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November 2011 - Posts
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Something I’d like to start off with this Guest Blog post is the ability to get to know some of the fantastic speakers and partners in the technology space here in Canada. I created / participate in the LinkedIn group called Canadian IT Folks – thought the name was a good fit for this series – one thing lead to another and bang – here ya go. Colin Smith was more then happy to help out with this post on the topic he`s rather passionate about. If you didn’t have a chance to catch his sessions at TechDays – they will be available ONLINE at www.TechDays.ca once we flip the switch to the Online mode.
 Here’s Colin’s Bio and Post.
Colin Smith is an IT professional with over 20 years of experience deploying Microsoft-based solutions for the private and public sector with a focus on desktop and data center management.
Colin has been a consultant, solutions architect, and systems engineer with Microsoft, Statistics Canada, Configuresoft, and is currently the Manager of the Microsoft Consulting Practice at Cistel Technology Inc., a Microsoft Gold Partner in Ottawa, Canada.
 Public cloud providers have been touting the many financial, flexibility, and agility benefits of their offer for quite some time. Many organizations are salivating at the potential to reduce costs and increase efficiency but regulatory, security, and jurisdictional issues are preventing them from taking advantage of the public cloud offerings.
Public clouds are the necessary first wave of cloud services. It is in these large scale environments with thousands of customers and stiff competition that consolidation and maturation will occur and standards (de facto and formal) will emerge. Additionally, toolsets that increase efficiency will be created to help create an edge in the competitive public marketplace. We are seeing the emergence of these tools and technologies right now and they can bring some of the benefits of the public cloud to on premise data centers.
Benefits of Cloud Computing
So what are some of the benefits of Cloud Computing? The following table outlines some of them.
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Benefit
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Description
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Reduced Cost
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Cloud technology is paid incrementally, saving organizations money and shifting Capital costs (CapEx) to operational costs (OpEx)
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Scalability
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IT departments that anticipate a change in load can add and subtract capacity as needed.
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Easy Implementation
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Without the need to purchase hardware, software licences, or implementation services, organizations can react quickly
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Flexibility
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Cloud computing offers increased flexibility because follows a utility model in which service costs are based on consumption.
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More Mobility
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Employees can access information wherever they are, rather than having to remain at their desks.
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Allows IT to Shift Focus
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No longer having to worry about constant server updates and other computing issues, IT organizations will be free to concentrate on innovation that drives business value
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Table 1 – Benefits of Cloud Computing
In the rest of this post I will describe some of the technologies available from Microsoft[1] right now to help your organization realize some of the benefits of the cloud in your on-premise data center. You may even find that you already use many of these tools today and have a private cloud in the closet just waiting to emerge.
Definition of Cloud Computing
First of all, let’s review the five essential characteristics of cloud computing according to the NISTdefinition:
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Characteristic
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Definition
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On-demand self-service
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A consumer can unilaterally provision computing capabilities, such as server time and network storage, as needed automatically without requiring human interaction with each service provider.
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Broad network access
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Capabilities are available over the network and accessed through standard mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneous thin or thick client platforms (e.g., mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and workstations).
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Resource pooling
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The provider’s computing resources are pooled to serve multiple consumers using a multi-tenant model, with different physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according to consumer demand. There is a sense of location independence in that the customer generally has no control or knowledge over the exact location of the provided resources but may be able to specify location at a higher level of abstraction (e.g., country, state, or datacenter). Examples of resources include storage, processing, memory, and network bandwidth.
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Rapid elasticity
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Capabilities can be elastically provisioned and released, in some cases automatically, to scale rapidly outward and inward commensurate with demand. To the consumer, the capabilities available for provisioning often appear to be unlimited and can be appropriated in any quantity at any time.
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Measured service
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Cloud systems automatically control and optimize resource use by leveraging a metering capability at some level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service (e.g., storage, processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts). Resource usage can be monitored, controlled, and reported, providing transparency for both the provider and consumer of the utilized service.
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Table 2 – NIST Definition of Cloud Computing[2]
So how do we provide these five essential characteristics in our on-premise data centers? The following sections illustrate how they can be achieved using existing off the shelf Microsoft products and technologies. In some cases, a product may address more than one characteristic while in other cases, more than one product or technology can be used to address the same issue while achieving slightly different results.
Broad Network Access
Broad network access has been available for a long time. Remote access to an application, platform or infrastructure can be accomplished in many ways including a web browser/server (http(s)) or a remote session using protocols that have been around for over a decade such as RDP, VNC, and RFB. The extension of these types of protocols to mobile devices and the build out of wireless networks has created a computing environment that can easily provide broad network access if it is desirable and appropriate. Microsoft has been providing web browser (IE), web server (IIS) and remote desktop protocols (RDP) for well over a decade.
On-Demand Self Service
System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM or VMM) has a self-service portal that can be used to provide system administrators and developers, (or anybody that has a need) a quick and easy way to request a virtual machine. It can be setup to use quotas based on resource or licence “points” to help manage the impact to infrastructure and can even have VMs that time out after a specified period of time. If templates are used, to configure VMs as they are provisioned (E.g. Windows Server 2008 R2, SP1 x64 with SQL 2008 R2), a fully working environment can be provisioned with no human intervention once a valid request from the self-service portal is received. In case you didn’t know, SCVMM can also be used to help manage VMware hosts.
Resource Pooling
Using SCVMM and clustered Hyper-V hosts, gives you the ability to dynamically move workloads between clustered hosts based on current resource requirements based on Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO) settings . Additionally, SCVMM provides the ability to manage the “fabric” that the VMs share. Although this is not a fabric in the sense that resource nodes can reside on physically separated hosts, this further decouples computing resources from the actual hardware and is move towards a true fabric.
Rapid Elasticity
In a similar fashion to how a VM created from the self-service portal, exceeding a threshold in System Center Operations Manager (SCOM - see the next section for more) or System Center Orchestrator (formerly Opalis) can trigger SCVMM to provision a VM. If the threshold is designed to be predictive, then a VM can be provisioned and left dormant until a second threshold is exceeded at which time the VM is brought online. Of course, a simpler option would be to always have a dormant VM on had but this is a less scalable solution, when dealing with many different server configurations. Additionally, the task sequence tools found in the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) and System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) can be used to automate the provisioning, updating and deployment tasks to the point where it takes less than 10 minutes to provision a server from start to finish.
Measured Service
The ability to measure the resource usage of systems has been around for a long time. There are dozens of products that have been around for decades that measure performance, availability and resource usage. Microsoft has had such a product for over a decade. System Center Operations Manager (SCOM previously known as Microsoft Operations Manager or MOM) can monitor workloads and provide both real-time and historical reports on how resources are consumed by specific users or workloads. While this is not a true bill-back solution, coupled with the SCVMM quota system, it is still a powerful way to measure and control service usage.
Summary
Using currently available products and technologies it is possible to build an on-premise data center solution that meets all of the definitional requirements to be called a cloud service. The table below summarizes the essential characteristics of a cloud from the NIST definition and the corresponding technology or product that can be used to provide it.
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Characteristic
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MS Technology / Product
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Broad Network Access
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RDSH/RDP/HTTP
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On-Demand Self-Service
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Self-service Portal/ SCVMM Templates
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Resource Pooling
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Hyper-V/SCVMM
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Rapid Elasticity
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MDT/SCCM/SCVMM Templates
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Measured Service
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SCOM/SCE
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Table 3 – Cloud enabling Technologies
To take some of these ideas to the next level, you might find it interesting to look at the Dynamic Data Center Toolkit that is intended to help hosting providers build cloud solutions based on Windows Server and Hyper-V.
If you are trying to build efficiencies into your data center using the Microsoft System Center suite of products, you may have already built a private cloud.
