IT edge

Anyone looking for a comparison of all the Microsoft Office 2010 Editions, has likely discovered they are not easy to find. Microsoft provides two different comparisons, one comparing all of the retail editions, and another comparing all the volume license editions. There are instances when it would be beneficial to compare all the Editions side by side, such as when a small business owner needs to decide between a retail or a volume license (defined as 5 or more licenses) edition.

I have posted a PDF of a side-by-side comparison of all Office 2010 Editions which you can download here.

Remember Microsoft Terra Server from over 10 years ago now? It let you view black and white satellite images seamlessly. You could move around the earth and see things from space. At the time this was cutting edge, and no one else was doing this type of map imaging. At this time I believe MapQuest.com was the big online mapping company, where everyone went to to get driving directions.

Then a couple of years later came along Google and Microsoft Mapping technologies. In the early days you could overlay the map graphics over satellite images to get a better perspective of where things were and what they would look like when you arrived. Microsoft then introduced the Birds Eye view, which allows an overlay of images taken from airplanes flying overhead to give you a 45 degree view of places, instead of the top down satellite view. Shortly afterward, Google introduced Street View which allows you to feel like you are riving down a street. Microsoft soon launched their own Street View capabilities and within the last year added a Bin Map App that will overlay geo-tagged photos and even videos on top of the Street View experience. At the same time they first demoed this they also talked about backpack cams which allowed them to image outdoor locations which could not be driven through such as Seattle Fisherman’s Wharf.

Microsoft Research is still working hard on online mapping technology, introducing Street Slide. This innovation lets you view the building on a street and slide by them while facing them. It also includes a view that will show you addresses numbers and business logos of those you are looking at so you can easily locate an address or business. You can move seamlessly between Street View and Street Slide.  So if you are preparing for a trip to a location you have never seen before, Street Slide will give you a good perspective of what you will see when you get there. No more driving up and down a street looking for an address of a hard to find businesses.

Not sure when this will be integrated into Bing Maps, but with the pace of online mapping innovation I’m sure it will not be too long. More at: http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-street-slide-street-view-will-never-be-the-same

Street Slide Demo

When deploying BranchCache in Distributed Cache Mode (where the clients cache and deliver local content instead of a branch server) the theoretical maximum is 254 clients. Which is the size of a subnet using a 24bit mask. However, the recommendation from the Microsoft Product Group is to use enable it for 50 or fewer users. This recommendation can be found in the TechNEt Library.

The more clients that you enable Distributed BranchCache on the more Cache Discovery Traffic (bandwidth and processing power) is required used to keep the service status and data locations up to date. The service has been tested with around 100 clients, but at this point the Cache Discovery Traffic becomes too high.

At the point where a branch office has over 50 clients, adding a Windows Server 2008 R2 Print Server, and BranchCache Server should be considered. This will reduce WAN traffic and will reduce the Cache Discovery Traffic from the LAN. Also evaluate the other benefits a Windows Server can provide to the Branch Office.

Microsoft released the beta version of Forefront Endpoint Protection (FEP) 2010. FEP builds on System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2, allowing customers to use their existing client management infrastructure to deploy and manage endpoint protection. This deployment method is designed to simplify and improve endpoint protection while greatly reducing infrastructure costs.

The RTM is scheduled for Q4 2010. Download the beta from: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ff182914.aspx

eWeek article on Microsoft Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010 Beta and Essentials: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Microsoft-Security-Essentials-Forefront-Software-Betas-Released-778174/

If you know about Monoprice.com, you know how much money you can save on A/V Cables and electonics accessories. A couple of years ago I bought a Flat Screen TV Wall mount for $40 + Shipping from them, which the same type of bracket at the big box stores at the time was about $150. I also bought a bunch of in-wall cables for my home entertainment system from them at a fraction of the cost compared to the big box stores. The cabled have performed flawlessly, and I recommend Monoprice to everyone that is looking for high quality cables at a great price.

Today I was looking to buy some more items from Monoprice.com and was searching for discount codes online to save a few more dollars. I couldn’t find any codes at all today, but I did figure out how to save some money at Monoprice. It turns out that Monoprice has an Ebay Store at http://stores.ebay.com/monoprice-com. Also, you can get better shipping rates than the Ebay Auction specifies. Here’s what I did to get those discounts.

I found the items I wanted on their Ebay store at a lower price (not all items are a lower price it seems, so compare them) and bought them using Buy Now. You can use PayPal to pay for your items if you want. But even better, Monoprice has their Credit Card Payment system tied to their Ebay Store. All you have to do is go to the link (http://www.monoprice.com/checkout/index.asp) on the payment options page, after you choose the ‘other payment options’ button. You then enter your Ebay user ID and it pulls up the items that you purchased through the Auction. You can then enter your zip code and it will give you shipping options that are different from the Ebay Flat Rate Shipping listed on the Auction. Choose your shipping method and enter your credit card information. Your done.

I bought two inexpensive items this way and ended up saving about $8 (for about a $40 purshase) vs. going directly to their online store. I beleive their return policy is different if you buy using Ebay though, so be sure to check the aution details. But if the items you are buying are ones you know you will not be returning it’s a good way to save some more money at MonoPrice.com.

Microsoft Press is giving away the book Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions (Second Edition) as an E-Book.The second edition book has been updated with the Windows Server 2008 R2 changes. Learn how to plan, implement, and manage Microsoft Virtualization Solutions that range from the data center to the desktop.There are 6 chapters and over 400 pages of reading.

