Search results matching tags 'networking', 'internet explorer', and 'Exchange Server'

NEW Bigger Discount on TechNet Plus Subscriptions!

KevinRemde — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 07:00:00 GMT

Whenever I present a live TechNet Event, I ask my audience to raise their hands if they are a TechNet subscriber. Usually about 1/3 of the audience raises their hand. Considering that this is typically a Microsoft-friendly audience, I'm a little shocked that there aren't more hands going up. The TechNet Subscription is such a great resource for IT Pros, for these reasons:

Downloadable (or delivered, if you subscribe to the disks-delivered-to-you-monthly subscription), full-version software licensed for evaluation purposes; which includes Microsoft operating systems, servers, and Office System software; all the software that IT Pros care about. Yes, these are for evaluation, testing, and training only; but they don't time-out. You can install these into a training lab, test lab, or use Virtual PC, Virtual Server, Hyper-V, or even your own downloaded evaluation copy of the latest beta or CTP or Release Candidate software! Use it to build a virtually networked playground, and play with (er.. “evaluate”, if your boss is watching) all the latest and greatest tools and technologies.
You get early access to beta versions and release candidates of new Microsoft products.
A Technical Information Library containing the articles, security updates, service packs, utilities and more - all in one convenient location.
Access to Online Concierge Chat service for live help from a Microsoft Online Assistant - to help you get the most out of your subscription.
Yearly subscription to TechNet Magazine (I love this magazine!)
Two (2) technical support incidents and a 20% discount on additional phone support incidents you purchase. (HINT: the savings here alone justifies the subscription cost)
Twelve free eLearning courses per year to keep your skills up to date. Just for TechNet Subscribers. (Good idea to watch the TechNet Plus Blog for details)
Unlimited Managed Newsgroup Support. Post your technical questions in over 100 public newsgroups and receive a response from an expert by next business day. It's like another free avenue into direct technical support from Microsoft!

For all of those reasons (Heck, for any ONE of those reasons), a TechNet Plus subscription is worth the yearly investment.

"Cool, Kevin. But how do I save $$$s?"

For new subscriptions, from now until December 30, 2009, you can save ~~25%~~ 28% on any version of a TechNet Plus subscription.

"Is this worldwide, or U.S. only, or what?"

This is for residents of North America. So, if you're in the U.S. or Canada, this is for you.

“Why new subscriptions only? Why not a discount renewals?”

Renewals are already automatically discounted, even more than you get with this code. Besides.. we’re honestly trying to promote TechNet Subscriptions to those who haven’t yet benefited from it. We’re pretty confident that if you try it, you’ll see enough value in it to renew your subscription.

Write down or copy this promotion code to your clipboard: TMSAM08 (That's zero-eight. Not the letter O.)

Then GOTO the TechNet Subscription Center (CLICK HERE), and use the code to get your savings.

Can your data center handle a hurricane? Ours can

Keith Combs — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 08:00:00 GMT

Usually we discuss hurricane or typhoon force winds in the warm tropical climates of the world. Well, unless you haven't been paying attention, Seattle and surrounding areas got hammered about 24 hours ago and a lot of essential services are still being affected. People got killed and the area will take days to recover. I am sad about that.

From an IT perspective, it's been interesting to watch from 1600 miles away. It has effected some of our services. We canceled the webcasts on Friday. My blog pictures are gone because my ISP has been done due to a lack of power. Power in our office buildings in Redmond is sparse but a few folks did find places to jack in and get power.

One thing that has not been down is email. In fact, many of our internal servers have been up round the clock. I've been using email all day. I submitted an order for some software and hardware for a project. I attended LiveMeeting online conferences to discuss our launch events. I've been in and out of our sharepoint and file servers via VPN all day. In fact, I'm pulling a massive content session off a server in the Redmond data center as we speak using a multithreaded copy tool and it's clipping along at about 650k per second.

Now lets reflect upon that for a second... We have literally thousands of servers in the data center and from where I sit, there has been zero impact to my day. When people talk about mission critical, this is what it's all about. Those services above are using Microsoft email, web, database and portal services all run in a data center of dedicated IT Pros.

In short, the Microsoft IT folks freaking rock baby!!!

I'm sure we'll have all kinds of interesting stories about this storm. It's sad to see there was loss of life. It's also sad so many people are going to be inconvenienced for many days ahead. I hope the recovery is swift, and Seattle people can have a decent Christmas.

