Let me make it absolutely clear - I am not a virtualisation expert. But I have heard enough network managers in schools, colleges and universities talking about their virtualisation projects to know that it's very important to their ICT infrastructure - whether that's reducing cost, cutting carbon emissions, managing their workload, or improving their network reliability and service levels.
But I've also talked with other IT managers who've convinced me that it's specialist knowledge that isn't widely shared. After all, if you're not quite sure what the difference is between server virtualisation and desktop virtualisation, or whether 'virtualisation' and 'moving to the cloud' are the same thing, then it can be awkward to ask. (A bit like when I sat in a meeting with a school, and was too embarrassed to ask what 'assessment for learning' meant. It helped later when I discovered that nobody in the meeting knew, but they all thought everybody else did.)
The answer is to find the perfect reference guide, written in plain English. And for virtualisation I have found it!
It is absolutely massive - 450 pages. And it has only one subject - virtualisation, virtualisation, virtualisation. But the chapter titles tell you that it's just what you need:
And it's got a brilliant index too, so that next time somebody says "failover clustering", you can look it up slyly on your laptop, and join the conversation.
So if you want to learn more about the latest Microsoft virtualisation technologies, so that you can differentiate your Hyper-V from your Remote Desktop Services, then this is the job. And it also covers Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5, Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization, Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, and Microsoft’s private and public cloud computing platforms including Windows Azure. (No wonder it needs 450 pages.)
And best of all, the PDF is free, so stick it on your desktop now:
Download it free: Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions: From the Desktop to the Datacenter, 2nd Edition
The UK Public Sector is in a state of change. There is considerable pressure to reduce budgets and the Government’s Spending Review (due for publication in autumn 2010) will set out the plans for expenditure over the next 3-5 years. The spending review will directly impact expenditure on ICT technology, solutions and services.
Microsoft and our partners play a major role in the provision of efficient and effective ICT solutions to the Public Sector. Our Public Sector Partner Briefing will provide Microsoft partners with a clear view of Microsoft’s strategy, technology propositions and opportunities for the Public Sector. The briefing will also help to identify how Microsoft and our partners can continue to grow our mutual share of ICT investment throughout the Public Sector.
When?
The Microsoft Public Sector Partner Briefing will be held on Monday September 27th, 2010 at the Microsoft Campus in Reading from 09:30 to 4:00PM.
Who?
The Microsoft Public Sector Partner Briefing is a non-technical day and will primarily benefit senior sales, business development, business strategy and marketing representatives from the Microsoft partner community that focuses on the Public Sector – Education, Government (Local and Central) and Health.
Why?
The day will provide invaluable insight and practical guidance on Microsoft’s strategic direction, technology propositions and partner programmes that will help us to grow our mutual share of the Public Sector ICT opportunities. The programme for the day also includes breakout sessions/workshops where more information will be provided on our strategies, key technologies and programmes for the Education, Government and Health sectors.
The day will also provide ample opportunity for you to engage with the Microsoft UK Public Sector management team, sales people and technical experts.
How?
To help us to work out how many people are planning to attend each breakout session we have provided three registrations links. Everyone will attend the plenary sessions in the morning and the breakout sessions will take place in the afternoon. Please register by selecting the link for the breakout session that you are planning to attend on the day:
Microsoft Public Sector Business Partner Briefing and Education Breakout Session:
Register here and enter invitation code: 41768F
Microsoft Public Sector Business Partner Briefing and Government Breakout Session:
Register here and enter invitation code: D67D81
Microsoft Public Sector Business Partner Briefing and Health Breakout Session:
Register here and enter invitation code: DA18FF
You can also register by phone: 0870 166 6680 (quoting the appropriate invitation code)
You will receive a detailed agenda for the day with your final joining instructions one week before the briefing.
We look forward to you joining us for a day that will help both Microsoft and our partners ensure that we continue to innovate and deliver value in the use of ICT across the Public Sector.
A few weeks ago, on 18th June, the Government cut the Harnessing Technology Grant, in order to find capital funds to start Free Schools. I wrote a blog post at the time to summarise the information.
Well, they’ve done it again – this time, when they announced the cancellation of the BSF programme, they also snuck in a further £50M cut in the Harnessing Technology Grant. Here’s a summary of where we stand today:
The Harnessing Technology Grant is a 3-year programme, running from 2008-2011 to provide £639M for schools and local authorities to fund some of the capital costs of specific parts of education ICT. This year (2010/2011) the grant was £200M, and was allocated out via formula to local authorities [3]. Each local authority was allowed to retain 25%, to fund central costs eg broadband provision, whilst 75% had to be devolved to schools.
This means that schools and local authorities, who were expecting £200M of capital IT budget in this year, will now receive £100M instead. Because the first quarterly payment to local authorities has already happened, I’m guessing that what will happen now is that the local authorities will receive just 1/3 of the grant they were expecting in the next 3 quarters. This will have a big impact on the budgets that schools will receive – see “What Happens Now?” below.
The Harnessing Technology Grant is a 3-year programme, running from 2008-2011 to provide £639M for schools and local authorities to fund some of the capital costs of specific parts of education ICT. This year the grant was £200M, and was allocated out via formula to local authorities [3]. Each local authority was allowed to retain 25%, to fund central costs eg broadband provision, whilst 75% had to be devolved to schools.
The DCSF/DfE, through Becta, gave very specific guidance [4] on what the grant was for:
And they also spelled out what it couldn’t be used for:
The reality, in some schools, is that head teachers saw it as “the ICT money”, and used that (and only that) as their ICT budget. For those schools (I hope you’re not one of them), this news will be a major issue.
Here’s some assumptions from me:
Before this news, when the grant was £200M, all local authorities will have told their schools how much grant they will get, and I’m sure that will have been factored into schools’ budgets at the full amount.
I think over the next few weeks, as the impact of the second cut hits, schools will be hearing from their local authority about their plans to ‘claw back’, or limit future payments, on the grant – and in many cases this may mean a total cut in the grant going to schools.
There’s more on this issue on Merlin John Online, but in a nutshell, DfE say that the promise was to protect the revenue budgets (the stuff that pays salaries etc), but that no protection had been guaranteed for capital budgets [5]
Now that the cuts have started, what do you do about it?
Well, for a school to rush off and spend their Harnessing Technology Grant as quickly as possible before somebody asks for the budget back isn’t wise (see above!), but perhaps it might be a good time to remind your customers about the primary purpose of the Harnessing Technology Grant (for the areas outlined above) and to continue the conversation about the strategic value of ICT in the learning process – not just for the subjects where it is core - like ICT, business studies, media studies – but across the whole curriculum.
And it might also pay to have a scour of the Top ICT Money Saving Tips, to see if there’s anything there that could help your customers to save money – not just in the ICT budget, but in other department’s budgets in the school.
Quickly find all the Money Saving Tips on this blog
Here are some great new resources that have come from the TechNet team.
Office 2010/SharePoint Server 2010 Deployment Guide We've collected useful TechNet Magazine articles and key resources to help you plan, set up, and deploy the new versions of Office and SharePoint Server. Also find thought pieces on the economic impact in terms of productivity and payback, and the significance of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 in your evolving cloud computing strategy.
Windows 7 End User Adoption Resources Webcast July 7, 2010, 9:30 A.M. Pacific Time Join us in this informational webcast to learn how you can take advantage of the wide array of resources to help support your organization's deployment and adoption of Windows 7.
Forrester Consulting: The Total Economic Impact of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Forrester weighs in on the financial benefits of consolidating collaboration, enterprise content management and enterprise search by implementing SharePoint Server 2010. Read the white paper to learn how your organization can save time and money.
Forrester Consulting: The Total Economic Impact of Microsoft Office 2010 Forrester outlines the total economic impact of upgrading to Microsoft Office 2010. Read the white paper to learn how your organization can increase productivity and save money in a short period of time.
TechNet Magazine: Get Ready to Upgrade to SharePoint 2010 It may be tempting to jump right into a SharePoint 2010 upgrade, but it requires a substantial amount of planning. This will guide you through the upgrade planning process.
Video: Forrester Hosts Interview on the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report, Volume 8 View the conversation with Forrester vice president and principal analyst Khalid Kark and Microsoft security experts as they discuss the security threat findings observed in the second half of 2009 from the eighth volume of the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIRv8) - the most globally comprehensive report to date from Microsoft, covering 213 countries.
WVC127PAL: Windows 7 Return on Investment for Small and Midsize Business Customers
Presented by: Ivan Meljac
Webcast Date: 6/24/2010
Webcast Start Time: 9:00 AM (Pacific)
PLC Registration Link for Partners
Level: 100
Partner Audience: Partner Business Decision Maker, Partner Marketing, Partner Sales, Partner Training, Partner Developer, Partner IT Professional
Hear from IDC about the results of their research on the business value of Windows 7 Professional for small and midsize business customers. Since the launch of the Windows 7 operating system, IDC has spoken with hundreds of small and midsize businesses around the world to learn about their experience with deploying the new operating system and the business benefits Windows 7 has brought to their companies. Results show an average return on investment of 318% and an 8 month payback period, although results vary depending on company size, geography, and deployment method.
MGT80PAL: Implementing SCE 2010
Presented by: Prajyot Saran
Webcast Start Time: 10:00 AM (Pacific)
Level: 200
Partner Audience: Partner Business Decision Maker, Partner Marketing, Partner Sales, Partner Training
This session will provide the sales positioning of System Center Essentials 2010, as well as demonstrate setup of the SCE 2010 server and initial configuration of the software updates, agent monitoring, and reporting functionality. This is a recommended pre-requisite for selling SCE 2010.
