Entries for David Tesar

Forefront TMG RTM Overview Interview

David Tesar — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:59:00 GMT

With the RTM of Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG), David Cross tells us about what's new and gives some real-world examples of how Microsoft IT has benefited from TMG over ISA 2006. He also discusses the following:

Why TMG only utilizes Microsoft signatures with the GAPA / NIS capabilities
How TMG protects non-Microsoft & unmanaged clients
URL filtering capabilities
How TMG can help you save costs
How to migrate from 32-bit ISA 2006 servers to the (only 64-bit) TMG server
The differences between UAG and TMG

Download TMG RTM
Learn more about TMG

Unified Access Gateway Demo, Screencast, and PM Interview

David Tesar — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:05:00 GMT

Meir Mendelovich, UAG Program Manager, at TechEd EMEA 09 tells us about some of the capabilities of UAG and then demos Direct Access and walks through the UAG Direct Access configuration via a screencast.

Learn more about UAG

Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Deployment and Performance

David Tesar — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:01:00 GMT

Alexander Nikolayev joins us again to dive deep into the deployment and some performance for Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange. We answer questions like:

Where should I place FPE and why?
What is the performance cost of putting FPE on Exchange? [9:27]
Increase in amount of messages processed per second over the previous verison of FPE (Forefront Server Security for Exchange)
Things to think about with deciding how many AV engines you run and how the dynamic engine option works
General Tips on capacity planning

Check out the FPE Capacity Planning Tool
Watch the FPE Anti-Spam Deep Dive video with Alex

TechNet Edge International content and site

David Tesar — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:27:00 GMT

What content does Edge have in your local language or for your country? It isn’t obvious, but TechNet Edge supports more than 30 languages for menu/navigation, has 8 country “topic area” pages, and has content on the site in 14 languages. Since we no longer put non-English content on the homepage, here is what you can do to get regular localized content from Edge:

Brazil – Visit Brazil Topic Area, Subscribe to Portuguese content iPod or Regular RSS
China – Visit China Topic Area, Subscribe to Chinese content iPod or Regular RSS
Czech – Visit Czech Topic Area, Subscribe to Czech content iPod or Regular RSS
Germany – Visit Germany Topic Area, Subscribe to German content iPod or Regular RSS
Japan – Visit Japan Topic Area, Subscribe to Japanese content iPod or Regular RSS
LATAM – Visit Latin America Topic Area, Subscribe to Spanish content iPod or Regular RSS
Poland – Visit Poland Topic Area, Subscribe to Polish content iPod or Regular RSS
Spain – Visit Spain Topic Area, Subscribe to Spanish content iPod or Regular RSS

Sweden – View Swedish Content, Subscribe to Swedish content iPod or Regular RSS

More countries are coming on board to Edge in the near future! If you’d really like to see content from your country or local language on Edge right now, also feel free to Contact Us.

Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange and Business Ready Security

David Tesar — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:00:00 GMT

Joe Licari lets us know about the Forefront announcements at TechEd EMEA, what Business Ready Security means to you, specific cost saving examples, and what is coming out by the end of the year from Forefront.

Learn more about or download the released version of Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange

Learn more about Business Ready Security

Edge at TechEd EMEA 2009

David Tesar — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:12:00 GMT

Technet Edge is at TechEd EMEA 2009 this week! What can you expect to see and how can you interact with us at the conference?

We’ll be doing technical interviews and covering the event, posting some videos to Edge every day with the tag TechEdEMEA09 (or subscribe to this tag via RSS)

If you’re at the conference, you can:

Relax in the lounge, chat with peers, and recharge your devices
Ask questions during our live interviews via Twitter by using hash tag #TNEDGE or just follow us on Twitter @TNEDGE.
Enter our contest by going to http://technetedge.info to win a Netbook or one of four – 4 GB Eye-Fi cards
Pickup free swag: universal power converters and Edge Stickers (quantities limited)
Meet the team behind TechNet Edge

TechEd EMEA 2009 - TechNet Edge Contest

David Tesar — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:26:27 GMT

Rules & Important stuff (the essentials):

No purchase necessary. To enter this sweepstakes, you must answer questions found in one or more of the surveys below
no later than 09:00 UTC +1 for the day when the drawing is (see table below). The giveaways will be announced at the time listed below in the TechNet Lounge area (inside the community exhibition area) to win one of the prizes listed below. You must be present at the time of drawing to win! All answers to questions are found at edge.technet.com (links to help you answer provided in the questions).

