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About Michel de Rooij

Michel de Rooij, with over 25 years of mixed consulting and automation experience with Exchange and related technologies, is a consultant for Rapid Circle. He assists organizations in their journey to and using Microsoft 365, primarily focusing on Exchange and associated technologies and automating processes using PowerShell or Graph. Michel's authorship of several Exchange books and role in the Office 365 for IT Pros author team are a testament to his knowledge. Besides writing for Practical365.com, he maintains a blog on eightwone.com with supporting scripts on GitHub. Michel has been a Microsoft MVP since 2013.

Exchange 2010 Server Role Requirements Calculator 20.9


Exchange 2010 LogoAlmost 1,5 year after, the Exchange Team released an update for the Exchange 2010 Server Role Requirements Calculator. The updated version is 20.9 and contains minor bug fixes over the previous version.

Fixes since version 20.8:

  • Additional fixes on CAS/HT CPU calculations formulas
  • Disabled Distribution tab for Active/Active Single DAG model
  • Added Distribution tab warning that only one of the two DAGs is shown
  • Fixed RAID disk calculation for A/A scenario and lagged copies

You can download the calculator here. For more information please consult list of changes here or view usage instructions here.

The UC Architects Podcast Ep44


iTunes-Podcast-logo[1]Episode 44 of The UC Architects podcast is now available,which was recorded at the Norwegian Lync Day. This episode is hosted by Pat Richard, who joined by Ståle Hansen, Tom Arbuthnot and Steve Goodman. Special guests are Lasse Nordvik WedøAdam GentJohan Delimon, Tommy Clarke, and Martin Lidholm. Editing was done by Andrew Price.

Some of the topics discussed in this episode are:

  • Configuring QoS for Lync IP Phones
  • New version of Lync SDN interface
  • Lync Call Concurrency Calculator
  • Never be late for a meeting again
  • MS14-055 Broke My Edge Server
  • Norwegian Lync Day recap
  • Session recap: Lync Backup and Restore by Lasse Nordvik Wedø
  • Session recap: Lync Hybrid and Skype by Tommy Clarke
  • Session recap: Lync Mobile sign in process and media flow by Tom Arbuthnot
  • Session recap: SIP and media in Lync explained by Johan Delimon
  • Session recap: Lync voice explained by Adam Gent
  • Lessons learned about holding a conference by Ståle Hansen
  • Session recap: 5 Elements That Ensure a Successful Lync Deployment by Martin Lidholm
  • TechEd Europe events

More information on the podcast including references and a link to download the podcast here or you can subscribe to the podcasts using iTunes, Zune or use the RSS feed.

About
The UC Architects is a bi-weekly community podcast by people with a passion for Unified Communications; our main focus is on Exchange, Lync or related subjects.

Aaand we named it .. Microsoft Ignite!


Today Microsoft revealed the name of the event temporarily known as MUTEE, or Microsoft’s Unified Technology Event for Enterprises:

Microsoft Ignite 2015 Full

The Microsoft Ignite event, which replaces Microsoft Exchange Conference, LyncConf, Microsoft Management Summit, SharePoint Conference and TechEd North America, will be held from May 4-8, 2015 in Chicago at McCormick Place. On the Exchange Team blog, former  Microsoft Exchange Conference attendees are told this will be their ‘go to’ event for 2015 (apart from independent conferences, such as Exchange Connections 2015).

The Microsoft Ignite 2015 site is already up and you can even register, in case you are worried this event with a potential of 20k attendees will soon be sold out. Microsoft is asking potential attendees to provide input through a YamJam. For those unenlightened, a YamJam is a virtual event on Microsoft’s Enterprise Social platform called Yammer, meaning you have to register on the hosting Yammer network first.

The announcement on the Office blog has some additional information here, including information on Convergence and //Build 2015.

PS: It is likely that the adoption of this name has consequences for the events formerly known as Ignite, e.g. Office 365 Ignite. Those events were technical training to get IT Pros up to speed on new products. The faith of those training sessions has not been disclosed.

Exchange MVPs around the World – Oct, 2014


In april, I did a heat map of all the Exchange MVPs in the world. After several months, it’s time to update this map to reflect the latest changes in the Exchange MVP population.

Exchange MVPs October 2014Here is the list of countries with changes in number of Exchange MVPs compared to April: Argentina (0->1), Bermuda (1->0), Canada (6->5), China (12->13), France (3->5), Lithuania (0->1), Mexico (0->2), Russia (5->6), Singapore (1->0), Sweden (3->4), Taiwan (1->0), Thailand (1->0) and Turkey (1->2).

If there are any inaccuracies, please report them in the comments below.

2014 Microsoft MVP Award


I am happy to announce I got re-awarded the Microsoft MVP Award for Exchange Server for 2014:

mvpMVP awards are given to individuals by Microsoft in recognition of their contributions to the technical community, such as this blog, forums or our very own The UC Architects podcast.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my readers, followers, fellow MVPs and of course the Microsoft employees that have encouraged, helped and supported me over years.

My MVP profile can be found here.