Topics Include:
-Installation
-Configuration
-Administration
-Reporting
-Notification
MGT81PAL: How to Manage Servers in Midsized Businesses
Presented by: Birojit Nath; Vikas Madan
Webcast Date: 6/29/2010
Whether those servers are physical or virtual, midsized businesses need similar capabilities as enterprise management but in an easy-to-use, unified toolset. System Center Essentials (SCE) 2010 brings together monitoring, deployment and virtual management technologies from the System Center enterprise products into a single console that is designed for midsized businesses with 50-500 PCs and up to 50 servers. In this session, we will look at monitoring those physical and virtual servers for health, deploying new servers and even migrating older physical servers to virtual for easier management.
Managing Datacenter (MOSS /Exchange)
-Importing Management Packs
-Overrides
-Managing Virtual Machines Using SCE 2010
-Distributed Applications
-Synthetic Transactions.
MGT88PAL: Understanding How Citrix Extends the Microsoft System Center Desktop Management Solution
Presented by: Sean Donahue
Webcast Start Time: 12:00 PM (Pacific)
This session will guide the attendees through the new integration features that are being developed by Citrix on top of multiple System Center products including the XenApp Connector for Configuration Manager that allows the System Center Admin to deliver and manage applications to the XenApp farm. Barry will also demonstrate the integration work of XenApp delivering App-V packages through Receiver and Self Service provisioning with Dazzle.
WNS169PAL: Past, Present, and Future of Windows-Based NAS: A Growing Market for Highly Available Solutions
Presented by: Joel Garcia; Scott M. Johnson
Webcast Date: 6/30/2010
Webcast Start Time: 8:00 AM (Pacific)
In this session we outline the current and future Network Attached Storage (NAS) solutions. We will demonstrate the flexibility of the iSCSI Software Target and the new 2-cluster setup OOBE. Review the new Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 editions, from the new ‘Essentials’ SKU to the highly-available Enterprise SKU.
APU07PAL: How to Speed Up Your Sale With a SQL Server Consolidation QuickStart
Presented by: Diwakar Rajagopal
Partner Audience: Partner Business Decision Maker, Partner Marketing, Partner Sales, Partner IT Professional
Over the last several years, organizations have begun using increasing numbers of applications to manage business processes, provide new services, and gain insights into business performance. Consequently, the number of application servers and data storage servers that are required to support those applications has grown significantly increasing the cost of deployment and Maintenance. QuickStarts are packaged 2-day technical engagements based on best practices derived from the Microsoft field. They aim to provide customers with an immersion experience into the technology while keeping the engagement short and precise. Attend this session to learn more about how to deliver a 2-day SQL Server Consolidation QuickStart to your customers and speed up your sale. It is designed to provide the customers with a solid understanding of the technical value of SQL Server 2008 in a consolidation scenario. The engagement covers Consolidation best practices and tools. It also helps customers understand the state of their existing SQL Server deployment better.
APU08PAL: How to Speed Up Your Sale With a SQL Server Migration QuickStart
Webcast Date: 7/6/2010
APU09PAL: SQL Server for Mission Critical MOSS Implementation QuickStart
Webcast Date: 7/8/2010
It is widely known that SharePoint adoption grows exponentially across an organization – quickly gaining momentum and taking root as a critical part of an organization’s ecosystem. Help Customers choose the right Edition of SQL Server 2008 To help protect data, ensure availability, and keep costs down through the QuickStart. QuickStarts are packaged 2-day technical engagements based on best practices derived from the Microsoft field. They aim to provide customers with an immersion experience into the technology while keeping the engagement short and precise. Attend this session to learn how to position the right edition of SQL server for Mission Critical MOSS Implementations.
APU10PAL: SQL Server High Availability QuickStart
Webcast Date: 7/13/2010
Today we live in a 24x7 economy. Customers are worldwide and business never stops. To support this many systems need to be continuously available. Any downtime has a direct result on revenue and, perhaps more importantly, reputation. High availability is required because systems fail and need maintenance. Hardware, software, and infrastructure failures are inevitable and companies need a strategy to mitigate the effects of these failures. The SQL Server High Availability QuickStart is targeted at customers who have many applications running on SQL Server and want to improve the availability of their environment while reducing the total cost of ownership. It is a structured two day engagement that is based on the best practices from Microsoft Field.
We’re pleased to announce that there is now an updated version of the Live@edu Implementation Guide! Ben and James have made improvements to the guide to reflect the current version of the product and associated management agent. Please download a copy to share with colleagues, customers, and partners.
It is available on SkyDrive – so go to http://cid-f8bffb959c87fc8a.office.live.com/browse.aspx/Live@edu%20Documentation and download a copy.
For reference also check out the Live@edu web site and blog at:
http://blogs.msdn.com/ukliveatedu
http://microsoft.com/liveatedu
June 2010
PARTNER READINESS & TRAINING NEWSLETTER
Cloud Services | Desktop Optimisation | Datacenter Optimisation | Business Productivity | Application Platform | Sales & Licensing
Dear Partner
Please find below the latest Training and Skills development content for Microsoft Partners. This newsletter is split by Category area and shortcuts are available in the above menu. Product shortcuts are available to the right.
These courses have been carefully selected to provide you with the best training relating to that particular product. If you cannot find the particular course you want please go to Microsoft Learning where our Learning Partners offer a wealth of other courses. Any other training requests please contact your Microsoft representative.
Partner Skills Development Team, Microsoft UK
Quick Links:
Microsoft Online Services (BPOS)
Windows Intune
Windows Azure
Partner Hosting
Desktop Optimisation & Windows 7
Desktop Virtualisation
Server Virtualisation
System Center
Windows Server 2008 R2
Security
SharePoint 2010
Office 2010
Exchange 2010
Unified Comms
SQL Server 2008
Visual Studio
Cloud Services – Courses and New Training
Microsoft Online Services (BPOS) Modular Bootcamp:
Day 1 & 2 - Migration and Onboarding Deep Dive – Full, please register your interest for future dates
This two day instructor led course focuses on how to migrate from an existing customer e-mail and directory to the Business Productivity Online Suite. This course provides students with the knowledge and skills to identify key technical issues and challenges faced when migrating a customer to Microsoft Online. Subsidised for Microsoft Partners £50 per delegate
NOTE: Please bring own LAPTOP Click Here to Register
Day 3 & 4 - Implementing and Customizing SharePoint Online – Reading 1st July
This two-day instructor-led course provides students with the knowledge and skills to build and develop SharePoint Online intranet portals and collaboration sites. The course focuses on building a well organised SharePoint Online site collection and explores the customization options made available using SharePoint Designer. Subsidised for Microsoft Partners £50 per delegate.
Online Sales & Marketing Training
Microsoft Online Services - Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) Overview 1hr
BPOS - what is it and how do partners make money from it? 1hr
Business Productivity with Microsoft Online Services
Learn how you can provide your customers with cost-effective IT Solutions with Microsoft Online Services 1hr
Learn about early Partner success with Microsoft Online Services and their impact on the Partners business 1hr
Build a Microsoft Online Services Practice 1hr
Microsoft Online Services Customer Portal: Trialing Ordering and Upgrading 1hr
Microsoft Online Services Licensing and Pricing 1hr
Microsoft Online Services Operations and Security 1hr
Microsoft Online Services Admin Center 1hr
Online Tech L100-200 Training
The Future of Cloud Computing with Business Productivity Online Standard Suite 1hr
Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) Administration and Deployment 1 day
Migration and Co-Existence for Microsoft Online Services 1hr
SharePoint Online Application Capabilities 1hr
Exchange Online Application Capabilities 1hr
Site Planning and Preparation for Deploying BPOS 1hr
Online Tech L300-400 Training
Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) Migration and Onboarding Deep Dive 2days
BPOS Internet Mail Migration 1hr
Planning and Deployment for Single Sign on Client 1hr
Solution Accelerators for Microsoft Online Services featuring MOF Companion Guide MAP Toolkit and IPD Guides 1hr
BPOS Key Resources:
Microsoft Cloud
What is the BPOS Suite? Video
Microsoft Online Services (BPOS) Video Demo
Microsoft Online Services
Partner Programme – Online Services
Quickstart for Microsoft Online Services
Online Services Tech Center
Microsoft Solution Accelerators
BPOS Learning Path
Microsoft Online Services Resource Centre
Jump-start your software-plus-services practice by visiting the QuickStart for Online Services Resource Centre to access: Webcasts, Marketing materials, Labs, Case studies, News, Blogs and forums. Click Here
Accelerate Your Migration to Microsoft Online Services
If you are considering cloud-based services and want to determine what it takes to migrate to Microsoft Online Services including Exchange Online, the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit can give you the answers you need in just an hour or so. The MAP Toolkit helps you survey your messaging needs and generates a Microsoft Online Services proposal based on your specific set of business PCs. Free Download Here
Licensing Microsoft Online Services
Learn how to licence the Microsoft Online Services to help your customers incorporate the software-plus-services model into their businesses. And help you generate predictable, recurring revenue; earn advisor fees; expand your base; and serve new segments. Click Here
Windows Intune is a new solution that brings together cloud services for PC management and malware protection, an upgrade subscription to Windows 7 Enterprise and the Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack (MDOP). Leverage the power of Windows Intune to grow your business and provide greater value to your customers - all at a lower cost to you.
