Dear Readers:
Starting next week, you’ll be able to read about the future of productivity on the Microsoft Office 365 blog. We have decided to merge the blogs and post our productivity conversations on the Office 365 blog. Why? Because Office 365 is the future of productivity.
Microsoft Office 365 takes the Microsoft Office collaboration and productivity tools that we all use every day and delivers them as a subscription service through the cloud. The productivity benefits of Office 365 have been well documented. Employees can work effectively using high-quality tools wherever they are. IT leaders can spend less time on administration and maintenance, freeing up time for more strategic initiatives. And businesses can lower their overall costs – all with the appropriate layers of security and compliance. What’s more, organizations have the option of moving all or part of their workloads to the cloud – there are no mandates from Microsoft.
As we merge this blog with the Office 365 blog, our goal is continue to help you improve efficiency and drive innovation. The Office 365 blog will deliver the tangible insights, vision, information, and action you need to achieve the highest level of productivity for your employees.
As you transition to the Office 365 blog, we hope you’ll also take advantage of these other resources aimed specifically at enterprise business:
And for the latest information about enterprise-focused solutions from Microsoft and its partners, please check out the Microsoft Enterprise web site: www.microsoft.com/enterprise
See you on the Office 365 blog!
The Microsoft Enterprise Productivity Team
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Welcome to another round of featured news items from around the web. Each week, we handpick articles for our community related to cloud and enterprise technology. We welcome your suggestions for next week’s round-up— share your links in the comments section or tweet a link to us at @msproductivity.
Rethinking the Desktop, a CIO spearheads a mobile device strategy
Faced with an upgrade to Windows 7, CIO Rick Roy saw an opportunity to launch a mobile device strategy that would save his company money, give employees choice -- and make IT look good in the process. His first order of business was convincing an IT team hardwired for standardization that mobility required a new mind-set. In this SearchCIO.com podcast, Roy, who heads IT strategy at CUNA Mutual Group, describes his meticulous, data-driven approach to crafting a mobile device strategy that will transform the insurance provider's desktop computing environment radically. One important lesson: While the requirements for a mobile device strategy need to be gathered bottom-up, he said, "you need to make those decisions pretty much top-of-the-house."
Enterprise Mobility's Next Phase: Contextual Services
Forget the mobile operating system wars or the debate about which mobile devices should be the standard. The enterprise mobility discussion needs to shift to the topic of using mobile devices to improve business processes and create contextual services that harness Big Data. In this interview with SearchCIO.com, mobility expert Maribel Lopez, principal analyst and vice president at Constellation Research Inc. and founder of market research and strategy consulting firm Lopez Research LLC, delves into these subjects and into the benefits of merging enterprise mobility, cloud and social media strategies.
IM, SharePoint tools will edge out email, CIOs say
Robert Half Technology polled 1,400 CIOs and asked if they think real-time workplace communication tools -- such as instant messaging, SharePoint and Yammer -- will become more or less popular than email among employees. More than half bet on the newcomers. Specifically, 13% of CIOs said the real-time tools will be much more popular, and 41% said somewhat more popular, than traditional e-mail. On the other side of the fence, a minority of email holdouts said the real-time tools will be somewhat less popular (5%) or much less popular (2%) than traditional email. More than one-third (38%) straddled the fence, saying they expect the tools will be equally popular. (1% of respondents didn't know or didn't answer.)
Thoughts from Microsoft CIO Tony Scott
Tony Scott on Business Relationship Management for CIOs
How are successful CIOs managing key internal relationships and helping to align IT with their businesses? What are some prime success factors internal relationship managers need to monitor? Hear about the Business Relationship Management program Microsoft CIO Tony Scott has established based on his experience with these and related questions
Reaching Beyond the Enterprise and Helping to Make the World a Better Place
Why is it important for CIOs and other executives to get behind philanthropic initiatives? What are some of the charitable projects Microsoft is currently involved with, and how can other corporate executives and teams take part in bringing about important change in their communities and the world at large? Hear Microsoft CIO Tony Scott’s point of view on these important issues in this discussion with Microsoft Senior Director of Executive Accounts Sue Hadi.
