September 2009 - The Education Department, Government of Punjab, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Microsoft Pakistan under the company’s “Partners in Learning” global program. This collaboration aims to provide schools, governments and partners with resources, training, expertise and technology blueprints that will help create institutions to better prepare students for life and work in the 21st century. Both parties will work cooperatively to participate in a four-year program from 2009 till 2013.
The program recognizes the value of providing technology to schools and seeks to jointly provide access to and improve use of information and communication technology (ICT) for the support of teaching and learning.
It was decided under the MoU that Microsoft’s and the Education Department’s associates will provide a joint report to Government of Punjab and Microsoft every 90 days. The report will provide an assessment of the purpose, progress and impact of ‘Partners in learning program’ in Punjab, Pakistan.
Michael Robinson, GM Public Sector, Microsoft MEA, flew down to Pakistan to personally thank the Chief Minster and Government of Punjab to select Microsoft as their partner in this massive reform program. Michael articulated that, “Microsoft has always believed that investing in education is the best way to help young people achieve their potential. We are hand in hand in this program with the Education Department, Government of Punjab to ensure that students receive practical education of information technology that can help them get jobs in the market.”
According to the MoU, Microsoft will provide four weeks of internship to 4 students suggested by the Government of Punjab every year through Microsoft’s certified partners in Pakistan.
Sayed Hashish, Director Public Sector, Microsoft North Africa, East Med and Pakistan, stated that, “Over the past few years, technology has become a need in every field. Microsoft, realizing the challenges that institutions in Pakistan face to implement a quality technology program, came up with a very unique plan. We believe that importance of computer literacy cannot be overstated as technology continues to accelerate globally. Hence, this partnership between Government of Punjab and Microsoft is a worthwhile approach and will help the education system here in the long run.”
Kamal Ahmed, Country General Manager, Microsoft Pakistan, while giving his views regarding the partnership remarked that, “We are thrilled to collaborate with the Punjab Government on the project that will build a knowledge economy for Pakistan. We have always believed that by working with Government to create relevant training opportunities and innovating tools for people can help foster social and economic opportunities that change people's lives and transform communities.”
He further added that, “Microsoft aspires to introduce education related solutions which will enable the community of students and educators to realize their potential through the power of technology and to remove the barriers in the effective use of technology”.
Through its unlimited potential commitment, Microsoft is working with governments, intergovernmental organizations, nongovernmental organizations and industry partners in order to meet its first major milestone by 2015, that is, to reach the next 1 billion people who have not yet realized the benefits of technology.
March 31st, 2009 – Karachi Sheraton Hotel
With a theme of “Optimizing Datacenter with System Center Solutions”, Microsoft Pakistan organized a half day event to brief its enterprise customers on System Center line of products. The event was well attended and audience showed great interest in System Center products.
System Center is Microsoft’s solution for Enterprise Management and it offers capabilities including: Desktop Provisioning, Application Provisioning, Security Management, Desired Configuration Management, Asset Management, Data Protection, and Operations Management.
Customers from Financial Sector, Public Sector and Commercial Sector attended the event in large numbers and showed their interested in System Center solutions.
The event started with key note and welcome speech from Microsoft Pakistan’s Enterprise Partner Group Lead, Mr. Tabish Sabah who highlighted how Microsoft is taking initiatives to help customers reduce their IT Infrastructure Management costs in these challenging economic times.
Tabish Sabah & Zafar Ul-Islam addressing the audience.
This was followed by technical presentations by Mr. Zafar Ul Islam (Technology Specialist, Infrastructure & Security) and Ms. Salma Nisar (Technology Specialist, Public Sector) who covered following topics:
- End to End Service Management and Monitoring using System Center
- Managing Assets with System Center Configuration Manager
- Monitoring Servers and Applications with System Center Operations Manager
- Protecting Data with System Center Data Protection Manager
- Service Management with System Center Service Manager
Zafar Ul Islam & Salma Nisar presenting System Center solutions
Several demos on the above solutions were also conducted during the event by Kalsoft’s consultants Syed Zeeshan Ali and Fazal Khan.
Fazal Khan and Syed Zeeshan Ali from Kalsoft doing the demos
The event concluded with Q & A and audience appreciated the efforts of Microsoft Pakistan to provide guidance and awareness through such events.
December 16th Islamabad ; December 18th Karachi
Information Systems Security is a topic which always attract attention of customers and there is a dire need to impart awareness and education on an ongoing basis in this important area. Microsoft Pakistan organized back to back events in Islamabad and Karachi with a theme of “Security Infrastructure Optimization – Building a Trustworthy IT Infrastructure”.
The objective of these half day events was to highlight key challenges and concepts about building trustworthy systems and in the same context promote key Microsoft products. The event started with presentation on Defense in Depth followed by product presentations (and live demos) on Windows Server 2008, Network Access Protection (NAP), Windows Vista, and Forefront Security Suite. The speakers highlighted the importance of an optimized infrastructure in order to achieve the desired objectives of any security initiatives.
