Microsoft Offline VM Servicing Tool 2.1 Release

Microsoft have just released an updated offline VM servicing tool, which allows you to keep virtual machines that may be offline for a while, up to date with patches and the like.

Offline machines (which there are many of typically) do not automatically receive operating system, antivirus, or application updates that would keep them compliant with current IT policy. An out-of-date virtual machine may pose a risk to the IT environment. If deployed and started, the out-of-date virtual machine might be vulnerable to attack or could be capable of attacking other network resources.

You will need System Center (SCVMM) for this to work, which is understandable as this is a management operation.

You also need some mechanism for actually patching/updating the virtual machines.  This is handled by one of the following:

• Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) 3.0 or WSUS 3.0 SP1
• System Center Configuration Manager

OVMST uses “servicing jobs” to manage the update operations based on lists of existing virtual machines stored in VMM. Using Windows Workflow Foundation technology, a servicing job runs snippets of Windows PowerShell scripts (against SCVMM, which is built on PowerShell) to work with virtual machines. For each virtual machine, the servicing job:

• “Wakes” the virtual machine (deploys it to a host and starts it).
• Triggers the appropriate software update cycle (Configuration Manager or WSUS).
• Shuts down the updated virtual machine and returns it to the library.

Its a good solution to solve the offline issue of virtualisation – try it, you can download it from here:

Google Apps Beefs Up Enterprise Messaging

The Google Apps hosted communication and collaboration suite, which contains e-mail, calendar, office applications and a Web site builder, among other applications, is gaining a new component: discussion forums with mailing lists.

As has been the case with its other components, Apps is fetching this latest application from Google's consumer services,and giving it the necessary support to make it suitable for a workplace setting, like IT administration controls.

The Groups application, which will go live on Wednesday, allows for the creation of mailing lists for group members, but also lets users embed other Apps components into the forums, including calendars, word-processing documents, presentations, videos and spreadsheets. Content posted to the forums is indexed in full text and searchable.

Groups is available in the Education and Premier editions of Apps, but not in the Standard edition. Apps administrators need to activate Groups for their domain, at which point end-users can create forums  without IT intervention. The IT department can establish policies and access rights for groups. Group owners also can manage certain settings for their forums and lists.

Looks like a good addition to us, wonder when Wave will join in?

Microsoft Core Configurator 2.0 Ships

Anyone who’s deployed Windows Server 2008 (Pre-R2) with the Server Core deployment option will know it requires a slight behavioural change from what most Windows guys will have been used to.

With a reduced overhead, less patching, reduced attack surface, and the ability to trim the install size still further using DISM, there are some key benefits to using Core, however, for some, those benefits are outweighed by the additional ‘overhead’ around managing the thing!  Locally at least.

Step up Core Configurator.  Developed by Andrew Auret and Tony Ison from Microsoft UK, this little tool, which can be run from a USB stick, gave the usual GUI-admins much more of a GUI to work with, simplifying and speeding up implementation of aspects such as installing Roles and Features, managing Windows Updates, and Licenses, but also turning on things like MPIO and setting iSCSI options.  For those of you who haven’t seen it, it looked like this:

As you can see, even in V1, it was a much simpler and more streamlined interface than just using CMD!

Now V2 is upon us, with significant GUI and usability improvements:

 

As you can see, it’s pretty rich, and you can run it directly from a USB stick, so it’s always handy to have with you!  What else can it do?

• Product Licensing
• Networking Features
• DCPromo Tool
• ISCSI Settings
• Server Roles and Features
• User and Group Permissions
• Share Creation and Deletion
• Dynamic Firewall settings
• Display | Screensaver Settings
• Add & Remove Drivers
• Proxy settings
• Windows Updates (Including WSUS)
• Multipath I/O
• Hyper-V including virtual machine thumbnails
• JoinDomain and Computer rename
• Add/remove programs
• Services
• WinRM
• Complete logging of all commands executed.

