New TechNet IT Manager Webcast Series

During this 8 part series starting on 18th March, the IT Evangelists will be taking a look at some of the top technology trends tipped by Gartner for 2009, including Virtualisation, GreenIT, Business Intelligence and Cloud Computing.

 

 

Date/Time

Abstract

Wed 18th March 4pm

Virtualisation

It’s one of the buzzwords  in IT at the moment. Virtualisation allows the consolidation of servers, saves capital costs, running costs (in maintenance , power and cooling) and some would have you believe saving the planet as well. Because virtualized servers are quicker and easier to deploy than physical ones, it allows IT departments to be more responsive. But the faster rates of server proliferation that implies, and consolidation of risk which comes from running many workloads on a single machine makes good systems management all the more critical. Organizations are looking beyond  virtualising back-end services shifting more user tasks back into the data centre which requires the integration of multiple technologies to deliver satisfactory results. 

Register now

Wed 25th March 4pm

Cloud Computing

Just what does cloud computing mean to you as an IT Professional and how can you use the new services that Windows Azure provides to effectively and flexibly scale your business?  Cloud Computing provides a range of functionality which allows developers to build and host applications in a flexible way spanning from consumer web to the enterprise.  The cloud services operating system provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage Web applications on the Internet which can scale as demand rises and falls and can be hosted in part on your Windows Server and part in the cloud using Azure services.

Register now

Wed 1st April 4pm

Unified communications

If the PCs on our desks do much more than they did 10 years ago, why don’t our phones ?

On a Mobile phone calls are dialled from your phone book – UC allows your PC contacts to be used to place calls rather than re-keying the number into a desk, and identifies your contacts by name when they call you and routes your calls to the best phone.  Unified communications is bringing together Voice, Fax, Video, Email and Instant messaging, into one system. So Voice mail which arrives in your mailbox And e-mail which can be read to you over the phone. With UC you can see if someone is around to take a call or answer a message before you contact them – and choose the best medium. And a conversation can move seamlessly from e-mail, to instant message , to data sharing and video conference. Harnessing UC can  mean less travel , less frustration and greater productivity.

Register now

Wed 8th April 4pm

Social software and social networking

We are all part of a system which is  evolving around us wherever we work, whatever we do.  We may all be working for different companies, or competing in  different businesses but we share something.  We have common interests in social media, consider how they impact our work and our lives and we share these interests with our work colleagues, friends and family.  How do we take advantage of this burgeoning trend and use the marketing opportunities that this presents to our competitive advantage and faster time to market.

Register now

Wed 15th April 4pm

High Performance Computing

It’s not rocket science. But it’s for rocket science! As computational power has got cheaper it has become possible to build hugely powerful in HPC clusters from commodity hardware. Yet in many organizations that have deployed HPC, it remains difficult to use and  inaccessible. HPC on a Windows platform is designed to take make clusters as easy to manage and use as any other Microsoft technology. That lets users concentrate on their area of expertise, whether that is financial analysis, seismology, or aerospace.

Register now

Wed 22nd April 4pm

Business Intelligence

“The provision of accurate and timely information to support the decision making process”

There are many other definitions of BI and BI has been called many things in the past, however this cannot disguise the fact that BI has been the top priority for IT Manager spend for the last three years and the current global financial climate only emphasises this need. 

Unlike many IT projects BI does not have a definite outcome rather any solution must continue to rapidly evolve to meet current needs (who would have predicted the current exchange rate or interest rate 6 months ago).

This and the close cooperation between business and the IT department make BI both more challenging and more rewarding for the IT manager.

Register now

Wed 29th April 4pm

Green IT

Many of us are becoming more environmentally aware and as IT professionals are wondering what we can do to reduce the impact of our industry on the planet.  At Microsoft we see Green IT as not just about reducing the environmental footprint of the data centre it is the holistic use of technology to improve the sustainability of all aspects of a business.

Register now

Wed May 6th 4pm

Enterprise Mashups

There is so much information that exists in the public domain which has all been made available on the internet.  Enterprises no longer have to rely on controlling all data because much of that data exists publicly.  By combining internal data with publicly available sources in mashups, businesses and workers are better able to see relationships and explore better ways in communicating them to others.  The ultimate goal should be that enterprises should be able to  confidently discover, analyze, visualize, and communicate data sets into actionable decision making.

Register now