December 2010 - Posts

• Update Azure Community promotion: over $2,100 going to the community… just for learning and sharing feedback on Window Azure!

  The Azure Community Promotion was launched in mid Dec and allows the user group (UG) community members to grow their skills while giving back to their UG.  It is open to all user groups and user group members in Canada.  At the center of this promotion is skills growth, giving back and trying something new.   If any UG member takes the initiative to trial azure through the introductory special offer or their MSDN subscription benefit then sends us an email which includes, a screenshot of their live application, their usergroup of choice to support, mailing address and with feedback from the experience….. we will donate $25 per trial to that usergroup and send the individual a $25 gift card. (see below for offer details).   There is no limit on how many UG members can participate and everyone that applies for this promotion needs to have done the trial and submitted their validation screenshot to cdnazure@microsoft.com by Dec 31st.  Detailed how to instructions can be found both at Colin Melia’s blog or the videos on Barry Gervin’s and Cory Fowler’s Blog : This offer has only been in market for two weeks with the only promotion being driven by UG leads to their members and the efforts of Objectsharp from our pilot AzureFest event yet from the early numbers… many UG members across Canada are participating!   This is really cool as to date their participation has lead to over $2,100 of community investment!     This means over 80 people have given back to their UG and will get a gift card! This is a great start and given all the benefits we get from our UG, I would love to see us get to over $3,000 by Dec 31st! To me this is level of participation is great to see, especially at a time when everyone is so busy!  It’s also special as it’s an idea that came from the community.  We really need to thank the great work and effort put forward by Barry Gervin, Guy Barrette, Chris Dufor and many other UG leads that have taken a leadership role and worked together on this opportunity.  I hope that this promotion offer is another way to better engage and support you along with helping your community.  If you have any questions or want to share any feedback please feel free to send me an email or give me a call. Happy Holidays and all the best to you and your families! John Oxley Director Technical Evangelism Microsoft Canada | Direct (905) 363- 8589| joxley@microsoft.com | Twitter:joxley Azure Community offer is good only in Canada, limited to members of community usergroups and there is a limit of one gift per person.  This offer is non-transferable and cannot be combined with any other offer.  This offer ends on midnight 31 Dec 2010, and is not redeemable for cash.  In order to qualify for the promotion you must trial azure through the introductory special offer or your own MSDN subscription benefit then send an email to cdnazure@microsoft.com which includes, a screenshot of the live site, your usergroup of choice to support and mailing address. Taxes and azure charges, if any, are the sole responsibility of the recipient.  Any gift returned as non-deliverable will not be re-sent. Please allow  6 - 8 weeks for delivery of your gift and we reserve the right to substitute a gift of equal or greater value. Azure Community Promotion Background: If you are a member of a usergroup (UG) in Canada you already know the value it brings to you: the skills they help you grow and most importantly the connections you make through participation.  The power of the professional network and the UG leaders that selflessly organize the group are a key support pillar in the community and one that we would would love to give you an opportunity to support while growing your skills!   As well, you know the importance for organizations to support the community especially in times of technology disruption and change.  We are at one of those times and the journey to the cloud is an important one.  A journey that everyone should take a step to start growing your skills now to prepare for future opportunities.  It’s not a big step, it’s one you can leverage your current skills…..but learning is about one step at a time.  Taking in account importance of the cloud and how it’s going to play a key role in IT going forward combined with giving back to the community we worked with many UG leads across the country to create the Azure Community Promotion. Posted Tuesday, December 28, 2010 11:42 AM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments

