Tag: Hardware

Last updated by Thomas Maurer at April 10, 2018.

Apr102018April 10, 2018April 10, 20180 Commentby Thomas Maurer

Video: HIAG Data and itnetX enable hybrid IT with HPE and Microsoft Azure Stack

Posted in Cloud, IT, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, Web, Work

When I had the chance to speak about our Azure Stack project together with HIAG Data at HPE Discover 2017 in Madrid last year, I also had the chance to record a short video. In that video I am speaking about how HIAG Data and itnetX enable Hybrid Cloud with HPE and Microsoft Azure Stack.

Enjoy the quick customer case marketing video 😉

HIAG Data partnered with itnetX which helps its customers with cloud transformations by utilizing HPE & Microsoft Azure Stack . You can find out more about how your business can implement a hybrid IT strategy based on HPE at https://hpe.com/cloud/azurestack

Mar022018March 2, 2018March 2, 20180 Commentby Thomas Maurer

Azure Stack Capacity Calculator Tool

Posted in Cloud, Hardware, HP, IT, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack

One of the most common questions I get when a customer decided to buy Azure Stack is, how you can calculate the sizing of your Azure Stack. He also wants to know how larger the server should be for his workloads and which Azure Stack Hardware SKU he should go for. Microsoft just released the Azure Stack Capacity Calculator (Version 1801.01). This tool will assists customers in the pre-purchase capacity planning of the Azure Stack hardware configuration. This helps you decided on how large your Azure Stack solution should be configured. This sizes server configuration and amount of servers you need to run your workloads on a Azure Stack integrated system. This also helps you in your Azure Stack Pricing Calculation.

The Azure Stack capacity planner is intended to assist in pre-purchase planning to determine appropriate capacity and configuration of Azure Stack hardware solutions.
The Azure Stack capacity planner helps you make informed decisions with respect to planning capacity in two ways: either the by selecting a hardware offering and attempting to fit a combination of resources or by defining the workload that Azure Stack is intended to run to view the available hardware SKUs that can support it. Finally, the spreadsheet is intended as a guide to help in making decisions related to Azure Stack planning and configuration.
The spreadsheet is not intended to serve as a substitute for your own investigation and analysis. Microsoft makes no representations or warranties, express or implied, with respect to the information provided within the spreadsheet.

Azure Stack Capacity Planner

You can download the Azure Stack Capacity Planner from the TechNet Gallery. It is a simple to use Microsoft Excel file, where you enter your workload data. I will out put some information about the configuration you need and even allows you to compare different hardware SKUs. It will also indicate which one will be the best solution for you.

Download Azure Stack Capacity Calculator: TechNet Gallery Azure Stack Capacity Planner (Version 1801.01)

Feb182018February 18, 2018February 18, 20180 Commentby Thomas Maurer

Mini Review of the Microsoft Modern Keyboard with Fingerprint ID

Posted in Hardware, Hardware, IT, Microsoft, Surface, Web, Windows, Windows 10

As you may know I am a big fan of the Microsoft peripherals like the Microsoft Arc Mouse, Surface Pen, Surface Precision Mouse, Surface Dial and the Surface Keyboard. The last one I have just upgraded to the Microsoft Modern Keyboard. The Microsoft Modern Keyboard almost looks the same when you compare it to the Surface Keyboard, except for some minor changes, like the on/off button, the USB charging port or the integrated Fingerprint reader.

As like the Surface Keyboard, the Microsoft Modern Keyboard feels extremely comfortable to type on, and in my opinion also looks perfect on your desk. It is thin and light and matches the style of the other Surface products. Microsoft Modern Keyboard with Fingerprint ID’s aluminum frame makes it not only of the highest quality, but heavy and virtually indestructible. The keyboard not only supports Bluetooth Low Energy 4.0 / 4.1 / 4.2, it also supports USB as a wired connection, which allows it to be a great choice even at work.

One of the main new advantages of the Microsoft Modern Keyboard is the new integrated Fingerprint reader. This allows you to use it together with Windows Hello, to easily login to your computer, without the need of a password.

You also get a on off switch for they keyboard, which is really handy, especially when you are traveling and storing the keyboard in your bag.

The Surface Keyboard came with batteries which you needed to replaces after a while. The Microsoft Modern Keyboard brings a rechargeable battery, which can be easily recharged using the included USB cable, which also lets you connect the keyboard not only using Bluetooth, but also using the wired USB connection. Microsoft promises up to 4 months battery life on full charge.

After using the Surface Keyboard and before the Microsoft Designer Bluetooth Desktop since 2015, the Microsoft Modern Keyboard with Fingerprint ID is a great successor.

Dec102017December 10, 2017December 10, 20173 Commentsby Thomas Maurer

Microsoft Surface Precision Mouse Review

Posted in Hardware, Hardware, Home, IT, Mac OS X, Microsoft, Surface, Web, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Work

Last week I got the Microsoft Surface Precision Mouse delivered. The Surface Precision Mouse will become the replacement mouse for my Microsoft Sculpt Mouse, which I used for the last couple of years. Now I want to give you some impressions about the Surface Precision Mouse, since I am very happy and very surprised about the feature set.

First of all the Microsoft Surface Precision Mouse feels awesome, very high quality and it is very comfortable in your hand. It feels very precise and you get very quickly used to it.

Now let me write about some extra features you might didn’t know about. You first get a button to configure the scroll wheel in two different speeds, one feels very light and fast and the other one is slower and is more resistant, so you can choose what you like more and switch between them, depending on your task.

Of course you get some extra buttons which you can customize with different shortcuts, for example to open the Windows 10 Tasks View or other applications. You can also customize the buttons depending on the application you are working with.

By already having the perfect mouse, in terms of feeling, comfort, precision and customizability, you get a really cool extra feature. The Surface Precision Mouse gives you more multi-tasking power by allowing you to work seamlessly across up to three computers, supports both Bluetooth and wired USB connections. You can pair your Surface Precision Mouse with three different devices and you can manually switch between them with the button on the bottom of the mouse, or you can use something called Smart Switch.

Smart Switch on the Surface Precision Mouse can be enabled by using the Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center. It allows you to setup the workplace layout in the app and now you can move the cursor to the border of the screen and the mouse will seamlessly switch to the other device. So if you are working on your desktop and you have your notebook right next to it, you can easily move the mouse from one device to the other.

Overall I am super happy with the new device!

Tech Specs

The mouse also works with Windows 7, Windows 10, Windows 8.1 and macOS devices as long as they support Bluetooth 4.0 or higher.


Interface	USB 2.1, Bluetooth® Low Energy 4.0/4.1/4.2	Dimensions	4.8 x 3.05 x 1.7 (122.6 mm x 77.6 mm x 43.3 mm)
Wireless Frequency	2.4GHz frequency range	Weight	4.76 ounces (135 grams) including rechargeable batteries
Buttons	6 buttons, including right and left click and scroll wheel button	Battery	Rechargeable lithium ion battery (included)
Design	Ergonomic design with side grips	Battery Life	Up to 3 months
Scrolling	Smooth or magnetic detent customizable horizontal and vertical scrolling¹	Color	Gray

Oct042017October 4, 2017October 4, 20174 Commentsby Thomas Maurer

Boot from Storage Spaces Virtual Disk in Windows 10

Posted in Hardware, Hardware, IT, Microsoft, Powershell, Surface, Web, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Work

A couple of weeks ago I got my new Microsoft Surface Pro, I decided to go with the 1TB version to have enough space.

After the first minutes of setup I quickly wanted to run disk optimization, which for SSDs usually does quick trim operations. In my case this was running way longer then on my Surface Book, so I checked what was going on, and I realized that it was running Optimization on a Storage Spaces Virtual Disk, which is kind of strange.

I checked the disk configuration and really, my Surface Pro (2017) does have a Storage Spaces Virtual Disk which it boots from. The Storage Spaces Pool does include two physical 512GB NVMe drives with one Virtual Disk on top configured as simple (striped) volume. Right now I don’t know how they did it, but it seems now possible to boot Windows from a Storage Spaces Virtual Disk with the Windows 10 Creators Update or some Surface team magic. Then when Storage Spaces was introduced with Windows 8, boot from Storage Spaces was not possible.

Sep132017September 13, 2017September 13, 20170 Commentby Thomas Maurer

Windows Server Software-Defined Datacenter Solutions

Posted in Certification, Cloud, Containers, Hardware, Hyper-V, IT, Microsoft, Powershell, Private Cloud, Server Core, System Center, Virtualization, Web, Windows, Windows Server, Windows Server 2016, Work

I am sure you have heard already about the great new improvements of Windows Server 2016 which launched almost a year ago. Especially features like Hyper-V, Storage Spaces Direct, Storage Replica and the Software-Defined Networking part got some great updates and new features. Windows Server delivers a great foundation for your Software-Defined Datacenter.

