The new System Center Operations Manager Office 365 Management Pack can be used to:

1. Add and configure Office 365 subscriptions to be monitored in Operations Manager
2. Proactively monitor connection health for subscriptions
3. Automatically discover services and features available for each subscription
4. Proactively notify when Office 365 Incidents that affects services operational status appear, being changed or resolved
5. Reflect Office 365 Incidents and informational Messages for the subscription to Operations Manager alerts
6. Intuitively visualize subscriptions health and corresponding alerts via dashboard.

Monitoring Dashboard provides following features:

• Get a landscape view of connection health for all configured subscriptions

• View lists of active, resolved incidents and informational messages for the selected subscription

• View tree of Office 365 Services and Features available for the selected subscription and summary count of currently active incidents for each

You can download the System Center Management Pack and O365 Management Pack Operations Guide for Office 365 here

The Windows XP end of life support deadline has come and gone as of April 8^th… now what?
End of support means that software updates for Windows XP will no longer be distributed by Microsoft or its hardware partners. This includes security updates that help protect PCs from viruses, spyware, and other malicious software that can steal or damage personal information. It also includes maintenance updates that improve reliability and performance and ensure that Windows XP works well with other software and hardware.
Microsoft is offering assistance to get you old XP Operating System data updated and all of your data migrated to Windows 7, 8, or 8.1. Microsoft has provided a FREE tool to assist customers with migrating their data from their old outdated PC to a new Windows PC.
Some key features include:
Easy to use
The PCmover Express for Windows XP step-by-step wizard makes setting up a new PC simple. Download the software onto your new PC and old Windows XP computer to transfer your data and files. The wizard takes it from there, helping you along the way.
Select what you transfer
You can easily transfer all or selected folders, user profiles, and settings from your old Windows XP computer to your new PC.* And if you’ve already personalized settings and preferences on your new PC, those won’t be affected when you transfer your data. *The free data transfer will not migrate your apps.
24/7 Free transfer assistance
More information and the download to the data transfer tool can be found at the following site: Link
 

I recently attended a Microsoft event “IT Camp: Virtualization” in Los Angeles where they distributed a product comparison white paper on VMware VShpere 5.5 and Hyper-V server 2012 R2. I was surprised to see how much the Microsoft Hyper-V platform has matured over the past few years and is now a viable option for virtualization in the Enterprise. Coupled with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 R2, Microsoft Hyper-V will provide you with many on the features found in VMware.
Whitepaper – Technical Comparison – vSphere 5.5 and Windows Server 2012 R2