What an amazing week here in Berlin. We had over 60 sessions presented by over 80 different speakers on Windows 7 this week.

We had hundreds of people stop by our Springboard Series on TechNet booth and the Talking About Windows booth. Since we localize Springboard in 10 languages we had a cool time showing demoing the site in all of the different languages. I also want to give out a huge thanks to our STEP (Springboard Technical Experts Program) members who helped to work our booth. These amazing guys came from Ireland (Aiden), Bolivia (Miklos), New Zealand (Erdal) and the UK (Justin) to help support Springboard and Windows 7.

I even had a chance to be part of the Pre-Keynote. Check out the video of the bus arrival with keynote hosts Hyper-D and Hyper-T.

We met tons of IT pros excited about Windows 7 as well. We worked with a STEP member named Alex de Jong from the Netherlands. Alex asked the delegates at Teched EMEA about their Windows 7 experience. Alex contributes to NGN, the Dutch community of IT Pros. To learn more about Alex and all he does for the community, follow him on Twitter at @alexdejongngn. So ready to see the cool interviews and hear what over 100 IT pros from all over the world had to say about Windows 7 and Springboard? Check out our Talking About Windows events page under the TechEd EMEA event listing here. (Also a huge thanks to his crew, Ed Wens and Michel van den Einden who did all the camera, editing, and production).

 
Also, make sure to check our our newest Engineering and IT pro videos on the main page from Lidiane Souza, Greg Lambert, Stephen Hall and Peter Menadu.

Tuesday night was our Springboard Party at the Water-Gate Club. Over 300 It pros from around the world showed up to party and share their love of Windows 7 and Springboard. It was a great time with great music courtesy of DJ Joey Snow and DJ David Lowe. Thanks again to our co-sponsors on the Windows Server team and TechNet+ team as well as everyone who showed up to celebrate with us.

It was a week of listening to amazing speakers, everyone asking great questions,cool demos, people working in HOLs all day and getting certified that evening, amazing food and people passionate about all of our products. All of this and the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall. Our motto, “Life Without Walls” really took on a whole new meaning for me as I stood in front of the wall and outside the Brandenburg Gate on Monday.

Thank you Berlin for an amazing time.

Stephen

It’s been a very exciting several of months for us here at Microsoft, and for many of our customers and partners, sharing the excitement of Windows 7. Since its release to manufacturing in July, through this week at TechEd Europe, we’ve had a lot of Windows 7 and MDOP activities, including countless in-person launch events held around the world. We’ve also had an estimated one in two IT Professionals worldwide try Windows 7, we’ve seen hundreds of community led events, and millions of you have visited us on the Springboard Series on TechNet to get information, tools and guidance for migrating to Windows 7.

I have personally visited 12 countries in the last 2 months and had the chance to speak with many customers and partners to learn about your experiences with Windows 7. Several themes are consistent. You tell me your users are incredibly excited about the performance and productivity improvements of Windows 7 and your IT organizations are seeing great value in the enhanced security and management. I am hearing how you can both pull cost out of your organization and provide greater productivity to your users. It is very encouraging to hear this positive impact you’re seeing with Windows 7 in your organization.

You heard from some of our customers during the TechEd keynote, and we thought you might like to hear the experiences of several other customers that we have worked with and how they realized and quantified significant cost savings. We have also included some useful guidance below to help you with your deployment planning

• International energy company Statoil is deploying Windows 7 along with Windows Server 2008 R2 to provide their travelling employees with seamless access, improve information access in their branch offices, and further enhance their IT security. By using DirectAccess, BranchCache, and BitLocker, Statoil is able to provide their users with mobile and remote access as well as the satisfaction that their data is protected. Check out this Q&A with Statoil for more on their Windows 7 deployment.
• F. Hoffmann-La Roche, a Switzerland-based healthcare company, is working towards their goal of deploying Windows 7 to 5,000 of their PCs to take advantage of BitLocker’s ability to protect data stored on hard drives as well as removable USB sticks. Roche is working closely with Microsoft Services to plan and deploy their new Active Directory infrastructure as well as their Group Policy management rollout.
• The Ministry of Defense in the Netherlands is working to upgrade 50,000 of their PCs to Windows 7 through 2010. By starting their application compatibility testing early – on Windows Vista last year – they were able to get a jump start on their Windows 7 deployment plans and begin their pilot of 200 users, who have expressed excitement over the enhanced user interface and their ease of data access wherever they are.