Monday 11/9 daily survey (3 Questions) ~~Giveaway at 13:00 Tuesday 11/10.~~ No one showed up for this drawing, so this Eye-Fi card will be given away at the Final drawing. There were only 10 respondants to these questions on Tues morning, so good odds to win!

Tuesday 11/10 daily survey (3 Questions) Answer 3 questions correctly to win an Eye-Fi Card. ~~Drawing at 13:00 Wednesday 11/11.~~ This one was my fault - was still in an interview during the drawing. This Eye-Fi card will be given away at the time of the final drawing. There were only 7 respondants to these questions on Wednesday morning, so good odds to win!

Final Survey (6 Questions)

Final Drawing time is 10:30 am Friday 11/13. Out of ANY of the above 3 surveys: Answer 3 or more questions correctly to be eligible to win the Eye-Fi Cards and Answer 7 or more questions correctly to be eligible to win the Netbook. Also, we'll have the final 100 universal power adapters to give away for anyone who shows up - first come, first serve.

More Rules & extra details:

The odds of winning depend on the number of entries received. Open to any participant of the TechEd EMEA Conference 2009. GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, INCLUDING EMPLOYEES OF PUBLIC EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS, ARE NOT ELGIBLE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE SWEEPSTAKES. Employees of Microsoft and any person working directly on this program, exhibitors, sponsors of the Event, their support personnel and the respective affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising and promotion agencies and the immediate families of each (parent, sibling, spouse, child, or household member) are not eligible. Limit one entry per person, per day.

Prizes. One (1) Grand Prizes. One Acer Netbook. (Approximate retail value US$330.00). Four (4) Second Prizes. Four 4GB Eye-Fi Wireless SD cards (Approximate retail value US $80)

Winners of the (4) Eye-Fi cards will be selected instantly by a computer randomly choosing names of people who have answered 3 questions correctly from the survey. Winners of the (1) Acer Netbook will be selected instantly by a computer randomly choosing names of people who have answered 7 or more out of 12 questions correctly from the daily surveys. You must be present at the time of drawing to win. You must show a legal form of identity or your TechEd badge to identify yourself as the winner. Winners are responsible for any shipping fees associated with winning.

Legal stuff:

Taxes on the prize, if any, are the sole responsibility of the winner. All federal, state and local laws and regulations apply. Void where prohibited by law. No substitution, transfer, or assignment of prize permitted, except that Microsoft reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value in the event the offered prize is unavailable. Prize winners may be required to sign and return an Affidavit of Eligibility and Liability Release or W-8 BEN form within 10 days of notification. If a selected winner cannot be contacted, is ineligible, fails to claim a prize or fails to return the Affidavit of Eligibility and Liability Release or W-8 BEN form, the selected winner will forfeit their prize and an alternate winner will be selected. In the event of a dispute all decisions of Microsoft are final. By entering, participants release and hold harmless Microsoft, their respective parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, directors, officers, employees and agents from any and all liability or injuries, loss or damage of any kind arising from or in connection with this sweepstakes or the use of any prize won. Acceptance of prize constitutes permission for Microsoft to use winner's names and likenesses for advertising and promotional purposes without additional compensation unless prohibited by law. By entering this contest, you signify your acceptance of the official rules.

This Sweepstakes is sponsored by Microsoft, 1 Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052.

Privacy Statement. At Microsoft, we are committed to protecting your privacy. Microsoft uses the information you provide to notify prize winners, and to send you information about other Microsoft products and services, if requested by you. Microsoft will not share the information you provide with third parties without your permission except where necessary to complete the services or transactions you have requested, or as required by law. Microsoft is committed to protecting the security of your personal information. We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. Your personal information is never shared outside the company without your permission, except under conditions explained above.

Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange (FPE) Anti-Spam

David Tesar — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:02:00 GMT

Alexander Nikolayev, program manager for FPE, walks us through how all of the anti-spam features work, including the new functionality with FPE over the previous version. After a couple minutes we dive right into the whiteboard walking through the mail flow anti-spam features with connection, protocol, and content filtering.

Since this is a longer interview, here’s how it breaks down. Markers are the round circles in the Silverlight player progress bar.

[5:20 / Marker 1] - How the DNS Block list (DNSBL) feature works, exceptions of when it doesn’t apply, how you know a message was blocked by DNSBL, areas where our DNSBL is better than competitors’ solutions.

