Over the past few days I have been reviewing e-learning content on Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA). I was amazed by the wealth of training content available on MVA for the Private Cloud.

So, what is MVA?

MVA is a fully cloud-based learning experience focusing on Microsoft Cloud Technologies. MVA provides its users with a virtual university experience: the student can select a track and study the material and then do the self-assessment. Students on MVA can get access to all the information, statistics and advancements of their training career, allowing them to maintain a long-term relationship with Microsoft. Learning through MVA is free of charge, and you can study the contents at any time and at your own pace.

Configuring and Deploying Microsoft’s Private Cloud

After completing this private cloud specialization, you will have an understanding of Microsoft’s vision for cloud computing, from the business perspective to the technical level. The 8 modules are divided into four core courses covering:

1. Private Cloud: Infrastructure Management

• Module 1: Configure and Deploy Private Cloud Infrastructure
• Module 2: Monitor and Operate Private Cloud Infrastructure

2. Private Cloud: Infrastructure Components

• Module 1: Configure and Deploy Infrastructure Components
• Module 2: Monitor and Operate Infrastructure Components

3. Private Cloud: Service Delivery and Automation

• Module 1:; Configure and Deploy Service Delivery & Automation
• Module 2: Monitor and Operate Service Delivery & Automation

4. Private Cloud: Application Services Management

• Module 1: Application Services Management, Configuration, & Deployment
• Module 2: Application Services Management, Operation, & Management

During the 8 modules of this specialization, you will be introduced to all the elements of building the Microsoft private cloud. You’ll learn how to optimize and deploy the private cloud starting at the infrastructure layer. You’ll also be introduced to advanced virtualization management features and the concept and implementation of the System Center’s private cloud application service model.

After completing all of the modules you will have an understanding of:

• How using Microsoft System Center 2012 can help you build, deploy and manage a private cloud infrastructure.
• How System Center 2012 incorporates tools to deploy, update, and manage applications within your private cloud.
• System Center 2012’s new abilities to deploy, update, and manage applications within your private cloud.
• How using new components of System Center 2012, specifically the Orchestrator and Service Manager components, enable you to deploy, update, and manage service offerings within your private cloud.
• How applications are deployed and managed in the Microsoft private cloud.
• How to use new capabilities in System Center 2012 to deploy your applications as services.

I highly recommend this training for all IT Pros as an excellent means of updating your skills and build your readiness to face new challenges as cloud computing evolves.

Moving to cloud-enabled solutions means IT Professionals and Developers need a deeper and broader set of skills, and they need to be current on the latest technology solutions.  As cloud-enabled solutions transform IT in organizations, it is important for technology professionals to enhance their on-premise skills to unleash the potential of Microsoft technology solutions.

That’s why Microsoft has reinvented its certification program—to certify a deeper set of skills that are mapped to real-world business context. Rather than testing only on a component of a technology, IT Professionals and Developers are now tested on more advanced skills and a deeper understanding of the technology.

And just as Microsoft continually updates the certification exams to cover the latest skills, certified professionals will be required to recertify every two to three years.

The certifications have been reinvented to focus on technology solutions and the appropriate related skill level:

• The Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA) level is the prerequisite certification necessary to get the Expert level certification. 
• The Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) is Microsoft’s flagship product for those who want to lead their company’s journey to the cloud.   It is the destination for established IT Professionals who have expertise working with Microsoft technology solutions.  The Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD) is the destination for established Developers who have expertise developing solutions with Microsoft tools. 
• After people have achieved their Expert level certification, Microsoft Certified Solutions Master (MCSM) is for the select few who wish to further differentiate themselves from their peers.

To learn more about Microsoft Certification Paths Go to MCSE overview page.

Use the System Center Operations Manager 2012 Sizing Helper to help plan hardware capacity for deployments.

The SCOM 2012 Sizing Helper is basically an Excel macro sheet, which sizes your SCOM implementation based on inputs you provide, including Management servers, database/data warehouse servers etc.

Partners should use this while sizing customer designs, and customers can use this for their in-house deployments and upgrades of Operations Manager.

Screenshots below.

A Day in the Life: IT Professional

I stumbled upon this new feature while searching for prayer times yesterday on Bing. The picture on the left side changes based on the current prayer time.

Only one out of every 5 datacenters in the world are operating efficiently, as per new research from IBM.

Out of 300 data centers surveyed in the IBM study, conducted by IDC, only 1 in 5 are operating efficiently.

Furthermore, nearly 80 percent of the 300 CIOs and IT leaders were found to be behind in making the most of their IT investments.

The study found that only 21 percent of companies surveyed are operating data centers at the highest level of efficiency. These optimized companies are able to spend 50 percent more of their IT budget on new projects and innovation to make their organizations more successful.

The vast majority – some 62 percent are somewhat efficient. And another 17 percent are operating at a basic level.

IBM took a look at the top performing data centers and identified the key characteristics that enabled those companies to be more efficient than others. Here are four tips to a smarter data center:

1. Have a plan that aligns with business goals and keep it current.
2. Optimize your current server, storage, network and facilities assets to maximize capacity and availability.
3. Design for flexibility to support changing business needs.
4. Use automation tools to improve service levels and availability. Less manual manipulation means faster response times.

Shijaz’s take:

My take on this? This represents a HUGE opportunity for organizations to re-evaluate their own datacenters and reflect on their IT spending. What percentage of your IT budget are you using for new projects, and how much of it goes into operating and managing existing infrastructure?