Islamabad – audience
Fariha Tahir Shah, Zahra Haider Khan, Taimur Mughal & Fareed Khan
The two events held separately at Islamabad Serena Hotel and Karachi Sheraton Hotel on 16th & 18 December respectively.
Both events attracted good audience who appreciated Microsoft efforts to generate awareness on this important topic and they showed interest in Microsoft Security Products especially Windows Server 2008 NAP and Forefront Security. In all an astounding figure of 100 people and 115 individuals turned up at the event to make it a resounding success. Post-event comments and feedback also highlighted the audience interest in evaluating Microsoft products to improve security in their organizations.
Karachi – audience
Malik Imran in discussion with attendees
The attendees who represented various EPG & SMS&P customers from Karachi and Islamabad including the CIOs, Network and IT Managers and Government representatives were warm and candid in expressing their queries and concerns regarding the threats and to discuss how Microsoft could help them in optimizing their security infrastructure.
Amongst the speakers were; Zafar Ul Islam, Account Technology Specialist, Microsoft Pakistan; Salma Nisar, Technical Account Manager, Microsoft Enterprise Services; and Fareed Mohammed Khan, Engagement Manager, Microsoft Enterprise Services, who were assisted in the demonstrations by partners Kalsoft (Pvt.) Limited & Expert Systems (Pvt.) Limited.
Fareed M. Khan presenting at the event
Zafar Ul Islam presenting at the event
Salma Nisar presenting at the event
The events ended on a positive note and participants were handed out Evaluation CDs of Microsoft Forefront Security software to help them evaluate it in their organization.
Many attendees expressed their desire to evaluate Forefront Security and requested Microsoft to follow-up with them to evaluate it as soon as possible.
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KARACHI, October 13, 2008 – Microsoft initiated another spell of its ongoing virtualization campaign at a ceremony that commenced at Avari Towers and witnessed the presence of Microsoft’s top dignitaries even from across the globe. The aim of the one-day session was to enhance the awareness of Virtualization Technologies within the country and give impetus to its deployment in businesses across the board. The Microsoft 2008 Virtualization Launch Wave Event found decision makers in major Pakistani corporations as its main target.
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Virtualization is the next momentous phenomenon hedged to shape the IT sector. In the current times of resource crunch where businesses align to install cost prohibitive measures, Microsoft provides virtualization solutions which would be a key enabler for companies to optimize their IT investments and implement a flexible and dynamic data centre.
More specifically, the event aimed to introduce three key virtualization technologies i.e. Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2008 and Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) which formulate the core of Microsoft’s current solution offerings in the domain of virtualization for its customers in Pakistan.
The highlight of the day was the presence of Ehtesham Hanif, Director, Core Infrastructure Optimization Business Architecture from Microsoft Corporate Headquarter, Redmond USA. While addressing the dignitaries from various organizations he commented, “This virtualization technology is geared to redefine the traditional business operations. At Microsoft we strive to provide services that enable technology to be the key driver of business growth thereby allowing corporations to realize tangible benefits based on an integrated virtualization approach.”
He further added, “This step comes at an important stage when the country is faced with challenging economic stance, Microsoft under the aegis of its Global Virtualization campaign aims to help Pakistani businesses effectively combat the threats posed under such circumstances”.
Country General Manager Microsoft Pakistan, Kamal Ahmed, addressed the gathering and emphasized the need and benefits of virtualization to Pakistani businesses. He said, “The virtualization tools and solutions aim to enhance the business competencies of a corporation as a whole. This translates as creating win-win solutions for businesses fortifying their on-premise and off-premise IT infrastructure and allows businesses to effectively deal with their resource limitations. The virtualization technology is an investment that enables capacity building and installs a sound IT Infrastructure allowing firms to enjoy a more flexible and synergized business and IT structure”.
The event had five technical sessions, which were delivered by Microsoft’s technology experts (Zafar Ul-Islam, Fareed Khan and Salma Nisar) who drilled downed into features and capabilities of Microsoft Virtualization solution. Kashif Awan from Microsoft Gold partner Kalsoft assisted in the sessions by conducting live demonstrations of Hyper-V, SCVMM, Quick Migration, App-V and TS Remote Apps which generated lot of excitement in the crowd making them stay till the very end of the event
The Virtualization Launch was sponsored by a consortium of sponsors which included HP, KalSoft and Expert Systems.
Khurram Hanif Kalia, President and CEO of KalSoft, a sponsor of the event, commented on the importance of the event and said, “In a time when assuring the integrity of data is so critical for the success of an organization, virtualization offers IT Managers the opportunity to completely secure their intellectual property. Critical processes such as Disaster Recovery, backups and having robust access to information should a crisis arise, are essential to the business continuity of an enterprise”.
Zahid Ahmad Khan, Managing Director, Expert Systems also commented, “Recent advancements across multiple layers of Virtualization have taken the entire industry by storm. Server consolidation is enabling efficient utilization of multi-core processors, significantly saving costs. Virtualization technology has made dynamic scalability practical. Lately, several of our customers have already begun reaping the rewards of this dramatic force-multiplier”
Microsoft’s initiative to harbor greater awareness for virtualization technology is in line with its global efforts for Virtualization Launch in September 2008.
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