Latest News from .NET Developer's Journal

Cloud Expo New York: Bridging IaaS and PaaS

Thu, 23 May 2013 09:00:00 EDT

As enterprises deploy private IaaS clouds into production they are reevaluating their future application delivery models. SUSE and WSO2 believe that private PaaS will leverage the automation and scalability of Private IaaS solutions, such as OpenStack-based SUSE Cloud, to deliver the secure, standardized development environments that will make migrating to an agile, serviceoriented delivery model possible. In their session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Chris Haddad, VP of Technology Evangelism at WSO2, and Frank Rego, Business Development Manager at SUSE, will show how the combination of IaaS and PaaS enables enterprises to more efficiently and flexibly tackle the challenges of the modern connected enterprise.

nfina Technologies to Exhibit at Cloud Expo New York

Wed, 22 May 2013 10:00:00 EDT

SYS-CON Events announced today that nfina Technologies, a provider of highly reliable cloud server products, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York. nfina Technologies develops, manufactures, and markets highly reliable cloud server products, designed to solve the most demanding data center requirements in mission-critical cloud applications. Nfina’s staff has decades of experience in computer design, network equipment design, manufacturing, data center design and financial management.

Cloud Expo New York: Is Your Organization 'Cloud-Ready'?

Wed, 22 May 2013 09:00:00 EDT

Organizations across the world are increasingly starting to see the benefits of moving more and more services to the cloud. The focus on the cost-saving potential of cloud is rapidly shifting to completely transforming the business with cloud. As organizations are investing enormous sums on technology they are starting to realize that in order to maximize the return on investment and accelerate the business transformation process the first area of focus should be people. By ensuring the organization is 'cloud-ready' the organizational adoption will be much faster and much better. A workforce ready and eager to maximize the potential value and benefit will more readily embrace a cloud strategy.

Windows Upgrade Will Be Free

Sat, 18 May 2013 09:00:00 EDT

A week after it confirmed the existence of the thing, Microsoft Tuesday disclosed a few more tidbits about its Windows 8 upgrade, codenamed Blue. The widgetry’s gonna be called Windows 8.1, as suspected, and it’s gonna be free for existing Windows 8 and RT customers. A preview will be out at Microsoft’s annual developer conference at the end of next month. Windows 8 hasn’t been the bestseller Microsoft hoped for and has supposedly confused the installed base with its looks, dictated by its touchscreen functionality. It’s even been blamed for the recent 14% drop in PC sales. As a for instance, HP just discounted Microsoft’s $500 ARM-based RT tablet by 40%. That includes added and the docking station. The final version should be out by the holidays and Microsoft imagines “continuously updating” the thing. Microsoft says it’s sold 100 million Windows 8 licenses, roughly as many as Windows 7 sold at this point in its release schedule. It’s still not clear what exactly will be different about Blue. A preview will be out June 26 timed to Microsoft’s Build developers’ conference. Changes could reportedly see a Start button returned to Windows and the system begin in desktop mode that’ll run older programs rather than with its touch-based tiles.

Microsoft Virtual Academy: Windows Azure for IT Pros

Thu, 16 May 2013 09:15:00 EDT

Folks, If you have been to any of my live presentations, recently, you have probably hear m get super jazzed about Windows Azure Infrastructure as a Service. I truly think this is the future of infrastructure for all businesses. I envision a world where new businesses starting up don’t have to invest in any server infrastructure at all and simply create everything they need in the cloud.

Microsoft Wants Nook: TechCrunch

Mon, 13 May 2013 08:30:00 EDT

Microsoft wants to buy Nook Media LLC, the Barnes & Noble’s digital and college books joint venture, for a billion dollars according to TechCrunch, which says it’s got internal documents to prove it. With Windows 8 in mind Microsoft bought 16.8% of the operation last year for $300 million plus another $180 million due sometime for Windows 8 content. Apparently it now just wants the e-book piece as well as Nook’s e-readers and tablets. That digital territory includes movies, TV, comics and apps. TechCrunch says Nook Media means to discontinue its Microsoft-opposing Android-based tablet business by the end of its fiscal 2014 year and move Nook content through apps on “third-party partner” devices although it just signed a deal to get Google Play and the entire Google mobile stack – Gmail, Chrome, YouTube and Google Maps – onto the platform.

