New book: MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-643): Configuring Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure (2nd Edition)

We’re pleased to announce that MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-643): Configuring Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure (2nd Edition) (ISBN 9780735648784; 640 pages) is available for purchase here, here, and here. This Training Kit is designed for information (IT) professionals who support or plan to support Windows Server 2008 R2 networks and who also plan to take the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) 70-643 exam.

Best Microsoft MCTS Training, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

This 2-in-1 kit includes the official Microsoft study guide, plus practice tests on CD to help you assess your skills. It comes packed with the tools and features exam candidates want most—including in-depth, self-paced training based on final exam content; rigorous, objective-by-objective review; exam tips from expert, exam-certified authors; and customizable testing options. It also provides real-world scenarios, case study examples, and troubleshooting labs for the skills and expertise you can use on the job.

You can find the book’s Table of Contents in this previous post.

Here is an excerpt from this Training Kit:
Chapter 2: Configuring Server Storage and Clusters

Storage area networks (SANs), host bus adapters (HBAs), and logical unit numbers (LUNs) were once the sole domain of storage specialists, far removed from the expertise of your average Windows administrator. However, the arrival of new technologies, such as the Windows Virtual Disk service and Internet SCSI (iSCSI), along with the increasingly complex realities of enterprise storage, has brought these once-specialized topics into the realm of Windows Server 2008 administration. To be an effective Windows server administrator today, you still need to know the difference between the various RAID levels, but you also need to know quite a bit more about advanced server storage technologies.

This chapter introduces you to the basics of disk management in Windows Server 2008 R2, along with more advanced storage technologies such as SANs. The chapter then builds upon this storage information to introduce the various clustering technologies available in Windows Server 2008 R2.
Exam objectives in this chapter:

* Configure storage.
* Configure high availability.

Lessons in this chapter:

* Lesson 1: Configuring Server Storage
* Lesson 2: Configuring Server Clusters

Before You Begin

To complete the lessons in this chapter, you must have:

* A computer named Server2 that is running Windows Server 2008 R2. Beyond the disk on which the operating system is installed, Server2 must be equipped with two additional hard disks of equal size.
* A basic understanding of Windows administration.

Lesson 1: Configuring Server Storage

A variety of server storage solutions is available for corporate networks, and Windows Server 2008 R2 connects to these technologies in new ways. This lesson introduces you to the major server storage types and the tools built into Windows Server 2008 R2 you can use to manage them.

Capture1
Understanding Server Storage Technologies

As the demand for server storage has grown, so too has the number of new storage technologies. Over the years, the range of server storage options has broadened from simple direct-attached storage (DAS) to network-attached storage (NAS) and, most recently, to Fibre Channel (FC) and iSCSI SANs.
Direct-Attached Storage

DAS is storage attached to one server only. Examples of DAS solutions are a set of internal hard disks within a server or a rack-mounted RAID connected to a server through a SCSI or FC controller. The main feature of DAS is that it provides a single server with fast, block-based data access to storage directly through an internal or external bus. (Block-based, as opposed to file-based, means that data is moved in unformatted blocks rather than in formatted files.)
DAS is an affordable solution for servers that need good performance and do not need enormous amounts of storage. For example, DAS is often suitable for infrastructure servers, such as DNS, WINS and DHCP servers, and domain controllers. File servers and web servers can also run well on a server with DAS.

The main limitation of DAS is that it is directly accessible from a single server only, which leads to inefficient storage management. For example, Figure 2-1 shows a LAN in which all storage is attached directly to servers. Despite the web and App2 servers having excess storage, there is no easy way for these resources to be redeployed to either the Mail or App1 server, which need more storage space.

Capture2

The main tool used for managing DAS in Windows is the Disk Management console. This tool, which you can access in Server Manager, enables you to partition disks and format volume sets. You can also use the Diskpart.exe command-line utility to perform the same functions available in Disk Management and to perform additional functions as well.
Network-Attached Storage

NAS is self-contained storage that other servers and clients can easily access over the network. A NAS device or appliance is a preconfigured server that runs an operating system specifically designed for handling file services. The main advantage of NAS is that it is simple to implement and can provide a large amount of storage space to clients and servers on a LAN. The downside of NAS is that, because your servers and clients access a NAS device over the LAN as opposed to over a local bus, access to data is slower and file-based as opposed to block-based. NAS performance is, therefore, almost always slower than that of DAS.

