February 2014

Foley: Is Android Coming to Windows?
February 2014 VOL.20 NO.2 REDMONDMAG.COM

Administer Groups with
Windows Azure Active
Directory Update
Microsoft Explains New
Licensing Agreement Plan
Life After TechNet:
Time to Move On!
the Workplace
As tablets and convertible
PCs change the way
enterprises operate, see
how companies of all sizes
are choosing Windows 8
over the Apple iPad and
Android-based devices.
Manage VMware
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2013 Dell, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Dell, Dell Software, the Dell Software logo and productsas identied in this documentare registered trademarks of Dell, Inc. in the U.S.A. and/or other countries.
All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners. PrintAd-PerfMon-VirtCIO2013-US-KS
Untitled-3 1 10/21/13 3:21 PM
The Independent Voice of the Microsoft IT Community
Redmond
Contents
FEBRUARY 201 4
COVER ILLUSTRATION BY
RAVISHANGAR KAILASANATHAN/REDMOND STAFF
COVER STORY
FEATURES
20 Manage VMware
Hyper-V Together
You can administer both
virtualization platforms through a
single pane of glass using Microsoft
System Center 2012 R2.24.
24 Manage Groups with
Windows Azure Active
Directory Upgrade
Microsoft moves to make the cloud
version of its Active Directory
service more appealing by letting
you create and edit groups.
REDMOND REPORT
4 Microsoft Explains
New Licensing
Agreement Plan
New documentation offers
more details and clarity
on Redmonds Microsoft
Products and Services
Agreement (MPSA) policy.
6 Tablet Boots Windows 8.1
and Android
Dual-boot PC-tablet among
numerous new Windows 8.1
devices at CES.
7 Android on Pace
to Eclipse Windows
and iOS
Including phones, Gartner
forecasts 1.1 billion Android-
based devices will ship this
year. Windows shipments will
rise after the 2013 decline.
COLUMNS
2 Redmond View:
Jefrey Schwartz
Hedging Bets on Windows 8
28 Decision Maker:
Don Jones
Changing Metrics When
Hiring IT Pros
30 Windows Insider:
Greg Shields
Life After TechNet: Stop
Awaiting Its Return and
Move On
32 Foley on Microsoft:
Mary Jo Foley
Could Android Be
Coming to Windows?
PRODUCT REVI EW
8 Double-Take Now Ofers
Virtual Server Protection
The new Vision Solutions Double-Take
7.0 backup and recovery software gains
agent/agentless option for virtual servers,
creates vSPhere virtual appliances and
supports heterogeneous servers.
Transforming the
Workplace
PCs change the way
enterprises operate,
see how companies of
all sizes are choosing
Windows 8 over the
Apple iPad and
page 12
As tablets and conv
PCs change t
enterprises o
g
see how compa
p
all sizes are ch
pp
Windows 8 o
Apple iP
Android-based d
pp pp
pa
2 | February 2014 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com |
much of last year was heavily negative,
some positive and many simply curious.
This months cover story (Trans-
forming the Workplace, p. 12)
showcases customers who decided
to share why they decided to roll out
Windows 8-based tablets and PCs
and how their organizations are using
them. It was clear from talking to these
enterprise customers that they were
quite skeptical about it from the outset.
Some admit theyre still selling it to a
few reluctant employees internally.
Yet Im incrementally seeing more
optimism about Windows 8. In
addition to the people Ive interviewed
extensively over the past few months,
people Ive talked to in routine
conversations, and even the comments
on Redmondmag.com, suggest fewer
objections to Windows 8 than last year
at this time. Even if Windows amounts
to about one-third of all devices in use
in a few years from now, that could still
come out to more devices than those in
use today or in the recent past. So what
if it doesnt account for the 90-plus
percent share it had at one time? As
Darrell Haskin, IT director for Delta
Air Lines crew department, put it:
I think 30 percent is a pretty good
number. While that might sound
contrived, its a reasonable way to look
at it these days.
A worst-case scenario is Microsoft
doesnt even come close to that number.
Given the state of apps in the Windows
Store, the success of the new tile-based
modern interface and application
platform remains disappointing. Even
if it is improving, its nowhere near
the state of Google Play or the Apple
iTunes App Store. The debut of
dual-boot systems and rumors of
Windows coming to Android in some
form (see Mary Jo Foleys column on p.
32) could have interesting consequenc-
es for the future of Windows.
Windows 8 and its successor,
Windows 8.1, now account for more
than 10 percent of desktops and laptops
in use. And the rate of growth is
increasing monthly. Thats why Im
hedging my bets on Windows 8. R
Hedging Bets
on Windows 8
N
umerous IT pros and business people have
expressed their views about Windows 8 since it
arrived in October 2012 and the verdict during
by Jefrey Schwartz
RedmondView
Redmond
THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF THE MICROSOFT IT COMMUNITY
ID STATEMENT Redmond (ISSN 1553-7560) is published monthly by 1105 Media, Inc., 9201 Oakdale Avenue, Ste. 101,
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REDMONDMAG. COM
FEBRUARY 201 4
VOL. 20
NO. 2
Editorial Staf
Editor Jefrey Schwartz
Group Managing Editor Wendy Hernandez
Contributing Editors
Mary Jo Foley
Don Jones
Greg Shields
Art Staf
Creative Director,
Media and Events Scott Shultz
Art Director Joshua Gould
Senior Graphic Designer Alan Tao
Production Staf
Director, Print Production David Seymour
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Online/Digital Media
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Event Operations
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Untitled-4 1 12/10/13 4:20 PM
RedmondReport
By Kurt Mackie
M
icrosoft has published some
new documents describ-
ing its emerging Microsoft
Products and Services Agreement
(MPSA) licensing plan.
The company had issued vague infor-
mation about MPSA backin November.
Its a perpetual contract designed to
simplify software licensing for midsize
organizations and will replace Microsoft
Select Plus licensing at some unspeci-
fed point in the near future. Microsoft
offcials had previously said that MPSA
licensing became available on Dec. 1.
However, according to licensing
experts, it isnt broadly available yet or
its just available to some customers.
The general rollout of MPSA licensing
is planned forlate 2014, which is when
all enrollments will be expected to
start following the MPSA model.
The newly released documents
describing the MPSA model are
available on the Microsoft Volume
Licensing site (bit.ly/1eJpAz9).
Server and Cloud
Enrollment
The other major licensing change
planned for general availability by
Microsoft this year isServer and Cloud
Enrollment(SCE). SCE is an Enterprise
Agreement contract, initially rolled out
on Dec. 1 that requires having
Software Assurance coverage across an
organizations infrastructure. SCE
eventually will replace Microsofts
current Enrollment for Application
Platform (EAP) and Enrollment for
Core Infrastructure (ECI) offerings.
It turns out the MPSA is still evolving.
Microsoft documents explain only
some elements are now available. For
instance, MPSA isnt available yet for
academic and government sectors. In
addition, Software Assurance coverage
under MPSA isnt available, but
Microsoft plans to add it by the end
of 2014, according to the FAQ.
The MPSA will allow organizations
to purchase multiple account types,
including premises-based Microsoft
products along with online services,
through a single contract. However, of
those online services, only Offce 365,
Dynamics CRM Online, Yammer and
Windows Intune subscriptions are cur-
rently available with the present MPSA
offering. Microsoft isnt allowing orga-
nizations tochange their online service
plansyet under the MPSA offering, but
that capability will be added later.
Microsoft describes the MPSA as
blending elements of the Microsoft
Business and Services Agreement,
Select Plus licensing, and Microsoft
Online Services subscriptions. It
consists of two parts: a licensing
agreement and a purchasing account
document that specifes who can make
a software purchase.
Volume License
Management
The main tool for managing an
MPSA is a new Microsoft Volume
Licensing Center (MVLC), which
will let domain administrators view
and manage details of their companys
MPSA. Still to be added to the
MVLC are user management and
pre-populated and custom reports,
according to the Microsoft FAQ.
Moreover, if an organization has other
kinds of volume licensing agreements
with Microsoft, then theyll have
to use the olderMicrosoft Volume
Licensing Service Centerto manage
those accounts.
In addition to supporting multiple
account types, the MPSA will allow
organizations to work with multiple
Microsoft partners on software
purchases while maintaining a single
MPSA contract. Previously, Microsoft
had required a single partner of record
for such software purchasing deals.
Price Levels
Microsoft didnt provide any documents
listing pricing information for the new
MPSA offering, but the FAQ described
the MPSA as being based on three
product pools: Applications, Systems
and Servers. Four price levels (A
through D) are associated with each
product pool based on product points.
To get certain pricing under MPSA, an
organization has to maintain a certain
level of pricing points for one year. For
instance, A-level pricing requires main-
taining 500 price points over the year.
No entry minimum is required to
begin purchasing through the MPSA,
the Microsoft FAQ states. However, to
maintain purchasing eligibility at Level
A you must purchase a minimum of 500
points within each active product pool
by the compliance anniversary date.
Its unclear how an organization can
calculate its costs under such a scheme.
Presumably the Microsoft Volume
Licensing Center would have the tools.
