SQL Server 2014 will be generally available April 1

Wow – talk about technology innovations!  Hybrid scenarios spanning cloud and on-premises, in-memory transaction processing, Power BI for Office 365……

Windows Azure and SQL Server provide a continuum of capability and flexibility in deployment options for our customers – on-premises and in the cloud. Windows Azure also supports an important data workload – Windows Azure HDInsight, our Apache Hadoop-based solution in the cloud. Today, we’re announcing the general availability of Hadoop 2.2 support in Windows Azure HDInsight, which has been updated to take full advantage of the latest Hadoop 2.2 platform, including support for YARN and Stinger Phase 2.

I encourage you save the date and tune in for the event.

For the third consecutive year, the Working Social Tour arrived in Amsterdam and gave pointers to more than 600 customers on how to transform their workplaces through open communication, experimentation and how to work like a social network.

Yammer co-founder and CTO Adam Pisoni delivered the opening keynote and calls to action that include starting small toward immediate accomplishments, finding and working with people ready to embrace change and focus on workplace initiatives people really care about.

Attendees came from more than 40 countries and some shared how they’ve successfully undergone workplace transformations. The company Grundfos, for instance, shared its “social cookbook” for delivering business value through enterprise social networking. To get a glimpse of attendee experiences in their own words and images, check out Storify and Buzztale.

Head over to The Yammer Blog to read more about the Working Social Tour in Amsterdam.

You might also be interested in:

• Microsoft Research’s David Rothschild makes March Madness predictions
• Three new social experiences can help companies work more like a network
• Manage your Office 365 rollout using Yammer

Athima Chansanchai
Microsoft News Center Staff

Customer feedback has led to a compact version of the email message header in Outlook 2013. The new message header gives you control over the header information you see, so that you can concentrate on the content of the message.

This compact message header is available as part of February’s updates for Office 365 subscribers as well as Office 2013 Service Pack 1.

You can also switch between compact and traditional message headers by clicking on the arrow in the bottom right hand corner of the header.

Head over to Office Blogs to find out more about this new feature, as well as more ways to customize it.

You might also be interested in:

• Bring all your documents into OneNote using Doxie scanners
• Get free Microsoft Office 365 resources, training, videos and more
• OneNote now available for Mac and Windows for first time – and it’s free

Athima Chansanchai
Microsoft News Center Staff

「メールアドレスの認証」時の文字入力にて、問題が発生した場合の対処方法

[現象]

ファイナルパソコンデータ引っ越し 9plus eXPress版を Windows XP 上で実行する場合、「メールアドレスの認証」画面で文字入力に問題が発生する場合があります。

[詳細]

「名前」や「メールアドレス」に文字を入力後、バックスペースキーなどを押して文字を消す場合、正しく消去されません。

また、その状態で文字入力を行うと、以前に入力した文字と重なって表示されます。

[回避策]

この問題を回避するには、TABキーを押して、カーソルを別の入力欄に移動させる、あるいは、別の入力欄をクリックすることで問題のある文字列が消去され、再び入力可能な状態に戻ります。

This is a quick PowerShell tip. Are you used to working with really large number for enterprise work? Yeah, me too. I pretty much always need “-resultsize unlimited” whenever I write a command. Sometimes, however, you can run into just one problem – the problem of “one”.

Here’s a sample of how to create the problem. Make a script that looks like this:

(Get-Mailbox -Filter {WindowsEmailAddress -like'*contoso.com'}).Count
42

Okay. So this is working, right? Yeah, not so fast. What happens with a really small set, like “one”?

(Get-Mailbox -Filter {WindowsEmailAddress -eq'postmaster@contoso.com'}).Count

We get no results! Now, you know that email address exists, of course. Trying it without the “count” works fine. So what’s up? Well, the “.Count” function returns the count of an array. If you only have one object, it’s not an array, so you can’t count just the one object. Just the thing to drive you crazy for an afternoon.

So, what’s a more reliable way to count objects when you are doing a report, or something where you could possibly run into the “one” problem? Try this:

(Get-Mailbox -Filter {WindowsEmailAddress -eq'postmaster@contoso.com'} | Measure-Object).Count
1

Ah! Just the “one” I was looking for! The master of Powershell, Ed Wilson, has a great post showing all about counting objects.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2011/10/09/use-a-powershell-cmdlet-to-count-files-words-and-lines.aspx

“I’ve always been interested in developing my career within the ICT industry. However, be it in Hong Kong or in other places, this industry has always been perceived as a male-dominated one,” said Emy Chang, a student from the University of Hong Kong. Unfortunately, this is a sentiment echoed by many girls and women repeatedly in Hong Kong.

