What is a TeleBriefing? TeleBriefings are webinars that consist of a 30-minute presentation by a Directions on Microsoft expert followed by a question-and-answer period. TeleBriefing topics complement Directions on Microsoft research reports, enterprise product roadmaps, and licensing guides.

How often are TeleBriefings held? TeleBriefings are held once a month. Past TeleBriefings are listed below. For a list of upcoming TeleBriefings, see the Future TeleBriefings Schedule.

How do I register for a TeleBriefing? Simply send an e-mail to TeleBriefings@DirectionsOnMicrosoft.com or call 425.739.4669 x13. We will add you to our TeleBriefing alert list and send registration instructions.

Viewing past Telebriefings: Directions subscribers can view slides or listen to audio synchronized with slides of past telebriefings. A list of the most recent TeleBriefings is provided below.

Research VP Rob Sanfilippo provides a guide to evaluating Microsoft's latest developer tools and their support for its new platforms.

Office 365 is a line of Microsoft offerings that combines cloud services such as Exchange Online e-mail with subscription licenses to the Office desktop software. This is the second major release of Office 365, and is now based upon Exchange 2013, Lync 2013, and SharePoint 2013. Office 365 strives to reduce IT costs and help free up personnel for business-specific tasks. Office 365 is also useful for IT organizations that want a single, predictable, per-user bill for their collaboration and communication software. However, Office 365 also requires organizations to trust Microsoft and their ISPs with critical infrastructure and data.

This TeleBriefing provides an overview of Office 365, summarizes the improvements that it delivers over the previous release of Office 365, and highlights some important transition considerations for customers.

Microsoft has updated its several products for deploying and updating applications and maintaining security on client devices, including Windows PCs, Macs, and mobile devices. In particular, the company continues to emphasize and update its cloud services for client management functions.

This TeleBriefing provides an overview of Microsoft's client management products, including System Center and Windows Intune, and how they can be used in the context of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies.

SA is a subscription offering that provides the right to upgrade to newly released product versions as well as a variety of other benefits, including special use rights and technologies. Sold exclusively through Microsoft's volume licensing programs, customers who want SA must generally add it to their volume licenses at the time they are purchased.

In this TeleBriefing, Directions on Microsoft licensing expert Rob Horwitz outlines a concrete methodology organizations can follow to determine when SA coverage makes sense for their particular IT scenarios and objectives.

A panel of Directions on Microsoft analysts discuss Microsoft’s business priorities for 2013, and outline likely developments this year and longer-term in tablets, cloud, and other areas of Microsoft enterprise technology.

Michael Cherry presents the most important improvements in the server OS.

Rob Sanfilippo presents Exchange 2013 and potential future developments described at the Sept. 2012 Microsoft Exchange Conference.

Windows 8 is arriving at a time when many organizations have either just completed updating to Windows 7, or are still in the process of planning or deploying Windows 7. Although Windows 8 builds on the success of Windows 7, it introduces significant changes including a new user interface, a new application model, faster and more secure boot on some firmware, and new features such as a way to run Windows 8 from a USB drive.

Office, SharePoint, Exchange, Lync, and other Microsoft collaboration applications are to receive major updates in early 2013, along with the Office 365 cloud services, such as Exchange Online, that depend on them. The updates promise to make the applications work better with tablets and other types of mobile devices, simplify customization by developers, reduce deployment costs, and enhance social networking capabilities, among many other goals.

When employees bring iPads to work and use them to access Microsoft software, they trigger potentially expensive and often unanticipated requirements for server application, Office suite, and Windows client OS licensing, as well impact the qualified device count that must be reported under Enterprise Agreements (EAs). This webinar will help organizations minimize licensing costs and avoid compliance issues by explaining the rules surrounding iPad use, including how the several different technical approaches iPads can use to access Microsoft software can have widely variable licensing implications.

Research VP Rob Sanfilippo discusses Windows 8 application development technologies and their compatibility with existing technologies such as the .NET Framework and Silverlight.

Research VP Don Retallack explains the current and future System Center product lineup in the wake of the Microsoft Management Summit..

Research VP Michael Cherry provides an update on the rollout plans for Windows 8 and Windows Server 8 across processor architectures and channels.

Research VP Wes Miller explains the new license model and packaging of SQL Server 2012 for large volume licensing customers deploying the software on-premises.

Research Vice President Wes Miller provides an overview of SQL Server 2012, summarizes the improvements that it delivers over previous versions, and highlights some important packaging and licensing considerations.

Managing Vice President Rob Helm outlines the most important planned software releases and retirements for 2012 and beyond.

Microsoft recently implemented a number of significant changes to its Enterprise Agreement (EA) contracts. The changes modify basic terms of an EA, including what devices count for licensing purposes, how prices are set, when annual payments are required, and how agreements will be renewed.

This TeleBriefing provides an overview of the new EA rules and explains how the new rules differ from prior versions of the EA. It also explains how the changes might impact an organization's decision to purchase or renew an EA.

Although Microsoft unveiled a Developer’s Preview of Windows 8 and Windows Server 8 at its Build conference in September 2011, the next versions of the Windows operating systems are not likely to be generally available until late 2012 or early 2013. In the meantime, organizations will want to continue to deploy Windows 7 and refresh their aging computer hardware.

This TeleBriefing will provide Directions on Microsoft’s best guidance of the current hardware specifications for Windows 8 based on the Developer’s Preview and other Windows 8 blogs and documentation. We will also discuss how these requirements are likely to change, so that organizations purchasing new hardware in the interim will be able to upgrade to Windows 8 when it is released.

Microsoft unveiled details of Windows 8 at its BUILD conference on September 13th, 2011. There has been much speculation about what new features Windows 8 will include, how it will run on ARM-based processors, and when it will be generally available. Some of this information was revealed at BUILD.

Major updates to Microsoft's platform and application software are planned for the next three years, and the company's cloud services will evolve rapidly to absorb new software releases, close feature gaps, and maintain pressure on competitors. Understanding the high points of Microsoft's software and cloud roadmap can help enterprises efficiently plan projects, schedule migrations and budget purchases.

This TeleBriefing outlines the most important future releases and retirements for Microsoft's enterprise software and cloud services through 2014, and summarizes the Directions on Microsoft analyst team's recommendations for planning systems over that timeframe.

When Office 365 is released on June 28th, it will combine cloud services including Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Lync Online subscription licenses with licenses to Office 2010 desktop software and the Office Web Apps. Like the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) that it replaces, Office 365 promises Microsoft collaboration software with a single, predictable, per-user bill and less management and maintenance that the software would require on-premises. However, Office 365 requires organizations to trust Microsoft and their ISPs with critical IT infrastructure and information, and it does not deliver the same features as the software would on-premises.

This TeleBriefing provides an overview of Office 365 features and limitations, and highlights migration and management considerations for customers.

Updates to the complete line of Microsoft's System Center management tools were announced at the Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) in March 2011. Improvements in System Center products and emphasis on tools for cloud computing may lead to further adoption of Microsoft's management products, especially in companies with large Microsoft-based server infrastructures.

In this TeleBriefing, Research Vice President Don Retallack discusses Microsoft's strategy for systems management and the roadmap for current and future offerings of the System Center family of products.

A shared code base for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 means that the two products share a first service pack that fixes bugs, rolls-up security updates previously released (on Patch Tuesdays), and delivers a few new features. Although these products have proven to be stable and perform well, organizations should consider rolling out the service pack, and any organizations that were waiting for the first service pack prior to deploying are good to go.

This TeleBriefing provides an overview of the changes in the first service pack as well as the two new server features, dynamic memory for Virtual Machines running on Hyper-V, and RemoteFX. Because IE9 has also been released, Michael will provide an overview of IE, in particular, focusing on the "Do Not Track" feature.

Office 365, scheduled for release later this year, will provide hosted versions of Exchange Server 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, and Lync Server 2010 with subscription licenses to the Office desktop software. The new online offering has generated considerable interest among enterprise customers, but there's still confusion on exactly how Microsoft will license Office 365.

In this TeleBriefing, Rob Horwitz, Research Chair and Co-founder of Directions on Microsoft, will provide an overview of Office 365 pricing and licensing. He'll also discuss important licensing implications customers must evaluate before migrating on-premise Microsoft software to the cloud.

SQL Server continues to grow in popularity, with tools such as PowerPivot helping Microsoft to make Business Intelligence (BI) appeal to new users who may have found it intimidating before, and many server products from Microsoft now take a dependency on SQL Server - increasing its footprint within the enterprise. With nearly a year of SQL Server 2008 R2 availability, one year of SQL Azure, and the announcement of SQL Server Denali, anticipated in late 2011 or early 2012, it's a good time to reflect upon and analyze the current SQL Server and SQL Azure capabilities and the future of the SQL Server platform.

This TeleBriefing covers the capabilities of SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Azure, and discusses the improvements announced for SQL Server Denali.

The Windows Azure platform, a set of services that lets customers host applications in Microsoft's data centers, has been commercially available for one year. Many additions and enhancements to the platform were announced at the Professional Developers Conference in Oct. 2010.

This TeleBriefing provides an overview of the Windows Azure platform, including the Windows Azure, SQL Azure, and AppFabric components, and summarizes the latest additions and enhancements.

On January 5th at CES, Microsoft announced that the next version of Windows would be compatible with System on Chip (SoC) architectures, using both x86 and ARM processors. Support for ARM brings opportunities, challenges, and questions for Microsoft, OEMs and partners.

In this TeleBriefing lead analysts Mike Cherry, Rob Sanfilippo and Wes Miller provide an overview of what was announced at CES, their thoughts on the opportunities and challenges inherent in this new architecture. You'll also get the opportunity to ask your questions about Windows running on ARM processors.

An overwhelming majority of Microsoft server applications as well as many custom and third-party commercial applications rely on SQL Server's database management, reporting, analysis, and other business intelligence functions. Factors that complicate SQL Server licensing include having to choose between the product line's eight editions (each with their own licensing particularities especially related to virtualization), the option for customers to choose between several different licensing models, and the existence of scenarios where SQL Server licensing is unnecessary.

In this TeleBriefing, Research Chair Rob Horwitz explains the editions, product licenses, licensing rules, and costs for on-premises SQL Server 2008 R2 systems.

Office 365 will combine cloud services such as Exchange Online e-mail with subscription licenses to the Office desktop software. Like the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) that it will replace in 2011, Office 365 could reduce IT costs and free up personnel for business-specific tasks. Office 365 could also interest IT organizations that want a single, predictable, per-user bill for their collaboration software. However, Office 365 also requires organizations to trust Microsoft and their ISPs with critical IT infrastructure.

This TeleBriefing provides an overview of Office 365, summarizes the improvements that it will deliver over BPOS, and highlights some important transition considerations for customers.

The first service pack for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 is an important milestone for companies planning OS upgrades and will deliver notable improvements to Microsoft's virtualization technology. But the next major upgrade of Windows is still some way off.

In this TeleBriefing, Michael Cherry lays out the Windows roadmap for the next three years and identifies major improvements planned for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008, as well as likely priorities and timing for future versions.

With the release of Windows 7 SP1, many corporations are beginning to plan upgrades to the latest Microsoft OS. Pent-up demand for replacement PCs is likely to accelerate the trend. Still, most IT planners are proceeding cautiously and continue to be sensitive to the cost of large scale OS migrations.

In this TeleBriefing, Channels and Licensing Research VP Paul DeGroot identifies key considerations companies must address before licensing Windows 7 and discusses the Windows 7 features with the most significant impact on licensing costs. Paul also presents four different licensing strategies to illustrate the tradeoffs between Windows 7 functionality and cost.

Microsoft's 2011 fiscal year began on July 1, and at conferences for financial analysts and partners in July, Microsoft shared some of its top business priorities and goals for the year.

In this TeleBriefing, Research VP Matt Rosoff gives an overview of Microsoft's five business segments and their performance in FY'10, and the top priorities for each segment in FY'11. Topics will include the company's big push into "cloud computing" and hosted online business services, the reset in Microsoft's mobile phone strategy, and the response to the iPad and other competitive touch-screen portable devices.

Packaging, licensing, and pricing changes introduced with SharePoint Server 2010 include moving developer-related components from the commercial product into the free SharePoint Foundation offering, a 10% price increase for certain server licenses and Client Access Licenses (CALs), and new licenses covering the use of higher-end search technology and deployments of SharePoint for Internet and extranet sites.

In this TeleBriefing, Research Chair Rob Horwitz explains what licenses are required to deploy SharePoint Server 2010. Topics discussed will include features requiring a SharePoint 2010 Enterprise Client Access License (CAL), license reassignment and other virtualization-related rules, pricing for SharePoint-related licenses, licensing FAST Search Server for SharePoint, Windows Server and SQL Server licensing prerequisites, and licensing SharePoint for Internet or extranet sites accessed by non-employees.

Answers to questions that Rob Horwitz was not able to get to during the TeleBriefing Q&A session have been answered here.

Microsoft seems to have abandoned project Stirling, code-name for a centralized console that promised to simplify management of the Forefront line of anti-malware products. Microsoft now says many of the management functions for the Forefront security products will be taken over by tools in the System Center line such as Operations Manager and Configuration Manager.

In this TeleBriefing, Research Vice President Don Retallack explains significant shifts in Microsoft's roadmap for protecting servers, desktops, and laptops from malicious software (malware), including viruses and spyware. He'll also discuss Microsoft's plans for updating the Forefront product line along with the new dependencies on products such as SQL Server and System Center these updates will create.

The .NET Framework 4 offers new and enhanced features in areas including Web development, the Workflow and Communication Foundations, data access, and the implementation of applications optimized to take advantage of parallel hardware. Development teams may realize many benefits by moving to the new Framework, but important tradeoffs must first be evaluated to justify the impact of the upgrade.

In this TeleBriefing, Research Vice President Rob Sanfilippo provides an overview of the new capabilities delivered in the .NET Framework 4, the benefits they could offer, and the factors to weigh when adopting the new release. This briefing will interest organizations with development teams using earlier versions of the .NET Framework and those considering moving to .NET-based development for the first time.

Office 2010 will be generally available in May 2010. This latest version of Microsoft's desktop productivity suite has some new features that organizations may want to evaluate. Evaluating any new version of Office is challenging because the suite is composed of many separate but related applications including Excel, Outlook and Word, and some individual products, such as Outlook work best when connected to a Microsoft server.

In this TeleBriefing, Research Vice President Michael Cherry provides an overview of the core Office 2010 features that an organization will want to evaluate without consideration of SharePoint, Exchange or other server products and the additional functionality they provide. This TeleBriefing will help organizations with an evaluation of the Office suite if they do not have these servers, or do not expect to deploy the latest versions of the servers for some time, or just want to take the first step toward a full evaluation of the 2010 products.

Expertise in Microsoft licensing requires extraordinary attention to detail and an appetite for reading the fine print. It also requires specific knowledge about where the rules live.

In this TeleBriefing, Research VP Paul DeGroot identifies and explains the five key information resources IT planners and purchasing managers can use to inform and refine complex Microsoft licensing decisions.

Exchange Server 2010 adds high-availability, archiving and retention features and enables interesting new client-side capabilities. Microsoft hopes these improvements will entice organizations to upgrade from Exchange Server 2003, which exited mainstream support in 2009.

In this TeleBriefing, Research Chair Rob Horwitz explains what licenses are required to deploy an Exchange Server 2010-based system. Topics discussed will include the differences between the two server editions, features licensed by the product's two client access licenses (CALs), licensing of client-side Outlook software, and prerequisites such as Windows Server 2008 / 2008 R2 licenses.

2010 will see one of the largest release waves in Microsoft history. New versions of Office, SharePoint Server, SQL Server, and System Center products are scheduled for the first half of the year, with a strategic update to Microsoft's unified communications products planned for the second half. Many of the new capabilities delivered in these releases depend on one another, so organizations cannot evaluate them in isolation.

