RunAs Radio

Richard talks to Stephen Rose about the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. Stephen talks about the features that IT Pros are particularily going to be interested in for Windows 8, such as the new version of BitLocker. The conversation also moves over to Server 8 and some of the capabilities there, including a new IPv4 version of DirectAccess. Now is a great time to get testing!

Richard talks to Justin Morris about the mobility component of Lync. Only just released, Microsoft has Lync clients for iPhone, Android, Symbian and Windows Phone 7. Justin talks about how the mobile Lync client extends Lync's concept of presence to the smartphone, so that people working in the enterprise can connect and communicate with their fellow employees on the road the same way. The conversation digs into the challenges of data connectivity versus cell telephony, and how Lync provides a call-via-work mechanism to centralize and control cellular call costs. And don't worry - Skype comes up in the conversation too!

Richard talks to Sean Deuby about Simple Cloud Identity Management (SCIM). SCIM is an evolving standard for simplifying federation of identity authentication and account information using common web-based protocols like REST and SAML. Sean talks about how services like Microsoft's Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) works fine for a handful of major cloud applications, but becomes a problem when the number of applications grows. SCIM looks to address this by simplifying the provisioning of identity services. You can read more about SCIM at http://www.simplecloud.info/ and Sean's article on SCIM at Windows IT Pro. Sean also mentions Ping Identity as a key driver behind SCIM and recommends watching a one hour webinar entitled SCIM: New Standard on the Block. It's early days for SCIM yet, but it's worth getting up to speed and asking your cloud vendors where their support for the standard is.

Richard talks to Tom Arbuthnot about how Microsoft Lync impacts business processes. Going beyond 'What is Lync', Tom talks about how the integration of IM, email and voice together presents opportunities for automating workflow. Tom sites the example of a timesheet that follows you around until you fill it in. He also discusses the goal of reducing email by creating opportunities for immediate response using the presence that Lync creates. Ultimately the goal is to see how Lync improves your business beyond just saving money on web seminars. Check out Tom's Lync'd Up Blog for more Lync goodness.

Richard talks to Stephen Foskett about building data centers for virtual servers. The conversation ranges over how virtualization has evolved from consolidating servers in data centers into the newer concepts of private cloud, where being able to move and/or duplicate a virtual machine quickly becomes paramount. Stephen focuses on the challenges around data in these scenarios and how traditional disaster recovery techniques for data migration are inadequate. In 2012 Stephen will be doing a series of seminars on building virtual infrastructure - check them out for more information!

Richard talks to Clint Huffman about understanding the health of IIS7. Clint points out some awesome resources for taking care of IIS7, especially learn.iis.net. Don't miss Clint's Blog Post on IIS7 PowerShell Scripts, how to TroubleShoot Failed Requests Using Tracing in IIS7 and where to get the IIS Log Analyzer. There's more to talk about here, but this is a great start on the toolkit for keeping IIS7 healthy!

Richard talks to Jeremiah Peshcka about how DBAs can work with Object Relational Mapping (ORM). ORMs are tools used by developers to speed development of object-oriented applications that use databases by automating the process of connecting application objects to database objects. While speed is good, crap is bad, and DBAs often struggle with the results of the ORMs generated data structures and queries. Jeremiah talks about how DBAs can work with developers to make better databases and queries, what tools can help out and how everyone can benefit from ORMs. Check out Jeremiah's awesome blog post on DBAs and ORMs.

Richard talks to Rodney Buike about how System Center 2012 facilitates the construction of private clouds. This is where System Center all comes together - utilizing Configuration Manager, Operations Manager, Virtual Machine Manager, Service Manager and Orchestrator to create effective private cloud infrastructure in your own data center. Rodney talks about how each of the System Center components work together to simplify the deployment of services - beyond the individual VM and into a suite of VM, networking rules, storage, etc. Each of the System Center products bring something to the table in this scenario. You should already be using them for their core purposes, now take it to the next level!

For the first show of 2012, Richard talks to Dana Epp about his eight rules of security. Dana wrote the original blog post back in December of 2003, you can read it here. The rules are technology agnostic, and revisiting them reminds us that they are still right, there's just new ways of implementing them. Have a read and think again about what you're focused on for your security!

Richard talks to Mark Minasi about the events of 2011 that happened and didn't happen. The conversation starts with Windows 8 and the Build conference - is it going to succeed? The debate drills into the role of the tablet in the enterprise. Next topic is IPv6. 2011 is the year that IANA ran out of IPv4 addresses, but the world didn't end. When will IPv6 ascend? Finally, Mark and Richard chat about the Kinect and the next generation of user interfaces. What a great year - and 2012 looks awesome. Happy New Year!