In celebration of Windows Server 2008's upcoming release, we've apparently started an online comic strip. I like it! Especially the "Bring Back Pluto" t-shirt this guy's wearing. Where do I get one of those?
If any of you have ever been on one of Verizon Business' conference calls and had to wait through the hold music, you'll understand. We're on concalls all the time and this have to listen to the hold music everyday.
Hi, my name is Chandra Shekaran, and I am the general manager for Presentation & Desktop Virtualization at Microsoft. By now, you have probably heard about our Virtualization Deployment Summit today where we made several exciting announcements pertaining to some of our important virtualization strategies (you can find them at Microsoft PressPass). One of the announcements was Microsoft completing the acquisition of Calista Technologies, a leading provider of graphic technologies for the next generation desktop and presentation virtualization solutions. As many of you know, Microsoft has been a leader in the presentation virtualization space for more than 10 years with Windows Terminal Services. With the addition of Calista we will continue to provide the best, broadest and most affordable virtualization technology portfolio for customers and partners. For more read Neal Margulis’ post (Neal is the founder of Calista).
So, what’s so exciting about Calista? Calista’s products dramatically improve the end-user experience of 3D and multimedia delivery for Microsoft multimedia applications, virtualized desktop deployments, and server-hosted virtualized desktops or applications using Windows Terminal Services. Their technologies support all file and streaming media type available, and optimize Microsoft’s widely available Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to reduce the network bandwidth requirements for remote display of rich media content; thus, remote workers can receive a modern Windows desktop experience without the need for dedicated hardware. As multimedia and 3D graphics are becoming more ubiquitous in business and consumer contexts alike, customers expect the full desktop experience regardless of their desktop deployment choice. With the addition of Calista technologies, Microsoft will enable users to enjoy a rich remote experience for server-hosted, virtualized desktops and applications, thus allowing an organization full flexibility in their choice to deploy centrally managed desktops or a local traditional desktop. In fact, in one of our other announcements today we talked about the concept of Windows Vista optimized desktop solutions; the idea behind it is to enable customers to use several Microsoft technologies, such as the rich user interface of Windows Vista, server based applications like Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services or hosted desktop technology like Windows Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktops, for personal computing scenarios that best meet their unique needs. Calista will be key in helping customers to make the right trade-off decisions among these deployment options, by helping to ensure a consistent, rich end user experience in those scenarios where users transition between a local and a server-hosted desktop.
There are many other product areas at Microsoft where we believe Calista’s technologies will be extremely beneficial in helping Microsoft to create a superior customer experience, and we are just starting to imagine the potential. More importantly though, I am sure you will want to better understand where in Microsoft’s product portfolio virtualization innovations such as Calista’s will start to materialize first, so please stay tuned and come back here to read our blog every once in a while for more details about the latest product plans and accomplishments.
cNet writes a interesting article that asks the simple question: If there were 4 million iPhones shipped by Apple to AT&T according to Steve Jobs, and AT&T has only sold about 2 million according to their earnings conference... where's the remaining 2 million?
Report: iPhones piling up at AT&T stores Posted by Tom Krazit
Is demand for the iPhone in America already starting to wane?
AT&T, the exclusive American carrier of the iPhone, activated just 900,000 iPhones during the fourth quarter, the company revealed during its earnings conference call Thursday. It wrapped up the year with "just at or slightly under 2 million iPhone customers," according to company executives.
Apple announced at Macworld that it has sold 4 million iPhones through the middle of January, and Toni Sacconaghi, a financial analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein, thinks the gap between the figures means that Apple might have a demand problem. He released a research note Thursday after AT&T's earnings saying that the carrier's figures imply that an awful lot of inventory is building up at Apple's channel partners.
