My Thoughts On IT…

As of February 3rd 2011, the central pool of available IPv4 addresses managed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) has been depleted.

The five Regional Internet Registries (AfriNIC, APNIC, ARIN, LACNIC and the RIPE NCC) still have addresses. They will continue to allocate IPv4 addresses to their members in accordance with their community-based regional policies  until their pools of available IPv4 addresses are depleted. It is difficult to predict when the Regional Registries will run out of IPv4 addresses.

At current rates, this pipeline is expected to last between sixteen and twelve additional months.

What will happen next is anyone’s guess. Here are some ideas:

• Some organizations with large pools of addresses will return some of them either to save face by not being accused of hoarding a scarce resource (in particular for governments, the US DoD has eleven blocks of 16 million addresses, way more than they need) and to gain some good publicity (some companies such as HP, Apple, Ford, Halliburton, Nortel, PARC and Daimler have large blocks of unused addresses that serve them no useful purpose). This has already started happening, it will likely happen a few more times in the near future (at least, while selling such ranges is not possible).
• Companies internally using public IP addresses will make the change to use private addresses and will end up having a big surplus as a result. Some will adopt IPv6 internally, but IPv4 private addresses are easier to deploy in most situations, and quite abundant.
• Companies with under allocated ranges will reshuffle IPs around and end up with unused blocks.
• Currently, selling IP addresses is not officially allowed, but when we really run out some policies might be modified to allow the sale of unused ranges to promote more efficient usage. Even if that doesn’t happen, a black market is almost certain to develop. I’m sure someone will come up with an eBay for IP addresses and will become rich brokering black/grey market IP address ranges.

If you don’t have plans for handling this you should create them. My plan is to continue to use the 10.0.0.0 range of IPv4 addresses on my network because I use a NAT. So whenever my ISP changes to IPv6 all I need to do is update my router. Microsoft IT has already started the change to IPv6 a while ago.  I think we have a 2 to 3 years before the big push to move to IPv6 comes. This will happen when acquiring IPv4 addresses becomes more expensive than the cost of deploying and testing IPv6 addresses. That is when companies will stop using IPv4.

For more information see the ARIN IPv4 Depletion and IPv6 Deployment FAQ

For information on IPv6 see: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/network/bb530961.aspx

For information on setting up IPv6 see this:
Architecting a Rollout of IPV6 for Improved Security and Computer Management
http://www.microsoft.com/events/podcasts/default.aspx?audience=Audience-b046181f-3333-4c19-977e-c230ed48d9c0&seriesID=Series-c659d104-8537-410f-9223-fcc930abb4a4.xml&pageId=x8637&source=Microsoft-Podcasts-about-Microsoft-IT-Showcase:-How-Microsoft-Does-IT-for-IT-Professionals&WT.rss_ev=a

I see two very interesting trends in technology that are shaping the future of the IT world. The two trends are Deperimerterization and Consumerization of IT.

Deperimeterization – This is the disappearance of strict boundaries between internal and external networks. In the past enterprises were able to protect their servers and their workstations because they were all behind the corporate firewall. All machines played safely in their own company sandbox. Today end-users are often accessing corporate resources from an internet connection. And corporate resources are often being hosted by a third party on the internet for example salesforce.com hosting your CRM. This is fundamental change in corporate networks and the security paradigm.

Consumerization of IT – Tech savvy Consumers are making the decisions of what technology they want to work with in the work world. This is very different that the past when they worked with what they were given by their company. There are some organizations embracing this and there are others who are fighting it. In the end employees who want to use their iPhones to do their work will and it is fruitless to fight it. This will only continue to become more prevalent as todays tech savvy youth enter the workforce and demand tools

These two trends are directly shaping how IT groups are architecting for the future and how computer products are being designed and marketed for tomorrow.  I predict that these trends will continue at a rapidly growing pace in the years to come. I further believe we will see transformative technology in the next three years. The iPad is just the beginning of things to come.

What do you think? Comment below.

I see two very interesting trends in technology that are shaping the future of the IT world. The two trends are Deperimerterization and Consumerization of IT.

Deperimeterization – This is the disappearance of strict boundaries between internal and external networks. In the past enterprises were able to protect their servers and their workstations because they were all behind the corporate firewall. All machines played safely in their own company sandbox. Today end-users are often accessing corporate resources from an internet connection. And corporate resources are often being hosted by a third party on the internet for example salesforce.com hosting your CRM. This is fundamental change in corporate networks and the security paradigm.

Consumerization of IT – Tech savvy Consumers are making the decisions of what technology they want to work with in the work world. This is very different that the past when they worked with what they were given by their company. There are some organizations embracing this and there are others who are fighting it. In the end employees who want to use their iPhones to do their work will and it is fruitless to fight it. This will only continue to become more prevalent as todays tech savvy youth enter the workforce and demand tools

These two trends are directly shaping how IT groups are architecting for the future and how computer products are being designed and marketed for tomorrow.  I predict that these trends will continue at a rapidly growing pace in the years to come. I further believe we will see transformative technology in the next three years. The iPad is just the beginning of things to come.

