Had a great conversation at Tech Ed with Barry Briggs, the Director of IT at Microsoft, about a classic Microsoft topic—eating your own dogfood. Basically, Briggs’s internal IT group runs prerelease versions of Microsoft products and files bug reports and provides other feedback. Microsoft has a history of putting prerelease software into production use at the company to work through tough problems at the enterprise level. Briggs says that the politically correct way to describe this internal testing is “the first and best” program. But everyone just calls it “eating your own dogfood” or “dogfooding.”
Currently Briggs’ IT group has 35 applications in production, including SAP, on a prerelease version of SQL Server 2008 (scheduled for final release in Q3 2008) production at Microsoft. Briggs says that “Microsoft will close its books for the fiscal year running SAP on SQL Server 2008.” At this point his information is anecdotal, but Briggs says that his team has seen a 30 percent performance improvement running SQL Server 2008.
Briggs hears comments all the time like “you don’t have to pay for your own software.” Of course the Microsoft software is free internally, but dogfooding prerelease products is actually an expensive proposition, according to Briggs. The IT department needs to devote hardware time to running and testing the software. The IT group goes through an evaluation process with each product team to determine whether its prerelease software is dogfood-ready. While the process can be arduous, it’s “a great thing for customers.” By policy, many Microsoft products can’t go into general release unless they’ve gone through dogfood testing.
Windows IT Pro magazine and SQL Server Magazine announced the winners of their Best of Tech Ed 2008 IT Professional Awards yesterday evening. Jeff Lewis, the Group Publisher of the Windows IT Group, presented the awards at a ceremony at Universal Studios in Orlando. Out of over 223 product nominations that were received for the Best of Tech Ed Awards, editors chose 29 finalists in nine categories.
Winners were chosen based on innovation, competitive advantage, and value to customers.
In the Messaging category, the winner is Azaleos OneServer Virtual Edition. Our judges liked the features of this innovative virtual appliance, ranging from its polished interface to its wealth of management and analysis options.
The winner in the Business Intelligence category is SoftArtisans OfficeWriter. OfficeWriter can connect to SQL Server, Analysis Services, and other databases and deliver fully functional Microsoft Excel and Word documents over the Web.
In the SharePoint category, the winner is the AvePoint DocAve Software Platform. SharePoint use is exploding, and the DocAve Software Platform provides an integrated environment for SharePoint management, disaster recovery, and real-time backup.
In the Hardware, Networking, and Storage category, the winner is Strangeloop WS1000. The WS 1000 can increase the performance of Web services by an order of magnitude. Its advanced caching technologies enable plug-and-play performance optimization without requiring any changes to the Web services application code.
In the Database Administration category, the winner is SQL diagnostic manager. SQL diagnostic manager provides the ability to monitor SQL Server performance as well as diagnose and analyze performance problems.
In the Productivity and Collaboration category, the winner is Colligo Contributor Pro. Giving users access to company information on the road is essential, and Colligo Contributor Pro allows users to access and edit Microsoft SharePoint content both online and offline.
In the Security category, the winner is Trend Micro ScanMail for Microsoft Exchange. ScanMail for Microsoft Exchange provides comprehensive e-mail security including anti-virus, anti-spyware and zero-day virus protection.
In the Virtualization category, the winner is VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3. Virtualization is taking the IT world by storm, and VMware has been driving that change more than anyone.
In the Systems Management and Operations category, the winner is Athena by Odyssey Software. Athena is a management solution for Windows-based mobile devices. The product seamlessly integrates into the Microsoft System Center management interface to provide remote tools, extended asset reporting, and provisioning for mobile devices in the enterprise.
The Breakthrough Product award winner is Quest Software’s PowerGUI, a scripting and command shell platform that enhances ease of use of Windows PowerShell.
This year's Attendees' Pick award winner is Syntergy Replicator for SharePoint.
I stopped by the Diskeeper booth yesterday to catch up on their latest defragmentation and file recovery products. I spoke with Daylen Farkas, VP of channel and consumer sales, who mentioned that a new version of Undelete--their file recovery and application--will be available soon.
"Undelete 2009 should be available in Q3 2008, and will include a number of new features," says Farkas. "We're adding our invisitasking technology to the Undelete product family, as well as the ability to perform cross-network deletions, all driven by an enhanced user interface."
Farkas also discussed Diskeeper's Intelligent File Access Acceleration Sequencing Technology (I-FAAST), which is available in certain Diskeeper disk defrgamentation products.
"I-FAAST learns about the disk performance and file access of a given system, then relies on this information to speed up file access," says Farkas. "I-FAAST takes usage patterns into account, then incorporates that information into the background defrag processes.
I also asked Farkas about Diskeeper's continued expansion into China, which began with the opening of a new Diskeeper office in Hong Kong last month. Diskeeper already has a distribution network in place in the region, but Farkas says that the new office should help the company build market share and presence in the fast-growing asian market.
After spending two weeks in the vicinity of the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando attending both Tech Ed 2008 Developers and Tech Ed 2008 IT Professionals, I think I've learned a few things from the experience.
Verdict on the Split Show: Mixed During both the Tech Ed Developers and IT Professionals shows, I asked quite a few vendors, attendees, and speakers about what they thought of splitting the show into two separate events. Nearly all attendees loved the idea, like Tom Wilkinson, an IT Pro I talked to during the developer week. "I think splitting the shows is a great idea...a few other guys I talked to have also been very pleased," says Wilkinson. "There are lots of topics to discuss, so splitting itself in two makes sense to me." Vendors tended to have a more negative reaction, with a few complaining about the need to choose between both events, while a few others grumbled about the lack of big Microsoft news to draw more press to the event. Regardless, the lifeblood of Tech Ed is always the thousands of hard-working IT Pros who attend the show to improve their skills, network with peers, and spend a few minutes on the Simpsons ride at Universal Studios.
Microsoft: No News is Good News Other than news that Bill Gates made his last keynote address (at Tech Ed 2008 Developers last week), both Tech Ed shows were unusually barren as far as Microsoft news was concerned. Other than the upcoming release of Silverlight 2 and updates on Microsoft's growing virtualization product portfolio, there wasn't much in the way of Microsoft news to report. Perhaps the most important Microsoft news came from unofficial sources: Tech Ed Vendors and attendees. Based on discussions our editors had with both groups, it's clear than the explosive growth of SharePoint and increasing penetration of virtualization are on the minds of lots of people.
Welcome to the Future Several members of the Windows IT Pro editorial team are former Microsoft employees, and they can attest that the relentless desire to keep improving and revising their product portfolio has helped make Microsoft the successful company it is to day. Yet based on some comments from show attendees, some of the sessions held at Tech Ed this year reveal that Microsoft wants to discuss using products that many IT pros haven't adopted yet, let alone know much about. The process of dogfooding -- extensively using their own software before releasing in to customers -- results in many Microsoft employees getting a false impression of how soon their products are being adopted by customers. Pushing the envelope is a good thing, but Microsoft sometimes forgets that their customers aren't always so eager to jump on the latest and greatest technology as soon as it's released. (See Vista, Windows.)
Silverlight: Look Out, Flash With the news that Silverlight 2 is just on the horizon, it's beginning to look like Silverlight may have a very bright future ahead of it. The conventional wisdom is that web designers and creative types prefer flash, and that the legions of .NET developers have manys reasons to prefer Silverlight. I've thought for a long time that Flash is in dire need of competition, and Silverlight is shaping up to be the best alternative yet. True, Silverlight won't displace Flash overnight, and both will coexist on the market for the forseeable future. That said, it's unusual for Microsoft to be playing the underdog against a dominant player in the market. More competition is always a good thing, and I think our Web 2.0 experiences will be much better thanks to Microsoft putting the screws to Adobe/Macromedia.
If you've ever been to a Tech Ed conference, you know what an information-overload experience it can be. It's virtually impossible to learn about everything you want to in four days crammed with sessions, labs, the partner expo, and after-hours events.
