Editor's Note - October 1999

  • Article

Just what is an IT Pro?

tim

You may have noticed our new tagline, "Insights and Answers for IT Professionals." You may also be wondering what exactly we mean by this. I'll explain.

An IT Pro or Information Technology Professional is the person responsible for any or all of the following: the technical evaluation, deployment, maintenance and support of software and hardware in a business. If you do any or all of these things, TechNet is for you. TechNet's goal is to provide this information, an opportunity to interact with Microsoft and to provide feedback all in one place.

Now, "IT Professional" is a broad term, and of course it also includes developers. But TechNet doesn't focus on developers because Microsoft already has a great program for them called the Microsoft Developer Network, also known as MSDN. If you write applications or develop solutions that run on Microsoft products, you'll find the information and resources you need there.

Another change you may have noticed: We have moved to a bi-weekly home page schedule. However, we will continue to post new announcements on the home page, as well as adding new articles on Y2K, Security – and any other issues of vital interest to IT Pros – as soon as they become available. So be sure to check back often.

IT Training and Certification

The Training and Certification section is now called IT Training and Certification. The name was refined to make it clearer what kind of training we focus on. We do not cover all the training resources available from Microsoft—just those that are directed toward IT Pros. In addition, we have moved the related Microsoft Online Seminars and Career content to this section and added a new page for Microsoft Official Curriculum (MOC). This new page includes samples of MOC's HTML-based courses and live training modules geared toward, you guessed it, IT Pros.

From one of our members: TCP/IP Subnetting article

We love implementing ideas from our members. This month, we feature an article from Phil Calderone that explains how to derive the 8-bit subnet tables found on page 95 of the Microsoft Official Curriculum course, "Internetworking with Microsoft TCP/IP on Windows NT 4.0" without having to use a scientific calculator. It's worth a look.

Here's what else is new and exciting this month:

TechNet Talks: Kalen Delaney

October 25th brings the next installment of TechNet's interviews Kalen refers to herself as a "single product professional," but everyone knows her as the Queen of SQL Server. She supported early versions of the product for Sybase, earned her MVP stripes in the newsgroup and developed the training sessions for Microsoft and other major clients. Kalen even wrote the book, Inside SQL Server 7.0, from MS Press. Shrinking the transaction log, the uses of Profiler, and the wonders of the Data Transformation Tool are just a few of the topics that were on the table when TechNet caught up with her between dates on her international training tour.

IT Showcase

The informative white papers and case studies found in IT Showcase are now organized by line of business and technology deployments. We've also added several new articles, including the white paper High Availability SQL Server Platform Engineering and a case study of Microsoft's Finance intranet.

Puzzler Game

Congratulations to Dave Hurd, winner of round three's grand prize. Dave (a Y2K consultant now working with Lucent Techologies) and his wife Lisa will enjoy a Starwood Vacations trip to Orlando, Florida. Round Four kicked off on September 20th. This time, the lucky grand prize winner will receive a Starwood Vacation for two to Oahu, Hawaii.

At the end of round three, we introduced a nifty new feature called "My Report Card". Now you can come back at the end of the round to check your answers.

Thanks for the tip!

We've received some great tips on troubleshooting, optimizing and saving time. These are being reviewed for technical accuracy, with the best of the bunch to be posted soon. We can always use more, so please continue to send them. If yours is selected, we'll publish it with your byline and send you a free TechNet T-shirt.

TechNet CD Subscriptions

The October CD subscription issue will help you get a jump on Windows 2000. The Technical Information CD focuses on designing a network infrastructure that allows Windows NT Server 4.0 to interoperate with Windows 2000 Server. Subscribers will find links to a number of articles that support the October theme, including information on evaluating infrastructure services for Windows NT Server 4.0 and a white paper on planning a migration from Windows NT to Windows 2000. Subscribers will also receive the following with the October issue:

  • MS Exchange Server 5.5 Service Pack 3

  • MS SNA Server 4.0 Service Pack 3

  • MS Office 2000 60-Minute Intranet Kit

  • Integrating MS Systems Management Server 2.0 with Novell NetWare

  • Customizing MS Windows Media Event Guide

  • New Microsoft Online Seminars CDs

Do you have constructive criticism for TechNet? Kudos to share? As always, we welcome your feedback, so please pass it along.

Tim McBride
Group Manager
Microsoft TechNet