Due to deeply entrenched biases and stereotypes, such as the perceived aptitude of men over women in technology, there is a severe discrepancy between the number of men and women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) jobs and among STEM degree-holders. In the United States, which displays similar attitudes and trends, it is estimated that the continued lack of women joining the STEM workforce would lead to the industry filling up only half of its available jobs by 2018. This trend casts worrying implications on job prospects for women in Hong Kong, and the country’s innovation and global competitiveness.

"At The Women's Foundation, we found that women are significantly underrepresented in the STEM subjects in Hong Kong in terms of studies and career options. This is largely due to gender stereotypes, cultural attitudes, the absence of visible female role models and the lack of networking and mentorship opportunities," said Su-Mei Thompson, Chief Executive Officer of The Women’s Foundation. Microsoft hopes to encourage girls and women to pursue their passion for technology and IT at the GirlSpark Camp.

Seeking to help nurture an environment that encourages girls and women to pursue their passion for technology, Microsoft Hong Kong collaborated with The Women’s Foundation and Ivey Business School to organise GirlSpark Camp, a women’s-only camp promoting engagement in the ICT sector. Fifty-one female university students were selected out of hundreds of applicants to join the three-day camp.

During the camp, outstanding community leaders shared their experience and insight on career development for women. For instance, Agnes Mak, Executive Director of the Hong Kong Productivity Council, spoke about her 30 years of being in the IT industry and her journey in running her own IT consultancy. Patricia Lau, Deputy Head of the Efficiency Unit of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government, talked at length about using technology to serve the greater good. Finally, speaking about the importance of community work was Ms. Starry Lee, member of the HKSAR Executive Council. 

The students worked in groups to draft a business plan based on real-life market data and business targets. During this process, they worked with several industry experts to discuss and craft their final proposal, which was presented to a panel of industry experts. Finally, to help the students expand their network and enhance their learning process, Microsoft invited them to apply for summer internships.  The students broke up into groups and worked with industry experts to propose a business plan.

Many students felt that GirlSpark Camp was a highly rewarding experience; the knowledge they garnered was highly relevant to the IT industry, and the event also offered them plenty of networking opportunities and opened their eyes to future career prospects. Participants were able to trade ideas and collaborate with like-minded peers, while some also felt they had achieved some personal growth.

“A career in the ICT industry is now a serious consideration after graduation,” excitedly shared Vaishnavi Kaushik, a student from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. “The GirlSpark initiative has been a transformational experience. The mentors’ sharing sessions and the industry expert talks have been immensely insightful in helping us understand the ICT landscape and the multitude of opportunities that it offers to all.”

Microsoft Research has launched a Climate Data award program, which includes 12 months of free Windows Azure cloud computing resources. The grants will go to 40 recipients selected from proposals submitted by June 15. Each award provides up to 180,000 hours of cloud-computing time and 20 terabytes of cloud storage.

These awards are part of the ongoing Windows Azure for Research program, through which Microsoft Research provides grants of cloud computing resources, as well as in-person and online training on how to use Windows Azure for scientific and scholarly research.

Microsoft also provides free services and business intelligence tools for all researchers, such as FetchClimate, a fast and intelligent environmental information-retrieval service that provides past and present observational data and climate prediction information.

Head over to the Microsoft Research Connections Blog for more information on the Climate Data award program and tools like FetchClimate.

You might also be interested in:

• Microsoft Research’s David Rothschild makes March Madness predictions
• Microsoft Research’s Hekaton helps deliver fast performance for SQL Server 2014
• Microsoft’s Leslie Lamport wins the Turing Award, the “Nobel Prize in Computing”

Athima Chansanchai
Microsoft News Center Staff

Hi Folks –

I’m very pleased to announce that Buffalo is shipping its TeraStation 5000 WSS NAS appliances with Windows Storage Server 2012 R2! That’s right… You can now get one of these sleek little units online directly from Buffalo or from other online sellers. And with Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 preinstalled, you can deploy one of these storage appliances in little more time than it takes to open the box.

