RunAs Radio

Microsoft had a pretty good year in 2016 - or did it? Richard chats with Paul Thurrott about his impressions on Microsoft in the past year with an eye to the future. And while there have been some successes, there have also been some duds in 2016 too. Looking at you, Windows Phone! Paul talks about Microsoft's battles with hardware, from the killing of Band to the problems with Microsoft Surface Book. At the same time, he still loves his Book and is in awe of the Surface Studio. There's lots of great things going on at Microsoft and more to come - have a listen and a great 2017!

Still have applications that depend on Internet Explorer? Richard talks to Fred Pullen from the Edge team about IE Enterprise Mode, allowing IT folks to strictly control what sites run in IE11, and what sites can run in Edge. The Edge browser breaks with the legacy of Internet Explorer, making it smaller, faster and more secure. But IE has a 20+ year history and there are plenty of apps, especially internal apps, that still depend on it. Fred talks about using Enterprise Mode to specify exactly what apps run in IE11 and what ones can run in Edge - and automating the switching between browsers so that users don't have to think about it at all.

SQL Server 2016 SP1 has shipped - what's new? Richard chats with Bob Ward about the latest in SQL Server, some of which was announced at the Connect event in New York. Huge on the list was the addition of many more of what was once enterprise-only features on the Standard and Express editions of the database. Bob discusses architectural changes that have come to SQL Server 2016 to better reflect the latest hardware, which has resulted in the same workloads on the same hardware actually running faster just by upgrading the database to the latest version. Finally, there's a discussion of migration and the tools available today to help you test your workloads to see any variation in behaviour for your application from one version to the next. Check it out!

The DevOps Handbook is finally released! Richard chats with the one-and-only Gene Kim about the five years of effort that have gone into making the DevOps handbook. Gene talks about how the Handbook was supposed to come out before the Phoenix project, but as the scope of the book grew, they realized it needed more time. The benefit of time has been a ton of case studies and great detailed evidence of how automating workflows, instrumenting systems deeply and a culture of experimentation leads to better applications, happier employees and customers, and a better business all around. You need to read this book!

What does it take to make Azure networking actually work? Richard chats with Microsoft VP Albert Greenberg about the whole of Azure networking. The conversation starts out talking about the complexity of building massive virtual networks for Azure so that every customer has their own private space to work in, while not impacting or being impacting by any of the other customers. Albert talks about the need for no central point of focus when scaling to public cloud sizes when it comes to network - there's no hardware available at this size!

How does your Active Directory data look? Richard chats with Chris Johnson of Hyperfish about how important AD personnel data is, and the terrible condition that most organizations leave it in. Chris talks about how the point of Active Directory was to be the authoritative source of personnel information in an organization - but most companies just use it for login credentials! It was Microsoft Exchange that first took on AD for all its user information, and more systems are doing so. The challenge is finding efficient ways to allow users to keep their data up to date and accurate.

Ready for Nano Server? Richard chats with Andrew Mason, one of the folks at Microsoft responsible for creating Nano Server. The conversation dives into the distinctions between Nano Server and Server Core - Core is still around, but Nano is substantially smaller. How much smaller? Less than half a gig! Andrew digs into what Nano Server can and can't do in this version, but don't worry, more is coming and user voice is being used (check the links) if you want to make suggestions to the team. If you're looking for the lightest footprint for Windows Server, you want Nano!

Once again into the breach of answering questions about SQL Server! Richard hosts the open Q and A session with Kim Tripp, Paul Randal, Bob Ward and a number of other talented SQL folks fielding questions from an engaged and fun audience at SQL Intersection. Lots of questions around SQL Server 2016 which shipped back in June, and explorations about the best way to deal with very large scale systems and transactional velocities. And listen at the end of the show for a question to Richard!

PowerShell is ten years old! How did that happen! Richard chats with Don Jones about his on-going enthusiasm for PowerShell creating the awesome PowerShell.org website and summit. The conversation turns to what PowerShell is like today - a mature product that is well supported throughout the Microsoft ecosystem and beyond. Don discusses the excitement around building your own automation in ways that help you deeply understand your infrastructure. Today the young product in the suite of tools is Desired State Configuration (DSC), which got a minor update in Server 2016, but can still do more. Don is building Tug, an open source pull service for DSC that can put even more control in your hands. Check it out!

Microsoft Ignite was huge! What's an Exchange admin to do? Richard chats Gareth Gudger about his favorite sessions from Ignite in Atlanta that focused on Exchange. The conversation roams over classic sessions around migration and living in a hybrid world (forever) to the more leading edge features of Office 365 including Groups and Planner. Gareth talks about how effective some of the Q and A sessions were, where great panelists interacted with the audience to explore subjects in a way that makes them much more real to the average Exchange admin. Lots of good stuff happened at Ignite - have a listen!