James Akrigg .:. Out of Office : Presentation Notes

Microsoft Technologies - Today > Tomorrow > Futures Pt.4

James Akrigg — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 01:59:41 GMT

.: Presentation notes :.

SharePoint, SharePoint, SharePoint... That's all you would hear me talk about during my first six years at Microsoft. Now in it's third version it has become the fastest growth product in Microsoft's product history reaching $1bn faster than any other product. I put this down to several key attributes. First the capabilities of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007) are now vast spanning collaboration, content management, portal, search, business intelligence and business process management and this makes SharePoint the ideal 'information platform' for business. Secondly I would say that the extensibility of this platform has enabled the solutions our partners have been creating to address a wide and varied set of business problems across business functions and company boundaries. Having a technology that can be used for Intranet, Extranet and Internet solutions is of great strategic value when considering skills needed to support and drive your information platform.

The slide is hard to see in the scaled down image, but it basically puts SharePoint in the centre and illustrates that it requires Windows Server 2008 (or Windows Server 2003) and stores data in SQL Server. To the right (as you look at the slide) it shows how you may protect your information platform using ForeFront for SharePoint and Data Protection Manager (part of System Centre) to help with disaster recovery. To the left we have SharePoint Designer. This is a design tool to make it easier to customize the look and feel of SharePoint sites and more easily create solutions based on SharePoint. Finally at the top of the slide we have 'user experience'. Tight integration with Office 2007 and Office Communication Server really brings the solution to life as users can use familiar tools to interact with SharePoint. (slide 1)

We have been using Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS 2007) at Microsoft for sometime now and it is transforming the way we do business. Using Office Communicator 2007 client application to see presence information for anybody in the organization I may wish to contact is fantastic but it becomes amazing when I add contacts in partners that I work with so that we can communicate and collaborate more effectively. Applications that contain contact information (e.g. Outlook, SharePoint etc) light up with presence information when signed into Office Communicator so that I can communicate in context. So that's my business strength presence and instant messaging taken care of and you would think that was good. Well in the tradition of going from good to great let's throw in PBX integration to voice enable Office Communications Server. In a recent trip to Los Angeles I was able to make calls from my Vista Laptop via the Wireless Internet connection in the hotel and conference centre and significantly reduce my mobile roaming charges. More recently I have been testing using a Netbook with a small bluetooth headset to make calls. Those that attended the event should remember the demo :)

Piloting unified communications using Office Communications Server 2007 and perhaps collaboration with SharePoint is a great way to see the immediate benefits you can get in using these technologies. Many partners are doing this today and sharing their real world experiences with customers looking at ways to reduce costs and improve communication and collaboration capabilities. If you are not seriously looking at SharePoint and Office Communications Server you should and with the release of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 in the first half of next year there will be even more solution possibilities. (slide 2)

.: Resources :.

SharePoint Server 2007 Homepage

Windows Server 2008

SharePoint Solution Templates

Office Communications Server 2007

Technical Resources for SharePoint Server 2007

Using the latest SQL Server 2008 features with SharePoint Server 2007

Using SharePoint Products and Technologies with Hyper-V

SharePoint Server 2007 Evaluation resources

Early information on Office Communications Server 2007 R2 and Launch Event Registration Link

Microsoft Technologies - Today > Tomorrow > Futures Pt.3

James Akrigg — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 01:51:22 GMT

.: Presentation notes :.

The turning point in user experiences with software is here. The transition from text based user interfaces to graphical user interfaces has been long and challenging. The Net Gen is far more aware of what makes a good user experience when using technology than every before. I would put much of this down to the advances in web technologies. The ability to get instant access to information. The mass of creativity in designing cutting edge web sites that fuse sound, animation, video and other effect to provide rich visual interactive experiences. This experience is far removed from the many business applications that were simple conversions from their original text based forms to good old grey forms. Now I'm not saying that everything should be rewritten to be in 3D and have surround sound, but what I am saying is ease of use and productivity can be greatly improved with good user experience design. (slide 1)

The biggest enabler in accelerating advances in user experience will be through the tools used to develop applications. We have invested heavily in R&D to improve the software development experience when using Visual Studio and now this is spanning into a new suite of tools called Expression. The Expression tools combined with Visual Studio are designed to create rich compelling user experiences spanning from the desktop to the web and to mobile devices. Using underlying technologies including SQL for data, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) for the desktop, using Silverlight for the Web and in the not so distant future using Silverlight for mobile devices will deliver greater visual representations of information and higher levels of interaction than every before. The opportunity is huge and it's here today. (slide 2)

.: Resources :.

