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| Volume: 1, Issue: 8, November
30, 2009 | A Fortnightly Magazine for IT Professionals | | ![]() |
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![]() | | ![]() Dear Friends,
The response towards Microsoft's new efficiency products has been remarkable
in the industry and it gets further strengthened
with the exciting
response coming from
the community. Going with the launch momentum, the latest beta versions of Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010
too are now available. Do not forget to visit
TechNet.in to download these trial versions.
If you are looking for easy guidance to accomplish
specific tasks with Microsoft products, do check
Microsoft "How Do I?" Videos
on the TechNet website. While you read through this
edition to view the latest videos on SQL Server,
Security, Windows Server, Exchange and SharePoint,
subscribe to
RSS feed to stay
informed
about new videos in future.
The TechNet webcast series for IT Professionals cover topics on a holistic range of products and technologies by Microsoft. You have the opportunity to get answers to all your questions from the experts.
Check it out
Besides the latest from TechNet.in, this edition
also features Expert Insights on new technologies
and products. In below sections, Sanjay Bahl, Chief
Security Officer at Microsoft India, talks about
tackling Security in cloud computing environment and
Jaideep Sen, Senior Manager - Datacenter Management,
Security & Virtualization at Microsoft India shares
how Virtualisation is making waves in the technology
arena.
Also, do read expert views of
Vijay Raj - our IT Pro
Star, on how to handle Operating Systems. Vijay Raj
is an MVP and a Springboard Series Technical Expert
Panel member for Windows 7.
Happy reading!
Reshma Sinha Roy
IT Pro Audience Marketing Manager
Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt. Ltd.
res...@microsoft.com |
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![]() | | ![]() By
Sanjay Bahl, Chief Security Officer, Microsoft India
You might be hearing a lot about something called "cloud computing." The term refers to computing capabilities provided to organizations that operate over the Internet. Businesses and governments are using "the cloud" to provide more and more services as it allows for greater flexibility, efficiency and lower costs.
"Client and cloud" is a term that describes a paradigm of computing that is currently seeing a great deal of interest in the IT industry. Enterprises can rent computing resources as a utility and use those resources to make services available to client applications over the
Internet. Some characteristics of this paradigm are significant from a security perspective:
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A third party manages the computing
resources that host the cloud-based
applications | ![]() |
Cloud services often store data on
behalf of the client application | ![]() |
The client application is not
necessarily a web browser, but could be
a rich client or business system |
An enterprise that is planning to use "client and cloud" computing must concern itself with the security of two major elements of the cloud environment. The first is the security of the third-party cloud platform. The other is the security of the business applications that the enterprise is hosting "in the cloud." The security of the cloud platform depends on the security of the software that is used to implement the cloud platform and on the operational security that is applied by the third party that is providing the cloud platform.
Whether data or software sits on an organization's own computers or on a cloud service provider's computers, online services like web-hosted e-mail, document sharing sites and social networking will operate in the same way they do today. Therefore, you should ask the same kind of questions about the privacy of your data and personal information in the cloud environment that you would ask of any online service provider.
Security and Privacy Fundamentals - As the computing industry evolves, Microsoft continues to invest in security and privacy fundamentals and ensures its innovative software development processes, best practices and technologies extend from Client to Cloud environments.
Improving Security through Community Collaboration - Through continued community collaboration, Microsoft supports a wide-range of industry partners by developing secure products and services and offering its security best practices. The release of Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) for Agile and the cloud security highlights Microsoft's continued efforts to meet the changing needs of the development community and ultimately will help create a more trusted online computing experience.
Agile is an increasingly widely adopted methodology, for client and cloud. Increasingly Microsoft and non-Microsoft development teams have begun using the Agile methodology - and we have been thinking about how SDL concepts can evolve to apply to these methods.
