Cloud services – Google Reader will be gone July 1, 2013 …. now what ?

I’m not a big fan of most Google services, but I do use iGoogle and Google Reader intensively. Both services are ending this year  unfortunately though.

Fortunately in most cases there are alternatives. In a previous blog post I’ve written about some iGoogle alternatives. There are also Google Reader alternatives of course, and some (like Feedly) have even made it easy to migrate. Still it’s never a bad idea to export your RSS feeds manually just in case. If you want to export your starred items, there are some external methods to do this as well.

Another annoying aspect is that you might have bought applications to access these services (better) which might not support the new service you are migrating to. Even though all of this is not that big a deal for personal use, it’s still inconvenient.

In my case I use the great Windows 8 app Nextgen Reader that has no Feedly support yet. Fortunately, it is expected that support will be added before Google Reader goes down. Feedly also plans to create Windows 8 and Windows 8 phone apps.

So even though cloud services are great because they’re available from almost any device as long as you have internet access, you have to keep in mind that you depend heavily on the companies providing the services. So before you start using a cloud service always take into consideration how easy it is to backup, export and migrate your data (data portability). If you don’t you run the risk of losing data and having to spend time to recreate it.

 

Summary of 2nd Dutch PowerShell User Group – DuPSUG meeting with additional resources

Future events

Before starting with my summary of 2nd DuPSUG meeting, I want to inform you about some future events first:

• Dutch PowerShell User Group Meetings
  • To keep track of news, use the links  to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and the RSS feed on the DUPSUG website.
  • In the future, the plan is to meet every June and November.
  • The next meeting will probably be at November 7th at VX Company.
  • The idea is that community members will also present their own experiences, use cases, scripts, tools, methods. If you want to do so, please contact the DUPSUG group.
    • Remko Weijnen | Blog | Twitter | LinkedIn might be one of the people presenting at a future DUPSUG meeting.
  • Jeff Wouters might be able to arrange one or more copies of the PowerShell Deep Dives book from Manning since he’s contributing to it. The book isn’t complete and released yet, but Manning has an Early Access Program which means that you will get access to the completed chapters now and will get the full version when it’s done. Until June 13 there’s even a promotion to get a 40%-50% discount and it also applies to other great PowerShell books.
• Inter Access Microsoft Summer Summit (Hilversum, July 2nd 2013 17:30-22:00 CET)
  • For more info and registration go to: http://interaccesssummersummit-es2.eventbrite.nl

This event

Last Thursday I attended the second Dutch Powershell User Group meeting in Hilversum hosted at Inter Access and sponsored by Sapien Technologies Inc.

Just like I mentioned in the summary of the first meeting there were manu interesting sessions that provided me with more insight and inspired me for practical uses. It was also great to discuss current developments with other knowledgeable and passionate people. The main differences with the previous meeting was that:

• This meeting was completely in Dutch, while the previous one was completely in English. As such, the workshop descriptions were also in Dutch and you needed to bring your own laptop.
• The format of this meeting was more of a workshop, while the previous one was mainly presentations.

Thanks go out to all attendees, especially those presenting, organizing and sponsoring the event. Special thanks to Daniel Bot for helping me fix a (stupid mistake in a) script I was working on 🙂

Goodies and giveaways

• Every attendee got a 7-day free pass for Interface Video Training.
• At random a person could win:
  • Sapien Windows PowerShell video training
  • Sapien PowerShell Studio 2012
  • Active Directory e-book

Workshops / presentations

And now on with the really interesting stuff, the sessions/workshops. Below are the sessions with some info about the speakers and their sessions. I also added notes I took and other information I looked up afterwards. If you come across any errors or have comments, please leave a reply so I can fix it.

 

Microsoft – Recordings for “Using Microsoft VDI to Enable New Workstyles Jump Start” available on MVA

The recordings for “Using Microsoft VDI to Enable New Workstyles Jump Start” are available now on Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA).

