IT edge

If you missed Microsoft’s live webcast “Transforming IT with Microsoft Private Cloud”, you may want to take the 1 hour and 15 minutes to watch the recorded webcast. Why? Microsoft made several announcement around the Private Cloud and what System Center 2012 brings to the datacenter. They also made some major announcements on System Center licensing changes. (@16:30 minutes – Brad starts talking about licensing changes with System Center 2012.)

I’m really excited about the capabilities this brings businesses for Private Cloud, which is very different that Server Virtualization. Common themes among Private and Public Clouds: Identity Management, Virtualization, Applications, and Management Tools. The discussion was very enlightening around Private Cloud, Public Cloud, Hybrid Cloud models and including non-virtualized servers in Private Cloud management.

Here are some of the comments made by Tech Writers:

• “System Center 2012 has definitely evolved to embrace and empower the private cloud.”
  – Michael Otey’s blog on Windows IT Pro
• Will Microsoft’s simplified and less-expensive management capabilities provide it with another big win? I would think so…”
  – Paul Thurott, Windows IT Pro
• “This strategic shift will most probably solidify its competitiveness and possibly edge it ahead of either VMware or Amazon.”
  – Carole Ditosti, Technorati
• “Microsoft is taking the fight to VMware with a new release candidate of Systems Center 2012 which includes a new pricing structure and eight management tools that run on a unified interface. Ever humble, Microsoft is billing it as the future of private cloud systems …Amy Barzdukas [of STB] told The Register. “It gives customers the capabilities needed to build and deploy private clouds, without paying a V tax.”
  – Iain Thompson, The Register
• “With a new, simplified licensing plan for its System Center 2012, Microsoft is looking to spur the adoption of its private cloud offerings.”
  – Frank Ohlhorst, eWeek
• System Center 2012 delivers on promises to deliver a “major upgrade in terms of application performance visibility …, seamless workflow automation …, state-of-the-art self-serve capabilities and significantly enhanced virtualization management and automation.”
  – Al Gillen and Mary Johnston Turner, IDC
• “These licensing changes are also a shrewd business move on Microsoft’s part that will undoubtedly prove painful for the VMware sales team.”
  – Jeff James, Windows IT Pro

Private Cloud has been driving the need for service providers to track the software resources deployed, and resources consumed to be able to “charge back” the department consuming the services. In organizations with a centralized IT department delivering services to business divisions and departments, there are a couple of scenarios where charge back makes sense:

• IT may have the need to track resource and service usage to justify it’s budget to the organization.
• IT may be moving from an overall cost center for the organization to being a service provider. Departments pay IT for the services consumed and the “service fees” provide the IT departments budget.

Using the Microsoft Private Cloud, IT service organizations can get an Enterprise-grade, Tier-1 private cloud deployed at reasonably low costs (compared to market averages).  System Center along with Microsoft Hyper-V Server deliver these capabilities.

For Chargeback, System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) Self Service Portal (SSP) is the foundation you will need for this capability. There are some built-in solutions for the chargeback scenario in the SSP, which TechTarget outlines in this brief article.Using software from vKernal you can get advanced chargeback reporting and simplify the monitoring and reporting in your Private Cloud.

LiveScribe Smart Pens can now export your handwritten notes and “pen casts”, including audio from your Digital Pen into OneNote, Evernote, Google Apps, Email…. using LiveScribe Connect. You can then sully search the notes and recordings in OneNote. This also means that you can sync these to you SkyDrive account and access them through a browser.

The OneNote team blogged about this a few months ago here (http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-onenote/archive/2011/08/03/livescribe-smartpen-users-can-now-easily-connect-to-onenote.aspx) but I just discovered it.

I pulled my Digital SmartPen out of the drawer (where it has been for 5 months), recharged it and updated it to use LiveScribe Connect. I imported my notes into OneNote and have been organizing them. So far, so good. Note the “best” experience that I would have expected, but it’s a “good enough” experience.

This is something I was told was on the roadmap by LiveScribe over 2 years ago when I purchased my SmartPen. I had actually given up on it, when they finally released the capability. So, time to buy another LiveScribe Notebook.

Windows Intune was updated on October 17, 2011. This release has many new features, including:

• the ability to distribute third-party software
• manage Microsoft and non-Microsoft licenses
• better control of remote PCs
• ease of use enhancement with context-driven menus, improved navigation, and color-coded alerts that you can sort according to your own parameters.

Windows Intune combines Windows cloud services for PC management, endpoint protection, and a Windows 7 upgrade subscription. Using the web-based console, you can manage and secure virtually all your users’ PCs through the cloud. It does require an internet connection and the Windows Intune client installed on each managed PC.