• Security Bulletins for the Regular IT Guy - #25, December 2010

  Our Apologies for having this one published a later then normal. Been on the road, sick and out of town kind of percolated into a perfect storm causing this delay. There are two critical updates that require your attention as a priority. On this episode I am joined by Dana Epp (from ScorpionSoftware)– Enterprise Security MVP who shares some very interesting insight into this last batch of patches for 2010. As mentioned in the podcast – Do You Find Value in this type of Podcast and should we make it a priority to keep on going? We NEED YOUR FEEDBACK! Mail Rick directly  – rick.claus@microsoft.com   Direct Download: Subscribe to the podcast: (so you don't miss an episode)   Disclaimer: This podcast was produced with the best information available to us at the time of recording. Your primary source for all things Security Bulletin related should always be the Microsoft Security Response Center blog. In Depth Webcast on this bulletin Took place on : Wednesday, December 15th – 11:00 AM PDT (UTC -7). (Registration link): Bulletins discussed for December 15th, 2010: MS10-087 - Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2423930) MS10-090 - Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (2416400) MS10-091 - Vulnerabilities in the OpenType Font (OTF) Driver Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2296199) MS10-092 - Vulnerability in Task Scheduler Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (2305420) MS10-093 - Vulnerability in Windows Movie Maker Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2424434) MS10-094 - Vulnerability in Windows Media Encoder Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2447961) MS10-095 - Vulnerability in Microsoft Windows Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2385678) MS10-096 - Vulnerability in Windows Address Book Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2423089) MS10-097 - Insecure Library Loading in Internet Connection Signup Wizard Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2443105) MS10-098 - Vulnerabilities in Windows Kernel-Mode Drivers Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (2436673) MS10-099 - Vulnerability in Routing and Remote Access Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (2440591) MS10-100 - Vulnerability in Consent User Interface Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (2442962) MS10-101 - Vulnerability in Windows Netlogon Service Could Allow Denial of Service (2207559) MS10-102 - Vulnerability in Hyper-V Could Allow Denial of Service (2345316) MS10-103 - Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Publisher Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2292970) MS10-104 - Vulnerability in Microsoft SharePoint Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2455005) MS10-105 - Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Graphics Filters Could Allow for Remote Code Execution (968095) MS10-106 - Vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange Server Could Allow Denial of Service (2407132) Podcast Participants: Rick Claus, Dana Epp Additional Technical Show Notes: Recorded in a vacant conference Hallway at TechDays Calgary.  PodSafe music from PodSafe Music Network @ http://music.podshow.com/. Artist: Derek K Miller, song - “You’re the Big Sky - rock guitar instrumental” IT Pro Team Blog | IT Managers Blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn Posted Thursday, December 16, 2010 9:03 AM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: Security, Rick Claus, Security Bulletins Podcast, Dana Epp

• Cloud for the IT Pro – Give Azure a try

  During my session at TechDays Calgary about Cloud for the IT Pro, I “challenged” the Technical audience to get out there and dip their toe into the Platform As A Service world with Windows Azure. The challenge was quite simple: Sign up for the introductory FREE 25 hr trial Register and complete the provisioning process create a new instance and deploy a sample application to staging browse to the application and take a screenshot to say you’ve completed the process Delete the instance to ensure you don’t incur any additional charges. If you are able to do this – you’ve just experienced the new environment of what it would be like to provision a new web based application running on the Azure platform. You’ve also just proved that Cloud services DOESN’T have to mean that you BYPASS the IT Department – congratulations!  If you attended Calgary TechDays and you send me a copy of the ScreenShot app CLEARLY showing me the URL and your app running (rick.claus@microsoft.com) – I’ll be handing you a prize (you know what it is). If we can’t connect personally to complete the exchange (I’ll be at Coffee and Code from 11am to 5pm on December 16th here in Calgary. It’s at Second Cup, 607 8TH AVENUE SW) – include your mailing address and I will personally write you a thank you note and ship it out to you before the holidays. Now – here’s the help I promised. All the steps I outlined above are documented over on Barry Gervin’s blog. Complete with step by step and video screencasts of the process!!! It should only take you 15 minutes to do from start to finish. Barry and Object Sharp put on an Azure Fest recently in Toronto targeting developers – but hey – all the information covered applies to us IT Pros for setup and configuration of Azure and provisioning instances. You know what – I’ll even link you to a sample application (the packages and config file) for a sample application called NerdDinner. Download it local to you system, extract the files  and use it as the package and config for your application. In the video they reference their own version of the same package – you can use this one. I look forward to seeing your screenshot and satisfied that you’ve taken a step in the right direction to understand how to be PROACTIVE about talking “cloud” in your environment. Keep up the good work! IT Pro Team Blog | IT Managers Blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn Posted Wednesday, December 15, 2010 5:48 PM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: TechDays_ca, Rick Claus, Azure

