This year, the Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) has a 10th year anniversary, and like last year this great event is located at the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas. The first day at a conference is always very special. You can fell the excitement in the air from the attendees, Microsoft employees and the guest speakers that’s just can’t wait to get started.
My schedule for the first day was the following:
- 10:30 – 11.45 Introduction to Windows PowerShell for Absolute Beginners
- 12:00 – 13:15 Windows 7 Deployment: Introduction to Microsoft Deployment Tools
- 13:30 – 14:45 SQL Performance Tips for SMS and ConfigMgr Reporting Gurus
- 15:00 – 16:15 Roadmap and Introduction to Windows 7 for Enterprise Customers
- 16:30 – 17:45 Windows 7 Networking Overview
- 17:45 – 18:45 Welcome Reception
- 19:00 – 22.00 The Danish Welcome Reception
Introduction to Windows PowerShell for Absolute Beginners
I don’t have much experience using PowerShell, but I think it’s clear to everyone, that PowerShell will be around for a while, so I thought that I might as well get started.
This session was a hands-on Lab that gave the basic knowledge on how to perform simple tasks IT management tasks, but more important it gave me a solid foundation to learn advanced PowerShell topics.
The speaker in this session was James McCaffrey, and I think he did an awesome job making this scripting lab both funny and exciting. This hands-on lab runs several times during this week, so if you have the time, and want to get started with PowerShell, this is the lab you don’t want to miss.
Windows 7 Deployment: Introduction to Microsoft Deployment Tools
With Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 coming, Microsoft is also releasing a new version of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT 2010). This lab was a basic introduction to the updated Deployment Workbench. If you’ve previously worked with MDT LiteTouch scenarios, you might find this session a bit boring. The Speaker/Instructor was Jeremy Chapman, and I thing he did a great job.
SQL Performance Tips for SMS and ConfigMgr Reporting Gurus
This session was at a very high technical level, and was presented by ConfigMgr MVPs Brian Mason and Steve Thompson, that showed how speed up SQL Queries and Web reports. They also shared how they would and would not configure the ConfigMgr SQL Server. Great session, with some nice demos.
Roadmap and Introduction to Windows 7 for Enterprise Customers
This session was a basic "what’s new" session, on Windows 7, but with a high technical level. We got some great info on the Windows client roadmap and what will be changed in fundamentals and deployment. There was some nice demos I can use for inspiration for our upcoming event later in May, where I get to speak about Windows 7 on the Keynote.
I think Jeremy Chapman, did a good job pointing out some of the main reasons to upgrade to Windows 7 when you’re an administrator. But I think that he covered too many subjects. You can’t make a techical session in 75 mins. that covers all the new features in Windows 7.
Windows 7 Networking Overview
This session was dedicated to two subjects. DirectAccess and BranchCache. To me there’s no doubt. DirectAccess is THE feature in Windows 7, that everyone wants to implement frist if they could. DirectAccess enables the Information Worker to work anywhere as long as they have access to the Internet. This feature is really hard to demo in a "TechSexy" way, but I’m sure that everyone in the room was convinced that this feature will solve many problem, that most of us are facing today.
The Welcome Reception, was… hmm…. Well, we got free beers and free food (And my badge for the myITforum.com party). What else can you ask for 🙂
The Danish Welcome Reception is always something I look forward to. This is a great opportunity to meet with costumers and "colleagues" from other Danish consulting companies. This year was no exception, but there is no doubt that the global economy has reached MMS as well… This year there in less than 90 Danish attendees compared with more than 200 last year.
This completes my first day at MMS, and I’m really looking forward to the rest of the week here in Las Vegas.
