TechDaysSF is June 5th and 6th

Did you miss TechEd? Do you regret it?

Then register now for TechDays-SF which will be happening June 5th and 6th in downtown San Francisco. PacITPros brings you a great list of presentations and speakers. This year the price has been lowered to $200, you really can't beat that. Details on sessions at http://techdays.org and the schedule is up on Eventboard.

Some great topics being covered: PowerShell, Microsoft System Center, Hyper-V, Lync plus many more.

Presented by folks such as: Jason Helmick, Darren Mar-Elia, Symon Perriman, Aleksandar Nikolic, Steve Evans and many more.

Even I'll be there!

On the Heels of VMworld!

Today, I'm playing catch up, which always happens after a multi-day conference. I always think I'll have enough downtime during the conference to keep my inbox and to-do list under control, but it never happens.

I do have an official "post-VMworld" post brewing in my head (vCloud, VSAN, NSX, oh my!) but first here is a couple Azure and Hyper-V related events that are coming up soon, really soon!  Both events will be held in the San Francisco Microsoft office.

PacITPros September Meeting (9/3, 6pm) - Hyper-V in the Real World!  Join Steve Evans and Nick Hawkins as they give a preview of a day long class they will be doing in October. Please be sure to RSVP if you'll be attending.

Cut past the hype and let’s talk about the real world design decisions you need to make when building your Hyper-V infrastructure. We won’t just prescribe the solution, but talk through the decisions and the pros and cons of the different options. The event will cover networking, storage, management and lessons learned.

** If you want more than an hour of Hyper-V, consider the full day event on October 11. It's $99. **

Azure IT Camp (9/5, 8:30am - 4pm) - Discover Key Hybrid Cloud Solutions for IT Pros. Late notice I know, but the Azure IT Camp has some extra seats available and you are welcome to them!  One of my IT Pro Evangelist colleagues, Brian Lewis, will be presenting. 

You CAN have the best of both worlds! With Windows Azure, IT Pros can easily extend an on-premises network to embrace the power and scale of the cloud – securely and seamlessly. You’ll hear the latest on the Microsoft cloud platform, dive deep into Windows Azure Infrastructure Services, and participate in hands-on labs that demonstrate the power of this on-demand, scalable compute infrastructure. Includes Windows Azure Storage, Virtual Machines and Virtual Networking. If participants complete all of the hands-on labs, they have a fully functional Windows Server 2012 cloud-based test lab running Windows Azure.

TechDays SF is May 2nd/3rd - Check out our speaker list on Twitter!

This year, I'm a co-chair for the PacITPro's TechDays SF.  If you didn't attend this event in 2012, you should take a close look at what we are offering this May.  The event is two days and we are offering multiple tracks with a variety of sessions on Windows Server, Client, Cloud and PowerShell all for the bargin price of $300. Please visit www.techdays.org for more information or to register.

We are also using EventBoard Mobile for easy access to the most up to date information and schedule.  I recommend downloading that app for your Windows Phone, iPhone or Android.

Our speakers include some very well-known, knowledgable folks who've spoken at other popular conferences like TechMentor and TechEd. Most of them have Twitter handles - if you aren't following these people yet, I'm sure you'll find some interesting enough to add to your list.