Thanks to Matt from Microsoft for pointing this out to us!  Fantastic.

You can download it here.

Citrix Launches New Education Licensing to Jumpstart Campus-wide Adoption of Desktop Virtualisation

Citrix have officially announced the general availability of the campus wide licensing model for education users of XenDesktop, we first got wind of this a couple of weeks back and have already had a vast amount of interest shown in it.  The salient points from the press release from yesterday reads:

Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTXS), today announced a new campus-wide licensing option for educational organisations worldwide, making it easy and cost-effective to deliver unlimited virtual desktops and applications to every faculty and staff member, and student. The new campus-wide option is part of the company’s longstanding Education Licensing program, which is a simple, flexible program that helps education customers get the most up-to-date technology, even on a limited budget. Academic institutions at both the K-12 and university level have been early leaders of the virtual desktop revolution, boasting significant cost savings with some of the largest desktop virtualisation deployments in production. With the introduction of the Citrix campus-wide option, educational institutions can now take advantage of the industry’s most comprehensive desktop virtualisation solution, Citrix XenDesktop™ 4, on a broad scale for as little as $9 per student.

Program Pricing
The Citrix Education Licensing program now consists of two options for customers based on their individual purchasing needs.

Campus-Wide Pricing – based on a specific Full-time Equivalent (FTE) student count where 100 percent of students are licensed in a school, department, district or campus. Faculty and staff can be covered under the same terms and pricing as students. Campus-wide pricing is available now for annual licenses (includes Subscription Advantage) of XenDesktop at the following suggested program list prices:

• XenDesktop 4 VDI edition – $9 per student per year
• XenDesktop 4 Enterprise edition – $19 per student per year
• XenDesktop 4 Platinum edition – $29 per student per year

For details on Campus-Wide licensing, please visit www.citrix.com/campus

Standard Education Pricing – provides a 40 percent discount from the Suggested List Price on “a la carte” purchases of all Citrix products.

For further information on this please contact us

Top 5 Cloud Predictions for 2010

Well the start of a new decade is looming large, and a decade of innovation is nearly over, already to be superseded by slicker ways of working; one such way that has seriously gained momentum is Cloud computing, so we thought we would share a recent survey from InfoWorld on the predictions for cloud computing in 2010.

1. Rise of standards

The development of cloud computing standards and the use of cloud computing standards to promote interoperability was more conceptual in nature in 2009. In 2010 we should start to see some real traction in this area. Many user organisations are waiting on the sidelines for these standards to become real before they move data and applications to cloud providers. Some of the organisations to watch include the Open Cloud Consortium (OCC) and committees work within the Object Management Group and Open Group. However, many of the cloud computing providers that are trying to create standards as a means of marketing will abandon them in 2010 or 2011.

2. First major cloud computing provider outages

While we did see Gmail go down a few times this year, for the most part we've not had a major outage of a large cloud computing provider. However, two things will change that record: the rapid rise of the use of cloud computing providers, and the fact that most of these providers are still testing and refining their platforms. This is bound to lead to one or two major cloud computing outages that will hit the press and once again call into question the value of cloud computing. Despite the outages, cloud computing providers will maintain an uptime record that far exceeds that of most on-premise systems, but you won't hear about that in the technology press.

3. Microsoft will be relevant in the cloud

Most people in the world of cloud computing consider Microsoft a punch line. However, with the rise of Azure and Microsoft Office Web Apps, Microsoft will find itself well placed in the clouds. Most Global 2000 companies, if they are existing Microsoft Office customers, will find Microsoft is the best glide path to cloud computing. Google will continue to dominate small to medium-sized businesses, using its free ad-driven model for delivery of Google Docs and Gmail, with a few larger enterprise deals thrown in

4. Rapid consolidation of existing providers

Cloud computing is exploding, and as it expands, the larger providers will either want to buy in or expand their presence in the marketplace. Either way, the smaller cloud providers will disappear from the landscape as companies such as Oracle, IBM, and Hewlett-Packard suck up as much as they can, as fast as they can, to keep up with expected revenue growth and the shift to a cloud-service delivery model.

