Nothing remarkable in this session, mostly just the same as last year: use WinPE, script everything to make it reliable and repeatable, use the tools available. Something I hadn’t seen before was the BDD , a toolkit for accelerated desktop deployment. Looks nifty, but probably needs some work when deploying Windows 2000 and Office 2000.

After that, Windows Audit Collection Services. This is a not yet released product for collecting security event logs from servers and workstations into a central SQL database. Looks pretty cool, has some amazing volume capabilties (>20,000 events collected/second, assuming the database can handle inserts that fast), uses encryption and compression for streaming events over the wire, allows filtering with WMI Query Language, uses single instance store in the database for repeated items via normalization, etc. Now, the downside: release date is ‘to be determined’, license is ‘to be determined’. So, will the average operation need to pay for it? I would certainly hope not. It comes with MSDE as the store by default, so that *might* be a good sign.

The new project management features in Visual Studio 2005 Team System is going to be interesting. Work item tracking, source control, policies on checkins, etc. The session was aimed more at the project manager than the end user, but it still showed off some features that we’ll definitly be able to use. It even comes with a feature to build an intranet/portal site for the project (on top of SharePoint, of course). All the project management tools (Project, Excel, etc) can pull data directly from the database, allowing for real time checking of project status. This also lets the manager manage issues instead of spending time having meetings to find out where team members are. The developer interface is part of the IDE, not some seperate form/interface. More on the source control on Thursday.

The morning keynote announced some nifty things mostly related to making IT work in general less burdensome. Some really cute scenes were played out between fictional an ‘IT Professional’ and an ‘Information worker’, showing the things we all know: IT is overworked, never has enough time and the employees are constantly stacking projects on top of an already endless list of things to do. Nifty things: client inspection and isolation, intregrate everything from the ground up, build it all on a foundation of .Net, etc. Some new tools were announced/demoed: Best Practices Analyzer tools for SQL Server (and others are coming), SMS will get more tightly integrated patch management, lots of nifty features in the soon to be released ISA Server 2004. And, last but certainly least, every attendee gets a free copy of SMS 2003, Windows Services for Unix and Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005. The speaker mentioned this was nearly $10 million dollars in software licenses….

The session after that was Windows Update Services (WUS), the new name for Software Update Services (SUS) 2.0. Lots of neat features, all web managed: date based deadlines, scan for needed updates and quite an array of reporting capabilty. And the speaker pointed out that SMS is still needed in large environments, but WUS should handle smaller shops well. Still no support for NT4, but does anyone really expect that?

After lunch: Visual Studio 2005 Software Project Management. Hopefully, work item tracking and source control will both get demoed.

The session on SQL Server patch management was about the same thing that everyone related to patches at MS has been saying for some time: We know it sucks now, we are trying to make it better, but there’s only so much we can do. They are consolidating down to 2 patch installers, trying to support multiple instances better, better control panel interfaces and improvement/standardization of command line switches. (I wonder if they listened to me bitching on NTBuqtraq all that time ago)

The exhibit hall reception was nice, lots of free beer, free food and I think my t-shirt count is up to 5, and the hat count is at 3. One of the hats is for Marty (from AutoProf/ProfileMaker). I also spent some time talking to the Visual Studio 2005 Team System group about source control going forward. Visual SourceSafe isn’t going away, but they see the deficiencies in it when it comes to a larger team environment. And the fact that it doesn’t integrate well with the IDE, so they are addressing that with a ‘enterprise class’ source control system that doesn’t share any code with VSS. Now, if I could just get the developers to use it.

Second keynote in about 15 minutes.

The Great Plains session was aimed more at the ISV market than the end users, but I still saw some pretty nifty things. MS is trying to get into the supply chain.

The Deploying Exchange 2003: From Exchange 5.5 session was useful, even if it didn’t really tell me anything I didn’t already know. One interesting thing was a show of hands poll of how many people had deployed an Active Directory vs. how many had not. I’d say that 95% of the audience had, but keep in mind this is in a session thats going to be heavy in NT4 people. Later, he asked how many people still had NT4, greater than half the room raised thier hands.

That almost makes me feel good that we are not alone.

The other good question was “Who has more than 10,000 users in Exchange 5.5?” At least a dozen people. Wow, I can’t imagine managing that many mailboxes.

The Windows vs Linux session was interesting, lots of technical comparisons on under the hood details of the 2 kernels by someone with real skills at reading and comparing code.

The exhibit hall is now open, so the crush for the goodies has begun. Next up, a session on Great Plains. Hopefully I’ll learn something I’ll be able to relate to our accounting people.

I missed breakfast this morning because I watched the USS Stennis get pushed back from the dock and start steaming out to sea. Quite a sight to see.

As always, the opening keynote of TechEd was a major Microsoft player, this time CEO Steve Ballmer. And, to not break with tradition, the talk was peppered with the standard fair of ‘TCO’, ‘Business Information Workers’, ’empowerment’, and other long looking things. Major things announced: Web Services Enhancements 2.0 (WSE 2.0 or ‘whizzy’ as they’d like it pronounced), a technical beta of the Office chunks to pull data from Web Services (the name escapes me), and Visual Studio 2005 Team System. The most interesting one seems to the VS2005 Team, which seems to include a new source/change control system. Hopefully this will be true, should find out at a session later in the week, Thursday I think.

Now, I’m off to a session on Windows and Linux: A tale of two kernels. Or, if this stinks, I’m headed to one on testing with Virtual PC 2004.

And, the first free tshirt of the week has been acquired, along with a baseball advertising Visual Studio 2005.

Well, I’m in San Diego at TechEd 2004. Too bad I don’t have a digital camera (pictures will have to wait until I get back. ) or you could see the harbor view I have from my hotel balcony. Well, not exactly a balcony, more like a sliding glass door with some concrete outside for a chair and very small endtable. Ah, and this is supposed to be work.
There is at least one Navy carrier in port and there was one steaming out of the harbor as I left the airport.
The plane ride was quite long, but definitely worth it so far. Oh, and the feeding of the nerds has begun, bottomless coolers of soda (Coke and Pepsi products, FWIW), ice cream and chips are all over the place.