Review: Susan Bradley on Patch Management
I just finished listening to SBS Show episode #8. It was published 4 days ago. I'm just now getting to it, and that's okay. Podcasts are about time-shifting, or listening when it is convenient for you. I've heard comments like "I don't have an hour to dedicate to listening to an in-depth technical podcast every week". That's okay, too. Split your listening in to 20- or 30-minute chunks. Fast-forward through the bits you don't like. This isn't radio, you know <grin>. Now, on to the review.
There's a ton of good information in this show - Microsoft MVP Susan Bradley is widely recognized as the expert on the subject of patching an SBS box properly. She shares her knowledge of what can be a rather dry subject in a very compelling and entertaining way. I was very impressed with the way they were able to cover Microsoft Windows Update, WSUS, patch management, and more in a little over an hour. Highly recommended.
One point of contention - Vlad makes a comment about Microsoft blogs being filtered. That's absolutely not the case. Nobody reviews or edits this blog before I hit the 'submit' button. Microsoft has made huge strides in the last few years in supporting, encouraging, and empowering its employees to give back to the community. A big part of that is sharing our voices, unfiltered.
Anyway - if you haven't heard the podcast, download it now: {MP3} ... and then listen at your liesure :)
Comments
- Anonymous
December 16, 2005
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
December 16, 2005
Not sure what the comment referred to, but perhaps it was referring to the word filtering that spaces.msn.com does? - Anonymous
December 16, 2005
Vlad,
Thanks for clarifying. The point of this blog is to be a focal point for technical information that doesn't belong in other venues (KBs, white papers, LiveMeetings). I know that people have different takes on corporate blogging and how much disclosure is beneficial. Frankly, in the SMB space, there aren't that many controversial topics that I've really felt the need to weigh in on. I do invite any of my readers who ever feel that this blog is trying to skirt an issue or that we're not being 100% honest to call us on that point, though.
I'm always looking for topics of interest to the SBS community. If there's anything particularly juicy you want to see us cover, send it my way.
---Mark - Anonymous
December 17, 2005
See where you coming from on this Vlad and I would agree Susan has a very uncommon and honest approach however having read dozens of Microsoft employees blogs I have to disagree with you as most Microsoft blogs are technical in nature so marketing doesn't really come into it.
Most of the time let's be honest the issues we are discussing are not exactly controversial and personally I would be the first to chime in if I felt that anyone on their blog was whitewashing an issue.
Just like a particular blogger (not MS) mentioned that their must be something wrong with free software and I felt I needed to chime in that most of us are using free software of some kind or other due to the nature of the internet.
Anyway despite my comments glad to see you both you and Mark sparking some healthy discussion
Regards Mark - Anonymous
December 19, 2005
Mark,
Maybe you're looking at something I am not or maybe we have a different definition of "technical" but here are the last few posts on blogs.technet.com
System Center Capacity Planner 2006 arrives in January
January's free Security Webcasts for IT Pros, Executives and Developers
Les dix défis de Microsoft pour 2006 (d'après "Directions on Microsoft")...
Introduction à Data Protection Manager 2006
Migrer rapidement votre domaine NT4 vers Active Directory avec "Domain Migration Wizard" de Quest Software
Migrer de Lotus Notes/Domino vers Exchange Server avec Quest Notes Migrator for Exchange
Portals Webcasts in January
Office Webcasts - December
I'm not splitting hairs here, it is all marketing and announcements, but those are the types that are likely to blog to begin with - people with something to spread. It takes a lot longer to put together a concise technical brief than a bunch of links to PR.
On the other hand, look at the SBS blog, You Had Me At EHLO. The difference is staggering. The content on this blog and a few others is frequently better than even the release notes and thats why we pay so much attention to you.
My comment during the show was in no way disparaging towards Microsoft bloggers, towards the way you guys publish information, nor do I want you to stoop down to the level of ranting. I just wanted to show the clear distinction between Susan Bradley's blog and virtually everyone elses.