[1] Microsoft is not the only vendor offering solutions in this space. I am limiting this post to examples of Microsoft technologies because their wide deployment and familiarity helps to illustrate the point that these technologies are already in place in many data centers and available from a single vendor
[2] NIST Special Publication 800-145 The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing, Peter Mell & Timothy Grance, Computer Security Division, Information Technology Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8930, September 2011, U.S. Department of Commerce 
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Hello folks, Today started very very early, we were leaving the hotel for the conference center a 5:30am… yes, 5:30am. however we had a great view from the hotel window. 
we were onsite at the Montreal Palais des Congres, to put the finishing touches on our Keynote presentation. This morning, we tried something a little different. we put together something a little special. not the usual keynote. We put together a role playing experiment with our stars. Our local Microsoft Regional Director, Guy Barrette, our local developer evangelist Frederic Harper, and Rick Claus our IT pro evangelist. 
We lived through a simulation of a real world IT problems that a lot of enterprises are facing these days. Old ASP.Net applications, obsolete servers, misconceptions about cloud computing to name a few… The formula was very well received by the attendees since it provided real, to the point answers and live demos of the Microsoft Azure capabilities from the IT pro perspective, the developer perspective and the solution architect perspective. TechDays 2011 Montreal is off to a great start. Great attendees, fantastic speakers, awesome content and extraordinary partners. you can see all the pictures as we upload them on our Flickr group. http://www.flickr.com/groups/techdays/pool Cheers!! 
Pierre Roman, MCITP, ITIL | Senior Technical Account Manager | Directeur de Compte Technique Senior
IT Pro blog | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn 
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Salut, La journée a commencé de bonne heure ce matin… 5 :30am. voici la vue de ma chambre… oui oui c’est le matin… 
Nous étions sur place tôt pour donner la touche final à notre présentation principale. Cematin à TechDays 2011 Montréal, nous avons eu la chance de faire une expérience un peu spéciale. Un Jeu de rôle avec en vedette, notre vedette locale, Guy Barrette, notre évangéliste local aupres des développeurs Frederic Harper, et Rick Claus un de nos évangéliste aupres des professionnels en TI. 
Une simulation d’une problématique à laquelle beaucoup d’entreprises font face. Des applications ASP.net des serveurs désuets et une mauvaise perception du « Cloud Computing », oops, de l’infonuagique. (Un terme que j’ai appris ce matin). Une formule bien appreciée des participants et définitivement un très bon survol des capacités de Microsoft Azure. Beaucoup de participants, des présentateurs hors-pair, du contenu de valeur, des partenaires en or…. Un très bon début pour TechDays 2011 Montréal. vous pouvez voir toutes les photos sur notre groupe Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/groups/techdays/pool A +
Pierre Roman, MCITP, ITIL | Senior Technical Account Manager | Directeur de Compte Technique Senior
IT Pro blog | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn 
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Each big conference attendee who’s signed up for conferences is looking for a Keynote. TechDays Montreal is no exception. After batting around a number of ideas over the last while, the team decided that it would be a GREAT idea to find a local superstar and personality who is well versed in Microsoft technologies to present – ALSO who’s a native of Montreal! It’s with great pleasure that we can announce that local expert Guy Barrette has agreed to keynote in Montreal!!! He’s a well known developer personality in Montreal who is very active in the local community and has been doing so for a number of years. He’s been the fearless leader of the .NET Community of Montreal for 15 years running and is a well skilled presenter. He’s currently the Regional Director for the greater region of Montreal and is an MVP in Windows Azure. If that wasn’t enough to keep him busy – he’s a host of the Visual Studio Talk Show as well as expert consultant and architect on all things .NET. But we’re also MIXING THINGS UP a bit. It won’t just be Guy on stage – we’re going to have Myself (Rick) and Frédéric Harper also co-presenting the keynote to get all sorts of perspectives for Developers, Architects AND INFRASTRUCTURE professionals – something for everyone. I don’t want to talk more about it just yet – it would give too much away, so we’ll leave it at that. If you haven’t yet bought your tickets, HURRY UP – it’s next Tuesday! If you can’t be there in person – the Keynote will be streamed live on the TechDays site. Add it to your agenda so you don’t forget! 
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 Chaque conférence qui se respecte a un “keynote”, une présentation principale. TechDays Montréal n’y échappe pas. Après quelques réflexions sur la personne que nous pourrions approcher, une idée s’est imposée comme un incontournable. Pourquoi ne pas trouver une étoile locale, quelqu’un qui est facilement abordable après la présentation et qui connait les enjeux du coin.
C’est donc avec un grand plaisir que je vous annonce que Guy Barrette, bien connut des développeurs à Montréal sera le présentateur principal. Guy est très actif dans la communauté, et ce, depuis plusieurs années. Fearless leader, comme il aime bien dire, de la Communauté .NET de Montréal depuis plus de 15 ans, il est un présentateur d’expérience. En plus d’être MVP (Most Valuable Professionnal) Azure, il est aussi directeur régional (RD – Regional Director) pour la grande région de Montréal. Ce n’est pas tout, Guy anime aussi le Visual Studio Talk Show tout en étant à son compte avec .NET Expertise. On peut donc dire que Guy connait son affaire… Guy, en compagnie de Frederic Harper et moi-même vous parlerons du Cloud Computing du point de vue des architectes, des développeurs et des professionnels des TI (IT Pro). Je ne vous en dis pas plus, car nous voulons garder la surprise entière en ce qui a trait au type de présentations et sur les détails des sujets abordés. Je peux toutefois vous promettre que vous ne le regretterez pas. Si vous n’avez pas encore acheté vos billets, dépêchez-vous! Si vous ne pouvez y être en personne, le keynote sera diffusé en direct sur le site de TechDays. Ajoutez le à votre agenda pour ne pas l’oublier. Un moment à ne pas manquer, soyez des nôtres! 
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Yes – you can have this feeling of accomplishment these two guys are feeling when we took this picture. Do you want to have that feeling of fulfillment and spontaneous celebration like these two dudes? You can get it after you take the leap of faith and attend one of our Hands On Labs at TechDays Montreal in order to know that you have maximized your time and experience at TechDays! As we try to improve upon what we have done in the past in order to make a better experience – we added Hands On Labs to the schedule – denoted with an ILL in the session code. These sessions are delivered by the same experts who are delivering the technical sessions. There is at least one Hands On Lab per content area – focusing on current or soon to be released technologies you can walk away with today. You will have the opportunity to go through one of 9 labs while you are attending the conference. At the start of the session, the instructor / expert will review the different steps, concepts and tasks required to complete the lab. You will then have your turn while they (along with the proctors) can assist you if you have issues. This gives you the most flexible time to complete each lab in the allocated time while understanding all the important concepts. Oh yeah – this is a BRING YOUR OWN COMPUTER/LAPTOP event. There will be instructions on how to connect up to the network and launch each virtual hands on lab using your own computer. Minimal configuration is Windows Vista SP1, wireless network card, Internet Explorer 7 or higher and a resolution minimum of 1280 x 800. We will supply the internet connection for the lab as well as a desk and power connections. There WILL be a LIMITED NUMBER of computers that are setup in the room – first come first served – for those of you who do not have laptops – but their numbers are limited. Note: manuals and instructors are English for the hands on lab. There are bilingual proctors to assist as well as bilingual slides and simultaneous english/french translation services in the room. Here are the different Hands On Labs available: ARCILL201 Introduction to Test Planning with Microsoft Test Manager 2010
In this lab, you will learn how to create and configure a new Test Plan in Microsoft Test Manager 2010. This test plan can be used, for instance, to test the new release of your software. Next, you will learn how to add test suites and existing test cases to a test plan and finally, you will learn how to create a new requirement and add that requirement to your test plan. You will also learn how to create a new test case for the new requirement. CLDILL200 Introduction to Windows Azure
In this hands-on lab, you will explore the basic elements of a Windows Azure service by creating a simple GuestBook application that demonstrates many features of the Windows Azure platform, including web and worker roles, blob storage, table storage, and queues. DATILL301 Bare Metal Business Intelligence Part 2
In this Hands-On Lab you will configure the integration of SQL Server Reporting Services in Sharepoint 2010 by enabling Reporting Services and configuring a Report Library. Next you will configure SharePoint 2010 for PowerPivot and test the PowerPivot Client in Excel 2010. Finally you will configure PerformancePoint and enable a Business Intelligence Center. DATILL402 Bare Metal Mission Critical Part 2
This lab discusses the various options available in SQL Server 2008 R2 database mirroring configurations and demonstrates how to configure and maintain a database mirroring solution. By the end of this lab, you will understand: - The benefits of database mirroring.
