Introduction

Hello again!  I hope everyone had a great holiday and New Year.  This is now the second mailing of this newsletter focused on delivering Microsoft Management technology information to both K-12 and Higher Education customers.  I hope you find the information here useful and encourage you to let me know if you have any suggestions for making this better.  Simply email me at Kevin.sullivan@microsoft.com.

We have a couple of new items this month along with new webcasts that you might find interesting.  Please read on for the details! 

Beta/TAP News

The following TAP and beta programs concerning management products are currently available.  If you have any questions with these, please let me know:

-          System Center Reporting Manager (SCRM) 2006

o       We are getting closer to the RTM date for this product – beta bits can still be found here:  http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/systemcenter/default.mspx

o       I conducted a TechTalk webcast demonstrating SCRM 2006.  A recording of this webcast can be accessed here:  https://www115.livemeeting.com/cc/msevents/view?id=1032284768&role=attend&pw=8BWGE2

-          System Center Capacity Planner (SCCP) 2006

o       SCCP 2006 enables you to better plan upgrades or ‘green field’ installations of Microsoft Solutions.  In its first version, SCCP 2006 can help you plan for upgrades and installations of either Exchange Server 2003 or MOM 2005. 

o       The SCCP 2006 beta is currently available.  Click the following link for more information:  http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/systemcenter/evaluation/capacity/default.mspx

-          Systems Management Server 2003 Service Pack 2: RC Available

o       SMS 2003 SP2 RC is now available.  Click here to register and received the RC bits of this service pack:  http://www.microsoft.com/smserver/evaluation/2003/sp2.mspx

o       SMS 2003 SP2 includes the usual hotfixes and patches as well as some new functionality such as AD Security Group Discovery, tighter integration with Microsoft Updates, etc. 

Upcoming Webcasts

For information on Education-specific webcasts, please consult the Education Webcast site here:  http://www.microsoft.com/Education/WebCasts.mspx.  Of particular interest is a webcast focused on desktop deployment happening on January 25th:

January 25, 2006, 2:00 P.M. Eastern Time
Microsoft Solution Accelerator for desktop deployment – realize greater value and reduced costs

Please sign up if you wish to learn more about Desktop Deployment!

The following are general TechNet Management-Specific upcoming webcasts:

TechNet Webcast: Active Directory Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 (Level 200)     

Wednesday, January 18, 2006 8:00 AM(GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032287391&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

TechNet Webcast: Planning and Deploying Systems Management Server 2003 (Level 200)     

Wednesday, January 18, 2006 11:30 AM(GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032287393&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

TechNet Webcast: Troubleshooting Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 (Level 200)     

Monday, January 23, 2006 8:00 AM(GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032287568&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

TechNet Webcast: Best Practices for Security Update Management with Systems Management Server 2003 (Level 200)     

Wednesday, January 25, 2006 11:00 AM(GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032287454&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 for Exchange Deployments (Level 200)     

Friday, January 27, 2006 9:30 AM(GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada) 

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032287397&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Tip of the Month:  Text File for Maintaining Agents (MOM 2005)

If you wish to maintain a text file of Agent-managed Computers instead of creating discovery rules, create a document named ManualMC.txt and place it into the Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 folder entering one server name per line.  If this file exists, the entries will be included when Computer Discovery is run.

Open invitation to share experiences using MSFT Management Products in K12 or HED environments

We have a few case studies and other news in the works from EDU customers on how they utilize our Management Technologies.  Once these become available, I will be sure to tell you where to go to get more information.  As always, I am always delighted to hear about how you use our management products.

Disclaimer:  You are receiving this email because you have either requested to receive this type of information or a Microsoft representative you work with thought you would be interested in receiving this information.  If you do not wish to receive this information, please let me know (Kevin.sullivan@microsoft.com) and I will remove you from this distribution.  If there are folks that you think may wish to receive this and currently do not, please have them send me an email and I will add them!

Kevin Sullivan | Technology Specialist - Management | Microsoft Corporation

Tel 314-757-3992 | www.microsoft.com/education | kevin.sullivan@microsoft.com | Three City Place, Suite 1100, St. Louis, MO 63141