Entries tagged with it - TechNet Edge

Virtualization Moves Datacenter Functionality to the Branch Office

Microsoft IT Showcase — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:00:00 GMT

Do WAN access issues and costs keep you from providing the datacenter services in branch offices that benefit your corporate users? Learn how Microsoft IT uses Windows Server 2008 R2 and virtualization to deliver datacenter functionality to branch offices. Services at the branch office level include file and print management, offline folder redirection, operating systems and application distribution, and patch management. This has significantly improved service availability, lowered management costs, and reduced servers.

Leveraging Software to Reduce Energy Consumption

Microsoft IT Showcase — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:00:00 GMT

Faced with data center capacity limitations, soaring server use and increased energy consumption, Microsoft IT (MS IT) organized for and developed an Environmental Sustainability (ES) plan. Aimed at reducing the environmental impact of Microsoft, the ES plan inlcudes the strategy of using software to reduce the energy consumption of software-driven devices.

Securing Customer and Partner Data with Windows Vista BitLocker

Microsoft IT Showcase — Wed, 06 May 2009 00:25:00 GMT

Committed to protecting customer and partner data, Microsoft chose to enable full volume encryption for its mobile workforce. Cost considerations were factored when choosing Windows Vista BitLocker as the native encryption method for primary and secondary data. The feature is easy to use, integrates into the Active Directory management infrastructure, and enables data restoration through escrow keys.

Streamlined PC Procurement Improves Productivity While Controlling Costs

Microsoft IT Showcase — Mon, 04 May 2009 23:29:00 GMT

Do you manage a PC procurement system? Learn how Microsoft IT closely manages the PC configurations available to its employees. Specific computer procurement guidelines allow Microsoft employees to easily purchase supported PCs. In turn, providing a limited set of supported PC configurations enables the corporation to improve application compatibility, hardware compatibility and provide an improved user experience.

Identifying Opportunities to Reduce TCO with Cost Savings Analysis and Optimization Self-Assessment Tools

yung — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:39:00 GMT

Current economic downturn confronts us with a tremendous impact and unfavorable trend on worldwide IT budget and spending as shown on the chart and discussed in Simple Savvy Savings - 9 ideas to make anyone a Cost Cutting Hero by Tom Pisello, CEO, Alinean, Inc. More than ever companies are now looking for every opportunity to further cut costs and maintain competitiveness during these times of global economic instability. Nevertheless, the adversity also presents a very opportunity for us to accelerate and transform IT into a more mature, better managed, and highly optimized settings. Optimization is more than just delivering more with less. It is about managing complexities. It's about capabilities, responsiveness, and enablement. Defined optimization models and recommendations, and findings of average annual IT labor costs per PC, per year substantiate the claim of transforming IT from a cost-center burden into a strategic asset. (Reference: pages 8, 11, and 17 of this report, Taking the Lead: Gaining a Competitive Advantage Through Infrastructure and Platform Optimization) And in addition to the methodology and case studies, there are tools are to help us get started the transformation.

This cost savings analysis tool examines IT infrastructure and platform to identify cost savings opportunities focusing on:

Virtualization
Database Consolidation
Systems Management
Desktop Management /Standardization
Unified Communications
Collaboration

The tool generates a report with specific project recommendations that can be implemented to generate high-impact costs savings with minimal investment.The results can be refined to match specific details of the IT environment and local currency. The calculation is based on research by IDC, Forrester, WiPro and Alinean and the results include recommendations to projects which can be implemented to generate high-impact cost savings with minimal investment.

The Optimization Self-Assessment Tool on the other hand derives optimization score, peer comparison, and value assessment for your organization on core infrastructure, business productivity infrastructure, and application platform. The tool generates a comprehensive report that can serve as an actionable roadmap and incentive for optimizing your IT infrastructure and platform.

The passage is clear. Identify your goal, find out where you stand, make an informed decision, and thrive on the challenges. Above all, the time to start the process is now.

System Center Announcements at TechEd Barcelona

Dave Morehouse — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 05:45:00 GMT

Jeff Wettlaufer sits with Brad Anderson, general manager in the Management Services Division, to talk about the current state of the System Center product suite, and touches on some key announcements at TechEd 2008 in Barcelona. A big theme: how System Center can help save organizations money in managing their IT infrastructure.

Desktop Virtualization and Configuration Manager

Dave Morehouse — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 06:20:00 GMT

Jeff Wettlaufer, technical product manager in System Center marketing, chats with Brad Anderson, GM of the Management Services Division, about the latest desktop virtualization innovations that are a part of the R2 release of System Center Configuration Manager 2007.

They briefly go over:

Key aspects of Configuration Manager R2
Application virtualization technology and the R2 release
Hardware virtualization technology included in MDOP licensing

Intro to System Center Essentials

Dave Morehouse — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:31:00 GMT

If you happen to be managing a mid-sized business IT environment (with, shall we say, ~50-500 desktops and up to 30 servers), and are tired of dealing with multiple tools and processes, and just wish you had a better way, David Mills, technical product manager, will show you what Microsoft has to offer in this space, System Center Essentials.

My chat with him starts with an intro to the product and the core issues it's designed to address, and he then shows us the product interface and gives us a walkthrough of the main features and benefits.