Forrester : Case Study: Learning From GlaxoSmithKline's Cloud-Based Email Decision Process

GlaxoSmithKline already in January announced they plan tp save up to 30% on their Communication and Collaboration infrastructure costs by moving from Lotus Notes/Domino to Microsoft Online Services.

Forrester created a research paper on this that provides more background. Very interesting read for this still on Lotus Notes :

Executive Summary

GlaxoSmithKline is moving approximately 90,000 email users to Microsoft's Exchange Online, a cloud-delivered service. To make the decision, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) went through a rigorous internal discovery process to calculate costs, find dependencies, and analyze its workforce. The result is that GSK is able to optimize its messaging and collaboration platform to meet the full range of its end users' requirements — while saving on its ongoing costs. To make your own cloud-based opportunity, learn from GSK's experience and: 1) analyze your workforce needs; 2) tier your workforce to optimize costs; and 3) calculate your own fully loaded costs.

Continue at source : Forrester.com

The Microsoft Online Services Diagnostics and Logging (MOSDAL) support toolkit

Yet another new acronym MOSDAL. But certainly one that can come in handy when you’re having issues with Microsoft Online Services :

The KB artcle explains it all and includes the download link to the tool as well ..

The MOSDAL support toolkit performs network diagnostics and collects system configuration, network configuration, and logging information for service-based products. The logs that the tool generates provide data that helps technical support professionals troubleshoot configuration, network, installation, and other service-related issues. MOSDAL collects log files, registry keys, and configuration settings that would otherwise require time-consuming and labor-intensive collection by using separate tools.
This article contains the following information about the MOSDAL support toolkit:

• Download location
• System requirements
• Installation use instructions
• Toolkit functionality

Source: Michttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/960625rosoft.com

Microsoft opens 'mega data centre' in Dublin

Yet another milestone in Microsoft’s rollout of Online Strategy. Microsoft will open a new data centre in Dublin tomorrow, the first one of its size outside the US, for its cloud computing and online services.

Microsoft is set to open its first “mega data centre” outside of the US in Dublin tomorrow to help support its Online Live and Cloud services.

The project was slowed down earlier this year due to financial constraints in the company, but recovery throughout the year has lead to the summer opening of this 303,000 square foot building.

It was announced by Arne Josefsberg, general manager of Infrastructure Services for the Global Foundation Services at Microsoft, via a blog.

He said: “We take great pride in the innovations [the data centres] deliver to move the data centre industry forward and to extend Microsoft’s online services to customers globally. As the company’s Software-plus-Services strategy progresses, these data centres will play a key supporting role.”

Josefsberg also said: “The facility makes extensive use of outside air economisation to cool the facility year round, resulting in greater power efficiency with a resultant reduction in carbon footprint.”

Later in July, the company will also be launching another mega data centre in Chicago.

Source: Microsoft opens 'mega data centre' in Dublin

Microsoft Online Services Migration Tools (32|64 bit)

The migrations tool to migrate Microsoft Exchange mailboxes onto Microsoft Online Services has been updated :

Use the Microsoft Online Services Migration Tools to forward copies of your Exchange Server mail to your Exchange Online mailboxes. You can also use the Migration Tools to copy content from your Exchange Server, POP3, or IMAP4 e-mail server mailboxes to your Exchange Online mailboxes. This product intended for use with Microsoft Online Services only.

Source: Migration Tools (32 bit) / Migration Tools (64 bit)

‘Vertrek en Ontdek’ te gast bij Microsoft: Een reis naar je eigen online wereld en die van anderen

Leuk ! A.s. dinsdag is Sigrid van der Hoeven te gast bij ons met een nieuw inititiatief : ‘Vertrek en Ontdek’ Ik ga mee op ‘reis’ die dag, mijn koffer is al gepakt :-) …

In mijn rol als reisleider bij Vertrek&Ontdek organiseer ik dinsdag 30 juni mijn allereerste dagtrip, van 13.00 tot 17.00 uur in het Microsoft kantoor op Schiphol.

Deze dagtrip gaat in op diverse aspecten van het internet, handig om te weten voor iedere professional. Online netwerken, personal branding en online reputatiemanagement: internet als hulpmiddel.

De reis eindigt met een sightseeing door het innovatieve, inspirerende hoofdkantoor van Microsoft Nederland met spectaculair uitzicht op de vertrekkende en ontdekkende vliegtuigen.

Bron: Een reis naar je eigen online wereld en die van anderen

Radicati: EMEA Hosted Email Market projected to grow to 564M mailboxes by 2013

Impressive growth ahead in the coming years for Hosted Email in Emea :

… The Radicati Group, Inc.'s latest study, "EMEA Hosted Email Market, 2009-2013," provides an in-depth look at all segments of the European Hosted Email market, including: ISP/Webmail email, Hosted Business Email, and Managed Business Email.

According to the study, the installed base of hosted email mailboxes in EMEA is expected to grow from 398 M mailboxes in 2009, to 564M mailboxes by 2013. Growth is driven by increased broadband Internet availability across the region, lower prices and better bundling of premium services. Businesses, throughout EMEA, are also taking renewed interest in hosted business email solutions as a way to reduce costs in a tight economy. This is reinforced by the increased availability of low-cost, full-featured messaging and collaboration suites from Microsoft, Google and others.

The study provides an analysis of leading EMEA market players: 1&1/GMX, Arcor, Arsys, BT, Cobweb, Colt, Free, Global SP, Jazztel, Jet Multimedia, Mamut ASA/Active 24, Orange Business Services, Register.it, T-Home/T-Systems, Telecom Italia, Versatel, and others. …

Source: Radicati.com

New BPOS Whitepaper: Microsoft Online Services Business Value

This paper discusses how Microsoft® Online Services, subscription-based online communication and collaboration services, can free information technology resources and bring value to your business.

… Microsoft® Online Services provide businesses with subscription-based Microsoft-hosted online services that offer access to rich communication, collaboration, and productivity applications from anywhere. This hosted solution helps organizations reduce the costs of managing and maintaining business systems, which frees information technology resources and enables staff to focus on initiatives that can deliver competitive advantage to the business. This paper discusses the value that Online Services can bring to your business. …

Source and download: Microsoft Online Services Business Value

Microsoft Project Natal – sell your WII while you can :-)

… One of the biggest announcements at Microsoft's E3 keynote was Project Natal, an ambitious project using camera tech developed by 3DV. The keynote promo video shows off many planned uses for the new peripheral, running the gamut from something as simple as beating up an old, feeble man, to complex voice recognition and scanning features. It's ambitious, to say the least, and only time will tell if the company can pull it off …

Check out the video :

Source : joystiq.com

Frontier Technology and Binary Tree Collaborate to Offer Weekend Express Migrations to Microsoft Online to the European Market

Now also available in Europe: Weekend Express Migrations; migrating from Lotus Notes / Domino to Microsoft Online Services in a very fast way…

… Now European Organizations that are Running Lotus Notes Can Migrate Up To 5,000 Users to Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Standard Suite (BPOS Standard) In as Little as One Weekend

NEWARK, N.J., June 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Binary Tree announced today a collaborative partnership with Frontier Technology in the United Kingdom to offer Binary Tree's Weekend Express migration offering to the European market. Hosted at Frontier Technology's data center based in the UK, Weekend Express migrations will enable organizations in Europe that are running Lotus Notes to migrate up to 5,000 users to Microsoft Exchange Online and the Business Productivity Online Standard Suite (BPOS Standard) in as little as one weekend.

"Our Weekend Express has been met with overwhelming demand," stated Steven Pivnik, Co-CEO at Binary Tree. "Establishing a partnership with a trusted and experienced provider of enterprise messaging solutions like Frontier Technology will help make this offer available to more customers in Europe."

Frontier Technology's Weekend Express data center team will perform a pre-weekend initial briefing, a pre-weekend environmental audit and the migration itself all the while guiding customers through every step of Binary Tree's proven, best-practices methodology for migrations from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange Online. Considering Frontier Technology's extensive knowledge of Symantec's Enterprise Vault offering, Frontier Technology will also provide customers with the option of archiving the portion of their mail store they elect not to migrate to Microsoft Exchange Online.

"We are very excited about collaborating with Binary Tree," stated Edwin Wong, Managing Director at Frontier Technology. "The Weekend Express offering is a perfect addition to our capabilities and will help our Lotus Notes customer base take advantage of Microsoft's Cloud Computing Offering." …

Source: PRNewswire.com

Microsoft Live@EDU : Vragen over Outlook Live? Hier zijn de antwoorden …

Een blogpost van Remco Ploeg die de moeite waard is om te herhalen .. Outlook Live is de nieuwste propssitie binnen de Microsoft Live@EDU familie; een gratis 10GB Microsoft Exchange mailbox voor elke student en/of medewerker van een educatie instelling .. Voor gebruikers / administrators is er nu een nieuwe resource : http://outlookliveanswers.com/

Dan heeft Microsoft een nieuwe website gelanceerd waar je als gebruiker vragen kan stellen over dit onderwerp.

http://outlookliveanswers.com/

Hieronder een stukje uit de bekendmaking.

