Today attended the International Association of Microsoft Certified Partners (IAMCP UK) UK chapter meeting hosted at Microsoft’s very swish London Victoria offices.
IAMCP U.K Chapter Meeting Agenda
Date: Thursday, 10th September, 2009.
Location: Microsoft, 100 Victoria St, London, SW1E 5JL.
Timings: 09:30 to 14:00
| Time Slot: | Agenda Item: | Presenter: |
| 09:30 | Arrival and registration
|
|
| 10:00 | Introduction; IAMCP Overview and Updates | Kelvin Kirby, Chairman, IAMCP UK Chapter |
| 10:15 | Overview of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 | Aileen Hannah & Gareth Hall, Microsoft |
| 10:50 | Windows® Azure™ Platform – What does it mean to me? | Dan Scarfe, Chief Executive, Dot Net Solutions |
| 11.15 | BREAK
|
|
| 11.30 | Surviving in the Current Market Conditions | Darren Shirlaw, Shirlaws
|
| 12.15 | An Overview of the UK Public Sector ICT Market | Stephen Roberts, Principal Analyst, Kable |
| 12:45 | Voices for Innovation Update | Donna Whitehead, VFI
|
| 12:55 | Close & Wrap Up
|
|
| 13:00 – 14:00 | Lunch and Networking | Partners are encouraged to stay and network over lunch. |
Aileen Hannah – Launch Lead for Windows Client
Windows 7E (EU version) – dropped, Win7 in EU will be full product
“Microsoft are 100% confident that 98% of Vista apps will work on Win7” (not inc. Security s/w! 😉
Win7 DirectAccess – needs Windows Server 2008 R2 on back-end
Win7 BranchCache – works with R2, but also will do P2P without R2
Windows 7 Manageability
Problem Recorder – automate screen grabs and email to support! J
Troubleshooting Assistant
MDOP costs $6 /seat /annum
Gareth Hall – Windows Server Product Manager, UK
“$3B of investment covered in 3 minutes!” 😉
Windows 7 & R2 is a combined sell – massive interest in both, ‘work better together’
R2 upgrades do not require new CAL licensing, full version do
Value of Windows Server practise – costs more, takes longer to implement… customer benefit? 😉
R2 Active Directory Recycle Bin – ever spent 3 weeks trying to recover a bad AD object delete?
DirectAccess – takes a lot of setting up, but is very compelling. Already IPv6 then easy, who is!?
(services opportunity)
Dan Scarfe – CEO, Dot Net Solutions: Windows Azure Platform – What does it mean to me?
“.NET for the Data Center”
Azure (www.azure.com/PartnerQuickstart) is made up of:
Windows Azure (Compute, Storage, Management)
SQL Azure (Relational data, Management)
.NET Services (Connectivity, Access Control) EasyJet are trialling connectivity from mobile devices to check-in systems so your mobile device will register you for check-in whilst you are in the queue.
Generation 4 data centers – Chicago, IL 700,000 sq.ft (16 football fields), 60 megawatts, Dublin, 303,000 sq.ft (8 football fields), 22.2 megawatts – more DC’s planned
Containers full of servers, whole container is connected, cannot walk inside, if a server goes down it is marked as bad like a sector on a disk, eventually the whole container is swapped out best energy efficiency for data center technology in the world
Same platform as MS Online offerings (Exchange, SharePoint, Dynamics)
Azure app development is very easy for .NET developers
Pricing – pay as you go, charges based on metering
If going for a cloud based solutions you really are getting into bed with the vendor, it had better be the right one as bed hopping has serious ramifications!