TechEd 2009 Day 1 Summary
Some quick thoughts about Day 1 at TechEd yesterday.
**Breakfast**
Not bad. Pretty typical for convention center food.
**Keynote**
* Kudos for leaving out the audience participation Lion King performance from last year.
* Too much time spent on marketing videos. Would prefer to use that time for demos and product announcements.
* Take back kudos for going over schedule by half an hour. If you schedule a keynote to run for 90 minutes, then make sure people stay on time and rehearse to make sure you stay on time.
**Lunch**
Fair to poor. Chicken was really dry. Really dry. Dessert was excellent however. Almost went back for seconds, but resisted the temptation.
**MGT312 – Native Mode in Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager**
We’re still on SMS, but really want to migrate over to SCCM this summer. I know long term we want to be on native mode since so many of our clients are off-site and our only communication with them is over the Internet. Requirement for PKI to be in place to go to native mode has been a big impediment to getting started.
Presentation was pretty dry, but not sure how anyone can make PKI sound exciting. Was a good overview of what is needed and some good tips to avoid. At least now I feel like we can move forward in mixed mode and bring up native mode as we’re ready to do so.
**UNC316 – Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Architecture**
Felt like I fell down the rabbit hole after this session. Exchange 2010 is obviously going to be a major step forward for Exchange and one of those releases that change everything.
Trying to wrap my head around throwing out years of best practices and doing things like using JBOD with SATA (no RAID!), mixing data and log files, not using clusters. Amazing to think what we will be able to do with Exchange on cheaper and simpler hardware. Now I understand how Microsoft can offer Outlook Live to Universities with 10 GB mailboxes at no cost.
**MGT302 – Application Virtualization with Microsoft System Center**
A little disappointing. Good content, but would have liked to see more demos. Too much time talking about how the product came to where it is now. Still, very excited to move forward with App-V in our environment. Another summer priority.
**Partner Expo Reception**
The usual. Decent food. Big fail on soft drinks though. They apparently ran out of Diet Coke fairly early in the evening.
**Springboard Party at the Standard**
Awesome venue. Screamed L.A. from every angle. Crowd probably wasn’t as hip and beautiful as is usually there, but probably smarter. Great place to hang out. Appetizers were tasty too. The fried macaroni cheese balls were wonderful. Unfortunately only saw them come around once.