Category: Microsoft

This category is for anything Microsoft related-so you’ll probably find that msot posts end up in here!

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Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 Released


Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 has been Released To Manufacturing (RTM’d)!

An evaluation version can be downloaded here.

Zane Adam, Senior Director of Virtualizatio Strategy over at MS Redmond said:

“They are seeing the many cost reduction and management simplification benefits of Hyper-V and the SCVMM 2008 integration with the rest of System Center.   Now that RTM is official, I fully expect the rate of Hyper-V deployments to further accelerate.  Through the SCVMM 2008 console, administrators can see the entirety of their data center infrastructure – physical or virtual. SCVMM 2008 facilitates key functions like P2V (physical to virtual) migration, Intelligent Placement (selecting the best virtual host for a VM), and managing Hyper-V host clusters, to name just a few.  SCVMM 2008 works closely with its siblings – particularly SC Ops Mgr – in identifying consolidation candidates and in Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO), a new feature in which SCVMM 2008 can alert and recommend solutions to administrators about failing virtual machines or hardware.  As I mentioned above, this comprehensive view extends throughout the data center as SCVMM 2008 is capable of seeing and managing VMware ESX infrastructure through Virtual Center.”

The full transcript is here.

This is really great. SCVMM is always an integral part of conversation I have with customers artound Hyper-V and once the new version is available (1st of November 2008) I agree that many projects will start moving and being implemented.

Watch a silverlight demo and see the features yourself.

I saw this via Clive Watson’s blog.

What will SCVMM 2008 do over SCVMM 2008?

Virtual Machine Manager can manage multiple VMWare ESX VirtualCenter licences from one place, something that even VMWare can’t do !VMWare are working on it but it will be just a web console and not as fully featured as Microsoft’s VMM.

Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO) is another key feature that puts VMM over ESX. Matt McSpirit explains it well:

“Take an example of a virtualised Exchange Server.  If a service crashes inside that VM, and that service is an Exchange related service, and that service crash results in a CPU spike.  The VM is still running, but now, it’s consuming more resource, so DRS chooses to move it.  It does the same on it’s new host, so DRS moves it again.  SC Operations Manager would identify the crash as being an Exchange issue, and fix the crash, rather than move the VM, even if that VM is running on a VMware infrastructure”

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Windows 7 Features and Improvements


Windows 7 is set to feature improvements to the following areas: 

  • Migration & Deployment
  • Security Optimization
  • Desktop Management
  • Enterprise Search
  • Desktop Virtualisation
  • Application Virtualisation
  • HelpDesk Optimization
  • Corporate Compliance
  • Branch Office Optimization
  • Remote Access to Corporate Applications
  • Mobility Solutions
  • Green Computing

Some of these are already big topics of interest such as Desktop Virtualization, Mobility, Green IT etc and I think significant improvements to these areas (or in fact any of the above) could well lead to great adoption of Windows 7.

 

A couple of suggestions I made were to include some of the Enterprise CAL functionality from certain products in the WIndows 7 Enterprise SKU. So potentially having Windows 7 Enterprise would give you the Enterprice CAL functionality for OCS for example..

 

I also think that rolling VECD (Centralized Desktops) into either MDOP (Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack) or Windows 7 Enterprise. Let’s see if that happens in the final version 😉

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Microsoft SideSight Project


Microsoft SideSight is a new mobile device research project, aimed at giving touchscreen functionality without needing to touch the screen! The plan is to have a range of sensors around the device which would allow you to click, rotate images, swipe the HTC Touch-Flo interface etc all from up to 10 cm away.

I really like this as I always seem to need to use my phone (HTC Diamond) just as I’m eating crisps, chocolate, chicken etc and thus a frantic hunt for a napkin ensues! This would mean I could still answer it, view some notes or whatever without getting it covered in grease..nice 🙂

I spotted this over at Engadget.

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Windows Search 4.0


Windows Search 4.0 allows Windows to search through text inside Office documents, as well as the file names and is available for download here.

This will be good for me as often the names I give files bear little relation to the content inside so it should be quite a bit easier for me to find things now 🙂

I saw this on Steve Clayton’s blog here.

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Microsoft Windows Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktops (VECD)


Microsoft Windows Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktops (VECD) is a unique way to licence Windows OS on virtual machines (VM’s) as part of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).

The desktop OS (Operating System) images are held on a server and users access them via PC or Thin Clients*. You can have an unlimited number of OS instances on the server, these can be Vista or downgraded to XP, it is licensed by Device and you can have 4 virtual instances per access device at a time.

VECD is priced on a per device per month basis (so 100 users = 1200 units x price) for a minimum of 1 year.

A link to the Microsoft page which includes various datasheets can be found here.

Running Virtual Instances on the desktop is becoming more and more common and, of course, poses it’s own problems when it comes to licensing. You must have a separate OS licence for each VM as well as the OS licence for the physical machine.

If VECD isn’t an option for whatever reason, you can run OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer)/FPP (Full Packaged Product) inside the VM to give you the OS licences. However if your corporate standard is still XP (as it is with many companies) it gets a bit trickier! You won’t find an OEM or FPP copy of XP now so you will have to start with Vista and downgrade to XP:

1) Buy a volume licence for Vista= NO. The Desktop OS volume licence is UPGRADE ONLY and as a VM is a clean machine, yo’re not eligible to install an upgrade.

2) Buy an OEM Vista licence= NO. Although OEM licences of Vista Business/Ultimate give downgrade rights, you’re not eligible for OEM licensing as they’re not being installed on a “new” physical machine.

3) Buy an FPP copy of Vista and enrol it in to Software Assurance (SA)= YES. Enrolling an FPP licence into SA** grants you Downgrade Rights, so you can take Vista down to XP and it’s a full copy so you can install it in a new clean VM.

