* Microsoft IT staff discuss experiences of MOM and remote access
Different people learn in different ways, so I try to point out various learning opportunities such as books, papers, trade shows, conferences and Web events. In the last category, there are two upcoming events put on by Microsoft’s own IT organization that could be of interest to you. Think of the events as the equivalent of “Good Eats” for Microsoft’s “dog food.”
(It is Microsoft’s longstanding practice to test new software by running its own business on it before the company makes that software available to customers. The term for this practice is “dog-fooding,” as in “eating your own dog food.”)
First, at 8 a.m. PST, on Tuesday, March 22, Mark Pohto, Microsoft IT senior technologist, will present “How Microsoft IT Develops a MOM (Microsoft Operations Manager) 2005 Custom Management Pack.” You should read the full test results of MOM that Network World produced a couple of months ago (https://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2005/012405revmom.html).
The important thing to note, as you listen to the Microsoft Webcast, is the following passage from the Network World test: “MOM 2005 agents can track every possible Windows performance and capacity metric you can think of. Microsoft offers separately licensed Management Packs for applications and environments. Microsoft publishes a programming interface a third-party vendor can use to create a Management Pack for that vendor’s server-based software.”
The Webcast will focus on the process that Microsoft IT recommends and uses to plan, develop and deploy custom MOM management packs to support internal line-of-business applications.
The second session, on the following Tuesday (March 29) at 9 a.m. PST, is called “How Microsoft IT Does Security Enhancements for Remote Access.” In this session, Patrick Garwood, Microsoft IT senior systems engineer, will show you how Microsoft IT has dealt with remote access security using the latest generation of Microsoft products – Windows XP Professional, Windows Server 2003, Internet Authentication Service, Internet Security Accelerator 2004, Microsoft Operations Manager 2005, SQL Server 2000, Public Key Infrastructure and Certificate Services, and Connection Manager.
Now most of you aren’t going to need both sessions. Some of you won’t need either. But if you have remote access that you’d like to make more secure or if you have internally developed line-of-business applications, there’s really no reason to pass up free training from people who not only know how it’s supposed to work but also how it really works. Head over to https://www.microsoft.com/technet/itsolutions/msit/webcasts.mspx to register for one or both of these sessions.