The Glass is 10% Full

Keith Combs — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 08:00:00 GMT

Do you ever look to the past to see what the future holds? You should. I cut my computer teeth long before most people. My computer heritage goes back to my diapers. Dear Dad was a career IBMer and I was playing with IBM Selectric typewriters and dictaphones long before most people had ever seen Lotus 1-2-3. During a recent discussion with Rodney Clark, a rising Microsoft executive and the leader of my org, I found out he and I have very similar roots in that regard. His Dad was also a career IBMer. We both have technology in our genes.

The passion for technology was ingrained in me at a very early age. Hugh MacLeod talks about the rebirth of Microsoft in "The Microsoft Question" blog post and why he keeps an eye on us. He makes a lot of good points and gives the "Scoble Effect" a lot of credit. I think the core for a lot of the rebirth he describes is passion.

Have you ever seen Steve Ballmer on stage talking to Microsoft employees at our annual sales and technical pilgrimage? Talk about passion. His passion is strong enough to focus the troops in a direction, for months. When you watch the channel9.msdn.com videos produced by Scoble, Charles and Rory, you see passionate Microsoft people.

Successful companies hire passionate people. Passion also means not resting on your laurels.

So back to my original question... Do you look back? Should successful companies and people look back? I think they should. It's especially refreshing to look back at the progress that's been made over the past 15-20 years. Just look at Windows. See the history of Windows at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/WinHistoryDesktop.mspx. While you are at it, take a look at the Internet Explorer history. Some would say IE helped Microsoft rise from the ashes.

When I rewind, I think about Windows 3.x and the integration work I used to do with the Novell Netware 3.x of that era. Anyone remember Network Courier or Microsoft Mail? I still remember running my first COBOL compile with Microfocus COBOL on a personal computer. I was in heaven. Sure beats a 3270 emulator and CA Abendaide.

Last week I was in Las Vegas. We had just announced Microsoft Office 2007 had RTM'd and I knew the Windows Vista announcement would be coming soon. I am totally energized about all of this and had an absolute blast demonstrating the products. I was also working with some other Microsoft veterans of plus ten years. All of the veterans were super stoked. New products will do that.

Interesting enough, almost as soon as we announced the Windows Vista RTM, my brain had already placed the check mark next to Windows Vista and was on to what's next... Exchange Server 2007, Longhorn Server, Virtualization management, network management, etc.

Are great companies reborn? Or do they hire passionate people who want to change the world? Are passionate people ever satisfied? Is Microsoft done? What else is left to do? I think the answer is obvious...

The glass is 10% full.

Watching the TechED 2006 action poolside

Keith Combs — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 07:00:00 GMT

Get your frozen margarita, dual core laptop and favorite rubber ducky and head to the pool. Might as well since this year you’ll be able to watch and listen to the festivities on the http://VirtualTechEd.com website. It’ll be interesting to see how much of the show, seminars and “social” events are actually broadcast.

I would recommend tuning into the opening keynote on 6/11 at 7pm EST. We’ll have Ray Ozzie, Bob Muglia and Chris Capossela showing off some kewl stuff. Maybe they’ll do some of those kewl virtualization demos, or something fascinating from Windows Vista. It sure would be kewl if they did a BDD of Halo 3 to 1000 workstations and waiting TechEd gamers. Now that my friends is business desktop deployment. Time to get down to business fragging.

And yes, this is a current shot of the homepage at virtualteched.com from my patio. The laptop is on battery so the brightness is a bit low and obviously the exposure is set for the background, not the black Lenovo Thinkpad T60 in the foreground. The picture doesn’t do the pool justice but as you’ll recall, it’s big enough for a few of your friends. Sorry, you can’t see the “refreshments” just to the left of the laptop. Gotta go work on on some important business.

Windows Vista App Compat Readiness Labs @ TechEd06

Keith Combs — Thu, 04 May 2006 07:00:00 GMT

An unique opportunity to get one-on-one time with our Windows Vista application compatibility experts during the Windows Vista Readiness Applications Compatibility Labs at TechEd 2006. Bring your own Applications to test and troubleshoot and/or try out our self paced labs to test and catch up on the exciting new enhancements and opportunities Windows Vista has to offer – all in a single room.

Windows Vista Readiness Labs TechEd06

June 12th – 16th, 2006

Room 108, First Floor

Boston Convention & Exhibition Center (BCEC)
415 Summer Street
Boston, MA 02210

Application Developers (ISV and IT) are invited to the Windows Vista Readiness App Compat labs at TechEd06!

