Windows Vista Partner Spotlight Communiqué

Microsoft is pleased to announce a major milestone in the product development stage of Windows Vista. Our customer and partners feedback has enabled Microsoft to make the Windows Vista operating system even better. Now you can reap the benefits, the Windows Vista Service Pack (SP1) represents a significant improvement to the Windows Vista experience, and delivers enhanced value to businesses in security, reliability, and application compatibility. Sell more with services built around Windows Vista SP1. Offer your customers the enhanced security, performance, reliability, and application compatibility they demand. And capitalize on the sales opportunities these new features deliver. Get ready: Windows Vista SP1 is now available for download TechNet and MSDN subscribers. Windows Vista SP1 offers benefits that businesses simply can’t achieve with an older generation operating system: ·         Enhanced data protection and desktop security. ·         A more reliable mobile computing environment. ·         Increased employee productivity through reduced downtime. With each PC you upgrade to Windows Vista SP1, you’ll be helping to streamline and improve your IT operations for years to come. Taking the Core Infrastructure to new heights of optimization

All the necessary information you need to get started on the technical and business value aspects of Windows Vista SP1, a must read! TECHNICAL OVERVIEW BUSINESS OVERVIEW Overview of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 This white paper presents an overview of Windows Vista SP1 and the improvements it contains. Notable Changes in Windows Vista Service Pack 1 This document provides more detail about the notable changes made to Windows Vista in Service Pack 1, which were focused on addressing specific reliability, performance, and compatibility issues, supporting new types of hardware, and adding support for several emerging standards. Enterprise Guidance for Application Compatibility Testing and Windows Vista SP1 This white paper provides enterprise customers guidance for testing applications on the currently available version of Windows Vista and Windows Vista with Service Pack 1. Windows Vista overview for IT professionals Explore the enhancements and new features in Windows Vista that can help benefit you and your organization. Major categories of improvements include security, reliability, performance, deployment, and manageability. Windows Vista hardware guidance Read this guide to understand the hardware requirements for Windows Vista. Telling your company about Windows Vista This brief summary of Windows Vista business benefits can help you tell others in your company about the new operating system. Key reasons to upgrade to Windows Vista Discover some of the key reasons why your company should consider upgrading to Windows Vista. Measure the return on your Windows Vista investment This quick estimator will help measure the costs and benefits of deploying Windows Vista in your organization. Understand the costs and benefits of Windows Vista with the Windows Vista Business Value Discussion Tool The Windows Vista Business Value Discussion Tool (WVDT) is designed to help quantify the technology discussions that you are having about the new Windows Client. The WVDT is a powerful new tool designed to further two-way discussions between you and your team or between you and your deployment partner that incorporate customized data to quickly develop an initial business cases for adopting and deploying Windows Vista. Top 10 things you need to know about Windows Vista for the enterprise This on-demand webcast introduces some of the new features and capabilities, focusing on features designed with the enterprise in mind. Learn the technical and marketing details around Windows Vista SP1 and use this information as part of executing Partner Readiness & Solution Plans (PSP). Windows Vista Deployment ‘Class in the Box’ Sales and Technology: Are you ready to implement next-generation OS that stands out for its superior performance usability, functionality and ROI? Don’t have time to attend a 5 day course? Get the training you need to help your organization benefit from the enhanced security, multi-tiered data protection, increased manageability and productivity, and state-of-the-art deployment features in Windows Vista. ”Class in a Box” has the resources to help you create breakthrough computing experiences in your company. To order ‘Vista Deployment Class in a Box’ free of cost, visit http://www.msptr.com/ , use product # 5437 Windows Vista 101 Is your business ready for Windows Vista? Learn the basics about this pivotal release and test your knowledge by taking Windows Vista 101. In just 10 minutes, this mini-course explains what Windows Vista means for your customers and your business opportunity. Windows Vista Deployment Technical Training Resources help your architects and consultants understand the basics from an IT perspective. Level 300 and above deep technical content. Windows Vista Partner Sales and Deployment Resources Find technical training videos and Microsoft Office PowerPoint presentation about desktop deployment and application compatibility of the Windows Vista Operating system and the 2007 Microsoft Office system. The launch of SP1 and Hardware refresh circle gives partners the perfect opportunity to deploy and drive the last mile execution and deployment. Find key information about the tools and frameworks to expedite the internal and customer deployment. Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007 The Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) is best-practice guidance for desktop deployment. BDD is targeted at companies that want to reduce deployment time, effort, and cost by increasing the level of automation. It allows administrators to deploy desktops with Zero Touch and Lite Touch interaction at the target PCs. This solution also helps organizations move to a managed environment with standardized desktop images. Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0 The Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) version 5.0 contains the necessary tools and documentation to evaluate and mitigate application compatibility issues before deploying Microsoft® Windows Vista, a Windows Update, or a new version of Windows® Internet Explorer® in your environment. Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 2.1 The Windows Vista Hardware Assessment Solution Accelerator is an inventory, assessment, and reporting tool that will find computers on a network and determine if they are ready to run the Windows Vista™ operating system or the 2007 Microsoft Office System. The Windows Vista Hardware Assessment Solution Accelerator 2.1 is localized to German, French, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, and Brazilian Portuguese. Licensing for Windows Desktop Learn the key points to communicate to your customers planning to acquire new licenses. Optimized Desktop Essentials Overview Brochure Learn more about the Optimized Desktop Essentials solution and how it fits with the needs of you and your customers. Equip yourself with all the right collateral, and communications material you need to start selling Windows Vista immediately. Windows Vista SP1 FAQ Find answers to your customers’ most common questions about Windows Vista SP1. Windows Vista SP1 Partner-Customer Discussion Guide This guide can help you understand Windows Vista SP1 components and advantages, hone your sales pitch, and respond to sales objections. Windows Vista Partner Value Proposition Get the latest sales and market-readiness numbers—just in time for Windows Vista SP1. WPS Licensing Overview: Overview of Volume Licensing, Open Value and Software Assurance. Windows Vista Enterprise and Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack are only sold through Volume Licensing. The Windows Vista Desktop Deployment Opportunity Key presentations can help you build your sales plans to better leverage the business opportunities offered by Windows Vista. Windows Vista Deployment Case Studies Learn what customers are saying about their Windows Vista deployment experiences, benefits, and returns on investment. Get ready to show your customers how upgrading can benefit their organizations. Software Assurance Benefit of Windows Vista Enterprise Overview of benefits of using Software Assurance with Windows Vista. Infrastructure Optimization White Paper This white paper can help you make the business case for migrating to Windows Vista. For additional information about Windows Vista SP1, please visit the following sites: Microsoft Partner Program Site for Windows Vista Microsoft TechNet SP1 Portal for more details Windows Vista Partner Deployment Class in the Box at http://www.msptr.com/ use product # 5437 For this and other technology spotlights visit http://blogs.msdn.com/wd40/default.aspx

