Microsoft have just announced a new certification geared to help you prove your skills on Server 2008 R2 and System Center 2012 – together the essential ingredients for building, monitoring and operating your private cloud.
Most of our IT Academy students will already have achieved Step 1 and will be just 2 exams short of this exciting new certification.
Contact the academy for more information, or to schedule your exam at our test centre.
For me that was a few years at least. Yes I do have a MCSE. Which one(s) do I hold? (Does it matter really?) However they were hugely prized “back in the day” so I know some of you will want to know: was it obtained on Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003?
Actually mine was the latest one issued – Windows Server 2003 (which I earned in early 2005). For the newbies reading this, you could indeed be thinking, hold on… why am I reading a blog post about a certification released 9 years ago on technology that is equally old, no longer available to purchase and now nearing the end of its’ useful life? That is the point, people still do care, and passionately. Don’t get me wrong – I am very happy with what those 4 letters signified, proud and pleased to have achieved the certification, however I just doubt the validity of the usefulness now when applied to technology of today.
Well I brought up the topic to show how *some* people still rely on using this aged qualification as if it is like a support, or a throw-back to days when MCSE’s ruled the IT world back in the year 2003 when Concorde made its last commercial supersonic flight. A truly great icon of flight now no longer with us. Talking about flights – last week, I was doing some preparation for a course I am delivering later this month and I reached for a Server 2008 R2 book on my e-reader, and on the front cover the authors’ name was written as “Jingly Keyring, MCSE” (name have been changed to protect the author).
I thought it was funny, to see MCSE again, used as a badge of honor, especially on a book relating to a technology which effectively terminated that legacy acronym. In my world there are no Windows Server 2003 machines left whatsoever, and I doubt/hope I will ever see one again. Admittedly Server 2003 was a great, stable server operating system.
The next certification I will be proud to shout about will be one that qualifies me as proficient on the next version of Windows Server, whatever it may be called, and whenever it arrives…
Student run society York Entrepreneurs’ annual competition, The Market, concluded recently with the winning team taking home £1000.
13 teams took part in the four day competition completing three tasks aimed at rebranding York, to test teams’ “advertising, marketing, design and teamwork skills”.
Team Cognate, made up of Psychology students Jack Blake, Ros Baker, Joy Bothamley and Daniel Bennett, was crowned winners with Team Zeal and Team Prima coming joint second.
Amanda Selvaratnam, Head of Continuing Professional Development at University of York, attending the event said "from an employability perspective, the skills that these students are developing are vital to the workplace."
If your company would like help from students, and would like to set them a challenge, please get in touch!
We have all heard that Social Media is growing very fast, but how do Small Businesses view SM? Many just “do not get it” and simply have too few resources (people, time and cash) to do anything about it.
Take a look at the infographic below, but if you do nothing else do this:
Register your company name now, so that as your business grows, you will still be able to “join in” when the time is right.
We continue will share some deployment tips and tricks, resources and guides for businesses looking to move away from Windows XP, Vista and older operating systems to the most advanced Microsoft operating system Windows 7.
Sit back, buckle in, and get deploying!
WIM Part 2: Understanding Single-Instance Storage
One of the great features of the WIM format is that it allows you to consolidate your images i.e. the ability to store multiple images within a single WIM file. The WIM format does this through compression, and single-instance storage (SIS).
What exactly is SIS? SIS is a technique that used to be referred to as single-instance store. This technique has been used across multiple Microsoft products to include Microsoft Storage Server and Microsoft Exchange, and has been around since Windows 2000 Server. SIS provides the ability to remove file duplication to optimize storage capacity. Using the secure hash algorithm 1 (SHA-1) a hash value is determined for each file within the image. SIS will then identify duplicate files based on this hash value and transparently replace the duplicate files with file system links to a single copy of the file retained in a common store.
When combining like OS images, it is not uncommon to see a more than 60 percent reduction in size in comparison to multiple separate image files see the image below where W2k8.wim represents three WIMs combined into one.
Other Resources:
Windows Imaging Format – Wikipedia
Windows Imaging File Format (WIM – Windows Client TechCenter
Windows 7 Desktop Deployment Overview (TechNet Library)
Finally:
Put Your Deployment Skills To The Test – at the Springboard Series Blog
Hope you get the picture – Windows Deployment is not difficult and the benefits can be huge; more security, more productivity and a much lower ROI for your business. Let us know how you get on!
We continue will share some deployment tips and tricks, resources and guides for businesses looking to move away from Windows XP, Vista and older operating systems to the most advanced Microsoft operating system Windows 7.