No longer are information workers confined to the four walls of the office building. The combination of high-speed wireless networks and powerful mobile devices such as laptops, smartphones, and PDAs has made it possible to work from pretty much anywhere. Today, the “office” can be a conference room, a café, a hotel room—or even the front seat of a car.
By 2013, more than one-third of the world’s workforce will be mobile. And by 2014, more than 130 million enterprise customers will be using mobile-cloud based applications. No wonder more than half of all companies—54 percent—cite effective management of remote employees as their biggest concern in managing a mobile workforce.
As the office extends to an ever wider range of work locations, it’s important for IT administrators to keep their workers productive, while still maintaining the security of their data. Tasks like opening a document on a mobile device, collaborating with team members, or checking a calendar need to be a seamless extension of the tools workers already know to use. At the same time, back-end processes like security and identity management should extend from the core enterprise platform to the mobile workforce without requiring an entirely new infrastructure.
During the month of September, we’ll be focusing on how the Microsoft productivity platform addresses the needs of an increasingly mobile workforce. We’ll show how to simplify management by integrating all workers into a single, unified system. We’ll also discuss how the productivity platform enables the enterprise to boost employee productivity without compromising security or infrastructure reliability. Finally, we’ll highlight organizations that have found innovative ways to improve the productivity of their mobile workers, while effectively managing security and identity management.
In the meantime, we’d like to hear from you. Is your staff becoming increasingly mobile? What opportunities and challenges does a mobile workforce present for your organization?Please share your experience by leaving a comment here.
As the rock band Semisonic once sang, “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” I’m sad to say this blog post marks a beginning’s end for me. It will be my final blog post as I leave the Microsoft Enterprise Productivity team for another opportunity.
Yet out of this beginning’s end comes a new beginning for this blog itself. Going forward, the Future of Productivity blog will continue under the leadership of the Enterprise Productivity Marketing team. It will include posts from the team itself, as well as guest posts from executives and experts from both inside and outside Microsoft.
As always, the goal of this blog will be to help you keep your finger on the pulse of productivity transformation in the enterprise. We at Microsoft are committed to helping you find creative ways to boost productivity while at the same time increasing your organization’s bottom line. To do that, this blog will continue to provide you with the tangible insights, vision, information, and action you need to achieve the highest level of productivity for your employees.
As with each of our careers, business productivity is a journey – one that involves many endings and beginnings as “cutting edge technology” continues to redefine itself. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be a part of your journey as you strive to make your organization as strong and efficient as it can be. I wish you lots of great endings and beginnings along the way.
US Army Can Keep Soliders on Front Lines Connected with Lync
I was excited to learn how the Army believes Lync can benefit its personnel, and I think you’ll find it interesting as well. At the Command and Control Directorate for the U.S. Army’s Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC CD2), a development effort is underway to understand how the Army can use Lync to extend its communication infrastructure to keep soldiers connected to each other, whether they are at the command post or on patrol. Instant communication is critical to soldiers on the front lines. In fact, soldiers rate instant messaging applications as the most important application they use. Adverse conditions, a wide variety of communications equipment, mobile personnel, and bandwidth constraints make communications difficult. Instant messaging helps the army overcome these challenges.
Microsoft Lync Placed in Leader Quadrant in Gartner Unified Communications
The overall UC market has matured and evolved significantly in 2011. The most notable change has been the shift in emphasis from broad UC portfolios toward fuller UC suites. Other important factors influencing the market were the convergence of cloud and on-premises UC functions, the increased role of consumer products and the continued influence of mobility. Microsoft released Lync (an evolution of its OCS product) and enhanced its telephony capabilities. Microsoft now has references that use only Lync for telephony, which is an important milestone. Microsoft also made important UC as a service (UCaaS) advances with the release of Office 365, which includes Lync-Online. Microsoft's pending acquisition of Skype is likely to lead to Skype-integrated Lync offerings.
Taking Lync for a Test Drive
Volkswagen Group of America (VWGoA) is a company on the move. The company needed a communications solution to help its people stay connected on the go, save on travel, and reduce the company’s carbon footprint: Enter Microsoft® Lync™ 2010. Over the next several months, VWGoA employees will be taking Lync for a spin and sharing their stories here at TestDrivingLync.com.
