It’s Nearly August… Don’t Ask Me How That Happened

I don’t know where the summer has gone!  With vacations, keeping busy at work and all those things we love about managing our lives and families… I just can’t believe August is approaching!

Of course, Windows 10 is coming!  I’ve got a couple devices just waiting for July 29th, including my parents machines… so I’ll be enjoying some time helping them get their computers upgraded.
However, once August rolls around, there are other things to do, so it’s time to get out from behind the computers and check out some upcoming events.
First off, for you Seattle folks, SITPUG will be having their August 5th meeting from 6:00 to 8:00pm in Bellevue.  Visit www.SITPUG.com for more information.
If you are in Boston, Portland and Denver, be sure to check out the upcoming Angelbeat events in those areas.  My Tech Evangelist colleagues and I have been presenting at those events as we can and they are a great way to get a quick update on tech topics.  The Boston and Denver events will even be having special extended sessions on Azure.

Config Manager and IPv6 (…not together!)

I got word of a couple new things floating around the web that you might want to catch…

First off, my good friend and all-around tech nerd, Ed Horley, just released his first Pluralsight course on… you guessed it… IPv6!  Read more about it on his blog and if IPv6 is on your radar, I can’t think of a better person to get you started.

Second, the fine folks at LearnIT! are teaming up with Wally Mead for a webinar on Wally’s Favorite Configuration Manager Features.  It’s on July 23rd at 9am Pacific Time, the full blurb is below!

You have a Configuration Manager 2012 environment installed and running. All is going good as things are working OK. However, have you really been able to gain the best you can from it? Do you just get by using the handful of features you need to use?

In this session, we’ll discuss the features that I love in Configuration Manager 2012 R2, and why. Hopefully this will give you some insight to some features that you may not be using, and why you should look into them further.

Instructor Bio: Wally Mead
Wally is a Principal Program Manager at Cireson. He currently focuses on the improvement and development of products, and drives further innovation between Configuration Manager and Cireson apps. He also consults on Configuration Manager as a key part of the Cireson team.
In addition, Wally continues to provide education for the community through presenting webinars, speaking at conferences (such as TechEd, System Center Universe, Midwest Management Summit), and conducting training courses, as well as assisting the community on the Microsoft TechNet forums.

Goodbye Windows Server 2003!

Time flies and today marks end of support for Windows Server 2003.  In case, you missed some of the available information to help you migrate onto a more modern copy of Windows Server, here are some links!

Listen to @RicksterCDN’s letter to Windows Server – The End of a Affair… 

On-Demand Events

Tech Everywhere: Finds from the Internet

I spend a lot of time on the Internet, as you probably do as well. And as much as I enjoy the technology that is directly related to my job, it’s also really interesting to see how technology is affecting our lives, our work and how we interact with others.

For your reading pleasure, check out a few things you might have missed on the “web” from the last couple months.  That last one is particularly crazy.

Windows 10 Lands July 29th

Are you ready?  There has been a lot of information flying around about Windows 10 and I have to admit, I’m looking forward to seeing it officially released.  With the Windows Insider program and personally getting to use early releases internally at Microsoft, I almost feel like July 29th will be anti-climatic for a lot of people.

But then over the weekend I had a conversation with my father about the “notification” for Windows 10 in his task bar, a discussion about if he and my mother will want Windows 10 for their computers and the realization that part of my summer vacation to visit them will involve showing them Windows 10 and helping them decide if the upgrade is right for them.  So not every is on the cutting edge!
For a great overview of what’s to come with Windows 10 for Enterprise, check out this overview video from Ignite. If you want to dig down into the changes we are making when it comes to cyber-threats, watch this one, too.
For those of you who dislike that little notification thingy or need it removed for some reason, it’s delivered via KB33035583 and you can find lots of instructions on how to remove that on the ‘net, like this.
If you aren’t ready for Windows 10 yet, you can stay on your existing operating system if it’s still supported and mark your calendar for these important dates:
  • 4/11/2017 – Extended support ends for Windows Vista
  • 1/09/2018 – Mainstream support ends for Windows 8.1
  • 1/14/2020 – Extended support ends for Windows 7 SP1
  • 1/10/2023 – Extended support ends for Windows 8.1
For those of you who want to get on-board with Windows 10 *right now*, visit the Windows Insider program and join in. It’s not too late!

Upcoming IT Camp in the Bay Area and Beyond!

Explore the cloud for modern business!
Learn how to get your organization hybrid-ready at a FREE IT Camp near you. In just one day of hands-on training, you’ll learn how to move your IT workloads from on-premises to the cloud and back again. After all, who wants to choose between your datacenter and the public cloud? 
With Microsoft Azure, you get the best of all possible scenarios – plus, powerful virtualization, on-demand application scaling, complete data control and much more.
Sunnyvale: June 4th
Seattle: June 9th
Las Vegas: June 23rd
If those locations aren’t for you, we have others! 
Find an event near you: http://aka.ms/itcampevent

Microsoft IT Camps

Events run from 9am‒4pm
Cost: Free!

Azure Infrastructure Services Implementation Guidelines

One of the things I’ve found the most challenging when working in Azure to design and build servers is naming things (because the external DNS names have to be unique across Azure) and keeping track of how servers relate to each other.  Mostly these challenges exist because everything physical has been abstracted away – no wires to color code/label or servers to group together physically!

When I was first experimenting in Azure, it took a few rounds of creating and deleting things until I really go a hang of what went where.  But to save you some time, you might want to check out this handy piece of documentation publish earlier this month.
It really helps to clarify how naming in Azure can work, how subscriptions and accounts work, how storage and networking tie in, etc, with an example implementation.  I hope you find it useful – I wish I had it two years ago!

Microsoft Virtual Academy for Office365, Windows 10, Enterprise Mobility and More!

I wish I had more time to watch some of the things that are available on the Microsoft Virtual Academy.  If YOU have some time, here are a few things that could be worth checking out.

Love ’em? Hate ’em? Let me know!