Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Music to my ears.

At NAB in Las Vegas in the past couple weeks, we relaunched the Microsoft Media Platform, which bought together all of Microsoft’s media tools, technology, and offerings under a single framework and umbrella.

Built on the powerful foundations of Windows Media Server, IIS, Expression Encoder, and PlayReady, the Microsoft Media Platform provides functions for every stage of digital media processes and can be easily integrated into existing workflows and third-party services. The Microsoft Media Platform can be used to deliver content to a variety of client technologies including HTML5, Silverlight and native devices.

• WEB: Microsoft Media Platform
  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mediaplatform

More about NAB’s announcements here:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/mediablog/archive/2011/04/22/nab-2011-recap.aspx

We’ve just released v2.6 of two customer-ready documents known as our Product Portfolio One-pager.

The one-page shows all of Microsoft products in a single scalable view.  I have them available in .PDF as well as a Visio document for managed customers of mine that are interested.

The documents are viewable from ZOOM.IT, leveraging Microsoft Deep Zoom technology.  Enjoy!

• Microsoft Product Portfolio – Enterprise View
  http://zoom.it/7EQf
• Microsoft Product Portfolio – All Up View
  http://zoom.it/CuHw

EVOLVING FROM PRINCIPLES TO PRACTICES

Industry and government decision makers are increasingly aware that operational security protections and regulatory compliance are insufficient in protecting global applications and infrastructures. Organizations are realizing the value of secure development practices and seek to accelerate adoption and articulate this value to management.

The inaugural Security Development Conference 2012 (SDC 2012) will bring together industry professionals to network and learn from security experts about secure development practices. SDC 2012 will include information for leaders in software engineering, process and business management who are responsible for implementing or accelerating the adoption and effectiveness of secure development practices in their organizations.

Visit https://www.securitydevelopmentconference.com for more information & registration details.

DATE:
May 15-16, 2012

LOCATION:
The Fairmont – Washington D.C.
2401 M Street, NW
Washington, District of Columbia, 20037
United States

AGENDA:
https://www.securitydevelopmentconference.com/Agenda.aspx

REGISTRATION: ($100 off until April 13th!)
https://www.securitydevelopmentconference.com/registrationselect.aspx

I keep hearing people refer to the the Samsung Series 7 Tablet PC as being the same hardware as the device that was handed out at our developer event “BUILD”.

This is not true.  The Series 7 Slates are technically different devices in comparison to the devices handed out at BUILD.  Here’s a chart that goes over what the different technical specifications between each:

(Taken from http://www.samsung.com/global/windowspreview/)

Friends, the final and complete version of Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2012, by Ross Mistry (@RossMistry) and Stacia Misner (@StaciaMisner), is now ready as a free download! You can download the PDF version of this title here (288 pages; 10.8 MB).

We will update this post soon with links to EPUB and MOBI files. We expect these files to be available by March 23.

UPDATE: The EPUB is here, and the MOBI is here.

If you prefer a hard copy of the book, you can order it here for $14.99.

Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2012 includes 10 chapters:

PART I DATABASE ADMINISTRATION (by Ross Mistry)
1. SQL Server 2012 Editions and Engine Enhancements
2. High-Availability and Disaster-Recovery Enhancements
3. Performance and Scalability
4. Security Enhancements
5. Programmability and Beyond-Relational Enhancements

PART II BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE DEVELOPMENT (by Stacia Misner)
6. Integration Services
7. Data Quality Services
8. Master Data Services
9. Analysis Services and PowerPivot
10. Reporting Services

We are releasing this title to help you learn about the new features and capabilities in SQL Server 2012, which Microsoft released to manufacturing (RTM) on March 6, 2012. You can expect general availability of the product to begin on April 1, 2012.

Please help us share the news about this ebook. And enjoy!

<original post at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_press/archive/2012/03/15/free-ebook-introducing-microsoft-sql-server-2012.aspx>

Software Restriction Policies (SRP) was originally designed in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 to help IT professionals limit the number of applications that would require administrator access. With the introduction of User Account Control (UAC) and the emphasis of standard user accounts in Windows Vista, fewer applications today require administrator privileges. As a result, AppLocker was introduced to expand the original goals of SRP by allowing IT administrators to create a comprehensive list of applications that should be allowed to run.

The following table compares AppLocker to SRP:

For more information visit the AppLocker resource pages on Microsoft.com:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd723678(v=ws.10).aspx

Note: The above content is the same content from the Technet article “AppLocker: Frequently Asked Questions” at:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee619725(v=WS.10).aspx#BKMK_SRPdifferences.

