No Spin Architecture : Vista/Office2007/.NET3.0

Article : .NET 3.0 for architects

makif — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 19:45:00 GMT

About: This post points to the article I have written for InfoQ

Greetings,

Hope all of your are doing well and hopefully had some time off during summer. I have recently published an article describing the various components of .NET 3.0 , you can find it at http://www.infoq.com/articles/akif-dotnet-architect

Best regards,

Mohammad

Giving out full copy of Office 2007 and eval resources for Vista to Canadian launch attendees

makif — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 22:07:00 GMT

About: This post is about distribution of software to those that attended the launch in Canada and filled out an evaluation form

Hello,

In all cities where we held Vista and Office launch events, we received 'strong' feedback about your desire to get a free copy of the software. I am happy to announce that everyone who attended a Launch 2007 event and submitted a completed evaluation form with their name and address will receive a complimentary Launch 2007 evaluation kit containing

· A downloadable full copy of Microsoft Office Professional 2007

· A Microsoft Office Running Start CD

· Resources and tools for evaluating Windows Vista

· A Microsoft Partner Solution DVD

With the large number of people that attended Launch 2007 events, this process will take some time to roll out so please be patient. Expect to see your package within the next 2 to 6 weeks. Don’t forget that you can also download full recordings of each of the Launch 2007 sessions, as well as get links to additional resources by visiting the Launch 2007 post-event page at http://www.microsoft.ca/anewday.

Best regards,

Mohammad

Video: Vista and Office 2007 overview

makif — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 16:39:00 GMT

About: This post contains the link to a one hour session that I conducted at the launch of Vista and Office 2007.

Hello,

Please find the link to the Vista and Office 2007 session I conducted at the Vancouver launch. This one hour presentation discusses the capabilities of Microsoft Windows Vista and 2007 Office System from the perspective of solution architects; it provides a brief overview of how the new technologies can assist you in areas like security, interoperability, agility, workflow and SOA through slides and demonstrations. Finally, it demonstrates through real-world solutions how companies have started to architect the next generation business systems leveraging .NET 3.0, Vista and Office 2007.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/media/VistaAndOfficeForArchitects.asx

Best regards,

Mohammad

.NET 3.0, Office 2007 and Vista Resources, Part 4/5

makif — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 17:55:00 GMT

About: This is the fourth in a series of posts that provides resources for Vista, .NET 3.0 and Office 2007. These blog posts have been written by Sultan Akif, who is the Financial Services Industry Architect at Microsoft Canada

Greetings,

Here are some of the upcoming MS Press titles about Vista, .NET 3.0 and Office 2007, I would encourage you to read them as they can save you hours and hours of trial-and-error (which I do admit is sometimes more fun than reading a book J)

1. Microsoft® Windows® Communication Foundation Step by Step http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/10022.aspx

2. Microsoft® Windows® Workflow Foundation Step by Step http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/10023.aspx

3. Programming Applications for Microsoft® Office Outlook® 2007 http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9179.aspx

4. Inside Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services Version 3 http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9692.aspx

5. Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 Administrator's Pocket Consultant http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9546.aspx

Best regards,

Sultan

.NET 3.0, Office 2007 and Vista Resources, Part 3/5,

makif — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 05:30:00 GMT

About: This is the third in the series of posts that provides resources for Vista, .NET 3.0 and Office 2007. These blog posts have been written by Sultan Akif, who is the Financial Services Industry Architect at Microsoft Canada (yes we do share the same set of parents!). This post include a number of resources, including a FREE book and FREE courses

Hello,

Here are more resources about .NET 3.0, Office 2007 and Vista

1. Relationship between Windows SharePoint Services and Windows Workflow: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms406057.aspx

2. Office 2007 book: http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/5/a/35a8cb9f-1349-4645-ac2a-49ba61834826/First-Look-2007-Microsoft-Office-System.pdf

3. Tons of learning material including free courses for a limited time at learning portal http://www.microsoft.com/learning/office2007/default.mspx

4. Another Office 2007 book at : http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/2/f/02f0f661-88e1-43c2-b523-88d2e9e6802f/7%20Development%20Projects%20with%20the%202007%20Microsoft%20Office%20System%20and%20Windows%20SharePoint%20Services%202007.pdf

5. A web based try run for all the user facing Office 2007 programs. It allows you to use the program as if it was installed available at : http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA101687261033.aspx

Best regards,

Sultan

.NET 3.0, Office 2007 and Vista Resources, Part 2/5, MOSS 2007 Upgrade

makif — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 18:03:00 GMT

About: This is the second in the series of posts that provides resources for Vista, .NET 3.0 and Office 2007. These blog posts have been written by Sultan Akif, who is the Financial Services Industry Architect at Microsoft Canada (yes we do share the same set of parents!). This post focuses on MOSS 2007 upgrade

Hello,

Upgrading server software is never as easy as inserting a CD and running setup!! To make MOSS 2007 upgrade painless for the customer, Microsoft has invested heavily in resources and tools to help out with the process. There are several upgrade approaches available for migration including in-place, gradual, and database migration. An in-place upgrade is used to upgrade all SharePoint sites at once, which is best suited for single server or small-volume deployments. A gradual upgrade allows finer control of the upgrade process by allowing one or more site collections to be upgraded at a time. A database migration allows you to move your content to a new farm or new hardware.

