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Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate Available

Windows Server 2008 R2 RC has been released. Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 will be the next version of the Windows Server operating system from Microsoft. Building on the features and capabilities of the current Windows Server 2008 release version, Windows Server 2008 R2 allows you to create organization solutions that are easier to plan, deploy, and manage than previous versions of Windows Server.

Developing upon the increased security, reliability, and performance provided by Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 extends connectivity and control to local and remote resources. This means your organizations can benefit from reduced costs and increased efficiencies gained through enhanced management and control over resources across the enterprise.

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Examine the 2007 Pandemic Flu Exercise to Protect your Organization Against Swine Flu

Download and examine the FFIEC’s “Pandemic Flu Exercise of 2007 After Action Report” immediately, and disseminate their findings across your organization. \this is the only large-scale testing of business pandemic plans ever conducted.

Gartner advise for Pandemic Planning

The recent swine flu outbreaks highlight the need for organizations to have pandemic plans in place. Gartner has comprehensive research related to pandemic planning that can be found here.  Immediate steps for organizations to take include:

• Monitor www.pandemicflu.gov and other government and public-health sources to determine what actions are appropriate to ensure workforce safety and continued business operations.
• Download and examine the FFIEC’s “Pandemic Flu Exercise of 2007 After Action Report” immediately, and disseminate their findings across your organization. To the best of our knowledge, this is the only large-scale testing of business pandemic plans ever conducted.
• Review pandemic response plans to:
  • Identify existing and projected critical skills shortages
  • Initiate necessary cross-training, testing or certification of personnel
  • Ensure that cross-trained personnel have the appropriate system/applications access rights
  • Determine which business operations are sustainable, and at what level, and the likely downtime for normal business operations during periods with absenteeism rates of 40% or higher
• Immediately initiate rigorous, ongoing and well-documented testing to isolate and remediate identified problem areas.
• Prepare for travel restrictions to be significant in the event of an epidemic and near-universal in the event of a pandemic.
• Implement a communications program that ensures that all personnel are aware of the enterprise's pandemic response plans, as well as measures they can take to limit the spread of disease — including practices as simple yet effective as regular hand-washing.

see the link full report the_swine_flu_i...pdf

Microsoft Vine as a crisis communication tool during disasters and Swine flu like pandemics

Spreading in the United States, Canada and Europe, the Swine flu now displays “a significant upward shift in risk for a pandemic,” or global scourge according to WHO. Times of crisis usually involve a breakdown in mobile phone or other key communication infrastructures, and Vine is designed to be as hardy as possible to keep people connected. Vine can be accessed via a desktop client (Windows only for now), text message or email.

The Microsoft Vine connects you to the people and places you care about most, when it matters. Stay in touch with family and friends, be informed when someone you care about needs help. Get involved to create great neighborhoods, communities or causes. You select the people and places you care about most. Use alerts, reports and your personal dashboard to stay in touch, informed and involved.

See http://www.vine.net/

XP Mode for Windows 7

To ease the application compatibility issues for migrating to Windows 7, Microsoft is going to incorporate the Virtual PC technology in to the Windows 7 operating system. The Windows XP applications will be published and run within the Windows 7 Desktop to achieve a seamless user experience. See the Windows team blog announcement here.

Impressive Virtualization Case Study : 85% virtualized, 30:1 VM density

Impressive virtualization case study from Kroll Factual Data. Some highlights:

·         Able to develop, test and deploy new products within three days.

·         A datacenter which has the ability to deploy additional computing resources in less than 15 minutes.

·         A datacenter that is 85 percent virtualized.

·         Consolidated its physical server holdings from 650 systems to 22 systems, each server running 30 virtual machines.

·         100 percent wind-generated power for the entire facility.

See the news release here. case study videos can be found here

How Can Virtualization Help Green IT

Organizations are becoming increasingly aware of the environmental and business benefits of adopting a Green IT environment. This interactive presentation highlights how virtualization facilitates a Green IT environment. It describes the Hyper-V server role and the System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) tool, which help create and support a virtualized infrastructure in Windows Server 2008.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/_silverlight/learningsnacks/ws08/snack07/Default.html

Free Terminal Services Online Course

This online course provides IT Professionals the knowledge to implement and manage Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008. Topics covered in the clinic include:

·         Implementation of Terminal Services

·         Working with Terminal Services RemoteApp, Terminal Services Web Access, Terminal Services Gateway, Terminal Services Session Broker, and Terminal Services Licensing

Free Virtual Machine Management Online Course

This online course provides IT Professionals the knowledge to implement and manage Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008. Topics covered in the clinic include:

·         Features and functionalities of VMM

·         Implementation and management of VMM

·         Management of VMM library

·         Management of hosts by using VMM

·         Implementation of virtual machine Self-Services

Free Application Virtualization Online Course

This online course provides IT Professionals the knowledge to implement and manage Microsoft Application Virtualization. Topics covered in the clinic include:

·         Features and functionalities of Application Virtualization

·         Deployment and maintenance of Application Virtualization

·         Management of Application Virtualization by using the Application Virtualization Management console

Exploring Microsoft Application Virtualization

Free Hyper-V Virtualization Online Course

This 2-hour online course provides IT Professionals the knowledge to implement and manage Hyper-V in an IT environment. Topics covered in the course include:

·         Features of Hyper-V

·         Features of server consolidation

·         Hyper-V implementation

·         Creation of virtual machines

·         Dynamic datacenters

·         Clustering in virtual environments

Introducing Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008

Infection Rates of Windows Operating Systems

Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) Guides

The Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) guides are the next version of Windows Server System Reference Architecture. The guides in this series help clarify and streamline design processes for Microsoft infrastructure technologies, with each guide addressing a unique infrastructure technology or scenario.

Each guide leads the reader through critical infrastructure design decisions, in the appropriate order, evaluating the available options for each decision against its impact on critical characteristics of the infrastructure. The IPD Series highlights when service and infrastructure goals should be validated with the organization and provides additional questions that should be asked of service stakeholders and decision makers.

IPD consists of the following downloadable packages:

• New! Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization
• New! Microsoft SQL Server 2008
• Exchange Online—Evaluating Software-plus-Services
• Internet Information Services 7.0
• IPD Series Introduction
• Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5
• Selecting the Right NAP Architecture
• Selecting the Right Virtualization Technology
• System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 with R2
• System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 with SP1
• System Center Operations Manager 2007
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008
• Windows Deployment Services
• Windows Optimized Desktop Scenarios
• Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Domain Services
• Windows Server 2008 File Services
• Windows Server 2008 Print Services
• Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services
• Windows Server Virtualization (for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1)

Download Infrastructure Planning and Design Guidance

Free Exchange 2010 Training

Sample Application Virtualization Assessment

Attached is a sample report produced using the MAPS toolkit. The Application Virtualization Assessment report identifies the applications and computers within your environment that are capable of supporting a Microsoft Application Virtualization environment. The assessment and recommendations are based on Microsoft Application Virtualization version 4.5.