Windows Vista are you ignoring the inevitable?

Ignoring the inevitable?

When it comes to deploying a new OS (whether at the Data Centers or for the end users consumption) the IT Pros tend to take a more cautious 'wait and see approach'. So the question begs, why should the new operating system from the software giant get any better treatment, is Windows Vista any better than its predecessors such as Windows 95, NT, 98, 2000, XP, in simple words the answer is a bold and resounding "HELL YEAH!!!"

Migrations to the Windows Vista is inevitable for the enterprise across the globe, delaying the planning and testing the OS in limited manner would only cause substantial issues in the future and could also lead to user dissatisfaction, not meeting the SLA, and other business competitive/security issues.

Imagine that in 2008 and if you are running/supporting ancient OS like Windows 2000 (launched 8+ years ago) or XP (7+ years ago), OEMs and device manufacturers and ISVs or software vendors would continue to limit their support for these older OS and at the same time you would be missing out on all the great features and cost savings that Windows Vista has to offer…  Visit this link for more info http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/default.mspx

 Know the facts: 

The facts around the development, testing and adoption speak for themselves:-

When developing Windows Vista, Microsoft set out to provide higher levels of productivity, mobility, and security, with lower costs. After more than six months of broad availability and usage, it's evident that these investments are improving the Windows computing experience. For example, in the first six months of use, Windows Vista had fewer security issues than Windows XP (Windows Vista had only 12 issues, and Windows XP had 36). According to the Windows Vista 6-Month Vulnerability Report by Jeffery R. Jones, Windows Vista had fewer security issues than all the popular operating systems he studied.

·         Over 60 Million sold thus far

·         Adoption rate faster than predecessors

·         Device Coverage Continues To Grow Rapidly; 700K New Device Types Added Since November 2006

·         Over 2.2 million devices
are supported by Windows Vista, between In-Box and
WU drivers, supporting the
vast majority of devices

·         Number of Logoed Devices exceeds 10,000
and growth is outpacing Windows XP

·         Over 20 Reliability and Compatibility updates delivered to all users using Windows Update

What's Cookin in Windows Vista SP1: 

So what's the whole big fuss about Windows Vista SP1, should the IT Pros and end-users really expects some elaborate feature sets or a big "SHOCK ‘n AWE ".  The straight answer for that is also not really. Let's talk about what is Windows Vista SP1:-

·         Windows Vista SP1 Is Another Vehicle To Improve Experience

·         Built and tested to enable smooth transitions for applications from Windows Vista RTM to Windows Vista SP1

·         What to expect

-          Improved Application Compatibility

-          Device Driver Improvements

-          Security, Reliability and performance

-          Administrative Experience

·         Customers can choose which updates they want, and install them with the technology best for their organization.

§  Windows Update (WU)

§  Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)

§  System Center Configuration Manager or 3rd party tools

Wait or not to Wait?

Organizations do not need to wait for SP1 to deploy Windows Vista; they are encouraged to begin their Windows Vista evaluation and deployment now:

• Organizations currently evaluating and deploying Windows Vista should continue their evaluation, pilot programs, and deployment on the initial ("Gold") Windows Vista release. Microsoft provides the tools and guidance needed to deploy Windows Vista today and will provide additional guidance, tools and support for moving to SP1 when the service pack is released.
• Organizations just starting to evaluate Windows Vista should plan a pilot program, targeting the PCs that gain the most business value from Windows Vista (for example, many organizations will find that mobile PCs get the most benefits) and present the simplest upgrade from the gold release of Windows Vista to SP1 (How to Start a Windows Vista Pilot Deployment describes best practices for running a pilot).
• Organizations waiting for Windows Vista SP1 should start their compatibility testing on the gold release of Windows Vista now, and then begin their evaluation and pilot programs on the release candidate of Windows Vista SP1 when it is released. Windows Vista includes architectural changes relative to Windows XP that improve security and reliability. These changes can cause some applications which work on Windows XP not to work on Windows Vista. However, these architectural changes are also part of Windows Vista SP1. For this reason, testing applications on Windows Vista today will be a very good proxy for compatibility with Windows Vista SP1.

What are the consequences for delaying the adoption of SP1?

Well, Windows Vista was made available to Business Customers Nov of 2006, with the adoption picking up in the enterprise segment it's likely that the new apps and support for new hardware devices coming from ISVs and OEMs will favor Vista (Vista is 6 years old OS and as the time goes on, the support will diminish).

Windows Vista has host of advancements and even without SP1, it makes complete sense to start the evaluation and POCs etc to get your shop ready. Scoping plans for hardware and app compact issues and sketching plans would only help the organizations move close to inevitable....

Hell has frozen and it’s beautiful…. Sun and Microsoft announce deeper alliance

Sun and Microsoft form deeper alliance – but things were not this rosy, and not too long ago in my past life when we were consolidating massive datacenters of a large financial institution from IBM (AS400 and e-series) class servers to a Dell + Compaq (HP) WinTel platform and SUN e29000s mix.

We always admired SUN’s hardware reliability (though a bit pricy) as well as their great platinum support SLA (also comes with a sticker shock) and therefore we pushed Sun to seek ways of providing their hardware and its reliability to run Windows commodity workloads. We were told that it will be a cold day in hell when that happens…. 7 years and two months later the hell has indeed become a cold place J

Profile:-

Sun and Microsoft has traditionally competed on everything and anything – well, starting from the OS (Solaris ‘Server and Workstation), Platform Management + Virtualization, App Plat (Java, JVM, JiNi) and recently on the business productivity with StarOffice (open source platform competes against MS Office)

The Antitrust war over JVM (Java Virtual Machine) and MSJVM right to be bundled in Windows made things worst and a major source of pain for the customers, who would liked better interoperability.