Phones and Devices Qualified for Microsoft Lync
Microsoft tests and qualifies phones, headsets, webcams, conference room devices, PCs and other devices for Lync under its Compatible Devices Program. This program has 2 levels:
A couple months ago, I noticed how stiff I had become. I was playing around with my son when I realized I could no longer touch my toes. I also discovered I didn’t have the same range of motion when throwing a ball. All these years of sitting at the computer was taking a toll on my back and shoulders.
To improve my flexibility, I decided to implement a daily routine of stretching. I now stretch for 20 minutes every evening, ending my workout with a series of sit-ups. The results have been amazing. In just two months, I’ve dramatically improved my flexibility. More importantly, I feel a lot better. I’ve come to realize that a flexible body = a healthy body.
As I stretch at night, my mind tends to wander and I started thinking about how the concept of flexibility applies to enterprise business. So much of the work we do at Microsoft is designed to help companies improve their flexibility – to increase their range of motion so they can respond to changing business conditions both swiftly and effectively. And, one of my favorite topics, a hybrid approach to the cloud, is one of the ways companies increase their flexibility. Having the option to keep some workloads on-premises while moving others to the cloud gives businesses the full range of motion they need to address the unique challenges they face.
One company that’s increased its flexibility through a hybrid approach to the cloud is MedcoEnergi Internasional. An integrated energy company with 3,000 employees and operations in seven countries, MedcoEnergi frequently buys and sells smaller companies. The company also has many employees who work in remote locations as well as employees who frequently change roles. In the past, all of this meant the IT team had to spend a lot of extra time managing user accounts.
The company wanted to keep its current on-premises Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 deployment at its headquarters. It also wanted to continue serving employees using its on-premises versions of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Lync Server 2010. Yet it wanted a simpler way to create and manage email accounts for new employees and for people who changes roles within the company. It also wanted to reduce costs and workload for IT administrators by reducing the amount of infrastructure they were required to manage on a daily basis.
After testing Microsoft Exchange Server Online as part of the Microsoft Office 365 Rapid Deployment Program, MedcoEnergi decided to transition some of its remote offices and all future businesses that MedcoEnergi acquires to the hosted service. The company can easily move employee mailboxes between Exchange Online and on-premises Exchange Server deployments when people transfer to new positions in the company or to new office locations.
With a cloud-based email service that complements its current on-premises communications solution, MedcoEnergi has been able to continue leveraging its existing IT investments while reducing administration costs. “At many of our locations, we can eliminate our on-premises servers running Exchange Server altogether, which will greatly reduce administration,” says Cecep Saefudin, Manager-Infrastructure Services, MedcoEnergi Internasional. “In addition, when we acquire new businesses, we can avoid deploying additional hardware in those locations.”
By taking advantage of the hybrid approach to the cloud that Microsoft offers, MedcoEnergi has improved its flexibility. And ultimately, a more flexible company = a healthier company. To learn more about the approach MedcoEnergi Internasional is taking to the cloud, please see the full case study.
Tell us about your company. Is it taking a hybrid approach to the cloud? How is this approach helped to increase your flexibility?
Hoping to get into shape, a friend of mine recently decided to take up running. He had scheduled his first run at a local track over the weekend, and talked about it all day Friday at work. On Monday I asked him how it went.
“I don’t think running’s for me,” he said, a dejected look on his face. “I used to be able to run a six-minute mile in high school. But now I’m so slow. Can you believe that it took me 11 minutes to run just one mile? And after that I was too tired to go on!”
“It’s not how fast you run. Or how far – after all you’re not 18 anymore,” I told him. “If you just go at your own pace, you’ll get better in time. And you’ll be healthier and in better overall physical shape.”
My friend’s face lit up. “I know you’re right,” he said. “I can’t compare myself to what I could do in high school. The truth is if I just sit back and do nothing, I’ll never get into shape.”
My friend’s running experience can translate to many business scenarios and serves as an example of how some businesses may want to approach cloud computing. First, they should keep in mind their ultimate goal. And second, they should set their own pace in achieving it. A hybrid approach to the cloud, allows companies to accomplish both. Many companies initially choose to move some workloads to the cloud while keeping others on-premises so they can test the results and move at a pace that works for them.
