vishal swami's Blog

white paper on Scalable Security Modeling with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 released

VishalSwami — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 21:13:14 GMT

CRM Content Publishing team anounced the release of white paper, Scalable Security Modeling with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.

The whitepaper is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center at: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=39095

Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers a wide range of security modeling features, and it is important to choose the most appropriate approach to implementing a particular solution. Each feature offers a combination of characteristics that provides a balance between granularity of access control, administrative ease, and impact on scalability. Having an understanding of the underlying mechanisms supporting each security modeling feature can be useful when selecting the best approach to solving a particular challenge, especially when planning to develop a large volume system.

Granting access for a user to the system can be broken out into:

Authentication: Determining who the user is and confirming they are who they say they are
Authorization: Determining whether the authenticated user is entitled to access the system and what within the system they are permitted to see or do

Authentication in Dynamics CRM is handled using platform features such as Integrated Windows Authentication or Claims Based Authentication with an identity provider such as Active Directory Federation Services. These all determine the user identity requesting access to the system. The deployment and scalability of the technologies supporting authentication is best described by resources focused specifically on those technologies and is therefore out of the scope of this document.

After a user has been identified, information recorded about the user within the Dynamics CRM system itself, such as their security roles and team memberships, is used to determine whether they are allowed to use the system and what they are allowed to see and do within the system i.e. what they are authorized to do.

This paper describes how these security modeling features in Microsoft Dynamics CRM for authorization work at scale, the implications associated with these features functioning at high volumes, and guidance on common and recommended usage patterns for modeling Microsoft Dynamics CRM security at scale, incorporating teams as appropriate.

Microsoft CRM 2011 Update Rollup 13 released

VishalSwami — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 00:21:58 GMT

Microsoft has released Update Rollup 13. This is a tested, cumulative set of updates for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. It includes performance enhancements that are packaged together for easy deployment.

The KB is located at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2791312.
UR 13 is scheduled to be published via Microsoft Update in April.
UR 13 adds support for Windows Server 2012. To install CRM 2011 on Windows Server 2012 a setup update is also required; therefore customers need to wait for availability on Microsoft Update (April 2013).
The Report Authoring Extension component of CRM 2012 has been updated to support SQL Server Data Tools and Visual Studio 2010.
The updated Extension is available at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=27823.

EXCLUSIVELY For Microsoft Partners: list of sessions and workshops for January 2013

VishalSwami — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 01:27:43 GMT

If you are a partner of Microsoft, please feel free to register for these sessions and improve your or your team's readiness on the latest and super cool technologies. In case you are a customer, you can get in touch with your partner and they would be able to deliver these sessions to you. The details of these sessions are provided below.

Delivery Date : 1/7/2013
Delivery Time : 9:00 AM
Title : Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Workshop: Client-Side Customizations with JScript
Description : This workshop helps developers customize the Microsoft Dynamics CRM client interface beyond what’s present out of the box. It explores how to use the new XRM Page model built over the browser’s DOM to make your life easier when writing scripts on the client side. The new OData endpoint can be used with Silverlight, JQuery, and JScript scripts to do any server-side CRUD operations. The new Ribbon interface and Sitemap customizations that can be done using a single customization file will also be discussed. In addition, the workshop will cover elements of the customizations file that are important for understanding the CRM forms XML structure. This workshop would also briefly cover script migration scenarios from CRM 4 to CRM 2011.

Delivery Date : 1/7/2013
Delivery Time : 9:00 AM
Title : Practice Accelerator for Datacenter Management
Description : The Microsoft Datacenter Management PA is a service offering workshop with a right blend of Live Virtual Instructor-Led Training and On-Demand Content Delivery which enables our partners to develop or enhance their practice around Advanced Datacenter Management with System Center 2012. Partners can help customers to reduce costs, improve operational efficiencies, and drive business agility by delivering an integrated datacenter solution that takes advantage of industry-leading architectures and principles

Delivery Date : 1/8/2013
Delivery Time : 9:00 AM
Title : Private Cloud Workshop: Configure and Deploy Infrastructure Components
Description : Agenda:• Why System Center 2012• Configure and Deploy Infrastructure Components - Compute - Storage - Network - Cluster• Next Steps