Microsoft Blue over Windows 8, Retooling Underway

Mon, 13 May 2013 07:30:00 EDT

Roughly six months after Windows 8 came out at the end of October, Microsoft Tuesday confirmed reports that it’s been tinkering with the operating system to make it more popular. The radical redesign is supposed to have confused the buying public and created enough of a learning curve that IDC blamed the widgetry for the historic 14% drop in PC sales last quarter. As a result, Microsoft has been making changes in an upgrade called Windows Blue. Trying to deflect more negative perceptions, Tami Reller, co-captain of Microsoft’s Windows unit, told the press, “Frankly we…didn’t get everything we dreamed of done in the first release.” She also claimed that Microsoft knew it might have to make immediate adjustments since Windows 8 was so different from the traditional Windows.

Study Guide: Upgrade Your Microsoft Certification to MCSA Windows Server

Fri, 10 May 2013 15:37:59 EDT

I’ve assembled all of the relevant content from the Windows Server 2012 “Early Experts” Challenge program into an accelerated Certification Study Guide for IT Professionals targeting Exam 70-417, Upgrading Your Skills to MCSA Windows Server 2012. In this article, I’ll provide a summary of this Study Guide along with the information needed to receive your own copy of this Study Guide for FREE!

How to Successfully Build a Bootstrapping Software Business

Thu, 09 May 2013 11:00:00 EDT

Every young software business is different. Yet regardless of niche, competitive pressures or economic conditions, all startups face the same key issues. It’s possible to survive those hectic, early years as a bootstrapped business – even thrive during them. All you need is… 1) An idea for a software product that is needed on the market or a product that has passed its first function tests with flying colors. In other words, the market requires products that are great right from the start or that promise greatness. This leads right into 2) out into the world. In order to put the product onto the digital sales counter, you need an informative website with a web shop. It’s often a good idea to outsource the online shop to an external provider for the starting phase, and let them take care of sales in exchange for a low service cost. The benefits are obvious: you don’t have to bother with the details of billing, European (or other) value-added tax rules, returns or charging credit cards. Instead, you receive a monthly invoice detailing each transaction. This gives you the freedom to concentrate on your core task – product development.

Book Review: C# 5.0 Unleashed

Fri, 03 May 2013 12:45:00 EDT

In this version of the book the author still starts off by answering the question, "Why do we need another C# book?". I was asking myself that very question when I turned to the introduction of C# 4.0 Unleased which was the first version of this book I read. He says "In short, what sets this book apart from many others is its in-depth coverage of how things work." As far as C# 5.0 books go, I have read C# 5.0 in a Nutshell: The Definitive Reference, Pro C# 2012 and the .NET 4.5 Platform, Essential C# 5.0, and CLR via C# (Dev-Pro) . All very good books, very good!!! C# 5.0 Unleashed belongs on the shelf with them. The author does indeed break down the C# language in a unique and very enjoyable way.

Book Review: Secure Coding in C and C++ (2nd Edition)

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:00:00 EDT

This book is not only solid in the technical coverage it gives, it also gives a great overview of security concerns, history of how we got where we are, the types of threats and flaws that exist, who needs to be concerned, and what your role's responsibilities are in the security picture. It is amazing to see the data summarized in one place and how disturbing the data is. The amount of money lost to security issues is amazing. After reading the first chapter you can't help but to want to read the rest of the book. This second version of this book is not a small update. The first edition was 341 pages and the second edition is 569 pages. That is 228 more pages of new information added to existing chapters and a whole new chapter 7 on concurrency. I have listed the chapters below.

Microsoft Nails China’s ZTE for Android Royalties

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 10:45:00 EDT

Microsoft announced Tuesday that ZTE, one of the world’s biggest handset producers, had come to terms and signed a worldwide patent license agreement that will see Microsoft paid a royalty on all of the phones, tablets, computers and other devices the Chinese company makes that run Google’s Android and Chrome operating systems. It is Microsoft’s first such deal with a leading Chinese manufacturer and reportedly took two years to close. Microsoft deputy general counsel Horacio Gutierrez described the deal as similar to the one signed last week by Foxconn parent Hon Hai, which builds about 40% of the world’s smartphones. The ZTE arrangement leaves Google subsidiary Motorola Mobility inching closer to being the last man left standing.