Four Base Models: 4-24 TB of Business-Class Storage

The TeraStation 5000 WSS model line includes 2-bay, 4-bay, and 6-bay desktop models, as well as a 4-bay rack-mount model. All four models are backed by a limited three-year warranty, with toll-free U.S.-based technical support available 24/7. Buffalo is also including 10 licenses for NovaBACKUP Business Essentials, which would cost you thousands of dollars if purchased separately!

A table comparing the four models can be found here. All MSRP prices are as of the posting of this blog article.

2-bay Desktop NAS – 4 or 8 TB Capacity

This compact appliance is smaller than a toaster! Its dual-core Atom processor provides plenty of power for professionals and smaller businesses, and its two drives can be configured as RAID 1 for added data protection.

• MSRP for the 4 TB unit is $949.00 (all prices are $USD)
• MSRP for the 8 TB unit is $1299.99

4-bay Desktop NAS – 4, 8, or 12 TB Capacity

This model has four drive bays and, as such, is the lowest-cost model to support RAID 5, which is more space-efficient than the basic mirroring (RAID 1) you’ll need to use if you want additional data protection on the 5200 model. You can also choose from RAID 0, RAID 1, Spanning, or JBOD modes, giving you the flexibility to carve up your disk space however works best for you.

• MSRP for the 4 TB unit is $1399.99
• MSRP for the 8 TB unit is $1699.99
• MSRP for the 12 TB unit is $1999.99

4-bay Rack-Mount NAS – 8 or 16 TB Capacity

If you need a rack-mount (1U) form factor, then this is the model for you. You’ll get a faster Intel Atom D2700 dual-core processor, no hard limit on the number of simultaneous users, and all of the features that Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Standard provides over the Workgroup edition (more on this below).

• MSRP for the 8 TB unit is $2899.99
• MSRP for the 16 TB unit is $3899.99
  

6-bay Desktop NAS – 12 or 24 TB Capacity

This is currently the highest-capacity model in the TeraStation WSS product line. Both the 12 and 24 TB units include the faster processor and Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Standard.

• MSRP for the 12 TB unit is $2699.99
• MSRP for the 24 TB unit is $4199.99
  
  

Choosing the Model That’s Right For You

With four base models and nine total configurations to choose from, you may get a bit overwhelmed in choosing a specific SKU. Here are some things to consider:

It’s worth noting that, while Standard edition supports up to two Hyper-V VMs, the Intel Atom processors that power these TeraStation WSS units do not support virtualization.

Determine how many users you’ll need to support. You’ll see in the TeraStation WSS specs and the above table that Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Workgroup supports a maximum of 50 users. Actually, the hard-coded limit is 250 concurrent SMB connections. So if one user has three files open and sends a job to a printer connected to a TeraStation, that’s a total of four SMB connections. (And yes, you can use one of these boxes as a print server. They have multiple USB ports and the Print and Document Services server role is built into both the Standard and Workgroup editions.)

Decide on total capacity and redundancy level. My model descriptions above specify maximum raw capacity for each unit. When calculating how much disk space you’ll need, remember that Data Deduplication (discussed more below) can help you conserve disk space, whereas using RAID for data protection uses more disk space.The two-bay model supports RAID 0, RAID 1, Spanning, and JBOD modes, whereas the other three models also support a more space-efficient RAID 5 configuration.

Advantages of Standard Edition over Workgroup Edition

The 4-bay rack-mount unit and the 6-bay desktop unit both ship with Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Standard, whereas the other two units ship with Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Workgroup. This makes the 4-bay rack-mount unit and the 6-bay desktop units attractive for several reasons:

• You’ll get a faster processor.
• You won’t have any hard-coded limits on concurrent SMB connections.
• You’ll get all the Networking Infrastructure services—and it’s better to have and not need them versus needing and not having them.
• If you’re planning on using one of these in a remote/branch office, you may want Hosted BranchCache and/or some of the other Network Infrastructure services.
• (And this is the big one…) As mentioned above, you’ll get Data Deduplication. It can deliver a 30-50 percent decrease in the disk space required for home directory and group file/collaboration shares, and up to a 90 percent reduction in the space required for VHD libraries.
  

