Kurt Shintaku's Blog

This matter has come up quite a bit:

• Q1: Does SharePoint Online provide provisions for allowing external clients to access file shares in the cloud?  We need to provide file sharing in the cloud to users to allow them to share files with clients and we don’t want to go with point solutions like BOX or DropBox if we can avoid it.

  A:  Yes, with SkyDrive Pro in SharePoint Online you can share files securely with external users. You have the option of forcing external users to login using a Microsoft Account ID or you can share using a Guest link without authentication. The following is a good link: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/office365-sharepoint-online-small-business-help/share-sites-or-documents-with-people-outside-your-organization-HA102894713.aspx?CTT=5&origin=HA102788380

• Q2: What is the allocated storage per person on SharePoint Online with the upcoming wave we are releasing?

  A:  7GB per person.  The following is a link that highlights this allocation of storage per user: http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blog/Pages/BlogPost.aspx?pID=1033

UPDATE 5/1/13:
We just released the Surface Pro Driver Pack for Windows 8, an important component to successfully creating custom installations of Windows 8 for Surface Pro.  Take a look at this post for more information.

UPDATE 4/24/13:
Well… if you’re reading this, it means you’re payin’ attention.  I’m going to have good news to post here soon, so stay tuned.  🙂

UPDATE 2/28/13:
I originally wrote a post here that essentially explained how to install “Windows 8 Enterprise” on a Surface Pro device, since Surface Pro comes natively installed with “Windows 8 Professional” & most Enterprise customers deploy the Enterprise edition of our client operating systems.

I’ve since been told that there many issues that can result from the process I originally documented.

Here are a few examples:

• Touch cover audible “clicks” will not work.
• SDXC cards will not perform as expected.
• Using the SDXC card slot can prevent the unit from going to sleep or dramatically reduce battery performance.
• The display may have features that fail because while the stock driver will work, the one that ships with Surface Pro is a custom Intel display driver.
• …

Consequently, I’m working with the Surface product team on presenting both a complete set of drivers and installation instructions that I’ll be able to publish here at a future date.

I apologize for the inconvenience to readers of this blog.

————————-

[BLOG POST REMOVED]

Just released, Forefront Identity Manager 2010 R2 SP1 adds additional features, increased speed and updated product support to rock-solid Identity Management.

To learn more about FIM 2010 R2 SP1:

• Blog announcement:
  http://blogs.technet.com/b/server-cloud/archive/2013/01/31/announcing-forefront-identity-manager-2010-r2-service-pack-1.aspx
• TechNet What’s New:
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj863246.aspx

Released today 2/21, Unified Access Gateway 2010 SP3 updates client support, fixes federation bugs and expands application publishing support. 

To learn more about UAG 2010 SP3:

• Blog announcement:
  http://blogs.technet.com/b/server-cloud/archive/2013/02/21/announcing-forefront-unified-access-gateway-service-pack-3.aspx
• TechNet What’s New:
  http://technet.microsoft.com/library/jj906310.aspx

The fervor over Surface & the incredible demand shouldn’t be terribly surprising in retrospect.  There’s been plenty of evidence that Windows on tablets has had accelerated growth & demand over the last 6 months.

CNET: Windows 8 touch PC demand strong
Touch-screen WIndows 8 PCs are in demand. In fact, PC makers can’t get enough supply of some models.
Dec 4^th, 2012

“"Touch machines are actually selling above expectations," said Bob O’Donnell, a program vice president at IDC.

And that means supply shortages. "Some vendors are actually facing shortages because touch panels are in limited supply. Vendors are saying they can’t get as many touch-based machines as they would like to meet the demand that they’re seeing."

Rhoda Alexander, an analyst at IHS iSuppli, echoed O’Donnell’s comments. "We’ve talked to a number of PC makers that are having trouble obtaining touch panels and some of the vendors I’ve talked to said they can’t keep them on the shelf," she said.”

Read more at:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57557191-75/windows-8-touch-pc-demand-strong/

Office 365 Virtual Launch Event:
Join us for a Virtual Launch Event for the new Office 365 for business.

