WindowsNetworking.com - Monthly Newsletter - November 2014
Hi Security World,
Welcome to the WindowsNetworking.com newsletter by Debra Littlejohn Shinder <http://www.windowsnetworking.com/Deb_Shinder/>, MVP. Each month we will bring you interesting and helpful information on the world of Windows Networking. We want to know what all *you* are interested in hearing about. Please send your suggestions for future newsletter content to: dshinder@windowsnetworking.com
1. Goodbye, Lync and hello, Skype for Business
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Microsoft has garnered its share of criticism over the years for the company’s propensity for changing product names more often than an international spy on the run. In some cases, the name changes have been bewildering. Microsoft’s firewall/proxy ISA (Internet Security and Acceleration) Server â€" which was originally Microsoft Proxy Server â€" had established a nice, if niche, following when suddenly it morphed into Forefront TMG (Threat Management Gateway). As someone who was deeply involved in the ISA community, I felt there was never quite the passion for the product there after it got its new name â€" and of course a few years later, Microsoft announced it was discontinuing development of TMG altogether and got out of the firewall space.
In fact, I got so tired of this constant shuffling of names, with MMS turning into MIIS and then ILM, SNA morphing to HIS and then BizTalk, the rise and fall of the “Live� label, etc., that I wrote an article in 2012 <http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/windows-and-office/earth-to-microsoft-please-stop-changing-your-product-names/> pleading with Microsoft to just pick a name and stick to it.
I have to admit, however, that the latest name change makes sense from a business point of view. Microsoft Lync, which started life as Office Communicator/Communications Server, is being rebranded in its next iteration (to be released in early 2015) as Skype for Business. And you know what? I’m okay with that.
When Microsoft acquired Skype in 2011 for $8.5 billion, they suddenly had two different products that do basically the same thing: audio and video calls and chat sessions (well, three, if you count NetMeeting, which was still around in Windows XP at the time). There were differences; if you need to have a video conference with 200 people at the same time, Skype doesn’t do that, whereas Lync does. Lync also supports sharing whiteboards and OneNote notebooks within group chats.
Lync is, in almost all ways, the more full-featured of the two VOIP applications. Thus one might think that if Microsoft was going to abandon one or the other of the products, they would dump Skype and go with Lync. In fact, a few month ago Derrick Wlodarz over on Betanews made a very comprehensive case for doing exactly that in his article Skype vs Lync: The case for killing off Skype <http://betanews.com/2014/05/26/skype-vs-lync-the-case-for-killing-off-skype/>.
Combining the two products is a logical move, and Skype and Lync have been edging toward a union for some time, with Microsoft adding Lync-Skype connectivity <http://products.office.com/en-us/lync/lync-skype-connectivity> to bring the two groups of customers together. Lync users are already able to add Skype contacts outside of their organizations and Skype users can likewise add Lync contacts. Online status shows across the two applications and voice calling and instant messaging can be carried out between Lync and Skype users.
Going back to the name game, objectively speaking, I would also argue that Lync has the catchier name. Lync establishes a communications link across the Internet. There’s a logical play on words there. What’s a “skype� anyway? Apparently the origin of the name was “sky peer-to-peer�<http://www.thenameinspector.com/skype/>, although I’m not sure of the significance of “sky� in this context. In any event, in my opinion Lync has the better name, also conjuring up in my mind a vague association with “lynx� (no reason to let Apple appropriate all of the big cat names).
However, Skype is by far the more popular and well-known brand. Skype’s corporate VP says over 300 million people use it, although it’s not clear whether that number refers to the total number of user accounts or just active accounts. When it comes to free online services, some people sign up and use them a few times and then never come back to.