Delivery Date : 1/9/2013
Delivery Time : 9:00 AM
Title : Chalk Talk on Windows 8 and HTML/JS – Building Windows 8 apps with technologies you already know!
Description : Are you a web developer? Do you want to tap into the unlimited potential that the Windows 8 phenomenon is going to offer? This is the right place to get your questions answered! This will be a fully interactive session where we discuss what you need to know as a web developer to build Windows 8 applications. We’ll discuss how to get started with Windows 8 development, where HTML/JS fits in, how it works behind the scenes, look at the tools we use to build these apps and pretty much anything you see fit from a “Hello World” to pushing the app to the Windows Store.

Delivery Date : 1/10/2013
Delivery Time : 9:00 AM
Title : Chalk Talk for Lync Server 2010
Description : Chalk Talk for Lync Server 2012Bring your questions to this fully interactive session to gain understanding on Microsoft Lync Server 2010 and how this communication software offers instant messaging (IM), presence, conferencing, and telephony solutions that can support enterprise-level collaboration requirements. Use this session to ask your questions, talk about the features of Lync, and the integration with PBX/IP-PBX. Present your own scenarios to the consultant and receive tailored, interactive advice on how to proceed with your customers. You can discuss your existing project, Planning, Desinging , Deploying and configuration question on Lync Server 2010 Voice.

Delivery Date : 1/11/2013
Delivery Time : 9:00 AM
Title : Chalk Talk on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure/Remote Desktop Services
Description : Thinking of implementing a VDI solution but still have a lot of questions? Join our VDI/RDS Chalk Talk session for answers to questions like: what are the use case scenarios for VDI? Do I really need virtual machines or can an RD Session Host fulfill my needs? What are some of the new out of box features of VDI with Windows Server 2012? What about performance over the WAN?   All these, and much more.

Delivery Date : 1/14/2013
Delivery Time : 9:00 AM
Title : Practice Accelerator for Datacenter Consolidation & Migration
Description : Help your customers efficiently and safely migrate their virtualized workloads from VMware to Hyper-V. Practice Accelerator for Data Center Consolidation and Migration helps you learn how to implement a strategic approach to consolidating data centers and servers. Practice Accelerator for Data Center Consolidation and Migration is a comprehensive set of reusable tools and best practices that can help you identify customer requirements and project scope, analyze customer needs, and deploy solutions built on Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center 2012. When you complete this Practice Accelerator, you become qualified to access the Virtual Machine Migration Toolkit from Microsoft. Practice Accelerator for Data Center Consolidation and Migration offers a blend of virtual training, instructor-led live training, and on-demand training.

Delivery Date : 1/14/2013
Delivery Time : 9:00 AM
Title : Practice Accelerator for Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Enterprise Voice
Description : Learn how to choose and build the right enterprise voice solutions to meet your customers’ needs. Microsoft Lync Server 2010 delivers next-generation telephony in a single, comprehensive unified communication solution. When you take Practice Accelerator for Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Enterprise Voice, you will get best practices and reusable tools that can help you enable customers to communicate from anywhere in a cost-effective and secure manner.

Delivery Date : 1/14/2013
Delivery Time : 9:00 AM
Title : Windows 8 App development with C# and XAML
Description : Windows 8 introduces a new type of application: the Windows Store app. Windows Store apps have a brand new look and feel, run on a variety of devices, and you sell them on the Windows Store. If you have developed .NET, Windows Presentation Foundation, or Microsoft Silverlight applications, you can develop a Windows Store app using XAML, with code-behind in C++, C#, or Visual Basic. This session will teach you everything you need to know to create an app for the Windows Store. This session will also cover updates to familiar features and explore concepts that are new for Windows 8. We will also talk about both design and development aspects of windows 8 Store app. Come join us to learn how to build next generation apps with your existing knowledge in Microsoft technologies.

