Microsoft has updated the Exchange Server Deployment Assistant to include support for configuring hybrid deployments using Exchange 2010 SP2 and Exchange 2007 on-premises organizations.
You’ll need to add at least one Exchange 2010 SP2 server to your current Exchange 2007 organization.
Microsoft has released over a dozen virtual labs that are focused on Windows Server 2012. No complex setup or installation is required to try out Windows Server 2012 running in a full-featured virtual lab. You get a downloadable manual and a 90-minute block of time for each module. The following is a list of the virtual labs that are available:
The latest Group Policy settings reference spreadsheet that covers the available administrative template settings and security settings for Windows Server “8” Beta, Windows 8 Consumer Preview and all earlier versions of Windows is now available in the download center, here.
A description of what is contained in this latest version can be found here:
Microsoft Lync Server 2010 combined with Microsoft Exchange 2010 SP1 Unified Messaging and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 delivers a fresh, intuitive user experience that brings together the different ways people communicate and collaborate in a single user interface. This unified experience facilitates rapid user adoption, while the ability to support a full range of communications from a single platform reduces both capital and operational costs.
Download this fully configured virtual machine set of the latest release to evaluate Microsoft Lync Server 2010, and discover the full power of the Microsoft Business Productivity Platform. This VHD set enables real-time communications and collaboration using presence, instant messaging, enterprise voice and video, conferencing and application sharing, as well as features like Unified Messaging and Skill Search powered by Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft SharePoint Server.
The VHDs can be downloaded here.
The Ask the Directory Services Team blog has a post that outlines some of the improvements to Group Policy management that are in Windows Server 8, including:
The post goes into more detail for reach of the above and can be found here.
I found out this morning that I was awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) designation for 2012. This is the 5th year that I have been designated as a Microsoft MVP in the Directory Services expertise. It’s truly humbling!
Download a detailed guide to the new and improved features in Windows 8 including AppLocker, BitLocker, Windows To Go, measured boot, and Client Hyper-V.
The Windows 8 Consumer Preview Product Guide for Business provides a detailed look at the many new and improved features in Windows 8. The guide is designed as an accurate source of information that can help businesses understand how Windows 8 enables users to be ready and productive practically anywhere, allows for a personalized user experience, and provides IT with more secure, easy-to-manage intelligent infrastructure.
This document introduces you to some of the new client features that are available whenever Microsoft Lync Server 2010 communications software is integrated with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. Successfully integrating these two enterprise communications solutions can be challenging, especially considering that there are subtle differences in the way that services from each product are leveraged by Lync Server 2010 clients.
The document can be downloaded here.
Microsoft® Script Explorer for Windows PowerShell® enables you to search for PowerShell scripts in local, network, and online script repositories. You are shown available scripts that are organized by category, and they can search for scripts from local and trusted community repositories by applying filters based on focus areas. Script search results return information about script usage, code samples, and articles about the scripts. When you find the scripts you that you need, you can download and store the scripts and use them at a later time. Script Explorer also allows you to view how-to guidance topics for Windows PowerShell commands and community resources such as TechNet wiki pages to get started with Windows PowerShell.
Microsoft has released a whitepaper that provides guidance and best practices for deploying Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 in a virtualized environment with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper V technology.
The whitepaper can be found here.
What if your computer could transcribe and translate, in near real-time, a phone conversation you’re having with someone speaking a language you don’t understand? That’s the promise of one prototype demonstrated by Microsoft researchers today during a preview of the company’s annual TechFest event.
The Windows Server “8” Beta Understand and Troubleshoot Guides (UTG) help IT administrators and architects develop awareness of key technical concepts, functionality, and troubleshooting techniques. This understanding enables a successful early adoption experience during the product evaluation phase.
Note:
The UTGs do not provide deployment planning content.
The following UTGs are available:
Did you know that Lync Server 2010 can support meetings with up to 1,000 participants using audio/video conferencing, including sharing PowerPoint presentations? Microsoft has released a white paper that describes how to support large meetings using a dedicated Lync Server 2010 pool. The white paper can be downloaded here.
One of the real benefits of Microsoft Lync Server is the seamless manner in which you can access the updated address book from any device.