You can hear from more customers during our live monthly Webcasts on the Windows Enterprise website. For more information specifically on cost savings early Windows 7 adopters have experienced, visit the following total cost of ownership studies:

• Getronics is seeing direct IT labor savings of $111 per PC per year
• Baker Tilly is reducing their IT labor costs by $191 per PC per year
• City of Miami is reducing their IT labor costs by $148 per PC per year

So how can we help your organization realize the benefits of Windows 7? Microsoft has an extensive set of partners that are trained and ready to help you with your deployment planning and migration to Windows 7 - since January this year we have trained more than 110K partner individuals on Windows 7 worldwide. These partners can help you assess your readiness for a Windows 7 migration, they are able to help you develop a deployment plan and can provide services to assist you in the deployment, migration and ongoing management and support of your environment.

Additionally, Microsoft Services has consultants and support professionals in 82 countries to help you out. They offer specialized services based on best practices developed in coordination with product groups and early adopter customers to help you test your applications and jumpstart your deployment, including:

• Desktop Planning and Deployment services, which provide a framework for planning and deployment of Windows 7 operating system and desktop applications. It includes planning and architecture design, proof of concept, and pilot deployment that determines the optimal way to deploy Windows 7 and Microsoft Office based on customer business requirements and organizational readiness.
• Microsoft Services Desktop Application Compatibility offering provides an end-to-end application compatibility solution to ensure that business applications and data can be used more effectively in the new desktop environment with Windows 7, Internet Explorer 8 and the latest version of Microsoft Office.
• Desktop Image Engineering creates a standardized corporate desktop image that takes into account hardware, security, performance and localization requirements, in addition to applications, deployment and management. Consultants also give your team guidance on future maintenance and change management.
• Desktop Deployment Jumpstart helps you understand the costs of developing an enterprise-capable desktop, including a current state assessment, gathering requirements, and a gap analysis against a Microsoft referent deployment solution architecture.

What are YOUR next steps? Here’s some deployment planning guidance which might help you:

• If your organization is still running Windows 2000, we recommend that you begin your application testing on Windows 7 and begin your deployment planning.
  • If you’ve already started a migration to Windows Vista, continue that deployment, as it will help you get ready for Windows 7 when the time is right for you.
• If your organization is on Windows XP, we recommend that you also begin your application compatibility testing on Windows 7 and begin your deployment planning.
  • If you’ve already started a migration to Windows Vista, continue that deployment, as it will help you get ready for Windows 7 when the time is right for you.
  • If you’re in the early stages of planning a Windows Vista deployment, we recommend that you test your applications and infrastructure on Windows 7 and our advice is to change to Windows 7.
• If you have just deployed Windows Vista, we recommend that you begin evaluating Windows 7, and consider Windows 7 as you refresh your hardware or deploy it to the users who’d benefit the most from its features.
• Don’t have access to Windows 7 Enterprise edition? If you’re an IT professional and don’t already have access to Windows 7 Enterprise edition, you can download the 90 day evaluation SKU here. This will allow you to begin testing the final released code with your hardware and application portfolio.
• Already running Windows 7? Tell us what you think! You can join the conversation at www.talkingaboutwindows.com.

Coming to TechEd EMEA? Well make sure you stop by the Springboard or Talking About Windows booths! Why? Well, in addition to all the cool information on Windows 7 we have to share with you we have tons of cool opportunities and prizes!

