Day three at MMS 2012 and another keynote, a host of sessions and of course, some time spent in the Expo Hall. Speaking of the Expo Hall, there’s been a steady stream of attendees giving Steve and the team a chance to speak about monitoring and analytics for their Messaging and Collaboration environments. So far our product seems pretty well received, one of the key takeaways has been delivering IT service, and GSX Monitor and Analyzer bring service delivery to the forefront as they place emphasis on user experience.

Today’s Keynote focused mainly on mobile integration and how Microsoft can help address the consumerization of IT. IT is increasingly being end user driven with a large amount of users accessing company information from multiple sources. This presents a challenge in not only security but also management. The keynote also revealed that System Center 2012 will offer “deep, deep integration with Windows, Apple iOS, and Google Android.” In organizations where differing mobile access methods are becoming an increasing issue, this will come as quite a relief.  The other announcement was that MMS 2013 will be hosted in New Orleans.

Today I attended a number of sessions but a couple stood out. The first was The Top ten skills that your IT Team Must Possess. This was a pretty good session one of the key things that the presenter spent a fair amount of time on was running network traces using Wireshark, and in the process pointed out some issues with configurations at both Facebook and ESPN.

The other session that really stood out was Advanced Analytical Reporting with System Center 2012. The session was great because it highlighted not only some technical features that SC 2012 has include but it also spoke to what’s important in monitoring and reporting but also why.  The presenters defined what can be measured and also some of the difficulties that arise when monitoring and reporting on cloud applications.

Tomorrow I have more sessions to attend, there isn’t a keynote but as with today I will be commenting on them in twitter; if you’d like to follow @carl_drechsel. Also as with today Steve, Jeff and Adam will be available in the Expo Hall if you’d like to see some of the new. Stop by, say hello and put an entry in for the AR Drone Quadrocopter that we are giving away, Booth #141. Do not miss a chance to win it.

As always you can follow us on twitter @gsx_solutions