Windows Intune Home Page
Windows Intune on MPN
Windows Intune Overview Video
Windows Intune: PC Management with Cloud Services and Windows 7 – Recorded Webinar
Microsoft recently announced Windows Intune™, a new solution that brings together cloud services for PC management and malware protection, a Windows® 7 upgrade subscription, and the Microsoft® Desktop Optimization Pack. Leverage the power of Windows cloud services and Windows 7 to grow your business while providing greater value to your customers at a lower cost to you. Why should you take advantage of Windows Intune? > Amplify your revenue: Leverage greater PC insight to realize new service opportunities. > Simplify your operations: Efficiently manage and secure customer PCs virtually anywhere with cloud services > Satisfy your customers: Reduce PC issues and give your customers the best Windows experience with Windows 7 Enterprise Click Here
Windows Intune Key Resources:
Webcast: What is Azure?
What exactly is the Azure Services Platform and what does it allow me to do? This session covers the basics including architecture and function, as well as new opportunities the platform provides. Learn too how customers are thinking about cloud computing and how you can join the conversation. Recent updates to the service will also be covered. Click Here
The Microsoft Azure Self-paced Interactive Learning Course – NEW!
The “Microsoft Azure Self-paced Learning Course” is a free, interactive, self-paced, technical training course covering the Microsoft Azure platform – Windows Azure, SQL Azure and the Azure AppFabric. The course takes place over a six week period from May 10th – June 18th 2010, with weekly coursework assignments. During the course you will work from your own home or workplace, and get involved via interactive Live Meetings session, watch on-line videos, work through hands-on labs and research and complete weekly coursework assignments.
More Info & Register Here
Windows Azure Platform Training Kit
The Azure Services Training Kit includes a comprehensive set of technical content including hands-on labs, presentations, and demos that are designed to help you learn how to use the Windows Azure platform including: Windows Azure, SQL Azure and .NET Services. The November release includes new and updated labs in addition to information about Microsoft Codename “Dallas”.
Click Here
Windows Azure Platform - Business Model for Partners 1hr
Windows Azure Platform – Value for Partners 1hr
Windows Azure Platform – TCO Tool
Windows Azure Business Decision Maker Deck
SQL Azure Partner Opportunity Presentation
Windows Azure platform AppFabric Business Decision Maker Briefing Deck
The Partner Story for Azure 1hr
Azure DriveTime for Partners
Azure PAL sessions
Partner Licensing/Pricing Discussion Guide
Partner Licensing/Pricing Deck
Online Tech Training
The Windows Azure Platform Training Kit
Windows Azure Platform Training Course
What Is Windows Azure? (Channel 9 Video)
Lap around the Windows Azure Platform 1hr
Windows Azure: Present and Future
SQL Azure Database: Present and Future
Lessons Learned: Migrating Applications to the Windows Azure Platform 1hr
Windows Azure Technical Decision Maker Deck
Windows Azure platform AppFabric Technical Decision Maker Briefing Deck
SQL Azure Partner Technical Datasheet
Azure Drive Times
Azure Key Resources:
What is the Windows Azure Platform? Video
Windows Azure Platform Website
Azure Partner Hub
Azure Facebook Page
Windows Azure Software Development Kit
Azure Services Partner Playbook Now Available
Windows Azure Learning Paths
Explore Azure Services:
SQL Azure
.NET Services
Azure Videos:
Getting Started with SQL Azure
Hands on with SQL Azure (CTP 2)
David Chappell in conversation about Windows Azure and the cloud
Early adopter programme for Microsoft Solutions Partners- Windows Azure Platform
Created just for independent software vendors, Front Runner is a program that helps get your applications compatible with the latest Microsoft technologies. And you’ll receive support from us as you develop, test, and market those applications to your customers. Find out more HERE
ISV Innovation for Developers – This 5 part web series covers various topics for Developers, from fundamentals to specifics. Topics include Fundamentals, Developing Applications, .NET Services, SQL Data Services and Live Framework Services. Click Here
Partner-Hosted Services
Build Managed Services with the Dynamic Data Center Toolkit for Hosting Providers
Your customers are looking for agile infrastructure delivered from secure, highly available data centers so they can quickly respond to rapid business fluctuations. You can address this need by extending your hosting portfolio with high-value, high-margin services, such as managed hosting, on demand virtualized servers, clustering, and network services. With the Dynamic Data Center Toolkit for Hosting Providers, you can deliver these services, built on Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 Hyper-V™ and Microsoft System Center. The toolkit contains guidance to help you establish appropriate service level agreements (SLAs) and create portals that your customers can use to directly provision, manage, and monitor their infrastructure. Click Here
Implementing and Managing Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V & SCVMM (4 Day) – London 22nd June, 6th July
This course combines the syllabus of Microsoft courses 6422 and 6331 providing delegates with the knowledge to take Exams 70-652 and 70-403 which can lead to the new Server Virtualisation Competency. £400 per delegate Click Here to Register
Microsoft Virtualization Architecture - Defining and Designing a Virtualization Platform Strategy – Manchester 28th June
This 300-level, two-day, instructor-led course provides students with the knowledge and skills to configure and manage a virtual environment using Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2. Topics such as Clustering, High Availability, Storage and Network Infrastructure Implementation, PRO and Self-Service will be covered in depth in this course. £200 per delegate Click Here to Register
Dynamic Datacenter Online Training:
System Center Operations Manager
SMSE Bootcamp Labcast
System Center Ops Manager TechNet Webcasts
Operations Manager 2007 R2 - Technical Skills Upgrade Plan
System Center Ops Manager V-Labs
Building Management Packs with the Authoring Console
Extending Operations Manager 2007 to Monitoring SAP on SQL
Installing Operations Manager 2007
Monitoring Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Exchange 2007
System Center Operations Manager 2007 Authoring Management Packs – Introduction (ITPro)
System Center Operations Manager 2007 Management Pack Authoring – Advanced (ITPro)
System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 - Advanced
System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 - Introduction
Understanding the Operations Manager 2007 SDK
System Center Configuration Manager
System Center Client Management Bootcamp Course Labcast
System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Certification Prep Course Labcast
Exam Prep 70-401 Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007, Configuring
System Center Config Manager V-Labs
Deploying System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007
Implementing Branch Distribution Points in System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007
Implementing Desired Configuration Management in System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007
Implementing Maintenance Windows for Software Distribution in System Center Configuration
Introduction to System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007
Managing Custom Application Updates using Systems Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007
Managing Microsoft Updates with System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007
Upgrading SMS 2003 SP2 to System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007
Upgrading System Center Configuration Manager 2007 to Service Pack 1
Understanding How Microsoft Virtualization Compares to VMware
Microsoft Server Virtualization: Architecture Labcast
Architecting Hyper-V & VMM Labcast
TechNet Webcast: Automating Virtual Infrastructure Management with PRO Tips in System Center (Level 200)
TechNet Webcast: Maximizing Hyper-V iSCSI Performance with Microsoft and Intel (Level 200)
Disaster Recovery by Stretching Hyper-V Clusters Across Sites
Networking and Managing Hyper-V: Deployment Considerations
Virtualization Scenarios for Microsoft Business Critical Applications
Microsoft Site Recovery: Managing Mission Critical Infrastructure with HP Storage and Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V
Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2: Technical Overview (Part 1)
Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2: Advanced Tips and Tricks (Part 2)
Performance and Resource Optimization for Virtual Machine Manager and Hyper-V
Hosted Services Key Resources:
The Microsoft Hosting Community
Software + Services Partner Page
Services Provider Licence Agreement (SPLA)
Virtualisation Key Resources:
Virtualisation Partner Academy Live Session
Virtualisation TechNet Page
Matt McSpirit - Virtual Boy TV
Virtualisation Learning Manager (TechNet)
Virtualisation Learning Path
Microsoft Learning
Systems Management Key Resources
System Center TechNet Page
System Center Learning Manager (TechNet)
System Center Web Based Training
Microsoft System Center Sales and Deployment Resources
VMware Compete Resources:
Virtualization community page
Virtualization Planet blog
VMware Compare Case Studies site
Desktop Optimisation
Value of the Windows Optimized Desktop
This 30 minute, self-paced course introduces the value proposition for the Microsoft Windows Optimized Desktop. After completing this course, you will be able to describe the top 3-5 customer pains that are addressed by desktop optimization and explain the three value propositions of the Windows Optimized Desktop Click Here
Academy Live: Building an MDOP Practice
Join this session to get an overview of the technologies involved in the MDOP suite. You can learn about best practices for successful delivery of a proof of concept for Application Virtualisation, which is a core element of MDOP. Review the business case for MDOP and get real-world advice from two of the most-experienced field leaders in selling and deploying MDOP solutions. Click Here
Desktop Solutions: Sales
Discover new sales opportunities with System Center enterprise desktop management solutions, which streamline the connection of any authorised user to any application. Get familiar with key capabilities, licensing options and deployment options. Click Here
Desktop Optimisation Online Training:
Windows 7
Labcast: Deploying Windows 7 - Technical Deep Dive into Deployment Tools and Scenarios
Online: Business Value of Selling and Implementing Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8
Online: Academy Live: Windows 7 - Application Compatibility
Online: Course 10166: Windows 7 Essentials I
Online: Course 10167: Windows 7 Essentials II
TechNet: Windows 7 TechNet V-Labs
MDOP
Online Tutorial: Value of the Windows Optimized Desktop 30mins
