BPOS and “The Sidekick Incident” a Need to Know

Recently, a number of customers read about the issue Sidekick user’s experienced and contacted Vorsite with their concerns. This information is relevant if you are a Microsoft Online Services subscriber of the Business Online Productivity Suite (BPOS) or if you are evaluating the services.

The main concern being, how is “The Sidekick Incident” related to BPOS. The answer being, it is not.  BPOS hosting infrastructure completely separate from Sidekick’s.

Please see the article below, it is an interview with Steve Ballmer and his direct statement to this issue.  Specifically he speaks to the fact that “Sidekick” is NOT run on the same infrastructure as BPOS, and is completely unrelated. 

 From Network world:

 http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/101909-microsoft-balmer-sidekick.html?hpg1=bn

SharePoint Online, part of its Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), has one million users. The majority of those customers use the service to store data online as it does not yet have full-feature parity with the enterprise version of SharePoint Server. In addition, Exchange Online is another data-intensive application within BPOS, a set of service run by Microsoft. Also, Microsoft next year plans to offer Office Web Applications, online versions of the popular productivity applications, which will feature SharePoint as their back-end data storage infrastructure.  BPOS however is not run on the same infrastructure that hosted Sidekick, which was operated by Microsoft’s Danger subsidiary and was not running on Microsoft software or its Azure cloud platform.

If you are interested in learning more about Microsoft Online Services (BPOS), go to www.TryMSOnline.com, or start a 30-day free trial of the services.

Prices slashed for Email and Collaboration Online Services

Microsoft made effective November 3, 2009, some of the Microsoft Online hosted services available at a new low price. The effective changes include Exchange Online Standard at $5 per user/per month, SharePoint Online Standard at $5.25 per user/per month, and Business Productivity Online Suite at $10 per user/per month.

A 30-Day trial of the services is available at no charge, for more information about the trial you can learn more here. 

To learn more about the Busines Online Productivity Suite go to www.TryMSOnline.com

October Release Annoucements for BPOS

Below is an excerpt from the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog

Upgrades and Enhancements    
The following features and capabilities are included in this Service Update:

 Bulk Activation of Users
Commandlets added in this Service Update are:

• Enable-MSOnlineUser
• Get-MSOnlineSubscription
• Set-MSOnlineUserPassword

POP Mail Clients
Supported e-mail clients for Exchange Online are being expanded to include POP-based clients. Previously, Exchange Online supported only Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 and 2007.

Support for 30,000 Users

The Microsoft Online Services Administration Center will support as many as 30,000 users, improving management and administration for larger organizations. Previously, Microsoft Online Services supported up to 10,000 users.

Enhanced Support for Mac OS
The Service Update includes several enhancements that will provide a more efficient communication and collaboration experience for organizations with Mac users.

 For the full October Update go to the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog http://blogs.technet.com/msonline/archive/2009/10/14/service-update-october-2009-release-availability-features-announced.aspx

New In October! Business Online Productivity Suite Webinar Series

Event Title

Business Online Productivity Suite Webinar Series

Event Description

Audience: Business Owners, CEOs, Business and Technical Decision Makers Description: In a recent email from Steve Ballmer he discussed “The New Efficiency: With Less, Do More”, and continued to explain, “In the new normal, one thing is clear: cutting costs is extremely important. But cost cutting by itself is not a long-term winning strategy. To build a sustainable competitive advantage, companies must ultimately do two things- increase productivity and find ways to deliver new value to customers.” How do you realize new efficiency? During this webinar you will learn about the capabilities of the Business Online Productivity Suite. In addition discuss how you can maximize key productivity gains when integrating with existing investments, specifically the Microsoft Office Suite. The Business Online Productivity Suite from Microsoft delivers streamlined communications, simplified management, Business-class security and reliability.

Register Today!

“Send on behalf” and forwarding is available with BPOS

Did you know… 

These two features are server side and can be enabled within Exchange Online.  How? Open a support case with Microsoft and specify the accounts you would like set up for either feature. 

Not subscribed to Microsoft Online Services yet?  Take it for a test drive today!  Learn More at www.trymsonline.com or contact us at trymsonline@vorsite.com .

Upcoming SharePoint Events

Vorsite Microsoft Online Services Webinars:  SharePoint Online 101

Register Here: https://www.livemeeting.com/lrs/ol_2501aot_ccc/Registration.aspx?PageName=7j02sf62280ml14h

Vorsite Presenting at SharePoint Saturday in NewYork

Check out details here: http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/ny/default.aspx

POP POP FIZ FIZZ AND BPOS

Creating a list of resources around POP and Microsoft Online Services

Great Q & A from Microsoft’s Richard Moore – http://www.microsoft.com/ireland/connect/ask/bpos.aspx

More to come soon…. for more information on Microsoft Online Services and BPOS go to www.trymsonline.com

Web Application Developer (Contract)

Vorsite is looking for an independent contractor that is interested in developing a long-term working relationship with us.   We are looking for experienced consultants that are customer facing and focused. To qualify you must considered yourself to have strong Silverlight experience.

In addition:

CSS, HTML, XML, Javascript, AJAX experience 
.NET experience, C#, ASP.NET
More than 2 years development experience.

Send resumes directly to careers@vorsite.com

Microsoft Online Services 101 Webinars for August and September

BPOS Webinar: Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Live Meeting, and Office Communications Online.

Learn about the services available, Register for an upcoming webinar here.

Audience: Business Owners, CEOs, Bus. and Technical Decision Makers

Description: Overview of Microsoft Online Services BPOS Suite and current features, promotions and offerings.

About:
Microsoft Online Services includes Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Office Live Meeting, and Microsoft Office Communications Online to provide:

Streamlined communications. Your users can work with the same rich clients they already know and use—all within an integrated experience, from virtually any device, in almost any location.

Simplified management. Provide the tools your organization needs without requiring ongoing upgrades or installations. Microsoft Online Services put our IT resources to work for you.

Business-class security and reliability. Work with confidence knowing that these Online Services from Microsoft run on a network of world-class data centers protected by multiple layers of security, operational best practices – all while providing 99.9% uptime.

SharePoint Online and Office SharePoint Server Feature Comparisons

Depending on your business requirements, making a decision of whether you should host SharePoint on-premise or in the clouds can be tough.  We found the Microsoft SharePoint® Online Standard Service Description  document, detailed and helpful.  Jump to Appendix B. for a feature comparison between Office SharePoint Server and SharePoint Online Standard and SharePoint Online Dedicated.  Below is summary of  Appendix B. from the May 19, 2009 version.

Break Out of Features by

• Collaboration Feature Comparison
• Portal Feature Comparison
• Content Management Feature Comparison
• Search Feature Comparison
• BI Feature Comparison
• Business Process and Forms Feature Comparison

Interested in trying out SharePoint Online? sign-up here for a 30-day Free Trial.