The subscription service, previewed at VMworld this week, will help deliver the right applications and data to users, whether they have an iPad, Android phone, Windows machine or a Mac, according to VMware. Partners will be involved in Project Horizon, presumably to deliver the end-user applications.
Storage in the Virtual Era: Download now

See the hottest virtualization products at VMworld

Details on Project Horizon are scarce, but the key seems to be a security model that extends on-premise directory services to public cloud networks, giving each user a “cloud identity,” as VMware puts it.

Project Horizon may also play a role in VMware’s long-term project to diminish the importance of the operating system, particularly the Windows operating system sold by Microsoft, its greatest rival. (See also: VMware says Windows still matters … sort of)

Project Horizon — to be available as a hosted, subscription service sometime in 2011 — will create a “permissions and control structure that worries less about the operating system” than current technologies do, says Noah Wasmer, a director of product management for VMware.

“The role of the operating system is getting diminished every day on the server side,” and a similar shift is beginning to happen on the desktop, claims Vittorio Viarengo, vice president of desktop marketing for VMware. For users, “Windows is becoming the offline mode” as they increasingly use applications hosted entirely over the Web, he says.

Microsoft MCTS Training, of course, presents a different argument. Virtualization, particularly on the server side, is just a feature of the operating system, rather than a replacement of the OS, in Microsoft’s view. Even on the PC, Microsoft MCITP Certification provides virtual desktop technology within the Windows desktop operating system.

To state the obvious, operating systems and virtualization technologies have co-existed for decades, for example on IBM’s mainframe, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

But VMware’s attempts to move from being a company that simply virtualizes operating systems to one that provides the broader operating frameworks for data centers and desktops is interesting, nonetheless.

Horizon “securely extends enterprise identities into the cloud and provides new methods for provisioning and managing applications and data based on the user, not the device or underlying operating system,” VMware says.

Project Horizon aims to provide access to various types of applications including software-as-a-service, legacy applications and mobile apps. One example mentioned by Wasmer is a calendar and contacts application. But VMware is trying to build up interest in the project without getting too specific about it. Wasmer mentioned the phrase “cloud-based desktop,” but whether Project Horizon will be robust enough to replace existing desktops remains to be seen.

“We’ll deliver whatever applications users need to be productive, on whatever operating system they happen to be using,” Wasmer says.
Magic Quadrant for Application Delivery Controllers: Download this special report

A more immediate example of VMware’s attempts to displace the operating system, at least the server operating system, is “vCloud Director,” a private cloud building tool that was formerly known as Project Redwood. VMware has announced that vCloud Director will become available Sept. 1, and will essentially extend the resource pooling capabilities in the vendor’s vSphere virtualization platform.

VMware says this allows IT to create “logical pools of compute, networking and storage resources with defined management policies, SLAs and pricing,” and offer computing services to users in a fully automated self-service system.

VCloud Director takes the basic unit of consumption — the virtual machine — and turns it into a “virtual data center,” while giving users a catalog of services that can be deployed within a virtual data center, says Bogomil Balkansky, VMware’s vice president of product marketing.

VCloud Director will be available in packs of 25 virtual machines for prices starting at $3,750.

Late yesterday, Microsoft MCTS Training announced two security advisories. One is new, while the other updates a previously issued advisory. Meanwhile, IT pros already are tying to cope with this month’s massive security update.

The updated advisory simply states that Microsoft has concluded its investigation into a security advisory issued in February. That problem concerns the Transport Layer Security and Secure Sockets Layer (TLS/SSL) protocols in general, and the Windows Secure Channel security package in particular.

The issue was addressed with critical security bulletin MS10-049  in Microsoft’s August patch. It’s designed address the flaw in Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 and 12 other supported versions of the Windows OS, including XP and Vista.

Left unpatched, the Windows Secure Channel vulnerability could allow attackers the ability to perform “man-in-the-middle” attacks via TLS/SSL connections. The problem is of general concern, and Microsoft’s issuance of a fix suggests that broad industry engagement occurred, according to Jason Miller, data and security team manager at Shavlik Technologies.

“In recent months, we have heard of Microsoft working with other vendors such as Adobe to address vulnerabilities as a whole and not as a one-company issue,” Miller said. “The release of MS10-049 shows that Microsoft is again working with the industry with vulnerability management.”

Miller added that the fix from Microsoft had long been in the works. The TLS/SSL vulnerability was “not just Microsoft’s problem” as it affected the “IT industry as a whole,” he said.

Windows Service Isolation Flaw
Next up, Microsoft issued a new security advisory on Tuesday concerning a Windows Service Isolation feature that could enable elevation-of-privilege exploits. The operating systems involved include Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, as well as Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008.

Microsoft said that an attacker could use this feature to elevate processes running on a Windows-based “NetworkService account” to the “LocalSystem account” on a server. It could give the attacker the ability to take control of a system.

At-risk Microsoft products include the Windows telephony application programming interfaces, SQL Server and Internet Information Services (IIS) in Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008.

Because there is no known vulnerability and only a “potential” likelihood of such attacks at this time, Microsoft did not specify whether the issue would warrant further actions, such as the issuance of workarounds or patches. However, in this Knowledge Base article, the software giant describes various access control tools in both IIS and SQL that can restrict entry into the NetworkService account.

No Security Advisory for Clipboard Issue
On Wednesday, Microsoft provided an updated statement on the zero-day Windows kernel-level clipboard vulnerability uncovered last week by independent security researchers. The software giant said it will not release a security advisory for the heap overflow problem affecting all supported Windows versions.

For this issue to be exploited, it has to be an inside job, according to the rationale of the Microsoft security team. Redmond said “an attacker must have valid log-on credentials on the target system and be able to log on locally, or must already have code running on the target system.”

This assessment rules out the prospect that an urgent out-of-band patch will arrive soon. However, Microsoft MCITP Certification promised that the issue would be fixed in a future security update. Microsoft Security Response Center spokesperson Jerry Bryant wrote that Microsoft “will continue monitoring the threat landscape and alert customers if anything changes.”

Joe Tiller, a famous football coach, said, “It’s always a chess game, and you’re trying to stay one move ahead of the competition.” Tiller’s words are as applicable to business as they are to football. Today, the Internet and the WWW (World Wide Web) are changing the way business is done, by providing a level playing field for small companies to effectively and efficiently compete with large conglomerates. No longer are cash-laden behemoths safe in their market-lead positions– those could be taken at any time by smart and agile new competitors.

Running an efficient organisation Microsoft MCITP Certification that delivers high-quality products and services at reasonable prices is essential for business success– but it is no longer sufficient to ensure survival. Customer satisfaction; early adoption and effective use of technology; better data collection, analysis and decision-making; automation of business processes, etc, are all essential for survival. However, these are not the key differentiators in today’s global Web economy.

Innovate or perish

Many research firms and industry analysts indicate that the only way for companies to compete is to constantly innovate; avenues for improving the bottom line have been exhausted, and the only way to move forward is to sustain top line growth and increase profits. So CEOs and the top management must change their focus from the operational issues to growth and innovation. According to Rosabeth Kanter, “To stay ahead, you must have your next idea waiting in the wings.”

Some well-known examples of companies that constantly innovate are Dell, which revolutionised the PC market; McDonald’s, which redefined the fast food market; and – of course! – Apple. Consider the barrage of new Apple products in recent years– the iMac, iBook, iCube, and eMac; the iPod and its multiple variants and versions; iTunes, the Mac Book, Mac Pro, Apple TV, the iPhone, and more. With such ceaseless innovation, no wonder other firms are always trying to catch up with Apple, and never quite succeeding! According to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, “Innovation distinguishes between a follower and a leader.” Today, innovation is no longer a luxury; it is the key to survival.

Innovation does not happen automatically; organisations need to foster it, to create an environment that is conducive to innovation. For example, at Google, employees can spend 20 per cent of their time on exploring and developing their own ideas. Some of the best Google applications and products are the result of such projects. Organisations must also prevent innovation stoppers and idea-killers from stamping out the innovative spirit of employees. In his book “The Myths of Innovation”, Scott Berkun defines an innovation stopper as “a person with the power and motivation to kill new ideas.” Idea-killers are those whose response to new ideas are, “We have tried it before” or “We don’t have the time/budget.”

Continuous learning

Continuous learning keeps employees up-to-date with the latest technological developments, and helps them improve their efficiency with newer methods, practices, tools and techniques. In his book,The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation , Peter Senge stresses the importance of making an organisation a home of continuous learning, where people continually expand their capacity to achieve the results they truly desire. New ideas, new knowledge and new findings are used to anticipate and to innovate.

Again, organisations need to provide employees with an environment that promotes learning, as well as ample learning opportunities. Well-stocked libraries and computer facilities are a necessity. HRD should study employee profiles to fill the gaps in employee skill-sets, in accordance with the organisation’s long-term strategies. For example, before a switch from UNIX to Windows as the main operating system, employees who are not familiar with Windows need to be trained to ensure a smooth transition.

Continuous evolution

The phrase ‘survival of the fittest’ – one of the fundamental laws of evolution– is true in the case of businesses too. Tech firms that adapt to new environments and evolve are able to survive and thrive even during difficult times. The two aspects of evolution are diversification and strengthening of core competencies.

All organisations have core competencies which they should identify and strengthen. For example, a car manufacturer should find ways to improve the quality of cars, make them safer, more fuel efficient and comfortable, while keeping prices as low as possible.

Diversification can be either horizontal or vertical. In the case of horizontal diversification, the organisation enters areas that are related to its core competency– like acquiring or developing new products that appeal to existing customers. For example, a car manufacturer can diversify into auto accessories. In vertical diversification, the company moves into the business areas of its suppliers. For example, the car manufacturer could diversify into manufacturing steel or tyre- making so that it could produce what’s required for its core business.

Diversification, if done properly, gives entry to new markets, provides new business opportunities, and reduces financial risk. Diversification can be achieved through mergers, acquisitions and by starting new business units. The advantages of the first two strategies are that you get a new product and a set of talented people, while eliminating a potential competitor.

Kaizen– continuous improvement

The Japanese concept of Kaizen, or continuous improvement, is one of the best ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of an organisation.

The difference between innovation and improvement is that innovation often involves drastic changes to the existing process, and requires large investments, whereas Kaizen signifies small but continuous improvements– the result of coordinated and continuous efforts by all employees. Improvements could range from the elimination of an unnecessary process to the introduction of a safer working practice.

Such small and minor improvements can have a dramatic impact on the overall performance of a company. Consider the example of AZ Technologies, which conducted touch-typing training for all its employees when they found that 95 percent of employees used computers for at least four hours a day. The productivity improvement was dramatic– many employees were able to save hours, as their typing speed doubled or tripled.

Recruiting and retaining the best…

Employees are the most valuable assets of any organisation. But recruiting and retaining the best minds is not an easy task– it takes a lot of work, coupled with really innovative and creative plans.

Google (the best company to work for, according to Fortune magazine, 2007), offers goodies such as stock options, an informal work environment, free meals, a spa, free on-site medical care, free transportation, hair saloons, gyms, massage parlours, childcare, on-site notaries, car services, and more. It’s no wonder that Google gets more than 1,300 resumes a day!

According to the 2007 Business Today study of the best company to work for, Microsoft MCTS Training India has toppled the 2005 and 2006 winner, Infosys. The reasons? A host of innovative strategies, including leadership development programmes, recognition of talent, seamless internal branch transfers, excellent compensation packages, an exemplary mentoring system, assistance with finding homes, school admissions, childcare, etc.

All the top employee-friendly companies have informal and flexible work environments, challenging assignments, a fun-filled and enjoyable work culture, comfortable and often luxurious workplaces, excellent perks, ample scope for personal and professional growth, and so on.

Business agility

Change is one thing that all businesses have to cope with. How well an organisation manages change is one of the factors that decides its success. New technological developments are revolutionising the way we think, work and do business due to the introduction of new business models, addition of new rules and regulations, and entry of new competitors. Customer preferences change so fast that most new products have a very short shelf-life.

In such an environment, the success of an organisation depends on how fast it can adapt, and how quickly and effectively it can respond to change– its agility. When an organisation has to adapt quickly, the responsibility of problem solving will go to its employees. Innovative and apt solutions for each new situation can be created quickly by the collective intelligence of employees. According to Kouzes and Posner (Management 21C, 2000), the secret of high-performing organisations is that everyone within them knows that leadership at all levels is expected and rewarded, and that individuals everywhere are responsible for making extraordinary things happen.

Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, has popularised the concept of ‘boundary-less organisations’. These are firms that are not limited by the horizontal, vertical or external boundaries imposed by a predetermined structure, and where cross-functional teams dissolve horizontal barriers, while external partnerships and collaboration overcome the firm’s boundaries. Obstacles like hierarchy, bureaucracy, unnecessary regulations, and geography are removed, to achieve outstanding business performance– enabling the company to respond quickly to environmental changes, and to spur and stimulate innovation.

Staying ahead

To survive and stay ahead of the competition, the management must run leaner and smarter organisations. Whether a company becomes an industry leader or remains just another in the pack, depends on its ability to constantly innovate and learn, continuously improve, use technology intelligently and effectively, anticipate, adopt, and react to changes quickly. Organisations should hire the best talent, keep them happy, and make the best use of their talents. The four factors that are critical for the success of any organisation are people, innovation, information and technology.

Change is continual…

“It is change, continuing change, inevitable change that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be…This, in turn, means that our statesmen, our businessmen, our everyman must take on a science fictional way of thinking.” Isaac Asimov

For most computer users, an operating system is somewhat like the engine under a car’s hood. They know how to start and stop the engine, how to drive around, probably how to check oil levels, but beyond that, the knowledge is limited. With a car, that is okay, since we do not really need to know more unless we are hard-core enthusiasts, or working in the automotive industry.

Getting back to operating systems, the beauty of these ‘engines’ is that they allow users to run their computers and use their favourite applications, while they take care of allocating system resources, handling processes, and so on. Operating systems are far from perfect, but they are remarkable pieces of software for the sheer complexity of tasks that they handle.

We open up the engine and take a look at some of the recent innovations in operating systems.

Splashtop: A fast-booting OS

What do PC users do after they press their PC’s power button?

* Go get a cup of coffee
* Stare at the screen and practice meditation
* Chat with colleagues
* Any of the above

Jokes aside, most of us usually spend minutes waiting for the operating system (OS) to boot up. This is especially frustrating when we need to look up something on the Internet quickly, or just have a few minutes to check personal e-mail.

{quotes}A new operating system called Splashtop allows you to connect to the Internet without booting your main operating system{/quotes}. Splashtop has two components: a core engine that runs out of the BIOS, and an optimised Linux stack that boots rapidly. Splashtop boots out of the BIOS (basic input-output system) on the motherboard of the PC, generally in five seconds or less, according to the website, and provides quick access to certain applications, like the Splashtop Web browser (based on Firefox) and Skype– or offers you the choice of booting your main operating system.

Splashtop is currently available only on ASUS motherboards. When we enquired about how the company plans to make Splashtop available to customers, Andrew Kippen, press and blogger relations manager at DeviceVM (the company that provides Splashtop) revealed, “We spoke about many different ways to release Splashtop, but in the end decided that launching with a partner like ASUS, the world’s largest motherboard manufacturer, was the best way to reach consumers. Splashtop-enabled laptops and desktops will be released later this year.”

Splashtop uses flash memory on the motherboard to store its applications. Could that be a bottleneck? Kippen says, “This is not an issue, since we tailor each version of Splashtop to the manufacturer’s specifications. If there is a size issue, manufacturers can include a larger flash memory chip, or run Splashtop from a partition on the hard drive.”

On issues like vulnerability to attacks and whether it is possible to save attachments or documents, Kippen says, “Like I mentioned earlier, we tailor each version of Splashtop to a manufacturer’s specifications, so [the answer to] your question depends on the manufacturer. On current ASUS products, we allow persistent data (like bookmarks and cookies) to be written to memory. However, users cannot save files, for security reasons.”

Since Splashtop is Linux-based, it is immune to most of the attacks that plague traditional operating systems. Restricting access to memory, whether flash memory or the hard drive, further ensures that Splashtop always works properly.

Speaking on the reasons for the OS’s popularity, Kippen adds, “A major reason for Splashtop’s success is that more and more applications are moving to the Web. Users (excluding business users) spend more time with Web-based e-mail, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and other websites than on any desktop program. Online applications like Google and Zoho are quickly becoming viable options for most Office-like applications.

“We are targeting mass-market consumers, i.e., normal people who just want their computer to work without any wait or fuss. We see ourselves as a good complement to the traditional OS, great for lightweight applications like Web browsing and media playback, but not the right fit if you want to do video editing.”

Splashtop is not the only company in this space. Phoenix Technologies, a company that makes BIOS software, is developing software called Hyperspace that will launch along with the PC’s regular OS. Hyperspace, which is billed as a “compact and secure application environment”, will be able to run applications as well as perform systems maintenance (repair, back-up, recovery, etc) and security. Phoenix expects manufacturers to start offering Hyperspace in the latter half of 2008.

Desktop search

While Google is the leader in Web search engines, its dominance in the desktop environment is not so clear-cut. A probable reason for this is that both Apple and Microsoft MCTS Training have included better search capabilities in their operating systems, Mac OS X and Vista.

Leopard, the latest version of Mac OS X, allows you to flip through files just as you would browse album art on iTunes, perform Boolean searches, save searches, and even find files on your network. Vista’s search capabilities include tagging, search folders (pre-defined searches), and search integration with different applications.

About innovations in desktop search, Dr Michael Swift, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison says, “Since the introduction of Apple’s OS X 10.4 [Tiger], desktop search has become a predominant way of accessing files. This was followed by Vista’s search capabilities. Currently, these capabilities are not completely integrated into the OS, in that they execute as shell extensions, but I see search as becoming the dominant way to access files on a PC.”

BumpTop: Real-world desktop metaphors

Take a look at the desk where you work. Do you have piles of books, or maybe papers stacked on it or even strewn about? Most of us tend to organise in stacks– of books, magazines, and papers. What if you could organise your computer’s files on your desktop in a similar way?

BumpTop, software developed by Anand Agarwala and Ravin Balakrishnan, aims to do exactly that. The interface uses techniques like shading and animation to drag files with a fluid movement. You can drag, or even toss files into piles. You can view the items in the pile in different ways by using widgets– flipping them like you would flip pages in a book, or viewing them like a deck of cards. Other manipulation techniques let you organise your files in different ways.

BumpTop is in the ‘private alpha’ stage at the moment, but you can sign up on the website to try it once it is available. You can also view a demo video from the website at http://www.bumptop.com/

It is too early to tell whether BumpTop will change the way in which we organise our desktops. What is clear, though, is that BumpTop’s interface is an interesting and innovative concept.

Device driver reliability

Most of us are unaware that device drivers which are required for the different hardware that we use cause many of the crashes we experience with operating systems. Researchers are looking at ways to minimise the effects of device drivers when something goes wrong.

One such effort is the Nooks project, being conducted at the University of Washington by Dr Michael Swift. Nooks (as defined by the researchers) is a reliability sub-system that seeks to enhance OS reliability by isolating the OS from driver failures.

{quotes}The Nooks project worked on the Linux kernel, since the source code was freely available.{/quotes} According to Dr Swift, “The team also investigated an implementation in the Windows 2000 kernel, even going as far as to implement key portions: object tracking, wrappers, and limited recovery. However, the inability to redistribute code, and the lack of available driver source code for Windows, limited our ability to pursue this work.”

About the future of driver protection mechanisms, Dr Swift says, “I would expect that in the future, driver protection mechanisms will come in two formats: user-level drivers and driver protection integrated with virtual machines. Windows Vista added support for the User-Mode Driver Framework (UMDF), which allows certain drivers to be written for user mode. This does not provide the compatibility of Nooks, but does provide similar protection.

“You can see driver protection in Xen [an open source virtual machine monitor], in its ability to run drivers in a separate virtual machine. However, Xen to date has not added recovery support, so it does not tolerate driver failures in the same way as Nooks. I would expect that improved recovery would become part of virtualised drivers.”

Making back-up easier

Backing up your computer is like eating healthy– you know you should, but you probably don’t actually do it. Since operating systems in the past did not offer easy-to-use solutions, it made the task of backing up onerous. Dr Swift thinks that this will change.

He says, “As people put more of their life online, I think that back-up will be a place that desktop operating systems innovate. Apple has done this already with its Time Machine back-up system, which allows simple time- or date-based access to old versions of files. Microsoft MCITP Certification has added back-up capabilities to Vista as well, but not with the same level of UI (user interface) sophistication.”

Other areas of innovation

What are the other areas of innovation in the OS space? Dr Swift reveals, “Security continues to play a huge role on the desktop. Both Apple and Microsoft have added extensive new security features to their latest products, in the form of more powerful firewalls and the ability to restrict the permissions of executing code (Sandboxing on Leopard; and User Account Control and Internet Explorer safe mode with mandatory integrity controls on Vista).”

He adds, “As the hardware industry moves from single-processor chips to multi-core chips, desktop operating systems need to invest more in scalability and parallelism, to both reduce the cost of OS activity, and to enable applications to make better use of the multiple cores. Vista introduced several new mechanisms for writing concurrent code, including new types of locks and signalling methods.

{quotes}”Reliability has become an important place for innovation on the desktop. Vista has more support for detecting and handling application hangs, and a new kernel transaction manager with filesystem transactions.{/quotes} These transactions make it easier to simultaneously update several files, and to handle any failures that occur during the update process.”

Microsoft Research’s OS team is also working on a research project called Singularity in order “…to build more reliable systems and applications.” On whether the research would make its way into newer versions of Windows, a Microsoft spokesperson says, “We are not giving official guidance to the public yet about the next version of Windows. We are currently in the planning stages for Windows 7 and will provide updates when we are ready.”

In the case of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, in addition to its hardware innovation, it has created a laptop with a Linux-based operating system and a radical desktop interface (SUGAR) that was designed for children.

Speaking about OS innovations, Walter Bender, president of Software/Content and COO of the OLPC Foundation, reveals, “From the OLPC perspective, there are a number of metrics we consider paramount in regard to the operating system, which are not mainstream considerations in an era of ‘bigger-faster’ computing.”

“Most important is power management. When you live off the electrical grid, making the most of every watt is critical. We are pushing the concept of power management to new extremes. Memory management is another area of concern: memory costs money, and consumes power. The extent to which we can better manage memory usage is correlated with the extent to which we can manage power usage. A further challenge is the lack of swap space, since we are using flash storage rather than a hard disk. Finally, the culture of free and open source is essential for the viability of a project such as One Laptop Per Child: it is the only way to scale, and at the same time, enable unencumbered local capacity development.”

In short, we may not be able to ‘see’ all the innovations in the operating systems space, but they are taking place!

What the future holds

If you look back to the days of DOS-based PCs, we have come a long way to our current operating systems. What will the future of PC operating systems be? Will we even have PC operating systems, given that Web-based operating systems are coming up? What about the fast-booting operating systems, embedded on the motherboard?

Dr Swift says, “To date, there have been many attempts to dislodge the dominant operating system vendors, with little success. I have not used the systems you mention [Web operating systems] enough to understand what their value proposition is, but I think they may be most useful as layers above a normal operating system. In this way, they would serve more as an advanced browser than as a full operating system, as they may not provide the complete hardware access and resource scheduling capabilities of Windows, Mac OS, or Linux.

“Fast-booting OS concepts make sense for embedded devices or closed products where devices cannot be attached, but the extensibility of the personal computer makes it unlikely that these products will supplant existing desktop operating systems.

“Regarding Web operating systems, I think they provide some benefit, but people today are comfortable going to individual websites for their content, so I am not sure they add that much value. What may happen instead is that more of people’s computing experience will migrate to mobile devices, such as smart phones, so the services that Web-based operating systems offer will be used from mobile devices rather than desktop PCs.” It looks like desktop operating systems are here to stay, albeit in a different avatar in the future.
Ubuntu: the new face of desktop Linux?

Linux has been around for quite a while now, especially in the server world — but distributions like Xandros and Mandriva have made installing and using Linux on your desktop much easier. The latest buzz around the desktop Linux world, though, is Ubuntu, which has become a major player since Dell began selling computers with Ubuntu pre-installed, in Europe and the US, in 2007.

Mark Shuttleworth (owner of Canonical Ltd, which sponsors Ubuntu) blogged that while a number of excellent companies like System76 already offer Linux pre-installed, Dell represents “the industry”, and it’s very important that the industry is now seeing a future for Linux on the desktop.

In other recent high-profile adoptions, the French National Assembly migrated to Ubuntu late last year. France’s Gendarmerie National recently announced plans to migrate 70,000 desktops from Windows to Ubuntu. In India, HCL has announced low-price laptops that run Ubuntu.

About Ubuntu’s innovations in the OS space, Gerry Carr, marketing manager, Canonical Limited, says: “Ubuntu’s innovation is that it ‘just works’. Linux was held back for many years by its perceived and actual difficulty.” Earlier, people’s peripherals would not work, and adding applications would require going to the command line. Ubuntu has changed that; due to the Ubuntu team’s efforts, adding drivers is now easy, and hardware compatibility has improved. New users usually have a wonderful experience on the desktop, rarely needing to go “under the hood”. Linux has had a lot of the fear that was associated with it taken away by Ubuntu’s simple, clean, and effective interface.

This is why it’s possible that Ubuntu is going to be the new face of desktop Linux; do keep an eye on the progress of this amazing Linux distribution– and if you haven’t tried it yet, maybe it’s time you did!
Backing up the back-up!

Apple’s Time Machine, released in October 2007 as part of Mac OS X Leopard, lets you do incremental back-ups, and allows you to go back to a specific date and see how a file looked on that date. Windows Vista also allows incremental back-ups, and allows you to back up to a location on a network. Vista’s shadow copy lets you recover files that you may have accidentally deleted. Maybe, someday, we will see operating systems that back up files via the Internet to a data centre

Intel has expanded its share of the server microprocessor market, taking advantage of a slow product transition at perennial rival Advanced Micro Devices, according to figures released late Wednesday by IDC.

Intel supplied 93.5 percent of the server processor units shipped in the second quarter, up from 89.9 percent in the same quarter last year. AMD’s share slipped to 6.5 percent from 10.1 percent over the same period, IDC said Microsoft MCTS Training .
Virtualization Boosts Public Sector Efficiency: Download now

Most of AMD’s share loss occurred between the first and second quarters, when server makers were slow to offer AMD’s new 6000 series Opterons in their systems.

“AMD is in the middle of a product transition. It stated in late Q1 and they hoped it would be completed in Q2, but it turns out it took their OEMs a bit longer to ramp up the products they were building,” said Mercury Research analyst Dean McCarron.

AMD executives said as much during an earnings call for the second quarter, in which the company swung to a loss after two straight quarters of profit. Intel had a much stronger quarter, thanks largely to growth in its server chip business.

“Intel got significant sales traction for its new 32 nanometer Xeon DP products, formerly code-named Westmere-EP, and for its 45 nanometer Xeon MP products, formerly code-named Nehalem-EX,” IDC analyst Shane Rau said via e-mail.

“In contrast, while AMD launched its 8-core and 12-core Opteron products, formerly code-named Magny Cours, OEMs didn’t buy them and ship them in significant volume [in the second quarter]. I expect that to change in [the third quarter],” he said.

McCarron also said things could look up now for AMD. “Presumably in the third and fourth quarters they won’t be weighed down by those transition issues,” he said.

In the wider x86 market, including server, desktop and mobile processors, things looked better for AMD. Its overall market share increased a fraction between the first and second quarters, from 18.8 percent to 19.0 percent of processor units shipped Microsoft MCITP Certification.

