July 2004 - Posts
The itSMF USA, in their commitment to assisting business and technical managers to achieve IT service management excellence, announced their 4th Annual itSMF USA Conference & Expo 2004. This event is specifically designed to educate management level attendees on how standardized processes and best practices can be systematically applied across the entire range of IT service support and service delivery functions. These include assisting end-users, root cause resolution, managing hardware and software infrastructure, managing changes (planned and unplanned), and effectively managing IT costs.
Microsoft Corporation is once again the premier sponsor of the itSMF USA Conference. We encourage our customers and partners to attend this event. Ron Markezich (MSFT CIO) will be a key note speaker at this event, he will share Microsoft adoption of IT service management principles and the benefits achieved.
Microsoft Corporation has secured a discount for our customers and partners. Our priority code is 55MICRO. For additional information visit the event site www.itsmfevent.com.
MSN Sandbox is the place to play with new MSN technologies, look at prototypes, and peek behind the scenes at some of our new ideas.
Currently includes:
- Lookout Email Search Tool
- MSN Search Technology Preview
- Newsbot
- MSN Toolbar
- And more...
Microsoft IT Showcase gives IT professionals a unique, insider view into Microsoft's process of developing, deploying, and managing its own enterprise solutions. Find technical case studies, white papers, presentations and more, direct from Microsoft IT that highlight key business applications, deployment strategies, early adopter experiences, best practices, and initiatives at Microsoft. By sharing what we've learned with our peers, we help IT professionals make decisions about how best to develop, deploy, and manage Microsoft IT solutions in their own environments.
The Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) (Release Candidate) includes the following enhancements targeted at helping to tighten security, increase reliability, and improve scalability:
- Inventory encryption and client authentication
- Client certificate provisioning
- Configurable communications port
- Watson support for server diagnostics
- Support for a greater number of distribution points to reduce maintenance cost
- More granular control of intersite traffic
- Improved software distribution in multi-site hierarchies
- Folders structures for queries, packages, advertisements, and reports
- Ability to bypass inventory of the Windows directory for each inventory rule
- Client-side performance enhancements for Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)-based inventory
- Critical patch management
The Release Candidate 1 build is now available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/smserver/downloads/2003/sp1beta.asp. To download the SMS 2003 SP1 (Release Candidate), you must first register to participate in the SMS 2003 SP1 open beta program. To register, complete the following steps:
- Go to the BetaPlace Web site.
- Sign in with a Microsoft .NET Passport account. If you don't have a Passport account, you can create one.
- In the Guest ID box, type SMSInvite. The Guest ID is case-sensitive.
- Click the SMS 2003 SP1, DM, OSD and SDK link and follow the instructions to register.
Microsoft® Systems Management Server 2003 Capacity Planner is a tool that helps consultants, SMS administrators, and IT professionals perform scenario analysis on their existing and proposed SMS 2003 hierarchy. The Capacity Planner Tool User Guide describes how to use the Capacity Planner tool. The Capacity Planner tool analyzes the input you provide and suggests SMS site topology configurations and corresponding hardware configurations for site servers and site systems.
Available here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=009e0c30-bded-4b95-a8f9-06037de85c57&displaylang=en
Get ready for the release of MOM 2005 by getting some hands on experience with MOM 2005 labs online:
- Microsoft Operations Manager 2005
- Managing Active Directory with MOM 2005
- Managing Exchange with MOM 2005
- Monitoring SQL Server 2000 with Microsoft Operations Manager 2005
- Planning and Deploying Microsoft Operations Manager 2005
- Administration and Configuration of MOM 2005
- Building and extending MOM using MCF and the SDK Part 1
- Building and extending MOM using MCF and the SDK Part 2
https://microsoft.granitepillar.com/mom2005/
Many of you will know that Microsoft (fiscal) years start in July and end in June. During last year, the Microsoft Services Worldwide Consulting Offerings Group (or just WCOG) has expanded the available set of consulting offerings. These consulting offerings are created to enable Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS) and Microsoft Partners to better address customers’ needs and increase their satisfaction. They are built around various solution areas and include:
- Pre-sales services like briefings and workshops
- Very prescriptive post-sales planning services
- And semi-custom consulting services that may cover complete solution development and implementation.
Our consulting offerings are structured in role-based packs focusing on opportunity management (Sales Pack), proposal development (Proposal Pack), and solution delivery (Delivery Pack). And we include a Training Pack to help understand how to use our content.
Obviously, our solution delivery material is based on the existing authoritative, prescriptive technical guidance that Microsoft publishes on TechNet and patterns & practices.
So what specifically do we bring to the table? We enable MCS and Microsoft (consulting) Partners to sell, propose and deliver consulting services. We do this by incorporating Microsoft’s best practices and technical guidance into the packs described earlier. More information on the consulting offerings we currently have is available on our website.
Now that the New Year has started, I look forward to starting new consulting offerings development projects! We have spent the last few months planning for next year. And as program manager for information security and application development consulting offerings, I feel that I have an exciting year ahead of me.
I look forward to sharing some of my activities in the near future!
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