Sit back, buckle in, and get deploying!
Understanding the Windows WIM format
The Microsoft Windows Imaging File (WIM) format was first introduced in Microsoft Windows Vista – so it is not *that* new. This is a classic case of if you tried out Vista then you are well on your way to understanding how to deploy Windows 7!
The WIM format is a file-based disk format that was designed to replace the more commonly used sector-based disk format. The two file formats differ in that the sector-based format is captured based on the actual sectors of a physical disk, while the file-based format is captured based on just the files on the disk.
Microsoft created the WIM format for more flexibility and control. The WIM format is completely hardware-agnostic. You can capture and deploy from any system. A WIM can also be serviced offline, meaning you can selectively add, copy and delete files, drivers or even apply patches without having to re-create your image. WIM images can also be marked bootable, allowing the ability to start a machine from an image within the WIM. You can apply WIM images to partitions of any size regardless of the size of the disk from which the image was captured. WIMs also allow for the option of non-destructive deployment, meaning application of the WIM won’t erase the pre-existing data of the disk.
The WIM format also provides the ability to store multiple images within one file, and it takes advantage of the single-instance storage of file resources and file compression techniques to decrease the actual image size. A WIM can also be spanned across multiple discs, allowing you to use a different medium for storage, CD vs. DVD.
Other Resources:
Windows Imaging Format – Wikipedia
Windows Imaging File Format (WIM – Windows Client TechCenter
Windows 7 Desktop Deployment Overview (TechNet Library)
Finally:
Put Your Deployment Skills To The Test – at the Springboard Series Blog
Hope you get the picture – Windows Deployment is not difficult and the benefits can be huge; more security, more productivity and a much lower ROI for your business. Let us know how you get on!
We continue will share some deployment tips and tricks, resources and guides for businesses looking to move away from Windows XP, Vista and older operating systems to the most advanced Microsoft operating system Windows 7.
Sit back, buckle in, and get deploying!
Using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 to create standard images
OEM Pre-Installation provides flexibility over standard "thick" OEM pre-built images and simplifies initial setup by creating a local partition-based deployment share pre-configured by the OEM in the production process. When the user receives a new PC, the process to select role-specific applications, determine language, keyboard and locale preferences, join the domain and create the user account can be automated and completed when powering up the PC for the first time.
Video Tutorials:
Standard image for OEM
Other Resources:
Standard image strategy
Windows 7 Desktop Deployment Overview (TechNet Library)
Finally:
Put Your Deployment Skills To The Test – at the Springboard Series Blog
Hope you get the picture – Windows Deployment is not difficult and the benefits can be huge; more security, more productivity and a much lower ROI for your business. Let us know how you get on!
We continue will share some deployment tips and tricks, resources and guides for businesses looking to move away from Windows XP, Vista and older operating systems to the most advanced Microsoft operating system Windows 7.
Sit back, buckle in, and let’s get deploying!
Lite Touch Operating System Installation
MDT 2010 as we have seen is a powerful tool for deployment of Windows 7 (and of course other operating systems). Harnessing the "Lite Touch" strategy allows medium/large companies to deliver High-Volume Deployment in a streamlined approach. Of course Lite Touch can be used by any company which wants to benefit from reduced support costs through providing a more consistent configuration with fewer support calls.
The Lite Touch interaction occurs at the beginning of the installation, but the remainder of the process can be fully automated. The initial investment of learning to perform a Lite Touch installation is repaid through the ability to utilise the same process over and over again. This strategy is recommended if your organisation has a dedicated IT staff, and it has a managed network with 200–500 client computers. In our region Lite Touch is ideally placed for schools, colleges and FE institutions.
Video Tutorials:
Lite Touch Migration
Other Resources:
Lite Touch Deployment
Windows 7 Desktop Deployment Overview (TechNet Library)
Finally:
Put Your Deployment Skills To The Test – at the Springboard Series Blog
Hope you get the picture – Windows Deployment is not difficult and the benefits can be huge; more security, more productivity and a much lower ROI for your business. Let us know how you get on!
tags: Windows, Windows 7, Deployment, Springboard Series, IT Academy, Andrew Bettany, Migration, IT Pro, York
A new medium for sharing information across the web is starting to take hold. Small, one page graphically appealing “info graphics” produced to showcase and highlight and convey a message.
Here is one on the Microsoft Kinect I found on the Microsoft Education UK Blog
Kinect Effect Infographic
