Kurt Shintaku's Blog

If you need guidance on setting up Lync 2013 or Exchange 2013, my co-worker, Microsoft Consultant & MTC Architect Dean Suzuki, has been blogging the build out of a complete Lync 2013 and Exchange 2013 deployment on his blog.

Also as he gets customer questions, he’s been answering them and writing the response to the blog. Please send my any recurring Lync and/or Exchange questions/issues that you have to the comments on his blog.

Here are some of the articles that he’s written on Lync 2013 alone:

• Configuring TMG for accessing Office 365 Lync
• Lync 2013 on a Mac
• Finding Latest Versions of Lync and Exchange hotfixes
• Building a Lync 2013 Lab (Step 1 – Installing SQL Backend)
• Building a Lync 2013 Lab (Step 2 – Installing Lync 2013 Enterprise Edition Front End)
• Lync Skill Based Search and Basic Troubleshooting
• Building A Lync 2013 Standard Edition Server
• Building an Office Web Apps Server
• Lync 2013 Best Practices Analyzer
• Lync 2013 Logging Tool
• Integrating Lync 2013 and Exchange 2013 (Part 1)
• Integrating Lync 2013 with Exchange 2013 Unified Messaging (Part 2)
• Integrating Lync 2013 with Exchange 2013 Outlook Web App (OWA) (Part 3)
• Integrating Polycom Endpoints with Lync
• Lync 2013 Monitoring
• Building a Lync 2013 Persistent Chat Server
• Basic Persistent Chat Administration
• Adding a Second Lync Front End Server to a Pool (Step 3)
• Lync 2013 Site Resiliency (Step 4)
• Building a Lync Edge Infrastructure

Check out his blog here:

• BLOG: Dean Suzuki’s Blog Site
  http://deansuzuki.net

As we shared at SharePoint Conference, we’re working on native SkyDrive Pro apps for Windows 8 and iOS, both will be coming in summer of 2013. There, too, is a Windows desktop client that ships with Office 2013–and soon this "folder sync" technology will ship as a free, standalone installable client. In addition, the capabilities already come natively in Windows Phone (more on that below in the Office Hub section of this post).

You can use the SkyDrive Pro app for Windows 8 and iOS to:

• View documents in your SkyDrive Pro folder
• Select specific content to take offline when you travel
• Upload new content
• Create new folders and organize

For more information about our SharePoint Mobile offerings, visit the SharePoint Blog:

• POST: Out and about: New SharePoint mobile offerings
  http://blogs.office.com/b/sharepoint/archive/2013/03/06/out-and-about-new-sharepoint-mobile-offerings.aspx

As announced in our press release, Office 365 will be launching a series of commercials to help people understand how they can benefit from the power of Office and the connectivity of the cloud.

• Office 365: Keep your teams productive – anywhere
• Office 365: Your teams can work where and how they need to
• Office 365: Your team can work where and how they need to
• Office 365:  Keep your remote teams up and running

Wow.  Check out the speakers for this gig.  Mark Russinovich, Paul Thurrott, Wes Miller… just to name a few.

March 12, 2013 – One day in the cloud that could change the trajectory of your career

The transition to the cloud presents new and increased opportunities for technology professionals around the world. As the IT industry continues to evolve, skilled employees have never been more in demand by hiring managers.

Want to be a leader in Cloud technologies? Need training and tools you can use now? Join us for Certified Career Day on March 12 at 8:30AM PDT, for an interactive LIVE panel discussion with IT industry experts who will discuss how the Cloud is redefining IT recruitment. Then stay for in-depth discussions on Windows Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012 to learn how you need to prepare to get ahead of this inevitable shift in cloud-based technologies.

• REGISTER: Certified Career Day–March 12, 8:30AM PDT
  http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/CertifiedCareerDay/default.aspx 

Wanna boil down all the measurements you might get from your cloud operation into some intelligent optimization?