Because of its features and limitations, NAS is often a good fit for file servers, web servers, and other servers that don’t need extremely fast access to data. In addition, NAS appliances come with their own management tools, which are typically web-based.

Figure 2-2 shows a network in which clients use a NAS appliance as a file server.

Capture3
Storage-Area Networks

SANs are high-performance networks dedicated to delivering block data between servers and storage subsystems. From the point of view of the operating system, SAN storage appears as if it were installed locally. The most important characteristic that distinguishes a SAN from DAS is that in a SAN, the storage is not restricted to one server but is, in fact, available to any of a number of servers. (SAN storage can be moved from server to server, but outside of clustered file system environments, it is not accessible by more than one server at a time.)

Capture4

A SAN is made up of special devices, including SAN network adapters, called HBAs, on the host servers, cables and switches that help route storage traffic, disk storage subsystems, and tape libraries. These hardware devices that connect servers and storage in a SAN are called the SAN fabric. All these devices are interconnected by fiber or copper. When connected to the fabric, the available storage is divided up into virtual partitions called logical unit numbers (LUNs), which then appear to servers as local disks.

SANs are designed to enable centralization of storage resources while eliminating the distance and connectivity limitations posed by DAS. For example, parallel SCSI bus architecture limits DAS to 16 devices at a maximum (including the controller) distance of 25 meters. Fibre Channel SANs extend this distance limitation to 10 km or more and enable an essentially unlimited number of devices to attach to the network. These advantages enable SANs to separate storage from individual servers and to pool unlimited storage on a network where that storage can be shared.

SANs are a good solution for servers that require fast access to very large amounts of data (especially block-based data). Such servers can include mail servers, backup servers, streaming media servers, application servers, and database servers. The use of SANs also enables efficient long-distance data replication, which is typically part of a disaster recovery (DR) solution.

Figure 2-3 illustrates a simple SAN.

Capture5

SANs generally occur in two varieties: Fibre Channel and iSCSI.
FIBRE CHANNEL SANS

Fibre Channel (FC) delivers high-performance block input/output (I/O) to storage devices. Based on serial SCSI, FC is the oldest and most widely adopted SAN interconnect technology. Unlike parallel SCSI devices, FC devices do not need to arbitrate (or contend) for a shared bus. Instead, FC uses special switches to transmit information between multiple servers and storage devices at the same time.

The main advantage of FC is that it is the most widely implemented SAN technology and has, at least until recently, offered the best performance. The disadvantages of FC technology are the cost of its hardware and the complexity of its implementation. Fibre Channel network components include server HBAs, cabling, and switches. All these components are specialized for FC, lack interoperability among vendors, are relatively expensive, and require special expertise.
ISCSI SANS

Internet SCSI (iSCSI) is an industry standard developed to enable transmission of SCSI block commands over an Ethernet network by using the TCP/IP protocol. Servers communicate with iSCSI devices through a locally installed software agent known as an iSCSI initiator. The iSCSI initiator executes requests and receives responses from an iSCSI target, which itself can be the end-node storage device or an intermediary device such as a switch. For iSCSI fabrics, the network also includes one or more Internet Storage Name Service (iSNS) servers that, much like DNS servers on a LAN, provide discoverability and zoning of SAN resources.

By relying on TCP/IP, iSCSI SANs take advantage of networking devices and expertise that are widely available, a fact that makes iSCSI SANs generally simpler and less expensive to implement than FC SANs.

Aside from lower cost and greater ease of implementation, other advantages of iSCSI over FC include:

* Connectivity over long distances Organizations distributed over wide areas might have a series of unlinked SAN islands that the current FC connectivity limitation of 10 km cannot bridge. (There are new means of extending Fibre Channel connectivity up to several hundred kilometers, but these methods are both complex and costly.) In contrast, iSCSI can connect SANs in distant offi ces by using in-place metropolitan area networks (MANs) and wide-area networks (WANs).
* Built-in security No security measures are built into the Fibre Channel protocol. Instead, security is implemented primarily through limiting physical access to the SAN. In contrast to FC, the Microsoft implementation of the iSCSI protocol provides security for devices on the network by using the Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) for authentication, and the Internet Protocol security (IPsec) standard for encryption. Because these methods of securing communications already exist in Windows networks, they can be readily extended from LANs to SANs.