AMD’s share of laptop processor shipments increased to 13.7 percent in the second quarter, from 12.1 percent in the first quarter, while Intel’s share fell from 87.8 percent to 86.1 percent. In desktop processors, Intel added a half percentage point of share from the first quarter, to reach 72.2 percent, IDC said.

Via Technologies accounted for 0.3 percent of overall processor shipments in the second quarter, up from 0.2 percent in the first quarter but down from 0.5 percent in the first quarter last year, IDC said.

Overall x86 processor shipments for all vendors were up 30.8 percent year-over-year in the second quarter, as IT buyers resumed spending on equipment. The mobile sector saw the most growth, followed by servers.

(IDC is owned by International Data Group, the parent company of IDG News Service.)

and third-party security experts warned that users could be subjected to drive-by downloads because of flaws in Windows and Internet Explorer that received fixes on Patch Tuesday this week.

Hackers are likely to use social engineering tricks to lure users to infected Web sites and media files, they warned. The vulnerabilities are among 10 security updates that patch a record-tying 34 vulnerabilities in Windows, Internet Explorer, Office and SharePoint.

Microsoft TechEd event to shed light on cloud computing plans

One bug in particular – a Windows kernel TrueType font parsing vulnerability – was rated as the most serious Patch Tuesday fix by Joshua Talbot, security intelligence manager for Symantec.

“Exploiting this – likely through a drive-by download attack – would give an attacker near system-level privileges. It’s doubtful that attackers would compromise a legitimate site to exploit this vulnerability, so users should be extra cautious of social engineering tricks coaxing them to visit unfamiliar Web pages, which could contain a malicious font.”

The TrueType vulnerability was contained in Security Bulletin MS10-032, one of the ten issued by Microsoft Tuesday.

However, Microsoft MCTS Training rated three other bulletins as being even more important than this one, with two of them involving potential drive-by downloads, which occur when users authorize a download without understanding the consequences, or that simply occur without the user’s knowledge.

MS10-033, a critical bulletin, “is a remote code execution vulnerability in both Quartz.dll and Asycfilt.dll and is rated Critical on all supported versions of Windows. Specially crafted media files could trigger the vulnerability when a user visits a web page or opens a malicious file,” Microsoft said.

With this vulnerability, hackers may use media files to lure users into downloading malicious code.

“This could result in a drive-by download where the user visits a specially crafted Web site, and in this case it would be like a media file that could start streaming or the user could open a specially crafted media file that got sent to them via e-mail or some method like that,” Microsoft security official Jerry Bryant said in a video accompanying the announcement.

These bugs are on par with some of the most critical ones observed on Patch Tuesday, says Andrew Storms, director of security operations at the security vendor nCircle.

Rather than making businesses vulnerable on the server side, this month’s most serious bugs mainly target end users, he said.
“What looks to be a normal movie file that you click on and watch could have embedded malware inside and take control of your system,” Storms said.

Similarly, the new bulletin MS10-035 involves flaws in Internet Explorer which could also result in drive-by downloads.

A third critical bulletin, MS10-034, involves ActiveX Kill Bits and affects Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7.
Kill Bits ensure that vulnerable ActiveX controls can no longer be exploited through Internet Explorer.

Typically, Kill Bits are issued for third-party software, rather than for software created by Microsoft, according to Storms. What is unusual about MS10-034 is that two out of the six Kill Bits being issued are for Microsoft ActiveX controls.

“What that means is Microsoft has found one of their ActiveX controls to be vulnerable as well,” Storms said. “Today they found two. That’s unusual. We haven’t seen that from Microsoft since last summer.”

Overall, this was a record-setting month for Patch Tuesday.

“This is the largest Microsoft MCITP Certification patch release of 2010 and ties the record for the most vulnerabilities ever addressed in a single month; a record set in October of last year,” Talbot of Symantec said. “This month’s release also features the largest ever single bulletin, with 14 vulnerabilities in Excel being addressed together.”

ESD is the practice of delivering software without the use of physical media, typically by downloading via the internet. Digital distribution bypasses conventional physical distribution media, such as paper or DVDs, reducing costs and waste. As broadband connections have become more widespread software downloads have become an increasingly popular method of purchasing programs.
Get your job scheduler out of the 90′s: Download now

Traditionally Microsoft has sold the majority of its operating system software via OEM (original equipment manufacturer) deals. Manufacturers would buy Windows licences from Microsoft and pass the cost of the OS on to customers when they buy desktop PCs and laptops. Similarly, Office licences have typically been sold in large chunks to enterprises.

As digital media has become more capacious, Microsoft has targetted consumers with software DVDs sold from high street stores, with download purchases available only direct from Microsoft. Thus the decision to allow selected third-party vendors is a significant move by Microsoft.

PC Advisor has available for download a range of Microsoft MCITP Certification products including upgrades and full versions of all flavours of Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010. This is the first time that Microsoft has allowed third parties to sell downloads of its products in the UK, and follows a matter of weeks after the company first trialed ESD in France and Germany.

The client OS should have roles too, writes Cherry, because they make “installation fast and easy and reduce the OS surface area, which can reduce security threats and maintenance such as patching.”

Implementing roles into the client OS should be easy given its high-degree of componentization, writes Cherry, adding that possible client OS roles could be e-mail and Web browsing, student, business desktop, business mobile and gamer.

“An interesting side effect of adding roles might be faster start-up times,” writes Cherry. “If a person had a small netbook, and only installed the e-mail and Web browsing role, the OS might be able to start faster, because it only has to load the components for that role, and it doesn’t have to install other components for features that are not needed.”

Integrate Windows Phone 7 UI

The user interface for Windows Phone 7, internally called “Metro,” incorporates capacitive touch screens and a new feature called “Tiles” that work as visual shortcuts for an application or its content. Users can pin any Tile they want to the phone’s Start page.

Incorporating the “Metro” Shell into Windows 8 would be extra work for IT (organizations don’t want to retrain users for UI changes), but would help tie future versions of Windows Phone 7 and Windows together, writes Cherry. Users could then choose between the Windows Phone 7 “Metro” interface and the classic Windows 8 desktop interface.

The Metro shell would also “begin the process of making the Windows client more viable as a tablet with a UI that can better handle touch rather than relying on a mouse or a stylus for navigation,” writes Cherry.

Meaningful Error Messages

Windows error messages are often cryptic, showing hexadecimal error code such as 0xe0000100. In Windows 8, Cherry calls for error messages that make sense to the common user.

“You end up having to put code in a search engine to find out what the problem is,” says Cherry.

“If you can’t explain in an error message what went wrong and clearly indicate what to do about it, then you shouldn’t have an error message.”

More Powerful Power Management

Faster start-up times for Windows are on nearly everyone’s wish list, and Windows 8 is no exception. It also “needs to sleep, hibernate and wake up quickly and reliably, writes Cherry.

Cherry defines “start-up time” as the time between turning on the power to a machine that was stopped until you actually start performing useful work.

“On my Dell Precision T3400 with Windows 7 64-bit & after pushing the power button it is eight seconds until the BIOS has started and Windows 7 begins to load,” writes Cherry.

“At approximately the 15-second mark the ‘Starting Windows’ message and animation starts. At the 54-second mark, the Windows logon appears, and after logging on there is a 41-second period where all I can really do is watch the ‘donut’ cursor. After one minute and 50 seconds Outlook can be started, and mail can be sent and received with an Exchange server at the two minute 23 second mark. It takes 2.5 minutes to start Windows 7.”
Connecting to the Cloud with F5 and VMware VMotion: Download now

Cherry calls for more speed and accuses Microsoft of trying to convince users that continually “hibernating” their system is the answer to faster start-up. This is an illusion, he writes, and warns that “hibernate” has its own set of problems such as occasionally preventing network cards from resuming correctly.

“The green lights go on and off when packets pass through,” he explained. “It had ramped up until the lights were more on than off.”

Bowers quickly began troubleshooting over the phone. He was able to determine that nothing on the school of medicine’s network had changed. Then he remembered that purple cable. He told his co-worker on the phone to unplug it, and activity on the switch went back to normal. Then he had his co-worker plug it back in and the switch overloaded again, proving that the problem was at the other end of the purple cable — in the university hospital building.

It turned out that an IT staffer who was normally based out of a satellite location came to the university hospital’s IT room to work on a project and needed extra connectivity. He inadvertently created a loop by plugging two network cables from the university switch into a hub he had added to the network so he could attach additional devices.

Get Daily News by Email

“So it kept trying to send data around in a circle, over and over,” says Bowers, which in turn caused the switch in the school of medicine building to overload.

Bowers says the network was cobbled together like that when he began working at the university, so he inherited the setup — which a better approach to network planning and design would have no doubt flagged as problematic. But at least now the IT department knows one scenario to avoid going forward: Jury-rigged cabling and traveling techies can be a bad mix Microsoft MCTS Training.

“We didn’t do an official lessons learned [exercise] after this, it was just more of a ‘don’t do that again,’” says Bowers. However, this event, combined with another incident where a user unwittingly established a rogue wireless access point on the school of medicine’s network and overloaded the switch, has convinced Bowers of one thing: “I hold to the concept that human errors account for more problems than technical errors,” he says.
Save $35, lose all your data

More often than not, data center mishaps are caused, directly or indirectly, by employers’ attempts to save money. In this case, it was all about saving $35 on a backup tape.

In 1999, Charles Barber worked as technical support manager at a health-instrument company (one that no longer exists) that made stand-alone, server-based equipment that connected to treadmills to collect the data resulting from patient stress tests. One of the company’s customers was a small medical practice in St. Louis where the administrative assistant also served as the IT person Microsoft MCITP Certification.

“She was pretty competent” — but not a trained IT professional, says Barber.

One Friday evening, she heard strange noises coming from the equipment’s server and realized that the hard drive had failed. That Saturday she purchased a new hard drive, installed it and reloaded Microsoft’s Windows Server and SQL Server, since she had saved the discs and documentation. Barber had provided written instructions for her on how to configure the server, in case such a thing ever happened, and the assistant did so successfully. (“I’ve had field engineers call me to get help with these things,” says Barber, but this woman managed it on her own.)

What users hate about IT pros

Stupid data center tricks. D’oh!

These are just a few of the data center disasters that have been caused not by technological malfunctions or natural catastrophes, but by human error.

According to the Uptime Institute, a New York-based research and consulting organization that focuses on data-center performance, human error causes roughly 70% of the problems that plague data centers today. The group analyzed 4,500 data-center incidents, including 400 full downtime events, says Julian Kudritzki, a vice president at the Uptime Institute, which recently published a set of guidelines for operational sustainability of data centers.

“I’m not surprised,” Kudritzki says of the findings. “The management of operations is your greatest vulnerability, but also is a significant opportunity to avoid downtime. The good news is people can be retrained.”

Whether it’s due to neglect, insufficient training, end-user interference, tight purse strings or simple mistakes, human error is unavoidable. And these days, thanks to the ever-increasing complexity of IT systems — and the related problem of increasingly overworked data center staffers — even the mishaps that can be avoided often aren’t, says Charles King, an analyst at Pund-IT Inc.
Have your say

Has user error ever taken down your data center? Share the gory details.

“Whenever you mix high levels of complexity and overwork, the results are typically ugly,” says King. And as companies become more reliant on technology to achieve their business goals, those mistakes become more critical and more costly.

Wrong worker, wrong cable

Take the example of the university data center switch that overloaded because an IT worker mistakenly plugged two network cables into a downstream hub. That happened about four years ago at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, according to Jeramy Jay Bowers, a security analyst at the school Microsoft MCTS Training, and MCITP Certification.

The problem arose out of less-than-optimal network design, says Bowers, who worked at the school as a system engineer at the time of the incident. The IT department for the school of medicine was split into two locations, with one room in the school of medicine building and another room at the neighboring university hospital — not an ideal setup to begin with, says Bowers.

The department had run fiber — a purple cable, to be exact — from a switch in the first building to the second, running it up through the ceiling, through a set of doors and across to the hospital’s administrative wing next door. That cable attached to a 12-port switch that sat in the hospital building’s IT room, and staffers could easily disconnect from the school of medicine network and connect to the hospital network through a jack in the wall, Bowers explains.

MCTS Training certification is incredibly important in the computing field, especially for those individuals who want to excel technologically as well as financially. The MCSE certification helps individuals prove that they are expert in this platform. The individual is able to implement and design the infrastructure required in the two available streams, Windows 2000 and Windows server 2003 and so they will have to give different sets of examinations for them.

Individuals planning to secure training in IT will have to go through MCSE boot camp. The MCSE boot camp provides an intensive training that helps students to get trained, pass the examination and handle any kind of work efficiently in any company. The concept of MCSE boot camp has earned its name for its intensity and not for any disciplined military approach.

Most MCSE boot camps last for two weeks. The cost of the boot camp is rather higher, especially when they include air transportation, lodging and meals. In most of the cases, employers pay for the cost of the camp.

During the boot camp, students take up seven certification examinations and work directed by instructors towards preparation for each examination. Every instructor is experienced in all Microsoft platforms and so students need not worry. Also, there are practical guides using up to date hardware and software. MCSE boot camps always have a twenty four hour lab access to the students.

The advantage of training under a boot camp is the success associated with it. Generally, there are guaranteed success assurances. However, if there are some failures, the instructors identify and correct any mistakes responsibly and facilitate re-examination of the failures at a reduced rate.

Individual attention is the key to a successful completion of the test and so many Microsoft MCITP Certification, MCSE boot camps have small classes and therefore a high instructor to student ratio.

Get Certified in Days
According to our survey, over 85% of the candidates acknowledge that they have spent needless time and money before finding the most suitable solution to pass the 70-290 exams. It doesn’t matter if you are just starting out and looking for the most suitable way to get certified, or a skilled technician looking for the most efficient way to get certified, we have the right solution for you Microsoft MCTS Training.

We provide the following to help you get certified in the most convenient way

24/7, around the clock, consulting service that will assist you, guide you and help you, until you get certified. This price also includes; exam vouchers and all other related expenses. There is no further cost to attain your certification.

Our Guarantee

We will refund any payment that you make, should you for any reason fail to get certified. The refund is an unconditional total refund of any moneys paid.

Why MCSE 2003

MCSE 2003 70-290 Certifications are among the most specialized certifications available today. The MCSE 2003 70-290 Certification give you industry recognition for your expertise for business solutions based on the Microsoft Windows? 2003 platform and Microsoft 2003 server software. Implementation responsibilities include installing, configuring, and troubleshooting network systems. The MCSE 2003 credential is one of the most

widely recognized technical certifications in the industry, a credential in high demand. By earning the premier MCSE credential, individuals are demonstrating that they have the skills necessary to lead organizations in the successful design, implementation, and administration of the most advanced Microsoft Windows platform and Microsoft server products Microsoft MCITP Certification.

MCSE 2003 Certification Requirement:

1. Core exams (six exams required)

• Four networking system exams: (four exams required)

Exam 70-290: Managing and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Environment.

Exam 70-291: Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure.

Exam 70-293: Planning and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure.

Exam 70-294: Planning, Implementing, and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Infrastructure.

• One client operating system exam: (one exam required)

Exam 70-620: TS: Microsoft Windows Vista, Configuring.

Exam 70-270: Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows XP Professional.

Exam 70-210: Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional.

• One design exam:

Exam 70-297: Designing a Windows Server 2003 Active Directory and Network Infrastructure.

Exam 70-298: Designing Security for a Windows Server 2003 Network.

2. Elective exams (one exam required)

Exam 70-089: Designing, Implementing, and Managing a Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 Infrastructure.

Exam 70-227: Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2000, Enterprise Edition.

Exam 70-228: Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition.

Exam 70-229: Designing and Implementing Databases with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition.

Exam 70-235: TS: Developing Business Process and Integration Solutions Using BizTalk Server.

Exam 70-236: TS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Configuring.

Exam 70-262: TS: Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 – Implementing, Managing, and Troubleshooting.

Exam 70-281: Planning, Deploying, and Managing an Enterprise Project Management Solution.

Exam 70-282: Designing, Deploying, and Managing a Network Solution for a Small- and Medium-Sized Business.

Exam 70-284: Implementing and Managing Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.

Exam 70-285: Designing a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Organization.

Exam 70-297: Designing a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory and Network Infrastructure.

Exam 70-298: Designing Security for a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network.

Exam 70-299: Implementing and Administering Security in a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network.

Exam 70–301: Managing, Organizing, and Delivering IT Projects by Using Microsoft Solutions Framework 3.0.

Exam 70–350: Implementing Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004.

Exam 70–431: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 – Implementation and Maintenance.

Exam 70-445: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence – Implementation and Maintenance.

Exam 70-500: TS: Microsoft Windows Mobile Designing, Implementing, and Managing.

Exam 70-501: TS: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Hosted Environments, Configuring, and Managing.

Exam 70-620: TS: Microsoft Windows Vista, Configuring.

Exam 70-624: TS: Deploying and Maintaining Windows Vista Client and 2007 Microsoft Office System Desktops.

Exam 70-630: TS: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Configuring.

Exam 70-631: TS: Configuring Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

With rich experience in writing, often in the major websites, newspapers published articles and welcomed by a large number of readers,and articles written by others with a large number of quote.

About Our Services
Generally, people may select to take a MCSE Messaging Training courses and reading the MCSE Messaging braindumps and pass the MCSE Messaging exam. Actually, There is no man selling the real MCSE Messaging dumps of Microsoft and Microsoft is keeping updating the MCSE Messaging Exam, so people can’t pass the MCSE Messaging Exam easily, MCSE Messaging training kits or any MCSE Messaging training is not torward for the real MCSE Messaging exam. In real MCSE Messaging Exam, Microsoft will not test the general work environment because it may be too easy, but it is most importain for us to study, so mcitp Training is not very related with the exam. Our services help the man who have enough experience(or MCSE Messaging Training) but seeking the way to get MCSE Messaging Certified. Or any SME who is willing to get MCSE Messaging Certification to get any Microsoft product discount.

for more info in MCTS Training and MCITP Certification at Certkingdom.com

Microsoft MCSE Study Guide & Questions. Covers Core Exams 70-210, 70-215,70-216 70-298 measures your ability to implement, administer, and troubleshoot Windows 2000 as a operating system in any network environment with emphasis on actual exam Microsoft MCSE Study Guide & Questions. Covers Core Exams 70-210, 70-215, 70-216, 70-217 measures your ability to implement, administer, and troubleshoot Windows 2000 as a operating system in any network environment with emphasis on actual exam questions. Includes Windows 2000 Professional, Server, Active Directory, and Network Infrastructure topics including implementing and conducting administration of resources; implementing,& managing IT operations. exam focuses on the following server roles: file and print, database, messaging, proxy server or firewall, dial-in server, desktop management, and Application server (including Web hosting server). Connectivity needs include connecting individual offices and users at remote locations to the corporate network, and connecting corporate networks to the Internet. Also explains DNS, DHCP, Remote Access, Network Protocols, WINS, and IP Routing. In addition, measures the skills required to manage, monitor, and troubleshoot Network Address Translation (NAT) and Certificate Services. Explains and then tests you on Active Directory, DNS for Active Directory, the components of Active Directory, Active Directory security solutions, as well as change and configuration management. Wheelertech was founded in early 1999, in order to help the flood of students studying for the prestigious MCSE! Since we had also gone through the MCSE study cycle, we knew there were shortfalls in the area of exam materials. The most notable shortfalls were 1) the cost of the materials, and 2) the quality of the materials. So we decided to make good materials at a price students' could afford. Many companies spend a lot of money (thus making you spend lots of money) making their programs really complicated. Not us! We've kept in mind what's important: quality questions and a price that you can afford!.

MCSE Certification offer opportunity for those who are IT professionals to prove their ability on their area.However,people feel hard to pass the MCSE test and have to pay much passion and money on the preparation.Here we offer some good method to you get a 70-298 Exam.

Just in time for the back-to-school shopping season, tech’s greatest rivalry is back. No, I’m not talking about Apple vs. Google; that’s small potatoes. Long before Google launched its Android assault on Apple and its iPhone, Microsoft MCTS Training and Apple were publicly doing battle for supremacy in the personal computer market. And now, thanks to Microsoft’s latest campaign to mock the Mac, the rivalry has been renewed.

Microsoft this week added a new “PC vs Mac” section to its Web site, which touts the advantages that Windows-based PCs have over Macs. The multi-page site, which highlights the fact that Windows-based PCs can “easily share” Microsoft Office documents and play Blu-ray discs, was launched just days after a new report suggested that Macs have become the computers of choice for incoming college students.
Capacity Management in VMWare Virtualized Infrastructures: Download now

Forty-seven percent of college students who plan to buy a new laptop planned to buy a Mac, the report, which was published on CNN.com and based on figures from Student Monitor, a research firm that tracks higher education computer purchases. Student Monitor notes that Dell used to be the laptop brand of choice for college students, and says that in the last five years, Dell and Apple have swapped places: “In 2005, 47 percent of students buying laptops chose Dells. In 2010, 47 percent are choosing MacBooks.”

These numbers can’t be making anyone in Redmond happy, and it’s clear they haven’t escaped Microsoft’s notice. The new site clearly touts Windows features designed to appeal to college-aged students, as the first topic in its itemized list of the PC’s advantages is “Having Fun.”

“When it’s time to enjoy movies, games, and HDTV from anywhere in your home, PCs are ready to play,” the new site reads. “There are some things you simply can’t do out of the box with a Mac, like watch, pause, rewind, and record TV like a DVR.” This section of the site also highlights the fact that “most of the world’s most popular computer games aren’t available for Macs.”

The site then goes on to tout the simplicity of the PC, noting that they “just work.” (Hey, that sounds familiar.) Only then does the site go on to talk about the “working” capabilities of the PC, highlighting its ability to easily share Office documents and give presentations. “If most of the computers in your office or school run Windows, you may find it harder to get things done with a Mac,” the site notes.

Microsoft’s latest attack on Apple isn’t as high profile as some of the earlier salvos in this bitter rivalry. A Web site alone (there’s no word on whether Microsoft plans to expand this campaign to print or TV spots) isn’t going to gain the attention of Apple’s “switchers” ad campaign, or its classic (but recently pulled) “I’m a Mac” ads. Nor is this site going to gain the attention of Microsoft’s “laptop hunters” ads.

But maybe it doesn’t need to: Windows 7 is, after all, the fastest-selling operating system in history, so Microsoft MCITP Certification clearly is doing something right. Still, it’s clear that Microsoft isn’t willing to sit back and watch Apple gain any ground. That rivalry has always been fun to watch and I, for one, am glad it’s back. Here’s hoping this site is just the first strike of many to come.

Microsoft is building out its partner network to support the impending upgrade of its unified communications software, with a new deal with Polycom that will guarantee tens of millions of dollars in investment in new products and marketing programs.

The multi-year agreement with Polycom, to be announced Monday, is not exclusive but is “unique in the amount of commitment and resources,” says Ashima Singhal, manager of Microsoft’s unified communications partner marketing. The partnership will be key for Microsoft in persuading customers that Communications Server 14, slated for release in Q4, can be a real replacement for PBX systems.

Microsoft MCTS Training to kill Response Point VoIP sales Aug. 31
Getting the Foundation Right: Unified Communications: Download now

Microsoft and Polycom didn’t specify exactly how much money will be spent by the two companies, but said product development will include “next generation Polycom CX series endpoints optimized for Microsoft UC,” featuring Polycom’s high-definition video and voice technologies; “room-based video systems” that will compete against Cisco’s TelePresence; and guarantees of interoperability with “Polycom’s existing and future video conferencing solutions.”

Polycom isn’t placing all its eggs in the Microsoft basket. Polycom has partnerships with the likes of HP, IBM, Juniper, Broadsoft, Siemens, Avaya and Cisco. And Polycom will not be the only vendor delivering hardware using Microsoft’s Communications Server 14.

But with 14, Microsoft now has “an enterprise-grade communications” platform, whereas previous versions were not as comprehensive as they needed to be, says Mark Roberts, vice president of partner marketing at Polycom.

OCS 14 is more “elegant” and integrated into natural workflows, Roberts says. In particular, Roberts says OCS 14 lets users locate the proper contacts based upon their skills before initiating a conversation.

The user experience has also been updated with more integration with line-of-business applications such as SharePoint, Exchange and Office, according to Singhal.

“It’s really about connecting people,” Singhal says.

In addition to new products and integrations between Microsoft MCITP Certification software and Polycom hardware, the companies are expanding their go-to-market initiatives with sales training and combined marketing campaigns.

Microsoft MCTS Training is readying an update to its ASP.Net MVC (Model View Controller) technology for Web application development, leveraging the company’s new “Razor” view engine and offering enhancements for JavaScript.

The company posted on Tuesday Preview 1 of ASP.Net MVC 3, which provides an MVC programming model for building ASP.Net Web applications. ASP.Net 3 is the next major release of the framework. The preview is available at Microsoft’s website.
Lowering Total Cost of Ownership With Hybrid Web Security: Download now

[ See InfoWorld's report on the release of MIcrosoft's ASP.Net MVC 2 in March. ]

With MVC, the model contains core information for an application, such as data and validation rules, while the view encapsulates application presentation. The controller contains control-flow logic, interacting with the model and views to control information flow and execution of an application.

Preview 1 features two pre-enabled view engines: Razor and ASPX, said Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Developer Division, in a blog post. View engines are pluggable modules that implement template syntax options. Razor is optimized around HTML generation using a code-focused templating approach. Razor is intended to be compact, expressive, and fluid as well as easy to learn. It works with any text editor.

“‘Razor’ helps make view templates clean and concise and I think you’ll find it enables a very fluid coding workflow,” Guthrie said.

Razor file colorization and code intellisense is not yet supported in the Visual Studio IDE with the ASP.Net MVC 3 preview release, but plans call for adding these capabilities with a future preview. Another improvement planned for a future preview refresh is the ability to unit-test individual Razor template files without having to run the application or launch a Web server, Guthrie said.

Built-in JSON ( JavaScript Object Notation) binding support in ASP.Net MVC 3 enables action methods to receive JSON-encoded data and model-bind it to action method parameters, said Guthrie. Also, developers can connect client templates with action methods on the server that return and receive JSON data.

Future previews will include better support for unobtrusive JavaScript and direct backing for the jQuery validation library from within built-in validation helper  methods.

The preview also includes controller-specific enhancements such as global filters, for declaratively applying “cross-cutting” logic.

An Add->View dialog in the preview makes it easy to choose a syntax when building new template files, Guthrie said. “It allows you to select any of of the available view engines you have installed on your machine — giving you the ability to use whichever view templating approach feels most natural to you,” he said.

Model validation improvements in ASP.Net MVC 3 include support for .Net 4 DataAnnotations metadata attributes. Version 3 also offers better support for applying dependency injection Microsoft MCITP Certification.

ASP.Net MVC 3 is compatible with ASP.Net MVC 2, making it easy to update MVC 2 projects to MVC 3, Guthrie said.

Top Russian spy ring technology screw-ups

Bloomberg said a Microsoft spokesperson in Moscow confirmed that Alexey Karetnikov, who was detained by U.S. officials and deported to Russia, worked for Microsoft as a software tester for about nine months.

Karetnikov is “a Russian citizen in his early-to-mid-20s,” the Washington Post reported. Although federal authorities reportedly detained Karetnikov as part of their investigation into the Russian spy ring operating in the United States, there was not enough evidence to charge the man with a crime so we has detained on immigration violations.