• @VirtualChrista - From  Microsoft, Christa Anderson will be presenting two sessions, "Delivering Applications with Remote Desktop Services in  Windows Server 2012" and "The User Configuration Cage Match".
• @scevans - Steve Evans will be presenting "IIS: Choose Your Own Adventure" and "Designing Hyper-V for the Real World".
• @nhawkins - Nick Hawkins will be co-presenting "Designing Hyper-V for the Real World" with @scevans.
• @grouppolicyguy - Darren Mar-Elia will be breaking out of his Group Policy shell to bring you "!0 Tips for Success with Private Cloud".
• @gblock - Glenn Block will be lighting up the room with "Managing the Cloud from the Command Line".
• @alexandair - Joining us from Serbia, Aleksandar Nikolic will be presenting "Remote Management of Windows Server 2012 with  Windows PowerShell".
• @cacallahan - For those of you who support or dabble in SharePoint, CA Callahan will join us again to bring you two sessions on SharePoint 2013.
• @ubergeekgirl - Our fearless leader of PacITPros in Southern California, Jessica DeVita will be part of the Women in Technology panel discussion.  Joining her will be @adfskitteh, @VirtualChrista and me, @jkc137. 
• @KevinRemde - Also from Microsoft, Kevin Remde will bring us "Windows 8 Deployment" for those of you planning to move beyond Windows 7 and "Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V".
• @chrisavis - Often PacITPros' host for our monthly meetings at Microsoft's office, Chris Avis will be bringing us two session on Azure, including Azure IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service).
• @mminasi - Mark Minasi, one of the household names for those of us reading technical books, will be presenting several sessions, so be sure to put one on your schedule: "Manage Server 2012 Like a Pro or, Better, Like an Evil Overlord!", "Changes to Storage in Windows 2102: Storage Gets a Bit SANer", "Understanding Dynamic Access Control: the File Share Recharged, Reimaged and Compliance-Enabled".
• @richardhicks - If you are looking for the latest in Remote Access, don't miss Richard Hicks and his "Next Generation Remote Access with Windows Server 2012 DirectAccess" session.
• @richcampbell - Richard Campbell will be presenting "People, Process, Tools - The Essence of DevOps" as well as host the Run As Radio: Women in Technology Panel
• @adfskitteh - Part of the Idenity & Access Management team at Microsoft, Laura Hunter will be covering "Strong Authentication for BYOD" and "How Microsoft Has Adopted Office 365 and Azure"
• @JeffHicks - Need more PowerShell? Choose from "Troubleshooting Active Directory with Windows PowerShell", "10 PowerShell Mistakes, Trips and Traps and How to Avoid Them" and "File and Folder Provisioning with PowerShell and Windows Server 2012".  Want more Hyper-V? Learn how to "Build a Windows 8 Hyper-V Lab"

We have a few other speakers in the works and are looking forward to putting on a great event, please join us - you won't be disappointed!

Windows 8 with Stephen Rose at PacITPros!

Ah, 2012 is quickly drawing to a close and the Pacific IT Professionals are proud to have Stephen Rose presenting on Windows 8 at our December 4th meeting.

Stephen Rose is the Sr. Product Marketing and Community Manager for the Windows Commercial Team at Microsoft Headquarters in Redmond, WA. Before joining Microsoft, Stephen spent 15 years working as a network infrastructure design and virtualization consultant for many Fortune 500 companies. His current role includes managing the IT pro community for the Windows Commercial team overseeing the technical content on the Springboard Series on TechNet, managing the Windows7 Forums, the Springboard Insider Newsletter, and the Windows Team Blog.

According to a Gartner study, the average user carries 3 devices, a tablet, a smartphone and a PC every day. With the release of Windows 8 and Server 2012, how does this change how you manage your users while taking advantage of the many new ways to make your users productive? Stephen Rose, Sr Product Marketing Manager with the Windows team will discuss the impact  and opportunities that Windows 8 will have on users, IT pros and developers. From a new fast and fluid UI  to being able to manage and deploy custom Windows 8 applications,Windows 8 brings new opportunities to users and business.

RSVP here!

Also, since the first Tuesday in January 2013 happens to be New Years Day, there will be NO PacITPros meeting in January. 

Start Marking Your Calendar for 2012 Events!

If you like to fill up your calendar with events geared toward the tech community or you've got some training budget lined up for 2012, look no further than some of these tried and true events that are coming up in the first half of this year. Prices vary from free to several thousand, depending on your travel needs.

Pacific IT Professionals in LA (1/24, Santa Monica, CA) - Meeting the 4th Tuesday of every month, the LA chapter of PacITPros never ceases to bring lively discussions to the table. This month, Joey Snow will be speaking on Windows 2008 R2 Migration Tools. Join and attend for free!

She's Geeky (1/27 - 1/29, Mountain View, CA) - Back in Mountain View at the Computer History Museum, She's Geeky is a great way to meet new faces in the STEM fields. This unConference give you a chance to learn from a collection of really smart women and practice your skills of leading a group session yourself if you've got a topic you'd like to share.

