Microsoft TechNet Ireland Blog : events

Event: WebsiteSpark Launch, 20th October – let’s celebrate!

endaf — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:17:00 GMT

It’s the anniversary of Microsoft’s BizSpark program and Microsoft Ireland are also launching a new initiative, WebsiteSpark, aimed primarily at web based businesses.

In the last year, over 300 companies in Ireland and Northern Ireland have benefited from business and development support from the BizSpark program. Come help us celebrate the success and growth of these organizations! You’ll also learn about the latest addition to the Spark family: WebsiteSpark.

WebsiteSpark is Microsoft’s new program to help small web design and development shops by providing them with three things essential to their success at no upfront cost:

1. Visibility through a marketplace and well as connections through marketing and business networking programs

2. Support of all kinds, from tech support and training to a network of other development shops, hosting partners, developers and designers, and

3. Tools to build products for your customers: Windows Server and IIS, SQL Server, Visual Studio, Expression and more.

More information on WebsiteSpark can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark/

See you at the Guinness Storehouse on October 20th for drinks, networking and a toast to sparking the economy.

What:
This events is completely free and open to anyone who wants to attend. Come along and meet new people, and make new contacts and have some fun too. The BizSpark and WebsiteSpark programs are run by Microsoft to help Startup companies with support, technology and networks.

When & Where:
From 7:00PM at The Guinness Storehouse • Dublin. See full address here and directions here.

Dress code, for people who care about such things, is whatever you like.

RSVP:
This event is absolutely free – and given the short notice of this post, you are welcome to turn up this evening without registering. Thanks, and we’ll see you there!

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Technical Overview

endaf — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:41:00 GMT

The Irish Windows User Group will be running a session focusing on OCS, aka Office Communications Server. The speaker is John McCabe, a senior engineer with CDSoft.

Mobile users and mobile computing have enabled a more flexible workforce but there is a challenge in enabling communications that are just as flexible and mobile. OCS can be used to resolve these issues. For most of us, this is an alien world and we just wouldn't know where to start. This session aims to show you how you can use OCS to resolve communications issues in your business.

About The Speaker

John McCabe works for CDSoft Limited based in Celbridge, Kildare. He has worked for over 12 years in the IT industry in various different fields ranging from telecoms, security, deployment and design. Over the last 12 months he has focused his attention on pushing Unified Communications in the Irish market place. He has presented alongside Microsoft on “Tech Days” about Unified Communications and many times in Microsoft “Envision” Centre. John has attained the 088-924 and 074-924 Voice Specialization Exams from Microsoft further complementing his UC skillset

Where And When

Registration is mandatory for attending the in-person event at Microsoft.

The event will be held in Building 1 at the Microsoft European Development Centre (EDC), South County Business Park, Leopardstown, Dublin 18.

July 9th 2009

Registration: 09:00

Event: 09:00 until 12:00

Registration

To attend in person you must register.

Live Meeting

Although the best experience is to be on site for the presentation, we will be live webcasting the event using Live Meeting. You should use the installed (not the web) client.

There is no need to register for the live event if you only wish to tune into the webcast.

The URL for the meeting is: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/usergroups/join?id=OCSOverview&role=attend

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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

Excellent Exchange 2010 Session Coming Up on 12th June

endaf — Wed, 27 May 2009 14:42:00 GMT

On June 12th the Windows User Group will be running a session on Exchange 2010, also known as Exchange 14. The speaker, Nathan Winters, is an Exchange MVP, consultant and author with huge experience and a growing international reputation. As you can see from the session agenda, the world of email has evolved into a world of communications and collaboration, introducing many new technologies and offering new ways to access existing technologies with solutions for the major corporates and the small businesses. This will be an interesting session that will explain what's happening now and in the near future.

Agenda

Introduction: Nathan will discuss the history of email with a particular focus on Exchange, this sets up the rest of the presentation which is about the future of email (Microsoft Style!)
Software + Services: Whether this is the future or not, what Microsoft is doing, the BPOS suite, limitations, benefits, and customers who have used it. Nathan will also show a demo. He will touch on Exchange Lab@Edu which leads into Exchange 2010 – Approx 20 mins
Exchange 2010 will be the main section of the presentation: The basics (roles, prerequisites etc). Nathan will take a look at the aims of the product group and dive into depth around the new features related to each of the roles
A brief intro to Unified Communications: This section will give a very brief intro to Office Communications Server 2007 R2 and then end with a demo of some key work scenarios and features
Summary and Questions

Live Webcast

We will be using LiveMeeting to share this presentation live to the world! You can sign in here using this code: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/usergroups/join?id=46G74S&role=attend

Please use the free installed client instead of the web client. The web client has issues regarding audio sharing.

