Category Archives: Events

Windows Intune “Ask The Experts” Webcast Series

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My good friends in the Microsoft Australia Partner And Readiness team have organised two online events to help you get up to speed with Windows Intune.

The first of these was delivered today by Paul Bourgeau, the World Wide Technical Lead for Windows Intune, one of my go to sources for all things Windows Intune. The recording of today’s session is available here. I’ve seen Paul in action a couple of times already and always learn something new. I encourage you to watch this for an overview or update of Windows Intune if you aren’t familiar with the June 2012 (aka Wave 3) release.

The second event is being held on Tuesday 28th August at 11am AEST. This Ask The Experts session will feature Hamada from the Microsoft Operations team to address such things as sign up and billing, amongst other things. You can join this event here.

 

TechEd Day 4 Wrap Up

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All good things must come to an end, and after a day enjoying some warmth and sun, here’s my thoughts on yesterday…

The first session of the day on SBS didn’t deliver any real surprises, apart from completely focusing on the Essentials version and the Office 365 integration component. I spent many years in the world of SBS, and have seen it grow and develop over the years, but it seems to be clear the direction the product is going in terms of cloud integration ie onwards and upwards. There weren’t any announcements made on new versions of the product which I was hoping for, the Windows Server 2012 banner on the SBS booth in the expo area was simply a mistake. Oh well. The session only had about 10 people in it, which really didn’t surprise me considering the target audience, and being at an extreme location in a large conference center.

Next up was another SMB focused session, this time on storage. This session gave a great overview of how SMB customers can take advantage of new capabilities in WIndows Server 2012, and seemed to highlight some of my thoughts about the direction of SBS. Unless Microsoft turns SBS into an EBS like product (and we know how that went…), SBS will never be able to deliver the reliability and capabilities that people would expect of it ie failover clustering with enterprise versions of the included applications. I just can’t see that happening for some reason. For SMBs to get that kind of capbility they need to invest in a not so cheap clustering solution, or move across to a hosted solution such as Office 365 which handles the back end data duplication and failover. I only see one of these as an affordable, viable option for most SMBs.

Next up was Windows Intune and consumerisation of IT. Craig Morris delivered a great session, and it was easily the best of the pure Intune sessions at the event. Live iOS application deployment as shown, along with his device PIN and password which I’m sure are now changed for his sake. A few things were clarified for me, and it was great to have members of the product team answering the questions from the audience. The level of interest in the product seems to be rising, and from the post session conversations taking place many people were going to be taking a closer look at Intune and see how it develops. Even today over lunch I was chatting to a friend who works for a television network and he mentioned that even for him Intune could be interesting, with the caveat of when it acquires some features that it currently doesn’t have.

The next session on client management in the Windows 8 timeframe was easily one of the best sessions of TechEd for me. Craig co-presented with Bryan Keller of the SCCM team, and there was much to be gained from reading between the lines. While it is never safe to assume that new features will be added, my takeaway was that the the teams were now joined at the hip, and really looking at how they will work together in the future. This is always raised by SCCM customers who don’t want two sets of client data that don’t integrate.

Windows To Go and Windows RT were also part of the discussion, again without a firm commitment to when they would be officially supported, but it was good enough for me. If anyone out there wants a Windows Intune consultant to test out their Windows RT devices, I’m happy to do that for you. I admit that I still struggle a bit with where WinRT fits, and see it as a short term solution until there are x86 chips that compete head on with ARM power consumption, but I can see that there really is a space for Windows to compete with the iPad, after finally succumbing and buying an iPad recently for mobile device management testing.

Wrapping up the day was a VMM 2012 server deployment session. I piced up a few useful hints on server base images I hadn’t really considered after being so client focused for such a long time, that are direclty applicable to some System Center 2012 projects I’m currently involved with. The demo gods weren’t playing nicely at the start of the session, but they eventually deemed Mikael Nystrom worthy and allowed him to continue.

That was day 4 for me, a great end to a conference I really enjoyed. Monday’s keynote renewed my faith in Microsoft’s server direction in the enterprise, but Tuesday’s keynote was a bit flat, maybe because I knew too much of the content already. Now I need to start thinking about whether I want to head to New Orleans next year for TechEd. I’ve been to New Orleans a few too many times for my liking, and the timing isn’t great from a business perspective.

