No longer one of Microsoft’s Most Valued

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 13 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

Three years ago, I was very excited to announce that Microsoft had given me a Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award, recognising some of the work I had been doing at that time around virtual machine technology (specifically Hyper-V). I’ve been re-awarded twice since then but 1 October has passed once more and, for the 2011/12 season, there is no award for me.

To be honest, that’s not a surprise and all good things must come to an end. MVP awards are for people doing great work in the community to evangelise Microsoft products* and I just don’t do much of that any more.  I also don’t have the same relationship with Microsoft’s evangelists that I enjoyed a few years back, and the PR people stopped feeding me information (so I guess my influence must have been on the wane). Ultimately, my career has moved in a different direction and I honestly believe that to keep me “on the team” would devalue the programme and what it stands for. (Kind of like the MCSE did when the exams got too easy…)

As I’m writing this, it seems like a good time to mention the Windows Server User Group too. I spoke to Mark Parris a few weeks ago, and we agreed that I would step down from any activities there (the user group still exists, under Mark’s leadership). Realising that this might look like bitterness on my part, I want to be clear that it’s unrelated to any decision about my MVP status – I just chose to announce it at the same time because it comes down to the same issues of time/priorities/career focus.

Thanks to all of the people both inside and outside Microsoft, who have supported me over the years, read this blog, retweeted my comments on Twitter, etc. I hope you’ll continue to do so, now I no longer have the badge. And good luck to all of the MVPs I’ve met over the years, either online or in person – as I joked with Aidan Finn a couple of weeks ago, if Microsoft ever launches a “Most Valuable Strategist” programme, I’ll be right in there!

*I appreciate that this may be a slightly contentious comment. Many MVPs offer objective and impartial advice too!

Microsoft’s Windows Azure datacentres: some statistics

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 14 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

Last week I blogged about designing a private cloud infrastructure, based on the practices employed by the major cloud service providers.

Today I got a taste of the scale of some of those cloud operations, when Microsoft gave an online presentation on Windows Azure to their International Customer Advisory Board (ICAB) for Server and Cloud (of which I’m a participant).

Remember the shipping contains that I mentioned as units of scale in a modern datacentre? Here are a few stats about Microsoft’s Azure datacentres:

  • Each datacentre runs at around 95°F (or 35°C): that’s pretty warm but, even though there is air conditioning installed, it’s rarely used, as the containers are self-cooling (using a water system).
  • Containers are stacked in units that are two high and then connected to power, water and networks. (Now that’s some appliance!)

Microsoft's Azure appliances

  • Each container unit contains around 2500 servers and a whole datacentre has 360,000 servers.

Inside onr of the containers

  • The containers are normally dark – I described resource decay in my earlier post – that means that it’s rarely necessary to enter the datacentre.
  • In fact, the datacentres are so highly automated, that there are just 12 staff: 9 armed security guards and 3 administrators. (I’m guessing that’s working 3 shifts, so only 3 or 4 on duty at any one time.)
  • Humans are never alone – systems exist to ensure that people can only enter in pairs, and leave in pairs too.
  • So far, Microsoft has spent $2.5bn on its six Azure data centres, with more planned (and that doesn’t include the datacentres for its other operations).

Designing a private cloud infrastructure

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 14 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

A couple of months ago, Facebook released a whole load of information about its servers and datacentres in a programme it calls the Open Compute Project. At around about the same time, I was sitting in a presentation at Microsoft, where I was introduced to some of the concepts behind their datacentres.  These are not small operations – Facebook’s platform currently serves around 600 million users and Microsoft’s various cloud properties account for a good chunk of the Internet, with the Windows Azure appliance concept under development for partners including Dell, HP, Fujitsu and eBay.

It’s been a few years since I was involved in any datacentre operations and it’s interesting to hear how times have changed. Whereas I knew about redundant uninterruptible power sources and rack-optimised servers, the model is now about containers of redundant servers and the unit of scale has shifted.  An appliance used to be a 1U (pizza box) server with a dedicated purpose but these days it’s a shipping container full of equipment!

There’s also been a shift from keeping the lights on at all costs, towards efficiency. Hardly surprising, given that the IT industry now accounts for around 3% of the world’s carbon emissions and we need to reduce the environmental impact.  Google’s datacentre design best practices are all concerned with efficiency: measuring power usage effectiveness; measuring managing airflow; running warmer datacentres; using “free” cooling; and optimising power distribution.

