Irish Community Launch Event for Windows Server 2012 R2, System Center 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1

If you're working with Microsoft products and are based in Ireland, then the Citywest Hotel & Conference Centre is the place to be on Thursday 28th November. The Windows and System Center Community over here are holding an event to launch the recently released Windows Server 2012 R2, System Center 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1 offerings from Microsoft.

It's an MVP driven event and will have some great speakers presenting content across two tracks on the day. You can learn more about and register for the event at the official website here:

http://techcamp2013.wordpress.com/

 Here's the agenda (some sessions may be subject to change):

Time	Windows Server & System Center	Windows 8.1 & Device Management
08:00-9.00	Registration
09:00-09:40	Keynote   Speaker: Dave Northey, Microsoft   Learn how the entire package from Microsoft fits together
09:45-11:00	Windows Server 2012 R2 Speaker: Aidan Finn, MVP What does WS2012 R2 bring to virtualisation, cloud, storage and networking?	Windows 8.1 in the Business Speaker: Damian Flynn, MVP How Windows 8.1 Pro and Enterprise can enhance user experience an enable BYOD.
11:00-11:30	Break Get a drink/snack & meet the sponsors.
11:30-12:45	System Center Virtual Manage Manager & Hybrid Cloud Speaker: Damian Flynn, MVP Start deploying and taking control of the entire data center with VMM 2012 R2!	Windows 8.1 Devices Speaker: Paul Shanahan, Microsoft Devices are a central ingredient to the “Windows 8.1 in the business” story. What are Microsoft and partners doing?
12:45-13:30	Lunch Get something to eat & meet the sponsors
13:30-14:45	System Center Service manager & Self-Service/Automation Speaker: Paul Keely, MVP See how System Center can automate repetitive processes, optimise time planning for IT, and change the business.	Windows Intune Speakers: David McCormick & Patrick Herlihy, Microsoft Windows Intune is a much bigger solution than you think, including branch offices, BYOD, and covering all kinds of devices (Windows & others).
14:45-15:00	Break Refuel for the afternoon push & meet the sponsors.
15:00-16:15	System Center Operations Manager & Service Management  Speaker: Kevin Greene, MVP It delivers a service, but just how is that service performing?	System Center Configuration Manager Speaker: Niall Brady, MVP Take control of every device in your enterprise like you’ve always dreamed, but keep the users happy with self-service?  That’s not possible, right? Wrong!

System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 Update Rollup 4 Available - (but not for SCSM)

Microsoft have just announced the availability of Update Rollup 4 (UR4) for System Center 2012 SP1 but there have been some issues with the SCSM component of the update and it had to be pulled back. See this update from Microsoft's Christian Booth:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/servicemanager/archive/2013/10/22/service-manager-2012sp1-ur4-availability.aspx

SCOM and SCVMM both get a number of fixes in this update and it looks like definitely worthwhile rolling out, but you might want to hang on a while and keep an eye out for any gothca's that people might post about over the coming week or two. As is the case with previous UR's, these will start coming down through Windows Update over the next few days, so make sure you're ready for it or at least have it staged for testing through WSUS or ConfigMgr.

Here's a link to the full description for Update Rollup 4 (UR4):

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2879276

You can also manually download the relevant bits that you're interested in by using the above link.

Session Recording Available - What's New in System Center 2012 R2 - Operations Manager?

A few weeks ago, I presented at the System Center Universe DACH event in Bern, Switzerland and the recording of my "What's New in System Center 2012 R2 - Operations Manager?" session has just been made available.

You can download it from here (it's a large file so right-click and 'Save As' is best):

What's new in System Center Operations Manager 2012 R2? (EN) - Kevin Greene

Along with that presentation, I was involved in two other sessions that were great fun to be a part of - you can get them both from the links below:

SCVMM Networking: From zero to hero Part 1/2 (EN) - Thomas Maurer, Damian Flynn, Michel Lüscher, Kevin Greene

Sponsor Session by OpsLoxix: Trivial Persuit Q&A with Microsoft Employees and MVPs (EN) - Maarten Goet, Cameron Fuller

Finally, if you want to immerse yourself in more System Center nerdiness, then you can check out the entire list of session videos from here:

http://www.systemcenteruniverse.ch


Enjoy!

Awarded MVP in System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management for a 2nd Year!

Today I've been honoured with the award of Microsoft MVP for System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management (SC CDM) for the 2nd year running.

This is a massive deal for me as the benefits of the MVP program and the interaction with the brilliant technical minds of the community that surrounds it is invaluable to IT Pro's and consultants working in the Microsoft space. These past 12 months as an MVP sure have flown by and I remember my pal Marnix Wolf telling me this time last year to "Hold onto your seat because it's gonna be a blast" - he was so right!

This year alone, I've had the opportunity to travel to Seattle, Las Vegas and Switzerland with another trip back over to Microsoft HQ in Seattle booked for next month! The amount of work you have to put in blogging, tweeting, writing books, working the forums and presenting at events to obtain and hold onto an MVP is not easy (most of it is carried out on your own time after the day job is finished) but it's certainly worth it.

Thanks to everyone in the MVP community for their help and advice over the last year and also thanks to my friends and work colleagues at Ergo for giving me the opportunity to work exclusively on System Center for the last number of years- let's hope the next 12 months can be just as much fun!