peterdehaas.net

Microsoft Online Services | The Ultimate list | #BPOS #msonline

2010-03-06T12:11:33+01:00

Microsoft Online Services and the Business Productivity Online Suite in particular have many aspects that (potential) customers and partners are interested in learning more about. Over the last years many websites, service descriptions, whitepapers and other sources of information have been created on all topics relevant to Microsoft Online Services.

This document is an effort to provide the “ultimate” list of this information. It is best effort and does not necessarily contain 100% correct or up to date information. Changes will be made to this document if and when time permits

I will place the document over on slideshare and refresh it over there as often as possible. If you’d like to receive the document in Microsoft Word .docx format please send me an email.

Microsoft Online Services The Ultimate List

View more presentations from dehaaspeter.

Microsoft Live@EDU close to 50 Million users

2010-03-02T14:20:02+01:00

Good article by Zack Whittaker about the number of users supported in education by some of the online players :

… Microsoft and Google are still plotting away at each other in attempts to get colleges and universities on side with their own email, document and general productivity suites.

Google hasn’t got back to me with any of the questions I sent over in regards to this vague tweet:

Since then there has been an awful lot of email to’ing and fro’ing between myself and a number of public relations folk. My last post comparing the two suites was a few months ago; it’s time for a revision and seeing where universities rank the in-house email killers, by deconstructing the jargon and seemingly meaningless spin. …

Although the Live@EDU estimates of 50 Million + users is not an official Microsoft number it at least shows this is very, very large :

… Live@edu is used by more than 10,000 “schools”

Microsoft finally updated its press release to confirm that over 10,000 “schools” - which as Americans often describe school as “a form of education” not mutually exclusive to compulsory education but university/college also. Considering most universities have over 10,000 students, I would fairly say that there are definitely over 7 million users using Live@edu; it’s probably closer to 50 million if not even more. …
Source : ZDnet.com

Windows Azure : Microsoft Server Platform Als Een Service

2010-03-02T13:57:46+01:00

In december 2009, naar aanleiding van de lancering van Microsoft Windows Azure, heeft IT Service Magazine een uitgebreid artikel gepubliceerd.

Het artikel is beschikbaar via mijn slideshare :

Windows Azure - Microsoft Server platform als een service

View more documents from dehaaspeter.

Bron : IT Service Magazine december 2009

Engineering Messenger for real relationships : Very impressive Windows Live Stats

2010-02-26T21:11:49+01:00

Piero Sierra is the Group Program Manager for Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Mail and he shares some impressive WL Messenger statistics :

…The first thing that comes to mind when you think of Windows Live Messenger is usually instant messaging – bouncing short text messages back and forth. But there are tons of things we've built into Messenger to make that experience more meaningful, and closer to a real face-to-face interaction. My name is Piero Sierra, and I’m the Group Program Manager for Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Mail. Today I’m going to talk about how we've engineered Messenger to help people stay connected with each other in more meaningful ways.

Web-based social networks have had huge growth lately, and they're a great way to share and stay informed about what everyone that you know is up to. They let you reach out to large groups of people, including friends and family, but your social network usually also includes a broad group of acquaintances, co-workers, and people from your past that you may no longer be very close to. Messenger, on the other hand, is about the people that matter most to you – the ones you talk with frequently and share more personal moments with.

For several years now, this has been our North Star in building Messenger – helping people stay connected to their closest friends and express themselves in meaningful ways. I'd like to tell you a little more about how we're doing that. …

… Some key stats

Our goal is to allow you to have deeper, more meaningful conversations in Messenger. So how do we measure our success? One key metric we track is conversation length – having a longer conversation means you're generally going beyond lightweight exchanges of messages like “Are you coming?”