TechEd North America Day 3 Summary

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No keynote today, but still some great content.

First up was Windows Intune in the Enterprise, which touched on some of the new capabilities that were included with Monday’s release, including Active Directory integration and Mobile Device Management.

Next up was the upcoming MDOP UE-V session, which included some great demos of user settings following a user across a local application, a remote app session and App-V. For users who have to work across mixed environments like this there will be many benefits over and above what roaming profiles have offered in the path, especially in terms of performance.

After lunch was the Windows 8 Demo session. One of the messages that was repeated from yesterday’s keynote was around still being able to do all the things you need from desktop, which I interpreted as saying “let go of the Start Menu, people! It’s gone!”. The demos started a little too similar to the keynote session for my liking, but then they really picked up and I was able to learn some nice tips and tricks which will make life with Windows 8 much easier. I’ve got the latest build installed on my Iconia W500, and now have new things to try.

Enabling Disaster Recovery With Hyper-V Replicas was the next session, and it was great to see what will be included in the box with the next version of Windows Server and Hyper-V Server, very simple wizard driven cross site replication capabilitie. Having an off premise replica is really something that will be within the reach of customers of all sizes. This really has the potential to change the DR landscape in a very positive way.

The final session of the day was Windows 8 Image Validation with the ADK, which gave some great insight into the new performance troubleshooting tools. For any of you who worked with the Velocity tools in the early days will remember how bad an experience it was, but the ADK really does do a much better job. Highly recommended for investigation if you are building corporate images, building OEM images, or even testing your own personal builds to see just what components are misbehaving.

Tomorrow I’ll be attending some SMB sessions (both Small & Medium Business and System Message Block) sessions, along with more Windows Intune sessions and Windows 8 sessions. Then it’s time to figure out some travel plans…

My TechEd North American experiences so far…

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The first three days have been great so far, here’s a quick summary…

Day 0 – Pre Con Session – Configuration Manager 2012

This full day event was something that I attended for a couple of reasons, one of them to see what I could pick up that could be applied to to ever evolving world of Windows Intune, and also to help get me up to speed for a current project. I can report success on both fronts, I walked away very happy with the day, despite being jetlagged and in a zombie like state towards the end.

Day 1

Up until know I wasn’t paying a huge amount of attention to what was happening with Windows Server 2012, so the opening keynote absolutely blew me away. The combination of Hyper-V on Windows Server 2012, System Center 2012 and the new Windows Azure Virtual Machine offerings caught me by surprise with their capabilities and integration. I’ve already got a few ideas floating in my head for things I can do here, and you’ll no doubt read about them over the coming months.

Other sessions attended during the day drilled down further on the Azure VM capabilities and more Hyper-V 2012 deep dive sessions. I also spent some time catching up with a few members of the Windows Intune team to chat about what’s new, and about Windows Intune June 2012 release going live. Over the course of the last few days though I’ve been accumulating a few more questions and scenarios to run by them, wish me luck in getting straight answers.

Day 2

The opening keynote on Windows 8 really lacked the spark that Monday’s keynote had. This wasn’t the fault of Windows 8, but the demonstrations didn’t really show me too much that I hadn’t seen or heard of before, and after all of the Build content I had consumed I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. The Windows To Go demo got interest, and I hoped that the follow up session would include a giveaways of Windows To Go on a USB3 Flash Drive like at Build, but alas I had to settle for some good content instead. I wonder if Windows To Go is a supported platform for Windows Intune? Considering that it’s based on Windows 8 Enterprise, I am leaning towards it being supported, it seems like a match made in heaven to me.

There was an Intune session I attended which really didn’t hit the mark for me, I didn’t feel the content accurately matched the session description, and I would have preferred it to have been delivered by the product team members who were in attendance. I was hoping for some additional tips and tricks rather than an entry level run through of the product capablities, which I am already somewhat familiar with.