- How to configure database mirroring in high-performance mode.
- How to configure database mirroring in high-availability mode.
- How to manage database mirroring configurations
DEVILL301 Building a LightSwitch Control Extension
In this Hands-on Lab you will be walked through the creation of a LightSwitch custom control. This control will be used to display an address in a Silverlight BingMap control. Through this process you will learn the solution structure that is required to create LightSwitch extensions, the various interfaces that should be implemented to make the custom control similar to a native control, and how to package this extension as a VSIX installer. MGTILL305 Getting Started with System Center Orchestrator
The objective of this lab is to provide a basic overview of the Orchestrator architecture and functionality, and an introduction to the process of creating and running runbooks. By the end of this lab you will: - Understand the basic Orchestrator architecture
- Be able to build, test, and monitor simple runbooks
VIRILL300 Getting Started with System Center Virtual Machine Manage 2012
In this lab, you will explore System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2012 Beta. This lab is designed to walk you through a configured VMM infrastructure to help you understand the new concepts, terms, UI elements, and configuration tasks. You will accomplish this by exploring the three key elements: Clouds and Services, Fabrics, and the Library. Clouds and Services are collections of virtual workloads which provide services on slices of infrastructure. The fabric is a collection of hardware based resources including virtualization hosts, storage, and network devices which provide the physical implementation of clouds and services. The library is a collection of predefined objects which are the building blocks for clouds and services VIRILL301 iSCSI Software Target 3.3 - Enabling Hyper-V Storage on Windows Server 2008 R2
This lab will help you learn how Windows Server 2008 R2 provides economical, highly-available storage that can scale to meet any business requirements. The exercises in this lab include: Exercise 1: Managing iSCSI LUNs. In this exercise you will learn how to manage iSCSI LUNs in the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target. You will learn how to manage iSCSI LUNs using the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target console and Windows PowerShell™ cmdlets. Exercise 2: Using iSCSI LUNs with Virtual Machines. In this exercise you will learn how to connect virtual machines to iSCSI LUNs using three different methods. You will use the Microsoft iSCSI Software Initiator to connect to the iSCSI LUNs you created in the previous exercise. Exercise 3: Booting Virtual Machines from iSCSI LUNs. In this exercise you will learn how to boot diskless virtual machines directly from iSCSI LUNs. You will use a network boot program to connect to an iSCSI LUN and initiate the boot process for Windows Server 2008 R2 from the iSCSI LUN. Exercise 4: Deploying a Highly-Available Microsoft iSCSI Software Target. In this exercise you will learn how to make the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target highly-available using Windows Failover Clustering in Windows Server 2008 R2. You will observe how an iSCSI LUN can be accessed continuously without interrupting a script running in the active cluster node. WINILL201 Using SketchFlow for Windows Phone
In this lab you discover principles of good UX design. You also discover how to start and build your prototype using the SketchFlow Template for Windows Phone. Along the way, you find out how to add sample data, and customize the look and feel of your data. You also find out how to add interactivity with objects that you create right in Expression Blend, or that are imported from other sources, such as Adobe Illustrator. I you don’t have the time to try or finish off one of these Hands On Labs – don’t worry. They will ALL be available ONLINE from the Techdays.ca website once it switches over to our new “TechDays Online” site. That being said – the HOL opportunity at Techdays is not one to be missed – you get the experts in the room and the dedicated time to focus on the tasks at hand. 
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Vous aussi vous aimeriez avoir cet effet d’accomplissement que l’on peut voir sur la photo de cet article? D’avoir le goût de célébrer une victoire tels ces deux jeunes hommes? C’est ce bonheur que vous obtiendrez après avoir participé et terminer un laboratoire pratique: le sentiment d’avoir repoussé ses limites et d’avoir profité au maximum de l’expérience TechDays! Toujours dans le but d’offrir une expérience des plus enrichissante, nous avons ajouté cette année des laboratoires pratiques animés par des experts. En effet, TechDays étant une conférence technique qui vise les technologies actuelles, nous avons pensé que d’ajouter des laboratoires serait fort intéressant pour les participants. Vous aurez accès à 9 laboratoires durant les deux jours de la conférence. Au tout début, un instructeur, expert de cette technologie, passera en revue les différentes étapes de ce dernier. Cela vous permettra de voir l’exercice fini et d’y comprendre chaque élément crucial. Par la suite, par vous-même, vous suivrez les différentes étapes d’un manuel en mettant le tout en pratique dans un environnement prêt à cet effet. Pour se faire, veuillez amener votre ordinateur portable. Les instructions pour vous connecter à une machine virtuelle vous seront données sur place. Les configurations minimales requises sont Windows Vista SP1 et Internet Explorer 7 ou plus. Une résolution de 1280 X 800 est préférable pour une expérience agréable. Pour ceux d’entres-vous qui ne possèderait pas d’ordinateur portable ou qui n’ont pas les configurations requises, quelques ordinateurs seront mis à votre disposition. Veuillez notez que nous n’avons pas assez d’ordinateurs pour tous, alors il est très important d’apporter le vôtre si vous en possédez un. Veuillez noter : les manuels et les instructeurs pour les laboratoires pratiques sont en anglais. Les assistants de laboratoire et les diapositives sont bilingue et il y a des services de traduction simultané dans la salle. Voici les différents laboratoires: ARCILL201 - Introduction à la planification de test avec Microsoft Test Manager 2010 Au cours de cet atelier, vous apprendrez à créer et configurer un nouveau plan de test dans Microsoft Test Manager 2010 pour tester la nouvelle version de votre logiciel. Vous découvrirez aussi comment ajouter des suites de test et des cas existants à un plan, en plus de créer de nouvelles exigences pour les ajouter à votre plan de test. Vous apprendrez également à créer un cas pour votre nouvelle exigence. CLDILL200 - Introduction à Windows Azure Cet atelier pratique explore les éléments de base d'un service Windows Azure par la création d'une simple application GuestBook pour démontrer les nombreuses fonctionnalités de la plateforme Windows Azure, y compris les rôles Web et Worker, le stockage en blobs, le stockage de tables et les files d'attente. DATILL301 - Matériel vierge pour intelligence d'affaires Au terme de cet atelier pratique, vous serez en mesure de configurer l'intégration de SQL Server Reporting Services dans Sharepoint 2010 en activant Reporting Services et en configurant une bibliothèque de rapports. Vous pourrez ensuite configurer SharePoint 2010 pour PowerPivot et tester le client PowerPivot dans Excel 2010. Enfin, vous pourrez configurer PerformancePoint et mettre sur pied un centre d'intelligence d'affaires. DATILL402 - Matériel vierge pour activités critiques Cet atelier présente les différentes options de mise en miroir de la base de données SQL Server 2008 R2 et explique comment configurer et maintenir une solution de mise en miroir de base de données. Au terme de cet atelier, vous comprendrez : - Les avantages de la mise en miroir de base de données.
- Comment configurer une mise en miroir de base de données en mode haute performance.
- Comment configurer une mise en miroir de base de données en mode haute disponibilité.
- Comment gérer les configurations de mise en miroir de base de données.
DEVILL301 - Conception d'une extension de contrôle LightSwitch Dans cet atelier pratique, vous serez guidé à travers la création d'une commande LightSwitch personnalisée qui vous sera utile pour afficher une adresse dans une commande BingMap Silverlight. Au cours de ce processus, vous découvrirez la structure de solution requise pour créer des extensions LightSwitch, les différentes interfaces à implanter pour que votre commande personnalisée soit similaire à une commande native ainsi que la façon d'extraire cette extension en tant qu'assistant d'installation VSIX. MGTILL305 - Premiers pas avec System Center Orchestrator L'objectif de ce laboratoire consiste à offrir un aperçu de base à l'architecture et à la fonctionnalité d'Orchestrator tout en présentant le processus de création et de fonctionnement des livres d'exécution. Au terme de ce laboratoire, vous serez en mesure de : - Comprendre l'architecture de base d'Orchestrator
- Construire, tester et surveiller de simples livres d'exécution
VIRILL300 - Premiers pas avec System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Au cours de cet atelier, vous explorerez la version bêta de System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2012. Ce laboratoire est conçu pour vous guider à travers une infrastructure VMM configurée pour vous aider à comprendre les nouveaux concepts, termes, éléments UI et tâches de configuration.
