Working as a Happy Cloud Company

One of the first projects I took on when I started with my current employer a year ago was to “get our stuff to the Cloud”. Inova Solutions is a Microsoft Gold Partner “Licensing Solution Provider” and my CEO aimed to have 50% of our resources in the Microsoft Cloud within a year. It all went a bit faster than that so we’ve been working with Office365, Intune, CRM Online and Azure for over half a year now. We are used to it, we don’t even wonder about it anymore, it is business as usual. And, there is a bunch of features available we still have to discover and implement, which will take us some time. Business as usual. Happy CEO.

But every now and then we become aware again that it is extraordinary that our entire organization runs all of its business completely in the Cloud.

We have seen this huge decline in IT Costs, be it investments or maintenance. Things don’t break anymore. Our offices on Aruba, Curacao, Jamaica and Trinidad do not rely on site-to-site VPNs anymore. We are always on at a constant low cost. Happy CFO.

When we meet with customers, with partners and even with Microsoft, people are astonished that we actually work like that! All of it, all the time. We do not only Walk-the-Talk, we are actually “Being what is Next” for a lot of organizations. Customers like that and they want that. Most of the time it’s not the IT Manager that makes the decision, it’s higher Management that asks how long it will take us to build them that. It is becoming strategic instead of tactical, increasing productivity while decreasing costs. Doing events and showing off our own dog food makes the audience dribble (have to make sure we have tissues). Happy Customers, Happy Sales People.

And in the meantime we can work anywhere, from hotel rooms, lounges, airports, airplanes, home, and we can work anytime. I tend to wake up very early, like 4 AM, every now and then I meet my colleague who tends to be a night worker on Lync: “Morning Jasper”. “Go to bed Shawn”. We get our stuff done. Without any servers. If the Internet connection breaks we go to Starbucks and work on. If lightning strikes and we lose power for a couple of hours we do the same. We still get our stuff done. Coffee gets cold because we are getting stuff done all the time. Happy Mobile Workers.

Isn’t it amazing? We are a Happy Cloud Only Company, that is what we preach, that is what we practice. Mobile First – Cloud First: Happy CTO!

Are you next to be Happy?

Working with Microsoft Surface Pro 3

Selffie of Surface Pro 3

At Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference, July 14 – July 17 in Washington DC, they offered the Surface Pro 3 with a discount of some $ 300,-. I bought one after stumbling back and forth trying to decide for 2 days. It’s still a lot of money.

But oh joy! This is really an amazing piece of hardware (and I’m pretty spoiled when it comes to hardware). I’m not going to put in all specs, there are plenty of places where you can find those. It’s about experience. The first experience after unboxing is its weight, it will probably float (but I’m not going to try that). It’s much lighter than my Surface Pro, maybe not when you compare specs, but it’s about the experience. Probably you’ve seen the picture somewhere of Surface3 compared with an iPhone for thickness, which shows is exactly how thin it is. How the h*ll do they get all that stuff in a light and thin device like this.

Plug it in and switch it on! Surfaces boot really fast, so does this one. No need to get a cup of coffee first. Great screen resolution! Go through to necessary configuration steps and ready to go. Configure the Pen for the screen, Stream a copy of Office Professional Plus from Office 365 and install a couple of my favorite Apps, run Windows Update. Playtime … or worktime! This device does both. I think I’m out of the 3-devices world. My Surface Pro 3 and my Lumia 925 will do. I travel really a lot so that is a big win.

I bought myself 2 extra’s, the Surface Mouse and a Miracast Receiver. The latter allows to project your screen wireless to any HDMI screen, beamer or projector. Did my first presentation with that yesterday. Just walk across the room, Surface Pro 3 in the hand and do my demo, my presentation and white boarding in PowerPoint and OneNote and the Pen… boy, impressive. And not just for me, imagine what my customer wants now…… At home, stream Netflix movies to my television. Nice technologyJ.

For work, I use my Administrative accounts form a Virtual Machine and Hyper-V runs smoothly on the Surface Pro 3. The type-cover is a bit bigger than the one on my Surface Pro and certainly the mouse pad area is works much better. Of course I’m typing this on my new “machine”.

My impression after one week: totally terrific! Welcome to the 2-devices world. No compromise from a tablet point of view and no compromise from a laptop point of view.