We also look at voice and video (our closest approximation to a true conversation), and how people interact with each other through photos. Some numbers:

The average length of a Messenger session (a conversation) is 9-11 minutes

About 59% of sessions are over 5 minutes, with about 10% over 20 minutes long

1.6 billion sessions per month are over 30 minutes long

People use Messenger to exchange over 380 million photos a month —over 4.5 billion photos a year (this is in addition to the tens of billions of photos people also share each month via Windows Live SkyDrive and Hotmail)

Messenger users have 230 million voice & video conversations per month

Average voice session length is about 18.2 minutes

Average video session length is about 13.3 minutes

9% of video calls and 13% of voice calls are longer than 1 hour

Usage of international voice and video sessions differ geographically. Brazilians use voice & video only 13% of the time for international connections while users in other countries, such as Spain or Germany, use voice and video 50-75% of the time for long distance chats with friends and family. …

Continue at Source : Engineering Messenger for real relationships

Whats New in the BPOS-Federal Offer

2010-02-25T11:39:29+01:00

This document introduces new features and improvements that are now available in Microsoft® Online Services dedicated products under the BPOS-Federal offering. The features under this offering are specifically designed to provide security, privacy and regulatory compliance needs for both US Federal government agencies and commercial companies under ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) regulation. New features described apply to the following products:

Microsoft Exchange Online Dedicated

Microsoft Office SharePoint® Online Dedicated

Microsoft Office Communications Online Dedicated

Download document : Microsoft Download Center

Microsoft Unveils New Government Cloud Offerings at Eighth Annual Public Sector CIO Summit #BPOS

2010-02-24T19:47:38+01:00

Big announcement by Microsoft for Microsoft Online Services. The BPOS Services have just been extended with a Government focused solution “BPOS-G”

… Today, at the eighth annual Microsoft U.S. Public Sector CIO Summit, Microsoft Corp. unveiled a number of new enhancements and certifications for the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) that continue to raise the bar in cloud security and privacy. In a keynote speech addressing more than 300 public sector CIOs, Ron Markezich, corporate vice president of Microsoft Online, launched an industry first — a new dedicated government cloud offering based on the BPOS. For education, Microsoft also announced it is extending identity federation services to Microsoft Live@edu to help schools improve collaboration and security, as well as simplify identity management and support interoperability among disparate software applications.

The new Business Productivity Online Suite Federal is optimized to meet the security, privacy and compliance needs of U.S. federal government agencies. In addition, Markezich announced future capabilities and certifications that will continue to raise the bar in cloud security and privacy, including two-factor authentication, enhanced encryption and the expected attainment of Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) certification, an important requirement for government information technology, in the next six months.

“Microsoft is the first and only cloud provider to offer this level of protection and security for governments,” said Markezich. “We were able to achieve this industry first thanks to our experience providing dedicated cloud services for the past five years.”

Markezich also announced several new customers including the City of Newark and Florida State College at Jacksonville, one of the 10 largest U.S. universities. …

… Microsoft Online Services for Government

Microsoft Online Services are available for government customers of all sizes. These versions, and the security and privacy enhancements being announced today, include the following:

Business Productivity Online Suite meets a wide variety of industry standards and certifications, including International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 27001, Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) 70 Type I and Type II, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), Title 21 CFR Part 11 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2, and Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) compliance. Today, more than 500 state and local governments use Microsoft Online Services in the United States, including 48 of 50 states. These range from the largest entities with tens of thousands of seats to the smallest of municipalities.

Business Productivity Online Suite Federal is launching today for U.S. federal government agencies, related government contractors and others that require the highest levels of security features and protocols. The new offering includes all the certifications and security features of the Business Productivity Online Suite and more. The service is housed on separate, dedicated infrastructure in secured facilities. Physical access to those systems is limited by biometric access controls to a small number of individuals who, in compliance with International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), must be citizens of the United States who have undergone rigorous background checks, including fingerprinting.

