Foley: 5 Products Could Deliver This Year

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Untitled-3 1 10/21/13 3:21 PM Redmond The Independent Voice of the Microsoft IT CommunityContentsJANUARY 2014

COVER STORY REDMOND REPORT 4 Some Microsoft IT Agenda: Licensing Fees Could Rise This Year

2014 5 Microsoft Joins Tech Migrating to new platforms such as Firms Denouncing mobile devices, bolstering security Surveillance and new usage models such as social networking and analyzing 5 Windows Azure Active big data in real time, will drive this Directory Gains Group year’s IT initiatives. Management

Page 10 "Microsoft has 12 New Era of Enterprise IT 17 Microsoft Steps announced two Analysts expect mobile, cloud, big up Windows Cadence data and social media to dominate the The new mobile-centric vision for Windows broad licensing technology agenda this year. 8 will have IT pros running to keep up. changes that 16 IT Tackles New 19 New Tools for Security Issues Microsoft Developers take eff ect Cloud providers will answer data privacy Besides bringing more programmers into this year." issues while attackers shift their focus the fold, the key to Windows success will to Windows XP and non-traditional be support for additional languages in connected devices. Visual Studio. COLUMNS 2 Redmond View: FEFEATURESE ATA U Jeff rey Schwartz Microsoft a Contender SP TLIGHT ON: Next-Gen Virtualization with Hyper-V and System Center In The New IT Order 200 NetworkN Evolution 28 Decision Maker: Extend the limits of your datacenter Don Jones with a software defi ned network Are You Failing Your based on the new Hyper-V in I T Tea m? Windows Server 2012 R2. 30 : Greg Shields 24 Bridge to the Cloud 4 Ways to Fail Your Microsoft’s new System Center System Center Installation 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager 32 Foley on Microsoft: provides tighter links between private and hybrid cloud. 2014 Predictions: 5 Products Microsoft Will Deliver

REVIEWS Product Review 8 Data Protection for the Enterprisese CommVault’s Simpana 10 raises the bar for managing backup and recovery.

COVER ILLUSTRATION BY SHUTTERSTOCK/REDMOND STAFF RedmondView by Jeff rey Schwartz Redmond THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF THE MICROSOFT IT COMMUNITY

REDMONDMAG.COM

JANUARY 2014 ■ VOL. 20 ■ NO. 1

Editorial Staff Editor Jeff rey Schwartz Microsoft a Contender Group Managing Editor Wendy Hernandez

Contributing Editors Mary Jo Foley In The New IT Order Don Jones Greg Shields

Art Staff Creative Director, s Microsoft watches Apple and eat away Media and Events Scott Shultz Art Director Joshua Gould at its OS market share, it’s clear the company’s Senior Graphic Designer Alan Tao dominance is gone. No matter how much ground Production Staff A Director, Print Production David Seymour Print Production Coordinator Anna Lyn Bayaua it makes up with its new Windows Store Throughout the years, there have Online/Digital Media app model and Windows 8, Microsoft been constant changes of the guard Online News Editor Kurt Mackie is no longer the sole choice. The new in all aspects of IT. The one taking Executive Editor, New Media Michael Domingo Senior Director, multiplatform world gives users more place now is affecting almost every Online Media & Events Becky Nagel Associate Web Editor Chris Paoli options and is shifting Microsoft and established player in the IT world. Site Administrator Shane Lee its partners in new directions. As Microsoft brings on a new leader, Designer Rodrigo Muñoz Sharing a market it doesn’t own powerhouses like Cisco, Dell, HP and Advertising and Sales VP, Group Publisher Dan LaBianca is nothing new to Microsoft. For Oracle all face new realities of their Associate Publisher, East Jonas Devita instance, there was a time not long ago own that will make growth more Associate Publisher, West Bruce Halldorson Microsoft Account Manager Danna Vedder when Microsoft was an up-and-comer diffi cult for these behemoths to achieve Director, Print & Online Production David Seymour in the datacenter. Despite owning a in this rapidly changing IT industry. Certifi cation & Training Al Tiano nice piece of the IT infrastructure I hear plenty of critiques about Advertising Sales Associate Tanya Egenolf market these days, Microsoft has never Microsoft— many are valid. The

dominated there . company may never be known for President Henry Allain When Windows NT fi rst arrived, getting to market fi rst. It seems to have Senior Director of Marketing and Audience Engagement Michele Imgrund Unix and proprietary host platforms failed to react quickly enough to the Director of Online Marketing Tracy Cook Audience Development were the infrastructure of choice. Just mobile client shift. Despite all of this, Manager Irene Fincher as Windows 2000 became a viable however, 75 percent of you are either alternative to Unix, Linux came along very optimistic or cautiously optimistic President & Neal Vitale with a server alternative. Linux still about Microsoft at this juncture. That Chief Executive Offi cer predominates today in the Web server doesn’t guarantee Microsoft anything, Senior Vice President & Richard Vitale Chief Financial Offi cer market, although not the enterprise but it seems promising. Executive Vice President Michael J. Valenti

server market. Today Windows Server, The good news is Microsoft is on a Vice President, Finance & Christopher M. Coates Administration Active Directory, Exchange, SharePoint transformative path. Despite its gaffes, Vice President, Erik A. Lindgren Information Technology & and SQL Server have a strong corpo- the company still remains well posi- Application Development Vice President, David F. Myers rate foothold, further supported by tioned as a contender in setting the IT Event Operations third-party solution providers. agenda for the near future. Chairman of the Board Jeff rey S. Klein

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Untitled-4 1 12/10/13 4:20 PM RedmondReport

Some Microsoft Software Licensing Fees Could Rise This Year Changes aimed at simplifi cation could lower unit pricing, but require larger commitments.

By Kurt Mackie However, he noted all enrollments likely Plus licensing, as well as ECIs and icrosoft may have some would move to the MPSA model by late EAPs, he added. unpleasant surprises in store 2014, citing a Microsoft fi eld licensing Mthis year for organizations support rep as his source of information. Software Assurance Push licensing its software. The actual plans The key phrase in the NGVL program, haven’t been fully described, even by Next Gen Volume Licensing according to Braden, is “Committed Microsoft, but organizations that On top of the two new licensing plans, Offers.” Microsoft also uses that specialize in translating the company’s Microsoft has a broad program called phrase to describe its Server and Cloud complex licensing offerings last month “Next Generation Volume Licensing” Enrollment offerings. That signals a gave their assessments. (NGVL, see licensing.microsoft.com). Microsoft push to get its customer to Microsoft has announced two broad NGVL will apparently be rolled out apply SA across their infrastructures. licensing changes that take effect this some time in late 2015, according to “Like they’ve been doing with EAP year. One of those is the new Server and a Microsoft Large Account Reseller and ECI agreements, you only get Cloud Enrollment (see “Microsoft to (LAR) cited by Braden. the great volume pricing when/if you Roll out New Server and Cloud Enroll- Though NGVL is now open to a large include Software Assurance for every ment Licensing,” redmondmag.com). number of customers from its pilot device and/or installation in the This is an Enterprise Agreement type of phase, the target audience is limited to enterprise,” Braden explained. “For contract requiring Software Assurance Select License only customers without many enterprises that’s a deal-killer.” (SA) coverage across the infrastructure Software Assurance or large customers For example, Braden says Microsoft’s that will eventually replace Microsoft’s who only buy Offi ce 365 directly through EAP for SQL Server currently existing Enrollment for Application Microsoft Online Services Portal. SA requires paying for SA. However, Platform (EAP) and Enrollment for isn’t available through NGVL at this organizations with datacenters may Core Infrastructure (ECI) offerings. time, nor are “Committed Offers” like have remote offi ces that don’t need SA The second is called the Microsoft Enterprise Agreements, according coverage. “So the net effect of these Products and Services Agreement, to the LAR. The ostensible goal of ‘Committed’ deals is that unit line item or MPSA (see “Microsoft Unveils NGVL is to make buying Microsoft price decreases a bit, but total spend New ‘Products and Services’ Volume licensing easier. increases a lot, because ‘all’ servers Licensing Option,” redmondmag.com). Although details about NGVL are must be included,” he explained. MPSA is for medium-size organizations still far from clear, Braden interprets it Consequently, Microsoft’s new and supposedly simplifi es licensing as more of an overall licensing program licensing could bump up prices for some contracts and provides Web-based approach, rather than a specifi c licensing organizations by compelling broad SA software asset viewing tools. Microsoft offering. NGVL could include the purchases. However, Microsoft has indicated it would roll out MPSA so-called “simplifi cation” of licensing so far remained fairly tight-lipped licensing beginning last month. How ever, contracts that Microsoft has promised about any such details. SA, which a Microsoft press spokesperson with MPSA. It may also include a new notably offers upgrade rights to the contacted at press time would not Web-based billing portal, he suggested. next software release within a contract confi rm the availability of MPSA and It may even involve a revamp of the period, is estimated to increase prices offered no further details. Microsoft Volume Licensing Service for organizations by 25 percent to 29 MPSA licensing likely isn’t broadly Center (VLSC), which “has long been percent over the underlying software available, according to Scott Braden, a sore spot for customers,” says Braden. licensing price. R senior vice president of value creation NGVL will likely signal the phase out at NET(net), an international IT of Enterprise Agreements, Enterprise Kurt Mackie is online news editor for the optimization and consulting company. Agreement Subscriptions (EAS), Select 1105 Enterprise Computing Group.

