Microsoft yesterday rolled out two new betas of System Center products. Designed specifically for mid-size companies, the System Center Essentials 2010 Beta offers a unified IT management experience with a single console for managing your physical and virtual servers, client computers, hardware, software, and IT services. Register for the beta trial here.

The System Center team also released the System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 Beta, the backup and recovery solution which provides continuous data protection of Windows application and file servers to integrated disk, tape, and cloud. Download the DPM 2010 Beta here.

More to come,

Mitch

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The Microsoft Office Communications Server team has released at no additional licensing cost the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 XMPP Gateway, which enables IM and presence communication between Office Communications Server 2007 R2 and select XMPP-based IM and presence providers. The XMPP (eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) Gateway allows Office Communications Server users to communicate with users who use an XMPP-based IM and presence provider such as Google Talk and Jabber.  

Also, as of October 1, 2009, a Public IM Connectivity (PIC) license will no longer be required for Office Communications Server connectivity to AOL public IM networks. In July, this licensing requirement was also removed for connectivity with Windows Live instant messaging users. Customers qualify for federation with AOL if they have Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Standard CAL or active Software Assurance on their current LCS/OCS license. 

Customers who want Yahoo! federation will continue to purchase PIC licenses, but the price of PIC will be reduced by 50%, effective October 1, 2009.

More to come,

Mitch

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Let me guess… you’re thinking it’s time to upgrade from Windows XP or Windows Vista, but there is no budget for the new hardware you’ve come to associate with any operating system migration. Here’s what you do:

First, buzz on over to Daniel Oxley’s Confessions of a Microsoft Consultant blog entry on “Benchmarking Windows 7.” He explains that you can, in fact, compare Windows 7 to Windows XP running on your existing hardware. He points to couple useful guides that you can download: Performance Testing Guide for Windows and, to get your baseline, Benchmarking on Windows XP.

You might need such comparative testing to prove that you are not sacrificing performance for new features and these guides point out some common pitfalls. For instance, you might have noticed that a system might perform better a few days after a new OS is installed, especially when it performs dynamic tuning, and adapts over time to user behavior to increase responsiveness.

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Mitch

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The Windows Phones based on Windows Mobile 6.5 launched today and while the rest of the world is touting the features and functionality for consumers, there are some good reasons for using Windows Phones in business environments. Check out David Tesar’s post on TechNet Edge Windows Phone for IT Pros to learn the key updates for corporate environments and businesses. See how this new generation of Windows Mobile 6.5 devices can help you reduce costs, increase productivity, and better manage, protect and control your mobile devices.

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Mitch

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Microsoft and Red Hat have completed certification of their respective virtualized environments under the cooperative technical support agreement the two companies signed in February. That means both companies have tested, validated, and now will support virtualized environments consisting of Red Hat Enterprise Linux running on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V, and Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2.  Similarly, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 are validated to run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4, using Red Hat’s KVM-based hypervisor.

Microsoft and Red Hat have also selected certain applications that will receive technical support when running on certified server virtualization software. For more on this deal, check out the Virtualization Team Blog.

More to come,

Mitch

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