Windows 8.1 Hyper-V Networking and Enhanced Session Mode

As a good Administrator should, I have two user accounts. One as an ordinary user and one Admin Account. We have all our Services running in the Microsoft Cloud and of course I do not want to fill out my credentials every time I open my browser or do stuff in Private Browser sessions. Although tearing it down, we still have some servers Onprem and to access those I need a VPN Connection to our Cisco ASA appliance (I live on Aruba and our office sits on Curacao). It took me some trial and error to get things going…… with my Virtual Admin Machine.

@Home I have a simple Wi-Fi set up and as we all know by now, running a Virtual Admin Machine just over a Wireless Network Adapter is no great success. The proper way to set that up is as follows:

In Hyper-V Manager, create a new Internal Switch:

Assign the Network Adapter of the VM to that Internal Switch:

Go to Network and Sharing center on the Host, click properties on the Wireless Adapter and hit the Sharing Tab and share it with the Internal Switch:

 

At this point the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client (3.1) on the Host refuses to connect over the Wi-Fi connection because the adapter is being shared. Bummer. There is probably a workaround for that but I want my Admin stuff not on the Host but on the VM. So this is just a note.

I installed the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility client in the VM and tried to connect. Bummer……. The client refuses to connect out of a RDP Session. I used my favorite Search Engine:

  • There is a client config file on the local machine -> not so
  • In the ASDM Console connected to the Cisco ASA Appliance there is Node called “Client Profile Settings -> not so
  • Both the ASDM Console and the ASA OS are outdated, downloading the latest version -> (Cisco) accountname + pw -> not documented…..

So, I tried starting at the other end, the VM. How come “RDP”? Am I not connected to the Console in the “Virtual Machine Connection”? My favorite Search Engine again: A “cool” feature of Windows 8.1 Hyper-V is “Enhanced Session Mode”. By default this is set to “Enabled”. It allows for RDP-like experience in the Virtual Machine, redirection of drives etc. There are three places where you should look:

And in the Virtual Machine Connection Window:

Unchecking the “Enhanced Session” in the Virtual Machine Connection did the trick. The Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client now connects through my Shared Wi-Fi Connection!

All in a days work………

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mail Senders! Stop doing that!

There is a lot of buzz on Mail lately. Germany and France are actually working on prohibiting replying to work mail after working hours (not a word on sending work mail though….). People write a lot of tips, software vendors create a lot of tools for managing full and cluttered Inboxes. In the “modern” world work becomes just another activity during a day, in a lot of companies the management style is still 9 to 5.

From a working perspective two worlds are collapsing. If you work from 9 to 5 it seems arguable that you’re done at 5. But now that work is being separated from a location it also seems weird it should still be from 9 to 5. Sure, there’s a lot of jobs that require being “in the office” or “at work”. Those are not the situations I’m talking about. When I delivered an Exchange Training let’s say 5 years ago, I always said, the first thing people do when they come to the office is opening their mail. Nowadays I say, the first thing people do when they wake up is checking their mail and the last thing they do before they go to bed is checking their mail. We don’t use separate devices for work and private stuff, all sits on that Smart Phone/Tablet/Laptop.

Bosses (old style managers) like to have their workforce at the office, thinking people will be more productive when they are being monitored like that. Well, statistics prove differently. But then, what to do with working hours? I had the luck (or I created the circumstances) that I get paid for a JOB, not for an hour of my time. An hourly salary is not working anymore in a lot of situations. If I get the JOB done between 11 PM and 5 AM, the JOB is done and I get paid. Sure I have meetings and stuff at regular working times and, I get a lot of work done over the weekend as well.

I needed this conversation to get back to the introduction, prohibiting people to do work mail after hours. So, the after hours is done with, there is no such thing as after hours. Unless of course, you have an agreement on that with your coworkers. Part two of the introduction is on keeping your Inbox clean. And that is where the whole discussion sets of in the wrong direction. At least half (in my opinion it’s closer to 80%) of the source of full and cluttered mailboxes lies not with the recipient but with the sender. And we just keep on working on the results of that: tools and tips and tricks for managing that cluttered overflowed mailbox.