San Jose Tech-Security Conference (2/2, Santa Clara, CA) - I enjoyed this low cost security centered event last year when there was one held in San Francisco.  This event is held in various locations during the year. So if the Bay Area isn't your home base, you are likely to find another date in your area!

Pacific IT Professionals in SF (2/7, San Francisco, CA) - Meeting the 1st Tuesday of every month, PacITPros has been bringing IT Pros together for over 20 years.

RSA Conference (2/27 - 3/2, San Francisco, CA) - A San Francisco staple, RSA never fails to disappoint.  Even if you can only swing an Expo Plus pass, you'll have access to lots of informative keynotes and the large expo hall.

Security B-Sides (2/27 - 2/28, San Francisco, CA) - A free security event hosted near the Moscone center earlier in the same week of the RSA conference.  A great way to complement your RSA Expo Pass!

TechDays SF (3/22 - 3/23, San Francisco, CA) - A two day event with over three dozen sessions planned covering a variety of tech topics of interest to IT Professionals.

Microsoft Management Summit (4/16 - 4/20, Las Vegas, NV) - Geared toward managing your Microsoft enterprise, MMS brings you the latest technical training for desktop and device management as well as data center and cloud technology solutions.

Microsoft TechEd (6/11 - 6/14, Orlando, FL) - As a 7 or 8 year alumni of TechEd, I always look forward to this conference. The expo hall and Technical Learning Center always provides opportunities to connect to vendors and Microsoft employees.  Community areas bring MVPs, User Groups and other IT Pros together.  And don't forget the crazy number of sessions you can choose from.

IT Pro Events This Week!

Pacific IT Professionals has a few upcoming single day events this week, one in San Francisco and one in Los Angeles.

On Tuesday, Sept 20th in Los Angeles - Ed Horley and Richard Hicks will be talking about IPv6 and DirectAccess in the Enterprise.  Find out more at http://www.meetup.com/pacitprosla/events/26490521/?a=socialmedia.

On Friday, Sept 23th in San Francisco - CA Callahan will be covering SharePoint Administration for the Unexpected Administrator.  You know who you are - you inherited a SharePoint installation or have been asked to get one running.  Once you've got it going, then what?  This one day event will give you a chance to pick the brain of a true SharePoint expert and author of several books on SharePoint WSS 3.0 and SharePoint Foundations.  For $99, you can't afford to miss out on this "everything but the kitchen sink" session - bring a question, you'll get the answer!  For more details and to register go to http://techdays.org/2011/09/spwithca/

PacITPros Hits July with a Storm of Events!

Don't let the summer slip by without taking advantage of some of the free or low cost events brought to you by Pacific IT Professionals. 

San Francisco July 5th Meeting - The meeting sponsor is OpenDNS!  Many network admins go to great lengths to secure their networks using costly security appliances, all the while leaving a critical network layer – the Domain Name System - unprotected. This discussion explores the way malware and botnets leverage the DNS to infiltrate your network and cause damage that costs you both time and money. And also how you to easily secure your DNS layer and smartly stop command center communication between malware and your network, rendering the malware harmless. Secure your DNS and block malware and botnets once and for all, before they ever even infect computers on your network, and cut off malware that’s already infected your network at the knees. Protect every device at your company, everywhere it travels.

Los Angeles, July 12th - Windows Deployment from ACT to ZTI with Stephen Rose - Do you know how to use the free tools to move your users from Windows XP to Windows 7 and Office 2003 to Office 2010 in less than 30 minutes? Paying money for deployment tools is so 2000!  In this session, Stephen will show you how to use the many free tools available to manage and deploy Windows, Office and Internet Explorer while reducing cost and ensuring you never having to manage multiple images again. We will cover MDT, ACT, MAP, WDS, the PoC and other tools that will do network inventory, application compatibility, shimming, image management and automated Windows and application deployment.

San Francisco, July 15th - Deploy Windows 7 Using Microsoft’s FREE Deployment Tools - MAP, ACT, WAIK, MDT, WDS and SCCM – which tool does what? In this one day jam-packed session you’ll learn how Microsoft's free deployment tools can help you get Windows 7 up and running as quickly and easily as possible!