Pour ce faire, vous découvrirez trois éléments clés : nuage et services, Fabric et bibliothèque. L'élément nuage et services est une collection de charges de travail virtuelles offrant des services sur des tranches de l'infrastructure. Fabric est une gamme de ressources matérielles comprenant des hôtes de virtualisation ainsi que des appareils de stockage et de réseau pour l'implantation physique du nuage et des services associés. La bibliothèque regroupe des objets prédéfinis servant de fondements au nuage et aux services associés. VIRILL301 - iSCSI Software Target 3.3 – Activer le stockage Hyper-V sur Windows Server 2008 R2 Cet atelier vous aidera à constater comment Windows Server 2008 R2 offre une solution de stockage abordable et hautement disponible pouvant répondre aux exigences de toutes les entreprises. Cet atelier comprend les exercices suivants : - Exercice 1 : Gestion de LUN iSCSI. Cet exercice vous apprendra à gérer des LUN iSCSI dans Microsoft iSCSI Software Target. Vous serez en mesure de gérer des LUN iSCSI au moyen de la console Microsoft iSCSI Software Target et de cmdlets Windows PowerShellMC.
- Exercice 2 : Utilisation de LUN iSCSI avec des machines virtuelles. Au cours de cet exercice, vous apprendrez à connecter des machines virtuelles à des LUN iSCSI de trois façons différentes. Grâce à Microsoft iSCSI Software Initiator, vous connecterez les LUN iSCSI créés lors de l'exercice précédent.
- Exercice 3 : Exécution de machines virtuelles à partir de LUN iSCSI. Au cours de cet exercice, vous apprendrez comment exécuter des machines virtuelles sans disque à même des LUN iSCSI. À l'aide d'un programme d'exécution en réseau, vous vous connecterez à un LUN iSCSI et lancerez le processus d'exécution pour Windows Server 2008 R2 à partir du LUN iSCSI.
- Exercice 4 : Déploiement de Microsoft iSCSI Software Target. Au terme de cet exercice, vous serez en mesure d'accroître grandement la disponibilité de Microsoft iSCSI Software Target à l'aide de l'outil Windows Failover Clustering de Windows Server 2008 R2. Vous découvrirez comment accéder à un LUN iSCSI de façon continue sans interrompre de script dans le nœud actif d'un cluster.
WINILL201 - Utiliser SketchFlow pour Windows Phone Durant cet atelier, vous découvrirez les principes d'une bonne conception UX. Vous apprendrez aussi à construire votre prototype à l'aide d'un modèle SketchFlow pour Windows Phone. En cours de route, vous verrez comment ajouter des échantillons d'information et personnaliser l'apparence et le style de vos données. Vous découvrirez également comment ajouter de l'interactivité au moyen d'objets créés à même Expression Blend ou importés à partir d'autres sources telles qu'Adobe Illustrator. Si jamais vous n’avez pas le temps de participer à un ou plusieurs laboratoires, ne vous en faites pas, ils seront disponibles en lignes. Toutefois, utilisez ce moment privilégié pour mettre vos nouvelles connaissances en pratique, car vous aurez accès à un instructeur et des experts du milieu pour vous aider. Prenez note des laboratoires dans l’horaire et venez faire un tour pour mettre vos connaissances à l’œuvre. 
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After having the pleasure of talking about technology and connecting with people in Toronto and Vancouver – it’s now Montreal’s turn. Techdays Montreal is coming quickly and the whole team is giving 200% effort to finish things up with a Bang. This year – lots of diverse sessions are on hand to choose from. If you are interested in Agile, Cloud Computing, Application Testing with Visual Studio, HTML5 or Mobility and consumerization of IT – everything is here for you. Yes – there are even 3 tracks dedicated to Infrastructure, Virtualization, management and client deployment – it’s not just for Devs. You can now access the PDF version of the schedule – or download this iCal format schedule for all the sessions in Montreal. I don’t know about you – but when I attend conferences like TechDays – there are normally multiple sessions at the same time that I am interested in attending. I need to make a personal schedule. There is an online schedule builder you can use that you can create your own schedule – or you can use the iCal schedule and delete what doesn’t interest you. Take some time to browse around and read the full abstract of each sessions that is in conflict to make the right choices. Once at TechDays – you are free to move about and switch on the fly – but it’s always good to know your options. Don’t forget – you are encouraged to explore the partner fair, connect with attendees and local experts – it’s also about networking, not just the content. We’ve made up a cool conference with local speakers from Montreal as well as experts from across the country. TechDays Montreal will be quite the event. We’ll see you next week! 
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Après avoir eu le plaisir de discuter technologies avec les gens de Toronto et de Vancouver, c’est maintenant le tour d’aller à Montréal. TechDays Montréal arrive à grands pas et toute l’équipe donne son 200% pour finaliser le tout, question de vous donner une expérience plus qu’intéressante. Cette année encore plusieurs sujets de l’heure sont au menu. Que l’on s’intéresse à l’agilité, à l’infonuagique (Cloud Computing), aux tests avec Visual Studio, à HTML5 ou à la mobilité, tout y est. Nous avons du contenu pour plaire à tous, que vous soyez développeur ou IT Pro. Vous pouvez, dès maintenant, consulter l’horaire complet (fichier PDF) ou meme télécharger un copie au format .iCal. Je ne sais pas pour vous, mais lorsque j’assiste à des conférences tel TechDays et qu’il y a plusieurs sessions en même temps, il y a tellement de possibilités qui m’intéressent, que je me fais moi-même un horaire personnalisé. Pour ce faire, nous vous avons facilité la vie en mettant en ligne une application vous permettant de construire en quelques cliques, votre horaire personnalisé. Profitez-en pour lire la description des sessions et choisir celle qui vous intéresse le plus. Une fois à TechDays, vous serez emporté par le flot des présentations, des questions, des discussions avec les experts et avec vos pairs. C’est donc le bon moment de prendre quelques minutes pour regarder le tout et maximiser votre expérience à TechDays. On vous a concocté un horaire fort intéressant avec les experts de Montréal, mais aussi d’ailleurs. TechDays Montréal sera tout un évènement. On se voit la semaine prochaine! 
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{ This article also appears on The Regular IT Guy } 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! 
Regular IT Guy blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn Check out my about.me profile! 
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 I’ve been a little spoiled with the weather while out and about getting ready for and helping deliver Techdays. It was Sunny, warm and quite nice – except for the departure day, little more rain and cold. Central Ontario was getting a nice warm spell as well – can’t complain for November weather for sure. On the closing evening, after the boxes were packed, the truck loaded and celebratory drinks were hoisted – Damir reminded me that I’m heading to Saskatoon for the first time and he hoped I had brought a warm Jacket.
Nope. I forgot to check the weather forecast. Oh well – can’t be that cold YET – it’s still mid November, right? I took the train up to the airport, boarded a flight to Calgary, then to Saskatoon. I was heading out to the local Infrastructure User Group to talk about Virtualization skills, iSCSI and how to create Clustered Shared Volumes. The decent down was a little rough and when they cracked the door – a “cool breeze” entered the plane. 
