It was a very sad day for a lot of us when Microsoft decided to pull the plug on the Microsoft Management Summit (MMS), an event that had served us in the Systems Management community well over the years and of which I personally have many fond memories (and through which I made a great deal of good friends).

So imagine my delight when I heard that MMS was being revived but with a difference – no not the Microsoft Management Summit but the Midwest Management Summit (so yes MMS ;-))

This is a brand new event taking place 10th – 12th November being organised by the Minnesota System Center User Group which includes some of my dear friends and fellow MVPs.

However, this “new” MMS is very different to the old one. For a start it’s going to be limited to just 500 attendees to give you a chance for focused networking plus also more time to speak to the speakers to get your questions answered (rather than competing with several thousand folks).

The other big difference is the majority of the speakers are MVPs (~60 at last count), or those with real world, hands on experience with the System Center Suite such as ConfigMgr, OpsMrg, Scorch, PowerShell and many, many more.

But there’s more – You can still register for MMS before the prices go up this Friday, October 17^th.  Wait until after Friday and you will have to pay the higher conference fee and prevailing hotel room rates.

It’s shaping up to be a great event so get booking now before it sells out (which it inevitably will).

To find out more goto:

https://mmsmoa.com/

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In the fourth part of his series about the “pillars” of Windows Server/ System Center 2012 R2, Brad Anderson talks about “What’s New in 2012 R2: Enabling Open Source Software” in which explains Microsoft’s vision

“regarding other operating platforms is simple: Microsoft is committed to being your cloud partner. This means end-to-end support that is versatile, flexible, and interoperable for any industry, in any environment, with any guest OS. This vision ensures we remain realistic – we know that users are going to build applications on open source operating systems, so we have built a powerful set of tools for hosting and managing them.”

To read the post in full goto:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/in_the_cloud/archive/2013/07/24/what-s-new-in-2012-r2-enabling-open-source-software.aspx

Keep an eye out for Brad’s next post coming next week….!!!

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In the third part of his series about the “pillars” of Windows Server/ System Center 2012 R2, Brad Anderson talks about the “What’s New in 2012 R2: People-centric IT in Action – End-to-end Scenarios Across Products” in which Brad first explains that people are no longer asking why they should move to the cloud now but more about what should they move to the cloud first.

His post then goes on to look at:

“… a few examples of holistic end-to-end customer scenarios that are a result of our cross-company collaboration. Specifically, we’ll look at:

1. Providing users with secure access to their files on their personal devices.
2. Enabling users to provision their iOS devices for work while allowing IT Pros to restrict access to corporate resources.
3. Enabling IT Pros to deliver VPN functionality to corporate and personal devices. This includes both Microsoft and 3rd party VPNs, clients, and gateways – and it also covers upcoming support for this on Windows RT.“

To read the post in full goto:

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/enterprisemobility/?m=20137

Keep an eye out for Brad’s next post coming next week….!!!

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In the second part of his series about the “pillars” of Windows Server/ System Center 2012 R2, Brad Anderson talks about the “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) trend being here to stay and how addressing this is a major facet of the People-centric IT (PCIT) pillar he talked about in his first post last week. To quote from this week’s post:

“In today’s post (and in each one that follows in this series), this overview of the architecture and critical components of the PCIT pillar will be followed by a “Next Steps” section at the bottom. The “Next Steps” will include a list of new posts (each one written specifically for that day’s topic) developed by our Windows Server & System Center engineers. Every week, these engineering blogs will provide deep technical detail on the various components discussed in this main post. Today, these blogs will systematically examine and discuss the technology used to power our PCIT solution.”

To read the post in full goto:

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/enterprisemobility/?m=20137

Keep an eye out for Brad’s next post coming soon….!!!

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Brad Anderson (Corporate Vice President of Program Management for Windows Server and System Center), has just published the first in a planned series of blog postings on the https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/enterprisemobility/author/BradAnderson/ blog about one of the “pillars” of Windows Server/ System Center 2012 R2. This first post talks about What’s New in 2012 R2: Beginning and Ending with Customer-specific Scenarios in which Brad explains how by building for the cloud first, Microsoft was able to deliver us such a feature packed R2 product in an incredibly short period of time.

You can access the post here:

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/enterprisemobility/?m=20137

Keep an eye out for Brad’s next post coming soon….!!!