Compute – Hyper-V delivers a highly scalable, resilient and secure virtualization platform.
Storage – Storage Spaces Direct (S2D), Storage Replica and ReFS file system improvements, deliver a affordable high-performance software-defined storage solution
Network – The new Windows Server Software-Defined Networking v2 stack, delivers a high performance and large scale networking solution for your datacenter

However, deploying a Software-Defined Datacenter can be challenging and expensive. The Microsoft Software-Defined Datacenter certification allows you to simplify deployment and operations with a certified partner solutions. I have worked on a couple of deployments and building complex solutions can be expensive and time consuming. The Microsoft Software-Defined Datacenter certification allows you to have a pre-validated solution which result in faster deployment times, accelerated the time to value, a more reliable solution and optimized performance.

Microsoft is working with different partners like DataOn, Dell EMC, Fujitsu, HPE, Lenovo, Quanta (QCT) and SuperMicro to deliver these solutions. Partners offer an array of Windows Server Software-Defined (WSSD) solutions that work with Window Server 2016 to deliver high-performance storage or hyper-converged infrastructure. Hyper-converged solutions bring together compute, storage, and networking on industry-standard servers and components, which means organizations can gain improved datacenter intelligence and control while avoiding the costs of specialized high-end hardware.

Three types of Windows Server Software-Defined (WSSD) solutions

These partners offer three types of Windows Server Software-Defined (WSSD) solutions:

Software Defined Storage (SDS) – Enterprise-grade shared storage solution built on server node clusters replaces traditional SAN/NAS at a much lower cost. Organizations can quickly add storage capacity as needs grow over time. Support for all-flash NVMe drives delivers unrivaled performance.
Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) Standard – Highly virtualized compute and storage are combined in the same server node cluster, making them easier to deploy, manage, and scale. By eliminating traditional IT compute, storage, and networking silos, you can simplify your infrastructure.
Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) Premium – Comprehensive “software-defined datacenter in a box” adds Software-Defined Networking and Security Assurance features to HCI Standard. This makes it easy to scale compute, storage, and networking up and down to meet demand just like public cloud services.

Windows Server Software-Defined solution features comparison

These three types offer different features depending on your needs.

If you are thinking do build your next software-defined datacenter or private cloud, I recommend that you have a look at these solutions. Find a partner at www.microsoft.com/wssd

Download a white paper about Microsoft hyper-converged technologies

Read a datasheet about the Windows Server Software Defined partner program

(Image Credits: www.microsoft.com/wssd)

Jul162017July 16, 2017August 3, 20172 Commentsby Thomas Maurer

First impressions on the Surface Pro 2017

Posted in Cloud, Hardware, IT, Microsoft, Pictures, Surface, Windows, Windows 10, Work

I am one of the lucky persons owning an brand new Microsoft Surface Pro as a new device for work. This is the my devices I used for the last couple of days and weeks as my daily driver and this allows me to write a quick review about my first impressions about the Surface Pro.

After using the Surface Pro, the Surface Pro 2, the Surface Pro 3, the Surface Book became my daily driver. And I had to say that it is a great notebook. But after using the Surface Pro for awhile, I really got used to the form factor. The 2-in-1 form factor and the small and light design, made the Surface Pro a really great travel companion and this was the reason I decided to go with a Surface Pro again.

My first impression when I took the Surface Pro out of the box was: “wow, this feels premium”. Even the Surface Pro and the Surface Book always felt really great, Microsoft improved it even more. The amazing premium sound of the kickstand, the new rounded edges and the display of the Surface Pro making it even more premium and as mentioned the build quality is amazing.

The second thing I realized while using it, is the resume form standby is incredible fast. You basically press the on button and you can start working. And this while battery life is still great, I get around a whole working day out of it with a single charge.

Unfortunately I couldn’t really test the new Surface Pro Signature Type Cover, because it was not available at launch. But I will included it in my final review of the Surface Pro 2017, after I have used it for a couple of weeks.

Tag: Hardware

Video: HIAG Data and itnetX enable hybrid IT with HPE and Microsoft Azure Stack

Azure Stack Capacity Calculator Tool

Azure Stack Capacity Planner

Mini Review of the Microsoft Modern Keyboard with Fingerprint ID

Microsoft Surface Precision Mouse Review

Tech Specs

Boot from Storage Spaces Virtual Disk in Windows 10

Windows Server Software-Defined Datacenter Solutions

Three types of Windows Server Software-Defined (WSSD) solutions

Windows Server Software-Defined solution features comparison

First impressions on the Surface Pro 2017

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