Windows Server 2003
Expert Workshop

So what was this workshop?

It was a three-day hands-on, instructor "led" look at Windows Server 2003. There were three lecturers (Dan Lewis from Informatics, Tony Chaworth-Musters, from Parity and Thomas Lee from QA) and two MCS consultants (Mark Cribben, Dave Sayers), a bunch of mainly UK trainers. We had visits from Amanda Glasgow and  Mark Buckley, who look after UK MCTs in one way or another and Mark Tennant, Microsoft UK's Windows 2003 Server Product Manager.

The workshop was based on the Windows 2003 Expert Workshop material from the US, although a later revision than ran in Paris or Redmond in 2002. The material was OK, and enabled the trainers to get to grips with the product.

What was good about the workshop?

First, it was a lot of fun. Second we all learned stuff about the product - lecturers as well as delegates. Third, we spent time talking a lot about the product's new features - both understanding how they worked and and some of the possible problems students (and customers) may have.  The presence of two MCS consultants was a great addition - they were able to bring their hands on experience with the product gained to by working with JDP customers to the classrooms. They also kindly hosted a Q&A session at the end of the 2nd day.

What are the really cool features and the hot stuff in Windows Server 2003?

Certainly there are a lot of new features in the AD area. NDNCs, AD/AM, DrDNS, Cross-forest trusts, Universal Group caching, replication improvements and InetOrgPerson, to name a few.  IIS 6.0 is a big change too- in many ways. And the Volume Shadow Copy service is pretty cool too! There is a lot to learn.

We also saw that some of the neater components won't ship with Windows 2003, but will ship around that time (or later). These include Group Policy Management Console, Windows System Resource Manager, Microsoft Audit Collection Service, AD/AM and MMS 3.0.

So what now?

Well for me, there are a bunch of things in the product to start to play with a bit deeper once the RTM code is available. Microsoft's purchase of Connectix's assets means a new VM environment to build VMs in! I've been playing with the beta of Virtual Server - and can't wait for the full product to come out!

There will be more TTT events in the UK - which is absolutely great news for UK MCTs. There are four more TTT events planned with hopefully more to come! If you are a UK MCT and did NOT get the recent mail about these, you should contact Microsoft to make sure your details are correct. The prices of these events are being kept reasonably low and the trainers are some of the very best brains in the business! And if this wasn't good enough, Microsoft are partly subsidising them (for UK MCTs only, before anyone asks!). 

Summary

I've been complaining for years about MCT support in the UK - well, MS sure have responded. I'll echo what one delegate wrote on the evaluation: this event was worth my MCT fee for the year.

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