So how do Microsoft (and, presumably others like Amazon too) design their datacentres? And how can we learn from them when developing our own private cloud operations?

Some of the fundamental principles include:

  1. Perception of infinite capacity.
  2. Perception of continuous availability.
  3. Drive predictability.
  4. Taking a service provider approach to delivering infrastructure.
  5. Resilience over redundancy mindset.
  6. Minimising human involvement.
  7. Optimising resource usage.
  8. Incentivising the desired resource consumption behaviour.

In addition, the following concepts need to be adopted to support the fundamental principles:

  • Cost transparency.
  • Homogenisation of physical infrastructure (aggressive standardisation).
  • Pooling compute resource.
  • Fabric management.
  • Consumption-based pricing.
  • Virtualised infrastructure.
  • Service classification.
  • Holistic approach to availability.
  • Computer resource decay.
  • Elastic infrastructure.
  • Partitioning of shared services.

In short, provisioning the private cloud is about taking the same architectural patterns that Microsoft, Amazon, et al use for the public cloud and implementing them inside your own data centre(s). Thinking service, not server to develop an internal infrastructure as a service (IaaS) proposition.

I won’t expand on all of the concepts here (many are self-explanitory), but some of the key ones are:

  • Create a fabric with resource pools of compute, storage and network, aggregated into logical building blocks.
  • Introduced predictability by defining units of scale and planning activity based on predictable actions (e.g. certain rates of growth).
  • Design across fault domains – understand what tends to fail first (e.g. the power in a rack) and make sure that services span these fault domains.
  • Plan upgrade domains (think about how to upgrade services and move between versions so service levels can be maintained as new infrastructure is rolled out).
  • Consider resource decay – what happens when things break?  Think about component failure in terms of service delivery and design for that. In the same way that a hard disk has a number of spare sectors that are used when others are marked bad (and eventually too many fail, so the disk is replaced), take a unit of infrastructure and leave faulty components in place (but disabled) until a threshold is crossed, after which the unit is considered faulty and is replaced or refurbished.

A smaller company, with a small datacentre may still think in terms of server components – larger organisations may be dealing with shipping containers.  Regardless of the size of the operation, the key to success is thinking in terms of services, not servers; and designing public cloud principles into private cloud implementations.

Azure Connect – the missing link between on-premise and cloud

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 14 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

Azure Connect offers a way to connect on-premise infrastructure with Windows Azure but it’s lacking functionality that may hinder adoption.

While Microsoft is one of the most dominant players in client-server computing, until recently, its position in the cloud seemed uncertain.  More recently, we’ve seen Microsoft lay out its stall with both Software as a Service (SaaS) products including Office 365 and Platform as a Service (PaaS) offerings such as Windows Azure joining their traditional portfolio of on-premise products for consumers, small businesses and enterprise customers alike.

Whereas Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Simple Storage Service (S3) offer virtualised Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Salesforce.com is about consumption of Software as a Service (SaaS), Windows Azure fits somewhere in between. Azure offers compute and storage services, so that an organisation can take an existing application, wrap a service model around it and specify how many instances to run, how to persist data, etc.

Microsoft also provides middleware to support claims based authentication and an application fabric that allows simplified connectivity between web services endpoints, negotiating firewalls using outbound connections and standard Internet protocols. In addition, there is a relational database component (SQL Azure), which exposes relational database services for cloud consumption, in addition to the standard Azure table storage.

It all sounds great – but so far everything I’ve discussed runs on a public cloud service and not all applications can be moved in their entirety to the cloud.

Sometimes makes it makes sense to move compute operations to the cloud and keep the data on-premise (more on that in a moment). Sometimes, it’s appropriate to build a data hub with multiple business partners connecting to a data source in cloud but with applications components in a variety of locations.

For European CIOs, information security, in particular data residency, is a real issue. I should highlight that I’m not a legal expert, but CIO Magazine recently reported how the Patriot Act potentially gives the United States authorities access to data hosted with US-based service providers – and selecting a European data centre won’t help.  That might make CIOs nervous about placing certain types of data in the cloud although they might consider a hybrid cloud solution.