Take hhpberlin, a fire-safety consultancy for large construction projects around the world. With five office locations in Germany, the company has experienced steady growth. hhpberlin had reduced IT costs by standardizing on a Microsoft environment that includes Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, and Microsoft Lync Server 2010. Yet the company wanted to examine whether cloud-based services could help it lower costs even further.
Specifically, the company’s goals were to decrease IT costs, improve reliability of the infrastructure, and boost employee productivity, while still getting the most out of its existing on-premises environment. In the end, hhpberlin decided to move some of its workloads to the cloud but to go about it a little at a time.
Says Stefan Truthän, Chief Information Officer at hhpberlin: “Office 365 appeared to be the only hosted services solution that would allow us to transition services to the cloud at our own pace, while still taking advantage of all the great capabilities in Office 2010 and Microsoft server solutions that we already have in production.”
hhpberlin initially tested Microsoft Office 365 on 20 percent of its employees. Concluding that Office 365 would meet its long-term needs, the company will transition some of its Microsoft licenses from traditional volume licenses to an Office 365 subscription service plan that includes Office Professional Plus on the desktop. This arrangement will allow it to move to the cloud on its own schedule.
The company plans to move all of its employees to Exchange Online, while maintaining the benefits it receives from its on-premises SharePoint Server and Lync Server deployments. “The user experience is seamless when employees are working with Exchange Online in conjunction with on-premises solutions like SharePoint Server and Lync Server,” says Truthän. “Employees do not know whether they are in the cloud or not; and they don’t care, as long as it works.”
By keeping sight of its goals and proceeding at its own pace, hhpberlin is achieving concrete results. Truthän expects Office 365 to help the company lower costs by another 36 percent. It also expects Microsoft data centers to provide more robust security and reliability than what it could deliver itself, which will further boost employee productivity.
The company may either gradually or all at once transition its employees to SharePoint Online and Lync Online. Yet no matter how slowly or quickly it moves, IT staff will be able to keep the infrastructure running with little disruption to the day-to-day business.
For more details about hhpberlin’s move to the cloud, please read the full case study.
Also, please share your experience. What are your organization’s goals in moving to the cloud? Are you going at your own pace, and what does that involve?
Could the Cloud Really Replace Offshore Outsourcing?
The cloud is changing much about how IT is done. But has it changed or possibly even eliminated the need for offshore outsourcing? In the short term, the answer is no. That's mostly because the cloud is not yet in full play. However, given the current momentum behind the cloud, change is inevitable and the impact on offshore outsourcing is unavoidable.
Microsoft Forecasts a Hybrid-Cloud Future
To address that issue, the IT team may decide it needs a way to offer a private cloud aimed at the business, and to manage the public cloud services that departments are using. IT teams using Microsoft Azure, System Center and Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2012 will be able to offer public and private clouds to users through a new tool called System Center App Controller, which Microsoft previewed earlier this year as Concero, and announced at its Worldwide Partner Conference in July. Microsoft says the tool is designed to allow a business team to build its own system on a private cloud, scale it out to Azure if it needs more resources, and take it back inhouse without worrying about incompatibilities — and IT can manage all these processes in the same way.
The Cloud Power eBook: Your Guide to the Cloud
The Microsoft Cloud Power eBook will give you a clear-eyed view of your options in the cloud. In this quick read—full of valuable videos, case studies, and white papers—we'll show how you can protect your data and applications in the cloud. And we'll explore how you can move to the cloud on your terms by extending your current infrastructure.
15 Incredibly Useful (and Free) Microsoft Tools for IT Pros
We've dug through the jungle that is Microsoft Downloads and found 15 of the best free tools you've probably never heard of.
MS Productivity Favorites:
Understanding the Service-Concept in VMM 2010 - from Kristian Nese, follow him on Twitter here: @KristianNese
Do you want to see your blog post or favorite article here next week? Leave us a comment with a link!
We’ve all experienced companies with inflexible policies. The retailer that won’t accept returns. The credit card company that won’t alter its billing dates. The airline that won’t take customer service complaints over the phone.