![]() | The SDL for Agile Development guidance defines a way to embrace software security practices when using lightweight Agile software development methods, such as Extreme Programming (XP) and Scrum. The document combines the proven Microsoft SDL techniques, tools and processes with Agile methodologies in a way that maintains the principles of both the Agile methods and the SDL process. |
![]() | Microsoft implemented the first version of the SDL in 2004 and has continued to invest and evolve SDL to produce products that demonstrate solid improvement. Windows Vista was the first version of the Microsoft Operating System to be fully developed under the SDL. With the benefit of the SDL, Windows Vista users had half (66 vs 119) as many vulnerabilities in the first year. This trend has continued, with Windows XP users experiencing 31% (244 vs 186) more vulnerabilities since release, as compared with those that chose to upgrade to Windows Vista. (Source: Internal Microsoft bulletin data tool) |
![]() | SQL Server 2005 was the first version of the Microsoft product to be fully developed with the SDL. Thirty-six months after its release, SQL Server 2005 contained three vulnerabilities compared to the 34 vulnerabilities found in SQL Server 2000, resulting in a 91% reduction in total vulnerabilities. (Source: Jeff Jones Microsoft TechNet Security Blog) |
![]() | Internet Explorer 7 was the first version of the Microsoft Web browser to be fully developed with the SDL. In the first year of its release, IE7 contained 17 vulnerabilities (3 high/14 medium) compared to the 26 vulnerabilities (8 high/18 medium) found in IE6, resulting in a 35% reduction in total vulnerabilities and a 63% decrease in high severity vulnerabilities. (Source: Browser Vulnerability Analysis of Internet Explorer and Firefox Report) |
The NSS Labs has published Web Browser Security - Socially Engineered Malware Protection Comparative Results (comparing Apple Safari 4, Google Chrome 2, Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer 8, Mozilla Firefox 3 and Opera 10 Beta). Internet Explorer 8 had exceptional scores thereby confirming that the investments that we are doing in software, including the SDL, is helping us provide you with secure and reliable software
and also improve productivity & communication. Internet Explorer 8 caught 81% of the live threats, an exceptional score which surpassed the next best browser (Firefox 3) by a 54% margin. Windows Internet Explorer 8 improved 12% between Q1 and Q2 tests, evidence of concerted efforts Microsoft is making in the SmartScreen technology.
Application security vendor Cenzic has released its security trends report for the first half of 2009 application. In it, Cenzic claims that the Mozilla's Firefox browser led the field of
web browsers in terms of total vulnerabilities. According to Cenzic, Firefox accounted for 44 percent of all browser vulnerabilities reported in the first half of 2009. In contrast, Apple's Safari had 35 percent of all reported browser vulnerability, Microsoft's Internet Explorer was third at 15 percent and Opera had just six percent share. |
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| ![]() By
Jaideep Sen, Senior Manager- Datacenter Management, Security and Virtualization, Microsoft India
Virtualization has emerged as one of the most critical and disruptive IT waves with wide reaching implications for the IT Industry. Analysts too have acknowledged the wide-scale requirement and opportunity that virtualization technology presents. This is creating a shift from traditional Datacenters to Consolidated Datacenters
and Infrastructure as a service on the cloud.
A server typically utilizes a mere 15% of its full capacity at any given time. While all resources of a server may be occasionally required to run the application it supports - it remains unutilized for the majority of time and keeps guzzling precious power. This leads to immense wastage of resources. This is where virtualization steps in. Virtualization drives consolidation i.e. the capability to create multiple virtual servers on a single hardware machine, thereby drastically improving resource utilization. The top benefits of virtualization can be summarized as follows:
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![]() | Reduced TCO: Power and physical space reduction, accelerated server provisions / consolidation, quick ROI |
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Increased availability: Simplified
backup and recovery, business continuity
built-into model, dynamic provisioning | ![]() |
Enabling dynamic IT: Transformation of physical IT infrastructure into logical layers with policy based management that enables self managing dynamic systems | |
Microsoft believes that only a holistic approach will help organizations stay competitive in today's dynamic, global and connected world. As a key differentiator in the market landscape, Microsoft's strategy addresses the end-to-end virtualization scenario rather than providing point in time solutions. This approach talks about "Virtualization from the
Datacenter to desktop" and brings a huge differentiator of being able to manage both virtual and physical resources from a single pane of glass. We also offer tools like the ROI Calculator
and MAPS tool that will give a good view to customers on their AS IS and TO BE State and is a good aid as you embark on your Virtualization journey.