4 | January 2014 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com | Untitled-1 1 10/8/13 10:54 AM RedmondReport

Microsoft Joins Tech Firms Denouncing Surveillance Coalition calls on government to loosen restrictions, but critics are skeptical.

By Chris Paoli and called for the U.S. government to their users at risk by collecting and icrosoft and a group of IT reevaluate its surveillance operations. retaining so much information,” Marc industry leaders—including The group issued fi ve specifi c principles Rotenberg, president and executive MGoogle, Apple, AOL, it wants the government to change. director of the Electronic Privacy Facebook, Yahoo, and Linked- The risk of failing to make changes Information Center told The New York In—have teamed up to put heat on is that users will become hesitant of Times. “As long as this much personal congress and the White House to sharing and using online- and cloud- data is collected and kept by these com- instigate sweeping reform of the U.S.’s based services. “People won’t use panies, they are always going to be the online surveillance program. technology they don’t trust,” wrote target of government collection efforts.” The companies last month kicked off Brad Smith, Microsoft’s chief counsel of The Guardian pointed a public denouncement of programs and executive VP for legal and out the industry group lacked key like the National Security Agency’s corporate affairs. “Governments have players, including Web Services, PRISM operation with full page ads in put this trust at risk, and governments AT&T, Level 3, Verizon, Cisco and leading newspapers and on major Web need to help restore it.” leading payment providers. R sites. The companies affi rmed their Critics denounced the move as vague commitment to keeping customer data and offering little to address the real Chris Paoli is the associate Web editor for safe through encryption technology, problem. “The companies are placing 1105 Enterprise Computing Group.

Microsoft Brings Group Management to the Cloud Windows Azure Active Directory will help create and manage cloud groups.

By Kurt Mackie limitations. For instance, you can If the groups were sourced from Offi ce icrosoft added two group create groups to manage access to 365 management, then you have to use management features to SharePoint Sites, but not yet Exchange. the Exchange Admin Center to manage MWindows Azure Active “We will add mail-enabled groups the groups. Deleting groups is a bit Directory (WAAD) and released an for Exchange in a future release,” different. You can simply delete groups evaluation version last month. explained Alex Simons, director of sourced from Offi ce 365 or WAAD using You can access the group management program management for the Active the Windows Azure Management Portal. preview via Microsoft’s Windows Azure Directory team, in a statement. Microsoft is contemplating adding Management Portal. In some cases, In addition, what you can do often additional capabilities to WAAD in a you can now “create or delete new depends on where the groups were future release, although it’s unclear if security groups.” You can also view sourced. If the groups were sourced they will be built into the free product groups in the portal created by either from your organization’s local Active or will be part of a Premium one. For local Active Directory management or Directory, then you can’t use the instance, Microsoft may add the ability Offi ce 365 management tools. Windows Azure Management Portal to to “create and manage nested groups in These two new capabilities are delete or manage those groups. You’ll the Windows Azure Management Portal.” no-cost enhancements of the free have to use your local Active Directory Another possible WAAD addition is the Microsoft WAAD service. However, instances for those tasks, according to ability to “enable end users to create they have some nuances and the announcement. and manage their own groups.” R

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Untitled-3 1 12/12/13 11:09 AM ProductReview

Data Protection for the Enterprise CommVault’s Simpana 10 raises the bar for managing backup and recovery.

By Derek Schauland Simpana 10 here’s a storied history to CommVault Systems’ Starting price: $25,000 background in the data CommVault Systems, Inc. T www.commvault.com | 888-746-3849 protection software business. The story dates back to 1988 when it was a project within Bell Labs, the R&D Simpana 10’s policy manager lets each environments. Getting the pieces unit of the original AT&T. These days piece of the application act independent confi gured to perform a backup task is the company has a close relationship of the others. Areas managed by policies most important. with Microsoft. Noted analysts regard include storage, access to libraries and Simpana 10 handles data retention CommVault’s Simpana as one of the media agents and replication to offsite as part of the storage policy. It allows top backup and recovery solutions. storage. Sub-client policies reference for different data retention confi gura- The latest release, Simpana 10, is one data to be backed up. VaultTracker tions for different types of storage. For of a handful of data protection packages policies help track media across locations. example, data backed up to a local now capable of using Microsoft’s Unlike other backup applications that (or onsite) target you want to keep for Windows Azure cloud service as a tie the schedule into the actual backup two weeks, but your remote (or offsite) backup target (see “Use Windows job, Simpana 10 simplifi es overall target needs to be kept for six months Azure as a Backup Target,” November schedule management. The Java-based or longer. 2013). Besides supporting Windows management console called Commcell The job controller pane in the console Azure, Simpana 10 can target Amazon lets you confi gure security by specifying helps you view scheduled jobs and Web Services’ Simple Storage Service which users and groups can access running jobs. It provides a real-time (S3), as well as various types of network the console and what type of access view of what’s happening with your storage interfaces. they have to the backup environment. backup jobs. The event logs are useful to see a historic snapshot of backup jobs, displaying successes and failures. Simpana 10 brings a modular approach to manage In addition to static items to pay all aspects of disaster recovery. attention to, you can also confi gure alerting to let people in your orga- nization know about issues that have The company says Simpana 10 has A reporting component provides an popped up regarding backup. more than 300 new features. Besides overall picture of what’s happening in Simpana 10 supports deduplication, a common code-base, it’s designed to your backup or disaster recovery though I wasn’t able to test it due to manage the data protection lifecycle. environment. This can help you get limitations of my environment. This both detailed and summary level infor- feature ensures data is written to the RedmondRating mation to keep tabs on backups. backup storage only once, reducing A feature called Content Director helps the amount of storage needed overall. Installation: 20% 9.0 you set up backup windows to meet Simpana 10 brings a modular approach Features: 20% 10.0 compliance and legal requirements. A in a single application to manage all Ease of use: 20% 8.0 cost analysis tool lets you assign storage aspects of disaster recovery. R Administration: 20% 9.0 costs to departments (and/or users) Documentation: 20% 10.0 using the storage. A workfl ow compo- Derek Schauland has worked in technology Overall: 9.2 nent lets managers’ activities facilitate for 15 years in everything from a help desk Simpana 10 planning and usage. role to Windows systems administration. Key: It also helps with planning and ongo- He has also worked as a freelance writer 1: Virtually inoperable or nonexistent 5: Average, performs adequately ing maintenance. These features cer- for the past 10 years. Reach him at derek@ 10: Exceptional tainly also help with disaster recovery derekschauland.com.

8 | January 2014 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com | Untitled-2 1 4/9/12 3:42 PM COVER STORY | IT Agenda: 2014

Migrating to new platforms such as mobile devices and the cloud, boosting security and new usage models such as social networking and analyzing big data in real time, will drive this year’s IT initiatives.

By Jeff rey Schwartz

s every new year predictably brings an onslaught of to comply with new heath care laws, integrate disparate sys- out-of-shape people to the gym aiming to fulfi ll their tems such as point-of-sale and scheduling, and add storage to Aresolutions to get in shape, the IT organization at accommodate the new data this modernization will generate. XSport Fitness will get a workout of its own in 2014. The XSport, with 3,800 employees at locations in Illinois, New Chicago-based chain of upscale 24x7 fitness centers has York and Washington DC, is in growth-mode with plans to kicked off an IT expansion effort. The company plans to open fi ve new locations per year. CIO Tim Walter says XSport upgrade its Windows XP-based PCs, select a tablet platform is looking to automate many processes to lower costs and for trainers and other staff, digitize paper-based processes improve service. “It’s really about process improvement,” Walter