“He was just in the early stages; had just set up shop,” and had “obtained absolutely no information,” an anonymous federal law enforcement official told the Post.

A Facebook profile for “Alexey V. Karetnikov” lists the man’s employers as Microsoft MCITP Certification and “Neobit,” and his current city as Redmond, Wash.

Follow Jon Brodkin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jbrodkin

Read more about security in Network World’s Security section.

Microsoft is hard at work preparing a Windows-based alternative to Apple’s already-popular iPad tablet, the company’s CEO Steve Ballmer told analysts on Thursday. Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Asus, Lenovo, and Toshiba are cooperating with Microsoft MCTS Training on such a device, expected later this year, in a bid to catch up with Apple and Google Android.

“It is job-one urgency around here. Nobody’s sleeping at this point,” Ballmer told analysts. The Microsoft CEO was also surprised to hear Apple sold more than 3 million iPads, since launched in April: “They’ve sold more than I’d like them to sell. We think about that,” he said.
Five Critical Success Factors in Overcoming Workforce Disruptions: Download now

Ballmer’s idea of an iPad alternative will use Intel processors and Windows 7, instead of its mobile Windows Phone 7 platform. Besides that comment, he offered no details on the upcoming Windows-powered tablets.

Microsoft underestimated Apple’s flair for touch-based computers. Apple unveiled its iPad in January, and started selling it in April. Since then, the company sold over 3 million iPads, and expected to sell up to 10 million units this year.

Google Android, Apple’s biggest rival in the mobile computing arena, also secured its spot on several upcoming tablets. Cisco, Dell, Asus, LG, and Samsung, to name a few, have announced Android-based tablets, slated to arrive this autumn.

Former Pioneer, Now Latecomer

Microsoft was the first to anticipate the future of mobile computing, when it launched in 2003 the Windows XP Tablet edition, yet the clunky first devices based on it were up to a very slow start.

After killing the Courier dual-screen tablet project just a few weeks ago, Microsoft MCITP Certification was left without any tablet plans in the pipeline, as HP also reportedly ditched Windows 7 on its Slate tablet in favor of Palm’s WebOS, which it acquired in June.

As it stands now, Microsoft’s lack of details on the upcoming Windows tablets is not encouraging, despite Ballmer’s promises:

“We’ve got to push right now with our hardware partners. People will say, ‘When?’ I’ll say, ‘As soon as they are ready,’ and it is job-one urgency,” he said.

Adobe and Microsoft are now working together to give security companies a direct line into their bug-fixing efforts.

By year’s end, Adobe will start using the Microsoft MCTS Training Active Protections Program (MAPP) to share details on its latest patches, according to Brad Arkin, Adobe’s director of product security and privacy. “The MAPP program is the gold standard for how the software vendors should be sharing information about product vulnerabilities prior to shipping security updates,” he said.
Learn How Network Automation Can Reduce Costs and Increase Productivity: View now

Adobe initially wanted to reproduce MAPP, but soon realized that it would take a lot of work to build a program similar to Microsoft’s, which was piloted two years ago. Arkin’s team began discussions with Microsoft, at first in hopes of picking up some tips. “Eventually, together, we came to the conclusion that it would be a lot more fun to work together on this rather than Microsoft helping us to reinvent the wheel,” he said.

Typically, whenever a major patch is released, hackers quickly begin to analyze the patch to see what flaws were fixed. They then rush to work out attacks that would exploit the vulnerability on unpatched products.

Adobe has been hit hard in the past two years by hackers who have found bug after bug in the company’s products. This often means hard work for security companies, who must scramble to add detection for these attacks.

It’s become so bad that one security company, SourceFire, is holding an exclusive Adobe Hater’s Ball on Wednesday here at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.

The Ball is really a tongue-in-cheek joke, modelled on comedian Dave Chappelle’s Playa Hater’s Ball.

“My guys have a love-hate relationship with the guys over at Adobe,” said SourceFire Director Matt Watchinski. “Every time a vulnerability comes out of their stuff, we have to jump.”

Arkin said he and other Adobe researchers will be at the event.

With Adobe jointing the MAPP program, however, security companies like SourceFire should do less scrambling.

MAPP gives them early notice on upcoming patches — typically about 48 hours — so they have more time to build attack detection into their security systems. About 65 security companies participate in MAPP. All of them will soon start getting the Adobe data.

This is the first time that Microsoft MCITP Certification has extended the MAPP program to cover another company’s products, said Dave Forstrom, a director with Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing group.

However, it may not be the last. Forstrom didn’t rule out the possibility that other software vendors could also jump on board.

Verizon confirmed the talks have been ongoing with Google and the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for 10 months, the paper reported Microsoft MCTS Training.
Cloud Computing eGuide: Download now

Don’t Miss! How Google wants to change telecom

The agreement would apparently lay out principles around network neutrality, or the belief that service providers should not slow down certain kinds of traffic on their networks. The agreement, however, would reportedly allow service providers to prioritize traffic if customers paid for that kind of service, the paper said.

Network providers have maintained that they need to restrict some kinds of Internet traffic in order to keep a consistent quality of service across their customers bases. That has happened, for example, for file-sharing protocols such as BitTorrent. But it is feared that network providers may unfairly restrict other kinds of applications and protocols for competitive purposes. Wireless networks would not be subject to the agreement, according to the report.

The FCC has been talking to large service providers about how to regulate net neutrality. That has drawn criticism from groups such as Public Knowledge, whose communications director wrote that any agreement between Google and Verizon could be short-lived as it wouldn’t have the force of law.

A Google-Verizon deal “is no substitute for a legally binding, comprehensive agreement in the public interest that covers not only network management but universal service and the other issues rolled up in the larger question whether the FCC even has the authority over broadband,” wrote Art Brodsky on the group’s blog.

The DC Circuit Court of Appeals threw a major wrench in the Federal Communications Commission’s plans to implement network neutrality regulations today when it ruled that the FCC had no authority to regulate ISPs’ network management practices Microsoft MCITP Certification.

Google officials contacted in London said they had no comment.

Vista’s firewall profiles worked well except when a computer was connected to multiple networks simultaneously, such as an Ethernet and a wireless network. In those cases, the system would default to the most restrictive profile. This could cause problems when, for example, connecting to a corporate VPN through a public Wi-Fi hot spot; Vista would recognize simultaneous connections to both a public and domain network and apply the public profile to both.

All versions of Windows 7 allow computers to keep several firewall profiles active at the same time, maintaining the access and functionality of the more trusted network while blocking access via the less trusted network. Since many remote access functions require less restrictive firewall settings, users can now work securely while remaining protected from threats outside of the corporate network.

With fingerprint readers becoming more and more common on laptops, establishing a standard for the handling of biometric data has become important. Enter Windows Biometric Framework, a standardized method for storing fingerprint data and accessing it through a common API. Although most of the features of this subsystem are of interest only to developers, there are two important things that businesses should know Microsoft MCTS Training.

First, while fingerprint scanners could formerly be used to log onto a computer but not to log onto a corporate domain (a corporate network or network subsection), the Windows Biometric Framework allows domain log-in.

Second, users can store up to 10 unique fingerprints, one for each finger. While most of us probably don’t expect to lose a finger anytime soon, having all 10 fingers enrolled in the system is a good precaution in case of lesser injuries. A cooking accident or a hand caught in a door can easily modify a finger enough that it won’t register correctly with a fingerprint reader, and you don’t want a user to be barred access to his computer while he heals.

Fingerprints are added using the Biometric Device applet, which appears in the Control Panel of any Windows 7 computer with a fingerprint scanner attached and from which you can enable computer and domain log-in. You must be logged in as an administrator to add or manage fingerprints on Windows 7.

BitLocker To Go

One of the most serious security threats facing today’s businesses is the loss of a mobile asset containing confidential corporate information. Windows Vista’s BitLocker began to address this problem by allowing business users to encrypt a laptop’s entire hard drive so that if it were lost or stolen, nobody could access the information stored on it. BitLocker To Go extends the same protection to even more easily lost external drives, including pocket-size hard drives and tiny flash drives Microsoft MCITP Certification.

Microsoft rarely finds itself in second place, but Microsoft’s head of server virtualization says he doesn’t mind playing catch-up to VMware in the hypervisor market.

For one thing, Microsoft’s Mike Neil notes that Hyper-V’s market share is growing faster than VMware’s, and says “that’s a good position for us to be in.” A skeptic might say outpacing VMware’s growth isn’t much of an achievement, because Microsoft MCTS Training is starting from a far smaller user base, and gets easy access to customers by offering Hyper-V as a component of Windows Server.
More than Speed: ROI and TCO still the benchmarks: View now

VMware vs. Microsoft vs. Citrix

But Neil expresses confidence for another reason, simply that VMware customers are by and large also Windows customers. Microsoft and its virtualization partner Citrix have repeatedly butted heads with VMware, notably by pulling out as sponsors of last year’s VMworld conference after claiming that VMware unfairly limited competition at the show. h

But Microsoft will maintain a limited presence at VMworld in San Francisco Aug. 30 to Sept. 2, as it did last year, and make its pitch to VMware customers. VMware, by the way, is led by CEO Paul Maritz, a former Microsoft official.

“The vast majority of people running VMware are running Windows,” says Neil, general manager of Microsoft’s server virtualization and Windows Server division. “That’s the reason I go to something like VMworld. People who are running Windows are running it on top of VMware and I want to make sure they’re having the best experience they can. From our perspective, regardless of whether customers are running on Hyper-V or VMware, first and foremost they’re a Windows customer.”

Neil made the comments during an interview at last week’s Burton Group Catalyst conference, which featured a little bit of sparring between VMware and its rivals Microsoft and Citrix.

Citrix CTO Simon Crosby was quite outspoken against VMware, taking shots on-stage at the company’s security model and writing in a tweet that VMware’s SpringSource general manager Rod Johnson’s speech was “patently nonsensical.”

“He’s a competitor,” Johnson said of Crosby, during an interview. “I wouldn’t argue with Simon about virtualization, but he probably shouldn’t argue with me about Java and middleware.”

On stage, Crosby said the Xen virtualization security model has proven its capabilities in the Amazon cloud, while Neil said VMware has acted irresponsibly by attempting to take antivirus agents out of guest operating systems, in effect moving security to the hypervisor layer.

VMware senior director Allwyn Sequeira clarified that VMware’s official position does not recommend taking antivirus tools out of guest operating systems, but he did say that running antivirus in every guest OS is inefficient. Sequeira also said that open source software such as Xen isn’t automatically more secure than proprietary systems such as VMware’s. Crosby pounced on this statement, noting that VMware’s SpringSource software is based on open source.

The comment seemed primarily to be a joke but is indicative of tensions between VMware and its rivals heading into VMworld. Last year, Microsoft claimed new VMworld rules prevented it from exhibiting its System Center Virtual Machine Manager technology at the conference, which VMware hosts, but set up a small booth on the show floor anyway.
Ensuring High Service Levels in Cloud Computing: Download now

VMware’s new rules prevented vendors from sponsoring VMworld if they are not members of VMware’s Technology Alliance Partner program, but VMware said the rule should not have prevented Microsoft from exhibiting competing products.

VMware said the rule changes were spurred by Microsoft “shenanigans” in 2008, when Microsoft gave attendees poker chips in a package that said “Looking for your best bet? You won’t find it with VMware.”

Conflicts aside, Microsoft and VMware have to work together because customers use the two companies’ technologies in tandem. A VMware customer may not want to virtualize Windows with Hyper-V, but that customer is still using Windows.
As such, VMware’s hypervisor has been certified to work on Windows technology, and customers can call either VMware or Microsoft in case of system failures. “We have mechanisms between the two companies, we can hand off technical support issues between the two companies,” Neil said.
Use of Hyper-V has more than doubled in the past year, but it is still only the third most used hypervisor, after two VMware products: VMware ESX and VMware Server, according to IDC.

While Microsoft has been outspoken in its criticism of VMware, Neil blamed VMware for much of the conflict.

“Obviously VMware has taken sort of an anti-Microsoft MCITP Certification stance, they don’t want to be a partner of ours in the traditional sense,” Neil said. “But like I said it’s the same set of customers, so we’re going to talk to them regardless.”

Multiven agreed to drop its claims against Cisco, and Cisco dropped countersuits against Multiven, network expertise platform Pingsta, and Pingsta founder Peter Alfred-Adekeye. The terms of the settlement were sealed. Each party will pay its own legal costs, according to an order filed July 28. Multiven announced the settlement on Monday Microsoft MCTS Training.
Savvis Symphony Dedicated and Open : Download now

Cisco vs. Juniper
Multiven provides technical support, maintenance and consulting services for networks from multiple vendors. It sued Cisco in December 2008, charging that the dominant network equipment vendor did not make necessary software updates and bug fixes for its products available to third parties. Instead, Cisco made those updates available only to customers of its SMARTnet service, preventing third parties from servicing Cisco equipment, Multiven alleged. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, in San Jose.

Pingsta is a collaborative platform designed to let users procure network expertise on a pay-per-use basis from experts who work at will.

Cisco was not immediately available for comment. In December 2008, in response to the suit, the company said its customers were not required to buy Cisco’s services and that thousands of partner companies offered service programs, including bug fixes, for Cisco gear or Microsoft MCITP Certification.

Microsoft has run a version of its Windows Azure as a service since February, and the company has claimed the service has been used by 10,000 customers. The company is now offering the platform software, packaged with a set of servers.
Ensuring High Service Levels in Cloud Computing: Download now

In a blog posting, Microsoft server and tools corporate vice president Robert Wahbe, explained that the appliance would provide a means for organizations to run a cloud service, either internally or for their own customers.

“Using it, service providers, governments and large enterprises who would consider buying, say, 1000 servers at a time, will be able to get the control they need,” Wahbe said.

“What we are talking about is a specific locked-down piece of hardware that can represent hundreds of thousands of servers,” said Amy Barzdukas, senior director of product management, in an interview with the IDG News Service. “Like an appliance, it is standardized and turn-key, so customers can deploy the Windows Azure in their data centers.”

Barzdukas said an appliance can be useful for organizations that wish to run their software both internally and on external Azure services, adding that the workload can be easily moved between multiple Azure locations. “It provides scale of the platform, but with the added benefit of control of the location,” she said.

According to Barzdukas, Dell, Fujitsu and Hewlett-Packard will each sell a “limited production release” of the appliance, as well as offer an Azure service for their customers. eBay intends to use the appliance for internal operations. A broader release is expected by later this year.

The Azure appliance will have all the functionality with Microsoft’s own Azure service, Barzdukas said.

Microsoft plans to post a new promotional Web page devoted to the offering on Monday. Bob Muglia, Microsoft senior vice president of the server and tools business, is also expected to talk about the appliance at WPC.

In addition to the release of the Azure appliance, Microsoft MCITP Certification also announced that it has shipped the release candidate of the System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self Service Portal, which is a Windows Server virtualization tool pack, and has released both the beta of Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1.

Microsoft has started rolling out more details about Office 2011, the upcoming upgrade of its productivity suite. On Wednesday, the company posted a brief video on its Mac Mojo blog showing off a few of the suite’s new features.

The video–which combines images of the software and interviews with Microsoft MCTS Training developers–highlights three main features: The revamped database and threaded Conversation view in Outlook (which will replace Entourage as Office’s e-mail client); and a new template gallery.
A Green Architectural Strategy That Puts IT in the Black: Download now

Changes in Outlook

Microsoft reps say that the database underlying Entourage 2008–which stored your e-mail messages, calendar entries, and contacts in one huge file–was a “pain point” for customers. Among the reasons for the pain: If you made the tiniest change to that database file–by receiving an e-mail message, say, or adding a new phone number–then Time Machine would think it had to back up the whole thing.

In the video, the company sings the virtues of Outlook 2011′s new database structure, in which messages, appointments, and contacts will be contained in discrete files. That should make for smaller and faster backups; it should also make it easier to find Outlook items with Spotlight.

The video also previews that Conversation view, which will enable you to see all the messages in a single thread at the same time, no matter which folder they’re in. You could get something similar in Entourage, but only with much fiddling; it’s now the default view. (You can, of course, opt for the old unthreaded view if you wish.)

Template Gallery

The video also highlights Office 2011′s new template gallery, which is much more elaborate than the Project Gallery in Office 2008.

Instead of showing you low-res thumbnails of templates and themes, the new gallery gives you rich, high-def previews. If a template has multiple pages (the first page might be formatted one way, subsequent pages another), you can preview all of them before you start work. You can also customize the template’s color scheme and font; in PowerPoint, you can set the orientation (Landscape or Portrait).

The template gallery also includes a link to Microsoft’s online template library (which the company says contains thousands of templates, from professional designers as well as regular Office users). The searchable gallery is organized by categories and sports a recent documents list, with links to documents you’ve worked on today, yesterday, or in the past week or month.

Finally, the video offers a glimpse of the previously announced Ribbon, which replaces Office 2008′s Elements Gallery. Like that gallery, the ribbon provides quick access to commonly used tools. Unlike that gallery, you can completely collapse the Ribbon, to reclaim screen space.

Microsoft MCITP Certification hasn’t announced a firm release date for Office 2011 yet, only that it plans to ship some time in the last quarter of 2010. The company hasn’t publicly announced prices, either. But it does plan to release more of these teaser videos in the weeks and months ahead.

M&As in the IT industry for 2010

IBM will combine Storwize’s technology with its ProtecTIER deduplication appliances, its XIV disk storage and its Scale-Out NAS, as well as incorporate its functionality with IBM System Storage Easy Tier software. The software-based Storwize appliance works with heterogeneous storage from EMC, HP and NetApp.

The deal leaves one vendor, Permabit, in the independent compression business since Dell acquired Ocarina Networks last week. Permabit’s Abireo technology is OEM-focused.

Also in news last week included that Geminare launched Cloud Storage Assurance 2.0, a cloud storage replication product targeted at SMBs. Cloud Storage Assurance 2.0 now offers secure data backup and auditability through its Cloud Recovery Server Replication service. Auditability is done through authentication of data using a key identifier for each file. Cloud Assurance also allow archiving of file data automatically and provides a RESTful-base API kit that lets vendors write custom queries and integrate their document management and eDiscovery applications with Cloud Assurance Microsoft MCITP Certification.

Geminare sells Cloud Assurance through a network of service providers, MSPs and VARs. It runs Cloud Assurance on the Amazon S3, Atmos Partners or Iron Mountain Archive Service clouds.

As I previously wrote about, the exploit is a whopper on all levels. It comes into the enterprise via hidden files on USB sticks or via shared network files. It requires no user interaction to infect the system (simply viewing the icon is enough to trigger it). It propagates itself. It loads as a rootkit infection. It affects all Windows operating systems, even full-patched Windows 7 systems. It seems to target extremely sensitive information — researchers say it seems to have been made for espionage. If all that weren’t scary enough, a researcher has already published proof-of-concept code.

The attack exploits a vulnerability in Windows Shell, a component of Microsoft Windows. Although many anti-virus software makers claimed that they were able to update their wares to detect the rootkit, security experts remained highly concerned about the hole, as did Microsoft MCITP Certification. In a blog post today, Christopher Budd, Sr. Security Response Communications Manager at Microsoft, explained, “we’re able to confirm that, in the past few days, we’ve seen an increase in attempts to exploit the vulnerability.”

If the timeline is accurate, the IE9 beta release will come a month later than earlier speculation, which had settled on August, a pick based in large part on PowerPoint slides purportedly from a Microsoft MCTS Training presentation that focused on Windows 8 , the next iteration of the company’s OS.
Choosing between in-house and subscription based IT Service Management: Download now

Today, Kevin Turner, Microsoft’s chief operating officer, said that IE9 would reach beta this fall. “We’re really excited about IE9, which will be beta and coming out in September,” said Turner during the company’s annual day-long presentation to Wall Street analysts.

Turner also boasted of Internet Explorer’s recent turnaround, claiming that it had gained usage share the last two months.

According to Web analytics company Net Applications, IE did increase its global share by a record six-tenths of a percentage point during June. However, Net Applications had IE losing, not gaining, ground worldwide in May.

As of June 30, IE accounted for an estimated 60.3% of all browsers used during the month.

Since March, when the company debuted a rough-around-the-edges IE9 developer preview, the company has updated the bare-bones browser twice, most recently in late June .

After Turner’s announcement of a September beta for IE9, Microsoft declined to answer additional questions, including when during the month users could expect the more stable preview, or whether the beta would be open to everyone, as the developer previews have been.

“We do not have any additional specifics to share at this time about when Internet Explorer 9 Beta will be available,” a company spokeswoman said.

Microsoft has also refused to name a release schedule for the final build of IE9. Most pundits now believe Microsoft won’t wrap up the browser until 2011.

That will be the case if Microsoft MCITP Certification mimics the timeline it used for Internet Explorer 8 (IE8), which reached the beta milestone in March 2008 but didn’t ship until March 2009 .

Using IE8′s schedule as a guide, users can expect to see the final version of IE9 in September 2011.

IE9 will run on Windows Vista and Windows 7 , but not on Windows XP, the nearly-nine-year-old operating system that still accounts for 68% of all versions of Windows still in use.

As I previously wrote about, the exploit is a whopper on all levels. It comes into the enterprise via hidden files on USB sticks or via shared network files. It requires no user interaction to infect the system (simply viewing the icon is enough to trigger it). It propagates itself. It loads as a rootkit infection. It affects all Windows operating systems, even full-patched Windows 7 systems. It seems to target extremely sensitive information — researchers say it seems to have been made for espionage. If all that weren’t scary enough, a researcher has already published proof-of-concept code.

The attack exploits a vulnerability in Windows Shell, a component of Microsoft MCTS Training Windows. Although many anti-virus software makers claimed that they were able to update their wares to detect the rootkit, security experts remained highly concerned about the hole, as did Microsoft. In a blog post today, Christopher Budd, Sr. Security Response Communications Manager at Microsoft, explained, “we’re able to confirm that, in the past few days, we’ve seen an increase in attempts to exploit the vulnerability.”

Microsoft MCITP Certification will also hold a special edition of the bulletin release webcast on Monday, August 2, 2010 at 1:00 PM PDT. If you are interested in attending the webcast, click here to sign up.

Other articles Network World has published that discusses the attacks include:

In a meeting with analysts yesterday, Ballmer spent a fair amount of time talking about Apple’s iPad and trying to explain why there are no Microsoft-based devices that remotely compare to it.
Network World’s Testing Guide to Microsoft’s Top Products: Download now

[ Also on InfoWorld: Cringely is nothing if not an equal-opportunity satirist, as he proves in "Apple's Steve Jobs: He's no Old Spice Guy" | Stay up to date on all Robert X. Cringely's observations with InfoWorld's Notes from the Underground newsletter. ]

Fortune’s Philip Elmer-Dewitt distills the Ballmer discussion of the iPad into 11 words: “We’ll talk about slates and tablets and blah, blah, blah, blah.” (Apparently, Ballmer is also adopting the Steve Jobs 11-word rule.)

The “blah blah blah” part included a) an admission that the iPad has sold “more than I’d like them to sell,” b) “we’re coming full guns” to the slate market, and c) they’ll be “coming when they’re ready” — so don’t bother camping in line outside any Microsoft stores just yet. (Greg Packer, this means you.)

Meanwhile, the one Windows-based slate Ballmer could dig up to demo at last January’s CES — and got virtually heckled off the stage by the blogosphere afterward — may end up not being a Windows device after all. Now that HP has gobbled up Palm, its Slate PC may run Palm’s WebOS, a much more attractive tablet interface than Windows 7. Given how badly HP got jobbed by Microsoft MCTS Training during the whole “Vista ready” labeling debacle, I imagine this would be sweet revenge.

So, once again, Microsoft finds itself in the position of needing to imitate Apple to stay relevant.

Of course, imitation is part of Microsoft’s DNA. Copy something successful, then ram it down people’s throats. CP/M becomes MS-DOS, the Mac GUI gets reborn as Windows, though maybe “stillborn” is closer — it took Redmond 11 years to come up with an interface that approached the Mac’s features and simplicity. Intuit’s Quicken begets Microsoft Money. The iPod spawns the Zune. And so on down the line.

I’m not saying Microsoft has not come up with some innovations over the last 35 years. I still think Excel is the best software Redmond ever made. The Xbox, Microsoft Surface, Project Natal — er, Kinect — are all first rate. But its bread-and-butter strategy continues to be “imitate, then destroy.” And that strategy has grown less successful over time.

Now Microsoft has to play catchup to the iPad, as well as the 3,247 Android-based tablets we’ll be seeing over the next 12 months. Given how long it’s taking Redmond to catch up on cell phones, it may be two years before we see any tablets worth talking about. By then, it will be too late.

Still, this could explain Microsoft’s new slogan, unveiled at its annual Microsoft MCITP Certification Global Exchange confab last week: Be What’s Next. In this case, what’s “next” is Apple, a company it seems Microsoft now desperately needs to become.

Microsoft has always had a consumer side. Microsoft Windows has been established as the de facto consumer desktop operating system. Internet Explorer enjoys a dominant market share among Web browsers. Still, it seems that most of the efforts Microsoft makes in the consumer market are unsuccessful.
Websense WSGA: Securing your Web and Data With One Console: View now

Some Microsoft consumer technologies–like the Zune music player–have been technically sound, yet have failed to capture the attention of consumers or dent the dominance of the Apple iPod. Other consumer technologies–such as the Xbox 360–are a success in the market now, but operated at a loss for so many years that breaking even probably won’t happen soon. Then there are the abject failures like Microsoft BOB, or the recently executed Kin social phone.

Microsoft, Google, and Apple seem to all suffer from such an intense desire to dominate markets and crush the competition that they jump into every market at once and end up doing a half-assed job at everything rather than a focused and excellent job developing the products and services their brands were built on. It’s a sort of “throw every gadget, application, and technology at the wall and see what sticks” business strategy.

Historically speaking, fighting a war on too many fronts simultaneously is almost always a fatal flaw. It spreads valuable resources too thin, resulting in weakness, and eventually collapse. Just ask Napoleon.

Does Microsoft need a tablet? Will Windows Phone 7 be a success? Mobile platforms like tablets and smartphones are a computing revolution that Microsoft can’t ignore, but Microsoft needs to be sure it is looking beyond the impulse to compete for the sake of competing, and that its tablet and smartphone efforts fit into a larger strategic vision that makes sense.

Microsoft holds a virtual monopoly on the desktop operating system, and office productivity software markets, as well as a comfortably dominant position with Internet Explorer and Microsoft Exchange. Instead of consumer-oriented products like music players, and gaming consoles, Microsoft should focus its efforts on its core business customers.

At the same time, though, Microsoft can’t expect to just coast on the coattails of its former glory and rely solely on those products–at least not the way they are today. Microsoft needs to look at the direction technology is going–virtualization, cloud, mobility–and figure out how to adapt its core portfolio to continue meeting its customers’ needs in an evolving marketplace.

Microsoft has those efforts going as well with Azure, and the recently-unveiled Windows Azure Platform appliance. But–if Microsoft MCITP Certification would focus its resources on initiatives like that rather than consumer gadgets it might have much greater odds of success.

The company was given the award at the conclusion of the annual Blackhat 2010 security conference Wednesday in Las Vegas. I wasn’t there so I don’t know if anyone from Microsoft MCTS Training stepped up to accept the award, head perhaps covered by a paper bag.

According to a white paper produced by researchers Eduardo Vela Nava and David Lindsay, Internet Explorer 8 implemented an anti-XSS mechanism to detect such attacks. Here’s the funny part: “This feature can be abused by attackers in order to enable XSS on web sites and web pages that would otherwise be immune to XSS,” the researchers noted.