The best companies know that it’s not about meeting their own needs, but those of their customers. Every business has its own products and services, its own customer base, its own set of employees, its own corporate culture. With that comes a set of needs that may be very different from the next company. That is why a hybrid approach to the cloud in which companies can migrate some workloads to the cloud while keeping others on-premises, offers the flexibility and choice for business.
Take Sartorius Group, a leading international laboratory and process technology provider. With 4,000 employees based in 40 locations worldwide, the company relies on employee communications to help customers efficiently implement complex lab and production processes.
One challenge the company faced was working productively with geographically dispersed teams. Another was connecting all employees to the network – even those in parts of the world where network connections were slow.
Company officials knew they wanted to upgrade their aging Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 email system, and began to evaluate Microsoft Office 365 as part of the Rapid Deployment Program. One of the benefits of a hybrid approach is that it has enabled Sartorius to seamlessly connect its employee test group using Exchange Online with other employees still using Exchange Server 2003. Regardless of whether they’re being served in the cloud or on-premises, employees can still see the “free/busy” status of their colleagues throughout the company, schedule meetings, and collaborate.
Sartorius plans to evaluate the experience of the initial deployment group before deciding when and how to move the rest of the organization to Office 365. One option is migrating all of its European employees to Office 365, while upgrading its on-premises messaging solution to Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 for employees working in regions with slower network connections, like China.
Whether it ends up moving all of its employees to the cloud or permanently taking a hybrid approach, the company’s IT staff expects to significantly reduce the amount of time it spends on administration and server deployments. At the same time, employees will enjoy improved email and calendar management tools.
Says Heiko Moeller, Corporate Administration, IT Infrastructure and Standard Applications, Sartorius Group: “We will test the full-fidelity hybrid features between Exchange Server and Exchange Online that are only possible with Microsoft. This flexibility gives us a choice in how we plan our transition to the cloud.”
As the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu once said, “Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.” Like water, I think our approach to the cloud offers the greatest flexibility. And in the end, maximum flexibility = maximum irresistibility.
For more information about the Sartorius Group experience, please check out the written case study. Also, please share your experience. Is your company taking a hybrid approach to the cloud? If so, which workloads are you moving to the cloud, and which will remain on-premises?
Ready, Set, Go: CIO’s Top Ten Challenges
Today’s CIOs and IT departments are at the cross-road: on the one hand, digitization and globalization make the technology more critical than ever, IT capability becomes the competitive differentiator, information/data just penetrate into every corner of their organization and our human society; on the other hand, the latest technology such as cloud/social computing unleash the potential to decentralize the enterprise, and democratize our working environment, will IT be left out or more strategic focused and mission critical? Here we list the top ten challenges facing in today’s CIO to provoke the further discussion.
New Federal CIO suggests he'll pursue Kundra's plans
Several analysts in the government and IT realms agree that Cloud-First – particularly on the back of the cloud computing trend so prevalent in the private sector – already has enough momentum to carry on after Kundra. And there is evidence that VanRoekel is of a similar “tech-forward” mindset as Kundra, particularly when it comes to leading federal agencies to harness the same technologies that Americans use on a daily basis, as well as consolidating IT resources and Web sites to reduce tech spending.“We’re taking a page from the online entrepreneur’s playbook, releasing products quickly and often, and letting the many eyes of the Web drive the continuous improvement we hope FCC.gov will come to embody,” VanRoekel wrote on the FCC’s official blog in April. “Built in the cloud, and developed with open source software, the new FCC.gov lowers barriers to future development as part of a long-term IT cost-cutting strategy.”
3 Technology Trends Your Company Can't Ignore
Technology is evolving -- fast. And though it might not be easy to keep up with it all, your company cannot just focus on the changes that are happening today. You need to look beyond, to the technological trends that are emerging to shape the future of your organization and your industry. Why? Because the more anticipatory you can be in regard to technology, the more creatively you can use it to gain competitive advantage.
Money’s Worth from the Cloud: The Aditya Birla FSG way
Being in the business of money, G V Gopalakrishnan, COO, ABFSG, and Tarun Pandey, VP-IT, ABFSG, recognize that IT downtime or unavailability has a direct impact on the bottom-line. The duo has a smart model to meet all IT requirements. “Each company has their own requirements; we try and bring synergy in meeting these so that every entity benefits without impacting the time-to-market,” explains Gopalakrishnan.