[13:47 / Marker 2] – How SMTP filtering works

[19:00 / Marker 3] – How Sender ID filtering works

[21:32 / Marker 4] – Cloudmark engine (content filtering) and performance results with MSIT, frequency of updates with engine, how it is different than competitors’ solutions.

[27:04 / Marker 5] – Estimated Percentage of Spam which is blocked at what spot in the Anti-spam mail flow process based on MSIT deployment of FPE (not including FOPE)

[29:05 / Marker 6] – What is Backscatter and how does it work

[36:40 / Marker 7] – Final tips on backscatter, content filtering, DNSBL, SMTP and sender ID, SPAM and BACON.

Watch a video on the differences between FPE, Forefront Online Protection for Exchange (FOPE), and the native capabilities for protection within Exchange 2010.

Visit the Forefront Server Security homepage

Webfarms and Virtualization with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2

David Tesar — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:01:00 GMT

Sven Knockaert and Roel Van Steenberghe are two system administrators and lecturers from Kaho Sint-Lieven, an IT university in Ghent, Belgium. Sven talks about their implementation of virtualization with hyper-V 2008 R2 and SCVMM in courses such as system administration and operating systems. Hundreds of students each have at least 4 virtual machines running on hyper-V. Students can manage their virtual environment with the self-service portal in SCVMM.
Roel discusses implementation and use of IIS7. He explains how the concept of webfarms with IIS7 helps students serve individual webspaces to hundreds of other students. The university now uses both technologies extensively. Students in the study program are interested in staying in contact, and investigating new applications for these technologies.

Forefront Secure Messaging screencast and interview

David Tesar — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:00:00 GMT

Cristian Mora Aguilar, Forefront Technical PM, starts off by briefly telling us about Microsoft's secure messaging solution and what business problems it resolves. He then gives us a screencast / demo of some of the cool scenarios enabled and problems solved with the secure messaging solution. Find out how Microsoft products help secure Microsoft Exchange Server.

Windows Phones for IT Pros [Windows Phones for IT Pros]

David Tesar — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:40:00 GMT

Windows Mobile 6.5 launched today and along with it comes a number of new features and functionality for IT Pros and consumers. Learn the new key updates for businesses and consumers and know why Windows Phones are beneficial for corporate environments. In my personal opinion, this is the first release where we have really started to focus on the consumer / “fun” elements of the phone, not just business.

Key reasons for using Windows phones in Business Environments:

1) Reduce Costs

If you purchase Exchange 2010, you should not need to purchase additional software to manage the Windows® phones (see #3 below) unless you want some additional capabilities which Mobile Device Manager provides.
Using Windows Phone for your line of business applications has an average 3-year return on investment of 309%**
Operating mobile devices other than Windows® phones with Exchange Server may incur extra costs for the organization.
Flexibility in carriers and a wide variety of phone models allows organizations to select cost-effective options based on need
Windows® phones and Exchange Server do not automatically require maintenance of extra servers to implement security-enhanced e-mail which helps keep down the server maintenance and service costs.

2) Increase Productivity and usability

Users are already familiar with the interface of Outlook and other the other Office 2007 applications which are included with the phone.
Office Mobile 2010 will enable users to easily browse, open, and save files directly from your company’s SharePoint sites.
Communicator Mobile enables users to more effectively collaborate by quickly choosing between e-mail, text messaging, IM, and voice calling to people inside and outside the organization when away from your desktop PC
Advanced Exchange ActiveSync functionality
- Meeting room changes, attendee free/busy status, and availability status are accessible on the phone.
- Smart filter server search allows for quick finding of data on the entire Exchange Server, not just what’s on the device.
- Voice mail preview in your e-mail inbox
- Conversation view, SMS Sync, Nickname Cache

3) Manage, Protect, and Control

Managing Windows phones directly from Exchange 2010 supports some of the key policies organizations need such as: PIN-lock/recovery, remote wipe, blocking camera usage, on-device file encryption, platform lock-down, and application allow/block listing.
Support for key security features such as: information rights management (IRM), Third-party smart cards, two-factor authentication, FIPS 140-2 cryptography
A NOC or middleware server is not necessary to manage Windows® phone with Exchange Server, making the transfer of e-mail and other data security-enhanced across devices.

