TechEd is coming back to Europe and this time it’s striking down in Amsterdam from the 26th to the 29th of June. TechEd is, in my opinion of course, a one of a kind conference packed with lots and lots of great sessions about various topics. If you have the opportunity to attend the conference: don’t hesitate!

A few days ago, the first sessions were announced so I went and had a peak at what was coming our way. The conference, usually divided into multiple “tracks”, allows you to easily identify your area of interest and pick your sessions accordingly. Because of my background (and strong personal interest), I mainly focus on the following tracks:

What you will notice is that, although I spend most of my time with products like Exchange, most of the sessions I picked are from the Security & Identity track. Why is that? Well, Exchange has been around for quite some time now. This does not mean that I know the product inside out, but a lot of things have already been said and by nature I rather tend to look into the future than looking back. This is also why I would focus more on new(er) products and technologies. At this time, Windows Server 8 (and therefore also Active Directory) fits that description perfectly, hence the choice for session that mostly talk about it and it’s new features.

For one, if it were possible, I would attend all of them. But at conferences like TechEd, it’s all about choices. The list below depicts the sessions that I would attend. Please keep in mind that these are my personal choices and it does not mean that other sessions are less worth attending!

Exchange & Lync

  • Best Practices for Virtualizing Microsoft Exchange Server 2010
  • Deep Dive: Coexistence between Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 High Availability Deep Dive
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2010: Troubleshooting Performance Issues

Office, Office 365 & SharePoint

  • Security Design with Claims Based Authentication

Security & Identity

  • Active Directory Virtualization Safeguards and Domain Controller Cloning with Windows Server “8”
  • How to (un)Destroy Your Active Directory: Reloaded
  • Managing and Extending Active Directory Federation Services
  • Planning, Designing, and Deploying a Highly Available AD RMS Infrastructure
  • Windows Server “8” Dynamic Access Control Best Practices and Case Study Deployments in Microsoft IT
  • Windows Server “8” Dynamic Access Control Deep Dive for Active Directory and Central Authorization Policies
  • Windows Server 8 Dynamic Access Control Overview