Fortunately, there are ways to get more information out of Tech Ed--such as Windows IT Pro's Tech Ed 2008 video series, recorded this week at the conference. Windows IT Pro editors Amy Eisenberg, Jeff James, and Sheila Molnar interviewed or led panel discussions with technical experts such as Windows IT Pro technical director Michael Otey; contributing editors Sean Deuby, Dan Holme, and Mark Minasi; and other industry experts on hot topics such as cloud computing, what's in store for SQL Server, and products that address IT pain points. There's also video coverage of the Best of Tech Ed awards, where Windows IT Pro editors choose best-of-breed products on the Tech Ed show floor.
You can find some of our Tech Ed videos below. For these and other Tech Ed 2008 videos, along with an expanding library of videos on other Windows and SQL Server technical topics, go to ITTV.net, Penton Media's new video site for IT professionals.
Cloud Computing Roundtable
Best of Tech Ed 2008 Awards
Jeff James' interview with Dmitry Sotnikov on Quest Software's PowerGUI
Like most trade show attendees, I feel compelled to search the aisles for swag to bring home to my children. I mean, I can't go home empty handed. My children are so conditioned to receive tacky gifts when I return from a trade show that my son even reminded me before I left, "See if you can find some cool stuff to bring home, Mom."
But something is amiss at TechEd this year. There is not a single flying monkey in the house. (Those of you who were at TechEd two years ago--or was it three?--know what I mean.) So far, the fuzzy antlers are the closest I've seen to hitting the mark. But after two days on the show floor, I'm worried I'll be going home empty handed.
While I don't have anything for my kids, my fellow editors and I did find some hot stuff that only real geeks will appreciate. Jeff James, products editor for Windows IT Pro and SQL Server Magazine, is now sporting the latest trend in IT pro fashion, a thumb drive wrist band, which he picked up at the Prowess booth.
Jeff also left the show today with a full version of VMware ESXi on a thumb drive--a very clever way to drive home VMware's message about footprint.
But probably the geekiest thing on the show floor today was SQL Server Magazine writer and database expert Rodney Landrum sporting a SQL tattoo. If you don't know Rodney, he is one of the most upbeat and enthusiastic techie guys you'll meet. When he believes in something, he wears it on his chest, er, I mean arm. The Atari tattoo is hiding just under his shirtsleeve.
I'll continue my search today in one last attempt for that Holy Grail of swag. If you don't see me walking the aisles, throw some my way at the Windows IT Pro and SQL Mag booth!
Data protection, high availability, and disaster recovery are all topics that can give sleepless nights to many IT professionals. Neverfail hopes to alleviate some of that stress with Neverfail ClusterProtector, a new product announced at Tech Ed IT Professionals 2008 that serves as an addition to the Neverfail Continuous Availability Suite. Neverfail ClusterProtector is currently in beta, but is scheduled for release in July 2008.
According to a statement from the vendor, the product will offer "continuous data replication for Microsoft Windows Failover Clustering" and provide real-time replication of application data to remote disaster recovery locations. Neverfail ClusterProtector will be available for Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, and Microsoft SQL Server, and will also offer support for Microsoft Cluster Server, Exchange, and SQL Server for customers who haven't upgraded to Windows Server 2008 yet.
In a statement announcing Neverfail ClusterProtector, Jason Hermitage, director of Windows server marketing at Microsoft, touted the product's failover clustering features. "Neverfail ClusterProtector is an ideal complement to Microsoft Windows Server 2008 failover clustering. This powerful combination extends the capabilities of multi-site clustering to deliver continuous availability through any type of disaster."
In related news, Neverfail announced that Neverfail Version 5.4 now provides support for Windows Server 2008, and is currently being tested with Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor-based virtualization technology.
Tuesday evening, Mike Otey and I met with the new Director of Product Management for SQL Server, Fausto Ibarra. Fausto has a lot of experience on the SQL Server team; over the past four years he’s done product planning, competitive strategy, and has worked on the launch of several technologies and SQL Server products, including SQL Server Express.
While we had a wide-ranging discussion, the most exciting point Fausto wanted to make was the swift uptake of the SQL Server 2008 RC, which was announced at the Tech Ed Keynote earlier on Tuesday. The release candidate is available for download from Microsoft. The 1000 DVDs made available to Tech Ed attendees were snatched up almost immediately and Fausto said they were working on making more available for SQL fans at the conference. In general, he says, interest in the CTPs of SQL Server 2008 has been high, with over 250,000 downloads. For the last CTP alone there were over 100,000 downloads.