I am excited to announce that we are welcoming cloud monitoring startup MetricsHub  – a participant in the Microsoft Accelerator, powered by TechStars – to Windows Azure.  As an innovator in Active Cloud Monitoring, a technology that automates cloud performance management, MetricsHub helps customers more efficiently manage their cloud services at a lower cost.

Cloud solutions are compelling for a variety of reasons – scale, flexibility and value – particularly for companies looking to do more with less.  However, it’s difficult to understand, monitor and correlate all the application data points that tell you how and when you need to scale your application.  Then to get real value out of those data points you need to automate how your application and cloud platform intelligently respond.  That’s where MetricsHub’s technology comes in.  Their approach to automating performance optimization, with little effort on the part of customers, addresses these issues.  It also ensures customers are only paying for what they need and maximizing the services they’re using.

All Windows Azure customers can get started today – with the announcement of a pre-release, no charge, version of MetricsHub’s Active Cloud Monitoring – available now through the Windows Azure Store.  We think it’s going to save customers time, money and headaches.  You can learn more at the MetricsHub site.

• Microsoft Acquires MetricsHub
  http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/archive/2013/03/04/microsoft-acquires-metricshub.aspx
• MetricsHub is joining forces with Microsoft!
  http://blog.metricshub.com/2013/03/04/future-of-metricshub/

Here are seven simple reasons why Office 365 makes sense for Enterprise customers with Volume Licensing agreements with Microsoft – EVEN IF they aren’t interested in moving their existing files & mail data to the cloud or taking full advantage of the Online Services below:

1. SOCIAL NETWORKING
   Get immediate access to Yammer’s social media benefits for all your users, complete with enterprise security and controls.
2. OFFICE LICENSING FOR 5 DEVICES
   Install Office on up to 5 devices at no additional cost, increasing productivity and reducing costs / compliance issues.
3. SIDE-BY-SIDE USE WITH OFFICE 2003/07/10
   Ability to run the new version of Office side by side with earlier versions, eliminating the need for lengthy and costly compatibility testing.
4. REDUCE DEPLOYMENT COSTS
   Simplify Office deployment by delivering ‘click to run’ capabilities – either through the cloud or behind your firewall, on premises.
5. SECURE FILE SHARING
   Reduce risk, cost and network traffic by sharing documents easily and securely, both inside & outside your company, with Skydrive Pro & 7GB/user storage.
6. RAPID PROVISIONING
   Accelerate collaboration by using SharePoint Online to augment existing on premises collaboration tools. SharePoint Online can be instantly accessible for new projects or new team collaboration needs that can’t wait for the delays involved in setting up traditional collaboration capacity.
7. ENTERPRISE CAL
   Get immediate access to full enterprise functionality on premises or in the cloud (for CORE CAL users stepping up to E3).

*psst* 

We have an exclusive pre-launch event that the Microsoft Store is holding in Century City/Los Angeles to allow people to get a sneak peek at Gears of War: Judgment which releases March 19.

Why come?  Well, for you Marcus Fenix fans… you’ll need to learn a new name:  Damon Baird.  Look it up.  Meanwhile, we’ll be offering folks two things:

• the opportunity to compete with other Gears fans in the brand new OverRun mode
• view never-before-seen maps for multiplayer
• meet Gears of War team members from Epic Games!

Fans specifically will have the chance to meet Epic’s Senior Producer Alan Van Slyke (@AlanVanSlyke) and Marketing Assistant Natalie Brickell (@PixelK1tty). You’ll also have the chance to win t-shirts & prizes, including a Project GAEMS case!

DATE/TIME:

Wednesday, March 6th from 4PM-9PM

LOCATION:

Microsoft Store Los Angeles
(Westfield Century City)
10250 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90067
Phone: (310) 228-3550

Read more about the tour here:
http://epicgames.com/community/2013/02/gears-of-war-judgment-pre-launch-community-tour/

A twitter user hit me up the other day (hat tip rickyjr) and pointed me to this tool which I’d actually seen a while back but completely forgot about.  I think many of you in the “endpoint services” or “desktop IT” world will find it useful as well.