When you do the math and you’ll see that Data Deduplication alone can help offset any price differences:

• The 12 TB 4-bay desktop unit that ships with Workgroup edition lists for $1999.99
• The 12 TB 6-bay unit that ships with Standard Edition lists for $2699.99, or $700 more.
• For that additional $700, if you’re using the device as a group/file collaboration share, you can use Data Deduplication in Standard edition to store up to 24 TB of data in your 12 TB of raw disk capacity. That’s like getting up to an additional 12 TB of disk space for $700.

Put another way, if you need a large amount of storage capacity, using Data Deduplication to get it can be a lot more cost-effective than paying for larger disks. This blog article provides a great overview of Data Deduplication, along with additional links to learn more.

Note: Data Deduplication reduces the total number of concurrent users that can realistically be supported by about 10 percent. However, the faster processor in the two models that ship with Standard edition should more than make up for this. The deduplication process itself is so transparent and efficient that users accessing business documents on a group file share will never know you have it turned on.

Closing Thoughts

Buffalo’s refresh of its TeraStation 5000 WSS product line to support Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 is further proof of its commitment to providing reliable, cost-effective storage to businesses of all sizes. If you’re interested in a TeraStation 5000 WSS, here are a few additional sources of information:

• A webinar from Buffalo that covers the TeraStation 5000 WSS product line can be viewed here
• The PowerPoint deck for this same webinar is available here.
• My recent Q&A session with Brian Verenkoff, Director of Product Management at Buffalo, can be found here.

Cheers,
Scott M. Johnson
Senior Program Manager
Windows Storage Server
@supersquatchy

こんにちは、村木ゆりかです。

マイクロソフトでは、Windows において信頼するルート証明書を管理する仕組みであるルート証明書プログラムを筆頭に、ユーザーのみなさんが、安全に公開鍵基盤 (PKI) 環境を利用できる基盤作りを行っています。

PKI を取り巻く環境は、技術変化や脅威の拡大に伴い、急速に変化しています。数年前までは、「証明機関を信頼する」という作業で安全な PKI 環境の利用ができましたが、最近は、証明機関がサイバー攻撃を受け侵害されるなど脅威が増し、信頼していた証明機関に問題が発生した場合の対応を含めた利用を行う必要があります。

Windows においては、暗号化アルゴリズムの転換などを契機とし、特に Windows Vista 以降においては CAPI2や CNG (Cryptography Next Generation)への対応など大きくデザイン更新をし、その後もさまざまな機能追加を提供しています。

証明書を更新する機能についても、更新の方法や多様なシナリオへの対応を行うべく、仕組みの更新を行っています。OS 毎の、証明書自動更新機能一覧は以下の通りです。

◎ は既定で自動更新を利用可であり特に追加で作業が必要ではないものを示します。(ドメイン環境などで固有の環境に合わせるための設定を除く)

○ は更新プログラムを適用する事で自動更新を利用可であり、証明書を更新するための方法 (補足 ２) を示します。

△ は既定の自動更新機能はなく手動更新や定期的な更新の適用が必要であり、証明書を更新するための方法 (補足 ２) を示します。

Windows で提供される信頼・非信頼リストの更新機能

Windows XP サポート終了におけるリスク

Windows XP のサポート終了もあとわずかに迫りました。上述の表の通り、Windows XP では、証明書の自動更新機能は限定的な機能です。また、サポート終了に伴い、セキュリティ アドバイザリや、手動で更新するためのパッケージの提供が終了します。 

証明書は、インターネットで安全なやりとりを行うためのSSL/TLS で多く利用されており、クラウド サービスを始めとしたオンライン サービスで、安全に利用するためには欠かせません。サポート終了後は、これらのサービスへのセキュリティ影響が発生します。具体的な例は以下の通りです。

・信頼できない証明書が更新できず、悪意のあるサイトと通信を行ってしまう

Windows XP 向けに提供されていた信頼できない証明書を更新するためのパッケージは、サポート終了に伴い提供が終了します。もし、正規に発行された証明書だったが、その後、セキュリティ攻撃などにより信頼が失われたなどの理由から、利用を停止したい証明書や証明機関が発生しても、対応させるための更新パッケージが提供されません。ユーザーは自ら、信頼を失った証明書の情報を把握し、MMC 証明書スナップインなどから追加する必要がありますが、これは容易な作業ではありません。

もし、信頼できない証明書をそのまま利用してしまった場合、悪意のある HTTPS ウェブサイトへ接続してしまったり、悪意のあるものと、SSL/TLS 通信をしてしまったりする可能性があります。