* PC’s MUST be covered with Software Assurance (SA) to be eligible for VECD.

**You have a time limit to enrol the FPP copies into SA. 90 days for Open Licensing, 30 days for Open Value/Select/Enterprise Agreements.

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Microsoft OCS 2007 R2- More Info


Microsoft OCS 2007 R2, the new version, was recently (14/10/08) announced at VoiceCon. My other posts talk about the features that were expected to be included and can be found here.

BrettJo has got some links with extra info over at his blog, and some of the info from those is below.

The “Communicator Attendant” is a PC Client that adds a whole host of traditional operator features to OCS 2007; it’s advanced features allow you to transfer IM’s (Instant Messages) and/or typed notes along with a phone call <–that’s pretty cool 🙂

Also, ACD Response Group includes a set of workflow and routing rules, IVR and queuing, agent presence, Music on Hold (MOH), and inbound call context.

NoJitter.com also says:

“Other new telephony features include Delegation (assistant/executive support capabilities), Call Monitoring (call records, call voice quality, usage reporting, and ROI analysis), and SIP trunking direct from the OCS 2007 Mediation Server to the ITSP (PSTN and Cellular networks) without need for a premises SBC.”

Video Conferencing sees a number of improvements including VGA as standard with an HD option and one click screen sharing from Office Communicator, with Polycom & Tandberg endpoints being supported.

Dial-in Conferencing (scheduled or ad-hoc bridging) with VOIP or PSTN access is do-able and the Conferencing Attendant enables you to see the call roster, drop callers from the conference and more.

Another new feature that could lead to some really cool things is the ability for developers to add presence information to other MS AND 3rd party applications such as CRM. So if you’re in Finance and you’ve got a question about the latest order on the Jenkins account, you could see the presence of the customer account manager and contact them via chat…still within that application!

The guys over at TechWorld.nlhave got a video which includes an interview with Senior MS Director Eric Swift and a great demo of the new OCS 2007 R2 features:

If anyone can translate the Dutch article over at Techworld that’d be cool 🙂

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New Apple Ads Attack Microsoft


Two new Apple ads are again attacking Microsoft..one for not using the word “Vista” in the latest run of adverts and also for spending money on ads about Vista, instead of using the cash on Vista itself.

The V Word:

The Bean Counter:

I’m not a fan of Apple much at all..I’ve got a couple of iPod’s around but that’s it; I can see why people do like them but Steve et al aren’t my cup of tea. Despite that, these ads are kind of funny and if they were the other way round, that would be the case even more so (!), however as the guys over at Neowin say “is this just a friendly competition, or are they taking it too far?”

Let me know what you think…

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Microsoft Censoring Software


Microsoft have new technology to censor swearing in speech which was awarded patent number 7,437, 290 by the US Patent and Trademark Office on 14/10/08.

The technology changes “undesired words” to unintelligble sounds and can be used in real-time to protect listeners of live broadcasts; this would have been handy for OfCom at Live 8!

I saw this on The Register.

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Windows Vista SP2/Windows Server 2008 SP2


Windows Vista SP2 & Windows Server 2008 SP2. The release dates are un-confirmed but they’re expected to be with us before Windows 7, so end of 2009 at the latest it seems. *UPDATE-it seems liekly it will be the first half of 2009*

The word on the street is that Vista SP2 will include Windows Search 4, VIA 64-bit CPU support, and Bluetooth wireless as well as various application compatibility updates. Engadget point out there will also be the  ability to natively record data on Blu-ray media and Windows Connect Now (WCN) to simplify WiFi configuration. I’ve just seen a few more features that will be part of Vista SP2 that include the ex-FAT file system being enalbed, supporting UTC timestamps to ensure correct file synchronization across time zones and support for ICCD/CCID smart cards.

Windows Search 4.0 will also be part of VIsta SP2 and will feature Group Policy Integration to provide admins control over search parameters.

Windows Server 2008 SP2 is expected to give us various management and performance enhancements with DFS/FRS console and Storage Resource Manager. There will be Print server and spooler performance improvements for printers in Windows Vista and Server 2008 and backwards compatibilty with Terminal Service Licence Keys as well as the inclusion of Hyper-V. Also, improved error reporting in DFSR to help identify incorrectly configured deployments which lead to failed replication.

These are both anticipated with the next 4 weeks.

This info is from NeoWin via Mary Jo Foley.

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Microsoft CHESS-Concurrency Test Tool


Microsoft CHESS is their innovative automated error finding tool for multi-threaded applications. It’s been a Microsoft Research project for 2 years but they’re now set to let people see it at this year’s PDC.

THe MS Research page for CHESS says:

“CHESS is an automated tool for finding errors in multithreaded software by systematic exploration of thread schedules. It finds errors, such as data-races, deadlocks, hangs, and data-corruption induced access violations, that are extremely hard to find with current testing tools. Once CHESS locates an error, it provides a fully repeatable execution of the program leading to the error, thus greatly aiding the debugging process. In addition, CHESS provides a valuable and novel notion of test coverage suitable for multithreaded programs. CHESS can use existing concurrent test cases and is therefore easy to deploy. Both developers and testers should find CHESS useful. The CHESS architecture is described in this technical report.”

I’m not a Developer, but I have done some programming (just a few simple part code generators etc for work as well as a “never saw the light of day” software intranet portal) and I know how annoying errors and bugs can be, especially when you can’t repeat them. I imagine this is even worse when it happens in a huge, multi-threaded application where other people’s time and money are being wasted so CHESS will surely help out a huge amount!

Mary Jo Foley has got extra info here.

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