RunAs Radio

Richard and Greg talk to Brian Randell about what the IT Pro needs to know around virtualization for developers. The topics range from automating (and limiting) the creation of virtual machines for developers, licensing issues, testing, using virtualization to control IP and work the remote developers.

Richard and Greg talk to Keith Mayer about Microsoft's Infrastructure Optimization initiative. The conversation ranges across the optimization of the data center, productivity applications and custom development. More information on Microsoft Infrastructure Optimization can be found at http://www.microsoftio.com/ and http://www.microsoft.com/optimization.

Richard and Greg bring back Simon Goldstein to tackle another challenging IT Management topic: IT Risk Management. Simon outlines a plan for getting started with Risk Management, including how to "manage up" to get budget for risk management solutions.

Richard and Greg talk to Daniel Nerenberg, the Lazy Admin (www.thelazyadmin.com)! Daniel talks about the great free tools Microsoft provides for facilitating the migration and updating of Windows XP, Vista, 2003 Server and 2008 Server. Tools include Microsoft Deployment Tools (www.shrinkster.com/zq8), USMT (www.shrinkster.com/zq6) and the Application Compatibility Toolkit (www.shrinkster.com/zq9).

Richard and Greg talk to Mark Minasi of the Mastering Windows Server series (and more)! While the conversation ranges around a lot, listen for a serious dig into the networking stack of Server 2008 (and Vista).

At Tech Ed IT Pro 2008 in Orlando Florida, Richard and Greg talk to Hal Rottenberg and Carter Shanklin about VMWare's support for Powershell. VMWare has added an extensive Powershell accessible interface to VMWare to simplify the automation of virtual machine related tasks.

Live from the floor at Tech Ed IT Week in Orlando Florida, Richard and Greg talk to Frank Simorjay and Dan Griffin about NAP and Forefront. Network Access Protection (NAP) is a technology for controlling access to the network for workstations, especially laptops that might fall behind in patches and upgrades. Forefront is the client protection technology from Microsoft. Together they make an effec...

A year after his first show (number 10!) Isaac Roybal comes back to talk about the state of IIS7 and the new modules being released by Microsoft. Recorded on the main floor of Tech Ed 2008 IT Pro in Orlando, Florida. And check out the new modules at www.iis.net/downloads.

Richard and Greg run a panel discussion on the compliance features of SQL Server 2008 while at Tech Ed US IT Pro week in Orlando, Florida. The discussion focuses around the tools built into SQL Server to make it easier to support compliance requirements like SOX and PCI.

Richard and Greg talk to Allan Hirt about using virtualization with SQL Server. Allan digs into where virtualization makes sense for SQL Server and when it doesn't. And yes, its true, sometimes virtualizing SQL Server really does make sense!

Richard and Greg talk to Matthew Roche about SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). SSIS comes with SQL Server 2005 and 2008, replacing Data Transformation Services (DTS) from SQL Server 2000. Matthew digs into the dramatic improvements SSIS has over DTS and some of the best practices for using SSIS. Check out Matthew's blog at bi-polar23.blogspot.com.

Richard and Greg talk to Erin Welker about Data Partitioning in SQL Server 2005 and 2008. Erin digs into the advantages of partitioning for OLTP and OLAP, as well as the changes between 2005 and 2008. Check out Erin's blog at www.sqlblog.com/blogs/erin_welker.

Richard and Greg talk to Susan Bradley, the SBS Diva herself, about Small Business Server (SBS). The discussion digs into the various features of SBS including the upcoming 2008 edition. Susan blogs at http://www.sbsdiva.com.

Richard and Greg talk to Mark Beckner about using BizTalk Server for Integration. The discussion explore understanding the integration needs of an organization as a whole, how BizTalk can be utilized without development and how Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) has improved in BizTalk Server 2006 R2.

Richard and Greg talk to Greg Lamothe about Windows SteadyState. SteadyState allows administrators to configure PCs to roll back to a base configuration after every reboot. Combined with Group Policy for restricting access to resources you can create the perfect kiosk computer that cleans off all traces of the previous user, ready for the next.

Richard and Greg talk to Garth Jones about SMS 2003 and its new version, System Center Configuration Manager 2007. Configuration Manager takes over where SMS left off, handling software distribution, updates, asset management, even working with Windows Deployment Services to do bare metal installations!

Richard and Greg talk to Sean Siler from Microsoft about IPv6. Sean talks about what Microsoft is doing to make IPv6 work and how IPv4 and IPv6 will be living side-by-side for many years.

Richard and Greg dig into Hyper-V with guest Anil Desai. Hyper-V is the virtualization product that shipped as a beta with Windows Server 2008, the release version to be available 180 days later. This show was recorded while Hyper-V was still a release candidate. Anil digs into the strengths and weaknesses of Hyper-V and how it compares to products like VMWare's ESX Server.

Richard and Greg talk to Val Matison about Microsoft's Business Intelligence technologies. Val digs into the fundamentals of why you would want to use BI software and how the different products Microsoft makes work together.

Richard and Greg talk to Nelson and Danielle Ruest of Resolution Enterprises (www.reso-net.com) about implementing virtualization technologies in small businesses. Nelson and Danielle are the authors of the book Microsoft Windows Server 2008: The Complete Reference.

Richard and Greg talk to Michael Manos, Senior Director of Data Center Services at Microsoft about building efficient data centers. Michael talks about how Microsoft is doubling its data center capacity every year and sees no end in sight, putting a heavy requirement on building efficiently. The conversation explores making greener data centers as well as the process of measuring efficiency in the...

Richard and Greg talk to Chad Jones about Microsoft Application Virtualization - formerly known as SoftGrid. The conversation explores the differences in various kinds of virtualization and how application virtualization fits into the picture.

Richard and Greg talk to Noel Bruton about the challenges of help desks and tech support in general. The interview digs down into the real value of great tech support in your organization. Check out Noel's web site at www.noelbruton.com.

Richard and Greg talk to Marco Shaw about the growth of PowerShell in the Windows server community. Marco's blog at marcoshaw.blogspot.com provides info on PowerShell and his virtual user group meetings on PowerShell. We also dig into the role of WMI in PowerShell and Microsoft's focus on making PowerShell a key tool for managing all Microsoft products in the future.

Richard and Greg talk to Adam Cogan about extracting and reporting data from Exchange Server. Adam's consulting business, SSW, uses Exchange as the primary communication method to their customers - even phone calls are logged as emails. This has led Adam to discover some great KPIs from his Exchange data. You can learn more about ExchangeReporter at www.ssw.com.au.