Labcast: Managing Enterprise Desktops Using the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (1.5hr)
TechNet: Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP)
Online: Application Optimization: Opportunities for Improving Application Management as Part of a Windows 7 Deployment
Online: Windows 7 and MDOP
Labcast: System Center Client Management Bootcamp Course (Labcast)
Labcast: System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Certification Prep Course
Exam Preparation 70-401: Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007, Configuring
Desktop Platform Competency:
Requirements and information
Exams & Preparation Guide:
Exam 70-680: TS: Windows 7, Configuring
Exam 70-656 TS: Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, Configuring
Exam 70-401: TS: Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007, Configuring
Windows 7 Key Resources:
Windows 7 Partner Portal
Windows 7 Partner Online Readiness Kit
Windows 7 – TechNet Springboard Series
Partner Learning Centre (PLC) New Technical & Sales Training Released
Windows 7 Learning Path for Solutions Partners
Windows 7 Learning Paths for ISVs
Windows 7 Learning Path for Resellers
Windows 7 Learning Path for Disti
Microsoft Deployment Partner Services Portal
Find out about driving deployment and increasing your profit margins! Click Here
Desktop Deployment Planning Services
Get detailed information about becoming a DDPS partner. Click Here
Desktop Virtualisation: Implementing a VDI Infrastructure with Microsoft & Citrix V4 – Wokingham 29th June
Join us for this 2 Day VDI Instructor led course with supporting Hands on Labs. £400 Click Here to register
Positioning and Selling Microsoft VDI – Academy Live On Demand
Any discussion around the future of the desktop includes a discussion on virtualization. Usually, customers want to start the conversation with VDI, before they discuss other desktop virtualization topics. Click Here
Microsoft’s Desktop Virtualization: How To Present To Your Customers – Academy Live On Demand
Companies today face many challenges in response to evolving end user needs, economic uncertainty, and compliance requirements. With Microsoft Virtualization your customers can address these challenges via the essential capabilities that Microsoft delivers. Click Here
Desktop Virtualisation Online Training:
Online: TechNet Virtual Lab: Implementing Citrix XenDesktop 4 on Hyper-V R2
Online: TechNet APP-V v-labs
Online Tutorial: Deploying and Managing Windows 7
Online: Proving App-V Cost Saving to Prepare for Windows 7 Deployments
Online: Positioning and Selling Microsoft VDI
Online: Microsoft’s Desktop Virtualization: How To Present To Your Customers 1hr
Desktop Virtualisation Solutions Competency:
Desktop Virtualisation Key Resources:
VDA Licensing Guide
V-Alliance Home Page Click Here
Citrix & Microsoft Click Here
Datacenter Optimisation – Courses and Training
Server Virtualisation Competency Fast Track
Desktop Optimisation: Implementing a VDI Infrastructure with Microsoft & Citrix V4 – Wokingham 29th June
Virtualisation in a Nutshell
Microsoft Sales Specialist - Virtualisation
Learning Path: BDM, Sales & Marketing, Tech Presales
Microsoft Sales University Infrastructure
Selling to the TDM
An Overview of Microsoft Server Virtualization
Virtualisation Sales Training
Licensing Server-Based Products in Virtual Environments
Saving Customers Money with Microsoft's Infrastructure
TechNet Webcast: Best Practices for Architectural Design of SAP on Hyper-V (Level 200)
TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Virtualization Best Practices for SharePoint (Level 200)
TechNet Webcast: Thrive Live! IT Professional Virtualization Tour (Level 200)
TechNet Webcast: Thrive Live Chat! Virtualization (Level 200)
TechNet Webcast: Smart Environments – How Local Processing Matters in Green (Level 100)
TechNet Webcast: Green Enterprise: System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 and Intel vPro/AMT Technologies (Level 200)
New Courses
Virtualization 360: Microsoft Virtualization Strategy, Products, and Solutions for the New Economy
Using the System Center Suite to Automate the Deployment of Hyper-V Hosts and Guests
Understanding How Microsoft Virtualization Compares to Vmware
Understanding the real TCO of VDI
Planning and Deploying Microsoft VDI with Management Technologies
Virtualisation Solutions Competency:
Server Virtualisation Exams & Preparation Guide:
Exam 70-652: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuring
Exam 70-403: System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Configuring
Selling School
Selling School training courses are designed for sales and licensing staff to give relevant knowledge and appropriate sales strategies around the Microsoft capabilities. Microsoft Virtualisation and Management
Systems Management
Managing Windows, Sharepoint and Exchange Server with Server Management Suite Enterprise (SMSE)
The SMSE Labcast is a dynamic set of actual customer scenarios which walk you through a series of “Real World” data center management situations including disaster recovery, and optimizing Windows, SharePoint and Exchange Server in the Data Center. Click Here
Opalis Readiness:
Opalis Overview – On Demand
Microsoft recently acquired Opalis Software, a leader in IT process automation software. In order to better prepare you on identifying opportunities and selling Opalis to your customers, we invite you join us for this foundational sales training. Click Here
- The Opalis value proposition
- How to position datacenter automation within existing accounts
- Using automation as a competitive differentiator
- How to identify selling opportunities
- How to sell more System Center Suite Licenses.
Opalis Videos
System Center Operations Manager to BMC Remedy Integration Pack Demo Here
Writing Opalis Workflows and Utilizing the Databus Here
Installing and Configuring Opalis Components Here
Opalis Solution and Component Overview Here
Opalis Resources
Microsoft has acquired Opalis Software, a Toronto-based private company that is a leader in IT process automation software.
Resources and info here
Microsoft Sales University for Infrastructure
Datacenter Management (Microsoft Sales University)
Lowering Cost of Ownership in the Datacenter with System Center
Microsoft Core Infrastructure Practice Builder
System Center Data Protection Manager
System Center Service Manager
Efficient and Effective Service Management: How to Sell Service Manager – Sales Level 100
System Center Pricing and Licensing Update
System Center Essentials
System Center Essentials 2010 Overview
TechNet V-Labs for Data Protection Manager
TechNet Webcasts for Data Protection Manager
System Center Service Manager Overview
Technical Introduction to System Center Essentials 2010
How to manage servers in midsized businesses , SCE 2010
Implementing System Center Essentials 2010
Integrated Virtual and Physical IT Management for Midsize Businesses
Managing Windows Clients in a Midsize Business
Get Ready for Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2010 RC
Using Service Manager to Enhance the Capabilities of System Center Solutions
What's New with System Center Essentials 2010?
Systems Management Solutions Specialisation:
Requirements and Resources
System Center Exams & Preparation Guide
Exam 70-400 TS: Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007, Configuring
Exam 70-401 TS: Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007, Configuring
System Center Essentials Webinars
Essentials Learning Path
Working on a project for a small or medium-size business? Microsoft System Center Essentials can meet your customer's needs. Find the learning path for sales professionals and gain resources to sell and deploy the right System Center solutions for this growing market. Click Here
Windows Server 2008 R2 Sales and Marketing Content
Windows Server 2008 R2: Overall Value and Sales Opportunities
This 60-minute, self-paced intermediate online course explains how to articulate the overall value of Windows Server® 2008 R2. It covers the value of Windows Server 2008 R2 as well as the value of the Microsoft® platform. The course includes information on the customer and partner value around Windows Server 2008 R2 and how to have effective discussions focused on how Windows Server solutions provide important benefits that meet the customer/partner needs.
Windows Server 2008 R2 PALs (Sales)
Selling Windows Server R2 and Server Virtualization Course for Disti's (To Disti SMSNP & OEM)
Selling Windows Server R2 Course for Breadth and System Builder Partners
Windows Server 2008 R2 Intermediate: Licensing, Pricing, and Packaging
Windows Server 2008 R2 Technical 100-200 Content
Windows Server 2008 R2 Online Tutorials including: Click Here
WNS115AAL: What's New in Active Directory for Windows Server 2008 R2
WNS116AAL: Windows Server 2008 R2 -- Better Together with Windows 7
WNS133PAL: Selling Business Value of Windows Server 2008 R2
WNS69QH: Windows Server 2008 R2, A Survey of Developer-Oriented Features
WVC35AL: Windows 7 BranchCache – Next Generation Branch Office Optimizations
Windows Server R2 Feature PALs (tech)
OEM PreInstallation Kit (OPK) Seminar
OEM PreInstallation Kit (OPK) Tutorial
Virtual Partner Days
Active Directory Administration with AD PowerShell (Level 200) - April 27th at 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Windows Server 2008 R2 - Remote Desktop Services Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) (Level 200) - April 28th at 9:45 AM – 11:15 AM
What’s new in Windows Server 2008 R2 File Server (Level 200) - April 29th at 9:45 AM – 11:15 AM
Windows Server 2008 R2 Technical 300-400 Content
JumpStart Readiness Clinics – Updating Your Skills to Windows Server 2008 & Windows Server 2008 R2
This course provides an overview of the benefits, technical details, and implementation of the improved or new technologies, features and tools that are included in WS08 and WS08 R2. This course discusses new and enhanced options for virtualisation, security, remote management, integration with the Web, scalability and reliability. Click Here
R2 TechNet V-Labs and Webcasts
Planning & Deploying Windows Server 2008 R2 (PAL Series) #1 #2 #3
Server Platform Specialisation:
Server Platform Competency
Windows Server 2008 Exams & Preparation Guide:
Exam 70-648: TS: Upgrading Your MCSA on Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008
Windows Server Key Resources:
Windows Server 2008 R2 – PLC Saved Search
Windows Server 2008 – PLC Online Technical Courses
Windows Server 2008 Hands-On Labs
Windows Server 2008 TechNet Page
Identity & Security
New TechNet Virtual Labs: Secure Messaging and Collaboration
The virtual lab and on-demand webcast series provide a closer look at a variety of ways in which Microsoft provides a more secure messaging and collaboration through a family of products that help protect information and control access. Click Here
Forefront Client and Server
Business Ready Security Solution Series #1: Secure Endpoint
Business Ready Security Solution Series #2: Identity and Access Management
Business Ready Security Solution Series #3: Secure Messaging
Business Ready Security Solution Series #4: Help Customers Securely Collaborate with Partners and Employees
Business Ready Security Solution Series# 5: Help Customers Find and Protect Their Data!