Fancy That. Somebody Believes in Microsoft

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 07:30:00 EDT

Sometimes activist hedge fund ValueAct Capital Management LLP has up and plopped something like $1.9 billion into Microsoft’s stock with the expectation that it will amass more on the theory that the company is fundamentally undervalued.

Microsoft’s Quarter Shrugs Off Falling PC Sales

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 07:45:00 EDT

Microsoft shrugged off the precipitous downturn in PC sales and the diffident reception given Windows 8 Thursday when it posted record fiscal Q3 results. It returned 72 cents a share, up 19%, on revenues of $20.49 billion, up 18%, beating expectations of 68 cents, but coming up light on the top line which Wall Street thought would be $20.53 billion or thereabouts. In the same period last year Microsoft did 60 cents on $17.7 billion. Earnings took a nine-cent-a-share hit because of the European Commission’s latest $733 million fine.

Microsoft’s Reportedly Working on a Smartwatch

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 07:00:00 EDT

Asian suppliers told the Wall Street Journal that Microsoft has been sampling components including a 1.5-inch display for a potential touch-enabled smartwatch that would compete with a purported watch from Apple and others coming from Google and Samsung as well as the Martian Passport Watch and the Pebble wristwatch that sync with smartphones and vibrates to alert the wearer to incoming messages and calls. One executive said he met with Microsoft’s R&D people in Redmond but it’s unclear if the company will follow through.

Hon Hai to Pay ‘Microsoft Tax’ on Android, Chrome

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 09:00:00 EDT

Foxconn’s parent company Hon Hai, the world’s largest contract manufacturer, is going to pay Microsoft royalties on all the Android and Chrome widgets it makes including smartphones, tablets and televisions under the broad worldwide patent licensing agreement they’ve just cut. Hon Hai’s customers won’t have to worry anymore about getting sued by Microsoft for patent infringement. Hon Hai said its holds more than 54,000 patents itself and “We recognize and respect the importance of international efforts that seek to protect intellectual property. The licensing agreement with Microsoft represents those efforts and our continued support of international trade agreements that facilitate implementation of effective patent protection.” Microsoft could do quite nicely since Google chairman Eric Schmidt has been saying how he wants Android “everywhere.”

Ten Key Scenarios: Extend Your Network Today with Windows Azure

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 16:06:27 EDT

Today, April 16th 2013, the Windows Azure team has announced that Windows Azure Infrasructure Services ( Virtual Machines and Virtual Networks ) has been released for General Availability ( GA ) for production workloads! Over 200,000 customers are actively using Windows Azure as their cloud platform. In this article, I’ll review the step-by-step scenarios with which these customers have experienced great value – so that YOU can easily get started leveraging the low-cost and flexibility of Windows Azure Infrastructure Services, too – beginning TODAY!

Book Review: Database Design for Mere Mortals

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 09:45:00 EDT

This book is THE book for the database beginner. It thoroughly covers design principles and process, and it covers them in depth. The book is broken into four parts, Part I: Relational Database Design, Part II: The Design Process, Part III: Other Database Design Issues, and Part IV: Appendixes. Part I starts with a chapter that gives the history of databases and the path we took to get where we are. It continues with a chapter that covers the reason to have a good design methodology and what the goal of the methodology should be. Chapter three is really cool for those just getting into database design. It introduces some of the most common terminology used in the database design process. It is not just a glossary (which this book also has after the appendixes), it goes much further than just a definition and includes diagrams to help with the explanations.

