This was my first time attending TechEd and I had a wonderful time catching up with Stephen Rose, Joe Davies, Emily Freet, Jake Gray, Devrim Iyigun and lots of others with Microsoft. It was also nice seeing Betsy Weber with TechSmith, she is always entertaining. Got introduced to and a chance to chat with Rhonda Layfield (thanks Stephen!) regarding IPv6.
I also meet several other Microsoft MVP's at the event working the Springboard booth who are also STEP members. It was nice hearing about all the different things folks are working on.
I have to say I was surprised about how much interest Microsoft is getting in DirectAccess. I have some opinions on deployment guidance I would give to folks looking to implement DA and I shared those with the DA folks at TechEd. Let's just say I am not a fan of ISATAP and I am pushing for small Native IPv6 deployments with NAT-PT devices as the way to start. Guess I will find out shortly if my ideas are sticking at all!
- Ed
Howfunky...a place with useless technical content!
Friday, May 15, 2009
Monday, May 04, 2009
PacITPros - Microsoft Server Feedback event tomorrow evening
Tomorrow evening PacITPros will be hosting their regular monthly meeting however this one is very special.
Quick quote from the announcement:
"The Windows Server product and planning groups are joining us on May 5th to meet face-to-face with PacITPros members and capture valuable feedback related to your future IT business priorities. Your input will help establish the foundational feedback that will drive planning activities for Windows Server going forward."
The best part is all you have to do is RSVP on http://www.pacitpros.org and you can participate. So if you are in the San Francisco Bay Area you really should sign up to attend, this is a very rare and unique opportunity. We've even had internal Microsoft employees sign up to be able to give their feedback to this group.
- Ed
Quick quote from the announcement:
"The Windows Server product and planning groups are joining us on May 5th to meet face-to-face with PacITPros members and capture valuable feedback related to your future IT business priorities. Your input will help establish the foundational feedback that will drive planning activities for Windows Server going forward."
The best part is all you have to do is RSVP on http://www.pacitpros.org and you can participate. So if you are in the San Francisco Bay Area you really should sign up to attend, this is a very rare and unique opportunity. We've even had internal Microsoft employees sign up to be able to give their feedback to this group.
- Ed
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Microsoft Springboard on Windows 7
I've been lucky enough to be added as part of the Microsoft Springboard Series Technical Expert Panel or STEP program for Windows 7. I've been developing IPv6 content for people participating in the Springboard series to present to their local IT Pro User groups. Check out the Springboard series, Stephen Rose has been doing a great job getting all this content together, its a huge effort.
After the IPv6 content I will likely move on to a quick guide for Direct Access. Direct Access requires Windows Server 2008R2 and remember that Server 2008R2 is 64bit only.
I also just finished chatting with Charley Wen with Microsoft on all things related to QoS within Windows. It will be interesting seeing what solutions Microsoft comes up with for Server and Hyper-V that account for QoS and virtual switch infrastructure.
I am also betting that the RC for Windows7 and Server2008R2 will be out next week. I need to get stuff built out and I would like to use the RC's if possible.
- Ed
After the IPv6 content I will likely move on to a quick guide for Direct Access. Direct Access requires Windows Server 2008R2 and remember that Server 2008R2 is 64bit only.
I also just finished chatting with Charley Wen with Microsoft on all things related to QoS within Windows. It will be interesting seeing what solutions Microsoft comes up with for Server and Hyper-V that account for QoS and virtual switch infrastructure.
I am also betting that the RC for Windows7 and Server2008R2 will be out next week. I need to get stuff built out and I would like to use the RC's if possible.
- Ed
Thursday, March 05, 2009
howfunky.com blog hits 4 years
March 13th 2005 was my first post - has it really been that long? I said howfunky.com was going to deal with technical stuff, primarily around:
DNS and specifically Reverse DNS issues.
Cisco routing, switching and content delivery
Sender Policy Framework (SPF)
Microsoft Network Optimization
For the most part I've been pretty on topic - SPF has changed - but I still am concerned with how email sender authorization can be done better. I still am watch DNS and rDNS items - but I will likely be adding DNSSec to the list now. I have been covering Cisco routing, switching and content delivery but have been adding unified communications and storage to the mix. And I am always interested in what Microsoft is up to in the networking space.
The only net new item has been Virtualization as a topic I think.
- Ed
DNS and specifically Reverse DNS issues.