Continue at source: Microsoft Unveils New Government Cloud Offerings at Eighth Annual Public Sector CIO Summit

Microsoft Outlook gets social Linked In for Outlook

2010-02-17T17:38:23+01:00

Linked In integration with Microsoft Outlook 2010, 2007 and 2003 is now a fact :

http://www.linkedin.com/outlook

Microsoft Online Services - Enterprise Network Services Overview #BPOS

2010-02-09T11:45:34+01:00

This document describes the Microsoft® Online Services networking infrastructure components and security features that support delivery of all Online Services for the enterprise that use the Internet for transport. These include all of the offerings that are part of Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Standard Suite (Exchange Online, Office Live Meeting, etc), Dynamics, CRM Online, and many others. The document is intended for network engineers and system integrators who work with Microsoft Online Services customers. (Dedicated offerings are covered in a separate downloadable document, Microsoft Online Dedicated Service Descriptions and Service Level Agreements).

The components and features that are described include:

Enterprise network architecture for Microsoft Online Services

Microsoft’s Internet connectivity

Network security Microsoft is constantly investing in new technologies, expansion, and innovation of its network infrastructure.

This document is updated regularly to reflect changes that are deployed to the network to support Microsoft Online Services.

Download @ source : Microsoft Online Services - Enterprise Network Services Overview

Bloggen op de website van De Zaak

2010-02-05T20:30:33+01:00

Vanaf vandaag ben ik een van de bloggers op de website van ‘De Zaak’. Ik doe hier mijn uiterste best om onderwerpen rond het thema ICT en Online diensten zo goed en hopelijk ook zo leuk mogelijk neer te zetten.

Heb je feedback, suggesties of vragen laat het me aub weten.

http://www.dezaak.nl/weblogs/peter-de-haas

SkyTeam bespaart aanzienlijk met overstap op Microsoft online applicaties

2010-01-27T22:18:55+01:00

Wortell, een van de Microsoft Online Services partners van het eerste uur is verantwoordelijk voor deze mooie BPOS implementatie. SharePoint Online wordt nu gebruikt door ongeveer 450 medewerkers van de luchtvaartmaatschappijen die binnen SkyTeam in werkgroepen samenwerken.

… SkyTeam, de wereldwijde alliantie van luchtvaartmaatschappijen, heeft gekozen voor de Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). BPOS is door SkyTeam in samenwerking met Wortell geïmplementeerd. Het centrale kantoor van de alliantie op Schiphol werkt al enkele maanden met de onderdelen Exchange Online, Office Communications Online en Live Meeting. Het laatste onderdeel van BPOS, SharePoint Online is nu ook in gebruik genomen. Door deze keuze wordt een kostenbesparing bereikt van ongeveer 50 procent vergeleken met een traditionele omgeving.

SkyTeam heeft negen leden – Aeromexico, Air France, Alitalia, Aeroflot, Delta Air Lines, China Southern Airlines, Czech Airlines, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines en Korean Air – en twee geassocieerde maatschappijen Air Europa en Kenya Airways. Met 13.122 vluchten per dag vervoeren de SkyTeam-leden (www.skyteam.com) jaarlijks 384 miljoen passagiers naar 856 bestemmingen in 169 landen. Het centrale kantoor van de alliantie gebruikt nu de volledige Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite voor de bijna 20 medewerkers die veel mobiel werken. Zij hebben dankzij BPOS altijd en overal, gemakkelijk en snel toegang tot hun bedrijfsgegevens. Aangezien het centrale kantoor in Amsterdam staat, werd in Nederland gezocht naar een Microsoft-partner voor de implementatie van BPOS. Wortell voldeed het beste aan de eisen.

SkyTeam heeft voor BPOS gekozen om het IT-beheer zoveel mogelijk te beperken. Dankzij de overstap op BPOS zijn geen investeringen nodig in de serverinfrastructuur, softwarelicenties en IT-personeel. Bruno Faccini, verantwoordelijk voor IT bij SkyTeam: “Ik denk dat we met de overstap op BPOS ongeveer 50 procent van de kosten besparen, vergeleken met de voorgaande situatie. De bekendheid met de tools - zodat er geen tijd verloren gaat met het leerproces - en de probleemloze integratie met onze IT-omgeving waren voor ons belangrijke redenen om te kiezen voor het online-aanbod van Microsoft.” SkyTeam heeft ook gekeken naar voor de hand liggende alternatieven. Maar de Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite sloot naadloos aan op de systemen die SkyTeam al in gebruik had. Ook kon BPOS in gebruik worden genomen zonder noemenswaardige IT-inspanningen.