Download the E-Books here in your preferred format (PDF file) (XPS file)

The self-service portal is a fully supported, partner extensible solution built on top of Windows Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V and System Center VMM. It enables you to pool, allocate, and manage resources to offer infrastructure as a service and deliver the foundation for a private cloud platform inside your datacenter. It includes a pre-built, role-based self-service portal for both the datacenter managers and the business unit IT consumers and a dynamic provisioning engine. The portal reduces the time needed to provision infrastructures and their components by offering business unit “on-boarding” , infrastructure request and change management. It also includes detailed guidance on how to implement the portal inside your environment.

Key Features

• Automation and Guidance: To assess, plan and design your private cloud foundation infrastructure
• Customer/business unit on-boarding: Automated workflows to onboard business unit IT departments onto to your virtualized shared resource pool
• Dynamic provisioning engine: To rapidly provision virtualized infrastructure in conjunction with System Center and Hyper-V
• Self-Service portal: To empower consumers of IT to request and provision infrastructure for their apps/services
• Partner Extensibility: Enable partners to expose their unique hardware capabilities through familiar Microsoft scripting technologies while providing variety and flexibility to IT 

Use this Tool to build the foundation for an on-premise cloud infrastructure, enabling you to deliver IT as a service. It’s free and fully-supported by Microsoft. Download System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Servicing Portal 2.0

The new Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 5.0 is now available for download! MAP 5.0 is an agentless tool designed to simplify and streamline the IT infrastructure planning process across multiple scenarios through network-wide automated discovery and assessments. This Solution Accelerator performs an inventory of heterogeneous server environments and provides you with usage information for servers in the Core CAL Suite and SQL Server, SQL Server 2008 discovery and assessment for consolidation, Windows 2000 Server migration assessment, and a readiness assessment for the most widely used Microsoft technologies—now including Office 2010.

MAP Toolkit 5.0 Key Features and Benefits

What’s new with MAP Toolkit 5.0?

• Heterogeneous server environment inventory
• Software usage tracking for Windows Server, SharePoint Server, System Center Configuration Manager, Exchange Server, and SQL Server
• Microsoft Office 2010 readiness assessment
• SQL Server discovery and assessment for consolidation
• Windows 2000 Server migration assessment

Details of the new features:

Heterogeneous Server Environment Inventory: Know what’s in your IT environment. The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit performs a network inventory of IT assets remotely without the use of agents, identifying heterogeneous server environments consisting of Windows Server and Linux operating systems, including those running in a virtual environment. MAP 5.0 also automates the discovery of Linux-powered LAMP stacks.

Software Usage Tracker: Right-size your IT environment with MAP Toolkit 5.0, and simplify your software license management and compliance processes. MAP 5.0’s new usage tracking feature provides consistent software usage reports for key Microsoft server products: Windows Server, SharePoint Server, System Center Configuration Manager, Exchange Server, and SQL Server. Run updated reports whenever you need to accurately assess current software usage and client access history in your environment. This reduces time and administrative costs for managing your server and client access licenses (CALs) and helps you to streamline the management of your software assets.

Microsoft Office 2010 Readiness Assessment: Streamline your migration to Office 2010 with MAP 5.0’s hardware compatibility proposal document. The MAP Toolkit provides readiness details and specifics of your IT infrastructure inventory, including hardware and OS requirements and upgrade recommendations for planning a seamless deployment of Office 2010. The actionable recommendations and assessments presented shorten the time it takes to plan your Office 2010 migration and prepares your IT environment for Office 2010 deployment and migration scenarios.

Database Discovery for SQL Server Consolidation: MAP 5.0’s new database discovery feature gives you the information you need to optimize your database resources and investments. MAP helps you simplify database administration and provides wide-ranging details of databases and server instances—information you can utilize for consolidation. Use the MAP Toolkit’s proposals to better utilize hardware and database resources, reduce administrative costs, and streamline your software licensing needs—all essential for cost-effective IT planning and operations.

Windows 2000 Server Migration Assessment: As support for Windows 2000 Server ends soon, MAP 5.0’s Migration Assessment feature helps you prepare for migration to Windows Server 2008 R2 by assessing the Windows 2000 Server environment and legacy workloads in the form of proposals and reports. The MAP Toolkit’s actionable recommendations help you to understand the potential business impact of maintaining legacy workloads and the benefits of migrating to the robust Windows Server 2008 R2 environment. With migration to Windows Server 2008 R2, you’ll be able to utilize the increased IT flexibility and efficiency from such technologies as Hyper-V and Remote Desktop Services, as well as tap into power-savings features to decrease TCO.

Get MAP Toolkit 5.0

• Download the MAP 5.0 Toolkit.
• TechNet page for MAP 5.0
• Visit the MAP Team blog for more news on the MAP Toolkit and other IT planning Solution Accelerators from Microsoft.

Microsoft is providing free training for Office 2010 products. You can take the courses online or you can download the courses and run them in an offline mode. Access the content at: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/support/training-FX101782702.aspx

The Public Beta for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 is now available. The Service Pack is a collection of updates and hotfixes. While the Service Pack does not add functionality to Windows 7, it does add two new virtualization based features to Windows Server 2008 R2. The new functionality adds Dynamic Memory to Hyper-V, and RemoteFX which enables full 3D graphics to VDI and Terminal Service Sessions.

Once again Microsoft has decided to extend the OEM downgrade rights for Windows XP. Now customers can continue to downgrade to Windows XP (OEM) throughout the Lifecycle of Windows 7. However, Windows XP End-of-Life still remains 2014. So if customers decide to downgrade to XP after the XP End-of-Life, they will not be able to obtain product support and security updates will no longer be released.

The Windows Team has posted more detailed information on the Beta and the Lifecycle policy change on their Blog here: http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2010/07/12/public-beta-now-available-for-windows-7-and-windows-server-2008-r2-service-pack-1.aspx

There is a downgrade rights brief that was updated here:  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/confirmation.aspx?familyId=4f4b3cfd-7f4e-46cb-8117-8275f7683d3f&displayLang=en