Tool for Reverse-Engineering SharePoint 2007 / 2010 / 2013

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 09:23:00 EDT

I have upgraded the tool I created for reverse engineering SharePoint 2007 and 2010 into HTML, Text, and DGML Sitemaps to work with SharePoint 2013. The tool is now versioned at 1.5. You have to copy the appropriate folder instead of just the file (Version 1.0 was only one file) because the tool is dependent on the WPF Toolkit. The folder includes the WPF Toolkit DLL. There are no new features with this version. It is just an upgrade to work with SharePoint 2013. Current features include generating DGML diagrams which allow Root Sites to be put into groups, reports include information on Services running on the Server and the Farm, Database Sizes, user and group account information, and application pool information.

Book Review: Blender Master Class

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 10:00:00 EDT

Blender is a beast. At least to a guy like me that is usual in code and not in user interface tools. Sure I use Xcode, Eclipse, and Visual Studio but they just give me a place to code. I have used Photoshop, GIMP, and Expression Studio which make you depend on the tools available but Blender is in a class of its own. I have downloaded it in the past around the time Big Buck Bunny was first released. I spent a few weeks playing with it, but got nowhere. This book convinced me to take another crack at it and I am really glad I did. The book starts off with an introduction to Blender and a short introduction to GIMP. GIMP is another powerful open source tool the author uses for 2D image editing throughout the book. For a great book on GIMP check out The Book of GIMP: A Complete Guide to Nearly Everything . I have a review of that book here.

Step-by-Step: Tired of Tapes? Backup SQL Databases to the Cloud

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 10:00:00 EDT

I think every IT Pro I’ve ever met hates tape backups … but having an offsite component in your backup strategy is absolutely necessary for effective disaster recovery. One of the new features provided in SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1 Cumulative Update 2 is the ability to now backup SQL databases and logs to Windows Azure cloud storage using native SQL Server Backup via both Transact-SQL (T-SQL) and SQL Server Management Objects (SMO). Backup to cloud storage is a natural fit for disaster recovery, as our backups are instantly located offsite when completed. And, the pay-as-you-go model of cloud storage economics makes it really cost effective – Windows Azure storage costs are less than $100/TB per month for geo-redundant storage based on current published costs as of this article’s date. That’s less than the cost of a couple SDLT tapes! You can check out our current pricing model for Windows Azure Storage on our Price Calculator page. In this article, I’ll step through the process of using SQL Server 2012 SP1 CU2 native backup capabilities to create database backups on Windows Azure cloud storage...

Disabling DirectAccess Functionality in Windows 8

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 07:45:00 EDT

Let me start by saying I love DirectAccess in Windows 8. It’s great for accessing resources on the Microsoft network when I’m not in the office (which is about 90% of the time). DirectAccess, is case you aren’t aware of it, gives remote users (like yours truly) seamless access to corporate networks.

Holy Cybersquatting: Oops, There Went My Papal Domain Name!

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 04:15:00 EDT

According to a statement released today by Stephen Ewart, Marketing Manager for names.co.uk, over 600 domains were registered within hours of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio's anointment as the Head of the Catholic Church. But His Holiness is not the first high-profile world leader to forget about his domain name.

.NET and SharePoint Performance

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 10:00:00 EDT

SharePoint is a popular choice for intranet applications and therefore it is important that it performs well to ensure employee productivity. Waiting ten seconds just to load the initial dashboard doesn’t necessarily support that. At a recent customer engagement we identified an interesting source of a potential performance problem that impacts all SharePoint and .NET-based installations that use the ServicePointManager to access web services. It turns out that ServicePointManager comes with a default setting that allows two concurrent connections. If you happen to have a SharePoint dashboard that queries data from more than two data sources, your end users will suffer from a very long page load time. In this blog I explain the steps that one of our customers took to identify and solve this particular problem. This issue has a broader impact beyond SharePoint; I suggest all .NET developers to look into this issue.