However, Microsoft didnt explain the
details in its documentation. R
Kurt Mackie is the online news editor for
the 1105 Enterprise Computing Group.
New documentation ofers more details and clarity on Redmonds
Microsoft Products and Services Agreement (MPSA) policy.
Microsoft Explains New
Licensing Agreement Plan

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Untitled-3 1 12/12/13 11:09 AM
RedmondReport
By Jefrey Schwartz
A
fter two decades of kicking off
the annual Consumer Electronics
Show (CES) with the opening
keynote, Microsoft last year bid the
largest tech confab in the United States
adieu. With the frst CES kicking off
without Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer on
stage and no Microsoft booth in the
exhibit hall, the companys presence still
loomed large in Las Vegas last month.
A number of key PC makers, all
longtime Microsoft partners, rolled
out a slew of new tablets and convert-
ible PCs running the recently released
Windows 8.1. While many of those
vendors also released Android-based
tablets, the slew of new Windows
devices substantially bolster the
Microsoft client platform. The new
wares consisted of everything from
8-inch tablets to 27-inch industrial
workstations, most of which will start
to ship in the coming months.
AsusTek Computer Inc., Hewlett
Packard Co., Lenovo, Sony, Panasonic
Corp. and Toshiba are among those
that released new Windows 8.1 devices
at CES. Dell Inc. was relatively quiet,
having rolled out an extensive Windows
8.1 lineup in October. However, it
did introduce a gaming system from
its Alienware division. Though CES
emphasizes consumer wares, many
of the new Windows 8.1 devices are
Dual-boot PC-tablet among numerous new Windows 8.1 devices at CES.
Tablet Boots Windows 8.1 and Android
Asus
Dual-Boot
tablet
targeted at business and commercial
users, especially now in the bring your
own device (BYOD) age.
Asus Transformer
Book Duet TD 300
One introduction that raised eyebrows at
CES was the frst Intel-based dual-boot
convertible laptop-tablet that can run
both Android 4.2.2 and Windows 8.1,
though not simultaneously. The new
Asus Transformer Book Duet TD
300 lets users switch between Android
and Windows within 4 seconds, the
company said. Its the frst such system
based on the new Intel dual-boot system
on a chip (SoC) processor. Like many
convertible devices, the Transformer
Book Duet is a laptop with a detachable
display that converts into a tablet.
It remains to be seen whether cus-
tomers are craving tablets that can
boot both OSes, but last month Intels
new CEO Brian Krzanich said they do.
There are times you want Windows,
there are times you want Android,
Krzanich said in his frst CES keynote
as CEO. The Intel 64-bit SoCs are the
only ones that can offer that capability
to seamlessly switch between OSes,
he added. You dont have to make a
choice moving forward. You could have
a secure environment, you can have
both. Krzanich pointed to Asus as the
frst to launch a dual-boot system.
The Asus Transformer Book Duet
TD 300 is available with an Intel Core
i3, i5 or i7 processor with HD graphics,
4GB of RAM, a 128 SSD and available
with a 1TB hard drive. The company
claims it can run twice as fast as tablets
with ARM-based processors. Because it
doesnt use OS virtualization, Asus said
each OS utilizes the full capacity of the
processor. When running
Windows, Asus said it will get fve
hours of battery life and six hours
when running Android.
With a 13.3-inch 1920x1080 Full HD
IPS touchscreen, Asus claims it exceeds
Microsofts requirements for Windows
8.1, though it doesnt appear likely
Redmond was looking for its partners
to bring dual-boot systems to market.
The Transformer Book Duet will
reportedly start at $699 for a system with
an Intel Cire i3 processor. The company
hasnt disclosed pricing for systems with
more powerful i5 and i7 processors.
Panasonic Toughpad FZ-M1
Always a favorite of those who require
a device that can withstand rugged use
is the Panasonic Toughbook line. The
new Toughpad FZ-M1 is a 7-inch
tablet that Panasonic says is designed
to work in any conditions.
The 1.2-pound Toughpad FZ-M1
is powered by an Intel Core i5 vPro
fourth-generation processor running
Windows 8.1 64-bit. It comes with
8GB of RAM, a 128/256GB solid-state
drive and a 12x800 10-point multitouch
Panasonic Toughpad
Brian Krzanich,
CEO, Intel Corp.
| Redmondmag.com | Redmond | February 2014 | 7
display. Even though its .7 of an inch,
it claims a durability rating of
MIL-STD-810G at a 5-foot drop.
It also supports an optional dedicated
GPS, barcode reader, NFC reader,
SmartCard reader, 10-foot range RFID
transmitters, magnetic stripe reader
and multicarrier embedded 4G LTE
wireless connectivity. Due out this
spring, starting price will be $2,099.
Lenovo ThinkPad
Tablet Edition
Lenovo continues to modernize the
ThinkPad, which is now available in
numerous sizes. The new ThinkPad 8
brings the form factor down to an
8.3-inch device with a 1920x1200
display. Its made of aluminum and
can function in three modes: Desktop,
Tent and Tablet Mode.
The ThinkPad 8 is powered by an
Intel Atom processor and is available
with up to 128GB of storage, a micro
USB 3.0 port and LTE connectivity.
Pricing will start at $399. It will compete
with the Dell Venue Pro 8. Asus also
showcased a similar form-factor tablet,
the VivoTab Note 8. It will top out at
64GB of storage but Asus didnt
disclose pricing and availability.
Sony Flips Again
Following up its fall launch of Flip PCs,
Sony added the Vaio Fit 11A, an 11-inch
iteration of its lineup. Its a convertible
PC-tablet. It compliments a line of
systems in that family that include 13-,
14- and 15-inch systems. The 2.82-
pound Vaio Flip PC will start at $799
and is slated to ship in late February.
HP Second-Generation
All-in-One Workstation
HP launched the second version of
its HP Z1 all-in-one desktop 27-inch
workstation. Due to ship in late January,
the Z1 G2 starts at $2,000 and is
targeted at CAD specialists, graphic
designers and those who require
compute-intensive performance.
The Z1 G2 is available with Intel Core
and Xeon processors, ECC memory
and RAID storage confgurations. For
those with more mainstream require-
ments, HP also launched the HP 205
all-in-one the ProOne 400, available
with 19- and 21.5-inch displays. The
HP 205 comes in somewhat smaller at
18.5 inches and is powered by an AMD
E-Series dual-core processor, starting
at a reasonable $400.
Toshiba Satellite and Tecra
If youre looking for a workstation class
Windows 8.1 mobile system, the Tecra
W50 is designed for graphics-intensive
applications. Its among the frst to
have a 15.6-inch 4k Ultra-HD display
with 3840x2160 resolution. Ultra-HD
digital displays are typically found in
high-end televisions.
The Tecra W50 is powered with Intel
Core i5 fourth-generation
processor enhanced with an NVIDIA
Quadro K2100M GPU with 2GB
dedicated memory. One thing it will
lack is a touch display. If thats a deal
breaker, Toshiba also launched at CES
a 4k display in its new Satellite P50t.
Both will be available later in the year.
Pricing wasnt disclosed. R
Jeffrey Schwartz is editor of Redmond.
T
he worldwide market share for
the Android OS will exceed
one1 billion shipments this
year, according to projections released
last month by Gartner Inc.
Gartner described Android as the OS
of choice across all devices, forecasting
that 1.1 billion units of the Linux-based
OS will be in use this year. Thats a 26
percent increase over the 878 million
Android units that shipped last year.
Microsoft Windows OS will be the
next runner up, followed by Apple iOS
and OS X, over the next two years,
according to Gartners stats.
Gartner said the number of systems
with Windows decreased in 2013
compared with the prior year. In 2012,
there were 346 million Windows units
shipped vs. 328 million units shipped
in 2013. However, the worst may be
over as Gartner is projecting future
growth for Windows shipments, rising
to 360 million units in 2014 and to 423
million units in 2015.
Meanwhile, Google Chrome OS is
also on the rise, Gartner reported.
Chrome OS shipments are expected to
increase from 185,000 units shipped in
2012 to 8 million in 2015.
Of course, OSes are tied to hardware.
Gartner provides both OS and
hardware shipment projections in
its publication, Forecast: PCs,
Ultramobiles, and Mobile Phones,
Worldwide, 2010-2017, 4Q13 Update.
The research and consulting frm
expects to see 2.5 billion computing
|devices ship in 2014, up 7.6 percent
compared with 2013 device shipments.
In general, PCs shipments are following
a relatively fat trend over the next
two years. Gartner is forecasting a 0.2
percent growth rate for PCs in 2014,
up from a 10 percent decline in 2013.
More smartphones ship than any other
device type, but tablets are showing
the most growth promise, according
to Gartner, which forecasts shipments
will increase 47 percent. R
K.M.
Including phones, Gartner forecasts 1.1 billion Android-based devices will
ship this year. Windows shipments will rise after the 2013 decline.
Android on Pace to Eclipse Windows and iOS
ProductReview
By Derek Schauland
B
ackup and disaster recovery are
functions that many IT profes-
sionals want to manage
themselves. Its certainly not that
disaster recovery is too diffcult to
master, but the challenge comes from
the abundance of solutions available
and constantly updated in this space.
