This is it…

When it all started
Back then in November 2008 when I started this blog I never ever expected it to bring me so much. After all, that wasn’t the reason why I started to blog. All I wanted to do was to share my experiences with SCOM. Not to write about me, myself and I. No way!

I am honored
But as stated before, this blog brought me so much more. First the readers started coming in by numbers. The blog grew from one reader/visitor per month to 1.000+ per day! On top of it all Microsoft awarded me many times with the MVP award. On July the 1st 2018 I received the award for the 9th time! And last but not least, I got to know a bunch of special people, from all over the planet!

Back to the title of this posting
Sure, the title says it all. However, as I see it, it’s not the end but the start of a new challenge and journey. Since May 2018 I accepted a new role/position, as program manager for a full service IT training company in the Netherlands, Vijfhart IT-Opleidingen.

In that role I am responsible – with other colleagues – for the IT training offering of Vijfhart. My portfolio contains data center, infrastructure and (of course) Microsoft trainings. I must keep it up to date and – when required – aid in designing new trainings, material and the lot. Also I am partially responsible for the sales, acquisition and marketing.

In that role I learn tons of new stuff every day. Thankfully I work with highly experienced colleagues who learn me the tricks of this trade. Totally awesome. A big thanks for their time and patience with me .

Blogging? Yes! But for a NEW blog…
Sure, I’ll keep on blogging. However, the focus has shifted from IT technologies (Azure, OMS, SCOM & SCCM) to IT and education instead.

These topics don’t mix quite well with this blog. As such I’ve decided to stop this blog and start a new one, focused on IT, the cloud and how it influences how IT ‘is done’ and as such, changes the training and knowledge requirements for todays IT persona’s and those of tomorrow.

Result?
Yes this blog will be stopped. No more postings, nor will it be possible to leave a comment. After almost ten years it’s time to move on, to reinvent and challenge myself.

The new blog will be in Dutch, where sometimes the postings will refer to external blogs/publications written in English.

The name of the new blog is ITducatie. Translated in English, the combination of IT and education (educatie in Dutch).

THANK YOU!!!
I’ll refrain myself from mentioning names since I will most certainly forget quite a few of them. Since I don’t want to hurt anyone's feelings, I say to EVERYBODY: THANKS A LOT FOR EVERYTHING. MUCH OBLIGED!

Thank you for your time spent on this blog, for your comments, feedback, friendship and sharing of knowledge and experience.

I wish you all the best and most certainly, we’ll meet again!

SCOM 1801: Key Facts Webinar

As stated before, SCOM 1801 is really a new improved version of SCOM 2012R2/2016. Much has changed. So in order to know what exactly, one can read some (boring?) online documentation, OR one could join a webinar.

This webinar is titled Migrating to SCOM 1801, hosted by Savision and presented by Aditya Goda, Program Manager at Microsoft, and MVP Bob Cornelissen (“SCOM-Bob”). Topics covered:

• HTML5 Dashboards
• Linux Monitoring Improvements
• Migration Planning and the new “Semi-Annual Channel Release” Model
• New Service Map Integration
• Updates and recommendations for third-party Management Packs
• Live Maps Integration

And besides these topics, YOU can ask your SCOM 1801 related questions as well! So join this free(!) webinar in order to learn what’s new in SCOM 1801 and how to migrate to it.

Goodbye Project Honolulu, Hello Windows Admin Center

Yes, it was about to happen, sooner or later. The highly famous Project Honolulu would stop someday and be replaced by something more official, and yet a bit boring. Meaning, Project Honolulu does have a nice ring to it, or not?

Just imagine yourself there, right on the beach. Enjoying the sun, water and drinks with your loved ones, and in the mean time, managing your company’s servers, using Project Honolulu. Nice!

But back to reality. Project Honolulu is over and replaced by Windows Admin Center. Somehow it has a different ring to it, compared to the previous name…

But still, it’s what it is. Nicest thing is, Windows Admin Center is available at NO EXTRA COSTS! It can be used with valid licenses of Windows Server or Windows 10, since it’s licensed under the Windows Supplemental EULA.

