Microsoft’s Chief Information Officer Tony Scott talks about critical trends facing the IT industry in 2010, including cloud computing, virtualization, and the ongoing need to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

More insights on how Microsoft Does IT at http://www.microsoft.com/itshowcase. You can also become a Microsoft IT Showcase fan on Facebook.

Looking at Desktop Virtualization including VDI? Thinking about Windows 7 migration?

Join Microsoft and industry experts online on Thursday 18 March from 17:00 till 18:00 CET for the Desktop Virtualization Hour.

Mitch Tulloch has updated his free Microsoft Press e-book “Understanding Microsoft Virtualization R2 Solutions”. Now available for download in XPS format and in PDF format.

Six chapters adding up to 466 pages:

1. Why Virtualization?
2. Server Virtualization
3. Local Desktop Virtualization
4. Remote Desktop Virtualization
5. Virtualization Management
6. Cloud Computing

[Via Microsoft Press blog]

Are you using DirectAccess or planning a deployment soon at a customer? Reduce support costs and significantly improve your mobile users’ connectivity experience with the newly released Microsoft DirectAccess Connectivity Assistant (DCA).

DCA informs mobile users of their connectivity status at all times; provides tools to help them reconnect on their own if problems arise; and creates diagnostics to help mobile users provide IT staff with key information if necessary—all to help organizations operate with more efficiency, and at a lower cost.

DCA is the newest addition to the Windows Optimized Desktop Toolkit 2010, which helps IT pros plan, deliver, and operate the right desktop technologies for users across their organizations.

Benefits of DirectAccess Connectivity Assistant

The DirectAccess Connectivity Assistant provides organizations with the following benefits:

• Lets mobile users know their connection status: DCA provides an indicator in the notification area that keeps mobile users informed of their connectivity status with an organization’s intranet.
• Reduces the number of support calls: DCA has built-in remediation tools that help mobile users solve connection problems on their own, without calling the help desk.
• Reduces the duration of support calls: If support is needed, DCA helps mobile users provide IT staff with key diagnostics to zero in on the source of a problem, so IT can resolve the issue faster and get users back to work.
• Helps users stay productive: Because DCA helps IT solve connection problems faster, mobile users have more reliable access to network-based resources, and can stay more productive.

Next Steps

• Download the DirectAccess Connectivity Assistant
• Learn more about the DirectAccess Connectivity Assistant
• Learn more about the Windows Optimized Desktop Toolkit 2010

The Official Microsoft Blog writes about two announcements on the social features of Office 2010:

• The LinkedIn for Outlook Social Connector is available for download
• Additionally, we’re announcing new Outlook integrations with Facebook and MySpace.

More info is available at the Official Microsoft Blog and the Outlook blog or watch this video on LinkedIn for Outlook: