Working with LDAP and Microsoft Active Directory

Working with LDAP and Microsoft Active Directory: For most IT professionals, there has been some point in their career where they have connected a product or service to a Microsoft Active Directory with LDAP for authentication. This is really nothing new and has been done for years, but I discovered a different way to set up the connections years ago when I was working on a script that would connect to Active Directory with an LDAP call to get a list of members of a group. I really thought most people already knew this and it was pretty much common knowledge, but it seems lately that every time I work with someone new setting up the LDAP configuration they seem to be quite surprised at the way I do things and I thought this should be something that I share out.

Can Microsoft succeed as a DaaS provider with Mohoro?

The recent rumors of Microsoft working on a hosted virtual desktop (DaaS) solution to add to their cloud services offering may actually end up being one of the most viable options for organizations who already rely heavily on Microsoft infrastructure to run their business. Having all of your core services being delivered from a single location and provider could ease the operational concerns of some who find running a hybrid of on-premise and hosted solutions still requiring the same amount of operational support.

News: Microsoft System Center Advisor now a FREE service

Microsoft has announced that it will offer System Center Advisor for free to its customers in supporting countries. System Center Advisor is a cloud service that enables IT Professionals to proactively avoid problems resulting from server configuration issues. It can help you resolve issues faster by providing access to current and historical configuration data for a deployment. System Center Advisor can also assist in reducing downtime by providing suggestions for improvement and notifying users of key updates specific to their configuration

Microsoft Hyper-V vs VMware vSphere

One topic that gets discussed quite often is Microsoft Hyper-V vs VMware vSphere and a quick Google search will return at least several hundred thousand hits. There seems to be a large number of posts and articles trying to make a case for which version is better by listing and comparing features one by one of the hypervisor itself. The purpose of this post is not to campaign which platform is better than the other. Is that the best way to really compare the different virtualization technologies as a whole or should we take a step up to a higher point of view and really look at difference in approach for the virtual infrastructure and/or virtual ecosystems?

Microsoft and VMware: Two Different Paths to the Future

Now that VMword 2012 San Francisco is over and I have some time to reflect on my virtualization thoughts in general before getting ready for VMworld Barcelona. One thing I took noticed with the recent announcements about vSphere 5.1 and Hyper-V 2012. Microsoft and VMware both released a specific new feature to each platform respectfully at basically the same time. Is this a sign that Microsoft is really closing the gap on VMware? I think we are getting there but I have also made some other personal observations on how I think both see virtualization in the future and I foresee a completely different method and mindset for the future between these two companies.

Microsoft Windows 2012 RDSH vs Citrix XenApp – PV to get its own Murderball?

Why do I need other XenApp with Windows 2012 RDSH – what stands out third party tools from Microsoft’s core presentation virtualisation offering?