Last week the Springboard team did one of their Virtual Roundtables with Mark Russinovich, this time about Application Compatibility. Below you can see a short version of it and you can download the full one here.
All questions and answers will be posted on the Springboard Blog. There is also a new video on Application Compatibility posted on Talking About Windows and a new Windows 7 Application Compatibility section on Springboard
On the Springboard site you can also find the previous Virtual Roundtables around topics like security, deployment and performance.
Amila is a Senior Support Engineer working for Ridgecrest Asia Pvt Ltd in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He is responsible for the entire network system and directly report to the CEO. Ridgecrest is a software development company for the 
financial sector and they are currently running one major project for optimization of stock exchange systems on one of the Fortune 500 banks in USA.
When he joined the company they were running Windows Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2003 but also Ubuntu clients and other open source products. Amilas’s experience was mostly on the Windows platform and since they were running some .net applications he managed to setup a few virtual machines and used Sharepoint for the intranet.
Because of the nature of the business and the many tight deadlines Amila cannot afford any downtime in the system so he decided virtualization is a good solution. He heard about the IT Pro Momentum program and decided to do an evaluation of virtualization solutions. He tried out both VMware and Hyper-V to compare features, performance and price. Because he liked the Live Migration feature in Windows Server 2008 R2 he decided to use that for his evaluation.
After he had done the testing he, in his own words: “had a painful discussion with my CEO for moving from open source to windows. Finally I won.”
They are now planning to have 5 Windows Server 2008 R2 running 17 virtual machines. The main benefits he sees are migration of virtualized guests from one physical host to another with no downtime, easing servicing, planning and reorganization while significantly limiting detrimental effects on production services. He also like the new disk quorum features in Windows Server 2008 which allows you to have clusters in multiple locations.
“I can say confidently to any interested parties, with properly equipped hardware you can enjoy a number of benefits that weren't possible before. The single largest benefit to any company making use of Hyper-V virtual dedicated servers is the cost efficiency factor. It is far more cost effective to build multiple virtual dedicated servers than it is to build physical dedicated servers. IT departments in any business are able to maintain the same performance levels, security and reliability at a far reduced cost.”
If you are interested in piloting any of our latest technologies like Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7, Exchange 2010 and soon Office 14 with support from us, please send me an email and I will give you more details about the IT Pro Momentum program. Read more IT Pro Momentum stories here
For more information on Microsoft Virtualization technologies, visit the Virtualization web. If you want to play around with the Release Candidate of Windows Server 2008 R2, you can download that here
MS Learning has come up with a lot of free Learning assets for Windows 7. First you have Learning Snacks; short, interactive presentations with animations and demos.
For more deeper understanding I recommend eLearning and there are three free courses available now for IT Pros, Developers and Consumers.
You will also be able to download sample chapters from coming books on Windows 7. All this can be accessed from the MS Learning Windows 7 site
You want to be GREEN, right? Save the environment and also save money? Then you should try Microsoft Hohm. This application will help you understand how much energy you are using at home and how to reduce that. It’s now in Beta fro us to collect feedback from you on how we can improve it. You can request access now or Become a Fan on Facebook!
Are you still on Windows 7 Beta? Then it’s time to move to the Release Candidate since the Beta will expire on August 1st. But already next week on July 1st you will experience issues since the OS will start rebooting every 2 hours.
You can download Windows 7 RC here and give us your feedback via input.microsoft.com
Now it’s official, the date when you will be able to buy Windows 7 in stores. Mark your calendar with October 22nd, that’s when it all begins :-) Read the full announcement on the Windows Blog. Windows Server 2008 R2 will also be available on this day, that announcement was made on the Windows Server Blog
Don’t forget that you can already now download the Release Candidate of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
Bing! That’s our new search engine that we announced earlier this week. I’ve used it since Monday and like the look and feel of it and I recommend you to check it out and get your own opinion. For a review and to understand some changed that we implemented you can read this article in the Wall Street Journal: “Microsoft Effort to Best Google Yields Results”. Here you find a review from cnet.
Let’s Bing!
This month’s free E-Book from Microsoft Press is Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services Resource Kit. Download it now!
The MS Learning team in APAC has put together two Live Meetings on SQL Server 2008, one for all of you who are new to SQL Server: Jumpstart SQL 2008 Skills and one for you who are already knowledgeable on SQL Server 2005: Upgrade Your SQL Skills.
Jumpstart SQL 2008 Skills on May 26th at 12.30 Singapore time (What time is this in my country?)
If you are new to SQL 2008, this session provides you with information on why and how to jumpstart your skills to SQL Server 2008. Our speaker will share real-life application examples and putting knowledge into context.
Upgrade Your SQL Skills on May 28th at 12:30 Singapore time (What time is this in my country?)
If you have been running existing databases and applications on SQL Server 2005, this Webcast session show you exciting new capabilities to improve your applications and reduce support needs within a familiar management interface
Some short notes:
1. You need Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007 installed on your PC to view this session. In case you do not have the requisite software, click here to download.
