IPv6 - folks seem to be paying more attention?

Well, one of my observations for the Microsoft MVP Summit was that the network team at Microsoft is still very interested in hearing about what is happening with IPv6 and if anyone has done anything with IPv6. I am not sure that Microsoft has a good road map of what needs to happen to make IPv6 a reality in North America but they are paying attention.
Microsoft has several reasons for getting IPv6 out to the consumer space as quickly as possible. IPv6 will allow Microsoft devices to do peer to peer easily and allow them to get back to the model of all hosts being available and accessible which is a desirable thing when you build an OS platform for PC's.
In addition to all this, there appears to be in the works some cool applications that will be IPv6 only that will leverage that peer to peer openness that IPv6 allows. I think the next generation of Groove would be a great starting point myself.
With Server 2008 having the same network stack as Vista and both being IPv6/IPv4 I think there is an opportunity for IPv6 services to leapfrog some of the IPv4 technologies and potentially allow IPv6 to grow more quickly then originally anticipated. Only time will tell.
- Ed

Microsoft MVP Summit

It is that time again, the Microsoft MVP Summit is next week and I am flying up tomorrow to catch up with it (late as usual) and then hopefully hear and learn about all the new and interesting stuff that Microsoft is up to. As is typical for all MVP's, seems that most of the content is covered under NDA but anything that isn't I will try and make a comment about. Seems that Server 2008, Security (Forefront), and System Center will be talked a lot about.
I got very mixed feedback on the new Hyper-V product at the Server 2008 launch event. Most folks who are working with other hypervisors really felt that Hyper-V was behind the curve and it isn't really officially out yet. I don't know how much market share Microsoft can gain in that market but I guess they should have something to reduce the de-coupling of the OS to the hardware, something Microsoft considers pretty important. They definitely want a piece of Microsoft software controlling the hardware and any other OS that wants to use the hardware should have to go through that MS software. I really believe that is for licensing reasons as technically I can't see that it would make that much of a difference.
- Ed

Cisco's new ASR series

Cisco seems to be on a product roll out marathon. The announced the new ASR product line and it is using a new processor and looks to be a powerful platform. That being said - I don't think it is the best looking product line that Cisco has released. Especially when it is compared to the Nexus 7000. I don't know why Cisco doesn't have a uniform look and feel to their product lines, you would think that spending five years and $250 million developing it they could hire a decent industrial designer to hammer out something that looks cool.
Other then the superficial the specs on the stuff look great. I can't wait to get my hands on one to play with.
- Ed

Microsoft Server 2008 Launch event is San Francisco

I am signed up for the Microsoft Server 2008 Launch event in San Francisco on March 13 at the Moscone Center and I hope it is a cool event for everyone involved. I know a lot of folks from the Pacific IT Professionals Users Group will be at the event and I am sure I will run into some fellow Microsoft MVP's at the event also. I am excited about the work and changes Microsoft has done with Server 2008. I believe I will be helping out in some capacity at the event but I am not sure how yet. I will post how shortly so in case you are at the event you can look me up.
- Ed

Fun new toy #2 - Mini Cooper

Well, the second toy cost a lot more and neither are really technical in nature but I have to say the new Mini Cooper that we picked up last Thursday after waiting since Dec is very cool. The obvious advantages of better gas mileage and such are great but the car is just fun to drive and very cool looking. I definitely won't be hauling around as much Cisco hardware as in the past but that is ok, seems we get most of the gear drop shipped to clients now directly from the distributor.
- Ed

Ok, here are some photos. They are fat big ones that I am to lazy to shrink down to be web friendly.

What my wife gave me for xmas.
Mini1
Mini2
Mini3
Mini4
Mini5
Mini6

Good enough? - Ed