ILLUSTRATION BY SHUTTERSTOCK/REDMOND STAFF 10 | January 2014 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com | says. “We’re looking at how to take out a lot of the redundant running Windows XP. Of those that plan to upgrade their activities and do what we can do to automate this year.” aging PCs, a majority (52 percent) will go to , Also looking to reduce redundancy is MB Trading, an online while 14 percent will move to Windows 8. A small but vocal stock broker based in El Segundo, Calif. MB Trading plans to minority (7 percent) will stay on Windows XP despite the build a private cloud this year to eliminate one of its four data- fact Microsoft will discontinue support. centers. “One of our key objectives this year is to simplify our Windows Server 2003 is also reaching its end of life, but infrastructure and network,” says William Floyd, MB Trading’s organizations have another year to address that. Microsoft chief technology offi cer. In addition to building out its pri- will stop supporting Windows Server 2003 in July 2015. vate cloud, Floyd says MB Trading will replace its Windows Nevertheless, 65 percent of respondents still have Windows XP desktops and Windows Server 2003 servers. It will also Server 2003-based servers, including XSport Fitness. “We’ll consider moving to a software defi ned network architecture. move them to Windows Server 2012 R2,” Walter says. Most respondents plan to upgrade their servers this year. Only 21 IT Resolutions for 2014 percent say they’ll continue to run their existing server OSes. Like XSport Fitness, Floyd says MB Trading will increase Although Microsoft only released Windows Server 2012 R2 its IT spending this year. More than one third of Redmond magazine readers responding to an online survey last “We’re looking at how to take month plan to increase their IT spending in 2014. Nearly half (47 percent) will out a lot of the redundant maintain last year’s spending levels while activities and do what we can 19 percent face lower budgets this year, according to the survey. do to automate this year.” The biggest project facing IT decision Tim Walter, CIO, XSport Fitness makers this year will be dealing with PCs still running Windows XP. That comes as no surprise as on April 8, Microsoft will issue its fi nal in October, 50 percent will upgrade their systems with the patch for Windows XP. Virtualizing more servers, upgrading new release, while 44 percent will go with Windows Server network infrastructure, replacing aging servers, bolstering 2008 R2. Some are moving to Linux (14 percent) and 13 per- security and identity and access management are the other cent will migrate to a cloud provider (multiple responses top priorities among respondents (see “What’s On Your were allowed—see “Planned Server Upgrades?”, p. 14). 2014 IT Agenda?”). Addressing the looming Windows XP deadline will be a Microsoft’s Transition priority for many this year. Others have no concerns about This will be a pivotal year for Microsoft. With a new CEO it nor will they upgrade or replace them. Only one third of replacing this year, changes in Redmond are respondents have replaced all of their Windows XP-based inevitable. Microsoft is fi ghting battles in numerous areas: It’s machines, while more than half (51 percent) have some XP competing in the multi-platform mobile world; holding onto systems, and 15 percent say most or all their PCs are still its captive audience of Offi ce and SharePoint users; keeping its

What’s On Your 2014 IT Agenda? (Redmond magazine readership survey, 376 responses) Replace PCs still running Windows XP 35% Virtualize more servers 32% Upgrade network infrastructure 31% Replace aging servers 29% Implement stronger security and/or identity and access management 27% Migrate from Windows Server 2003 (or earlier) 22% Implement a mobile device management strategy 20% Move to a newer version of Exchange 19% Create and implement cloud management and governance strategy 19% Upgrade SharePoint infrastructure 18% Upgrade or implement backup and recovery/disaster recovery solution 18% Move from a CapEx to an OpEx model for procuring IT apps and infrastructure 6% Implement enterprise social networking 5% With three months to go before Microsoft no longer supports Windows XP, 35 percent plan to fi nally replace it. While top priorities varied among respondents, it was the highest ranked agenda issue with 16 percent saying it was their number one priority. Other key priorities include network upgrades, implementing improved security and access management, server migration and virtualization.

| Redmondmag.com | Redmond | January 2014 | 11 COVER STORY | IT Agenda: 2014

New Era of Enterprise IT The combination of mobile, cloud, big data and social media are expected to dominate the technology agenda in 2014.

Analysts are predicting key areas of expansion for IT will include the move to private, public and hybrid cloud IDC’s 2014 IT Predictions architectures; support for new classes of mobile devices ✔ Worldwide tech spending will reach $2.14 trillion—a including employee-owned PCs, tablets and smartphones; 5.1 percent increase over 2013, nearly one percentage and supporting social networking. point higher than last year’s rise. IDC last month issued its forecast for this year, predicting IT spending will increase 5.1 percent to reach $2.1 trillion (not including telecommunications costs). IDC is forecasting ✔ Tablets and smartphones spending will increase 13 percent, a continued move to what it calls the “Third Platform,” account for nearly 60 percent of total IT growth. centered around mobile devices and a migration to cloud architectures. IDC also predicts substantially increased ✔ PCs sales will decline 6 percent. investments in enterprise social networking tools and technology that lets users mine big data. ✔ Next-gen platforms, which IDC calls the “Third Platform,” “2014 will be all about battles across this platform,” said will increase 15 percent, accounting for 29 percent of IDC senior vice president and chief analyst Frank Gens in a overall spending and 89 percent of growth. teleconference last month. “The past fi ve years of the third platform build out has been all about laying the infrastructure and developer platform foundations. This ✔ Cloud infrastructure software and services will grow next chapter is about fostering an explosion of innovation 25 percent to $100 billion. on that foundation, with hundreds of thousands to millions of new killer apps and solutions.” ✔ Microsoft must expand share in mobile this year or it’s Recalling Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s “developers, “game over.” developers, developers, developers” rant from years ago, Gens emphasized that winning over developers will be ✔ Converged IT systems will account for 10 percent of critical for those who are going to survive in the coming all infrastructure spending this year, growing to 20 decade. Ironically for Microsoft, winning over developers will percent by 2020. be critical if it’s going to be a player in the new mobile era. Microsoft has about a year to win over developers or it will be doomed in the mobile market, Gens said. The good news ✔ Up to 30 percent of server shipments will go to cloud ser- is developer interest in the new Windows platform has risen vice providers this year, extending to 43 percent by 2017. by eight points, according to IDC’s latest Appcelerator Source: IDC, December 2013 report. However, only 37 percent of developers say they are very interested in developing mobile apps for Windows. developers to support their platforms. “Over the next That’s still 35 points below Android and 50 points below four years, we will see a ten-fold increase in the number Apple’s iOS. “Microsoft honestly needs to double that level of apps in the cloud, driven in part by a tripling of the of interest within the next 12 months, or it could be game number of developers and contributors to cloud app over,” Gens said. ecosystems,” Gens said. “Two-thirds of these new apps will have an industry-specifi c or a role-specifi c focus.” With the amount of digital data growing 50 percent in “Over the next four years, we 2014, users will create 6 trillion terabytes, or 6 zetabytes of data. That will fuel a 30 percent growth in infrastruc- will see a tenfold increase in the ture and tools to mine big data, exceeding $14 billion. number of apps in the cloud, driven IDC is also predicting that in the next three years, 80 percent of the most successful apps will leverage large in part by a tripling of the number data streams. Demand for big data and analytics skills of developers and contributors to will outstrip supply, Gens said. cloud app ecosystems.” While many enterprises continue to assess whether they’ll see any value by investing in social networking, IDC Frank Gens, Chief Research Analyst, IDC predicts within the next three years, 80 percent of the Fortune 500 will use it as a key foundation for marketing, selling and maintaining community, up from 30 percent today. Social networking will also increasingly invade It should come as little surprise that increasing tablet product and service development, according to Gens. sales will continue to take a bite out of the PC market, By 2016, IDC forecasts that 60 percent of the Fortune which IDC expects will slide by six percent. Tablets will 500 will deploy social-enabled platforms, solutions grow by 18 percent and smartphones 12 percent. Mobile that gather input from their communities of customers, devices will outsell PCs by 2.5 to one, according to Gens. partners and other components of their supply chains. To Cloud spending, which includes service providers, infra- enable that, IDC predicts in 2015 the key social platforms structure and software, will grow 25 percent to reach $100 will converge and merge with the major cloud platform- billion. More than one third (35 percent) of that spending as-a-service (PaaS) clouds. will be on cloud service providers and shared hosting facilities. Just like mobile, cloud providers will fi ght for —Jeffrey Schwartz

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Untitled-2 1 9/5/13 2:29 PM COVER STORY | IT Agenda: 2014