These Jump Starts are a great way to quickly get up-to-date about a subject. Also there’s a great team of people working behind the scenes to answer questions and provide more detailed resources. Other attendees often also share their experiences and provide valuable insights. So be sure to check out the Q&A log as well.

 

Microsoft – Free Windows Azure for IT Professionals Jump Start

Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) is hosting the “Windows Azure for IT Professionals Jump Start” at May 16th. Information and registration is available on the website: https://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/liveevents/Windows-Azure-for-IT-Professionals?CR_CC=200206715

I’ve attended a couple of Jump Starts and I think it’s a great way to quickly get up-to-date about a subject. Also there’s a great team of people working behind the scenes to answer questions and provide more detailed resources. Other attendees often also share their experiences and provide valuable insights.

Also it’s only been a couple of weeks since Windows Azure IaaS is live in production backed by an enterprise SLA, supported by Microsoft Support, and ready for your production applications. Therefore it is a great time to start learning more about it.

I hope to see you there.

 

Office 365 – Fix for SharePoint message “call us overprotective, but we need to verify your account before opening this document”

In yesterday’s blog post I mentioned that I was looking forward to being upgraded to the new Office 365 in the next 4 weeks.

I did encounter an issue however that I was not able to open files on SharePoint using the desktop version of Office 2013. I kept on getting the message: “call us overprotective, but we need to verify your account before opening this document”. This never succeeded and I couldn’t modify my file using Office 2013. The Office Web App version was working fine though.

After googling around a bit, I found out that this was a common issue for people that are planned to be migrated (pre-upgrade). The solution/workaround for this issue is described here:
Office 365 pre-upgrade users cannot open or synchronize SharePoint files after the Office 2013: March 12, 2013 update is installed

 

Office 365 – Full Office Web Apps have been added to my E1 account for free

Back in February I posted that as part of the new Office 365 service, changes would be made to the Office 365 plans.

These changes are in effect right now. In short this means that the E1 and K1 plans that previously were only able to read with the Web Apps have gotten the full Office Web Apps (view, edit, create). This replaces the old E2 and K2. So basically:

• Old E1/K1 have gotten E2/K2 functionality at the same low cost.
• Old E2/K2 customers will keep the same features, but at a lower cost (E1/K1).
• Old E2/K2 will be replaced by E1/K1 since they will then have the same functionality.

The new situation has become like this:

New Office 365 Enterprise Plans overview

PS: I love the Office 365 service and I’m looking forward to the new Office 365 features that will be added when Office 365 will start using the Office 2013 (Wave 15) versions of SharePoint, Outlook, Lync, Office Web Apps. I’ve gotten a mail that I’m planned to be upgraded within the next 4 weeks, so more about that soon. I’m especially curious if my SharePoint customizations will continue to work.

 

Microsoft – Resources to get more familiar with Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS)

Nowadays more and more work, communication and collaboration involves multiple external parties. This can involve by example employees, customers, partners, suppliers, cloud providers/platforms/applications.

This means it is becoming increasingly important to have proper authentication and authorization methods in place for single sign on (SSO) so users can be more productive. Besides the ease-of-use It can also lead to better security.

Microsoft’s Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) will make this possible. For more information on ADFS, here are some resources. Keep in mind though that while some information may be outdated, it will give you a broad idea of the concept and the inner workings. The current version of ADFS in Windows Server 2012 is 2.1 , while Windows Server 2008 uses 2.0