Upcoming Tech Events

For those of you looking for some technology events in San Francisco over the next week, here is what's on my calendar:

• PacITPros Regular Meeting - April 5th at 6pm. (Free!) This will at the usual location in Microsoft's SF Office.  Check out http://www.pacitpros.org/ for more information and to RSVP for the pizza dinner order.
• TechDays with PacITPros and LearnIT, featuring Todd Lammle and Mark Minasi - Also on April 5th, from 1-6pm. ($79.00) The location used to be at Microsoft's office, but has been switched to Zeum Children's Museum on 4th and Howard. 
• Managing Assets in the Cloud: System Center Essentials & Windows Intune with Chris Avis - April 12th, 9am-noon at Microsoft's SF Office.  (Also free!)

Upcoming - TechDays Technology Guru Speakers!

PacITPros and LearnIt have teamed up to bring you an opportunity to learn more about the future of mobile and cloud technologies. Todd Lammle and Mark Minasi will be joining forces on April 5th from 1pm-6pm, covering some great topics.

Todd will cover Cisco's plans for taking wireless networks to a new level, Mark will cover the future of the cloud and then they will join forces to discuss IPv6 and the future of the related networking technologies.

When: Tuesday, April 5, 2011 (1pm - 6pm)
Where: Microsoft: San Francisco Office (835 Market St.)
Cost: $79 
Register at: http://techdays.org/2011/03/todd-lammle/

This speaker series takes place right before the regular April PacITPros meeting, so rest up for a jam packed afternoon and evening of tech talk.

PacITPros Takes on Los Angeles

The Pacific IT Professionals is pleased to be able to host "in-person" meetings in the greater Los Angeles area starting January 25, 2011. Jessica DeVita from UberGeekGirl and Joy Beland have generously donated their time and energy to make a meeting happen. Joy and Jessica will be leading up the group but they would love to have additional help if you have time and interest.

The kick-off meeting will be held at 6:30pm at the QuickStart training facility in El Segundo and expect to talk some tech with the meeting sponsor, StorageCraft.  Also, Chris Henley with Microsoft will be presenting on general Microsoft technologies and what you gain by using them. Finally, Harold Wong with Microsoft will be presenting on Exchange.  So don't miss out on this great way to start of 2011!

Please keep in mind that the day of the week and the location may change as the group grows and becomes more established.  Meetings are free and open to any IT professional, just join  PacITPros the group (also free) to get meeting notices and RSVP information.

Upcoming Tech Events

In case you are lacking in some tech related places to be, here are a few good options for the upcoming week.

November 2nd - You should vote, of course.  But when you are finished that, swing by the Pacific IT Professionals meeting in San Francisco.  There will be a presentation from NetApp on storage solutions, followed by two Microsoft specific topics -  BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite) and MDOP (Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack).  I'll be doing the MDOP presentation, so if you aren't sure what applications come inside that pack and what they do, this will be a great chance for you to get an overview.

November 3-4th - The gogoNet LIVE! IPv6 Conference in San Jose. I hear the pre-conference workshops are booked up, but it's not to late to attend the 2 days of sessions on planning and transitioning to IPv6.  I'll be helping out with some of the conference logistics on the 3rd and am hoping to slip into a few of the presentations as well.
 
Today and the next couple Thursdays - Callahan, a Microsoft MVP and book author on SharePoint, is offering up several free webinar presentations on SharePoint Foundation.  Today's session is already started, but you might want to check out what she has to offer in the coming weeks. If I was migrating my current SharePoint WSS 3.0 installation to Foundations, I'd start my planning with anything Callahan has to offer.

Coming Soon! - Chat with MVPs, Learn about IPv6 and Hang with PacITPros

October is starting out with a bang.  Here are a few upcoming events that you might want on your calendar.  Please visiting their listed sites for more information or to register.

October 5th - PacITPros Monthly Meeting - This month they welcome Chad Scott, Solution Architect with Infoblox who will be going over their DNS/DCHP/IPAM solution plus their newest solution of NetMRI from the recent acquisition of Netcordia.  Also featured will be Kenny Spade, Academic Developer Evangelist with Microsoft presenting on Windows Phone 7. This will be a sneak peak prior to the official launch date, so you will get to see the handset and OS in action.