Microsoft Forefront codename “Stirling” – An Integrated Security Suite (Level 200)
Forefront code name “Stirling” - The next generation of Forefront Security for Exchange Server (Level 200)
Microsoft Forefront code name “Stirling” - The next generation of Forefront Security for SharePoint (Level 200)
Microsoft Forefront codename “Stirling” – Forefront Client Security 2.0 Release Update (Level 200)
Identity and Access
Overview of Microsoft Edge Secure Access Technologies (Level 200)
Closing the Network Backdoor: Using Forefront Threat Management Gateway Beta 2 (Level 200)
Identity Lifecycle Manager 2 (Part 1):Empowering Users with Self-Service Identity Management Solutions (Level 200)
Forefront Code Name "Stirling" Technical Overview (Level 300)
Identity Lifecycle Manager "2" (Part 2 of 3): Expressing and Enforcing Business Policy (Level 300)
Identity Lifecycle Manager "2" (Part 3 of 3): Extensibility and Provisioning with ILM "2" (Level 300)
Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway - Hands on with Beta 2! (Level 300)
Security Solutions Learning Paths
Microsoft Forefront Identity and Access Management
Microsoft Forefront Information Protection
Microsoft Forefront Secure Collaboration
Microsoft Forefront Secure Endpoint
Microsoft Forefront Secure Messaging
Security Solutions Competency:
New Competency Launching Mid 2010
Infrastructure Security
Identity & Secure Access
Security Solutions Competency
Identity & Security Key Resources
Identity and Security Partner Showcase Landing Page
Business Productivity - Courses and New Training
Portals & Collaboration – “Get Ready for SharePoint 2010”
Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010: Introduction, Capabilities and Business Value Overview – Reading 23rd June
This training day is intended to introduce partners to the end user capabilities of SharePoint and the potential value to customers. At the end of the session, attendees should have a clear understanding of the range of out-of-the-box features of SharePoint, the key differences between 2010 and 2007, and the main differences of the various licensing options. The course will be suitable for business decision makers who are looking into building a SharePoint practices, technical staff new to the product who want a high-level overview, and specialist sales personnel who need to know detail around the functionality.
Click Here to Register
SharePoint 2010 Developer Bootcamp – London 26th July
Thorough education is key to working with SharePoint 2010 productively. This Combined Knowledge (MVP) course guides you through essential 2010 elements, from pre‐requisites to system integration, giving you the skills to work confidently and leverage full value from new technology. This course is being subsidised for Microsoft Partners £500. Click Here to Register
SharePoint 2010 Admin Bootcamp – London 5th July
Step-by-step understanding is key to successfully implementing and deploying SharePoint 2010. This 15-module course will guide you through each critical stage, giving you exactly the skills you need to leverage full value from the latest SharePoint technology. This course is being subsidised for Microsoft Partners £600. Click Here to Register
Deploying and Managing Microsoft Project Server 2010 - 21st June 2010
The goal of this five-day instructor-led course is to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively plan, deploy and manage Microsoft Project Server 2010. £1500 per person Click Here for more details
SharePoint 2010 Productivity End User Training – Newly Available!**
The SharePoint 2010 end user productivity training courses are now available. Each course includes several video lessons, a brief quiz (not scored), and a printable Quick Reference Card. Additional training materials are available at Browse all SharePoint Server 2010 end user training and short How-To type videos at Browse all SharePoint Server 2010 end user videos. We also provide Basic Tasks in SharePoint Server 2010 to help end user learn SharePoint 2010 quickly and don’t forget the familiar Getting Started with SharePoint Server 2010, and What’s New in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. All other SharePoint 2010 help and how-to can be found at the SharePoint Server Help site.
Selling SharePoint 2010 in the Enterprise
SP2010 - Overview - video from SP conference in October
Business Productivity Infrastructure - University
SharePoint 2010 PAL sessions
SharePoint 2010 DEMO Script
SharePoint Capacity Planning and Upgrade for the Next Version (2010)
SDPS: Futures and the New Upgrade To SharePoint 2010 Scenario
SharePoint 2010 Developer Training Course
FAST Search: Connectors and Using the BDC
FAST Search: Configuring Search UIs
FAST Search: Deployment and Scalability
Fast Search: People Search
SharePoint 2010 Advanced Training (Ignite) for IT Professionals
SDPS-SharePoint 2010 Upgrade Deep Dive
SharePoint 2010 Ignite Developer On Demand
Portals & Collaboration Competency:
Office Solutions Development Specialisation
Portals & Collaboration Specialisation
Content Management Solutions Competency:
Enterprise Content Management Specialisation
Business Intelligence Competency:
Business Intelligence Platform specialisation
Performance Management specialisation
Project & Portfolio Management Solutions:
Enterprise Project Management Specialisation
Search Solutions Competency:
Search Specialisation
Data Visualisation
SharePoint 2010 Ready
Stay up to date with the latest SharePoint 2010 news,learning content and guidance on MPN: Microsoft Partner
News (MPN): Readiness Page on MPN
Selling School training courses are designed for sales and licensing staff to give relevant knowledge and appropriate sales strategies around the Microsoft capabilities.
Microsoft SharePoint
Office 2010 – Get Ready!
Office 2010 Sales and Marketing Content
Wave 14 Business Productivity for Customers - 30min Online Tutorial Click Here
BPIO University Sales Courses – 30-60mins Web Seminar (On Demand) Click Here
Selling Office 2010 – 1hr Online Tutorial Click Here
Winning Against the Competition 45min Online Tutorial Click Here
Introduction to Office 2010 Customer Immersion Experience (CIE) – 45min Online Tutorial Click Here
Selling Office 2010 Overview – 1hr Online Tutorial Click Here
New Office 2010 Sales Resources
Make partners aware of these great Office 2010 readiness resources:
· Microsoft Office 2010: Learning and Readiness Resources for LARs
· Microsoft Office 2010: Learning and Readiness Resources for VARs, Resellers, and System Builders
· Microsoft Office 2010: Learning and Readiness Resources for Distributors
Office 2010 on MPN
Get started with Office 2010
Office 2010 Learning and Readiness Resources
LARs
VARs & System Builders
Distis
Systems Integrators
Unified Communication
Labcast: Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Ignite
This course provides an introduction to Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 R2, including how you can use OCS 2007 R2 for real-time interactions between users, and how you can unite OCS 2007 R2 with Microsoft Exchange Server as part of Microsoft Unified Communications. Click Here
Exchange 2010 & OCS 2007 Online Training:
Enhanced Communication and Collaboration Campaign in-a-box
UC Cost Saving campaign BOM
Exchange 2010 Upgrade Campaign BOM
Exchange 2010 Demo Showcase
E2010 Deployment and Migration
Mobility in Exchange 2010
Exchange 2010 Outlook Web Access
Exchange 2010 Demos
Transitioning from Exchange Server 2007 to Exchange Server 2010
Exchange Server 2010 (Beta) HA and Storage Scenarios Virtual Lab
Configuring Exchange Server 2010 Unified Messaging Virtual Lab
Exchange Server 2010 (Beta) Setup and Deployment Virtual Lab
E2010 Learning Snack (Beta)
Collection 6899: Exploring Features of Exchange Server 2010
Exchange 2010 Voice Mail enabled by UM
Exchange 2010 Archiving and Retention
Exchange 2010 High Availability
Exchange 2010 Information Protection and Control
Exchange 2010 Management Tools
OCS R2 Ignite
Unified Comms Solutions Competency:
Unified Comms Key Resources
UC Learning Path
Application Platform - Courses and New Training
SQL Server 2008 R2
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Technical Preparation Session Materials
Learn more about how Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 database software can help you and your customers develop a wide range of offerings. By viewing these technical learning and readiness sessions—delivered by program managers from the SQL Server team—architects, implementers, and technical presales consultants can learn to build better solutions that leverage SQL Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse. Click Here
· Managed Self-Service Business Intelligence
· Data Warehousing and Master Data Management
· Application and Multiserver Management
· Complex Event Processing
· Migrating from Oracle
SQL132PAL: What’s New in SQL Server 2008 R2 -
Data Platform and Business Intelligence use Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 R2, one of the fastest-growing Microsoft® products. This session will provide an introductory overview of SQL Server 2008 R2. Learn how your customers can benefit from the innovations and improvements with PowerPivot, Application and Multi-server Management, Master Data Management, and Complex Event Processing as well as several other key capabilities included in the upcoming release to help customers Enable Managed Self Service Business Intelligence, Improve IT & Developer Efficiency, and Scale with Confidence on a Trusted Platform Click Here
Learning the new All-up Business Intelligence and SQL 2008 R2 Demos - Webinar
See what's coming from the new all-up BI and the new SQL 2008 R2 demos. Watch and learn how you can demo the new features to your customer. Find out how you can download and install the demos for yourself and the associated trainign resources to be demo ready. Click Here
Application Platform University Curriculum
APU Series: Data Warehousing
APU Series: The Microsoft BI platform and solution strategy.
