Alexander’s Blog

Microsoft has announced that Exchange Server 2007 has been released to manufacturing. Microsoft is running more than 120,000 mailboxes in production on Exchange 2007 and have exceeded their SLA of 99.95% availability. In addition, more than 200 Technology Adoption Partners (TAP) and Rapid Deployment Partners (RDP) have over 55,000 mailboxes in production operating within their enterprise SLAs.

Novell has announced that it will support Microsoft’s Office Open XML format in its OpenOffice.org suite. This will improve interoperability between Novell’s OpenOffice and Microsoft’s Office 2007. Novell has said that it will create bidirectional open-source translators, which will be offered as plug-ins, for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations between OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office. They will begin with the word processing translator, which should be released in late January 2007.

If you recall, Microsoft and Novell didn’t want anything to do with any interoperability between their products. Finally, they both realized that for their customers’ sake they better start offering software and services that allow their products to co-exist. This is just another step in that direction.

OpenOffice.org supposedly has about 100 million users and it supports the XML-based OpenDocument Format (ODF) available as part of Novell’s SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop and Open Workgroup Suite offerings.

The new generation of Microsoft certification consists of three series and four credentials, shown below.

The Technology Series:
There are currently seven Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist certifications, which consist of one to three exams.

1. Technology Specialist: .NET Framework 2.0 Web Applications
2. Technology Specialist: .NET Framework 2.0 Windows Applications
3. Technology Specialist: .NET Framework 2.0 Distributed Applications
4. Technology Specialist: SQL Server 2005
5. Technology Specialist: BizTalk Server 2006
6. Technology Specialist: Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005
7. Technology Specialist: Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 Applications

The Professional Series:
There are currently two professional series certifications, which consist of one to three exams.
1. Microsoft Certified IT Professional
2. Microsoft Certified Professional Developer

The Architect Series:
The Microsoft Certified Architect Program professionals will have to meet certain minimum requirements, such as minimum of 10 years of advanced IT industry experience, at least three or more years of experience as a practicing architect, strong technical and managerial skills, and they’ll need to form an elite community. Unlike other industry certifications, the architect community is the one that grants these certifications. Previously, certified architects will be the members of the Review Board that will assign these credentials.

The Architect Series certifications:
1. Require a rigorous entry process.
2. Require working closely with a Microsoft Certified Architect who acts as a mentor.
3. Require an oral review in front of a Review Board that consists of previously certified peer architects.
4. Require recertification.

More information on the architect program is available here. According to Microsoft, the application process for this certification is closed for now but it will reopen to the public in early 2007.

If you would like to add another layer of protection to your current security model, a server and domain Isolation solution based on Internet Protocol security (IPSec) and Active Directory can allow your network administrators to control the network environment and enhance security by isolating logical networks based on policy. This is beneficial in the sense that it creates an additional layer of policy-driven protection. to protect your network against certain network attacks.

Microsoft TechNet has tons of information on this topic online, including case studies. Click here for more information.