We are pleased to announce the release of Outlook Live Answers.  This forum and blog site provides Live@edu Outlook Live administrators and end-users with a friendly “Q&A” forum to quickly find answers to their questions and for administrators to get dynamic information about their Outlook Live service.

The site complements our help.outlook.com product documentation and will extend and replace our chalktalk DL. Instead of dispersing information in DLs, use of the forum by you and your student, faculty, and alumni end users will enable us to build a knowledge base that is available 24 hours a day.  There is also an administrator section, so you can continue to connect with your peers on administrative issues just as you do today on chalktalk. 

One particular exciting feature is a new Status and Alert system used to notify Outlook Live customers of service issues.   This update, located at http://outlookliveanswers.com/servicestatus.aspx, replaces the manual external blog approach we have previously used and allows us deliver targeted service information about your specific account

Bron: Vragen over Outlook Live?

Security Features in Microsoft Online Services

New document on the security features of Microsoft Online Services:

… This white paper describes how the Microsoft concern for security, as defined in the Trustworthy Computing initiative, has driven key features in the design, deployment, and operation of the Microsoft Online Services environment.
The Business Productivity Online Suite is a set of subscription-based enterprise software services hosted by Microsoft and sold with partners. The services operate within a complete ecosystem of features and capabilities designed to meet and in many cases to exceed the security and availability goals that you have for your business applications. …

Download : Microsoft.com

Samen-Werken 2.9 – Microsoft presentatie

Vandaag was het event Samen-Werken 2,9, georganiseerd door Sigrid van der Hoeven van NetQuotez.

Veel leuke sprekers en inspirerende presentaties. Ik heb weer een hoop opgestoken.

Sigrid had mij gevraagd iets te vertelen over het nieuwe werken bij Microsoft Nederland, dat heb ik met veel plezier gedaan, want praten over je werk is leuk ..

Hier is mijn presentatie van vandaag :

Samen Werken 2.9 Het Nieuwe Werken @ Microsoft 18 5 2009

View more presentations from dehaaspeter.

O ja, je kunt op slideshare tegenwoordig YouTube videos embedden in de presentatie. Mijn videootjes van vandaag stonden al op Youtube zo bleek dus die zitten er ook in, evenals het rapport over het nieuwe werken dat ik een van de vragenstellers had beloofd.

Martijn, bedankt voor de feedback :-)

Microsoft Live@EDU vernieuwd

De Microsoft Live@EDU diensten, gratis email en diensten voor communicatie en samenwerken voor de educatie sector, hebben een nieuw thuis.

De informatie over en het inschrijven voor Microsoft Live@EDU is overozchtelijker en gemakkelijker geworden :

 

Meer informatie : Microsoft Live@EDU

Microsoft Home of the Future

The BBC has a aired a short impression of the Microsoft Home of the future which is located at the campus in Redmond. I’ve been there myself a couple of times and its very cool.

Kudo’s Marc Valk

Mobility Solutions for Microsoft Online Services (BPOS)

Access Microsoft Online Services, Exchange Online and SharePoint Online with your smartphone; almost any smartphone that is, including the BlackBerry.

For “pushmail” (email, calendar, contacts, tasks) with Exchange Online there’s a great overview of the different vendors supporting Exchange Active Sync (including Nokia, Apple and SamSung)

… In an increasingly mobile world, more employees need seamless access to more types of communications and collaboration information—including e-mail, calendar, contacts, tasks, and shared content—from virtually anywhere, at any time. Microsoft Online Services includes two services which can be accessed through mobile phones: Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft SharePoint Online. Both Exchange Online and SharePoint Online can be accessed through a variety of devices: Windows Mobile 6.0+ devices, Exchange ActiveSync devices, and RIM BlackBerry devices.

See solutions for each device type:

• Windows Mobile devices
• Exchange ActiveSync devices
• RIM BlackBerry devices

For detailed information on solutions for each device type, download the Mobility Solutions Description (Word). …

Source: Microsoft Online Services

De vergadertafel van de toekomst

Video impressie van Microsoft Surface en een toepassing ontwikkeld door Logica ..

Identity & Access Management in the cloud: Geneva Whitepapers and Datasheet

"Geneva" Claims Based Access Platform
"Geneva" helps simplify access to applications and other systems with an open and interoperable claims-based model.
For developers: "Geneva" helps simplify user access for developers by externalizing access logic from applications via claims, and reducing development effort with pre-built security logic and integrated .NET tools.
For IT professionals: "Geneva" helps IT efficiently deploy and manage new applications by reducing custom implementation work, consolidating access management in the hands of IT, helping establish a consistent security model, and facilitating seamless collaboration between organizations with automated federation tools.
For information workers and consumers: Users can benefit from help navigating logins, managing different personas, and controlling how personal information is shared.

• "Geneva" includes built-in interoperability via open industry standards and claims, and implements the industry Identity Metasystem vision for open and interoperable identity.
• "Geneva" includes three components for enabling claims-based access. Beta 1 of the following components are now available for public evaluation:
• "Geneva" Framework for building .NET applications that use claims to make user access decisions
• "Geneva" Server security token service (STS) for issuing and transforming claims, enabling federations, and managing user access
• Windows CardSpace "Geneva" for helping users navigate access decisions and for developers to build customer authentication experiences for users

Go to the download page for downloading the papers : Microsoft.com

2 new Microsoft BPOS Documents

2 new documents have come available this week providing more detail on the differences between SharePoint Online and Sharepoint On premise.

The second document is an updated version of the Trial Guide, describing the registration and setup of the BPOS trial :

 

Infrastructure Planning and Design Guides for SharePoint Online

Considering an online solution for your organization’s collaboration services? The SharePoint Online—Evaluating Software-plus-Services guide provides a clear comparison of SharePoint collaboration technologies across on-premises, standard hosting, and dedicated hosting scenarios. Join the beta program today and give us your feedback.  (Live ID login and registration required)

Download IPD Guide for SharePoint Online

 

Trial Guide for Microsoft Online Services is Published

A new Trial Guide for Microsoft Online Services has been published and is available from the Microsoft Download Center.

If you are considering the Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft Online Services and want to start a 30-day trial of the services, the Trial Guide will help you get started with the trial and work through several common administrative and end-user tasks. The guide provides step-by-step instructions for several scenarios, including:

· Setting up a 30-day trial account in the Microsoft Online Customer Portal (MOCP)

· Basic account administration

· SharePoint Online administration

· Setting up the end user experience

· Converting a trial account to a paid subscription

Source: Microsoft Online Services Team Blog

InfoWorld: Groeiende interesse MKB in managed services

InfoWord publiceerde vorige week een artikel dat de groeiende interesse van MKB bedrijven in Managed Services of wel diensten aangeeft. Dit naar aanleiding van een onderzoek van MarketCap.

Zoals het artikel al aangeeft is Microsoft een van de bedrijven die hier actief op inspeelt met ondermeer door partner gehoste oplossingen en online diensten rechtsreeks van Microsoft.

.. en wellicht heel aantrekkelijk voor de snelle beslissers, Mirosoft geeft nu tot 25% korting aan bedrijven die de BPOS Suite voor eind juni 2009 aanschaffen ! 

… Bedrijven zullen in 2009 het meest investeren in volledig beheerde netwerk- en platformdiensten, zo voorspelt onderzoeksbureau MarketCap. Met name het midden- en kleinbedrijf zal dit jaar massaal kiezen voor managed services, zoals software-as-a-service.

Volgens MarketCap, dat eind 2008 de investeringsintenties bij bedrijven en instellingen onderzocht, zijn managed services in 2008 en 2009 de meest genoemde IT-investering. Zo zou eenderde van de kleinere bedrijven het werkplekbeheer nu al aan externe mensen overlaten.

Betere service
Kleinere en middelgrote ondernemingen met een beperkte IT-capaciteit zijn bijzonder ontvankelijk voor volledig beheerde diensten, constateert MarketCap. Kim van Brugge van distributeur Portland Europe ziet deze ontwikkeling terug in de praktijk. "Veel IT dienstverlenende bedrijven in de Benelux zijn nu juist op zoek naar een goede managed service oplossing waarmee zij klanten niet alleen een kwalitatief betere service kunnen verlenen, maar ook tegen een aantrekkelijker kostenplaatje."

Softwareleveranciers met veel klanten in het MKB, zoals Microsoft, Symantec, Trend Micro en IASO, spelen al in op deze trend en ontwikkelden specifieke managed services voor deze doelgroep. In de Benelux gaat het om een omvangrijk marktsegment: zo zijn er in deze regio alleen al 50.000 bedrijven met 20-100 medewerkers. Bedrijven zouden ook vanwege de huidige economische situatie sneller kiezen voor managed services, aldus MarketCap. Diensten zoals software-as-a-service zijn in trek, omdat de eindgebruiker vooraf geen investeringen hoeft te doen. …

Bron: Groeiende interesse MKB in managed services

DMTF to Develop Standards for Managing a Cloud Computing Environment

 

Hopefully a cloud initiatve that does work. Interoperability is a key component in Cloud Computing. Glad to see Microsoft is one of the active participants.

