IT_Prose

Our Mid Market Solution Beta shipped

breid — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 20:36:00 GMT

I want to let people know of some great work that our Small and Medium Business team released to beta today. The work is called the Assessment and Deployment Solution for Mid-sized Businesses (really catchy name...) Over the next several months this work will be released to a number of partners and customers to test with a final release expected around the end of the year. We are planning to also do some previews at IT Forum in November. So if you are planning to be there, look us up at our booth in the Ask the Experts area.

Here is some more information on this solution:

The Assessment and Deployment Solution significantly reduces the cost and complexity associated with upgrade and deployment of Windows Server System infrastructure projects in midsize business. The Solution helps partners to quickly assess customer IT environments to properly scope infrastructure projects and reduce the risk and complexity of upgrades from legacy Windows platforms to deploy a secure and well managed infrastructure based on Windows Server System.

The integrated end-to-end solution will help partners deliver IT projects on a schedule and at a cost the midsize customer can afford, the solution together with software discount offered by the Windows Server System Midsize Business Promotion (announced at the World Wide Partner Conference in July 2005) will enable the channel to accelerate the adoption of Windows Server System infrastructure.

The solution includes tools and prescriptive guidance for each phase of the customer's project lifecycle (Evaluate, Plan, Build, Deploy and Operate) to provide predictable experience to enable key scenarios such as setup an and management Networking & Active Directory services, secure mobility and remote access easy File& Print sharing Secure and reliable messaging and Server & Desktop management.

The solution supports a three step process;

Assessment phase includes an inventory tool that discovers the entire server infrastructure including servers, client workstations and all network devices in customer’s IT environment.
Secondly, the proposal wizard creates a Visio diagram of current IT assets and quickly generates a detailed professional proposal based on the inventory for migration and deployment to new platform based on Windows Server System.
Finally, tailored to individual customer scenarios, the solution provides deployment component that automates multi-server setup of Windows Server 2003, Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, Exchange 2003, Windows Software Update Services, GPO and Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Workgroup Edition according to proven Microsoft’s best practices.

Getting ready for IT Forum

breid — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 19:43:00 GMT

Our team is well into planning for IT Forum and will be delivering a number of breakout sessions, chalk-n-talks, and hands on labs. The curriculum list is almost final and when it is locked, I'll be posting what specific sessions we are doing.

If you don't know about IT Forum, it is one of the larger IT Professional conferences held in Europe each fall. This year it runs November 15-17 in Barcelona. It offers a good opportunity for technical learning on a variety of our technologies.

Our team will specifically be addressing desktop deployment, Microsoft Operations Framework, security, management, and cross platform interoperability. Check back for detailed agenda next week.

Back on the wagon

breid — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 19:22:00 GMT

I fell off the blogging wagon in June. My lame excuses include: TechEd came up and that took too much time with planning and actual event, vacations hit and I was gone, it is too sunny in Seattle in the summer so I was outside storing up sunshine for winter and not blogging, and I was too busy bike racing (my hobby) to blog (what is really lame is that I ride at Marymoor Velodrome here in Redmond and MSN just put in free WiFi in Marymoor Park. I could have gone down to the track early and sat in the sun and blogged before riding).

Fact is that I really failed to make it a habitual part of what I do every day. I didn't forget to do email for three months, or open PowerPoint, or mess around with Windows. Those practices had become a habit, a way of doing business every day. Blogging for me was still in the novelty stage.

During the summer, I began a new project to help others in my organization begin to blog. I'll have more on that that over the next few weeks and months as the program rolls out. But in the course of that, I realized I needed to begin to solve the problem in my own lab -- me. What is it that motivates me, what do I need to do to make blogging a part of everyday work, and what do I do when I can't think of what to write.

I also began to work with Lee LeFever and met with people around campus like Jonathan Grudin and Korby Parnell and this has really helped my thinking about blogging and what it takes to break through the novelty barrier and see it as intrinsic to a new way of working.

No Free Lunch (but close)

breid — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 18:46:00 GMT

At TechEd next week, my team is going to be doing a couple of focus groups. One, on Thursday at noon, is going to be around MidMarket IT issues. On Monday at noon, we are going to be focused on interoperability and migration issues.

If you would like a nice lunch and a thank you gift in exchange for sharing your thoughts and opinions, send me an email to breid@microsoft or post a comment back.

I am looking specifically for 8-10 people for each session.

