TechEd 2008 IT Pros: News and Announcements
Today at Tech Ed 2008 IT Pros in Orlando, FL Bob Muglia, senior vice president of the Server and Tools business at Microsoft, delivered a keynote address about how Microsoft is delivering against the Dynamic IT initiative. To read the press release, view the keynote, and get more information about the event, visit the Tech Ed 2008 Virtual Press Room at https://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/teched/default.mspx or check out TechEd Online.
Other areas Muglia outlined where Microsoft is making progress across Dynamic IT include the following:
· Identity Lifecycle Manager “ 2 ” . Delivering on comprehensive identity and access management in the enterprise, ILM “2”changes the current state of the art of identity management. The availability of ILM “2” beta 3, announced today at TechEd, brings powerful self-service capabilities for the end-user through integration in Office as well as rich administrative tools and enhanced automation for IT professionals in addition to .NET and WS-* based extensibility for developers. This Q&A with Microsoft’s Doug Leland offers additional details about the release. https://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2008/jun08/06-10QAleland.mspx
· Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Release Candidate. The availability of the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Release Candidate, the data platform which provides the highest levels of scalability, reliability and security for business-critical applications, helps reduce time and cost of development and management of applications, and delivers actionable insights.
· .NET Configuration Service 2.0. The availability of .NET Configuration Service 2.0, a freely downloadable and reusable set of code libraries available to help develop new composite application services across both .NET and Java. As part of Muglia’s keynote address, a demo of the Configuration Service showed how a composite application, running across Windows-, IBM WebSphere- and Apache-distributed components, could be dynamically virtualized against on-premises, physical resources and across the cloud.
· Forefront Security for Office Communications Server Beta 1. The availability of the Forefront Security for Office Communications Server Beta 1 helps provide fast and effective protection against IM-based malware by including multiple scanning engines and helps reduce corporate liability by blocking IM messages containing inappropriate content.
· Forefront Client Security. Forefront Client Security now supports Windows Server 2008, including native integration for Network Access Protection, providing granular access control over network access and maintain compliance
Microsoft disclosed several updates to help ready customers and partners to use virtualization in their infrastructure, including:
· Server Virtualization Validation Program. The Server Virtualization Validation Program is now operational and open to any software vendor to test and validate their virtualization software to run Windows Server 2008 and previous versions of Windows Server. The program enables Microsoft to offer cooperative technical support to customers running Windows Server on validated, non-Microsoft server virtualization software.
· Certifications. Four new virtualization certifications are being introduced for desktop support technicians, database administrators and Web developers who will work with virtualization technologies. Training resources also include eight instructor-led courses, five e-Learning courses, traditional academic learning courseware, and Microsoft Press training kits.
· Microsoft Application Virtualization. Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 release candidate one (RC1) will be available within the month for customers.
· Forefront security. Microsoft today outlined support for virtualization with the Forefront line of security products, which includes Forefront Client Security support for Hyper-V upon its release, and support within the next-generation Forefront security solution, code-named “Stirling,” with its release in the first half of 2009.
More information on today’s announcements can be found on these blogs:
· Windows Server Division Blog- https://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/archive/2008/06/10/lone-server-a-new-man.aspx
· Windows Virtualization Team Blog- https://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/default.aspx
· The System Center Team Blog- https://blogs.technet.com/systemcenter/
· Microsoft Assessment and Planning Team Blog – https://blogs.technet.com/mapblog
· Data Platform Insider Blog: https://blogs.technet.com/dataplatforminsider/default.aspx
· Forefront Team Blog- https://blogs.technet.com/forefront/