Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Wow.  Was there ever an easier & more confident way to slash annual Enterprise licensing costs than to switch to Microsoft Forefront Protection Suite?

The industry authority on malware threats, “Virus Bulletin” has released their latest comparative analysis of the performance & accuracy of anti-malware engines on the market.

MICROSOFT BESTS SYMANTEC & MCAFEE… AGAIN
For nearly two years now, Microsoft’s Anti-Malware engine has outperformed both Symantec & McAfee in “reactive/wild list” & “proactive/new threat detection” in Virus Bulletin’s 3rd party evaluation… and it’s done so by a long shot.  Doing a full 15-20% better on both test types, Microsoft’s Anti-Malware engine (the technology in Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010) has demonstrated malware protection head & shoulders above either vendor.  (See below for relative scores.)

After two years of underperforming to the Microsoft Forefront Suite against the most active & dangerous threats out there, one really has to ask the question: 

“Is all that marketing that the other guys sell security groups on worth the hefty cash these licensing contracts demand?”

The above is a snapshot of one part of the report.  For the full report, check out the Virus Bulletin web site below.

• SOURCE:  VB100 Comparative for August 2010 – February 2011
  http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/latest_comparative/index

Microsoft was recognized by Gartner as a Leader in Business Intelligence based on “Ability to Execute” and “Completion of Vision”. 

Because of restrictions Gartner places on what people are permitted to say about their research, I won’t comment other than to say, just click on the link for the Magic Quadrant and see for yourself (at no charge for the research)where Microsoft is.

Taken from the Microsoft Data Platform blog:

We are pleased to see Microsoft acknowledged by Gartner as a Leader in the Business Intelligence Platforms Magic Quadrant. [1]

I am happy to see this type of affirmation in our approach and strength of our technologies from Gartner. The high level of satisfaction of our current Microsoft Business Intelligence customers highlighted is especially gratifying. We believe our placement in this report reflects, in part, the level of positive customer feedback Microsoft has received in the customer survey portion of the evaluations. Focus on familiar, intuitive user experiences delivered via high quality, industry-leading products that businesses already know and use today is key to making BI truly pervasive.

Microsoft Business Intelligence delivers on the vision of “Pervasive Insight” as witnessed by the higher than average deployment of BI solutions recorded by our customers. By providing end user BI capabilities through familiar Microsoft Office experiences such as SharePoint and Excel, we empower an entirely new segment of business users to build and consume rich BI solutions as part of their everyday work. Delivering the server-side capabilities to enable self-service BI via SharePoint Server and SQL Server gives IT a common, quality data foundation, feature-rich collaborative decision making environment, and empowers IT oversight and insight into what solutions are being built and who is using them.

Read more at:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/dataplatforminsider/archive/2011/02/11/microsoft-recognized-by-gartner-as-a-leader-in-business-intelligence-based-on-ability-to-execute-and-completion-of-vision.aspx

For the Americans that don’t understand what Nokia means, this is an alliance of utterly galactic proportions. 

For example:

• Nokia owns NAVTEQ is a leader in comprehensive digital mapping and navigation services
• Nokia owns Nokia Ovi, a mobile services provider for music, maps, apps, email, etc.
• Nokia has operator billing agreements in virtually every country to facilitate phone purchases in places where credit cards are rarely used.

Oh yeah.  And they’re the world’s #1 marketshare leading phone manufacturer.

Two major posts about this were made on each company’s sites respectively:

• Nokia and Microsoft Announce Plans for a Broad Strategic Partnership to Build a New Global Mobile Ecosystem
  http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2011/feb11/02-11partnership.mspx
• Open Letter from CEO Stephen Elop, Nokia and CEO Steve Ballmer, Microsoft
  http://conversations.nokia.com/2011/02/11/open-letter-from-ceo-stephen-elop-nokia-and-ceo-steve-ballmer-microsoft/

Two training courses are being offered in the upcoming months:

• Exchange Server 2010 Client Access & Compliance (Part I)
  In this lab, you will: 
• Configure and test the MailTips functionality within Microsoft® Exchange 2010, review some of the new features in Outlook Web App (OWA), and experience using a Microsoft Windows Mobile® Device Emulator.
• Information Leakage Protection and Control: in this lab exercise, you will configure Rights Management Service (RMS) and integrate RMS as a component of Microsoft® Exchange 2010 transport security.
• Exchange Server 2010 Ignite Hands On Lab (Part II)
  Learn about the new features in Exchange Server 2010 in this half day hands-on lab. Topics include:
• Exchange Server 2010 Transport Routing – In this lab exercise, you will simulate failures in various components of Microsoft® Exchange 2010 transport and learn about improvements made in high availability and manageability of transport systems.
• Exchange Server 2010 High Availability and Storage Scenarios – During this lab, you will use the DC01, EX01, EX02, and EX03 virtual computers to gain hands-on experience with the new high availability features of Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010.

