ronaldg's ramblings

OEM/System Builder events in Fall 2009

Hey friends, just wanted to let you know about a new series of events that will be running in conjunction with the TS2/MSAM events in Sep-Nov 2009.  These events will be similar to the normal TS2 events, and are actually co-branded as SB2@TS2 (Solution Building for System Builders).  In fact, I’m the TS2 project manager for these events and will be doing many of them myself instead of my normal TS2 events. As you can surmise from the title, these events are focused on our OEM/System Builder (SB) partners. We’ll have a major section on Vista and also discuss the new Small Business Server and Essentials Business Servers, and we’ll have a section on resources and opportunities specific to OEM/SBs.  As you might also infer from the new branding around solution building, these events are going to take a new approach that we hope our OEM/SB partners find more beneficial than the historical focus on technical product details.  We’re very excited to have the opportunity to focus on our OEM/SB partners again – the last time we (TS2) did events specific to OEM/SBs was the Vista SP2 roadshow a couple of years back.  Hopefully, there’s one coming to your area.  I’ve made a list below with all the events and links to register.  All of these events will start at 8:30am and run until noon.  Come join me/us if you can…

The cities in red are the ones I’ll be doing, if you get to one of those and have read this blog, please let me know who you are, I’d love to meet you.

Date            City                 State   Register Now for the SB2 event in your area!

9/24/2008    Atlanta            GA       SB2 @ TS2: Solution Building for System Builders

9/25/2008    Phoenix          AZ        SB2 @ TS2: Solution Building for System Builders

10/2/2008    Hartford          CT        SB2 @ TS2: Solution Building for System Builders

10/7/2008    San Francisco  CA        SB2 @ TS2: Solution Building for System Builders

10/21/2008  Indianapolis     IN         SB2 @ TS2: Solution Building for System Builders

10/23/2008  Southfield       MI         SB2 @ TS2: Solution Building for System Builders

10/28/2008  Minneapolis     MN       SB2 @ TS2: Solution Building for System Builders

10/28/2008  Portland          OR        SB2 @ TS2: Solution Building for System Builders

10/29/2008  Washington     DC        SB2 @ TS2: Solution Building for System Builders

10/30/2008  Seattle            WA       SB2 @ TS2: Solution Building for System Builders

11/5/2008    Cincinnati       OH        SB2 @ TS2: Solution Building for System Builders

11/6/2008    Hauppauge     NY         SB2 @ TS2: Solution Building for System Builders

11/11/2008  San Antonio   TX         SB2 @ TS2: Solution Building for System Builders

11/11/2008  Philadelphia   PA         SB2 @ TS2: Solution Building for System Builders

11/12/2008  Irvine             CA         SB2 @ TS2: Solution Building for System Builders

11/13/2008  Houston         TX         SB2 @ TS2: Solution Building for System Builders

11/13/2008  Burlington      MA        SB2 @ TS2: Solution Building for System Builders

11/18/2008  Orlando          FL          SB2 @ TS2: Solution Building for System Builders

11/18/2008  Denver           CO         SB2 @ TS2: Solution Building for System Builders

11/19/2008  Irving             TX          SB2 @ TS2: Solution Building for System Builders

Windows Small Business Server 2008 RTM’s today (8/21/08)

Well, the title pretty much says it all.  General availability (product available in Retail and Volume Licensing) is planned for early October, and the Windows Essential Server System (WESS includes SBS 2008 and Essentials Business Server 2008) will be officially launched world-wide on November 12th.  Yes, my Registered Partner readers, SBS 2008 will be in the Action Pack (as will EBS), but I can’t say for sure yet that it will make it into the October MAPS update (although I think the chances are good).

Here’s some links to some WESS and SBS 2008 specific resources:

MSPP Windows Essential Server Solutions (on partner portal, this is a great resource, be sure to check this out)

Windows SBS 2008 TechNet Library (updated for RTM)

The SBS Official Blog

WESS webcasts

and, last but not least, make sure you also check out this link on the Partner Portal for access to an SBS click-thru demo as well as a Technical Training webcast series.