I’m not sure if he was specifically referencing the IE 8 XSS fail, but Kevin Turner, chief operating officer for Microsoft, said this during an analyst conference this morning in Redmond: “Yes, we had a little headwinds. We had several things we had to do with IE 8 this past year,” Turner said, right after describing the product as “the safest, most secure browser in the marketplace.”

Maybe now it is.

Microsoft beat out McAfee and IBM in the Most Epic FAIL category: McAfee for issuing an anti-virus update in April that rendered hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide inoperable; and IBM for handing out free USB drives at a conference loaded with malware.

The only other Microsoft mention was a Pwnie for Best Privilege Escalation Bug and this award went to Tavis Ormandy, the researcher who discovered it in multiple operating systems from Windows NT 3.1 to Windows 7. In awarding the Pwnie to Ormandy, Blackhat stated: “This privilege escalation bug required more than a few tricks to exploit. Its discovery shows a rare understanding of some of the more obscure aspects of the Intel architecture.”

Microsoft MCITP Certification was nominated, but failed to win — or should I say failed to lose — in the categories of Best Server-Side Bug and Best Client-Side Bug. Again, in these categories, the Pwnies went to the people who discovered the bugs, not the companies that created them.

By year’s end, Adobe will start using the Microsoft MCTS Training Active Protections Program (MAPP) to share details on its latest patches, according to Brad Arkin, Adobe’s director of product security and privacy. “The MAPP program is the gold standard for how the software vendors should be sharing information about product vulnerabilities prior to shipping security updates,” he said.
Intel Solution Brief: Vyatta + Intel Quad Core = 20 Gbps Routing: Download now

Adobe initially wanted to reproduce MAPP, but soon realized that it would take a lot of work to build a program similar to Microsoft’s, which was piloted two years ago. Arkin’s team began discussions with Microsoft, at first in hopes of picking up some tips. “Eventually, together, we came to the conclusion that it would be a lot more fun to work together on this rather than Microsoft helping us to reinvent the wheel,” he said.

Typically, whenever a major patch is released, hackers quickly begin to analyze the patch to see what flaws were fixed. They then rush to work out attacks that would exploit the vulnerability on unpatched products.

Adobe has been hit hard in the past two years by hackers who have found bug after bug in the company’s products. This often means hard work for security companies, who must scramble to add detection for these attacks.

It’s become so bad that one security company, SourceFire, is holding an exclusive Adobe Hater’s Ball on Wednesday here at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.

The Ball is really a tongue-in-cheek joke, modelled on comedian Dave Chappelle’s Playa Hater’s Ball.

“My guys have a love-hate relationship with the guys over at Adobe,” said SourceFire Director Matt Watchinski. “Every time a vulnerability comes out of their stuff, we have to jump.”

Arkin said he and other Adobe researchers will be at the event.

With Adobe jointing the MAPP program, however, security companies like SourceFire should do less scrambling.

MAPP gives them early notice on upcoming patches — typically about 48 hours — so they have more time to build attack detection into their security systems. About 65 security companies participate in MAPP. All of them will soon start getting the Adobe data.

This is the first time that Microsoft MCITP Certification has extended the MAPP program to cover another company’s products, said Dave Forstrom, a director with Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing group.

However, it may not be the last. Forstrom didn’t rule out the possibility that other software vendors could also jump on board.

Microsoft today pitched its own proposal for how software makers react to bugs reported by researchers, calling for a name change to describe the process it prefers.

Rather than dub the back-and-forth between bug finders and vendors “responsible disclosure” — a term that implies that the researcher reports a bug, then waits for the developer to patch it before going public with news of the flaw — Microsoft MCTS Training wants everyone in the security community to use a different moniker: “coordinated vulnerability disclosure,” or CVD.
Cisco’s Storage Savings Success: Download now

The company admitted the move is primarily a name change, and that much of the rest of its proposal is what Microsoft has urged in the past.

“This isn’t a drastic departure at all,” said Mike Reavey, director of the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), Microsoft’s in-house security team. “What we want to do is what works best to minimize risk to customers, and to remove emotion, which isn’t helpful to anyone.”

Related Content

* Malware openly available in China, researchers say
* Massive check-fraud botnet operation tied to Russia
* Google patches Chrome, sidesteps Windows kernel bug
* Ensure 360-Degree Border SecurityWHITE PAPER
* Sleazy Marketers Game Google’s Sponsored Ads

* Security suites: big protection, little fuss
* Automated software quality assurance really mattersBLOG
* BitBlaze tool boosts bug-hunting productivity 10-fold
* Email on Cruise Control: How to Guarantee Security, Speed and Confidence in EmailWHITE PAPER
* Alleged Mariposa botnet hacker arrested in Slovenia

Reavey argued, as others have before, that “responsible disclosure” is a loaded name, since by implication anyone who doesn’t follow its bug-reporting steps — going public with details or attack code before a patch is ready — is by implication labeled as “irresponsible.”

“[CVD] is the same thing as responsible disclosure, just renamed,” repeated Reavey. “When folks use charged words, a lot of the focus then is on the disclosure, and not on the problem at hand, which is to make sure customers are protected, and that attacks are not amplified.”

Other than the name change, Microsoft’s proposal — which was spelled out in several blog posts by company executives, including the most detailed by Katie Moussouris, a senior security strategist on the MSRC ecosystem strategy team — is essentially a more explicit rendering of previous positions and practices.

One of the key points Microsoft made is that it wants to keep the lines of communication open between itself and security researchers, even when the latter broadcast their findings without reporting a bug to Microsoft or waiting on a patch.

“We want to be more clear about our philosophy, so first, we would appreciate a heads-up, even if the researcher does ‘full disclosure,’” said Reavey, referring to the label applied when a bug hunter goes public with all the details he has about a vulnerability before a patch is available. “And two, that we’ve operated this way before, so that if a vulnerability is under attack, certainly, we’ll release some information and advice.”

Moussouris echoed Reavey in her blog. “For finders who still believe that full disclosure is the best way to protect users, we respectfully disagree, but we still want to work with you if you’re willing,” she said. “We’d encourage folks who support [full disclosure] to still contact us, as we can then attempt to coordinate release of information with protections that are available.”

Microsoft isn’t the first to propose changes to the sometimes-rocky relationships between security researchers and the vendors whose products they label as vulnerable to attack.

On Tuesday, Google published what it called “Rebooting Responsible Disclosure,” a proposal that featured, among other elements, a call for a hard deadline of 60 days to patch a problem.
60 Minutes with Security Visionary Nir Zuk: View now

Reavey disagreed with Google. “I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all-issues as far as a timeline,” he said. “If the update doesn’t work, it doesn’t protect anyone.”

Microsoft has long taken the position that it fixes bugs as fast as it can, but that testing the quality of an update is just as critical as patching. Screwing up a patch, said Reavey, can have an enormous impact on Windows users, who often apply the updates without testing them themselves.

John Pescatore, Gartner’s primary analyst on security issues, took Microsoft’s side, saying that Google’s proposal was colored by the fact that most of its software is in the cloud, and that the most prominent exception, its Chrome browser, is simple in comparison to an operating system like Windows.

“Browsers are not typical of lots and lots of legacy software, like Microsoft’s or Oracle’s,” Pescatore said, adding that it’s unrealistic to expect every bug to get fixed in two months.

“There’s often a six-month time frame for an enterprise before they can even push patches [within their organization], even after a patch is released,” Pescatore said. “There’s all kinds of code that’s not as simple to patch as a browser, and that requires longer delays before a patch can be implemented.”

The Microsoft and Google proposals are the latest in an increasingly-heated discussion among researchers and vendors about disclosure that was prompted in part by an incident last month when a Google security engineer went public with a critical Windows bug just five days after reporting it to Microsoft.

In early June, Tavis Ormandy, who works for Google’s Switzerland office, published attack code for a Windows XP vulnerability, and immediately unleashed a heated debate. While some security researchers criticized Ormandy for taking the bug public, others rose to his defense, blasting both Microsoft and the press — including Computerworld — for linking Ormandy to his employer.

Ormandy said he disclosed the vulnerability five days after reporting it to Microsoft when the company wouldn’t commit to a patching deadline. Microsoft has disputed that, claiming that it only told Ormandy it would need the rest of the week to decide.

Reavey denied that today’s change was triggered by the Ormandy disclosure, saying that Microsoft MCITP Certification had been thinking about CVD for months, and had been working with outside researchers and security experts long before the June brouhaha.

But Reavey did admit that things might have worked out differently if the CVD philosophy had been in place last month. “We might have been more clear that we wanted to work together on this,” Reavey said. “That [event] was difficult for all of us. [With CVD], we want to explicitly make sure we communicate that we want to continue the dialog.”

Reactions by researchers to Microsoft’s name change and Google’s earlier 60-day deadline idea was mixed.

While Microsoft’s hosted Exchange and SharePoint will achieve most of the desired feature parity within the next year, Microsoft admits it has no plans today to provide the same parity with Office Web Apps, the Web-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.
Magic Quadrant for IT Event Correlation and Analysis: Download now

5 tips for managing Microsoft licensing costs

Office Web Apps, released in June, provides a “high-fidelity viewing experience,” but only limited editing capabilities, says Evan Lew, senior product manager for Microsoft Office.

Related Content

* MICROSOFT SUBNET: blogs, videos and more
* Microsoft ‘working’ on patch for critical Windows vulnerability
* Windows Phone 7 ‘preview’ winning generally good reviews
* The Top 10 Reports for Managing VulnerabilitiesWHITE PAPER
* Microsoft’s cloud strategy: A question of ‘feature parity’

* Windows XP SP2 and 7 other things Microsoft MCTS Training has killed this year
* Microsoft’s cloud-based Exchange, SharePoint still stuck in 2007
* Will Microsoft sustain Windows Phone momentum?
* Justifying IT Security:Managing Risk & Keeping Your Network SecureWHITE PAPER
* Microsoft strikes blow against Google with Office 2010

Lew blames the disparity on the limitations of current Web browsers (of which the most widely used is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer).

“It has to do with the capabilities of the Web browser and the limitations today,” Lew says.

With the addition of HTML5 “the lines [between PC and browser] may start blurring,” he continues, but as of “today, there are performance reasons why editing, video and PowerPoint is something that is a much better experience in the client than in the browser.”

Microsoft touts the ability to import Office documents into Office Web Apps without losing formatting — a supposed advantage over Google Apps — but editing scenarios like inserting charts or pivot tables into Excel and editing videos require the horsepower of the PC and native desktop client, Lew says.

Microsoft is meeting the challenge from Google Apps by providing some online capabilities, but likely doesn’t want to give businesses a completely Web-based alternative to replace the more expensive Office, Forrester Research analyst Sheri McLeish said in a recent interview.

“They’re walking a very fine line,” McLeish says. “While they’re nervous and worried [about Google Apps], they’re not nervous and worried enough to dramatically reduce the cost of Office. They’re delicately managing the pricing to protect their margins.”

Regular Office licenses give customers rights to use Web Apps, but a full-fledged cloud offering “is not going to happen in 2010,” McLeish says.

Things are a bit different on the hosted Exchange and SharePoint front, at least according to Microsoft’s spokespeople.
Formally known as BPOS, the Business Productivity Online Standard Suite, Microsoft’s hosted Exchange and SharePoint is still running on the 2007 servers.  But a planned upgrade to the 2010 servers will erase most of the feature differences between the hosted and on-premise versions, according to Microsoft.

We’re working toward a goal we call service parity,” says John Betz, director of product management for Microsoft Online Services.
Network World’s Testing Guide to Microsoft’s Top Products: Download now

Customization is limited today, because the 2007 servers don’t fully embrace the concept of multi-tenancy, Betz says. With the 2010 rollout, customers will have access to the My Sites feature, which lets them run code in a sandbox, a separate process that has limited access rights and wouldn’t be able to take down an entire server farm.

Not every feature in BPOS will be exactly the same as the on-premise version, however. For example, BPOS support for data protected by ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) is available only for government agencies. Also, customers need their own PBX system when they integrate voice capabilities with Office Communications Online, because of network latency issues.

Another BPOS limitation, mentioned in a recent Microsoft blog, is lack of support for the Office 2003 client.

Related Content

* MICROSOFT SUBNET: blogs, videos and more
* Microsoft ‘working’ on patch for critical Windows vulnerability
* Windows Phone 7 ‘preview’ winning generally good reviews
* The Top 10 Reports for Managing VulnerabilitiesWHITE PAPER
* Microsoft’s cloud strategy: A question of ‘feature parity’

* Windows XP SP2 and 7 other things Microsoft has killed this year
* Microsoft’s cloud-based Exchange, SharePoint still stuck in 2007
* Will Microsoft sustain Windows Phone momentum?
* Justifying IT Security:Managing Risk & Keeping Your Network SecureWHITE PAPER
* Microsoft strikes blow against Google with Office 2010

View more related content

Get Daily News by Email

“We won’t achieve complete feature parity,” because certain processes need to run on a customer’s own servers, for a variety of reasons, Betz says.

In addition to BPOS, there are other examples of Microsoft trying to provide similar functionality in the cloud as they do in packaged software. The next version of Microsoft’s CRM product will let IT customize their CRM deployments in the cloud the same way they can on-premise, for example with complex .NET programs, says Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft’s CRM business.

Microsoft has also turned some of its cloud capabilities into on-premise technology with the Windows Azure Platform appliance, which lets businesses run an Azure-like private cloud within their firewalls.

Why does BPOS get a better “feature parity” treatment than Office Web Apps? With BPOS, Microsoft is operating the backend servers on a customer’s behalf, in the cloud, in much the same way customers would operate the servers themselves.
“With SharePoint, the SharePoint navigation experience manifests itself in the browser whether it’s on-premise or hosted in Microsoft MCITP Certification [data center],” Lew notes.

Tim O’Brien, senior director of Microsoft’s Platform Strategy Group, recalls showing BPOS to a customer at a conference:

“He’s looking somewhat underwhelmed during the demo, and he shrugged his shoulders and he said ‘it’s just SharePoint.’ But that’s exactly the point. Your investment in SharePoint moves forward.”

But Office Web Apps, which requires a SharePoint 2010 back end, isn’t likely to offer the same functionality as Office on-premise anytime soon. Although Lew promises improvement, he says it’s too early to say what features will be added. Complete replication of features across the online and on-premise versions of Office is not being promised by Microsoft, at least today.

“We don’t really see Office Web Apps as a replacement scenario,” Lew says. “It’s really more of a companion for people who already use Office.”

The largest cloud customers have received the 2010 upgrade already, a broader preview will be available later in 2010, and full general availability is expected in 2011.

Upgrades in 2010 server rollout that will bring BPOS closer to feature parity, include getting voice mails in e-mail inboxes, role-based access controls, single-sign-on between on-premise and cloud, and the ability to upload custom code to SharePoint Online.

The new license greatly extends the technologies Microsoft MCTS Training can make use of from Arm Holdings. The companies have collaborated for years on software and devices mainly in mobile, consumer and embedded products.
Virtualization Reduces Costs and Complexity: Download now

“We have licensed our architecture and our instruction set to Microsoft,” said Ian Drew, executive vice president of marketing at Arm. “This type of license allows you to design your own microarchitecture.”

Related Content

* InfoWorld review: Free Java application performance monitors
* Ask.com Goes Back to the Days of Q&A
* Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty lands on the Mac
* The Top 10 Reports for Managing VulnerabilitiesWHITE PAPER
* Taxing times lead to super apple app

* Google Android Market looks to protect apps
* IT career site Dice launches network for tech recruiters, job hunters
* How to uninstall troublesome software
* Justifying IT Security:Managing Risk & Keeping Your Network SecureWHITE PAPER
* Stream music from Google Docs with Cloud Music

Only a select group of companies hold similar licenses to design their own Arm-based microarchitectures, including mobile phone chip giant Qualcomm, as well as Marvell Technology and Infineon Technologies.

“As an architectural licensee, Microsoft wants to go public about adding itself to that short list,” Drew said.

Arm Holdings licenses Arm technology to a number of companies around the world. Arm-based microprocessors are found in the majority of the world’s smartphones. Intel, the world’s largest chip maker, has developed its Atom microprocessors in the hope of someday rivaling Arm-based microprocessors in smartphones and other small devices.

Microsoft and Arm said the size and scope of the deal are confidential.

“Arm is an important partner for Microsoft MCITP Certification and we deliver multiple operating systems on the company’s architecture, most notably Windows Embedded and Windows Phone,” Microsoft said in a statement.

Closer access to Arm technology gives Microsoft the ability to enhance its research and development around Arm-based products, the statement said.

A number of companies custom-design chips to meet the specific needs of a device or software. Apple said it custom-designed its A4 chip for the iPad and iPhone 4 to be more powerful for multitasking and yet extremely battery-efficient.

In comparison while Apple also posted record revenue, it booked $15.7 billion in revenue with a net quarterly profit of $3.25 billion, or $3.51 per diluted share.

Microsoft gives most of the credit to Windows 7 which it says has sold more than 175 million licenses to date.

On the downside, looks like the failed Kin phone could have cost Microsoft about a quarter of a billion dollars. Microsoft notes: “Cost of revenue increased $584 million or 23%, primarily reflecting increased online costs, increased royalty costs and charges resulting from the discontinuation of the KIN phone.” And then it gets more specific when reporting the losses the Entertainment & Devices Division racked up, the unit responsible for the Kin. The division lost $172 million in the final quarter. Microsoft says, “Cost of revenue increased $251 million or 38% primarily from charges resulting from the discontinuation of the KIN phone and increased royalty costs resulting from increased Xbox LIVE digital marketplace third-party content sales.”

While the unit did manage to increase its profits over the course of the year, it didn’t increase revenue. Microsoft was able to offset a lot of the failed Kin cost and show that year-end profit in that unit because it reduced costs associated with building Xbox 360 consoles and also because it had “reductions in other costs due to resource management efforts.”

Could this statement reflect the fact that several extremely high paid executives in the Entertainment & Devices Division were shown the door? President Robbie Bach announced his exodus in May. Shockingly Bach was Microsoft’s highest paid exec. He earned over $6 million in 2009, and was paid the largest cash bonus, of more than $1.1 million.

Likewise, J Allard also announced in May that he’s leaving, though technically he’s staying on until the fall. Allard was Chief Experience Officer and Chief Technology Officer, Entertainment and Devices Division, and best known for championing the Xbox as a platform for social networking and online functionality. His exodus was a surprise to many since Xbox Live — the console’s online capabilities — has finally made the game console a hit. And users are fairly excited about the up-and-coming Kinnect gesture based interface.

Still, it is frustrating to see Microsoft pour this much money and effort into an Entertainment & Devices Division only to wind up alienating the young, hip customers it is trying to woo. Who pays for that? You, the enterprise customer, does. The $5.93 billion in operating profit comes from its software users, mostly the business users.

As evidence, Microsoft Office 2010 was praised for its contribution to the great quarter, as users were stopped from buying Word 2007 due to a court injunction forbidding the sale of it. Microsoft lost a patent infringement lawsuit which caused the injunction. Consumers bought an additional $357 million worth of Office 2010 products in the third quarter than they did the previous quarter (presumably with all those new Windows 7 PCs). All told, Microsoft raked in $5.25 billion in the division that sells Office. Of that $3.28 was operating income — about half the total operating profit that Microsoft reported.

Microsoft MCITP Certification has not yet released its audited financial report to the SEC, so these figures are based on the press release. I’ll be looking at the formal documents after they post to see what else can be gleaned about Microsoft’s past, present and future.

Microsoft signed a new agreement to license technology for the Arm microprocessor architecture, opening the potential for the software giant to follow in Apple’s footsteps and design its own Arm-based chips.

The new license greatly extends the technologies Microsoft MCTS Training can make use of from Arm Holdings. The companies have collaborated for years on software and devices mainly in mobile, consumer and embedded products.
Magic Quadrant for IT Event Correlation and Analysis: Download now

“We have licensed our architecture and our instruction set to Microsoft,” said Ian Drew, executive vice president of marketing at Arm. “This type of license allows you to design your own microarchitecture.”

Related Content

* Rambus claims ITC victory but Nvidia predicts no impact
* Lenovo steps up server bid with new entry-level systems
* IDC: SaaS momentum skyrocketing
* The Top 10 Reports for Managing VulnerabilitiesWHITE PAPER
* Madden 11 has songs you’d actually hear at a football game

* Oh yeah, Space Marine is coming to PC, too
* IT Industry in limbo over lax policy
* dtSearch Desktop, Version 7.64
* Justifying IT Security:Managing Risk & Keeping Your Network SecureWHITE PAPER
* Damn the DMCA, fully jailbroken iPhones ahead

Get Daily News by Email
Only a select group of companies hold similar licenses to design their own Arm-based microarchitectures, including mobile phone chip giant Qualcomm, as well as Marvell Technology and Infineon Technologies.

“As an architectural licensee, Microsoft wants to go public about adding itself to that short list,” Drew said.

Arm Holdings licenses Arm technology to a number of companies around the world. Arm-based microprocessors are found in the majority of the world’s smartphones. Intel, the world’s largest chip maker, has developed its Atom microprocessors in the hope of someday rivaling Arm-based microprocessors in smartphones and other small devices.

Microsoft and Arm said the size and scope of the deal are confidential.

“Arm is an important partner for Microsoft MCITP Certification and we deliver multiple operating systems on the company’s architecture, most notably Windows Embedded and Windows Phone,” Microsoft said in a statement.

Closer access to Arm technology gives Microsoft the ability to enhance its research and development around Arm-based products, the statement said.

A number of companies custom-design chips to meet the specific needs of a device or software. Apple said it custom-designed its A4 chip for the iPad and iPhone 4 to be more powerful for multitasking and yet extremely battery-efficient.

The deal marks the first time Microsoft has full access to ARM’s architecture. Previously, Microsoft and ARM have worked together on building mobile and embedded operating systems for devices featuring ARM processors.
Engaging to Converting – ESD Customer Experience Matters: View now

The only other two firms to licence the ARM architecture, chip manufactures Qualcomm and Marvell.

It is thought Microsoft may use the licence to develop a version of its Windows OS to work smoothly with ARM processors, which currently feature in a number of low-power PCs, such as netbooks and tablets.

Related Content

View more related content

Get Daily News by Email

“ARM is an important partner for Microsoft and we deliver multiple operating systems on the company’s architecture, most notably Windows Embedded and Windows Phone,” said KD Hallman, general manager, Microsoft

“With closer access to the ARM technology we will be able to enhance our research and development activities for ARM-based products.”

Mike Muller, CTO at ARM, added that Microsoft has been an important member of the ARM ecosystem for many years Microsoft MCITP Certification.

“With this architecture license, Microsoft will be at the forefront of applying and working with ARM technology in concert with a broad range of businesses addressing multiple application areas,” said Muller.

The company is in the midst of digesting and integrating Nortel’s enterprise division, which it bought last year for $900 million and from which it expects to reap big returns by next spring. At the same time, it is dealing with the same generally soft economy that other vendors are — though Cisco is registering surprisingly strong revenue gains.
BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express: Download now

The Avaya FAQ

Avaya’s CEO says the next six to nine months are critical as it tries to integrate the former Nortel Enterprise division — including network infrastructure and business telephony — into its fold. The purchase was finalized last December, so the company has just completed its second full quarter since the acquisition. “On most operational details we have the normal first quarter challenges from shipments and logistics. Second quarter things are feeling pretty good, and the litmus test is ahead of us,” CEO Kevin Kennedy told Network World in an interview at Avaya’s offices.

Related Content

* Avaya bolsters contact centers, integrates Nortel technology
* UC as an evolution of IT and telecomBLOG
* Avaya preps one-box data-center strategy

View more related content

Get Daily News by Email

That test is whether the company can nail down significant long-term commitments from Nortel telephony and contact center customers and lock them into a migration toward Avaya UC. At the heart of that challenge is convincing Nortel customers to buy Avaya Aura, the company’s flagship communications server. With Aura customers can step into IP telephony, glue together disparate VoIP systems and — most significantly for Avaya — lay the foundation for adopting UC.

Kennedy says Aura can support Session Initiation Protocol trunking immediately to bring cost savings to corporations and over time bring increased productivity that will save money long-term but might have a longer return on investment Microsoft MCITP Certification.

He acknowledges that getting Nortel communications customers interested in sticking with Avaya as they make plans for transitions to UC is key. The company is trying to draw them in with a flurry of announcements about new products, product enhancements and integrations with Nortel products. “This period right now is about bringing a lot of innovation to market. Now the question will be, are our customers as excited about it as we are?” he asks.

The stakes are high since just 17% of Avaya accounts overlap with Nortel’s, and competitors are gunning for the rest with attractive deals. “These customers are a pretty loyal base,” says Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with Yankee Group. “But they’re loyal to Nortel, not Avaya.” Historically, until Cisco entered the VoIP market, very few telephony customers shifted from one vendor to another, Kerravala says, and the recent turmoil of Nortel’s bankruptcy and Avaya’s purchase of its telephony business puts Nortel customers in play.

Surprisingly, the purchase of Nortel by Avaya didn’t result in Avaya catapulting to the top of the IP telephony market as some analysts expected. With Nortel and Avaya ranking solidly among the top five for years with very nearly equal shares of the market led people to think combining the two would result in a formidable lead for Avaya, says Matthius Machowinski, an analyst with Infonetics. “We expected them to be ahead of everyone else,” he says.

The Visual Cert Exam Suite consists of two programs; a Manager and a Designer. According to Visual Certkingdom.com, the designer was developed “for authors involved in practice exam development” and the manager was “designed for taking exams created with Visual Certkingdom Designer”. Unfortunately, one of the popular features of the designer is the ability to import and convert TXT, RTF, and PDF formats to the VCE format which is read by the program and displays the questions and answers in a format that is more like the actual exam Microsoft MCTS Training.
How is the VCE Manager used in the IT Industry?

As with the PDF braindump when it was first released, the VCE braindump is a tool used to dupe the Inadvertent Cheaters into risking their certifications. The easy to use import feature of the designer has made it very popular among the same crowd of people that originally created the PDF braindump. Yes, the braindumps that used to be all PDFs are now PDF and VCE formats. If you’re looking for VCEs to study with, you’ll most likely find yourself studying with an authentic braindump.
How does the VCE affect the certification industry?

The use of the VCE has flowed over to the cheating crowd that is always looking for “FREE” practice tests and has made a very huge impact in how people (illegally) study for certification exams. The invent of the VCE is definitely changing our campaign on braindump usage and now that we’ve seen the program used primarily for converting braindumps, we are beginning to understand

We all know that PDFs (~99% of them) are braindumps and violate the Non-Disclosure Agreements of every certification vendor in the industry, so it shouldn’t be too hard to accept the fact that ~99% of all VCEs will also be classified as braindumps.
Is the VCE Manager a valid tool that can be used to study with?

To put it bluntly, no. An explanation is in order, however. Although there is nothing wrong with the program itself, it is extremely rare that you will find a legitimate practice test provider using this tool to create their practice tests. Any use of this program we’ve seen has been in converting the old braindump PDFs to the new braindump VCE format. There are many websites out there that provide such materials and we have most, if not all, of them classified as braindumps Microsoft MCITP Certification.

As always, before you jump into any contract with a practice test provider, make sure they’re not putting your certifications at risk by violating the Non-Disclosure Agreement you have to sign.

This quiz was designed by the team at Certkingdom to not only be fun, but also in hopes that it will teach everyone a little about identifying potential braindump websites. The quiz will give you the knowledge you need to avoid them when researching study materials. We hope that this will be educational for those in and outside the IT field.