2. Internet Audio and Video broadcast for the webcast session would be done directly to your computer. Please ensure that you have Windows Media Player 9 or above installed. Click here to download.
Register now!
Here is something fun to finish off our week, Office 2010 the Movie! Check it out and sign up for the Technical Preview that will be released in July.
Talking About Windows is a new site with lots of videos about Windows 7, both available for streaming and download. Meet people in the Windows product team at Microsoft, like Mark Russinovich talking about things like security but also hear from IT Pros in the community, like Doug Miller, and why he thinks that the way to Windows 7 is through Windows Vista.
Now it’s here, the Release Candidate of Windows 7! The number of product keys will not be limited as was the case with the Beta so if you don’t manage to download it right away, don’t worry! It will be available at least until end of June and then it expires June 1 next year. My colleague in Australia, Jeff Alexander, wrote a great blog post about some of the news so I recommend you to check his blog here. On TechNet EDGE, Adam has also put together a list of links to more information, check that here.
Download Windows 7 RC here. For those of you who are running the Beta version today, remember that it expires on August 1 but already from July 1 Windows will start warning you about expiration, more details on that here
Good luck!
If you are a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) who have not attained any new credentials since July 1, 2007, you can now upgrade your Microsoft credentials at an exclusive exam voucher at US$25 only. Validate your skills on Microsoft new technologies including Microsoft Windows Server 2008, SQL 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and Vista. Go to MCP Upgrade to check if you’re valid for this and to get the special offer voucher. Offer ends June 30, 2009.
You might already have seen the announcement but I’ve been away for a few days so for me this was news! On Thursday (US time so late Thursday in Asia) the Release Candidate of Windows 7 will be available for all MSDN and TechNet Subscribers and the rest of you will have to wait until May 5th (also US time) before it’s publicly available.
This was just a heads up, so mark your calendar!
Nirmal Thewarathanthri is a Technology Specialist working for Tech One Global which was previously known as Tech Distribution. Tech One Global is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in extensive development and implementation of products in the Microsoft product portfolio with qualified personnel and professional IT services that add value to business. Tech One Global is also a value added Distributor for Oracle Adobe Products and authorized training partner for International Council of E-Commerce Consultants (EC Council) & Microsoft Certified Partner for Learning Solutions (CPLS). Tech One Global not only serves Sri Lanka, but has its branches in Brunei, Dubai and it overlooks Maldives through its partner network.
![clip_image001[1]](http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/mariaj/WindowsLiveWriter/HyperVhelpsTechOneGlobalconsolidatingres_847B/clip_image001%5B1%5D_1.jpg "clip_image001[1]")
I got in contact with Nirmal when he wanted to participate in the IT Pro Momentum program to do a project around Hyper-V. Before this project they were running Windows Server 2003 together with Exchange Server 2003. He had lots of reasons to try Hyper-V, quick migration was one of them. To be able to move virtual machines form one physical server to another is something very useful if you want to bring a server down. With the new Live Migration features in Windows Server 2008 R2 this will be even better. Other advantages he saw with Hyper-V were of course server consolidation, to be able to use the hardware to the maximum. Since he had previously worked with other virtualization solutions, he was curious to see how Hyper-V would do compared to them.
After the migration they now have six Windows Server 2008 servers, four of them are dedicated to virtualization and are hosting 13 Virtual Servers. They also upgraded the Exchange server to Exchange 2007. The migration took around two months to do and now Nirmal is very happy with his choice of Hyper-V. I asked him what the main benefits were:
One of the main benefits is that we can run x64 virtual machines; this was something we couldn’t do with Virtual Server or Virtual PC. Also, Hyper-V has the snapshot/Checkpoint feature which is great when you do testing, Apart from that the Hyper-V Machines can be managed via System Center Virtual Machine Manager and also we have configured an alerting system by integrating System Center Operations Manager with System Center Virtual Machine Manager. To be able to manage all virtual machines from one console is very useful. We are also looking forward for the final release of Windows Server 2008 R2 and also System Center Virtual Machine Manager R2 which enables us to perform live migrations of Virtual Machines.
He did run in to some issues when moving existing virtual machines that were created by Virtual Server. But after installing the available integration tools they managed to get everything to work.
My last question was: Why do you think other IT Pros should go for Hyper-V?
The main reason behind Hyper-V is to consolidate available resource. By implementing Hyper-V you come to a conclusion that your electricity is not wasted and also all available resources are properly utilized.
You can find a lot of information about Hyper-V and Microsoft’s Virtualization Solutions here. If you are interested in doing an early adoption project with support from us, send me an email with the subject “IT Pro Momentum”
When I talked to Nirmal today he told me that he is now also looking at the Beta for Exchange Server 2010 to understand how his company would benefit from that. More information about that Beta and how to download here
