I was in Las Vegas on Microsoft Management Summit 2013 last week. I thought it would be beneficial for those who didn’t manage to get there to give you my thoughts about the conference through my experience. I also would like to highlight some sessions and events that I think are really interesting and worth to check for those who are working with MDOP suite products, Configuration Manager 2012 and MDT 2012 as well as doing desktop deployment projects.
Firstly, you need to check Keynote session“Cloud Optimize Your Business with Microsoft Management Solutions” that was delivered by Brad Anderson and was mostly around cloud solutions and our new Windows Server 2012 and System Center products.
Among all the sessions at the event, I chose to be on those that are about Configuration Manager 2012 and desktop deployment just because it is my primary technological focus. These are the sessions that I attended in person or watched later:
- UD-B320 – Configuration Manager 2012: MVP Experts Panel. This session was presented by our Configuration Manager 2012 MVPs: Kent Agerlund, Johan Arwidmark, Sherry Kissinger, Brian Mason, Kim Oppalfens, Greg Ramsey, Steve Thompson and Jason Sandys. The beauty of this session was that these guys gave us real world examples of ConfigMgr 2012 “how-to” from their projects.
- AI-B302 – Using Dynamic Access Control and Rights Management for Information Protection. Adam Hall and Brian Desmond explained and showed how dynamic access control works when you have File Server role installed on Windows Server 2012.
- UD-B404 – Migration Best Practices from System Center Configuration Manager 2007-2012. Session was delivered by Laszlo Ruboczki who revealed most common circumstances and issues for migration projects.
- DC-B303 – Advanced Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012 Update 1 Customizations. Mikael Nystrom and Johan Arwidmark talked about MDT 2012 Update 1 customizations, deployment scenarios, tips and tricks.
- UD-B330 – System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1 and Windows Intune: Unified Modern Device Management. Jeffrey Sutherland and Martin Booth discussed and showed how to provision and manage devices via Windows Intune.
- UD-B301 – Application Delivery with System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1 and Windows Intune. Dilip Radhakrishnan and Heidi Cheng showed how to deliver applications to different platforms and using different techniques.
- UD-B344 – Becoming a Windows Intune IT Administrator: A Real-World Perspective. Session is not yet available, so please check later
- DC-B320 – Windows Store Apps: Enterprise LOB App Deployment Scenarios. Mike Niehaus discussed and explained how to install and provision Modern UI applications.
- UD-B406 – Truly Better Together: Configuration Manager 2012 SP1 and PowerShell. Kaido Järvemets and Greg Ramsey presented the beauty of PowerShell cmdlets for Configuration Manager 2012.
- DC-B309 – Choosing the Right OS Deployment Tool. Mikael Nystrom and Johan Arwidmark delivered great session where they showed how to choose the right tool for OS tweaking and deployment.
- UD-B342 – Configuration Manager 2012 and Orchestrator 2012. Microsoft PFE Steven Rachui showed how to use Orchestrator with CM12.
- UD-B305 – How Microsoft IT Uses System Center Configuration Manager 2012 SP1. Microsoft IT guys Shitanshu Verma and Karthikeyan Jayavel clarified how MSIT manages our CM12 environment with some tips and tricks from day to day operational perspective.
- UD-B308 – Advanced Infrastructure for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1. This session was presented by Kent Agerlund and Brian Mason where they explained how to deploy high availability for CM12 and do performance optimization with focus at: offload SQL, fault tolerance, multi domain environment and workgroup clients.
- UD-B313 – Documentation, Disaster Recovery, and Using Scripts as Time Savers. Michael Schorr pointed out how to script Configuration Manager installation and use the same files as part of building a test lab and recovering CM12 hierarchy.
- DC-B301 – A Geek's Guide to USMT 5.0. Johan Arwidmark demonstrated how to use advanced techniques for migrating user files and settings using USMT 5.0.
- DC-B311 – Windows Sysinternals Primer. Aaron Margosis presented new and updated tools from Sysinternals suite.
- DC-B312 – What's New with Windows 8 Bitlocker and Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Management 2.0. Paul MacKnight and Lance Crandall discussed in details all the changes from MBAM 1.0 to 2.0 as well as made an announcement of MDOP 2013 GA.
- DC-B319 – Windows RT in the Enterprise. Mike Niehaus was talking about challenges as well as known issues and limitations for Windows RT devices in the enterprise environment.
- UD-B311 – Deploying System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1 With Windows Intune. Karthikeyan Jayavel and Arun Ramakrishnan offered Windows Intune solution deployed by Microsoft IT.
- UD-B341 – Complex Maintenance Using System Center 2012 Configuration Manager and Orchestrator: Patching a Cluster. Microsoft PFE Neil Peterson showed his software update management solution for complex environments based on Configuration Manager 2012 and Orchestrator 2012.
- DC-B318 – What's New in Windows 8 Deployment. Mike Niehaus presented session where he demonstrated all the new tools and technical aspects of Windows 8 deployment projects.
- DC-B401 – Advanced Automation Using Windows Powershell. Kenneth Hansen and Steven Murawski showed what’s new in PowerShell 3.0 and how to do day to day work using scripts.
- DC-B316 – Real World Windows 8 Deployment with MDT 2012 Update 1. Johan Arwidmark presented different aspects of Windows 8 deployment scenarios using MDT 2012 Update 1.
- UD-B338 –Reporting in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1. Saud Al-Mishari explained reporting functionality in Configuration Manager 2012 by deep diving into SQL Management Studio and showed how to use vex views for custom reports.
- DC-B306 – Building the Perfect Windows 8 Image. Mikael Nystrom and Johan Arwidmark were discussing different aspects of image creation, like when to use thin, hybrid or thick image as well as what tools can be used for custom image creation.
At the end of every day, there was a socializing event named “Solutions Expo and Microsoft Pavilion”. In a huge room more than 80 partner organizations had their stands where conference participants actively discussed partners’ solutions and how to use Microsoft products. I personally had many chats and discussions with Microsoft guys as well as partner organizations’ representatives. I also found that VMware sold Shavlik Technologies to LANDesk. It is an interesting turn in IT market.
You can find all recordings of MMS2013 session here: http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/MMS/2013. And if you need to download them all (be prepared to get more than 30Gb of traffic :-) ), you can use a set of PowerShell scripts described here.
Overall I can say that the MMS2013 conference was really interesting and packed with events and good talks with MVPs, Microsoft guys as well as customers’ technical folks. I do recommend to spare some time and check videos.