Delivery Date : 1/15/2013
Delivery Time : 9:00 AM
Title : Microsoft Office 365 Momentum Workshop: Exchange Online Hybrid Deployment
Description : Agenda: Hybrid Features Explained Planning Deployment Migration Management

Delivery Date : 1/16/2013
Delivery Time : 9:00 AM
Title : Microsoft Dynamics AX Momentum Workshop: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Financials
Description : This training will cover some of the basic financial functionality available in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. Individuals will be introduced to set up processes in General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and the Bank module. We will cover the use of multicurrency, intercompany, and consolidated accounting. Additionally, individuals will learn about the multiple advanced payment options, how to produce customer account statements, complete year-end close functionality, and produce financial statements. After completing this training, individuals will be able to: Set up General Ledger Set up a Chart of Accounts Set up Journals   Enter General Ledger Transactions Set up Bank Accounts and Bank Parameters Enter Bank Transactions   Set up Accounts Payable   Enter Accounts Payable Transactions Set up Accounts Receivable Enter Accounts Receivable Transaction Create financial statements Close a fiscal year

Delivery Date : 1/17/2013
Delivery Time : 9:00 AM
Title : Chalk Talk on Customizations in Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Description : Chalk Talk is a direct collaboration with Microsoft experts. The session will be presented via Microsoft Live Meeting. Be prepared with audio to ask your questions. This is a fully interactive session and your full participation is encouraged   Bring your questions to this fully interactive session to gain understanding on customizations on Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Use this chalk talk to ask questions and learn how you can customize the Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Get details on customizing CRM through out of the box capabilities, Jscripts, SDK, plugins and workflows. Present your own scenarios to the consultant and receive tailored, interactive advice on how to proceed with your customers.   Audience – IT Professional   Cost – 1.5 advisory hours will be deducted from your organization for this session.

Delivery Date : 1/18/2013
Delivery Time : 9:00 AM
Title : Chalk Talk for Service Desk – Present the right solution for your customers
Description : Chalk Talk is a direct collaboration with Microsoft experts. The session will be presented via Microsoft Live Meeting. Be prepared with audio to ask your questions. This is a fully interactive session and your full participation is encouraged Chalk Talk for Service Desk – Present the right solution for your customers - Bring your questions to this fully interactive session to gain understanding regarding Helpdesk solution from Microsoft, which is Service Manager. Do your customers’ need information on how to implement Helpdesk features like Incident Management, Change Management, Service Management and Self Service Portal? Present your own scenarios to the consultants and receive interactive advice on how to tailor the solution as per your customer’s requirements. Cost – 1.5 advisory hours will be deducted from your organization for this session. Audience – IT Professional

Delivery Date : 1/21/2013
Delivery Time : 9:00 AM
Title : Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Momentum Workshop: Creating Workflows and Dialogs
Description : Agenda: -Business Processes-CRM 2011 Workflow Processes-Workflows vs. Dialogs-Workflows vs. Plug-ins-Process Architecture-Process Lifecycle (Workflows and Diagrams)-Workflows in Detail Demo-Dialogs in Detail Demo

Delivery Date : 1/21/2013
Delivery Time : 9:00 AM
Title : Practice Accelerator for Business Intelligence
Description : In this world of stiff corporate competition and advanced IT resources, quality business intelligence (BI) can make all the difference to your customers’ success. Empower your customers to make better, faster, well-informed decisions that will deliver the right information to the right people at the right time. This Practice Accelerator can help you assess your customers’ business and technology needs and design a solution to facilitate wide-spread end-user adoption. Show customers how you can help them harness the power of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 to reduce the complexity of organizing and distributing information, enable better business decisions, and improve their bottom line.

Delivery Date : 1/21/2013
Delivery Time : 9:00 AM
Title : Practice Accelerator for Microsoft Office 365
Description : Be sure you’re ready to help your customers make the transition to the cloud with Practice Accelerator for Microsoft Office 365. Office 365 takes the industry’s best known set of productivity and collaboration tools and delivers it as a subscription service. With these cloud services, your customers can lower overall costs and deliver the right set of tools for the right users, all with appropriate layers of security and compliance. Special OfferIf you are a Cloud Accelerate member or Cloud Essentials subscriber, you can register for Practice Accelerator for Microsoft Office 365 at no cost.

