System Center Reporting Manager 2005 (Beta) delivers a rich platform for enterprise analysis of management data so that IT administrators, managers, and executives can query, report, and forecast IT operations for higher service quality at a lower price. The foundation of System Center Reporting Manager 2005 (Beta) is a new data warehouse that integrates multi-management groups from MOM and multiple SMS operational databases into a single data warehouse to enable better decision making more quickly via "Better Together" reports.

We encourage you to install System Center Reporting Manager 2005 (Beta), MOM 2005, and SMS 2003 SP1 into a test environment and check out this rich reporting solution.

Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Portal Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2) contains significant security enhancements, in addition to stability and performance improvements. Some of the fixes included with SP2 have been previously released as separate updates. This service pack combines them into one update.

Download it at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=171DC9A7-B4BA-4759-BD64-6B7D851A97EF

Help us improve Windows Server by providing us with your suggestions and ideas. All feedback
submitted will be sent to the Windows Server Development Team for review and analysis. Your ideas
can impact Windows Server in many ways, and might even be incorporated into new Service Packs,
Feature Packs, or the next Windows Server release.

https://www.windowsserverfeedback.com/

Windows "Monad" Shell is a new interactive command-line and task-based scripting technology for Windows that enables administrators to more efficiently and securely automate and control system management tasks on both desktops and servers. "Monad" Shell provides powerful task-based control (via built-in command line tools and utilities) and a powerful scripting language that enables comprehensive scripted control of the Windows operating system and applications. Download "Monad" for X86 or X64 from the Download Center.  Watch "Monad" Architect Jeffrey Snover demonstrate "Monad" on a Channel 9 MSDN Video Interview and via two webcasts.

Web-Services for Management (WS-Management) is a multi-vendor initiative to develop a standard protocol for remote management. WS-Management will allow management vendors and development tools to use a common method of communicating management information across a distributed system. The purpose of this new specification is to reduce the overall complexity of management and build management capabilities into the platform itself. The WS-Management specification, co-authored by 12 organizations, was submitted to the Distributed Management Task Force, Inc. (DMTF®) in August 2005.  The submission follows a number of feedback and interoperability workshops. Co-authors of the WS-Management specification have increased from 5 to 12 in 2005. The twelve co-authors include Microsoft Corp., Intel Corporation, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Dell, Sun Microsystems, Symantec Corp., Novell Inc., Computer Associates Inc. (CA), BMC Software Inc., WBEM Solutions Inc., Fujitsu-Siemens Computers, and NEC Corp. Bob Muglia, senior vice president of the Windows Server™ Division, announced the submission in his keynote address at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference 2005 (PDC05) in Los Angeles. Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 will be able to monitor the new WS-Management service and collect hardware events as part of the Base OS Management pack for Windows Server 2003 R2. Read the press release and find out more information about WS-Management including an overview and a whitepaper describing how to use WS-Management protocol (Windows Remote Management Service and Utility) in Windows Server 2003 R2 for hardware management.

This accelerator provides proven tools and practices that enable IT professionals to: Create a software and hardware inventory to assist in deployment planning; Test applications for compatibility with Windows XP Professional and mitigate the compatibility issues discovered during the process; Set up an initial lab environment with deployment and imaging servers; Customize and package core and supplemental applications; Automate desktop image creation and deployment; Ensure that the desktop is hardened to improve security within the environment; Manage processes and technologies to produce a comprehensive and integrated deployment.

The Solution Accelerator for BDD solution contains guidance, sample templates, and technology files (such as scripts and configuration files). It presents deployment guidance as feature team guides that thoroughly explain each deployment process. The guidance in the Solution Accelerator for BDD is structured according to the feature teams and processes described in Figure 1.

What's New in Solution Accelerator for BDD v2.5
The most recent version of the Solution Accelerator for BDD as of this writing is version 2.5. It includes many improvements over version 2.0 and addresses issues that customers reported with version 2.0. For example, version 2.5 now supports unattended installations of Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, and the Computer Imaging System contains usability improvements such as per-build action lists. Version 2.5 also contains updated documentation, including an improved Security Feature Team Guide, an Application Compatibility Feature Team Guide that is updated for the Application Compatibility Toolkit 4.0, and a new Supplemental Applications Feature Team Guide that provides better guidance for repackaging applications and automating their installations. Last, version 2.5 improves the reliability, versatility, and manageability of Zero Touch Installation (ZTI). For example, you can now monitor ZTI progress by using MOM 2005.

In the past, we have highlighted Security focused articles by Jesper Johansson. He hasn't done a column lately but is back in the groove. He says:

"A while ago, I took a hiatus from writing these articles. Now I am back and I thought it would be fun to continue the snake-oil theme that we started with the security myths series and to write about some of the well-meaning things that people do for security that instead result in breaking things. Whereas the myths were high-level concepts, this series will be more technical. The objective is to help you better understand some of the things we do to provide security, and how they may break things unless we are really careful in how we use them."

Check out the current article in its entirity at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/secmgmt/sm0905.mspx.