Microsoft

Featured IT Blog: Microsoft Enterprise Networking Team blog

Need to know how to migrate a DHCP database from Windows 2000 Server to Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2? How about some more information on a Microsoft security release? The Microsoft Enterprise Networking Team blog is chock-full of applicable information, including recent KnowledgeBase articles related to networking, along with news and tips. Visit the Microsoft Enterprise Networking Team blog today!

The #GoneGoogle meta-revolt

Last post on the Google Guerrillas and I promise I’ll find a new topic to harp on for a while, but just thought you might find it interesting how Google’s viral campaign has turned against them.

As PaidContent reports:

As part of its new campaign to promote Google Apps Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has been encouraging users to Tweet on the benefits of ‘going Google’ under the hashtag ‘Gone Google.’ But with Gmail officially down the hashtag has taken on a new meaning, as a number of users have used it to circulate their complaints.

PaidContent also notes that Microsoft is quietly pushing news of the revolt out there, with COO Kevin Turner pointing to news of the outage to convince current Microsoft customers to stay on board.

More on managing the user revolt:

• Help user-IT relations with a party: So crazy it might just work
• GMail fails, but will Google Guerrillas back down?
• Would Shakespeare slice up the server admin?
• Is your IT department fighting Google guerillas?

Microsoft giveth, Microsoft taketh away

If you missed yesterday’s live chat with Microsoft’s virtualization gurus, we’ll have a copy of the the transcript up next week. Overall, the ITKnowledgExchange community gave them a good grilling, asking Edwin Yuen, senior product manager for Microsoft, almost a 100 questions about Hyper-V, how Microsoft’s offerings stack up against VMWare and whether he could convince a VMWare lover to switch over (A: “Not in an online chat forum, but I can tell you that with R2, we have expanded our capabilities to really enhance the value for an organization”).

We’ve got more coverage of the virtualization scene over at sister site SearchVirtualization.com, where they’ve tackled Hyper-V Live Migration case studies and taken an in-depth look at Hyper-V R2’s features beyond Live Migration (Note: Free registration required for the latter two links).

But just as Microsoft’s decided to give (Hyper-V), so they’ve decided to take away, as the Washington Post’s Brian Krebs reports:

Windows users who have Automatic Updates turned on probably have by now noticed at least one new update available from Redmond. The patch represents the next phase of the Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) anti-piracy pilot program Microsoft launched last year. Microsoft says the update is being gradually rolled out to different countries, so the update will not be available to everyone at the same time.

The program checks against Office XP, Office 2003, and Office 2007 installations.

Hopefully Windows has unsnarled some of the problems WGA has given systems administrators in the past, but best case scenario it’s one more thing for busy IT staffs to look out for. If you run into our problems, post them in the forums or let me know at  michael at itknowledgeexchange.com or on Twitter, and we’ll do our best to find a workaround or solution.

Is your IT department fighting Google guerillas?

Google’s “Go Google” campaign is well underway, having kicked off at the beginning of the month with a series of plus-sized billboards in strategic cities, the now almost mandatory Twitter hashtag campaign and some major customer announcements, including Motorola’s mobile devices unit. The must cunning strike, however, might be a series of cheeky, innocuous-seeming posters:

It’s not quite inciting an all-out user revolt, but anonymous postering, cryptic typewriter text and the imperative demands all break the mold in how IT projects are usually handled: It’s more V for Vendetta than white paper analysis and staged roll outs.

Have you felt the heat from users? Does it strike you as a cry for freedom from clunky, expensive apps or a call to IT anarchy?  I’m curious as to your thoughts, either in the comments below, to michael@itknowledgeexchange.com, or on Twitter at @morisy. In the meantime, perhaps V himself can give voice to those guerrilla user’s demands:

Microsoft Virtualization Live Chat with Edwin Yuen - August 27th, 11-2 EDT

Our next live virtualization chat with Microsoft virtualization pro Edwin Yuen will take place on August 27th from 11 am to 2 pm EDT. The IT Knowledge Exchange community will have an opportunity to pose their most pressing virtualization questions to Microsoft in a live, open discussion. You can visit the blog now or sign up for an e-reminder here.

We look forward to seeing our IT Knowledge Exchange virtualization pros with us in the chat on the 27th; remember that you can always post your questions ahead of time in the comments.

View the transcripts from previous Microsoft Virtualization chats:

• Microsoft Virtualization Live Chat 3.31.09
• Microsoft Virtualization Live Chat 5.14.09

Alternatively, you can view the Microsoft Virtualization Chat questions and answers by visiting its associated tag on IT Knowledge Exchange.

With data centers, Microsoft more ‘open kimono’ than Google

Google's floating data center schema

Google’s become known for being willing to try almost anything when it comes to the data center: The Internet giant’s re-vitalized small Iowa towns, designed and commissioned its own custom hardware and even floated the idea of a sea-based data center (Mark Fontecchio dissected that strategy in a blog post).

One strategy the big G hasn’t been willing to try however is transparency, according to New York Times reporter Ashlee Vance:

No one really knows how effective Google’s strategy is. The secretive company releases precious little information about its internal operations. Maybe it saves vast amounts of money by fine-tuning a super-efficient data center. Or maybe the “must-be-invented here” method adds a lot of cost and complexity to Google’s infrastructure.

Microsoft doesn’t seem terribly worried about Google’s eccentric methods. It continues to buy systems from companies like Dell, SGI and Cisco Systems, as it builds out some of the biggest data centers on the planet.

“I can’t say how we compare to Google,” said Debra Chrapaty, Microsoft’s vice president in charge of the company’s infrastructure. “I really haven’t seen them be as ‘open kimono’ as we have been.”

Microsoft, more open and transparent than Google? It can happen, apparently. And if Google’s talking about putting data centers on a boat, Microsoft seems prepared to take them on the road. Chrapaty said Redmond’s considering ditching buildings altogether, putting data-centers-in-a-box out in the open. That would make them cheaper to deploy, if perhaps a bit more exposed, and also raises the possibility of nomadic data centers, traveling from tax haven to tax haven as local legislators try to lure high tech firms.

Sound far fetched? Talk to Quincy, Washington, which lost Microsoft’s Azure data centers to San Antonio for just that reason. Make the data centers more portable, and who knows what will come of it.

Some ITKnowledgeExchange Data Center Resources:

• Data center facilities pro blog
• Mainframe Propeller Head
• Server Farming
• Adventures in Data Center Automation