Key New Consumer features:

Microsoft My Phone - a new service that offers free automatic backup and online access to phone contacts, calendar, texts, photos, browser favorites and more. In select markets, My Phone also offers a Premium Package that helps users find, lock or erase a lost device.
Windows Marketplace for Mobile - a new marketplace with fun and useful high-quality mobile applications to install right from your phone.
Upgraded touch user interface - that was designed for finger touch and the ability to cut through clutter to accomplish what you want.
Updated web browser – Internet Explorer mobile has been updated to allow easier operation using touch gestures with an enhanced pan/zoom and also has Adobe Flash for watching videos on the web.

For more information on Windows Phones go to:
http://www.windowsphone.com/ – Consumers
http://www.windowsphone.com/business – IT Pros / Businesses

Watch All Windows Mobile videos on TechNet Edge

**Source: IDC – Mobility Solutions in Enterprise-sized Business, Quantifying ROI. Feb 2008
Also see the Business Value Calculator for using Windows Mobile

in reply to Windows Phones for IT Pros

Direct Access and UAG video - Deep dive with a Program Manager [Direct Access and UAG video - Deep dive with a Program Manager]

David Tesar — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:39:00 GMT

Ben Bernstein and Stephen Bowie tell us what the value is for Unified Access Gateway (UAG) with Direct Access (DA).
After this, we do a whiteboard of UAG + DA architecture, including explaining how it works with multiple UAG servers. Here's how the rest of the interview breaks down:

How UAG supports legacy IPv4 clients (Marker 3 @ 8:02)
How does the client know to connect to the proper DNS server and not the one from the local ISP? (Marker 4 @ 13:17)
How do we know it's securely talking to the proper DNS server? (Marker 5 @ 15:01)
What other components on UAG enable DA? (Marker 6 @ 16:10)
Additional value add for UAG with DA (Marker 7 @ 17:55)

Visit the UAG homepage

in reply to Direct Access and UAG video - Deep dive with a Program Manager

Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) released [Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) released]

David Tesar — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 07:30:00 GMT

MSE, a free consumer anti-malware program, has released their final version to the public today! Already As an IT Pro, what can you expect from MSE and how does it compare to the Forefront equivalent? For businesses, Forefront Client Security is the current released client anti-malware product and Forefront Endpoint Protection (FEP) 2010 is the next version slated to be released in H2 2010.

Similarities between MSE and FCS/FEP:

Same core protection engine which includes protection from viruses, spyware, and rootkits.
Uses the same telemetry data and global security response team
Updates signatures through Microsoft Update
Includes real-time threat signature updates “Dynamic Signature Service” (not included with FCS, but will be included with FEP)

Additional Business value from FCS/FEP, which MSE doesn’t have:

Management – FCS/FEP have extensive management capabilities with things like a management console and central location to distribute policies. There is zero management with MSE.
Supported Operating systems – FCS supports server operating systems from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008 R2 as well as Windows 2000 clients.
NAP integration – FCS/FEP integrates with Network Access Protection in your environment to quarantine and remediate clients to have access to your network.
Reporting - are provided with key information on the security state of your environment as well as a snapshot of top trends and issues. Administrators can use this data to take action against threats or to communicate the details of the system’s security status to management.
Dynamic Response - FEP will have a significant enhanced capability over FCS which will enable it to share security assessments with the rest of the Forefront Protection Suite and dynamically take actions to remediate threats.

Download MSE
Watch a video demo of MSE in action and other MSE videos
Watch the setup-install-configuration screen-shot video walk through (12 min)

in reply to Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) released

The New Efficiency Event 9/29/09 [The New Efficiency Event 9/29/09]

David Tesar — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:35:00 GMT

Attend the New Efficiency virtual event to see how innovations in Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, and Microsoft Forefront offer familiar, integrated solutions that help you simplify management and compliance and securely connect people to information.

The keynote is recorded and will include top technology leaders across industry and Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer debating the role of IT during this economic reset.

Attend expert-led sessions and keynotes. Find out about special offers, and check out some great demos. Join in when you want, and dive deeper into technical content for desktops, server, communications, and security.

in reply to The New Efficiency Event 9/29/09

Office Web Applications Demo First Look and Announcement [Office Web Applications Demo First Look and Announcement]

David Tesar — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:05:00 GMT

With the launch of the Office Web application Technical Preview, Chris Bryant (Director for Office) gives us a first look at the details of the new free Office web applications and tells us how it fits in with other similar applications like Google Docs. We get to see a demo of the Excel Web App, Powerpoint Web App, Word Web App, and the sharing capabilities. After the demo, IT Pros get some insight into what to start thinking about on integration of this technology into your environment.