Danny Burlage, oprichter en Technisch Directeur van Wortell: "De migratie naar BPOS is relatief simpel. Organisaties die hun hele e-mail infrastructuur migreren zijn doorgaans binnen enkele weken klaar met het complete project, waarbij de technische migratie veelal binnen enkele dagen is gedaan. Met BPOS kunnen we dus in zeer korte tijd een complete zakelijke online omgeving opbouwen, zonder na te hoeven denken over de technische infrastructuur. Het gaat dus voornamelijk om de bedrijfsmatige inrichting van de software, zoals we bij SkyTeam met SharePoint Online hebben gedaan." …

Bron en vervolg van persbericht : MCSonline.nl

Cloud Computing Security Considerations

2010-01-27T22:04:41+01:00

Microsoft already published a number of papers on security privacy and compliancy in relation to online services and cloud computing. The following paper creates a good overview of all different aspects in using ‘the cloud’ in a secure way :

A high-level discussion of the fundamental challenges and benefits of cloud computing security, plus some of the questions that cloud service providers and organisations using cloud services need to consider when evaluating a new move, or expansion of existing services, to the cloud. This document presumes that the reader is familiar with the core concepts of cloud computing and basic principles of cloud security. It is not the goal of this paper to provide all the answers to the questions of security in the cloud or to provide an exhaustive framework for cloud security.

Source : Microsoft.com

Misvatting over Online Diensten in educatie

2010-01-23T15:43:25+01:00

Eergisteren had ik een aardige “discussie” op twitter met Ernst Fuld (@efuld) van o.a. NGN over Online diensten in de educatie sector. Dit was naar aanleiding van nieuws dat Universitiet van Utrecht GMail aan haar studenten gaat bieden.

Ernst reageerde daarop met :

Dit triggerde een korte tweet-wisseling :

Het is namelijk zo dat er geen 25 GB email capaciteit geboden wordt door Google in educatie, maar “slechts” 7.414998 GB . Google laat de capaciteit heel langzaam groeien.

Ernst was van mening dat het toch de standaard 25 GB was, maar de Google Apps voor educatie pagina bevestigt het tegendeel.

Dus bij deze is dat misverstand de wereld uit. Google Apps voor educatie is niet hetzelfde als de standaard omgeving.

Even later nam Melle Gloerich (@mgloerich) ook nog even deel aan de discussie :

1. Kosten voor Google / Microsoft in educatie ?

2. Meer storage voor Google ?

3. BPOS (Microsoft Online Services) voor educatie ?

Ik heb Melle belooft daar even wat uitgebreider op te reageren, dus bij deze :

1. Kosten voor Google / Microsoft in educatie ?

Google en Microsoft hebben beiden een gratis oplossing voor educatie instelling. Deze is gratis voor studenten/leerlingen, personeel en alumni.

Google Apps voor Educatie

Microsoft Live@EDU

Een kort overzicht met de highlights van Microsoft Live@EDU:

2. Meer storage voor Google ?

Totaal dus 40GB opslag voor studenten, medewerkers met Microsoft Live@EDU.

Dit is aanzienlijk meer dan Google biedt. In een blogpost van april vorig jaar heb ik ook een evaluatie van Google Apps vs Microsoft Live@EDU

Denk je daarnaast eens in hoeveel educatieinstelling dus zouden kunnen besparen op hun opslagkosten.