Learn More:

• What’s New in Windows Intune
• Windows Intune at a Glance
• Windows Intune Product Guide
• Deploying Software and Third-Party Updates with Windows Intune
• Getting Started Guide
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Windows Intune Springboard Series
• Calculate your ROI
• Windows Intune Overview Video
• Software Deployment Video
• Software license management Video
• Windows Intune Policy enhancements Video
• Remote Task Video
• Check out the forum
• Sign up for the Windows Intune Newsletter

Sign up for a free 30-day trial!

Ultra Notebooks (thin notebooks) and Slate devices ship without Optical (CD/DVD) Drives. This makes it more challenging to install a new OS from scratch onto one of these devices. Using a larger capacity USB device you can create a Bootable Utility USB Flash Device (UFB). MSDN explains how to do this in these articles:

1. Gather Required Files for a Bootable Utility Disk

2. Gather Optional Files for a Bootable Utility Disk

3. Create a Bootable Utility UFD

The Windows BUILD conference kicked off this week on Tuesday (Nov 13, 2011) with a great Keynote presentation that showed off the Windows 8 Developer Prerelease. Besides showing off the UI, they also discussed hardware, and of course developing Apps and publishing them through the Windows App Store.

On Wednesday (Nov 14, 2011) they Keynote presentation focused on Developing Windows Apps and showed off the Windows Server 8 Server capabilities around Virtualization and Management.

The majority of Breakout sessions from all four days are available (or will be) on the Windows BUILD web site for viewing.

Microsoft made available the bits for the Windows 8 Developer Preview for download and installation. This being a Pre Beta it’s geared toward developers and enthusiasts.

Windows 8 blog, the official blog of the Windows 8 Team, continues to detail ongoing development work with Windows 8. Microsoft also published the the Windows 8 Developer Preview Fact Sheet.

Colleagues have warned of a Technical Support Scams taking place that seem to be targeting end users. Here is a synopsis of how a recent call went, according to a workmate:

Caller: “…the global Internet server is showing your computer is generating 100’s of errors per second.”

User: “Where are you calling from and who are you?”

Caller: “Win Tech Support – supporting XP, Vista and Windows 7”

User: “There is no global Internet server… Are you with Microsoft?”

Caller: “No.”

Caller continues the scam…

User: “What’s my IP address that causing the error?”
(Challenging them to prove they are seeing errors, without providing them any additional information.)

Caller: Hangs up

The scammer will attempt to convince you to provide them credit card information for payment for the “Tech Support” services. I have heard of one person being charged US $300 for the “support call”. The scammers will also try and get remote access to your computer, most likely by pointing you to a web address that has a remote assistance capability. They can then take control of the PC and may be able to view or download files that contain financial or personal information.

If someone contacts you and tries to get payment information or tries and gets you to access a web sites to install something they sent you in E-mail for something that you didn’t initiate, be alert.

More information on the scam:

• http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/windowssecurity/archive/2011/06/16/dealing-with-fake-tech-support-amp-phone-scams.aspx
• http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/383261/microsoft_loss_over_event_viewer_scam/#closeme

VMware has a couple new marketing campaigns and slogans they recently started using. Take a look…

“The Journey to Your Cloud”

“The Power Behind Your Cloud”

This seems really familiar, doesn’t it?…. Oh yeah, that’s where we’ve seen it.

“Journey to the Cloud”  and…

“Cloud Power”

Microsoft ForeFront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) 2010 has new features to protect your corporate users from Web-site based Malware. This is a subscription service that you can purchase through Volume Licensing.

What can really be confusing is entering the License Key for enabling the Malware Inspection service on TMG. I have been asked where do I find the key? It’s not listed in the Microsoft Licensing Portal with all the other product keys, so this causes some confusion. Instead of entering a standard type of product key in this case, you actually enter your Enterprise Agreement or Select Agreement, Enrollment Number in the box it asks fro your key and you enter the expiration date of that Agreement.

The following step-by-step guide shows how to enter the required information to enable the Malware Inspection service in TMG.

1. Open the ForeFront TMG Management Console. Locate the “Web Access Policy” setting.

2. Right-click “Web Access Policy”, choose “Configure”, “Malware Inspection”

3. On the “Malware Inspection” menu, click “License Details” (in the upper right corner).

4. Enter your Select or Enterprise Agreement enrollment number (7 digit number) in the ‘License agreement number’ box. Set the ‘Expiration date’ which is the date that your License Agreement expires, or is up for renewal. Click “Apply” and “OK”.

5. You will be prompted to “Apply” or “Discard” the changes to the configuration. Click “Apply”.

6. A new Window may prompt you to enter a ‘Change description”, complete this and Click “Apply”.

7. The Window will indicate it is ‘Saving Configuration Changes’. Click “OK”.

That’s all there is to it. Now your TMG Server to TMG Array is updated with the required information to enable the Web Inspection services.