The concept of disaster recovery can
work across solutions, which helps,
but the ins and outs of the solution
are what make it stand out and can
make or break a product. Ive spent
some time with the recently updated
Double-Take from Vision Solutions Inc.
In my recent roundup of backup and
recovery solutions that use Windows
Azure as a target (see Use Windows
Azure as a Backup Target, November
2013), I pointed to the new Double-Take
7.0. While thats an important feature
for Windows shops, Vision Solutions
added some other key improvements to
Double-Take that are worth noting.
In keeping with previous releases,
Double-Take 7.0 offers two options
for backup and migration. First is
Double-Take Availability, the component
that allows an application, a clustered
workload or an entire server to be
backed up. This is the option to use
for general everyday backup practices.
The other is Double-Take Move,
which allows migration of a server
(or its data) to a different physical or
virtual machine (VM).
Including a completely different set of
components to help with migration of
servers and data, outside of restoring
a backup to new hardware was a good
idea because it separates the components
of the solution. This keeps the focus
of each feature (and, yes, license) on
the action it performs the best. Other
solutions allow recovery to different
hardware and replication to off-site
servers but this happens as a function of
the applications backup solution. Here,
there is a separate way to handle this.
Agent and
Agentless Backup
The key new feature in Double-Take
7.0 is its support for both agent-based
and agentless backup for virtual envi-
ronments. Agentless backup allows the
hypervisor to back up the guest fle as
one unit with no account for any
applications or guest-based data. This
can be useful for guest machines that
dont have special considerations needed
for the applications or confgurations
within the guest machine.
The new Vision Solutions Double-Take 7.0 backup and recovery software
gains agent/agentless option for virtual servers, creates vSPhere virtual
appliances and supports heterogeneous servers.
Double-Take Now Ofers Virtual
Server Protection
Double-Take 7.0
Physical server pricing starts at $1,995 per server.
Virtual servers start at $259 per virtual machine.
Vision Solutions Inc.
visionsolutions.com | 800-957-4511
Installation: 20% 10.0
Features: 20% 10.0
Ease of use: 20% 8.0
Administration: 20% 9.0
Documentation: 20% 9.0
Overall: 9.2
Key:
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10: Exceptional
RedmondRating
Figure 1. Select an option to begin using Double-Take.
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ProductReview
For virtual guest machines that might
have applications with confgurations
or functionality thats backup-aware
(SQL Server or Exchange Server come
to mind) Double-Take supports the use
of agents that get installed on the guest
machine. With an agent installed,
backups can work with the guest and
its applications to ensure there are no
issues that could cause problems for
the backup.
Appliances for vSphere
For VMware environments, Double-Take
7.0 can deploy a virtual appliance
to operate at the hypervisor level
and allow agentless backup of guest
machines. This is a huge option
because it requires no installation
inside the guest machines. Anything
running on the host will be managed
with the appliance, reducing the
overall management surface of the
application and its jobs.
The features and capabilities of
Double-Take are managed by the
Double-Take console application. This
is where everything comes together.
Once the servers are added to the
system, managing jobs happens from
the console.
Heterogeneous
Server Support
Using the Double-Take Linux Virtual
Recovery appliance, its now possible
to create jobs that will back up Linux-
based servers as well. This can help
Double-Take become an overall backup
solution for heterogeneous environments.
Because it supports backing up Windows
servers (physical and Hyper-V) and
VMware and Linux servers, the solution
can manage backup and replication
across all sizes of organizations with
any confguration.
Conguring a Backup
Job for a Server
When creating a backup job for a server
youll need to confgure the application
to be aware of the source server and
specify the options to be considered
for the job (see Figure 1, p. 8). These
options include:
Mirroring and verifcation lets admin-
is trators mirror or control mirroring
for fles within certain character-
istics of the entire server. The
verifcation settings provide a way
to check the data being backed up,
ensuring the integrity of the backup.
Compression to keep the size of
the backup job optimal given
constraints within an organization.
Bandwidth options for ensuring
the appropriate network usage for
your environment.
Double-Take can run backup jobs
to perform diagnostics as well to test
confgurations before performing an
actual data-protection job. Keep in
mind, though, that if the job type is
set to diagnostics, no actual data gets
protected. Creating these jobs can help
in planning actual protection confgu-
rations without the worry of actual
jobs failing or having problems getting
going. Think of it as a preparation step
in the process of confguration.
Once the server is defned in Double-
Take, you can specify the fles, folders
or workloads to back up. Then you can
specify a location to place the backups
and verify the settings youve chosen
(see Figure 2). Once the backup job
wizard has completed, you can schedule
the job to be run as needed.
Communication
Between Servers
Double-Take supports communication
over multiple protocols via Web services
using XML for newer capable servers on
port 6325, and on port 1105 for legacy
servers that dont support Web services.
Working over Web services can improve
the performance and reduce the need
for additional ports to be opened or
frewall confgurations changed.
As part of managing any backup
environment, its likely that you might
need to work with some external tools
to perform some tasks. Vision Solutions
has considered this in the design of
its product by allowing customers
to update their management console
and add external tools to the menu.
Suppose you work with Windows
PowerShell quite a bit on the server
where Double-Take is installed. You
can add it to the menu to be available
from the console. You can do this by
selecting the Tools menu and choosing
External Tools (see Figure 3, p. 11).
In fact, Double-Take has cmdlets and Figure 2. Verify the settings chosen for the backup job.
The key new feature in Double-Take 7.0 is its
support for both agent-based and agentless
backup for virtual environments.
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resources to allow control by Windows
PowerShell. Visit the application docu-
mentation for more information on
how to integrate Windows PowerShell
with Double-Take.
The option to add a launch point for
commonly used tools is something I
found quite useful.
Getting Support
Double-Take includes a job to capture
diagnostic information from the
application. When viewing the Manage
Servers page in the console, right-
clicking a listed server and selecting
Gather Support Diagnostics will
prompt for a save location and run the
diagnostics-gathering job. Once this
completes, these details can be used
when troubleshooting problems with
support. The information provided
includes application and system event
logs, a system information fle for the
chosen server, and several other
documents to help identify problems
with the application.
Double-Take has a very large feature
set and seems to have left no stone
unturned, from managing VMware at
the host level and in the guest if needed,
to Hyper-V, Physical Servers and Linux.
For organizations looking at backup
solutions, this should be one to
consider. The setup was fairly straight-
forward and not too time-consuming.
In addition, if youre looking to move
your backups to the cloud, you wont
need to change solutions to do so. R
Derek Schauland has worked in technology
for 15 years in everything from a help desk
role to Windows systems administration.
He has also worked as a freelance writer
for the past 10 years. He can be reached at
derek@derekschauland.com.
Figure 3. Adding more features to
Double-Take with External Tools.
The option to add a launch point for commonly
used tools is something I found quite useful.
C OV E R S T O R Y | Windows 8 Adoption
D
eclining PC shipments have raised debate over the
future of Windows but predictions of its demise
may be premature. To be sure, Microsoft has an
uphill battle to make a large dent in the tablet market. It is
understood Windows is no longer the dominant platform for
accessing information. In fact, market researchers predict
Windows is poised to account for only one-third of all client
devices in the next few years. Even if Windows doesnt exceed
those forecasts, the pie is exponentially much bigger. That
would explain why, despite accounting for a much smaller
portion of the pie it once owned, shipments of Windows-based
systems are poised to grow this year. And Windows remains
the OS of choice in the commercial world.
Indeed, the meteoric rise of smartphones and tablets based
on Android and iOS has put the brakes on the PC era that
began more than two decades ago. Microsofts late entry
with a next-generation OS for tablets and smartphones has
created numerous casualties, including a relatively stagnant
stock market share price and the retirement of CEO Steve
Ballmer. The number of PCs shipped worldwide declined
a remarkable 10 percent last year, according to IDC. The
research frm is forecasting PC sales will drop at a slower
rate this year, 3.8 percent, before increasing again in 2015.
In addition to arriving years after Android and the Apple
iOS, Microsofts answer, Windows 8, failed to gain critical
mass out of the chute. As the Apple iPad and Android-based
tablets continued to grow last year, a fraction of developers
and end users embraced the Windows 8 tile-based interface.
Some critics have left it for dead. While the jury is still out,
theres evidence it might be too early to draw that conclusion.
Key to its success will be more mainstream developers
building apps for the Windows Store. Prospects for that
ILLUSTRATION BY RAVISHANGAR KAILASANATHAN/REDMOND STAFF
PCs change the way
enterprises operate, see how
companies of all sizes are
choosing Windows 8 over
the Apple iPad and
By Jefrey Schwartz
the WORKPLACE
remain uncertain. Nevertheless, organizations of all sizes
are replacing some of their aging machines with Window
8-based tablets, PCs or those that function as both.
