Exclusively for readers of the microsoftNOW blog

You have the opportunity to avail 10% discount on the registration fee for TechEd Middle East, the premier technical education event providing the most comprehensive technical training on Microsoft’s suite of products, technologies, solutions and services. being held March 8-10 in Dubai, UAE.

To avail the discount, use the following code during registration.

8D60604A

This code is valid for 10 registrations only, so better hurry.

Questions? Post a comment to this post. Terms & conditions apply.

Steven Guggenheimer
Corporate Vice President Original Equipment Manufacturer Microsoft

Steven “Guggs” Guggenheimer returns to Dubai and Gitex to present an update on Microsoft Innovation and how that equals Opportunity for you.

 Steven will share Microsoft software innovations for phones, slates, netbooks, laptop PCs, gaming PCs, television, servers and the Cloud.

As corporate vice president of the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Division at Microsoft Corp., Steve Guggenheimer oversees worldwide sales, marketing and licensing of pre-installed Windows operating systems on mobile and embedded devices, personal computers, and servers produced by OEMs and system builders.

The other main focus of Mr Guggenheimer’s key note address will be Windows Phone 7, and how it is changing Microsoft’s game play in the mobile space. He will explain why Windows Phone 7 is a different kind of phone, designed to bring together what people care about most, the key differentiator being the user interface. He will talk about the “glance-and-go experience” and how it has been designed to do more in less steps, getting everything you love, easier and faster.

You are cordially invited to attend this Microsoft Exclusive Premiere Event at GITEX Technology Week 2010!

Date:     Monday, 18 October 2010
Time:     2:00PM
Venue:   Dubai World Trade Center, Sheikh Maktoum Hall

Exclusive Cocktail Reception
Join us for a cocktail reception prior to the keynote session and get the chance to engage with Microsoft and fellow experts from the industry.

Date:     Monday, 18 October 2010
Time:     1:00PM – 2:00PM
Venue:   Dubai World Trade Center, Sheikh Maktoum Hall

As per the latest report published by Microsoft, based on feedback from the Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT). The MSRT is usually executed as part of Windows Update and currently has a user base of 500+ million computers worldwide running Windows.

The UAE were one of the countries included in the report.

However, the number of computers infected with malware in the UAE is lower than the worldwide average with only 5.8 infected computers for every 1000 computers in the country.

According to the analysis, the UAE is ‘dominated’ by malware, which accounts for 82.6% of all threats detected on infected computers. The most common category of malware in the country was found to be worms (23%) which have the ability to spread via mapped drives with missing or weak passwords or by using USB flash drives.

Meet Tech·Ed Middle East’s Top Voted Speaker at the Business Intelligence Roadshow.

Rafal Lukawiecki, International Business Intelligence speaker, will be telling you all about simplifying performance management and business intelligence.

Join us at this exclusive event as he demonstrates to you how these solutions can easily be used in your day-to-day business scenarios.

With a special focus on Microsoft^® SQL Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft^® Office System 2010, this will be a full day seminar with exciting presentations and live videos from the business intelligence performance management expert.

Source: ITP.net

Dubai-based reseller Storm Computers has pledged to sell only genuine Microsoft licences in future after settling allegations that it pirated the software vendor’s products out of court.

Microsoft raided Storm’s premises a few months back and said in a statement that it was "purportedly" found to be selling PCs loaded with pirated versions of its software.

Pirated CDs were also seized during the operation and two Storm employees were arrested, according to the vendor.

Under the terms of a civil settlement between the pair, Storm will only sell and distribute genuine Microsoft software to its customers in future. Both parties also agreed to an undisclosed amount of damages.

Mustafa Ali Khan, manager of Storm Computers, said: "We are highly appreciative of Microsoft’s approach to our case. After talks with the company, we have come to fully understand the value of genuine software and the risks associated with distributing pirated software, both to ourselves and to our valued customers."

Microsoft claims it is making ground in its bid to reduce channel piracy, pointing to recent settlements it has made as evidence that resellers are turning their back on the illegal software trade.