Cisco routing, switching and content delivery
Sender Policy Framework (SPF)
Microsoft Network Optimization
For the most part I've been pretty on topic - SPF has changed - but I still am concerned with how email sender authorization can be done better. I still am watch DNS and rDNS items - but I will likely be adding DNSSec to the list now. I have been covering Cisco routing, switching and content delivery but have been adding unified communications and storage to the mix. And I am always interested in what Microsoft is up to in the networking space.
The only net new item has been Virtualization as a topic I think.
- Ed
Microsoft 2009 MVP Summit - thoughts
I wasn't sure if I was going to attend the Microsoft MVP Summit this year. After the MVP program decided to remove the Windows Server - Networking category I didn't think I had much reason to attend and honestly was expecting to not be renewed because of the category going away.
I am now very happy I changed my mind and I attended. It seems that my new category of Enterprise Security felt that it was important to add networking sessions back to the mix.
A ton of folks from the MS Networking Team showed up! From Sandeep Singhal, Sean Siler, Dave Thaler, Ravi Rao, Tyler Barton, Devrim Asli Iyigun, Mahesh Prakriya, to Joseph Davies - thanks to you all for taking the time and effort to listen to my feedback and opinion about networking and what Microsoft is doing right and wrong.
So, without violating my NDA what was I most excited about from the event? Honestly, it is things that were already on my radar (NDA or not) - specifically Direct Access, Branch Cache and IPv6. I think any Enterprise that is running AD and has a large mobile workforce will adopt Direct Access just to make remote support of that mobile workforce easier, there is literally nothing the end user has to do at all (well, you have to turn the computer on and have some sort of Internet connection) to make it work and the initial scaling numbers I have heard put it on par with a typical traditional VPN deployment. Just as many Enterprises have adopted rpc over http/s for Outlook to Exchange the next natural step is to adopt a paradigm that allows ALL corporate applications the same flexibility and access that Outlook and Exchange currently have today - that solution is Direct Access.
Microsoft is pushing more advanced services into both Windows Server 2008R2 and Windows 7 - Branch Cache is one of these services and one that makes a lot of sense for folks to use (big and small IT shops will win with this one - and it is free to turn it on - how cool is that). It does not replace WAN accelerations devices (though with the changes in Windows Vista / Windows 7 / Server 2008 networking you could argue you might not need the acceleration part) but specifically targets the caching of file content. Given the cost point and relative easy of deployment I think it will have a good adoption rate.
Finally, IPv6 - there are several solutions in both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008R2 that just won't work without IPv6. There is no getting around it and you need to start learning it - period. In Windows 7 there is HomeGroup and for Windows Server 2008R2 if you want Direct Access you will need to get up to speed on IPv6. There are more subtle IPv6 items but those two alone should make folks stand up and notice.
- Ed
I am now very happy I changed my mind and I attended. It seems that my new category of Enterprise Security felt that it was important to add networking sessions back to the mix.
A ton of folks from the MS Networking Team showed up! From Sandeep Singhal, Sean Siler, Dave Thaler, Ravi Rao, Tyler Barton, Devrim Asli Iyigun, Mahesh Prakriya, to Joseph Davies - thanks to you all for taking the time and effort to listen to my feedback and opinion about networking and what Microsoft is doing right and wrong.
So, without violating my NDA what was I most excited about from the event? Honestly, it is things that were already on my radar (NDA or not) - specifically Direct Access, Branch Cache and IPv6. I think any Enterprise that is running AD and has a large mobile workforce will adopt Direct Access just to make remote support of that mobile workforce easier, there is literally nothing the end user has to do at all (well, you have to turn the computer on and have some sort of Internet connection) to make it work and the initial scaling numbers I have heard put it on par with a typical traditional VPN deployment. Just as many Enterprises have adopted rpc over http/s for Outlook to Exchange the next natural step is to adopt a paradigm that allows ALL corporate applications the same flexibility and access that Outlook and Exchange currently have today - that solution is Direct Access.
Microsoft is pushing more advanced services into both Windows Server 2008R2 and Windows 7 - Branch Cache is one of these services and one that makes a lot of sense for folks to use (big and small IT shops will win with this one - and it is free to turn it on - how cool is that). It does not replace WAN accelerations devices (though with the changes in Windows Vista / Windows 7 / Server 2008 networking you could argue you might not need the acceleration part) but specifically targets the caching of file content. Given the cost point and relative easy of deployment I think it will have a good adoption rate.
Finally, IPv6 - there are several solutions in both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008R2 that just won't work without IPv6. There is no getting around it and you need to start learning it - period. In Windows 7 there is HomeGroup and for Windows Server 2008R2 if you want Direct Access you will need to get up to speed on IPv6. There are more subtle IPv6 items but those two alone should make folks stand up and notice.
- Ed
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