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As announced by Brad Anderson during his keynote session at Tech Ed Europe 2013, the Preview versions of System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager and Endpoint Protection (amongst others) are now available for download at:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-system-center-2012-r2-configuration-manager-and-endpoint-protection

Download, enjoy and don’t forget to give Microsoft Feedback via Connect.

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Drop by the Microsoft website and check out the new page for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager R2 where you can sign up to be notified when the Preview version is available:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/cloud-platform/system-center-configuration-manager

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As part of “Blue” wave of releases, Microsoft has officially announced (so I no longer need to keep things secret), at TechEd North America an R2 version of System Center 2012 and a new release of Intune which will be even more tightly integrated. A public preview of R2 should be available around the end of this month which ties in with the public preview of Windows 8.1 with the products all being released by the end of this year.

In addition to the R2 release of System Center 2012 and new version of Intune, Microsoft is also planning to release a R2 version of Server 2012, Visual Studio 2013 and SQL 2014.

For more information see Mary Jo Foley’s “Microsoft’s ‘Blue’ servers: What’s coming when” article.

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So, following on from my Can you help get me to Tech Ed EMEA in Madrid? post where I asked for your help to help win me some prizes (and still not too late to help me it’s time for me to “share the love” with news of a new promotion Microsoft are running where you could win a fully funded trip to Tech Ed Europe in sunny Madrid (and after the prolonged, cold winter we could all do with some sunshine although the guarantee of fine weather is not included unfortunately

So take a read, digest, and good luck…!!!

“Impress your boss without having to put a dent in the training budget by winning tickets to
TechEd Europe. It’s the premier annual Microsoft event for IT professionals from the 25th to 28th June 2013. You’ll be able to improve your knowledge, talk to leading experts face to face and gain valuable information that’ll put you streets ahead of others in your area. Plus you’ll do it all in sunny Madrid!

How you can win

Win your ticket to TechEd Europe by downloading our products

If you trial Windows Server 2012 <ISO> <VHD>, Windows Azure and/or System Center 2012 SP1 between 22nd March 2013 and 31st May 2013, you’re in with a chance of winning a ticket to TechEd Europe, hosted this year in the cultural city of Madrid.

To be eligible, download at least one of the three products. Download two or all three to better your chances. You’ll also need to fill out our entry form.

Win a fully funded place at TechEd Europe by writing a short review

We also have three fully funded trips to be won. This takes a bit more effort, but it’s well worth it.

Once you’ve trialled one (or all) of the three products, submit an article/blog post reviewing the experience/product – that will qualify you for a chance to win.

There are three funded places to TechEd Europe to be won, one prize for each of the winning product reviews. There’s also a brand new Windows 8 Phone to be won by three runners up.

You’ll be judged based on your depth of understanding of the product and the breadth of how these can be applied in the modern IT department. The more informative and useful you make the articles for fellow IT pros, the more chance you have of winning.

Each first place prize includes your ticket to TechEd Europe, flights, hotel and meals. Winners will also be part of the TechNet team at the hub of Microsoft’s European community.

To be eligible you must have downloaded at least one of the three products and written a review of your experience; if you download and review all three, you will have tripled your chances of winning.

We’ll also be monitoring Twitter for spot prizes. Just use the hashtag #TechEdChallenge in a tweet for a chance to win some limited edition Microsoft goodies.

We want you to be equipped with all of the knowledge to write a winning article, so to help you learn about the products before you start, we recommend you visit the Microsoft Virtual Academy for product-specific courses that will teach you about the latest features.

To find out more about TechEd Europe 2013, please click here

One prize only per person.

T&Cs apply”

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To help encourage folks to download System Center Service Pack 1 and Windows Server, Microsoft UK  have just launched a 3 month competition to see how soon they can register 15,000 click throughs for these products.

The source of the clicks is registered so if you wouldn’t mind clicking through on the links below you’d be helping me to potentially win one of the following:

• Ticket to Tech Ed EMEA in Madrid (never been to Tech Ed before so maybe this is the year),
• Asus Zenbook
• Windows Phone
• Microsoft flight bag.

Links

• System  Center SP1:
• Windows   Server: ISO:   VHD:

Many thanks in advance and I’ll keep you posted if I win anything and who knows we might meet in Madrid

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