For Monday's Interop session, you need to have a heterogeneous environment -- Unix, Linux, Mainframe needing to interop with Windows. Also if you are running databases other than Miccrosoft SQLServer, messenging apps other than Microsoft Exchange, or directories other than Active Directory we'd love to have you attend.

For Thursday's session on Mid-Market IT, I am looking for companies that have less than a 100 servers, more likely in the 25-50 range.

Thanks and look forward to hearing from you.

Not just the sound Batman makes

breid — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 18:41:00 GMT

BOF stands for Birds of a Feather -- these are more informal conversations around key topics, typically held in the evening at TechEd. If you are working through platform interoperability issues, come join Jason Zions in a conversation about his work and share some of your challenges and successes.

BOF055 Integrating Windows and Non-Windows Platforms

Speaker(s): Jason Zions

Session Type(s): Birds of a Feather

Day/Time: Wednesday, June 8 9:00 PM - 10:00 PM Room: Track Cabana 12

Nearly every enterprise has a significant investment in computing platforms other than Windows. Most of those organizations face challenges in getting the Windows and non-Windows IT infrastructure components to work together. This session gives those of us who live at the interface between those two worlds a chance to share notes on problems we're having and solutions we've found. This isn't about "migration"; it's about co-existence and interoperability.

TechEd Break Out to Check Out #5

breid — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 18:39:00 GMT

One of the more challenging tasks for an IT pro is building out and supporting a branch office infrastructure. Come hear about the work we have done in this area to make it easier and more predictable:

MGT375 Branch Office Infrastructure Solution

Speaker(s): Claus Joergensen, Chris Johnson

Session Type(s): Breakout Sessions

Track(s): Management & Operations, Server Infrastructure

Day/Time: Thursday, June 9 8:30 AM - 9:45 AM Room: N 320 D/H

Branch office deployments represent complex projects for most organizations, especially large organizations (LORGs) and enterprises. Designing the branch office requires assessment and understanding of the infrastructure, including what is locally available and how each branch office is connected to the hub site, which can be a central data center (CDC) or regional data center (RDC). Naturally, organizations want to lower such costs, which is a significant motivator for many of them to pursue reducing servers in the branches. While this may be a long-term goal, many organizations have found that it is simply not feasible to completely remove the server from the branch due to productivity impacts, bandwidth constraints, and negative impacts on the core business of the branch office caused by the lack of availability and reliability for the network connection. Come to this session and learn about the Branch Office Infrastructure Solution to help your organization design and deploy hardware and software, and reduce ongoing management costs for branch office solutions. From a Microsoft perspective, it is important to deliver an easy-to-deploy branch office solution that incorporates a holistic view of core Microsoft Windows-based infrastructure services that reflect best practices.

TechEd Break Out to Check Out #4

breid — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 18:35:00 GMT

Know MOF? If not, this is the place to learn it from one of the best.

MGT205 Improving Operational Efficiency with Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF)

Speaker(s): Kyle Bergum

Session Type(s): Breakout Sessions

Track(s): Management & Operations

Day/Time: Wednesday, June 8 8:30 AM - 9:45 AM Room: N 220 E

Running your IT systems as effectively as you can is often overlooked when concentrating on designing and deploying solutions, yet most of us appreciate that only 20% of IT failures are typically related to technology. Addressing people and process as well as technology is vital to ensure success in light of today's IT pressures with respect to reducing cost, increasing service levels, and delivering business value. Adopting best practices based on the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) will help you increase operational efficiency. In this session, case studies are used as a means to demonstrate how Microsoft and some of our customers have used MOF to achieve required levels of operational efficiency.

TechEd Break Out to Check Out #3

breid — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 18:32:00 GMT

Interested in operations and management of Windows infrastructure?

MGT304 Introducing System Center Reporting Server 2005: Understanding, Architecting and Deploying

Speaker(s): Karri Alexion-Tiernan, Craig Morris

Session Type(s): Breakout Sessions

Track(s): Management & Operations

Day/Time: Monday, June 6 10:45 AM - 12:00 PM Room: N 220 E

Learn the basics on System Center Reporting Server 2005 architecture and best practices for deployment.

TechEd Break Out to Check Out #2

breid — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 18:28:00 GMT

You in a Medium Sized business? If so this is the session for you:

SVR329 Design and Implement an End-to-End Infrastructure Based on Windows Server System in a Medium-Sized Business

Speaker(s): Kevin Lisota, Kalpesh Patel

Session Type(s): Breakout Sessions

Track(s): Server Infrastructure

Day/Time: Friday, June 10 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM Room: N 310 H

The Medium IT Solution series guidance is designed for medium-sized businesses that are progressively increasing the use of IT to empower employees and connect with customers. The solution provides greater predictability and flexibility in terms of IT design for Networking, Active Directory, Exchange server 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services using the end-to-end life cycle of Plan, Build, Deploy and Operate. The solution is intended for medium-sized businesses with 50-250 PC users.