"We expect 2010 to carry over this trend and usher in greater cooperation from resellers," said Jawad Al Redha, IPR manager at Microsoft Gulf. "Although local authorities have gained ground in reducing the incidences of piracy across the Emirates via a combination of awareness campaigns and enforcement activities, they still need more help from the software sector and the public to combat copyright violations."

TechEd was awesome. 1500 techies under one roof. Amazing.

I could not agree more with fellow TechEd speaker Andy Malone, who wrote in his blog:

The feedback has been amazing and for that you have my thanks. TechEd is a unique worldwide event, now running in ten locations worldwide. One thing that really stands out is its ability to bring people from different countries, backgrounds, religions together. The relationships formed both personal and business can last a lifetime.

Special thanks goes to Arif, Amory and the team at Microsoft Gulf for putting together a spectacular event – which is also the first TechEd in the Gulf region. I also want to thank the delegates for attending this event and also for their feedback.

As promised, here are additional resources that will help you move forward with UAG:

• UAG with DirectAccess – I will publish a step by step on my blog very soon. Stay tuned!
• UAG Hardware option – Vendors
• UAG Licensing
• Official forum – Ask questions about UAG
• UAG Team blog
• UAG homepage

Here are pictures from the event. The moments below were captured by David Maskell, Security Solutions SSP at Microsoft Gulf, who is also the Security, Identity & Access (SIA) track owner at TechEd ME.

View Full Album

View Full Album

View Full Album

I would like to thank those of you that attended my session on Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway and DirectAccess yesterday at TechEd Middle East 2010. If you heard about this blog from my session, please take a moment to subscribe by email or RSS.

I cannot stress enough on how important your session evaluations are. If you attended my session, please take a moment to complete the evaluation online.

I would like to thank those who have already completed the feedback for giving me high ratings. It is your support that keeps me going. With all respect, let me also request the only one person who rated me low to re-evaluate the session open-mindedly:-). Honest feedback in the evaluation is important to me.

The presentation slide deck is now available for download on the TechEd website. You will have to login with your TechEd username and password.

Q&A

I have tried my best to answer all questions onsite. However, if you still have questions based on my session, feel free to post them below as a comment to this post. I will try my best to have them answered.

Thank You.

PS: Pictures will be uploaded soon.

I’m doing a breakout session at the Microsoft TechEd in Dubai. Here are the details:

Session: SIA308 – Secure Remote Access with Unified Access Gateway and Direct Access

Track: Security, Identity and Access
Speaker: Shijaz Abdulla
When: Wed, Mar 03, 2010 (13:30 – 14:30) | Breakout Session
Where: Sheikh Maktoum Hall A
Level: 300 – Advanced
Audience: Security Administrator, IT Manager

Here’s what I will be covering:

• Overview of Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway
• Overview of DirectAccess
• Demo: Enabling Windows 7 DirectAccess feature with UAG
• Unified Access Gateway features: Remote access with SSL-VPN, Secure Application Publishing, Secure File Access, Endpoint security
• Demo: Unified Access Gateway features

See you there!

I am pleased to announce a 15% discount on registration fees at TechEd Dubai for all readers of my blog.

To make use of this offer, use the promo code 52F42DC3 while registering. Hurry, this is valid only for the first 100 registrations.

See you there!

During my recent trip to Dubai, I came across Microsoft Surface units in the Emirates Lounge at Dubai Airport Terminal 3.

The Microsoft Surface units had a variety of applications, games and media on it for passenger entertainment. I found an intuitive application that lets one customize and send a postcard via email. Here’s a video of that application that I took on my cellphone camera.

I was holding the cellphone with one hand, so I couldn’t demonstrate true ‘multi-touch’

The Emirates lounge also had many xbox units with some exciting games, including Forza Motorsport. The whole lounge is pretty hi-tech, except for the internet kiosks, which still ran Windows XP with Internet Explorer 6 in a lockdown mode, that allows only one browser instance to be opened with no tabs!