Seasons Greetings and Happy Holidays all members, friends, and guests of the Atlanta Systems Management User Group!

Join the Atlanta Systems Management User Group for a System Center Universe 2012 viewing party, a one-day globally available technical event featuring Microsoft product gurus like Wally Mead and Travis Wright who will focus on the System Center 2012 products, features, and new capabilities resulting from these releases. View the live simulcast and engage in the conversation during the event via the SCU2012 twitter stream. Breakfast, lunch, and snacks will be provided throughout the day for all attendees. www.systemcenteruniverse.com

If you're planning on attending in person, please register as soon as possible so we can get an accurate head count for food, as we have something special planned for lunch. Folks, make sure you get your day pass this time because we have arranged with our sponsor, Altrinsic, to serve PIZZA and BEER for lunch! (Maybe a few sodas.) :)

REGISTRATION 
Since we are sharing content hosted by System Center Universe, all registration is going through their registration process. All you need to do is go to the link below and provide your registration information.

REGISTER NOW: https://app.e2ma.net/app2/survey/1404047/205029572/1f7eb1415d/

DATE & TIME
January 19, 2012,  9:00 AM – 4:00 PM EST

LOCATION
Microsoft Alpharetta
1125 Sanctuary Parkway
Suite 300
Alpharetta, GA 30009 

Keep in mind that while our viewing party will end at 4:00 PM, System Center Universe will continue with content until 6:30 PM!

The Atlanta Systems Management User Group and System Center Virtual User Group invites you to attend the next SMUG meeting scheduled for October 7, 2011 for a day of great presentations, discussions, and networking.

REGISTRATION
If you are planning to attend the event in person, please make sure to register using the In-Person link.  It helps us get a good idea of how many people we need to feed. :)

In-Person (for those of you in Atlanta that can attend at the Microsoft office): http://atlsmug.eventbrite.com

Virtual (for those of you that would like to participate over Live Meeting): http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=157249

Please make sure to register early and show up!  Only those of you that actually register and show up will be entered into the drawing for prizes.



DATE & TIME
October 7, 2011,  9:30 AM – 4:30 PM Eastern Time Zone

SPONSORSHIP
We would like to thank Altrinsic Solutions for sponsoring our last user group this year and making this event possible!

http://www.altrinsicsolutions.com/dx/sccm
Founded in 2005, Altrinsic Solutions is focused on building integrated, deeply automated software solutions to extend, expand and enhance the world’s top management platforms and provide strong return on investment to the customer. The Altrinsic deployment engineering team represents some of the most advanced deployment and migration expertise in the world. Our mission is to make administrators lives easier while providing substantial cost savings to the entire organization. We currently provide the deployment automation solution in over 450 companies worldwide including large government organizations and Fortune 500 companies.



AGENDA (Eastern Time)

PRESENTATION ABSTRACTS
Extending ConfigMgr OSD with Deploy Expert, Stephen Holcomb
Deploy Expert (DX ) is a System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) integrated process management solution for hardware independent image deployment (HID) and Windows OS migrations. DX reduces the workload and time required to achieve and maintain an enterprise HID capability by up to 95%. Whether you are deploying Windows 7, XP, 2003 or 2008 Server, the DX solution is seamlessly integrated into the SCCM console presenting administrators with an intuitive GUI that manages a simple 4-step process to automatically perform system hardware inventory analysis, driver pack gathering, deployment solution job integration and change maintenance.

Sneak Peek at Installing System Center 2012 (Top Secret!), Duane Bourgeois
[Pending description]

System Center Service Manager 2010 in the Field, Mark Mears
[Pending description]

System Center Configuration Manager 2012, Jason Sandys
[Pending description]

Windows 7 OSD Deployment, Greg Gilbert
[Pending description]

Sustained Engineering Update, Brian Huneycutt
[Pending description]

PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES
Stephen Holcomb has over seventeen years of IT industry background including extensive experience as a Systems Management Platform integrator and OS depoyment expert. Stephen and his staff have assisted hundreds of organizations with customized, automated OS deployment solutions. Customers include numerous Fortune-class organizations such as Wal-Mart, Boeing, Disney, Cisco, AT&T, multiple US military branches, commercial and other organizations representing virtually every vertical market and major geography. Stephen's vast experience in implementing customized, standardized image deployment solutions, has helped him to identify a market-wide need for fundamentally better processes and technology to automate Windows OS deployment and other key IT initiatives. With this mission, Altrinsic Solutions was founded in 2005, offering the first of several innovative products including Hardware Independent Imaging Solution (HIIS). The features and automation offered in HIIS have been continually extended, refined and advanced and are found in the next generation of OS deployment automation technologies - DeployExpert for Microsoft SCCM.

