NEW System Center 2012 CTPs for Windows Server “8” beta

(CTP = Community Technology Preview – which means “earlier than beta”)  Late on Friday the System Center Virtual Machine Manager Blog released a post enthusiastically titled “System Center 2012 CTP for Windows Server ‘8’ Beta support now available!!!”.  It would seem the System Center team is looking for early feedback on running System Center against … Continue reading NEW System Center 2012 CTPs for Windows Server “8” beta

BREAKING NEWS: Windows Server 8 Beta is now AVAILABLE!

Finally!  After the long wait, and expectation growing as the day approached, we are finally able to announce to the world that the Beta of the next version of Windows Server, currently codename: Windows Server “8”, is now available for download. From the download page: Windows Server "8" is the broadest, most scalable and elastic … Continue reading BREAKING NEWS: Windows Server 8 Beta is now AVAILABLE!

Breaking News: Your chance to get a $20 Microsoft Store coupon, and maybe win a laptop!

This is cool.  Microsoft is willing to PAY you to try some software and learn some stuff.  And you could also win a very slick laptop in the process. “Huh?  Seriously?” Well.. in a sense. We’re announcing today an opportunity for a limited (roughly 5,000) number of people to get a $20 coupon for the … Continue reading Breaking News: Your chance to get a $20 Microsoft Store coupon, and maybe win a laptop!

Breaking News: Free IT Camps – “Being What’s Next In IT” – Open for Registration!

Our next set of IT Pro events (“IT Camps”) in the US Central Region have been scheduled and are now officially open for registration!  The events are free, go from 9:00am to 3:00pm, and include some light breakfast and lunch.  But most importantly, they are full of new and useful information that all IT Pros … Continue reading Breaking News: Free IT Camps – “Being What’s Next In IT” – Open for Registration!

How much can virtualization really do? (So many questions. So little time. Part 8.)

In our Saint Louis TechNet Event last week, Kurt asked several questions relating to virtualization and Hyper-V: “Any issues with running SBS, SQL, and application server on same machine?” “How do I set up multiple drives within a virtual server?” “What is the best base core for virtualization? (Enterprise, File Server, etc.)” To your first … Continue reading How much can virtualization really do? (So many questions. So little time. Part 8.)

Impact on PRO when upgrading SCOM and SCVMM to System Center 2012 (So many Questions. So Little Time. Part 4.)

This question was asked by Aubrey M at our Kansas City TechNet Event last week… “If you have PRO enabled between SCOM 2007 R2 and SCVMM, how will that affect the upgrade process for these two systems?” (For those of you who haven’t heard of PRO, check out this resource.) The short answer is that … Continue reading Impact on PRO when upgrading SCOM and SCVMM to System Center 2012 (So many Questions. So Little Time. Part 4.)

BREAKING NEWS: TechNet Subscription Discount!

Those of you who also get the TechNet Flash e-mails already know this… We’ve announced a 15% discount offer for new TechNet Professional Subscriptions.“From now until February 29th, 2012 Microsoft TechNet Flash subscribers will receive a 15% discount on a new Microsoft® TechNet Subscriptions Professional”The discount code to use to get 15% off is TNFLA12The … Continue reading BREAKING NEWS: TechNet Subscription Discount!

Four NEW System Center 2012 Virtual Labs are LIVE

Yes indeed!  Today Microsoft has made 4 new free virtual labs available.  This gives you a great opportunity to try out some of the basic operations of some of the new suite of System Center tools. TechNet Virtual Lab: System Center Operations Manager 2012: Infrastructure and Application Performance Monitoring http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9792430 TechNet Virtual Lab: System Center … Continue reading Four NEW System Center 2012 Virtual Labs are LIVE

Cloud on Your Terms Part 30 of 30: Certification Tips To Get Your Career Ready For The Cloud

It’s the end of the month, and the last of our 30 days of cloudy goodness is here!  In today’s blog post, one of the most genuinely certifiable gentlemen I know, Brian Lewis, points you to some resources to help you get on track for cloud readiness.  And by you, I mean YOU.  You need … Continue reading Cloud on Your Terms Part 30 of 30: Certification Tips To Get Your Career Ready For The Cloud

Cloud on Your Terms Part 27 of 30: Windows Small Business Server (SBS) 2011 Essentials and the Cloud

“Hey Kevin – Is the cloud just for big companies?”Absolutely not.  Certainly some implementations (private clouds, for instance) make more sense in organizations that A) are able to take advantage of delivering IT as a Service for their business units, and B) can justify the kind of datacenter resources to support it.  But small business … Continue reading Cloud on Your Terms Part 27 of 30: Windows Small Business Server (SBS) 2011 Essentials and the Cloud