RunAs Radio

Richard and Greg talk to Isaac Roybal about Microsoft's efforts in creating private cloud technologies. Private cloud focuses on using cloud technologies - within the organization's firewall. Isaac talks about how Microsoft has been using its own cloud technology internally for PSS and digs into the Dynamic Data Center Toolkit (http://www.microsoft.com/hosting/dynamicdatacenter/Home.html). Also take a look at the Private Cloud initiative at http://www.microsoft.com/privatecloud

Richard and Greg talk to Buck Woody about SQL CMS, a tool he's contributed to codeplex at http://sqlcms.codeplex.com. SQL CMS is actually a collection of tools that together provide content management of SQL Server and other servers in your network, allowing you to identify different servers, who's responsible for managing them, their current status and details of their configuration. It's a great synergy of tools built into SQL Server 2008, accelerators like MAPS and EPM - Enterprise Policy Management Framework, another project on codeplex.

Richard and Greg talk to Dana Epp about the free tools he uses to manage his networks. The list of tools include nmap (http://www.nmap.org), Microsoft's Baseline Security Analyzer (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/cc184923.aspx), Windows Server Update Services (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/wsus/default.aspx), the Application Compatibility Toolkit (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd562082(VS.85).aspx) and of course the SysInternals tools (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx).

Richard and Greg talk to the one-and-only Steve Riley, formerly of Microsoft and now working with the Amazon Cloud Computing group. Steve is focused on helping enterprise customers understand how to take advantage of Amazon's cloud computing services. As always, Steve has his eye on the security elements of cloud computing as well. There's also a great discussion about virtualization on the desktop.

Richard and Greg talk to Jessica Moss about SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS). SSRS can replace typical reporting products like Crystal Reports, but also provides a tool for having users build their own reports. The conversation also moves into the Business Intelligence side of reporting, looking at how SSRS works with Analysis Services to provide a deeper level of reporting.

Richard and Greg talk to Sahil Malik about managing Sharepoint 2007. With the new version of Sharepoint just around the corner, it's time to dig into what the current version of Sharepoint does well and what is challenging. Sahil talks about solutions for challenges in Sharepoint 2007, including dealing with keeping profiles in separate farms. He points to his tool on codeplex, MOSS Profile Import at www.codeplex.com/mossprofileimport. There will be another show in the future to talk about how some of these issues are resolved in Sharepoint 2010.

Richard and Greg talk to Andy Malone about security in cloud computing. Once an application is moved to the cloud, where is the data itself? It could be distributed across multiple countries. Who is responsible for protecting it, for maintaining legal compliance, etc. Service level agreements are key, but how do you enforce them?

Richard and Greg talk to Daniel Nerenberg about Microsoft Online Services. Microsoft Online Services include Exchange, Sharepoint, Office Communicator and more. These are cloud services - you buy them by the user and month. Daniel digs into the advantages of using online services as well as the integration and migration challenges.

Richard and Greg talk to Andrew Hayter from ICSA Labs. ICSA Labs is the independent third party for validating security products such as anti-virus, malware, SSL security, etc. Andy digs into the state of the world around malware.

Richard and Greg talk to Phil Peery from Premier Field Engineering at Microsoft about the state of Active Directory out in the world. Phil works with a large variety of customers in the New York area in his PFE role, and explores some of the problems that his customers have had with Active Directory.