In case you hadn't heard, Virtualization Summit 2008 took place at Microsoft in Redmond, WA the other week. 300 early adopters of Microsoft's Virtualization Hypervisor technology (called 'Hyper-V', included in Windows Server 2008) were invited to this private affair to hear what Microsoft has in store in the virtualization space. (Press web site for the event is located here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/virtualization/default.mspx
There were a number of MAJOR announcements at this event - so many that I probably am missing a major one, but here are the ones that I was able to glean from the information I've been able to gather:
1) Acquisition of Calista Technologies Microsoft acquired the 35 person company Calista Technologies, and with it, it's patent pending presentation virtualization acceleration technology. Basically, Calista's patents: - Create a Virtual GPU on the client system for doing client-side rendering - Enable full motion streaming video using any codec on the market, animation, and 3D graphic rendering without lag or stutter - Utilize a maximum pipe of 1Mbps - Can be applied to any presentation technology such as Terminal Services or Virtual Machine Remote Control
2) VMBus Integration Agreement with Novell, Sun, Citrix XenSource An agreement was established between Novell, Sun, and Citrix to engineer the full integration of Microsoft's Virtualization technology directly into the operating systems and virtual machine architecture of each partner's products.
In particular, all operating systems in the partnership will take advantage of VMBus, the high speed connectivity that enables guest virtual machines of a Hyper-V virtualization hypervisor-based host system to leverage the drivers of the host operating system to provide I/O to the underlying system hardware, without the drivers existing in the hypervisor.
The resulting VMBus architecture keeps the hypervisor secure, maintains high levels of on-the-metal performance for guest VMs, while focusing the role of the hypervisor exclusively on CPU/memory management and true hardware I/O between the host OS's drivers.
3) Citrix Virtualization Alliance Citrix Systems will be establishing an alliance with Microsoft with the goal of supporting the Microsoft Hardware & Presentation Virtualization platforms through value-added add-on products & product integration. This includes:
Citrix XenServer integration with Virtual Machine Manager XenServer will be remotely & centrally managable using Virtual Machine Manager just as Hyper-V and Virtual Server R2 will be.
Citrix XenServer VM converter from Xen-to-Hyper-V (Config, Drivers) Citrix will produce a VM converter to enable adminstrators to migrate virtual machines running on XenServer to Windows Server 2008's Hyper-V. The conversion process will include the migration of VM parameters from host to host including memory & CPU throttling configuration, as well as the retrofitting of drivers within the virtual machines themselves. This will enable administrators to use Virtual Machine Manager to move VMs between hosts from a single pane of glass.
Citrix “Dynamic Virtualization Services” for Hyper-V (“Charles”) Citrix will produce a product that runs over Hyper-V much in the same way that Citrix Presentation Server runs over Windows Terminal Services, to add functionality to the overall product, including functionality that focused on:
Are you an IT Professional looking to increase productivity? Are you a developer seeking the latest tools? In either case, you need to be a part of the Tech·Ed U.S. 2008 experience.
For the first time, Tech·Ed U.S. has expanded from a one-week conference into two separate conferences held back-to-back in Orlando, FL:
Imagine a Slingbox for your Windows Media Center... ...except it's entirely based on software, requires just installing the module on your Windows Media Center, is completely free, and provides all the same functionality.
Admittedly I hadn't tried this before and I'm a little ashamed. This thing is gorgeous.
The story goes that this guy wrote WebGuide for the Windows Media Center and sold it on the Internet. Then the Windows Media Center folks saw it, liked it, then hired him and as a condition of his employment, he posted the WebGuide software on the Internet to be made available for free.
Protection and control for collaboration servers - Help protect Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 deployments from malicious code, confidential information, and inappropriate content.
Microsoft Forefront Security for SharePoint integrates multiple scan engines from industry-leading vendors and content controls to help businesses protect their Microsoft SharePoint collaboration environments by eliminating documents containing malicious code, confidential information, and inappropriate content. The new Forefront Security for SharePoint with SP1 provides an improved user experience with file uploads, manual scanning, keyword filtering, and program administration.