The majority of shops faced with the need to retire existing
Windows XP-based PCs are still opting for Windows 7 but a
growing number are jumping into the modern world with tab-
lets and touch-based laptops running Windows 8.1. Systems
based on Windows 8 and Windows
8.1 accounted for 10.5 percent of
all desktop and laptop systems
in December, according to Net
Applications, which tracks OS,
browser and search engine mar-
ket share. In November, the two
OSes accounted for 9.3 per-
cent, while in September (before
Microsoft released Windows 8.1),
Windows 8 only accounted for
8 percent of all PCs. A year ago
slightly more than 2 percent of
PCs were Windows 8-based,
granted the OS was only a few months old at that point.
Since the October 2013 release of Windows 8.1, shipments
of the new OS have grown at a faster, albeit incremental pace.
Even if Windows ultimately runs on one-third of all devices,
Gartner Inc. last month forecast growth of Windows will
once again increase this year after dropping 5.6 percent in
2013 for the frst time ever. Shipments of Windows-based sys-
tems this year will increase 9.3 percent, or nearly 360 million
units, and 16 percent in 2015, totaling 423 million systems.
Of course, consumers have little choice when it comes
to buying Windows PCs. Not that its impossible to fnd a
Windows 7-based system, but it isnt easy. Enterprises have
much more fexibility to install Windows 7 on PCs that ship
with Windows 8. Nevertheless, a growing number of orga-
nizations of all sizesafter considering their optionsare
choosing Windows 8 PCs and tablets.
Were seeing major, major adoption of customers making
their commitment to Windows 8.1, says Microsoft Corpo-
rate Vice President Susan Hauser. Admitting it was a slow
first year for the revamped Windows platform, Hauser
believes its beginning to resonate for customers. The frst
challenge was getting used to the new user interface but
now its all about lighting up the business. Were now seeing
again a tremendous amount of traction in the enterprise
around Windows 8.1, leveraging the devices and services
and bringing it together.
Hauser recently hosted a Microsoft showcase in New York
of customers and partners who have deployed Windows 8 and
Windows 8.1 in organizations of all sizes and vertical indus-
tries, including manufacturing, aerospace, fnancial services,
health care, real estate, professional services, government and
education. After talking to some of the key decision makers at
that event, heres why and how organizations of all sizes are
deploying Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 tablets.
Delta Air Lines
Deployment: One of the worlds largest airlines rolling out 11,000
Surface 2 tablets in aircraft cockpits for fight kits, navigation and
weather reports.
One of the largest enterprises to disclose a major com-
mitment to Windows 8 is Delta Air Lines Inc. While Delta
doesnt have any immediate plans to use Windows 8 on its
PCs on the ground, it decided early last year to deploy the
Microsoft Surface 2 in every cockpit. In addition, Delta is
equipping all of its 20,000 f light attendants with Nokia
Lumia 820 Windows Phones.
Delta had determined two years ago that it wanted to put
tablets in the cockpit to give pilots access to reference infor-
mation and important aircraft and other documentation his-
torically kept in 38-pound fight manuals. These are called
fight kits and because theyre updated once or twice per
month, Delta was generating 7.5 billion pages per year. By
eliminating the heavy manuals, Delta determined it would
use 1.2 million gallons less fuel per year. Putting the fight
kits on tablets, the airline and its suppliers can more easily
update information and make it easier to access. The pilots
can also use the Surface 2 to access maps and weather data.
After evaluating seven bids, Delta chose a proposal by
Microsoft and AT&T with Avanade Inc. as the project lead,
says Darrell Haskin, IT director for Deltas crew department.
Haskin admits he had some initial concerns about choosing
Windows-based tablets considering the popularity of the iPad.
I think the fact that Delta
has chosen to do this in our
operation will naturally have
some inuence on other
companies around the globe.
Darrell Haskin,
IT Director, Delta Air Lines Crew Department
Of course we had some concern about that, but Microsoft
is one of our strategic partners, Haskin says. So we sat
down with them, conveyed our concerns with them and they
were very supportive. They said they feel its going to take
off and we believe that it will. They were able to allay our
concerns. Haskin isnt concerned about projections that
only 30 percent of all devices might be Windows-based by
2017. I think 30 percent is a pretty good number, he says.
I think the fact that Delta has chosen to do this in our oper-
ation will naturally have some infuence on other companies
around the globe.
Its particularly noteworthy that Delta chose the Surface 2
rather than the Surface Pro 2, which has a faster processor
and can run apps designed for older versions of Windows. But
the Surface Pro 2 is overkill for the pilots needs, which have
apps built to run in the Windows RT 8.1 modern interface.
The pilots use our in-house applications all the time,
Haskin says. There really wasnt a need for us to have all of
the additional functionality that comes with the Pro for this
application in the fight deck. And with the Surface 2, the
battery lasts longer, which is very important to those in our
fight deck, who might be on a 15-hour fight.
Back to School with Windows 8
How a large university and K-12 district once leaning toward the Apple iPad decided to go with
the Windows 8-based tablet.
When Rita Cheng became chancellor of Southern Illinois
University nearly four years ago, one of her stated goals
was for it to be a leading user of technology. Key to getting
there was for the Carbondale, Ill., university to give its
20,000 students tablets to interact with courseware.
The prevailing wisdom was the Apple iPad was the way
to go, considering most freshmen who had experience
with tablets used the Apple device, recalled David Crane,
the universitys CIO, during a roundtable discussion held
by Dell Inc. To be completely honest with you, thats
where we started with this process, Crane said.
One of the top 100 research universities in the United
States, providing interactive and digital course material
was critical moving forward, according to Crane. As the
university researched the diferent tablet platforms, it
concluded the iPad wasnt the best choice. For example,
the Pearson courseware apps still use Adobe Flash, which
the Apple iOS doesnt render, Crane explained.
We did testing, we tried to get to get it to work, we
tried diferent browsers [but] their product, which was
a huge amount of our digital content, wouldnt work,
Crane said. One of the goals of the program was as much
as possible to make it a single platform for the student.
The vast majority of the students can do everything they
need to do for their course work on this Windows tablet
[including] Microsoft Of ce and the ability to plug in
a thumb drive. Functionality-wise, its going to do way
more for us than an iPad will do.
Crane said the university went through extensive evalua-
tions, review processes and nancial ROI calculations and
determined the third-party software needed to provide
security and support for the iPad would cost $4 million
more than going with a bid provided by Dell and for less
functionality. Cranes committee took his ndings to the
deans council, department heads, the faculty senate,
provost, and chancellor and discussed its ndings.
We said, We know theres a lot of people on campus who
would like this to be iPad. But, look, it just makes no sense for
us, Crane said. It makes way more sense to buy Windows 8
tablets that plug into our existing infrastructure and provide
more functionality at a much lower cost. We had people on
campus that were against it and probably still are today, but I
can tell you that most of them have been converts.
Also on the Dell roundtable was Kevin Schwartz, CTO
of the Cedar Creek Independent School District in Clear
Creek, Texas, near Houston. Cedar Creek is the 29th largest
school district of 1,031 in the state serving 39,000 students
in 44 schools. Like Crane, Schwartz and everyone else in
the district were looking at the iPad.
I think everyone sort of presumed
we were going down this iPad path,
and then we were really stunned
with the Dell proposal, Schwartz
said. Still hoping it could nd a way
to get Apple to come up with a bid
that would come closer to the Dell
ofer, Schwartz said they efectively
received the same bid as the rst.
Most of the kids had used an iPad,
while some of them had never seen
Windows 8 before, he said.
Within 10 minutes of comparing the two, Schwartz said
the consensus remarkably was to go with Windows 8.
Our selection committee, along with the students,
collectively felt this was the right device.
J.S.
Functionality-wise,
its going to do way
more for us than an
iPad will do.
David Crane,
CIO, Southern Illinois University
I think everyone sort of presumed
we were going down this iPad path,
and then we were really stunned
with the Dell proposal.
Kevin Schwartz,
CTO, Cedar Creek Independent School District
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Delta started rolling out the Surface 2, which each pilot
installs on the side windshield, last fall and plans to complete
the deployment on 11,000 planes by years end. Many orga-
nizations havent considered the Surface 2 (or any Windows
RT device) because they cant join them to Active Directory
domains. But that limitation wasnt a concern for Delta,
which had a workaround from MobileIron, a supplier of
mobile device management software.
The MobileIron Content Locker connects Windows RT
to Active Directory through standard Web services, explains
Roland Brenny, principal for IT fight crew systems at Delta.
Through Web services that call out when you sign in with
your Delta ID and your employee number, we look at all of
the objects inside Active Directory and say this is what that
person is fying, Brenny says. The application detects what
category theyre actually in and downloads the right info
to the device.
Delta actually preferred not to connect the Surface 2
directly to Active Directory, Brenny adds. Were all over
the world, he says. We did not want to connect the devices
to our domain, just because of security risks. And there was
a lot more infrastructure that needed to be looked at if we
were going to connect to the Active Directory domain.
As for updating PCs on the ground in its operation centers
and business offces, Delta has no immediate plans to upgrade
them to Windows 8. Theyre all going to Windows 7, thats
primarily the back-offce desktop users, Haskin says. When
asked why not move to Windows 8, he simply says: Were
just not ready to do that yet.