・ドメイン環境等で信頼する証明機関の更新が行えず接続障害が発生する

HTTPS サイトへの接続などの SSL/TLS など証明書を利用する場合は、信頼するルート証明機関の証明書をインストールしておく必要があります。これまでは、ドメイン環境やプロキシでインターネットへの接続を制限しているなどの非インターネット環境 (補足 1) のため自動証明書更新が利用できない環境に対して、手動で更新するためのパッケージを用意して提供していました。サポートが終了すると、このパッケージの提供も終了します。

このため、追加が必要な証明機関を把握し、MMC 証明書スナップインなどから証明書をインストールする、あるいは、新たなグループポリシーを構成して展開するなど、自身で信頼されたルート証明書を管理する必要があります。信頼できるルート証明機関の構成が正しく行われていない場合は、SSL/TLS がエラーになるなど、接続に障害が発生します。

安全な PKI 環境を利用するために

今回ご紹介したルート証明書更新プログラムの他にも、暗号化の仕組みなど、最新の OS では、昨今の脅威に対応した仕組みを既定の機能として提供しています。PKI や暗号化は複雑でわからないものが多いと思っていらっしゃる方もいると思います。Windows では既定の機能としてより安全な環境を提供することで、仕組みが分からなくても自動的に守られることを目指し、最新製品に反映しています。ぜひ、最新の OS や最新の状態で PCを利用することを、検討してみてください。

■ 関連ブログポスト

マイクロソフトが提供する信頼できる証明書利用基盤

セキュリティ アドバイザリ2854544 (KB2813430) ～ ルート証明書更新プログラムの管理強化

失効証明書の自動更新処理を有効にする KB2677070 の適用を推奨

■補足 1:非インターネット環境

証明書の自動更新機能は、windowsupdate.com のサイト上のアドレスへアクセスして最新の信頼リスト・非信頼リストを取得するように設定されています。企業環境などにおいて、windowsupdate.com のサイト上のアドレスへアクセスができない場合などは、証明書の自動更新機能を利用できません。Windows Update 機能とは別に独立して行われます。

■補足 2

Windows における証明書更新機能

• 手動更新 (IEXPRESS パッケージ)：

  • 信頼されるルート証明機関、および信頼できない証明機関のリストは定期的に更新されます。KB931125 (IEXPRESS パッケージ) を Windows Update またはダウンロードセンターから入手し端末にインストールし、最新の状態に更新します。

• 自動更新：

  • 自動更新メカニズムを使用して信頼するルート証明書をダウンロードまたは更新することができます。参考「マイクロソフトが提供する信頼できる証明書利用基盤」

• 自動失効ツール：

  • Windows Vista/7 または、Windows Server 2008/2008 R2 では、KB2677070または KB2813430をインストールすることで、自動更新メカニズムを使用して信頼されていないルート証明書をダウンロードまたは更新することができます。なお、Windows 8 /Windows Server 2012 以降をご利用の場合は、既定でこの機能は利用可能になっています。

    参考「マイクロソフトが提供する信頼できる証明書利用基盤」「失効証明書の自動更新処理を有効にする KB2677070 の適用を推奨」

• ドメイン環境用自動更新：

  • KB2813430を適用し構成することで、ドメイン環境などインターネットに接続していないクライアントへの自動更新を行うことができます。参考「セキュリティ アドバイザリ2854544 (KB2813430) ～ ルート証明書更新プログラムの管理強化」

• セキュリティ アドバイザリ

  • 信頼を失った証明書は、セキュリティ アドバイザリにて公開を行い、信頼しないようにするための更新プログラムを提供しています。参考「セキュリティ アドバイザリ 2916652」

■補足 3

Windows では、証明書を信頼するかどうか、という確認を行う仕組みは複数あり、今回のルート証明書更新プログラム (信頼できる証明機関のリスト、および信頼できない証明機関のリストによる検証) の動作は、PKI で一般的に利用される失効リスト (CRL), オンライン レスポンダ (OCSP) による失効確認とは別の動作です。

Introduction

Migrating Microsoft SQL Server from an older version can be considered as an issue if you didn’t consider the variances between both versions (especially if your Database uses some deprecated features), so how can we detect all these changes between SQL Server versions?

One way is to understand the different compatibility levels of each version and make sure to compare both features manually. On the other hand, Microsoft has provided SQL Server Upgrade Advisory Tool which can make your life much easier.