Step-by-Step: Speaking iSCSI with Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 14:00:00 EDT

iSCSI? No problem! Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V Server 2012 include native support for a software iSCSI initiator as well as MPIO ( Multipath IO ) for resiliency and load balancing of storage IO over multiple network paths. In this article, we’ll walk through the process of connecting Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V Server 2012 to common iSCSI storage arrays. Because most of my IT Pro friends are running Hyper-V either on Windows Server 2012 Server Core or Hyper-V Server 2012, both options without a local console GUI, I’ll be providing my examples below in PowerShell. iSCSI? No problem! Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V Server 2012 include native support for a software iSCSI initiator as well as MPIO ( Multipath IO ) for resiliency and load balancing of storage IO over multiple network paths. In this article, we’ll walk through the process of connecting Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V Server 2012 to common iSCSI storage arrays. Because most of my IT Pro friends are running Hyper-V either on Windows Server 2012 Server Core or Hyper-V Server 2012, both options without a local console GUI, I’ll be providing my examples below in PowerShell.

EC Admits to Being ‘Naïve’

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 15:00:00 EDT

After fining Microsoft $733 million for unintentionally flouting an antitrust settlement with regulators, the European Commission took some of the blame. Antitrust czar Joaquín Almunia said the EU had been “naïve” to let Microsoft monitor its own adherence to the 2009 deal that let it escape a fine in exchange for offering European Windows users a choice of browsers. The non-appearance of the ballot screen was reported by Microsoft rivals and even that took a while. Almunia still wants to use such deals to avoid protracted legal battles but figures enforcement has to be tightened up and that the EC will be more inclined to use trustees. Whether that will happen now in Microsoft’s case is unclear.

Cloud Expo New York: Big Time - Introducing Hadoop on Azure

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 11:00:00 EDT

In the last couple of years Hadoop has become synonymous with Big Data. This framework is so vast and popular that Microsoft recently announced, for the first time in its history, that it is going to invest in this large-scale, open-source project as its solution for Big Data. In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Yaniv Rodenski, a Senior Consultant at Sela Group, will show how Hadoop works on Windows Azure including an exploration of different storage options, e.g., AVS and S3, how Hadoop on Azure integrates with other cloud services, understanding key scenarios for Hadoop in the Microsoft ecosystem, and discovering Hadoop’s role in a cloud environment.

Announcing the Windows Azure Hub on Channel 9

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 09:00:00 EDT

This may have flown under your radar, but several weeks ago we (that’s the royal Microsoft WE) launched a new hub for Windows Azure on Channel 9. This hub serves as an index and entry point for all video content related to Windows Azure. Since the launch we have already made progress on building a video library to help developers get started learning Windows Azure. Introduction videos have been created for core services like Mobile Services, Web Sites, Cloud Services, and SQL Databases.

SharePoint Gone Wild: Driving Up Adoption Levels

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 10:15:00 EST

In this post, I will cover adoption - one of the key things to be aware of when you're aiming for high adoption levels is that without focus on the aforementioned requirements, adoption will be low. I've been writing these in order for a reason - in order to drive high adoption levels, you must be able to address the other seven business drivers first. Adoption is one of the key ways to measure the return on investment, and overall success, for SharePoint as a service within an organization. What do we mean by SharePoint adoption? Different organizations measure adoption in different ways:

Windows Azure Mobile Services for Android

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 10:45:00 EST

Recently the Windows Azure Mobile Services team released official support for Android. Along with the SDK Microsoft has also written a number of tutorials to help you get started. The best place to start if you’ve never used Windows Azure Mobile Services before is the Getting started with Mobile Services tutorial. After you complete the initial walkthrough, there are a number of options you can look at depending on what your specific needs are. Get started with data - Learn how you can use Mobile Services to store and retrieve data from an app. Validate and modify data using server scripts - You can use server scripts to validate and modify data when you are inserting and updating it. This tutorial show you how to define and register server scripts with mobile services and how to modify your app to take advantage of the new behaviors you define through the scripts.

Android to Windows 8 | Part 1

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 09:00:00 EST

Over the past several weeks I’ve been working on some content I’m excited to finally share with you through a series of blog posts. This series will introduce you to Windows 8 development from an Android developer’s perspective. Through the course of the series you’ll create your first app. It won’t be anything pretty, but you’ll learn the ins and outs of the development environment, how to create a simple user interface, and how to perform navigation. Along the way you’ll see some Android Hints that will help make it easier for you to transition your existing skills to the Windows platform. You’ll also see some Visual Studio Tips to make you more productive in your development environment. Good luck!