February 27^th marks an important milestone with the general availability of the new Office 365 for business.  I would like to personally invite you to attend the virtual launch event to learn about the new enhancements to help drive productivity within your organization. As part of this event the CTO of Toyota, based here in southern California, will be highlighting their experience with the office 365 platform. Given our recent conversations around Office 365 I think this would be a valuable session for you and your team to attend.

Date:
Wednesday, February 27^th 8 am PDT and 5 pm PDT

Why Attend?

• Learn how the new Office 365 can help people do
  their best work in a world of devices and services
• Hear customers talk about how Office 365
  is transforming the way they deliver productivity
  tools across their organization
• See how Office 365 delivers new experiences
  combining the power of social with collaboration,
  email and unified communications
• Join in a live Q&A with Microsoft executives
  and product experts

REGISTER: Office 365 Virtual Launch Event
http://aka.ms/virtuallaunch

Together Microsoft and Crestron Offer a Collaboration and Video Solution for the Conference Room; Debuts at Microsoft Lync Conference 2013 in San Diego:

Crestron, a world leader in enterprise automation and management solutions, and Microsoft®, a world leader in software and services, have developed a powerful video-enabled collaboration solution for the meeting room. Crestron RL™ is a comprehensive solution that combines Crestron hardware with Microsoft Lync® software.

Read more here:
http://www.crestron.com/about/press_room/press_releases/show_release.asp?press_release_id=1801

Recently, a customer asked the question:

“With regard to virtual desktops on Microsoft’s hypervisor (Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V), can you leverage Nvidia VGX/GRID GPUs?”

The answer is, YES, the Nvidia VGX/GRID GPUs are some of the GPUs that Nvidia supports on the Windows Server 2012 RemoteFX vGPU solution.  So these are some of the GPUs you can virtualize to deliver vGPU enabled virtual desktops.

This is documented in the following articles:

• MICROSOFT: Your desktop will be a rich DX11-based experience, and your virtual GPU should be too
  http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2012/06/13/richvgpu.aspx
• NVIDIA: FOR BEST VIRTUAL DESKTOP: NVIDIA VGX & WINDOWS REMOTEFX
  http://blogs.nvidia.com/2012/06/for-best-virtual-desktop-nvidia-vgx-windows-remotefx/

Informative Graphics along with Gig Werks, also Microsoft Managed Partner, presented a webinar on January 29^th specifically targeted to the AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) industry. 

This is the recording of that session on Redlining, Publishing, and Distribution through SharePoint Server.

• VIDEO: SharePoint Solutions for the AEC: Redlining, Publishing, & Distribution
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qQXFC4zSxE

[Yet another article, I couldn’t help crosspost]

When I first heard of ReFS my immediate first question was whether ReFS as a file system was a direct replacement for NTFS. It didn’t take long before my customers began to ask me the same question. In learning about this new file system in Windows Server 2012, it became apparent fairly quickly that ReFS, while a new file system, is built differently. ReFS stands for Resilient File System. NTFS has its place, and so does ReFS. While ReFS may appear to have some similarity to NTFS, it does not contain all the underlying NTFS features and scales efficiently to handle data sets far larger than NTFS.

…

Read more here:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/askpfeplat/archive/2013/01/02/windows-server-2012-does-refs-replace-ntfs-when-should-i-use-it.aspx

[This was interesting enough that I thought I’d just cross post it]

As much as we love adding new features to Outlook, for the maintainability of our product we sometimes need to remove those that are out of date and aren’t utilized by a large number of users.  This allows us to focus on improving the Outlook features that most of you, our customers, rely on.

The following are some features that we’ve removed from Outlook 2013, and we want to make sure you are aware so there aren’t any surprises when you go to use or deploy the new version. 

…

Read about the 8 features no longer in Outlook 2013 here:

• POST: Outlook 2013 deprecated features and components
  http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-outlook/archive/2012/12/19/outlook-2013-deprecated-features-and-components.aspx