Azure already provides federated security, application layer connectivity (via AppFabric) and some options for SQL Azure data synchronisation (currently limited to synchronisation between Microsoft data centres, expanding later this year to include synchronisation with on-premise SQL Server) but the missing component has been the ability to connect Windows Azure with on-premise infrastructure and applications. Windows Azure Connect provides this missing piece of the jigsaw.

Azure Connect is a new component for Windows Azure that provides secure network communications between compute instances in Azure and servers on premise (ie behind the corporate firewall). Using standard IP protocols (both TCP and UDP) it’s possible to take a web front end to the cloud and leave the SQL Server data on site, communicating over a virtual private network, secured with IPSec. In another scenario, a compute instance can be joined to an on-premise Active Directory  domain so a cloud-based application can take advantage of single sign-on functionality. IT departments can also use Azure Connect for remote administration and troubleshooting of cloud-based computing instances.

Currently in pre-release form, Microsoft is planning to make Azure Connect available during the first half of 2011. Whilst setup is relatively simple and requires no coding, Azure Connect is reliant on an agent running on the connected infrastructure (ie on each server that connects to Azure resources) in order to establish IPSec connectivity (a future version of Azure Connect will be able to take advantage of other VPN solutions). Once the agent is installed, the server automatically registers itself with the Azure Connect relay in the cloud and network policies are defined to manage connectivity. All that an administrator has to do is to enable Windows Azure roles for external connectivity via the service model; enable local computers to initiate an IPSec connection by installing the Azure Connect agent; define network policies and, in some circumstances, define appropriate outbound firewall rules on servers.

The emphasis on simplicity is definitely an advantage as many Azure operations seem to require developer knowledge and this is definitely targeted at Windows Administrators. Along with automatic IPSec provisioning (so no need for certificate servers) Azure Connect makes use of DNS so that there is no requirement to change application code (the same server names can be used when roles move between the on premise infrastructure and Azure).

For some organisations though, the presence of the Azure Connect agent may be seen as a security issue – after all, how many database servers are even Internet-connected? That’s not insurmountable but it’s not the only issue with Azure Connect.

For example, connected servers need to run Windows Vista, 7, Server 2008, or Server 2008 R2 [a previous version of this story erroneously suggested that only Windows Server 2008 R2 was supported] and many organisations will be running their applications on older operating system releases. This means that there may be server upgrade costs to consider when integrating with the cloud – and it certainly rules out any heterogeneous environments.

There’s an issue with storage. Windows Azure’s basic compute and storage services can make use of table-based storage. Whilst SQL Azure is available for applications that require a relational database, not all applications have this requirement – and SQL Azure presents additional licensing costs as well as imposing additional architectural complexity.  A significant number of cloud-based applications make use of table storage or combination of table storage and SQL Server – for them, the creation of a hybrid model for customers that rely on on-premise data storage may not be possible.

For many enterprises, Azure Connect will be a useful tool in moving applications (or parts of applications) to the cloud. If Microsoft can overcome the product’s limitations, it could represent a huge step forward for Microsoft’s cloud services in that it provides a real option for development of hybrid cloud solutions on the Microsoft stack, but there still some way to go.

[This post was originally written as an article for Cloud Pro.]

Microsoft Solution Accelerators

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 15 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

Microsoft’s Solution Accelerators have been around for a while now and, as the name suggests, are intended to accelerate the deployment of solutions built on Microsoft technology.  Each solution accelerator is a free download from the Microsoft website but they don’t seem to be as well-known as they should be – with many IT organisations still producing their own documentation or purchasing third party tools that duplicate this free of charge functionality.

One of the earliest solution accelerators I worked with was the Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) toolkit, which has since made major advances in its maturity and is now known as the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT).  This is just one of the more commonly used accelerators though – the full list of solution accelerators covers a diverse set of technologies from using Windows PE to create a malware removal kit to migrating custom Unix applications to discovering the ports used by Windows Server System products to planning for payment card industry (PCI) compliance.