Give the quiz a try today:

http://www.Certkingdom.com

Good Luck!

Forensic Analysis, it’s not just for catching killers anymore!

This post goes out to all the people who are incessant about cheating because they feel deep down in their hearts that they will never be caught. If you are one of those people, you may want to grab a smoke and a coke, then come back, kick your shoes off and relax for a while while you read this. If you know one of these people (we run into them in nearly every certification forum on the internet) then pass this link on to them. And, well, if you’re not one of them, you may want to learn a bit, so enjoy Microsoft MCTS Training!

Now, since I know there are quite a few people that still can’t seem to grasp the concept of Forensic Analysis and yet others firmly believe forensics are only used to catch killers (murderers), I thought I would post some more information on the topic so that everyone involved in the certification or testing procedures would better understand just how they can get caught by using braindumps.

Before I do get into the meat of the topic, I would like to point out that all the information I’m presenting here is public knowledge and could easily be found with a few google searches.

Something else that cheaters (primarily those that make a habit of cheating) should know is that no matter what you do, or try to do, to circumvent the system, you’re going to get caught eventually. The reason: Data Forensics find anomalies in behavior. And no matter how you TRY to behave while taking your exam, you’re merely creating another abmormality that can still be measured. So trying to take the information presented below and using it to your advantage probably won’t work.

Are these “scare tactics” to keep people from cheating? Hell Yes! But it doesn’t mean that the methods aren’t being used. They are infact being used, and they are continuously being improved upon.

One method Certification Vendors employ to catch braindumpers is planting specific questions in their exams. These quetions are generally questions that have already been exposed to the public via one or more of the 1000+ braindump sites so they are known by individuals that have previously cheated and once were once correct.

Here is an example that was presented by Dennis Maynes of Caveon in his blog on March 2, 2008 which covers the Trojan method of seeding exams. Please, take a few minutes to read that, it is extremely interesting.

Here is another interesting blog from Dennis on the probability of tests with identical answers. Here’s what is so ineresting about this. Braindumps are questions and answers that have been taken from the actual exams, and certification Vendors seed the exams (as shown in the first link), so wouldn’t it be pretty obvious to the certification vendors if you have correctly (or incorrectly, you choose) answered the same exact questions that they’ve seeded Microsoft MCITP Certification?

I’ll leave you with this question (and the link to the answer): Can you prove cheating on tests using statistics?

The vision of second generation outsourcing (SGO), and hence of Anantara, is to eliminate the extreme fragmentation that characterises the IT outsourcing and consulting industry today by destroying the entrenched borders between clients and service providers, service providers and service providers, and those between disparate technologies. Hence the name of the company, ‘Anantara’, which, in Sanskrit means ‘the continuum’ or ‘without interstices’, which explains the tagline of the company: ‘the power of the continuum’. The realisation of this vision would dramatically revise the state of both the global consulting industry and the global IT outsourcing industry.

My aspiration is that Anantara should become a world-leading, revered company that integrates consulting and IT services into one package, whose sole aim is improving clients’ business performance. Anantara will also, hopefully, lead the world in establishing a new business order – the company as a community. With the growth of the Anantara Ecosystem, we expect to be able to orchestrate the world’s most powerful community of service providers. Anantara should become synonymous with innovation in the outsourcing industry Microsoft MCITP Certification.

More importantly, Anantara should become an institution that is proud of its human capital. The Anantara Credo is a combination of the rational and the emotional. Every employee at Anantara is called an Anantsol (coined from ‘Anantara Solutions’). The credo lays the foundation for the mother of all our goals: ‘To build a company of happy Anantsols.’

Private employment agencies have the largest share of the market and are now quite well known to most people from personal experience at local offices and advertisements in the press. Local employment agencies deal with jobs that are clerical, junior administrative, shop staff, IT professional etc. Another type of private agency concentrates on recruitment and, sometimes, the initial stages of selection of middle and senior managers or of professional and specialist staff in fields such as, law accountancy, engineering, etc. Private employment agencies provide at times a very valuable service, especially in recruiting staff in situations where there is a shortage of the particular types of employees required. However, since they exist to make a profit, employers have to pay for any employees they may recruit in this way.

There are also pros and cons that have to be carefully weighed, especially when these private employment agencies are used to assist in the selection of managerial or professional staff. The advantages are the specialist knowledge that an agency can acquire of the employment conditions and requirements in particular fields, objectivity of view and skill in conducting the selection procedure. The main possible disadvantage in using external assistance for recruitment and selection purposes is the agent’s lack of first-hand experience of the cultural and environmental aspects of the organization’s work and life Microsoft MCTS Training.

There has been substantial growth of so-called ‘head-hunters’ or recruitment consultants. As the terms suggest, these are private firms and agencies of recruitment consultants who earn fees by meeting the job needs of organizations for specialist and senior managerial staff. Much of their work is carried on by means of an informal network of contacts, whereby they keep records of career profiles of people likely to be in constant demand, and obtain information about the needs of employers for appointments to be filled. This method has provided its value to the employer and employee clientele of these agencies.

Professional Employment Agencies

Several different kinds of agencies are included under the heading or Professional Employment Agency. The features they have in common are that they are all agencies set up by particular organizations to help their own members or ex-members find employment and that they are generally non-profit -making. The agencies of this kind that employers are likely to need and use most regularly are:-

1. Career services of academic institutions: Universities and similar institutions maintain a full-time career advisory service. They serve as an employment agency for graduating or recently graduated students, are centers of information for graduates about employment opportunities and for employers who are seeking potential managers or professional specialist.

2.Employment services of professional institutions: A number of professional institutions, such as those representing accounts, engineers, etc. have an employment advisory service whereby a register is kept of members seeking employment and information is collected from employers seeking staff in particular professions Microsoft MCITP Certification.

3. Employment exchange provided by the state service for young people provides a regular liaison between employers and unemployed youth.

While both types of employment agencies have flourished, a private employment agency with experience and professionalism is the most sought after.

A transition from offline brick ‘n’ mortar to online virtual retail stores was bound to happen as the digital age progressed. This shift required innovative and legal business models to sell digital media online. But, as in many cases, this is an area where business models that have proven their worth in the West cannot be transplanted here on an ‘as is’ or ‘readymade’ basis. The psyche of the Indian consumer has to be factored in too Microsoft MCTS Training.

Apple’s Microsoft-style iTunes

For instance, Apple’s iTunes, which makes outright sales of digital media protected by digital rights management (DRM), was considered a breakaway yet very successful business model vis-à-vis, say, Napster’s subscription rental model that allowed unlimited, legal downloads of digital media unprotected by DRM.

Nevertheless, as Ajay Tripathi, business director, Id8labs points out: “Apple thought that it was very smart by forcing people to use only iTunes for syncing music to their iPods. It thought people would get addicted to iTunes and thus, eventually, purchase songs from its library. I perceive this launch as a typical Microsoft-style strategy. But what happened? Social application developers proved to be even smarter by creating applications similar to iTunes that could be accessed by the iPod! Besides offering the same functions and facilities as iTunes, these applications also allow the editing of the file and folder structure of the devices.”

Dealing with the Indian mindset

In India, Tripathi observes that an online seller of digital media would have to come up with especially innovative solutions, since its mass consumers are still diffident about the concept of e-commerce. He elucidates the consumers’ viewpoint: “When it comes to digital content, the target audience would not be inspired to pay even Rs 10 for a song, when it knows that it can get an entire DVD filled with 800+ MP3 songs from a roadside shop for a mere Rs 100. Indian users are aware of torrents and peer-to-peer (P2P) software that allow them to download entire movies for free.”

The bottom line is that Indian consumers must see a cost benefit in whatever they purchase—legality be damned in the process—unlike in the US, where time and convenience play a major role in influencing a purchase decision Microsoft MCITP Certification.

For these reasons, Tripathi seeks inspiration from the likes of Google, Yahoo! and Facebook to formulate an innovative and legal business model that would work for Indian online sellers of digital media. He points out that these sites have pumped time, effort and money into creating a digital services platform and yet are able to offer the service (search, mail and social activities/games/groups, respectively) to users, for free. This is because the sites seek compensation from the brands that use these platforms to reach out to their consumers in a cost-effective and precise manner.

Techies love venturing into application development areas that are seen to be fun, as well as sought after by consumers. This perhaps explains the scramble among the tech community to enter the space of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) applications for GPS-enabled mobile phones. But in truth, the utility of GIS extends far beyond digital mapping to help solve cartography problems. Any environmentalist will tell you that GIS is an essential tool, which enables the modelling, analysis and management of fast degrading and scarce spatially-related natural resources. And while the masses using GIS-based location applications want relatively simple tools, the needs of more serious users calls for a full-scale GIS software environment.

But developing a GIS application is not a lark! Here’s a rundown of the difficulties that an application developer is likely to face, as well as the solutions suggested by experts Microsoft MCTS Training.

Capturing data

Collection of data often influences the cost of implementing a new GIS application, simply because of the sheer volumes of data that must be accumulated and edited. The fact is that a GIS application does not only make use of map geometry generated by vectorisation technology, but also requires the addition of feature information, such as a lake or river, so as to generate meaningful topology and the association of user data. This difficulty has led to the creation of raster databases based on data generated by remote sensors (satellites), rasterised paper maps generated by scanning, and grid data derived from digital terrain models. {quotes}Unlike the difficulty of data capture faced by developers creating vector-based databases, remote image processing systems face computational problems in dealing with the sheer bulk of data available.{/quotes}

It is increasingly believed that an ideal GIS system is a hybrid integrated system based on a raster vector database that facilitates the manipulation, viewing and analysis of both forms of data in a seamless environment. According to Rajesh C. Mathur, president, ESRI India, the voluminous data entailed in such a hybrid system is best handled by an RDBMS (relational database management system) Microsoft MCITP Certification supporting spatial geometry in a seamless manner such as ESRI’s vector and raster ArcSDE. A developer using this application would simply have to identify the mechanisms of the spatial relationships and structures that are common in the voluminous data and analytical techniques that are unique to both spatial (vector and raster database) data. This process is made easier by the wide range of geodata services ArcSDE provides for data extraction, replication, warehousing, mining and synchronisation. ArcSDE also provides a framework and the tools to manage large spatial datasets in an RDBMS, such as IBM DB2, IBM Informix, Oracle, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL (structured query language) Server, and PostgreSQL. ArcSDE implements data warehousing and data mining sub-routines through its unique design.

It is important to learn various marketing strategies to make the best use of internet or web marketing. For more detail go to: www.internet-marketing-online-goldmine.com.At the same time, you also should learn the impact and various consequences which these strategies have on your business. So, you should be very clear about the objective of the internet marketing training so that you too, like millions of others internet illiterate populace don’t come with high hopes but eventually fail in a miserable manner.

It is very important to have mentors which have years of professional expertise so that they can teach you right from the elementary level of the internet marketing skills. At the same time, in a training session, you learn what should the exact plan for marketing be and how to establish better and lasting client base.

What the trainings and their different types with respect to internet marketing? How are the professionals planning to train and educate you? Normally in the trainings, whether done through video conferencing or through the live Weimar sessions, you are taught regarding different kinds of strategies of internet marketing and what you should do at a particular time frame. Mostly, there is more than just one person who conducts the training sessions, so that you get to have a better and more refined idea.

This is the core of the entire web standardization. Most of the times, the professionals face heavy and disheartening failures because they do not know even the fundamental steps to market themselves. There are several things to be learnt like the Google advertising, the social media, Search Engine Optimization, the web 2.0, the video marketing etc. With these strategies, you get to learn the different methods though which you can have a better target audience for your site and business.

At the training sessions you are also taught regarding a variety of manners in which your website should be made or revamped so that it can sell. for more detail go to:www.tried-tested-marketing-strategies.com.All the internet marketing skills fail, if your basic website, the platform for your business is not strong enough to advertise and establish itself.

No matter, whether you have ever read the different testimonials placed on the websites, but in the training sessions you come to know that these testimonials are one of the important types of tools of marketing Microsoft MCITP Certification.

The esteemed writer of the article, Michael Russell has been writing numerous articles on the fundamentals of internet marketing training. He has also been taking various seminars and trainings to educate the professionals regarding the various fundamentals of the internet marketing including SEM training and Ad Words related marketing education.

If your answer is yes to any of the previous questions then this article is exactly what you need to read. I’m going to give you so many ideas for website promotion that it’s probably going to make your head explode. Don’t worry though because each idea I’m going to share with you has been proven to be effective and ultimately profitable for each website owner that has put these ideas into practice. So let’s get started with the list, shall we Microsoft MCTS Training?

1. Submit your website to search engines.

2. Submit your website to online website directories.

3. Contact other website owners in your market and see if they will trade a link with you.

4. Post your website to free online classifieds sites.

5. Sign up for free and low-cost Internet banners to exposure website to places they would not be normally exposed to.

6. Try pay per click advertising, one of the fastest ways to get traffic to your website.

7. Article marketing is a must, so if you aren’t already doing it then you need to start doing it now. Start submitting your articles to online article directories.

8. Do article swaps with other related websites in your market.

9. Search engine optimization is a must. You have to use the right keywords and keyword phrases to optimize your website in each and every search engine on the Internet.

10. Become involved in forum posting. Join and dissipate in as many forums related to your market as possible. Most search engines will recognize that each one of your posts equals equality link back to your website and this helps your search engine optimization.

11. Visit Yahoo! Answers and Google Groups and answer questions pertaining to your niche. In your reply, be sure to link to your website.

12. If you don’t have a blog, now is the time to create one. Blogs are highly effective in promoting your website and are becoming more popular with each and every day.

13. Write unique articles about your niche and submit them to quality article directories.

I have even more ideas that you can use to effectively promote your site but this list is more than enough to get you started. As a matter of fact, you really don’t need to do anything else until you start doing what’s in this list. As you start doing what’s listed here, more ideas will come and you’ll have another list of more site promotion ideas than you know what to do with Microsoft MCITP Certification!

The good news is that your data can be recovered depending on the amount of damage and scope of the data. Your laptop can go through a hard drive recovery process so that your information may be retrieved. If, for example you lost data through accidental erasure, you may want to check your recycle bin. If it’s there, you can right-click on the file and choose the ‘Restore’ option and you will have recovered your data Microsoft MCTS Training.

Let’s say you don’t get your information in the recycle bin. You cab use ‘do-it-yourself’ recovery software to recover your files. This recovery software has got procedures and instructions that can be followed to retrieve the files. Such software can be downloaded free from the internet, even for free. But there is a risk involved: the software may or may not work and it has also been known to cause more damage if not carefully followed. More damage means more or even permanent data loss. This software should be used with IT technicians who have knowledge on the software, otherwise KEEP OFF or risk losing your data PERMANENTLY!

The most advisable thing to do after losing your laptop data is to call a data recovery specialist or company. These are people who have the necessary knowledge, skill and technology for recovering your data. They will carry out the necessary diagnosis and give a detailed report on the data can be recovered. For example, if your laptop hard drive fails and the problem is mechanical, the data recovery companies have special labs in which the hard drive can be opened and reconstructed. They also have the necessary software and technology for carrying out the data recovery process Microsoft MCITP Certification.

Therefore, if you lose your files, folders or anything important, make that all important call to the data recovery company. The choice is yours. Make it wisely!

Blogging to Stay in Touch with Friends

Staying in touch with friends and family members is just one of the many reasons a person may wish to start a blog. This is especially useful for those who move far away from their friends and family members. Staying in touch by phone, regular visits and even email is not always easy. This is because it can be difficult to keep up long distance interactions with several different people at once. However, by maintaining a blog, a person can greatly simplify the process of staying in touch with friends and family members because they do not have to repeat information in individual phone calls or emails or make time to visit several different people Microsoft MCTS Training.

When maintaining a blog, the individual can choose to post a variety of information and photos. Through this information and photos the blog owner can keep others informed about current events in his life. Friends and family members can view the blog at their convenience to catch up on important events in the blog owner’s life and in most cases can post comments to the blog owner. They can also read comments from others. This is beneficial if those viewing the blog know each other because they can not only stay in touch with the blog owner but also have a chance to communicate with other friends and family members through the comments section of the blog.

Blogging as a Form of Expression

Some bloggers begin blogging as a form of expression. They may right poetry, songs, short stories or even use the blog to vent about personal events or politics. These bloggers may wish to keep their blog private or can make the blog available to the public. Keeping the blog private is sort of like keeping a diary or a journal. It gives the blogger a multi-media form of expressing himself without the risk of others discovering his true feelings, innermost dreams or frustrations. Other bloggers opt to make these blogs public. This may be for a number of different reasons. Sharing these feelings with others allows the blogger to reach others who may have the same interest as the blogger.

Bloggers who use their blog as a form of personal expression may want to be cautious and consider the decision to make a blog public. This is important because the blog owner may initially not see problems with allowing others to view his personal thoughts. However, over time he may realize his blog could either be offensive to others or could result in problems if friends or family members view the blog Microsoft MCITP Certification.

Blogging to Keep a Record of Events

Another common reason for blogging is to keep a record of important events. Examples of some types of events which a blogger may wish to document include a pregnancy, weddings, vacations, sporting events or completion of school events. Using blogs to keep a record of these events gives the blogger an opportunity to record daily events in one simple location where they can easily look back on the blog or share the postings with others who might be interested in the events. In these cases the blog can serve as a form of scrapbook documenting the events as they occur. The blog owner can post as often as he desires and may choose to include elements such as photos, music, audio files and video files into the blog. The blog can also be designed to suit the events being documented. For example a journal depicting a vacation may have backgrounds, fonts and colors representing the vacation location while a pregnancy blog may feature elements which represent pregnancy, babies and being parents.

Still these tips are equally important and relevant regardless of the marketing type you choose. It is about capturing, holding the readers attention and getting them to follow through and purchase.

1. Spend money on targeted advertising instead of mass media advertising. You don’t want to waste your ad dollars on people who aren’t interested.

2. Increase your profits by concentrating on small details. Improving small things like text size, color, or graphics can really make a positive difference.

3. Keep your offers flexible. If you offer a set price for your product, you could offer the people that can’t afford it an optional payment plan.

4. Offer your knowledge or consulting as a bonus product. You could offer a free 15 or 30 minute consultation. This will add value to your product.

5. Personalize all your e-mail messages so they get read. Include the recipient’s name in the subject line. This will grab peoples attention quickly.

6. Keep your web site consistent. You don’t want to keep things on your web site that are unrelated to the theme of your web site.

7. Attract more subscribers to your free e-zine by giving them free bonuses like e-books, software, online services and other incentives.

8. Sell advertising space in your e-zine and on your web site. This will create an extra income stream for your business.

9. Make your web site ready for the public. Have an “About Us” page and clear descriptions of what actions you want your visitors to take.

10. Don’t just start advertising everywhere, plan out your marketing. Locate places and publications that your target audience would congregate around.

We strongly recommend you read your local papers classified section to get a feel for what type of advertising catches your eye. It will help you get a feel for the words and phrases that work.

There are also terrific classified sites all over the internet that you can look at Microsoft MCITP Certification.

If you are subscribing to newsletters or emails consider the headlines that make you want to click further. Jot them down and use them.

But the most important thing you need to do is to have the right system to it.

There are a lot of successful internet marketers offering free tips and guides in their newsletter. You just need to enroll to their list and you will learn how to grow your internet marketing business. You can enroll to as many list as you like but the bottom line is you need to apply what you learn from the internet marketers Microsoft MCTS Training.

Then you need to decide on your business model. Do you want to sell your own product or do you want to be an affiliate for other merchants? You might need to build your marketing materials if you want to sell your own product and if you want to be an affiliate marketer, the merchants might supply all the marketing materials you need.

After you decide on your business model, the next thing is to start building your own website. There are free software and templates that you can use to create your website. You don’t need to create any fancy website if you are just starting out on the business. Starts with a basic landing page to collect your visitors’ details and promote your product to them later.

After that you need to get traffic to your product for you to earn money from internet marketing. There are a lot of ways you can do that and referring your list members to your product is one of the easy and direct ways. Your members are more receptive to do as you ask because they trust you.

The following thing you should consider to earn money from internet marketing business is to craft your sales message. Now, your visitors can only see the picture of your product online. So, you need to write in a convincing way for your visitors to believe that the product is indeed what they need.

Then, you need to determine your product price. You won’t be earning any money from the business if you price your product wrongly. If you price it too low, you will be having a hard time supporting your business but if you price it too high, there will not be any buyer Microsoft MCITP Certification.

So, it is best that you look at other merchants with similar product of yours. How do they price their product? Do they offer anything else as a bonus? You can also email your list members and ask them about the best price for your product. Process your findings and propose a price that is worth your customers’ investment.

Let’s be realistic, you obviously can’t grow your internet marketing business if no one looks at your offer. Then what are you going to do to expose your product?

1. Write articles

Readers like quality and informational articles. They would like to find out more about you and your offer once they enjoyed your articles. So, it is important that you share what you know in your articles and have a link to your website.

The next thing you need is to submit your articles to article directories. Find out about the page rank of the article directories you are submitting. You will have a hard time getting traffic if you submit to a low page rank article directories Microsoft MCTS Training.

2. Pay Per Click (PPC) ad

This is another favorable way to promote your internet marketing business. You just need to create a free account on the search engines and they will have tutorials to guide you through the setups of your PPC ad.

You are only required to pay for the service if someone clicks on your ad. So, you can maximize the exposure of your advertisement to the desire market.

But take note that PPC is a big topic to master and the tutorials from the search engines are just for basic setup. You need to look for other sources to learn more about the topic and do your research before you determine your investment for each keywords. Or else, you will be burnt mercilessly.

3. Other people list

You know that the money is in the list but what if you don’t have your own list?

Then, you can try to advertise on other reputable internet marketers’ list to promote your internet marketing business. Your offer will be more receptive as it is recommended by the list owner.

Let’s say that you advertise in a list of 10,000 people. Can you imagine the traffic you will receive if 20% of them visit you daily? What if 1% of them bought your $67 product this month? You just cashed in $6700 this month and that is just one of your products.

You might earn even more if you have more product.

Of course the main issue you need to take into consideration is your budget. Generally, you need to pay more if you are advertising to a bigger list. Contact the list owner and ask for a discount or partial distribution to his members Microsoft MCITP Certification.

Who knows, maybe the list owner is kind enough to help you get started in internet marketing.

Provided by a web hosting company, control panel is a software to direct and manage your website hosting. It lets you manage all your vital activities such as email creation, opening of your FTP accounts, statistics report and many more Microsoft MCTS Training.

Windows Only platform

For windows, helm is a Windows only web hosting control panel. It comes with numerous customer friendly features along with the very conspicuous aspect of the billing information. Excluding the H-sphere, almost none of the commonly used control panel provides billing information inside the control panel. Moreover, Helm control panel has been taken as one of the most easy to operate panel with good standard interface.
Another windows only web hosting panel is Hosting Accelerator. Presently, in the market, it appears to mark a better impression by screening more stuff. However, on the contrary, it has also stated the unplanned interface and largely lacks in offering various additional features. Hence, it best suits the players with intermittent need.

Linux Only Platform

cPanel is doubtlessly, the most preferred choice among all the other control panels. It comes with several productive features with easy operation at affordable expense. In fact, to get more precise over the economic issue, it would be interesting to know that it costs only $20 per month/server.

Second in this queue stands Interworx. It is tremendously sophisticated yet uncomplicated enough to manage for even the beginner. Of course, the ease of use starts with the simple interface where all of the crucial controls are in basic view with wide-ranging tools to direct you through the configuration course. Moreover, the learning curve is totally unswerving, enabling you to develop into a more advanced one after surpassing each task.

Third in a row comes the DirectAdmin control panel serving Linux platform. It is considered as an economic solution and provides as low hosting cost as $10 per month. Moreover, it is also known for its easy and uncomplicated usability. However, irrespective of its various claims to have many fruitful features, it still needs to add a lot of improvements to beat in competition, the other Linux only control panels.

Both Linux and Windows

Plesk is an amazing control panel that works for both Linux and Windows. It is quite a standard pick up for people working on both the mentioned operating systems. Plesk interface appears like Windows XP and it is obviously little expensive because of its ability of suiting both the platforms. Moreover, the website builder tool and other features amalgamate easily with Plesk as well.

Also, H-Sphere is one commonly used control panel for both Linux and Windows. The panel is extensively used by the web hosting sites and lacks many good features when compared to Plesk and cPanel. However, on the contrary, it does provide several features from key functionalities to complete automation Microsoft MCITP Certification.

However, it goes without saying that you must choose your preferred control panel as per your requirements and suitability. However, as far as the factual details are concerned, so far, the ratings suggest that cPanel is preferred for Linux platform and Helm control panel is quite more than suitable for Windows platform. To know more about these control panels, you may log on to gigaweb.co.uk.

Dr. Dice’s advice? Self-regulate

In the absence of any national or international regulations policing online gaming, it is in the vital interest of online gaming operators to regulate themselves, and universally. Indeed this is currently being done as more and more sites purport to act as independent watchdogs, albeit often misleadingly. Though in fact most are just casino affiliates posing as policemen, this trend will ultimately result in more independent and reliable regulatory websites.

Number ones and total zeros

Our new and fantastic age of digital technology presents infinite possibilities never before imagined, and in all spheres of life including gambling over the Internet. And while it’s perfectly natural that online gambling websites are, for the most part, modeled after their predecessors – brick and mortar casinos – with such high stakes up for grabs and unyielding growth in competition, good old mommy of invention will naturally find her way into the laptops of those more original-thinking online gaming developers out there. What’s missing at this juncture, however, is initiative and innovative thinking. At some point in time online casinos will have to brand themselves not as virtual Vegas’ or Monte Carlos, but by sporting themes similar to those in perhaps online video games, which is already starting to take root. The sky, virtual or real, Microsoft MCITP Certification has no limits

UIGEA is good for business

What the US anti-online gambling law is doing in effect is forcing greater global competition among those gaming companies vying for new and larger market shares. In order to prevail in these new markets, casino site operators are scrambling for alternate means of winning the public’s confidence, and in this digital age, there’s no doubt democratic methods can be laid down and enforced far better than any government, especially those staffed by professional politicians. Those ubiquitous gambling blogs and forums are already forcing online casino operators to either get their houses in order or make way for the new kids on the cyber gaming block. Public opinion, in more than just the gambling biz, is fast shaping our future ways of life.

The bottom line is…

Instilling and maintaining higher-than-average player confidence remains a paramount concern for any online gambling venue betting on becoming a leader, let alone merely succeeding. Aside from absolute greed and shortsighted business sense, there’s absolutely no excuse for gaming firms to fail to play by the rules already accepted as industry standards. For instance, plenty of online casino sites provide visitors with access to their payout rates, that is, how much the establishment pays out in winnings. These rates typically range, depending on the games of course, between 93% and upwards. It’s no secret that online casinos promise better payout rates than land-casinos. After all, web-based companies enjoy significantly lower operating expenses.

For most computer users, an operating system is somewhat like the engine under a car’s hood. They know how to start and stop the engine, how to drive around, probably how to check oil levels, but beyond that, the knowledge is limited. With a car, that is okay, since we do not really need to know more unless we are hard-core enthusiasts, or working in the automotive industry.

Getting back to operating systems, the beauty of these ‘engines’ is that they allow users to run their computers and use their favourite applications, while they take care of allocating system resources, handling processes, and so on. Operating systems are far from perfect, but they are remarkable pieces of software for the sheer complexity of tasks that they handle.

We open up the engine and take a look at some of the recent innovations in operating systems.