Open Cloud Standards Incubator Created to Address Management Interoperability for Cloud Systems

… The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF), the organization bringing the IT industry together to collaborate on systems management standards development, validation, promotion and adoption, today announced that it has formed a group dedicated to addressing the need for open management standards for cloud computing. The "Open Cloud Standards Incubator" will work to develop a set of informational specifications for cloud resource management.

As virtualization technology continues to be more rapidly adopted, it is emerging as a common enabling foundation for delivering software solutions into IT environments along with the potential to lower IT costs and improve operational efficiencies. While deploying virtualization technologies it is also critical to have comprehensive management capabilities associated with the implementation. Along with the adoption of virtualization, more and more enterprise IT customers are looking at the cloud computing paradigm to better deliver services to their customers.

No specific standards currently exist for enabling interoperability between private clouds within enterprises and hosted or public cloud providers. DMTF's Open Cloud Standards Incubator will focus on addressing these issues by developing cloud resource management protocols, packaging formats and security mechanisms to facilitate interoperability.

"Cloud computing will have a major impact on IT management," said Winston Bumpus, DMTF president. "With the DMTF's track record for leading the industry in the development of proven standards for management interoperability, along with its extensive network of Alliance Partners, this Open Cloud Standards Incubator provides an ideal setting for initiating work on specifications to enable interoperable cloud management."

The work of the Open Cloud Standards Incubator will focus on ways to facilitate operations between private clouds within enterprises and other private, public, or hybrid clouds by improving the interoperability between platforms through open cloud resource management standards. The group also aims to develop specifications to enable cloud service portability and provide management consistency across cloud and enterprise platforms.

The Open Cloud Standards Incubator was formed as part of the DMTF Standards Incubation process, which enables like-minded DMTF members to work together and produce informational specifications that can later be fast-tracked through the standards development process. The incubation process is designed to foster and expedite open, collaborative, exploratory technical work that complements the DMTF mission to lead the development, adoption and promotion of interoperable management initiatives and standards.

The current incubator leadership board consists of AMD, Cisco, Citrix, EMC, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Novell, Red Hat, Savvis, Sun Microsystems, and VMware. Please click here for more information, or to learn more about participating. …

Continue at source

Announcing Weekend Express Migrations to Microsoft Online from Lotus Notes

I’ve indicated in previous blogposts that Microsoft Online Services is going to be an accellerator in migrating Lotus Notes / Domino environments to the Microsoft Platform. Binary Tree has a great new offering in this area : customers are not required to buy, install or configure any hardware or software for the migration … That’s the Online business in a nutshell …

… Binary Tree announced today Weekend Express migrations that enable organizations with up to 5,000 users to be migrated to Microsoft Exchange Online and the Business Productivity Online Standard Suite (BPOS Standard) from IBM Lotus Notes in as little as one weekend. The Weekend Express offering includes migrating email, calendars, contacts, and to-do's and also provides an option to maintain the functionality of mail-enabled Lotus Notes workflow applications to interoperate with Microsoft Outlook without requiring any application modifications. Pricing starts at $29 per mailbox.

Binary Tree's software has been key to helping organizations like Blockbuster, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Ingersoll Rand and others to migrate over 100,000 users from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Online and the Business Productivity Online Suite. Now with Weekend Express, customers are not required to buy, install or configure any hardware or software for the migration. Binary Tree's Weekend Express data center runs the migration and can scale to migrate organizations with up to 5,000 users in one weekend. Support for larger organizations can also be provided and BPOS Dedicated should be considered. …

Source: PRNewswire.com

Persbericht: Microsoft Online Services – nu leverbaar

Het officiële Microsoft persbericht n.a.v. de beschikbaarheid van Microsoft Online Services in Nederland. Het persbericht bevat de link naar de presentatie en er zijn ook 3 leuke graphics beschikbaar, zie de links onderaan het persbericht

Schiphol, 29 april 2009 – Na een korte testperiode is de Business Productivity Online Suite, onderdeel van Microsoft Online Services, leverbaar in 19 landen, waaronder Nederland. Het betreft hier bedrijfssoftware die in de vorm van een reeks diensten via internet wordt geleverd. Deze ‘software uit de muur’ wordt gehost in een datacenter van Microsoft of bij een hosting partner en door partners van Microsoft verkocht en op maat gemaakt. In Nederland zijn er inmiddels een aantal bedrijven die van BPOS gebruikmaken.

“De infrastructuur voor het Nieuwe Werken. Wel de baten maar niet de lasten,” zo kenschetst Peter de Haas, Online Strategy Manager Microsoft Nederland, de Business Productivity Online Suite. “We bieden deze suite aan als een pakket van online diensten, als abonnement verkocht door partners en gehost door Microsoft. Onze klanten hebben nu de keuze hoe zij de software van Microsoft willen installeren: op hun eigen server(s), als dienst gehost door een Microsoft Hosting partner, of door Microsoft.”

Microsoft Online Services bestaat momenteel uit de Business Productivity Online Suite en de Deskless Worker Suite. De componenten van BPOS zijn:

• Exchange Standard: e-mail, gedeelde agenda en contacten, toegankelijk via PC, mobiele telefoon en webbrowser, vrij van spam en virussen
• SharePoint Standard: online samenwerken en documenten, applicaties, video en audio delen, alsof je naast elkaar zit
• Office Communications: inzicht in elkaars bereikbaarheid, chat en via één klik communiceren
• Live Meeting Standard : web- en video- vergaderen

De Deskless Worker Suite is een goedkope oplossing voor gebruikers die momenteel geen toegang hebben tot e-mail- en samenwerkingsdiensten. Bedrijven kunnen hiermee al hun werknemers toegang geven tot dezelfde e-mail- en samenwerkingssystemen. Voor meer informatie: www.microsoft.nl/online en www.ictheld.nl.

Nederlandse gebruikers

NoSuch Company schakelde onlangs over van een eigen communicatieserver naar Business Productivity Online Suite, een krachtige set online diensten voor communicatie en samenwerking. Coen de Heer, IT-beheerder bij NoSuch Company: “Als we de IT die we in gedachten hadden ‘on premises' op eigen servers zouden laten draaien, was dat een kostenintensief traject geweest. Door te kiezen voor de Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite hadden we heel snel de beschikking over alle functionaliteit, zonder grote investeringen te moeten doen in een compleet serverpark en alles wat daarbij hoort. Het enige wat een pc-gebruiker nodig heeft, is een internetaansluiting en Microsoft Office 2007. Vergelijk de Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite met gas, licht en water: waar je het nodig hebt komt het als het ware uit de muur. En heb je een draadloos netwerk, dan pluk je de IT gewoon uit de lucht.”

Procore is voorstander van een moderne, flexibele aanpak volgens ‘het nieuwe werken'. Zo hoeven medewerkers zich niet te houden aan vaste kantooruren van 9 tot 5. In plaats daarvan zijn ze onderweg naar of aan het werk bij de klant. Of ze werken in een café, thuis of op kantoor. “Uit eigen ervaring weten we hoezeer het flexibele werken in onze organisatie bijdraagt aan een prettige en productieve werkomgeving en een gebalanceerde levensstijl. Dat gunnen we onze klanten ook”, aldus Ariejan van Saane, Senior Consultant bij Procore. Met de Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite realiseerde Procore verbeterde toegang tot informatie en verbeterde communicatie zodat de gebruiker kan bepalen hoe, waar en wanneer hij werkt. Verder is de productiviteit verhoogd en bedraagt de kostenbesparing jaarlijks € 77.400.

annatommie is een orthopedisch behandelcentrum met ambitieuze plannen. Van vier vestigingen wil annatommie groeien naar 18 locaties. Om deze plannen waar te maken moest eerst de productiviteit omhoog en de kosten omlaag, onder meer door handmatige processen te automatiseren. Omdat annatommie opzag tegen hoge IT-investeringen wees IT-partner Tam Tam op de Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite. Hiermee kan annatommie met hetzelfde personeel 30% meer patiënten te behandelen. Door slimmere communicatie en informatieverwerking winnen medewerkers een tot twee uur per dag. Tegelijkertijd spaart annatommie jaarlijks € 28.000,= uit aan softwarelicenties.

Een presentatie van Peter de Haas over de Microsoft Online Services is hier te vinden. Blogs van Peter de Haas over ‘software uit de muur’ zijn te vinden op Peterdehaas.net

Microsoft

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is opgericht in 1975 en stelt met zijn software, diensten en technologische oplossingen mensen en organisaties overal ter wereld in staat hun ambities te verwezenlijken.

Voor meer informatie:

Voor journalisten:

Microsoft Persdesk, telefoon: +31 (0)20 - 500 2555, e-mail: persdesk@microsoft.com.

Gebruikers die technische ondersteuning zoeken, kunnen contact opnemen met de helpdesk van Microsoft Nederland: 020 - 500 15 00

Dit persbericht en andere persinformatie van Microsoft kunt u ook vinden op de website van Microsoft Nederland, op pagina www.microsoft.nl/nieuws/.

