2019.12.10
A decade of migrations: ten rules we never break
Migration project best practices from a decade of mail, directory, desktop, and datacenter moves: ten rules on pilots, rollback, comms, and cutovers.
2019 field notes.
12 notes from 2019. Product names and recommendations reflect that year — not today's catalog. Current notes (2024–)
Archive
// pre-2024 field notes// 2019 · 12 posts · archive year page
2019// 12 posts
2019.11.12
Ignite 2019 field notes: hybrid is the strategy, not the compromise
Microsoft Ignite 2019 takeaways for Microsoft-shop CIOs: Arc, Edge Chromium, Teams momentum, and hybrid as strategy for 2020 planning.
2019.10.15
Basic auth is going away in Exchange Online. Find your legacy clients now
Basic authentication deprecation Exchange Online: discovering legacy clients, ActiveSync fleets, service accounts, and staged modern auth enforcement.
2019.09.30
Windows Virtual Desktop hits GA: first production deployment notes
Windows Virtual Desktop GA deployment field notes: host pool sizing, image management, FSLogix in production, and cost model vs on-prem VDI.
2019.08.13
Windows 7 end of life: triage for the machines that can't move
Windows 7 end of life plan and ESU field notes: five months out, app-compat blockers, VDI containment, and network isolation for stragglers.
2019.07.30
Skype for Business Online retires July 2021. Your two-year Teams runway
Skype for Business Online retirement and Teams migration plan: coexistence modes, meeting-first moves, and why voice is the long pole.
2019.06.11
The 99.95% VDI: designing for an availability target, not a vibe
VDI high availability design field notes: where the nines are lost, N+1 pool math, user-experience monitoring, and the SLA post-mortem habit.
2019.05.14
Azure Site Recovery as the DR plan: replication, runbooks, and the annual test
Azure Site Recovery Hyper-V and DR testing field notes: recovery plans as code, real RTO measurements, and cost versus a second datacenter.
2019.04.16
SCOM in anger: monitoring 400 virtualized servers without alert fatigue
SCOM alert tuning field notes from a 400-server Hyper-V estate: management pack overrides, maintenance mode automation, and the 20 alerts that matter.
2019.03.26
Windows Virtual Desktop public preview: first build notes
Windows Virtual Desktop preview setup notes from week one: tenant and host pool model, Windows 10 multi-session behavior, FSLogix, and the gaps vs Citrix.
2019.02.12
G Suite to Office 365: what actually moves and what doesn't
A G Suite to Office 365 migration field guide: Gmail and calendar fidelity, Drive to OneDrive mapping, the Sites and Forms gaps, and coexistence that works.
2019.01.15
Exchange 2010 end of support: your 12-month runway
Exchange 2010 end of support lands January 14, 2020. A field-tested triage matrix for the migration: hybrid to Office 365, Exchange 2016, or decommission.