The tool is called “Double Driver”. In essence what it does is:

• List, save, and print drivers details
• Backup drivers from current Windows
• Backup drivers from non-live/non-booting Windows
• Backup drivers to structured folders, compressed (zipped) folder, and self-extracting capability
• Restore drivers from previous backup
• Available in GUI and CLI application
• Portable (no installation required)

The usage scenario is described as such:

One of the main reasons why you would want to collect installed drivers is if you don’t have the Driver CD that came with the computer or they are unavailable online. This comes in quite handy if you purchase a computer and want to backup the initial set of drivers. It can be quite difficulty for example to find drivers for hardware installed in a notebook if the operating system has to be setup again. Luckily Double Driver can now lend you a hand with that and save you a lot of time.

Best of all, it’s completely free.  It states it works on Windows XP/Vista/7 (32-bit or 64-bit) but it’s been tested on Windows 8 (32-bit/64-bit) as well.

• DOWNLOAD: Double Driver 4.1 (August 2010)
  http://boozet.org/dd.htm

It’s over!  Hope everyone had fun!  Attendees can review the content from the event here:
http://mylync.lyncconf.com/

If you missed it, yes, to the left is a photo of some of the fun you missed at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego. The session list is here:
http://www.lyncconf.com/sessions.aspx

Here’s some recaps of the event:

• Lync Conference 2013: Changing the Game
  Marty Parker – UC Strategies
  http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/lync-conference-2013-changing-the-game.aspx
• The Lync Room System
  The Lync Team – Microsoft
  http://blogs.technet.com/b/lync/archive/2013/02/19/the-lync-room-system-lrs.aspx
• Lync-Skype Connectivity Arriving by June 2013
  The Lync Team – Microsoft
  http://blogs.technet.com/b/lync/archive/2013/02/28/lync-skype-connectivity-arriving-by-june-2013.aspx
• Lync Conference 2013 – One Analyst’s Key Takeaways Spelled Out
  Rob Arnold – Frost & Sullivan
  http://www.frost.com/c/10107/blog/blog-display.do?bdata=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mcm9zdC5jb20vYy8xMDEwNy9ibG9nL
  2luZGV4LmRvQH5AQmxvZ0B%2BQDEzNjIwODE5MTA0NTc%3D&id=2429493
• Lync 2013 Brings the Human Element to Online Meetings
  B.K. Winstead – Windows IT Pro Magazine
  http://www.windowsitpro.com/blog/exchange-and-outlook-blog-8/lync-2013/lync-2013-human-element-online-meetings-145324
• Lync Conference 2013
  Trond Egil Gjelsvik-Bakke – UC Blog
  http://trogjels.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/lync-conference-2013/
• Lync Conference 2013:  That’s a Wrap!
  Ron Burns – Proton Media
  http://blog.protonmedia.com/2013/02/lync-conference-2013-thats-wrap.html

(Photos are from the Facebook page for the Lync Team:
https://www.facebook.com/msftLYNC)

Found this awesome post… couldn’t help but repost it.

Q: Are you interested in making Lync your turnkey phone system via Office 365?

Lync-to-phone for Office 365 gives your business the power of a complete communications system without having to install any costly equipment. With an appropriate Office 365 service plan and a Lync-to-phone provider, you can give your users a complete unified communications experience:

• Make calls to, and receive calls from, any phone number, using your laptop with full support for Lync-optimized PC peripherals like speakerphones or headsets. 
• Includes full support for IP desk phones with Lync Phone Edition

…

Read more here:

• Office 365 Technical Blog: “Lync-to-phone: What It Is and How It Works”
  http://community.office365.com/en-us/blogs/office_365_technical_blog/archive/2013/02/11/lync-to-phone-what-is-is-and-how-it-works.aspx