Microsoft en Windows zijn hetzij gedeponeerde handelsmerken hetzij handelsmerken van Microsoft Corporation in de Verenigde Staten en/of andere landen. Alle andere merk- en productnamen zijn handelsmerken of geregistreerde handelsmerken van hun respectieve houders.

 

Foto's

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Bron: Microsoft.nl

NIBC Bank kiest e-office voor migratie IBM Lotus Notes naar Microsoft Exchange

Weer een Microsoft klant die van Lotus Notes Domino naar het Microsoft platform migreert. Al enige jaren geleden is NIBC SharePOint gaan gebruiken, nu de laatste lootjes …

… Houten, 28 april 2009 - e-office, the human software organisation en specialist in het optimaliseren van de digitale werkomgeving van professionals, verzorgt voor de Nederlandse zakenbank NIBC N.V de migratie van IBM Lotus Notes naar de Microsoft Exchange-omgeving. De migratie past in de lijn van NIBC's strategische keuze voor het Business Productivity-platform van Microsoft als basis voor hun digitale werkomgeving.

"e-office heeft uitgebreide kennis van en ervaring met beide technologieën. Zij voeren vaker migraties als deze uit, maar de belangrijkste reden dat NIBC voor e-office kiest, is hun projectaanpak. De grote aandacht voor de eindgebruiker in de verschillende fases van het project is uniek", aldus David van ’t Hoog, Manager Infrastructure van NIBC. "Wij zien dat de aandacht voor de mens in alle fases van het traject, de acceptatie binnen de gehele organisatie verhoogt waardoor een soepele overgang naar een nieuwe werkomgeving ontstaat."
De migratie van IBM Lotus Notes naar Microsoft Exchange wordt bedrijfsbreed doorgevoerd. Het traject bestaat uit twee fases. In de eerste fase vindt een uitgebreid vooronderzoek naar de eisen plaats en wordt een analyse gemaakt van de huidige situatie. Daarna volgt de technische inrichting en uitrol. De inzet van workshops en persoonlijke trainingen maakt de overgang naar de nieuwe werkomgeving voor het personeel zo eenvoudig mogelijk.
Zakenbank NIBC biedt geïntegreerde oplossingen aan middelgrote bedrijven in de Benelux en Duitsland op het gebied van financiële advisering, financieringen en co-investeringen. Daarnaast is het een belangrijke speler op het gebied van asset financiering in sectoren als financiële dienstverlening, olie & gas industrie, infrastructuur en onroerend goed. NIBC Bank heeft kantoren in Den Haag, Brussel, Frankfurt, Londen en Singapore. Daarnaast richt NIBC Bank zich op de consumentenmarkt met de spaarbank, NIBC Direct.  …

Bron: e-office.nl

Everyone talks about Webbased Office Suites very few actually use them

This Forrester report confirms my findings when it comes to webbased Office functionality. Everyone talks about it but very little people actually use it as their primary Office tools. Because everyone talks about it, there is also the general perception that webbased Office tools are widely used. Well they’re not according to this Forrester Poll.

This research shows that only 3% of the users interviewed use Google Premier Apps. I doubt if this is truely the replacement for their Office Suite or if they use Google Apps alongside it.

In many cases where people talk about webbased Office suites or have questions in that direction I find that it is not actually the editiing functions they like / desire, its the ability to share documents; often with people outside their own department / organisation. Something we used to call groupware. Hence in the same research the requirement for Collaboration functionality.

I do agree with the conclusion that the demand for webbased office tools will grow. Not because the browser is the ideal UI but because users want the ability to choose. Rich functions and offline capability when running Office locally and browser / mobile functions when they are not behind their own PC.

Functionality in the browser is the ideal companion next to my PC based apps, basically this is the way I use Outlook Web Access today. I access email through OWA whenever and wherever I am not behind my PC and when my mobile phone doesn’t help me process emails fast enough.

Microsoft Office Web Applications will be part of the next release of Microsoft Office; Microsoft Office 2010.

…. Forrester is set to release a new report about Web Office, which ReadWriteWeb got a sneak peak at. The report offers new data on office productivity innovation and cloud productivity suite adoption. The full data will be presented at Forrester's IT Forum, to be held in Las Vegas May 19-22, 2009. The data shows that while enterprises are looking forward to innovation in web access and collaboration, they're not so forward-looking when it comes to data integration. Also we discover that the vast majority of IT departments still support Microsoft Office, but very few support Google Premier Apps right now. …

In another slide, Forrester concluded that cloud computing adoption within enterprises is still low. 80% of respondants still support crusty old Microsoft Office, while just 3% claim to support Google Premier Apps. It really does seem like the whole enterprise industry is sitting back and waiting on Microsoft to roll out their long-awaited Web Office offerings. By these figures, it doesn't appear like Google is making too much of a dent in the market. However we're sure it is just a matter of time before Web Office suites are common in the workplace - even Microsoft has acknowledged that cloud computing will be an important driver for enterprise software. …

Source: Report: Web Office Support, Expectations Still Low in Enterprises

Comparing Lotus Domino/Notes and Exchange Server 2010

On the Microsoft Exchange website a great article is posted which point organisation still on Lotus Notes Domino to new advantages Microsoft Exchange 2010 brings.

 

Why switch from Lotus Domino/Notes to Exchange 2010?

At a time when organizations require adaptable and cost-effective communication tools, Microsoft Exchange 2010 helps achieve new levels of reliability and performance by delivering features that simplify administration, help protect communications, and delight users by meeting their demands for greater business mobility. Microsoft^® Exchange, the cornerstone of Microsoft's Unified Communications solution, has long been the choice of organizations to enable rich and productive collaboration among its users. With the latest release of Exchange, users are assured the widest range of deployment options, the richest user experience, and integrated information leakage protection and compliance capabilities which combine to form the best messaging and collaboration solution available. Come join the ~10 million strong that have already decided to make the switch to Microsoft in just the past few years!

Continue at source

Microsoft Business Productivity Online Services (BPOS) nu commercieel beschikbaar in Nederland.

Vandaag hebben we de laatste stap in de lancering van Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Services (BPOS) gehad. Deze laatste stap is de Commercial Availability; dit houdt in dat BPOS vanaf nu te bestellen is in Nederland. ook betekent dit dat de bestaande evaluaties na 30 dagen aflopen.

Er zijn inmiddels al een aantal bedrijven in Nederland die BPOS gebruiken. Van 3 van onze klanten en de betrokken partners zijn vandaag Nederlandstalige referentie cases gepubliceerd. Hopelijk een goede inspiratie voor toekomstige klanten en onze partners.

	Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite levert NoSuch Company tijdbesparingen op tot 40%. NoSuch Company schakelde onlangs over van een eigen communicatieserver naar Business Productivity Online Suite, een krachtige set online diensten voor communicatie en samenwerking. Teus Baars, directeur NoSuch: Meegaan met innovatie levert gewoon business op, we gaan gigantische klappen maken.
	Procore realiseert met Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite nieuwe business. Adviesbureau Procore realiseert met Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite nieuwe business én kostenbesparingen van € 51.000,= en (jaarlijks) € 77.400,=
	annatommie bespaart op IT-kosten dankzij Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite. Orthopedisch Centrum annatommie realiseert met Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite een jaarlijkse besparing op IT-kosten van € 43.000 en een zakelijke besparing door hogere productiviteit van € 105.000,= per jaar.

Marc Valk: Review BPOS Training

Als BPOS partner is het echt aan te raden om een of meer van mensen uit de organisatie een BPOS training te laten volgen. Dit is niet verplicht, maar maakt alle verschil bij het snel ‘up to speed’ komen. Marc Valk heeft gisteren de training bij trainingspartner Qwise gevolgd en er zijn verslag van gemaakt. Bedankt Marc.

… Yesterday I followed a 1 day crash course on BPOS at QWISE.

It was just what i needed to get me to look into the Business Productivity Online Standard Suite of Microsoft. I already signed up for an account, but did not have the time to really look into it.

My first impression is that it is a great product, especially for small company’s which do not have a IT department and are considering to buy a server. If your company’s only needs mail, then this product is surely the way to go. You will also get document management (SharePoint) and Communications (OCS).

The exchange part of BPOS is really great. No on-premises servers needed. And it works like a charm.

SharePoint is less then you’re used to if you run it on-premises. Especially when you’re used to the enterprise version. No Excel Services, no enterprise data search, no My Sites. But this will be solved in a future release for sure. The D-version (dedicated) of BPOS can do more, but prices are still unknown (and you’re company must have +5000 users)

Office Communicator is also great. The only problem we had is that after changing our default domain, we could not authenticate with our new domain. Which is rather important off course …

Continue at source: Review BPOS Training

Keynote Presentatie op de kickoff van het O5 onderwijsinitiatief

Ik bekijk net Michael’s presentatie die hij deze week gaf voor het O5 onderwijsinitiatief in België. Goed verhaal, geïnspireerd door ‘Shift Happens’  maar daardoor super relevant voor o.a. het onderwijs.

