Well it had to happen and thanks to Heike Ritter @heikeritter it did.
Simon May and I grabbed some ice, some water and a bucket and got it done.
We nominated some people you might have heard from: Mary Jo Foley (@maryjofoley), Paul Thurrott (@thurrott), Simon Bisson (@sbisson), Mary Branscombe (@marypcbuk), Tom Warren (@tomwarren) and Dina Bass (@dinabass).
Yeah – we might owe some folks a beer next time we see them, but it’s worth it.
I get to talk to some very cool people in my role at Microsoft. I managed to get some time with Vice President of Windows Server and System Center – Brad Anderson. I learned about the concept of how Microsoft goes about planning out it’s releases of software with the concept of Pillars made up of uber-scenarios addressing customer issues – Way cool stuff!
I chat with Brad about the People Centric IT pillar and some of the scenarios and technologies that fall under that Pillar with regards to the preview release of Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2.
Brad has a blog that he’s using to cover these pillars in more depth (providing context) and linking out to all sorts of Engineering blogs who cover more technical details around the technologies supporting these scenarios. This portion of the blog series has two guest posts By Paul Maydield:
The whole blog series can be viewed in his “In The Cloud” blog.
Some of the topics covered in this interview:
It just so happens that I was asked to deliver some of these tips and more to a worldwide gathering of Microsoft Certified Trainers as a segment on their quarterly update online event. I asked my partner in crime Joey Snow to help out and what resulted is a 55 minute video of tips, tricks and story telling that wraps all of this together.
I finally got my hands on a copy of the raw video and spliced it together so I could put it up here. Enjoy!
Joey and I are on the road for some fun Live Q&A with people about Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012. Even though we’re busy and engaging with people – we decided to step it up a notch and record an episode of The EdgeShow while at the hotel.
What’s really cool is this was SHOT with my Nokia 920 phone, resting on my backpack on a chair in the lobby of the hotel in Kansas City. To get better audio, you can see I used my portable Roland R26 recorder on the desk and had to mash up the audio stream from it into the video in post production. All that was done in the hotel room on my laptop while havin’ a pint of Tanker #7 ale.
My team has hosted a number of online “JumpStarts” for Microsoft Learning focused on Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8. In case you missed them – they are live multi-day events streamed online focused on a particular technology and have an interactive Q&A panel where you can get your questions answered. This interaction and Q&A is by far the most fun and valuable – but we’re focused on delivering the content and have help staffing the Q&A forum as it can get backed up with questions.
I was chatting with the MVA team who asked if I would be interested in piloting a live Q&A event with my partner in crime Joey Snow. The twist is: this time the focus IS the live Questions area focusing on getting the ANSWERS out and using Demos to explain the concepts. We’re focusing on Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 (kind of like the Peanut Butter and Jelly “better together” concept) for this round. After talking with Joey and working out more logistical details – We’re all in. It’s going to be 90 minutes of all out Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 Q&A / Demo-pa-looza goodness.
The Date has been set – January 15th, 2013. 8:30 AM – 10 AM PST. Get your full details over at the registration page and get your spot reserved EARLY. It’s a pilot. If we get good registration and great participation during the event – we’ll look at making these a more regular occurrence going forward. This one is the pilot to “test the waters”.
Can’t wait to catch you online !
Greetings!
As the curator of the TechEd Modernizing Your Datacenter foundational session, I have compiled a one stop resource to complementary sessions about the technologies we demonstrated during the event. You can click on the links to view the session details in schedule builder.
If you are coming across this post AFTER TechEd 2012 has come and gone – don’t worry – there are recordings of each of these sessions you should be able to watch online.
Thanks for stopping by – keep coming back if you are a Windows Server 2012 geek like me.
Rick
VIR308 – What’s New in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V
Speaker(s): Jeff Woolsey
Room: Forum on Tue, Jun 26 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
This two-part session overviews the new and updated features for Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, including Multitenancy, High Availability, flexibility infrastructure, and Scale and Density. Over the two sessions, it provides a complete summary of why Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V is the best virtualization platform for server consolidation, key workload support and VDI, as well as the ideal platform for Infrastructure as a Service, including Private Cloud, Hybrid Cloud, and Public Cloud. #TEVIR308
VIR305 – Hyper-V Network Virtualization for Scalable Multi-Tenancy in Windows
Speaker(s): Sandeep Singhal
Room: Hall 2 on Thu, Jun 28 2:45 PM – 4:00 PM
“Any service at any server in any cloud.” Next generation data centers should allow dynamic resource allocation and consolidation across large resource pools. The topological constrains of today’s data center networks limit how services can be assigned to servers. Windows Server 2012 enables you to create an agile, multi-tenant cloud on top of your existing infrastructure by virtualizing the network. Network virtualization decouples server configuration from network configuration to provide a virtual dedicated network to each tenant. This allows seamless migration of workloads, while continuing to provide security isolation between tenants. Partners have the opportunity to become multi-tenancy aware and provide the next generation of services, devices, appliances, both physical and virtual, to augment and complete the Windows offering to build secure, scalable, multi-tenant public and private clouds. #TEVIR305
Speaker(s): Shaun Eagan and Wade Hilmo
Room: Hall 2 on Thu, Jun 28 10:15 AM – 11:30 AM
The session focuses on the new performance, scalability, and security features that are available in IIS 8, including how IIS scales on modern hardware, offers additional security via dynamic rules, and manages the end-user expectations on the age old question, “why does the first request take a long time on IIS?” #TEWSV332
WSV42-HOL – Exploring Application Scale and Management Enhancements in IIS 8
All week in Hands On Labs area
The lab steps through the key SSL investments in next version of IIS. Learn about how to configure SNI (Server Name Indication) and manage the certificate quickly and securely by keeping them in a central location. This lab is particularly relevant for those who manage many secure sites in a server farm.
