Microsoft IT Showcase proudly presents Insight Workshops.

Offered world-wide, this fee-based offering is delivered in collaboration between Microsoft Services and Microsoft IT. Workshops provide IT professionals an opportunity to engage in peer-to-peer technology sharing in a multiple-day workshop environment, providing a unique inside view into Microsoft's process of developing, deploying and managing Microsoft enterprise solutions.

Learn about the challenges Microsoft IT faces in managing its large, globally distributed environment. Through Insight Workshops, we help accelerate deployment and adoption of Microsoft technologies, share best practices around productivity gains. Register today!

Who should attend?

• Technical decision makers
• IT managers
• Senior IT professionals
  

Registration and more information

To register and get additional information on Insight Workshops, schedules, and pricing and payment options, please contact:

• Your Microsoft Account Manager
• The Insight Workshop Regional Leads at Insightw@microsoft.com

Workshop Portfolio

Unlike training programs, Insight Workshops are interactive, offering customers the opportunity for one-on-one discussions with Microsoft IT professionals who provide a rare insider perspective into Microsoft IT, and answer customer questions in a conversational, intimate format.

Workshops available now

Collaboration and Knowledge Management at Microsoft

Desktop Deployment at Microsoft

Enterprise Security & Directory Services

High Availability Messaging

Manageability

New! Virtualization at Microsoft

Collaboration and Knowledge Management at Microsoft

Duration: 2-day workshops
Fee: Based on location (email Insightw@microsoft.com for details)
Dates, regional registration and more information: Email Insightw@microsoft.com

You will engage in peer-to-peer discussions with Microsoft® IT and Services professionals. In a series of guided discussions, you will receive key insights about how Microsoft enables communication and collaboration across the organization. You will also learn how Microsoft uses cross team and enterprise-wide knowledge management to make information easier to find, easier to use and easier to keep updated. The agenda includes:

• Messaging architecture at Microsoft
• Exchange 2007 planning and deployment
• Effective ways to control SPAM
• Instant messaging usage and benefits at Microsoft
• Unified communications at Microsoft
• Cross group collaboration using SharePoint Team Sites
• Enterprise-wide knowledge management portals
• Portal integration with LOB applications
• Searching for information inside Microsoft
• Secured communication �– topology and deployment as well as lessons learned

Microsoft is a world-wide organization with offices and staff spanning the globe. This structure provides real challenges for staff that need to communicate, discuss and share information with their peers all over the world. Microsoft has addressed these challenges by developing products and processes that allow employees to communicate easily and share knowledge with their co-workers, no matter where they may be.

By integrating Office Communications Server (OCS), Exchange 2007, and SharePoint 2007 into its daily operational practices, Microsoft is able to create a proactive environment that provides:

• Multiple channels of communication that are tied together into a seamless, easy to use system
• Tools that allow virtual teams to operate across borders and time zones
• Easy peer-to-peer, top-down and bottom-up information sharing enabling collaboration across the business
• Improved responsiveness to changing business demands

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Desktop Deployment at Microsoft

Duration: 2-day workshops
Fee: Based on location (email Insightw@microsoft.com for details)
Dates, regional registration and more information: Email Insightw@microsoft.com

In this two-day workshop, you will engage in peer-to-peer discussions with Microsoft IT and Services professionals. In a series of guided discussions, you will receive key insights into how Microsoft planned for and executed the migration from Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Office 2003 to Windows Vista and Office Enterprise 2007. This workshop differs from other Insight Workshops because it focuses on the process to deploy new technology, instead of exploring the new technology itself. You will also learn how Microsoft manages deployment preparation, communications, support, and adoption. Workshop topics include:

• Overview of Windows Vista desktop deployment
• Overview of the 2007 Office system desktop deployment
• Deployment planning for Windows Vista and the 2007 Office system at Microsoft
• Desktop deployment infrastructure
• Creating and using Windows Vista images
• Windows Vista deployment communications
• Windows Vista and the 2007 Office system deployment user support
• Deployment case studies based on Microsoft experiences
• Using BDD—from light touch deployment to zero touch deployment
• Best practices for accelerating adoption of Windows Vista and the 2007Office system

Deploying a new operating system or global application across an enterprise is a challenging project, not only for those who perform the work of the organization, but also for the IT personnel who perform the task. Microsoft completed this process in early 2007 when it concurrently rolled out Windows Vista and Office Enterprise 2007 to 90,000 computers within the Microsoft organization. Hear firsthand experiences from the roll out, complete with case studies from a variety of user and technical environments.