SBS 2008 specific link on partner portal 

Plug for Dynamics events in AUG

Our MSAM Dynamics team is targeting these events to “classic'’ Partners who don’t currently sell Dynamics products, so if you might be interested in some ways to expand your offerings, here’s some event info.  Check out the Note below if you need any additional incentive.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM & ERP Events for Partners – Register now!

Partners - Looking for new ways to expand your offerings and grow your business? Be sure to attend the Microsoft Dynamics partner event in your city!

· Microsoft Dynamics CRM Event: We’ll discuss how you can empower your customers with unprecedented choices of how to buy, run, and use Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and also how to increase your reach by addressing opportunities in new geographies, market segments, and industries.

· Microsoft Dynamics ERP Event: Learn how Microsoft Dynamics ERP can adapt to the changing environments of organizations through collaboration and extensive business intelligence, and how it integrates with Microsoft Platform tools. We’ll show you how to position Microsoft’s ERP offerings to better engage with your customers and prospects.

NOTE: Attendees will receive a copy of Office at the CRM events and a copy of Vista Ultimate w/SP1 at ERP events.

TS Events in Fall 2008

Of course, I want to promote our upcoming TS2 events.  As many of you may be aware, the number of live events is decreasing, this is it for August-September (see table below).  Since we won’t be going to any place more than twice a year, our content is moving to a semi-annual cycle, so the content shown below will be current thru the rest of our CY08 events. 

FYI, I will not be doing standard TS2 events in this current semi-annual cycle, instead I will be doing a series for our OEM/System Builders.  Those will begin in late September (specifically Atlanta on 9/24 is the first, and I will be doing that one). I will be doing posts on that calendar and content later, but it will be mostly around Vista and the Windows Essential Server System.

Content: In Aug-Nov 2008, the TS2 team will offer sales tips to help you promote the following products:

· Small Business Server 2008 & Essential Business Server 2008

· Response Point VoIP Phone System

· Software + Services

Register now at: www.MicrosoftTS2.com to meet the team, view educational webcasts, and more!  The projected August-September event list is:

New synthetic device model in Hyper-V

Here’s another installment of my series on Hyper-V, this one around “Synthetic” device model.

Before I launch into an drill-down of the new synthetic device model in Hyper-V, let me make a couple of clarifications on terminology.   First, Hyper-V vs hypervisor.  Hyper-V is the name of the new virtualization technology in Windows Server 2008 (aka the virtualization “stack”) whereas the hypervisor specifically refers to the “microkernel” piece of the stack which I discussed in a previous blog.  Understand that there are several hypervisor technologies out there: specifically you can have a Type 1 or Type 2 hypervisor, as well as a monolithic or microkernel-based hypervisor.  Microsoft’s implementation is a Type 1 microkernel, which means it runs directly on the hardware (in a new layer known as “Ring –1”) and doesn’t include drivers in the hypervisor layer.  BTW, here’s some trivia for you, the term hypervisor, actually dates back to 1972 and the IBM/370 platform.  Second, you will hear about “enlightenments”, which are modifications to an OS that make it “hypervisor-aware” and thus work with the Hyper-V architecture which is designed to make virtualization more efficient and/or performant.  Synthetic devices are enlightenments but are not the only enlightenments (hypercall APIs would be another).  Hopefully that will clear up any confusion around those similar terms.  Now for a discussion on the synthetic device model…

In Hyper-V there are 2 types of devices, synthetic and emulated.  The new synthetic devices are loaded as part of the “Integration Components” (similar to the VM additions in VS/VPC). A synthetic device has "driver enlightenment," or a knowledge of native Windows drivers that exist in the parent partition, and are accessed via the VMBUS, which is implemented in the kernel level.  Thus, synthetic devices do not correspond to a physical device and they use a logical communication channel (e.g. the VMBUS) to communicate with a physical device driver in the parent partition.  An emulated device, on the other hand, requires access to parts of the virtualization stack in the User mode (e.g. the emulation, or legacy, driver that exists in the virtualization program such as Virtual Server), thus requiring “context switches” from the User mode to the kernel mode (and back) which is expensive from a processor perspective.  The VMBUS, btw, is essentially the “pipe” between the Virtual Service Provider (VSP), which exists in the Parent partition, and Virtual Service Client (VSC) endpoints, which exist in the Child VM partitions, and could be network, disk, graphics, or other types of I/O.