Een grote groep instellingen heeft ook al voor Microsoft’s oplossingen in educatie gekozen. Een moie recente referentie is Canisius College uit Nijmegen :

Het Canisius College kiest met Live@edu voor de beste communicatie- en online samenwerkomgeving voor leerlingen en leraren
Het Canisius College was op zoek naar een communicatie- en online samenwerkoplossing voor leraren en leerlingen die goed aansluit bij hun behoeften. Lange tijd had de school een voorkeur voor Google Apps.

3. BPOS (Microsoft Online Services) voor educatie

Ja, naast Microsoft Live@EDU heeft een instelling ook de keuze om online diensten via Microsoft Online Services af te nemen. Dit is niet gratis, maar er gelden voor educatie instellingen wel speciale tarieven. Voor meer informatie over de prijzen kunnen instellingen terecht bij hun Licentiepartner (SURFdiensten, APSIT en SLB diensten.

Er wordt al veelvuldig gebruik gemaakt van Microsoft Online :

Schools adopting Microsoft Online Services

Universities are beginning to embrace the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite on campus, which is comprised of Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Communications Online and Office Live Meeting. These products have been traditionally on premise, but are now available in a paid-for, hosted environment in the cloud that Microsoft manages for you that you can buy through partners. These online services offer streamlined communication, simplified management and business-class security and reliability…and new this quarter, we are increasing the mailbox size five-fold to 25 GB for every user. Recent customer wins include:

• University System of Ohio. The state of Ohio has signed an Education Alliance Agreement with Microsoft that will bring a cloud computing approach to the entire state. Exchange Online is one of many products that will provide significant cost savings, increased productivity and improved performance while minimizing environmental impact.
• Hofstra University. Hofstra is moving its faculty and staff to Exchange Online. By using Microsoft’s security, spam filtering and archiving capabilities, the technical staff will be able to concentrate on providing other high-valued academic services to the University.
• Belmont University. Belmont is using Exchange Online to serve approximately 1,400 faculty and staff email accounts. The Exchange Online implementation supports the school’s green initiatives by saving space and energy costs. They anticipate saving about $30,000 a year by not having to hire additional IT staff to support.

Bron: Microsoft Education Blog

Microsoft biedt dus verschillende opties, keuze, voor educatie instellingen hoe zij hun ICT omgeving willen inrichten. Het onderstaande document geeft inzicht welke afwegingen een instelling kan maken in de keuze voor bijvoorbeeld het email platform :

Key Considerations For Exchange Email Deployments In Academic Environments
View more documents from dehaaspeter.

En hier blijft het niet bij … Coming soon:

Office Web Applications (Office in de browser, Safari, FF, IE)

SharePoint Online based collaboration (met office Web Apps) - gratis voor studenten

New collaboration opportunities

We are also announcing new SharePoint Online-based collaboration and productivity services will be available for students as part of the Live@edu next year. These new SharePoint-based services will offer IT departments more flexibility and control to set up and manage their school’s collaboration and productivity tools in a security-enhanced environment…as well as the ability to access and manage permissions to sites, documents and content (pictures, videos) with enterprise-class control.

For students, these new services give them access to similar types of functionality that has made SharePoint the fastest growing server product in Microsoft history. It will enable them to create, edit and securely access content from their school’s site anywhere, whether at home, at the school library or even while on the road for holiday. It will allow them to organize, track and easily share classroom information, interests, expertise and easily find colleagues. By leveraging Office Web Apps that are currently in technical preview, students will have a new online space where they can securely upload, easily share, and collaborate on documents, including in-place editing. We believe this will better prepare them for the workforce through use of functionality and technology used every day in the workplace.

Microsoft’s software plus services model—which spans mission-critical datacenter availability and security, Live@edu, Microsoft Online Services collaboration and communication offerings, and Windows Azure—combines the reach and flexibility of the cloud with the power of on-premises software applications. Today, we see that people want to access information on the PC, in the browser and on a mobile device…and I think this the real value in moving to the cloud…having the flexibility and choice to run your solutions either in the cloud, on premises, or a mix of the two.