Planned Server Upgrades? (Redmond magazine readership survey, 326 responses) foothold in the datacenter; and Windows Server 2008 R2 44% trying to achieve leadership in the new world of cloud computing Windows Server 2012 18% and big data, despite formidable 50% Windows Server 2012 R2 competition from Amazon Web Linux 14% Services, Apple, Google, VMware Migrate to a Cloud Provider 13% and the open source community. Will Continue Running Existing Servers 21% Despite uncertainty over how Microsoft will fare in the next Other 8.3% year or two, 26 percent are Of our survey respondents, 65 percent still have servers running Windows Server 2003 (or earlier). very optimistic and 49 percent While 21 percent will keep what they have, 50 percent say they plan to upgrade to the latest version—Windows Server 2012 R2—while 44 percent will go with Windows Server 2008 R2. Some are cautiously optimistic (see will migrate to Linux servers (14 percent) or will move their app to a cloud provider (13 percent). “Bullish on Microsoft Despite Company’s Transformation”). Bullish on Microsoft Despite Although 21 percent are either concerned or pessimistic, Company’s Transformation 4 percent are uncertain. Many IT decision makers are still 4% (Redmond magazine readership 7% evaluating what Microsoft has to offer compared to the survey, 381 responses) 14% numerous competitive options. For example, while XSport Very optimistic Fitness is considering Windows 8.1 tablets, Walter will also look at iPads and Android-based devices. Cautiously Optimistic Walter doesn’t want to be tied to a specifi c mobile platform, Concerned 26% so he’ll likely look at developing apps in HTML 5. “We Pessimistic really want to have that mobile Web fl exibility so we can use 49% Uncertain anything,” he says. Two thirds are either very At MB Trading, Floyd doesn’t have any plans to upgrade optimistic or cautiously its employees’ PCs to Windows 8 at least for another year. optimistic about “We’ve already tested it out and it breaks too many things in Microsoft’s future. our environment,” he says. “A lot of our customers are moving forward with that, which our [online trading] products are IT Budget Outlook for 2014 compatible with, but we’ve got a lot of internally-developed What are your spending plans this year? applications and drivers that just aren’t compatible, so we’re (Redmond magazine readership sticking with Windows 7.” survey, 379 responses) MB Trading has its share of Microsoft-based platforms, More including SharePoint 2010 and Exchange. As it consolidates Less 34% its datacenter and uses more cloud computing services, though, Same 47% Microsoft’s place in the datacenter will be more limited. MB Trading currently uses Amazon Web Services for added Nearly half of all budgets will remain the same. compute and storage services. Floyd says he’s keeping an slightly more than one-third eye on Windows Azure, but is leaning toward a provider plan to increase their IT 19% that supports OpenStack, the widely supported open source spending this year. cloud computing platform. He’s determining whether that meets its promise of service provider portability. When it comes to hybrid clouds and virtualization, Floyd remains skeptical about Microsoft. “Microsoft is still too Changing Employers this Year? Microsoft focused,” he says. “They need to open up and be Are you looking to change jobs this year? more supportive of what the real world uses, whether it be Redmond ( magazine readership Linux or Solaris or other fl avors of Unix. If they took more of survey, 381 responses) an IBM approach, that would be viable. I’ve got this hetero- Yes 26% geneous environment, but I don’t think I’m unique. I believe No there are a lot of companies out there that are similar to mine Consistent with last where they’ve got legacy systems they’ve got to deal with so summer’s Redmond Salary it’s not necessarily an option for them to say ‘I’ll jump on the Survey, 26 percent are still Microsoft bandwagon, because I’m 100 percent Microsoft.’ going to check out the job 74% market. Not surprisingly, the There are companies that are like that, but most companies primary reason is for improved have more of a heterogeneous environment.” compensation and benefi ts. Fear of layoffs is another key factor. Jeffrey Schwartz is editor of Redmond.

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Untitled-4 1 12/2/13 11:27 AM COVER STORY | IT Agenda: 2014

IT Tackles New Security Issues Cloud providers will answer data privacy issues while attackers shift their focus to Windows XP and non-traditional connected devices.

By Chris Paoli reinforce legal protection of per- Foley: Why ‘One Microsoft’ Won’t Work hile IT had to contend sonal data. It also plans to make its October 2013 VOL.19 NO.10 REDMONDMAG.COM with new vulnerabilities software code more transparent to Wand denial of service ensure third parties can’t create a attacks in 2013, revelations of the backdoor to tap user data. active online surveillance by the Smith explained in a post National Security Agency (NSA) when making last month’s announce- and the U.K.’s Government Com- ment that Microsoft’s actions are munications Headquarters upstaged in response to press accounts that last year’s latest crop of malware and Microsoft’s online security measures traditional attacks. are bypassed by governments. While Former NSA contractor Edward Smith didn’t mention Snowden by Snowden’s leaked documents that SHATTERED name, NSA documents leaked by Revelations of the NSA’s covert PRISM surveillance program has alarmed IT pointed to the NSA’s covert surveil- decision makers including Redmond Snowden indicated the NSA had readers, many of whom put the brakes on enterprise cloud deployments—at lance activities last summer shattered TRUST least for now. worked with Microsoft to crack the confi dence of IT professionals its data encryption. Those docu- and non-technical users alike. Many ments also pointed to Microsoft’s

found themselves wondering if the › Ballmer’s Final Act alleged participation in the NSA’s › How to Plan for SDN government was compelling lead- › Microsoft’s Cloud-First PRISM program. Changes Everything ing IT service providers to access Yahoo last month also said it will individual and enterprise online start encrypting all e-mail trans- data they thought was secure (see mitted over its widely used network. “Shattered Trust,” Redmond magazine, October 2013). Look for service providers of all types to continue to shore Snowden alleged that companies including Microsoft, Yahoo, up efforts to regain customer confi dence this year. Google, Apple, AT&T, Verizon and Facebook were helping “We predict CSPs will begin deploying technologies like the NSA access information using a bevy of hacks, cracks and encryption, administrative access controls and other monitoring backdoors among those it felt may be plotting or involved in tools, and market these more aggressively to their customers,” terrorist activities. The accusations that many of the largest says Michele Borovac, chief marketing offi cer with HighCloud tech fi rms played a part in these massive government surveil- Security— a fi rm specializing in cloud encryption and security. lance programs were met with categorical denials from players “Overall, I think this will improve data security for the entire like Microsoft and Google. They claimed they never created industry, which is a good thing.” workarounds and backdoors and that personal information was only handed over on a legal case-by-case basis. Windows XP Risks Whether those classifi ed leaks were true or not, the seeds The war between IT, security fi rms and attackers will continue of doubt have been planted in the minds of IT professionals. to rage this year. And the targets and landscape will continue More than 70 percent of Redmond readers expressed real to change. Microsoft has been beating the death drum for concerns about government access of private data stored in the past few years for Windows XP. It has clearly outlined the the cloud in a survey conducted last summer. possible scenarios for IT still running the old OS: upgrade, These doubts caused large Internet fi rms to respond with pay for expensive custom XP support or do nothing and wait plans to strengthen the security of data entering and leaving for the barrage of attacks targeted at Windows XP once the cloud. Both Yahoo and Microsoft said services like Yahoo Microsoft stops issuing patches on April 8. Mail and Offi ce 365 will receive tighter encryption standards. Many enterprises and individuals still running XP don’t Microsoft is also looking at ways to protect data across all have much time to decide which route they will take. “The its online products and services. This year, Microsoft plans very fi rst month that Microsoft releases security updates to expand and strengthen its encryption services for data in for supported versions of Windows, attackers will reverse transit and at rest in its datacenters, general counsel Brad engineer those updates, find the vulnerabilities and test Smith announced last month. The company is aiming to Windows XP to see if it shares those vulnerabilities,” wrote

16 | January 2014 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com | Tim Rains, director of product management in Microsoft’s McAfee predicts the number of Android apps that have Trustworthy Computing group in a Microsoft blog entry. malicious code or are high risk will approach 3 million. Oracle “If it does, attackers will attempt to develop exploit code will stop supporting Java 6 next month as well, putting sys- that can take advantage of those vulnerabilities on Windows tems running the Java Runtime Environment at risk. XP. Since a security update will never become available for As IT continues to adapt and include connected tablets and Windows XP to address these vulnerabilities, Windows XP smartphones into its security plans, it will have to once again will essentially have a ‘zero day’ vulnerability forever.” try to fi gure out how to bring in a whole slew of devices and

“Windows XP will essentially have a ‘zero day’ vulnerability forever.” Tim Rains, Director of Product Management, Microsoft Trustworthy Computing Group

New Targets appliances into the fold. Market researcher ABI Research Naturally, PCs aren’t the only devices at risk. At the end of estimates that more than 30 billion devices will be connected November, security fi rm Symantec revealed it had learned a to the Internet by the end of 2020. So while you may not yet new worm called Linux.Darlloz is making the rounds. This be battling malware infecting the offi ce microwave oven, it’s nasty piece of code, just one in a line of new attacks, targets a good idea to start planning now for how to protect these Linux-based devices that aren’t traditional PCs. The objective non-traditional devices. is to infect those everyday devices, like smart TVs, routers, Blu-ray players and other appliances and electronics connected Chris Paoli is associate Web editor for the 1105 Enterprise to the Internet. Computing Group.

Microsoft Steps Up Windows Cadence The new mobile-centric vision for Windows 8 will have IT pros running to keep up.

By Kurt Mackie The future for Microsoft shops is clear—either fall in line T pros may be waking up to the idea that Microsoft plans with a more rapid testing and deployment cycle or fi nd an to release updates to Windows at least once every year, alternative. It’s unclear how IT shops will cope. Iinstead of once every three years. October’s release of Windows 8.1 was the fi rst example of this new accelerated release cadence. Meanwhile, the venerable Windows XP has Still Have PCs Running Windows XP? (Redmond magazine readership become the equivalent of a ticking time bomb as it will lose survey, 377 responses) security patch support in April. Change for IT organizations All 3% doesn’t come easy, but Microsoft isn’t sitting still. 33% Executives in Redmond are responding to competition from Most the Android and iOS by releasing its desktop OS as if it were Some 13% a mobile OS. Users have been slow to respond, though. The None 12-year-old Windows XP still represents more than a third Despite the looming (36 percent) of desktop OSes, according to data released deadline, two thirds of in December from tracking firm Net Applications, while respondents still have at 51% Windows 8 constitutes just fi ve percent. As previously noted, least some PCs running Windows XP and 15 percent two thirds of Redmond magazine readers have some Windows have it on all or most of their systems. XP-based PCs still in service.

| Redmondmag.com | Redmond | January 2014 | 17 COVER STORY | IT Agenda: 2014

What Devices Do You Support? with plain-state identity. So, for example, you really need to (Redmond magazine readership survey, 382 responses) have Active Directory Federation Services.” Windows 7 90% Organizations may face a “six- to nine-month evaluation Windows 8 61% phase” to understand the infrastructure requirements behind Microsoft’s vision. Even the much-touted security benefi ts Windows RT 11% of Windows 8 will require having UEFI fi rmware and a 31% Macs Trusted Platform Module chip in new PCs in order to reap iPads 49% all the benefi ts. Android-Based 38% It would seem virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) would Chrome Books 8% provide some relief from a constant cycle of updates and secu- rity issues. However, Microsoft so far only offers product use Virtual Desktops 44% rights for VDI using Windows Server, not Windows client. 5% Other In July, Microsoft did expand Remote Desktop Services (RDS) Windows 7 PCs are most widely supported, followed by Windows usage rights for service providers tapping Windows Azure, 8-based systems, iPads and virtual desktops. opening up potential “desktop-as-a-service” scenarios. Thin-client computing using RDS is a proven desktop “I have yet to meet a client, or anyone outside of Microsoft, alternative that has been adopted by organizations typically who wants a faster cadence,” says Michael Cherry, an analyst needing centralized control over their resources, Cherry with Kirkland, Wash.-based Directions on Microsoft. “I think, notes. However, such changes may be coming a bit too slowly. in honesty, what the average IT guy wants is consistency and In November, Amazon announced its own competing Work- stability. Microsoft can set whatever pace they want to set. spaces VDI offering. Amazon Workspaces uses Windows It’s wholly their right. But I don’t expect many customers to Server 2008 R2 in the cloud so it can integrate with an orga- keep with that pace. I don’t think it’s anything they budget nization’s Active Directory. for. And even if the actual acquisition cost were low, the cost However, Microsoft has the means to offer desktop-as- of deployment is still high.” a-service directly as well. “If you want to speculate and go One of the carrots for Windows 8.1 is mobile device man- off into the world of infi nite possibilities, I think all of the agement capabilities for a “bring-your-own-device” future. technology is there for what I will call ‘Azure-based desktop For instance, Windows 8.1 is described as having a “workplace service,’ Windows 365,” Cherry says. He thinks Microsoft join” capability. A user’s personal device is enrolled and gets hasn’t smoothed the pathway so much, largely because improv- access to an organization’s network resources, even while IT ing Windows Azure is an all-consuming task right now. retains traditional controls. Microsoft is rumored to have a different kind of desktop- as-a-service option in the works, code-named “Mohoro.” The proj- “I have yet to meet a client, or ect is supposedly like a hosted version of Microsoft’s RemoteApp anyone outside of Microsoft, running from Windows Azure, who wants a faster cadence. according to veteran Microsoft watcher and Redmond columnist In honesty, what the average Mary Jo Foley. Mohoro could IT guy wants is consistency possibly see the light of day in and stability.” late 2014, Foley speculates. Citing anonymous sources, she Michael Cherry also says Microsoft plans to release Analyst, Directions on Microsoft an update to Windows 8.1 this spring, along with a new product wave, code-named “Threshold,” However, actually using that capability also requires an in the second quarter of 2015. organization to have Windows Server 2012 R2 running in the Meanwhile, many IT shops may just skip all the theatrics background. In some cases, achieving this Microsoft mobile and cling to Windows 7. For many, Windows 7 has become future will also require having System Center 2012, plus the the new Windows XP, according to Cherry. “Windows 7 is cloud-based Windows Intune solution for managing mobile the version of Windows a lot of people are getting to as fast devices. Organizations without Enterprise Agreements also as they can with the intent to stay there as long as they can,” face paying certifi cate licenses for their line-of-business he says. apps, which users access from a portal page, according to Windows 8 security requirements. It can get complicated. “Workplace join requires some infrastructure,” Cherry Kurt Mackie is online news editor for the 1105 Enterprise says. “To really utilize it, you have to be doing some work Computing Group.

18 | January 2014 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com | Microsoft Gives Developers New Tools Besides bringing more programmers into the fold, the key to Windows success will be support for additional languages in Visual Studio.

By Keith Ward developers do all their work in the cloud. Part of Visual hile Microsoft needs to bring more Windows Studio Online was released as “Monaco,” an entirely brows- developers into the fold, those that are all in will er-based environment that supports Windows develop- Wfocus on bringing compelling apps to the new ment in any browser and from any device. “modern” platform. Microsoft has been pushing its developer Microsoft has also gone to great lengths to foster develop- army toward Windows 8 and Windows Phone with gusto. ment through platform-neutral technologies. For example, Until recently, however, paltry Windows Phone sales num- JavaScript has become a fi rst-class language in Visual Studio bers have kept the majority of developers from building apps. 2013. That means developers can use most of the standard Instead, they’ve used (and are still using) cross-platform tools programming tools, such as IntelliSense, code snippets and so within Microsoft’s Visual Studio integrated development on. Those are the same tools they would have used all along environment to build for the competing mobile platforms with a Microsoft-specifi c language like C# or Visual Basic. iOS and Android. In fact, Microsoft has gone beyond that to create a super- set of JavaScript called TypeScript. This helps developers build larger, more complex programs than are possible with standard JavaScript. Building the app ecosystem Another trend that bears watching is Microsoft’s continued is crucial to the success of push into “Big Data.” At the core of this effort is Microsoft’s partnership with Hortonworks. That collaboration led to the Windows Phone and Windows 8. recent release of HDInsight, a Hadoop-based service from Microsoft that brings a 100 percent Apache Hadoop solution to Windows Azure. One advantage of HDInsight is that it That may change this year with recent news of upticks in allows for development in .NET, making it a no-brainer Windows Phone market share, and solid reviews for Windows option for that community. 8.1. If it looks to be a viable market, those developers will start Quentin Clark, corporate vice president, Microsoft Data creating for Windows Phone. Building the app ecosystem is Platform, thinks Big Data is the future. “We believe Hadoop crucial to the success of Windows Phone and Windows 8. is the cornerstone of a sea change coming to all businesses in Support for Windows Phone may continue to increase, terms of how they’re able to embrace information to effect perhaps to as high as 7 or 8 percent next year. That would change for how they run their day-to-day business,” he said double its current market share. Some will come at the at a recent conference. expense of BlackBerry, some at the expense of iOS, which Clark may be right, but there are just as many challenges and still suffers from much higher prices than the competition. opportunities for Microsoft in the areas of mobile computing

“We believe Hadoop is the cornerstone of a sea change coming to all businesses in terms of how they are able to embrace information to eff ect change for how they run their day-to-day business.” Quentin Clark, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Data Platform

Developer tooling is undergoing a similar transformation. and Web development. Redmond appears ready for the battles Toward the end of 2013, Microsoft pushed out new versions of ahead. Execution will be the key to its success or failure. R Visual Studio and the .NET Framework. The direction sur- rounding those key products is clear—they’re heading to the cloud. Visual Studio Online, a brand-new offering, pro- Keith Ward is the editor-in-chief of sister publication Visual vides strong integration with Windows Azure. This helps Studio Magazine.

| Redmondmag.com | Redmond | January 2014 | 19 FEATURE | Spotlight On: Next-Gen Virtualization with Hyper-V and System Center

SPSP TLIGHTT ON: Next-Gen Virtualization with Hyper-V and System Center

ILLUSTRATION BY SHUTTERSTOCK Network Evolution Extend the limits of your datacenter with a software defi ned network based on the new Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 R2.

By Brien M. Posey

ne of the biggest problems with traditional networking • Finally, software defi ned networking should be policy is it lacks the agility to quickly adapt to changing driven. Policies should be valid on both virtual and Obusiness needs. You may need to make major topology physical networks. changes to a physical network. However, you’re likely to dis- The new version of Hyper-V introduced in Windows Server cover that making those changes is complex, time consuming 2012 gets you closer to these goals. However, Windows and expensive. Server 2012 R2 introduces many additional new features, Virtual networking has made it easier to adapt to ever changing particularly with regard to the virtual switch. business needs, but the earlier versions of Hyper-V lacked the ability for networking to be adjusted dynamically. With the recent release of Windows Server 2012 R2, Microsoft is Windows Server 2012 R2 seeking to make Hyper-V virtual networking much more fl exible and dynamic. It’s using a new approach called software introduces many additional defi ned networking. Software defi ned networking should new features, particularly with accomplish three things: • First, it should support multi-tenancy and each tenant regard to the virtual switch. should be able to defi ne its own logical networking topologies (and IP addresses) on a virtual network that resides on top of the physical network. Hybrid Forwarding • Second, it should be able to manage traffi c fl ows. This The virtual switch improvement that has received the most goes beyond simply establishing traffi c forwarding rules. attention is a feature called hybrid forwarding. In Windows It also means having the ability to put in place bandwidth Server 2012 Hyper-V, Microsoft made the virtual switch guarantees and bandwidth caps where necessary. extensible. This let third-party networking vendors write