• Forewarning - A little Holiday Treat on TechNet

  I’m still trying to keep it funny and light hearted for a Friday post. I found about about a special 7 day series of Blog posts happening on TechNet on the “Hey Scripting Guy” blog - it’s a little spin on Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” called “A Powershell Carol”.   It’s going to run from December the 19th to December the 25th inclusive. It’s a fun Holiday series about a Grumpy Network Administrator, called “Ebenezer Script”.  Our dear friend only likes working with vbScript and has become very bitter, mostly due to years of excessive and uncontrollable requests from users.  With the aid of some Scripting Spirits and a little song…… Well you’ll have to read it won’t you? Even if you don’t scripting, it was written to be enjoyed by all types of people, IT Pros and Developers alike. Now it appears the author may have been listening to the Holiday music a little too much as he has released a little tune called “Mr. Script”, a parody of “the Grinch Song” in honour of this little series.  If you recognize that silly off-key version and excessively “Energized” spirit?  It’s none other than Sean Kearney, Powershell MVP (and reformed Friday Funny Guy). He hopes you’ll enjoy the tune and this special set of posts on “Hey Scripting Guy” Happy Holidays everyone! A Powershell Carol–December 19th to December 25th–blogs.TechNet.com/heyscriptingguy IT Pro Team Blog | IT Managers Blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn Posted Friday, December 10, 2010 7:19 AM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: Rick Claus

• TechDays Winnipeg has Wrapped up….

  It’s hard to believe my team started TechDays 2010 in Vancouver WAY BACK in September! This has been one long run from planning over a year ago to delivery wrapping up next week in Calgary. I thought I would share some interesting thoughts and lessons learned along the way. Our team sits down after every event and goes through every evaluation comment for each day from each attendee that submits their evals. We gather up the info to see if there are any immediate adjustments that have to be made AND if there are changes that can be incorporated into future TechDays events still to come OR for next time around. One thing that came up a number of times over the last couple of cities was “give us time to network and decompress at breaks and lunches”. So - Instead of trying to hit you over the head with more tech demos or keynote talks about different things at lunch – we’ve lightened it up AND got out of your way so you can network and chat OR visit the Rogers Collaboration Lounge. Local partners and local speakers matter. We’ve realized that there is great value in connecting you with LOCAL resources both as presenters and partners to turn to for projects. I mean – after TechDays is done and wrapped up in your city – you need to know where you can go locally for hlep or resources, right? We’ve had a number of partners help make TechDays a success – but I have to call out Imaginet here in Winnipeg for pulling out all the stops. They covered speakers for over 10 sessions here in Winnipeg as well as supporting us with speakers on the road. They even took it upon themselves to have an open invitation to all Attendees for an “after-party” at Shanahans across from the venue. Great to see TechDays attendees mixing it up, talking with everyone and trying out the Kinect (Sorry for #clausing it during the Miguel and Bristowe dance off). Something else that’s new is asking for MORE CONTENT and possibly extending this from a two day affair to longer. hummmmm. Sounds like a good idea, but it will end up increasing the costs. Same goes for the constant request for “Free Internet please” – you wouldn’t believe how much this costs, freakin’ outrageous what venues charge in this day and age. Suggestions like these and others that come up get rolled into planning activities which believe it or not are already underway for next year! But by far – the Biggest comment that comes back again and again and again… WHERE CAN I GET THE DECKS AND DOWNLOAD VIDEOS? Good news is that Toronto recordings are for the most part all up there (maybe 5 aren’t due to corruption) and Montreal recordings are on the way. You can get them from the TechDays.CA website after you sign in with your LiveID.  A new option shows up in the top right corner that says “Techdays 2010 Resources”. click on the link to expand the list and get access to the decks, videos AND any associated hands on virtual labs!  For some reason people were still confused on how to get them – in fact an attendee here in Winnipeg decided to put up a Step-by-step blog post on how to get at the goods – go check it out (Thanks Jared!) I’m heading back home on Friday for a brief visit before packing up one last time this year to head out on Sunday to TechDays Calgary! IT Pro Team Blog | IT Managers Blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn Posted Thursday, December 09, 2010 3:04 PM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: TechDays_ca, Rick Claus

• $25.00 for your Usergroup… just for learning and sharing feedback on Window Azure!