Delivery Date : 1/22/2013
Delivery Time : 9:00 AM
Title : How Domain Controller Cloning Works in Windows Server 2012
Description : Understand the concepts of Domain Controller cloning in Windows Server 2012 through a lab demonstration and talk to the experts in order to clarify your concepts and doubts on this new feature on Windows Server 2012. The session would not only cover the concepts of the new technology but would also cover a demonstration of the same through a lab setup. Windows Server 2012 comes with a lot of new enhancements and features, which makes it more compatible with other technologies and the right solution of cloning and virtualization. Session Time - 120 Minutes Session Billing - This is a free event for Microsoft Partners.

Delivery Date : 1/23/2013
Delivery Time : 9:00 AM
Title : Chalk Talk on Claims Authentication in SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint Online
Description : Have you considered connecting Microsoft SharePoint to Windows Live ID, Windows Azure Access Control Service(ACS) or Active Directory Federation Service (ADFS)? Or how we can use Google or Yahoo as the identity provider? The possibilities for these technologies are vast, but there are some well-established patterns to fit typical security scenarios. These include guidelines for the usage of claims, identity providers, resource security token services, federation gateways and multi-tenancy. You got to consider the claims authentication difference between SharePoint On-Premise & SharePoint Online. There is also a greater need to understand the Authentication Roadmap with OAuth coming into the picture.

Delivery Date : 1/24/2013
Delivery Time : 9:00 AM
Title : Chalk Talk for Office 365 : Plan and Configure Hybrid Coexistence.
Description : Chalk Talk for Office 365 : Plan and Configure Hybrid Coexistence. Bring your questions to this fully interactive session to gain understanding on the transition scenario for Office 365 : Hybrid Exchange Migration: Setting up coexistence. Use this session to ask your questions and learn about what it takes to setup a simple coexistence environment. Present your own scenarios to the consultant and receive tailored, interactive advice on how to proceed with your customers. You can discuss your projects, Planning, Designing and configurtion questions on Office 365 Hybrid and coexistence.

Delivery Date : 1/25/2013
Delivery Time : 9:00 AM
Title : Chalk Talk on Windows Azure ACS – Access Control Service
Description : Are you planning on deploying an application to Windows Azure in which you need control of the authentication and/or authorization? How about wanting to skip having to create our own authentication or authorization logic for that application/web site you are creating? Do you want your application/web site to easily integrate with the number of existing web Identity Providers available on the internet? Maybe you have your own ADFS 2.0 deployment and would like to leverage this for authentication/authorization for a cloud application? These are just a number of possible uses for the Windows Azure Access Control Services. Join this discussion to ask these types of questions or any others in which you are looking for a robust, highly scalable authentication/authorization architecture that can be leverage for on-premise, cloud, or hybrid application development.

Delivery Date : 1/28/2013
Delivery Time : 9:00 AM
Title : Practice Accelerator for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
Description : With a single, extensible platform for intranet, extranet, and Internet solutions, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 helps you and your customers realize faster return on investment. Take Practice Accelerator for SharePoint 2010 to ensure that you are prepared to offer solutions that can help your customers plan for and deploy SharePoint 2010 technology.

Delivery Date : 1/28/2013
Delivery Time : 9:00 AM
Title : Practice Accelerator for Optimized Desktop
Description :
Learn how you can help guide organizations to create a more secure and reliable desktop environment by using delivery methodology and templates developed by Microsoft. Practice Accelerator for Optimized Desktop enables you to improve productivity and agility for your customers.

Delivery Date : 1/28/2013
Delivery Time : 9:00 AM
Title : SharePoint 2010 Momentum Workshop: Consuming External Data with Business Connectivity Services in SharePoint 2010
Description : Microsoft Business Connectivity Services (BCS), formerly named the Business Data Catalog, provides read/write access to external data from line-of-business (LOB) systems, Web services, databases, and other external systems within Microsoft SharePoint 2010. SharePoint 2010 has product features that can use external data directly, both online and offline. Developers can gain access to a rich set of features and rapidly build solutions by using familiar tools such as Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010. Business Connectivity Services enhances SharePoint application capabilities and their UI through features, services, and tools. These enhanced capabilities and UI streamline development of solutions with deep integration of external data and services. Power users, developers, and business unit IT professionals can integrate assets from external systems and enable interaction with the external data through many types of applications. The Business Connectivity Services feature set enables rapid development and deployment of scalable and security-rich solutions.

