Just as the Chilean miners were rescued from underground this week, Tony Redmond and Paul Robichaux are rescuing a group of stalwart Exchange administrators in Boston from possible problems and mis-steps as they plan their migrations to Exchange Server 2010. The “Essentials Workshop Series: Become and Exchange 2010 Maestro” event kicked off yesterday in Boston and will run again in Anaheim next week. And as with the mine operation rescue, some heavy equipment noises were prevalent during the first day of the workshop as the hotel was undergoing some renovations. (Apparently the sessions were moved away from the chaos for the remainder of the event.)
The event is proving to bring a good mix of nuts-and-bolts training and lively discussion. Tony and Paul worked with Exchange MVP Brian Desmond to build the lab materials for the event, which are delivered on USB SATA drives that contain six virtual machines. About 41 attendees are in the room with the “masters” this week, and Tony reported that they represent a fairly typical mix of Exchange use – about 55 percent currently run Exchange 2003, 35 percent run Exchange 2007, and about 10 percent run Exchange 2010.
The daily agenda is packed, and the discussions are intriguing, so the biggest challenge for Tony, Paul, and the group is staying on schedule to cover the significant amount of material in store over the three-day course. According to Tony, some of the most detailed discussions have focused on:
· Enterprise CALs, which are confusing for many Exchange admins
· The need to deploy Outlook 2010 to take advantage of some Exchange 2010 features presents a challenge for some companies
· Setting the requirement for encrypted RPCs off by default solves one problem—but creates another.
You can follow a blow-by-blow account of the workshop through blogs by Tony and Paul. And if you want to rub elbows with the maestros yourself—and you can get to Anaheim by Monday—slo...
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You could make a career out of PowerShell (just ask our frequent contributor and PowerShell expert, Don Jones). But if PowerShell's only one of a few million things you need to learn quickly, take a look at some of these most popular and recent resources.
1. Check out Don Jones on PowerShell. Don's a well-known PowerShell expert, author, and instructor, and he updates his blog several times a week with practical PowerShell tips and tricks. He recently blogged about other PowerShell resources you can use. Don also has a series of longer PowerShell articles on Windows IT Pro. Trying to tackle debugging in Windows? Don lends a hand with "Debugging in Windows PowerShell."
2. Visit John Savill's FAQ page, which includes many PowerShell tips. For a sample, see John's introduction to PowerShell cmdlets for AD.
3. Greg Shields also covers some PowerShell tips in his virtualization blog. For example, Greg shows how to use the GetCluster cmdlet in Windows PowerShell and a subsequent tweak to his tip.
4. Darren Mar-Elia talks about how you can use PowerShell to automate Group Policy management in Windows Server 2008 R2.
5. And one from the archives ... an old but good one from Robert Sheldon on accessing SQL Server from PowerShell--a two-part series.
Happy scripting! And don't forget to follow me on Twitter.
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IT budgets took a serious hit in the last year, according to recent data gathered through our annual survey process conducted by Readex, an independent research firm. The reason for the drop in spending is no mystery--average gross revenue for IT organizations responding to our survey dropped from $4 billion in 2009 to $2.8 billion in 2010. Spending on IT consulting was slashed--down 61 percent in this year's survey from 2009. But on the bright side, IT staffing expenditures dropped only about 6 percent, perhaps a sign that companies did what they could to keep experienced staff members engaged in running core IT infrastructure and processes.
Spending on computer systems dropped 57 percent from 2009 to 2010, according to our survey. Amidst this slashing, however, a few technologies crept into organizations--namely Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. About 66% of respondents reported that Windows 7 is in use in their organizations, and 48 percent are using Windows 7 x64 Edition. Vista, of course, took the hit for Windows 7--plunging from 94 percent of respondents reporting its use in 2009 results to 39 percent in 2010.
Our readers are adopting Windows Server 2008 at a fairly robust clip--49 percent of organizations are using Windows Server 2008 and 53 percent are using Windows Server 2008 R2. The need to implement a virtualized environment--typically as a cost-saving measure--is driving some of these Windows Server 2008 R2 deployments. Gary Magnuson, an IT specialist with Kroll Factual Data in Loveland, Colorado, said his team evaluated long-term savings in deciding to invest in new hardware to support their Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 roll-out.
“It costs you in one way, but saves you in the other,” Magnuson said. “Also, if you have some servers that are running toward the end of life, instead of buying a new server you can convert it to a VM. Besides getting rid of the physical box, virtualization saves you on power. You’re saving the purchase of the ph...
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Microsoft Exchange Server rules among the IT pros in our audience, of course. But once you have a stable messaging environment, you sure don't want to mess with it. Windows IT Pro conducts annual reader surveys to determine product adoption and upgrades. And our most recent set of survey data tells us that although it’s no surprise that Exchange Server dominates among our audience in the messaging category, the adoption of Exchange Server 2010 continues to move at a glacial pace. In 2009, 9 percent of respondents were using Exchange Server 2010. In 2010, that number has crept up to 12 percent.
Windows IT Pro has partnered with two of our stalwart Exchange experts—Tony Redmond and Paul Robichaux—to develop a three-day boot camp that could shake you loose from Exchange Server 2007 (or 2003) and into the present-day benefits of Exchange Server 2010. IT pros who always wait until the first service pack is released will be interested to know that these hands-on workshops will focus on Service Pack 1 (SP1). The workshops will be presented October 13-15 in Boston and October 18-20 in Anaheim, and will include lab materials developed by Exchange MVP Brian Desmond, who worked closely with Tony and Paul to build the materials. The objective of the workshop is that you get your hands on Exchange Server 2010 SP1, ask questions of these experts while they're in the room with you, and go home to execute a smooth migration.
Tony characterized the virtualized, laptop-based labs as short, snappy sessions that let you explore the intricacies of the new technology. "We will create a definite task for you to accomplish during the lab—one that adds real value when you return home from the event," he said.
As you would expect from Tony and Paul, the agenda will be packed with practical advice for rolling out your Exchange deployment (as well as some excellent jokes, of course). In the first session, Tony and Paul will examine the Exchange Server 2010 SP1 architecture, pointing...
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