So, now we have look at senders. When I look at the mail in my work inbox I can’t help frowning over this very incomplete list of characteristics:

  • No subject or worse, a reply to an old mail with a totally different subject
  • Misspelling, grammar errors
  • Unfocused, not to the point
  • Vague questions, no context
  • No proposal for when feedback is required or if feedback is required
  • CC and probably BCC to “whoever it might concern”
  • Here you go, it’s of my chest (I’m not responsible anymore)
  • Everything is urgent (deadlines? Hey, nobody is going to die)
  • Lots of emotions and opinions
  • Hasty
  • Receipt/read confirmation to be send back
  • FYI

And then when you see the reply (in case of a mail thread with multiple people involved), that this list could be even much longer. People respond with their primary reaction which is “defensive”. Therefore incomplete, full of opinions. Oh, I understand, don’t get me wrong. I really have to chop of my hands every now and then for not hitting the reply ALL button and vomit back in all those mailboxes. If you hit the reply button, don’t send it out immediately, keep it in your drafts and have another look at it an hour later; you will smile and rewrite the whole thing.

So here’s just some tips and tricks for managing your Outbox (and, as a result you also manage other people’s inboxes)

  • Don’t react primarily, but responsible
  • Put in a clear Subject
  • Break with the tradition of CC and Distribution Lists
  • Forward the conversation
  • Be accurate, complete and to the point
  • Don’t be opinionating and righteous; mail is a bad platform for discussions
  • Use your spelling checker
  • Ask for an action from the recipient and say by when
  • Ask for a reply (and by when) OR say “NO RESPONSE REQUIRED”
  • Have it clear in your organization within what timeframe mails should be answered
  • NEVER call “hey, I just send you an email” or even worse “hey, I’m going to send you an email” (how stupid)
  • NEVER send a mail with just “Thanks” or “Okay” (it does not forward the conversation)
  • Don’t just reject a request, offer a different proposal/solution (forward the conversation)
  • Make a contribution, always
  • Do not ask for read confirmation (it only confirms the mail was opened, not read…)

Now I hear you think “I do not have time for this”. Then you MAKE time for this! If YOU start doing this, your coworkers will follow and internal mail will be much easier to deal with. Within a month you’ll do it like this automatically and you’ll save yourself and your coworkers lots of time and energy. Mail does not have to a burden.

People who know me or read my blogs every now and then, know that I am a big opponent of mail period. I believe in PULL mechanisms for information and not in PUSH mechanisms. Reality is of course that I’m also guilty of being an ordinary mail user but at least I have choice: I can also be an extraordinary mail user.

Now YOU choose

Happy mailing!

Core IO Assessments and Learning

Lately I have been doing about 10 Core Infrastructure Optimization Assessments for our customers. I do not think the outcomes are surprising, we all know we still spend most of our time “Fighting Fires”, which stands for “Basic” in the Core IO Maturity model.

I created a customized Core IO questionnaire (thanks to Microsoft’s Eduardo Kassner) which I leave at the customer after a presentation for the whole IT Team and hopefully also some non-tech decision makers. That presentation starts with an explanation of the why and what on the Core IO Assessment. Some talks on Total Cost of Ownership, Return On Investment and Capital Expenditure versus Operational Expenditure. We do some work on road mapping, creating a context for the now mostly ad-hoc type of Projects. I touch a little bit on the Business Productivity Infrastructure Optimization (BP IO) model as well. Customers think of this presentation as very valuable, a new way of looking at their own infrastructure and new ways of working in and with that model. And they really get that they are sitting at “Basic” and that there is nothing wrong with that. It gives them a way to move forward.

The second part of my presentation, hey, I am a Microsoft Certified Trainer, is on Training and Certification. The conversation goes like:

  • There is tons or millions invested in hardware and software
  • Business struggles with agility, availability, costs
  • IT sits at “Basic” in their Core IO (and BP IO), everybody is fighting fires
  • …… How Come…….?

Then I make a really blunt statement, one you should not make without having created a context like this. IT Staff is not qualified for the job. Yes, you heard me correctly IT STAFF IS NOT QUALIFIED FOR THE JOB!!! End users are not qualified to use powerful tools like Office, Exchange and SharePoint.

We treat Server 2012 R2 Domain Controllers like Novell 3.12 Servers, we treat Word 2013 like a typewriter and we use SharePoint 2013 as a Fileserver. So we buy the stuff and we’re not using it. I call that stupid, really very stupid.

I invite you to count the total number of RELEVANT certifications in your IT Department. I invite you to count the number of end users that attended an OS or Office training recently. And then you have an answer to why you are all “Fighting Fires” and sit at “Basic” in your Core IO and BP IO.