MGT304 – Cloud? It’s All about the App!
Speaker(s): Maarten Goet
Room: Hall 10A on Wed, Jun 27 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
The applications to empower our businesses are what we should focus on. We should choose the platform to host the application that best meets the needs, whether it’s a public cloud (Windows Azure) or a private cloud (Hyper-V). In this session Maarten Goet, five-year Microsoft System Center MVP, shows how System Center can help you make those choices and provides integrated management for all cloud worlds. He demonstrates Hyper-V with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 and System Center App Controller 2012 with Azure and provides you with a practical approach to embracing the right cloud for your application. #TEMGT304
WSV205 – Windows Server 2012 Overview
Speaker(s): Michael Leworthy
Room: Forum on Tue, Jun 26 2:45 PM – 4:00 PM
Windows Server 2012 brings Microsoft’s experience building and operating public clouds to the server operating system, making it a dynamic, highly available, and cost-effective platform for private clouds and on-premise datacenters. It can take you Beyond Virtualization while offering The Power of Many Servers, and the Simplicity of One. It helps with Every App, Any Cloud, and offers to help Enable the Modern Work Style. Learn what we mean by all that and furthermore, experience this in a number of demos showing exciting new features and scenarios. #TEWSV205
WSV306 – Inside Windows Server 2012 Multi-Server Management Capabilities
Speaker(s): Erin Chapple and Jeffrey Snover
Room: Hall 9C on Tue, Jun 26 4:30 PM – 5:45 PM
Windows Server 2012 will offer excellent total cost of ownership as an integrated platform with comprehensive, multicomputer manageability. Two areas in which Windows Server 2012 improves multicomputer management are Server Manager and Windows PowerShell 3.0. Server Manager in Windows Server 2012 helps you efficiently deploy and manage roles and features on the local server, on remote servers, and on both online and offline virtual hard disks. It also provides a multiserver experience where you can centralize your Windows Server management in a single view, and streamlined your server configuration and deployment from the same window. Windows PowerShell 3.0 provides an extensive platform to help you manage server roles and automate management tasks. With access to over 2300 commandlets (a tenfold increase from the previous version), Windows PowerShell 3.0 offers comprehensive management across your datacenter. This session overviews these subjects in detail and prepares you for enhancing your management capability. #TEWSV306
Speaker(s): Erin Chapple, Mallikarjun Chadalapaka
TechEd NorthAmerica REPLAY
Today, patch management is a required component of any security strategy. In Windows Server 2012, the new Cluster-Aware Updating (CAU) feature delivers Continuous Availability through automated self-updating of failover clusters. In Windows Server 2012, Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) has evolved to become a Server Role with exciting new capabilities. This session introduces CAU with a discussion of its GUI, cmdlets, remote-updating and self-updating capabilities. And then we proceed to highlight the main functionalities of WSUS in Windows Server 2012 including the security enhancements, patch deployment automation, and new Windows PowerShell cmdlets to perform maintenance, manage and deploy updates. #TEWSV322
SIA207 – Windows Server 2012 Dynamic Access Control Overview
Speaker(s): Matthias Wollnik and Rutwick Bhatt
Room: Hall 2 on Wed, Jun 27 2:45 PM – 4:00 PM
This session provides an overview of the new Dynamic Access Control capabilities built into Windows Server 2012 and how it can best be leveraged for Compliance and Data Leakage Prevention to enable Data Governance. Administrators now have greater control over file server data by leveraging Active Directory claims, a more robust ACL model, Active Directory centralized authorization/auditing policy, and data classification. This session provides an overview of the principal Dynamic Access Control scenarios, showcases the data classification toolkit and integrated partner solutions, and provides a foundation for the Dynamic Access Control breakout sessions. #TESIA207
Speaker(s): Matthias Wollnik
Room: Elicium 1 on Wed, Jun 27 5:00 PM – 6:15 PM
How does Dynamic Access Control affect Active Directory Domain Services? Come to this session and find out how it works! This session provides a technical deep-dive on Dynamic Access Control specifically targeted to the AD Administrator. Topics include the mechanics of Active Directory claims, central access policies, new authentication and authorization capabilities, the latest guidance on AD token bloat, and more. #TESIA405
SIA21-HOL – Using Dynamic Access Control to Automatically and Centrally Secure Data in Windows Server 2012
Available all week in Hands On Labs area
In this lab, explore Dynamic Access Control in Windows Server 2012. Learn how to create Central Access Policies, explore the new Access Denied Remediation features, as well as how to utilize the audit capabilities built into Dynamic Access Control.
Just in case you lived under a rock over the last couple of days or so – you might not of known that the Release Candidate of Windows Server 2012 is now available for download. I recorded “The Edge Show” with Joey talking all about it and resources you should check out.
I sat down with Richard Campbell from RunAs Radio podcast during TechDays Toronto to record an episode while waiting for lunch. He hit me up about my session called Diagnosing DNS (Based on the TechEd North America session by Mark Minasi). Some great chit chat and banter back and forth with Richard and I on all things networking and your Active Directory environment.
The conversation dives into the tools you can use to understand what’s happening with DNS on your machine and the common problems that crop up with DNS. It’s a tour back to the fundamentals of networking!
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