  If you are a member of a usergroup (UG) in Canada you already know the value it brings to you: the skills they help you grow and most importantly the connections you make through participation.  The power of the professional network and the UG leaders that selflessly organize the group are a key support pillar in the community and one that we would would love to give you an opportunity to support!   The first way is if you are in Toronto: Attend AzureFest.  We’re working with Objectsharp to put on this community event in Mississauga where everyone that attends will trial Azure.  Then, if they send us a screenshot of the live site along with their usergroup of choice to support with feedback from the experience….that usergroup will get $25 for each trial.  But wait - Toronto is not the center of the universe and yes, the cloud is so important, so we need to find a way include all Canadian usergroups.  As such,  I’m happy to share that we are extending the promotion offer to all usergroups and usergroup members in Canada.  If any usergroup member takes the initiative to trial azure through the introductory special offer or their MSDN subscription benefit then sends us an email which includes, a screenshot of the live site, their usergroup of choice to support and with feedback from the experience….. we will donate $25 per trial to that usergroup.    There is no limit on how many can participate and everyone that applies for this promotion needs to have done the trial and submitted their validation screenshot to cdnazure@microsoft.com by Dec 22nd.  I hope that this promotion offer is another way to better engage and support you along with helping your community.  If you have any questions or want to share any feedback please feel free to send me an email or give me a call. Happy Holidays and all the best to you and your families! John Oxley Director Technical Evangelism Microsoft Canada | Direct (905) 363- 8589| joxley@microsoft.com | Twitter:joxley Posted Thursday, December 09, 2010 1:34 PM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments

• Donate to the Food Bank at TechDays Winnipeg, Get a Free T-Shirt!

  We Microsoft Canada evangelist types love a good cause, and we can’t think of a better cause than feeding people, especially during the holiday season. That’s why we’ve had food drop-off boxes at all TechDays events, including TechDays Winnipeg, which takes place tomorrow and Wednesday. Bring a non-perishable food item to TechDays, and we’ll collect it and give it to Winnipeg Harvest, the local food bank. Better still, we’ll sweeten the deal: if you drop food off at our donation box, we’ll give you the much-in-demand “I Have Standards” IE9 t-shirt! Do some good, and get some swag – that’s a pretty nice deal, isn’t it? This article also appears in Global Nerdy. Posted Monday, December 06, 2010 5:02 PM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: TechDays_ca