Capture6

The main disadvantage of an iSCSI SAN is that, unless it is built with dedicated (and expensive) 10-GB Ethernet cabling and switches, the I/O transfer of iSCSI is slower than an FC-based SAN can deliver. And if you do choose to use 10-GB equipment for your iSCSI SAN instead of the much more common choice of gigabit Ethernet, the high cost of such a 10-GB solution would eliminate the price advantage of iSCSI relative to FC.

Capture7
Configuring a SAN Connection with iSCSI Initiator

You can use the iSCSI Initiator built into Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 to connect to an iSCSI SAN, configure the features of this iSCSI connection, and provision storage. To configure a SAN connection with iSCSI Initiator, select the tool from the Administrative Tools group in the Start menu. This step opens the Targets tab of the iSCSI Initiator Properties dialog box, as shown in Figure 2-4.

Capture8

To connect to an iSCSI SAN, specify an iSCSI target by name in the Target text box and then click Quick Connect. (Quick Connect is a new feature in Windows Server 2008 R2.) The Targets tab also provides access to Multipath I/O (MPIO) settings through the Devices and Connect buttons. MPIO enables you to configure multiple simultaneous connections to an iSCSI target so that if one adapter fails, another connection can continue processing I/O without any interruption of service. To enable MPIO, use the Add Features Wizard to add the Multipath I/O feature.

After you establish a connection to an iSCSI target, you can use the following tabs to configure the connection:

* Discovery On this tab, you can discover targets on specified portals and choose iSNS servers.
* Favorite Targets Use this tab to ensure that connections to selected iSCSI targets are restored every time the local computer restarts.
* Volumes And Devices This tab enables you to provision volumes and devices on targets and bind to them so they are readily available on system restart.
* RADIUS This tab enables you to specify a RADIUS server and shared secret for the authentication of the iSCSI connection.
* Configuration This tab enables you to require negotiation of the CHAP authentication protocol and IPsec encryption for all connections to the local iSCSI Initiator. The tab also provides a unique identification number for the iSCSI Initator, which you can specify on a remote iSCSI target to configure a connection to the local machine.

Capture9
Other Tools for Managing SANs

Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 include the Virtual Disk service (VDS), an application programming interface (API) that enables FC and iSCSI SAN hardware vendors to expose disk subsystems and SAN hardware to administrative tools in Windows. When vendor hardware includes the VDS hardware provider, you can manage that hardware within Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 by using iSCSI Initiator and other tools, such as Disk Management, Storage Manager for SANs (SMfS), Storage Explorer, or the command-line tool, DiskRAID.exe.

* Storage Manager for SANs SMfS is available in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 as a feature you can add by using the Add Features Wizard. You can use SMfS to manage SANs by provisioning disks, creating LUNs, and assigning LUNs to different servers in the SAN.
* Storage Explorer Storage Explorer is available by default in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 through the Administrative Tools program group. You can use Storage Explorer to display detailed information about servers connected to the SAN and about fabric components such as HBAs, FC switches, and iSCSI initiators and targets. You can also use Storage Explorer to perform administrative tasks on an iSCSI fabric.
* DiskRAID DiskRAID is a command-line tool that enables you to manage LUNs in a VDS-enabled hardware RAID.

Google to dump support for Microsoft’s IE7

Computerworld – Google will drop support for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) and Mozilla’s Firefox 3.5 browsers for its online apps, including Gmail and Docs.

Best Microsoft MCTS Training, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

“Beginning August 1, we’ll support the current and prior major release of Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari on a rolling basis,” said Venkat Panchapakesan, who heads Google’s enterprise engineering team, in a company blog Wednesday. “Each time a new version is released, we’ll begin supporting the update and stop supporting the third-oldest version.”

By that scheme, Google will stop supporting IE7, Firefox 3.5, Apple’s Safari 3 and its own Chrome 9, all which have released two newer versions.

IE7, for example, has been superseded by IE8 and IE9; the same goes for Firefox 3.5, which has been replaced by Firefox 3.6 and Firefox 4.

After Aug. 1, users running those browsers may have trouble with some features in Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Google Docs and Google Sites. At some point, those apps may stop working entirely.

