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Microsoft announced that System Center 2012 will be released in the first half of 2012, aiming for the “Microsoft Management Summit” that will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada in April 2012. System Center 2012 is offered in two editions: Standard and Datacenter. Both editions include the full set of System Center server management capabilities and are only differentiated by virtualization rights.

System Center 2012 captures and aggregates knowledge about systems, policies, processes and best practices so that you can optimize your infrastructure to reduce costs, improve application availability and enhance service delivery. System Center is flexible and cost effective that enables self-service and automation while leveraging your existing investments. With these integrated and automated management capabilities, you can become a trusted service provider for your business.

Microsoft System Center 2012 is a comprehensive solution built to manage today’s increasingly virtualized datacenters as well as emerging private and public cloud environments.

System Center 2012 cloud and data-center management solutions empower you with a common management toolset for your private and public cloud applications and services.

Application Management 

System Center offers unique capabilities that can empower your application owners to deliver agile & predictable application services to their business counterparts. It enables the concept of “Application as a Service”. Here, the ‘Service’ is a deployed instance of a cloud style application along with its associated configuration and virtual infrastructure. It helps you manage the full application life cycle, from provisioning services to operating them.

Standardized Application Provisioning

• Utilize service templates to define standardized application blueprints for your private cloud.
• Specify application configuration requirements like topology, elasticity, scale-out rules, upgrade rules and health thresholds.
• Support for multiple package types for Microsoft .NET applications.

Deep Application Diagnostics and Insight

• Offers deep application and transaction monitoring insight for .NET applications and J2EE application server health.
• Offers easy-to-use reporting and custom dash-boarding.
• Helps you efficiently isolate the root cause of application performance issues down to the offending line of code.

Service Delivery & Automation

WithSystemCenter, you can automate core organizational process workflows such as change management and release management. You can also integrate and extend your existing toolsets and build flexible workflows to automate processes across your IT assets and organizations.

Standardize Services Provided to IT Service Consumers

• Define service offerings available for request by leveraging dependencies in central management database to publish standardized service offerings.
• Ensure compliance with pertinent industry regulations and business needs.
• Identify approval processes and workflows to fulfill service requests.

Empower Consumers of IT Services

• Deliver services based upon service consumer roles.
• Provide easy navigation with intuitive interface.
• Ensure capturing and tracking of required service request information.

 Automate Service Processes and Systems

• Automate provisioning of service requests for end-to-end request fulfillment.
• Automate routing of requests for approval and notification.
• Integrate automation acrossSystemCenterand third party management components.

Infrastructure Management

System Center provides a common management toolset to help you configure, provision, monitor, and operate your IT infrastructure. The integrated physical, virtual, private and public cloud management capabilities in System Center ensure efficient IT management and optimized ROI of those resources.

Provision your Physical and Virtual Infrastructure

• Provision everything from operating systems to physical servers, patches, and endpoint protection with Configuration Manager.
• Manage VMware vSphere and Citrix XenServer by just using one interface.
• Support deployment and configuration of virtual servers and Hyper-V with Virtual Machine Manager

Provision Private Clouds

• Customize and assign private cloud resources to suit your organization’s needs.
• Use “create cloud” functionality in Virtual Machine Manager to aggregate all virtual resources into a unified private cloud fabric.
• Deliver self service capability for application owners to request and automate provisioning of new private cloud resources.

Operate Your Infrastructure

• Leverage a single console and customizable dashboards in Operations Manager to monitor and manage all the resources.
• Protect your physical and virtual resources with Endpoint Protection and Data Protection Manager.
• Automatically patch your physical and virtual resources with Configuration Manager and Virtual Machine Manager.
• Dynamically optimize virtual resources for load balancing and power efficiency.

Key Benefits 

• Reduce application deployment errors by introducing consistency and repeatability.
• Effectively track and communicate your application SLAs.
• Deliver operational efficiencies by simplifying application upgrades.
• Extend familiar on-premise experiences and skills to manage public cloud applications on Windows Azure.
• Reduce time to delivery and improve predictability by reducing error prone manual activities.
• Improve service reliability across multiple tools, systems, and departments.
• Improve infrastructure availability with automated remediation of errors or alerts.

Article Contributor: Satish Kumar

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Microsoft announced that SQL Server 2012 will be released in the first half of 2012 in three versions: Standard (for basic database and reporting capabilities), Business Intelligence (a new version providing premium corporate and self-service BI) and Enterprise (for large scale data warehousing and mission critical applications). Microsoft is holding a “virtual launch event” for SQL Server 2012 on March 7, 2012.

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 is a significant product release that provides mission critical confidence with greater uptime, blazing-fast performance and enhanced security features.

