The System Center User Group Belgium is getting ready to start again after the summer holidays. If you want to get updates via e-mail from them directly, please sign up; it’s free!

System Center Orchestrator: notes from the field

• Date: September 29, 2011 at 18:00
• Location: Microsoft, Zaventem (or online via LiveMeeting)

Join SCUG.BE for their first event after the “hot” summer months. During this event they will discuss the new System Center Orchestrator, what has changed, new integration packs and also how to migrate from Opalis 6.3.

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System Center Day

• Save the date: November 3, 2011
• Location: Living Tomorrow, Vilvoorde

After the great success of last year, SCUG.BE is preparing for a new edition of this event.  With the upcoming releases of all 2012 products of the suite and in particular the SCCM 2012 release this is a "must-be" for everybody who works with the System Center Suite. For this occasion they have some top international speakers like Wally Mead, 4 Belgium System Center MVP's and other System Center Experts and that's why the event will also be held in a special place.

This event will also be your opportunity to socialize with fellow System Center administrators and consultants and exchange knowledge, meet with one of the most popular Microsoft speakers of all time and have a nice lunch with the 4 Belgian System Center MVP's and a System Center product manager! 
The agenda is not yet fully set but you can already register for it.

System Center Cafe tour

• Save the date: December 1, 2011

Did you just read this correct? Did you just saw the word cafe? Yes you did. This year, SCUG.BE is starting something else... They are going to do a ASK THE EXPERTS panel, but not as you know it.  They will be in a bar, enjoying a nice Belgian beer and you are all free to come up and ask them your toughest questions.  First stop of this tour will be a bar in Zaventem. More info on the hour and bar will follow. This is an opportunity you can't miss. All our Belgian System Center MVP's will be there!

We are publicly announcing the release of an update to the Desktop Virtualization with System Center and Citrix Systems Integrator Partner Enablement Kit. This kit provides the Virtual Images and documentation required for a consultant of a Microsoft partner and systems integrator to perform a 5-day Proof-of-Concept around Desktop Virtualization, System Center management, and Citrix interoperability. This new release updates several documents including the “Citrix XenDesktop™ Quick Proof of Concept Kit – How To for Integrated Environments for Hyper-V”.

The kit contains pre-configured virtual images and materials for a complete 5-day Proof-of-Concept, education materials to help consultants increase their expertise in System Center products, and consulting templates to help practice managers create the collateral they need for a profitable System Center practice:

• 294 Presentations slides
• 173 Documentation pages
• 10 Virtual Images

Microsoft Press announced that they are offering Microsoft Office 365: Connect and Collaborate Virtually Anywhere, Anytime by Katherine Murray, as a free eBook. You can read the full announcement at the Microsoft Press blog.

Table of contents

Part I Finding Your Place in the Cloud

• Chapter 1 What’s Happening with the World of Work?
• Chapter 2 Getting Started with Office 365
• Chapter 3 Administering an Office 365 Account

Part II Teamwork in the Cloud

• Chapter 4 What Your Team Can Do with Office 365
• Chapter 5 Creating Your Team Site with SharePoint Online
• Chapter 6 Posting, Sharing, and Managing Files
• Chapter 7 Adding and Managing Workflows
• Chapter 8 Working with Office 2010 Web Apps
• Chapter 9 Going Mobile with Office 365

Part III Connecting in Real Time

• Chapter 10 Email and Organize with Office 365
• Chapter 11 Talking It Over with Microsoft Lync
• Chapter 12 Designing Your Public Website
• Chapter 13 Integrating All Parts of Office 365

Appendix A Extras for Great Teams

While downloading the ebook, you might also be interested to watch a video presentation from the Microsoft Cloud Infrastructure team. This “Microsoft GFS Datacenter Tour” video will provide a deeper look at how Microsoft uses secure, reliable, scalable and efficient best practices to deliver over 200 cloud services to more than a billion customers and 20 million businesses in over 70 countries.It provides an understanding at how we view our end-to-end cloud strategy from an infrastructure perspective.

Microsoft IT Showcase released new videos on different topics over the past months. These videos explain best practices and experiences from Microsoft IT that give a unique, inside view into how Microsoft plans for, deploys, and manages its own enterprise solutions.

• How Microsoft IT is Moving to the Cloud to Meet and Exceed the Needs of the Business
• How Microsoft IT Deployed Internet Explorer 9 at Microsoft
• Consolidating and Sharing Business Intelligence Reports for Finance
• Microsoft Monitors 12,000 URLs More Efficiently with System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2
• How Microsoft Deployed Windows Phone 7 in the Enterprise
• Microsoft IT Uses File Classification Infrastructure to Help Secure Personally Identifiable Information
• Managing Client Data Backup, Storage and Management at Microsoft
• How Microsoft IT Does Enterprise Architecture 
• Testing Application Compatibility for IE9 at Microsoft 
• Using the Security Development Lifecycle Best Practices at Microsoft
• Supporting Innovation at Microsoft Through Improved Wireless Standards and Practices

The Belgian Information Worker User Group (BIWUG) has announced their next session about SharePoint 2010 on Thursday September 8th 2011 in Huizingen at RealDolmen.

Agenda

18:00-18:30	Welcome
18:30-19:30	SQL Server for SharePoint Geeks (speaker: Thomas Vochten)
19:30-19:45	Break
19:45-20:45	Office 365 - but mainly SharePoint Online - from a technical perspective (speaker: Joris Poelmans)

Location
(map and directions) RealDolmen Industriezone Zenneveld, Vaucampslaan 42, 1654 Huizingen, Belgium

Hat tip: Joris Poelmans