“For Web applications to spring even farther ahead of traditional software, our teams need to make use of new capabilities available in modern browsers,” said Panchapakesan. “Older browsers just don’t have the chops to provide you with the same high-quality experience.”

Panchapakesan didn’t mention Opera Software’s Opera browser in his blog, an omission that prompted many users to leave comments.

“Lack of support for a browser as standards-compliant as Opera is absurd,” complained someone identified as “Isildur.”

Opera accounts for approximately 2% of all browsers, according to Web measurement company Net Applications, less than one-sixth the share of Chrome and less than one-third that of Safari.

The numerous “where’s Opera”-style comments prompted one wag to say, ” Wow, every existing Opera user left a comment here.”

By Net Applications’ statistics, the browsers Google will retire represent a minority of those in use.

Last month, IE7 accounted for 7% of all the browsers used worldwide, said Net Applications on Tuesday. Firefox 3.5 owned an even-smaller share of 1.4%, while Safari 3 accounted for only 0.1%. Altogether, the browsers destined for the dustbin controlled less than 9% of the browser market.

This was not the first time that Google has warned customers and users to upgrade to a newer browser. In January 2010, the search giant said it was dumping Google Docs support for IE6, the Microsoft browser that still accounts for 10.4% of all browsers in use.

Many IE6 users, however, are in China, where the government blocks access to Google’s online applications, and with which Google has a contentious relationship.

But while Google and others have stopped supporting the 10-year-old IE6, Google is one of the first online software vendors to drop 2006′s IE7 from a support list. Microsoft, for instance, has committed to supporting IE7 on Windows XP until April 2014, and on Vista for three years longer.

Panchapakesan urged people running one of the browsers on Google’s kill list to upgrade to a newer edition.

The end-of-support plan for Google Apps will not disrupt access to its search site using older browsers.

Microsoft expands Intune services

IDG News Service - Anticipating use of Intune by larger organizations, Microsoft is outfitting the managed desktop service with a number of new capabilities that should make its use more appealing in enterprise settings.

Best Microsoft MCTS Training, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

"The first version of Windows Intune didn't have all the capabilities that all of our on-premise products do, so that slowed down adoption by larger customers," said Alex Heaton, Microsoft director of Intune. "With this next release we will add significant new capabilities that will make it attractive to larger customers."

A new Intune beta service, launched Monday, will offer the ability for administrators to distribute and install third-party software across their systems, Heaton said. The console can also be locked down for read-only access, allowing junior administrators, partners and business analysts to access information without giving them full rights to make changes.

Designed for organizations with limited IT help, Intune is a Microsoft-hosted service that monitors and updates Windows 7-based desktop and laptop computers. Subscribers of this service can update any desktop PCs running Windows XP to Windows 7 at no additional cost.

Microsoft formally launched the Intune hosted service in March after a yearlong beta. With the service, the customer is provided with an Internet-accessible console, from which all of an organization's computers can be managed. From this console, an administrator can apply Windows updates and patches, monitor PCs, manage security, keep inventory of PCs and remotely administer an ailing PC. From its own data centers, Microsoft will queue the updates, as well as manage all the back-end server software needed for administration duties.

Heaton would not reveal how many customers Intune has, though he noted that the average customer has 250 PCs or less. Recent customers include the California Strawberry Commission and industrial real estate broker IDI, which manages 250 computers with the service.

With the new beta, he explained, Microsoft is beginning to assemble additional services that could make it appealing to larger organizations, those businesses with thousands of desktops. While the beta still doesn't have all the features larger organizations require, it paves the way for such an offering in the years to come.

"I wouldn't say this is the release to make us enterprise-ready. Our strategy is to do frequent releases until we get to parity of our on-premise products," Heaton said.

One of the new features is software distribution. The current version of Intune can store and deploy Windows patches. The new version can do the same for any Windows program compiled with the .exe or .msi suffix. This will allow administrators to upload a program once and then have it installed across all the machines.

Microsoft expands Intune services

IDG News Service - Anticipating use of Intune by larger organizations, Microsoft is outfitting the managed desktop service with a number of new capabilities that should make its use more appealing in enterprise settings.

