Goodbye InfoPath …

In an effort to streamline our investments and deliver a more integrated Office forms user experience, we’re retiring InfoPath and investing in new forms technology across SharePoint, Access, and Word. This means that InfoPath 2013 is the last release of the desktop client, and InfoPath Forms Services in SharePoint Server 2013 is the last release of InfoPath Forms Services. The InfoPath Forms Services technology within Office 365 will be maintained and it will function until further notice.

If you’re an InfoPath customer, we want to reassure you that we’re working on migration guidance in parallel as we’re building our next generation of forms technology. Until we have more detailed technology roadmap and guidance to share with you, we encourage you to continue using InfoPath tools. We also want to remind you that the InfoPath 2013 desktop client and InfoPath Forms Services for SharePoint Server 2013 will continue to be supported through 2023 as part of our Lifecycle support policy.

More information can be found here;

gatesletter.com

OneDrive .. to rule them all?

SkyDrive will be renamed to OneDrive.

More information can be found here;

Visual Studio 2013 Update 1

This update is the latest in a cumulative series of feature additions and bug fixes for Visual Studio 2013.

Download update here; more information here.

Windows Azure Hyper-V Recovery Manager now available

Windows Azure Hyper-V Recovery Manager Service protects your on-premise applications by orchestrating the protection and recovery of Hyper-V Virtual Machines running in a private cloud (i.e. System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 SP1/R2 ) to a secondary location.

More information can be found here;

Windows 8.1 Sample Apps

Sample pack includes all the app code examples developed and updated for Windows 8.1. The sample pack provides a convenient way to download all the samples at once. The samples in this sample pack are available in C#, Visual Basic, C++, and JavaScript.

Note  These samples require Windows 8.1 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2013. They do not compile in Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 for Windows 8.

Samples can be downloaded here.

Best Practices for Virtualizing & Managing Exchange 2013

Why Virtualize Exchange?
Why Microsoft Virtualization and Management?
Fabric Configuration
Hardware Considerations
Compute Considerations
Storage Considerations
Networking  Considerations
Host Resiliency & VM Agility
Host Clustering
Virtual Machine Configuration
General Supportability
Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit
Exchange 2013 Server Role Requirements Calculator
Exchange 2013 Virtual Machine CPU Considerations
Exchange 2013 Virtual Machine Memory Considerations
Exchange 2013 Virtual Machine Storage Considerations
Exchange 2013 Virtual Machine Network Considerations
Exchange 2013 Resiliency
Exchange 2013 Roles
Single Exchange 2013 Virtual Machine on a Hyper-V Cluster
Resilient Exchange Configuration on a Hyper-V Cluster
System Center 2012 SP1
Comprehensive Management Capabilities
Virtual Machine Manager
App Controller
Service Manager and Orchestrator
Operations Manager
Data Protection Manager
Conclusion

Download pdf here;

MAP 9 released

New Server and Cloud Enrolment scenario helps to simplify adoption

Server and Cloud Enrolment (SCE) is a new offering under the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement that enables subscribers to standardize broadly on one or more Microsoft Server and Cloud technologies.  The MAP Toolkit 9.0 features an assessment scenario to identify and inventory SCE supported products within an enterprise and help streamline enrolment.

New Remote Desktop Services Licensing Usage Tracking scenario creates a single view for enterprise wide licensing

With an increase in enterprises deploying Remote Desktop Services (RDS) across wider channels, RDS license management has become a focus point for organizations.  With the new RDS Licensing scenario, the MAP Toolkit rolls up license information enterprise-wide into a single report, providing a simple alternative for assessing your RDS licensing position.

Support for software inventory via Software ID tags now available

As part of the Microsoft effort to support ISO 19770-2, the MAP Toolkit now supports inventory of Microsoft products by Software ID (SWID) tag.  SWID enhanced reports will provide greater accuracy and assist large, complex environments to better manage their software compliance efforts by simplifying the software identification process and lowering the cost of managing software assets.

Improved Usage Tracking data collection for SQL Server Usage Tracking scenario

As part of our on-going improvement initiatives, Usage Tracking for SQL Server 2012 has been enhanced to use User Access Logging (UAL).  UAL is a standard protocol in Windows Server 2012 that collects User Access information in near real time and stores the information in a local database, eliminating the need for log parsing to perform Usage Tracking assessments.  UAL vastly improves the speed and helps to eliminate long lead times for environment preparation associated with running Usage Tracking assessments.

Download here;

Veeam RDP virtual appliance

This free appliance gives you a virtual machine (CentOS based) that will act as an RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) Proxy to any Virtual Machine running on your Hyper-V server. Even when that virtual machine has no network connection or not even an Operating System running on it. It will act as a console to your Virtual Machine.

More information can be found here and here; download here.

Forefront: Important Changes to UAG and FIM

FIM will have a new major release in 2015;

The next full release of FIM will be delivered as part of Microsoft’s identity and access management product roadmap, which includes both on-premises investments and those we are making in Windows Azure Active Directory and related cloud services.

The investment areas for this next major release of FIM will include:

•     Hybrid scenarios with Windows Azure AD
•     User & Access Management
•     Audit & Compliance
  

Forefront Unified Access Gateway to be discontinued;

Based on product strategy, customer feedback, and prevailing market dynamics, Microsoft has made the decision not to deliver any further full version releases of Forefront UAG.

Microsoft customers continue to have access to select remote access and secure application publishing capabilities through Windows Server 2012 R2.  Windows Server is not a complete replacement for all UAG scenarios, but it does provide:

• DirectAccess deployment and policy management.  This capability has been part of Windows Server 2012 since its initial release in September 2012.
• Basic secure application publishing via the new Web Application Proxy service in the Remote Access role of Windows Server 2012 R2.  This new service allows customers to securely publish access to resources through a reverse proxy and includes integration with Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) for conditional access policy and multi-factor authentication capabilities.

Customers will be granted a Windows Server 2012 Standard server license for each UAG server license with active Software Assurance to allow them to make the transition.  For customers who wish to continue using Forefront UAG, Microsoft will provide maintenance and support through the standard Microsoft support lifecycle.  Mainstream support will continue through April 14, 2015, and extended support will continue through April 14, 2020.  Customers with active Software Assurance on UAG as of Dec. 1, 2013 may also add new UAG server instances, users, and devices without any requirement to order additional licenses.