here.

We are also running ‘Microsoft @ Home’ sessions in Dublin and Belfast in March, the timing of which line up nicely with the Tech Days. These sessions will look at Home Networking, Windows 7, Securing your Home and Digital Photography. So if you’re someone who has even thought about, using your Xbox 360 as a media extender for example, then you’ll certainly like this session. Learn more and register here.

Enda

Internet Explorer 8 RC1 Released!

ieitpro — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:36:00 GMT

Today, January 26 at 12pm PT, Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1 (RC1) was released to tech and consumer enthusiasts in a total of 25 languages. The goals of this announcement are to drive global excitement, strengthen long-term confidence in Internet Explorer and help drive demand for Internet Explorer 8. RC1 will include a number of bug fixes, user experience improvement and enhanced security, performance and compatibility.

Windows Vista Performance - check out this video!

ieitpro — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 22:29:00 GMT

Nigel Mulholland, MD of Microsoft partner Nitec, discusses Vista performance - 'warts and all' - with TechNet's Dave Northey.

After an initial bumpy ride with Vista, Nitec are now happily running the operating system in-house and strongly recommending it to their customers.

View the video interview here.

Free Virtualisation Events in Dublin, Belfast and Cork!

ieitpro — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 11:07:00 GMT

Virtualisation is on practically every IT Pro's agenda these days. This is why there’s a wealth of Microsoft Virtualisation events training available over the coming months.

First up..Maxima Ireland, with support from Microsoft and Citrix, are hosting a Virtualisation seminar in Sandyford, Dublin on the 29^th of January. Email the event owner to register or for further information.

For more than 18 years, Microsoft and Citrix have offered customers solutions to deliver Windows-based applications using Citrix Presentation Server™ running on Terminal Services. Both companies are now co-marketing new client computing offerings with the next generation of Citrix Presentation Server and the Citrix XenDesktop™ products, both based on Windows Server 2008 and Windows Optimized Desktop solutions, and managed by Microsoft System Center. With these solutions, customers can build an array of flexible, low-cost and manageable client computing options for different types of enterprise users.

The agenda for the seminar is as follows:

Making the Business Case for Virtualisation
Citrix/Microsoft Dynamic Delivery Centre
Citrix/Microsoft Lifecycle Management

Outside of Dublin (Belfast and Cork)..Free TechNet Events: Virtualisation Unplugged

Who should attend: IT Managers, IT Professionals

Summary: Virtualisation Unplugged is a full day technical session with Microsoft experts to discover a complete set of virtualisation tools from desktop to datacentre that will improve business continuity and maximise ROI. The day will cover loads of technologies including Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V, System Centre Virtual Machine Manager, Terminal Services and Application Virtualisation.

James O'Neill, Virtualisation expert from the Microsoft UK, has had great success touring all over the UK delivering this seminar and we are delighted to bring him to Ireland to deliver two 'Virtualisation Unplugged' tour dates here. Date: 3rd February, 4th February
Location:
Belfast (3rd) - Register Here!
Cork, (4th) - Register Here!
Cost: Free Event

Come and get the Windows 7 Beta!

ieitpro — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:20:00 GMT

Finally, the Windows 7 Beta is available for public download! I am about to download it myself and I have heard lots of positive reports from my colleagues, so I’m very encouraged!

Windows 7 Beta Has Officially Launched! After much anticipation, Microsoft has now made Windows 7 Beta available for evaluation and testing to IT professionals! For TechNet subscribers, you can download Windows 7 Beta today here. Since January 9th, the beta is open to all IT professionals on the Springboard Series for Windows 7.

In fact the Springboard Series website is a real gem and you can find loads more IT Pro resources on Windows 7 like Windows 7: A First Look for IT Pros, Windows 7 Feature Walkthroughs, Mark Russinovich Goes Inside Windows 7 as well as great resources and information on Windows Vista.

Good video to watch: Mark Russinovich on virtualization, Sysinternals and the cloud

ieitpro — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:48:00 GMT

Here's some more interesting footage from TechEd that I missed before...

Mark Russinovich, technical follow, about Windows 7, WS08 R2, virtualization and Vista. It's about 8 minutes long. You can watch Mark's interview here.

In this interview from Microsoft Tech-Ed EMEA 2008 in Barcelona, author and Microsoft technical fellow Mark Russinovich sits down with SearchWinIT.com senior news director Margie Semilof to discuss several topics that are on the horizon for Windows administrators, such as cloud computing, client virtualization, and the release of Windows 7 Server. He also provides insight on the fate of WinFS, what's new with Sysinternals and the controversy surrounding Windows Vista.

SQL for the Oracle DBA - great trainer over from the UK

ieitpro — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:58:00 GMT

This is great cross-training on SQL for Oracle DBAs! In fact, I think the content would be of use for all DBAs and the trainer is top class.

It is a half day of training taking place in Dublin the afternoon of January 22nd. See here for details and how to register.

The objective of this training is to give an experienced Oracle DBA a basis for understanding SQL Server and an understanding of the key differences between SQL Server and Oracle together with a basic knowledge of how to administer an installation of SQL Server.