Vanmorgen een presentatie gegeven aan 80 beleidsmakers en gelijksoortigen over het heden en de toekomst van het onderwijs. Niet zozeer belerend bedoeld, maar om een discussie te openen en mensen na te doen denken. Was goed om te zien dat er 4 mensen ook computer-spelletjes spelen in de zaal.

Hierbij de link naar het full deck.

Ben benieuwd naar de commentaren en andere gedachten…..

Keynote Presentatie op de kickoff van het O5 onderwijsinitiatief

En Michael, bedankt voor de reclame :-)

Exchange 2010 Target? Google Gmail et al…

Bill Pray has a positive assessment of Microsoft Exchange 2010. Exchange 2010 is the most rock-solid Email and Calendaring solution for bith on-premise as well as Online scenario. I believe the recently released beta is very well received.

… As the Microsoft marketing machine cranks up the information on Exchange 2010, it is interesting to note how many articles are devoted to new productivity capabilities for users. However, user productivity is not what Exchange 2010 is about… Exchange 2010 is about Microsoft competing with Google and anyone else who throws their hat into the ring – Cisco? IBM? Yahoo!? - in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) e-mail market. While there is no question that Google still has a limited presence in enterprise e-mail, Gmail continues to garner fans and install base in the small and medium business market. Microsoft is no stranger to that strategy and must respond by providing a better enterprise SaaS e-mail solution or risk losing future market share.

Microsoft has not made it a secret that Exchange 2010 is intended to become Microsoft’s attack on the SaaS e-mail market, but the Microsoft marketing machine sometimes obscures things in an effort to get messaging to various audiences. However, the press announcement states in the second sentence: “Exchange 2010 is part of the next wave of Microsoft Office-related products and is the first server in a new generation of Microsoft server technology built from the ground up to work on-premises and as an online service.” …

… Obviously, many of these features are good for an on-premise implementation also. However, when you start perusing the feature list for Exchange 2010, it is clear that Microsoft is executing on a strategy to make Exchange SaaS friendly. The story line for Exchange 2010 is not about enhancements in productivity features for the enterprise, it is about Microsoft taking Exchange to cloud. …

Be sure to check the article for all details ..

Source: Exchange 2010 Target? Google Gmail et al…

Exchange Online Developer Guide

Exchange Online is part of Microsoft Online Services.

This document shows how to use exchange web services to programmatically communicate with exchange online. Some key scenarios such as integration with Azure are also documented.

Download : Microsoft.com

Microsoft Unveils Exchange 2010 With Public Beta

The news is already all over the internet the last 24 hours but I thought it would be appropriate to wait until the official press release .. here it is the next generation Exchange.

The quote that cought my attention is : “Exchange 2010 ushers in the next generation of Microsoft unified communications software as the first server designed from inception to work both on-premises and as an online service,”

On-premise, hosted by partner or hosted by Microsoft (BPOS) or a combination of these options. No other solution has that breadth of choice in a single solution.

Next Fiscal Year (starting July 1st promises to be yet another very exciting year full of innivative new productreleases …

…First in the next wave of Office-related products, Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 will help lower communications costs, improve user productivity and transform e-mail archiving…

… Microsoft Corp. today released a public beta of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, part of Microsoft’s unified communications family (http://www.microsoft.com/uc).

Exchange 2010 is part of the next wave of Microsoft Office-related products and is the first server in a new generation of Microsoft server technology built from the ground up to work on-premises and as an online service. This release of Exchange 2010 introduces a new integrated e-mail archive and features to help reduce costs and improve the user experience. A public beta of the server is available for download starting today at http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/2010.

Exchange Server 2010 will become available in the second half of 2009. Microsoft Office 2010 and related products will enter technical preview in the third quarter of 2009 and become available in the first half of 2010.

“Exchange 2010 ushers in the next generation of Microsoft unified communications software as the first server designed from inception to work both on-premises and as an online service,” said Rajesh Jha, corporate vice president of Exchange at Microsoft. “This release raises the bar with new archiving and end-user innovations that will help companies save money and employees save time.”

Exchange 2010 will help organizations reduce costs, protect communications and delight e-mail users with capabilities to do the following:

• Lower costs with more flexible deployment and management options. Exchange 2010 provides organizations with the same enterprise-grade capabilities whether deployed on-premises or as a service from Microsoft or partners — or as a mix of both. Further, for customers deploying the server, the new release simplifies the way organizations provide always-on communications and disaster recovery, meaning administrators spend less time managing their e-mail system. Exchange 2010 further improves performance running on lower-cost direct-attached storage, enabling organizations to dramatically reduce storage costs by up to 85 percent without sacrificing performance or reliability.
  
• Protect information and meet compliance requirements with the new e-mail archive. As e-mail volume grows, companies must address increasing compliance, legal and e-discovery concerns, but today, according to Osterman Research, only 28 percent of organizations currently archive their e-mail content (Osterman Research, 2008). Exchange 2010 introduces an integrated e-mail archive. The new solution makes it easier to store and query e-mail across the organization using the Exchange software that organizations already know and use.
  
• Improve user productivity with the ultimate inbox experience. Basex Inc. recently estimated that the average number of corporate e-mail messages received per person per day is expected to reach more than 93 by 2010. In addition, businesses lose $650 billion annually in productivity due to unnecessary interruptions including those from e-mail (Basex, 2008). Exchange 2010, together with Microsoft Outlook 2010, will give people more control over their communications with features such as these:
• MailTips. Warn users before they commit an e-mail faux pas such as sending mail to large distribution groups, to recipients who are out of the office or to recipients outside the organization, helping protect against information leaks and reduce unnecessary e-mail messages.
• Voice Mail Preview. See text previews of voice mail directly in Outlook.
• Ignore Conversation. This e-mail “mute button” allows people to remove themselves from an irrelevant e-mail string, reducing unwanted e-mail and runaway reply-all threads.
• Conversation View. Combine related e-mail messages in a single conversation to reduce inbox clutter.
• Call Answering Rules. Create customized “Press 1 for …” call-routing menus with Exchange voice mail.
• Consistent Experience. Use Outlook on the PC, a mobile phone or a browser for the same experience with enhancements in Outlook Mobile and Outlook Web Access.

Source : Microsoft PressPass

Exchange 2010 Beta Web site

In the tagcloud of BPOS on Twittersheep

My focus is pretty much on all the online stuff happening at Microsoft these days. Also my twitter behavior shows this.

I did a search on BPOS (this stands for Business Productivity Online Services, Microsoft’s Online Services solution) on Twittersheep and guess what : I’m in it …

 http://twittersheep.com/results.php?q=bpos

Microsoft: Internetgebruik overtreft tv in 2010

Marketingfacts heeft een korte Youtube summary en de link naar het document van Microsoft over de Europese Internet Trends geplaatst :

Europe Logs On

 

Internet is hard op weg om in de zomer van 2010 televisie te overtreffen als het belangrijkste medium. Die voorspelling doet Microsoft na een uitvoerige studie naar internetgebruik in Europa waarvan gisteren de resultaten zijn gepubliceerd in het rapport ‘Europe logs on: European Internet Trends of today and tomorrow‘ (pdf). Lees Meer over: Microsoft: Internetgebruik overtreft tv in 2010.

 

Bron: Microsoft: Internetgebruik overtreft tv in 2010

Windows Live ? Arnout Hemel bespreekt de laatste status met Dutch Cowboys

Arnout Hemel, Product Manager Windows Live bij Microsoft Nederland in een leuk video interview met DucthCowboys :

Aanvragen en instellen van een Business Productivity Online Services (BPOS) Trial account

Het aanvragen van een evaluatie voor BPOS is helemaal niet zo moeilijk. Wel zijn er een aantal dingen die handig zijn om te weten, zoals het koppelen van je eigen domein.

Ik heb geprobeerd alle stappen van het aanvragen van de evaluatie, het koppelen van je eigen domein, het aanmaken van nieuwe gebruikers en het activeren van Office Communications Online in een handleiding te zetten.

Alle schermen die je tegenkomt zijn kort beschreven.

Aanvragen En Instellen Van Een Microsoft B P O S Trial Account Versie 1

View more documents from dehaaspeter.

Download de handleiding : hier

Feedback is welkom.

Quest : Simplify Your Migration From Notes to Microsoft

Live Demo Series: Simplify Your Migration From Notes to Microsoft

For organizations looking to migrate from the Notes platform, Quest offers a complete set of solutions for seamless and cost-effective migration of mailboxes and calendar data to Microsoft Exchange/Exchange Online and application content to SharePoint/SharePoint Online.

Attend one or all of the live demonstrations in our Notes migration demo series and discover how these innovative tools can ensure you a faster and more accurate Notes migration. During these eye-opening presentations, you will also learn how these solutions can help establish coexistence between the Notes and Microsoft environments.