Registration: To register, please contact me if you are a customer of mine for more information.  This special, no charge training series will fill quickly and space is limited, so be sure to register as soon as possible to reserve your seat.

What is a virtual hands-on-lab:
This isn’t your typical IT class. A hands-on lab online is an invite only event that combines LiveMeeting with a virtual lab.  Attendees and presenters login from anywhere. Attendees watch a brief LiveMeeting presentation, then spend most of the time getting hands-on experience working through all, or just self-selected modules of the entire lab – at their own pace, and receive real–time, personal, one-on-one attention from the presenter.  In addition, there’s a proctor available for technical support and to answer more attendee questions.

Date

• Thursday, March 31, 2011 – Client Access & Compliance
• Friday, April 1^st, 2011 – Transport Routing, High Availability & Storage Scenarios

Time 9:00am – 1:00pm Pacific Time

Location: Virtual Hands On Lab Classroom. 

Before the Event:

• Check virtual lab for your computer http://test.vlabcenter.com/hv/default.aspx
• Install the ActiveX control. The Microsoft "Virtual Machine Remote Control" ActiveX control is required to start the virtual lab.
• Review system requirements.
• If you have any issues, please contact support.

The Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Planning Tool provides prescriptive guidance to get you started with planning your topology.

The Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Planning Tool asks you a series of questions about your organization and the features that you are interested in. The planning tool will then use your answers to recommend a topology based on the tested Microsoft Lync Server 2010 user model. Your organization may have a different user model. If so, you should adjust the recommended topology as necessary to fit your organization’s needs.

What’s New in the Planning Tool for Lync Server 2010?

• You can select virtualized server roles for your topology.
• The Planning Tool offers more granular capacity guidance than in earlier releases.
• You can customize individual branch site information.
• The topology pages display site information, such as number of users and number of enabled users for various modalities.
• The Planning Tool invites you to participate in the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP), helping make the planning tool better.
• You can view your edge network diagram and enter FQDNs and IP addresses and view the certificates, DNS settings, and firewall settings for your edge network in the central sites when using DNS Load Balancing or Hardware Load Balancing for Edge Servers. You can also import this information to Topology Builder. You can also export the diagram and the data to the Microsoft Visio drawing and diagramming software.
• You can export your topology file to Topology Builder for a faster, easier Lync Server setup experience.
• You can export the global topology, with its corresponding branch sites, as well as the number of concurrent calls connecting each central site, to the PSTN into Visio. The Visio output contains improved drawings for each of the site topologies.
• The Planning Tool exports a list of the hardware for all sites, including branch sites, to a Microsoft Excel worksheet.
• The Planning Tool accommodates more supported topologies for Enterprise Voice and dial-in conferencing.
• Navigation between topologies and server information has been improved.
• You can resize or maximize the Planning Tool window to better accommodate your screen resolution.
• The Planning Tool provides a menu bar and a toolbar for available actions.
• The Planning Tool incorporates new Microsoft Lync Server 2010 features and topology recommendations.
• Users are now evenly distributed among the Front End pools.

DOWNLOAD:  Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Planning Tool
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=bcd64040-40c4-4714-9e68-c649785cc43a

DOWNLOAD:  Planning Guide for Lync Server 2010
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=2DA9FA26-E032-4DCF-B487-DA916DDC508F

Yesterday, we announced today the latest addition to MDOP.  I know many of you have anticipated a better solution for monitoring, recovery, and reporting of BitLocker and that solution is coming.

WHAT IS MICROSOFT BITLOCKER ADMINISTRATION & MONITORING?
MBAM builds on BitLocker in Windows 7 and offers an enterprise solution for BitLocker provisioning, monitoring and key recovery.  MBAM will help simplify BitLocker provisioning and deployments, improve compliance and reporting, and reduce support costs.

Simplify Provisioning and Deployment

• Integrates into existing Windows 7 deployment process: Organizations can integrate the MBAM client into their task sequence setup in System Center Configuration Manager/ Microsoft Deployment Toolkit or their other Windows 7 deployment tools.  The client then automates the encryption process as part of the deployment.
• End Users Can Start the Encryption Process: For organizations that deploy MBAM after they have deployed Windows 7, the MBAM agent provides a standard user the ability to start the encryption process.   This enhances the BitLocker out of box experience where the end user must have administrative rights to accomplish this.
• Target only the hardware you want to encrypt: IT Professionals can exclude hardware by make and model, making sure that only machines capable of meeting the encryption policy are encrypted.