Meeting location is at the Microsoft Office, 835 Market Street, Suite 700, San Francisco, CA 94103. Please RSVP at the www.pacitpros.org website.

October 14th - Chat About Microsoft Office and Windows with the MVP Experts, 10-11am PST -Would you like to learn more about the cool new features in Office 2010 and Windows 7 and what has changed since previous versions? Do you use Microsoft Office but would like to learn tips and tricks to be more productive at home, school or at work? Perhaps you are a new user who has questions on how to get started with Windows 7 or using the Office ribbon? Or would like to learn how to protect your computer from malware and viruses. Or perhaps you are just stuck and need answers. 

The Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) are here to help! The MVPs are the same people you see in the technical community as authors, trainers, user groups leaders and answerers in the Microsoft forums. For the first time ever we have brought these experts together as a collective group to answer your questions live.

MVPs will be on hand to take questions about Microsoft Office 2010 or Office 2007 products such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, Project, OneNote and more. As well as the Windows 7 and earlier versions such as Windows Vista. In addition to Microsoft Office, the chat will cover Windows related topics such as upgrading, setup and installation, securing your PC, Internet Explorer, personalizing your computer desktop or having fun with Windows Live Essentials to share photos, make movies and more. All levels of experience are welcome from beginners and students to intermediate power users.

Please join this informative Q&A style chat and bring on your basic and your tough questions!

November 2-4th - The gogoNET LIVE! and CAv6TF IPv6 Conference - With IPv4 addresses predicted to be depleted within 18 months we all need to start becoming familiar with IPv6. The California IPv6 Task Force is pleased to present the gogoNET LIVE! IPv6 conference at San Jose State University to:

- Get the knowledge you need from experienced IPv6 professionals
- Learn IPv6 theory in workshops
- Make useful technical contacts in the IPv6 world

 This is the only local West Coast IPv6 event for the remainder of 2010 and it is right here in the Bay Area so take advantage of this opportunity to increase your knowledge on all things related to IPv6.  gogoNET LIVE! is a live version of the gogoNET social network that has close to 30,000 IPv6 professionals as members.

Be prepared, don’t fall behind – this is your chance to get on the cutting edge of IPv6 deployment. Visit http://gogonetlive.com for details and to register.

Round Up: September Events and Windows Resources

As the summer draws to a close, here are a few thing that have caught my eye.  Check them out and see for yourself.

First up, a comprehensive article on Redmondmag.com by Greg Shields on "Avoiding Active Directory Disasters", particularly with Windows 2000 and 2003 versions of AD.  It might just be time to do a little end of summer health check for an important component of your network.

PacITPros will be holding their monthly meeting tonight starting at 6pm.  It's not to late to RSVP and get in on the action.  Compellent will be presenting on their data storage solutions and there will also be a presentation on the latest and greatest with Microsoft's OCS.

On 9/30, don't miss out on the Springboard Series Virtual Roundtable on migrating from IE6 to IE8 on Windows 7, starting at 9am.  This virtual, interactive discussion will cover migration strategies, standards, and support for organizations moving from Internet Explorer 6 to Internet Explorer 8.

Finally, check in with the folks at TechNet on 9/22 when they host an in-person event on Deploying Windows 7 at the Microsoft downtown office in San Francisco.  Learn more or register at TechNet Events Presents: Deploying Windows 7. This event will also be held in Irvine, CA on 9/20 and in Los Angeles on 9/21.

Don't miss these Upcoming Events

PacITPros will be having there monthly meeting on August 3rd.  PacITPros member Sam Bowne will be presenting a recap of items that came out at Defcon and Blackhat. Doug Spindler will be talking about security items related to the recent Microsoft Zero day exploits that have come out.  Don't forget to RSVP!

Coming up in early November, there is the SharePoint Intelligence one-day conference in Santa Clara.  For $350, spend the day attending a variety of sessions and networking with others involved with SharePoint. I'm hoping I can score a little training budget from the office! If you are in Southern California, the event will be held in mid-September.

Wow...Time Flies!

When did it become June already?