5. Rapid rise of cloud computing start-ups

With consolidation comes increased market value. With increased market value comes VC-backed innovative cloud computing start-ups offering everything and anything that can be delivered as a service. I think the bulk of the innovation will occur here, and the most exciting aspect of what I do will be keeping up with those guys. Perhaps the best of cloud computing is yet to come.

EMC automates data tiering across storage array lines

EMC has announced delivery of its fully automated storage tiering (FAST) technology across its Symmetrix, Clariion and Celerra line of storage arrays. The technology will allow data volumes to be dynamically moved between tiers of storage, depending on business performance requirements.

The first phase of EMC FAST technology is available immediately for new and existing EMC Symmetrix V-Max and EMC Clariion CX4 networked storage systems, as well as EMC Celerra NS unified storage systems. FAST will identify data sets at the volume level only and, on average, will allow sets down to a gigabyte to be automatically moved between storage tiers initially.

EMC also laid out its strategic direction for other advances in automated tiering technology, which will eventually allow its software to identify data sets smaller than a megabyte in size and move them to the most appropriate level of data storage -- be it solid state drives (SSD), Fibre Channel, or SATA.

While it can be completely automated, FAST also allows storage administrators to work in a "user approval mode," where an admin is notified through a wizard before data is actually migrated to other drives. That way, users can get accustomed to using the FAST technology before implementing it in full auto mode.

EMC said its FAST roadmap involves combining capabilities such as sub-LUN tiering; capacity allocation on demand; block and file level deduplication; data compression; disk drive spin down; built-in archiving; and private and public cloud federation.

The state of Enterprise Architecture in 2009

In September-October Forrester conducted its State of Enterprise Architecture (EA) survey – a broad look at EA in the context of the IT & business organisation. They asked respondents questions ranging from where does the architecture function report, to the state of completeness of various architecture domains, the key technologies firms will be making significant architecture decisions about, and the degree of support for EA by various constituencies ranging from application developers to corporate business management.

From their survey two statistics really stood out:

They asked survey respondents – who were primarily architects in large enterprises – to identify the drivers for the EA program.

The interesting thing about this is that the top drivers are predominately strategic and business-focused ones: enable better planning, improve business agility, enable better Business-IT alignment. The more technical and tactical ones were generally lower in priority. 

But it is also clear that EA teams are struggling with how to act on these drivers. When asked about themes for the EA program for 2010, the results grouped around greater involvement with projects and project governance.  And when we asked about the state of completeness of various architecture viewpoints, it’s clear that EA has made the most progress on the more technical and less business-focused architectures:

Some interesting information to ponder on here, the original source of this is from Forester, and can be found here.

Framework for IT Strategy

A survey by McKinsey Quarterly, suggests that most CIOs believe that they are successfully aligning IT strategy with the needs of the businesses they serve.  This means CIOs are collaborating with the business in ways that add significant value, rather than just reacting to the demands of the business.

The important item from this article is the McKinsey framework for IT Strategy (see below)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Organisations that have mastered the art of business collaboration may be poised to move to a more advanced form of strategic planning, a level at which they can truly show the business how, where, and when to use IT as a competitive weapon according to the survey.

The survey also finds that IT strategy in most companies has not yet reached its full potential which involves exploiting innovation to drive constant improvement in the operations of a business and to give it a real advantage over competitors with new products and capabilities.

This shift to the next level of IT strategy will require changes in management and budget priorities, as well as multiyear planning, which less than two-thirds of our survey respondents acknowledge doing. To use IT as a strategic tool, a company must look beyond the annual planning cycle and take an integrated, midrange view of technology, competitive developments, and the strategic actions required to address them.