Check out some press stories on the success of Virtualization:
Cutting costs through Virtualization
Network Computing reported a case study of KPIT
KPIT was wary of virtualization till it tried Microsoft's Hyper V and today,
by using virtualization the firm has improved server utilization from 25% to 75% | "We have observed that there is a direct saving of 30% related to power. In terms of server budgets, 60% of new server budgets were saved as these servers were moved to the virtualized environment. Another 25 to 30% savings were observed in charges related to AMC."
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Mandar Marulkar - Head of Technology and Infrastructure, KPIT | | | |
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Virtualized infrastructure brings out cost savings
Express Computer reported a case study of Mphasis
Microsoft Hyper-V and SCVMM have helped Mphasis consolidate from 145 to 14 servers saving $500,000 in CAPEX while offering tighter control on infrastructure management. |
"Having experienced the benefits of virtualization, going forward Mphasis plans to virtualize all its critical applications"
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Arvind Joshi - Group Chief information officer, Mphasis | | | |
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Reliance Communications launches 'Cloud Computing' solutions in India on Microsoft Platform
In a move that combines the power of virtualization technology and cloud computing, Reliance Data Center, a part of Reliance Communications, announced the launch of "Reliance Cloud Computing Services" - hosted infrastructure service for its customers, based on the Microsoft platform.
Click to read the complete story:
SIFY
CIOL
HBL | |
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Lets
view IT professionals sharing their thoughts on the Efficiency Products: | | |
| | ![]() | | ![]() | |
![]() | Evaluate Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 |
| | Test out the new release of Exchange Server, and don't forget to check out the new Exchange Server TechCenter, which features new resources for Exchange Server 2010.
| ![]() | Download the SQL Server 2008 R2 November Community Technology Preview |
| | SQL Server 2008 R2 delivers several capabilities that will enable your organization to scale database operations, improve IT and developer efficiency, and enable highly scalable and well-managed business intelligence on a self-service basis for your users.
| ![]() | Windows Server 2008 R2:
A Primer | | | Take a guided tour through the new and enhanced features of Windows Server 2008 R2. Important stops along the way include Windows PowerShell cmdlets, tools for remote management, core parking options for processors, Active Directory changes, and branch caching.
| ![]() | Free Microsoft IT Environment Health Scanner Available Now |
| | Ensure your IT environment is healthy and up-to-date before you migrate. Designed for administrators of small or medium-sized networks, this tool takes a few minutes to scan your IT environment, perform more than 100 separate checks, and collect and analyze information.
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Download the New SDL Developer Starter Kit |
| | Educate yourself and your organization on how to build more secure applications. The SDL
Developer Starter Kit offers content,
labs, and training to help you establish
a standardized approach to roll out the Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) in your organization.
| ![]() | Latest Security Intelligence Report Shows Resurgence in Worm Attacks |
| | Review the latest Security Intelligence Report (SIRv7) to find deeper analysis and recommendations based on data input from over 450 million computers worldwide to help you successfully plan and manage protection technologies.
| ![]() | Download IIS Application Request Routing (ARR) 2.0 |
| | IIS Application Request Routing (ARR 2.0) is an extension for IIS that enables Web server administrators, hosting providers, and content delivery network (CDN) providers to increase Web application scalability and reliability through rule-based routing, client and host name affinity, load balancing of HTTP server requests, and distributed disk caching. |
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Download Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 RC
Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 (TMG) provides multiple layers of continuously updated protections - including URL filtering, anti-malware inspection, intrusion prevention, application- and network-layer firewall, and HTTP/HTTPS inspection - that are integrated into a unified, easy-to-manage gateway. |
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Download the Windows 7 Enterprise 90-day Trial
Begin testing your organization's software and hardware by downloading the Windows 7 Enterprise 90-day Evaluation. Designed just for IT
Pros, this limited-time trial offer lets you begin developing your organization's best practices for configuration and deployment. | | | ![]() |
| | ![]() | | Hey Scripting Guy | | |
See More Scripting Tips |
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| Vijay works at Texas Instruments focusing on Application Setup and Deployment. He is an MVP and a Springboard Series Technical Expert Panel member for Windows 7. He is also a part of the core team at BDotnet and BITPro User Groups. Apart from being passionate about technology evangelism, he loves music. He is also a big fan of Mark Russinovich, A R Rahman and Sachin Tendulkar. His online address is www.vijayraj.info. To subscribe to his technical blog Msigeek, Visit -
http://feeds.feedburner.com/msigeek
Vijay shares his valuable knowledge on operating systems with us
"We all have this question in our mind -
Why does my application break when we change
the Operating Systems?