Splashtop: A fast-booting OS

What do PC users do after they press their PC’s power button?

* Go get a cup of coffee
* Stare at the screen and practice meditation
* Chat with colleagues
* Any of the above

Jokes aside, most of us usually spend minutes waiting for the operating system (OS) to boot up. This is especially frustrating when we need to look up something on the Internet quickly, or just have a few minutes to check personal e-mail.

{quotes}A new operating system called Splashtop allows you to connect to the Internet without booting your main operating system{/quotes}. Splashtop has two components: a core engine that runs out of the BIOS, and an optimised Linux stack that boots rapidly. Splashtop boots out of the BIOS (basic input-output system) on the motherboard of the PC, generally in five seconds or less, according to the website, and provides quick access to certain applications, like the Splashtop Web browser (based on Firefox) and Skype– or offers you the choice of booting your main operating system.

Splashtop is currently available only on ASUS motherboards. When we enquired about how the company plans to make Splashtop available to customers, Andrew Kippen, press and blogger relations manager at DeviceVM (the company that provides Splashtop) revealed, “We spoke about many different ways to release Splashtop, but in the end decided that launching with a partner like ASUS, the world’s largest motherboard manufacturer, was the best way to reach consumers. Splashtop-enabled laptops and desktops will be released later this year.”

Splashtop uses flash memory on the motherboard to store its applications. Could that be a bottleneck? Kippen says, “This is not an issue, since we tailor each version of Splashtop to the manufacturer’s specifications. If there is a size issue, manufacturers can include a larger flash memory chip, or run Splashtop from a partition on the hard drive Microsoft MCITP Certification.”

On issues like vulnerability to attacks and whether it is possible to save attachments or documents, Kippen says, “Like I mentioned earlier, we tailor each version of Splashtop to a manufacturer’s specifications, so [the answer to] your question depends on the manufacturer. On current ASUS products, we allow persistent data (like bookmarks and cookies) to be written to memory. However, users cannot save files, for security reasons.”

Since Splashtop is Linux-based, it is immune to most of the attacks that plague traditional operating systems. Restricting access to memory, whether flash memory or the hard drive, further ensures that Splashtop always works properly.

Speaking on the reasons for the OS’s popularity, Kippen adds, “A major reason for Splashtop’s success is that more and more applications are moving to the Web. Users (excluding business users) spend more time with Web-based e-mail, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and other websites than on any desktop program. Online applications like Google and Zoho are quickly becoming viable options for most Office-like applications.

“We are targeting mass-market consumers, i.e., normal people who just want their computer to work without any wait or fuss. We see ourselves as a good complement to the traditional OS, great for lightweight applications like Web browsing and media playback, but not the right fit if you want to do video editing.”

Splashtop is not the only company in this space. Phoenix Technologies, a company that makes BIOS software, is developing software called Hyperspace that will launch along with the PC’s regular OS. Hyperspace, which is billed as a “compact and secure application environment”, will be able to run applications as well as perform systems maintenance (repair, back-up, recovery, etc) and security. Phoenix expects manufacturers to start offering Hyperspace in the latter half of 2008.

When you think of technology, what comes to mind? Typically, it would be sleek mobile phones, sophisticated computer systems, portable storage devices, stylish music players and gaming consoles, flat screens, high-end software, Internet and Web applications, faster processors, etc. All these, of course, are the gifts of technology.

Now, imagine a world without metals, alloys, gases, liquids and colloids, magnets, lights, lasers, plastics, polymers, ceramics, etc. More so, imagine a world without silicon and other semiconductors. Imagine a world without carbon and its derivatives, a world without DNA… “WAIT A MINUTE!” you say, “WHAT’S GOING ON?”. Welcome to the world of materials science– a science that is least talked about, in spite of its substantial role in the development of technology as a whole. While it might not strike a chord at the first instance, materials and their manipulation, the creation of new materials and their usage– all encompass materials science. And developments in this field have lead to new technologies (or significant improvements in existing technologies), and in turn into highly successful commercial products and even industries. It would not be wrong to say, at least, at the most basic level, that it is the non-stop progress and input of materials science that is– and continues to be– the foundation of almost any development in the field of information and communication technology (ICT). Perhaps it’s time to give due recognition to a science that has long been ‘silent’.

Silicon– everyone’s darling!

Without delving too much into the history of the materials sciences, one may begin with silicon, a semiconductor– the ‘darling’ of the industry. Without it, information processing would be virtually non-existent, considering that silicon, along with its variations, is among the most prominent components in various devices like chips, processors, insulators, transistors, etc. It is here that Dr Praveen Chaudhary, currently director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, points out the importance of materials science in the development of silicon technology. He says, “Silicon technology would not have been possible without continuous advances in materials sciences. This assertion holds for all aspects of IT hardware.” Speaking about current research in conventional silicon technology, Dr Chaudhary says,{quotes} “Research is on in designing thin insulators with large dielectric constants for use as gate insulators, and low-dielectric-constant materials to form substrates for higher-speed transmission of signals.” says Dr Praveen Chaudhary, currently director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory{/quotes}

However, since the introduction of integrated circuits way back in the late 50s, semiconductor science and technology has developed with unmatched speed. Future advances are expected to bridge diverse fields, such as semiconductor physics, magnetic materials, organic chemistry, polymer science, and biology. In addition, the physical contact between different materials on one chip will revolutionise transistor, sensor, memory, and communication technologies Microsoft MCITP Certification.

So, is there ever going to be an alternative for silicon in the future? Well, though there doesn’t seem to be a definitive answer to this question, there is a lot of research and study going on. In fact, two groups had reported superconductivity at high pressure in lithium, which was once thought of as the simplest of metals. In other developments, Intel and IBM have announced replacing silicon with hafnium, in a key part of semiconductors where transistors leaked. Interest is also focused on diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS), in which silicon is made magnetic by doping it with manganese. DMS devices consume less power than conventional devices and have the capability to operate at considerably higher speeds.

Hi, this is Ruchi. I am calling from Moneymoney bank, we have a pre-approved personal loan of Rs. 40,000 for you, madam…” Does that sound familiar? How many times have you received such a call? Do you immediately hang up; do you humour the agent and carry on conversing; abuse the poor agent… or end up buying the product that she is selling?

A ‘call centre’ is a generic term for help desks, information lines and customer service centres. Call centres have become the central focus of many companies, as these centres stay in direct contact with the firm’s customers. Call centres are of two basic types: those that handle inbound calls, where customers call in for service, and outbound call centres, where agents from contact centres call customers to offer services. Call centres not only offer phone-based support, but also support through online chat, SMS and e-mail Microsoft MCTS Training.

Call centre to the world

India, today, is the call centre to the world. Companies outsource their call centre operations because that way they can get access to skilled and expert staff without having to worry about recruiting them, training them and retaining them. India has both the skilled manpower and the lower costs that make it the preferred destination.

But running call centres is a highly competitive business. The same reasons that make India attractive could, in turn, make some other location attractive in the not so distant future. In India, salaries are increasing, attrition rates are very high, and infrastructure costs are rising. So how does the industry stay competitive? Call centres are embracing technology to stay ahead.

Computers as interviewers

The call centre industry in India is growing at the rate of 40 per cent per annum. However, attrition rates are as high as 30 per cent. This means that lots of people need to be hired. For every one person that you hire, you need to interview ten people. So the cost of hiring one person can be as high as Rs 20,000 if the screening cost is included. The cost of interviewing and hiring a thousand agents is itself a couple of crores. Large call centres hire a few thousand new employees every year, so the cost of interviewing is a major expense for them. As the call centres move to second-tier cities, it is expected that the ratio of hires-to-rejects will be even higher, making the hiring process even more expensive.

Call centres hope to reduce this cost by automating the first level of screening. Software to test human language skills now exists. The basic language skills needed by an agent include fluency, good vocabulary, good grammar, proper pronunciation and good comprehension. An interviewer marks each candidate based on these skills. Today, speech recognition and natural language processing (NLP) technologies are maturing, and can be used to evaluate candidates on each of these parameters. For example, to test pronunciation, the system checks whether the person is laying stress on the correct syllables in a word. Many Indians pronounce available as ‘avlabel’, and a speech recognition system is able to detect the stress on the wrong syllables. Comparisons between automated systems and human interviewers show that they are usually in agreement about a candidate’s worth, thus paving the way for automated screening processes to be put in place. Now it is only a matter of time before such systems are widely adopted. Very soon, your interviewer may be a computer. Kiosks can be set up in remote corners, and candidates can go there and get interviewed at their convenience Microsoft MCITP Certification.

Good agent, bad agent

Once candidates are hired, they are moved to the floor to take live calls from customers. Agents on the floor are typically evaluated based on their call handling time and the call outcome. The average handling time for a call varies from process to process, and can range from a few minutes to an hour. For example, if you have a banking-related query, you would talk with the agent for about five minutes. On the other hand, if the problem is regarding a hardware or software issue on your computer, the call to troubleshoot it could go on for an hour. The call outcome is measured in terms of specific goals or targets being met. For example, banking loan agents would be assessed on how many customers they were able to convince to take personal loans. Thus, agents are evaluated based on how many calls they took and how many of those calls resulted in successful outcomes. To be viable, a call centre must have its agents perform well on both these parameters.

The message, “Please note that this call may be recorded for training and evaluation purposes,” should sound familiar to you? Most calls to a call centre are recorded and stored. Quality analysts review them to prepare agent-wise and general reports. They randomly select a few calls of individual agents, and then prepare reports on their strengths and shortcomings.

Natural language processing systems are capable of going through a large collection of calls and analysing the reasons for success and failure. Many agents, who were obviously fans of Amitabh Bachchan in Kaun Banega Crorepati, started using his famous phrase on foreign customers “Can I lock this for you?” The foreigners were not familiar with this phrase. A natural language system found that agents who simply asked, “Shall I make the booking for you?” made more bookings. Now, finding this kind of correlation between phrases and call outcomes is something that a human reviewing a few calls is unlikely to make out. But an NLP system analysing thousands of calls ‘sees’ this very easily. Such systems can be used to analyse the language and behaviour of ‘good’ agents, and compare them with the ‘bad’ agents to point out good practices that result in satisfied customers. Call centres are adopting natural language systems a lot more to analyse conversations, and to identify good and positive practices.

Do you think you are affected by advertisements? Do you recognise the companies with the slogans, ‘Information technology, today, tomorrow’, ‘Just do’ , ‘Connecting people’, ‘Fly the good times’, ‘Wherever you go our network follows’, ‘Connecting India’, ‘The nation banks on us’, and ‘Taste the thunder’? If you recall even some of these, then you have to agree that advertisements do have some impact on you.

Companies spend crores of rupees on advertising because they know consumers are affected by advertising Microsoft MCTS Training. The goal of advertising is to influence the purchasing behaviour of as large a population of consumers as possible. So how do companies plan their advertising expenditure?

Ad pricing

On traditional advertising media like TV, radio, print and billboards, the pricing is based on how many eyeballs or ears the advertisement captures. This is the cost-per-view model. For TV or radio, ad rates go up during a cricket match, because there will be a larger audience. Print ad rates are also based on the total readership of the edition.

In the world of online advertising, pricing is more complicated. Not only do you have cost per view options, but could also have cost per click (based on the number of times the ad is clicked on); or, if it is an online merchandising site, then it is based on ‘cost per action’–the number of times a product is purchased. The pricing model can be fixed or dynamic. The most popular dynamic model is the search-term-based advertising that has been popularised by Google. An advertiser has to bid for a keyword in an online auction. Popular keywords like ‘job’ go for many thousands of rupees; less popular keywords like, let’s say, ‘lalu’ go very cheap. Have you noticed the sponsored links to the right of your Google search results? The advertiser showing up at the number one spot bid the highest for the keyword you used in your search; those who bid less are ranked below this. Every time you click a sponsored link, the advertiser has to pay the amount that they bid to Google, Microsoft MCITP Certification.

We are watching you: We know what you need

Advertisers today try to collect as much information about you as they can–they can cash in on this knowledge by serving you ads tailored to your preferences or positioned to take advantage of your plans, as determined by your online activities. For example, when you search for a tandoori restaurant, the search engine dishes out related sponsored ads based on your search ‘interest’–your apparent plans to eat out. Similarly, when you read an e-mail about summer vacation plans in Goa, your friendly e-mail provider serves you hotel and airline booking ads, hoping to capture a booking or sale for their advertisers. This is true of SMS messages too; every SMS you send is automatically analysed to learn your interests, and to serve you relevant advertisements.

Remember, Extended Hotfix Support (EHS) only provides the opportunity to request a non-security hotfix for a new bug discovered during the Extended Support phase.  It has no impact on a customer’s ability to request support, security updates, or other non-security hotfixes created during the Mainstream Support phase.

To enroll in EHS, customers must already have Premier Support.  In addition, enrollment in the program must occur within the first 90 days of the product entering the Extended Support phase.  If the customer misses this deadline, there may not be an opportunity to enroll in EHS again Microsoft MCITP Certification.

The only exception to the 90 day enrollment rule is for customers with Software Assurance (SA).  Customers with Software Assurance on select products are eligible for a benefit which includes the program fee for Extended Hotfix Support and allows enrollment at any time.  Essentially, this means that the SA customers only need to sign the appropriate paperwork and pay the per hotfix fee.  The products that are included in this benefit are: Microsoft Office Professional, Microsoft Windows Client, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft MCTS Training Operations Manager (MOM), Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS), and Microsoft Windows Server.

Pricing for Extended Hotfix Support consists of an annual program fee, plus an additional fee for each non-security hotfix they receive.  Non-security hotfixes produced during the Extended Support phase will not be made available to other customers in the program, without enrollment in EHS or the per hotfix fee.  This is to ensure that all customers are treated equal and are being charged the same fees for each hotfix.

Whew…  That’s a lot of stuff to cover.  I hope it makes the program easier to understand, though. 

Visual Basic 6 (VB6) can basically be divided into three main deliverables…

* Visual Basic 6 IDE — the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) used to develop VB 6.0 applications
* Visual Basic 6 Runtime — the base libraries and execution engine used to run VB 6.0 applications
* Visual Basic 6 Runtime Extended Files — select ActiveX control OCX files, libraries, and tools shipping with the IDE media and as an online release

Support for the VB6 IDE came to an end on April 8th.  This means that Microsoft MCTS Training will no longer provide any additional assisted support, security updates or development assistance on the IDE or the VB6 language.  However, online information (such as MSDN articles and the Knowledge Base) will remain online for at least the next 12 months.

Support for the VB6 Runtime will continue.  Generally, the VB6 Runtime is shipped as a component of the operating system and will be supported with the product that it shipped with.  For example, since the VB6 Runtime shipped as a component of Windows XP, the runtime will continue to be supported for the life of Windows XP.  The VB6 Runtime has shipped on all of our OS releases and will continue to be supported with all those OSes.

Since the VB6 Runtime is supported with the OS, customers will be able to open support cases and request assistance if the VB6 Runtime is not operating as expected or is causing problems with their application.  In addition, we will continue to provide security updates for the VB6 runtime.  We will not provide any development assistance or support for the IDE, however.

The VB6 Runtime Extended Files are generally installed by the IDE or from Microsoft MCITP Certification and are redistributed by developers with their application.  This redistribution is often required to ensure the functionality of the application.  The product team will be releasing a new, supported set of these tools online in the coming weeks.  To obtain support, customers will need to ensure they are running the supported versions of these files.

More information on how the Visual Basic 6 runtime will be supported can be found in the MSDN Visual Basic 6 Resource Center.  On this site, the product team has detailed a number of the support scenarios and files, especially as they pertain to Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.   It’s a great resource if you have any outstanding questions.

You may recall that Microsoft MCTS Training recently announced an update to the Service Pack Support policy.  In a nutshell, for Service Packs end of support is 12 or 24 months after a new release, depending on the product family.  After the end of support, customers should expect the following:

*
No security updates or non-security hotfixes
*
Limited break/fix support incidents continue to be available, but there is no option to engage Microsoft’s product development resources
*
If the support incident requires escalation to development for further guidance, requires a hotfix, or requires a security update, customers will be asked to upgrade to a supported service pack

7. If I am on an unsupported service pack, what type of support can I receive?  What is “Limited Troubleshooting”, anyway?

For customers on unsupported service pack versions, Microsoft offers limited troubleshooting support as follows:

*
Limited break/fix support incidents will be provided through Microsoft Customer Service and Support; and through Microsoft’s managed support offerings (such as Premier Support).
*
There will be no option to engage Microsoft’s product development resources, and technical workarounds may be limited or not possible.
*
If the support incident requires escalation to development for further guidance, requires a hotfix, or requires a security update, customers will be asked to upgrade to a supported service pack.

Limited break/fix troubleshooting simply means that support professionals will provide troubleshooting to customers on unsupported service packs, even without a Custom Support contract. Access to Premier Support resources, such as Premier Field Engineering, Technical Account Managers and Application Development Consultants will also continue to be available to the customer. Microsoft will still require customers to be on a supported service pack to receive hotfixes, security updates, time zone updates, or access to sustained engineering.

This policy is designed to provide additional support options and flexibility for customers who have not completed migration to a supported service pack. Customers are highly encouraged to stay on a supported service pack to ensure they are on the latest and most secure version of their product.

6. If I’m on an unsupported product, what type of support can I receive?

If you are on a product that has reached the end of support, you do not have many options to obtain support from Microsoft MCITP Certification.  Generally, existing online content may be available to resolve common issues, if the product is still within the Online Self-Help Support phase.

Custom Support is also available for purchase for those customers who have not been able to complete their migration to a supported product, and absolutely need additional support from Microsoft. The Custom Support offerings include access to security hotfixes and are specifically designed to help customers bridge the support gap while they complete their migration.

Note: To enroll in Custom Support, customers must have a Premier Support contract. Additionally, customers are required to have a migration plan in place, prior to purchasing Custom Support.  Please contact your Microsoft representative for further information.

5. What is “Custom Support”?

As we’ve already discussed, support for Business & Developer products terminates at the end of the Extended Support phase.  Support for service packs will end either 12 or 24 months after the release of a new service pack, varying by product family.

Customers are encouraged to migrate to a supported product as soon as possible, to ensure they can receive security updates and continue to receive product support. For those customers who have not been able to complete their migration, and need additional support from Microsoft, we have a support offering for select products called Custom Support.

Simply put, Custom Support provides support for those products that are no longer publicly supported.

Custom Support should be considered the option of last resort for customers who are unable to complete migration.  For complete details on the Custom Support program please contact your Microsoft representative for further information.

4. What happens to components at the end of support?

Once a product or service pack reaches the end of support, all of the components associated with that release will also be unsupported on that platform.  For example, Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) will continue to be supported on both Windows 2000 and XP SP2 until they reach the end of support on July 13, 2010.  After this date, customers who wish to receive support on IE6 will only be able to do so on a supported product version, such as Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP SP3.

3. Are these policies global?  Do they apply to all products?

In short, yes.  The goal of the Support Lifecycle policy is to provide consistent and predictable guidelines for product support availability for all Microsoft products in all of the worldwide markets where Microsoft does business.

2. Will Microsoft provide security updates for products after the end of support?

I know I’m sounding like a broken record here, but the answer is no. J  Once a product or service pack has reached the end of support, Microsoft no longer provides any new security updates.  Customers are encouraged to upgrade to a supported product or service pack to ensure they are able to receive continued support and security updates.

1.     Where do I find more information on the Microsoft Support Lifecycle policies?

There are a number of great resources to find more information on the Support Lifecycle policies.  First, I’d recommend visiting the Microsoft Support Lifecycle website.  This site is the primary source of information on the policies and specific support transition dates for our products.  If you are interested in getting quarterly news updates on the Support Lifecycle policy and a calendar of upcoming support transitions, I’d recommend subscribing to our customer-ready newsletter.  Finally, I’d recommend reading the blog on a on regular basis.  Since you are here, I assume you already know how to find it. J

Normally, Paul Schaffer would do a rimshot here and play some witty music.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a backup band. J

I hope this provides a useful rundown of the top questions related to the end of support.  If you think we missed a top question or if you have a related issue, please feel free to post them in the comments section.  We’ll do our best to read them and respond.

*This posting is provided “AS-IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights.*. What does “end of support” mean for a service pack (e.g. Windows XP SP2)?

You may recall that Microsoft recently announced an update to the Service Pack Support policy.  In a nutshell, for Service Packs end of support is 12 or 24 months after a new release, depending on the product family.  After the end of support, customers should expect the following:

• No security updates or non-security hotfixes
• Limited break/fix support incidents continue to be available, but there is no option to engage Microsoft’s product development resources
• If the support incident requires escalation to development for further guidance, requires a hotfix, or requires a security update, customers will be asked to upgrade to a supported service pack

7. If I am on an unsupported service pack, what type of support can I receive?  What is “Limited Troubleshooting”, anyway?

For customers on unsupported service pack versions, Microsoft offers limited troubleshooting support as follows:

• Limited break/fix support incidents will be provided through Microsoft Customer Service and Support; and through Microsoft’s managed support offerings (such as Premier Support).
• There will be no option to engage Microsoft’s product development resources, and technical workarounds may be limited or not possible.
• If the support incident requires escalation to development for further guidance, requires a hotfix, or requires a security update, customers will be asked to upgrade to a supported service pack.

Limited break/fix troubleshooting simply means that support professionals will provide troubleshooting to customers on unsupported service packs, even without a Custom Support contract. Access to Premier Support resources, such as Premier Field Engineering, Technical Account Managers and Application Development Consultants will also continue to be available to the customer. Microsoft will still require customers to be on a supported service pack to receive hotfixes, security updates, time zone updates, or access to sustained engineering.

This policy is designed to provide additional support options and flexibility for customers who have not completed migration to a supported service pack. Customers are highly encouraged to stay on a supported service pack to ensure they are on the latest and most secure version of their product.

6. If I’m on an unsupported product, what type of support can I receive?

If you are on a product that has reached the end of support, you do not have many options to obtain support from Microsoft.  Generally, existing online content may be available to resolve common issues, if the product is still within the Online Self-Help Support phase.

Custom Support is also available for purchase for those customers who have not been able to complete their migration to a supported product, and absolutely need additional support from Microsoft. The Custom Support offerings include access to security hotfixes and are specifically designed to help customers bridge the support gap while they complete their migration.

Note: To enroll in Custom Support, customers must have a Premier Support contract. Additionally, customers are required to have a migration plan in place, prior to purchasing Custom Support.  Please contact your Microsoft representative for further information.

5. What is “Custom Support”?

As we’ve already discussed, support for Business & Developer products terminates at the end of the Extended Support phase.  Support for service packs will end either 12 or 24 months after the release of a new service pack, varying by product family.

Customers are encouraged to migrate to a supported product as soon as possible, to ensure they can receive security updates and continue to receive product support. For those customers who have not been able to complete their migration, and need additional support from Microsoft, we have a support offering for select products called Custom Support.

Simply put, Custom Support provides support for those products that are no longer publicly supported.

Custom Support should be considered the option of last resort for customers who are unable to complete migration.  For complete details on the Custom Support program please contact your Microsoft representative for further information.

4. What happens to components at the end of support?

Once a product or service pack reaches the end of support, all of the components associated with that release will also be unsupported on that platform.  For example, Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) will continue to be supported on both Windows 2000 and XP SP2 until they reach the end of support on July 13, 2010.  After this date, customers who wish to receive support on IE6 will only be able to do so on a supported product version, such as Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP SP3.

3. Are these policies global?  Do they apply to all products?

In short, yes.  The goal of the Support Lifecycle policy is to provide consistent and predictable guidelines for product support availability for all Microsoft products in all of the worldwide markets where Microsoft does business.

2. Will Microsoft provide security updates for products after the end of support?

I know I’m sounding like a broken record here, but the answer is no. J  Once a product or service pack has reached the end of support, Microsoft no longer provides any new security updates.  Customers are encouraged to upgrade to a supported product or service pack to ensure they are able to receive continued support and security updates.

1. Where do I find more information on the Microsoft Support Lifecycle policies?

There are a number of great resources to find more information on the Support Lifecycle policies.  First, I’d recommend visiting the Microsoft Support Lifecycle website.  This site is the primary source of information on the policies and specific support transition dates for our products.  If you are interested in getting quarterly news updates on the Support Lifecycle policy and a calendar of upcoming support transitions, I’d recommend subscribing to our customer-ready newsletter.  Finally, I’d recommend reading the blog on a on regular basis.  Since you are here, I assume you already know how to find it. J

Normally, Paul Schaffer would do a rimshot here and play some witty music.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a backup band. J

I hope this provides a useful rundown of the top questions related to the end of support.  If you think we missed a top question or if you have a related issue, please feel free to post them in the comments section.  We’ll do our best to read them and respond.

*This posting is provided “AS-IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights.*

So here they are…  The 10 Top Questions About The End of Support:

10.  What does “support” mean?
Generally, the minimum bar for something to be considered supported is that we provide at least one type of assisted support option and no-charge security updates.  This means that, at a minimum, the customer will have some avenue to contact Microsoft for assistance and Microsoft will continue to provide security updates through channels like Windows Update and the Download Center.

It is important to note that the minimum requirement for support does not include any specific no-charge or paid support offerings.  This means that offerings such as Premier Support, Professional Support or no-charge support are optional – they are offered at Microsoft’s discretion, based on market demand and offering feasibility.

In addition, non-security hotfixes and design change requests are not included in the minimum requirement.  These hotfixes are optionally provided by Microsoft and are evaluated on a case by case basis by each product team.

9. What does “end of support” mean for a product (e.g. Windows 2000)?

Somewhat unsurprisingly, end of support for a product means that we will no longer provide support after this date. J For Consumer products, end of support is at the end of the Mainstream Support phase.  For Business and Developer products, end of support is the end of the Extended Support phase Microsoft MCITP Certification.

After these dates, no further support will be provided for the product.  This means that customers will not have access to:

*
security updates or non-security hotfixes
*
free or paid assisted support options
*
the option to engage Microsoft’s product development resources
*
updates to online content (KB articles, etc.)

Online content may be available, if the product is still within the Online Self-Help Support phase.

In the Operating system as well as designing exam you will get the option to choose from the two options. As far as operating system is concerned you can choose either from the Windows Vista or Windows XP. You will also get the option to choose for the designing exam either an active directory or security for the Windows server 2003. You can make an educated choice about the platform and part you are comfortable with.

In the elective you will get many choices to choose from. As per your interest you can choose the course which will provide you the expertise in the field which will compliment your IT training.

Now the networking part of the MCTS courses will consist of the four exams. All of these four exams are based on the Windows Server 2003, an operating system for the servers developed by the Microsoft. Majority of the servers worldwide run on the Windows Server 2003. While studying the curriculum of these exams you will get to know about the environment in which the Windows Server 2003 operates. Other areas that will be explored are the network and active directory infrastructure. This is most important part of the MCTS courses. After you are done with this part you will have in depth knowledge about the planning, implementation and management stages related to the windows server 2003 systems. To make it clear you can’t skip any of the exams. All seven exams are compulsory and are to be cleared to get the MCTS certification.

All though you can also study the MCTS courses on your own also but still it is better that your enroll with some reputed training institute. Some of the MCTS courses are not that easy as they might look. So you should look for a reputed institute which will provide you with the in depth knowledge of these courses. You can interact with the faculty about the courses they are offering. This important to assure that what the institute is offering is latest in the MCSE, as the curriculum of the MCTS keeps changing from time to time with the changing market conditions.

