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Quick, to the Batmobile. Microsoft has issued a beta of System Center Data Protection Manager 2019. It’s on like Donkey Kong folks.

The beta represents fourth-generation technology from Microsoft for backup-and-recovery operations. DPM 2019 is one of the components of Microsoft’s System Center line of enterprise-level management products. It backs up and provides restore capabilities for various Microsoft server products, such as SQL Server, Exchange Server and SharePoint Server, as well as Hyper-V Server virtual guests and hosts. Backup and restore protection is also extended to client devices.

The top new feature in this beta is the centralized console, according to Jason Buffington, senior technical product manager on the System Center team. It allows users to actually manage DPM itself by drilling down via right-mouse-button clicks, he explained in a Microsoft-produced interview.

That’s not all that is new however. Expect to encounter a whole range of new functions, including support for generic data source protections.

The big M has dished out a new beta version of its Forefront Identity Manager 2010 R2 tool, which is available for download from the Microsoft Connect website. Just follow the link provided.

The new beta version of Forefront Identity Management 2010 R2 comes with a few new features including credential management with web based password reset and historical reporting via integrating with the System Centre Service Manager data warehouse.

Microsoft also said that it comes with better initial load performance to facilitate ease of use, improved load and scale performance and enhanced diagnostics capabilities.

The company will also be starting a community-based evaluation program of the suite which begins sometime in August.

“Community members are encouraged to attend and new members are certainly welcome.  Community Evaluation Programs are a great technical resource for deeper understanding of Microsoft products and to connect with other users,” the company said.

Microsoft announced two new features to protect Hotmail users from email account hijackers as well as from malicious email and spam. This is great for both personal and business users.

On July 14th, the company announced new security features designed to track down when user accounts were compromised and to make passwords more secure. The “My friend has been hacked!” feature has been added under the “Mark as” menu in Hotmail to let users notify the email provider if their friends’ accounts appear to have been compromised.

Microsoft will soon start evaluating passwords selected by users to decide if they are strong enough. Weak passwords will be rejected, according to a statement issued by the company.

“At Hotmail, we know that account hijacking is a big problem, and we continue to work hard to prevent it,” Dick Craddock, the Microsoft group program manager responsible for Hotmail, wrote on the Inside Windows Live blog.

Microsoft is going patch crazy! In addition to the just released Exchange 2007 update, the company is also readying a superpatch for Office and Windows. The company said it will issue four security updates next week, only one of which is pegged as critical, to patch 22 vulnerabilities in Windows and Visio 2003.

This update is smaller than June’s but still includes tons of fixes and the like. The bugs-per-bulletins ratio, however, is the highest for the year.

“I think we’ll see one bulletin with a very high number of vulnerabilities,” said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Security. “We’ve seen that happen several times this year, most recently last month when it patched eight bugs in Excel with one update.”

Microsoft’s Exchange team released Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 SP3 this week, with 20 fixes for customer-reported issues since the release of the last one in April.

This is good news for customers of the program, being as how many 2007 users have yet to migrate to Exchange 2010.

“Although Exchange 2007 has been generally available for over four years, it is likely that a significant portion of the Exchange customer base still has Exchange 2007 deployed and has not moved to the Exchange 2010 product that was released about a year and a half ago,” said Rob Sanfilippo, an Exchange analyst with Kirkland, Wash.-based Directions on Microsoft.

So what sort of fixes did the company provide in the new update? Tons, actually. Fixes include ActiveSync mobile phone bugs, some Outlook Web Access problems and more. A full list can be found on Microsoft’s Support website.

So, go get em.

July is the beginning of the new fiscal year for Microsoft and with it comes increased zeal for cloud computing. The company has stated that volume license agreements are now ‘cloud ready’ meaning they are raring to go online.

“License Mobility through Software Assurance” is one of these volume-licensing program changes. As the program name indicates, this allows customers with Software Assurance contracts to “deploy certain server application licenses on-premises or in the cloud in a shared hardware environment with the ability to assign your existing licenses to a authorized Service Provider.”

License Mobility kicks in as of July 1. Server applications that can be licensed under the program include SQL Server, Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, Lync Server, System Center servers, and Dynamics CRM. Windows Server isn’t eligible for inclusion, and Windows Server operating system licenses “remain assigned to customers’ on-premises hardware with their applicable license terms,” according to Microsoft’s overview of the program.

Has hell frozen over? Not quite. Smart card support has come to Outlook Anywhere, though. That’s something! The kindly folks over at WindowsITPro have outlined to the layman how one can get it going on their software. The tech configuring is minimal, thankfully.

It’s always a good thing when smart card authentication support comes anywhere.  Outlook was the last Windows-based program to not offer it. Let’s all wave our smart cards in the air and celebrate! Viva la, um, revolution. Sigh.

The Exchange Management shell buried deep within our copies of Exchange Server 2010 contain many powerful PowerShell cdmlets that, when used correctly, can let you automate just about any administrative task you can think of. Of course, one has to know what they are doing. This can be a tiresome and frustrating task, one usually fit for admins and the like. However, our friends over at InformIT is on it. They have compiled a useful tutorial on how to get the most out of these useful automation features.

Interested? Click here and check it out. Be warned, though, before long you may just be an Exchange expert. That might get annoying at parties.

Well, you knew it was coming and now here it is. Service Pack 1 is now available for download for owners of Office for Mac 2011. It is a 246MB file available direct from Microsoft, and requires that users be running Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later.

The suite has tons of improvements, including improved security, stability and the inclusion of alt text. What are you waiting for? Snatch it on up!