TechEd Break Out to Check Out #1

breid — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 18:25:00 GMT

We completed a big project on IPsec. These guys are the authors and experts so if you want to learn about IPsec, this is session for you.

SEC330 Server and Domain Isolation Using IPsec

Speaker(s): Steve Clark, Charles Denny

Session Type(s): Breakout Sessions

Track(s): Management & Operations, Security, Server Infrastructure

Day/Time: Wednesday, June 8 5:30 PM - 6:45 PM Room: S 330

As organizations grow, controlling the access to the internal network can become impossible. Every day, customers, vendors and consultants may be connecting mobile devices to your network for valid business reasons. These mobile clients and distributed network environments expose the network to many threats if it is only protected by traditional perimeter or physical network isolation solutions. These traditional defenses lack the ability to provide an end-to-end security solution and are often too inflexible to support the requirements of a modern IT infrastructure. Network Isolation provides a new layer of network security that uses IPsec, group policy, and machine groups to isolate data moving between computers or networks in the organization. This approach allows development of a flexible, scalable, and manageable solution that provides a powerful layer of protection to an organization's trusted computers. This presentation is a technical discussion and demonstration of the technologies available right now to provide a proven and deployable enterprise-class isolation solution.

Going to TechEd

breid — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 18:17:00 GMT

We have a large contingent from our team heading down to TechEd next week. We have a number of speakers leading breakout sessions, have one Birds of a Feather session, running a couple of focus groups, and working the show floor.

If you are going you will get a CD in your attendee bag. I'd love to hear from people about what you think of the content. Post me a comment or send me an email. It is the CD with the guy fixing a hard drive.

Trusted employees?

breid — Tue, 24 May 2005 23:29:00 GMT

Interesting report today on MSNBC about bank employees who stole 700,000 customers bank account information and sold to collection agencies for $10 an account.

What is interesting for me is that I spent some time over the last year talking with customers about security and in general found that companies have much higher trust for employees than anyone not on the payroll. The most significant threats that people talked about were all external penetration attacks. Few felt particularly threatened by internal attacks or fraud perpetrated by employees. Getting hired was the key trust hurdle people had to clear. Once over it, high trust was assumed.

The attack cited in the article is essentially property theft -- employees are taking a valuable asset of the company, stealing it from the company and selling it for their private benefit.

In the information economy, the assets on the "shelf" are customer accounts, financial records, and identities. So employee theft now no longer is an issue limited to the employer-employee diad. In these new types of thefts, customers who never knew they were a party to the theft soon become embroiled in sorting out risks they have been exposed to. The employer likely has insurance to help cover the loss, but for the customer, what protection do they receive?

California and RFID

breid — Fri, 20 May 2005 23:16:00 GMT

Interesting article on the recent moves in California to rein back in potential national privacy transgressions. Question I have is -- why is it that California has to keep leading the way on privacy issues? We, as in the rest of the US, likely would not have known about the rash of recent pii disclosure incidents had the Sunshine State not had in place its disclosure law. Now California is once again moving quickly to address RFID as a person tracking technology.

The Internet is a healthcare resource

breid — Thu, 19 May 2005 18:07:00 GMT

New report out from Pew on the growing importance of the Internet in the daily healthcare of people:

"Eight in ten internet users have looked online for information on at least one of 16 health topics, with increased interest since 2002 in diet, fitness, drugs, health insurance, experimental treatments, and particular doctors and hospitals. "

You look on line for healthcare information? Where do you you look?

Btw -- congratulations to Healthwise on their 30th year! They are one of, if not, the originators of this whole space.

We have to help the help desk

breid — Thu, 19 May 2005 18:01:00 GMT

Internetnews.com reports on a study completed by Forrester noting "most IT users are not satisfied with their company's IT support, and users are "less than satisfied with their relationships with their IT departments."

The big dissatisfiers were the inability to resolve issues on first attempt and the quality of the communication from IT about technology updates and organizational changes. Moreover, users complained about the difficulty of finding information on their corporate intranets.

What can we do here to help? Are we not giving help desks the information you need to resolve issues? Can we give you better communication to give to your end users? Let me know.