The month started out with a bang - if you are a Bay Area techie, hope you didn't miss out on the PacITPros meeting on June 1st. We enjoyed a presentation by Mark Vinokur with Citrix who covered XenDesktop and XenClient and demostrated how at Citrix, employees can simply subscribe to a service IT provides, and how IT can assemble the right desktop to the right user on the fly.

Next week, I'll be heading out to New Orleans to attend TechEd. It's going to be a busy week, but if you are going to be there, be sure to swing by the TLC area where I'll be helping out at the Springboard booth. I'm hoping I'll be able to find some time to blog about what's going on and some of the sessions I'm planning to attend, so stay tuned!

Finally, I'm bummed that Microsoft has suspended 83-640 and is reverting back to 70-640 starting yesterday (June 2nd). Granted the exams cover the same skills and objectives, so it won't affect your certification goals, but I really enjoyed taking that exam back in it's beta days. It really felt like how I regularly worked and I thought it would really let IT Pros show their true colors while testing. Not everyone is a great standardized test taker and the simulation exam went a long way toward making the test close to "real-life". I hope they work out the kinks and get it back online soon.

Even More Windows Events!

It must be conference season again, because I keep running across a variety of technical events that look valuable. Here are a couple more:

Windows Summit 2010 runs May 25-27 at the Microsoft Conference Center on Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, WA and is designed for people who engineer and test Windows 7 PCs, devices, and software. Three technical tracks (System, Device and Software) will to help you create the best systems, devices, and software using Windows 7 and Internet Explorer. For more information visit the website, registration is $399.

Also, the Launch 2010: Technical Readiness Series kicks off in late April. The event in San Francisco is on May 20th at the Embarcadero Hyatt, but check out the full city listings for other locations. The event will cover Office 2010, SharePoint 2010 and other products including Exchange 2010 and SQL Server. There are both IT Professional and Developer tracks available and this event is free, so register soon – these types of events fill up fast.

Finally, don’t forget the Pacific IT Pros regular monthly meeting tomorrow and the special TechDays Forensics session next week.

On the Tech Radar: Upcoming Events

Looking for some technology events for your calendar in the upcoming months? Here are a few that you might want to check out.

Start out April with the regular Pacific IT Professionals meeting on April 6th. Hear from Neustar about their Webmetrics and UltraDNS solutions. Also, PacITPros will also be having a special TechDays event on Computer Forensics on April 12th. Sign up soon to secure your spot!

A one day Windows Intelligence event is being held in Burlingame on April 26th, hosted by QuickStart Intelligence and Microsoft. Technical tracks include Windows 7, Server 2008 R2 and Virtualization, Exchange and Office.

On June 10th, the Microsoft and Citrix will team up and come to San Francisco to talk about desktop virtualization. Other cities and dates are on the schedule from now through June as part of the 2010 Virtualization Summit.

Finally, don’t forget some of the multi-day events, which are always a lot of fun – the Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas (April 19-23) and TechEd in New Orleans in June.

Pacific IT Professionals Meeting Tomorrow

Don’t forget the PacITPros regular meeting this Tuesday (tomorrow!) at 6:00pm.

I’ll be doing a quick presentation regarding Remote Desktop Services (on Windows 2008 R2) and we’ll also be hearing from Ed Horley on Windows 7 Deployment and an overview of the Application Compatibility Toolkit.

This meeting is a Microsoft STEP event, so be sure to check out the details and RSVP!

PacITPros February Meeting

Yesterday evening, I gave a short presentation at the monthly Pacific IT Professionals meeting on Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services. Highlights included some of the changes, feature improvements and cavats between Server 2003, Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2. If you attended and would like a copy of my slide deck, click here. Also look for a post tomorrow that covers some of the highlights of the presentation.

There were two other great presentations at the meeting. Ed Horley presented on Network Filtering and Joanie Rhine from Microsoft presented on the most recent Security Intelligence Report. Their presentations will be available on the PacITPros website.

Don't Forget - PacITPros Meeting on January 5th!

PacITPros will be starting out the new year with a presentation from Amit Malhotra of Bakbone Software. Amit will be presenting on the NetVault®: FASTRecover™, which provides disk-based, real-time data protection for Exchange, SQL Server and Windows File Servers.

Find out more and RSVP at the PacITPros website.