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extensions that plug into the Hyper-V virtual switch. In some completely meet the needs of larger organizations. However, cases however, these extensions were disruptive because they VLAN IDs aren’t the only thing that have an impact on attempted to handle traffi c that really should have been handled VLAN scalability. There’s also the issue of subnets. VLANs by native code within the virtual switch. are constrained to a single subnet. This severely limits what The hybrid forwarding feature helps the switch differenti- you can do with VLANs. Never mind the fact that VLANs ate between traffi c that is Network Virtualization Generic can be diffi cult to manage. Routing Encapsulation (NVGRE) encapsulated (a network So what does all of this have to do with software defi ned virtualization protocol that tunnels multiple VLANs for networking, a customer address space or Hyper-V? Well, hybrid cloud environments now in Hyper-V) and traffi c that more organizations are beginning to make the transition to is not. This is important because it means that third party a private cloud model for their datacenter. A private cloud is forwarding extensions can now seamlessly coexist with the essentially a virtual datacenter that supports multi-tenancy native network virtualization code. and self-service provisioning. There are a number of benefi ts If a packet is NVGRE encapsulated, then the Hyper-V to private clouds including: Network Virtualization (HNV) module built into the virtual • Reducing the administrative burden switch can forward the packet. Non-encapsulated traffi c can • Empowering end users and promoting accountability be forwarded by third party extensions you’ve added. As a • Offering automated VM deprovisioning mechanisms result, the virtual switch can forward packets for both the that can reduce costs by cutting down on the problem physical address space and the customer address space. The of VM sprawl customer address space is somewhat new to Hyper-V. It basi- • Encouraging management to keep IT operations cally refers to a per-tenant address space in a multi-tenancy on-premises instead of outsourcing virtual environment. • Signifi cantly lowering the total cost of ownership over Prior to Windows Server 2012 R2, you had to deal with the public clouds (when the total costs are examined over a physical address space and the virtual address space. However, period of fi ve or more years) the underlying mechanisms left a lot to be desired when it In order for an organization to fully realize the benefi ts of a came to multi-tenancy or being able to dynamically make private cloud environment (or even a hybrid cloud environment), architectural changes to the network. it must be able to get past the limitations imposed by VLANs. The need for more agility and resiliency isn’t unique to the Specifi cally, you and your organization must be able to: virtual datacenter. Organizations have been forced to cope with • Securely support multi-tenancy with the potential for problems such as multi-tenancy, address space reuse and subnet overlapping IP addresses security for decades. • Moving VMs on an as-needed basis without being Prior to widespread adoption of server virtualization products restricted by subnet boundaries such as Hyper-V, the mechanism of choice for multi-tenancy • Moving a VM without affecting its IP address and address space reuse was VLANs. VLANs let multiple vir- This is where software defi ned networking and the concept tual networks exist on a common physical network segment. of a customer address space come into play. The idea is VMs, Even today, many organizations continue to rely on VLANs virtual networks and physical networks can be decoupled in and have actually extended existing VLANs from the physical a way that provides an unprecedented degree of fl exibility. network to the virtual network. Specifically, enterprises with private clouds can provision

Prior to Windows Server 2012 R2, Hyper-V administrators had to deal with the physical address space and the virtual address space. However, the underlying mechanisms left a lot to be desired when it came to multi-tenancy or to being able to dynamically make architectural changes to the network.

Although VLAN’s have been the go-to mechanism for their own virtual network topology and IP addressing scheme quite some time, they do have their problems. For starters, (the customer address space) with no regard for the under- VLANs are based on the use of VLAN IDs. This creates a lying network architecture. Conversely, you can move VMs theoretical limit of 4,096 VLANs. In practicality, the actual without worrying about needing to reconfi gure the VM. limit is often much lower. That’s because the underlying This decoupling is extremely beneficial for a number of networking hardware must support the VLANs, and many reasons. In the past, moving a VM to a different datacenter (or network switches support a maximum of 1,000 VLANs. in some cases even to a different location within the current With these limitations, VLANs won’t scale well enough to datacenter) required you to provision the VM with a new IP

22 | January 2014 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com | address. Depending on how the environment was confi gured, has a rather convoluted syntax due to the number of different assigning new IP addresses and updating DNS records could parameters supported. Fortunately, you can usually get by be a labor-intensive and potentially error-prone process. with using relatively few parameters. There are technologies that can automate IP address and To give you an example of how you might use extended DNS changes, however. ACL rules to enforce application security, let’s consider a The bigger issue with IP address changes is that things like scenario with a server named Lab1. You want to create a set security policies and network services are often bound to IP of rules that permits inbound traffi c over TCP Port 80, but

Hyper-V network virtualization makes it possible to live migrate virtual machines to Hyper-V hosts that reside in remote subnets, without having to make changes to the virtual machine’s IP address.

addresses or specifi c subnets. As such, changing a VM’s IP blocks all other inbound traffi c. You could accomplish this address may break things like fi rewall port rules, IPSec encryp- by entering the following two commands: tion or even the ability to access various services on the network. Windows Server 2012 R2’s Hyper-V Network Virtualization VMNetworkAdapterExtendedAcl –VMName “Lab1” – feature eliminates these problems. It lets your private cloud Action “Deny” –Direction “Inbound” –Weight 1 customers maintain their IP address usage, while also letting Add-VMNetworkAdapterExtendedAcl –VMName “Lab1” you relocate VMs as needed. –Action “Allow” –Direction “Inbound” –RemotePort 80 – The new Hyper-V network virtualization architecture can be Protocol “TCP” –Weight 10 benefi cial even in organizations that don’t use multi-tenancy. Hyper-V network virtualization helps you live migrate VMs to The fi rst command denies all inbound traffi c. The second Hyper-V hosts that reside in remote subnets, without having command allows inbound traffi c on Port 80. Notice the first to make changes to the VM’s IP address. This functionality command has a weight of 1 and the second command has a could prove useful for redistributing host server workloads weight of 10. Commands with higher weight take precedence or for failing over to a remote datacenter. (a weight of 10 takes precedence over a weight of 1). The previous example blocks all inbound traffi c for a VM Extended Port Access Control Lists named Lab1. It then creates an exception for traffi c coming Another new feature in Windows Server 2012 R2 that has in on Port 80. This is a blanket exception because the traffi c’s received quite a bit of attention is the Extended Port Access originating address isn’t addressed. However, you can base Control Lists (ACLs). The Extended Port ACLs let you rules around a remote computer’s IP address. For example, create firewall rules that apply to the individual virtual you could modify the command allowing inbound TCP traffi c NICs within a VM. You can create and manage these rules on Port 80 so that traffi c is only allowed from a specifi c host. through PowerShell. Doing so involves adding the RemoteIPAddress parameter The main change with ACLs is they can now include the to the command. For example, such a command might look socket port number. This wasn’t the case in Windows Server like this: 2012 Hyper-V, where only MAC- and IP address-based ACLs were supported. Add-VMNetworkAdapterExtendedAcl –VMName “Lab1” The extended ACLs provide a number of benefi ts, especially –Action “Allow” –Direction “Inbound” –RemoteIPAddress in multi-tenant environments. For starters, ACLs help you 10.1.1.10 –RemotePort 80 –Protocol “TCP” –Weight 10 secure traffi c fl ows even if they don’t have direct access to the individual VMs. Key Hyper-V Improvement The built-in logging capabilities are also a welcome addition. As you can see, Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V offers some These have been primarily discussed as a diagnostic feature, important improvements over previous versions of Hyper-V but you can also theoretically use the logging features as a with regard to virtual networking. These improvements mechanism for implementing a system of chargebacks. should go a long way toward making multi-tenancy more practical and toward making it easier to fail over to a second- Creating ACL Rules ary datacenter. R You can apply ACL rules at the user level or the application level. In either case, you must create the rules through Power- Brien M. Posey is a seven-time Microsoft MVP with more than Shell. Thankfully, Microsoft makes this relatively easy to do. two decades of IT experience. He’s written thousands of articles The PowerShell cmdlet you would use for creating extended and several dozen books on a wide variety of IT topics. Visit his ACL rules is Add-VMNetworkAdapterExtendedACL. This Web site at brienposey.com.

| Redmondmag.com | Redmond | January 2014 | 23 FEATURE | Spotlight On: Next-Gen Virtualization with Hyper-V and System Center

ILLUSTRATION BY SHUTTERSTOCK

SPSP TLIGHTT ON: Next-Gen Virtualization with Hyper-V and System Center Bridge to the Cloud Microsoft’s new System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager provides tighter links between private and hybrid clouds.