This is a message sent to me from Craig Spiezle, Director of Online Security and Safety for Microsoft Internet Explorer, on the topic of Extended Validation SSL certificates.
It's a very interesting read being that online fraud is becoming increasingly rampant and this is a great way mitigate much of this risk to consumers.
...
Internet Explorer integrates dynamic Phishing protection and support of the emerging Extended Validation SSL Certificate program, as just two of several investments to help of protect users, their data, their PC and their privacy.
The Microsoft Phishing Filter provides dynamic protection from known phishing sites and blocking nearly 1 million exploits each and every week. This is an opt-in service that operates in the background and provides an early warning system to notify users of both suspicious websites that could be engaging in identity and data theft, as well as those confirmed to be phishing sites. By design, user privacy has been at the forefront of this service and verified by third party audits that no personal information is collected by Microsoft or any third party.[1]http://www.jeffersonwells.com/client_audit_reports/Microsoft_PF_IE7_IEToolbarFeature_Privacy_Audit_20060728.pdf It relies on browser-based heuristics to analyze Web pages in real time and warn users about suspicious characteristics as they browse. This client-side technology is combined with dynamically updated information that helps prevent users from interacting with confirmed phishing sites reported to Microsoft by a network of third-party data-provider partners and a community of users who help provide information on potential and confirmed phishing sites.
However, phishers have also been able to obtain ‘valid’ SSL certificates for their spoofed sites. Looking for that gold padlock icon is important, but without the identity information users can end up sending their personal information to the wrong website. Historically one way users used to help answer that question was the SSL padlock (the gold lock), which was the only indication of any security whatsoever. While helpful, SSL only means that I have an encrypted connection to someone. So someone with malicious intent could set up a site that closely copied the look and URL of a legitimate business, get a SSL cert, and try to fool users into giving them sensitive personal information via a phishing or social engineering attack.
Responding to these threats, the CA/ Browser Forum has developed the new Extended Validation SSL Certificates or EV SSL. EV SSL leverages proven SSL technology, and adds a new process for vetting the identity of the business that is requesting the certificate, offering an improved level of authentication for securing transactions on their Web sites. Given the standardization and rigorousness of the process used, users can realize a higher level of online trust and confidence.
Internet Explorer 7 is the first browser to fully support EV SSL, and here’s what that looks like (in this instance when visiting www.login.live.com). You will notice that the address bar turns green, to notify users about the available identity information, and the name and country of the business are shown right there on the address bar (here “Microsoft Corporation [US]”). If a user wants to see more information about the company behind a website, he can simply click on the name of the company – the identification popup immediately shows the name and address of said company.
This is great news for Internet users: they now have an easy and reliable way to verify that they are on the correct site, and they don’t have to worry as much about phishing attacks or deceptive website, as long as EV SSL is used. Furthermore, when they are transacting with a new website that uses EV SSL (say one they found through shopping.msn.com), they can easily identify the company behind the website, which helps them legally pursue their claim if the site doesn’t deliver as promised, helping add an element of accountability to the web. Remember that most sites will use a secure connection (https://, that will show you the green bar if they are using EV SSL), only when you are about to exchange with the sensitive information, such as when you login, or are about to check out your cart. If you wonder about the different colors of the address bar and how to use them in making trust decision, you will find this description of the Internet Explorer 7 Security Status Bar helpful.
Today there are nearly 3,500 sites are now protecting their customers with EV SSLs, including Alaska Airlines, AutoZone, British Airways, eBay, FedEx, PayPal, Microsoft, Royal Doulton, The Body Shop UK, and Travelocity. In addition leading financial services have been quickly adopting worldwide including the Banque National du Canada, Charles Schwab, Deutsche Bank, SunLife, Sovereign Bank, UBS, and Vanguard. While the Microsoft Phishing Filter and EV SSLs alone will not solve all of the internet’s ills, combined they are important step to protect brands and consumers alike.