Which is quite awesome!

Want to know more? Go here, read, download & install it.

Migrating To Azure? Avoid ‘Lift & Shift’. ‘Lift & Transform’ Is The Way To Go.

Azure is like a huge collection of Lego building blocks. You can do almost anything and everything with it. As such it’s very tempting for companies to move their current on-premise workloads as-is to the Azure cloud. Many times because it’s the way they always did their IT, so why change a winning team? Just rebuild your on-premise IT in the cloud and migrate. This is also called Lift & Shift migrations. Just do it and you’re in the cloud.

Sure, you can do it. And yes, it will work. But you know, even though you’re in the cloud now, you’re missing out on tons of advantages which the cloud has(had) to offer.

Why? Simply because you’re skipping the biggest parts of the cloud, titled PaaS and SaaS. Instead you’re using Azure as a pure and simple IaaS provider: Microsoft delivers the compute, networking, storage and virtualization layer and you’ll do the rest (from the Azure VMs and further).

However, multiple things happen in such a scenario:

• Azure VMs don’t come cheap, especially when you require Azure VMs with lots of CPU, RAM and good IOPS;
• Azure services, like MFA are easily integrated into other Azure services, especially when those services are SaaS based;
• You’re Azure environment becomes a mere copy from your current on-premise data center. So why even bother going to the cloud?

Think SERVICES!!!
Now it’s time to retrace your steps. Think about WHY your company thought about going to the cloud. When it’s about lower IT costs, think again. When it’s because your company wants IT to become more agile, more capable and flexible, Azure is a valid solution.

But as stated before, Azure delivers way much more besides IaaS. Even better, many offerings are on PaaS or even SaaS level. And the integration between them is much better, compared to ‘good old’ IaaS.

In order to get the most out of Azure without paying too much, it’s much better to rethink your IT. Like:

• Why does my company run those servers?
• Not because I love the server OS…
• Not because I love to maintain it…
• Why does my company run those SQL/web/etc. servers?
• Not because I love to install SQL/web/etc…
• Not because I love to maintain SQL/web/etc…

Sooner (or later) you’ll start realizing that at the end of the day, your company runs all those servers in order to facilitate certain applications, or services even.

So why not splitting to those services (web, database and so on) and use them in Azure instead? Now you’re getting there, since the webservers, database servers and so on are hosted and maintained by Microsoft.

You’re only responsible for the workloads running on top of it, like the websites and databases. So no more IaaS for those workloads, but PaaS instead. Wh00t!!!

Take it even a step further. Aren’t there other services your company consumes which are offered like a SaaS solution already? Like Azure AD (mark my words, on-premise AD is ending), VSTS, Exchange-Online (or O365), MFA and so on?

Sure, these services can be tied into the on-premise equivalents as well. It requires additional resources and efforts, but it can be done. But before going there, try to connect it first to the Azure workloads only, and go from there.

Say hello to ‘Lift & Transform’
Yes, I know. This is a process which requires time. It can’t be done in a few weeks. But still, simply BEGIN with small (baby) steps. Take care first of the ‘low hanging fruit’, in this case the easy on-premise parts which are easy to ‘lift & transform’.

Learn. Adapt. Transform. Microsoft knows and recognizes the hybrid world. Meaning IT, mixed of on-premise workloads combined with cloud based ones.

But PLEASE, in order to get the most out of it, TRANSFORM your IT when migrating to the cloud. And no, not everything can be transformed. But let those be exceptions and not the default migration path to the cloud. Now the value proposition of the Azure cloud grows significantly for your company, thus greatly enhancing the added value of your IT assets.

Real life experiences
No, I am NOT talking theoretically here. I see this happening at my company’s customer base with an almost weekly frequency. People and organizations require coaching, support and positive discussions about how IT is done.

As soon as the cloud is involved, many people tend to think about it in the old way. Cloud is nothing but a BIG data center. Period. In real life however, the cloud means DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION.

For us consultants, the first and foremost challenge is to start to change their mindset: Think services! First with small steps. The moment they embrace it however, it’s me and my colleagues who are learning many new things/approaches instead.