Talking About Windows booth

• Attendees who find the Talking About Windows Video crew and record their thoughts about Windows 7 will have the opportunity to win prizes.  Videos will be shown in the booth on the TAW plasma and on the TAW web site. Plus, we will be giving out some cool prizes.
• Talking About Windows Interviews - Come hear from our community experts and ask questions live during our video podcasts. Stop by for a list of speakers and times.
• Live MVP Call – At 10 am on Wed, join us for a live MVP call with Karen Anne Young of the MVP group and Graham Watson of Culminus.

Springboard Series on TechNet Booth

• Springboard Series Community Influencers Party
  Tuesday, 10 November, 17.00 – Midnight
  Hosted by:  Springboard Series, Server & TechNet+
  Audience:  MVP, TechNet+, MCT, Microsoft
  By invitation only
• Springboard Series Learning Plans - Complete a Springboard Series Learning plan for a chance to win a Flip HD video camera

Plus we have swag and other cool opportunities so stop by, say hi and learn about all the cool information we have to help you Discover, Explore, Pilot, Deploy and Manage Windows 7.

See you at the show!

Stephen

Beginning today, 26 October, the Springboard/Microsoft Learning “Get On The Bus” tour will kick off an 11-city European road show that will begin in Milan and end at Tech-Ed Europe in Berlin on 9 November. At each tour stop, you’ll get an exclusive preview of Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP), Med-V, App-V, and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. The Career Express tour spotlights new training and certification opportunities that will sharpen your skills on next year’s hottest technologies.

Join us at a stop near you for technical training, professional networking, hands-on experiences, and real world guidance from industry experts.

Where will the bus be? Tour Dates:Milan, 26 Oct | Zurich, 27 Oct | Paris, 28 Oct | London, 29 Oct | Brussels, 30 Oct | Amsterdam, 2 Nov | Frankfurt, 3 Nov | Munich, 4 Nov | Vienna, 5 Nov | Prague, 6 Nov | Berlin, 9 Nov

We even have a web page showing you exactly where the bus is right now.

We have some great Microsoft and community experts presenting on all the topics. I will even be on the tour doing the Windows 7 sessions starting in Amsterdam Nov 2nd. So if you can’t make it to TechEd EMEA this will be one of your best opportunities to meet the experts and see the new technologies from Microsoft live and in person.

For more information on the bus tour visit The Bus Tour or follow the Twitter feed here

Did our VRT wrap-up post wet your appetite for more? Looking to learn about virtualization as a application compatibility tool? No need to worry if you missed the live event as the is now available to stream or download here.

Windows 7 Application Compatibility Part 2: Virtualization

In part two of this Springboard Series Virtual Roundtable on Windows 7 Application Compatibility, you'll hear from Microsoft Technical Fellow Mark Russinovich and a panel of experts on how virtualization tools can help you with application compatibility concerns whether you're migrating from Windows Vista or Windows XP.

 
Here’s your chance to get powerful insight into how presentation virtualization, desktop virtualization and application virtualization can reduce testing times, expedite deployment, and ultimately help you streamline PC management. Also covered are the latest desktop virtualization technologies from Microsoft including Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V), Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V), and Windows XP Mode for Windows 7.

To see part one of this Virtual Roundtable or to view any of our previous roundtables, click here.

As always, visit the Springboard Series for the latest tools, walkthroughs, FAQs and information for IT pros around Windows 7 and visit our Talking About Windows Event Portal to see all the latest IT pro events worldwide on Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 in your area. More events are being added every day!

Thank you to all of you who tuned in and posted or sent in questions for our most recent roundtable and made it another huge success. We will be posting all the questions and answers in the next few days so keep an eye out.

Missed the VRT? Here is the promo of what you can look forward to when the replay become available later this week.

To be the first to know when the replay goes live, follow our Twitter feed @MSSpringboard or watch for our blog post here.