But 200 of the companys top executives do use the Surface
Pro, Haskin notes. They love the ability to be able to write
notes on things and send them out, he says. Our executives
are on the move. I mean, were an airlinetheyre fying all
over the world meeting with our strategic partners around
the worldits a great tool for them. Theyve given us really
positive feedback on the Surface Pro.
Pediatric Associates
Deployment: Medical practice with 350 employees including 80 pedi-
atricians at seven locations, incrementally deploying Windows 8.1-based
tablets from a variety of suppliers.
After years of eschewing
technology, midsize and large
health-care practices are step-
ping up their efforts to become
less reliant on paper. One of the
reasons for the slow uptake in
many medical groups are phy-
sicians and other practitioners
reluctant to use PCs or other
devices in place of using paper
to input patient information.
Economics and regulations are
forcing that changeits becoming increasingly more com-
mon to see a doctor or nurse input data into a PC or tablet
these days. Pediatric Associates Inc. in Bellevue, Wash., is
among those practices making the transition with Windows
8.1-based tablets. When considering tablets, many of the
physicians lobbied for the Apple iPad, says CIO Brock Morris,
who joined the medical group four years ago with a mandate
to bring it into the digital age.
Pediatric Associates is a relatively large medical practice
with seven locations and 350 employees, 80 of whom are
physicians. But compared to Delta, Pediatric Associates is a
small enterprise and Morris didnt want to have to bring in
a mobile device management solution like the MobileIron
software Delta deployed.
Now I can drop Surface Pros on our network and can join
them to the network, we can
apply Group Policies to secure
them and remote wipe them,
Morris says. Medical assistants
are using the Surface Pro and
mobile apps developed by elec-
tronic medical records vendor
Greenway Medical Technologies
Inc. to input patients vitals,
allergies and past medical histo-
ries so they and a physician can
pull up a patients chart, using
the Windows touch-based interface, Morris says.
The rollout of tablets is well underway but the practice is
deploying a few at a time, typically pairing a medical assistant
with a physician. While Morris likes the Surface Pro, hes
waiting to see what other new devices come to market from
other tablet and PC suppliers this year. Morris believes
physicians using tablets makes an important statement to
patients. They want to see doctors using technology, he
says. They really see it as a measure of quality.
This will give the bank a strategic
advantage. You can deliver a
direct customer experience and
engage with customers.
Michael Jesworth, General Manager, Westpac Bank
Now I can drop Surface Pros on
our network and can join them to
the network, we can apply Group
Policies to secure them and
remote wipe them.
Brock Morris, CIO, Pediatric Associates Inc.
Name: Title:
Company:
Address: Address 2:
City/Town: State: ZIP Code: Country:
Phone: Fax:
Email:
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Westpac Banking
Deployment: One of the largest banks in Australia and New
Zealand has begun a three-year effort to roll out 36,000 Windows
8.1 systems and released a banking app in the Windows Store.
Westpac, one of the largest banks in Australia and New
Zealand, is a longtime Microsoft Windows shop. It decided
to offer its customer apps for both iPad and Windows 8 users
last year, which let them view and
interact with their accounts, including
making payments. But the bank has
much bigger ambitions for Windows
8. It plans to incrementally roll out
Windows 8-based systems to all of
its 36,000 employees over the next
three years.
Westpac has built its network, server
and development infrastructure largely
on the Windows platform for nearly two decades. Committing
to Windows 8 will ensure that it can continue to build on
that infrastructure, Westpac CIO Richard Holmes says. I
think theres been pent up demand for tablet capability,
Holmes says. The power of Widows is to leverage the invest-
ment weve got from the device stack, and see how we can
integrate it into Lync to dial an expert in, when you need to.
Michael Jesworth, Westpacs general manager of fnancial
planning, says the banks ongoing effort to add more capabil-
ities to interact with customers using digital tools lends itself
to building more applications based on the Windows 8 modern
tile-based interface. This will give the bank a strategic
advantage, Jesworth says. You can deliver a direct customer
experience and engage with customers.
OnPoint CFO & Controller Services
Deployment: Professional services frm giving fnancial profes-
sionals Windows 8-based tablets using Offce 365 and SharePoint.
Smaller companies often need a chief fnancial offcer or
controller, but cant justify hiring someone on a full-time
basis. OnPoint CFO & Controller Services has fnancial
pros that perform this function on an outsourced basis.
Over the years, that has comprised of an OnPoint fnan-
cial executive spending part of their time at a clients
location managing the books. In addition to providing con-
troller and CFO functions, the company is expanding the
services it offers to include bookkeeping and data entry,
accounting, budgeting, financial reporting, design, and
cash management.
The underlying infrastructure that has enabled OnPoint
CFO to expand its offering and client base is SharePoint
and Offce 365, says Brian Clark, a CPA and the companys
president. Offce 365 lets the company provide secure access
to financial records, he says. With a mobile workforce,
OnPoint last year started equipping its employees with
Windows 8-based laptops.
OnPoint employees have embraced the tile-based touch
interface when using Offce 365, Clark says. The goal this
year is to develop apps designed for the new modern Windows
interface. Were just taking accounting into the 21st
century, he says. Its what my clients are demanding
for us to give them the information they want when they
need it.
Carolina Reality Group
Deployment: Real estate frm with 25 agents is recommending
the agents procure Windows 8-based tablets. So far, eight have
purchased Surface tablets.
Dan Prudhoome wanted the 25 brokers who work for his
Hilton Head Island, S.C., real estate frm to spend less time
in the offce and more time in the feld selling houses. But
it was hard for them to escape going into the offce to get
documents, pull contracts and gather marketing collateral of
homes on the market.
After considering the iPad using Google Apps, Prudhomme
decided to standardize on Windows 8-based tablets and
Offce 365. Because real estate agents are typically inde-
pendent contractors, as is the case with Carolina Realty,
the firm by law cant fur-
nish them with equipment,
Prudhomme says. Therefore,
its up to the individual agent
to invest in the technology.
So far about one-third, or
eight, of his agents have
procured Windows 8-based
Surface tablets. Now I can
pull a contract up on my
Surface, pull out a pen and
have a client sign it, he says. Most of the remaining agents
have older Windows PCs and they will upgrade when it suits
their business needs, he says. People dont upgrade for the
sake of upgrading, it comes with the need for a new device. R
Jeffrey Schwartz is editor of Redmond magazine.
Now I can pull a contract up on
my Surface, pull out a pen and
have a client sign it.
Dan Prudhomme, Owner, Carolina Realty Group
Its what my clients are demanding,
for us to give them the information
they want when they need it.
Brian Clark,
President, OnPoint CFO & Controller Services
Redmond Vendor Profle R RVP
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Untitled-1 1 1/13/14 10:45 AM
U
ntil recently, when it came to complex datacenter virtu-
alization tasks, most enterprises have turned to VMware
Inc. tools. Lately, though, many have questioned
whether Hyper-V is a viable alternative to VMware. This is
especially true because Hyper-V is included in Windows Server.
Hyper-V has become appreciably more competitive with
VMware, whose licensing costs are generally more expensive.
Now that Hyper-V has matured and matches or exceeds
most of the capabilities of VMware, many are taking a
second look at it. This naturally raises the question of how
to transition between the two
environments. In most cases,
you may want to consider using
Hyper-V in new deployments,
instead of discarding existing
VMware-based systems.
The recent release of System
Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine
Manager (VMM) lets you manage
VMware and Hyper-V through
a single pane of glass. You can
also use VMM to migrate virtual
machines (VMs) from VMware
to Hyper-V.
The Setup
For this evaluation, I deployed a
VMware vSphere 5.5 server. That
server is hosting two VMs called
VMware-VM1 and VMware-
VM2. Both VMs are running
Windows Server 2012 R2 as a
guest OS and have the VMware
tools installed.
Manage VMware
Hyper-V Together
You can administer both virtualization platforms through a single
pane of glass using Microsoft System Center 2012 R2.
By Brien M. Posey
Figure 1. Choose the Add Hyper-V Hosts and Clusters command.
F E AT U R E | VM Migration
A second server is running VMware vCenter Server. VMM
cant manage VMware VMs unless its connected to vCenter.
A third server is running Windows Server 2012 R2 and System
Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager. That server is
doubling as a Hyper-V host.
Microsoft recommended best practices state you should
run Hyper-V on a dedicated machine. As such, you should
never run System Center and Hyper-V on the same physical
box unless System Center is running within a VM. However,
because this is a lab deployment and I have limited hardware,
I installed Hyper-V and System Center on the same server
out of necessity.
The Hyper-V server Im using contains two VMs, each
running Windows Server 2012 R2. The VMs are named
HyperV-VM1 and HyperV-VM2. I chose this particular
naming convention so it would be easy to distinguish
between the VMs that started out running on VMware and
those that ran on Hyper-V from the beginning.
Adding a Hyper-V Host
There are two things I want to accomplish. The frst is to
manage Hyper-V and VMware through a single pane of glass.