I am sure I could hear Daniel and Kevin were laughing when I tweeted the photo of my first de-icer of the season outside the window of the gangway. None the less – I clutched my coat a little tighter around me as I made my way to the UserGroup meeting that night. After the meeting I was approached by a member who wanted said: “Rick – thanks for coming out. I wanted to ask if you could elaborate on HOW TO GET STARTED with certification”. I mentioned certification and it’s importance to have as a measure of competence in certain technologies. Experience is definitely valid and equally important, but the proof to the pudin’ is a measure of the skills you possess. he continued to explain he’d been out to research how to get started – but was a little overwhelmed with all the information and just wanted to get started down the path with a little bit of guidance. My suggestion to him, and to everyone here is to start of by choosing a technology that you are interested in and have a passion for. I’m a core services and infrastructure kind of guy – I’ve done Exchange / Sharepoint / System Center (since before it was called system center) but I always seem to come back to core infrastructure as my center. Once you’ve identified your target – start by heading down to www.microsoft.com/learning to see what options are for certification that align to your center. Then it’s a matter of making some choices with HOW you plan on attacking this certification piece. I’ve got a friend over on the Developer side of our team (Susan Ibach) who has agreed to pass on along a series of posts on HOW to study for certification exams – that’s going to be coming up next week. Before you even jump down that way – I have some suggestions on priming the pump. - Get the software. You NEED hands on experience and a study / eval LAB setup to do stuff and use the products. A Microsoft TechNet subscription is a fantastic resource to get this setup and it’s a very affordable way to get access to all the software – but you can get what you need FOR FREE from our Evaluation Center. Everything you need is at www.microsoft.ca/evalcenter. It has eval copies of Win7, Server 2008 R2, SystemCenter and more. Go Get Them and plan out a mini lab.
- Get some orientation on topics from our FREE ONLINE TRAINING site called www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com – Sign Up – IT’S FREE. Consumable 20 minute chunks of courses organized into modules. It’s not certification practice tests – but it’s a starting point to see what areas interest you and gives you a certain measure you can use to validate where you need to spend some more time gaining that experience and knowledge.
- Get involved with UserGroups / local Community. In each city where I’ve spoken over the last couple of months – there is interest in organizing a local study group of people who want to pass certification exams. Mostly the one I’ve been speaking about – 70-659 - If you’re of this mindset and a study group is of interest – but you are looking for more support – email me (rick.claus@microsoft.com) and I will do my damned-nest (is that even a word?) to connect you with others locally OR heck – maybe we should just make a big A** national study group if enough people are interested. Virtualization is a hot topic these days and even if you already have certifications from other vendors – one that includes Hyper-V is definitely worthwhile to complement your certifications in a multi-hypervisor world.
I’ve got some more resources to post here over the next little while to help you down this path… I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on the virtual national study group. What do you think… Are you game for it? 
Regular IT Guy blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn Check out my about.me profile! 
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One of the things that goes on while we’re in town for TechDays are “extra” events that are generally open for all to attend free of charge. I mean we have all these speakers from all sorts of backgrounds, passions and technology expertise focus areas – why not “share the love” with local community events. Cloud Camps are usually the day before – great format – something we started last year and continued this year.   Make Web Not War event is the evening of the first day – lots of local stories from the community and cool stuff going on in the startup world.  
During breakfasts and lunches – we partnered with Can WIT – Women In Technology to have roundtables and conversations. You never know who might show up – including MaryJo Foley.   
We kicked off our west coast swing of a new format for IT / Infrastructure professionals modeled off of the *Camp format. IT Camp was well attended and had plenty of demos and fun stuff going on – including me trying to co-build a cluster from scratch in 15 minutes.  
It can make your days a little long – being at the venue from 7 am until 9 or so at night – but honestly – these extra events are the ones I find myself having a lot of fun both Attending AND helping organize/put on. 
The Cluster was eventually completed – but it took a little longer then expected. All these events / activities are going on in Montreal – sign up and register – they are free to attend. 
Regular IT Guy blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn Check out my about.me profile! 
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| Hello folks, This is my compilation of some of the online resource available to you in December. This list featuring both live and on-demand content for December including webcasts, videos, virtual labs, and podcasts by product and topic. this is not the WHOLE list of the available content. but these are the ones i thought were relevant to the conversations I've had with customers and IT pros. Microsoft webcasts are 30-90 minutes in length and feature interactive presentations, product demonstrations, and question-and-answer sessions. Virtual labs give you an opportunity to test drive Microsoft’s newest products in an online environment. It's simple—no complex setup or installation is required. Stream or download audio podcasts and quickly access content with RSS feeds. Microsoft podcasts are free — just click and Learn! You can View all the podcasts for IT professionals here. (http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9637723.) Or visit the Interactive IT Professional Webcast Calendar. | | LIVE WEBCASTS TechNet Webcast: A Tale of Two Clouds: The Microsoft Hybrid Cloud Solution (Level 200)
Thursday, December 01, 2011 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time
https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032499457&Culture=en-US TechNet Webcast: Security Talk Series: Toward Privacy by Design, the Microsoft Experience (Level 200)
Wednesday, December 07, 2011 - 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific Time
https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032499496&Culture=en-US TechNet Webcast: How Microsoft IT Used the Microsoft Services Risk and Health Assessment Program for Windows Desktop (WDRAP) to Improve System Performance (Level 300)
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 - 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time
https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032495810&Culture=en-US Microsoft Office System Webcast: Microsoft Office Tips and Tricks: Create Presentations that Pop with PowerPoint 2010 (Level 200)
Wednesday, December 14, 2011 9:00 AM Pacific Time
https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-US&EventId=1032495043 Microsoft Office System Webcast: Microsoft Office Tips and Tricks: Do More with Data in Excel 2010 (Level 200)
Wednesday, December 14, 2011 11:00 AM Pacific Time
https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-US&EventId=1032495046 TechNet Webcast: Information about Microsoft Security Bulletins for December (Level 200)
Wednesday, December 14, 2011 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time
https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032487961&Culture=en-US TechNet Webcast: Live! IT Time: Private Cloud Chat (Episode 2) (Level 200)
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 - 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific Time
https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032496987&Culture=en-US Highly Rated On-Demand Webcasts: TechNet Webcast: Your Three Winning Numbers of Cloud Computing TechNet Webcast: Live! IT Time: Private Cloud Chat (Episode 1) TechNet Webcast: How Microsoft IT Deploys System Center Configuration Manager 2012 Popular Virtual Labs: TechNet Virtual Lab: Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM) 4 TechNet Virtual Lab: Managing a Domain Environment More Effectively New Videos: TechNet Video: How to Build a Private Cloud (Part 1) Downloading and Building the Virtual Machines TechNet Video: How to Build a Private Cloud (Part 2): Installing System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 RC TechNet Video: How to Build a Private Cloud (Part 3): Configuring System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 RC New Podcasts: TechNet Radio: IT Time–Top 10 Things to Avoid in Windows Serve 2008 R2 WMA | MP3 | WMV TechNet Radio: Microsoft Virtual Academy - System Center 2012 and the Private Cloud Course Preview WMA | MP3 | WMV TechNet Radio: Storage Best Practices with Exchange Server 2010 WMA | MP3 | WMV TechNet Radio Community Corner: Virtualization with Microsoft MVP Anil Desai WMA | MP3 | WMV Please let me know if this is something you find valuable. or if there is something specific you’re looking for. Like i said last month, I’ll try to religiously update this post every month so you have a way to easily find and take advantage of resources to continue your learnings. As always, please contact me should you have any comments or questions. Cheers! 
Pierre Roman, MCITP, ITIL | Senior Technical Account Manager | Directeur de Compte Technique Senior
IT Pro blog | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn 
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WOW oh Wow. it has been a fun ride here in Vancouver – and the first day is only half over! Since I last checked in – we’ve had a speaker dinner and CloudCamp. Had the Microsoft Showcase and Partner Fair setup An AWESOME keynote by Scott Hanselman. Took a networking break with all the Attendees before sessions started. Even took the time to record an online TechTalk episode with MaryJo Foley! Busy times – lots of fun. I have to get ready for my session – Gotta run! 
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The event known as TechDays takes quite a bit of pre-planning and setup in order to pull off successfully. A good chunk of the team come in early in order to ensure things go smoothly. I snapped a quick shot of my carryon gear in a previous post – I thought I’d carry on with some more setup day stories and photos to fill in some more background info.  
Damir and I ended up arriving close to the same flight on Sunday evening. I was enjoying my Starbucks Vanilla Late as I snapped this photo of Damir waiting for his luggage. He wasn’t impressed as he had to reshuffle machines and hardware between all the bags in order to get them under the weight limit – one of the perils of traveling with hardware. The next day at the venue for the all hands call – I noticed Frederic Harpers cool Camera sling that he has for his Nikon Rig. I have to get me one of these as a much better replacement to the stock strap that comes with our Nikon Gear. You’ll notice most of us with Nikon cameras throughout the two day event and snapping shots to upload to Flickr. If you want to join in – we have an open group called TechDays Canada – just join the group and tag your photos with TechDays_CA  
Setup is done by a variety of people, vendors and team mates on the Evangelism team. You can see some of the laid out booth plans for the Microsoft Partner Showcase. If you are into some hands on – two of the partners have larger booths this time around – Dell and Samsung stuff was being unpacked when I was walking around.   