Bron: Microsoft Education Blog

Microsoft Online diensten in educatie … now you know …

Email market share is getting more confusing by the day

2010-01-21T15:17:42+01:00

Email market share has been a discussion topic shortly after the solution came to market (ages ago) and it is also a fun topic for many people.

Although “Email in the cloud” was introduced in the mid-90’s, it now has become a hot topic in the whole email market share discussion. This becomes clear when you look at for example a recent article on LotusLive :

…With LotusLive, launched just a year ago, the effort is to allow people to be able to stay in their in-box and bring work tasks, information, and people together, in context. It has 18 million users today compared to just about 1 million each for Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) and Google Premier Apps. …

The conclusion looks straightforward :

18 M users in Lotus Live

1 M in BPOS

1 M in GAPE

The question it raises : What are the various platforms and what functionality is offered, licensed and used. So are we comparing apples to apples ?

A second question it raises : which email platform(s) does the vendor offer. Assuming you can only sell so many different email platforms to 1 company, 1 solution is gaining share while the other is loosing right ?

So 2 interesting tables / charts to build would be :

An overview of email platform(s) offered per vendor

An All-up market share view of total mailboxes per vendor with maybe a consumer / business split.

Request to all of you interested in this topic :

I will make a start with this but would very much appreciate your comments / tweets to public data sources that can help me figure this out.

SharePoint Online in the 2010 wave

2010-01-14T21:41:11+01:00

2010 is an important year for Microsoft Online Services. The “wave 14” platform with all the new Office Servers (Exchange, SharePoint, Office Communications) will also be part of the new major release of Microsoft Online Services / BPOS.

Arpan Shah provides a high-level overview of what’s to come with SahrePoint 2010 Online :

… I’m a big fan of SharePoint Online along with over one million other users out there. It’s a reliable, convenient service that allows companies to take advantage of SharePoint without having to host it themselves. It’s software-as-a-service at it’s best.

SharePoint Online today, based on SharePoint 2007, does a good job providing some of the core SharePoint capabilities. In the second half of this calendar year, SharePoint Online will be updated to SharePoint 2010 at which point it will be even more powerful & provide even greater parity with SharePoint 2010 “On-Premises”. This is largely due to all the investments we’ve made in the 2010 wave around multi-tenancy and extensibility. …

… Fore more information, you can also check out a recent podcast I did on SharePoint Online @ http://www.sharepointpodshow.com/archive/2010/01/13/sharepoint-online-and-sharepoint-2010-ecm-episode-41.aspx

Continue at Source: SharePoint Online in the 2010 wave

Total Recall Is Coming

2010-01-14T21:04:46+01:00

I just ordered Jim Gemmel’s and Gordon Bell’s book Total Recall.

I had heard a lot about this project over the last few years and after reading the article below became very curious about the details. The article shows where this can lead …

For the last 10 years, Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell of Microsoft Research have been scanning and digitising their entire lives: documents, phone calls, files, chat sessions, email, the web pages they read, the TV and radio shows they watched and listened to, where they want, what applications they had open…

Over the next 10 years, you’re going to do the same, Gemmell told the Storage Visions conference at CES 2010.

“What if you could remember literally everything you’ve ever read, everything you’ve ever seen, everything you’ve ever heard – and things that are not usually in human memory like what’s the temperature of the room, what’s the humidity. We’re entering a world where increasingly, if something can be instrumented it will be; there are sensors everywhere. We’re entering a world of total recall.”

“You will record way more of your life than in past history,” Gemmell says, because of three trends. “We’re already wandering around with digital cameras, phones with cameras that record audio and some of them know your location… as time goes by we get the sensed world.

“Storage is becoming so cheap and abundant that it blows our minds. And there’s the software; we have the technology to do something with all those bits. We have the technology to search, to analyse, to visualise the information.” …

Continue at Source : Total Recall Is Coming