[This is a 3rd party webcast being done by a partner of ours that is very expert in Rights Management.]
Titus Labs Webcast Invitation: Ensuring Complete Protection of your Microsoft Word Documents
Managing, controlling and retrieving the increased amount of sensitive information in Microsoft Word documents while keeping the information protected is a challenge. Add power to Microsoft Word with user-driven classification labels for documents to protect against inadvertent disclosure or information leakage.
Join us for our upcoming webcast and learn how to successfully classify information and add intelligence with metadata to improve the handling of sensitive Word documents and to:
Control the flow of information based on pre-defined labels to restrict the viewing, printing, copying or distribution of documents.
Give your users a fast, simple, consistent way to classify and label documents based on business value or corporate policy.
Enhance the ability to instantly find and retrieve documents for compliance audits, legal discovery, and information security.
Presenter: Charlie Pulfer, VP Product Development, Titus Labs
Where and When: Tuesday January 29th, 2008 11:00am (EST) Duration: 1 Hour Registration: Complimentary
Jeff Jones, Microsoft's Director of Security Strategy, has posted his "Vista One Year Vulnerability Report" on his blog. He's added something he calls the "Patch Event" histograms that helps to basically show:
An improved Software Development Lifecycle drives the quality of security essentially through the reduction of the need for security patching
A policy-driven benefit of moving to a monthly patch policy
[Taken from Jeff Jones' Security Blog]
Windows Vista shipped to business customers on the last day of November 2006, so the end of November 2007 marks the one year anniversary for supported production use of the product.
This paper analyzes the vulnerability disclosures and security updates for the first year of Windows Vista and looks at it in the context of its predecessor, Windows XP, along with other modern workstation operating systems Red Hat, Ubuntu and Apple products.
The results of the analysis show that Windows Vista has an improved security vulnerability profile over its predecessor. Analysis of security updates also shows that Microsoft improvements to the security update process and development process have reduced the impact of security updates to Windows administrators significantly compared to its predecessor, Windows XP.
On January 10, 2008 NIST’s Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) listed the Crypto certificates for Microsoft Windows Vista GOLD on their website. (BitLocker listing will follow shortly.)
The event will showcase 14+ breakouts of solutions across verticals being built on BizTalk RFID (a 2 day solution extravaganza!), and will be followed by a 2 day instructor led deep drilldown training session on our RFID platform at the Microsoft campus.
This is a wonderful opportunity for you to gain a deep understanding of the solutions being developed and deployed across different verticals on the Microsoft RFID platform, meet with industry and product team experts, and appreciate the advances that have made in the RFID field in the areas of price, performance, and reliability improvements through the Partner Expo. If you are interested in getting your teams trained on the Microsoft RFID Platform, we will also be hosting a 2 day instructor led deep-drilldown course following the conference, with content aimed at solution developers and architects.
For more information and to register for the event, please visit the event website here.
Uh oh. So much for being 'on call' at night. Now there's a medical deterrent.
Mobiles linked to disturbed sleep Using a mobile phone before going to bed could stop you getting a decent night's sleep, research suggests.
The study, funded by mobile phone companies, suggests radiation from the handset can cause insomnia, headaches and confusion. It may also cut our amount of deep sleep - interfering with the body's ability to refresh itself. The study was carried out by Sweden's Karolinska Institute and Wayne State University in the US.
Funded by the Mobile Manufacturers Forum, the scientists studied 35 men and 36 women aged between 18 and 45.
Some were exposed to radiation equivalent to that received when using a mobile phone, others were placed in the same conditions, but given only "sham" exposure.
Microsoft invites you to an exclusive FREE training opportunity
Accelerated SQL Server 2005 for Experienced Oracle DBAs Thursday, February 21 – Friday, February 22, 2008
This 2-day instructor-led course is designed to teach Oracle DBAs how to leverage their skills and experience as an Oracle DBA to manage a SQL Server system. This course provides a quick start for the Oracle DBA to map, compare and contrast the realm of Oracle database management to SQL Server database management.