As the complete set of solution accelerators is so extensive, and growing, it’s not practical to go into detail about each one but here are just a few that technical architects and administrators might find useful:

  • Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) Guides: intended to complement product documentation by focusing on infrastructure design options, each guide leads the reader through critical infrastructure design decisions, in the appropriate order, evaluating the available options for each decision against its impact on critical characteristics of the infrastructure. The IPD Series highlights when service and infrastructure goals should be validated with the organization and provides additional questions that should be asked of service stakeholders and decision makers.
  • Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit: an agentless toolkit that finds computers on a network and performs a detailed inventory using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and the Remote Registry Service. The data and analysis provided by this toolkit can significantly simplify the planning process for migrating to a variety of Microsoft products including device driver availability and recommendations for hardware upgrades.  MAP can also be used to gather performance metrics from computers being considered for virtualisation before modelling a library of potential host hardware and storage configurations for “what-if” analysis.
  • Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT): MDT is the recommended process and toolset for automating Windows desktop and server deployment, providing unified tools and processes in a common deployment console together with guidance documents for reduced deployment time and standardised desktop and server images, along with improved security and ongoing configuration management.  MDT can integrate with System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007 and Windows deployment tools for zero touch deployment and, for those without an SCCM infrastructure, MDT makes use of Windows deployment tools for lite touch deployments.
  • Microsoft Security Compliance Manager: Intended to reduce the time and cost associated with hardening the security of and infrastructure this solution accelerator provides access to the complete database of Microsoft recommended security settings so that baselines can be created and exported in multiple formats including .XLS, Group Policy objects (GPOs), Desired Configuration Management (DCM) packs, or Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) to automate the security baseline deployment and compliance verification process.
  • Service Level Dashboard Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager (SCOM): This dashboard integrates with SCOM 2007 R2 to assist in tracking, managing, and reporting on line-of-business (LOB) application service level compliance, displaying a list of applications and their performance and availability against a target service level agreement (SLA). 
  • Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF): Providing is practical guidance for IT organisations, MOF reflects a single, comprehensive IT service lifecycle to help IT professionals connect service management principles to everyday IT tasks and activities in order to ensure alignment between IT and the business.  Where ITIL is descriptive and describes “what to do”, MOF is prescriptive and provides the “how to do it” guidance.
  • IT Compliance Management Guide: Intended for IT managers, professionals, and partners who configure Microsoft products to address specific IT governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) requirements, implementation of the recommendations in this series of guides allows enforcement and management of IT GRC requirements to be shifted onto the underlying Microsoft technologies.

There are also a huge number of specific solution accelerators for given technology scenarios: like servicing offline virtual machines, applying the principle of least user access (LUA) to user accounts on Windows XP, using Windows security and directory services with Unix or server and domain isolation using IPSec and Group Policy, as well as product operations guides for Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, file services, print services, etc. and migration guidance for scenarios such as Novell NetWare to Windows Server or Oracle on Unix to SQL Server on Windows.  These are just a few examples so check out the full list of Microsoft Solution Accelerators for more options.

For more information on solution accelerators (e.g. new releases and updates), register for Microsoft’s Solution Accelerator Notifications newsletter.

After hours at UK TechDays

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 15 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

Over the last few years, I’ve attended (and blogged in detail about) a couple of “after hours” events at Microsoft – looking at some of the consumer-related items that we might do with out computers outside of work (first in May 2007 and then in November 2008).

Tonight I was at another one – an evening event to complement the UK TechDays events taking place this week in West London cinemas – and, unlike previous after hours sessions, this one did not even try and push Microsoft products at us (previous events felt a bit like Windows, Xbox and Live promotions at time) – it just demonstrated a whole load of cool stuff that people might want to take a look at.

I have to admit I nearly didn’t attend – the daytime UK TechDays events have been a little patchy in terms of content quality and I’m feeling slightly burned out after what has been a busy week with two Windows Server User Group evening events on top of UK TechDays and the normal work e-mail triage activities.  I’m glad I made it though and the following list is just a few of the things we saw Marc Holmes, Paul Foster and Jamie Burgess present tonight:

  • A discussion of some of the home network functionality that the guys are using for media, home automation etc. – predictably a huge amount of Microsoft media items (Media Center PCs, Windows Home Server, Xbox 360, etc.) but also the use of  X10, Z-Wave or RFXcom for pushing USB or RF signals around for home automation purposes, as well as Ethernet over power line for streaming from Media Center PCs.  Other technologies discussed included: Logitech’s DiNovo Edge keyboard and Harmony One universal remote control; SiliconDust HD HomeRun for sharing DVB-T TV signals across Ethernet to PCs; using xPL to control home automation equipment.
  • Lego Mindstorms NXT for building block robotics, including the First Lego League –  to inspire young people to get involved with science and technology in a positive way.
  • Kodu Game Lab – a visual programming language made specifically for creating games that is designed to be accessible for children and enjoyable for anyone.
  • Developing XNA games with XNA Game Studio and Visual Studio, then deploying them to Xbox or even running them in the Windows Phone emulator!  Other related topics included the use of the Freescale Flexis JM Badge board to integrate an accelerometer with an XNA game and GoblinXNA for augmented reality/3D games development.  There’s also a UK XNA user group.
  • A look at how research projects (from Microsoft Research) move into Labs and eventually become products after developers have optimised and integrated them.  Microsoft spent $9.5bn on research and development in 2009 and some of the research activities that have now made it to life include Photosynth (which became a Windows client application and is now included within Silverlight), the Seadragon technologies which also became a part of Silverlight (Deep Zoom) and are featured in the Hard Rock Cafe Memorabilia site.  A stunning example is Blaise Aguera y Arcas’ TED 2010 talk on the work that Microsoft is doing to integrate augmented reality maps in Bing – drawing on the Seadragon technologies to provide fluidity whilst navigating maps in 3D but that environment can be used as a canvas for other things – like streetside photos (far more detailed than Google Streetview).  In his talk (which is worth watching and embedded below), Blaise navigates off the street and actually inside Seattle’s Pike Place market before showing how the Microsoft imagery can be integrated with Flickr images (possibly historical images for “time travel”) and even broadcasting live video.  In addition to the telepresence (looking from the outside in), poins of interest can be used to look out when on the ground and get details of what’s around and even looking up to the sky and seeing integration with the Microsoft Research WorldWide Telescope.
  • Finally, Paul spoke about his creation of a multitouch (Surface) table for less than £100 (using CCTV infrared cameras, a webcam with the IR filter removed and NUI software – it’s now possible to do the same with Windows 7) and a borrowed projector before discussing his own attempts at virtual reality in his paddock at home.

Whilst I’m unlikely to get stuck into all of these projects, there is plenty of geek scope here – I may have a play with home automation and it’s good to know some of the possibilities for getting my kids involved with creating their own games, robots, etc. As for Blaise Aguera y Arcas’ TED 2010 talk it was fantastic to see how Microsoft still innovates and (I only wish that all of the Bing features were available globally… here in the UK we don’t have all of the functionality that’s available stateside).

Three phases of Microsoft support

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 15 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

The Microsoft support lifecycle policy has been around since October 2002 but still seems to be a source of confusion for many.  In effect, there are three phases of support:

  • Mainstream support provides full product support, including security updates, hotfixes and the ability to raise product enhancement requests.
  • Extended support means that a product is on its way towards retirement and, in order to open a support case on a products in its extended support phase, a Premier Support contract with Microsoft is required. There is a higher risk involved in relying on products in their extended support phase (when compared with mainstream support products) as extended support is only available for business and developer products – and it does not allow product enhancement requests, or non-security updates (unless an Extended Hotfix Support Agreement is available – more on that in a moment…).
  • Self-help means “Google it!” as Microsoft will not accept support requests for products in this phase.  The Microsoft knowledge base is available, as are all the resources of the Internet, but the risks involved with of running out-of-support products is high.

For business and developer products, there is normally 5 years of mainstream support, followed by 5 years of extended support.  Self-help via the Microsoft online support site will be available for at least 10 years.  There are some exceptions (e.g. Windows XP) as these products predate the support lifecycle policy.  For consumer products there is no extended support, just 5 years of mainstream support, and the commitment to self-help from Microsoft is 8 years.

Microsoft does have support solutions for individual customers that are forced to stray outside mainstream support.  Extended Hotfix Support agreements allow customers to request non-security hotfixes for products in their extended support phase and these agreements involve substantial fees (for the agreement, and for every non-security hotfix requested). Furthermore, there is no contractual commitment from Microsoft to agree to a hotfix request. Custom Support agreements are prohibitively expensive and designed to provide limited support during the self-help
support phase. These agreements are product- and customer-specific.

Finally, be aware that the support lifecycle does not just apply to product versions, but service pack and cumulative update versions too.