So, to summarize, and re-state, when you hear about OSes that are “enlightened”, you should know that these natively understand and are designed to work with the Hyper-V architecture (incl the VMBUS for much faster device I/O).  In the same vein, a synthetic driver is leveraged by the enlightened OS to utilize the Hyper-V stack (all kernel mode) to significantly enhance driver IO performance for the VM.

Hope this helps.

Software + Services opportunity with BPOS

Some of my teammates have probably already blogged about this, but I thought I would put it out here as well.  Many of you should already be familiar with Microsoft’s online strategy known as “Software + Services” (not SaaS).  Of course, we think S+S is a more holistic approach than SaaS as it covers all the bases online and offline, but you should already know that.  The fundamental proposition here is that ultimately many customers will make the move to more of an online (or hosted) solution paradigm for things like email and even office productivity.  With that in mind, a Microsoft partner has the option of participating in this through opportunities like the BPOS, outlined below, or not (and hoping their customers don’t wind up in less partner-friendly SaaS solutions).  I hope many of you will investigate this as a potential new and recurring source of revenue, and another way to grow and establish your business for the long term.

The Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) gives  partners who are  interested in taking advantage of the Microsoft software plus services platform a recurring revenue stream to help expand their reach with existing customers and shorten sales cycles. Microsoft Online Services are hosted by Microsoft and sold through a  Microsoft Partner. To enroll visit, https://www.discoveronlineservices.com/Pages/Default.aspx to complete the three easy steps for Quickstart for Microsoft Online Services and start reselling BPOS.

So much for the “bulletproof” Apple

Apple has surpassed Microsoft in the number of disclosures of software vulnerabilities, according to an IBM security report.  This is really no surprise to those who have understood the impact of the Trustworthy Computing Initiative and Secure Development Lifecycle at Microsoft over the last 5-7 years. I wonder how long it will take for public consciousness (perception) to catch up with the reality of the security implications here. I remember back when “coolness” trumped security in programming at Microsoft; perhaps Apple is in for some of the same consequences, but for now their “halo” still seems to be firmly in place. Sadly, we’re still ahead in public exploits, but that’s more a reflection of the fact that we’re still considered a much more desirable target, since, as the report points out, we presumably now have fewer vulnerabilities to exploit.  See below for a link and an excerpt from the article.  The “Apple gets bruised” title is a very clever play on words IMHO, too bad the whole article wasn’t as well written as the title (I found it very difficult to understand).

Apple Tops Microsoft in Number of Flaws Reported

Computerworld - August 06, 2008

“Apple gets bruised in vulnerability report

…Apple has taken the place of Microsoft for disclosing more vulnerabilities than any other vendor, according to an IBM security report.

The company rose from second place in 2007 to take the top spot away from Microsoft, which had fallen into third place behind open source content management system Joomla.”

Sharepoint Learning Kit FYI

Since I know many of my partners work with schools systems at various levels, I thought I’d share some information on something called Sharepoint Learning Kit (SLK).  Since I had not heard of it until recently, I’m guessing many of my partners are also in the dark about this as well.  I don’t know much about this, but you can try the following link as a start point for more info: http://www.codeplex.com/SLK

Also, there was an article in a recent Redmond Developer magazine issue, Microsoft Expands SharePoint Learning Kit, Partners With Houghton, that  details some new additions and also gives some more basic information around what SLK is.  And here is a link to the specific  on the Microsoft Education web about the Learning Village app that the RD mag discusses, Learning Village from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Learning Technology.