By Brien M. Posey

ithin Microsoft’s new System Center 2012 R2 It’s tough to manage one environment, much less three. The platform, the company has made some notable latest breed of System Center is all about letting you manage Wimprovements to System Center Virtual Machine resources across all three cloud tiers using a single suite of Manager. The release of System Center 2012 R2 in October products. System Center can also help you move resources came nine months after Microsoft shipped System Center between environments if necessary. 2012 SP1, yet the company added a signifi cant number of new It’s important to note Microsoft now makes the same Virtual features to its fl agship systems management platform. Machine Manager features available across all tiers. There Before examining the new features, it’s important to under- aren’t any special features for service providers. However, stand System Center 2012 R2’s new design philosophy. It’s some features will obviously be more beneficial in some widely understood Microsoft is now marketing Windows environments than others. Server 2012 R2 as a “Cloud OS.” In the not too distant past, Microsoft’s vision for the cloud was all about outsourcing. Emphasis on Standards Needless to say, there was quite a backlash from IT pros Now that you understand the design philosophy behind the who didn’t want their jobs outsourced. This led Microsoft to new version of System Center, you’ll note a key change. The change its cloud philosophy. new System Center 2012 R2 is standards-based. Even though Today, Microsoft has a three-pronged vision for the cloud. The you won’t see it on Microsoft’s list of new features, one of the fi rst tier is the customer cloud. These are “private clouds” built most important additions in System Center 2012 R2 is native in a customer’s own datacenter using on premises resources. support for common hardware. For example, System Center The second tier is the service provider cloud. This is func- 2012 R2 natively recognizes a number of different types of tionally similar to the customer cloud, except that it exists at SANs. VMM also recognizes a number of different physical a much larger scale. As the name implies, a service provider network switches. cloud lets service providers provide applications or virtual Hardware recognition is important because VMM is all machines (VMs) to their customers on a subscription basis. about pooling hardware resources and making those resources Microsoft Office 365 is an example of a service provider available for allocation. Once resources are allocated, VMM cloud. The model also includes third party service providers. supports self-service provisioning. For example, you might The third cloud tier is Windows Azure. Windows Azure give your marketing department the ability to create up to lets you run VMs off premises in a hosted environment. 10 VMs using resources allocated to that department. Microsoft has acknowledged none of these cloud tiers are Resource allocation and self-service provisioning aren’t mutually exclusive. Most organizations will use some combi- new to System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager. nation of all three. For example, in my own organization I keep VMM has long had the ability to let authorized users create most of my resources on premises, but I use Offi ce 365 for my VMs from templates you provide. Since System Center is all Exchange e-mail and I have a Windows Azure account I use about supporting industry standards, Microsoft has added purely for testing purposes. support for creating template-based Linux VMs. There is

24 | January 2014 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com |

FEATURE | Spotlight On: Next-Gen Virtualization with Hyper-V and System Center

support for Oracle Linux 5 (x86 and x64), Oracle Linux 6 and DNS considerations that you’d have to take into account. (x86 and x64) and Debian GNU/Linux 7.0 (x86 and x64). Logical networking does away with this problem by letting a Another significant advance in System Center 2012 R2 VM keep the same IP address regardless of where it’s running VMM is its extended support for VMs. Although VMM was (so long as the logical network extends to the new location). originally designed for managing Hyper-V environments, it System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager fully sup- includes support for VMware and Xen Server environments. ports logical networking. Logical networking not only makes it easy to move resources without regard to physical location, but Storage Improvements can also facilitate multi-tenancy and improved scalability. It lets System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager has a num- each tenant use their preferred IP address space without having ber of improvements related to storage. Some of these new to worry about the address space being used by other tenants. VMM 2012 R2 features are playing catch up with some of the features added to Windows Server 2012. For example, Offl oad User Permissions Model Data Transfer (ODX) support was fi rst introduced in Windows Another thing Microsoft has changed in the most recent Server 2012, but VMM is only now able to fully utilize ODX. release of VMM is the user permissions model. You can now Similarly, virtual Fibre Channel was also introduced with grant users permission to user or user roles on a per cloud basis. Windows Server 2012. So clearly, VMM had some catching up to Previously, you had to create new user roles based on actions, do. VMM 2012 R2 now supports managing Fibre Channel fab- users and clouds. Although this model worked, it really didn’t rics and automated provisioning for VMs that use those fabrics. scale very well because if an organization had multiple clouds, you could end up having to create a lot of different user roles. VMM now lets you create clouds and assign users to those System Center 2012 R2 clouds. A number of System Center 2012 reports suggest you create clouds on a per tenant basis. For example, if your orga- Virtual Machine Manager fully nization is servicing only internal users, then each department supports logical networking. might be treated as a tenant. Under the old model, this would mean creating an HR cloud, a Marketing cloud and so on. I haven’t seen any offi cial Microsoft documentation describing Not every new storage feature is geared toward bringing the tenant cloud model as an established best practice, but it VMM in line with Windows Server’s capabilities. Some of does seem to have become somewhat commonplace. the new capabilities are much more innovative. For example, With the release of System Center 2012 R2, Microsoft is VMM 2012 R2 now lets you provision scale out fi le server making an effort to move its customers away from the tenant clusters at the bare metal level. Using a single step, you can cloud model. Instead, Microsoft is encouraging customers both provision and cluster fi le servers. to create service clouds and establish tenancy at the user or Another new feature involves shared VHDX support. In group level. For example, you might create a lab cloud con- Windows Server 2012 R2, Microsoft began letting you use taining low-end resources and a production cloud containing VHDX fi les as shared storage for Hyper-V guest clusters. higher-end resources. VMM 2012 supports placing shared VHDX in a service tier. What’s Missing? Virtual Network Support When Microsoft releases a new version of something as major Besides added recognition of certain physical network switches, as System Center, there are almost always some legacy features Microsoft has made two main improvements to VMM’s net- removed. In the case of System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine working support. First, VMM 2012 R2 offers greatly improved Manager, there are two main features that Microsoft cut. IP address management. VMM now fully supports Windows First, the preconfi gured chargeback report is gone. You can Server IP Address Management (IPAM). still install the chargeback reports feature and manually create You can now add an IPAM server to the list of resources and publish a price sheet, but there’s no longer a preconfi g- managed by VMM. This helps IPAM keep track of addresses ured chargeback report. (and address settings) used by both logical networks and VM Microsoft also removed the Physical to Virtual (P2V) conver- networks. VM networks refer to the virtual networks that have sion mechanism. If you still need to perform P2V migrations, existed in Hyper-V from the very beginning. Logical networks Microsoft’s recommended workaround is to use an older ver- are a new type of networking supported by Hyper-V 2012 R2. sion of System Center Virtual Machine Manager. Despite the The reason it’s important to understand Microsoft’s three- short timeframe between releases of System Center, Microsoft pronged cloud strategy is that your organization’s resources has still introduced a fairly large number of features. R are no longer confi ned to a single datacenter. For example, an application might run on premises today. In the future, you might move it to Windows Azure or some other cloud Brien M. Posey is a seven-time Microsoft MVP with more than service as a way of improving the application’s scalability. two decades of IT experience. He’s written thousands of articles Moving an application to a different datacenter (or a different and several dozen books on a wide variety of IT topics. Visit his cloud) in the past was a big job because there are IP address Web site at brienposey.com.

26 | January 2014 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com | Yes, Our Head Is in the Clouds

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Untitled-4 1 12/9/13 11:35 AM DecisionMaker by Don Jones Are You Failing Your IT Team?

t certainly stirred up considerable debate when fellow IT team that’s arguing against change because they simply don’t like it or Redmond magazine columnist Greg Shields recently served fear for their jobs, and an IT team up a list of reasons to fi re your IT staff. I’d like to turn the that has a legitimate gripe. If you’re I hot-to-trot about VDI and your IT conversation around. In many cases, it is management that’s team is suggesting that maybe RDS is a less expensive, higher-density solution, failing their IT teams. Here are some questions to consider: you should listen. Conversely, challenge them when they tell you something Have you created a culture Are you encouraging automation? can’t be done. If remote app delivery is that opposes change? Let’s be clear: No IT pro worth his or the goal, challenge them to make RDS The Windows 8 “Start Screen” debate her salary enjoys performing repetitive, work before you move up a notch to is the perfect example. There are many manual work. A lot of them, however, more-expensive approaches like VDI. legitimate business reasons to not are telling me they’re just not getting Explore the possibilities as a team, val- deploy this, or any other OS. “We have the support they need to invest in idating your approaches independently no ability to train our users to use a automation. Invest—that means you of the vendors trying to sell you stuff. new OS’ user interface” is not a legit can expect a return. Automation isn’t business reason. It’s an organizational just sending your folks to a PowerShell Do you encourage fi efdoms? failing. What will you do when class. It’s about setting measurable One of the worst things I’ve seen in something radically different comes goals for eliminating manual effort some IT teams is a strong division along and offers a major competitive through a committed journey of between functional groups. It’s advantage? Will you skip it because it automation. Make automation a sometimes so bad that they have doesn’t look the same as what you’ve priority. Check your team’s skill set internal SLAs and processes for been doing? Make sure you’re giving and measure their results. simple stuff like getting an IP address. your IT team the resources they Don’t do that to your team. Manage need to successfully deploy crazy new Are you stuck in your own datacenter? your team, but don’t make them things, when it’s the right thing to do. Plenty of businesses have legitimate jump through hoops just to get their reasons for not moving certain services jobs done. Are you focused on continually to cloud-based offerings. However, reviewing new technology? no business can legitimately state that Do you encourage growth? DirectAccess is a good example of nothing can be safely outsourced. Too This isn’t just about sending folks to this. DirectAccess version 1 was many businesses ignore the fact tech- training classes, although that’s part overly complex. Microsoft has since nology vendors are always moving the of it. Make sure you’re giving your IT moved the needle signifi cantly on needle on what can be done. Offi ce 365 folks learning opportunities—even this important technology. It solves offers a government-compatible version, ones that might only have a long-term real problems, but too many IT teams along with other industry-specifi c benefi t. And you should be a bit wrote it off in the past. They haven’t offerings. Times change—what suspicious of team members who don’t been encouraged to give it a fresh look. couldn’t be outsourced yesterday may take advantage of those opportunities. Make sure your IT team is continually be an option today. Make sure you’re What’s the point of an IT person who aware of operational defi ciencies, and not condemning your team to a isn’t interested in new technology? R make sure they’re incented to continu- lifetime of daily tech management, ally look for new solutions. Make sure when outsourcing is the right answer. your team knows you’re looking to Don Jones is a principal technologist for them to present solutions, not just push Are you open to arguments? strategic consulting fi rm Concentrated the buttons to implement them. Be As a decision maker, you have to be Technology. You can contact him via receptive to what they bring you. able to tell the difference between an ConectratedTech.com.