SQL Server 2012 is a cloud-ready information platform that helps organizations unlock breakthrough insights with pervasive data discovery across their organization.

SQL Server 2012 Enhancements & New Features

 Availability

 For protecting application databases, SQL Server 2012 introduces the AlwaysOn SQL Server Failover Cluster Instances and AlwaysOn Availability Groups feature.

 AlwaysOn SQL Server Failover Clusters:

• A multi-subnet failover cluster provides a disaster recovery solution in addition to high availability.
• The improved failure detection and addition of failure condition level property lets you configure a more flexible failover policy.
• The indirect checkpoints feature provides a database specific alternative to automatic checkpoints that are configured by a server property.  

AlwaysOn Availability Groups:

• An availability group is a container that defines a set user databases (availability databases) to fail over as a single unit. It defines a set of availability replicas to host copies of each user database.
• It also provides a rich set of options that improve resource usage.

Manageability

Manageability of SQL Server 2012 is improved by enhancements to tools and monitoring features.

• The Database Engine Query Editor introduces enhanced functionality for Transact-SQL debugging and IntelliSense.
• Point-in-time restore has improved by the addition of a visual timeline.
• Restore plan algorithm has improved and a lot of edge cases are dealt more efficiently than in previous versions.
• Data tier applications now support many more objects than in SQL Server 2008 R2.
• The new Windows PowerShell 2.0 feature loads SQL Server components into a PowerShell environment.

Programmability 

Programmability enhancements include FileTables, statistical semantic search, ad-hoc query paging, support for sequence objects and numerous improvements to Transact-SQL.

• You can now store files and documents in special tables in SQL Server.  You can access them from Windows applications as if they were stored in the file system, without making changes to the Windows applications.
• Semantic search enables new scenarios that extend beyond syntactical keyword searches. Semantic search lets you query the meaning of a document.
• You can specify a range of rows returned by a SELECT statement based on row offset and row count values that you provide.
• A sequence object generates a sequence of numeric values according to the specification with which the sequence was created. Here the sequence numbers are not restricted.
• The THROW statement can be used to raise an exception and transfer the control to a CATCH block of a TRY-CATCH construct.
• The OVER clause has been extended to support window functions.

Scalability & Performance 

Scalability and performance enhancements in the Database Engine include columnstore indexes.

• The columnstore index improves data warehouse query performance by hundreds to thousands of times and can routinely give a tenfold speedup for a wide range of decision support queries.
• This allows end users to get more business value from their data.
• As columnstore indexes can eliminate the need of pre-built aggregates, IT workers can reduce the development costs and ETL times.

Security

Security enhancements include new SEARCH PROPERTY LIST permissions and new user-defined server roles.

• New GRANT, REVOKE, and DENY permissions are available to a SEARCH PROPERTY LIST.
• To manage user-defined server roles and to add and remove members from all server roles, CREATE SERVER ROLE, ALTER SERVER ROLE, and DROP SERVER ROLE are available.

Key Benefits

• The new MDS Add-in for Excel helps end users to manage and maintain central data.
• Create and scale business solutions from server to cloud.
• Provide complete view across business data through integration, cleansing and management.
• Reduce complexity and accelerate time to solution through SQL Server appliances and cloud offerings.
• Ensure peace of mind with premier services and support, and free access to software service packs.

The upcoming release of Microsoft SQL Server 2012 promises to further protect the infrastructure of an organization, especially for mission critical workloads. As you bet on Microsoft, you get more than a trusted platform. You also get a trusted business partner as well as a trusted ecosystem of experienced vendors.

Article Contributor: Satish Kumar

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HD Camcorders, Graphics Tablets, LCD Monitors and More!

SoftwareMedia.com has for more than 14 years, been your one-stop software shop, offering all of the top, name-brand software products from Adobe, Microsoft, Corel (and dozens of other manufacturers) for rock-bottom prices. Now, after years of selling only software, we are proud to offer our customers a carefully selected assortment of discount computer hardware and consumer electronics.

Our selection of awesome discount gadgetry ranges from computer keyboards and monitors to graphics tablets, SD cards, GPS devices and even High Definition digital camcorders. Many of our hardware and electronics products are also available in bundle packs, which pair the best software to match your new gizmos.

With the madness of the holiday shopping season fast approaching, SoftwareMedia.com is here once again to be your one stop software and electronics shop, with awesome deals on items like:

Toshiba Camileo H30 HD Digital Camcorder - a state-of-the-art digital camcorder that shoots in stunning 1080p, and takes 10 MegaPixel still photos. Complete with a brilliant 3-inch LCD touchscreen, image stabilization, macro-focus and many other features often found only in the higher-end prosumer cameras. Perfect for the budding film-maker in your life.