The second is to migrate the VMware VMs off vSphere and
onto Hyper-V. Because the frst goal is to manage both envi-
ronments through a single pane of glass, you need to make
VMM aware of the Hyper-V environment.
Open the VMM Administrator Console and select the
VMs and Services workspace. Next, right-click the All Hosts
container and select the Add Hyper-V Hosts and Clusters
command from the shortcut menu (see Figure 1, p. 20).
At this point, VMM will launch the Add Resource Wizard.
Youll need to answer the wizards prompts in a manner
thats appropriate for your own organization. Generally,
adding a Hyper-V host is simply a matter of specifying the
hosts name, location and a user
account with administrative host
access. You would typically do
this using a Run As account.
Once youve added the Hyper-V
host to VMM, you might need
to right-click on the host and
choose the Refresh Virtual
Machines command from the
shortcut menu before the Hyper-V
VMs show up in the VMM
Administrator Console.
Create a Run As Account
VMM will need a Run As
account to facilitate communi-
cations with the hosts it will
manage. To create a Run As
account, go to the Settings
workspace and click on the
Create Run As Account option
found on the toolbar (see Figure
2). When prompted, enter a
name and credentials for the Run As account. The Run As
account you specify must be an existing Active Directory or
local user account.
Its extremely important to enable Active Directory authen-
tication for vCenter and to add the Run As account to the
vCenter environment with administrative permissions. Other-
wise, you wont be able to add the vCenter Server to VMM.
To add Microsoft Active Directory delegation to vCenter,
open the vSphere Web Client and log in as Administrator@
vsphere.local. Next, click on the administration tab. Then
click on Single Sign On | Confguration.
When you reach the Confguration screen, click on the
green plus sign to add an identity source. Upon doing so, the
Web client will display the Add Identity Source dialog box.
Choose the Active Directory (Integrated Windows Authen-
tication) option and specify the Windows domain name
in the provided feld. If vCenter is running on a Windows
Server that has been domain joined, then the domain name
will be picked up automatically. Click OK to add the domain
to the Identity Sources list.
Now, go back to the VMM Administrator Console Home
screen and click on the vCenter tab. Then click on vCenter
Figure 2. Click on the Create Run As Account icon.
System Center 2012 R2
Virtual Machine Manager
lets you manage VMware and
Hyper-V through a single pane
of glass.
Servers. Select your vCenter server and click on the Manage
tab. Then select the Permissions category. Click on the
green plus sign to access the Add Permission dialog box.
Click on the Add button, then select your Run As account.
If the Run As account isnt listed, then make sure youve
selected the correct domain (Windows domains arent dis-
played by default). Now, select your Run As account and
click Add followed by OK.
You should now see the Run As account listed on the Add
Permissions dialog box. Use the Assign Role drop down list
to grant the Run As account Administrator permissions.
Click OK to complete the process.
Adding a vCenter Server to VMM
If you want to add a vCenter Server to VMM, open the VMM
Administrator Console Fabric workspace. Next, right-click
on the Servers container and
select the Add VMware vCenter
Server option from the shortcut
menu (see Figure 3).
At this point, VMM will display
the Add VMware vCenter Server
dialog box. Enter the name or IP
address of your vCenter Server.
Then click Browse and select
your Run As account. Click OK
to continue.
After clicking OK, you might
see an Import Certificate dia-
log box. If this dialog box is
displayed, click the Import but-
ton. After doing so, the vCenter
Server will be added to VMM
(see Figure 4).
Adding vSphere Servers
Once youve connected VMM
to your vCenter Server, you can
begin specifying individual hosts
or host clusters for management.
To do so, make sure to select the
Fabric workspace. Then click on
the Add Resources icon, which
youll fnd on the toolbar. Choose
the VMware ESX Hosts and
Host Clusters option from the drop down list. Unless youve
properly linked VMM to vCenter, youll receive an error
message when you attempt to connect to a VMware host.
At this point, you should see the Add Resource Wizard.
On the wizards initial screen, click the Browse button and
then select a Run As account. This must be the same Run
As account you used when you connected VMM to vCenter.
After selecting a Run As account, click Next. You should
now see a listing of all of the vSphere servers about which
vCenter knows (see Figure 5, p. 23). Select the VMware
servers you want to manage and click Next.
The next screen will prompt you to specify the host group
to which you want to add the VMware servers. Make your
selection and click Next. Youll see a summary screen. Take
a moment and make sure the information displayed on the
summary screen appears correct. Click Finish to complete
the process. When you do, the host list should contain your
VMware servers.
Although your VMware host servers are listed in the
VMM Administrator Console, the VMware VMs wont be
listed initially. To view the VMware VMs, select the VMs
and Services workspace, right-click on the VMware host
and choose the Refresh Virtual Machines option from the
shortcut menu.
The All Hosts container (see Figure 6, p. 23) now shows
VMware and Hyper-V VMs. As this point, the frst objective
of being able to manage both environments through a single
pane of glass has been achieved.
Figure 3. Right-click on the Servers container and select the Add VMware vCenter Server
option.
Figure 4. The vCenter Server is added to VMM.
Once youve connected
VMM to your vCenter Server,
you can begin specifying
individual hosts or host
clusters for management.
Migrate VMware VMs to Hyper-V
If you want to move existing VMs from VMware to Hyper-V,
thats now possible with VMM. Its important to know that
System Center doesnt support converting VMware VMs
stored on an IDE bus.
To convert your VMs, select the VMM Administrator
Console VMs and Services workspace. Next, click on the
Create Virtual Machine icon in the toolbar. Then choose
the Convert Virtual Machine option from the drop down
list. This will cause VMM to launch the Convert Virtual
Machine Wizard.
The wizards initial screen asks you which VM youd like to
convert. Click the Browse button to reveal the Select Virtual
Machine Source dialog box. Make sure the dialog boxs Virtu-
alization Platform column is set to VMware ESX Server. Then
select the VM you want to convert and click OK.
Click Next and youll be taken to the Specify
Virtual Machine Identity page. Youll have the option
of renaming the VM or adding a description. After
doing so, click Next. The next screen youll see is the
Virtual Machine Configuration screen. This lets
you confgure the number of virtual processors and
the amount of memory you want to assign to the
VM. Then click Next. Then youll see the Select
Host screen. Select the Hyper-V host on which you
want to place the VM and click Next.
You should now see the Select Path screen. Here
you can specify the path your VM storage will use.
After doing so, click Next. The following screen lets
you specify the network to which you want to connect
the VM after migration is complete. The VM must
be connected to a Hyper-V virtual switch in order
to establish network connectivity. Make your selec-
tion and click Next.
The next screen youll see is the Add Properties
screen. Go ahead and make any adjustments you
want to the various settings and click Next. Youll
then see a summary of the options youve chosen.
Take a moment to make sure the summary information is
correct. After doing so, click the Create button to begin the
conversion process.
Certain Limitations
As you can see, you can use System Center Virtual Machine
Manager to manage VMware VMs and even to convert them
to Hyper-V. However, there are limits to the management
capabilities. If your ultimate goal
is to use System Center 2012 R2
Orchestrator to automate your
VMware environment, you should
download the System Center
2012 R2 Integration Pack for
VMware vSphere (bit.ly/Kt3irV).
This will help you overcome
the various limitations and let
you fully manage your VMware
environment. R
Brien M. Posey is a seven-time
Microsoft MVP with more than
two decades of IT experience. Hes
written thousands of articles and
several dozen books on a wide
variety of IT topics. Visit his Web
site at brienposey.com.
Figure 5. The VMware servers will be listed.
Figure 6. VMware and Hyper-V VMs now appear in the VMM Administrator Console.
If you want to move existing
VMs from VMware to Hyper-V,
thats now possible with VMM.
F E AT U R E | Windows Azure Active Directory
W
indows Azure Active Directory (WAAD) has only
seen a modest level of adoption so far. Although it
was a useful addition to the Microsoft cloud service
when it was released nearly a year ago, there seems to be a gen-
eral perception that it isnt yet a mature product. Perhaps the
best evidence supporting the need for further development is
the lack of support for security groups in WAAD.
Microsoft is addressing this key issue with plans to offer
group management support. The company recently released a
preview available to Windows Azure subscribers. Subscribers
dont have to do anything to enable the group feature preview,
because its available by default. In this article, Ill evaluate
the preview, and explain how to create and manage groups.
Because its a preview, keep in mind that Microsoft could
change or remove features in the fnal release.
Group Benets
WAAD Groups really arent that different from normal
Active Directory group objects. Both are logical collections of
user objects and you can use both for access control purposes.
Although the WAAD Groups interface will let you create,
edit and delete groups, thats not the only purpose of the
interface. Keep in mind WAAD was designed as a mechanism
for facilitating directory synchronization. These directory
synchronization capabilities are enabled for groups as well.
When you create a group in your local Active Directory or
Offce 365, those groups will appear in the Windows Azure
Management Portalassuming the environments are synchro-
nized. You can only use the Windows Azure Management
Portal to edit groups created through Windows Azure.
Although the Windows Azure Management Portal can display
(and even use) groups created locally or through Offce 365,
you cant edit those groups through Windows Azure.