Brian Huneycutt is currently a developer on the Configuration Manager Sustained Engineering team. These days he still partners with CSS (current acronym for Support) on problem investigations, along with development work on hotfixes, service packs, and generally anything that needs fixing. Among numerous outside activities, Brian is also currently the board chairman for the Carolina Refugee Resettlement Agency.

Jason Sandys, MVP, MCSE, MCITP, BS, is a seasoned IT professional and a Managing Consultant for Catapult Systems Inc. He has over fifteen years of experience in a wide range of technologies, environments, and industries with extensive experience implementing and supporting SMS 2.0, SMS 2003, and Configuration Manager 2007. While constantly trying to improve his own knowledge, Jason is also active in the online support community, is a contributing author on the Configuration Manager 2007 Unleashed book, and is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for Configuration Manager.

Greg Gilbert began his career at Coca-Cola in April 1996 as part of the BASIS Technical Support team supporting their legacy systems. In 1999 Greg joined the Workstation Technology Services team leading patch management, global PC software licensing and as the product lead for several applications. He spent two years managing WTS as the team took a lead role in the deployment of BlackBerrys to the first 2,500 users in the company. In 2008 Greg joined the Technical Architecture team spending much of the last two and a half years collaborating with multiple teams to roll out new SAP capabilities and services that connect to SAP. He also led many of the efforts to provide connectivity for 3rd party support organizations. Currently Greg is working to update CCR's PC management infrastructure to deploy and support Windows 7, Office 2010, and Internet Explorer 8. Greg has a BA in Business Economics from Wofford College and lives in Smyrna with his wife and 1 year old daughter.

An 18 year Systems Management/IT veteran, Duane Bourgeois joined Microsoft in 2004 and is responsible for driving the relationships between System Center Engineering and the Sales/Marketing orgs. With a background spanning technical architecture to sales management, Duane engages customer, partners and the Microsoft’s sales force for feedback to drive the Cloud and Datacenter solution strategy. In addition, Duane consults on key customer and partner engagements in addition to driving field sales readiness. Prior to Microsoft, Duane worked for Novell, BellSouth, and Sunbeam Household Products in a variety of sales and technical roles.

Mark Mears is currently a Senior Consultant at Infrascience, LLC located in Alpharetta, GA.  He started using SMS in the days of version 1.2. He joined Microsoft Product Support Services shortly after the release of SMS 2.0 supporting SMS 1.2 and 2.0
customers. In 2004, Mark moved on into the world of consulting and specializes in the Systems Center family of products.
He currently supports customers using SCCM/SCVMM and SCSM. When he gets a few minutes away from the computer, he enjoys gardening and traveling. You can email Mark at mearsma@gmail.com.

Thank you for supporting your local SystemCenter Community.

REGISTRATION
If you are planning to attend the event in person, please make sure to register using the In-Person link.  It helps us get a good idea of how many people we need to feed. :)

In-Person (for those of you in Atlanta that can attend at the Microsoft office): http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=154973

Virtual (for those of you that would like to participate over Live Meeting): http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=155030

Please make sure to register early and show up!  Only those of you that actually register and show up will be entered into the drawing for prizes.



DATE & TIME
April 22, 2011,  9:45 AM – 4:15 PM Eastern Time Zone

SPONSORSHIP
We would like to thank Shavlik for sponsoring our second user group this year and making this event possible!

Shavlik's SCUPdates for SCCM provides Total Coverage. SCUPdates extends SCCM beyond current Microsoft products to patch today’s most attacked applications, including Adobe Reader and Acrobat in a Single Workflow. It also leverages SCCM workflow - no application to install or agent to deploy. Sync the SCUPdates catalog with SCCM and you’ll have a single SCCM workflow for deploying updates for Microsoft operating systems, Microsoft applications, AND non-Microsoft applications. Single push. Single reboot. Single set of reports.



AGENDA (Eastern Time)

PRESENTATION ABSTRACTS
v.Next Year - What You Need to Know About the Upcoming 2012 System Center Releases
Did you miss MMS 2011? Don't feel left out. Catch Dan Newton's presentation on all the new things in the System Center 2012 releases!

• What’s new in SCCM 2012, including new hierarchy model, new application delivery strategy, migration strategy and more.
  