What do you think? Comment below.

Microsoft WebMatrix is a new web development tool that makes it easy for anyone to create a new web site. Start from any of the built-in or online templates or the Web Applications Gallery. Customize your site using the code and database editor. WebMatrix provides access to offers from Microsoft hosting partners, making it easy to choose the right host with a selection of hosting packages. Once a hosting package is configured, WebMatrix seamlessly publishes to the web.

It takes all the great features of the Web Platform Installer and adds development tools on top. If you just want to install one of many opensource packages on your windows server then the Web Platform Installer is for you. If you want to then edit those pages on your development machine and have that upload to a web hosting site then WebMatrix is the right tool.

Microsoft Web Matrix
http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/

Microsoft Web Platform Installer 3.0
http://www.microsoft.com/web/downloads/platform.aspx

Microsoft WebMatrix is a new web development tool that makes it easy for anyone to create a new web site. Start from any of the built-in or online templates or the Web Applications Gallery. Customize your site using the code and database editor. WebMatrix provides access to offers from Microsoft hosting partners, making it easy to choose the right host with a selection of hosting packages. Once a hosting package is configured, WebMatrix seamlessly publishes to the web.

It takes all the great features of the Web Platform Installer and adds development tools on top. If you just want to install one of many opensource packages on your windows server then the Web Platform Installer is for you. If you want to then edit those pages on your development machine and have that upload to a web hosting site then WebMatrix is the right tool.

Microsoft Web Matrix
http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/

Microsoft Web Platform Installer 3.0
http://www.microsoft.com/web/downloads/platform.aspx

I was talking to an IT Pro recently who was working on a machine they suspected was running spyware. I suggested they run Process Explorer from the sysinternals web site. They didn’t know what I was talking about. What?! They hadn’t heard of it! That just isn’t right; if you are an IT Pro you need to know about these tools. These are some of the greatest Windows tools available and they’re free. I just counted and there are 67 different tools. Take a look and see what ones are your favorites.

My three favorite tools are:

· Process Explorer or Procexp.exe – this tool is a task manager on steroids. This is the tool that will tell you what is happening on your machine. You can even replace the task manager with it.

· Autoruns.exe – this tool lists all the locations programs can be auto started. This is my go to program if I need to remove spyware manually.

· Disk2vhd.exe – this tool creates a Virtual Hard Disk file of running system. Run this program to backup your system to a bootable vhd file. You then boot your machine in Hyper-v on Server 2008. Who knew that it could be so easy to move a physical machine to virtual?

You can find them here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals

This year Michelle Obama announced the Microsoft Imagine Cup World Finals being held in the US for the first time ever and in October President Obama recognized winners in some Imagine Cup categories at the White House.  We would love to see your school representing the US in Imagine Cup World Finals.  Students 16 and up are eligible to participate.

Imagine Cup now in its ninth year is the largest student technology and media competition in the world.  The Imagine Cup is very similar to the Olympics – Microsoft Imagine Cup includes competitions such as Software Design, Game Design and Digital Media.  The Digital media competition challenges students to create 1 to 2 person teams and build a short video that tells a story about some of the world’s toughest problems and propose how to solve those problem by using technology.  Past videos have covered fighting hunger or disease, improving education and creating a sustainable environment.

Students who compete in the Imagine Cup Digital Media competition they will have the opportunity to create a short video, submit it for popular vote and the chance to represent the United States at the Imagine Cup World Finals and the opportunity to win 8,000 dollars.  For the teachers and schools involved it’s a fantastic opportunity to draw media attention to your students, teachers and schools. 

The process for students they need to follow would be very straightforward: they need to register, create their team, and create and submit a video before the 2/1 deadline.  Below I have included the steps the students would follow.  Additional details on Digital Media can be viewed in this short video http://bit.ly/epJAhx.

Some of the finalist submission from last year covered topics such as using technology to measure the impact of deforestation (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY-Au965Adw), eradicating poverty for one sixth of the world’s inhabitants (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH8y9QzIbkg) and focusing creating a sustainable environment is so important (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxhYXnkRdzs).

Information on the digital media competition can be found at www.ImagineCup.com and click on competitions and select Digital Media or short video on the Digital Media competition can be found here: http://bit.ly/epJAhx.

Steve Ballmer announced that January Update to Windows Phone 7 yesterday during his keynote at CES. This morning a link has gone live with the details about the update an how you can install it  ( link  below). For people who have already purchased a phone, I suggest that you make this update which will come through your Zune Software when you are prompted. This should happen in the next couple of days.

There are 3 key features which make it an important update:

1) Copy and Paste – This is the most eagerly awaited feature that was requested by consumers since the launch.

2) Faster Apps – There has been a number of improvements to the time it takes an application to start or resume

3) Easier Searching for apps – The marketplace allows you to search for music as well as apps and games. At launch there was a lot of feedback that it was really hard to search for apps or games, because the music titles were so vast in the Zune Marketplace. You can now directly search for apps and games.

The build is also a whole lot faster in a number of areas.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/features/january-update.aspx