And how can Microsoft help? Look closely above at the 4 characteristics of highly efficient datacenters.

1. Planning: Microsoft’s Private Cloud offering includes components like Operations Manager and Service Manager that help you make better informed decisions based on real statistical data from your own datacenter compared to SLAs that are defined with the business.
2. Optimize your infrastructure to maximize capacity and availability. Microsoft’s Private Cloud solution helps you achieve that. You are able to capture your available assets into a “shared pool” of resources, that can be dynamically provisioned when your business application needs it. In other words, dynamic optimization, better utilization, more efficiency.
3. Flexibility: Microsoft’s Private Cloud offering helps you achieve that degree of agility and flexibility to adapt to the changing needs of the business. Business application owners can request the infrastructure services to power their application, and be totally abstracted from the complexity of underlying hardware. What’s more, the datacenter now is able to allocate more resources for the application when needed, delivering utmost flexibility.
4. Automation: Microsoft’s Private Cloud offering includes components like Service Manager, Virtual Machine Manager and Orchestrator (Opalis) that work together to provide you a highly automated datacenter based on workflows and run-books that you define, triggered automatically as conditions change in your environment.

To know more about how Microsoft’s Private Cloud offering can help you achieve highly efficient datacenters, contact me.

Windows Server 8 beta has caught the world by storm with the cutting-edge hypervisor that’s built into it.

Here is a cool poster for any IT Pro/SysAdmin/Architect to proudly have hanging in the corridor or in their office that shows off these new technologies, how they integrate and how they work.

This poster provides a visual reference for understanding key Hyper-V technologies in Windows Server “8” Beta. This new Hyper-V poster focuses on Hyper-V Replica, networking, virtual machine mobility (live migration), storage, failover clustering and scalability.

You can download the poster at: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29189

Microsoft invites you to attend

Faster Solutions with SQL Appliances

March 21st 9.00am – 1:00pm | Grand Hyatt, Doha

Register here

Focused solution acceleration: faster deployment, lower costs, greater agility

IDC listed a shift to Private Cloud as the first of their Top 10 Predictions for Worldwide System Infrastructure Software in 2011, “Private Cloud plans will mature and dominate the Enterprise Infrastructure Software Agenda in 2011”… as companies “respond to increased business pressure to reduce costs and speed deployment of new capabilities.”

Consolidating database workloads into a Private Cloud provides more efficient use of compute, network and storage resources, a decrease in physical footprint as well as a reduction in capital and operational expenses

Microsoft has products and tools available today that can help adopt a Private Cloud infrastructure for database workloads, including the HP Enterprise Database Consolidation Appliance Optimized for SQL Server, the first of its kind in the market.

Join us for in an interactive discussion that will position how you can discuss the benefits of SQL Appliances to drive successful projects and implementations, for all your data from structured through to unstructured and big data.

We look forward to seeing you there. Please register here to reserve your place

Spaces are limited so please book your seat today.

Internet Explorer 9 is undoubtedly the most secure browser for your Windows client environment. Internet Explorer protects you from five times more socially engineered malware than other browsers. Users are four times more likely to be socially engineered into downloading malware than they are to fall victim to a software exploit, according to Network World.

For corporate customers, standardizing on a single, secure, IE browser in your organization is a good idea because:

• it saves you developer overhead in making your internal web applications supported on multiple browser platforms
• it saves you administrative overhead as your helpdesk does not need to support your applications on multiple browsers.
• it improves security as you can manage patches centrally, concentrating on a single browser.
• it reduces complexity – browsers like Mozilla Firefox release a new version every month, thereby putting you in an endless loop of testing your applications for compatibility with every release (click here to see an illustration)

You can use Group Policy to enforce Internet Explorer as the default browser for your users. You will need an account that has permissions to modify and apply group policies.

1. On your domain controller, or a machine that has the Administrative Tools installed, open the Start menu, go into the "Administrative Tools" folder and select "Group Policy Management."
2. Right-click on your primary Group Policy Object from the list on the left side of the window and choose the "Edit" option. This will launch the Group Policy Object Editor tool.
3. Open the "User Configuration" and "Windows Settings" containers.
4. Right-click on the entry labeled "Internet Explorer Maintenance" and select "Preference Mode."
5. Double-click on the "Programs (Preference Mode)" icon to view the additional Internet Explorer settings.
6. Click on the radio button next to "Import the Current Program Settings" and then press "Modify Settings."
7. Click on the "Make Default" button in the "Default web browser" section of the window.
8. Press "OK" twice to save the Group Policy Object settings. Now Internet Explorer will automatically be the default browser for all computers on the local network.

There is an amazing, FREE course on the Microsoft Virtual Academy titled ‘Windows Server “8” – First Look”.

Attend this course to learn how to cloud optimize your IT with Windows Server “8”. We will show you how you can take advantage of the skills and investment you’ve already made in building a familiar and consistent platform. Windows Server “8” builds on that familiarity and cloud optimizes your IT. With Windows Server “8”, you gain all the Microsoft experience behind building and operating private and public clouds, delivered as a dynamic, available, and cost-effective server platform. The course will cover how Windows Server "8" delivers value in four key ways including how it takes you beyond virtualization, delivers the power of many servers, opens the door to every app on any cloud, and enables the modern work-style.

To launch this FREE course, click here!