Published in the February 2012 issue of Microsoft TechNet Magazine. The article can be found here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/magazine/hh824722.aspx.
Security Compliance Manager (SCM) is a free tool from the Microsoft Solution Accelerators team that enables you to quickly configure and manage your computers, traditional datacenter, and private cloud using Group Policy and Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager. SCM provides ready-to-deploy policies and DCM configuration packs that are tested and fully supported. Product baselines are based on Microsoft Security Guide recommendations and industry best practices, allowing you to manage configuration drift, address compliance requirements, and reduce security threats.
According to a post on the Ask the Directory Services Team Blog, SCM 2.5 includes several new features, such as:
SCM 2.5 Beta can be found on Microsoft Connect.
The Why Microsoft blog has an interesting article that details the difference in how availability is calculated in Microsoft Office 365 and Google Apps. The article focuses on seven important criteria in considering cloud service availability, and compares how each is calculated in Microsoft Office 365 and Google Apps. The seven criteria include:
In my opinion, the calculations used for Google Apps Availability are heavily skewed in Google’s favor, rather than valuing the customer.
The article can be read here.
Microsoft has released a document that contains high-level guidance for properly scaling and deploying a multi-tenant Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2 solution. It includes details of testing performed in Microsoft labs to validate the scalability of the product and suggests methods that can be used during the design and deployment process to mitigate potential risks associated with such solutions.
The document can be downloaded here.
Anyone following Lync should know by now that Microsoft (finally) released a Lync 2010 client for Windows Phone today. Microsoft also officially announced that Lync 2010 clients for iPhone, iPad, Android, and Nokia Symbian have been submitted for approval to their respective app stores. Availability can be tracked here.
The Lync 2010 mobile clients combine instant messaging, conferencing, and calling features in a single application that’s both familiar to Lync users and optimized for mobile productivity.
The Lync 2010 clients can be used to connect to on-premise deployments of Lync Server 2010 or Lync Online in Office 365, both of which require some configuration before mobile clients can connect.
To allow mobile clients to connect to Lync Online in Office 365, you will need to add a DNS CNAME entry for Lync mobile devices, which is covered here.
To allow mobile clients to connect to an on-premise deployment of Lync Server 2010, you will need to install cumulative update for Lync Server 2010: November 2011, and then enable Mobility, which is covered here.
As you may have heard already, today Microsoft released Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Exchange Server 2010. SP2 includes the following changes:
Exchange Server 2010 SP2 also includes fixes for known issues, including those included in:
Here are some links to additional information relating to Exchange Server 2010 SP2:
Remote Desktop Licensing (Terminal Services Licensing) is one of those things that is not well understood, and there hasn’t been a lot of quality documentation on it…until recently. The Directory Services team at Microsoft has written a good article that should answer all the questions you’ll ever have on Remote Desktop Licensing, such as:
The article can be found here.
Today Microsoft announced new features for Office 365, in addition to the addition of 22 markets for Office 365 availability. Some of the key new features include:
The full list of new features can be found here.
Forefront Identity Manager (FIM) 2010 R2 release candidate is available for download from Microsoft Connect. This release candidate includes new and updated features for FIM 2010 R2:
In particular, this release candidate introduces numerous functional improvements, including:
For complete information, see the Release Notes and feature-specific documents.
If you have already joined the FIM 2010 Community Evaluation Program or downloaded the beta, you can obtain FIM 2010 R2 RC from the FIM 2010 Connect web site. The downloads link is in the left column.
To join the program and download the software, click here. Once you answer the survey questions, the Connect site will auto-approve your access.
I stumbled across a post on the Office 365 Technical Blog, which points to the Release Notes for Office 365. As the post author put it:
Created when the product is released to the public or updated, release notes capture issues that couldn’t be resolved before the product was released. It’s like late-breaking news: You won’t find this information anywhere else, folks!
The Release Notes for Office 365 do contain useful information, and are worth a read for anyone who is moving to, or has moved to, Office 365.
There are two separate Release Notes for Office 365:
Microsoft has released CU4 for Lync 2010. This update package fixes the issues that are previously documented in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) articles: