- PacLib Group chooses Hyper-V over VMware
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Full story here http://www.itnews.com.au/News/85969,paclib-performs-vmware-analysis-but-chooses-microsoft.aspx
The analysis involved monitoring PacLib’s servers for a month, according to IT manager David Furey.
“They came back with a proposal of about $25,000 in installation costs and another $25,000 in software costs,” Furey told iTnews.
“You’ve got to question whether it’s worth paying $50,000 for that. I know the VMware camp go on about features like VMotion, but for $50,000 I could pay someone to move my virtual machines for me.”
“To us, it looked like we weren’t losing any performance or benefits of virtualisation but we were saving a lot of money,” Furey explained.
“It just didn’t make financial sense to spend all that money [on vmware], when if we want to add more Hyper-Vs, it’s $49 per server.”
Hyper-V has let PacLib group consolidate its 16 physical servers to 4 Dell Poweredge 2950 Servers. There are still 16 servers running but the other 12 are virtual instances.
- Hyper-V Server available as a Free Download
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Hyper-V Server is now available as a free download.
When to Use Hyper-V Server 2008
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 is a great choice for customers who want a basic and simplified virtualization solution for consolidating servers as well as for development and test environments. Hyper-V Server 2008 only offers the most basic of virtualization features, making it ideal for:
- Test and Development
- Basic Server Consolidation
- Branch Office Consolidation
- Hosted Desktop Virtualization (VDI)
Customers who require richer and more robust virtualization features, such as Quick Migration, multi-site clustering, large memory support (greater than 32 GB of RAM), and more than four processers on the host server, should use Windows Server 2008. Windows Server 2008 provides business continuity, disaster recovery, greater scalability for consolidating large workloads, and flexible and cost-effective virtualization rights (one free virtual instance for Standard Edition, four free virtual instances for Enterprise Editions, and unlimited virtual instances for Datacenter Edition with the purchase of a license of Windows Server 2008).
APIs, Specifications, and How-To
Webcasts
- Get the new Windows Live Betas today
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If you are looking for delicious software then you need to get your hands on the latest Windows Live downloads. The first thing you will notice is the integration of Windows Live with each of these services which is what a lot of people have been waiting for.
Windows Live Messenger Beta
Couple of things I like about the new messenger is the ability to have it signed into more than just one place. Your conversation is also replicated across the machines you are signed into. The new facelift is refreshing with new look icons. You can have custom sounds for individual contacts and have your own custom sound as well.
You can also share photos easily with your contacts. The photo appears in Messenger window with the option for the contact to download it as well. The ability to have groups and send them group messages is handy.
Windows Live Photo Gallery Beta
Some cool new things with the Photo Gallery is the ability to upload your photos to Windows Live Photos. These can be easily shared with your contacts. Photo Gallery also has face recognition to tag faces in the gallery, you can also sign into Windows Live to tag your Messenger contacts in your gallery. There is also the option to create a Photosynth of your photos.
We also have the following Betas available:
Windows Live Movie Maker Beta
Windows Live Mail Beta
Windows Live Writer Beta
Windows Live Toolbar Beta
Family Safety Beta
Outlook Connector Beta
Enjoy tasting the Betas.
- Australian customers using Hyper-V
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Have a look at some of the stories of customers using Hyper-V in their organisation.
WorleyParsons Hyper-V Case Study
Engineering Services Company Reduces Hardware, Support Costs With Virtualization
Headquartered in Australia, WorleyParsons provides professional services to the energy, resource, and complex process industries. WorleyParsons has grown revenue from AU$0.5 billion to $3.5 billion (U.S.$0.48 billion to $3.3 billion) over the past five years. The company relies on an agile and flexible IT infrastructure to deliver the expanding business applications required for sustaining growth, and it is deploying Windows Server® 2008 Hyper-V™ to help reduce the growing costs associated with rapid global expansion. Microsoft® System Center Virtual Machine Manager will help simplify server management and the physical to virtual server conversion as WorleyParsons converts 50 percent of its physical servers to virtual servers. This conversion is expected to reduce hardware costs and space requirements, improve server management, and facilitate faster deployment of applications.
Telstra Business Systems Hyper-V Case Study
IT Integration Services Company Increases Network Performance While Reducing Costs
Telstra Business Systems, an Australian provider of IT integration and management solutions, needed to improve the performance of its own enterprise network. Because of increased business from new customers, government agencies, and business partners, the performance of the network was reduced. To resolve this, Telstra Business Systems upgraded its server software to Windows Server® 2008 and used features such as Read-Only Domain Controllers and Hyper-V™ server virtualization. Since the upgrade, the company has significantly improved network performance to continue its excellent customer service levels to customers. It has also reduced costs by consolidating servers. In addition, IT administrators spend less time on routine maintenance and more time improving the system and responding to customer calls.
