Cliff Hobbs is a UK-based systems management consultant who specialises in the various systems management tools covered by his website FAQShop.com such as Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr) and Systems Management Server (SMS).Having worked with SMS since 1998 Cliff has gained extensive experience of designing, deploying, and supporting large enterprise-wide systems management solutions on behalf of companies such as EDS, 1E and Getronics.In recognition of his contribution to the Systems Management community Microsoft awarded Cliff the Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for SMS in January 2004 which has been re-awarded in all subsequent years.Having grown up with the PC from the days of the IBM AT and PC-DOS 3.3, he has an extensive knowledge of several operating systems and applications gained through his present and past employment with companies such as EDS, Du Pont, Abbey National and Getronics, amongst others.The prime goal of FAQShop.com is to help people use Systems Management technology to make their lives easier - not for technology to control their lives which is reflected in this site's mission statement:
'Ensuring you get the best of IT'.
If you've been wanting to try out ConfigMgr v.Next but haven't had to getting around to it this should help. Microsoft has released a pre-configured Windows 2008 R2 VHD with the Beta 1 of v.Next already installed.
To download it goto:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=1b23c540-9b9f-4d41-a05d-d4b216061957
Here's some information I received from the Connect folks about this:
"The System Center Configuration Manager team would like to announce that the following has been released and available for immediate download:
Pre-configured Configuration Manager v.Next Beta1 Virtual Hard drive (VHD)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=1b23c540-9b9f-4d41-a05d-d4b216061957&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed:+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+(Microsoft+Download+Center)
This download enables you to quickly evaluate a fully configured virtual machine that has ConfigMgr v.Next Beta 1 installed. This VHD is based on a Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system and is a fully built virtual machine ready to import into your Hyper-V environments. Since the virtual machine has been fully configured with v.Next Beta 1 installed, this should improve the overall evaluation experience to make it faster and less time consuming to evaluate v.Next Beta 1 and provide feedback regarding your experience with the product.
Feedback in the form of product suggestions, bugs, and all other can be submitted through the Microsoft Connect using the feedback tool. Quick link to the tool is:https://connect.microsoft.com/ConfigurationManagervnext/feedback/CreateFeedbackForm.aspx?FeedbackFormConfigurationID=4216&FeedbackType=1
Also available on Microsoft Connect is the full v.Next installation media. This media can be downloaded and used to install on your own servers and hardware. The v.Next Beta 1 VHD makes evaluation a lot easier because everything has been pre-configured for you. Becoming familiar with all the new features of v.Next is a lot easier.
Support is provided through the Microsoft Connect newsgroups and also through the Feedback tool submissions. All feedback is triaged daily by members of our Product Group and Customer Support Service engineers.
Download the v.Next Beta1 VHD today!
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=1b23c540-9b9f-4d41-a05d-d4b216061957&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed:+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+(Microsoft+Download+Center)"