VMWare Core Tax

The guys over at Windows Virtualization Team Blog have a very interesting post about VMWare vs Hyper-V licensing and a "VMWare Core Tax" once processors begin shipping with more than 6 cores per processor. This is a compelling argument when you look at costs for virtualization.

http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2009/06/28/Beware-the-VMware-Core-Tax-and-More.aspx

Exchange 2010 Call Answering Rules

The guys over at the Microsoft Exchange Team Blog have a great entry talking about new functionality in Unified Messaging for Exchange 2010, Call Answering Rules. Check it out here, http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/06/22/451667.aspx

Power Consumption Comparison for Exchange 2007, PHysical vs Virtual

The guys over at the Microsoft Exchange Team Blog have a post talking about power consumption for an Exchange 2007 environment comparing Physical versus Virtual. Good information: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/06/19/451650.aspx

Microsoft Partner Evidence Program (PEP)

We, Statera, have been nominated and approved for the Microsoft Partner Evidence Program (PEP) for 2010 products. I know it includes SharePoint and Office 2010 and am trying to find out if it also covers Exchange 2010, Exchange being the one I am most interested in. This is a big deal, we get the bits in about a week so we can start learning these new technologies and also assist clients with pre-RC installs.
We have already had preliminary talks with one of our best clients about implementing SharePoint 2010 in this program!

Case Study for Hyper-V and Exchange 2007

Check out this case study for a project I completed implementing Hyper-V with Exchange 2007. The client liked Hyper-V so much with Exchange 2007 that they then had me assist with a new Hyper-V cluster for consolidating other servers.
http://www.statera.com/customers/cases/CoBizVirtualizationCS060309.pdf

Statera Releases a CRM to SharePoint Cloud Integration Engine

Just recently, Statera went into a Beta phase for their an integration engine called Stratus (http://stratus.statera.com). It’s a really cool idea/product which integrates Microsoft CRM Online with SharePoint Online completely via Microsoft’s Azure Services platform (which means everything is running in the Cloud). Some of the capabilities Stratus provides include:

· CRM users can provision SharePoint sites for Account, Opportunity and Case records, allowing them to store documents in a location where they are easier to collaborate on and in an environment where non-sales employees may be more familiar with
· CRM users can upload documents while in CRM and they are stored directly in SharePoint
· CRM users can view associated SharePoint document libraries and their contents and pull up documents without ever leaving CRM
· SharePoint users can navigate to SharePoint sites that are associated with CRM Account, Opportunity or Case records and access uploaded documents, CRM contacts, CRM activities as well as some other general CRM information
· SharePoint users can create new contacts or activities via the associated SharePoint site that are in turn stored in CRM
· SharePoint users can save CRM contacts directly into their Outlook contacts folder with the click of the mouse

The product also works with the on-premise versions of SharePoint and CRM or any combination of Online and On-premise (e.g. CRM Online and SharePoint on-premise), though the on-premise activation is not yet available.

There are some other cool ideas that will be coming out with in the future. For more information, check out the video or sign up to use the platform at http://stratus.statera.com – it only takes a few minutes to sign up and usage is free!

Windows Server 2008 SP2 and Hyper-V

Good post from the Microsoft Virtualization Team blog about applying SP2 to Windows Server 2008 running the Hyper-V role and what is needed from a host and guest VM perspective.

http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2009/06/17/Re_3A00_-Windows-Server-2008-SP2-Hyper_2D00_V.aspx

Scripting Games 2009

The Scripting Guys over at Microsoft are getting ready to kick-off Scripting games 2009! This is a great way to learn and expand scripting knowledge! I have been a scripting junkie for several years, first with VBScript and now mainly with PowerShell. I encourage any and all script monkeys to check this it out!:
http://blogs.technet.com/heyscriptingguy/archive/tags/2009+Summer+Scripting+Games/default.aspx

Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 RTM Date

Several sites have reported that Windows 7 will RTM on October 22nd, and now from the Windows Server Team Blog, Windows Server 2008 R2 will also RTM at the same time!

http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/archive/2009/06/02/windows-server-2008-r2-rtm-and-general-availability.aspx