Adnan Rafik = Adnan Rafique

With the New Year, comes a new Community Virtualization Deep Dive Day.  This year, we have what looks like will be the best lineup ever.  In addition, we will be simulcasting part of the event to other locations across the country so people in other locations can enjoy the show! 

More details can be found on the Deep Dive Day Landing Page.   In a nutshell it is an all day virtualization event being held in Waltham MA on Friday Feb 12, 2010.  We have Panopto lined up to simulcast one of the five tracks to the New York City Microsoft Offices as well as other locations across the country.   Many of the sessions will be recorded and made available for online viewing after the show. 

When: Friday Feburary 12, 2010

Where:   http://deepdive2010.eventbrite.com

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Greetings,

We have most of the details ironed out about the Virtualization Deep Dive Day on Feb 12.  I think I have mentioned it to all of you.  I wanted to write to get commitment from you on your level of interest in participation.   At the very least, I would love for you to promote the event.  If possible, I would very much appreciate any assistance you could provide on the day of the event.  In a nutshell it is an all day virtualization event being held in Waltham MA.  We have Panopto lined up to simulcast to the web and would like to  have one track of the event presented at the NYC Microsoft Office on the day of the event.  There will be an opportunity for attendees in NYC to ask questions of the presenters and we hope to also have one or two subject matter experts onsite in NYC.  Edwin Woo will be the owner of the NYC part of the event.  We have reserved the MPR rooms (Belvedere & Bethesda Terrace Conference Room) which seats 75 people. We have at least one Microsoft person on cue to support the event.  I would be looking for you guys to do what you do best…

Help coordinate things on the ground in NYC and drive attendance.  Details of the event can be found at www.virtg.com/deepdive2010  All groups that participate at any level (even just promoting it to their users) will be listed on the website as sponsors.  Those that help with coordination will be eligible for profit sharing from the event.  We will handle registration on our end.  We have already lined up sponsors and speakers so it will be pretty easy on your part.  If you want to line up additional local sponsors/speakers, you are welcome to do that.

There will be a very small fee for attendees.  I think it will be $10 early bird and $15 after that.  We am arranging to get some Swag to you guys so at the end of the day when we do Swag handout’s you will do the same at your event.  All of the funds you bring in for the entry fee will go to the NYC groups that actively participate in the event. We will also be offering an online option after the event so people can attend virtually if they cannot make it the day of the event.  The online option will be $15.  If Live attendees want to also have access to the online content they can get a ticket for only $10.  All of these details and more will be documented once the registration site goes up next week.  All content will be streamed from Waltham MA.  If you have a speaker locally that you would rather cover the content (or change the content) that is fine with us.  We do have agreements with some vendors so there may be one or two sessions that we will not be able to change.  The NYC Schedule currently looks like the following:

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TechNet Events Presents:

TechNet Unleashed: The Microsoft Virtualization Tour

Join our TechNet IT Evangelists as they hit the road again this fall to bring you the highlights of Microsoft’s great virtualization solutions. We’ll go from the desktop to the enterprise, starting with VHD native boot – a new feature for Windows® 7 and Windows Server® 2008 R2. Next, we’ll move into Windows XP mode, Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V™, and finish with System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM).

AGENDA

VHD Native Boot

We’ll kick off the afternoon by exploring VHD Native Boot, which is a new feature for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. VHD Native Boot can be used as the running operating system on designated hardware – without a parent operating system, virtual machine, or hypervisor. This is one of the best virtualization features to date for technology professionals of every kind – from enterprise to small and medium-size business pros and consultants.

Windows XP Mode

With Windows XP Mode, it’s easy to install and run multiple Windows XP productivity applications directly from your Windows 7-based PC. Do you have application compatibility issues? Windows XP Mode can ease those compatibility headaches, because it gives you the best of both worlds. You can easily run older Windows XP business software – including web applications that require an old version of Internet Explorer® – while taking advantage of the many benefits of your Windows 7 desktop. This is a can’t-miss session for IT pros who juggle both new and established software and web applications.

Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V

It’s time to focus on enterprise with an overview of Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V. In this session, we’ll look at how to create virtual machines in Hyper-V and demonstrate how the snapshot feature can easily revert the virtual machine to a previous state. You’ll come away from this session with a sold understanding of all the capabilities and new features in Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V.

System Center Virtual Machine Manager

Finally, no virtualization discussion is complete without a conversation about management. When it comes to managing virtual infrastructures, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 (SCVMM) is the best of the best. This member of the System Center family of system management products provides a straightforward, cost-effective solution for unified management of physical and virtual machines.

Reservations are required and space is limited, so register today to save your seat.

For more information or to register, visit: www.technetevents.com

OR CALL   1-877-MSEVENT  1-877-MSEVENT

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Today I did my 2^nd presentation in New York, this time it was for New York Exchange User Group in the New York City (http://nyexug.com). It was a level 300 session where I covered Hyper-V on Windows Server 08 R2 and Hyper-visor R2 (core server). So what did I cover?

