There is an upcoming series organized by Windows IT Pro and SharePoint Pro on the best practices for deploying SharePoint. They are coming to 8 cities namely:

WindowsITPro is sponsoring a PC on demand training for SharePoint Migration.

The speaker is Andrew Yeung, Director of Product Management, AvePoint.

TechCrunch has posted an article on the recent milestone of Google enterprise who just went out with their 5th generation of search appliance. The search appliance is a yellow box based on a Dell server. The latest release has the following features:

1. Indexes 10 million documents
2. Twice, even three times faster than its predecessor
3. Indexes data from Oracle, SAP, Documentum, SharePoint, Salesforce.com, HR, etc.
4. Personalized views depending on role

I am reading an article from BusinessWeek making a case about how cloud computing is changing the world. Rachel who wrote the article presented some interesting facts which are as follows:

1. IBM announces on Aug. 1 that they are spending $ 360 million dollars on a cloud computing data center.
2. Dell supplies Web 2.0 heavyweights Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo products that they have specifically tailored for these types of clients.
3. Microsoft is implementing their Software-plus-Services business model which gives clients and option between the two.
4. Analysts predict that annual global market for cloud computing is going to reach $95 Billion in the next five years; accounting for 12% of the worldwide software market.

For those planning to take any Microsoft developer or dynamic certifications; Microsoft Second Shot Promo is back. This is especially useful for exam takers as it allows you for one retake of a failed exam for free. The vouchers would be valid until July 31, 2009 and as such; you can register for multiple exam vouchers and use it for the next year.

The Second Shot Promo is found here.