Delivery Date : 1/29/2013
Delivery Time : 9:00 AM
Title : Exchange 2013:Architecture In depth
Description : Exchange Server 2013 has been redesigned and boasts a new architecture that is different from all previous versions. This session covers the new server architecture in Exchange Server 2013 and the significant changes for servers roles in Exchange Server 2013. This session includes details on client access protocol proxying and connectivity flow, Outlook connectivity, namespace and load balancing changes, and the new front-end transport service. It also includes details on mailbox, store, and related changes, the new FAST search infrastructure, modern public folders, managed availability, and transport high availability and components.

Delivery Date : 1/30/2013
Delivery Time : 1:00 PM
Title : The New SharePoint : Overview for IT Pro
Description : SharePoint Server 2013 provides the most flexible and robust version of SharePoint to date. It provides IT Professionals more control over the infrastructure, and provides an enterprise-class foundation for efficiently handling multiple workloads and when combined with the powerful virtualization technologies in Windows Server 2012 enables you to increase your server consolidation ratios while reducing the amount of administrative effort required for managing the infrastructure. Through increased automation and improved remote administration, SharePoint Server 2013 helps organization s save money and time by automating repetitive IT tasks.

Delivery Date : 1/31/2013
Delivery Time : 9:00 AM
Title : Chalk Talk on Sales, Marketing and Service Automation in Dynamics CRM:
Description : Chalk Talk is a direct collaboration with Microsoft experts. The session will be presented via Microsoft Live Meeting. Be prepared with audio to ask your questions. This is a fully interactive session and your full participation is encouraged Bring your questions to this fully interactive session to gain understanding on Sales, Marketing and Service Automation in Dynamics CRM. Use this chalk talk to ask questions and learn about features in the client and deployment options. Get details on functionality like how synchronization works, how tracking emails work. Present your own scenarios to the consultant and receive tailored, interactive advice on how to proceed with your customers. Audience – Business Decision Makers, Technical Decision Makers and End users Cost – 1.5 advisory hours will be deducted from your organization for this session.

I hope partners find this helpful and beneficial.

Dynamics CRM 2011 Instance Adapter refreshed

VishalSwami — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 01:21:00 GMT

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Instance Adapter has been refreshed to include a number of updates that will allow for even more entities to be synced between Microsoft Dynamics CRM instances than before.

These entities include:

Products
Invoices
Orders
Quotes
Territories
Currencies
Facilities / Equipment
Units
Unit Groups
Opportunities and Opportunity Products
Activities

While previously supported, some users did experience issues when attempting to sync these entities; those issues should be resolved now. You can simply re-download the .zip archive and select to replace your existing files to get this update when extracting the new archive to the Connector for Microsoft Dynamics installation directory. It should also be noted that the following entity dependencies are not enforced by the adapter so you will have to follow the proper order when running the initial sync between Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 instances.

for more information on Dynamics connector or instance Adapter, follow http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dynamicsconnector/

Whitepaper on Using Multi-tenancy in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 to Address Challenges in Enterprise Business Environments released today

VishalSwami — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 17:27:52 GMT

The CRM Engineering for Enterprise Team and CRM Content Publishing today announced the release of white paper, Using Multi-tenancy in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 to Address Challenges in Enterprise Business Environments, which is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center at:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=275385

There are a number of complexities associated with implementing large-scale CRM projects in Enterprise business scenarios. In these situations, using multiple tenants in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 can help to address several typical challenges, which include:

Functional localization, for organizations with different business units or areas that have varying business requirements or processes
Master data management, for organizations that need to distribute but maintain control of business data in certain ways
Physical distribution, for organizations with user base that is physically distributed in ways that introduce challenges such as distance of connections
Security and privacy, for organizations that need complex control of distribution or access to data
Scalability, for organizations with workload requirements that exceed or are prohibitively costly to host within a single system

Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers a variety of capabilities that allow customers to implement rich solutions to address complicated business requirements, which tend to have an even higher degree of complexity for customers in the Enterprise. For solutions that incorporate multiple instances of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, a second major consideration is any potential need for integration or interaction between the different instances in the overall business solution.

This white paper discusses scenarios in which using multiple instances of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 to separate areas of functionality can assist in addressing business challenges in the Enterprise. The paper also describes some common approaches for integrating multiple, separate instances of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.