Fausto says this RC is “feature complete” and on track for shipping in Q3 2008.
For those of you still on SQL Server 2000, Microsoft has shifted its migration advice. Last year, they recommended that SQL Server 2000 users upgrade to SQL Server 2005 and then to SQL Server 2008. It was a timing issue and this advice was based on “business value for customers.” Now they’re recommending that SQL Server 2000 users upgrade directly to SQL Server 2008 RTM, when that occurs. In Q3.
When I asked Fausto to name a few features he was excited about, he said he was glad to see “T-SQL debugging is back.” And, of course, he’s excited about the new policy-based management feature. “A lot of people are upgrading because of policy-based management.”
Last night’s Expo was jammed packed with vendors and attendees and it provided a great launching pad to kick this year’s TechED into high gear. In the Expo hall storage vendors like Brocade, HP and DELL had very prominent booths. Not too surprisingly, VMware was a bit hard to find as they were in the corner in the back. One common trend I saw in a lot of products was the recognition of SharePoint as a core IT technology. SharePoint Technology has really hit critical mass and its beginning to show as products of all sorts are beginning to have SharePoint support.
High points in some of today’s sessions include an overview of System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, automating Vista SP1 installation, and early adopter notes on upgrading to SQL Server 2008. Virtualization and dynamic IT seem to be emerging as common themes for this year’s conference.
If those Internet weather maps are anything to go by it’s going to be a dark and stormy week in Orlando for Tech Ed 2008 IT Pro. Conference attendees have been flooding in with tales of thunderstorms and delays on the tarmac. The Orange County Convention Center with its massive pioneer bonnet windows awaits us--cavernous, dry, and teeming with Microsoftees, vendors, user group leaders and other subject-matter experts who will explain it all to you. A crowd of over 10,000 steamy IT Pros is expected.
Monday evening we strolled through the soupy post-storm air to the Glo Lounge to catch the Party with the Pros. Over 600 user group leaders, session presenters, and conference attendees converged on the Glo Lounge to mingle and share information under 70’s-style black lights. The event was organized by user group leaders Doug Spindler and Bart Martens, who gave away books, t-shirts, and other goodies to the assembled glowy geeks. A representative from INETA www.ineta.org was on hand to give guidance to user group leaders. Doug says that they're looking forward to repeating the User Group party at Tech Ed EMEA in Barcelona later this year. So look for it, if you're in Spain in November. - posted by
Sheila Molnar
Free CDs Offer Fundamental Content for IT Pros Are you up to speed on the latest technologies and solutions? Don't miss out on your chance to get up to speed quickly on fundamental, in-depth information on some of the hottest topics in our library of content.
Let Your Users Reset Their Own Passwords: Free Download Try a 30 day free trial of Desktop Authority Password Self-Service – it provides an easy-to-use, robust system for allowing users to reset their own forgotten passwords or locked accounts.
Get Windows IT Pro & Mark Minasi’s Favorite Power Tools Guide Order Windows IT Pro now and get "More of Mark Minasi's Favorite Power Tools"--a in-depth guide to the most useful Windows commands --FREE with your paid order! Subscribe today, and save 58% off the cover price!
Deep Dive into VMware vSphere, eLearning Series Join John Savill to explore the major functionality capabilities of the vSphere virtualization platform, including identification of the changes from ESX 3.5.
Jeff also left the show today with a full version of VMware ESXi on a thumb drive--a very clever way to drive home VMware's message about footprint.
But probably the geekiest thing on the show floor today was SQL Server Magazine writer and database expert Rodney Landrum sporting a SQL tattoo. If you don't know Rodney, he is one of the most upbeat and enthusiastic techie guys you'll meet. When he believes in something, he wears it on his chest, er, I mean arm. The Atari tattoo is hiding just under his shirtsleeve. 
I'll continue my search today in one last attempt for that Holy Grail of swag. If you don't see me walking the aisles, throw some my way at the Windows IT Pro and SQL Mag booth!
