We'd like to announce an update to the FREE downloadable files for cross-component documentation for the Technical Scenarios for System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1). Specifically, the latest component to the file library is the new "Integration Map...

A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting is now available which uses their Total Economic Impact methodology to explore the potential costs and benefits of Windows Server 2012, a cornerstone of the Microsoft Cloud OS vision . This study...

Tuesday, January 15 marks a major milestone for Hosting Service Providers who leverage the Microsoft Platform. Microsoft broadly announced the availability of System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1) as well as new Windows Server hosting technologies –...

Hey hosting community, Just wanted to drop a short note here that we have a new tool available that will assist you in Importing OVFs into your VMM environment from other virtualization platforms: The Open Virtualization Format (OVF) is a...

Yesterday, Microsoft, alongs with parners NetApp and Citrix , announced the availability of FreeBSD support for Windows Server Hyper-V. This collaboration , highlights Microsoft’s commitment to supporting multiple platforms with its server virtualization...

During the second day of Microsoft Corp.’s annual Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) , we announced new solutions, training, tools and other programs that enable partners to deliver compelling new cloud services to their customers. The community...

App Controller – Evaluation VHD http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4da3d1d9-91d4-472e-acb7-10885df9d1c2 Operations Manager – Evaluation VHD http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=00b78007-638f...

Windows Server 2012 Jump Start Recordings released! Make sure you don’t miss to have a look at the recordings! Windows Server Jump Start HD-quality video recordings —FREE— on TechNet Videos . Enjoy! Chris Samson

I uncovered a very interesting blog post today about the use of Service Manager at Service Providers today that i wanted to make sure gets out there. Service Manager is an awesome tool but there are some challenges when using it in a multitenant environment...

SPF as it is known is coming in System Center 2012 SP1. It will enable you to use VMM, OPSMGR and Orchestrator in a multi-tenant environment. This is what hosters have been asking System Center to do for ages :) Please check out this short video...

Hello all, Things are moving quickly in the world of System Center SP1. The latest public version of the bits are now available, go grab them!! See below for the overview of investment areas for the applications: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download...

1) Free 250 page Microsoft ebook on Windows Server 2012 http://go.microsoft.com/FWLink/?Linkid=251464 2) Free 2 day online Jumpstart training, JUNE 20, 21 http://mctreadiness.com/MicrosoftCareerConferenceRegistration.aspx?pid=323 Enjoy...

Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate (RC) Datacenter is now available. You can download the latest version from TechNet, which includes resources to take advantage of all the features of this pre-released version. Enjoy! Chris Samson - Microsoft

This webcast series will show you some of the best practices and process for getting started with your System Center 2012 for a managed private cloud. The series will demonstrate how to deploy a Hyper-V host cluster, Virtual Machine Manager, Operations...

Here is the first Update Rollup for Microsoft System Center 2012 and the issues that are fixed in the update rollup. In additon, the article has the associated installation instructions for the Updste Rollup. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2686249...

Many service providers have expressed interest in Website panel to offer web, email, database, and virtual machine hosting. It had been nearly a year since we saw an updated release of the code, but we are happy to announce that Website Panel 1.2.1 is...

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=28725 This download site includes a consolidated listing of the Orchestrator Integration Packs (IP's) for the following System Center 2012 Components System Center 2012...

Details can be found at this KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2679368/en-us

Interesting nuance in SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn testing – if you stop SQL Service manually on primary replica, it fails over to second node only once. Any further attempts of stopping SQL Service (to test auto failover) would not cause failover –...

This is an incredible, detailed reference for the Beta Release of Windows Server "8" which is available for download now. See link below for the pdf download. http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29189 Marcel Messing ...

Exciting news! Microsoft announced today that SQL Server 2012 has released to manufacturing. Customers and partners can download an evaluation of the product today and can expect general availability to begin on April 1. Microsoft also announced today...

Windows Server "8" has a significant amount of improvements that are specifcially targetted at the needs of hosting and cloud providers, since this version of Windows Server "8" is now our "Cloud optimized OS!". With the new Hyper-V V3 is taking virtualization...

Join the Microsoft Partner Network Community; we are building a community that is all about you. Connect with other partners and Microsoft to expand opportunities, share best practices, spark innovation, and build relationships. www.digitalwpc...

For those of you who have been waiting to stand up a stand alone Lync Hosted solution or integrate it with Hosted Exchange and SharePoint, here is the site where you will find all of the info, bits and contacts that you will need. http://social.technet...

The SQL Server 2012 Virtual Launch Event kicks off on March 7, 2012 starting at 8:00AM Pacific (-8:00 GMT) with keynotes from Microsoft Executives including: Ted Kummert, Corporate Vice President, Business Platform Division and Quentin Clark, Corporate...