As a precautionary measure before enrolling for the course you can check out all the courses that are being offered to you as you might find some of the other courses like CCNA and MCSA as per your likings. When you are done with all these MCITP Certification you will be able to jump the queue of the job applicants and start your career at an advantage.

Exam Details
Number of Questions 110
Passing Score Pass/Fail
Time Limit 150 minutes
Difficulty Rating 5/10 – Easy
Certifications MCP, MCSE, MCSA
Official Site http://www.microsoft.com/traincert/exams/70-270.asp

Recommended Resources:
Official MCSE Books: MCSE Windows XP Professional Study Guide (Exam 70-270)
Real World Reference: Microsoft Windows XP Inside Out Classroom alternatives: CBT Nuggets or SmartCertify’s Computer Based Training
Exam Prep Software Testkingdom or Certkingdom

Exam Objectives:
Installing Windows XP Professional
Perform and troubleshoot an attended installation of Windows XP Professional.
Perform and troubleshoot an unattended installation of Windows XP Professional.
Install Windows XP Professional by using Remote Installation Services (RIS).
Install Windows XP Professional by using the System Preparation Tool.
Create unattended answer files by using Setup Manager to automate the installation of Windows XP Professional.
Upgrade from a previous version of Windows to Windows XP Professional.

Prepare a computer to meet upgrade requirements.
Migrate existing user environments to a new installation.
Perform post-installation updates and product activation.
Troubleshoot failed installations.

Implementing and Conducting Administration of Resources
Monitor, manage, and troubleshoot access to files and folders.

Configure, manage, and troubleshoot file compression.
Control access to files and folders by using permissions.
Optimize access to files and folders.
Manage and troubleshoot access to shared folders.

Create and remove shared folders.
Control access to shared folders by using permissions.
Manage and troubleshoot Web server resources.
Connect to local and network print devices.

Manage printers and print jobs.
Control access to printers by using permissions.
Connect to an Internet printer.
Connect to a local print device.
Configure and manage file systems.

Convert from one file system to another file system.
Configure NTFS, FAT32, or FAT file systems.
Manage and troubleshoot access to and synchronization of offline files.

Implementing, Managing, Monitoring, and Troubleshooting Hardware Devices and Drivers
Implement, manage, and troubleshoot disk devices.

Install, configure, and manage MCITP Certification devices.
Monitor and configure disks.
Monitor, configure, and troubleshoot volumes.
Monitor and configure removable media, such as tape devices.
Implement, manage, and troubleshoot display devices.

Configure multiple-display support.
Install, configure, and troubleshoot a video adapter.
Configure Advanced Configuration Power Interface (ACPI).
Implement, manage, and troubleshoot input and output (I/O) devices.

Monitor, configure, and troubleshoot I/O devices, such as printers, scanners, multimedia devices, mouse, keyboard, and smart card reader.
Monitor, configure, and troubleshoot multimedia hardware, such as cameras.
Install, configure, and manage modems.
Install, configure, and manage Infrared Data Association (IrDA) devices.
Install, configure, and manage wireless devices.
Install, configure, and manage USB devices.
Install, configure, and manage hand held devices.
Install, configure, and manage network adapters.
Manage and troubleshoot drivers and driver signing.
Monitor and configure multiprocessor computers.

Monitoring and Optimizing System Performance and Reliability
Monitor, optimize, and troubleshoot performance of the Windows XP Professional desktop.

Optimize and troubleshoot memory performance.
Optimize and troubleshoot processor utilization.
Optimize and troubleshoot disk performance.
Optimize and troubleshoot application performance.
Configure, manage, and troubleshoot Scheduled Tasks.
Manage, monitor, and optimize system performance for mobile users.
Restore and back up the operating system, System State data, and user data.

Recover System State data and user data by using Windows Backup.
Troubleshoot system restoration by starting in safe mode.
Recover System State data and user data by using the Recovery console.

Configuring and Troubleshooting the Desktop Environment
Configure and manage user profiles and desktop settings.
Configure support for multiple languages or multiple locations.

Enable multiple-language support.
Configure multiple-language support for users.
Configure local settings.
Configure MCSA Certification for multiple locations.
Manage applications by using Windows Installer packages.

Examination format:
The MCTS examination is not easy to pass. One has to take seven exams before being certified as an MCTS professional. These examinations include four networking exams, one client operating system exam, a design exam and an elective.

Various topics of the examination include “Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment, Installing, Configuring and Administering Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Designing Security for a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network”.

Now one can specialize in two fields, Messaging and Security. For both specializations, additional papers need to be studied.

How to study for MCTS Certification:
Studying for MCITP certification is easy, as there are many online books and videos etc available. Upon registration, Microsoft also provides you with some material. There are many types of software providing real time simulation of the examination, which is very helpful for examination practice.

Most tests come with detailed questions and answers as well as proper analysis. This helps a lot in preparation of the examinations. There are many prep kits as well as study notes available for preparation on the internet.

There are some cheat software’s available on the internet as well, but the entire purpose of taking an examination is defeated if one uses this method to pass the examination.

Benefits of MCTS Certification:
This certification is more helpful for people who have had some sort of experience, rather than those who have just started working or are still in college. In the dotcom boom, many people who had little or no relevant experience took this certification, which has diluted the value a little bit.

Yet it remains a mark of knowledge and expertise in Microsoft Windows technology. Also, once a person is certified, he/she can take advantage of the technical product details directly from the website. An MCTS logo, certificate, transcript, wallet card, and lapel pin identify the certified person as an MCTS professional. Microsoft also invites the professionals to special events whenever possible.

Popularity of MCTS Certification:

This certification is quite popular compared to other certifications. This is due to the expertise gained, the ease of studying for it, and taking the examination. In addition, Microsoft software is used so much that any expertise is bound to be very helpful in the work of techies.

MCTS Training may not immediately get anybody a job, but in the case of a tie, it will surely help recruiters decide in favor of a certified professional. It is a hygiene factor now – one that nobody wants to avoid.

Any professional who has some experience in server management and allied fields will gain hugely from this certification. This certification increases the knowledge base, and also gives the stamp of being an expert in the relevant technologies.

MCTS stands for Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers. With a MCTS boot camp intensive training you get a quick injection of knowledge. Moreover the timings of MCTS boot camps are flexible to meet the training requirements. Of course, it does depend on what career path you want to take as to whether you want to get either MCTS training or MCP training.

A MCTS enhances the position in an organization along with quick rise in the salary. Such a certification makes a tremendous difference in how a person is viewed in an organization. The training program includes everything one needs to fully prepare for and pass the exams.

To get your MCTS you have to go through extensive training. Therefore, if you want to get a job at one of these companies, and believe me the competition is off the charts, you have to get MCTS certified.

Certification
Experience counts for a lot, but having a Microsoft certification or two does not hurt either. Is there a downside of getting a MCITP certification as far as what it will mean to the lifetime of your career? From year to year their systems will change so drastically that within a very short period of time, a certification become less valuable. Your time is precious, and you should never choose to pursue a certification because it is hot.
But, education and training is always valuable in itself. It broadens your base of knowledge and makes it easier to take the next step, whatever that is.

Exams

Yes, there is so much information in these exams that you can actually take one of them 3 times and still not get a majority of the same questions twice. Five of the exams are what they call core exams and the last two are called elective exams.

To wade through the extensive coursework and comprehend it’s applications on your own is time consuming and you may not be able to appear for exams in the stipulated time. The important thing is to get a thorough knowledge and understanding of the coursework, write the exams on time and be aware of the practical applications of the Microsoft products and services. The design core exams determine the excellence in designing the Windows server.

The certification do qualify a person to analyze the business requirements and find solutions in information systems. The individual is able to design and implement the infrastructure required in the two available streams, Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003. There are different sets of examinations for them. When you have passed the exams you will be able to pin point the tasks involved in supporting Windows 2000/2003 networks. You will be knowing the network concepts and how to implement it in Windows 2000/2003. You will also gain the knowledge of how to configure Microsoft Windows 2000/2003 Professional on stand-alone computers and on client computers, and to install and configure Windows 2000/2003 Server. Finally you will gain the knowledge and skills in designing a Microsoft Windows 2000/2003 directory service and infrastructure.

With the launch of the it’s next generation certifications and the Vista Operating System, Microsoft has begun what may become the gradual phase-out of the popular MCDST Training Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician certification, although no exams have been slated for retirement yet.

Two new MCITP certification tracks specifically for Desktop Support on Windows Vista are now available. The MCITP Enterprise Support (Desktop Support for large organizations) and MCITP Consumer Support (Desktop Support for small-to-mid size organizations) each consist of two exams. Exam 70-620: TS-Windows Vista Configuring is part of both curriculums. 70-622: PRO: Supporting and Troubleshooting Applications on a Windows Vista Client for Enterprise Support Technicians makes up the second exam for the MCITP Enterprise Support curriculum while 70-623: PRO: Supporting and Troubleshooting Applications on a Windows Vista Client for Consumer Support Technicians is the second exam in the MCITP Consumer Support Curriculum.

Is your company currently still running the XP Operating System? Then the MCDST certification is still viable and may be your best option. When your company converts to Vista, there is a single upgrade exam for people holding the MCDST credential to upgrade to MCITP Enterprise Support- Exam 70-621: PRO: UPGRADE: Upgrading Your MCDST Certification to MCITP Training Enterprise Support.

To make themselves additionally valuable to employers and stay ahead of the knowledge curve on Vista, Desktop Support Professionals can take both the MCTS Training and then the MCITP Enterprise Support upgrade exam after receiving their MCDST certification.

“I am confused as to which Microsoft certification to study for – My company is running Windows Server 2000 and 2003. Should I continue to look at obtaining the MCSE or restart my studies on Windows Server 2008? If I study for Windows Server 2008 what exams must I study for?”

Firstly there will be no MCSA (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator) or MCSE Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) on Windows Server 2008, these qualifications are currently only available with Windows Server 2003 and will be replaced by the new qualifications – MCTS (Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist) and MCTS Training (Microsoft Certified IT Professional).

NOTE: Once you are an MCSA or MCSE you will NOT LOSE your Certification
For those of you considering whether to continue with your studies on Windows Server 2003 or start afresh on Windows Server 2008 I have tried to outline the available certification tracks below. My advise is studying for the MCSA or MCSE 2003 Training will provide you with skills to help you in most existing working environments and give you a sound foundation, as well as an upgrade route to Windows Server 2008 when implemented in the future by companies.

The Windows Server 2008 MCTS Certifications include:
* 70-640 – Configuring Windows Server 2008 Active Directory
* 70-642 – Configuring Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure
* 70-643 – Configuring Windows Server 2008 Application Platforms. (This will cover Internet Information Services (IIS 7) and Microsoft Virtual Server)

For an MCSA already qualified on Windows 2003 ( One upgrade exam is needed )

* 70-648 – TS: Upgrading your MCSA on Windows Server 2003 to MCTS on Windows Server 2008.

NOTE: You will therefore NOT have to pass MCTS exams 70-640 and 70-642
For an MCSE already qualified on Windows 2003 ( One upgrade exam is needed)

* 70-649 – TS: Upgrading your MCSE on Windows Server 2003 to MCTS on Windows Server 2008

NOTE: You will therefore NOT have to pass MCTS exams 70-640, 70-642 and 70-643.

The Server 2008 MCITP Certifications include:
* The Windows Server 2008 Administrator:

Only 3 exams required:  MCITP Certification 70-640, 70-642 plus:
* 70-646 – Windows 2008 Server Administrator Exam
* Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Administrator:

5 exams required: MCTS certifications 70-640, 70-642, 70-643, 70-620 on Windows Vista, Configuration, plus

* 70-647 Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Administrator Exam</p>

Additional Resources
Login in to www.certkingdom.com for complete information on Microsoft exams training.

Also, we have fully trained advisors ready to help you make the best decision for you! We are looking forward to being able to help with your enquiry and advise you on your career goals!
We will refund any payment that you make, should you for any reason fail an exam. The refund is an unconditional total refund of any moneys paid, plus a free exam voucher. This is a simple and unbeatable guarantee.

Introduction to MCSE 70-293 Exam

The best introduction to the MCSE 70-293 exam would be “Expect the Unexpected”. If you have read the contents of the official curriculum for the course 2278, and think that you can take the exam any time now be prepared for a roller coaster ride. This is one exam that states no specific prerequisite but encompasses all the other core objectives partially or wholly within the “unsaid” prerequisites.

Be it IP addressing schemes, DNS or DHCP infrastructure, Certificate Authority hierarchy, Group Policy, IPSec Infrastructure, Network load balancing, or clustering, you name it – there it is.

Do you still think you are prepared for MCTS Training 70-293? Then GO FOR IT!!!

Well, if you are now apprehensive about the exam, you have reasons to be. Not to worry though, read on to see how you can master the art of a Pass score in the exam! It is not all that tough once you know how to!

What all does MCSE 70-293 Exam test?
This exam, in terms of content, will be a little more extensive than the exam 70-291. 70-291 dealt with the typical network infrastructure requirements for Windows Server 2003 and its implementation and management.

MCSE 70-293 exam will test you on planning the Windows Server 2003 network and securing it along with all that of 70-291 and more.

This exam is more about Enterprise networks, what their network infrastructure ought to be, and smart ways of deploying and optimizing them, Enterprise security, Server roles, and securing servers too. Last but not the least, there is a fair amount of emphasis on server health and monitoring. Of course, it is obvious that there cannot be enough security for any service if there isn’t enough internal monitoring on its status!

MCSE 70-293 exam is also about presenting all the above-mentioned topics in as many complicated scenarios as possible. Here you will not get many breathers of straightforward Multiple Choice Single Response (MCSR) questions in-between scenarios, because the MCSR questions in this exam either relate to some configuration parameter or a simpler scenario when compared to the Multiple Choice Multiple Response (MCMR) questions. By the end of the exam, you may be so tired after analyzing 30 different scenarios that you will be longing for those refreshing MCSR type of questions.

There are quite a few exhibit related, drag and drop, Hot area, and Multiple Choice Multiple Response (MCMR) questions. The best way to deal with them, if you are not too confident, is to use the trick of elimination. In the MCMR, first do away with the wrong answers and filter down to few answers that may be correct. To choose the best among those few correct answers, re-read the scenario and relate the scenario to those correct answers, it will help you consolidate on the exact best choice.

If you are not very comfortable with planning, design, deployment, and securing the Windows Server 2003 networks, I suggest you wait a bit and work hard to prepare yourself, before investing your time and money in this exam. It is not meant for inexperienced candidates aiming at it only as a certification. It is for serious professionals who have been working on mid-size to Enterprise size networks for at least a year.

If you do not have the required prerequisite Microsoft MCITP Certification you can always make up for it with a lot of reading, hands-on experience, and training. You can get hands-on experience with latest set of questions in our Preparation Kit and plan your study regime to ensure success.

To earn the Microsoft certified systems engineer certification and to prove capability in designing and implementation of the infrastructure for business solutions based on the Microsoft Windows 2003, 2003 platform and Microsoft Windows Server system, MCITP Certification and MCSA exam is the best medium.

MCITP exam is held to develop the expertise in designing and implementing Windows Server 2003-2002 and other issues related to it. In order to take an MCITP exam one needs to go through a fifteen -day MCITP training boot camp that helps in successfully becoming an MCSE. They use custom developed curriculum that is designed to provide both exam preparation and practical technology skills, ensuring that the examinee shall be ready for the performance based testing Microsoft has introduced in their certification programs. Experience instructors have been arranged who posses many years of experience of working with Microsoft operating system and technologies both in the field and in the classroom.

Computer training class are designed using advance PC technology, which provides each student having the ability to access various Microsoft operating systems simultaneously on their desktop. Due to this facility provided for MCITP exam, students can access any time to practice for the exam throughout in order to maintain their progress and determine the areas that require further study of those Microsoft operating systems.

Different kinds of resources are provided to both students and instructors under this boot camp while preparing for MCITP exam. These resources are based on web and also distribute them after and before the classroom session so that both of them can share information. The online forum assists them to analyze different methods of programming. These centers are available for obtaining the certification goals. Pre-class preparation is essential to ensure complete success in an MCITP exam.

In the beginning materials and instructions are handed out which define as to how to prepare for the exam. In addition to this, as earlier mentioned one gets to access online resources, which provide detailed course information, and additional preparation resources. These resources related to the discussion forums and private questions posed to the instructors also help in preparing for the MCITP exam as they help in clearing doubts and difficulties.

The boot camp for MCITP exam is set up to ensure the success rate for the examinees as well to prepare them before beginning of the classes. One testing voucher per MCITP exam is included with the course material. It ensures that the examinee is not misled. The limitation for the MCITP exam is provided during the class. Cost of retaking is borne by the examinee in case if he is unable to appear on the scheduled date. Also, if one feels that he would not be ready to take one or more exam during the boot camp then vouchers are handed out to enable the examinee to take the exam at a later date. This course can be retaken at free of cost but the testing fee and the courseware fee is not included. The validity for retaking the exams stands for six months.

The students should have at least six month of experience in using Windows NT, Windows 2000 Server or Windows 2003 server in a networking field to be eligible to attend the boot camp for the MCITP exam. Along with this there are several other pre-requisites for taking the exam. The candidate should have the knowledge of general networking concepts, IP addressing and sub-netting Active Directory networking services. This gives the opportunity to brush up on technology skills and fill in any gaps in the knowledge base.

ABCO Technology Computer Training Schools offer basic MCTS Training courses in specific operating systems like Linux or basic networking technologies. Associate certification course are also offered and tend to take one year to complete and prepare for jobs as systems analysts, database administrators, or middle level design positions. ABCO Technology computer training institute prepare individuals for higher-level computing and engineering jobs

Whos bothering to go for classrooms for an IT Certification? People are bored of classroom system of studies and taking the exams?? But to survive in the industry everyone needs a certification from a well-known company or a corporation. Now anyone can get any IT certification the admired companies on the first attempt or even the classes anywhere!! There are many online exam agents to help you for any IT certification form any legendary corporate like Microsoft, Cisco, Apple, Sun and some companies even provide CompTIA certification!! Now who heeds for classrooms or exams for IT certifications. You need not study for the certifications or even write the exams anywhere or any exam centers. The exams will be attended on your behalf by the exam agents. So go for the exam agents and get any IT certification!!

Most of the people do not go for IT certifications due to classroom techniques or are to avoid exams. To facilitate those people, there are exam agents who provide the genuine certificates for them from the respective companies without writing the exams. There are companies which offer certifications from dream companies like Microsoft which include MCSE certification, MCITP certification and MCTS certification. Some also provide Cisco certifications like CCNA certification and CCNP certification for people directly from the company. They also assure that it is a legal method as the exams are taken on the proper exam centers.

These exam agents can be contacted through the internet. There are many companies online which provide such services. Once you get to their site, they will display the courses provided by various companies or corporation. You can choose even more than one certification at a time. You have to choose the certificate you want from the company. Regarding the payment, they accept almost all the methods for payments. Some companies also encourage payment in installments. Once you have paid the complete amount or the first installment, you will receive the certificate within 2-6 business weeks. You will get the genuine certificates form the respective corporate directly to your home. All you have to do then is to notify the agent that you have received the certificate. If your name is cross-checked with the company, they surely will have the copy of your certificate. Also you will receive the exam results within 6-10 business days after registration for the course.

The companies usually provide the A+ graded certificates for courses like MCSE, MCITP Certification, MCTS Training, CCNA, CCNP certifications and also for other more requested certifications when approached through exam agents. The certificates required by many of the corporate are provided by most of the reputed companies including Microsoft, Linux, Cisco, Sun, Oracle and Apple. Your exams will be conducted in the authorized exam centers attended by certified instructors. Thus every process is done as for other regular applicants. Passing the exams is assured or else complete fees paid in advance will be refunded completely. You can also opt for single course or multiple courses, more than one course at a time. The payment varies according to the set of the courses selected by the people.

The competition is very tough these days, especially in the corporate world. In order to stand out from the crowd and be recognized by the top companies, many of the job candidates seek out widely recognized certification programs like MCTS Training programs. This training program proves to be an effective tool in convincing companies that they are the right candidates for the job.

Introduction to MCTS Training Programs

MCSE stands for The Microsoft Certified System Engineer and is well recognized by the top companies worldwide. The main objective of this training program in to assist candidates to design and implement infrastructures for the business solutions based on Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 platform.

The certification exam consists of 6 core exams and one elective exam. Once all the exams have been cleared, the candidate is awarded with a MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional) Certificate.

Benefits of MCSE Certification

This certification program is gaining a lot of popularity amongst IT professionals who wish to excel in accomplishing their career goals. Some of the benefits of MCSE Certification are enlisted below:

MCSE certifications are one of the most specialized certification available to the candidates
Software professionals, upon successful completion of the exam are respected, acknowledged and rewarded for their expertise in Microsoft technologies and products
You can be assured of a salary hike in your present job, thereby making you the most preferred one in the organization
It also adds to better job security and satisfaction
The MCSE certification program can also be coupled with many other certification programs in order to boost your career and gain knowledge about the latest technologies and services in the IT industry.

Job Titles Associated Upon Completion Of The Program

IT companies are always on a lookout for candidates who can increase the sales of their products and services and who can effectively manage, support and troubleshoot system and network environments based on the Microsoft platform.

The job titles upon successful completion of the training program include:

Network Engineer
System Engineer
Technical Consultant
Network Analyst
System Analyst
Basic Requirements of the Training Program

Like any other training programs, there are certain basic requirements that need to be fulfilled in order to take up the MCTS Training exam. These requirements are as follows:

The candidate can either opt for advanced or specialized certification programs depending on his knowledge, skill and expertise. The basic requirements generally include one to two years of experience in the field of administering and implementation of network operating systems. The experience can also be in relation to designing network infrastructures or a client operating system.

Preparation for the Exam

This training program can be conducted in many ways. There are a number of online websites that provide study guides and materials allowing the students to prepare for the exams with a minimum loss of time and expense.

Another method, adopted by many students is by attending the MCITP Certification boot camp. These boot camps offer vigorous training in order to prepare the students for the examinations as quickly as possible. Some of them even offer lodging and meals to the students.

Looking for a reputable institution that can provide training for certification of networking? Do you have a passion to pass well known, the certification exams? Expect a promotion or a higher position? Are you ready to change your current job to get some new organization? Want to update your knowledge and make your future bright? But today is a tough job to provide all the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve your dreams if you have no background in computing or if you have an IT background but your ideas are not healthy.

There is little hope for turning your dreams into reality because Certkingdom.com/ provides you an opportunity to submit certificates of leading the IT industry. Mcitp MCTS Training mcse.com conducts examinations of the popular IT certifications and also provides training from the famous IT certifications. If you are also looking to spend some assurance IT certifications famous then probably Mcitp mctsmcs.com also offers 100% passing guarantee. MCITP Certification mcts mcse.com should be your first choice. Its formation mechanism makes your preparation easy and simple. In short course of time, you can easily pass your certification. The famous IT certifications open the door to success and give you the security of your career enhancement. By availing of our training program you will complete your IT certification in less time without tension. So keep you free of tension. Our study material is 100% updated according to the requirements of suppliers. Do not miss the opportunity for your success

What Could be more esay than IT certification Like Microsft Certification, CompTIA certification, ITIL Certification, LPI certification, Juniper Certification, Blackberry Certification, CWNP certification and lots more…You can be IT certified at Home, get 15% discount on all Microsoft Exam, So You can get IT certified without hassle and even if are not an expert. We provide IT certification Like Microsoft Certification.

Under Creative Commons License: Attribution No Derivatives Exam 70-270 is one of the Microsoft certification examinations and the name of the examination is MCITP Certification Windows XP. This certification is designed for the candidates who wish to gain knowledge and skills in the ability to solve the end user incident request by troubleshooting as well as configuring windows XP operating system. This examination is one of the examinations for certifying MCITP certification. Exam 70-271 is the other examination for certifying with MCITP.

Prerequisites for this examination:
For writing this exam, there are no specific prerequisites required for the candidates but it is recommended to have some basic knowledge about the Windows XP operating system like Windows XP home edition, XP professionals that include with Microsoft office tools as well as Microsoft outlook express.

How to practice for the exam?
Candidates can practice for this exam by reading the following sections and they are:
1) Installation process of windows XP professionals on your computer
2) Configuration of internet connection firewall components (ICF)
3) Configuration as well as testing several TCP/ IP by using commands such as PATCHPING, PING and TRACERT. Exam objectives:

The following are the examination objectives of 70-270

Exam and they are:
1) Configuring application security
2) Solving issues that is related with usability
3) Troubleshooting as well as configuring applications
4) Solving issues related with customizing applications
5) Troubleshooting as well as configuration connectivity for the applications.

Job roles and other details of the exam:
After successful completion of this examination, candidates can get several job opportunities for several positions in the top companies. Some of the job roles include: PC support specialists, technical support specialists, customer support representatives etc. The exam comprises of 50 multiple choices, drag-drop, built a tree, reorder type questions. Time duration is approximately 90 minutes and the minimum score to pass in this examination is 700 out of 1000 (70%). John recommends Certkingdom.com as Exam Preparation tool for IT MCTS Training preparation like 70-270 and 70-270. Visit to download Certkingdom.com free.

Even “power users” of Windows XP would likely fail the Windows XP examination without any preparation. As its name suggests, the “Microsoft Exam 70270: Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows XP Professional” test covers much ground that typical users are unlikely to have encountered before. The tested material is decidedly administrative in nature, covering the kinds of tasks that a systems engineer or administrator would normally cover. As such, the 70-270 covers such topics as:

*Streamline the installation of XP over multiple computers
*Manage local security policy
*Ensure performance and reliability on systems
*Maximize efficiency and productivity on XP systems and networks

Like mainly other Microsoft exams, this one is also geared towards as long as core credits for a Microsoft certification, which in this container is MCSA OR Microsoft Certified System Administrator. Microsoft has a assortment of certifications for beginners and IT professionals, two of the most well-known being MCSA 2003 Certification and MCSE 2003 Certification or Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. Each certification has a set of exams linked with it, and when a person clears all these exams, he/she gets the documentation.

This 70-299 Exam provides the applicant with a MCTIP Certification or Microsoft Certified Professional position after clearing it. It also provides with core credits for MCSA, and MCSE: Security on Microsoft Windows Server 2003. Moreover, it also gives not obligatory credits for MCSA, and MCSE on Microsoft Windows Server 2003. There is a diversity of technical tasks that you need to identify in order to clear this demanding exam. Thus, the skills measured comprise implementing, managing and troubleshooting security policies; implementing, managing and troubleshooting scrap management infrastructure; implementing, managing and troubleshooting security for network communications; and preparation, configuring and troubleshooting authentication, authorization and PKI.

All Microsoft exams are fairly challenging to clear, and the 70-299 one is no dissimilar. Microsoft recommends that people have thorough hypothetical as well as practical information with hands- on experience and practice. There is classroom training on hand for the exam along with a variety of online possessions that candidates appearing for the exam can access. Apart from these, there
are various other kinds of preparation equipment too that one can easily find in the marketplace.

The Microsoft 70-299 Implementing and Administering Security in a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network exam is one of the more difficult of the core exams for the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certifications based on Windows Server 2003. This
Microsoft 70-299 exam measures the skills related to planning, implementing, and maintaining security in medium to very large network environments based on the Windows Server 2003 operating system. This Microsoft 70-299 Implementing and Administering
Security in a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network exam is intended for MCSE candidates who work in medium to very large computing environments supporting 250 to more than 5000 users and use Windows Server 2003 as its network operating system and Windows XP
Professional or Windows 2000 Server Professional on its client computers.

