The ChromeBook

Ø  Google also has a cloud-based "management console" for ChromeBooks which adds the expected enterprise management options, including:

[  Asset tracking

[  Pre-installing Chrome apps

[  Blacklisting & whitelisting of Chrome apps, extensions, and URLs.

[  Group configuration options (so you have different policies for different users and groups)

[  Centralized network configuration (proxies, WiFi, etc.)

[  Enabling, disabling, or pre-configuring all the other Chrome options, like bookmarks, wallpaper, account sync, etc.

Ø  Accessing remote Windows sessions from a ChromeBook is certainly not new. Citrix has their Receiver for HTML5. There are Chrome extensions from Ericom's HTML5 client and Google's own Chrome Remote Desktop. dinCloud also has their WebHVD Chrome extension which connects directly into Windows desktops running on their DaaS platform.

Architectural Concerns

• Serviceability,
• Scalability,
• Manageability,
• Usability,
• and Reliability

Windows 2012 ReFS

Despite the many advantages NTFS offers over early FAT file systems, it’s been around since 1993, and Windows aficionados have been longing for a new file system for quite some time. Way back in 2004, we were eagerly looking forward to WinFS, but Vista disappointed us by not including it. Likewise, there was speculation early on that a new file system would be introduced with Windows 7, but it didn’t happen.

Windows Server 2012 brings us our long-awaited new file system, ReFS or the Resilient File System. It supports many of the same features as NTFS, although it leaves behind some others, perhaps most notably file compression, EFS, and disk quotas. In return, ReFS gives us data verification and auto correction, and it’s designed to work with Storage Spaces to create shrinkable/expandable logical storage pools. The new file system is all about maximum scalability, supporting up to 16 exabytes in practice. (This is the theoretical maximum in the NTFS specifications, but in the real world, it’s limited to 16 terabytes.) ReFS supports a theoretical limit of 256 zetabytes (more than 270 billion terabytes). That allows for a lot of scaling.

2012 VDI

Windows Terminal Services has come a long way, baby, since I first met it in Windows NT TS Edition. Renamed Remote Desktop Services, it has expanded to encompass much more than the ability to RDP into the desktop of a remote machine. Microsoft offered a centralized Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution in Windows Server 2008 R2, but it was still a little rough around the edges. Significant improvements have been made in Server 2012.

You no longer need a dedicated GPU graphics card in the server to use RemoteFX, which vastly improves the quality of graphics over RDP. Instead, you can use a virtualized GPU on standard server hardware. USB over RDP is much better, and the Fair Share feature can manage how CPU, memory, disk space, and bandwidth are allocated among users to thwart bandwidth hogs. Read more about Server 2012 VDI and RDP improvements here.

SMB 3.0

The Server Message Block (SMB) protocol has been significantly improved in Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8. The new version of SMB supports new file server features, such as SMB transparent failover , SMB Scale Out, SMB Multichannel, SMB Direct, SMB encryption, VSS for SMB file sharing, SMB directory leasing, and SMB PowerShell. That’s a lot of bang for the buck. It works beautifully with Hyper-V, so that VHD files and virtual machine configuration files can be hosted on SMB 3.0 shares. A SQL system database can be stored on an SMB share, as well, with improvements to performance. For more details about what’s new in SMB 3.0, see this blog post.

Storage

SAS is an extremely versatile technology that can be found in many different locations, including inside servers (SAS SSD and HDDs), PCIe SAS RAID cards and host bus adapters (HBAs), SAS expanders and switches, storage enclosures, and in storage systems.

Google's eight habits of highly effective manager

Here are the eight habits of highly effective Google managers and three pitfalls.  The "good habits" are listed in order of priority, from most-important to least-important.
EIGHT HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE MANAGERS
1. Be a good coach
     * Provide specific, constructive feedback, balancing negative and positive
     * Have regular one-on-ones, presenting solutions to problems tailored to the employee's strengths
2. Empower your team and don't micro-manage
    * Balance giving freedom to your employees while still being available for advice
    * Make "stretch" assignments to help them tackle big problems
3.  Express interest in employees' success and well-being
    * Get to know your employees as people, with lives outside of work
    * Make new folks feel welcome, help ease the transition
4.  Be productive and results-oriented
    * Focus on what you want the team to achieve and how employees can help achieve it
    * Help the team prioritize work, and make decisions to remove roadblocks
5.  Be a good communicator and listen to your team
    * Communication is two-way: Both listen and share
    * Hold all-hands meetings and be specific about the team's goals
    * Encourage open dialogue and listen to the questions and concerns of your employees
6.  Help your employees with career development
7.  Have a clear vision and strategy for the team
     * Even amid turmoil, keep the team focused on goals and strategy
     * Involve the team in setting and evolving the team's vision, goals, and progress
8.  Have key technical skills, so you can help advise the team
    * Roll up sleeves and work side-by-side with team, when needed
    * Understand the specific challenges of the work


THREE PITFALLS
1.  Have trouble making transition to team leader
    * Fantastic individual performers are often promoted to manager without the necessary skills to lead
    * People hired from outside often don't understand the specific ways of the company
2.  Lack a consistent approach to performance management and career development
    * Doesn't help employees understand what company wants
    * Doesn't coach employees on how they can develop and stretch
    * Not proactive: Waits for the employees to come to them
3.  Spend too little time on managing and communicating

VC & ESX Builds

vCenter and VirtualCenter

vCenter Server 4.1              Update 1                10 Feb 2011         Build 345043

vCenter Server 4.1                                          13 Jul 2010           Build 259021

vCenter Server 4.0              Update 2                10 Jun 2010          Build 258672

vCenter Server 4.0              Update 1                19 Nov 2009         Build 208156

vCenter Server 4.0              Update 1                19 Nov 2009         Build 208111

vCenter Server 4.0                                           05 May 2009        Build 162902

VirtualCenter 2.5 Server    Update 5                10 Jul 2009           Build 174791

VirtualCenter 2.5 Server    Update 4                23 Feb 2009         Build 147633

VirtualCenter 2.5 Server    Update 3                03 Oct 2008          Build 119598

VirtualCenter 2.5 Server    Update 2                25 July 2008         Build 104217

VirtualCenter 2.5 Server    Update 1                10 Apr 2008         Build 84767

VirtualCenter 2.5 Server                                 10 Dec 2007         Build 64201

ESX and ESXi

VMware ESXi 4.1                 Update 1                10 Feb 2011         Build 348481

VMware ESXi 4.1                                              13 Jul 2010           Build 260247

VMware ESXi 4.0                 Update 2                10 Jun 2010          Build 261974VMware ESXi 4.0                 Update 1                19 Nov 2009         Build 208167VMware ESXi 4.0                                              21 May 2009        Build 164009

VMware ESX Server 3.5      Update 5                03 Dec 2009         Build 207095

VMware ESX Server 3.5      Update 4                30 Mar 2009         Build 153875

VMware ESX Server 3.5      Update 3                06 Nov 2008         Build 123630

VMware ESX Server 3.5      Update 2                13 Aug 2008         Build 110268

VMware ESX Server 3.5      Update 2                12 Aug 2008         Build 103908 (time bug issue)

VMware ESX Server 3.5      Update 1                10 Apr 2008         Build 82663

VMware ESX Server 3.5                                   20 Feb 2008         Build 64607