The first next IT Projects should be on Training and Certification. And see what happens with the results of Core IO and BP IO Assessments. All the hardware and software you need is already there!

Happy Learning!

Office 365 Exams – Again

Some two years ago I took the then brand new Microsoft Exams on Office 365. Passing both Exam 70- 321 Deploying Office 365 and Exam 70-323 Administering Office 365 made me MCITP Office 365. Back then I wrote about those exams, how hard I thought they were (I still now only a few people who passed them both), although I held MCTS Exchange and MCITP SharePoint and already did a great deal of work on Office 365.

Now Microsoft has made available two new exams, 70-346 Managing Office 365 Identities and Requirements and 70-347 Enabling Office 365 Services, passed them both and my call myself MCSA Office 365. It’s rather interesting to see how these exams then and now compare. The main feature added in the 2 years between them is of course Office ProPlus and the ways it can be deployed. All other features are more of the same, expanded features but not real new features. The experience was a bit like the Windows Server and Active Directory exams, you come from NT3.51 or NT4.0 and do Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 and now Windows Server 2012. Some new features and more of the same for the existing features. The exams evolve with Scenario’s, drag and drop items and complete PowerShell scripts questions but still they test you on what Microsoft thinks is important to know.

Back to MCSA Office 365, breaking the content up in a part called “Identities ad Requirements” and a part called “Enabling Services” seems pretty logical, the first is more about the current onprem environment and the latter more about the Office 365 platform. Also a very logical order for organizations who want to leverage Office 365 without the assistance of external parties. The Exam requirements at http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-us/exam-70-346.aspx and http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-us/exam-70-347.aspx correspond very well with the content of the exams, no surprises there.

I do believe that these two exams are less difficult than the MCITP ones but on the other hand, they deserve more being part of a MCSE Track instead of a MCSA Track. They really come on top of MCSA Server 2012 or even on top of MCSE Exchange/SharePoint. Like two years ago and probably also like two years from now, Office 365 is a very broad set of Microsoft Technologies on which you have to be very comfortable if you want to pass these exams. So, yes, the MCSA Office 365 exams are tough cookies meaning that this certification will certainly have value.

Wish you all Happy Learning!

Training is Essential

Delivering Microsoft, Time Management and Project Management Trainings is one of my great passions. For the participants I stand for them achieving success. Their employers understand the necessity of training. As a Consultant I always stress that necessity in talks with customers but unfortunately a lot of Organizations still do not see the importance of having a skilled workforce.

I think that is not a good situation for at least three reasons.

  1. Statistics show that people are more loyal and trustworthy when their employer truly wants to get the best out of them. One way of doing so is by leveraging Personal Development Plans. We’ve seen the conversation between the CEO and CFO on Social Media often enough (“CFO: What if we invest in our people and they leave! CEO: What if we don’t and they stay!”). I go for invest in them, they’ll tend to stay. IT Pro’s know (or at least they should know) they must stay up to date to be of value. If their employer does not invest in their staying up to date they might go looking elsewhere.
  2. Organizations really spill lots of money on hardware and software they do not use. No difference here when looking to end users or IT Staff. Available technologies are not being used but have been paid for…. Very un-businesslike. To be blunt: for end users MS Word is just a typewriter, for IT Pro’s Server 2012 R2 is just the same as a Novell 3.12 server. What a waste! If organizations do not use the full potential of their hardware and software purchases why buy it in the first place.
  3. IT (a.k.a. ICT, where the C stood for Communication, I’d like to substitute that with Collaboration so we get Information and Collaboration Technology) is a relative young job/department/function. It has only been around for a couple of decades. ICT evolves very fast, actually it evolves progressively and organizations have no idea how to deal with that. They only react. Ignorance is killing ROI and supplies a sky-rocketing energy boost for TCO. There is a lack in Vision and Strategy and therefore there is no Context for nothing ICT Related. Staying on top of current ICT Development, which can be achieved by education and training, is really essential for being able to create that Vision/Strategy/Context.

Organizations have a lot of good reasons for not putting any funds into training/development of their workforce. Frankly, I don’t give a sh*t for reasons for not doing something (we even spend time and energy on creating reasons for NOT doing something, think about that one for a while, that whole idea is so stupid). Organizations need to focus on inventing reasons for doing something. You only need ONE reason for doing something.