• What’s new in SCOM, including client updates, new network monitoring features
• What’s new in s SVVM, including new Server App-V, new service templates and more
• Opalis (now SC Orchestrator) – data flows and automation
• Concero – new VMM portal
• Advisor – MS feeds BPA on the fly
• AviCode – Intelligent application troubleshooting

Delivering and Managing the Private Cloud with System Center 2012
The buzz of the cloud is everywhere, but what does it mean and how can I manage it with System Center 2012?  This session will focus on explaining the Cloud and Cloud services as well as how System Center 2012 can help you deliver a Private cloud.  We will explore the new features of SCVMM 2012 and its expanded Hypervisor support to help drive your Private Cloud.  We will also look at a new product called Project “Concero” that can help deliver the Azure and SCVMM Clouds in a single end-user web-based console.

3rd-Party Software Patching Using SCCM and Shavlik SCUPdates
Shavlik will be presenting a very informative session on 3rd Party Software Patching using SCCM and Shavlik's SCUPdates. SCCM does a great job of distributing software and deploying updates for the latest Microsoft operating systems and Microsoft applications like Office 2007. What about Adobe Reader and hundreds of other vulnerable applications?  Shavlik SCUPdates address a major business pain (keeping up with 3rd party updates) and puts time back into your schedule.  Here is a way to leverage a single SCCM workflow for deploying updates for both Microsoft and non-Microsoft applications.  Greg Wright and John Rush will be here from Shavlik Technologies.

DCM vs ACS: An Audit Compliance Comparison
In this session, the pros and cons of both SCCM Desired Configuration Management (DCM) and OpsMgr Audit Collection Services (ACS) will be presented. Are these competing features of the System Center platform or complimentary to one and another? Find out as 6-time Microsoft MVP, Duncan McAlynn, presents "DCM vs. ACS: An Audit Compliance Comparison" and walk away with a clear understanding of how each of these technologies can play a part in your overall security compliance strategy.

Operations Manager 2012 Overview
With the public announcement of OpsMgr 2012 at MMS 2011 this last April, come and see the Overview of OpsMgr 2012 delivered by 2 seasoned Sr. Program Managers on the OpsMgr team. You’ll get a preview into: Huge Infra TCO reductions (No more RMS!!!), Network Topology Discovery and Monitoring, Deep Application Monitoring, and Dashboards. Barry Shilmover and Baelson Duque will be taking any feedback or questions you have as well.

PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES
Dan Newton, has been consulting focusing on Microsoft infrastructure technologies for over 10 years.Dan has worked with many of Atlanta’s fortune 500 companies and other enterprise customers throughout the US.  Recent project highlights include:

• Server virtualization design and deployment to support over 300 servers across 10 server Hyper-V cluster
  
• Design, develop and deployment of migration from SMS 2003 to SCCM 2007 for SMS hierarchy comprised of over 350 SMS server support over 70,000 clients

Dan is a native of Atlanta, UGA graduate and proud father of three.

Greg Cameron is a Senior Datacenter Technology Specialist with Microsoft Corporation.  He has been with Microsoft for over 8 years working with Hosting, Telco, Cable and Media & Entertainment customers across the country helping them realize business value with their IT assets  In his current role he focuses on how customers can realize the benefits of Public and Private Clouds.  Working with these large and varied customers has helped him build a depth and breadth of experience in business and technical challenges and the value IT brings to the business.  Prior to joining Microsoft, Greg was the Global Server Manager for GE Power Systems in charge of the Operations team. He has also served as an Officer in the United States Navy and is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy.  He currently lives in Suwanee, GA with his wife and 3 kids.”

John Rush is a Senior Engineer for Shavlik Technologies. He is a veteran IT administrator who currently is a subject matter expert in software patch management for Windows (OS and other applications) and 3rd Party application.   
 
Duncan McAlynn, SecureVantage
 
Baelson Duque started at Microsoft a Systems Engineer and shortly thereafter, became a Tools Engineer building tools for Microsoft Game Studios Operations team that managed zone.msn.com. There he owned the Monitoring Infrastructure where Baelson pioneered MOM 2000 as the Operations Monitoring Platform. Baelson is now a proud member of the System Center Operations Manager Program Management team bringing with him over 5 years of Operational Expertise from many levels in the IT Operations stack. Baelson has been with the OpsMgr PM Team for over 7.5 years designing many features from core modules in the Infrastructure to the OpsMgr MP to the Distributed Application Designer and various MP Templates. Baelson is currently a Sr. Program Manager responsible for the Next Gen UI Framework to support Dashboards in OpsMgr 2012.