• Free Application Discovery and Analysis Tool

Tuesday. April 14 at 2 p.m. ET



• Speed and Simplify Your Migration to Microsoft Exchange Online

Tuesday, April 21 at 2 p.m. ET


• Ensure Seamless Coexistence Between Notes and Exchange
Tuesday, April 28 at 11 a.m. ET


• Simplify Your Migration of Complex Notes Applications to SharePoint
Tuesday, May 5 at 11 a.m. ET


• Enjoy a Smooth, Cost-effective Migration to Exchange
May 14 at 9 a.m. ET


• Migrate Notes Application Content to SharePoint Without Data Loss
May 19 at 9 a.m. ET

 

On-Demand Webcasts and Product Demos

 

• Product Demo
  Migrate from Lotus Notes to Exchange and Exchange Online
  Watch the Demo
  

• Product Demo
  Migrate from Lotus Notes to SharePoint
  Watch the Demo
  

• On-Demand Webcast
  Migrate with Ease from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange
  Watch the Webcast
  

• On-Demand Webcast
  Migrate to SharePoint without Data Loss
  Watch the Webcast
  

• On-Demand Webcast
  Simplify Your Transition to Exchange and SharePoint
  Watch the Webcast

http://www.quest.com/notesdemos/

Lotus Notes in the red

The Messaging is The Medium: survey results are in

Different survey same result. Lotus Notes is heavily losing marketshare. This time around The Register published survey results :

… The research examined preferences and activities by organisation size: corporate (over 5,000 employees); mid-market (250-5,000 employees) and SMB (up to 249 employees). Each segment has its characteristics but while the corporate and mid-market are closely aligned, the SMB sector marches to a slightly different drummer.

Corporates

The survey asked respondents what email and messaging platforms they were using and how committed they were to them. Among corporates, the story is pretty clear; Microsoft is the platform of choice for over eighty pe rcent of respondents while a large proportion of Lotus Notes/Domino customers regard their own choice as a legacy system. (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: The relative importance of various email/messaging platforms to corporates

Despite attempts to refresh the Lotus brand with a combination of new Notes and Domino releases as well as a plethora of related products such as Sametime, Quickr, Connections and Symphony, it looks as if the ‘legacy’ tag is still hanging round IBM’s neck like a millstone. Compared with Microsoft, it also happens to score very low on the ‘becoming important to us’ rating as, indeed, do GroupWise and ‘other’. It’s dangerous to draw conclusions from such slight signals, but the signs at the moment bode ill for anyone other than Microsoft. …

…The responses to the survey from mid-market companies were very similar to the corporate responses. But, among SMBs, the ‘other’ category garners a greater share of the vote, with 'committed use' and 'becoming important' taking it to a forty per cent slice. Lotus Notes/Domino and GroupWise are almost ‘no shows’ at this level of the market. (Figure 2) …

 

Figure 2: Relative importance of email/messaging platforms to SMBs.

Microsoft Exchange, at 57 per cent is still in the lead but, among SMBs, it's clearly far from the 'de facto' choice. This could be for a number of reasons, but the most likely is that a high percentage are not really ‘platform aware’ in the same way that larger organisations are. Only 56 percent claimed to be using an email/messaging platform. Many of the remainder will have their email and their web presence hosted by their ISP and they are unlikely to be aware of the underpinning architecture …

Amazing Only 56% of the SMB companies claimed to be using an email platform. what a great opportunity for Microsoft Online Services. Business Productivity Online Services brings Microsoft Exchange Online. “ Implementing Microsoft Exchange has never been this easy; the whole organsiation on Exchange in a couple of hours at predictable, low monthly cost.

Computable : 2 artikelen n.a.v. CloudCamp / Cloud Computing

Eén event 2 koppen en 2 conclusies ..

Afgelopen donderdag was de eerste CloudCamp in Nederland en naast een aantal andere Cloudspelers was ook Microsoft van de partij.

Ook Computable was daar om verslag te doen van het event :2 artikelen en eigenlijk ook 2 (tegenstrijdige?) conclusies over hetzelfde event :

Mijn collega Serge van Schie heeft uitleg gegeven over de strategie van Microsoft: Software + Services :

… Microsoft biedt keuze

Ook Microsoft-evangalist Serge van Schie, voorspelde dat een hybride cloud-model de toekomst heeft. Deze voorspelling bleek wonderwel te passen binnen Microsofts software + services-strategie: "Bedrijven hoeven niet te kiezen tussen lokaal of cloud, maar kunnen beiden combineren. Dat noemt Microsoft software plus services: we kopiëren het huidige Microsoftplatform naar het web. Windows Azure is geen hostingomgeving. Het is een platform waarop je je applicaties kunt bouwen en gebruik kunt maken van de voordelen van de cloud, waar die er zijn. De cloud is een optie. Het is een aanvullend platform voor het draaien van applicaties. Ook al zijn jullie dat misschien niet van Microsoft gewend, software plus services gaat over keuze." …

Bron: Computable.nl

Ik dacht ik haal het artikel even op via de RSS feed, maar bovenstaand artikel stond er niet in. Wel deze :

Bron: Computable.nl

Ik ben er niet bij geweest dus heb ook niet alle discussies / visies meegekregen. In het 2e artikel staan een aantal conclusies in dit artikel die ik niet echt deel. De kop van dit artikel en ook de geciteerde delen zaaien onnodig twijfel. Onnodig omdat in deze fase van adoptie van CloudComputing een aantal dingen nog niet duidelijk zijn, bedrijven realiseren zich dat. Dit is dus een fase van verkenning, oriëntatie, ervaring opdoen. “Rip and replace” is niet aan de orde en je volledige IT in de cloud onderbrengen ook zeker niet …

…"Als de business case voor cloud computing zo duidelijk is, waarom maken organisaties er dan nog niet massaal gebruik van?" Die vraag stelde Maarten Kleyn, mede-oprichter van IntermediaT, dat organisaties adviseert en ondersteunt bij het migreren van bestaande applicaties naar de cloud. Kleyn: "Het is een perfect platform voor experimenten, door de schaalbaarheid en lage investeringskosten. En de cloud brengt eenvoud. Je hebt geen gedoe met systeemintegratie, patches en updates. Bovendien is het ideaal in tijden van crisis: je betaalt voor het gebruik." …

Ik ben van mening dat de business case nog helemaal niet zo duidelijk is. Cloud Computing is niet de volgende ‘silver bullit’ waarmee je al je IT zorgen laat verdwijnen en per definitie kosten verlaagd. Het is de volgende stap in de evolutie van applicatie ontwikkeling en exploitatie. Ook is het in potentie een fundamentele verandering in de applicatiearchitectuur van elke organisatie. We staan aan het begin van dit proces en de vraagstelling doet vermoeden alsof het al een uitgemaakte zaak is.

…Daarnaast speelt er volgens Kleyn een "Video 2000"-achtige kwestie: verschillende aanbieders zoals Amazon, Google, Microsoft, IBM en Salesforce gebruiken verschillende programmeertalen, standaarden en architecturen. Kleyn: "Bedrijven vragen zich af: wie van hen gaat winnen?"…

Ik kan niet voor andere organisaties praten, maar in het geval van Microsoft wel. Microsoft’s applicatie platform heet .NET en er zijn 4 Miljoen ontwikkelaar wereldwijd die hier dagelijks mee werken (note to self include the link). Daarnaast is Microsoft uitermate duidelijk over de architectuur, de mogelijkheden voor ontwikkelaars en de openstandaarden en interoperabiliteit van ondermeer het Windows Azure platform. Kijk hiervoor maar eens op http://www.azure.com

 

Ik kon er zelf helaas niet bij zijn afgelopen donderdag, maar als ik de artikelen zo lees en de feedback van Serge van Schie heb gehoord was het een geslaagde opzet en voor hehaling vatbaar. Er moet wel meer inspanning geleverd worden om meer deelnemers aan te trekken …

Office Communications Online enabled in international trial for BPOS

This morning on twitter some tweets came by about the new functionality now available to all trial users of the international trial.

Enabling OCS Online is very easy and straight forward. Login to your admin console @ http://admin.emea.microsoftonline.com :

1. In the admin mainscreen :

2. The specific Office Communications Online settings :

Office Communications Online

Microsoft Office Communications Online is a unified communications service that helps people communicate easily with others in different locations or time zones. Office Communications Online is integrated with Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and programs in the 2007 Microsoft Office system to give workers many ways to communicate with each other via a simple and consistent user interface.

Office Communications Online requires Office Communicator 2007 R2 for the desktop. For information on how to try out or purchase Office Communicator 2007 R2, please visit Office Communicator for Office Communications Online.

3. Notify the end users :

Currently federation, Communicator Mobile and Communicator WebAccess are not available but stay tuned …

Microsoft: Creating a Greener Data Center

Microsoft is one of the companies building large, very large datacenters. I spent a day last week with John Dwyer the datacenter manager for Microsoft International.

Microsoft has a very good story to tell when it comes to building and running these datacenters. They do not only boggle your mind in terms of size and capacity, the drive for ‘ green’  is euqally important. Check out this press release on the ‘Greener Data Center’

… It wasn’t long ago that corporations gave little thought to the energy consumed by data centers – those warehouses of humming computer servers that today drive retail commerce, manage payrolls, forward e-mails and much more.