In this TeleBriefing, Managing Vice President Rob Helm provides an overview of Microsoft's 2010 release wave and point out the most important dependencies that could affect your evaluation of the products. He also provides a glimpse beyond 2010 at likely releases and retirements for Windows, Office, and other strategic products.

Microsoft's Online Services are a set of Microsoft-hosted solutions that can replace on-premises installations of Exchange, SharePoint, and Communications Server. They are sold separately or, when bundled with the online Live Meeting conferencing service, as the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS).

In this TeleBriefing, Research VP Paul DeGroot explains Microsoft's Online Services licensing model and how it differs from that of its on-premises software. He'll also discuss pricing, current promotions, how volume licensing customers can purchase online services, and the migration paths that Microsoft offers for customers who want to move from on-premises to online servers.

The Windows Azure platform is now commercially available, giving Microsoft a broad set of online services for developers, business customers, and consumers, and substantially completing the first stage of the company's "software plus services" strategy. Nearly every important Microsoft enterprise server now has an associated online service. Although these services could replace on-premises software in some scenarios, the company will continue to emphasize how well they work with locally installed software.

In this TeleBriefing, Research VP Matt Rosoff will give an overview of the current state of Microsoft's cloud computing and software plus services offerings for corporate customers and developers, including the Windows Azure platform services and Microsoft Online hosted application services. He will also explain its relationship to on-premises Microsoft software, and will describe what's known about future updates.

A Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) allows a user's desktops and applications to run in a private virtual machine hosted on servers in a data center rather than locally on the user's PCs. Though technically complex and not inexpensive, VDI has sparked considerable interest because it allows users to access personalized desktops from any client; and can simplify provisioning, updating, and decommissioning of desktop environments.

Licensing a VDI using Microsoft technologies is complex because it involves multiple software layers, most licensed separately, and numerous licensing options and choices, each with their own set of advantages and drawbacks.

In this TeleBriefing, Research Chair Rob Horwitz explains the six different software layers customers need to license, their role in VDI, what licensing choices they have, and how to choose. Though the presentation will focus on licensing the Microsoft VDI technology stack, the presentation will be relevant to customers combining Microsoft technologies with offerings from VMWare and Citrix.

Windows Server 2008 R2, a minor release, includes improvements to help administrators better manage large numbers of local and remote servers. It also includes improvements likely to interest customers using the Windows Server 2008 server core installation, the Windows Hyper-V hypervisor for hardware virtualization, or Active Directory Domain Services, as well as customers deploying Windows 7.

In this TeleBriefing, Research Vice President Michael Cherry provides a high-level overview of the Windows Server 2008 R2 release and discusses which improvements and scenarios might justify an upgrade.

SharePoint Server 2010, expected in mid-2010, will be a major upgrade of Microsoft's Web site management and collaboration product. This version promises improvements for team collaboration, including new social networking features, and for large-scale administration and policy enforcement. It also delivers major new features in business intelligence, application development, and other areas.

In this TeleBriefing, Managing Vice President Rob Helm gives an overview of the most important enhancements coming in SharePoint Server 2010, and previews the most important risks and costs organizations should consider in evaluating upgrades.

Exchange Server 2010, expected to release at the end of 2009, promises high-availability capabilities, enhanced archiving and compliance functionality, support for new client-side features, and more to the messaging server product.

In this TeleBriefing, Research Vice President Rob Sanfilippo gives an overview of the major enhancements coming in Exchange Server 2010 and outlines the caveats organizations should consider before adopting or upgrading to it.

Windows 7 stands in stark contrast to its precursor, Windows Vista. By carefully managing changes, ensuring application and driver compatibility with Vista, and working to improve the resource utilization and performance of the OS, Microsoft has a version of Windows that many businesses will be willing to deploy, particularly now that Windows XP is in Extended support.

In this TeleBriefing, Directions on Microsoft Research VP Michael Cherry outlines the features and benefits of Windows 7 most likely to interest business.