Windows Forms and Windows Presentation Foundation

Official Silverlight Site

Expression Tools

Visual Studio Development Tools

SQL Server information

Microsoft Technologies - Today > Tomorrow > Futures Pt.2

James Akrigg — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:45:44 GMT

So here we are with the next part of the presentation...

.: Presentation notes :.

Looking at where we have come from and where we are today is a good place to start when beginning to think about changes for the future. John C Maxwell wrote a book called 'Thinking for a Change' which clearly inspired me for the sub title of this section of the presentation. (slide 1)

I always like to ask an audience which Microsoft technologies they are using and I especially like to ask this question when my audience is partners as I believe our partners make the best case studies when working with customers. I asked about Windows Vista. I asked how many people in the audience were using Windows Vista every day, not just looking at Vista, but actively using it day-in-day-out. With only a few exceptions (and you know who you are) most partners are working 'without walls' to use the current terminology. My team and I have long advocated the use of Windows Vista as the best place to work. That's where I go to work every day knowing that it is secure and allows me to easily connect to my software services wherever I may find myself literally without walls. (slide 2)

The final slide here was a bit of a nostalgic look back at where Windows came from and where it has evolved. I highlighted Microsoft's commitment through the many versions of windows to compatibility with previous versions. The key point raised here is in preparation for Windows 7. It's early days for Windows 7 but already we have released pre beta versions to thousands of software developers at the PDC (Professional Developers Conference) and to hardware manufacturers at WinHEC (Windows Hardware and Engineering Conference). The current view is that any software/hardware that works with Windows Vista SP1 or later will work well with Windows 7. So if you are deploying Windows Vista SP1 today you will have a much simplified upgrade path to Windows 7 when it ships and you can start to take advantage of the many improvements in user experience and security with Windows Vista now. (slide 3)

.: Resources :.

Windows without walls and I'm a PC information

Windows 7

PDC Session content

WinHEC Session content

Microsoft Technologies - Today > Tomorrow > Futures Pt.1

James Akrigg — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:55:28 GMT

I had an idea following the recent regional partner events to publish information on my presentation in a slightly different way. I know I can talk at a fast pace when there is so much information I wish to share and my passion for technology exudes ( I think the scientific term for this is 'high verbalocity' - high speed verbal delivery) and I know this perhaps means that it is difficult to make notes on everything that is presented. So I thought I would make some notes on my own presentation and share them. So here it goes...

**PLEASE NOTE: I'd appreciate any comments or feedback on this approach **

.: Introduction :.

Before the events I had been asked if I could provide an update on the technologies that matter to our partners success today, tomorrow and in the future. The timing for the events was critical as we were in the midst of making many public announcements at various global events about our next generation technologies that had previously been code names internally. (some are still code names, but at least they are public now).

.: Presentation notes :.

To set the scene I initially talked about how we are entering what is being called the '5th Generation of Computing'. We have been talking about evolving through the 70's, 80's and 90's technology eras ranging from monolithic to Client-Server through to Web enabled computing. Today we see many examples of where software is designed and delivered using service oriented architecture (SOA) to improve agility and integration. The question asked is 'What's next?'. Many, including Microsoft, believe we are entering into an era where computing evolves to where itself becomes a service powered by and complimented with software. (slide 1)

Microsoft is looking at how to provide the best user experience across the desktop, web and mobile devices that connect and interact with software services. Early visibility of this becoming a reality can be seen in the announcements made about Windows 7 (pre beta released to PDC and WinHEC attendees) and Internet Explorer 8 (available as a public beta). Don't worry we haven't been sitting back when it comes to mobile devices. Future versions of Windows Mobile will continue the theme of 'best user experience'. (slide 2)

So the vision is very much to provide the best user experience through platform advances. This will open up new areas for customers to use Microsoft technologies to deliver real business value and innovation by working with our partners. Key areas of focus are Virtualisation (including Management - System Center Suite), Software+Service (online, hosted and on-premise), Collaboration (this includes information processes and business intelligence) and Unified Communications (email, voice, presence, instant messaging and web conferencing). (slide 3)

.: Resources :.

Get the knowledge first by signing up to beta software using Microsoft Connect.

Service Oriented Architecture with Microsoft

Early Windows 7 information

Software + Services

Virtualisation from Microsoft

System Center Management Suite

Business Intelligence Solutions

Unified Communications