Use our test application to learn about changes that could affect applications in the Windows Vista environment.
Bring your Applications to the Vista Readiness Lab and have our experts assist in evaluating and debugging compatibility issues in your app.
In a single HoL session you will understand how to setup, run and uninstall scenarios for Vista and learn more about new features like UAC and how they can impact applications.
Spend 1:1 time with our Vista App Compat experts – learn how to fix your applications directly from Microsoft Development teams and experience the enhancements and opportunities Vista has to offer.
This is a great opportunity to learn about the (ACT) Application Compatibility Toolkit that would help enterprises to evaluate upgrade and deployment to Windows Vista options while reducing testing and other costs to a minimum. Additionally, ACT can be used by developers to learn about areas in their applications that need to be addressed.

Blitzkrieg of security offerings coming. Confused?

Keith Combs — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 08:00:00 GMT

Most people are probably familiar with the military term, Blitzkrieg. According to Wikipedia, it means “lightning war”. Of course I’m not talking about previous military wars but instead I am referring to the war against viruses, worms and other malicious exploits in the various operating systems and web browsers on this planet. Well, let the Microsoft blitzkrieg begin.

This week, Microsoft announced a number of changes to the product lines we have coming that will combat the bad guys. Unfortunately, with the number of announcements and tools it can get confusing on what you’ll get, when you’ll get it, and how much it will cost. The good news is that some of my favorite tools will be free.

Branding

Personally, I’d consolidate all of the tools into one brand. I’m not sure what the brand would be. What do you think? The “Security Center” in Windows XP is pretty straight forward but catchy it ain't. I like the Windows Defender name. It’s catchy and conveys a sense of proactive spirit. How about Microsoft Nuke? Ok, maybe not. I’m sure that we’ll eventually do some consolidation in this space. It would seem that Windows Defender and Windows Defender Professional or Windows Defender Enterprise might work. If you are a home user, download Windows Defender for Windows XP. If you buy one of the home SKUs for Windows Vista, it comes built in. If you are a volume licensing customer, you get the central reporting and control of the Pro or Enterprise product. Keep in mind I’d put all of the security related stuff (Firewall, automatic updates, virus, malware, spyware, root kit detection, etc.) under the brand so that our customers would know where to look for changes to properties and settings. Maybe the Microsoft Security Center isn’t soo bad after all, eh? Just brainstorming here…

Where do I get free training?

The answer is of course TechnetBriefings.com. My team will begin delivering live seminars on all of the security technologies in April. We’ll clarify the security offerings on the Windows Server System products, Windows XP and Windows Vista client platforms.

Kai Axford is leading the content development so you know it’ll be stellar. If you don’t know Kai, he’s a Microsoft Security Specialist and won a Microsoft Chairmans award for his efforts in the security space last year. He’s also a Greenbay Cheesehead but don’t hold that against him. Our plan is to cover the server and client products and offerings. This is likely to include the new ISA Server 2006 stuff, Antigen for Exchange, Futuresoft technologies, etc. We’ll have a ton of kewl demos so be sure to come to the live event if possible. Of course you can always see us do webcasts as well.

For more information on the live events we’ll be delivering, see http://www.technetbriefings.com/. That site has our current seminar descriptions for Windows Server 2003 R2 and Exchange Server 2003 SP2. We’ll update it soon with the Q4 content outlines and abstracts.

Where should I look now?

In the meantime, lets take a look at some of the offerings that got announced or updated. It would be prudent to look at the matrix of offerings so we can compare features. You’ll notice on this chart that Windows Defender doesn’t do virus protection or removal. I would change that. If you want virus protection and/or removal, we’ll have the Windows Onecare Live and the Windows Live Safety Center. The Onecare Live service will be a more robust service offering scheduled scans, backups, tune-ups and added protections. See the OneCare Live press release on pricing and the promotions running through the end of April.

Most of you are familiar with the Malicious Software Removal Tool. It’s been around for a while and of course has been updated several times via the Microsoft Update servers. You could of course run it right now. Good doggie.

On the business side of the offerings, you’ll see the Microsoft Client Protection programs. Like many of the goodies above, it is also in beta testing. If you want to signup for the beta, go here. There is a nice little FAQ on the site but unfortunately, pricing and licensing has not been announced. Stay tuned for that.

Summary

As you can see, Microsoft continues to invest in a number of technologies and services to combat the bad guys. Our army of products and services are coming. It’s a full on blitz and by the looks of things, calendar year 2006 is going to be good for consumers.

I’ll do some demos soon on these technologies and by all means let me know if you have any questions. If you are in the southern states, come see me at one of my events. Otherwise, keep your eyes on this blog and webcasts I deliver.