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Enterprise Security & Directory Services Insight Workshop

Duration: 2-day workshops
Fee: Based on location (email Insightw@microsoft.com for details)
Dates, regional registration and more information: Email Insightw@microsoft.com

This workshop covers how Microsoft secures the enterprise through the use of enterprise directory services and key technologies, and applies robust processes and policies to manage its IT environment and identity information. Agenda includes:

• Deploying and operating Microsoft technology as part of an enterprise information security program.
• Using Active Directory and MIIS to manage enterprise identities and identity life cycle management.
• Identifying malware and managing security updates at Microsoft.
• Providing secure remote access with smart cards and self-hosted PKI.
• Security and policy enforcement through group policies.
• Application security, risk management, threat analysis, and modeling.

Microsoft has made information access and network security primary tenets, guiding everything that the company does, both inside the organization and out. Like any enterprise, Microsoft is faced with increased demands for information in combination with more frequent and more sophisticated attacks. Microsoft IT is therefore tasked with establishing and maintaining an IT environment that is productive for customers, business partners, and its own employees and delivers maximum access while simultaneously increasing protection of both information and privacy.

By using directory services and security across the enterprise, Microsoft IT is able to create a proactive IT environment that:

• Protects digital assets and facilitates an optimal environment for serving both customers and partners.
• Reduces threats to workplace productivity caused by attacks and downtime.
• Increases responsiveness to changing business demands.

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Manageability Insight Workshop

Duration: 2-day workshops
Fee: Based on location (email Insightw@microsoft.com for details)
Dates, regional registration and more information: Insightw@microsoft.com

This workshop covers how Microsoft IT implements SMS and MOM to improve operational efficiencies and to reduce costs. Agenda includes:

• How Microsoft does enterprise management using SMS
• How Microsoft uses SMS for desktop, server patch management and asset management
• How Microsoft IT monitors enterprise servers
• How Microsoft IT addresses key concerns: security, reliability, consolidation, and operations
• Microsoft IT's deployment plans for Operations Manager 2007, Configuration Manager 2007, and Service Desk
• How Microsoft IT uses Data Protection Manager to optimize disk-based backup and recovery
• Right sizing and virtualization

Like any enterprise, Microsoft continues to demand increasing value from its IT infrastructure and investments. Using its own management products and the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF), Microsoft IT is tasked with establishing and maintaining a productive IT environment for employees that delivers effectiveness and impact, while at the same time reducing complexity and cost.

Microsoft IT uses Microsoft management products such as SMS and Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 running on Windows Server 2003 and the Microsoft Windows Vista™ operating system along with virtualization technologies, Service Level Agreement (SLA), and Operational Level Agreement (OLA) processes to:

• Increase productivity and reduce costs across the entire IT organization
• Achieve high availability, fast problem detection, and resolution across the enterprise
• Improve system compliance with business and IT policies
• Increase responsiveness to changing business demands

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New! Virtualization at Microsoft

Duration: 2-day workshops
Fee: Based on location (email Insightw@microsoft.com for details)
Dates, regional registration and more information: Insightw@microsoft.com

This workshop offers key insights into Microsoft's virtualization efforts and how Microsoft IT plans and executes deployment, management, and leverage of virtualization in its environment (including datacenters, branch offices, and test/development scenarios). Attendees will also participate in discussions about how virtualization is changing the way IT is managed and delivered, with specific examples and case studies drawn from Microsoft's own experiences with implementing virtualization. The agenda includes:

• Overview of virtualization at Microsoft.
• Windows Server virtualization and Windows Server 2008.
• Managing and monitoring a virtual environment.
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager.
• Architecture and hardware considerations.
• Datacenter and Branch Office virtualization at Microsoft.
• Deployment scenarios.

This workshop goes beyond a discussion of theories on how to implement and use virtualization. Attendees will hear about actual experiences from the IT managers at the cutting edge of implementing and managing virtualization in the real world. Gain key insights into:

• Best practices for managing and deploying a virtual environment.
• Microsoft's investment in virtualization.
• How Microsoft IT manages a virtual environment.
• How Microsoft IT monitors a virtual environment.
• How Microsoft IT deploys virtualization to its branch and field offices.

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