University of Canberra Hyper-V Case Study
Virtualization Halves Management Effort for Campus Technology Support
Established in 1968 the University of Canberra delivers education to approximately 10,000 students in a technology-leading environment. However, the university’s IT department was constrained by the effort required to maintain network security and the time it took to commission new servers and maintain its existing large server environment. IT staff did not have the resources to explore or implement new technology services that the university wanted to retain premium technology support for its teaching. In 2008, the university installed Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008. As a result, servers could be configured faster, and firewalls were easier to install and were more effective. In addition, by utilising Hyper-V virtualisation functionality, the university drastically reduced its server hardware requirements and server environment maintenance needs.
- Stream Video and Location on your Windows Mobile Phone
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Something cool that Chris Pendleton blogged about is the ability to stream video and location data from your Windows Mobile 5 and 6 phones. The software is called Live Media GPS (currently in Beta). The video is streamed using Silverlight and the location is mapped using Microsoft Virtual Earth. I can already see some really cool scenarios for this application. If you have a GPS and Camera in your Windows Mobile Phone, Download it today.
- Next ad “New Family” is out with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld
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The next ad New Family is out. Its about Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld living with some real people.
- Poll – Technology Lifecycle Adoption
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We are keen to see where you are at in the Technology Lifecycle Adoption lifecycle. Take the poll and let us know!
- Shoe Circus – Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld
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Check out the first ad Shoe Circus in a new ad series for Windows. The ad has been getting some serious coverage in the blogosphere.
Jerry - “What do you get with that card?”
Bill - “Big top points”
Where do you get Conquistadors and Churros in Sydney?????
- @TechEd 2008 – Photos from day 2
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Some pics from day 2 at TechEd.
Another guy who loves TechNet
TechNet Plus Video Testimonials
Upcoming devices from Windows Mobile
- @TechEd 2008 – Photos from day 1
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Some pics from Day 1 at TechEd 2008.
The Forza 2 Stand
This guy loves TechNet!
Playing with Microsoft Surface. This is amazing.
Some HP Servers powering TechEd
HP Guys in army gear
- @TechEd 2008 – Photosynth’ing the TechNet Lounge
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Delicategenius made this cool Photosynth of us setting up the TechNet Lounge here at TechEd. Love the high visibility vests which we have to wear during setup.
- Do you love TechNet?
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If you do love it and you are at TechEd, make sure you grab one of these “I Love TechNet” stickers being handed out at registration. We will be giving out random prizes to those wearing their stickers at the conference.
- Microsoft Surface in Australia at TechEd 2008
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We will have a Microsoft Surface unit on demo at TechEd next week, so if your coming along make sure you have your greasy fingers ready to try it out!
- Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 is out
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Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 is now available for download. I started using it this morning and have been impressed with the speed. It has a whole lot of new features including Compatibility View (handy for those sites designed for older browsers), Web Slices, Search Suggestions, Accelerators to name a few.
It has some Security changes which include the SmartScreen Filter, Cross Site Scripting (XSS) Filter, Domain Highlighting and Data Execution Prevention.
One feature I like is the Live Maps Accelerator. You select a address on a page and right click to select the ‘Search with Live Maps’ to see the Map on the same page. I used this to check the location of a restaurant I was checking out.
Some important Technical Resources are:
How to get your site ready for Internet Explorer 8
The IE8 Beta 2 Technology Overview for the Enterprise - provides a great overview of all the new features in Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 and is written for IT Professionals and other technical users.
The IE8 Beta 2 FAQ for Businesses - answers common questions from IT Decision Makers and IT Professionals about Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2.
Slipstreaming IE8 into Vista and Server 2008 images - If you manage the desktop images for your organization, slipstream saves you time by simplifying the task of adding Internet Explorer 8 and any IE updates.
Dont forget to subscribe to the Internet Explorer 8 blog for more updates.
Do you still remember using Internet Explorer 1? I love the headline “Microsoft Welcomes You To The Internet!”
- New Social Bookmarking on TechNet and MSDN!
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We have launched a preview of our Social Bookmarking application on TechNet and MSDN for you to start using. Social Bookmarking is a way to store your bookmarks on the web, share your bookmarks with others and explore bookmarks stored by other users.
Some of the new features to look forward to in the official launch (early September) is:
- Subscribe to Tags or People: Find a tag you want to follow? Or a fellow bookmarker that bookmarks really good stuff? With the new app, it will be easy to get an RSS subscription for that tag or person (as in, click the orange button).
- Browse & Find Users: Search or browse to find people by their display name (e.g., mine is "johmar") and other criteria.
- Import Tools: Recognizing that a lot of people already have favorites saved in their browsers or in other social bookmarking sites, the new app will provide a tool for importing your favorites from Microsoft Internet Explorer and from Delicious.
- Bookmarking Widget: If you have your own blog or other website, our new bookmarking widget will make it easy for people to bookmark your pages directly to their social bookmarks on MSDN, TechNet, or Expression. You'll get traffic from Microsoft when your bookmarked page is published in "social feeds" on our global sites.
Start previewing today and send in your comments to the Social Bookmarks Discussion Forum.
Come speak to us at the TechNet Lounge at TechEd next week to learn more.
