$200 a week PowerGUI draw

We've had an internal contest to award cash to Quest employees who build useful tools on top of PowerGUI. We're extending that contest externally now. Dmitry Sotnikov blogs about it...

In order to celebrate PowerGUI launch Quest Software, is setting up a weekly draw of $200 Amazon certificates among the folks submitting PowerGUI packs to the Library at http://PowerGUI.org.

The rules are pretty simple:1. Run PowerGUI. 2. Add a few nodes to the tree and a few actions to the right-hand pane (see flash demos in the documentation section for instructions on how to do this.) 3. Export the new functionality and post your file to the Library.

Each Sunday we will do a draw and randomly pick one of the submissions (tip: submit two packs to double your chances ;)). I will then send a private message to the winner to learn the contact information I could pass to the guys at Quest who will send you the certificate.

That’s it! Pick the area you know and post something that you consider useful and you’ll get a pretty good chance of winning!

Here's your change to jump on the PowerGUI band wagon and maybe grab some cash!

Technorati Tags:
PowerGUI, PowerShell, Active Directory, identity management, Microsoft, Quest Software

PowerShell announcements & PowerGUI

Lots of coverage about PowerShell during the Microsoft Management Summit and some nice coverage of the PowerGUI website and software. Quest Software issued a couple of press releases about our integration plans for PowerShell. Our efforts were also blogged about on Microsoft's PowerShell blog!

PowerGUI was demo-ed by Quest during the session of Jeffrey Snover and with PowerGUI you have an graphical interface for PowerShell. It's even more it's an extensible administrative console based on Windows PowerShell. So you can start with an graphical interface and look at the PowerShell script for later use. How cool is that?

My buddy Dmitry Sotnikov has lots of good technical information over at his blog about PowerShell. Dmitry is the man behind the curtain for our PowerGUI.org website and our PowerShell efforts.

Technorati Tags:
Quest Software, PowerGUI, PowerShell, Microsoft, identity management, Active Directory, Dmitry Sotnikov

Next stop on the reality tour is...

Reston, VA!

I'll be meeting customers and holding a customer roundtable with Microsoft at the Microsoft Innovation and Technology Center on Thursday, April 19th 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. If you're interested in attending please register with us. See you there!

SIMPLIFY IDENTITY MANAGEMENT - Managing your Multiple Identity Disorder

Despite directives and regulations such as HSPD-12/FIPS 201 and FISMA, and the ongoing climate of heightened security throughout the federal government. Most defense and civilian agencies are still struggling with how best to resolve critical identity management challenges such as provisioning, de-provisioning, single sign-on and change auditing. In addition, agencies are being asked to meet these challenges with very limited budgets.

Wouldn’t it be a relief to know that you already own most of the pieces you need to solve this mission critical puzzle? Please join our panel of distinguished industry experts to learn how you can leverage your existing infrastructure investments to meet your most pressing identity management needs.

Technorati Tags:
Quest Software, Active Directory, MIIS, identity management, PowerShell, PowerGUI

More details on Novell's DS4W

There's a sneak peak article on Novell's Open Enterprise Server 2 that can be found in Novell's Connection Magazine. It includes discussion of many of the new capabilities and features of OES2 including additional information on Novell's Domain Services for Windows.

To my previous point about "simplification" here's an excerpt:

Note that this is not desktop emulation, nor is it synchronization between eDirectory and Active Directory. Rather, it employs server-side authorization and authentication that allows Windows users to access a Novell server using native Windows protocols, as well as providing seamless cross-authentication between Active Directory and eDirectory. In other words, it lets your users work in a pure Windows desktop environment while still letting them take advantage of all the Novell back-end services and technology.

The beauty of Novell's efforts is the fact that a company does not need complicated metadirectory, directory synchronization or identity management software to enable these benefits. They have simplified the environment and there are tremendous advantages to this.

Earl Perkins from Gartner was kind enough to leave a comment on my previous post where I responded to Craig Burton's comments. Earl raises a good point and I must say that at the end of the day it does not matter one bit what Jackson, Craig or Earl think about Novell's efforts. What matters is the market. Will the market see the benefits of this and shell out money for this product?

If the answer is yes, then Novell has a winner.

Technorati tags: identity management, Microsoft, Active Directory, Novell, Samba