TechNet Flash - Volume 14, Issue 2 - January 18, 2012

Top Stories

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Evaluate the Microsoft Private Cloud Release Candidate

Download Microsoft System Center 2012 Release Candidate and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, see the Microsoft Private Cloud Evaluation Resources, and learn how the Microsoft private cloud can transform the way you deliver IT services to your business.

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Watch the Private Cloud Webcast

Get real-world answers from IT leaders who have been putting cloud technology to work in their own organizations.

White Paper: Flexible Workstyles and Enterprise IT
This paper looks at the benefits and challenges of consumerization and provides details on how Microsoft solutions can help IT departments support flexible workstyles by optimizing application infrastructure, providing unified management, and supporting modern security and access models.

New at Microsoft Virtual Academy: Configuring and Deploying Microsoft's Private Cloud
Find brand-new courses on infrastructure management, infrastructure components, service delivery and automation, and application services management.

Video Series: Cloud Transparency as an Element of Trust
Mark Estberg, Senior Director of Microsoft's Global Foundation Services, discusses the importance of having a framework in place to help clarify the responsibilities of cloud providers and cloud customers when leveraging different cloud computing architectures.

Video: How Microsoft Uses Virtual Machine Manager 2012
System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 helps enable centralized management of physical and virtual IT infrastructure, increased server utilization, and dynamic resource optimization across multiple virtualization platforms. Microsoft uses Virtual Machine Manager for planning, deploying, managing, and optimizing the virtual infrastructure, and maximizing its datacenter resources.

Virtual Lab: Migrating from System Center Configuration Manager 2007 to System Center Configuration Manager 2012
After completing this lab, you will be better able to configure a Configuration Manager 2012 hierarchy to migrate data from a Configuration Manager 2007 environment, create migration jobs based on collections and on individual objects, migrate objects from Configuration Manager 2007 to Configuration Manager 2012, and migrate a client to Configuration Manager 2012.

TechNet Radio: The Evolution of Natural User Interfaces
In this episode we welcome Technical Evangelist David Tesar and Senior Director of Storytelling Steve Clayton to the show. Tune in as we discuss the latest trends on natural user interfaces (NUI), why it's more than just speech, touch, and gesture, and how it is being used at Microsoft.

White Paper: Deploying and Managing Lync
Microsoft IT replaced PBX systems in seven sites located in the three major regions. MSIT implemented user adoption strategies that resulted in a very successful deployment with high user satisfaction scores.

White Paper: Microsoft Private Cloud - A Comparative Look at Functionality, Benefits, and Economics
In this white paper, we compare private cloud solutions from Microsoft and VMware. We do this by defining private cloud using industry standard concepts, explain the Microsoft products needed to create a Microsoft private cloud solution, and then define the technology benefits a Microsoft private cloud solution provides.

TechNet Wiki: A Solution for Private Cloud Security
This document is part of a collection of documents that comprise the Reference Architecture for Private Cloud document set. The Solution for Private Cloud is a community collaboration project.

Video: How Microsoft Deployed System Center Configuration Manager 2012
Configuration Manager 2012 was built on the vision of a user-centric client management model with the vision of empowering the user, unifying infrastructure, and extending management control across the platform. With Configuration Manager 2012, we have improved client patching, endpoint protection, compliance, reporting, and management of devices synching with the network.

Video: Managing and Monitoring the Fabric with System Center 2012
Senior Technical Product Manager Kenon Owens is on hand to discuss the second part the System Center 2012 fabric improvements, this time focusing on management and operations.

Webcast: From Virtualization to Private Cloud with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012
February 1, 2012, 10:00 A.M. Pacific Time
In this webcast we demonstrate how you can use Virtual Machine Manager 2012 to create and deploy virtual machines and private clouds. We show how you can pool and dynamically allocate virtualized data center resources, enabling self-service infrastructure experience for your business, with flexible role-based delegation and access control.

Twelve Reasons to Love SQL Server 2012: Reason #8 - Scalable Analytics and Data Warehousing
With over 24 TB for analytical solutions, and built-in data warehousing features such as ColumnStore Index and partition support to 15k, SQL Server 2012 offers flexibility and choice, massive scale at a low cost, and a complete BI solution. Download the SQL Server 2012 Release Candidate (RC) today and try it for yourself.