Microsoft Fined $733M for Flouting Browser Pact

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 08:30:00 EST

The European Commission Wednesday levied a fine of €561 million ($733 million) on Microsoft for failing to keep its legally binding 2009 promise to offer European Windows users a choice of rival browsers. Microsoft claimed an accidental technical glitch prevented the new Windows 7 Service Pack 1 from displaying the agreed browser screen of 12 alternative browsers between May 2011 and July 2012. The original deal was to show the browser screen until 2014. The EC estimates that 15 million Europeans were never made aware that they could use a browser other than the default Internet Explorer. It also said that prior to May 2011 when the browser screen was available 84 million browsers were downloaded.

20 Days of 20 Ways - Migrating to Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 15:00:00 EST

As IT Pros, we absolutely love building with new technology! This month, my fellow IT Pro Technical Evangelists and I have been working together on an article series for Migration and Deployment of Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows Azure and System Center 2012 SP1 to help get you started. Many of these articles address common questions that I’ve discussed with IT Pros at a number of events, so I’m sure you’ll find this information valuable. In this article, I’ll provide a complete index to all articles in the series, just in case you missed any this month …

Nikon Signs Microsoft Android License

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 05:00:00 EST

Like Samsung, LG, HTC, Acer and Barnes & Noble before it, Nikon has signed up to pay Microsoft royalties for certain of its cameras running Android. The deal gives Nikon broad coverage under Microsoft’s patent portfolio. Microsoft said the agreement “demonstrates the value that both companies place on responsible IP licensing.” Microsoft has wracked up 1,100 licensing agreement since the end of 2003.

Deploying Windows 8 Apps with System Center 2012 Service Pack 1

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 10:00:00 EST

Among a whole host of new management features, Service Pack 1 for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager adds the ability to now deploy and manage Windows 8 apps for enterprises. These Windows 8 apps could be internal apps that have been created by your corporate developers, or they could simply be published Windows Store apps that you have reviewed and would now like to distribute to your Windows 8 users. In this article, I’ll step through the process of deploying internal Windows 8 apps and published Windows Store apps to users. If you’re familiar with prior releases of System Center 2012, you’ll note that this process is very similar to deploying traditional desktop apps to Windows clients – with some additional options to support the new Windows 8 app model. At the end of this article, I’ll also provide some additional resources that I’d encourage you to leverage as part of this Migration and Deployment article series with my fellow IT Pro Technical Evangelists.

SharePoint Gone Wild: When Governance Lacks Compliance

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 08:00:00 EST

When people think of "compliance" from a Microsoft SharePoint perspective, it can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. Every organization will have different considerations for compliance: Essentially, which regulations they need to comply with according to their specific industry vertical, including HIPAA/HITECH, DOD 5015, Section 508 and WCAG 1.0 and 2.0. There are two main drivers for compliance I see in organizations for SharePoint, due to the risk of non-compliance and subsequent legal and financial penalties: 1. Records Management 2. Legal e-Discovery

SharePoint Gone Wild: When Governance Lacks Discoverability | Part 3

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 08:00:00 EST

To continue this series, I want to focus on another key area called Discoverability. What does this term mean? Now, you would think with an enterprise search engine, managed metadata service application, content types with site columns, and versioning that this wouldn't be so difficult. In reality, however, it can often make this harder than just searching on a file system because the search crawlers do such a good job of surfacing everything! The biggest problem with search surfacing everything is that old data comes up in the search and, as discussed in my post on restrictions, unsecured data also bubbles up to the surface and creates noise to users who shouldn't see it.

Performance Tuning Windows 2012: Storage Subsystem | Part 4

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 09:45:00 EST

In part 4 of the storage subsystem, we’ll provide some guidelines for selecting the stripe-size unit for your selected storage solution. Hardware-managed arrays allow stripe unit sizes ranging from 4 KB to more than 1 MB. The ideal stripe unit size maximizes the disk activity without unnecessarily breaking up requests by requiring multiple disks to service a single request. For example, consider the following: One long stream of sequential requests on a JBOD configuration uses only one disk at a time. To keep all striped disks in use for such a workload, the stripe unit should be at least 1/n where n is the request size.