The Pros and Cons of each upgrade approach are defined below:

Approach	Description	Pros	Cons	Best for
In-place upgrade	Upgrades the content and configuration data in-place, at one time.	Easiest approach. Sites retain original URLs. Updates existing databases and servers using existing hardware.	Environment is offline while it runs. No ability to revert to original site.	Single server or small server farm.
Gradual upgrade	Installs the new version side-by-side with the previous version. The server administrator determines which site collections to upgrade and when to upgrade them.	Allows for a more granular approach - you can upgrade at the site collection level. Reduces time any single user is impacted. Sites retain original URLs. Can revert to original site. Uses existing hardware.	More complex and resource intensive. Must redirect URLs during upgrade process, which causes issues for some client applications, such as Microsoft Office. Requires extra storage in SQL Server. Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services version 2 scalable hosting mode is not supported.	Medium or large server farms (without shared services) with many sites and you must limit downtime. Good for when you have a lot of customizations.
(Advanced) Database migration	Requires the server administrator to install the new version on a separate farm or separate hardware, and then manually migrate the databases into the new environment.	Allows moving to new farm or new hardware. SharePoint Portal Server 2003 environment is available and is untouched by upgrade.	Very complex process that requires many manual steps and a higher risk of error. Requires additional manual steps to retain original URLs for sites. Search scopes must be recreated and search settings must be reapplied. Requires new server farm, and twice the amount of SQL Server storage space.	Moving to new hardware or a new architecture. Customers who need to maximize upgrade throughput. This approach is required for WSS 2.0 environments that are using scalable hosting mode or Active Directory directory service account creation

A good upgrade needs to be planned upfront to minimize risk. Here is a suggested upgrade Roadmap for In-Place or Gradual upgrade (please note that you will typically choose only one approach for your farm).

The trial upgrade step in the planning process is essential and highly recommended as it will ‘prove the process’ by highlighting potential issues. Additional information on the execution of each step is available in the resources provided in the resources provided in part 1 of this blog series.

Best regards,

Sultan

.NET 3.0, Office 2007 and Vista Resources, Part 1/5

makif — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 00:13:00 GMT

About: Today we launched Vista and Office 2007 in Toronto, the launch event was attended by over 4000 people, it is also the first time we have had an architect session at any launch, the session was attended by over 600 architects and aspiring architects. One of the things I promised in my architect session was a list of resources on .NET 3.0, Office 2007 and Vista. This is the first in the series of post that compiles the various resources for Vista, .NET 3.0 and Office 2007. These blog posts have been written by Sultan Akif, who is the Financial Services Industry Architect at Microsoft Canada (yes we do share the same set of parents!)

Greetings,

Over the next five posts I will be providing you with various links to resources for Vista and Office 2007. A selected list of resources is as follows:

1. .NET 3.0: http://www.netfx3.com

2. Patterns and practices: http://msdn.com/practices

3. MOSS 2007 Deployment and upgrade portal : http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/server/moss/2007/migration/

4. MOSS 2007 Developer portal:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/office/aa905503.aspx

5. Development Center for Office can be found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/office

6. Tech Center for SharePoint; a community based site available: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/office/sharepoint/default.mspx

7. Take a test drive office at

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA101687261033.aspx

8. Visit the following site to get a view of how Microsoft internally implements the products. It is the official public site of Microsoft IT available at www.microsoft.com/itshowcase

9. Visit product team blogs for SharePoint at http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint and InfoPath http://blogs.msdn.com/infopath. These blogs are a good source to get information directly from the product team and are available for other products as well using the same naming convention.

10. Visit Known Issues for Office 2007 client at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/products/FX101633871033.aspx .Known issues for Office 2007 servers are available at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/products/FX101633861033.aspx

11. There is good article on MOSS on http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/06/08/GatheringMoss/default.aspx

Stay Tuned for the MOSS 2007 Deployment, Planning and Upgrade Guides and Worksheets. These guides are a work-in-progress but provide details around step-by-step planning and deployment processes.

Best regards,

Sultan

.NET 3.0, Different Versions of the .NET Framework

makif — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 00:44:00 GMT

About: This post describes the differences between various versions of the .NET framework

Hello,

There has been considerable confusion about the differences between various versions of the .NET framework. My colleague and good friend Carol Roy has put together this really nice picture that describes the various versions and the similarities and differences between them. As shown in this illustration .NET 2.0 and 3.0 share the same CLR version which means that all your .NET 2.0 applications will work fine in .NET 3.0 as well (unlike .NET 1.1 and .NET 2.0 where the CLR version changed)

.NET 3.0 = .NET 2.0 + WCF + WCS + WF + WPF

Checkout http://www.netfx3.com for more information about each of the four APIs that constite .NET 2.0

Using .NET 3.0 will greatly enhance productivity, reduces infrastructure plumbing and provides solutions in the areas of providing an identity meta-system, developing enterprise-class services, Work flow and the next generation UI.

Please note that with respect to .NET 3.5 all the usual disclaimers apply, the name will probably change and the composition might change as well, the interesting thing to note is that we plan to keep the same CLR version which means that your .NET 2.0 applications will continue to work. Please also note that our AJAX APIs do have the "Go Live" license already, I would encourage you to take a look at http://ajax.asp.net/ajaxtoolkit/ for an online demonstration of the various controls e.g. you can try the Accordian and DragPanel to have a tangible idea of how you can enhance your existing Web Sites or develop new ones.

Best regards,

Mohammad