WOW! It's the Technology of TechEd Track

Following Kleefy's not so unexpected announcement, I've taken over the Technology of TechEd Track for this year's TechEd Australia event. Here's the spiel that I wrote for the track.

Come on a journey behind the scenes at Tech•Ed. This track will take you end-to-end in the technology deployed to make the event the showcase it is. From hardware planning through network analysis and contingencies to application development and deployment including stops in Security and Management, mobility and virtualisation. Hear how it was done from the practitioners who made it happen.

Here's our current thinking for the track sessions - let me know what you think:

Track KickOff

What is this track anyway? Why should I come? Who are the speakers and what can they tell me? How do I start a conversation with the people who can help me with my pain points? All these and more will be answered at the ToT Track Kick-Off.

Building the hardware for CommNet - a lesson in hardware performance

Part of a good enterprise deployment is the selection and configuration of the hardware. In this session we show you how we set up the hardware for TechEd and configured it for performance.

Deploying Clients and Servers en masse

The next step is to get our base platforms installed. This session shows how this gets done in an automated way that complies with a standard server build methodology. We will use tools like Windows Deployment Services and Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) to provide the best way to deploy both servers and clients.

Building SQL Servers for high performance

In the last session we covered the base platform deployment for client and server. In this session we cover SQL server installation and configuration and provide the best options and choices for performance and high availablility.

Managing applications and services using SCOM and SCCM

As we roll out base platforms and applications, we need to make sure we can manage them easily and efficiently. Doing this bit right means a better service to the business and an ability to cover more services with less resources. This session demonstrates deployment and configuration of SC Operations Management and SC Configuration Manager and shows how you can get lots done!!

Securing CommNet using Forefront and ISA

Once we start to expose services to the Internet, stuff gets more complex. We end up asking questions like: Have we covered security services hardening? How can we expose this stuff to the Internet in a secure way. This session shows how we configured our live environment and exposed it to the Internet using ISA Server and implemented Forefront Client Security.

Quick and Easy Application Delivery for Windows Vista and Terminal Servers

We have the base platform, security and management services applied...now its time for the applications. In CommNet we have Terminal Servers and Windows Vista clients. This session demonstrates how to build applications that deploy out using streaming application virtualisation technologies that take the headache out of applications delivery - for both platforms at once!

Terminal Services configuration, thin client delivery and scalability learnings

The last piece in the service delivery of CommNet is the Terminal Server deployment. With the majority of CommNet being delivered in this way means that these servers need to scale. This session shows how we built them for scale, deployed the applications to them, continue to monitor them and you can access them from anywhere!

Oh wait! TechEd just merged with another event....a demonstration in identity management through acquisition

Application Virtualisation – the best of both worlds

The CommNet thin client experience is a combination of light-weight client hardware and sophisticated server technology. Join the experts from HP who delivered the outstanding end-user experience that Windows Server 2008 facilitates.

Implementing RFID with BizTalk server

You will by now have noticed the use of RFID for session management. Deploying a large scale solution for an event like TechEd is not without its challenges though and as such required careful planning and consideration. This session will show you what it took to get this running, how easy it was to get BizTalk working with RFID and the practical applications you can use it for.

Delivering Reporting Solutions for Predictive Analysis with SQL 2008

Putting the Software in S+S

TechEd in the Palm of your Hand - Mobile Commnet

Monitoring Infrastructure in an Ad-Hoc, Heterogeneous World