Tighter budgets and rising energy costs make those days seem positively Jurassic. Some data centers dwarf a football field and can cost more to build and power than the IT services they support. Today data centers consume about 2 percent of U.S. power generation. Now, everyone from the CFO to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is interested in a data center’s footprint—economic and environmental.

Several trends drive data center power consumption. As computers become cheaper and more capable, more people own computers – and use them more for data center-driven tasks. The IT industry’s shift to cloud computing also drives consumption, as data centers will play an increasingly vital role in powering our digital lives.

Fortunately, the future doesn’t mean a choice between environment and economy, said Christian Belady, principal power and cooling architect with Microsoft’s Global Foundation Services (GFS) group. “Cost and sustainability are one and the same,” he says. “We’re extremely fortunate to be in an industry where lowering cost and being green are synonymous.”

The GFS team is helping Microsoft and the industry find the intersection of cost and sustainability. Until now, businesses and companies have largely focused on optimizing the cost of their IT equipment. Now, data center operators and architects are examining every phase of their power use. Microsoft is doing the same, squeezing efficiency from hardware and employing software that optimizes server performance.    

Today, Microsoft’s power consumption is between 30 and 50 percent lower than the global industry average for traditional data centers. “We believe that it is important to track and monitor the power usage effectiveness (PUE) across all of our data centers, no matter how small or how old, in order to truly understand how well our data centers are managed and to allow us to make the right business decisions,” says Arne Josefsberg, general manager of Infrastructure Services for GFS. “When you’re managing an infrastructure of hundreds of thousands of servers, it is essential that you run it efficiently.”

That push for efficiency comes just in time. For years, the amount of energy consumed by data centers grew at a rate of 15 percent per year, Belady says. Some of Microsoft’s newest data centers span more than 10 times the size of a football field, and roughly half that space is taken up by chillers, generators, and other support equipment for the servers. Just one of Microsoft’s fully loaded data centers draws approximately 40 megawatts. To put that in perspective, a typical house draws about one or two kilowatts, Belady says. “That’s somewhere around 20,000 to 40,000 homes. Data centers draw a lot of juice.” ..

Continue at source: Creating a Greener Data Center

Microsoft Live@EDU vs Google Apps for Education … student preference …

The Australian Catholic University has implemented a new Emailsystem based on on Microsoft Outlook Live.

Some background and most interesting the selection of this email system is based on experience with pilots of Google Apps for Education vs Microsoft Outlook Live (part of Microsoft Live @EDU). The is the student feedback based on actual use and not just some functions and features evaluation …

… In Semester 1, 2009, ACU National introduced a new Web-based email system for students, based on Microsoft Exchange and Windows (Outlook) Live Mail.

Features

This new, modern and more user-friendly system will feature:

• A Microsoft Outlook WebMail user interface including access to calendars, contacts lists and collaboration tools
• Improved SPAM filtering
• 10 GB of online mailbox storage space (100 times the previous 100Mb limit and double the standard Live Mail quota)
• 20 Mb message size support (including file attachments)
• Ability to share address book contacts and calendar information
• No banner advertising – unlike ordinary free email accounts.
• Web-based administrative tools
• Support for 25 languages
• "Email for Life" – ACU student email accounts will continue to be available for use after graduation, making it easier to stay in contact with classmates, colleagues and teaching staff. ….

source : Webmail Survey Results

Australian Catholic University is not the only university / school to recently implement Microsoft Live@EDU. Check out the recent press release on other institutions that recently implemented the service:

Adoption of Microsoft Live@edu Continues to Grow With Universities Worldwide

Education institutions worldwide embrace Microsoft Live@edu to enrich student experience, enhance learning outcomes and fuel productivity; new Microsoft Outlook Live delivers new e-mail functionality based on the popular Outlook interface. …

OpenXML … this is what it’s all about …

There are some things  you don’t notice when comparing functions and features in Office Suites and Document Formats. Accessibility is such a thing. How do people who are for example visually handicapped use Office and how do they access document or consume information.

Accessibility is a very important “feature” in Microsoft Office. The capabilities of OpenXML enhance that even further. A great example is the fact that the DAISY consortium has now created a save to DAISY add-in for Microsoft Word.

I do wish that the ODF lobby would stop their politics and start focussing more on making Open Standards work, not for shareholders and politics but for end users, yes meaningfull stuff for end users …

In association with Microsoft, the Digital Accessible Information SYstem (DAISY) Consortium has announced the second version of the Save as DAISY add-in for Microsoft Office Word, available for download over at openxmlcommunity.org. With the integration of DAISY Pipeline Lite, version 2 of the add-in produces a full DAISY multimedia publication with synchronized text and MP3 audio (instead of converting to just a DAISY XML file).

This means it is possible to transform Word documents into accessible multimedia formats for people unable to read print due to a visual, physical, perceptual, developmental, cognitive, or learning disabilities. It generates full text and audio books using the Text-to-Speech service on your PC. DAISY XML files can be read natively by some DAISY players, and the DAISY Pipeline is still available for processing those XML files. A more complete description of the DAISY standards and Word-to-DAISY conversion is available on daisy.org.

Version 1.0 of the add-in was released in May 2008 for Microsoft Office Word 2007, Word 2003, and Word XP. Since the project is open source, the Open XML to DAISY XML Translator source code is also available for download on SourceForge.net.

Source: ArsTechnica.com

InfoWorld : Test Center: E-mail security services square off

InfoWorld tested 6 Hosted filtering vendors; Microsoft came in second in this test with a score of 8.6:

… From spam-busting to content management, we test the limits of hosted e-mail security offerings from AppRiver, MessageLabs, Microsoft, MX Logic, SECNAP, and Trend Micro

E-mail is the primary conduit of information for many organizations, both internally and with the outside world. Unfortunately, e-mail is also a prime channel for annoyances such as spam, as well as security threats in the form of viruses, spyware, phishing attacks, and more. Some companies choose to defend their e-mail systems in-house by deploying e-mail security products. Others, however, look to outside assistance in the form of hosted e-mail security services.

As a follow-up to my review of nine e-mail security appliances, I looked at six hosted e-mail security solutions from AppRiver, MessageLabs (now owned by Symantec), Microsoft, MX Logic, SECNAP Network Security, and Trend Micro. Postini (now owned by Google), another major player in the hosted e-mail security space, declined to participate …

Interesting Google did not participate …

Very good result for Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services :

Formerly Frontbridge (long a leader in anti-spam services), Exchange Hosted Filtering Services (EHFS) is available in typical Microsoft fashion: The service offers great features, including anti-virus, using multiple engines, encryption, and disaster recovery. It's adept at stopping spam, preventing 97.5 percent of unwanted messages from coming through, while stumbling on 11 false positives and one critical false positive (see test results). Moreover, it's easy to set up, manage, and use -- especially with Windows-based e-mail systems. On the other hand, pricing is hard to nail down, though large customers get great price breaks. Also, as one might expect from Microsoft, using the service with the Firefox 3.0 browser did not work well, although Firefox 2.0 was OK.

Source : InfoWorld.com

Notes-to-Exchange migration tool gets Microsoft Exchange Online support

Next to Quest also Binary Tree has now released tooling to facilitate the on-premise Lotus Notes mail migration to Microsoft Exchange Online.

Binary Tree has now updated its widely used systems administration tool for migrating users from IBM Lotus Notes to the more prevalent Microsoft Exchange messaging system. The new CMT Universal 2.7.1 supports not just on-premises editions of Exchange, but also Exchange Online, a component of the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS).

The new version of CMT Universal was pre-released for some specific customer engagements, including a migration by Goldleaf Financial Solutions. The update has already been used to migrate more than 100,000 users to BPOS. The latest release of the software also brings refinements to the e-mail and calendaring systems, such as a new capability that lets users tell the difference between calendar entries created in Microsoft Outlook and migrated calendar items.

Source: BetaNews.com

Microsoft Exchange to grow with 100 Million + mailboxes in the coming years

People who regulary visit my blog (or RSS feed) know I like statistics … Some new insights into Microsoft Exchange and the projected growth (100 Million Mailboxes) for the coming 4 years :

… The Radicati Group, Inc.'s latest study, "Microsoft Exchange Server and Outlook Market Analysis, 2009-2013," provides an in-depth analysis of the market for Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Outlook, including market share, installed base by version, as well as breakouts by business size, and region.

According to the report, Microsoft Exchange Server will have a total installed base of 241 million on-premises and hosted mailboxes by year-end 2009, and is expected to grow to a total of 347 million by 2013. This represents an average annual growth rate of 11%.

The report provides extensive breakout information for Microsoft Exchange Server penetration by version, business size and region in North America, EMEA, Asia/Pacific, and Rest of World. In addition, it also provides installed base and breakout information for Microsoft Outlook, including Outlook Web Access (OWA), and Hosted Microsoft Exchange Server.