• Concerns about Security when considering Cloud technologies

  I’ve been attending CloudCamps that have been hosted in the various TechDays cities (disclaimer: we sponsor the room and AV – events are completely run by CloudCamp organizers) and a very comment topic / thread comes up on issues of Security wen considering adopting Cloud technologies. Outside of the US – the number ONE flag that is thrown down is “The US Patriot Act”. Unfortunately – it is brought up in the wrong context and usually completely misunderstood by most everyone in the room. For more info on what I mean – check out IT World’s July 5th’s article written up by Jennifer Kavur (http://tinyurl/cloudexcuse). I know – I’ve promised to write up a post on this specific topic – but honestly, I wasn’t ready to put pen to paper and will reserve my post until after the last CloudCamp I’m participating in takes place in Calgary on December 13th, 2010. When you get your head around the whole “where the data resides and who has access too it” discussion, you should next focus on Who Can You Trust to provide you services? Ultimately, it is a conversation about outsourcing services (in this case, IT services) to someone else: Have you done your research on their experience, capabilities, track record and ways of handling support issues? Have you read the fine details about the Service Level Agreement you negotiated/accepted/purchased? (this is a big one – don’t treat it like a EULA that you click through) Are they capable of working at large scale to give you the cost savings that were promised? All of these questions need to be explored by you when evaluating your position on the cloud. They are only the starting point. (side note for those of you interested in your career) I’ve been delivering a 65 minute session just on Cloud technologies and how it will affect IT Professionals in Canada. Overwhelmingly I am trying to convey a pretty simple message. It’s up to YOU to "get in front of the ball” and understand how Cloud technologies will help or hinder your business and services you provide. It’s coming at an alarmingly fast rate – way faster then previous waves of technology that affected our lives as IT Professionals.  You had best be in the Proactive conversation mode instead of a nay-sayer reactive mode without facts and content to back up your statements. When I talk about all the offerings Microsoft has in the cloud environment (Azure / SQL Azure with PaaS, Office 365 / BPOS with SaaS, the forthcoming IaaS offering with Azure announced at PDC in September) and our commitment to have the best fit solution for you (On premise, Private cloud, Public Cloud, Hybrid approach) most people are quite shocked at what’s possible (it’s the “you guys do WHAT?” syndrome). We’ve been running global datacenters providing services at scale to hundreds of million users. We’re an active player and contributor in establishing industry standards for the ways Datacenters are designed, operated and managed as well as secured.  We have global teams of people responsible for ensuring we’re running our datacenters in a safe and secure manner for our customers and ourselves. Intro one of my favourite stomping grounds for all things DataCenter related at Microsoft. The Microsoft Global Foundation Services website. It’s your one stop shop for understanding a lot about what goes on with how we run our DataCenters. A great whitepaper came out specifically on the topic of “Information Security Management System for Microsoft Cloud Infrastructure” (rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?).  In a nutshell, it covers how this program is applied to manage our cloud infrastructure providing services to our Software as a Service customers as well as giving an overview of our key certifications (ISO/IEC 27001:2005) an attestations (SAS 70 Type I and II). Remember that trust factor I mentioned above? You’re going to want to ensure your solutions provider has these credentials to back up their claims of being secure and well managed. While you are there – stop over to the Environment tab and check out this study on Cloud Computing and Sustainability: The environmental benefits of Moving to the Cloud. Ultimately most IT Professionals will be working in some form of a Private Cloud or Hybrid cloud in the not too distant future. You can bet there will be mixed Hypervisor’s involved and you’ll want to investigate how to provide YOUR IT Services as a private cloud services with self service portals and on-demand provisioning with management hooks. Luckily we’ve got you covered for some free guidance and resources to get you started down the path in the right direction. Cloud is a comin’. I’ve got my Tilley strapped on, Timmies in hand and I’m ready to go. You comin’? IT Pro Team Blog | IT Managers Blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn Posted Thursday, December 02, 2010 7:15 AM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: Security, Rick Claus, Cloud

• Freaked out about Deployment of Win 7 and where to start?

  My good Friend Jeff Alexander over on the other side of the world down under (he’s THE infrastructure evangelist for Australia) posted up this nifty link and tool. It’s part of the big glob of stuff called Springboard, whenever something cool and useful bubbles up I want to make sure you know about it. It really comes down to “How do I know – what I don’t know?” You test yourself to find your blind spots – that’s how. You can register to take an assessment test on one of a number of modules on which you will be tested with “exam style” questions. Based on your score, you will pass or fail but the MOST VALUABLE piece of this are the specific resources they point you to in order to strengthen your weaknesses. There are 11 modules broken down into 5 categories. Preparing your Deployment Configuring an Image Migration Compatibility Testing Deployment Methods Don’t be put off by the registration process. It’s designed to give you more value by tracking your progress and targeting the correct resources to you after the test. I’ve gone through a couple of the modules – not bad stuff! Take a moment of your time and check it out – GREAT RESOURCE!   IT Pro Team Blog | IT Managers Blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn Posted Wednesday, December 01, 2010 11:07 AM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: Windows 7, Rick Claus, deployment