This doesnt mean you cant put groups created in Windows
Azure to work elsewhere. Among other things, you can use a
group created through Windows Azure to control access to
an Offce 365 SharePoint site.
Create a New Group
Creating a group in Windows Azure is simple. Start by signing
into Windows Azure and locating the directory to which you
want to add the group (see Figure 1, p. 25).
Manage Groups
with Windows Azure
Active Directory
Upgrade
Microsoft moves to make the cloud version of its
Active Directory service more appealing by letting
you create and edit groups. By Brien M. Posey
When you click on the directory, youll be taken to a screen
that gives you various directory confguration options. There
are a number of tabs that appear along the top of this screen.
To create a group, click on the GROUPS tab (see Figure 2).
You can create a new group by clicking ADD A GROUP.
When you do, youll be prompted to enter a name and a
description for the group youre creating. Take the time
to choose a descriptive group name and to enter a detailed
description. The very nature of Windows Azure often leads
to deployments scaling much more quickly than
you may anticipate. Taking the time to enter
descriptive information now can help you to
avoid growing pains later. After you enter this
information, the group, its description and the
corresponding directory will be displayed in
the Windows Azure interface (see Figure 3).
Edit Group Properties
Now that youve created a new group, take a look at the groups
properties. As you can see in Figure 3, one of the properties is
displayed. Youll notice the groups corresponding directory is
listed in the SOURCED FROM column.
To view some of the groups other properties, click on the
group and then the CONFIGURE tab (see Figure 4). You
can use the confguration screen to modify the group name
or its description. You can see the Object ID is
listed among the groups properties.
The Object ID can be useful if youre writing
a Windows PowerShell script or if you happen
to be developing an application and you want to
use the group as a mechanism for controlling
access to that application. If you look just to the
right of the Object ID, youll notice a Windows
Phone 8-style Copy icon. Click this icon to
copy the Object ID to the local clipboard so you
can reference the Object ID in your script or
application without having to type it again.
The Delete icon is in the task bar at the bottom of the
screen. If you create a group and then later decide you dont
need it, clicking this icon is the easiest way to get rid of the
group. Of course, youre also free to create, edit and delete
groups through Windows PowerShell.
Add Members to the Group
Once youve created a group, youll need to add some mem-
bers to the group. To add members to the
group, click on the group and then click
the MEMBERS tab. Next, click on the Add
Members link to display the Add members
screen (see Figure 5, p. 26). You can then
click on users to add them to the group.
As you select users, they appear on the
SELECTED list on the right side of the win-
dow. The selected users will become group
members as soon as you click the Done icon.
Remove a User
What do you do if you need to remove a user
from a group? Although the current interface
doesnt make user removal obvious, the tech-
nique is actually quite simple. If you click on
a user within the SELECTED list, that user
will be removed from the list.
As it stands now, the Windows Azure Man-
agement Portal doesnt let you create nested
groups. There are a number of rumors
Figure 1. Locate the directory in which you want to create a group.
Figure 2. Active Directory groups are exposed through the
GROUPS tab.
Figure 3. The newly created group appears in the Windows Azure
Management Portal.
Figure 4. The groups properties are listed under the CONFIGURE tab.
F E AT U R E | Windows Azure Active Directory
circulating that Microsoft plans to offer the ability to create
nested groups later, but it remains to be seen if or how such a
capability will be implemented.
Group to Control Access
So far, youve created a new security group and added some mem-
bers, but the group really doesnt do anything yet. The group
is nothing more than a logical collection of users at this point.
You can use Windows Azure groups as an application access
control mechanism. While this probably sounds like a really
simple function, it actually needs a bit of explaining. A few
months ago, Microsoft announced its vision for the cloud that
consisted of three tiers. These tiers include private clouds that
use on-premises hardware, public clouds based on Windows
Azure and services clouds that offer Software as a Service
(SaaS). One example of a service cloud is Offce 365.
The Microsoft cloud roadmap includes establishing a
high degree of interoperability between the three types
of clouds. The idea is to make it easy for customers to
mix and match cloud components on an as-needed basis.
This cloud roadmap plays directly into the way you can
use WAAD groups to control application access.
In an effort to establish cloud interoperability, Microsoft
made certain SaaS applications are made available
through Windows Azure in such a way that lets the
application use the Windows Azure directory. In fact,
the Windows Azure Management Portal makes hun-
dreds of applications available for use with Windows
Azure (see Figure 6).
Managing groups is critical for using third-party
applications and SaaS apps such as the Salesforce.com CRM
suite (see Figure 7). After deploying Salesforce.com and inte-
grating with WAAD, the dashboard will display the Your
App Has Been Added message. This also displays a USERS
and CONFIGURE tab. However, theres no GROUPS tab.
So how can you use groups to control application access?
It doesnt display references to groups is because Microsoft
is treating group-based application control as a premium
feature that wont be available with a basic Windows Azure
subscription. Microsoft recently said it would soon offer a
premium version of WAAD, called Windows Azure AD
Premium. One of the key features of this premium subscrip-
tion is the ability to use WAAD groups to control access to
integrated SaaS applications. With a premium level Windows
Azure subscription, the USERS tab in Figure 7 would be
listed as USERS and GROUPS.
Some of the other features that will be available with Windows
Azure AD Premium include self-service password resets,
company branding of the Windows Azure interface and some
additional security reports. You can read more about Windows
Azure Active Directory Premium at bit.ly/J2VBbx.
The ability to create and manage groups
will be a welcome addition to WAAD. Its
surprising Microsoft didnt include that from
the beginning, but better late than never. R
Brien M. Posey is a seven-time Microsoft MVP
with more than two decades of IT experience. Hes
written thousands of articles and several dozen
books on a wide variety of IT topics. Visit his Web
site at brienposey.com. Figure 7 The Salesforce.com app has been installed through Windows Azure.
Figure 6 Windows Azure makes hundreds of applications
available.
Figure 5 You can click on individual users to add them to the group.
As it stands right now, the
Windows Azure Management
Portal doesnt let you
create nested groups.
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Untitled-1 1 1/13/14 9:58 AM
by Don Jones
DecisionMaker
Consider asking your organization
to modify both of those things a bit.
What Im proposing should actually
go down quite well with HR. Im
suggesting you simply add, or change,
a single item on those existing annual-
review and pre-hire checklists. My
change is specifc, measurable, attainable,
realistic and timely, making them
S.M.A.R.T, something HR folks
love. This suggestion is also massively
benefcial to IT. It doesnt solve every
problem that IT deals with in a modern
organization, but they deal with a
couple of the bigger problems.
Here it is: Ask employees to look for
repetitive, time-consuming, manually
performed tasks that can be automated.
Set a goal of eliminating x manual
man-hours of work each period. For
new hires, look for rsums that detail
how many man-hours of manual labor
the candidate helped automate at
previous jobs (and advertise that as
a criterion, because folks are used to
lining up the four-letter certifcation
acronyms, and need to be told youre
looking at this). We ask that employees
identify and automate IT operational
tasks, with a target of saving at least 50
man-hours of manual effort per year.
I have additional suggestions derived
from this one, but this ones the alpha-fx,
because it pushes a number of important
behaviors. The organization is going
to have to invest some time in its
employees, educating them about
specifc automation technologies. In a
Microsoft world, that might be things
like Windows PowerShell, System
Center Orchestrator and so on.
Failing to educate means your
employees wont meet their goals, and
theyll be able to identify lack of
education as the root cause. But for
perhaps the frst time, the organization
will be able to measure the return on
that education investment. This metric
also helps drive important business
specifcations for internally developed
software. Knowing that automation is
a measured goal means developers can
be notifed early on in the software
design process, and can include
automation-friendly interfaces in their
software. This one simple metric can,
if properly managed (of course), put
the entire organization on notice that
automation is highly desired.
Next, set an internal management
goal to have some specifc number of
individuals do nothing but create units
of automation. Theyll be 33 percent
developer, 33 percent analyst and 33
percent administrator. IT operations
then become more project-based and
less of a frefghting exercise, keeping
IT more responsive and agile.
IT tool acquisitions are also impacted
by this change of thinking. When
automation is a goal for every IT
staffer, you cant afford to buy tools
that dont support automation. Ok, so
your solution can let us apply AD
permissions more rapidly than using
the native tools. Does it let us build that
into our own scripts, so that we dont
even have to use your GUI if we dont
want to? When the entire organiza-
tion focuses on how it can automate
something to take it out of ITs hands
as much as possible, while still running
the actual process, youll make decisions
that natively reduce workload while
still getting the job done.
With automation as an organizational
goal, you could technically downsize
your IT team. In reality, most IT teams
are massively overwhelmed already, so
youll actually be downsizing the work-
load to meet your teams capabilities.
Yes, its a big change in thinking and
in management. Yes, itll take some
time to socialize through the upper
levels of management, and to
implement in the front lines. But its a
worthy philosophy. It isnt something
you can just start doing immediately,
but its something you can start
bringing into every IT conversation
going forward, to get everyone
thinking about the upsides of not
doing everything manually. R
Don Jones is a principal technologist for
strategic consulting frm Concentrated
Technology. You can contact him via
ConectratedTech.com.