Microsoft's recently released Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) is also analyzed, and strengths and weaknesses are discussed for all current Microsoft Messaging and Collaboration products. …

Source: Radicati group

Ovum: Microsoft goes online and worldwide

Ovum gives a brief analysis on Microsoft’s international launch of BPOS. Unlike some other analysis I’ve seen trying to compare Google Apps to Microsoft BPOS, this highlights one of the main differences … Choice …

…Microsoft's recently announced Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) is much more than a challenge to Google Apps, playing as it does to organisations from five persons to millions, and allowing a combination of in-house and hosted deployment - the so-called 'software plus services' model. The release of BPOS is very timely, offering guaranteed availability and with well thought out functionality. However, there is still some work to do on the product that might make it appear like a beta release in the eyes of a CIO.

 

Mix 'n' match for customers and partners

The BPOS hosted products are: Exchange, SharePoint, Office Communications Server and LiveMeeting. This package is priced at $15 per seat per month and organisations can subscribe to additional facilities such as archiving.

But this is not just cloud-based services like Google Apps, although that offering is definitely a threat that Microsoft wants to see off. Rather it is a software plus service offering that gives organisations that have the IT support infrastructure and wish to retain in-house capability the option to have their BPOS services linked to the corporate servers to provide an anywhere information service for employees, partners or customers. …

Continue at source : Ovum.com

BeetTV: Microsoft to Take on Google Docs, Zoho this Year with "Seamless" Web Apps

A public beta this calender year !

… When Microsoft Office releases its web applications into beta this year, it has a good shot of surpassing Google Docs right off the bat: The mainstream reliance on Microsoft Office makes Microsoft web apps a natural extension.

 

"I think that one of the things that makes us a little different is that we're really trying to make the experience between going offline to online and online to offline as seamless as possible," Michael Schultz, the Director of Microsoft Office Live, told me in a Skype interview from his office in Redmond, Wash. earlier this month. The merging last week of Windows Live and Office Live reflects into a single online portal reflects that.  …

I asked him about the alpha testing of Microsoft Office 14, but Microsoft is still tight-lipped about the new improvements. "When the time comes when we can talk a little bit more about that, I'm sure folks like you will be some of the first to know, and we'd be excited to come back and talk about it," he said. You can read CNET's article on Office 14's alpha testing here.

Source: BeetTV

Microsoft “Office SaaS”

De titel vat kernachtig samen waar Microsoft Online Services niet voor staat ..

• De online diensten van Microsoft bevatten geen Microsoft Office als dienst.
• Het is niet per definitie een SaaS oplossing; het is een combinatie van software + diensten die rijke functionaliteit, performance en offline functionaliteit biedt.

In het artikel ‘Microsoft SaaS Office per april in Nederland’ besteden InfoWorld, Webwereld en TechWorld aandacht aan de Internationale launch van Microsoft Online Services, van 2 maart jl tijdens de Cebit.

Die aandacht is natuurlijk super. Ik zag in de artikelen wel een paar zaken die door de auteur anders zijn geïnterpreteerd. een korte reactie daarop:

Het online Office-abonnement van Microsoft, waaronder hosted Exchange, Sharepoint en Office Communications, is per 1 april in Nederland verkrijgbaar.

Per direct is tegenhanger van Google Apps als trial uit te proberen. Microsofts software Exchange en Sharepoint is in de Verenigde Staten al als online-service af te nemen. Nu brengt de softwareproducent zijn SaaS-aanbod, waarbij het software combineert met services, ook naar Europa. Dat gebeurt per 1 april.

Het betreft geen Office abonnement. De dienst heet Business Productivity Online Services, een onderdeel van Microsoft Online Services en bestaat uit de volgende oplossingen :

• Exchange Online
• SharePoint Online
• Office Communications Online
• LiveMeeting.
• Optionele diensten, waaronder archivering van email, extra encyptie (beveiliging) van email en BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
  
  Microsoft Office wordt niet aangeboden als dienst en maakt ook geen deel uit van Microsoft Online Services zoals deze is aangekondigd.

Net als Google garandeert Microsoft 99,9 procent uptime per maand voor z'n online software. De prijs van het SaaS-pakket is echter niet concurrerend met Google Apps. Google rekent 40 euro per gebruiker per jaar, Microsoft 12,78 euro per maand, oftewel 153 euro per jaar, bijna vier keer zo duur als Google.

Organisaties die een Online oplossing overwegen doen er goed aan om hun huidige platform (daar is kennis van), eisen en wensen,  voor de korte en middellange termijn heel helder te hebben.

De prijs is natuurlijk belangrijk, zeker in deze tijd. Maar prijzen zijn relatief …

Microsoft Online Services is niet 1:1 te vergelijken met Google Apps. In de bovenstaande conclusie rondom jaarlijkse kosten word daar wel van uitgegaan. Het strekt te ver om alle verschillen uiteen te gaan zetten, maar als ik 3 punten zou moeten noemen waarin die verschillen tot uiting komen zijn dat:

• Microsoft biedt rijkere functionaliteit door o.a. Offline werken, enterprise functionaliteit als Enterprise Content management, Business Intelligence, workflow, geïntegreerde presence en instant messaging.
  
• Klanten hebben de keuze hoe zij Microsoft oplossingen willen implementeren: in eigen datacenter, gehost door een van de 800 Microsoft hosting partners wereldwijd, gehost door Microsoft (Microsoft Online Services), of een combinatie van de eerder genoemde mogelijkheden.
  
• Bewezen technologie die op internet en enterprise schaal al jaren wordt toegepast. Voorbeelden zijn Microsoft Exchange met een marktaandeel van 65% - 85% afhankelijk van markt en analist. Ook worden SharePoint en Exchange al jaren als Hosted dienst aangeboden in de markt, zo past KPN deze toe voor meer dan 1,5 Miljoen gebruikers bijvoorbeeld.

SLA
Er zijn ook verschillen in de SLA. Microsoft biedt een 99,9% beschikbaarheid op alle diensten, daar waar Google Apps alleen 99,9% beschikbaarheid op Gmail biedt; niet dus op de andere producten. Hiervoor verwijzen de servicesvoorwaarden van Google Apps Professional naar de Gmail SLA.

Support
Voor ondersteuning biedt Google een online helpcentrum, maar geen telefonische ondersteuning. De speciale support dienst voor Administrators van de klant is alleen beschikbaar op werkdagen via internet.

In een artikel op ZDnet.com staat ook een korte visie van Google vs Microsoft door Ron Markezich

Multinationals

Er komt een standaard versie en een op maat gesneden, dedicated variant voor bedrijven met meer dan 5000 werknemers. De leverancier mikt hiermee niet alleen op bedrijven in die landen, maar ook op multinationals. Die kunnen dan grootschalig overstappen naar Microsofts 'software plus services'-aanbod.

De internationale lancering betreft specifiek de Standard variant. De dedicated variant is al meer dan een jaar wereldwijd operationeel. Dit is in september 2007 aangekondigd en hier zijn al veel multinational mee aan de slag.

Het feit dat de dedicated variant al veel langer internationaal beschikbaar is verklaard ook wellicht de vraag sommige sceptici op webwereld hoe het kan dat er al zoveel betalende klanten / gebruikers op deze dienst zitten.

Klanten voor Online Services hebben drie keuzes voor het draaien van de gehoste software. Dat kunnen ze doen in een eigen datacenter, in dat van een Microsoft-partner, of in een Europees datacenter van de aanbieder zelf. Het is nog onbekend of dit prijs- of serviceverschillen met zich meebrengt.

De klant heeft de keuze op welke manier zij de Microsoft software wil implementeren :

1. In huis, in het eigen datacenter
   Hier geldt dan ook de SLA van de IT afdeling van de klant.
   De kosten zijn hier de Microsoft licenties, hardware, software van derden en diensten / personele kosten.
   
2. Gehost door een Microsoft Hosting Partner
   Hier geldt de SLA van de Microsoft Hosting Partner.
   De kosten voor de dienst zijn over het algemeen kosten per gebruiker per maand voor de totale dienst.
   
3. Gehost door Microsoft
   Hier geldt een SLA van 99,9% beschikbaarheid.|
   De kosten zijn per gebruiker per maand.

Bronnen:  InfoWorld, Webwereld, TechWorld

GlaxoSmithKline deal highlights Microsoft's overseas launch of hosted collaboration software

Duffbert posted a response to the Microsoft / GSK announcement, which in my opinion is a good assessment on IBM / Lotus’ position ..

… Regardless of how you might want to spin this (shortsighted company, didn't consider other costs, what if the online cloud is down), the fact remains that Microsoft is gaining traction *and* mindshare in this area and offering.  And personally, I don't see Lotus having much of an overall response at this particular point in time.  I know that LotusLive is supposed to answer this, but I'm not seeing any major announcements of Exchange shops moving to hosted Notes (or hosted IBM anything, for that matter).  …

Source: GlaxoSmithKline deal highlights Microsoft's overseas launch of hosted collaboration software

Microsoft Windows: Boy Exposed TVC India

Nice Windows video :