TechEd 2007: Day Four
Day Four of TechEd. Always a popular day because it means one thing… Attendee Party! No matter the venue or the featured entertainment, everyone seems to enjoy the party. Since we’re in Orlando and surrounded by theme parks, no concert this year, instead we all visited Islands of Adventure. Bur first, the day’s wrap-up.
Today’s sessions:
- UNC308 Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Storage and Design Considerations
- MGT306 Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007: Managing Servers
- SVR300R How Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Impacts IT Infrastructure
- MGT320 Microsoft SoftGrid and Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003/System Center Configuration Manager: Better Together
I skipped one session period in the afternoon. Had a couple things to take care of for work and the topics didn’t really do much for me. Figure I’ll check them out on the DVDs when they arrive.
The Exchange session was presented by someone from EMC. It started late because he had been told to go to a different room, and it must have been on the other side of the convention center they way he came into the room. Very good coverage of design tools available for Exchange storage systems. A lot of the content wasn’t necessarily new, but it was all brought together into one place and will prove useful this summer as part of our deployment prep.
The Windows Server 2008 session was one of the best of the conference. I hadn’t really done much with Windows Server 2008 at the conference since System Center sessions occupied most of my schedule, but if I only went to one, this was the one to see. So many of the features he covered, from the new Terminal Services features to SMB 2.0 are all gong to be put to good use in our organization. One thing I didn’t hear anyone talk about much though was Storage Server. I’m curious whether Server 2008 will be available as a Storage Server upgrade at the same time as general release or whether it will lag somewhat. Since it has to come form the OEMs, I imagine it’ll be a little while before we can get our hands on it.
The Attendee Party was fun, although it started to rain shortly after we arrived. I managed to ride Dueling Dragons twice before they shutdown the outdoor rides due to a lightning strike in the area. the second run on Dueling Dragons was in the rain, and it stung as we whipped around the track. Between my glasses and the rain, I kept my eyes closed for most of the ride so sitting in the first row really didn’t do much for me. Rode Spider-man and then grabbed some food while waiting for rides to restart. While walking back towards Jurassic Park, I noticed that the Dudley Do-Right Ripsaw Falls ride was running again, so hopped in line. I usually don’t mind getting wet, but this time I pout my free poncho back on since I was through getting soaked between the storms last night and the rain this evening. Pretty good water ride, and the poncho was a good idea as you get pretty wet at the end. Hit the Jurassic Park water ride which was pretty short, but well done. The T. Rex at the end was especially convincing. They even had performers at the end of the ride portraying John Hammond and Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum’s character). Very convincing! A little more food, then the Cat in the Hat ride, and that was enough to call it a night.
So now I’m packing and doing a little laundry. Need to grab my clothes out of the dryer and get to bed. Two sessions tomorrow morning, then off to Walt Disney World!
Oh, almost forgot the day’s swag tally. Not much so no picture.
- Source Fource figure: Master Office (my set is complete!)
- Foam yellow school bus (from Neuron, whoever that is) which I found next to one of the CommNet computers