Last but not least – it’s the People Power that get this event up and off the ground. The people that run Registration and staff the doors and areas wearing blue scarves are here to help get you going in the right direction. They were getting their orientation earlier today and the walkabout. 
And Our Team – yup – we’re ensuring systems are in their places and things are A-OK for tomorrow. PowerPoint Machines, demo showcase and more – lots of hardware that we dive into to ensure things are working. It’s an adjustment to keep a handle on everything – we’re all up for the task… 
Some might take some more time then others. 
Give @tommyLee a big Canadian “How’s she goin’ eh?” when you see him - it’s his FIRST TechDays. 
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As I was packing up this afternoon – I decided to snap a photo of what was mostly going into my Carry On Bag. Have a look – can you identify everything that an Evangelist brings along with him on a trip out to Vancouver TechDays and a User group in Saskatoon? 
- Dell XT2 tablet – my corporate machine
- XT2-XFR Tablet – Same spec as corporate machine, but ruggedized (because sometimes I need some extra help). This is backup system for the HP as my 2 node cluster demo box.
- Polycom CX100 USB SpeakerPhone – still have concalls to make and attend while on the road.
- Bose QuietComfort 3 headphones. I spoiled myself for a birthday once. Unbelievable headphones for travel with active noise cancelation.
- M-Audio MicroTrack II Podcast recorder – Always carry it! never know when you want to record a podcast on the road.
- Microsoft BlueTracker mouse – need a blue tracker to work on desk surfaces that are glass (like most hotel desks).
- Gears Of War III – hey – I gotta have fun in the xBox area in the Microsoft Showcase after setup is complete, right?
- Eye-Fi 8Gb SD card – New thing I picked up to help speed up the process of transferring and uploading photos to the Flickr TechDays_ca photo pool.
- Charger for Li Battery for the Nikon D90 workhorse camera.
- Nikon D90 with “the bazooka” lens. (70-200 F2.8) Absolutely the Killer lens for this camera for “no flash” indoor candid conference shots. Nikon Canada was nice enough to loan the team this kit – it works GREAT! Come see me to check it out.
- Dell Precision M6500 a.k.a. Dellasaurus. My main bread and butter demo system that is node 1 in my 2 node cluster for Hyper V. Quad core CPU, 16 GB ram, dual HD – one 7200RPM HD, other 250GB SSD. wicked system and I love the colour.
- Domo “stuffy” that my daughters gave me. He’s the Geek version with glasses and bow tie.
- CradlePoint portable hotspot. Love it for impromptu internet HotSpot via cable plug in OR USB based internet stick.
- Bell internet stick – for the aforementioned Cradlepoint hotspot OR going solo on my laptop.
- Samsung Focus – my Smartphone of choice – running Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) of course. sick phone
- WD USB 3.0 500 GB drive. Backup of all the VMs I use on my 2 node cluster demo hardware.
- HP EliteBook laptop – Node 2 of the two node Cluster.
- Belkin USB powered 2 node KVM switch. Godsend for presentations on the go – awesome and simple for switching between two systems.
Monday is setup day and logistics as well as Cloud Camp. 
Regular IT Guy blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn Check out my about.me profile! 
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In case it got missed in the communications to you about TechDays Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal – there is a new component available to continue your learnings on site and after the event takes place. You Asked for it… We Provided it!!! Instructor Lead Labs. My freakin AWESOME colleague Susan Ibach is running (quite literally) the onsite Instructor Lead Labs which span ALL the content areas throughout the day. How do you know what they are? Check the schedule and look for session codes that contain ILL in them. Day 1 has the following LABS scheduled. 
Day 2 has the following labs scheduled 
What do you need to know? BRING YOUR OWN LAPTOP. There will be power and internet access FOR THE PURPOSE of the lab. If you don’t have a laptop to bring or can’t – you are welcome to come and shoulder surf. There are some laptop systems that will be able to be used – but they will be on a first come first served basis. Check out what Susan has to say about the experience of setting them up and running them in Toronto. I’ll be helping Proctor VIRILL300 (getting started with SCVMM2012) and VIRILL301 (ISCSI). Maybe I’ll see you in there! 
Regular IT Guy blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn Check out my about.me profile! 
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With just under a week to go before TechDays Vancouver, I know that the team here is going through all our prep lists to make sure that we have everything to ensure an amazing experience for you. While we’re doing that, you can get started on your TechDays prep with this “everything I need for TechDays” prep list – Vancouver Edition! There’s lots to do and so this post is a bit of a long read, but it will be worth it, for sure! If you can’t make it out to TechDays Vancouver, but you live in and around the Vancouver area, don’t go anywhere. There are learning and networking opportunities for you as well. Click here. The Summary - Review the session abstracts and build your schedule.
- Download the TechDays Vancouver agenda (and floor plan).
- Download the TechDays 2011 Phone App.
- Prepare your notebook computer for the hands-on labs and bring it with you.
- Get a feel for the technologies you’ll be learning about.
- Check out additional learning and networking opportunities.
and of course, all the information you need to get social about TechDays. The Details Review the Session Abstracts and build your schedule  | Before the fun begins, you’ll want to make sure that you know what each session is about and then choose a session for each timeslot of the day. To do that, head over to the TechDays Schedule Builder. It will walk you through all of the sessions in the technology areas that you’re interested in and will help you build your schedule. You can then print or email your schedule to yourself (and perhaps your colleagues if they are joining you). Go >> | Download the TechDays Vancouver agenda (and floor plan)  | With seven tracks and instructor-led labs, there’s going to be a lot going on at the same time. To make sure that you don’t miss out on the sessions that you want to attend or find yourself in a room listening to a speaker talk about some infrastructure stuff (because you’re in the wrong room), make sure to download the TechDays Vancouver agenda to your notebook (or print it if necessary). That way you’ll know what session is happening in which room at what time and where the room is located. Download >> | Download the TechDays 2011 Phone App   | The TechDays 2011 Phone App gives you the ability to browse the schedule for both conference days, browse sessions by track, find info on the speakers, read the session abstracts, and tune into the social buzz on Twitter. Definitely a great pocket companion to enhance your TechDays experience. Vancouver venue, session, and speaker information will be updated in the next day or so. Download >> | Prepare your notebook computer for the hands-on labs and bring it with you.  | Have a read through Damir Bersinic’s post from 3 days ago – Reason #42 to Attend TechDays 2011: Hands-on Labs. The hands-on labs are something that you definitely don’t want to miss. I know that when I go to conferences, I like attending sessions to hear experts tell me about, or through demos, show me everything I need to know about a technical topic. However, I find myself wanting to try it out on my own. I’m sure you feel the same way, so have a look at the instructor-led lab list in Damir’s post and choose which you’d like to attend. We only have 20 machines in the lab, so come early or better yet, bring your notebook with you! More >> If you’re planning to attend the Introduction to Windows Azure lab, please note that the exercises in the lab will require to you have a Windows Azure account. If you don’t already have a Windows Azure account, take a moment and sign up for the 90-day FREE trial before the lab so that you will be able to continue your learning beyond the end of the lab. A training account will be provided to you for use during the lab if you don’t want to create an account for your own. | Get a feel for the technologies you’ll be learning about. Check out additional learning and networking opportunities. In addition to the TechDays sessions happening during the day, check out these additional learning and networking opportunities: CloudCamp Vancouver
Monday, November 14
5:30 PM – 9:00 PM PT | CloudCamp is an unconference where attendees can exchange ideas, knowledge and information in a creative and supporting environment, advancing the current state of cloud computing and related technologies. Register >> | | | | AlignIT Manager Tech Talk: LIVE with Mary Jo Foley
Tuesday, November 15
12:00 PM – 12:30 PM PT
Ballroom B | Planning would be so much easier if you knew what was coming next. Join Ruth Morton and Jonathan Rozenblit for a special live recording of AlignIT Manager Tech Talk with special guest Mary Jo Foley. Mary Jo, along with Ruth and Jonathan, will be talking about the Future of IT and answering your questions. Can’t join in-person? You can watch the show LIVE online on the AlignIT Manager Tech Talk Channel. | | | | DevCamp Vancouver
Tuesday, November 15
6:30 PM – 10:00 PM PT | DevCamp is a mix of all the things you love from different events: the less formal environment that you love from BarCamp events; the great content and speakers from conferences; the quick and right-to-the-point innovative and exciting talks seen at TED or TEDx; and the power to meet other technology enthusiasts and network. Register >> | | | | | ITCamp Vancouver
Tuesday, November 15
6:30 PM – 9:00 PM PT | ITCamps are interactive, in-person learning events for IT Pros seeking professional development as it applies to Microsoft products and technologies (Data Center Virtualization, Cloud Computing, and more) as well as a great opportunity to connect with your peers. The camp takes an informal approach, with a focus on audience participation. This approach ensures attendees come away with some very real learning that can be applied on the job immediately. Register >> | | | | Mary Jo Foley Unplugged!