As a valued customer, we would like to offer you this training course at no cost to your organization. This event has limited seats available so please register now.
What is a hands-on-lab? This isn't your typical IT class. This hands-on lab is for experienced IT Pros who want to "try it out." You'll spend most of the day getting hands-on practice and experience with the new product features and scenarios in your own lab environment with very little instructor presentation.
Who should attend? This course is intended for experienced database professionals currently implementing and administering non Microsoft enterprise database management systems who need to expand their database skill-set to SQL Server 2005.
Course Modules
Module 1: Database and Instance
Module 2: Database Architecture
Module 3: Instance Architecture
Module 4: Data Objects
Module 5: Data Access
Module 6: Data Protection
Module 7: Basic Administration
Location Quickstart Intelligence – Irvine 16815 Von Karman Avenue Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92606 Phone: 949-486-1351
Date Feb 21 – Feb 22, 2008 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
RSVP/Registration: Please note that only specifically invited Enterprise customers that have registered will be admitted due to limited capacity. If you are interested in participating, please contact me for registration information, code, and Internet link.
In conjunction with Lotusphere this week, Microsoft released a feature story about Notes migration on PressPass:
Microsoft Courts Lotus Switchers with New Migration Tools Microsoft Corporate Vice President Chris Capossela outlines new resources designed to help customers transition to Microsoft’s unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) platform and the impact this business is having on the company’s bottom line. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2008/jan08/01-20ucc.mspx.
Here's a quote from Chris Capossela who mentions some figures publicly around the success we’ve been having winning Notes customers over to the Microsoft collaboration & communications platform:
“Today, more than 80 percent of the Fortune 100 companies deploy Exchange Server as their primary e-mail and calendaring solution. Much of the new growth is coming from customers switching from Notes and Domino. In the last six months of 2007, in the enterprise customer segment alone, more than 300 firms representing 2.8 million people began the move to Exchange Server, Office SharePoint Server and the Office suite. That’s a 164 percent increase over the same period in 2006 and includes companies like Colliers, Garudafoods, Kordsa Global, Siemens and Westinghouse. We’re already on track to exceed these numbers in 2008.”
–Chris Capossela, Corporate VP, Microsoft Business Division
The story is getting some good pickup in the press already:
Notable Changes in Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Release Candidate This document provides more detail about the notable changes made to Windows Vista in Service Pack 1 Release Candidate, which were focused on addressing specific reliability, performance, and compatibility issues, supporting new types of hardware, and adding support for several emerging standards.
IT security is everybody's business. Every day, adversaries are attempting to invade your networks and access your servers to bring them down, infect them with viruses, or steal information about your customers or employees. Attacks come from all directions: from onsite employee visits to Web sites infected with malware, to offsite employee connections through VPNs, branch office network connections to corporate servers, or direct assaults on vulnerable computers or servers in your network.
You know first hand how essential your servers are to keeping your organization up and running. The data they house and the services they provide are your organization’s lifeblood. It’s your job to stand guard over these essential assets, and to prevent them from going down, or falling victim to attacks from outside and inside your organization.
Windows Server® 2008 is engineered from the ground up with security in mind, delivering an array of new and improved security technologies and features that provide a solid foundation for running and building your business. To help you quickly configure, deploy, and manage the security settings in Windows Server 2008 across your organization, Microsoft is developing the Windows Server 2008 Security Guide. This guidance is designed to further enhance the security of the servers in your organization by taking full advantage of the security features and options in Windows Server 2008.
The team is producing a prescriptive security guide you can rely on that is:
Proven. Based on field experience.
Authoritative. Offers the best advice available.
Accurate. Technically validated and tested.
Actionable. Provides the specific steps to success.
Relevant. Addresses real-world security concerns.
Supported. Recommendations are fully supported by Microsoft Product Support.
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