Improve Compliance and Reporting

• Know how compliant the organization is: Security administrators and IT Professionals can understand which machines are encrypted and meet the organizational policy through out of the box reports.
• More secure recovery key storage: IT Professionals have an alternative to storing BitLocker recovery key information in Active Directory.  Machines with the MBAM client will send BitLocker recovery key information to an encrypted SQL database.

Reduce Support Costs

• Streamline key recovery for the help desk:  MBAM provides a web page that allows the help desk to quickly get the user’s recovery key if they get into BitLocker recovery mode.  The help desk no longer needs access to Active Directory when the organization is using MBAM.
• Use a recovery key only once: When a recovery key is retrieved and used, the MBAM client will automatically generate a new recovery key for that PC so that the original key cannot be used to gain access to the machine again
• Empower end users to do the basics:  MBAM allows an end user with standard user rights to perform basic BitLocker tasks like changing their PIN or start the encryption process which saves them from calling the help desk.

More on MBAM is available on the Windows Team Blog:
Microsoft Announces Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/springboard/archive/2011/02/09/microsoft-announces-microsoft-bitlocker-administration-and-monitoring-mbam.aspx

Miercom, a respected 3rd party consultancy & research organization specializing in testing & certifying VoIP solutions & technologies, recently produced a report that was very complimentary of Microsoft’s Lync 2010 Unified Communications solution.

Some quotes include:

• “Microsoft Lync 2010 should be in the short list of top three to consider for enterprises communications infrastructure upgrades.”
• “Microsoft Lync Server 2010 was able to sustain heavy call volume without dropping any calls or reporting any errors in a 4 million call completion test. The delivery rate with sustained operation without error is the highest capacity test applied to any Unified Communications / IP PBX product we have tested to date.”

The 24 page report is freely downloadable at:

• REPORT:  Microsoft Lync 2010 Unified Communications (January 2011)
  http://www.miercom.com/dl.php?fid=20110125&type=report

• Are you or your friends looking for an entry-level job?
• Do you dream and aspire to be a part of the next generation of IT innovators?
• Do you want to learn about careers in the technology industry?
• Do you have the skills IT employers are looking for?

If you answered ‘Yes’ to any of the question above, then be sure that Microsoft’s S2B (Student to Business) program is here to help! (Not in US? Click here)

The Microsoft S2B portal connects students with entry-level jobs and internships in the Microsoft partner community — more than 10,000 U.S. companies — filling open job requirements with available talent and building the pipeline of skilled workers in the technology industry.

What is in it for Students?

• Skills: Career streams, training and certification offers, filling the gap between the skills that students graduate with and the skills needed for employment.
• Software: Access to software via DreamSpark and MSDNAA at no cost.
• Experience: Meet and compete with other student innovators at the Imagine Cup.
• JOBS: Access to entry-level Job postings from Microsoft partners & customers.

At S2B, we believe: Skills + Software + Experience = Job

Register today at http://S2B.experience.com

(Not in US? Click here)

We’ve published performance tuning guidelines for Windows Server 2008 R2.

• WHITEPAPER: Performance Tuning Guidelines for Windows Server 2008 R2
  http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/sysperf/
  Perf_tun_srv-R2.mspx

Included in this whitepaper are guidelines around tuning the OS for the following workloads:

• Choosing and Tuning Server Hardware
• Performance Tuning for the Networking Subsystem
• Performance Tuning for the Storage Subsystem
• Performance Tuning for Web Servers
• Performance Tuning for File Servers
• Performance Tuning for Active Directory Servers
• Performance Tuning for Remote Desktop Session Host (formerly Terminal Server)
• Performance Tuning for Remote Desktop Gateway
• Performance Tuning for Virtualization Servers
• Performance Tuning for File Server Workload (NetBench)
• Performance Tuning for File Server Workload (SPECsfs2008)
• Performance Tuning for Network Workload (NTttcp)
• Performance Tuning for Remote Desktop Services Knowledge Worker Workload
• Performance Tuning for SAP Sales and Distribution Two-Tier Workload
• Performance Tuning for TCP-E Workload

If you are deploying Windows Server 2008 and want to learn about the benefits of Rights Management you may benefit from the following information on Active Directory Rights Management Services.

• Active Directory Rights Management Services Overview
  Includes information about AD RMS, the required and optional features in AD RMS, and hardware and software used for running AD RMS. At the end of this topic, learn how to open the AD RMS console and how to find more information about AD RMS.
• Active Directory Rights Management Services TechCenter page on TechNet
  A very detailed list of resources for RMS.
• Active Directory Rights Management Services page on the Windows Sever 2008 Roles and Technology Page
  Includes all the resources in one place, including reference documents, step-by-steps guides and Videos.