Richard talks to Alan Sharp-Paul about the challenges of building a DevOps culture in your organization. Alan talks about the problem just defining DevOps - it's approaching the abused word state with so many organizations piling onto the term. The discussion digs into the early stages of DevOps culture, focusing first on discovery: Do you really know how your infrastructure is set up and configured? For sure? How do you check? And what about drift? Providing visibility into how your systems act...
Aug 20, 2014•34 min•Ep. 382
Richard chats with Microsoft Evangelist Scott Klein about the Microsoft Azure Management Libraries (MAML). MAML wraps up the REST calls to Azure to allow you to do a huge host of cloud tasks, such as provisioning new instances, monitoring, configuration, maintenance and more. Yeah, it's a dev library, but it can build things that the operations people want! Scott discusses three pretty powerful scenarios for MAML: automating elasticity/scaling, testing in the cloud and creating Software as a Ser...
Aug 13, 2014•34 min•Ep. 381
Richard chats with David Tesar about DevOps for the Microsoft-oriented IT Pro. DevOps has been a big thing in the Linux/Open Source community for the past few years, and it's starting to really resonate in the Microsoft world also. David focuses on the core ideals of DevOps - that it is first and foremost of culture of building better systems faster. Resist the tools and focus on the people! Not that tools don't have a role, but without culture, the tools can't help you. David has a blog post of...
Aug 06, 2014•33 min•Ep. 380
Richard chats with Microsoft Premier Field Engineer Clint Huffman about his book the Windows Performance Analysis Field Guide. Clint is also the genius behind the Performance Analysis of Logs (PAL) Tool on CodePlex. See a theme here? Clint is focused on understand why things in Windows (and elsewhere) go fast or slow. And he's willing to share his insight! The book focuses primarily on Windows challenges, and also references the Windows Performance Analyzer (WPA). Between PAL and WPA, you have a...
Jul 30, 2014•33 min•Ep. 379
Richard chats with Stephen Rose about how Windows has continued evolving with some thoughts on what future versions might look like. Windows 8 brought the tablet to the Microsoft space, and with it a chance to explore how different form factors fit into the enterprise. Stephen talks about the cool kinds of retail projects he's working with that are taking advantage of these form factors. This naturally leads to a discussion about what new features might look like, how the experience can continue...
Jul 23, 2014•33 min•Ep. 378
Richard chats with Steven Murawski on the day he is leaving Stack Exchange to join the Chef team as a Community Manager. So naturally, the conversation turns to Chef. Chef is a configuration management system that comes from the Linux world - it's scripting language is Ruby. But in the past year, Chef has added Windows to it's repertoire with support from Microsoft and Desired State Configuration. Steven mentions a free DSC EBook you can download from Powershell.org to help get you started on DS...
Jul 16, 2014•37 min•Ep. 377
Richard talks to Jeff Stokes about the role of User Access Control (UAC) in making Windows client machines safer. Safer? Actually, the conversation starts out with the reality of UAC as it first arrived on the scene in the Vista days - an annoyance that was immediately turned off. But Jeff digs into how UAC is a part of the compatibility features of Windows. The discussion then turns to a broader discussion of the security features in Windows: Taking the time to understand them will save time an...
Jul 09, 2014•33 min•Ep. 376
Richard chats with Steve Thomas about Microsoft User Experience Virtualization (UE-V). The conversation starts out with a focus on Application and Desktop Virtualization - while server virtualization has become the norm, App-V is catching on more slowly. Steve talks about how the back end of desktop virtualization has become more like the cloud, being very elastic and flexible to better utilize resources. On the front end, things are even more interesting. UE-V provides portability to the relati...
Jul 02, 2014•30 min•Ep. 375
Richard chats with Chris Jackson about his experiences working with large organizations migrating off of XP. Once you've done the hard work of taking an inventory of all your organization's applications and platform requirements, how do you use that information to benefit the company? Chris talks about moving over to a more template-driven approach to software delivery using System Center Configuration Manager and the Deployment Toolkit. Then the conversation turns to web browsers - how hard is ...
Jun 25, 2014•34 min•Ep. 374
Richard chats with Dana Epp about multi-factor authentication. The conversation starts out with some definition around multi-factor authentication - something you know and something you have. Most of the time, the thing you know is your user name and password. Dana digs into authenticating using the most common thing you have, the smartphone. Tools like Twilio can help you bring text messaging to your system. Beyond the phone, there are dedicated devices like YubiKey that provide a different thi...