Difference between the 2 Hypervisor
New features and enhancement in R2 of Hypervisor
Better management of Hypervisor using Hyper-V Manager and RSAT tool
Initial setup and configuration of Windows Server R2 Hyper-V
Initial setup and configuration of Hyper-V Core Server
Setting up the network , joining to the domain and enabling remote desktop on Hyper-V Core Server
Setting up Firewall Rules on the Hyper-V Core to enable Remote Management
Accessing the Hyper-V Core Server from the remote client (Hyper-V Manager or RSAT on Windows 7 )
Device Management, Disk Management, Event Viewer, Firewall Management, Service etc of the  Core Server from the Remote Client i.e. Windows 7
Command Line configuration of Hyper-V Server Core firewall and remote managment.

Hyper-V_Final_1 - Presentation Slides

Resources
www.microsoft.com/Hyperv
http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy
http://edge.technet.com
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee344828(WS.10).aspx

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October 12-14 is almost here. Don’t forget to register for the biggest Architecture event to hit New York, ever! See the event description. The event is filling up fast.

On that date in New York The International Association of Software Architect (IASA) will hold the biggest IT Architect Regional Conference (ITARC) ever held, perhaps the biggest IT Architecture conference ever held anywhere. Although it is billed as a regional conference it will bring together most of the leading architects of our generation, people like Grady Booch, John Zackman, Eric Evans, Bill Inmon, Len Bass, etc. This is the first time that all these industry though-leaders have ever assembled in one place.

In addition to hearing keynotes about the state of architecture today from these thought-leaders you will also hear from many other local and national architects in five parallel breakout tracks and have the option to attend a one day training pre-conference as well.

Please attend the conference. Furthermore, whether you can attend or, not please post the conference announcement prominently where you work and pass it on to all other senior developers, architects, CTOs, and CIOs in your company. Also please pass it on to your peers in other companies and post it on any social networks that you use like Face book, Twitter and LinkedIn.

In order to stimulate attendance we are offering a 10% discount off the listed registration fee to anyone who registers using the special user group registration code: chapter2346. Also, for every company that registers three attendees they will get a fourth attendee from that company in free!

The event will be held at an incredible new facility in New York, Lighthouse International, at 111 East 59th Street (between Lexington and Park Avenue, close to many subway lines) Our venue committee has posted a screen show of the facility.

For more details on the event please see the event description here. 

Please help us make New York the Architecture capital of the world in October!

Sincerely

Bill

Bill Zack, President, IASA New York

http://blogs.msdn.com/billzack (Blog)
646 225-4904 (Work phone)
203 545-2339 (Mobile phone)

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Is virtualization all hype or can it reduce costs, make an admin’s life easier, & save the planet.

Come and join us on coming tuesday to see two falvors of virtualization at the same time.  I’ll be doing the demo of Q4 release of Microsoft Hyper-V and the Hypervisor and in additon how-to do the remote managment of Hypervisor.

The other session will be conducted by Ben (NY Exchange UG ). Ben is the UG leader for NYEXUG and he will share his expeirnce running exchnge in the VM. So do join us as we can accomodate max 30 person.

Click Here for details

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If you are an IT Pro and based in the UAE then you must be waiting for the this community launch. ” The Microsoft Virtualization Community Launch is an exclusive opportunity to work directly with Microsoft to host your own launch event around Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Microsoft System Center and Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance. The Community Launch program provides the technical training and launch support resources to showcase some of the technical features of these products within your local community. ”

For more information please click this link
http://www.techiesonly.com/?p=176

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MICROSOFT IT EVOLUTION 08 – ABU DHABI UAE

I’m happy to be there and gained some new information especially about the Hyper-V. This event is happening throughout the Gulf region so if you missed it in Abu-Dhabi then you still have the chance to attend it in Dubai on 23rd of Nov and other Gulf countries. Overall the event and the contents were very good; I’m talking about I.T. Pro track and the contents as there was another track for Developers.

In the IT Pro tracks the main focus was Virtualization and the Application streaming. Both these topics I’m familiar about it but got to know some new things in Virtualization track from the speaker Yousuf Bismillah from Microsoft. The MSFT –HP track followed by the HP (I didn’t like it because the presentation was really bad). Application streaming is again delivered by the Yousuf Bismillah. During all the session from Yousuf Bismillah there was a good Exchange of information with healthy Q&A and discussion between the speaker and the audience. Yousuf really did a good job, I’ve met him after a very long time and he is as good as he was.

A number of things have got cleared while making the decision which technology or vendor should you choose if adopting the Virtualization.
1- Why do you want to go for the virtualization?
2- What is your organization type – ISP, Data Centers/Hosting services, 24×7 operation etc.
3- How critical is the downtime for you?
4- How much is the budget?