So what made the hell freeze?

Two words “market share”… Sun has been losing on all fronts, on platform with Microsoft and Linux and even to IBM mainframe. On App-Plat against .Net (VSTS), BEA (Web Logic), IBM (Eclipse, WebSphere), Oracle and Google (AJAX and APIS) etc in fact the stock price is indicative of this demise - on its heyday close to $80 and now a bare $5.50

10 Year Char for Sun Microsystem Stock Performance

So back in April 2004, Steve Ballmer and Scott McNealy shook hands and Microsoft also cut a check to Sun for nearly $2 billion and another several billions in soft dollar infusion, the end result – Sun would stop its litigations against Microsoft on MSJVM and its distribution and instead focus on interoperability in the field of web 2.0 technologies and platform support and management….

How it might help customers

1.       Sun has a great hardware platform (Sun Fire series 64 bit) and Windows Server offering on this platform is great news for the customers

2.       Sun is also emerging as a big player on the whole ‘Green Computing’ turf and can help customers deploy Windows while reducing their carbon footprint

3.       Interoperability on Virtualization – Windows virtual instances running as guests on Sun Solaris host OS and vice versa

4.       Interoperability on Management – Ability to manage Windows Server and client from Sun Central Datacenter suite and vice versa

5.       MSJVM (Java Virtual Machine) – perhaps return of MSJVM in Windows Vista SP1, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008.

In upcoming weeks we will post more info on the key benefits of this annoucement

Delivering Business Value with Windows Vista

How Windows Vista can enhance security, mobility and help reduce TCO

Information technology (IT) executives worldwide are under pressure to identify and advise methods to enhance employee productivity, achieve operational agility, and reduce costs. This mandate has software industry leaders, IT architects, and decision makers pushing the limits of existing technologies to devise ways to increase operational efficiencies and cut total cost of ownership. These goals must be accomplished while managing regulatory and security concerns and while maintaining consistently high levels of customer satisfaction and stringent service levels.

By addressing critical business scenarios in several ways, the Windows Vista™ operating system can help achieve these objectives and deliver significant value to companies. For example, new technologies in Windows Vista make it easier to find, share, and use information. With its enhanced connectivity features, mobile and remote workers can stay connected and productive anywhere, anytime. Windows Vista also addresses growing security threats by helping to safeguard data inside and outside of the office and by making it easier to achieve compliance with government regulations and internal policies. Finally, with Windows Vista, it is easier to deploy, manage, and support an integrated desktop environment and to optimize the desktop infrastructure. Thus, by upgrading to Windows Vista, companies can better achieve enhanced productivity, mobility, and security benefits at a far lower total cost of ownership (TCO).

Microsoft and its partners can provide the technologies, processes, and methodologies to help customers make this transition. This paper discusses how Infosys, a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner and global system integrator, employs a one-stop Accelerated Deployment solution to offer a cost-effective, predictable, and customized transition to new Windows technologies such as Windows Vista.

For more information, click here

Reducing Complexity and Accelerating Value of Your PC Infrastructure

Three Strategies to Improve IT Efficiency and Reduce TCO
 

The enterprise PC landscape is filled with many resource and management challenges, which IT managers must address to ensure cost-effective operations and high levels of service, often on a limited or shrinking budget. Managing PC infrastructure in this challenging environment requires that PC management costs be minimized. To help realize these goals, organizations need to have world-class IT resources dedicated to designing, implementing, and maintaining its IT infrastructure.

This paper highlights the capabilities, expertise, and resources of Tata Consultancy Services, a global IT solutions and services provider that is engaged by enterprises throughout the world. Tata Consultancy Services helps its customers design, implement, and maintain their PC environments and IT infrastructures with the objectives of ensuring infrastructure optimization (IO) and reducing total cost of ownership (TCO).

Engaging Tata Consultancy Services for IO assessment, deployment, and ongoing systems management services is one of three recommended strategies that IT managers can use to improve IT efficiency and reduce TCO. The other strategies—adopting PC-related best practices and deploying Microsoft applications and technologies—reflect the results of five PC management studies conducted by IDC and sponsored by Microsoft in 2005 and 2006.