For instance a huge insurance company who started on a small scale with their migration to the cloud, opting for ‘lift & transform’. The moment they got the ‘hang of it’ (they noticed the many advantages of this approach), they decided to move as much on-premise IT to the cloud.

They projected almost two years for it. Instead they finished it a year(!) before schedule! Now they’re looking at their on-premise IT (better, what’s left of it) in order to get it to the cloud as well, as far as allowed by law and regulations.

To me this is a splendid showcase of the real cloud power and the digital transformation. We’re living in a very exciting world today, with many mind blowing changes ahead!

OMS: Data Volume Cap

Microsoft has released a new feature in OMS. It enables companies to set a daily volume cap and limit the daily ingestion for your workspace. It helps companies to manage unexpected increases in their data volume from managed resources and stay within the limit. Or the feature can simply help companies to limit unplanned charges for their workspace.

This new OMS feature is deployed and available in all Azure regions.

Want to know more? Go here.

My two cents: This is a much awaited for feature, allowing a better adoption of OMS. As far as I am concerned their is still one showstopper, which are the total costs of it. When Microsoft solves that as well, OMS is going to sell big time…

What’s In a Name? System Center 2019 aka SCOM 18/19xy

A few days ago Microsoft launched the public preview of Windows Server 2019 (in order to download the preview version one has to join the Windows Insider program). The Windows Server Team posted an article about this public preview release on their blog, to be found here.

Besides a high level overview of what’s new in this product (expected GA date second half of 2018), the same article makes this quite interesting statement: ‘…Finally, Window Server customers using System Center will be excited to know that System Center 2019 is coming and will support Windows Server 2019…’

SCOM 2019 or 18/19xy?
Since SCOM is an integrated component of the whole System Center stack, SCOM will be updated as well. Looking at the new naming convention however, I seriously doubt whether SCOM will be branded SCOM 2019.

Instead I expect a name like SCOM 18/19xy, EG 1806/1810/1901, depending on the exact GA date of Windows Server 2019.

What’s in a name?
More interesting is however, what kind of release of System Center will support Windows Server 2019, meaning SAC (Semi-Annual Channel) or LTSC (Long Term Servicing Channel)?

And this is where it gets a bit unclear. On the first sight one would expect that it will be a SAC release, simply because that’s the very nature of the SAC release cycle, in cadence with the SAC release cycle of Windows Server. And as stated by Microsoft, only the SAC releases will support the newest features. Support of Windows Server 2019 can be looked upon as a new feature.

SAC only or LTSC ‘extension’ included?
However, with the Windows Server 2019 release being a LTSC one (as stated in this posting, second item of the Q&A), changes are that the System Center 2019 release might be a LTSC one as well. So for this moment it can go two ways.

But no matter what kind of release System Center 2019 will be, I would be amazed when the current 1801 LTSC release of SCOM wouldn’t be extended in any kind of way in order to support Windows Server 2019 as well.

So also from a System Center support perspective the GA release date of Windows Server 2019 will be exciting as well…

SCOM Reporting Done Right – Join Savision’s ‘SCOM Reporting Essentials’ Webinar

The 1st of March 4 PM CET Savision organizes an online session, all about SCOM Reporting. This webinar is hosted by ‘SCOM Bob’, fellow MVP Bob Cornelissen and Savision’s Support Manager, Chris Malay.

Many tips & tricks will be shared during this webinar, so you can take your SCOM Reporting skills to the next level. Topics to be covered are:

• Overview of the most useful types of reports for different stakeholders
• Tips and tricks to test your reports and make sure they work all the time
• How to avoid empty reports and other common SCOM reporting issues
• How to automate reports and receive them via email every month

On top of it all, Savision’s FREE(!) SLA Reports Management Pack will be demonstrated.

This MP allows you to create a complete SLA overview report of all your Service Level Objectives and to analyze why SLA expectations were not met by showing a list of the most common alerts that triggered the health state change of the Service Level Objective.

In another posting I’ll write about this MP in more detail.