APU Series: Compete with Oracle solutions
Introduction to Self-Service Analysis and Reporting in SQL Server 2008
Introduction to Microsoft SQL Server Master Data Services
BI: PowerPivot Hands-on Lab
Introduction to StreamInsight
Introduction to Multi-Server Application Management
Introduction to SQL Azure
Application and Multi-Server Management with SQL Server 2008 R2
Data Management Solutions Specialisation
SQL Server Key Resources:
Microsoft SQL Server – Training Portal
SQL PLC Saved Search
SQL Server TechCenter - TechNet
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Learning Paths
· For ISVs
· For Resellers
· For Solutions Partners
Business Intelligence (BI) Learning Paths
· BI for Enterprise
Visual Studio 2010
Visual Studio 2010 & .NET Framework 4.0 – London 24th June
This instructor led training course will show developers how to take advantage of the new features being released in Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0. £200 per delegate
Visual Studio 2010 Online Training:
Visual Studio 2010 Introduction
Visual Studio 2010: Overall Value and Sales Opportunities
Visual Studio 2010: Attach
Fundamentals of Application Lifecycle Management
A Lap Around Microsoft Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server 2010
MSdev.com: New Features in Visual Studio 2010
MSdev.com: ASP.NET AJAX 4.0
MSdev.com: Introduction to .NET 4.0
MSDN Webcast: geekSpeak: Architecture Tools in Visual Studio 2010
New Features in .NET Framework 4.0 and VS 2010
Visual Studio Key Resources:
Learning Paths:
Designers
User Experience:
Expression & Silverlight Resources (Tech & Sales)
MSdev.com: 1hour Webinars
Introduction to .NET 4.0 - This course provides an overview of new features including the Managed Extension Framework (MEF) threading and design by contract.
ASP.NET AJAX 4.0 - This course provides an introduction to ASP .NET AJAX 4.0 focusing on the new client-side controls and templating capabilities including the dataview control.
New Features in Visual Studio 2010 - This course demonstrates some of the new features in the Visual Studio IDE including the new start page, the code editor, the XML schema editor, and new tools for web development and deployment.
Sales & Licensing – Courses and New Training
Microsoft Sales University for Infrastructure now released!
Sales Training: Learn about great ways to sell core infrastructure solutions based on Windows Server®, Virtualization, Microsoft® System Center and Microsoft® Forefront™ products.
Resources: Be prepared for sales meetings with existing customer presentations, white papers, case studies, and ROI calculators.
Community: View detailed feedback on our courses and resources, including ratings, opinions, selling tips, and more. Then participate in our discussion forum where you can get answers to your questions, share what you know, and connect with Microsoft employees.
Licensing’s Cool Event – MLSS Lite - Various Dates and Locations
This half day course is great for new starters in the industry of for people that need a little revision on both the most popular Microsoft Products as well as how Microsoft Licensing works. These two modules form part of the Microsoft Licensing Accreditations and at the end of this course you will have the opportunity to sit the assessments to gain this accreditation. Click here to Register
Advanced Licensing’s Cool Event – Selling to Small and Medium Businesses - Various Dates and Locations
This half day course is aimed at people who have already completed the MLSS Lite. This half day event will cover Volume Licensing for Small and Medium Businesses and eliminate all of the myths around complexity of Microsoft Licensing. These two modules form part of the Microsoft Licensing Accreditations and at the end of this course you will have the opportunity to sit the assessments to gain this accreditation. Click here to Register
Advanced Licensing’s Cool Event – Selling to Large Organisations - Various Dates and Locations
This half day course is aimed at people who have already completed the MLSS Lite. This half day event will cover Volume Licensing for Large Organisations and eliminate all of the myths around complexity of Microsoft Licensing. These two modules form part of the Microsoft Licensing Accreditations and at the end of this course you will have the opportunity to sit the assessments to gain this accreditation. Click here to Register
Intensive Licensing’s Cool Event – Selling to Small and Medium Businesses - Various Dates and Locations
This full day course is aimed at people who would like to complete their MLSS Lite with the Microsoft Product Fundamentals and Microsoft Licensing Fundamentals modules as well as two of the modules that make up the MLSS that cover Volume Licensing to Small and Medium Businesses. All of these modules form part of the Microsoft Licensing Accreditations and at the end of this course you will have the opportunity to sit the MLSS Lite assessments to gain this accreditation. Click here to Register
Selling School training courses are designed for sales and licensing staff to give relevant knowledge and appropriate sales strategies around the Microsoft capabilities. Microsoft Virtualisation and Management | Microsoft SharePoint
Save Energy, Save Carbon; Save the Environment
Taking place on the 10 February at 14:00 (GMT), this Live Meeting, as part of the Live Series, will help you to position how can we help customers meet their sustainability targets using our technology. This strategic sell provides new motives for customers to consider the full Microsoft technology platform. At Microsoft, we are committed to software and technology innovations that help people and organisations around the world improve the environment. Our goal is to reduce the impact of our operations and products and to drive responsible environmental practise. Click Here to register
Licensing Solutions Competency:
Find out more about this Competency
Licensing Resources:
Licensing Training
Microsoft Licensing Accreditations
Microsoft Licensing Accreditations Structure and Modules
Microsoft Licensing Accreditations Cheat Sheets
Other Useful Resources:
LicenseWise
Microsoft Financing
Use a Microsoft Learning Path if you don't know where to start
Sitting the Licensing MCP: Booking your MCP
Book on an MCP Training Course
If you are having problems registering for any of these courses please send a mail directly to ukplcsup@microsoft.com or call 0870 8509442 stating the course details/date and you will get assistance registering.
MS Partner Ready
RSS Training Feed
PLC Support
For additional help registering for any of the courses please email ukplcsup@microsoft.com or call 0870 8509442.
How to enrol as a Registered Member
How an individual can associate to his/her Organisation
Microsoft Partner Network Support
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Microsoft Office Competition, UK Final
Last Friday, in a record breaking and nerve-tingling Microsoft Office Competition Grand Final, two student’s stars shone the brightest.
For the first time, the newly crowned UK Champions both achieved 100% in each of their exams. With Nathaniel Fox getting top marks in the Microsoft Office Specialist Excel exam and Sam Wills repeating the achievement in the Word exam. Remarkably, both students came from the same school – Hayle Community School – a fantastic showing from the School and Microsoft IT Academy from Cornwall.
Up next for the UK champions is the EMEA Final in Madrid on June 28th. Where they face stiff competition from entrants from Russia, Greece and Italy to name buy a few of the competing nations. If successful in Madrid the World Final in Salt Lake City, UTAH beckons this August.
Over 100,000 students compete each year from over 70 different countries so getting to UTAH is a massive challenge for our Champs.
Link to photos - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Microsoft-IT-Academy-UK/220931430134
“The Microsoft competition was a great experience and achievement as the school won four out of six prizes’ said Sam, while Nathaniel added “‘We couldn’t believe that we’d won and are now UK Champions. I can’t wait for the final in Madrid, what an experience that will be!’
Headteacher Chris Jackman is also delighted by the achievements of her students. ‘The school is very proud of our young people’s achievements at the competition and to be UK Champions is wonderful” she said. “We wish Nathaniel and Megan lots of luck as they represent the UK at the European final in Madrid later this month’.
Kevin Ryan, Marketing Manager with Prodigy Learning, who manage the competition in the UK, said “The scores were astonishing and the bar has certainly been raised for future competitors”. Vitally both Sam and Nathaniel kept their nerves in check and delivered on the day. This calmness under pressure should stand them in good stead for Madrid. I wish them both the best of luck and we might just see our first European Champion and who knows from there!”
Brand New Feature Package on Cloud Security TechNet is kicking off the new "TechNet On" feature series with an in-depth look at securing and deploying applications in the cloud. You'll find new articles and videos in three tracks, including a background track on the Windows Azure platform, a security track with best practices on enterprise-class security for the cloud, and a strategy track for understanding your options and getting started. Read TechNet program manager Mitch Ratcliffe's blog for more on the new TechNet On approach to content.
TechNet Simulcast: Forefront Virtual Event June 23 - 24, 2010 Register for the two-day Forefront virtual event to hear from and ask questions directly of the product team as we teach you about the product and deliver technical demonstrations on all Forefront products (FEP, FIM, TMG, UAG, FPSP, FPE, FOPE) and on Active Directory Rights Management Services + Exchange.
TechNet Radio: Growing Opportunities for Data in the Cloud In this episode, Kevin Kline, Technical Strategy Manager for SQL Server at Quest Software, identifies numerous areas for entrepreneurs to take advantage of government and other data in the cloud to create new product offerings based on Microsoft Windows Azure. Kline also discusses integration of on-premise data with data in the cloud and raises important and surprising points about legal and compliance issues with data.
Reminder: End of Support for Windows XP SP2, Windows 2000 Server and Professional on July 13, 2010 Support (including new security updates) ends July 13, 2010 for Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), Windows 2000 Server and Professional. Migration to the latest OS or installation of the current service pack is recommended.
Webcast: Collaboration Using Office, SharePoint Server 2010, and AD FS 2.0 (Level 200) June 18, 2010, 1:00 P.M. Pacific Time In this webcast, we help you understand how to collaborate across boundaries using Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, and Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) 2.0.