Wednesday, November 16
6:45 PM – 8:30 PM PT | Join Mary Jo Foley, renowned technology journalist and long time Microsoft watcher, and Canada’s own Ruth Morton for an evening of open questions and answers. Hosted by VanTUG. Register >> | If you’re not attending TechDays Vancouver in person We’re sorry that we won’t get to see you! However, that doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to be part of the TechDays Vancouver experience. Make sure you don’t miss the keynote with Scott Hanselman, Principal Program Manager Lead on the Web Tools team at Microsoft that will be streamed LIVE starting at 8:30 AM ET on Tuesday, November 15. Scott will be talking about putting together a whole whack of tools and frameworks into what he calls the “Web Stack of Love”. Watch LIVE >>
Add to your calendar >> Get Social. Join the Conversation. Whether you’re going to be at TechDays Vancouver in person or joining online, don’t forget that part of the experience involves you – you sharing your thoughts. Pick your network and tweet, post, or discuss away! We’ll be watching out for your tweets, posts, and discussions, as well as the speakers and community experts, so get social and join the conversations.  | Tweet using the #techdays_ca hashtag and your session code. Here’s an example: #techdays_ca #CLD301 Thinking of moving to the #cloud this way totally makes sense. #Azure | | | |  | Post your thoughts in discussions started for each session in the TechDays Canada LinkedIn group. | | | |  | Make sure to like the TechDays Canada Facebook page to get updates throughout the day. Post on the TechDays Canada wall or like others’ posts. | So now that you have the list of everything that you need for TechDays Vancouver, the only thing that remains is to show up (or if attending virtually, log on) and have a great time! The team and I are looking forward to seeing you. Make sure to stop by the Microsoft Showcase at the Partner Pavilion and say hello! 
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 You’re probably wondering what the PowerPoint slide is all about. Well let me tell you. This is the story of the TechDays Vancouver keynote.
A week from today, I have the distinct pleasure and honour (and stress!) of introducing the keynote speaker. As you heard from Damir a little while ago, that speaker is none other than Mr. Scott Hanselman. How do you introduce someone that needs no introduction? Someone that pretty much every developer knows (and if you don’t, you’ll want to, and will on Tuesday!), who speaks at conferences all around the world, has two podcast series, and writes books? More importantly, how do you introduce a total, 100% developer kind of guy to you all - my infrastructure professional colleagues? The answer – I don’t know (yet!), but whatever it is, it will have to create an “Ooo! Ahh!” moment for developers and IT Pros alike! So far, the PowerPoint slide is as far as I have gotten! I won’t tell you how long it took to get to that point.  By the time you get to the Vancouver Convention Centre or by the time you watch the keynote live online (as with TechDays Toronto, the keynote will be streamed live on the TechDays homepage starting at 7:30 AM PST/Vancouver Time), I will have figured out a way to introduce Scott and his session about putting together a whole whack of tools, frameworks, and technologies together into a “Web Stack of Love” and make it make sense for both the developers and the IT pros in the room!
You’ll just have to be there or tune in online to see what I come up with. In the meantime, back to PowerPoint I go. Looking forward to see you all, 
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 Over pints Pierre Roman, Bruce Cowper and Rick Claus decided they would put together a concise and timely podcast each “Update Tuesday”. The object is to keep it simple by letting you know in plain non technical language what the updates are, what they resolve and why you should care.
As always - if you have suggestions on making it better - please pass on your comments. 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.
Bulletins discussed for November 8th, 2011:
Podcast Participants: Rick Claus, Pierre Roman
Additional Technical Show Notes:
Regular IT Guy blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
Check out my about.me profile! 
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I’ve been talking about the resources available to you at some of our sites for a while now. I keep on talking about this one called Microsoft Virtual Academy a lot recently – and there is a reason.
- IT’S FREE (as in beer)
- It’s Consumable Chunks of video interviews / screencasts / interviews talking about current and upcoming technologies that can MAKE A DIFFERENCE in your career and skillset.
- It’s backed up with Bragging Rights / points. Impress your friends / family / colleagues.
- Plus, the first 500 people to sign up get a free MVA t-shirt.
TO sweeten the pot even FURTHER – We’ve put together an incentive / contest for a Sweet looking “Tech-Tastic” Prize Pack. (OK – the marketing guys came up with that name – I didn’t  )
The Tech·Tastic Prize Pack includes:
- a Toshiba 15” laptop
- an Xbox 360 with Kinect
- a Samsung 40” HDTV
and more!
But there is work to do.
- Register for the contest HERE – you HAVE TO ENROLL first for things to count.
- Register for MVA and take some of the modules. The higher your score – the better your chances in Canada. (plus bigger bragging rights)
- GO DOWNLOAD evaluations from the TechNet Evaluation Center (www.microsoft.ca/evalcenter) You can get up to 11 more chances to win – one per successful completed download. My personal favourites are below…
WAIT A SECOND HERE.
You aren’t just doing this to win – you’re also learning new skills and technologies AND you are downloading software to install and run in your lab environments / trial environments. Right? I want to see what you do with these new found powers. Send me an email (rick.claus@microsoft.com) with your experiences / lab creations and MVA score and I’ll feature it here on the blog for all to see!!! Ultimate Bragging Rights Baby!
Contest closes November 30th – 2011.
Regular IT Guy blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
Check out my about.me profile! 
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 Welcome to your one stop shop for links to all the online resources and references from a TechDays 2011 event. By now – you have been back to work, eager to apply / learn more about the things you saw while attending TechDays. But you still have to wait a little longer to get access to the PowerPoints and recorded Videos from Toronto or Montreal – they will be up by the end of November / early December as part of our year long / ongoing TechDays Online experience.
So now what? I asked members of the team to compile a master list for their “content area” and sift through the best stuff in order to write a blog post about where they would send you for more! They have completed their work and I’ve compiled a master list from THEIR master lists so you now have a one stop shop to continue your learnings. Look no further – Here are the blog posts for each of the content areas – each done in the style of the team member who created them. But it doesn’t stop there – join in on the conversation online in the medium of your choice. Make sure to check out the TechDays LinkedIn group, TechDays Facebook page, and/or the TechDays Twitter feed. We’ve got your medium covered. 
Regular IT Guy blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn Check out my about.me profile! 
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 SQL Server 2012 (previously SQL Server code-named “Denali”) has, so many great features for reporting, high availability, business intelligence, and more. If you haven’t had time to sit down and start learning about what’s new in the latest release of SQL Server, join Microsoft Canada for a weekly webcast series to help discover and understand the benefits of the latest release of SQL Server. Starting on November 9th and continuing every week until December 7th at 1:00 pm EST, you can join in on a series of webcasts all about SQL Server Denali.
Enterprise Information Management November 9, 2011, 1 – 2pm EST Presented by Darren King, Technical Specialist – Data Platform, Microsoft Canada Inc.