If you had of told me prior to TechEd that I would have voluntarily attended a session on SMB 3.0, I would have laughed, but after the Hyper-V deep dive sessions I realised I needed to get to this session. I also had a chat to some of the storage team in the Expo area, and the main thing that hit me was just how great the advances are. Anyone looking to build Hyper-V cluster environments in the coming months really has to consider whether they want to build on Windows Server 2008 R2, or bet the farm on Windows Server 2012. I’m caught in this dilemna, as one project I’m involved with at the moment is turning into a 4 node Hyper-V cluster with failover iSCSI storage on the backend, but SMB 3.0 makes this all so much easier. I think a rapid migration to Windows Server 2012 may be part of the equation, maybe I need to approach Microsoft and convince them this would be a great case study. Lucky I know who to harass on this one.

The other session that I attended covered deploying Windows 8 on MDT 2012. It was good to hear that Update 1 should be in beta some time next month, and will enable some more advanced Windows 8 deployment scenarios, including App side loading. ARM/WOA support is absent, but apparently that’s due to the extremely limited access to WOA devices for those outside of the selected few. I’m still waiting to be convinced of WOA’s role, especially when the price point rumours have it higher than what many may expect.

What’s next?

There are still several more Windows Intune sessions running including an Enterprise focused one tomorrow I am looking forward to, as well as asking more questions of the Intune and storage teams. Hyper-V will also get more session attention, there are still a few gaps I’m looking to fill.

This week at Intunedin…

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A busy week this week, a large Windows Intune pilot kicks off today, primarily addressing the remote, mostly disconnected PC scenario. Unfortunately they are a Blackberry house, so we won’t get a chance to do any mobile device management, but I’m sure we can coax an iPad into the mix, even if I finally break down and purchase one myself

Final stages of planning for TechEd North America travel are taking place, and I’ve been attempting to whittle down my session list to something manageable without too much success. Not a bad problem to have at an event. Hopefully more details of the Azure Active Directory Services emerge, especially relating to Windows Intune and Office 365, hopefully to shed light on whether you get a shared namespace if you happen to be running both online services from Microsoft

Other projects keeping me busy this week include an on-premise Lync deployment, yes, not something I expected to be doing, but thankfully it’s just a small pilot. The rest of this project includes attempting to use as many Microsoft client and server technologies as possible to reduce the network bandwidth impact of the company’s Exchange infrastructure being centralised. It’s great when the client has no concerns about licensing costs if an effective solution is delivered thanks to the way they are already licensed.

So far the project includes…

  • All remote employee mailboxes being moved to HQ, hosted on Exchange 2010, with an eye to private cloud hosting once the initial network upgrade is complete
  • Reliance upon Exchange archiving to limit mailbox size growth over time, rather than the traditional approaches of file size restrictions or mailbox size restrictions that don’t suit their environment (so far the winner in the mailbox size stakes is 60GB, thankfully the old branch servers are Exchange 2003 so the old faithful ExMerge is getting some loe)
  • A Lync pilot eventually growing into a full deployment with Enterprise Voice enabled
  • A move from DCs to RODCs in the branches to reduce replication
    Distributed File System
  • Hosted BrancheCache (all clients are Windows 7 Enterprise, all servers will be Windows Server 2008 R2)
  • Threat Management Gateway servers in each branch for URL and traffic restrictions, and a large serving of caching
  • An ever growing Hyper-V cluster which is being managed by Virtual Machine Manager
  • Configuration Manager 2012 – the Pre-Day at TechEd is one that I will need to be awake for, as I’ll need to provide lots of input afterwards.

There’s more to the project than this, but it gives you an idea that it’s a pretty big overhaul, with several of these projects happening simultaneusly with a small IT staff. I have made them a promise that after TechEd North American I won’t be coming back with new ideas to replace the current ones, we really need to get the current projects finished before refining or updating. I do not believe I will be able to resist making suggestions, but they will be moving into the medium term plans, not into the short term priorities.