Video: What's Next for Managing Datacenters and the Cloud In this 18-minute video on TechNet Edge, Senior Product Manager with System Center Anant Sundaram explains some of our thinking around improving data center management and managing cloud environments.
Video: What's New with Configuration Manager R3 and vNext Jeff Wettlaufer was busy getting ready for keynote demos at MMS, but he took time to talk with TechNet Edge's Adam Bomb about some of the Configuration Manager announcements at MMS, as well as talk a little about the event.
Windows 7 End User Adoption Resources Webcast July 7, 2010, 9:30 A.M. Pacific Time Join us on July 7 in this informational webcast to learn how you can take advantage of the wide array of resources to help support your organization's deployment and adoption of Windows 7.
Microsoft SDL Threat Modelling Tool Boosts Security Now you can easily identify and analyze security threats to your software even when you are still in the design phase. The Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) Threat Modelling Tool finds potential issues early - when they are easier and less costly to resolve.
I came across this great blog post by Ian Molster on virtualisation and how to make sense of all the options. Ian has got some great content if you have virtualisation opportunities: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ianm/
Desktop virtualisation is a hot topic right now. It seems wherever I go and whatever I read about the desktop and where it’s headed, virtualisation is something that people want to talk about. Often these conversations are about VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) but in part that seems to be because VDI is such a buzzword at the moment, and people want to know more about it.
One of the problems if you’re new to the topic is getting to grips with the concepts and technologies. Because it’s hot there is no shortage of information but in some ways that’s part of the problem: there’s too much information and most of it seems to assume that you already know a whole lot about the subject and tends to dive right in to a level of detail that, as a newcomer, you really don’t need. I think people want the big picture but are finding instead a jumble of jigsaw pieces.
So here’s my attempt to put the jigsaw together. It’s not perfect by any means, and I’ve glossed over a few things and perhaps oversimplified in parts, but hopefully this article will give you enough of the essence of the subject that you can go elsewhere to fill in the detail.
Where to start? How about the familiar place everyone can relate to: A copy of Windows installed on a PC on your desktop. Now, let me start by saying there’s nothing wrong with this picture - it’s served us well for many years and is likely to continue to do so for many more. But the emergence of fairly cheap high bandwidth, coupled with fast processors, abundant memory and relatively cheap disc storage has given rise to some new models that give you additional options that might not have been viable a few years ago.
Let’s remember the good things about the local copy of Windows on a desktop PC: Rich user interface, lots of peripherals that you can plug in to enhance your interaction with the PC, portable and available wherever you are, able to take advantage of a network connection when there is one, but able to work perfectly well when there isn’t, ultimate flexibility and customisability, and so on. Of course, there’s a dark side too: Operating system, applications, data and user interface are tightly bound together making it difficult to make changes to one without affecting the others. For example, application conflicts, potential difficulties in deploying applications and updates, etc
Enter virtualisation. In its simplest terms, virtualisation allows you to move some elements that are usually locally installed on the PC to a server running somewhere else (the term usually applied is “a remote server”, although it could be in the same location or the other side of the world, or even in some cases on the same PC in a virtual bubble – but more on that later) in order to provide more flexibility, reduce costs and help make management easier.
We’re going to look at the following ways in which this can be done. Don’t worry about what these mean just yet, we’ll spend some time drilling into each of them:
Application virtualisation (App-V)
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
Session Virtualisation (probably better known by its old name of Terminal Services)
Virtual copy of an operating system running on your local PC (Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualisation or MED-V, and XP Mode on Windows 7)
There are various other flavours and variants that I’m not going to go into here, but the above scenarios should give you a reasonable grounding into the options available. So let’s take them on one at a time:
Application Virtualisation, or App-V
What is it?
If you buy an application today, maybe a packaged application like Microsoft Office, you normally stick a DVD into your drive and install it on your machine. If you work for a big company it may be installed over the network instead but the end result is the same: a copy of Office is installed on your PC. An alternative is to use App-V, which works as follows: The application (eg Microsoft Office in our example) is packaged up on a server in a way that can be squirted down the network and, instead of being installed on the local PC, is instead run on the PC in a local “bubble” that is completely isolated from the client operating system but contains everything that the application needs in order to run – drivers and dlls and registry entries etc. From the user’s point of view the application appears to run exactly as if it were locally installed, however they won’t find it in the list of programs installed via the control panel. All of the application code is being streamed from the server and executed on the local PC in its virtual bubble. It will do so intelligently, only streaming down the parts you need as you use them and, once it has streamed it, it is cached on the PC so that it doesn’t have to stream it every time you use it. It also means you can use the application while you’re offline.
It’s worth bearing in mind that App-V can be used on virtual desktops as well as traditional “rich” desktops. More on this later.
What’s the advantage?
There are a number of advantages to streaming the application in this way instead of installing it locally:
It resolves conflicts between applications because they are completely isolated from each other. So for example you could run Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same machine
Deployment is simplified
It’s easy to keep applications up to date, simply update the server copy and the new version will stream down when it’s next used
Improves business continuity – if your machine dies, you can log onto a new machine and all of your applications will be streamed to it without having to go through a series of installs
No reboots required after installs
It’s easier to keep track of which users have which applications, which could help with licencing. Instead of installing a whole ton of applications for every user on the off-chance they may need them, they only get the applications they actually need to use
What are the disadvantages?
There aren’t many, and on the whole they are massively outweighed by the advantages:
Not all applications can be made to operate in an App-V environment
Increased server resource
Requires a client runtime (app-v client)
Some delay when the application is run for the first time as it is streamed over the network. The problem is worse for bigger applications obviously
Simply put, VDI is running your client operating system (eg Windows 7) on a server instead of on your local PC. The server then presents the user interface over the network to a local PC, and captures keyboard strokes and mouse moves, sending them back over the wire to the server. From the end user’s point of view it can be made to appear very much as if Windows is installed on their local PC whereas actually there is nothing installed locally. A few things worth bearing in mind about VDI:
While you’re logged into your desktop session you will be the only one using it. That may seem a strange thing to say (after all, who else would be using it?) but it will become clearer when we talk about Session Virtualisation – but more on this later
When you log off there is a choice about what happens: Either any changes you make (application installed, settings amended, files created or amended, etc) are retained and are still there when you log in next time; Or all of your changes are lost and the desktop refreshes back to its original pristine state. You might wonder why you’d need the second of these options, and in fact it might seem a bit weird. After all, you're probably used to your desktop or laptop with a locally-installed operating system, and you'd be pretty upset if every time you logged off you lost all of your work and were presented with a clean-install of Windows 7 next time you logged on. The reason is more about the capacity of the server, and the ability of your IT department to keep better control of your desktop than for your benefit. Let me explain: Imagine you have 100 users all having a VDI desktop which is stored on a server. Each of these desktops will have Windows 7 installed, and probably a number of applications, and some files and data like your Word documents, spreadsheets, etc. How much disk space will these need? Maybe 50GB per user? So for 100 users than means you need 100 x 50GB = 5TB of server disk space. And every user you add gobbles up another 50GB. So how can you address this problem? Actually there are a number of ways but let me just focus on one for now: If you maintain just one "gold" image that has Windows 7 and some critical applications, you only need 1 x 50GB of space. Now you can present this to every user that logs on each time rather than an image that is individual to them. What about their personal settings and files they may have stored? You can achieve this with so-called "roaming profiles" that remember your settings and switch them on accordingly as you log in (so you get your own wallpaper for example), and folder redirection means that files you think you're saving to your Windows 7 image are actually redirected to a server store. All of which means that you appear to have an individual copy of Windows 7 that retains your settings and data, but is actually just a gold image that everyone uses.