Changing Metrics When Hiring IT Pros
M
ost organizations these days have some kind of
annual or semiannual review process, in which
employees are asked silly questions such as, Where
do you see yourself in fve years? and measured against various
goals and commitments to see if theyre performing well.
Similarly, most organizations hiring new IT staff tend to
have some minimum requirements, often requiring rsums
to pass these hurdles in order to clear the HR department
and get in front of an actual hiring manager.
Untitled-1 1 10/8/13 10:54 AM
Life After TechNet: Stop Awaiting
Its Return and Move On
by Greg Shields
WindowsInsider
got an earful of comments a few
months ago while pondering aloud in
his IT Decision Maker blog post, The
TechNet Subscription Thing: Youre All
Nuts. Or I Am (Redmondmag.com/
Jones082313).
Central to the complaints is a Catch-22
felt in the void of the demise of TechNet:
the MSDN alternative is too expensive
and 180-day trial software is too limiting.
IT pros needing to evaluate software
are seemingly stuck between a time
bomb and an unaffordable credit-card
bill. Or, are we?
While Ill agree that the TechNet-to-
MSDN upcharge is a fare change sinful
as usury, I disagree entirely that Redmonds
180-day alternative is unworkable. Yes,
the pulled-in-a-thousand-directions
nature of our profession forces some
software evaluations to legitimately
require more than half a year to com-
plete. But these days, deploying OSes,
installing applications and integrating
components together can be automated
without much up-front work.
In fact, you could argue that deploy-
ment automation has become a minimum
requirement for todays IT pro. Many
of the tools are free, and the knowledge
to use them is freely available. The
passing of TechNet only reinforces
this idea. There just arent that many
excuses left for deploying OSes and
applications the manual way.
Which all leads to the question I keep
asking myself: If you can automate an
installationand easily repeat it over
and over againneed you really care
anymore about licensing time limits?
Microsoft System Center offers a most
perfect example. Last month I referred
to the suite as big, complicated, over-
whelming and radically interconnected.
My frst few installs of System Center
in its entirety cost me two or three days
apiece. That much time burned for a
mere evaluation is wholly unacceptable in
a world of 180-day timeouts.
Stop Waiting, Rebuild!
Rather than waste time petitioning for
the return of TechNet, I choose instead
to focus on making the deployment of
its software a frictionless activity. Here,
tools can help, like the Microsoft
PowerShell Deployment Toolkit (PDT),
which can be downloaded from
bit.ly/1bLIqCl. The PDT advertises
itself as a set of scripts and knowledge
for automated deployment of System
Center 2012 SP1/R2, including SQL,
all prerequisites, and all automatable
post-setup integration.
Tools such as the PDT do an end-run
around Redmonds 180-day limit by
reducing its implementation time cost to
near-zero. If I need more time, Ill just
click and rebuild the silly thing.
System Center isnt the only solution
seeing the benefts of Windows
Power Shell deployment automation.
Also exciting is the Windows PowerShell
exposure you can build into Virtual
Machine Manager (VMM) Service
Templates. These templates keep getting
more useful all the time. Consider a few
examples only recently made available:
Microsoft contributor Shawn Gibbs
Service Template Example Kit
(bit.ly/1bLITV6) makes a good
starting point and demonstrates the
deployment prowess of Windows
PowerShell by automatically
deploying a single- or multi-tier
Web services platform inside VMM.
Additional service templates for
Active Directory Domain Controllers
in a separate offering, also from
Gibbs (bit.ly/1egltdk).
Michael Greene can deploy
Exchange Server 2013 CU2 (bit.ly/
198KgT6) with a pair of templates,
one each for a single server or
multiple server environment.
Jim Britt put together scripts and a
service template to deploy a three-
tier SharePoint 2013 environment
(bit.ly/1hrlroj).
Sean Lillis constructed an impressive
PowerShell App Deployment Toolkit
(bit.ly/1hrlvEr) that can automate
the deployment of apps with a few
Windows PowerShell commands.
Time-Bombless
Indeed, Microsoft hath taken away. Ill
miss TechNet just as much as the next
person. But Microsoft and the
community seem to have giveth as
well. These and other tools wont solve
every evaluation limitation, but theyre
not necessarily meant to. Theyre
designed to help us understand the
usefulness of Windows PowerShell as a
deployment automation tool.
Perhaps we shouldnt care about
TechNets passing. Our lab environments
might not be as permanent, but we can
be a lot smarter for it. R
Greg Shields is a partner and principal tech-
nologist with Concentrated Technology, an IT
analysis and strategic consulting frm. You
can contact him at ConcentratedTech.com.
T
he discontinuation of the Microsoft paid TechNet
subscription program still ruffes feathers among IT
pros. Fellow Redmond magazine columnist Don Jones
March 10 14, 2014
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Untitled-5 1 1/8/14 3:54 PM
by Mary Jo Foley
FoleyOnMicrosoft
Could Android Be
Coming to Windows?
But going into 2014, Im no longer
chuckling. Theres one truism about
Microsoft these days: You need to
rethink almost everything you thought
you knew about the company. Whether
its a realization at the top that old ways
dont work anymore or a desperate
times call for desperate measures
mentality (or both), Microsoft has
chucked the old playbook.
A prime example comes from Microsofts
new unifed OS team. When Bloomberg
reported in October 2013 that Microsoft
was approaching phone makers such
as HTC about potential interest in
running both Android and the Windows
Phone OS on handsets, I put that
rumor in the yeah, right bucket.
Last month, another report surfaced
this time courtesy of The Information
claiming Microsoft has considered/is
considering a scenario whereby customers
and carriers could choose either
Android or the Windows Phone OS
for their handsets. Dual-boot scenarios
via which users could switch between
the OSes and running Android apps
on Windows Phone handsets are ideas
Microsoft allegedly has foated by
handset makers to gauge interest.
Some earlier leaks now make these
rumors more believable. Mockups of
Windows Phone hardware have surfaced
that no longer feature the capacitive-
touch buttons that are a hallmark of
current Windows Phone handsets.
And a leaked render of a Nokia phone,
code-named Normandy, is believed
to be running some kind of Android
Open Source Project (AOSP) variant.
And then theres whats happening on
the Windows side of the house, with
Intel, AMD, and Asus all talking up
the potential of devices that can dual-
boot Android and Windows (see the
Redmond Report story, Tablet Boots
Windows 8.1 and Android, p. 6).
Some Microsoft watchers are claiming
that Microsoft and its OEMs, worried
by the simultaneous growth of
Android and decline of PC sales, are
just throwing anything at the consumer
wall and seeing what sticks.
But some of my contacts on the
Windows Phone front are saying
theres more than just experimentation
happening. Phone makers dont want to
have to invest in building unique hard-
ware that has only 4 percent worldwide
market share. Theyd rather be able
to provision the same handset with
Android or Windows Phone, depending
on what a market segment wants.
At the same time, Microsoft would
love to nix the perennial there just
arent enough apps objection to
Windows Phone (and Windows 8.x, for
that matter). If Microsoft could fnd a
way to support Android apps natively
in Windows, I believe the company
would jump at the chance.
This isnt as far-fetched as it may
sound. And it could provide Redmond
with a way to lessen the possibility of
Google boxing the company out by
making it harder for Google apps and
services to run on or with Windows and
Windows Phone. It could also increase
the likelihood that specifc Android-only
apps or games are available on Windows
Phone handsets in a timely manner.
BlueStacks already allows Android
apps to run on PCs, tablets and Macs
via its App Player and Cloud Connect
technologies. A lot of Android is
open source, meaning anyone, even
Microsoft, could use that code to
build its own Android runtime that
could enable Android apps to run
on Windows Phone and Windows.
The Google Play app store isnt open
source, so Microsoft would have to
build its own app store for Android
apps, or use an existing one, such as
SweetLabs Pokki. (Hey, maybe this is
where Microsofts $300 million invest-
ment in Barnes & Noble comes in,
with the Nook Store becoming the app
store for Android on Windows? Just
a totally wild and crazy guess on my
part, but its certainly plausible.)
Obviously, there are numerous tech-
nical and strategic hurdles ahead for
Microsoft if offcials opt for the join
emrather than beat emroute with
Android. Google likely can and will
continue to implement new Android
programming interfaces in non-open
source ways, further fragmenting the
Android development community. And
theres the little matter of Microsofts
role as Android patent toll-collector to
fgure into the equation.
Sometimes, the new reality is stranger
than fction R
Mary Jo Foley is editor of the ZDNet All
About Microsoft blog and has been covering
Microsoft for more than two decades. Shes
the author of Microsoft 2.0 (John Wiley
& Sons, May 2008), which examines whats
next for Microsoft in the post-Gates era.
I
f anyone had told me a year ago that Microsoft might
be dabbling with ways to put Android on Windows,
Id have laughed.
GetMoreOnline
Read more about Windows Phone,
Windows 8.1 and Android.
Redmondmag.com/Foley0214
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Untitled-4 1 12/2/13 11:27 AM
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