Despite the proclamations of nay-sayers in early 2013 who predicted Skype would collapse <http://bgr.com/2013/05/23/skype-market-share-whatsapp-kik/> under competition from Facebook Messenger, according to statistics from telecom research company TeleGeography <http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/01/15/skypes-incredible-rise-in-one-image/>, Skype’s growth rate last year was pretty impressive: up 36 percent over the previous year. Lync has been growing fast, too, bringing in a cool billion dollars in revenue <http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/04/lync-azure-office-365-and-the-shifting-center-of-microsofts-gravity/> during the 2013 fiscal year. But because it’s been limited primarily to the business market, its name isn’t as much of a household word. Simply put, Skype has made it to the enviable product position of being used as a verb, whereas I don’t recall ever hearing anyone talking about “lyncing.�
Keeping the Skype name for Microsoft’s communications solution makes sense, then, on several levels. What will be interesting is how the consolidation of the two products plays out in terms of the user experience. According to the Skype blog <http://blogs.skype.com/2014/11/11/introducing-skype-for-business/>, the new unified Skype for Business will still use the robust Lync infrastructure (based on a new Skype for Business Server) while the client interface will look more like the current Skype desktop client â€" but with Lync’s content sharing features.
So far there’s been no official news on pricing/licensing structures but I would expect them to be similar to Lync, with Microsoft pushing companies toward the online version of Skype for Business that’s part of Office 365 and de-emphasizing the on-premises Skype for Business Server product, although I’m glad to see that it will be offered. It’s taken a while, but Skype is blossoming into a reliable and easy to use VOIP solution for small businesses as well as consumers, and if we’re lucky, business users will now have the best of both worlds. I’ll be testing and reporting on my hands-on experiences with Skype for Business as soon as it’s released, so stay tuned.
‘Til next time,
Deb
dshinder@windowsnetworking.com
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Quote of the Month - Communication â€" the human connection â€" is the key to personal and career success. â€" Paul J. Meyer
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2. Windows Server 2012 Security from End to Edge and Beyond â€" Order Today!
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Windows Server 2012 Security from End to Edge and Beyond
By Thomas Shinder, Debra Littlejohn Shinder and Yuri Diogenes
From architecture to deployment, this book takes you through the steps for securing a Windows Server 2012-based enterprise network in today’s highly mobile, BYOD, cloud-centric computing world. Includes test lab guides for trying out solutions in a non-production environment.
Order your copy of Windows Server 2012 Security from End to Edge and Beyond. You'll be glad you did.
<http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Server-2012-Security-Beyond-ebook/dp/B00CMQK0OG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1387293428&sr=8-1&keywords=windows+server+2012+end+to+edge+and+beyond>
3. WindowsNetworking.com Articles of Interest
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Time to Say Goodbye to Windows Server 2003: Preparing for Migration (Part 1)
This is my first in a series of articles intended to lay out the case for why it’s time to upgrade your Windows servers if you’re still running WS2003 machines, describe some of your migration options, discuss considerations (such as cost factors) that you’ll want to take into account, and finally help you through the process of designing a migration strategy that will make the transition as painless as possible for both admins and users.
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/windows-server-2012/time-say-goodbye-windows-server-2003-preparing-migration-part1.html
Advanced Network Adapter Driver Settings
You’ve probably seen the settings on the Advanced tab of a network adapter’s Properties beforeâ€"it’s the same place where you access the driver detailsâ€"but the settings aren’t so easy to understand. In this article, Eric Geier discusses many of the advanced network settings for Ethernet connections, giving you some idea of what they do and how you can utilize them.
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/netgeneral/advanced-network-adapter-driver-settings.html
Working with the Desired State Configuration Feature (Part 3)
This is a continuation of Brien Posey’s multi-part article designed to help you understand and use the Desired State Configuration tool in Windows PowerShell. In Part 3, Brien walks you through the process of building a configuration file.
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/windows-server-2012/working-desired-state-configuration-feature-part3.html
Active Directory Migration Considerations (Part 3)
Continuing another comprehensive series of articles, Mitch Tullock takes us further into the world of Active Directory migration and examines in detail the limitations of ADMT for performing forest or domain migration or consolidation, including migration rollback, scalability and more.
