System Center Guide

I recently came across this site, FreeRice.com, which I thought it is a very nice and creative means of helping to end the world hunger. This is how it works: you go to FreeRice.com and play their vocabulary game, for each question answered correctly 10 grains of rice will be donated by the sponsors to help people living in poverty. It is a win-win situation - you get to play the game, FreeRice get the traffics, advertisers get their exposure, and people in need get the free rice. If you like the idea, please help to spread out the word. For more details, please read their FAQ page.

Tony Scott will join the ranks of Britney Spears, Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan as this past Disney performer makes IT big with Microsoft. In his new “role”, Scott will “act” as “lead” for the 4,000+ Microsoft IT organisation worldwide.

Read the press release

Entisys Solutions, Concord, Calif., acquired Agile360, Irvine, Calif., for an undisclosed amount. The deal closed on December 31.

http://www.dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=6884

Well, some of you may have noticed my activity level drop off this week. That was due to the overwhelming pressures of having to prepare for the Brandon Consulting System Center Practice Launch at the Guinness Store House on Thursday. I had visited the locale on several previous visits to Ireland, but never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined coming back to the Store House to launch the practice that I would be managing while living here.

Most visitors to the Store House would completely overlook the 3rd floor business centre that has a number of rooms available to rent for private occassions. Similarly, the 7th floor Gravity Bar (a glass-enclosed circular bar that provides a 360-degree view of Dublin and the end-point for the Store House tour) is also available for letting during the evening. This provided an excellent view of the city at night.

The launch event included 5 sessions held throughout the day, with myself delivering the lion’s share of 3 sessions. We kicked off with Bill O’Brien, Business Group Lead - Server and Tools for Microsoft Ireland, discussing Core Infrastructure Optimisation. This was followed by my three presentations on System Center Operations Manager, Configuration Manager and Essentials. We wrapped up with a brief discussion about the System Center licensing, presented by our licensing partner, Micro Warehouse.

In all, we had fantastic attendance and overhelming responses to our offer for a whiteboard session with prospective customers. At the end of the day, I sat exhaustively in awe of what had just transpired: I had just finished launching my new practice at the Guinness Store House. How amazing is that?

It’s been pointed out to me that in my previous post I had misspelled the word “utilisation“. While on the surface to an American reader this may appear an accurate statement, my blogging efforts will now focus on localising the content in proper “Queen’s English” - the primary business language of the European community.

This change will be most noted in English words containing the letter Z (pronouced as Zed, not Zee) such as organise and realise but also in many other word forms. Examples may include favourite, localise, areoplane, fillet, mum, and orthopaedics. Wikipedia offers an excellent reference page for anyone seeking to improve their “English”. It can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences.

I will note, however, that there will be one deviation from the commonly localised content posted here and that relates to the term System Center. In Queen’s English this would be referenced as System Centre. However, Microsoft has chosen not to localise the System Center brand and as such it will be represented throughout the world as it is in America. Otherwise, expect my post to be in proper English.

Several months back I posted the availability of System Center Configuration Manager 2007 virtual labs on Microsoft’s website. However, after recently revisiting the site I noticed that the product groups have been very busy preparing additional labs for the entire System Center suite. In addition to a slew of labs available for SMS 2003, there are a few others available for Configuration Manager 2007, plus three for Operations Manager 2007, two for Softgrid and one each for Capacity Planner and Essentials.

Check out the full array of offerings at: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/bb539977.aspx

I received this today from a colleague at Dell. Please forward to any mid-sized companies that you may know.

Hi All

The enterprise design and usability group at Dell is looking to get out and learn more about systems management in medium-sized IT shops (around 100-500 employees or 20-250 servers) It doesn’t matter if you a Dell customer or not and this isn’t related to sales or marketing in any way.

Our goal is learn more about the key scenarios and pain points that sys admins in medium sized IT shops have, how they juggle roles, what tools they use, how we can make their lives easier, etc. We are looking for groups that will let about 2 usability guys come out on site, meet some people, and see what it’s like.

If you think your group would be interested, please contact ryan_west (@) dell (dot) com.

Sorry, did I forget to mention Symantec acquiring Vontu for $350M? Well, that one went live today as well. The takeover plunges Symantec headlong into the Data Loss Protection market and places even more competitive pressure on the likes of EMC and Websense.

SC Magazine’s website has the full coverage.

Two recent acquisitions demonstrate that the consolidation of the Systems Management space is still running full throttle.

In the quietest acquisition category, we have Quest Software picking up eXc Software to extend the company’s reach in custom management pack offerings for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007. Neither company website list specifics of the deal. In fact, beyond the Quest logo on excsoftware.com, you’d be hard pressed to find anything relevant to the transaction.

Now for the loudest acquisition, Dell has annouced plans to purchase EqualLogic for $1.4B - the largest price tag Dell has paid to acquire a company. EqualLogic has become a growing concern in the Storage Management space, providing attractive alternatives to the pricey EMC-based storage solutions. The industry analyst are all over this one and of course the media outlets are questioning if this means splitsville for the longstanding Dell/EMC relationship.

While I don’t work with the SAN stuff enough to comment on the Dell acquisition, I will say that eXc Software has had a great history of working tightly with customers to identify needs, and create a solution that will work. And, they typically can turn a management pack around for a customer in about 48 hours. On the other hand, you have a NASDAQ traded company that SKUs their products, produces the supporting collaterals and ships them to the regional sales offices worldwide. Will the lowly eXc offerings continue to have the initimate approach of addressing an individual customer’s needs? Time will tell.

For those that haven’t been following Destination: Ireland, I’ve accepted a role as System Center Practice Manager for a Dublin-based Micrsoft Gold Certified partner and will be heading to Ireland on 2 Oct. 2007. Obviously, this is a dream come true and amazing opportunity for my wife, Amanda, and I.

Some of you will recall that she was diagnosed with breast cancer a year & a half ago. If there is one thing that surviving that experience taught us it is to grab life by the horns and hang on! And, if a great opportunity comes along, take it! You don’t know when or if you’ll be able to do it again later in life.

So, it’s with mixed emotions that we say goodbye to Texas. But, with eager anticipation that we look towards what our future holds in the Emerald Isle.

May God bless our journey.