Based upon numerous conversations I have had within 2009 with organisations of many sizes, many IT departments have not yet made a significant push into this area of forward planning.

10 things to know about Cloud Computing Strategy

Here are 10 important aspects of Cloud computing according to eWeek print article titled “10 things you should know now about Cloud Storage and Computing”.

1)      Public/ Private Clouds: Cloud computing will not replace current IT infrastructure in a company but will morph into a mix of public and private cloud.   Most enterprises will take advantage of existing resource and will learn to bifurcate their infrastructure into private and public cloud.

2)      Cloud application: Cloud computing is ideally suited for pre-production workload like testing and development.  Organisations can take advantage of cloud infrastructure to build robust applications.

3)      One Size doesn’t fit all: Cloud computing should be built to take into account company’s specific business challenges and needs.  Just as ERP does not solve all the organisations business problem, cloud computing and storage will not solve all the business issues

4)      Cloud IT Strategy: Cloud computing is an important part of a company’s IT Strategy.  This means that IT organisations needs to spend quality time to make sure that their ‘cloud’ strategy should be in alignment with IT Strategy and Business Strategy.

5)      Planning: Sophisticated system management platform need to set up and cloud computing needs a viable management plan.

6)      Delivery model, not a black box: Important thing to recognise is that cloud computing is a delivery model, not a technology. It is a combination of some known mature technologies (like SaaS) has helped to create a paradigm shift in how IT is delivered.

7)      Not just for small players: Cloud computing is not meant for only SME (small and medium enterprises) only.  Similar to SaaS delivery model initially attracted capital strapped SMEs so is cloud computing.

8)      Self –service capacity: Cloud computing will help propel ‘self service’ capability just as ATM did for banking industry.

9)      Standardising business model: Cloud computing is not just about improving efficiencies by maximising capital expenses and reducing operating expenses.  It can help drive standardisation of business process within organisations and across organisations.

10)   Choose the right workload: IT management need to develop capability to understand merits and demerits of cloud and use it for the right workload.

Aligning IT Operations and IT Strategy

The CIO’s role is one of communicating a vision and driving a change management strategy that will result in greater user and organisational acceptance of the projects selected for development. 

Organisational change management is crucial especially in this global recession. A change management strategy formally introduces initiatives to everyone affected by them, and should also introduce any new roles or expectations to team members to get everyone on the same page at the same time.  The IT department should embark on projects that will positively impact business strategy.

Research from The Standish Group International Inc. on project success rates found that 24% of projects are cancelled partway through or delivered and not used. The SearchCIO.com survey showed that just 11% of large organisations complete all projects in their development queue; the majority (54%) report an abandonment rate of 1% to 10%. The final third don’t finish 11% to 50% of projects. The article also notes that change management should be the starting point because the overall [project management] strategy will succeed or fail based on this.  Tighter budgets have led many organisations to add checkpoints for proposals, aimed at weeding out unnecessary or unrealistic projects before they even start.

If there is a silver lining in this global recession, I think  role of CIO has been elevated.  Developing a vision that meets business objectives and the needs of stakeholders is now being expected for the first time from a CIO. CIOs are expected not only to keep operational spend under control but mainly make progress on IT strategies. The article notes that balancing IT operation with IT Strategy is  critical not just for managing IT but also for engaging the rest of the business leadership team.  That is one of the CIO’s most important responsibilities.

CIOs Rethink Their IT Strategies

CIOs are increasingly open to new, alternative IT operating models, which also could mean new vendor relationships. A grinding recession, paired with new choices in terms of online software, mobile computing, outsourcing, open source, and more, opens the door to this change according to Information Week article titled “Alternate IT”.   The article notes that CIOs are rethinking significant parts of their software strategies, considering alternatives to conventional licenses, maintenance, and fee structures, as well as alternatives to lengthy internal development cycles, complex customisation, and long global rollouts and upgrades.