The Microsoft 70-299 Implementing and Administering Security in a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network exam tests a candidates ability to plan, implement, and maintain security in a Windows Server 2003 network in medium to very large network environments.
It is advised that you have a minimum of six to twelve months experience in administering clients and network operating systems in medium to very large corporations. There are no prerequisites for the Microsoft 70-299 Implementing and Administering Security in a
Microsoft MCTS Training Windows Server 2003 Network exam. Once you pass the Microsoft 70-299 Implementing and Administering Security in a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network exam the candidate will achieve Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) status if it is the first MCSE Certification that you pass.

There are many online resources for preparing for the 70-297 Exam Designing a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory and Network Infrastructure. Read below to discover why Certkingdom.com is your premier source for practice tests, and true testing environment.You reasons for selecting the leader in online certification preparation – Certkingdom.com.

The Microsoft 70-297 Practice tests that we can provide are based on the extensive research and real-world experiences from our online trainers, with over 10 years of IT and certification experience. Custom written content for on-the-go professionals such as yourself. 70-297 exam training, including 70-297 questions and answers feed into our larger product base. You can also enjoy 70-297 study Guides, 70-297 preparation Labs, and the new and improved 70-297 Audio Exams to pass certification(s) MCSE, MCITP Certification 2003, MCSE 2003 Messaging.

For a limited time only, buy the full set of Microsoft 70-297 exam training materials, and save 10% on your purchase. Reinvest that money in you victory dance, after you become the next Microsoft certification holder – from passing your 70-297 exam.

Q. What is the pre-requisite for taking the test 70-297?

A. The test is appropriate for you if you are working or want to work in a typically complex computing environment of medium-to-large organizations. There are no specific prerequisites for this test,although it is recommended that you have at least one year of experience implementing and administering network operating systems in network environments.

Q. What certification does it provide?

A. Microsofts 70-297 test is designed to measure your ability to design a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory and network infrastructure. The certification validates your skills that include Creating the Logical Design for an Active Directory Infrastructure and a Network Services Infrastructure and Creating the Physical Design for an Active Directory and Network Infrastructure. Upon passing this test, you will become a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP).

Q. Which certification does it cover?

A. Passing this test will also help you achieve the MCTS Training and Citrix Certified Integration Architect (CCIA) certification.

Q. How many questions are asked in the exam?

A. You will be required to attempt approximately 50 questions. If you do not have time to prepare for the exam, you have your exams taken by others. Some companies have partnership with certain Prometric and Pearson VUE testing centres. This partnership facilitates those people that are interested to have their exams completed by proxy. This means that when they have received the basic candidate information they can complete any exam for anybody.

Q. What is the duration of the exam?

A. Users are required to attempt all questions in 120 minutes.

Q. Which type of the exam is it? (Adaptive/Linear)

A. This test consists of Multiple Choice, Hot Area, Drag and Drop, Build list and reorder, and Build a Tree questions. The test can be adaptive, and simulation questions might be asked. This test includes Case Study type questions.

Q. What is the passing score?

A. To pass the exam, you need a score of 700 out of 1000.

Q. What is the exam retake policy?

A. If you do not pass test 70-297 the first time, you may retake it at any time. If you do not achieve a passing score the second time, you must wait at least14 days to retake the test a third time. A 14-day waiting period will be imposed for all subsequent exam retakes. If you have passed an exam, you cannot take it again.

Q. Where can the test 70-297 be taken?

A. Microsoft exams may be taken at Prometric testing facilities. Pass your Microsoft exams quickly and easily.

Microsoft CRM is equipped with features that can help a business improve its sales and marketing strategies and improve its customer service. Its features allow businesses to communicate better with their customers, employees, business partners, and vendors.

Sales Team

One of the features of the CRM solution is that it allows businesses to easily access their customer data online and offline. When your sales team has access to complete customer data, they can easily identify and create leads. Moreover, they will be in a better position to create a sales strategy that is flexible and effective. The software provides information regarding sales, products, and quotes on the click of the mouse.

For The Marketing Team

Microsoft MCTS Training CRM features tools that are of great value to the marketing department. It helps the marketing professionals to categorize customers into different segments and then create a marketing strategy for each segment. It also features tools that marketing executives can use to create customer data and use this data to plan campaigns.

With the help of information sharing portals, marketing executives can share their information and data across the business structure using computers.

Improving Customer Service

Its customer centric features help improve customer service. With the help of Microsoft CRM, business staff is able to respond to customer questions faster and accurately. From the contact point to sale point, the staff is able to keep a track on the customer. It helps staff to anticipate and address a customer issue in a consistent and reliable manner. Better customer service always translates into more business.

Today, Microsoft MCITP Certification CRM provides multilingual support. In other words, businesses that have customers or departments who converse in French, Brazilian, Spanish, or Portuguese can do so easily with CRM Microsoft.

The CRM software can easily integrate with the Microsoft Dynamics GP. An integration of the two systems means improvement in productivity in the sales, financial, marketing, and service departments across the business.

So basically with its sales, marketing, and customer service features, it is able to provide a business with competitive edge on others.

The major advantage of the OST file is that it enables Microsoft Outlook users to access all your emails, notes, contacts, and other data in Non-Exchange environment. When you are using the OST file, you need to download all your emails every time when you connect to Microsoft Exchange Server. Only the new emails are downloaded and OST file is updated. You can create notes, tasks, appointments, journals, edit mails, and delete mails, while you are offline.

In some situations, you may find that OST to PST conversion can not take place. You can not access your Exchange Server mailbox. Such situations generally include the following ones:

1)Synchronization Errors- If you are unable to connect with Exchange Server due to synchronization problems, the conversion can not be completed successfully.
2)User Mailbox Deletion or Corruption- In case your Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox gets damaged or deleted, you can not connect to Microsoft MCITP Certification Exchange server. In such situations, you can use OST file to recover your data.
3)Exchange Server is Down- If Exchange Server is not working properly or it is down due to hardware or software failure, you may need to manually convert OST file.
4)Exchange Server Database (EDB File) is Damaged- If EDB file is damaged, you can not connect to Exchange Server and access the mailbox. To fix this behavior, convert OST to PST and restore the damaged mailbox.

You can manually convert the unusable or orphaned OST file to usable PST using third-party Exchange OST recovery software. The applications use advanced conversion algorithms to ensure absolute conversion of all your valuable data. They are incorporated with highly-interface and self-descriptive graphical user interface to offer easy conversion.

Stellar Phoenix Mailbox Exchange Desktop is the most excellent solution to ensure absolute, safe, and easy conversion of unusable OST file. The software works well with Microsoft Outlook 2007, 2003, 2002, and 2000. It effectively converts all OST file objects, such as emails, notes, tasks, contacts, and more.

MCTS fundamentally stands for Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. Post the attainment of this certification, a candidate is talented to display expertise in designing and implementing infrastructure Microsoft Windows 2000 server. Candidates setting up to go in for this certification should at least have one to two years of experience designing, configuring, and installing and troubleshooting network systems. The MCTS certification is quite tough to achieve, and is meant only for the solemn minded. This is the only cause why unlike many other kinds of certifications, this one demands some experience in the candidate side view.

After captivating the path of a basic MCTS certification, you have the option to choose a kind of specialization. This would detectably depend on your interests as well as your career goals and targets. The good thing in taking the MCTS certification from Microsoft MCITP Training is that you will have a reputed and respected name on your CV, which will give you an edge over the others when you look for a spirited job profile.

Information of all kinds such as examination course outline, course material, exam schedules, marking scheme etc. is all regularly updated on the Microsoft website. One can always find the applicable information there, along with a list of FAQs too.

Windows installation, in case of DVD Drive Failure, has always been a big issue. I remember when my DVD Drive stopped working once and my laptop window was corrupted by some virus attack. It took me about 3 days on searching on the net, trying to find a tool to install my windows from USB Microsoft MCTS Training.

Almost every tool I search for installing windows was either paid tool or was only USB bootable, and did not helped me in installing my windows. At a point I managed to copy all of my windows files to USB and make it bootable but as there are a lot of installation files, it took too much time even to start the installation process. After wasting my 3 days, I finally bought an IDE to USB cable, attached it with an External DVD Drive which was being powered up by a PC’s power supply. And finally after all my efforts, I was able to install windows with an external DVD Drive.
This kept me thinking for a while that how difficult it could be for Novice users to install windows on their laptop in case of DVD Drive failure. Even though every laptop comes with a system restore option, but what if it also get corrupts and DVD Drive is not working.
After a long time it seems that Microsoft also has realized this issue. They recently have launched Windows 7 USB/DVD tool, which allows you to take an ISO image and turn it into bootable flash drive.

This USB windows installer is created not only for laptop users but for any one that purchased Windows 7 from Microsoft official website. This tool allows you to create an ISO copy of your windows 7 on a USB flash or on DVD Microsoft MCITP Training.

During Windows 7 purchasing from Microsoft store, you have the option to download and ISO file or compressed file. The Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool allows you to create a copy of your Windows 7 ISO on a USB flash drive or DVD. Making a USB flash drive bootable is real easy. Just download the ISO file and run the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool. Once it is done you will have the option to install your Windows 7 directly from USB. And ass the ISO file is compressed, the process will take lot less time than uncompressed windows files on your USB from any other USB bootable tool.
Please note that if you use a Flash Drive, It must have at least 4GB space to copy the complete compressed ISO File.
To install the Windows 7 all you need to do is to insert the USB flash drive to your USB port or insert your DVD into your DVD drive and run setup.exe from the root folder of the drive. You also will have to select your USB or DVD drive as your primary bootable option during setup.
The Final Part: You might be wondering that what is so cool about this tool. The coolest part of this entire story is that this software has been launched as open source. Microsoft had concerns about this project to be launched as open source. It was first launched with program self closure source and without proper documentation, but later with an explanation of “Internal Mistake” it was re-launched again and declared as open source for all to use.

People have no doubts on the product if it is having the label of western digital. Western digital products are easily available in the markets. They believe in doing continues innovations and due to this reason they keep on adding new products in their product lists. They spend a considerable amount of money in their research and development department so as to provide new features to their consumers.

WD caviar black is a popular product of western digital owing to its following features.

Great electronic and strong mechanical architecture.

It has dual processor. This in turn maximizes performance.

Recording head of this hard drive never touches media of the disk due to which recording media and head has less wear. It gives better protection to the drive as well.

WD Caviar Black has a bigger cache up to sixty four MB so as to improve performance.

They are having massive capacity to store a large amount of data.

They are having 2 Terabyte capacities.

WD Caviar Black comes with a warranty of five years.

These hard disk drives are tried and tested many times in their FIT lab. This is done to ensure that western digital hard disk drive will perform well on consumers computers.

It has dual actuator technology.

Motor shaft is present on both ends. This in turn stabilize platters and reduce vibrations that are induced due to system while writing and reading operations.

WD Caviar Black is ideal for all applications including video editing, photo editing and operations related to multimedia.

All the above features are responsible for WD Caviar Black popularity.

A question can come in consumers mind that how western digital drives protect their data. Hard disk drives of western digital are coming up with data lifeguard tools. These data lifeguard tools are the utilities that make hard disk drive installation, repair and diagnostic simple and tension free. Data lifeguard is a feature which is used for data protection. It includes shock protection as well. It finds, detects and isolates problems. Not only this, it tries to repair all the problems that develop on the hard drive over the life time Microsoft MCITP Training.

Shock guard technology protects the disk from damage due to vibrations and bumps when the hard disk is working. It is due to this technology western digital caviar drives are having shock specifications.

So, one can see how much pains western digital is taking to provide a nice, genuine and great product to its consumers. They feel that customer money is important and they should not waste it and should pay full price for their money.

* Automatic Address Configuration – Stateful hosts use DHCPv6. Stateless hosts configure themselves.
* Header Size – Non-essential and optional fields are found in extension headers.
* Routing Table Size – Designed to be more efficient.
* Network Level Security – IPSec is now mandatory.
* Real Time Data Delivery – payload encryption does not affect QoS.
* Removal of Broadcast Traffic – Neighbour discovery replaces ARP broadcasts, ICMPv4, Router Discovery and ICMPv4 redirect messages.
* IPV6 Address Structure
* IPv6 Address Syntax

IPv6 is a 128-address divided into 16-bit boundaries. Each 16 bit block is converted to a 4 bit hex number and colons are used to separate the bits. Leading zeros can be removed and long sequences of zeros can be compressed. For example 21cd:0048:0000:0000:03ac:ae45:8e4c can be expressed as 21cd:48::3ac:ae45:8e4c
IPv6 Address Prefix

Like we do in IPv4 and express subnets as 192.168.12.0/24, we can also do this in IPv6 and would look like 21cd:53::/64
IPv6 Address Types

* Unicast
* Multicast
* Anycast

IPv6 Unicast Addresses

* Global
* Link-Local
* Site-Local
* Special
* Network Service Access Point and Internet Packet Exchange mapped addresses Microsoft MCTS Training

Planning an IPv4 to IPv6 Transition Strategy

Those Strategies include:

* Dual Stack Transition
* Configured Tunneling Transition
* Automatic Tunneling
* 6to4
* Teredo
* Intra-Site Automatic Tunnel Addressing Protocol

Implementing IPv4-to-IPv6 Compatibility

* IPv4 Compatible Address
* IPv4 Mapped Address
* Teredo Address
* ISATAP Addresses

Using IPv6 Tools

Ping works by specifying the IPv6 address. IPconfig /all will show you the IPv6 setting and IPv4 settings. Netsh interface ipv6 – ipv6 added to netsh interface commands specifies the IPv6 stack
Configuring Clients through DHCPv6

Configuring a DHCPv6 scope is very much the same as configuring an IPv4 DHCP scope. Page 87 of the book goes through a great description of configuring DHCPv6. Remember the 80/20 rule.
Planning an IPv6 Network

There are three steps to planning your IPv6 network. First step is to identify and analyze hardware requirements. Look at all the hardware you have and identify if it will all work with IPv6. If not, will you replace this hardware or continue to support the hardware.

The second step is to analyze software and application requirements Microsoft MCITP Certification. Does everything work with IPv6? If not, how will you support these applications?

Finally your last step is to document the requirements. How many sites are there, how should the prefix allocation be delegated, etc. These three steps will take a lot of time but once complete, you can draw up the project plan. Project planning isn’t covered in this lesson.

That’s all for Chapter 2, Lesson 1. There is a lot of information to digest there and for most of us, its relatively new and will take some time work through and understand it. Lesson 2 of the chapter covers Configuring DNS.

The short answer is, “It’s a Windows thing.” Windows has long included a set of base classes for encryption and authentication. (If you’re old enough, you might remember that the full-strength version of Windows encryption couldn’t be exported to some countries.) Rather than re-invent the wheel, Exchange uses the encryption and signing methods provided by Windows whenever possible. In the case of SSL/TLS, Exchange can do much of its own certificate management—including generating self-signed certificates—but all of the actual crypto is done by Windows Microsoft MCTS Training.

Exchange also uses Windows’ authentication methods. Windows authentication services are provided by modules known as Security Support Providers (SSP). These SSPs provide interfaces that let clients encrypt, decrypt, sign, and verify data by using a particular set of security protocols. There are SSPs for Kerberos and NTLM. For DAG encryption, Exchange uses the Kerberos SSP. After two applications or endpoints have completed a handshake process to let them come up with a shared encryption key, they can both make calls to the SSPs on their local machines to process the data blocks.

Exchange always tries to pick the strongest possible encryption algorithm from the list of those supported by the host OS. For Windows Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2, that means the 256-bit version of the US Federal Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), ideally with Secure Hash Algorithm-1 (SHA-1) used as a Hashed Message Authentication Code (HMAC). On the compression front, DAGs use the familiar LZ77 algorithm, which is used to compress GIF files and in tons of other places. Microsoft calls its implementation “XPRESS,” for some reason that I haven’t been able to figure out; Microsoft uses this implementation in a few other products besides Exchange.

Outlook uses many of these same mechanisms; for example, MAPI RPC compression between Exchange and Outlook uses XPRESS, and MAPI RPC encryption can use the Kerberos SSP (or the NTLM SSP, which isn’t available for DAGs.) That’s no big surprise, given that these capabilities are built into Windows. Why reinvent the wheel Microsoft MCITP Training?

To control these options in a live DAG, Set-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup is your friend. By default, newly created DAGs use encryption only when replicating across different subnets, with no encryption used during seeding operations. You can change this setting with the -NetworkEncryption switch; just set it to Enabled instead of InterSubnetOnly. In like manner, compression is normally enabled only for cross-subnet replication, but the -NetworkCompression switch lets you fix that right up.

Note that these properties are associated with the DAG itself, not the underlying DAG network. For that reason, you can set these properties only when the DAG (and its underlying physical nodes) are up—the settings are node-level properties.

Alert readers will note that I haven’t made any mention of using IPsec, one of my favorite technologies, to encrypt communications between DAG members. What about using IPsec with DAGs? That’s a topic for another UPDATE!

“In a world of choice, IE 8 is the browser more individuals are choosing every single day, at rates that exceed any competing browser,” a Microsoft spokesperson said. “IE 8 is leading the pack: It’s the fastest growing browser in history and is currently number one across Windows and all OSs. Most important, this past month more users chose IE 8 than Chrome or Firefox. And with the IE 9 platform preview receiving over a million downloads thus far, IE is positioned for a strong future.”

IE 8′s strong showing flies in the face of continued bad news for Microsoft’s browsers, which overall have been on a downward slide for quite some time. But IE held steady between April and May, overall, and as noted previously, it is still the market leader. In fact, it’s not even close. According to NPD, IE controls 60 percent of the market for browsers worldwide, compared with 24 percent for Firefox, 7 percent for Chrome, and 5 percent for Apple Safari, Microsoft MCTS Training.

IE 8 usage grew .81 percent in the month, two and a half times the rate of the next fastest growing browser, Chrome, which grew .32 percent. Firefox usage fell slightly over the month, as the browser continues to miss the vaunted 25 percent mark.

But what if you could remotely access another computer’s USB devices? With such a technology, you could:

· Print to someone else’s USB printer.

· Use a USB hard drive to share files with other computers.

· Share one scanner or fax machine across a small office.

OK, so perhaps it’s a selective bunch that has such a need and doesn’t already have a shared network with a networked printer/scanner, but if you’re one of them, you might want to check out USB to Ethernet Connector from Eltima Software. The product is quite simple: you connect to another computer (via VPN, a router, etc.), and then you can “share” any device connected by USB. While sharing, that device becomes inaccessible to you, but the other computer can access it. (You can build this connection across any number of computers, but only one computer can access the device at a time. Sharing is caring.)

There are some limitations and concerns. The program only works with USB devices, so you could only use an external hard drive or a USB printer or scanner, for instance. As a long-term solution for a small/virtual business, it could be frustrating since you have to share the devices one by one.

USB to Ethernet Connector starts at $89.95 per computer to share one device. Sharing more than one device is an additional cost. To learn more, visit the Eltima Software website Microsoft MCITP Certification.

Challenge #1, assigned to Pamela Dingle, was to “Compose and recite haiku regarding claims-based authentication, federation, and PKI.” Here’s the Powerpoint slide show we cooked up in response. (Should you feel an overwhelming desire to have one of these on your desk as an inspirational poster, a PDF is available here.)

Challenge #2, assigned to Laura Hunter, was to write and perform a short play regarding an Active Directory forest melt down and recovery. Due to time pressures (she had actual real presentations to work on – go figure) Laura opted to write two sonnets instead. (You really need to see her performing them to get the full effect, and we’re working on that.)

Challenge #3, assigned to Brad Turner, was to simulate the function of the Forefront Identity Manager (FIM) sync engine using cardboard, duct tape, and string. Brad and his team did a great job; you definitely need to see the video when it becomes available to appreciate the degree of silliness these otherwise responsible adults engaged in. I’m sure it will become a mainstay of the FIM instructional curriculum MCITP Certification.

The way I see it, there are four main reasons why troubleshooting AD in general, and AD replication in particular, is difficult:

* You aren’t really trained in a formal troubleshooting methodology.
* You don’t approach the problem logically and rigorously.
* You don’t really understand how replication works.
* You don’t understand how the tools work.

How much each of these applies to you depends on your background and your job. If you come from the scientific or engineering fields before you were an AD admin, you may be pretty good on the first two. If you’re a full time AD admin for a big company, or a hotshot AD consultant, you’re probably pretty good on the last two. But very few of us are good at all four. And you need all of them to be good at the really tough AD problems. Let’s take a look at the first point MCTS Training.

You aren’t really trained in a formal troubleshooting methodology. Most of us learned how to troubleshoot from our coworkers that were already working in our area. My undergraduate degree was in Electrical Engineering (though I can barely screw in a light bulb now), so I had developed a fair amount of rigor. But in my experience, IT pros aren’t consciously aware of following a formal methodology. Fortunately, there’s a good one lying around for you to simplify and use – the scientific method. Here’s a boiled-down version:

1. Use Your Experience. For example, a DC can’t communicate with its partners. Have you seen this before? Does this fit in a framework? What does the problem “smell like”?
2. Form a conjecture. Could a network firewall rule have changed?
3. Deduce a prediction from that explanation. Some, or all, connectivity will be lost between the DC and systems outside (but not inside) the firewall.
4. Test. Use ping and tracert to map out the connectivity.

This may sound overly simplistic, but what I’m trying to point out is that most troubleshooters aren’t actively aware of using a method. When you’re working through a complex problem, instinct will only take you so far; you need to consciously use a troubleshooting methodology MCITP Certification.

Next time I’ll lay out my favorite troubleshooting principles that fit into this methodology.

There are other camps such as the MCTS boot camp that serves and functions in the same way that the Microsoft MCTS Online Training does but offers training in targeting specific technologies. There are 20 different MCTS certifications that can obtained with each one having multiple courses and multiple exams.

A MCTS certification boot camp or a MCTS boot camp will cost you and most fees for the intense training include the course fee, the exam fee, course material, room and board and other services. One perk about the camps is that they can be located any where in the world. Some camps may be in a location that will allow you to enjoy a small vacation in between training. How does a beach resort grab you? Or a training camp in the Himalaya Mountains? These are locations that some certified camps are located in. A Microsoft MCTS Online Training will provide you with everything to help you succeed from small class sizes, hands on labs and one on one tutoring if needed. Most will offer you pre tests to help you prepare for your final exams.

The price for a stay at a MCTS certification boot camp ranges anywhere from the thousands of dollars and the longer your training is the more you will pay. There are situations where you may need to stay longer for any number of reasons and some camps will allow you to extend your stay for an additional fee.

You can think of a Microsoft MCTS Online Training as summer camp in some ways. For instance, great locations, room and board provided and daily activities but remember this is very intense training program that teaches professionals the technical knowledge to become Microsoft certified. This is not a camp for a beginner PC user but for users that have highly advanced skills when it comes to computers.

The curriculum specialist salary varies depending on the location, type of school or district, education level and experience. The median expected salary for curriculum specialists in the United States is $64,743, but it will be lower in the beginning of ones career and higher as one gains additional experience. In most cases, curriculum specialist jobs require a masters degree. Public school systems also require that the individual is licensed to hold this job, either as a teacher or as an educational administrator. The required training in curriculum development and instruction, as well as training in a particular subject area in some cases, is why the curriculum specialist salary is higher than that of a typical schoolteacher or Microsoft MCTS Training.

Since the curriculum specialist job description includes so many skills, tasks and knowledge areas associated with the teaching job, many of the curriculum specialists currently working are former teachers. Educational administrators, even principals, often choose to take this career path when they are ready for a new challenge or just looking to step into a different role.

About 40 percent of all curriculum specialists work for public schools, 20 percent work for private schools, and the rest work for consulting agencies, family service providers and state governments. It is a challenging job requiring a level head and good critical thinking and analysis skills, as well as people skills. Many curriculum specialists also have technology knowledge and various language skills, as two of the fastest growing segments of this career are in the technology and English as a Second Language curriculum. If you choose this educational career, you will have many options available to you. Career Explained

In case you are a Software Application Developer, you must consider adding MCAD (Microsoft Certified Application Developed) and MCPD (Microsoft Certified Professional Developer) certifications to your resume. MCPD will sharpen your skills related to software development on a variety of platforms using Microsoft NET Framework 2.0. Those who want to improve their analyzing and designing expertise must certainly go for MCSD (Microsoft Certified Solution Developer). This will let you grab the chance of having complete knowledge of the application lifecycle from analysis through design, testing, development and maintenance.

If you are a system engineer, then you can go for several Microsoft Certification courses, such as MCSE or MCSA. These courses will always be an added advantage in your career path. MCSE provides you the ability of enhancing your skills related to analysis of business requirements and design and implementation of infrastructures. Being an IT Business Analysts, you should go for MCP or MCSD certifications; the better opportunity is to start with an Office Specialist Certification. The particular certification will make you an expert in using Microsoft Office products. After having the Certification for Office Specialist, you should then go on to add MCP. At the same time, the certification of MCSD would be the final certification in your field. This is as it would cover the complete application lifecycle including analysis, design, testing, development and maintenance. Office Specialist Certification is quite helpful for technical writers, office managers and executive assistants MCTS Training.

On the other hand, if you are a System Analyst, then you would take advantage of MCAD or MCSD certifications. The first certification will make you familiar with the application lifecycle from development to maintenance. Conversely, if you truly want to develop your career path, you must go for MCSD, which will teach you everything about the application lifecycle.
For Software engineers, Microsoft offers MCSD and MCITP Certification; the first one will make you sharpen your skills in designing and development using Microsoft development tools, technologies and platforms and the later one will equip you with the skills to analyze, design and implement infrastructures.

70-291 Question Answers are particularly designed for Network Administrators. If you are a regular user of Microsoft Windows and back office applications, the particular certification will help you adding knowledge to do the analysis, design and implementing infrastructures. So regardless of the field you are in, you can take advantage of all Microsoft certifications. The foremost thing to be decided is the certification which will work the best for you and then ensue from there. You can improve your skills and you can perform better. This is how you can enjoy a more productive career path.

You would also need to have experience resolving issues concerning network connectivity, desktop operating systems, security, and applications. Additional experience would also include addressing logon problems, performing password resets, and resolving most issues with desktop applications.

My exam was taken this morning – I was seriously unimpressed with the 70-620. It covers configuring Vista – or at least the new features, UAC, the Wireless connectivity, presentation settings etc etc.

If this is your very first Microsoft exam then its an easy introduction – if you have any significant history with Microsoft exams you will find it very easy – too easy.

Microsofts MCTS Training: Windows Vista, Configuration (Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist) certification is a latest certification on the Windows Vista technology. The MCTS: Windows Vista,Configuration certification has been designed for professionals who have a thorough knowledge in installing, managing and configuring Windows Vista including new features such as security,network, and applications.

The MCITP certification is also available on Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and free certification exam papers.

Getting MCTS Windows Vista certified is easy. Some companies have partnership with certain Prometric and Pearson VUE testing centres. This partnership facilitates those people that are interested to have their exams completed by proxy. This means that when they have received the basic candidate information they can complete any exam for anybody. And you will get certified.You can get your money back, if they do not pass your exams.

The questions are about which menu option do you choose or which button do you click. Very little, if any, understanding of the underlying concepts is required to pass this exam.

I thought the NT exams were fairly easy. Things started to get more challenging with the Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 exams. This is a complete reversal.

I hope this isn’t setting the standard for exams to come in the Windows 2008 wave of products.

We are proud to offer you a specialized service for IT professionals that are interested in having the certification process dealt with quickly, and without any problems. When you provide us with the necessary information that is required to have the certificati