R U Secure? Are your customers secure? Here’s how to know…

Back on 6/30, I did a post around the 3.1 release of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator (MAP), and I hope many of you explored that great tool.  I’ve recently been reminded that we have another great Assessment Tool that I want to highlight and encourage you to explore as well – the Microsoft Security Assessment Tool (MSAT).  As the MSAT webpage states: “The Microsoft Security Assessment Tool (MSAT) is a free tool designed to help organizations like yours assess weaknesses in your current IT security environment, reveal a prioritized list of issues, and help provide specific guidance to minimize those risks.”

Like all solution accelerators it’s free, but unlike the MAP this tool has no software component (altho MAP is agentless).  Instead it basically gives you over 200 questions (covering infrastructure, applications, operations, and people) that will help you do a holistic evaluation of the overall security risk as well as the mitigations (aka defense in depth) of your infrastructure.  The MSAT tool will help you build a Business Risk Profile (BRP), as well as a Defense-in-Depth Index (DiDI), and then helps you do an analysis.

In addition to the BRP and DidI, MSAT’s holistic approach also helps you analyze the “Security Maturity” of the organization.  And then, to top it all off, risk management recommendations are suggested for your environment that consider existing technology deployment, current security posture, and defense-in-depth strategies.  All of this, of course, is based on commonly accepted best practices, standards such as ISO 17799 and NIST-800.x, as well as recommendations and prescriptive guidance from Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Group and other external security sources.

Although the tool is designed for “mid-sized” organizations (50-1000 desktops), I’m sure my many small-business focused partners could adapt the questions and concepts presented in this tool to their customer space as well.  If I’ve interested you in exploring this tool, here’s the link to more information and the download.  If I haven’t quite convinced you, can also check out the subsequent link which is an MCP Magazine article by Greg Shields which he ends with the following quote (and it’s a good quote for me to end with too): “this tool gives the security administrator as well as the IT technical manager the fodder they need to determine exactly where the holes are in their environment. Considering Microsoft makes this tool available for no cost, it's worth an hour of your time.”

Microsoft Security Assessment Tool

Security That Looks Good on Paper

Vista news – this is huge

Most of you probably don’t get USA Today (or WSJ) delivered to your door daily so I wanted to make sure you knew about the new Small Business Assurance program that just launched (with full-page ads in both publications on Monday).  The tagline is “Move to Windows Vista with Confidence”.  The program has 3 main pillars: free phone support (thru October 2008), second, a self-serve web site (with tips/tricks, tools, guidance, demos, and other ways to help you get the most out of Vista), and third, specific tools and guidance for dealing with app and peripheral compatibility issues. Here’s the link to an Information Week article that has some more details: Microsoft Offers Free Windows Vista Support to Small Businesses

Also, here’s the link to more information about it on the Microsoft Partner Program portal: Windows Vista Small Business Assurance Program

And, lastly, here’s the link to the main site on the Microsoft.com site:  Move to Windows Vista with Confidence

Quite contrary to the pervasive negativeness I see in the press, the vast majority of the partners I talk to appreciate the Vista technology and are very happy with it.  Hopefully, some of these SBA resources can help many of you jump start the upgrade or migration conversation with your customers and get them going on the more secure and future ready platform that is Vista. 

SBS and EBS 2008 Launch dates confirmed

In case you might have missed this in other news venues, Microsoft has announced that November 12th will be the official launch date (RTM) for SBS 2008 as well as Essential Business Server 2008.  It was also noted that OEMs Dell and Wortmann AG in Europe will be among the first companies to offer hardware for both OSes when they are available, the company also said.

Great article on Hyper-V

Paul Thurrott, a long-time writer/commentator for Windows IT Pro Magazine, has put out a great article on Hyper-V on his “Supersite for Windows”.  You might also find other things of interest there, but I would definitely recommend this article.  It’s a reasonably short article (approx 4 pages), but it covers an overview of the key features, what’s new in the RTM release, a great look into how Microsoft is already using this technology, some performance metrics, and a comprehensive list of supported guest OS’es.   If you’re interested in this technology at all, I would put this on my “must read” list.  http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/win2008_hyperv.asp

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.1 RTM/RTWs

As you should know, the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP) is a Solution Accelerator.  This new edition can help you assess and advise your customers on how they can implement and use the newer technologies.  I believe it’s an indispensable tool for a partner, you should check it out if you haven’t already.