About Nathan Winters

Nathan Winters is a Lead Consultant for Dimension Data. He is responsible for the Microsoft Exchange practice in the UK. Nathan has been working in I.T. for six years and specializes in Exchange and Office Communications Server.

Midway through 2006 Nathan founded the Microsoft Messaging and Mobility User Group UK which holds regular meetings in the UK to discuss topics related to Exchange. In April 2007 Nathan was awarded an MVP (Exchange Server) for his work with MMMUG and regular contributions to the Mark Minasi Forum. Nathan is a regular contributor to the MSExchange.org website and Nathan's other articles have been published by Penton Media (Exchange and Outlook Administrator newsletter), Microsoft (TechNet Industry Insiders) and on the MMMUG website.

Registration

Anyone wishing to attend the event should register. This event is being held in Microsoft so registration is mandatory. As usual, there is no cost associated with this event.

Please spread word of the event to anyone you think may be interested.

Tech Days: Galway March10, Cork March12 (7pm-9.30pm)

endaf — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 19:29:00 GMT

Tech Days, a joint effort between Microsoft and the IT Pro community, is bringing exceptional up-to-date technical content to Galway and Cork. Register and learn more about these evening events @ http://www.microsoft.com/ireland/technet/techdays.aspx

Galway will cover Windows 7 and Client Deployment Tools, a session for the 'accidental' (or involuntary) DBAs and a great Integrated BI Solutions session.

Cork will look at Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 (Live Migration!) as well as excellent technical demos and best practice sharing on Unified Comms and SharePoint.

There is no cost for attending the event and what's more, the TechNet team have sweeeeet prizes for give-away on the evenings: an Xbox elite and two TechNet Plus Subscriptions in each city.

Enda

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

Inaugural SharePoint User Group Meeting in Shannon

ieitpro — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:13:00 GMT

Great news for those of you over in the mid-West of Ireland! On March 3^rd, Westpark Business Centre will host the inaugural Shannon SharePoint User Group Meeting. The breakfast event will run from 8am until 10.30am and has some terrific speakers representing both multinational technology firms and local technology partners.

See below for the agenda and how you can register.

When: 3^rd March, 8.00-10.30am

Where: Westpark Shannon Ltd, 4000 Atlantic Avenue in Shannon (061 479111).

Email nforan@central-solutions.com to register for this event.

07:45 Registration & Complimentary Breakfast.

08:30 Introduction & Welcome.

08:40 Introduction to SharePoint: A brief overview of SharePoint, Quick wins with SharePoint, 5 ways to save money with SharePoint and a real life case study. Daragh Morrissey - Senior Microsoft Services Consultant.

09:10 Case Study by Central Solutions Ltd: Demonstration of SharePoint in managing cost centres, facilitating collaboration, managing projects and deploying intranets/extranets. Paul Conheady, Central Solutions.

09.30 Experiences with SharePoint: Dell's perspective on the use of SharePoint for cost savings and information management. Kieran Fitzgerald, Dell.

09.45 A User’s Perspective: Collaboration, Team and Project Management. Rick Dunphy, Intel.

10:00 Panel Discussion / Q&A.

10:30 Close

Enda

Virtualisation Unplugged - access to content

ieitpro — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:08:00 GMT

Thanks to those who made it to the 'Wellie' in Belfast yesterday and Douglas in Cork today for Virtualisation Unplugged.James and Dave really know Microsoft Virtualisation inside-out, so I'm glad you tested them with a few tough questions.

Even though James claims to be a bit of a sell-out, by buying into the whole blogging habit, his blog is still definitely worth keeping an eye on. It can be found @ http://blogs.technet.com/jamesone/. Also, his Virtualisation Unplugged slides can be found here.

Dave Northey's is back blogging these days, so you will see his Windows 7 deck here in the coming days.

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

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.

SBS 2008 BusinessSpeak and GeekSpeak with Harry Brelsford & Philip Elder LIVE SBS 2008 Server-side Setup

ieitpro — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 12:15:00 GMT

Your chance to see the SBS 2008 server-side setup process, learn more about the pre-requisite step of configuring your router\firewall.