Barry Shilmover is a Senior Program Manager on the System Center Operations Manager team.  He focuses on some of the Management Pack investments at Microsoft, assisting internal teams to develop and release their Management Packs, as well as the Base OS Management Pack.  Barry speaks at several internal and external conferences as a Subject Matter Expert on SCOM.  Before coming the SCOM team, Barry was the PM for the Unix/Linux monitoring functionality in SCOM 2007 R2.


Thank you for supporting your local SystemCenter Community.

REGISTRATION
If you are planning to attend the event in person, please make sure to register using the In-Person link.  It helps us get a good idea of how many people we need to feed. :)

In-Person: http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=153230

Virtual: http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=152795

Please make sure to register early and show up!  Only those of you that actually register and show up will be entered into the drawing for prizes.



DATE & TIME
January 21, 2011,  9:45 AM – 4:15 PM Eastern Time Zone

SPONSORSHIP
We would like to thank WinWorkers for sponsoring our first user group of the year and making this event possible!

WinWorkers is an international systems integrator and ISV focusing on systems management, data center automation and virtualization solutions featuring Microsoft System Center technologies.  MyDeploy, WinWorkers latest software innovation, delivers software and OS deployment along with self-service functionality in a web-based portal. Learn more about MyDeploy: http://www.winworkers.com/products/mydeploy



AGENDA (Eastern Time)

PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES
Michael Vrabel, MVP, MCSE, MCITP, BS, got into Computers late but have had the good fortune of working full time at some great companies doing SMS/SCCM work; Disney, NBC and  Northrop in Los Angeles and Dish Network, Quizno’s  and others in Denver.  He has also worked as an Infrastructure Consultant for the last 15 years most notably;  Collective Technologies based in Austin Texas and now Catapult Systems in Denver.  The last few years he has been very focused on everything SoftGrid/Appv related.
 
Aaron Nelson is a Senior SQL Server Architect with over 10 years of experience in Architecture, Business Intelligence, Development, and Performance Tuning of SQL Server. He has experience managing enterprise wide data needs in both transactional and data warehouse environments.  Aaron holds certifications for MCITP: Business Intelligence Developer, Database Administrator, Database Developer; as well as MCTS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuration (meaning Hyper-V). Aaron helps run the AppDev and PowerShell Virtual Chapters of PASS, and volunteers for the local PASS Chapter AtlantaMDF.  He also co-runs the Atlanta PowerShell User Group, and helps organize SQL Saturday events in Atlanta.
 
Mai Omar Desouki is a Senior Solutions Developer at ITEgyptCorp (MCTS 2007 & 2010). She has been working with Microsoft Technology for several years, with the main focus on SharePoint. Her main SharePoint deployments have been for customers in Egypt & Middle East region. She also has done multiple migrations for enterprise customers from MOSS 2007 to SharePoint 2010.
 
Simon Skinner, MVP, has been in the computer industry since the early 1990's. Starting out as a programmer in VB, he developed stock control systems for haulage companies. From there he moved into networking and gained a high level of experience and expertise, designing and building web and server farms for increasingly larger organizations. Aware of its increasing importance in the new millennium, Simon turned his attention to System Management with Microsoft SMS and MS MOM. This today is where Simon’s real talent is although evolving to System Centre Operations Manager 2007. Simon has worked with Microsoft demonstrating, planning and deploying SCOM to clients in the UK and France. After starting SecQuorum in early 2006 the company’s core services is with SCOM. We adopted SCOM 2007 in a hosted environment in early 2006 and the service has gone from strength, offering monitoring solutions in various mode to suite most companies.
 
Pete Zerger is a consultant, author, speaker and Microsoft MVP focusing on Microsoft System Center management and data center automation. He is a frequent speaker at Microsoft conferences and has written articles for technical magazines including Microsoft TechNet and Windows IT Pro. He was a contributor to the R2 supplement for System Center Operations Manager 2007 Unleashed.
 
Frank Rojas been in IT for 15 years using SMS 2003/ConfigMgr 2007 for the last 6 years, specializing in Operating System Deployment for those 6 years. Currently the global OSD SME for ConfigMgr 2007 at Microsoft.
 
Brian Huneycutt is currently a developer (more a jack-of-all-trades really) on the Configuration Manager Sustained Engineering team. He started as a Support Engineer at Microsoft in 1999, then went to the SMS team. These days he still partners with CSS (current acronym for Support) on problem investigations, along with development work on hotfixes, service packs, and generally anything that needs either fixing or a very long email.

Thank you for supporting your local SystemCenter Community.