A Week at TechEd Europe in Berlin

I am wrapping up what has been an excellent week at TechEd Europe here in Berlin. Four days of back-to-back sessions, a few too many late evenings, and more Exchange 2010 content than you can shake a stick at. If you have never been to TechEd, it is one of those events that reminds you why you work in this industry — thousands of people who genuinely love this technology, all in one place, talking about it non-stop.

This year's event has been heavily focused on Exchange 2010, which officially launched just a few weeks ago, and Windows Server 2008 R2. There is a real buzz around Exchange 2010 in particular — the move to the DAG model for high availability, the changes to the CAS layer, the client access improvements. For those of us who have been running Exchange environments for years, this release feels like a genuine step forward rather than just an incremental update.

Day One and Two: Diving Deep on Exchange 2010

The archiving and storage sessions on Day 4 were a highlight for me. The new archiving capabilities in Exchange 2010 are really compelling — the in-place archive concept in particular addresses something customers have been asking about for a long time. Moving people off expensive third-party archiving products and back onto native Exchange functionality is going to be a big conversation over the next year, and today's sessions gave me a lot of practical detail to take back and share.

The Exchange Migration and 2010 coexistence session was fascinating — made all the more memorable by whoever had guitar hero running in the background somewhere nearby, which created an unexpected and slightly surreal soundtrack to a pretty technical discussion about public folder replication and co-existence strategies. Only at TechEd!

The Multi-Site Clustering Session

I have been particularly keen to get into the multi-site clustering deep dive this week — this is something I am actively working through with customers, so having the opportunity to sit in a room with the product team and really get into the weeds of the technical architecture is invaluable. The session did not disappoint. There is a lot of nuance here, particularly around quorum models and witness server placement across geographically dispersed sites, and having the chance to ask questions directly made a real difference.

IPv6 — My Head Hurts

I will be honest: the IPv6 session this afternoon nearly broke me. I know this is the direction of travel and I know we all need to get comfortable with it, but the depth of the content today was genuinely challenging. It is one of those areas where the more you learn, the more you realise how much you do not know. I came out with several pages of notes and a strong cup of coffee, and I am going to need to do some proper study time to fully internalise what was covered.

I know there is a tendency to think of IPv6 as something you can defer because the networks are still predominantly IPv4, but sessions like today are a useful reminder that the transition is coming whether we are ready or not — and it is better to be ahead of it.

Berlin Itself

I would be doing the week a disservice if I did not mention the city. Berlin is extraordinary — the history here is palpable in a way that you simply cannot get from reading about it. We managed to get out for a few hours on Wednesday afternoon, and just walking around you are constantly reminded of the events that shaped the twentieth century. The contrast between the areas of the city is remarkable. I would come back here just to spend more time exploring properly — TechEd gives you enough of a taste to make you want to stay longer.

Taking It Back

The real test of any conference is what you take home. This week I have come away with a clearer picture of the Exchange 2010 roadmap, some very practical guidance on multi-site clustering that I can apply directly, a notebook full of session links to follow up on, and a new appreciation for how much I still need to understand about IPv6.

I will be posting some of my favourite session links over the coming weeks for anyone who missed the event — the content really is worth making time for even if you were not here in person.

Roll on TechEd next year!