6pm December 7^th, location tbc. Please register to receive updates. You must be logged in to register for this event.

There is a 5euro charge for this event; all money raised is to be given to charity, decided by attendees. To register click the lick, become a member of the site and register for the event here: http://www.partneroutreach.com/Events/tabid/54/ctl/Details/Mid/373/ItemID/4/Default.aspx?selecteddate=12/7/2008

Small Business Server User Group: Remote Monitoring tools

ieitpro — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 12:09:00 GMT

Presenting - Hound Dog, N-Able, and Microsoft System Center Essentials. Places are limited for this event, so please register early. To register click the link and login: http://www.sbsireland.com/Events/tabid/55/ModuleID/514/ItemID/37/mctl/EventDetails/Default.aspx?selecteddate=12/11/2008

11th December (Dublin 5.30pm-8.30pm):

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)

Tech Ed Rocks!

ieitpro — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:38:00 GMT

Now to Tech Ed...over 5,000 IT Professionals were at this annual conference, a small portion of whom were Irish! The keynote delivered by Brad Anderson, focused on the key to a 'Dynamic Enterprise in Changing Business Conditions' - this was ok...there were far more interesting and entertaining topics and speakers to follow during the week.

Lucky for you if you didn't attend the conference, you can actually catch the highlights on video @ http://www.microsoft.com/emea/teched2008/itpro/. Some of the conference topline announcements worth mentioning are:

. New Windows Server 2008 R2 features: Live Migration; Branch Cache; DirectAccess; and Remote Desktop Services (RDS) - the new name for Terminal Services.
. System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 beta.
. Integrated Identity and Security Solutions - Identity Lifecycle Manager 2 RC and Intelligent Access Gateway SP2 (including virtualization appliance).
. "Dublin" - codename for a set of extensions to the Windows Server application server. "Dublin" will be delivered as a separate out-of-band release, downloadable for use by Windows Server customers; the first Customer Technology Preview (CTP) was delivered at last week's Microsoft Professional Developer's Conference in October 2008.

My personal highlights were any of the sessions delivered by Mark Minasi (mostly Vista sessions) or Mark Russinovich - watch out for the session entitled 'The Case of the Unexplained'. These guys were brilliant presenters and actually managed to entertain as well as teach! I also hear Steve Riley's sessions earlier in the week were amazing. Again, check out the video highlights @ http://www.microsoft.com/emea/teched2008/itpro/

For those of you particularly interested in Windows Server 2008, System Centre 2007 and Virtualisation – local Microsoft MVP Aidan Finn (System Center Configuration Manager 2007) did a stand-up job on blogging on the key infrastructure sessions during the week.

See http://joeelway.spaces.live.com/?_c11_BlogPart_BlogPart=blogview&_c=BlogPart&partqs=cat%3dTechEd%2bEMEA%2bIT%2bPro

Windows 7 and Azure Take Main Stage @ PDC

ieitpro — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:32:00 GMT

I was away all last week in Barcelona at my first Tech Ed, and although PDC slightly stole its thunder the previous week with some major headlines around Windows 7 and Windows Azure, I was still very impressed by the Tech Ed experience! Before I give you the run-down on what went on in Barcelona, I first want to do a quick recap on the unveiling of Windows Azure and showcasing of a Pre-Beta Release of windows 7.

1. Windows7 was announced as the formal name of the next Microsoft Client Operating System. See a blog post on why it's called Windows 7.
2. Azure Services Platform and Windows Azure, offering unprecedented power of choice and open connections for developers.

So what are the key things in the many announcements surrounding Windows 7 Client and Windows Server 2008 R2 that are interesting for IT pros? Here is a view on the top 5:

1. Introduction of DirectAccess, a capability that allows IT to manage and update internet-connected remote PCs, even when they are off the corporate network.
2. There is a new Powershell v2 and its graphical editor helps to automate repetitive tasks with minimal scripting expertise required.
3. You have probably heard about BitLocker, with Windows 7 there will be BitLocker to Go - allowing USBs to be protected.
4. Windows 7 will allow IT to control access by specific users to specific applications.
5. Even more tools to help make deployment easier in your organisations, such as Dynamic Driver provisioning, the Deployment Image Service and Management tool, Multicast Multiple Stream Transfer, and improvements to user state migration.

What about Windows Azure? It has arrived and you may have seen previous stories about codename 'Red dog' but its formal name was announced during last week's PDC.