As mentioned above, because you’re the only person using the desktop you can reboot it whenever you like. In fact, you can have “admin” access
You will need to have a reasonably good internet access to use your desktop because, obviously, it’s stored somewhere else and will only be available over a network
There are a number of advantages to VDI:
Manageability and control: Because your entire desktop is stored in the datacentre, the IT department is able to keep tabs on it much more easily, applying patches and fixes, installing and upgrading applications, backing up, etc
Along similar lines, there are security advantages: As your desktop never actually leaves the datacentre there is far less risk of losing confidential information
Business continuity: Fancy way of saying that if your laptop or desktop is stolen or breaks you can just use another way and get exactly the same desktop. In other words, you’re not tied to a specific device
Deployment: If you need to upgrade to a new operating system it’s a pretty simple process for your IT department to simply provision an upgrade for you as it’s all under their control. They can keep your applications and data and move you, say, from Windows XP to Windows 7 pretty easily
Access to multiple desktops: If you need to use multiple desktops then VDI is a real boon. This is the case in high security situations such as police forces: They often need two desktops, one for ultra-secure network access and one for general use. With VDI it’s simple to just provision two separate desktops that they can switch between
You may be able to reduce your power consumption by using lower power PCs on each physical desktop
Multi device usage: You can get access to your desktop from a wide range of devices eg your work PC, your home PC, a "thin client" device - even some smart phones
There are some disadvantages to be aware of:
As mentioned above you need a good network connection to use your desktop. If you’re offline then your desktop will not be accessible. This is fine if you’re sat at a desk in an office with high speed network access, but probably not if you’re travelling
The user experience may not be quite as good as you have been used to. Rich graphical applications like CAD or high-def videos might not work as well. Technologies like Citrix’s HDX or Microsoft’s upcoming RemoteFX will help with this, but ultimately you’re somewhat reliant on the network bandwidth available to you
Some peripherals may not work, eg web cams or unified comms. Again, as the technology matures these issues are being dealt with but if you are reliant or peripherals you will need to make sure they still work ok via VDI
Obviously your server architecture will need to be able to cope with the increased processor, memory and storage requirements. For example, if every VDI desktop requires 2MB of RAM and 50GB of disk space, then you may need 200MB of RAM and 5000GB of disk space for every 100 desktops you provision. Now, as explained above you can help address this by having a gold image with roaming profiles and folder redirection, but there are other technologies that help to reduce this load: Citrix’s provisioning server allows cloning, whereby a master image is stored once and only differences for each desktop are stored separately (after all, the bulk of the operating system files will be identical for every desktop); Some SANs can do similar things eg remove the need to store duplicate data; And memory overcommit allows you to stretch the RAM using the same concept as airlines overbooking flights: they do so on the basis that not everyone will show up. In this case, you can allocate RAM to virtual desktops that is actually more in total than the capacity of the server on the basis that not all virtual desktops will be using their maximum RAM allocation at the same time
Pretty obviously there may be implications on your network bandwidth requirements. This is an important consideration that you can't afford to overlook - if you start using VDI for a large number of users you need to ensure the network is up to it. And remember that there may be some considerable peaks eg between 9am and 9.15am when everyone gets to their desk and fires up their virtual desktop
Power consumption in the datacentre will increase. You may be able to offset this somewhat by automatically “powering off” virtual desktops that aren’t being used (eg at night)
Disk I/O: Multiple users accessing multiple virtual images on a server equates to spiralling disk IOs. This can be a complex area and is affected by a number of factors but it's worth factoring into your decision making process when considering VDI
Session Virtualisation (aka Terminal Services)
Session Virtualisation has been around a while and at first glance it might appear similar to VDI. Like VDI it involves accessing a desktop on a server rather than having the operating installed on a local PC. There are two big differences however:
Session Virtualisation connects you to a server operating system like Windows Server 2008 R2 (remember VDI connects you to a client operating system like Windows 7). The server operating system can be mocked up to look very much like Windows 7 but under the covers it's actually quite different. In fact, some applications simply won't run in this server environment which is one of the drawbacks of session virtualisation that we discuss below
Other people, potentially a lot of other people, are likely to be logged into and using the same desktop as you at the same time you're using it. Remember Windows Server is a multi-user operating system designed to have multiple people accessing it. This whole concept of a number of people accessing the desktop at the same time has advantages as well as disadvantages which we'll cover below
Session virtualisation shares pretty much all of the advantages listed under the VDI section. The big additional advantage session virtualisation has over VDI is cost - because people are sharing the same desktop you can generally pack far more users onto a server with session virtualisation vs VDI (referred to as a higher "user density") which in turn means lower costs - less servers, less resources, etc.
At this point you might be wondering why people need VDI at all - if session virtualisation has the same advantages as VDI but with lower costs, then why not use session virtualisation for everything? Cue the disadvantages:
Actually all of the VDI disadvantages (apart from ROI) pretty much apply to session virtualisation as well. Some of these are less of an issue eg server architecture and disk IO, but on the whole it's a similar picture. But there are some additional drawbacks to session virtualisation that don't apply to VDI:
As you're running your desktop on a server operating system that, frankly, hasn't been designed to be used as a client desktop, you may find some problems. For example, some applications simply won't work on the server. With VDI, because you're running a copy of Windows 7, you're far less likely to have problems on this kind
As multiple people are potentially using the desktop at the same time as you, you can't have admin access. And of course you can't reboot the session. And there will be some limits on configuration changes and applications that are installed. So generally session virtualisation works best if you have groups of users that have very similar needs in terms of applications and desktop configuration. If you're developing software for example, then you'll almost certainly want to be going the VDI route if you need to virtualise the desktop, not session virtualisation
Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualisation (MED-V)
If you've used Virtual PC before then you'll understand MED-V pretty quickly. If you haven't, here's what MED-V does: It allows you to run a virtualised operating system on top of another operating system. For example, you could have Windows 7 installed on your PC and, via MED-V, have a copy of Windows XP running "on top of" Windows 7. How does this work? It uses an application (called a hypervisor, specifically a "type 2" hypervisor but don't get hung up about it) that simulates, in software, a physical PC. This means you can install Windows XP onto this "virtual" PC just as if it was a real PC. As far as XP knows it's being installed onto a real PC but actually it's being fooled - the software is simulating a PC and XP can't tell the difference. Well actually it can, but let's not get side-tracked. Once you have XP installed onto this virtual PC you can use it pretty much as normal, installing applications and creating files etc. Why would you want to do this? Mainly so that you can continue to run legacy applications that only work on XP and don't, for example, work correctly on Windows 7. So you can continue using Windows 7 for your usual work and dip into the virtual copy of XP to run those applications that can't run on Windows 7.
MED-V makes the whole experience pretty seamless too. For example, an application installed on your virtual copy of XP can appear in the Windows 7 start menu, or you can create desktop shortcuts to it. When you launch it, it actually launches and runs on the virtual copy of XP rather than on Windows 7 but this can be made pretty much transparent to the user. Actually you can decide how obvious you want to make it that the application is running on the virtual machine eg by using Windows XP-style borders.
It also works really well for Internet Explorer: If you have an application or web site that only works on IE6 for example, then MED-V can allow you to configure IE8 on Windows 7 so that when you visit a URL that requires IE6 it automatically launches the virtual copy of XP and loads up the web page on IE6 within the virtual machine (again, you can make this pretty transparent to the user if you want to). When they move off the site back to one that works with IE8 it will automatically switch you back to IE8.
MED-V, as the name suggests, is primarily for enterprise customers who need to manage large numbers of desktops and keep them updated. Therefore as you'd expect it allows remote management and patching, updating etc to ensure that the virtual PC is as up-to-date and secure as the physical PCs.
As mentioned above, the main advantage is around application compatibility:
MED-V allows you to run older applications that might not work on modern operating systems, which can make it easier for you to migrate to Windows 7 for example
You can run multiple operating systems at the same time. This could be useful if you need to test whether an application works on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 for example - in this case you'd have virtual machines running XP and Vista
As mentioned above, it can be particularly useful if you have applications that require IE6
MED-V doesn't require a network connection, unlike VDI or session virtualisation, so you can use if offline with no problem
The main issues with MED-V are related to the fact that you need enough resource on your PC to run two operating systems:
Running another operating system on top of the one you have installed on your machine means you need a reasonable amount of RAM and processing power (and disc space of course)
You may need a licence for the other operating system
You will still need to patch and maintain the virtualised operating system, although as mentioned this is made easier in MED-V than with other similar products
MED-V is not suited for heavily graphical applications like games, and you might have trouble with some peripherals
Windows 7 XP Mode
If you've understood MED-V, then XP Mode is going to be simple: Essentially XP Mode on Windows 7 is like a trimmed down version of MED-V, here are the main differences:
It's free if you have a valid Windows 7 license
You get a free copy of Windows XP built into the virtual machine
It doesn't have the remote management and patching capabilities of MED-V
Other than that it does a very similar job. Generally XP Mode is aimed at home users or very small businesses, and MED-V is aimed at larger businesses.
The main advantage is the same as with MED-V: It allows you to run older legacy applications on XP while still using Windows 7.
In the main these are similar to MED-V's disadvantages:
You will still need to patch and maintain the virtualised operating system, and XP Mode doesn't have MED-V's remote patching etc capabilities
Like MED-V, XP Mode is not suited for heavily graphical applications like games, and you might have trouble with some peripherals
What else do you need to know?
As you can tell, there's quite a lot to desktop virtualisation and to be honest we've only scraped the surface here. However, let me leave you with a few other titbits to consider:
While we've described how App-V can be used to stream applications to your "normal" (ie non-virtualised) desktop, you should be aware that it's perfectly possible and actually quite desirable to use App-V with VDI and session virtualisation. So instead of installing Microsoft Office on every VDI desktop, you can use App-V to stream Office applications to your VDI desktops when they're required. That means that most of the App-V benefits accrue to your VDI implementation
Most organisations will want to mix and match these capabilities. Some users might need VDI, some session virtualisation, almost everyone will benefit from App-V, etc. Which means typically a first step will be to segment your users to figure out who gets what. For example, if your workforce is mostly mobile and out on the road then VDI or session virtualisation might not be a good solution given they need a reasonably good internet connection for you to access your desktop
XP Mode isn't included with the standard Windows 7 install, but you can download it from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx
App-V and MED-V are a part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization pack, known as MDOP
Session virtualisation and VDI are available via Microsoft's VDI Suites
If you're using VDI, whether via Microsoft's products or anyone else's, you will need a special licence for your virtual copy of Windows known as Virtual Desktop Access, or VDA. This allows you to access your remote desktop from any machine and gives you rights to run up to four different VDI desktops. Note that session virtualisation is licenced differently, via RDS CALs. Read more about licencing from this document.
Next Steps
Let me close with a few web resources if you want to learn more:
Microsoft's desktop virtualisation site: http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization/en/us/products-desktop.aspx
Microsoft and Citrix's joint website: http://www.microsoftandcitrix.com/
Free ebook, "Desktop Virtualization for Dummies": http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/54ef6966#/54ef6966/1
Desktop virtualisation overview video: http://www.microsoft.com/showcase/en/us/details/c8007a99-ed47-4d82-acb2-83bbed05bd48