Today's IT conferences are no longer the three-ring circuses they were during the dot-com boom, but they're also not the fuddy-duddy events that became common right after the crash. Case in point: Microsoft Ignite 2018.
As Brien demonstrates, string validation is not the only type of input validation that PowerShell can perform.
With its rapid growth, partnership with Lenovo and aggressive roadmap, the startup is taking direct aim at CEO Renee James' former company, Intel.
- By John K. Waters
- 09/26/2018
If your automated script takes action based on a value, it's critical to make sure the value is correct. Good thing PowerShell has ways to validate the values that are passed to a function.
Microsoft announced the latest preview of its next-gen SQL Server product at Ignite. Here's a rundown of everything the new release promises, from performance enhancements to security and availability perks.
- By Joey D'Antoni
- 09/24/2018
Unlike previous years' opening keynotes, Monday's was less focused on product announcements and demos, and more on CEO Satya Nadella's vision for digital transformation across industries.
A grab-bag of predictions for Microsoft's upcoming IT event. Also in the cards: open source getting short shrift.
Constant equipment refreshes mean a constant need for new power configurations. One company has a fix for that particular side effect of all this expansion.
- By John K. Waters
- 09/19/2018
If Microsoft can run its massive, land-bound datacenters with almost no tech staff, the idea of letting a submerged datacenter operate for five years without any direct human contact seems at least plausible.
There's a rumor that Microsoft is planning to replace Hyper-V with an alternative feature called simply "Virtual Machines." Brien breaks down just how little sense that would make.
A relatively new type of phishing attack is targeting Office 365 users while completely circumventing all of the usual security defenses.
The company's plan to modernize its infrastructure also includes tapping open source technologies and -- as Microsoft and Facebook have done -- open sourcing its server designs in turn.
- By John K. Waters
- 09/11/2018
While testing out the Office 2019 preview, Brien noticed something unexpected: Office 2019 seems nearly indistinguishable from Office 2016.
With the Office 2019 release approaching, now is a good time to take the preview version out for a test drive. Unfortunately, that's easier said than done.
Microsoft's rapid-fire release cycle for SQL Server means it's easy for database admins to miss useful new features. Here are some recent additions that might otherwise fly under the radar.
- By Joey D'Antoni
- 09/04/2018
If you've ever worked through the process of linking Office 365 resources to an organization's existing IT infrastructure, then you know that Office 35 onboarding can be daunting.
Launched at this week's VMworld event in Las Vegas, AMD's new Radeon Pro V340 graphics card is designed for heavy-duty workloads like Desktop as a Service and CAD software.
- By John K. Waters
- 08/29/2018
If you have ever seen a demo of the Microsoft Surface Hub, you no doubt have also seen the Whiteboard app being used.
The enterprise datacenter is changing rapidly, thanks to serverless computing, AI and machine learning. But one thing remains the same: Datacenters run hot and cooling them is expensive.
- By John K. Waters
- 08/20/2018
What exactly makes a Microsoft MVP? In the wake of recent developments around Microsoft's selection and renewal process, not even this longtime MVP knows for certain.