This post aims to guide you through a quick tour using the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Advisory Tool. 

Walkthrough Scenario

To start you need to download the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Advisory Tool which is part of the SQL Server 2012 Feature Pack (Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 Upgrade Advisor (Feature Pack)).

Next you open the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Advisory Tool, the Main Menu will appear as below

From the Main Menu you can choose one of two actions:

• Launch Upgrade Advisor Analysis Wizard

• Launch Upgrade Advisor Report Viewer

Let’s start by clicking on “Launch Upgrade Advisor Analysis Wizard”, after that the welcome screen will appear, read it and click next.

Then you will see the SQL Server Component Selection Screen, you can enter the SQL Server Name and click Detect button and the wizard will automatically detect the installed components (such SQL Server, Analysis Services, etc.)

Click next and you will see the Connection Parameter Screen, you need to provide the proper connection values to proceed

Note:

The below screen might have different parameter depending on the SQL Server Components chosen from the earlier screen.

Next you need to complete the SQL Server Parameters needed such as the Databases that you need to analysis

Next the Upgrade Advisor will start the analysis

Next the result screen will show up with warnings, errors … etc..

Note:

If the components are ready to upgrade then the result will show a message like no issues to resolve, however we choose to have a report with some issues to proceed with the next steps.

After that you can choose to Launch the Report to review the pending issues to resolve, a sample report is shown below

You can check additional information about each issue by expanding the details and fix the issues. In addition, you can rerun the test after fixing these issues to guarantee a smooth SQL Server Upgrade.

Note:

Also note that all the reports are stored locally on the machine and you can access them again from the Main Menu using the Launch Upgrade Advisor Report Viewer Link

Additional References

Below are some useful references that provides more information about the items mentioned in the above post:

• SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide

• Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 R2 Best Practices Analyzer

• Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 Best Practices Analyzer

• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Upgrade Advisor (Feature Pack)

• Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 Upgrade Advisor (Feature Pack)

This morning I had the opportunity to speak at the 2014 Hosting Summit. This is an annual event here at Microsoft where we bring together hundreds of our hosting partners from around the world for a dialog about how we deliver Azure-compatible hosted clouds for our joint customers around the world.

This is one of the largest events in the industry explicitly focused on Hosters, and I was excited to talk about the work we are doing to constantly increase the value, usability, and functionality of Microsoft's Cloud OS vision.

Here are a couple key points from my keynote that I really want to emphasize:

Right now we are seeing the largest growth in purchases of new x86 servers occurring in Hosters around the world. Below is a chart from IDC that shows the x86 server purchases for the last three years. If anyone is asking the question, “Are Hosters really getting a lot of customer interest?” The answer is emphatically yes.

Hosters spend a great deal of time managing their supply chain since they want to avoid the cost of having capacity sitting unused in their datacenters unused. Growth in x86 server purchases is closely aligned with the demand they are seeing.

This is an area that we are working overtime to ensure our solutions are best in class for Hosters

I also spent a lot of time talking with this next image up on the monitors.  What I think is important to note is that this isn’t just a marketing slide – this is an architecture slide.

Windows Server not only operates many of the on-prem cloud infrastructures all over the world, it is what we’ve built Windows Azure on, too.  Now the innovations we’ve built within Azure are adding functionality to Windows Server with things like the Windows Azure Pack.

Another one of the key things I spoke about today was the common questions/concerns I hear from customers about moving to either hosted or public cloud offerings. The biggest concerns seem to fit into three primary categories:  Security, fear of lock-in, and fear of losing flexibility across clouds.  Rather than being things to fear, these challenges can be transformed into areas of opportunity and growth with our promise of consistency across clouds.

With our promise of consistency across clouds, customers are not locked in and do not lose flexibility to move workloads across clouds. On top of this, we not only host your applications on our public clouds – we also put the services we deliver to the industry on this same platform.

Security and protecting customer data is a big deal to us; our business depends on it just like yours does. We take all that experience of operating these services securely at scale and deliver them to our Hoster partners around the world – enabling them to deliver the most secure cloud infrastructure available. Then we offer the premier hybrid-cloud solution on the market.