Genius EasyPen i405 Tablet – a powerful graphics tablet that allows you to freely express yourself on your computer by simply touching the pen tip to the tablet. The 4” x 5.5” working area with the cordless pen is great for Windows and MAC users to write, draw, sketch or sign emails. Bundle it with Corel Painter 12 and save even more!

V7 19-Inch Widescreen LCD Monitor – this monitor offers bright, vivid images with fast screen response, high contrast ratio, and wide viewing angles with long-life panels. Whether it’s for desktop publishing, web browsing, playing games, watching movies, or standard office usage, V7 LCD monitors are the ideal choice.

You can find these and many more awesome deals on software, computer hardware and electronics at SoftwareMedia.com!

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Since 1982 Cougar Mountain Software has provided business accounting software and hardware solutions to more than 20,000 retail, wholesale, nonprofit, and service-based businesses throughout the world.

Cougar Mountain Software employs accounting and business experts for their product development, sales, support, and training staff, many with accounting degrees. For 29 years these teams have worked together to build and enhance accounting applications based on feedback and requests from businesses across many industries. Through accounting expertise and customer input, Cougar Mountain Software has designed a robust, scalable, and user-friendly accounting solution, meeting the needs of small to large businesses.

Cougar Mountain Software was recently given the highest ranking in its class for the DENALI product line by CPA Practice Advisor.

Product Highlight

DENALI is a fully integrated module system scalable to meet the accounting and business needs of small to large companies.

Primary Accounting and Financial Modules Include:

• Accounts Payable
• Accounts Receivable
• Bank Reconciliation
• Budget Management
• Donor Tracking (Nonprofit)
• General Ledger
• Fixed Assets
• Inventory Control
• Payroll
• Point of Sale
• Purchase Order

For more information, visit Cougar Mountain Software on the web at www.cougarmtn.com

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Continue reading »]]> QuarkXpress 9 is now available! For those unfamiliar with the greatness that is QuarkXpress 9, it’s a cutting-edge layout and design program that allows users to create print and digital publications in multiple formats. With its incredible ease of use, powerful design tools and 25-year track record of all-around awesomeness (that’s a technical term in the software industry) it is no surprise that QuarkXpress is an industry standard, rivaling -and dare I say surpassing- Adobe InDesign. Designers in the industry already respected this program (and with just cause). Version 9 promises to deliver even more design capabilities and expand its enormous user-base.

So, what makes QuarkXpress 9 so great?

Design for the Blio eReader

With the Blio eReader being one of the most widely used ebook readers, it is no surprise that QuarkXpress has been enhanced with support for the rapidly growing format. QuarkXpress 9 allows you to create rich, interactive ebooks and then quickly and easily publish them for global distribution in the worldwide ebook market. Easily add video, slideshows, HTML and even web content to your ebooks. Did we mention that you can create ebooks for any device: smartphone, tablets, computers and the like?

Export to ePub

Remember all of those short stories you’ve written but never had the chance to publish, or that novel that you’ve been working on since grad school? You can now use QuarkXPress 9 to convert your QuarkXpress layouts into ebooks for other popular reading devices like iPad, Sony Reader, Nook or Kindle, and then publish them online to immortalize your words in the hearts and minds of millions!

QuarkXpress App Studio.

The market is exploding with smartphones and tablets galore and with many software companies scrambling to catch up to this booming technology trend, Quark is at the head of the game. The App Studio allows you to easily and efficiently create your own iPhone apps using all of the powerful design capabilities of QuarkXPress and then upload them via the online App Studio portal to manage and publish all the cool apps that you have created.

Loads of Other Features and Enhancements

Support for mobile devices and ebook publishing are not the only benefits of upgrading. QuarkXpress 9 is jam-packed with tons of new features and enhancements to make digital layout and design easier and more effective. Among those improvements (of which there are far too many to name in a single article) are the enhancements in creative styling, bullets and numbering, callouts and workflows. New and improved features like the ShapeMaker, Story Editor, ImageGrid, Linkster and Cloner  all contribute to the complete, exceptional design software that makes QuarkXpress 9 an industry standard in digital publication, and a must-have software product for any designer.

Buy QuarkXpress 9 and harness the amazing design power that publishers have trusted for over 25 years; alternatively, if you already own version 7 or 8 you can Upgrade to QuarkXpress 9 and save even more!

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Continue reading »]]> With the recent announcement of the upcoming Adobe CS5.5 release, we at Software News Daily have been running ourselves ragged in an attempt to bring you all the latest Adobe news. We have discovered, in our tireless quest for knowledge and power (we shall rule the software market with an iron fist!), that with the CS5.5 announcement, Adobe has proclaimed that it will now -in what seems at first glance to be an awesome deal- offer the use of their creative software for a monthly fee in the new Adobe Subscription Editions.