A customer pointed me to this document about whitelisting produced by the National Security Agency and I thought it was rather interesting:

• Application Whitelisting Using Software Restriction Policies
  http://www.nsa.gov/ia/_files/os/win2k/Application_Whitelisting_Using_SRP.pdf

What is different in the NSA’a approach from typical whitelisting techniques is that they actually restrict where applications can be installed and run.

NSA’s Application Whitelisting Breakthrough (February 10, 2012) The National Security Agency (NSA) has developed an approach to application whitelisting that consumes considerably fewer resources to deploy than standard whitelisting techniques. Instead of purchasing expensive software and employing people to update whitelists, the NSA’s approach focuses on specific areas of computers where downloaded applications are permitted to execute.

Discussed online in various posts, the approach essentially takes the functionality built into Windows and adapts it for this new approach to securing an organization from threats.  (http://gcn.com/articles/2012/02/13/nsa-whitelisting-apps-secure-systems.aspx, http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20120210_8712.php?oref=topnews)

This brings up the topic, “How is whitelisting implemented within Windows 7?”  The implementation for Enterprises using Windows 7 Enterprise Edition is called AppLocker and is a dramatic improvement over the Software Restriction Policies that are available within Windows XP, a pseudo-whitelisting technology that was implemented in the Windows XP timeframe.

Here are some references to better understand Windows 7 Enterprise Edition’s AppLocker technology:

• OVERVIEW: AppLocker: IT’s First Security Panacea?
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2009.10.geekofalltrades.aspx
• VIDEO:  Windows 7 AppLocker Video Walkthrough
  PLAY: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd320283
  DOWNLOAD: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=12084
• DOCUMENTATION:  AppLocker Technical Documentation
  ONLINE: http://technet.microsoft.com/library/dd723678.aspx
  DOWNLOAD: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=13431
• CASE STUDY: AppLocker Deployment at Microsoft
  http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28372

Over the past year, Microsoft has been discussing the vast possibilities offered by the emergence of a new category within the traditional embedded market — intelligent systems. Microsoft outlined a product road map for its intelligent systems vision. 

As part of that plan, Microsoft is making the Windows Embedded Standard 8 community technology preview (CTP) available on the x86 architecture.  The Windows Embedded Standard 8 CTP is an important step in giving developers and enterprises an opportunity to evaluate Windows 8 technologies for connecting specialized devices to powerful back-end software.  With the recent release of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview and Windows Server 8 beta, along with this week’s launch of SQL Server 2012 and Windows Embedded Standard 8 CTP, Microsoft is offering a good look at a new, common set of technologies that spans specialized devices, servers, PCs and applications.

• DATASHEET:  Windows Standard 8 CTP
  http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/8/8/788683FC-9E7E-4090-8272-B9CE73E0C7B2/Windows%20Embedded%20Standard%208%20CTP_datasheet.pdf
• DOWNLOAD: Windows Embedded Standard 8 Community Technology Preview
  http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/evaluate/windows-embedded-standard-8-ctp.aspx

It’s free!  So jump on it!

TechNet Virtual Lab: System Center 2012 Configuration Manager: Migration from Configuration Manager 2007

After completing this lab, you will be better able to configure a Configuration Manager 2012 hierarchy to migrate data from a Configuration Manager 2007 environment, create migration jobs based on collections and on individual objects, migrate objects from Configuration Manager 2007 to Configuration Manager 2012, and migrate a client to Configuration Manager 2012.

• VIRTUAL LAB: Migrating from Configuration Manager 2007 to Configuration Manager 2012
  https://cmg.vlabcenter.com/default.aspx?moduleid=939bdf0f-fe3e-431c-8da8-8fc8a13d5774

Wow!  Microsoft’s cloud productivity services drop 20% in price! 

Customers continue to give us fantastic feedback on Office 365. Since we launched last summer, we’ve been happy to serve great companies like JetBlue, Patagonia, Campbell Soup Company, Groupe Marie Claire, and Tata Steel Europe. We’re regularly delivering new value in the service, releasing updates now monthly, and recently brought Office 365 to another 22 new markets to grow our global footprint to 64 geographies – with more to come!

As we rapidly add customers, the cost to run Office 365 becomes more efficient. This is the beauty of the cloud where we can deliver economies of scale through our worldwide data centers and economies of skill with our engineers, administrators, and support teams operating the service.

With these efficiencies, we’re able pass on savings to make it even more affordable for customers of all sizes to move to Office 365. So, I’m thrilled to announce that we’re lowering the prices of most of our Office 365 for enterprise plans by up to 20%. These changes are effective today at Office365.com for new and renewing direct customers.

Read more at the Office 365 blog:  http://bit.ly/A9dgP7