The innovations which make our breakthroughs with Hybrid IT possible are a result of massive scale.  In an earlier era, a big company or a big infrastructure meant that you moved and innovated slowly.  The cloud has completely turned that notion upside down.  Now, with Azure we run such a massive cloud that we are constantly innovating to remain cost effective and competitive – then we bring that innovation to you to run in your datacenters. This scale and these innovations are what make Microsoft a place where enterprises and service providers can bet with confidence.

Great news you can now up your SharePoint OneDrive for Business quota to 1 terabyte up from the default 25GB and previous upper limit of 100GB.

The way it works is you can specify which specific users you want to assign new upper quotas of 50GB, 100GB, 250GB, 500GB or 1TB quota. The catch to this is once you exceed the default quota of 25GB for a user you will be pulling storage out of your overall pooled tenant storage allocation (10GB + 500MB x total number of users) in your tenant.

For example:

If you have 10,000 A2 licensed users that equals 5TB of pooled tenant storage available.

You decide to up OneDrive for Business quota from default 25GB to 250GB for 4 users which consumes 1TB out of the 5TB leaving 4TB remaining of the overall pooled storage.

You can purchase more pooled tenant storage at a per GB / per Month charge if you require more.

The SharePoint site collection limit has also been upped from 100GB to 1TB max and the 25TB max SharePoint Online limit in a single tenant has been removed which means you can purchase as much pooled storage as needed in your tenant.

You can read more on how to configure OneDrive for Business and site collection quotas here and here.

こんにちは。Windows Intune Support の及川です。

今回は、Windows Intune SA (Software Assurance) 付ライセンスを使用した OS のダウンロード方法についてご案内します。以下の手順にて Windows Intune アカウント ポータルから、Microsoft Online Services Customer Portal へ移動し、OS アップグレートにご使用する対象の製品をダウンロードしてください。なお、ダウンロードできる製品、ライセンスに関しては本ブログ フッターに記載の各専用窓口へご相談ください。

===================

OS ダウンロード手順

===================

1.) Windows Intune アカウントポータル (https://account.manage.microsoft.com) を開きます。

2.) 左メニューツリー – [購買] - [製品のダウンロード] をクリックします。

3.) Microsoft Online Services Customer Portal にてダウンロード可能な製品が表示されるので、アップグレードしたい対象の OS があるかをご確認ください。

一覧表示が畳まれていることがありますのでご留意ください。

4.) 対象 OS とプロダクト キーを確認の上、 ダウンロードをします。

5.) 各端末へ展開します。

※ 参考情報 

[Windows XP サポート期間終了後の Windows Intune Endpoint Protection 定義ファイルの提供期間について]

http://blogs.technet.com/b/jpintune/archive/2014/02/18/windows-xp-windows-intune-endpoint-protection.aspx

[Windows Intune 購入 & サポート ガイド]

[5. Windows Intune with Windows SA に含まれる Windows SA とは何ですか？ ]

http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/6/7/767A96F9-7E44-40BE-83F7-38B18DE21F99/Windows_Intune_PSG_Customer_JapaneseYen.pdf

[Windows 7 のアップグレード パス]

http://technet.microsoft.com/ja-jp/library/dd772579(v=ws.10).aspx

[Windows 8 と Windows 8.1 のアップグレード パス]

http://technet.microsoft.com/ja-jp/library/jj203353.aspx#editions

※ Windows Intune ライセンスに含まれる System Center Endpoint Protection 2012 使用に関して

Windows Intune ライセンスに含まれる System Center Endpoint Protection 2012 は、Windows Intune と同じ管理範囲である、クライアント端末管理を対象にしております。サーバー用アンチウィルス ソフトとして使用いただくことはできません。

※ SA 権でご使用いただける製品に関するお問い合わせ先

表示される製品についてご不明点がある場合には、以下のカスタマー インフォメーション センターにてご相談を承っております。

------------------------------------------------

[Microsoft カスタマー インフォメーション センター]

営業時間：月 - 金 9:00 - 17:30

電話番号：0120-41-6755 (フリーダイヤル)

※ 自動音声ガイダンスに従って、「1」 – 「1」の順に番号をご選択頂くと、担当者へ繋がります。

------------------------------------------------

※ SA 権でご使用いただけるOSライセンスに関するお問い合わせ先

OS のライセンス認証に関するご質問がある場合、以下のライセンス認証専用窓口にてご相談を承っております。

------------------------------------------------

[マイクロソフト ライセンス認証専用窓口の電話番号]

http://www.microsoft.com/ja-jp/licensing/existing-customers/activation-centers.aspx