Best Microsoft MCTS Training, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

"The first version of Windows Intune didn't have all the capabilities that all of our on-premise products do, so that slowed down adoption by larger customers," said Alex Heaton, Microsoft director of Intune. "With this next release we will add significant new capabilities that will make it attractive to larger customers."

A new Intune beta service, launched Monday, will offer the ability for administrators to distribute and install third-party software across their systems, Heaton said. The console can also be locked down for read-only access, allowing junior administrators, partners and business analysts to access information without giving them full rights to make changes.

Designed for organizations with limited IT help, Intune is a Microsoft-hosted service that monitors and updates Windows 7-based desktop and laptop computers. Subscribers of this service can update any desktop PCs running Windows XP to Windows 7 at no additional cost.

Microsoft formally launched the Intune hosted service in March after a yearlong beta. With the service, the customer is provided with an Internet-accessible console, from which all of an organization's computers can be managed. From this console, an administrator can apply Windows updates and patches, monitor PCs, manage security, keep inventory of PCs and remotely administer an ailing PC. From its own data centers, Microsoft will queue the updates, as well as manage all the back-end server software needed for administration duties.

Heaton would not reveal how many customers Intune has, though he noted that the average customer has 250 PCs or less. Recent customers include the California Strawberry Commission and industrial real estate broker IDI, which manages 250 computers with the service.

With the new beta, he explained, Microsoft is beginning to assemble additional services that could make it appealing to larger organizations, those businesses with thousands of desktops. While the beta still doesn't have all the features larger organizations require, it paves the way for such an offering in the years to come.

"I wouldn't say this is the release to make us enterprise-ready. Our strategy is to do frequent releases until we get to parity of our on-premise products," Heaton said.

One of the new features is software distribution. The current version of Intune can store and deploy Windows patches. The new version can do the same for any Windows program compiled with the .exe or .msi suffix. This will allow administrators to upload a program once and then have it installed across all the machines.

Microsoft plans 22 patches for Windows, Office next week

Sole critical bulletin will fix flaws only in Vista and Windows 7
Computerworld - Microsoft today said it will issue four security updates next week, only one of which is pegged as critical, to patch 22 vulnerabilities in Windows and Visio 2003.

Best Microsoft MCTS Training, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

Three of the four updates will address vulnerabilities in Windows, while the fourth will tackle problems in Microsoft Visio 2003, which was last patched in February.

The three updates that apply to Windows Vista will all patch bugs in Service Pack 1 (SP1), the edition set to head into retirement. Office XP, which will also be dropped from security support, has received its last fix: None of next week's four bulletins will affect that 10-year-old application suite.

And for the second month in a row, Microsoft's security updates likely won't lead the news.

"Last month more of the concerns were about the hacks of Sony Pictures and other sites," said Storms. "And it looks like other stories will take the cake this month."

Apple, for instance, faces a pair of "zero-day" vulnerabilities -- unpatched bugs that are already being exploited -- in the iOS mobile operating system that powers the iPhone and iPad.

"The focus for this month is not necessarily OSes and applications, but the constant stream of vulnerabilities being discovered in the mobile devices connected to our corporate networks," said Paul Henry, security and forensic analyst at Lumension, in an email today. "Microsoft does not have exclusivity when it comes to issuing patches."

Microsoft's security updates will be released at approximately 1 p.m. ET on July 12.

Elgan: What I lost on the Google+ Diet II

After using only Google's new social network for a week -- forsaking all others -- here's what I learned

Computerworld - On July 8, I went on the Google+ Diet, using Google's new social network for all my online communication. As part of the diet, I stopped using Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and several other services. I even stopped using e-mail.

Best Microsoft MCTS Training, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

From a Google+ Diet perspective, the advantage of replacing your blog with a Google+ profile is that blogging happens in the same space as everything else you do. Personally, I love not having a gazillion windows and tabs going with all my social activity. I just say what I want to say, then choose who I want to say it to.

Most people have no interest in leaving Facebook

My Circles that are full of editorial colleagues and brilliant strangers are frenetic hives of activity. But in my "Family" and "Friends" Circles there is nothing but the sound of crickets.