• Active Directory Federation Services (TechNet)
• Active Directory Federation Services,Part 1: How Do They Really Work?
• Active Directory Federation Services,Part 2: Building Federated Identity Solutions
• Active Directory Federation Services 2.0 solution guide (including ForeFront UAG)
• Active Directory Federation Services 2.0 Deep Dive: Deploying a Highly Available Infrastructure
• AD FS 2.0 Step-by-Step and How To Guides
• AD FS with Office 365 Step by Step Install Guide
• ADFS 2.0 Setup Guide
• A Guide to Claims-Based Identity and Access Control (2nd Edition)
• Choosing Between Forefront TMG or Forefront UAG for Publishing Scenarios
• Cloud Security: The Practical Meaning of Security, Identity and Access Revealed!
• Complete walkthrough: Setting up a ADFS 2.0 Server on Windows Azure IaaS and Configuring it as an Identity Provider in Windows Azure ACS
• Demystified Series: Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) Part 1
• Demystified Series: Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) Part 2
• Deploying and Configuring ADFS 2.0
• Federated Identity in the Cloud [NZ 2010: SEC402]
• Federation and Federated Identity: Part 1 Active Directory Federation Services – How Do they Really Work?
• Federation and Federated Identity: Part 2 Building Federated Identity Solutions with Forefront Unified Access Gateway and ADFS v2
• Forefront UAG and ADFS: Better together
• Managing Identity in the Cloud with ADFS and Windows Azure – TechDays 2012
• MS Innovations Blog posts tagged with adfs
• Office 365 ADFS virtual lab
• Office 365 for SMB Jump Start (03) | Office 365 DirSync, Single Sign-On & ADFS
• Office 365 SSO: A Simplified Installation Guide
• Plan for and deploy AD FS for use with single sign-on
• Setting up Single Sign on with Office 365 using ADFS 2.0
• The Access Onion – Peeling away at Access Management, Identity Federation, PKI and SSO issues
• What’s new in Forefront UAG Service Pack 2 (also ADFS 2.0 changes)
• Windows Authentication, ADFS and the Access Control Service 
• Windows Server 2008 (R2) Active Directory Federation Services (TechNet)

PS: Microsoft is moving more and more towards claims based authentication. Examples include Windows Server 2012 Dynamic Access Control and also SharePoint 2013 that has switched to claims based authentication by default now.

If you have some other resources that might be useful, please let me know so I can add them as well.

 

Office 365 – E1 and K1 plans getting full Office Web Apps (view, edit, create), replacing E2 and K2 at lower cost

As part of the new Office 365 service, changes will be made to the Office 365 plans. In short this means that the E1 and K1 plans will get full Office Web Apps (view, edit, create) replacing E2 and K2:

• Current E1/K1 will get E2/K2 functionality at the same low cost.
• Current E2/K2 customers will keep the same features, but at a lower cost (E1/K1).
• E2/K2 will be replaced by E1/K1 since they will then have the same functionality.

The new situation will become like this:

New Office 365 Enterprise Plans overview

PS: Besides the lower prices I’m also looking forward to the new Office 365 features that will be added when Office 365 will start using the Office 2013 (Wave 15) versions of SharePoint, Outlook, Lync, Office Web Apps. More about that soon.

 

Free training – Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) hosting 3 virtualization related Jump Starts

Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) is hosting 3 virtualization related Jump Starts in January and February:

1. Introduction to Hyper-V Jump Start (January 24th, 2013)
2. Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals Jump Start (January 30th, 2013)
3. Microsoft Tools for VMware Migration and Integration (Late February)

I’ve attended a couple of Jump Starts including those of Office 365, Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 already and I think it’s a great way to quickly get up-to-date about a subject. Also there’s a great team of people working behind the scenes to answer questions and provide more detailed resources. Other attendees often also share their experiences and provide valuable insights.

The links above provide include a course outline and a link to register for the Jump Start.

I hope to see you there.

 

 

Sign up for VMware Hands On Labs Online (HOL) open public beta now

In the past I’ve used Microsoft’s virtual labs many times and found them really useful.

VMware has also created Hands-On Labs Online (HOL) now as well and you can sign up for the open public beta now. These online labs are ideal for people:

• Who don’t have the hardware to create these labs themselves.
• Who don’t have time to create these labs themselves.
• Who want to have a properly tested and defined lab environment with guidance and documentation.

Read more about the VMware HOL and the labs that are being provided. Also be sure to check out their blog and Twitter account.

I’ve signed up as well and I hope to get access soon.