28 | January 2014 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com | March 10 – 14, 2014 Las Vegas, NV Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino

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Untitled-1 1 12/11/13 4:01 PM WindowsInsider by Greg Shields 4 Ways to Fail Your System Center Installation

ystem Center is an installation consultant’s gold mine. care-and-feeding. “We’re making this a team project,” they state. When they It’s big, complicated, overwhelming and radically go this route, they fail. interconnected. System Center can completely You will fail with System Center if you S don’t designate an individual responsible change how your IT organization manages Windows. for its care-and-feeding. You will also fail if that person is responsible for There’s one caveat: You have to #Fail #1: Install without expert anything else. The desktop technician remember to use it. That’s the lesson assistance. IT consultants often get who will still handle work orders, the I’ve learned among countless System a bad rap for burning time on hourly administrator who will continue to Center implementations. The real contracts. Experienced consultants manage Exchange and fi le servers, the work starts the moment the consultants enjoy a key advantage, though: project team member who will shift walk out the door. If you lose motivation Experience. Implementing System onto the next project—these are the as they depart, the odds are good you’ll Center requires skillfully laying consultant’s gold mine. be calling them back to reinstall what down a complex weave of component Be prepared to lock your System Center they just reinstalled. interconnections. What results is admin away for at least six months. You Experienced System Center pros powerful automation. Fail just one step won’t see much at fi rst, almost nothing know that when it’s fully-implemented, though, and troubleshooting quickly at all. Keep waiting. The right person it’s merely an empty framework. It sits becomes a project-killing nightmare. eventually pays for this time many there patiently awaiting the automations Avoid that fi rst-step misstep and lean times over. System Center success you carefully insert. Implementing on the ridiculously skilled for your requires playing the long game. System Center is a fun project, ripe installation effort. with success metrics and project #Fail #4: Ignore the cultural change. completion fanfare. Subsequently, #Fail #2: Assume training actually System Center’s greatest success using it is an everyday activity that trains. Implementing System Center is stories involve wholesale IT culture enjoys gradual successes among a science. Using it successfully is an change. Choose to “Automate First” occasional earthshattering errors. art. It is unbelievably challenging to every action you’re asked to accom- System Center in full use is an extraor- teach someone the art of System Center plish. For some, the process will take dinary sight to see. It almost completely automation. You can only learn it. more time— for others, far less. The defi nes the IT culture that embraces it. This fact is borne out in most System “Automate First” mindset quickly Applications deploy automatically, Center training on the market today. It begins to build a quiver of clever problems get noticed before they become teaches only the science. By no means solutions to routine problems, each problems, activities are orchestrated should you ignore formal training, but of which can be combined and reused among widespread teams and virtual you should absolutely augment it with for the next problem and the next machines perform exactly as expected. community wisdom. problem after that. If you’ve ever complained that Windows should be able to do something, odds #Fail #3: Involve everyone; designate So how do you truly and completely are you aren’t a System Center expert. no one. Implementation consultants fail your System Center installation? Yet this solution’s most challenging can smell it walking out the door: That’s easy—don’t use it. R phase exists just past its very fi rst “We’ll be back.” A client gets excited step. How does one fail in reaping about automation. Perhaps they Greg Shields is a partner and principal recognizable operational benefi t from recently attended an IT conference technologist with Concentrated a fully-implemented System Center? or training class. They want System Technology, an IT analysis and strategic Consider these four tasks as your “do Center, but they aren’t culturally consulting fi rm. You can contact him not do list:” ready to dedicate someone to its daily at ConcentratedTech.com.

30 | January 2014 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com | STAY CONNECTED At Home, In the Offi ce, On the Road

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Untitled-2 1 9/11/13 11:28 AM FoleyOnMicrosoft by Mary Jo Foley 2014 Predictions: 5 Products Microsoft Will Deliver

icrosoft has offi cially shared next to nothing about tablets. The real questions are when and how. From what some of us its product roadmaps, beyond some fairly sweeping Microsoft watchers have heard and statements it has made about aligning around the deduced, Microsoft is planning to M require an Offi ce 365 subscription— “One Microsoft” mission. That makes trying to predict just as it does with the Offi ce Mobile apps for iPhones and Android phones— what’s going to happen even more might not. The “Xbox Surface” isn’t the for these non-Windows-tablets. fun and risky for those of us trying to only potential new Xbox-branded gadget Supposedly, Microsoft will only offer maintain high Sorsed scores. (If you in the wings. Prior to the One Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote haven’t heard about the cool rumor- reorg in July 2013, the Xbox team was for these platforms, not any of the tracking site Sorsed, formerly known working on developing some new kind other Offi ce apps— not even Outlook. as Tracour.com, it’s worth checking out.) of wearable device. After the reorg, the Here are fi ve things on the product hardware team working on wearables 5. Speech recognition: Microsoft’s front I’m expecting from Microsoft in moved to the Devices division; and the answer to “Siri” and “Google Now,” 2014, in no particular order. If the list software crew moved to the unifi ed codenamed “Cortana,” arrives as part feels a bit consumer-heavy, it’s because Windows team, sources have said. of Windows Phone 8.1 “Blue” before the enterprise-focused Microsoft will Whatever form Microsoft’s fi rst wearable mid-2014. Microsoft has been developing be putting lots of effort into growing takes, expect some kind of Xbox tie-in. its own voice-controlled personal assis- its smaller consumer business. tant for the past few years. Cortana, 3. Offi ce with touch: Microsoft should named for the artifi cially intelligent char- 1. “Surface Mini” tablet: Microsoft deliver the long-rumored “Gemini” acter in Microsoft’s Halo series, will be made a major misstep by pooh-poohing wave of touch-centric Offi ce apps. At the fi rst instance. However, I’m hearing the appeal of 8-inch mini tablets back in last, there will be true touch-centric Cortana may not show up as an integrated 2012. Yet after hinting earlier this year versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint part of Windows on PCs and tablets that Windows 8 was built to scale across (along with a second release of touch-fi rst until 2015. Cortana is more than “just” all form-factors, Microsoft didn’t end OneNote). The rumored rollout date for a voice-command technology. It will up delivering a small Surface in 2013. these apps is summer 2014. I’m thinking use the “Satori” knowledge repository There have been recurring rumors they debut alongside Offi ce 2013 Service that powers Bing to adapt and learn. that Microsoft might build some kind of Pack 1 or shortly thereafter. What other Microsoft product “Xbox Surface.” This companion device Microsoft should also be ready to predictions for 2014 would you put on would most likely run the SmartGlass deliver a couple of brand-new, touch- the short list? R software, which lets tablets provide centric Offi ce family members: A Reader supplementary information about Xbox app and a “digital storytelling” app code- Mary Jo Foley is editor of the ZDNet “All apps and services. There’s no word if named “Remix.” Reader was allegedly about Microsoft” blog and has been covering that’s still part of the plan. We do know, demonstrated during Microsoft’s internal Microsoft for more than two decades. She is however, that Microsoft plans to deliver company meeting in the fall of 2013. author of the book, Microsoft 2.0 (John Wiley a 4G/LTE-enabled Surface 2 device & Sons, May 2008), which examines what’s in early 2014. Maybe the mini-Surface 4. iPad and Android Offi ce: At long next for Microsoft in the post-Gates era. tablet will be 4G-enabled, as well? last, Microsoft will deliver Offi ce for the iPad and Android-based tablets. GetMoreOnline 2. Wearable devices: Microsoft could Both will likely require Offi ce 365 take the wraps off its fi rst new wearable subscriptions. It’s no longer a question Read more predictions and rumors coming out of Redmond. device since the SPOT watch. The new of whether Microsoft is planning to Redmondmag.com/Foley0114 gadget might be a watch, but then it offer Offi ce apps for iPads and Android

32 | January 2014 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com | Untitled-4 1 12/6/13 2:18 PM Know every customer. Own every experience. Sitecore is a platform for driving one-on-one engagement at every touchpoint

Untitled-3 1 10/15/13 11:21 AM