Configure Mac for Windows 8 & Windows Phone Development Using Parallels 8

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 10:00:00 EST

Learn how to Install and Configure Parallels 8 on a Mac for use in Windows 8 and Windows Phone Development. You'll need the following to use Parallels Desktop to install Windows 8 and Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows 8 on your Mac: Parallels Desktop. To download a trial version of Parallels Desktop, see Download Parallels Desktop for Mac. A Windows 8 bootable DVD or a Windows 8 disk image (.iso) file. To get a Windows 8 .iso file, go to Developer downloads for programming Windows Store apps. In the "Download Windows 8" section, follow the on-screen instructions. Note The following steps were tested using Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac.

SharePoint Gone Wild: When Governance Lacks Training | Part 2

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 09:15:00 EST

SharePoint Gone Wild: When Governance Lacks Training will give a look into how training requirements - or lack of them - can affect governance for SharePoint. So far in this series, we've looked at business requirements that drive governance - including accountability, quality, appropriateness, restrictions, discoverability, and compliance. In this article, I wanted to touch on how training requirements - and lack of them - can affect governance for SharePoint. In my travels, I speak with many large enterprise customers who often spill the beans on the issues they are having with relation to SharePoint. One of the biggest things I encourage is to get details on their plans and strategies for SharePoint governance. A key area that I see omitted in these plans is training. Training is oftentimes the elephant in the room, from an IT perspective, and subsequently is often left until the last minute without receiving the proper amount of attention.

Microsoft’s Statement on Dell Investment

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 12:39:00 EST

“Microsoft has provided a $2 billion loan to the group that has proposed to take Dell private. Microsoft is committed to the long-term success of the entire PC ecosystem and invests heavily in a variety of ways to build that ecosystem for the future. “We’re in an industry that is constantly evolving. As always, we will continue to look for opportunities to support partners who are committed to innovating and driving business for their devices and services built on the Microsoft platform.” It is assumed that Microsoft expects to get pride of place on Dell enterprise systems for its money.

SharePoint Gone Wild: When Governance Lacks Accountability

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 12:00:00 EST

Over a series of posts, I will focus on horror stories, from some of our 8,000+ customers we have here at AvePoint, which provided the genesis for these business drivers. The intention of this series is to proactively help your organization understand what "could happen" and what the business drivers are to help you structure your organization's governance system. I'm fortunate enough to get to meet a lot of our customers in person to discuss their SharePoint pain points, and enjoy referring them to resources all over the Internet to help them to cure these pains. I often feel like a SharePoint therapist of sorts, and selfishly enjoy hearing the pains as it triggers new ideas for products and articles we can share more broadly.

Office for Rent

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 10:15:00 EST

Microsoft Tuesday released its late-to-the-party touch-enabled Office-as-a-Subscription for consumers nearly seven years after Google started flogging its “good enough” Google apps. The business version follows late next month. Of course, Microsoft dragged its feet to protect its second-largest money maker as long as it could. As a result it made billions of dollars, which is more than Google can say. It’s now making the big jump to modernize its business by fielding Office 365 Home Premium subscriptions expecting that its vast universe of a billion-something Office users will eventually adopt the stuff even if it takes 10 years. This fundamental shift is supposed to be a step in Microsoft’s evolution into a devices and services firm, according to CEO Steve Ballmer.

Microsoft Still the Money Machine It’s Always Been

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 08:00:00 EST

Despite all the happy post-PC talk and the 4.9% drop in worldwide PC shipments last quarter, Windows is alive and well. Microsoft posted the numbers from its December quarter Thursday and revenues from its Windows Division were up 24% to $5.88 billion year-over-year while Windows profits were up 14%. Non-OEM revenue grew 40% driven by sales of Surface tablets and Windows upgrades. Microsoft previously said it had licensed more than 60 million copies of Windows 8, a trajectory equal to Windows 7, which came out in 2009 and now account for more than 60% of enterprise desktops by Redmond count. Microsoft’s Server & Tools business, where its clouds are, was up 9.5% to $5.19 billion with profits up 8.8%, and Online Services, which houses Bing and has a history of losing money, was up 11% to $869 million.

