The PDC Buzz....and stuff...

There are so many posts out there repeating everything already that I am going to skip linking a bunch of stuff from PDC and link to just the one thing that has me jazzed. I have recently taken an interest in working with Visual Studio and doing some very basic app development. The Windows Azure announcement gives me the added nudge to really pursue it. I have had a couple of app ideas floating around my head for a number of years and now seems like a good time to start figuring them out. Knowing that the same in developer tools will be used for the Azure services means it is a skill set that will be around for a while and is worth learning. Win - Win for me.

Beyond the PDC Buzz, I setup an Exchange 2007 server at home in a VM. I tested things today and finally have mail flow. Next is to move mailboxes over from the hardware based Exchange server I have and then re-task the old Exchange Server. One idea is to build a huge multi-terabyte Windows based file server. Do some hardware RAID on it and move all of my current spread out content into one large redundant array. My two Buffalo Terastations have been running 24x7 for about 5 years now with one of them giving me occasional fits. They have served their purpose and need to be given a break.

I am also prepping to install SCVM2008 to my Hyper-V server. I am cleaning up an existing SQL install for use as the DB storage for the SCVMM database and a few other housekeeping items. Once that is in place a mass P2V migration will be taking place as I virtualize everything I can. Storage and RAM are cheap so Hyper-V here I come! This would also be another good reason for a large, fast redundant array so I can store and run VM images there.

Cheers!