The virtualization case varies from organization to organization according to their business model. Thus it will help you to decide whether to go for MSFT Windows Hyper-V or Citrix XenAPP or VMWare. All of these have their pros and cons according to the requirements. May be Hyper-V fits for you or vice versa. Since there no VMWare track so I couldn’t find the information about it.

Few major things I’ve got to know is that both Hyper-V and XenApp works the same way , using VMBUS where the Guest OS directly interact with the hardware.

Both Hyper-V and Xen-Server Express is freely available. For Hyper-V you must buy Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition, so nothing comes really free and also there is a limitation to Xen-Xpress edition too which max 4GB of memory to each machine is.

A very interesting question was that what If I want to allocate the resource on the fire, does Microsoft support this feature? Answer was NO, but Citrix’s Enterprise and Platinum does support this feature. So again you decide what you are looking for. Microsoft does have VMM (Virtual Machine Manager) to manage the virtual servers but doesn’t offer this feature.

The event was well served with tea/coffee and nice lunch  , we also got the chance to meet the HALO 3 Chief, but I doubt on him as never removed the mask

So if you missed it and you are in the UAE then do register now for the Dubai event and make the use of this learning opportunity.

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May 24^th 2008, last week we had BCS AGM in Dubai. This was the annual meeting where all the members were invited and given the report of the last year activities and the fund generated and spent by the BCS. There were a good number of BCS member and we had good exchange of thoughts in the form of comments, suggestions and questions etc.

I was myself there and very happy to know that BCS is now active in Dubai and planning to have more events in Dubai. Now we will have the opportunity to organize the events ourselves and work independently. I’m very excited to know that BUid (British University in Dubai) has signed the MoU with BCS to provide their auditorium available for BCS activities in Dubai. This will help us to organize the regular events in the future.

During the AGM some new positions were announced for the year of 2008-2009 while we do have Engr. Adel Alkaf as our BCS ME Chairman. I myself have been appointed for BCS YPG and Event coordinator in the Dubai. The AGM was ended with a very cool presentation done by Apple Computers. I really liked their new notebook J yes very cool.

So if you are a speaker/trainer/SME interested to speak in one of our event or a vendor who is interested to sponsor the event then do feel free to contact us.

http://me.bcs.org

I forgot to mention that all the active members were given the award by BCS-ME. I’ll update the pics as soon as I get it.

cheersJ

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You are invited to Party with the Pros! at TechEd 2008 in Orlando. 

This event takes place Monday, June 9th, from 19.00-23.00 (7 pm – 11pm) the night before TechEd begins at International Drive, just two blocks from the convention center.

In order to attend, you must present a Golden Ticket. 

Request your ticket here

So who else is going to be there?

Your fellow IT Professionals, including IT Managers, TechEd Speakers, MCTs, and IT Pro User Group leaders from around the world, as well as Microsoft MVPs (past and present) and TechEd Sponsors.

You should attend if:  you need a beverage,  have a burning tech question,  have questions about TechEd or you  want to know which sessions and speakers are hot.  Find out about local IT Professional associations and user groups.  Or just mingle with your fellow IT Pros.  We’ve invited Tech Ed sponsors and will have some nice give-a-ways for attending, including an IT Pros Network Troubleshooting Tool Kit.

Who is sponsoring this event?  Party with the Pros is brainchild of Doug Spindler, President of Pacific IT Professionals (http://www.pacitpros.org)) an independent non-profit association based in San Francisco. In cooperation with CommunityWorks (http://www.communityworks.eu), the independent user group association for user group leaders of Bart Martens the party is developed and promoted. At TechEd 2007 in Barcelona Bart Martens, jointly with Microsoft, organized the very successful MS Influencer party.

Currently
BitCricket, TechSmith, Network Protocols Specialists, Fluke Networks,
eNews Generator
and
Quest are sponsors, but we would like to get more sponsors on board. If your company is interested, please contact us.

How is our event different from all the rest?  We have asked sponsors to cover the cost of Party with the Pros.  But unlike TechEd where you will be marketed to all week long, this event is for you, the IT Pro.  Here you are in control and in a more relaxed atmosphere where you talk to sponsors on your terms.  We think you will appreciate the difference. 

And looking ahead, we hope you will enjoy this year’s Party with the Pros and plan on attending next year at Tech Ed 2009.  Attending TechEd Europe in Barcelona? We are already committed to hosting Party with the Pros Barcelona. Party tickets will be available on this site http://www.partywiththepros.org/ as TechEd Europe approaches.

If you would like to help make Party with the Pros a success or have a suggestion for the event, email us at party@partwywiththepros.org.

Hope to see you there!

Doug Spindler                           Bart Martens

IT Professional                         CommunityWorks

http://www.pacitpros.org                http://www.communityworks.eu

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