Agenda

Why SQL Server and not Oracle
Structural Differences
Getting Started with SQL
Day to Day Tasks
Monitoring
Security

Advanced topics

High Availability
Migrations

Register now

Please Note: Event starts at 1.30pm, Lunch will be provided from 1pm

Speaker Bio

Kevin Ashby joined Microsoft EMEA in January 2005 as an Enterprise Technology Strategist in the CATM team focused on any database related issues.
He has been involved with database platforms for more than 20 years and has performing many roles including development, DBA, technical design and account management. In recent years Kevin has worked as a infrastructure and database architect designing numerous database infrastructure solutions for both high and low end systems. Many of the designs have been for 99.999% availably systems including designing for true fault tolerance and high performance
Kevin’s Oracle background starts with Oracle 5 as a developer, and he became a DBA in Oracle 6, designing infrastructures solutions with Oracle 8 which included 99.999% availability via operating system clusters and Oracle parallel server, running through to 9iRAC and 10g Grid for in house developed solutions and Oracle based commercial applications included Oracle Applications, Oracle Collaboration Suite, 9iAS, 10gAS. He has even talked at OracleWorld a number of times and has been involved with the Oracle community in the UK for many years.

Learning Snacks are full of goodness! (and easy to digest)

ieitpro — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:25:00 GMT

You may remember I posted Vista 'learning snacks' last month - well now they're available for Windows Server 2008 and Virtualisation too! They're actually really good! See here.

Learning Snacks are short, interactive presentations about popular topics created by Microsoft Learning experts. Each Snack is delivered by using innovative Microsoft Silverlight technology and includes various media, such as animations and recorded demos. At the end of each free presentation, you can view more Snacks, learn more about the topic, or visit a related Web site.

Internet Explorer Security Update

ieitpro — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:05:00 GMT

Microsoft released a security bulletin (out-of-band) to address a vulnerability in Internet Explorer on all currently supported versions of Windows. The bulletin was released at approximately 10 A.M. Pacific Time (6pm GMT) on Wednesday, December 17, 2008.

This security update was released outside of the usual monthly security bulletin release cycle in an effort to protect customers. Microsoft recommends customers prepare their systems and networks to apply this security bulletin immediately to help ensure that their computers are protected from attempted criminal attacks. For more information about security updates, visit http://www.microsoft.ie/protect.

The purpose of this notification is to assist customers with resource planning for this security bulletin release. The information offered in this notification is purposely general in nature to provide enough information for customers to plan for deployment without disclosing vulnerability details or other information that could put them at risk.

Anyone believed to have been affected can visit: http://www.microsoft.com/protect/support/default.mspx and should contact the Gardaí.

Microsoft continues to encourage customers to follow the “Protect Your Computer” guidance of enabling a firewall, applying all software updates, and installing anti-virus and anti-spyware software. Additional information can be found at: http://ww.microsoft.ie/protect.

=================================

NEW BULLETIN SUMMARY

=================================

Bulletin Identifier: Windows Bulletin, Internet Explorer

Maximum Severity Rating: Critical

Impact of Vulnerability: Remote Code Execution

Detection: Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer can detect whether your computer system requires this update.

Restart Requirement: May require restart.

Affected Software: Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer

The full version of the Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for this month can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms08-dec.mspx.

Although we do not anticipate any changes, the information provided in this summary is subject to change until the release. At this time, no additional information on this bulletin such as details regarding severity or details regarding the vulnerability will be made available until the bulletin is published.

==================================

REGARDING INFORMATION CONSISTENCY

==================================

We strive to provide you with accurate information in Web-based content. Microsoft’s security content posted to the Web is occasionally updated to reflect late-breaking information. If this results in an inconsistency between the information here and the information in Microsoft’s Web-based security content, the information in Microsoft’s Web-based security content is authoritative.

If you have any questions regarding this alert, please contact your local (Technical) Account Manager, or Ciara Murphy from the local Response Management Team – contactable via rmtirl@microsoft.com and +353 1 7064014.

Interactive Vista deployment training

ieitpro — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 11:28:00 GMT

Check this out!!...really good training called Deployment Learning Snacks....its at least level 300 technically and gives demos of how to deploy Windows Vista using the deployment tools.

In this interactive session you will learn how you can quickly and easily deploy Windows Vista across a network by using the various deployment tools provided by Microsoft.

Topics covered include

Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK)
User State Migration Tool (USMT) and guidelines
and practical examples of how to create an installation image and answer file.

Click here

SQL Server Ireland User Group: Kimberly Tripp presents SQL Server 200x: Optimizing Procedural Code

ieitpro — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 11:56:00 GMT

Incredible!!...lightning does actually strike twice! Kimberly Tripp is visiting Ireland for the second time in three months and Niall Flanagan was not going to let an opportunity like this pass the SQL Server Ireland User Group. Those of you who attended her presentation last September will appreciate why she is constantly called out as the world's #1 speaker in SQL Server today. See the presentation abstract here.

6pm-8pm Dec 4th, Microsoft Atrium - Block B, Carmanhall Road, Sandyford Industrial Estate
Register here (you will have to sign up to the user group first - free of course)

Windows Essential Business Server 2008 Launched! – Evaluate now

ieitpro — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:44:00 GMT

Windows Essential Business Server 2008 is an integrated and affordable solution that offers the Microsoft software midsize businesses require - preconfigured, integrated and manageable from a unified administration console, and at a significant discount compared to standalone products.

Click here to download trial version