Now I gave you three reasons for doing Training, so let’s do it! Train. Learn. Explore. Invent. Develop.

BE CURIOUS

Office 365 Hybrid with Exchange 2007 & Exchange 2013: Trouble!

Currently I’m working on an Office365 Migration. Although the end goal is to have all resources Online, I always prefer to do the Hybrid Deployment. The best and only reason for that is that this has the least impact on end users. And that is what it’s all about: keep the customer satisfied.

First I cleaned up the 5 year old mail environment. Old mailboxes from long gone users, weird aliases, shared mailboxes and distribution lists. Exchange 2007 ran SP1 CU8 and that was not enough to introduce Exchange 2013 in the Exchange Organization. Moved it up to Exchange 2007 SP3 CU11. Cool.

Secondly I installed AD FS and DirSync, which are both required for Hybrid Exchange deployments. As I plan to have the whole migration done over the weekend, I did not do a fully redundant AD FS installation; just one server. Oh, I updated the SAN Certificate with “sts” and “legacy”, so I’m done with only the one certificate that was already on the Exchange 2007 box. Added my mail namespace to Office365 and ran ALL the tests with the Remote Connectivity Analyzer https://testconnectivity.microsoft.com/ (never leave home without it).

Thirdly I did all the prerequisites for installing Exchange 2013 CU3, also, cool. Things were looking real good, services kept running and no user impact whatsoever. OWA, ActiveSync, Outlook, OAB, everything smiles here on Aruba (the servers are actually located on Curacao). And I ran ALL the tests with the Remote Connectivity Analyzer. I decided to do the mailbox moves prior to the switch of the MX Record and the autodiscover record.

Finally home, I launched the Hybrid Configuration Wizard in the Exchange Admin Center. All looks well, next, next, finish, no errors. Cool stuff, that Wizard. I’m from the old school, when Office 365 just launched, some years ago, I did the whole configuration of Federated Exchange manually. I am sure glad I did that a couple of times and as a Trainer I have seen participant make all the possible mistakes. So I know about mailflow, certificates, TLS, smarthosts, accepted and authoritative domains. Because it is getting ugly, real ugly now.

I created a test account Onprem and moved it to Online, which went okay. But no mailflow….. no mailflow from Onprem to Online ……. no mailflow from Online to Onprem….. no mailflow from External through Onprem to Online…… yeah, mailflow from Online to External. That is a 25% score; NOT GOOD. Big Trouble, a NO-GO for migrating users at this stage.

Troubleshooting. Message Tracking, Delivery Reports. After some hours of configuring and reconfiguring, rerunning the Hybrid Exchange Wizard, NDR’s showed up that servers would keep trying to send the messages: “451 5.7.3 STARTTLS is required to send mail”. That one I brought to my favorite Search Engine (But It’s Not Google) and a big list of articles appeared. Let’s have a read. The outcome is that I disabled the created Send Connector on my Onprem Exchange 2007 Server (apparently that server did not even recognize the connector cause on editing the config it sputtered “cannot find object on DC01). And I created a new one and set it to use TLS for my online namespace. Ah, some mailflow! From Onprem to Online is working! So the Online Inbound Connector is okay! So, we’re up to a 75% score! Getting better. The Online Outbound Connector is faulty (at least with an Exchange 2007 Onprem Server). I disabled it, created a new one going to “Partner” instead of “Onprem”, Opportunistic TLS and the namespace of my Internet Domain. And we’re up to 100% Mailflow!!!!

Maybe I should have set all the incoming and outgoing mailflows to the Hybrid Exchange 2013 server to avoid all this, but I didn’t. Therefore my conclusion is that the Hybrid Configuration Wizard does NOT work with an Onprem Exchange 2007 Server because Exchange 2007 Server does not know what the difference is between “Partner” and “Onprem” and it also does not recognize the Send Connector created by the Wizard.

So now I can sit on my porch on One Happy Island Aruba and be satisfied with the results. Next weekend I migrate mailboxes, now I start studying for my SharePoint 2013 Exam.

 

Why DaaS is no good

That is a pretty bold statement, I know. Some blog posts ago I mentioned things like “who needs a desktop”. What I meant then, users want their apps and their data. Be it in a Desktop, a Tablet or a Phone. Now, in this post I try to make a point in not going DaaS (which, by the way means being nuts in my native language Dutch).