Though the ‘alternative’ approaches to software are named differently, they are making software cheaper, simpler, more flexible, and more accessible. Alternative IT models are gaining ground because, in many cases, they make too much sense to ignore.  There is an interesting case study with GlaxoSmithKline in this article.  You can download the detailed report here (registration required).

IT serves to systematise and streamline the business process which in turn drives down the cost of operation.   As IT matures, the article points there is a major shift in CIOs’ openness to new IT operating models. What’s most striking about the alternative models is where they’re driving IT teams to think differently about their role and the value they provide.  Well it’s an overused cliché but “paradigm shift” is the only way to describe the changes happening in the software industry and how they’re helping IT organisations let go of the tactical issues of technology according to the article.

Collaboration not as simple as you think?

Steven Covey in his book The 8th Habit quoted the results of a Harris Poll of 23,000 U.S. residents employed full time within key industries and in key functional areas as follows:

Only 37 percent said that they have a clear understanding of what their organisation is trying to achieve and why only one in five was enthusiastic about their team's and their organisation's goals.  Only one in five said they had a clear line of sight between their tasks and their team's and organisation's goals.  Only 15 percent felt that their organisation fully enables them to execute key goals

Only 20 percent fully trusted the organisation they work for.

‘If, say a football team had these same scores, only 4 of the 11 players on the field would know which goal is theirs. Only 2 of the 11 would care. Only 2 of the 11 would know what position they play and know exactly what they are supposed to do. And all but 2 players would, in some way, be competing against their own team members rather than the opponent.’

There aren’t many companies who we talk to who don’t agree with the above.

And then you wonder why Enterprise 2.0 hasn’t taken off in organisations liked we’d hoped? Probably because people aren’t motivated to do use the technology.

Makes you wonder if it had taken off, would people be collaborating on the right thing anyway?

So how can technology help here? Key performance indicators.

Lets your people know what their individual goals are, how they impact on their teams goals and how they impact on their organisations goals.

And with Microsoft PerformancePoint services being rolled into SharePoint 2010 it’s going to be even easier to push KPI’s out to all your employees.

KPI’s when done properly can really align people and get the company moving in the right direction.

Using Exchange do you need Blackberry?

For those of you that don’t know, mobile support is built into Exchange via Activesync

But which mobile devices? There seems to be a perception that it’s only Windows Mobile Devices.

Well Windows Mobile (or should I say Windows Phone) devices are supported – but the protocol has been licensed by almost every SmartPhone vendor out there, including :

• Palm
• Nokia
• Motorola
• Sony Ericsson
• Samsung
• Symbian
• HTC
• Helio
• Remoba
• DataViz

and of course Apple and Google

So why switch?

• You could be paying twice for mobile support
• Don’t pay extra for mobile e-mail
• Don’t risk downtime at the hands of others
• You’ve already got enough to manage
• Control your border
• And probably one of the most important - Device choice.

Sounds pretty logical to me, interested then contact us.

Bing Maps

Microsoft has been trying to take down Google Search by not only advertising like mad, but by launching feature after feature. Now Bing is looking to outdo one of Google's best features: Google Maps. And it's making its attempt with its own version of Street View, integration with Microsoft Photosynth and a Silverlight interface.

The core to the new Bing Maps beta is Silverlight, Microsoft's competitor to Adobe Flash. Since the entire Bing Maps experience is done within Silverlight, it ends up being a smooth, visually rich experience.

Perhaps the killer feature of Bing Maps, though, are the Bing Map apps.

Perhaps the app that will get the most attention will be Twitter Maps, which utilises the new Twitter geolocation API to map out tweets onto Bing Maps. You can, for example, search for people discussing breakfast, parades or your favourite museum, and it will map out tweets about those things on the map.

Clearly Bing wants to make Google Maps seem prehistoric with its Silverlight-based interface. It's still unclear how accurate map directions are or if this new interface can drive people to switch to Bing and Bing Maps, but it definitely cannot hurt.