Software Assurance (SA) gives companies a discounted upgrade path to new versions of Microsoft products, such as the upcoming Windows 7, Office 2010, Exchange 2010, and SharePoint Server 2010. SA also delivers technical support, training, and other benefits. However SA is not always the lowest-cost way to purchase upgrades.

In this TeleBriefing, research vice president Paul DeGroot compares the package of benefits delivered with SA against the cost of purchasing those same benefits a la carte.

A planned PC management service and the next versions of Microsoft's System Center line of systems management tools were discussed at the Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) in Apr. 2009. Improvements in System Center products and emphasis on tools for cloud computing may lead to further adoption of Microsoft's management products, especially in companies with large Microsoft-based server infrastructures.

In this TeleBriefing, Research Vice President Don Retallack discusses Microsoft's evolving strategy for systems management and provides a roadmap for current and future offerings of the System Center family of products.

Visual Studio Team System 2010, expected to release at the end of 2009, adds new software modeling, architecture, testing, and debugging features to the development collaboration product.

In this TeleBriefing, Research Vice President Rob Sanfilippo gives an overview of the major enhancements coming in Visual Studio Team System 2010 and outlines the caveats organizations should consider before adopting it.

Released earlier this month after a year of public beta testing, Internet Explorer 8 boasts significant improvements in standards support, privacy, and administration, as well as some notable features for end-users.

In this TeleBriefing, Research Vice President Matt Rosoff gives an overview of the most important features of IE8 and outlines some points organizations should consider before deploying it.

Volume licensing allows Microsoft customers to purchase and upgrade large numbers of licenses at substantial discounts and offers additional advantages, such as easier license management, flexible payment options, easier deployment, and version flexibility.

In this TeleBriefing, research vice president Paul DeGroot explains Microsoft's three major volume licensing plans--Open, Select and Enterprise--and outlines the advantages and drawbacks of each. He also offers advice how to choose between the three different plans.

With the simultaneous development and potential delivery of a new Windows client (Windows 7) and server (Windows Server 2008 R2) in the second half of 2009 or first half of 2010, and with Windows XP leaving Mainstream support, customers face some critical decisions about which versions of Windows they want to support. Discussions of internal projects such as MinWin and future OS research such as Singularity or Midori further confuse the decision.

In this TeleBriefing, Directions on Microsoft Research VP Michael Cherry reviews the Windows roadmap, and answers questions about what the new versions will mean to organizations that have to decide which versions of Windows they are going to support.

The Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) is a bundle of PC management utilities that speed testing and improve reliability of Windows PC configurations. MDOP also fills important gaps Microsoft's systems management offering for Windows PCs and is the only way to license Microsoft's application virtualization technology on Windows PCs. However, MDOP is only available to organizations that purchase Software Assurance for their Windows desktop OS.

In this TeleBriefing, DIRECTIONS senior analyst Don Retallack reviews and answers questions about the most interesting systems management tools included in MDOP, including application virtualization.

At its 2008 Professional Developers Conference, Microsoft took the wraps off its "cloud computing" platform for developers, including the Windows Azure service for application hosting and data storage, Live Services for data synchronization among devices, and several other related services.

In this TeleBriefing, DIRECTIONS senior analyst Matt Rosoff explains the importance of the Azure Services Platform to Microsoft and developers and gives a brief overview of each piece.

Among numerous enhancements, new features in SQL Server 2008 will improve management of large-scale SQL Server deployments and could help Microsoft close the distance on IBM and Oracle, its main competitors in the enterprise database market.

In this TeleBriefing, DIRECTIONS senior analyst Chris Alliegro summarizes the key updates in the latest version of Microsoft's database management and business intelligence platform.

Advances in virtualization technologies have created alternatives to traditional thick client approaches to Windows desktop deployment. While these alternatives can be used to substantially cut Windows desktop management costs, they also require a confusing array of Microsoft licenses and subscriptions.

In this TeleBriefing, Rob Horwitz reviews the various methods organizations can use to provide a Windows desktop experience to users along with the licensing implications of each.