Recently I read an article that our next “Windows XP + Office 2003” is going to be “Windows 7 + Office 2010”. I think Microsoft made a mistake stating that end of life for Windows 7 will be 2020 (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/products/lifecycle ). And then this week I saw Amazon coming on to the marketplace with a DaaS solution based on…. Windows Server 2008R2, so, a Windows 7 look alike from a user perspective. At least Microsoft, Citrix and VMware are taking it a bit more serious in trying to deliver some sort of DaaS based on Server 2012, so a Windows 8 look alike. But Amazon is a huge player in the Public Cloud, they can deploy this on a very, very large scale. Maybe someday (but not now) Microsoft will do something about their Client OS Licensing model so we can have some true Desktop as a Service, on a genuine Client Operating System. But that is not the point I’m trying to make here.

Organizations run into some weird split model. On the one hand more and more apps are Web Based; all you need is a decent Browser, more and more apps are available for non-desktop devices, even enterprise apps. The Office Web Apps Suite is a nice example of that. The Bring Your Own Disaster/Device movement is pushing in that direction. And on the other hand we’re stuck with the Big, Static, Jurassic Legacy Enterprise Applications that need ….. a Desktop to be deployed on. And rather a Windows XP Desktop then a Windows 8.1 Start Screen.

As long as we, we as in creating IT Wonderland, keep clinging on to Desktops, those Enterprise Application builders will not change the way they make their apps. Obstructing progression. And IT Staff will be reluctant to upgrade because the Enterprise LOB Apps won’t run on the new OS. Businesses invested heavily in those Applications and now use that to justify not moving forward. And those Software Vendors laugh out loud, they just keep on making money without any need to invest in updating their products. Hey, we just continue providing Desktops with “compatibility” mode, MED-V and more tricks to make the 16-bit App run in an emulated DOS Box.

Maintaining and managing desktops, whether physical, private cloud or public cloud based, is more expensive than we think, I know a lot of enterprises that have no idea how much they spend on that. It might be more expensive than the losses of getting rid of the LOB Applications. Certainly in the long run.

There is NO demand for Desktops, we only think there is and some of us try to make a buck out of it. There is nothing wrong with that as long as you don’t hold on to making your buck that way. Start thinking Apps + Data on devices, move forward and begin with saying farewell Good Old Desktop, thank you for your services and may you Rest In Peace.

Inova Solutions NV: Moving EVERYTHING to the Cloud

A lot has happened since my last post. My wife and I moved to Aruba in The Caribbean and I found a great job as Solutions Architect for Inova Solutions NV. Inova Solutions NV is a Microsoft Gold Partner in Licensing, formerly known as LAR (Large Account Reseller), nowadays it’s called LSP (Licensing Solutions Provider). One of my roles is that of IT Manager for our own IT and that is what this blog is about.

As a true Caribbean Company we are scattered across a couple of islands: Aruba, Curacao, Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica and we have customers on those and a lot of other islands. The Network Infrastructure consists off some site-to-site VPNs and Client VPNs so we can reach our resources located on Curacao where ever we are.

The CEO had a goal for me to achieve by putting 50% of those resources in the Cloud by June 30th 2014. Soon I discovered that we actually only use applications that are available in the Microsoft Cloud already: Exchange, SharePoint, Lync and CRM. My goal now is to have all that migrated to the Online Services by the end of the year.

Plus some extra wins: we don’t really need Active Directory, authentication also goes to the Cloud. That means our PC’s and laptops can no longer be managed by AD and GPO’s. For that we will leverage Windows Intune. And finally we have this RDS Server that hosts 2 applications, neither of which relies on AD, we will just rebuild that RDS Server as VM on Windows Azure.

My Christmas wish list (here on Aruba you can already buy your Christmas stuff):

  • Office365
  • CRM Online
  • Windows Intune
  • Windows Azure AD
  • Windows Azure Network
  • Windows Azure VM

Sounds like we have a plan! By the 1st of January 2014 we can start decommissioning our whole Onprem Infrastructure, all the site-to-site VPNs and oh boy, all that Client VPN stuff (I do not understand that companies still deploy that, don’t we have DirectAccess at our disposal?).

The bet is on, I have 2 months from now to make it so.

Hopi Bon!