I've tried to convince the people I care most about on Facebook to come sign up for Google+, but most have no interest. I believe they'll warm to it over time, but for now, it's clear that most Facebook fans are firmly embedded in that social network.
Google Plus

* Elgan: What I lost on the Google+ Diet
* Visual tour: 8 Google+ add-ons, extensions, and downloads
* With 10M users, Google+ is becoming a social competitor
* Google races to create business version of Google+
* Privacy, contact updates added to Google+
* Can Facebook and Google+ coexist?
* Google+ fervor may be making Facebook nervous
* Google to developers: Stay tuned for Google+ tools
* Google+ hit with spam bug
* Visual tour: 10 Google+ tips for beginners

Continuing coverage: Google+

You can post on Twitter and Facebook and send e-mail all from Google+

Replacing other communications media with Google+ doesn't mean they disappear elsewhere. There are multiple ways (browser plug-ins, RSS schemes and others) to have your Google+ posts appear or be linked to automatically on those other services. New apps and services are coming out every day that make this easy to do.

Google+ ends social networking fatigue, but can induce Google+ fatigue

Google makes it super easy to follow people, comment and interact on Google+. It also lacks Twitter- and Facebook-like limits on post size. As a result, it's easy to over-commit, and end up with a fire hose of information that leaves you exhausted.

The cure for Google+ fatigue is to constantly un-Circle the least interesting people, or the people who are using up too much time with stuff you don't like. It doesn't happen by itself, unlike on Facebook where EdgeRank limits your incoming feed without any action on the part of the user.

Google+'s system for friending and following is harder to understand, but better in practice

Twitter and Facebook are easy to understand when it comes to friending and following. On Twitter, you see the posts of the people you follow. Period. On Facebook, you see the posts of the people you have friended (it takes two), minus the posts blocked by EdgeRank.

But Google+ is both more complex and better. On Google+, you "follow" people by putting them into Circles -- say, one for "Friends," another for "Family" and another for "Co-workers." When you click on a "Stream" icon, you see the posts of all your Circles. Or you can choose the posts only of any one Circle.

That's What He Said: Ballmer on the State of Microsoft

Steve Ballmer's WPC 2011 keynote turned into a lengthy state of the state of Microsoft, as he expounded on products like Skype, Windows Azure and Bing and how they will affect enterprises, partners and competitors. Here are some of Big Steve's most quotable fightin' words.

Best Microsoft MCTS Training, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

Bing

"Bing is probably the Microsoft product that partners spend the least time with, but I think that'll change -- we're thinking about developing an architecture that will open up Bing to be more of a platform."

"Market share for Bing in the U.S. grew to 14 percent this year, up 3 points. It's a 30 percent growth in number of search queries. In the past year, we've integrated in all of the Yahoo traffic, which means we are serving 30 percent of search queries in U.S. We went from 10 percent to 30 in one year."

Windows Server, Windows Azure and the public and private cloud

"It has been a big year for our private cloud with Windows Server and Hyper-V products and public cloud with Windows Azure ... In the last year Windows Server has built market share. Seventy-six percent of servers sold this year were Windows Server, and there's been equivalent progress with 40 percent of databases running on top of our SQL server database."

"Having a strategy that spans from public and private is a unique strength for Microsoft. Competitors like VMware, Oracle, Google and Amazon have offers that have merit but in a limited way. We think what you want is to have the flexibility to mix and match the public and private environments."

Microsoft Dynamics (CRM and ERP)

"This is the 10 year anniversary of entering business application space, and we've experienced 20 percent compound annual growth. Dynamics is now its own standalone division."

"Recently the LA public schools move 70,000 users to Microsoft Dynamics CRM."

"I've been asked: When does ERP in the cloud? Starting with Dynamics NAV early next year we will start putting ERP in the cloud."

Xbox Kinect (as a possible business tool)

"We brought our Xbox Kinect sensor product to market this year for the entertainment world and yet the amount of interest from businesses and partners in using Kinect in commercial applications is really high."

Windows 7 and Windows 8

"We're selling lots of Windows. We saw 350 million new PCs sold in last year, which compares to other guys [that would be Apple] that are in the 20 million range. 350, last time I checked, is a lot more than 20."

"We did a brief glimpse of Windows 8 at conferences a month or two ago. We made it clear that we are supporting ARM processor architectures in addition to Intel. Windows 8 will be a true reimagining of Windows PCs and the dawning of Windows slates."

Windows Division CFO and Corporate VP Tami Reller later announced that all Windows 7 hardware will be compatible with Windows 8.