Jun 18, 2014•37 min•Ep. 373
While at Tech Ed US in Houston, Richard chatted with Paula Januszkiewicz about the current state of system security. Paula talks about a new wave of exploits aimed at administrators, taking advantage of their elevated privileges to spread malware into systems. The conversation also digs into more subtle exploits, and the ability of black hats to cover their tracks by modifying logs to hide their actions. Listen also for a quick discussion on passwords and multi-factor authentication. Things are ...
Jun 11, 2014•31 min•Ep. 372
While at Tech Ed 2014, Richard chat with John Craddock about the latest incarnation of Active Directory Federation Services - don't call it version three, it's the Windows Server 2012 R2 version! John discusses some of the new features of ADFS, including it's integration with oAuth2 to allow a more lightweight approach to authentication, authorization and federation. Lots of great thinking from one of the best minds in identity!
Jun 04, 2014•36 min•Ep. 371
While at Tech Ed 2014 in Houston, Richard chats with Jeremy Moskowitz about group policy in Windows 8. Jeremy talks about his session at Tech Ed called Group Policy Notes from the Field which focuses on how group policy is often unfairly blamed for performance problems. Check out the video and watch for a link at the end of it to get access to the performance tools that Jeremy uses! The conversation also digs into PolicyPak, the tools Jeremy and his team have built to allow group policy to apply...
May 28, 2014•32 min•Ep. 370
It's the Questions and Answers from SQL Intersection in Orlando! Richard moderates a panel of the usual suspects: Kim Tripp, Paul Randal, Brent Ozar and occasional contributions from some of the SQL Team, Kendra Little, Jeremiah Pesha and more! Lots of discussion around virtualization, different recovery and fail over strategies, the infamous heap-vs-clustering debate, using SSDs with SQL Server... the list goes on. It's a long show, but a good one!
May 21, 2014•51 min•Ep. 369
Richard talks to Damian Flynn about Windows Azure Pack for Windows Server and Service Management Automation. Big confusing names for a really simple concept - how do we bring self-service to the users of our infrastructure? The discussion starts out around the idea of service management automation, using tools to make your IT systems more service-centric, allowing people to provision and utilize infrastructure on demand. This leads to a conversation on Windows Azure Pack for Windows Server (WAP)...
May 14, 2014•33 min•Ep. 368
Richard chats with Microsoft PFE Mike O'Neill about his work with customers using large scale Exchange sites. Mike is one of the contributors to You had Me at EHLO, the Exchange team blog site. The conversation digs into how Exchange 2013 is the most Powershell-centric version of Exchange yet... you really need to know it! Mike talks about the efficiency and scriptability of Exchange and Powershell, as well as the migration path from Exchange on-premise to Exchange in the Cloud.
May 07, 2014•30 min•Ep. 367
Recorded in front of a live audience at SQL Intersection in Orlando, Florida, this panel discussion focuses on the new features in SQL 2014. The panelists are all Microsoft engineering folks, deeply involved in creating SQL 2014. The discussion does NOT focus on Hekaton, but rather all the other cool performance and reliability enhancements coming in SQL 2014. Okay, there's a little Hekaton.
Apr 30, 2014•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 366
Hot off of last week's news about Heartbleed, Richard talks to Troy Hunt about the size and scope of the problem. Heartbleed is the cool name (and logo) given to a weakness in the OpenSSL library. The news has been hyped, but the exploit is real and there's really no way to know what data has been compromised. And if you don't run OpenSSL on your servers, do you know what your networking gear runs? After you're done listening to the show, check out Troy's awesome blog post on Heartbleed and do s...
Apr 23, 2014•33 min•Ep. 365
Richard chats with Aidan Finn about the Scale-Out File Server features of Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 R2. Aidan digs into a bunch of the improvements that have come with Windows Server 2012 R2, including SMB 3.0., which opens the door to dramatic network speed advantages for such things as live VM migration. But it also impacts how we do file sharing, and Aidan digs deep into the new features in Storage Spaces and Scale-Out File Servers. Looks like you'll want the latest version!
Apr 16, 2014•32 min•Ep. 364
Richard chats with Michael Nygard about the concept of resilience in the IT world. Michael starts out the conversation talking about what resilience really is - do your systems keep working even when things aren't working perfectly? Or are they brittle, where one problem takes the whole system down. The conversation broadens to more of a DevOps conversation, since ultimately resiliency involves everyone that builds, tests, operates and uses software. And then Michael goes a step further - is you...