Did you miss TechEd? Here come the UK TechDays

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 15 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

UK Tech Days is a week-long series of free events run by Microsoft and technical communities to celebrate and inspire developers, IT professionals and IT Managers to get more from Microsoft technology.  Over 5 days (12th to 16th April 2010), Microsoft is running 10 all-day events covering the latest technology releases with topics including Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, Office 2010, virtualisation, Silverlight, Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 R2, Windows deployment and an IT Manager day.  In addition to the main events, held in West London Cinema locations, various user groups will be organising fringe events (Mark Parris is working hard on something for the Windows Server User Group… more details to follow).

Full event details (and registration links) are available on the UK TechDays site but here’s a brief rundown of the main attractions.

Developer Days at Fulham Vue Cinema:

  • Monday, 12 April 2010: Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 launch - a path to big ideas. This launch event is aimed at development managers, heads of development and software architects who want to hear how Visual Studio 2010 can help build better applications whilst taking advantage of great integration with other key technologies.  (Day 2 will cover the technical in-depth sessions aimed at developers.)
  • Tuesday, 13 April 2010: Getting started with Microsoft .NET Framework 4 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. Microsoft and industry experts will share their perspectives on the top new and useful features with core programming languages and in the framework and tooling, such as — ASP.NET MVC, parallel programming, Entity Framework 4, and the offerings around rich client and web development experiences.
  • Wednesday, 14 April 2010: The essential MIX – exploring the art and science of creating great user experiences. Learn about the next generation ASP.NET and Silverlight platforms.
  • Thursday, 15 April 2010: Best of breed client applications on Microsoft Windows 7. Windows 7 adoption is moving at a startling pace. In this demo-driven day, Microsoft will look at the developer landscape around Windows 7 – the operating system for applications running on through the new decade.
  • Friday, 16 April 2010: Windows Phone day. A practical day of detailed Windows Phone 7 Series development sessions covering the new Windows Phone specification, application standards and services.

IT Professional and IT Manager Days at Shepherds Bush Vue Cinema:

  • Monday, 12 April 2010: Virtualisation summit – From the desktop to the datacentre. Designed to provide an understanding of the key products and technologies enabling seamless physical and virtual management, interoperable tools, cost-savings and value.
  • Tuesday, 13 April 2010: Office 2010 – Experience the next wave in business productivity. The event will cover how the improvements to Office, SharePoint, Exchange, Project and Visio will provide a practical platform that will allow IT professionals to not only solve problems and deliver business value, but also demonstrate this value to IT stakeholders.
  • Wednesday, 14 April 2010: Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 – deployment made easy. This event will provide an understanding of key tools including the new Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010, Windows Deployment services and the Application Compatibility Toolkit along with considerations for deploying Windows Server 2008 R2 and migrating server roles.
  • Thursday, 15 April 2010: SQL Server 2008 R2 – The information platform. Highlighting the new capabilities of the latest SQL Server release, as well as diving into specific topics, such as consolidating SQL Server databases, tips and techniques for performance monitoring and tuning as well, and a look at the newly released cloud platform (SQL Azure).
  • Friday, 16 April 2010 (IT Managers): Looking ahead, keeping the boss happy and raising the profile of IT.  IT Managers have more and more responsibilities to drive and support the direction of the business. Explore the various trends and technologies that can bring IT to the top table, from score-carding to data governance and cloud computing.

I’ve been waiting for this announcement for a few weeks now, and places are (very) limited, so,  if these topics are of interest to you, I suggest registering quickly!

Safer Internet Day: Educating parents on Internet safety for their children

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 15 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that today is European Safer Internet Day and, here in the UK a number of organisations are working with the Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre (CEOP) to educate parents and children in safe use of the Internet.  I don’t work for Microsoft but, as an MVP, I was invited to join in and tonight I’ll be delivering a session to parents at my son’s school, using Microsoft’s presentation deck (although it has to be said that this is not a marketing deck – it’s full of real-world examples and practical advice about protecting children and young people from the specific dangers the Internet can pose, whilst allowing them to make full use of the ‘net’s many benefits: turning it off is not the answer).

The BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones has reported some of the activities for Safer Internet Day; although the Open Rights Group’s suggestion that this is all about scoring a publicity hit for a little cost are a little cynical – Microsoft has a social responsibility role to play and by working with CEOP to produce an IE 8 browser add-in the UK subsidiary’s activities are laudable.  If other browser-makers want to follow suit – then they can also work with CEOP (ditto for the social networking sites that have yet to incorporate the Report Abuse button).  Indeed, quoting from James O’Neill’s post this morning:

“We are part of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) and Gordon [Frazer – Microsoft UK MD and VP Microsoft International]’s mail also said ‘This year as part of the ‘Click Clever Click Safe’ campaign UKCCIS will be launching a new digital safety code for children – ‘Zip It, Block It, Flag It’. Over 100 Microsoft volunteers will be out in schools in the UK teaching young people and parents alike about child online safety and helping build public awareness for simple safety tips.