Book Review: Learning Cocoa with Objective-C

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 15:00:00 EST

This book is a nice concise no nonsense introduction to Objective-C. This book is different than most of the Objective-C books I have read in that it uses Cocoa and Cocoa Touch to teach the language. The book starts out covering the developer programs, Xcode, Object-Oriented Programming with Objective C, and the Foundation library. It then has a chapter on the contents of iOS and OS X applications and how they are each packaged. This is a must read chapter for those coming from a Windows background.

Integrating Active Directory into Windows Azure Virtual Machines

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 11:00:00 EST

Migrating traditional client/server applications to Windows Azure Virtual Machines is what Don Noonan does every day. The majority of these workloads use Active Directory Domain Services as their authentication provider, or in other words, classic Windows authentication. In this post we’ll walk through the basic building blocks of creating a private forest within Windows Azure. As we all know, if AD is down so is your app. Imagine setting up a single domain controller responsible for both name resolution (DNS) and authentication. You just created another synonym for single-point-of-failure. At a minimum you should deploy two (2) domain controllers, and they should be created as part of an Availability Set. This will ensure that at least one (1) domain controller is always available for authentication and name resolution requests. If you’re considering saving a few bucks by deploying a single domain controller in non-production environments, let me save you a few more. The first call you get from development or QA will cost you at least 6 months of compute. Telling a dozen upset people on a conference call that you wanted to save the company $50/month will sound pretty bad…

Microsoft May Help Take Dell Private

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 08:15:00 EST

Microsoft is in talks to help Dell finance a buyout, according to both CNBC and the Wall Street Journal. It could kick in somewhere between $1 billion and $3 billion. The rumored price to take Dell private remains around $13-$14 a share. Private equity house Silver Lake Partners has reportedly been talking to banks as well as pension and sovereign wealth funds to arrange an estimated $15 billion in financing. Microsoft, which has more than $66.6 billion in the bank, has recently started making its own tablets, but the only PC company it ever threw a lifeline to before was Apple.

Step Away from One-off Release Thinking

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 14:45:00 EST

Not long ago, customers and prospects had to find a computer to visit your website. But today they’re online 24/7 via mobile devices. Serving your customers is now a continuous interaction, and this phenomenon will only grow in the coming years as customers and prospects demand reliable and up-to-date Web services from anywhere at any time. For your organization, this translates into constant pressure to quickly and frequently add features and updates to your application services. The environment also makes the quality of your online services more important than ever as issues become visible instantly. Applications to support your business need to be deployed not only at a much faster rate, but also with more predictability. For many organizations, a new approach to delivering software isn’t simply about development and deployment practices – it’s critical to business survival.

Step-by-Step: Connect System Center 2012 App Controller to Windows Azure

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 16:00:00 EST

The article I’m writing for part 13 our “31 Days of Servers in the Cloud” series involves using App Controller to create a virtual machine. But to do this, you first need to connect and associate App Controller (a component of System Center 2012) with your Windows Azure subscription. So in today’s Part 12, as a preliminary document for part 13, in this article I’m going to show you how to connect App Controller to your Windows Azure account. To make this happen, you first have to have a management certificate in place. This makes up the bulk of the complexity involved. It must be a management certificate that has a key length of at least 2048 bits and resides in the Personal certificate store.

Book Review: Essential C# 5.0

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 17:00:00 EST

If you are looking to get into .NET development, this book is a great place to start. This book will teach you all you need to know about C# development. It will provide C# beginners with a complete foundation on which to build other .NET skills like WPF, Windows 8 App Store, XAML, ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC, etc. The book does not cover the libraries to implement these technologies, but that is a good thing. You should have a solid understand of C# before moving on to them. I have read a lot of C# books that include coverage of the base class libraries, WPF, Windows Forms, and ASP.NET as the second half of the book. I have never bothered with those parts of the book unless I was simply looking for an introduction to a new technology. They are never covered in-depth enough to do them justice. By leaving them out of this book, the authors were able to provide deeper coverage of the C# 5.0 language.