Today we are featuring a guest blog post from Angus Norton, Microsoft General Manager of Information Worker Marketing (United States). Angus will be discussing how using Microsoft Lync is driving productivity at Volkswagen Group of America.
We’ve all seen how innovative technology can drive productivity, operational efficiencies, and cost savings – it’s a frequent story told amongst marketing departments throughout the tech industry. However, rarely are we able to get a first-hand view directly from the end user, the one who’s life/work is truly changed by the adoption of new technology inside an organization. That’s why, when the folks at Volkswagen Group of America decided to give Microsoft Lync a test drive, we wanted to ensure you had a front row seat!
Follow the story all up, or see how the VWGofA employees (The Drivers), respond to changes in the way they get their work done and communicate with their colleagues. We’re tracking and consolidating all of their conversations at the Lync Test Drive. My favorite story? It’s got to be when Greg G., Chief Strategy Officer, used Lync and in-flight Wifi to stay connected, engage in a whiteboarding session, and keep his team & business moving forward all while on his flight from San Francisco to Detroit. If that isn’t a “productivity from anywhere” scenario I don’t know what is! Here’s your chance to follow the story on your own, visit the Lync Test Drive to see what all the commotion is about.
If you’ve been in the workforce for a few decades, you probably remember the office memo. It was the mechanism many enterprises used to communicate with employees before email and the Internet. It had to be typed, copied, and manually distributed to every employee via a physical mailbox. Once received, employees often stacked these memos in large piles on a corner of their desk, or even worse, threw them in the trash without reading them.
We’ve come a long way - it’s true. Yet despite messaging software such as Microsoft Exchange, and collaboration software such as Microsoft SharePoint, many large companies still have a difficult time communicating company initiatives and strategy to all of their employees. Some enterprises have large numbers of employees who work on the retail or factory floor. Others have large sales staffs that spend most of their time on the road. In many cases, it’s simply been too expensive to equip all of these “deskless workers” with the hardware and software needed to connect them with the rest of the company.
Yet that is changing thanks to the flexible approach to cloud computing offered by Microsoft. Unlike other cloud vendors that require an all-or-nothing approach to the cloud, Microsoft enables organizations to continue to leverage their on-premises investments while bringing additional employees into the communication fold via the cloud. Companies can continue to serve their existing employees at no extra cost. And they can inexpensively add new groups of employees to the network with subscriptions to Microsoft Office 365.
Take Coca-Cola Enterprises, for example. The world’s largest marketer, producer, and distributor of Coca-Cola products, the company employs about 72,000 people, and operates 431 facilities, 55,000 vehicles, and 2.5 million coolers, vending machines, and beverage dispensers. The company wanted a more effective way of communicating within the corporation. Yet its email system had been unable to reach certain segments of employees. Workers in manufacturing facilities had limited access to the corporate network. Mobile customer-facing employees who were making sales and positioning Coca-Cola products in store environments also lacked convenient access to company email and content.
Coca-Cola Enterprises wanted to extend its existing IT investment, and enlisted Microsoft to combine its on-premises software with integrated software services in the cloud. The result is a robust SharePoint portal to support worldwide collaboration and communication of corporate strategy that was made available to 42,000 deskless workers with Microsoft cloud technology.
Kevin Flowers, Director of Enabling Technologies for Coca-Cola Enteprises, calls the IT partner project “one of the best” Coca-Cola Enterprises has experienced. “This project has exceeded our expectations from an IT standpoint, showing how well an organization can lay a foundation and transform the way people communicate in a large company,” he says.
To learn more, please check out the Coca-Cola Enterprises case study. Also, please share your comments. Has cloud computing transformed the way your company communicates? We would like to hear your story.
Is Enterprise Mobility at a Tipping Point?
The mobility world is whirling ahead so fast that CIOs can’t catch their breath long enough to take advantage of the technology. If the guy I talked to yesterday is correct, you can inhale. Enterprise mobility is about to reach — a tipping point! “I think we’re going to hit a point of stability pretty soon,” said Brian Reed, chief marketing officer at mobility management vendor BoxTone.