Catch intunedin.net at the Desktop to Cloud event on May 19, Sydney

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I will be delivering a session on optimising Office 365 and Windows Intune deployments at the following event, my first public activity in a while, so forgive any rustiness…

Details

Date: Saturday, 19th of May 2012 Location: North Ryde RSL Club, 33 Magdala Rd, North Ryde NSW. 2113. Time: 8.30am – 5.30pm (doors open at 7.30am) Cost: $44 inc GST ($22 in GST prior to 5th May with promo code EARLYBIRD) Registration: http://desktoptocloud.eventbrite.com/

Download Full Agenda

Learn what the ‘cloud’ really means for you and your business. You’ll find answers to question like: What is the ‘cloud’? What can it do for my business? In the sessions you’ll hear from the many experts who will be present but you’ll also get the opportunity to network with them throughout the day. This event is all about giving you the most current information about the latest in desktop, mobile and cloud technologies. Sessions are designed to cater to all levels from beginners to IT Professional, business owner to the tech savvy. Beyond the sessions you’ll be able to rub shoulders with industry experts and others businesses to learn how to make the cloud really work for you.

This event is designed to provide attendees with the latest information about desktop and cloud based solutions. It is open to everyone interested in technology and will be conducted in two tracks:

A. Consumer

Focus on technologies such as Windows 8, the desktop and mobile experience as well as cloud options such as Windows Live, Skydrive, and more.

B. IT Professional

Focus on the technical details around Office 365, private cloud, corporate cloud based solutions and more.

Each track will have a number of sessions throughout the day and attendees are free to attend sessions they wish during their time.

 

Entry includes:

- Entry to all sessions – Refreshments including morning and afternoon tea as well as lunch – WiFi Internet access – On site parking – Prize draws and giveaways

Digital MMS Session Recordings Available

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If you haven’t had a chance to watch the session recordings from Digital MMS, head on over and register or sign in with your Live ID.

A World of Connected Devices

Clouds and cloud-connected devices are changing the world of work and our daily interactions. Tech-savvy and always-connected, people want faster, more intuitive technology, uninterrupted services, and the freedom to work anywhere, anytime, on a variety of devices.  Join Brad Anderson, Corporate Vice President of the Management and Security Division at Microsoft to learn how System Center 2012 and Windows Intune can help IT embrace this new reality today, and in the future, by making the right intelligent infrastructure investments.  (Speaker(s): Brad Anderson)

Windows Intune

Windows Intune will be introducing new and exciting capabilities. Join this session and be one of the first to see how client management in the cloud is evolving!  (Speaker(s): Craig Marl; Robi Czitron)

Windows Intune Deep Dive

There are many exciting things taking place with cloud-based client management! This session offers a deep dive exploration on the latest version of Windows Intune. We explore all the latest capabilities, including user centric management, software distribution, updates management, and policy management. Join this session for a detailed overview of Windows Intune.  (Speaker(s): Nilesh Bhide; Venkateswaran Bharathan)

 

 

Updated Windows Intune Session List for TechEd NA 2012

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For those of you attending TechEd North America in June, here are the current list of Windows Intune sessions on offer. I will be attending these, and if you want to get to together at the event to discuss what you are doing with Windows Intune, search for intunedin on the TechEd user portal

WCL329 Windows Intune: Cloud Based PC Management (Technical Overview)
Speaker(s): Elias Mereb, Erdal Ozkaya
Tuesday, June 12 at 10:15 AM – 11:30 AM
Windows Client  |  Breakout Session  |  300 – Advanced

Cloud Computing is changing the way we manage PCs in the enterprise. In this session we take a deep dive exploration into the cloud based Windows management solution. We explore all the security features, how to manage updates, how to create policies, and how to upload and deploy software, all this from a single web management console.

WCL328 Windows Intune for the Enterprise
Speaker(s): David Nudelman
Wednesday, June 13 at 5:00 PM – 6:15 PM
Windows Client  |  Breakout Session  |  300 – Advanced

How can Enterprise-level companies benefit from Windows Intune? In this session, Windows Expert – IT Pro MVP David Nudelman shares his experiences with Windows Intune in large corporations.

WCL386 Windows Intune User and Device Management
Thursday, June 14 at 1:00 PM – 2:15 PM
Windows Client  |  Breakout Session  |  300 – Advanced

No session description yet, but I think we can get an idea of what it will cover from the April 2012 Pre-Release and associated documentation.