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/windows-server-2012/active-directory-migration-considerations-part3.html
4. Administrator KB Tip of the Month
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Use PowerShell to view info about printer ports
Another useful PowerShell cmdlet is Get-PrinterPort, which allows you to retrieve a list of printer ports installed on a print server. For example, the following command displays information about all ports on HOST7 of the Standard TCP/IP Port type:
PS C:\> Get-PrinterPort -ComputerName HOST7 | where Description -like "*TCP*"
Name ComputerName Description PortMonitor
------------ ------------ ---------------- -----------
172.16.11.55 HOST7 Standard TCP/IP Port TCPMON.DLL
The above tip was excerpted from Mitch Tulloch's book Training Guide: Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012 from Microsoft Press.
For more great admin tips, check out http://www.windowsnetworking.com/kbase/
5. Windows Networking Links of the Month
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Windows Server vNext Technical Preview: The first steps to software-defined everything
http://www.zdnet.com/windows-server-vnext-technical-preview-the-first-steps-to-software-defined-everything-7000035658/
Microsoft rumored to be making Windows Server for ARM
http://www.datacenterdynamics.com/focus/archive/2014/10/microsoft-rumored-be-making-windows-server-arm
Incremental SDN: Automating Network Device Configuration
http://www.networkworld.com/article/2603534/sdn/incremental-sdn-automating-network-device-configuration.html
Virtual Containers: 8 Basic Truths
http://www.networkcomputing.com/cloud-infrastructure/virtual-containers-8-basic-truths/d/d-id/1317436?
Software defined storage definition is still not concrete
http://searchvirtualstorage.techtarget.com/news/2240234559/Software-defined-storage-definition-is-still-not-concrete
Microsoft reveals Windows 10’s administrative features
http://www.networkworld.com/article/2846246/microsoft-subnet/microsoft-reveals-windows-10s-administrative-features.html
Latency: The other critical storage networking metric
http://www.infoworld.com/article/2847023/network-storage/latency-the-other-critical-storage-networking-metric.html
6. Ask Sgt. Deb
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QUESTION:
Hey Deb,
I thought I had a private cloud but someone just sent me the memo: a virtualized infrastructure isn’t a private cloud. What’s up with that? Anyhow, since I’ve had this awakening, I figure I better learn a bit more about private cloud. Since we’re a Hyper-V shop, using Windows Server 2008 R2, I thought I start looking at what Windows Server 2012 R2 has to offer. Sheesh! Where does the time go? Seems like we upgraded to Windows Server 2008 R2 just yesterday â€" and now that platform is almost 7 years old. Anyhow, can you throw me a clue stick on what Windows Server 2012 R2 has to offer when it comes to networking for private cloud environments? Thanks! â€" Jim D.
ANSWER:
Well, Jim, in the immortal words of best-selling writer Stephen King, the world has moved on since you deployed Windows Server 2008 R2. Beginning with Windows Server 2012, Microsoft has made huge investments in infrastructure capabilities in Windows Server. Many of these advancements have come in the networking space.
For example, SMB Direct (also known has Remote Direct Memory Access or RDMA) enables you to connect over the network at true wire speeds for file access. While that might be moderately interesting from the perspective of a run of the mill file server, it does get very interesting when you think about file-based storage for virtual machine files.
File-based storage is pretty popular with the VMware guys, where they take advantage of the Network File System (NFS) file servers to house their virtual machines. The upside of file-based virtual machine storage is that it’s a lot easier to manage. The catch has always been related to throughput and latency. With NFS, you just can’t get the speeds you need for high-performance, low latency workloads. That all changes up with SMB Direct using SMB 3.0 to connect to highly available file servers that contain the virtual machine files. SMB Direct has been demonstrated to support transfer speeds of over 16 Mega BTYES per second! You read that right â€" almost 16 DVDs transferred in a second. And the limitation for going over that isn’t a software one, it’s a hardware one, related to the limits of the PCI bus itself.
But SMB Direct and file based storage for virtual machines is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what Microsoft has to offer in the networking area for private clouds. For a really good article on this subject, check out this authoritative article on Microsoft Infrastructure as a Service Foundations (http://blogs.technet.com/b/privatecloud/archive/2014/10/21/microsoft-infrastructure-as-a-service-network-foundations.aspx). Everything you need to know is there, and it has tons of links to related concepts and technologies. Have fun!
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