 For more information click here

Leap Ahead with Windows Vista !

Infosys and Microsoft offer an insider's perspective to help you determine how adopting Vista can optimize your infrastructure, empower your employees, enable your mobile workforce, and ensure security and compliance. You can also learn how you could accelerate your Vista adoption using Infosys' proven tools and methodologies.

Windows Vista - A tremendous opportunity for Microsoft Partners and Enterprise to get a competitive edge

In today's world of work, Windows Vista gives your business an advantage by empowering your most valuable asset—people. Windows Vista makes it easy for people to communicate, collaborate and to work with greater efficiency and effectiveness, regardless of their location. And Windows Vista enhances your organization's ability to find, use, and secure data, meet complex regulatory requirements, and manage information technology costs. It's the heart of any competitive organization's IT desktop investment.

Here are some critical areas in which Windows Vista serves the needs of your business and the people responsible for its success.

Improve security and compliance

Protecting your business information and complying with rules for business transparency can greatly increase the demands on your IT infrastructure. With Windows Vista, sophisticated data protection and auditing capabilities help simplify IT management and lower costs for regulatory compliance. And Windows Vista helps organizations create a more controlled information environment so that managing security risks becomes a routine part of business.

Optimize your desktop infrastructure

Every day more and more demands are made on your IT systems, but that doesn't have to increase your IT expense. Windows Vista is designed to be less expensive to deploy, maintain, and manage—supporting employee productivity and providing and a better return on your IT investment.

Find and use information

The way people find and use information can be critical to the success of your business. Windows Vista dramatically improves how people access and leverage the knowledge and resources within your organization. The operating system helps people find and use information quickly, easily, and more securely and in more places—including their PCs, e-mail, corporate servers, and the Internet.

Enable your mobile workforce

Today, more businesses rely on a mobile workforce to serve their customers and reduce enterprise costs associated with a large onsite staff. Windows Vista gives mobile workers more secure and versatile ways to access company IT resources so they can easily collaborate with colleagues, on and off the company network, and across geographic boundaries.

Application Virtualization: The Next Frontier

IT departments today are struggling to cut costs while increasing operational agility, deliv­ering superior service, and maintaining high customer satisfaction. Application virtualization with Microsoft SoftGrid technologies can help with all of these goals. By converting applications into virtual services that are managed and hosted centrally but run on demand locally, application virtualization reduces the complexity and IT labor involved in deploying, updating, and managing applications. In addition, because the virtualized applications run in their own environment on client machines, this can considerably reduce the application footprint on the operating system thus reducing application & operating system conflicts. The segregation and elimination of applications-OS conflicts can be instrumental not only for reducing IT operating expenditures but also for reducing the need for regression testing or for server silos. Last but not least, during OS migration, such as upgrades from Windows XP to Windows Vista platform, application compatibility issues that traditionally plagued OS migration can now be taken head-on. In short, by helping IT organizations decrease total cost of ownership (TCO), increase service levels, and more easily respond to changing requirements, application virtualization can serve as a strategic tool that delivers a significant competitive advantage and allows your organization to move further along the infrastructure optimization continuum.

For more information, please read the attached white paper

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb608288.aspx

Introducing the WD-40 blog...

This blog talks about various tips and tricks pertaining to Infrastructure management and deployment, something that I am very passionate about and it also falls in my jurisdiction of work at Microsoft within the Enterprise Partner Group (EPG). I created this blog so that Microsoft’s partners and the enterprise segment decision makers can participate in the two-way communications about various current and upcoming products and services and also exchange best ways to deploy them for efficient and optimized infrastructure.

Why this blog is called WD-40? Well, because I love WD-40 and its capacity of improving and fine-tuning all sorts of things, I hope this blog would allow IT decision makers to fine tune all sorts of things within their data centers and network parameter. But just like WD-40, this blog also comes with the disclaimer, the tips and tricks posted on this blog are meant to be evaluated on the case-by-case basis and not to be implemented without testing in the dev or staging environments…

cheers!!!!!

Omer