3 Solutions for Active Directory Management and Administration

By Denis Roman (http://ua.linkedin.com/in/denroman)

Comprehensive management of Active Directory environment is a crucial factor of supporting healthy network. When the number of user accounts increases dramatically, it is often necessary to address third party AD management solutions. In this article we will analyze 3 such solutions:

· Softerra Adaxes

· Quest Active Roles Server

· ManageEngine ADManagerPlus

Softerra Adaxes – http://www.adaxes.com

Softerra Adaxes is a comprehensive and customizable product that among other features helps manage provisioning, automation, create a self-service web portal and delegate permissions on managing of Active Directory to users. It is easy to get a trial version of the software. Softerra Adaxes website contains plenty of documentation items, demo videos, screenshots and license pricing. These greatly simplify a planning process. A helpful supplement to the software documentation would be Use Cases that are essential to IT managers.

Hi folks! Recently I started getting more and more questions about NetMeeting replacement for Windows 7. Personally, I haven't used NetMeeting much so I didn't even realize that Microsoft removed NetMeeting from their latest OS's . Apparently, that caused some issues for many of you.

In Vista Microsoft offer some sort of replacement for NetMeeting called Windows Meeting Space so those 3 of you who still use Vista should have less worries . However it's not available in Windows 7 and that can become a real issue. Running a virtual Windows XP machine in Windows 7 just for NetMeeting doesn't look to me as a graceful solution. Another option would be SharedView from Microsoft. It can actually work if you don't care about going via Internet and registering a Live ID. I decided to try it myself and it was painfully slow.

So I started looking for some free peer-to-peer lightweight tool that I could recommend to my business clients. Enterprise users are usually not at liberty to leave their private local networks. They also don't particularly like complex tools which require a significant learning curve. After some research I found nothing that would satisfy my requirements. At that point I felt your pain and I had to do something about it.

As some of you may know, I've been a technical advisor for Inletex - a neat Canadian company specializing in remote support solutions. These guys have once followed the principle "if you want to do it right - do it yourself" and that's exactly how their Easy Remote Control tool came into existence. I talked to their core team and in one month (these guys are fast!) the first version of Inletex Easy Meeting Classic was released. Currently it offers just a basic NetMeeting desktop sharing functionality. But it's simple, fast, peer-to-peer, and FREE! For those who merely want to share their desktop with others it is definitely worth to look at.

Some features:

• Freeware: It’s 100% free. Free for enterprises. Free for personal use.
• Greenware: No installation required. Zero footprint.
• Peer-to-peer for LAN/WAN: No Internet required. All information stays in your private network.
• Ease of use: Whether you share your desktop or join a shared session – one application, one click operation.

Product and download page: NetMeeting for Windows 7

Live webinar on Wednesday, November 9
3:00 PM GMT / 10:00 AM EDT

Join Anatoly Vilchinsky as he demonstrates simple
step-by-step instructions for building your own SAN or centralized, networked storage by using standard off-the-shelf x86 hardware or even a repurposed server running Windows.

You will also learn how to:

• Turn a standard Windows server into a Highly-Available Fault-Tolerant SAN within minutes
• Simplify Backups and Replication
• Improve Network Performance
• Increase availability and protect your data assets

Click here to register:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/551524898

Hello my friends. I'm happy to do this announcement!. Next week we are (Compugen, Winnipeg) organizing a huge technical event about all Office 365 aspects. You can get true, independent  answers from a technical experts. Everybody is welcome.

Here are the details:

Date: 
October 26, 2011
 
Time: 11:45AM
(lunch will be provided)
 
Location:
Microsoft Office (Winnipeg)
11th Floor – 360 Main St.
Winnipeg, MB
 
Featured Presenters:
Rami Gabra (Compugen)
Microsoft Certified Architect
Erik Moll (Microsoft)
Solution Sales Professional

Lunch will be provided.

Please let us know that you will be joining us for this event. To RSVP and for any further questions, please contact Neal Pinto at:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

This is one of my last pictures. Friend of mine said that I look like this when I have a challenged project, where I spend a lot of time, but smile appears ONLY if project is successful.

As you can see, CuruIT covers various different aspects of Information Technology. If you are thinking of starting an IT-based blog yourself, then here's a few points which you may wish to consider.

Firstly, because IT is such a broad field, you may want to choose a particular area on which you wish to focus. This might be a particular aspect in which you happen to have extensive experience, or simply an area which is of interest to you. This can help you to form your own niche as a blogger, which can encourage an loyal readership. After all, a blog which reviews the latest broadband packages available at sites such as o2.co.uk will probably feature content which is quite different from the likes of a blog which offers advice on how to fix specific system errors, and it is important to state which approach you are planning to take. This can mean that those with a keen interest in your topic of choice will be more likely to subscribe.

You will then need to think about the appearance of your blog itself. Although IT blogs tends to be less heavily stylized than many other types of blogging sites, making sure they are attractive can still mean that they are more enjoyable for the reader. If appropriate, you may want to consider including photographs, videos, or even just simple diagrams to illustrate what you are saying in your posts. It is often a good idea to choose a layout which will make it easy to search for related posts, and include links to other relevant websites. You will also want to make sure that you hold your readers' attention by updating your blog posts on a regular basis.