An overview and demonstration of the technology and a chance to see for yourself how SQL Server can empower your EIM strategy today BI Semantic Model November 16, 2011, 1 – 2pm EST
Presented by Howard Morgenstern, Technical Specialist – Business Intelligence, Microsoft Canada Inc.
Learn how organizations can scale from small personal BI solutions to the largest organizational BI needs with the BI Sematic Model. SQL Azure- Reporting Services November 23, 2011, 1 – 2pm EST
Presented by Richard Iwasa, Senior Consultant, Solution Architect, Ideaca
Learn how SQL Azure Database can help you reduce costs by integrating with existing toolsets and providing symmetry with on-premises and cloud databases. Discover what SQL Azure can do for you. Appliances November 30th, 2011, 1 – 2pm EST
Presented by Doug Harrison, Solution Specialist – Platform, Microsoft Canada Inc.
An overview of Microsoft's vision for appliances details on the workloads supported today and in the future. Mission Critical Confidence – Enable mission critical environments December 7th, 2011, 1 – 2pm EST
Presented by Marc Theoret, Technical Specialist – Data Platform, Microsoft Canada Inc.
Find out how to enable Mission Critical Environments (focusing on availability and performance) with manageable costs. As an added bonus, attendees that register and attend all five (5) modules of the webcast will receive a SQL Server Code Name "Denali" USB key and a copy of Windows Azure Step by Step (May 2011) to be mailed 4-6 weeks after the final webcast. Limit one per person. Attend the webcasts, download the Denali evaluation and get yourself up and running with SQL Server Denali. Register today! 
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A few days ago I posted the resources for the TechDays 2011 Communications and Collaboration track. This post is intended to provide those who attended session in the Data Platform track to be able to continue their learning with the resources listed for each of the sessions delivered at TechDays 2011 in Toronto, as well as overall resources for the track. As was evident from the content, a large focus of the Data Platform track at TechDays 2011 was business intelligence, as well as SQL Server 2012 (formerly SQL Server code-named “Denali”). Sessions also dealt with topics such as some of the T-SQL coding options in SQL Server 2008R2 and SQL Server 2012, as well as techniques to migrate to SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2012. Hopefully you left each session understanding all the concepts and knowing exactly what you needed to do in order to take advantage of the great features of SQL Server in your organization. Below you’ll find all of the resources mentioned in each of the sessions so that you can continue your learning today (rather than having to wait until the sessions are available on TechDays Online in early December): Highlighted in all sessions: Resources for individual sessions DAT274 - A Lap around Microsoft Business Intelligence - Part 1 
DAT275 - A Lap around Microsoft Business Intelligence - Part 2 DAT279 - New Business Intelligence Functionality in Microsoft SQL Server 2012 DAT302 - Introducing the Next Generation High Availability Solution: Microsoft SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn DAT304 - What's New in Manageability for Microsoft SQL Server 2012 DAT318 - The T-SQL Cookbook: What's Cool in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 and New in SQL Server 2012
DAT319 - Upgrading to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2012: A Comprehensive Look
Looking ahead to TechDays Vancouver Stay tuned to next week’s post where I’ll go over what is in store for you in the Data Platform track at TechDays Vancouver! If you haven’t yet registered for TechDays Vancouver (or Montreal, for that matter), there’s still time to register. Register today >> Make sure to check out the TechDays LinkedIn group. TechDays Facebook page, and/or the TechDays Twitter feed to join the conversations and get the latest updates. 
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So you attended TechDays in one of the cities OR you have teleported back from the future where TechDays Online has referred you back to some additional resources for anything and everything to do with the Virtualization Content Area sessions. This is the one stop shop for all things virtualization resources wise for you to peruse and enjoy. First off – SIGN UP for Microsoft Virtual Academy at www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com . It’s your one stop shop for short snippets of online modules that are organized into tracks / online courses. We’re talking 20 minute chunks of courses that have skill testing questions (for bragging rights) to validate you’re on the right track and know your stuff. If you haven’t checked it out yet – GO DO IT NOW. Secondly – GET THE SOFTWARE. What are you waiting for? go to http://www.microsoft.ca/evalcenter to get the bits and start working with these products in your lab environment today! Direct links: Session specific resources of interested – not already mentioned above: VIR213 - Breaking the Virtualization Limits VIR316 - Building your VDI Infrastructure with XenDesktop and Hyper-V ![signature_thumb[1]](http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-48-12-metablogapi/6505.signature_5F00_thumb1_5F00_thumb_5F00_51BD17AE.jpg "signature_thumb[1]")
Regular IT Guy blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn Check out my about.me profile! 
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TechDays 2011 in Toronto features a myriad of sessions on Communications and Collaboration technologies featuring Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint Server, Microsoft Lync, and Office 365. You learned about how to extend your Exchange infrastructure into the Cloud, the important role SharePoint plays in a the Microsoft business intelligence platform, how to effectively do web conferencing using Lync, as well as how to extend your SharePoint infrastructure beyond your four walls to your business partners or integrate Office 365 with it. Hopefully you left each session understanding all the concepts and knowing exactly what you needed to do in order to implement the technologies in your organization. Below you’ll find all of the resources mentioned in each of the sessions so that you can continue your learning today (rather than having to wait until the sessions are available on TechDays Online in early December): Highlighted in all sessions: - Office 365 Free 30-Day Trial – Want to to give Office 365 a try? This is the place you can go to sign up for a free 30-day trial account and play with it to see how it can work in your organization.
 - SharePoint TechCenter on TechNet – If you are a SharePoint administrator, this is the best place to get information on implementing and managing your SharePoint environment.
- SharePoint Developer Center on MSDN – For those of you who develop SharePoint-based applications, this is the place to learn best practices and tips and tricks.
- Exchange TechCenter on TechNet – Great site for Exchange admins to learn about all aspects of implementing and managing Exchange Server.
- Lync Server TechCenter on TechNet – Many folks indicated that they are interested in learning more about Lync. This is a great place to get started.
Resources for individual sessions CLB205 - Creating Self-Service Analytic BI Applications with Microsoft SharePoint 2010  CLB272 - Practical Tips for SharePoint Governance CLB277 - Why SharePoint Data Protection is not as Easy as it Looks CLB301 - Microsoft Lync 2010: Audio, Video and Web Conferencing Architecture and Experience CLB311 - Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Office 365: How to Set Up a Hybrid Deployment CLB376 - Upgrading and Migrating to SharePoint 2010, On-Premise and in the Cloud CLB379 - SharePoint 2010 Extranets and Authentication Looking ahead to TechDays Vancouver Stay tuned to next week’s post where I’ll go over what the Communication and Collaboration track has in store for you at TechDays Vancouver! If you haven’t yet registered for TechDays Vancouver (or Montreal, for that matter), there’s still time to register. Register today >> Make sure to check out the TechDays LinkedIn group. TechDays Facebook page, and/or the TechDays Twitter feed to join the conversations and get the latest updates. 
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 You can attend all the conferences, seminars, and training courses that you want, but just watching and listening will only allow you to retain about 10% of the information given to you. A measly 10%. That’s a pretty low return on your investment. Luckily, we’ve designed TechDays to help participants remember and recall a whole lot more than that.
For those attending the conference in person (there is still time to register for Vancouver and Montreal!) there are the Instructor-Led Labs where you can bring your notebook and get your hand dirty on the cool technology that you’ve been learning about. You can also review the materials – session recordings and access to the labs will go live on the TechDays site after the conference is finished, in December. But in addition there are resources that you can use to supplement your learning. The complete list of session resources will be coming out soon as my colleagues pull together information for each of their areas. But for now, I’ll list the ones for the sessions that I’ve been working on organizing – the Security, Identity and Management sessions. These sessions cover a wide range of topics – everything from securing your wireless network to how the latest innovation in System Center, called Orchestrator, helps you build a flexible private cloud infrastructure by creating automated process workflows from numerous vendor products. Whether you’re able to join us in-person at TechDays or not, below are some great resources for diving in and learning more about securing and managing your infrastructure. Happy Learning! Securing your infrastructure: General systems management using System Center products: Information on System Center Orchestrator: Information on System Center Operations Manager: Learning more about PowerShell: Software Asset Management: 
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