Typically, whenever a new operating
system is released, Microsoft makes every effort to ensure application
compatibility. Unfortunately, as an
operating system evolves and when reliability, security and performance improvements are made, there are some compromises which are made that ends up breaking some applications. Thankfully, when the changes are decided to be made, there is some mitigation planned to address the applications which are broken. Hence, Application Compatibility is
the most important and is at the top of everybody's mind."
This series of posts covers information on how the core changes of Windows 7 will affect the applications. Also, it covers some basic methods to mitigate these issues from the viewpoint of Developers, IT Pros and
end-users. You can follow the blog or refer
to TechNet for more insights on Application Compatibility.
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The Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIR) provides an in-depth perspective on the changing threat landscape including software vulnerability disclosures and exploits, malicious software (malware), and potentially unwanted software. Using data derived from hundreds of millions of Windows computers, and some of the busiest online services on the Internet, this report also provides a detailed analysis of the threat landscape and the changing face of threats and countermeasures and includes updated data on privacy and breach notifications. The seventh volume of this report focuses on the first half of 2009
and is now available. Click here to download the report |
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| Learn more about Microsoft products such as SQL Server, Security, Windows Server, Exchange and SharePoint with these
"How Do I?" videos. TechNet has assembled these short videos for customers to learn how to accomplish specific tasks with Microsoft products: step-by-step. Subscribe to the
TechNet videos RSS feed to learn about new videos. |
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| | "Hyper - V, AD and Identity Management, Integrated best practice analyser are good in Windows
Server 2008 R2" | Sachin Kumar
Systems Engineer
New Delhi | | ..................................... | |
| | "Many features are new and navigation is also easy in this version of Windows
Server 2008 R2" | Vishal Choudary
Helpdesk Support
Chandigarh | | ..................................... | |
| | "Hyper-V seems to be a cool feature in Windows Server 2008 R2. ADS published as a service is really cool" | |
Renjith A
Senior Manager - Networks Thiruvananthapuram | | ..................................... |
| | "Resource monitor, Event VWR, IIS7.5, Hyper V, Recycle bin for AD are cool in Windows Server 2008 R2" |
A. Prakash
Infrastructure Architect
Chennai | | ..................................... | |
| | "Windows 7 is
easy to use, time saving, data security
and user friendly." | M Mary Divya
Senior Executive - Systems Coimbatore | | ..................................... |
| | "Features like Aero, Peek , Library, Restore Version are good in Windows 7" |
Madhu Gorle
Staff Engineer - QA
Bangalore | | ..................................... | |
| | "The Windows 7
Operating System is user friendly and more reliable to use and better than Windows Vista" | Sajeev. S. Anand
System Administrator
Thrissur | | ..................................... | |
| | "Windows 7 Powershell, Hyper V, Bit Locker and App Locker features are really good" | |
K V Nagaraj Gupta
Systems Engineer
Bangalore | | ..................................... | |
| | "E-mail and SMS Linking are cool in Exchange
Server 2010" | Sanjith.
S.
Network Engineer Thiruvananthapuram | | ..................................... |
| | "Exchange Server 2010 provides great scalability,
is available as a hosted solution and Outlook web access gives more features" | Pankaj Kumar Verma
System Administrator
Sikar | Read more ![]() |
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Protect Your PC: Three steps to help ensure your PC is protected. Microsoft wants to help ensure your PC is protected from viruses and worms, and from other future threats. Please go to www.microsoft.com/protect and follow these steps today.
1. Use an Internet Firewall 2. Update Your Computer 3. Use Up-to-Date Antivirus Software
To get more information and resources about how to help protect your PC, go to www.microsoft.com/protect. |
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