I'll be speaking at IT/Dev Connections!

I'll be presenting at IT/Dev Connections next week in San Francisco. It'll be nice to have a conference near my home town in the Bay Area.

My session is Take Control Authentication in Office 365.

Microsoft offers several ways for users and admins to authenticate easily and securely to Office 365. In this session you will learn about new advances in claims based and pass through authentication, multi-factor auth, and the controls available for each. With that knowledge, you'll be able to decide which authentication method works best for your organization. We'll also discuss architectures for high availability and disaster recovery. Live demos will bring it all together.

I'm excited to do this presentation, as I've been doing more Identity work than Exchange lately. I hope you can attend this session and others at IT/Dev Connections. Connections is a boutique IT conference with lots of face time and conversations with MVPs and other experts in their fields. I hope you can join me there!

Other MVP experts include Tony Redmond, Chris Goosen, Jaap Wesselous, J. Peter Bruzzese, and others.

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Poll: Which new Hyper-V lab server build would you be more likely to buy?

I am preparing to create my 5th generation Super-Fast Hyper-V Lab Server build. As usual, I will create a parts list, photos, videos, and tips about the build on this blog, but I need your help.

I normally stick to a small Micro ATX form factor which currently supports a maximum of 32GB RAM. I currently run this build at home and I'm happy that it doesn't take much room and uses less power. 32GB RAM is enough to run 6-7 medium/large servers at once 24x7.

Some IT Pros have asked for a build that supports 64GB RAM so they can run more or larger VMs. A 64GB build requires me to use a traditional ATX form factor motherboard with more DIMM slots. This will use more power and will cost about $900 more.

I realize cost is more of factor than size to most folks, but this website shows a comparison of ATX vs. Micro-ATX case sizes if you're not aware. The microATX case I usually go with is the same form factor as the "barebones" case shown on the website.

I created the poll below so I can determine which build you would like me to go with for my 5th generation server. I really appreciate your input.

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Which new Hyper-V server build would you be more likely to buy?

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I will be speaking at the IT/Dev Connections conference September 15-19 in Las Vegas. There, I will be hosting two sessions, "Build Your Own Super-Fast Exchange Lab for Under $2,000!" and an open mic forum entitled "Ask the Exchange Experts," a Q&A session about Exchange and Office 365 migration tips and tricks with fellow MVP Tony Redmond.

I will be bringing my latest Hyper-V lab server build to the lab session and will provide tips on how to build, manage, and use the server to advance your IT career. I hope to see you there!

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