Building the Vista Beta 1 Install Fest Demo Network

I have had the same question from a number of people
about Windows Vista asking “That is great, a new operating system…
now how to I deploy, secure and maintain it??”

The question has really hit home over the last week
with me building the Demo Network for this weekend’s Install Fest.

In order to really show some of the features, I need
a whole network. That means AD, Exchange 2003 (showing that Vista works with your
existing infrastructure), Live Communications Server (just because I can and it
is cool), MOM 2005 (to manage it all). Then add ISA to at the perimeter. We
have a feedback application to capture your thoughts and experiences…
That means web services and SQL. Then as I am building a network we have an
external DNS and DHCP… and all for a demo.

Where is this all leading I hear you ask, well even
though we are talking about Vista Beta 1! I have seen a number of other people
say that there are challenges with their software etc running on Beta 1. At
this moment in time I have many of the apps I use every day from office 2003
and Communicator (a cool SIP client) to a number of games (you should check out
the 3D Chess game from: https://www.valil.com/avalon/
- Kudos to Valentin). The main security features are
in place and working, I am deploying software from the
network and leveraging a number of components in Avalon and Indigo. Even the CD
recording part of the beta works… In short for a Beta 1 product this
rocks.