(無料通話用窓口) 電話番号 : 0120-801-734

(有料通話用窓口) 電話番号 : 03-6831-3460

------------------------------------------------

※ SA 権を使用したOSのライセンス オーバー エラーに関するお問い合わせ先

SA 権を使用したOS インストール中にライセンス オーバーのエラーが表示された場合、以下の窓口にてご相談を承っております。

------------------------------------------------

[Microsoft Online Services カスタマー サポート]

営業時間：月 - 金 9:00 - 18:00 (Web / 電話とも)

Web :

[Windows Intune サポート]

https://support.microsoftonline.com/default.aspx?productkey=intunesupp

[電子メール サポート]

[以下についてはこちらをクリックしてください非技術的な 購入前の製品に関する質問、

請求に関する問題、サブスクリプションに関する問題を含む質問または問題]

電話番号：0120-996-680 (フリーダイヤル)

[選択なしで日本語での対応が開始されます]

------------------------------------------------

Myself and Macca have been travelling around the country recently on the latest round of IT Camps and the response has been great.  We’ve been of course talking about Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2 and all the new features in both of those products.

If you haven’t had a chance to look at either of these why not download and evaluation and go into the draw to win an XBOX One and Nokia Lumia 1520.

Pretty sweet deal just for download an evaluation!

To register for this competition just head over to this site and check it out!

So get downloading and you could win a pretty nice prize pack!

Jeffa

Thursday’s weekly Red Stripe Deals in the Windows Store save you at least 50 percent off the original price of favorite apps, indie games and Xbox titles. The latest batch includes surreal worlds, learning games for children and mesmerizing hidden object challenges.

“ilomilo plus” ($2.49, regularly $4.99) sets you on an odyssey to reunite little pals ilo and milo as they get separated in a surreal world full of puzzle cubes. “GRIDD 2” ($1.49, regularly $2.99) is a retro shoot-‘em-up that lets you tilt, zoom and dodge as you fight enemies. “House of 1000 Doors: Collectors Edition” ($1.99, regularly $7.99) takes you inside an imposing mansion where the dead are seeking release – and you follow a ghost-story writer as she solves four mind-bending mysteries.

NovaMind Mind Mapping ($11.99, regularly $24.99) helps put your ideas in an organized, attractive format – from to-do lists to planning and brainstorming. Learning Games for Kids ($2.49, regularly $4.99) offers five games to keep kids busy with everything from letters and phonetics to numbers, colors and shapes. With “Red Crow Mysteries: Legion Full,” ($3.49, regularly $6.99) you have the ability to see other worlds, making you the only one who can win in the eternal struggle between good and evil.

Find all these deals in the Windows Store.

You might also be interested in:

• Build dream castles in “Throne Together” on Windows Phone, PCs and tablets
• App of the Week: Get revved up for the Formula One season with ESPNF1 for Windows Phone
• Blink photo app updated with new look, better video stabilization and sharing to OneDrive

Athima Chansanchai
Microsoft News Center Staff

Hello everyone, Dave Field here.

As always, when launching a new communications platform, there must be the awkward welcome message. This is where I use lots of big words and enthusiastic phrases to describe all the goodness coming your way if only you’ll be so kind as to come around from time to time to let me enlighten you.

I’ll tell you all the amazing things I plan to share, give you tidbits to get you interested, and close with an offer to respond to any and all questions.

Phew! So glad I got all that out of the way…

Posted by: Michael Howard, Principal Consultant, Cybersecurity

If you have followed this blog, or followed anything Microsoft has done with the Security Development Lifecycle, you’ll know that we are proponents of the benefits of threat modeling as a way to understand the risks to and potential mitigations for a system.

The computer industry is full of systems that look somewhat alike, and have similar “moving parts”; for example, banking, health care, telecommunications and so on. In the wake of high profile attacks on organizations in the retail industry, we thought developing new guidance that helps with the unique requirements and challenges of that industry could be helpful. We decided that the best way to do this was to team up cybersecurity expertise with retail expertise. We combined the security expertise of senior consultants Tim Delong, Mark Simos and myself from the Microsoft Consulting Services Cybersecurity team, with retail industry expertise of Vic Mile and Marty Ramos from Microsoft’s Retail industry vertical team.  Read more