The Adobe subscription edition is available only for Adobe CS5.5 and works exactly like the purchased programs, with the same features, capabilities and functionality. While this may seem a boon to those of us with empty wallets, upon closer examination, it seems to us that some users will benefit more than others.

Those customers who only need a program for a short period -a few months or so- will save a considerable amount of money. Long-term users, on the other hand, will ultimately pay considerably more for the subscription plans than for the full Adobe Creative Suite editions. We ran the numbers and –after doubling checking our equations- have concluded that a customer using month-to-month subscription plans for a full 24-month CS edition lifecycle will ultimately pay nearly twice the average cost of the full program; a program that you don’t even get to keep.

The use of subscriptions is no longer exclusive to the realm of MMO video games and is seemingly becoming a growing trend among serious software companies. Adobe is not the only software manufacturer to offer licensing on a monthly basis. Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) has been offering subscription licenses, in addition to the option to purchase the full software, for quite some time.

Total Training, a leader in software tutorials, has also begun to offer subscription licenses to allow users access to their database for the length of their subscription. These subscriptions actually make sense for long-term use, as an All-Access Online Training Library license allow users 24/7 access to all of the excellent training materials (we particularly like the Adobe CS5 tutorials), project files and continuous updates that are not available with the purchase of the programs themselves. You can essentially use your one year subscription to learn how to expertly utilize any and all programs that you need, and with no need to continually renew.

Whatever your software needs -long or short term use- there are a growing number of software developers who are offering licensing to meet those specific requirements. Adobe, Microsoft and Total Training have all jumped on the subscription bandwagon, and from the looks of things many popular software companies seem likely to follow.

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Continue reading »]]> Update: Adobe CS5.5 has been officially released! You can buy Adobe CS5.5 for less at SoftwareMedia.com!

Adobe announced today the upcoming release of its newest Creative Suite upgrade, Adobe CS5.5. The announcement came amidst abundant internet rumors regarding a possible release of Adobe CS6, and while not a true upgrade, CS5.5 is loaded with new features and enhancements that are geared largely –but not entirely- toward enabling developers and designers to deliver creative content to the growing number of tablet and smart-phone users.

Unfortunately, those of us who were hoping for a free upgrade to our newly purchased Adobe CS5 software are in for a disappointment: CS5.5 will be a purchased upgrade. I have only a moment ago ceased shaking my fist in financial outrage in order to write this article. However, while it may seem an excessively capitalistic move on Adobe’s part, the fees associated with upgrading to Adobe CS5.5 are more than justified.

For the first time ever, Adobe Acrobat X will be included in the Creative Suite (as opposed to Acrobat 9 in CS5). This in itself is worth the extra money, and combined with the boat-load of new features and enhancements that CS5.5 brings to the table, we are confident that your fist-shaking shall also be short lived.

While there is no official release date for Adobe CS5.5, rumor has it that it should be available for purchase sometime in the next month or so, and we will most assuredly keep you updated on any new developments or official announcements from Adobe. We will follow up very soon with a detailed list of updates and new features that the CS5.5 upgrade will contain.

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Continue reading »]]> Update: Official Release Date of QuarkXPress 9 has arrived! Buy QuarkXpress 9 for less at SoftwareMedia.com

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Just a few short weeks ago, Quark announced the birth of its new baby, QuarkXpress 9, to the world. Like any new parent, they aren’t quite ready for the rest of us to meet 9 quite yet; but rest assured it will be soon. They tell us that QuarkXpress 9 will boost productivity, drive automated design, and help you go digital.

The Quark Stork drops QuarkXpress 9. Congratulations, world.

With the release of Quark Xpress 9, users will be able to step forward into digital without missing a beat. My favorite part of the new features is the App Studio. It allows designers to create custom iPad apps without requiring a programmer! No code to create apps with slideshows, video and sound players, pop-up windows, web overlays and scrollable layouts. That’s what we’re being told. And we like it.

It seems like one in every few people I know has some sort of e-reader. Whether it’s a Kindle, Nook or Sony Reader, I can see the importance for a publisher to get their work in eBook format. Here is where the new Quark Xpress 9 comes in: you can convert print files into structured eBooks. “Reflow” is an automated feature in 9 to turn text and pictures into components, for easy tagging and display in any format.

Stay tuned for the official QuarkXpress 9 release date, as well as more features in 9 that are going to put you in the driver’s seat.

Limited time promotion: If you purchase QuarkXpress 8 between Jan 1 and April 30th, 2011, you are eligible for a free upgrade to QuarkXPress 9 when it is released.

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