Apr 09, 2014•31 min•Ep. 363
Steve Evans makes a return visit to the show to talk a little DevOps. The conversation starts out with the work he's currently doing with a bio-tech company, and how the little changes their making to their processes are affected overall productivity to the better. You don't have to call it DevOps, you can just call it 'doing your work more effectively.' The conversation digs into the automation side of things as well as how you to gradually move your culture and processes into a faster, more re...
Apr 02, 2014•33 min•Ep. 362
Richard chats with fellow Canadian Aaron Bertrand about his work with SQL Server. Aaron starts out the conversation with a mention around SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 coming out of primary tech support and the push to get one last service pack out for both versions. You can contribute to that discussion at the Microsoft Connect site. Aaron also discusses some of the nasty bad practices he's found in supposedly 'good' databases - like dates in strings! We all know better, but are we actually doing...
Mar 26, 2014•32 min•Ep. 361
Richard catches up with Tony Redmond on all things Exchange. The conversation starts out talking about the fact that Exchange 2013 has a service pack, even though there have been quarterly cumulative updates - in reality, Exchange 2013 SP1 is really cumulative update 4 (CU4). Tony digs into what it takes to install these updates, the fact that testing continues to be not optional - it's your mail system, just because it's tested in Exchange Online doesn't mean it won't have problems in your conf...
Mar 19, 2014•38 min•Ep. 360
Richard chats with Microsoft PFE Kurt Falde about the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET). It might be a weak name, but it's an amazing set of tools - a whole different way of defending a workstation from malware exploits. Kurt dives into how EMET can lock down PCs in a standardized way, including controlling specific SSL certificates for key web sites. But the bulk of the focus of EMET is on protecting software from changes by malware. Rather than using fingerprint matching the way ty...
Mar 12, 2014•38 min•Ep. 359
Richard talks to Jeremy Thake about the move of Sharepoint into the Cloud. The conversation starts off with a bit of a history lesson and how Sharepoint has taken a few twists and turns along the way offering different programming models, and really struggling with what it is actually good at. Jeremy discusses how moving Sharepoint to the Cloud is really about shaking off some of the baggage of the past to focus on the core goodness in Sharepoint. It's not just about paying by the user, it's als...
Mar 05, 2014•36 min•Ep. 358
Richard talks to Gene Kim about his experiences in DevOps - the research he's done on high performing IT teams, and how that knowledge has evolved into what we now know as DevOps. Gene mention's John Willis' blog post on The Convergence of DevOps as a great explanation of why DevOps is happening now. Beyond The Phoenix Project, Gene and a team of luminaries are working on the DevOps CookBook, to catalog and codify the practices of a high performing DevOps team.
Feb 26, 2014•43 min•Ep. 357
Back with Minasi! Richard chats with Mark Minasi about the end of XP... coming in April of 2014! The discussion rapidly turns to a history lesson about the evolution of Windows, the bumps that led to Vista, the fix that was Windows 7, and the concern around Windows 8... and what about Windows 9? As with any conversation with Mark, the discussion ranges all over the topic space!
Feb 19, 2014•42 min•Ep. 356
Richard chats with Matt Wrock about the power of boxstarter.org for building and configuring PCs quickly. The conversation starts out talking about what Boxstarter can do for you - automate the installation of software and patches. Boxstarter depends on Chocolatey and PowerShell 2. Everything is public, if you'd like a private version, you should check out MyGet for a private configuration. Check it out!
Feb 12, 2014•37 min•Ep. 355
So how do you learn? Richard talks to Kim Tripp about technology learning. The conversation starts out with responsibility for learning - what is the role of the learner (typically an employee), and the company? Who pays for what? What is the commitment to provide value for everyone involved? And how do you learn? How does instructor-led training compare to a video course, or a conference? Kim and Richard share their experiences teaching, leading and learning.
Feb 05, 2014•39 min•Ep. 354
Richard talks to Boris Hristov about Distributed Transaction Replay in SQL Server 2012. New to SQL Server 2012, Distributed Replay uses a SQL Profiler template to collect transactions that can be replayed on your server. The tool is largely command line, and can be distributed across as many as sixteen clients. Boris talks about the different types of replays that can be done to simulate a workload in detail for testing purposes - say to make sure an upgrade will work properly, or in stress mode...
Jan 29, 2014•33 min•Ep. 353