Our volunteering activities today mark our strong commitment to child online safety. Online safety is not only core to our business, as exemplified by particular features in Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) and our work in developing the Microsoft Child Exploitation Tracking System (CETS) which helps law enforcement officials collaborate and share information with other police services to manage child protection cases, but it is also an issue that our employees, many parents themselves, take very seriously. As a company we put a great deal of faith in our technology, however, we are also aware that the tools we provide have to be used responsibly.”

Anyway, I digress – part of the presentation I’ll be giving this evening will include a fact sheet, produced by Microsoft, that I’ll leave with parents and I’d like to repeat some of the advice it contains here (with a few edits of my own…).

Safety Considerations

The Internet is a fantastic resource for young people but we must remember that the same as in the real world, there can be potential dangers to consider:

  • Control – Personal information can be easily accessed if it is posted online. Consider what information about your child someone could access online.
  • Contact – Paedophiles use the Internet to meet young people and build up a relationship.  This is often done in a public environment such as a chat room or online game before trust is built up to become an online friend for 1-1 conversations.
  • Cyberbulling – Other people may make use of technology to bully a young person 24/7.  By using online technology a bully can gain an instant and wide audience for their bullying. Cyberbullying can be threats and intimidation as well as harassment and peer rejection.
  • Content – The Internet can contain inappropriate images of violence and pornography that you might be unhappy for your child to have access to.

Top Tips for Parents

These simple rules can help to keep children safe:

  • Keep your PC in an open space where possible to encourage communication.
  • Discuss the programs your children use.
  • Keep communication open with regards to who they are chatting to online.
  • Discuss their list of contacts and check they know all those they have accepted as friends.
  • Consider using the same technology so you can understand how it works.
  • Talk to your children about keeping their information and photos private using privacy settings on sites such as Bebo and Facebook.
  • Teach your children what personal information is and that they shouldn’t share it online with people they don’t know.
  • Make use of Parental Controls where available. These can allow you to control the amount of time your children are online, the sites they can access and the people they can talk to.   Controls are available for many products including Windows (Vista and 7), Mac OS X, Xbox and Windows Live (Family Safety), or more technical users might consider using an alternative DNS provider such as OpenDNS.

Some useful links include:

How to Get Help

For Young People:

For Adults:

  • Adults can speak to The Samaritans. The Samaritans provide confidential emotional support for people who are in emotional distress. If you are worried, feel upset or confused and just want to talk you can email the Samaritans or phone 08457 90 90 90.

I forgot that presenting at a school where I have an association means that some of the people in the audience are my friends (blurring my personal/professional boundary…) but hey, there are some important messages at stake here.  If all goes well tonight, I’ll be contacting other schools in the area to do something similar.

[Updated 24 November 2014: CBBC Stay Safe link updated; Metropolitan Police link added]

Raising parents’ Internet awareness

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 15 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

UK-based readers of this blog who also subscribe to Microsoft’s UK TechNet Newsletter may have noticed a reference to the upcoming European Safer Internet Day. Quoting from the newsletter:

“To support the day and the launch of the new digital code for children, Microsoft is offering all UK schools the opportunity to host their own parent’s awareness session. These virtual sessions offer the opportunity to host a parents evening with a web cast presentation led by a Microsoft volunteer to inform and educate parents on the technology their children are using and how they can keep them safe when online. To find out more or to book a presentation for your school please call Karina Gibson […]”

[Microsoft TechNet Newsletter, 21 January 2010]

I was able to see Karina present this session a few months ago, and I have to admit that I found it a moving and worthwhile experience – my children are still very young but it certainly taught me some of the issues that children and young people face in our online society and what parents can be doing to support safe Internet usage (turning it off is not the answer!). Consequently, I’m now liaising with my local schools and hope to be delivering at least one session soon. If you want to know more – contact Karina Gibson at Microsoft UK (I’ve left her contact details out of this blog post to avoid spam, but the Microsoft UK switchboard number is 0870 60 10 100).