As a quick review, a Solution Accelerator (SA) is a combination of automation tools and guidance that is designed and provided to help you accelerate the use of Microsoft technology, such asVista, servers, virtualization, and mobility.  SAs are free.

The new MAP tool, previously known as “Windows Vista Hardware Assessment” has been expanded to not only provide hardware assessment for Windows Vista, and Microsoft Office 2007 but, in this newest version, it now also assesses existing servers for hardware and device compatibility with Windows Server 2008 and offers server virtualization candidates reporting and desktop infrastructure assessment for Microsoft Application Virtualization (formerly SoftGrid).

MAP doesn’t require the installation of agent software on any computers or devices, but does provide data and analysis that can significantly simplify the planning process for migrating to Windows Vista®, Microsoft Office 2007, Windows Server® 2008, Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Virtual Server 2005 R2, SQL 2008 and Microsoft Application Virtualization (formerly SoftGrid).

The MAP has three main functions: Secure and Agentless Inventory, Comprehensive Data Analysis, and In-Depth Readiness Reporting.  It includes a Word-based proposal generator and can also generate a set of Microsoft Excel workbooks with detailed information to help you plan for an OS migration or virtualization project.  And I’ve included a screenshot of it’s new UI below.

get it at: http://www.microsoft.com/MAP

also check out the MAP blog at: http://blogs.technet.com/mapblog/

and check out other SAs at: http://microsoft.com/solutionaccelerators

Hyper-V launches

Hyper-V, which you know I’m excited about and have discussed on this blog, has been released to manufacturing (RTM) early.  Instead of the planned Aug time-frame RTM (Windows Server 2008 RTM + 180 days), it was officially put on the Microsoft Download Center last Thursday (6/26).   And, it should be available through Windows Upgrade after July 8th.

As most of you know, Microsoft has been ahead of its scheduled timetable for Hyper-V availability, and we even made the unprecedented move to include the beta of the technology in the RTM version on Windows Server 2008.  Obviously, Microsoft is very confident and pleased with the progress of Hyper-V thru the beta program.

Just as a quick review, Hyper-V is a bare-metal hypervisor, meaning it sits directly on hardware and controls the creation and operation of virtual machines (VMs).  It’s “thinner” than other hypervisor technologies and potentially more secure because of all the code, like drivers, it doesn’t contain and for the same reason would logically require less maintenance or updating.  Of course, we are somewhat new to the virtualization game, so to make it worth the while of customers to try, it’s being priced very aggressively (essentially $28) and requires no additional licensing over the basic server licensing.  Although some other vendors tout the fact that they are more “mature” technology, I believe, in this case, that building a “new”, smaller, simpler Hyper-V (using a microkernel architecture) may well prove a more compelling story, and given Hyper-V’s track record in beta, I think we’re off to a good start.

BTW, did you know that three of our major websites (Microsoft.com, MSDN.com, and Technet.com, with a combined 42+ million page views per day) have been running on Hyper-V for months now.

Stay tuned for more blogs on Hyper-V in the coming months.

Action Pack update

Most of you are already familiar with this new policy but just in case…

Beginning June 19^th, 2008 a one-hour online assessment is required to initiate a new subscription, or to renew your subscription, to the Action Pack.

You can learn more about the renewal instructions by visiting: https://partner.microsoft.com/US/program/managemembership/40049687,
or to re-enroll call: 1-800-993-7764.

The Action Pack is a subscription-based program, available exclusively to Registered Members of the Microsoft Partner Program, that gives you access to internal-use licenses of Microsoft Software, as well as up to date marketing materials and localized offers – all for just US$299.00.

You can learn more about the Action Pack program in general by visiting: https://partner.microsoft.com/US/program/managemembership/actionpack”