Today’s business mantra is “Go lean and go green.”  

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 is quickly becoming an integral component to IT professionals’ overall IT strategy for their organisations.  Designed to assess, deploy and update servers, clients, and devices across physical, virtual, distributed, and mobile environments, SCCM 2007 offers comprehensive vision and control over an organisation’s IT systems.

A recent case study shows that Palm Beach State College in the US saved over USD$ 500,000 by consolidating their technology with the help of SCCM and desktop optimisation  (full article).  Other companies like Lionbridge, a translation specialist, have developed a private cloud solution where a combination of Hyper-V and SCCM have allowed their existing virtualised environment to be leveraged as they move into the Cloud arena (full article)

With the eco-friendly benefits of virtualisation and cloud strategies already well established in the industry, it’s exciting to see how many of Microsoft’s technologies—such as SCCM 2007—are enabling companies to save money and reduce their carbon footprint all while gaining greater control over their IT environments. 

Before you sign off for now, have a look at these must-have links for any IT professional to stay up-to-date on System Center:

• System Center Official Page (overview, updates and general news)
• System Center Support Team Blog (up-to-date answers and solutions to all your System Center queries)

Last minute holiday shopping got you stressed?  Have you taken a look at the most sought-after toy from Microsoft?  Kinect for Xbox brings games and entertainment to life in extraordinary new ways without using a controller. Imagine controlling movies and music with the wave of a hand or the sound of your voice.

No wonder it's proving to be one of the most popular holiday gift choices for people of all ages.  Are you ready to Kinect?

As 2010 winds down and the winter snow has brought a major slowdown to Irish business in recent days, why not take a few moments to take a proactive step and ensure your business is on the cutting edge of IT security?  As an IT professional, one of your main concerns is to protect your company's computers and systems from security breaches and attacks.

Microsoft helps make your task an easy one by providing a rich source of security notifications which are available via RSS, instant message, mobile device, or email format.  Additionally, Microsoft provides a free monthly Security Notification Service which contains links to security-related software updates in addition to re-released security bulletins.  These bulletins are written with you, the IT professional in mind and go beyond the superficial by providing in-depth technical information.  Get the most recent bulletin now.  Moving forward, get each monthly security bulletin sent to you by registering here.

If you have a specific question or concern in mind that you can't find in the bulletins, try searching the Security Bulletin Search database.  There you will find a search utility which you can use to find the exact information you require.  In addition, the site offers a wealth of information to include security tips, Microsoft product lifecycle information and articles written by Microsoft security experts. 

If you have any further queries related to your IT security, please don't hesitate to contact your TAM or by sending a query to our centralised mailbox at pssirl@microsoft.com.