To sign up for the beta version of Office Web Apps, visit http://www.microsoft.com/Office2010

Learn more about Office Web Apps by visiting their Blog:
http://blogs.msdn.com/officewebapps

in reply to Office Web Applications Demo First Look and Announcement

Wrap-up on VMworld 2009 with Vijay Tewari

David Tesar — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:38:00 GMT

Vijay talks about all of the great questions he had throughout the week on twitter. Be sure to continue to follow Microsoft Experts on Twitter and ask them any questions you have about our Virtualization solutions.

Wrap-up on VMworld 2009 with Kenon Owens

David Tesar — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:32:00 GMT

Watch this wrap-up on VMworld 2009 with Microsoft Virtualization Technical Product Manager, Kenon Owens. Continue to follow Kenon on Twitter and read blog postings to stay up-to-date on all the latest happenings with Microsoft Virtualization.

Wrap-up on VMworld 2009 with Allen Stewart

David Tesar — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:32:00 GMT

Allen Stewart, PM in the Windows Server Division, wraps-up VMworld 2009. Continue to Follow Allen Stewart through Twitter and on blog postings. This is the start of a great community which won’t end with VMworld closing! We will continue to answer all of your virtualization questions.

Microsoft Expert, Ben Armstrong, on Day 3 at VMworld

David Tesar — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:43:00 GMT

Ben attends the session: Integrating VMware view in your environment – and learns that they are looking to integrate System Center Operations Manager to manage and oversee the environment, something Microsoft already does. Through Twitter, Ben was able to exchange real-time comments with VMworld 2009 attendees about sessions.

Day 3 at VMworld 2009 with Isaac Roybal

David Tesar — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:43:00 GMT

Microsoft virtualization and cloud expert, Isaac, talks about his at VMworld 2009 in San Francisco. He talks with partners and finds some customers for the Microsoft Dynamic Datacenter Alliance initiative, becomes disappointed with VMware’s lack of thought leadership in the cloud space, and winds down the day talking with customers in the booth on how much $$$$ they can save with Microsoft.

Day 2 at VMworld: Recap of the keynote

David Tesar — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 18:41:00 GMT

Listen to Microsoft experts, Allen Stewart and Edwin Yuen, discuss Tuesday’s keynote where VMware described their management vision. It’s no longer about the VM – it is about the applications! Read more on how Microsoft Virtualization is the best choice for Microsoft Server Applications.

Interview with Microsoft Virtualization Customer, Crutchfield

David Tesar — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:59:00 GMT

Microsoft Customer, Crutchfield, are at VMworld this week and happy to discuss their positive experience with VMworld attendees. Learn how Crutchfield has implemented Microsoft Virtualization by reading the case study. They are just as disappointed that we cannot demonstrate Microsoft Virtualization solutions at the show, but that is not going to stop them from talking about how they saved $245k in hardware.

Microsoft Expert, Vijay Tewari, Day 1 at VMworld 2009 [Microsoft Expert, Vijay Tewari, Day 1 at VMworld 2009]

David Tesar — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:40:00 GMT

Can’t attend VMworld? Live vicariously through our Microsoft experts attending the show. Vijay is discovering that attendees are excited to start testing Hyper-V and has been busy answering questions at the booth, as well as standing in line for sessions. Follow Vijay on Twitter to experience VMworld: @vtango

Subscribe to the RSS feed for all VMworld 2009 posts on Edge

in reply to Microsoft Expert, Vijay Tewari, Day 1 at VMworld 2009

Operationalizing Compliance With Microsoft System Center and Tripwire [Operationalizing Compliance With Microsoft System Center and Tripwire]

David Tesar — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:01:00 GMT

Paul Ross from Microsoft System Center and Dwayne Melancon from TripWire discuss compliance in the datacenter and their solution can help make compliance easier and less taxing for joint customers.

Visit TripWire's Solution Compliance Page
Visit the System Center Homepage

in reply to Operationalizing Compliance With Microsoft System Center and Tripwire

FPE vs FOPE and Exchange 2010

David Tesar — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 07:01:00 GMT

Mike Chan, PM for the Forefront team, breaks down the differences between security protection for Forefront Protection for Exchange (FPE) and Forefront Online Protection for Exchange (FOPE). We start out with a brief history of the messaging products and then dig into the details of differences between FPE and FOPE and how it plugs into Exchange 2010 on the whiteboard at [4:22]. Should you run FPE alone or FPE and FOPE? Watch and decide.

Download the RC for FPE
Visit the FPE homepage