Tony Scott on the Mobile Workforce
Microsoft CIO speaks about the trends and challenges of a Mobile Workforce and how IT can help solve them.
Enterprise Mobility & the Privacy Debate
“Let’s face it, younger generations are more than willing to share personal information — they want to share personal information, said panel member Randy Nunez, advanced networks and mobility director at Ford Motor Co. “And until they run into situations of ‘How does my insurance company know what my medical practices are’, until [privacy issues] start impacting them personally, there’s going to be a lot we give up in terms of privacy and security.” Does that mean that enterprises also will have to give up a lot in terms of privacy and security? Or will the right controls around an enterprise mobility strategy put a stop to “over-sharing?” Then again, how do you balance controls when personal information is mingled with corporate data on a mobile device? And what happens when you ask employees to buy their own devices?
A Programatic Approach to Security in the Cloud
Bruce Schneier once said, “Security is a process, not a product.” I think that phrase captures the essence of the change in approach Microsoft took in early 2002 when we introduced the Trustworthy Computing initiative. The key to creating an effective security program is having a culture that is aware of and highly values security. As a core corporate value, Microsoft is committed to continually improving in four key areas: security, privacy, reliability, and business practices.
CIOs Lack Adequate Cloud Computing Knowledge
Traditional IT outsourcing customers are struggling with cloud computing, according to IT service providers and outsourcing advisors surveyed by KPMG Sourcing Advisory. IT service providers and advisors rated their IT executive customers' facility with various aspects of cloud computing on a scale of one to five, where one represented "very unskilled" and five represented "very skilled." IT executives earned embarrassing scores from their providers and advisors: None garnered even a middling score of three.
A couple years ago, a friend of mine bought a brand new gas-guzzling SUV. Yet now that the price of gas is shooting up at the pump, he really wishes he had bought a Toyota Prius. There’s no easy way to convert his SUV into a hybrid vehicle. And if he trades his vehicle in for one that’s more fuel efficient, he’ll have lost a good chunk of his initial investment. Talk about buyer’s remorse.
Many organizations moving to the cloud face a similar dilemma. Some cloud vendors force you to take an all-or-nothing approach. You must either abandon your existing on-premises investment and migrate all of their workloads to the cloud, or you must keep all of your workloads on-premises, and lose out on all the benefits the cloud has to offer.
Microsoft has taken a more flexible approach – one that meets the needs of the majority of today’s enterprises. Some organizations may want to put all their data in the cloud. To that we say great. Yet many others have already invested thousands of dollars in on-premises infrastructures. For a variety of reasons, they may want to continue to leverage this investment, and move only some of their workloads to the cloud. To that we say great, too.
A hybrid approach enables enterprise businesses to move “commodity workloads” to the cloud – such as communication, messaging, and collaboration applications – freeing up IT administrators to focus on line-of-business applications that affect the bottom line. A hybrid approach also makes it cost-effective to bring more employees into the IT fold – by serving them in the cloud, while continuing to serve existing workers on-premises. With Microsoft, there are no ultimatums. You can migrate the workloads that are right for your business at the right time.
Even businesses in highly regulated industries can move some of their workloads to the cloud. Microsoft has worked hard to develop enterprise-class security policies that keep an organization’s data protected, while making it possible to comply with even the strictest regulations.
Just like driving a hybrid vehicle, which combines a traditional gas engine with the power of an electric motor generator, a hybrid approach to the cloud combines an on-premises infrastructure with the power of the cloud. In both cases, users can leverage an existing investment – and extend it even further with new technology.
During the month of August, I’ll be discussing how a hybrid approach to the cloud addresses the needs of many of today’s enterprises. Specifically, I’ll focus on how Microsoft seamlessly integrates cloud-based services with on-premises applications. I’ll also showcase organizations that have adopted a hybrid model and explain why. And I’ll discuss the benefits of a hybrid approach based upon the specific security, compliance, and operational needs businesses face.
In the meantime, please share your feedback. Is your organization taking a hybrid approach to cloud computing? What considerations are you facing as you move to the cloud? We’d like to hear from you.
By now, you probably realize that Microsoft Office 365 can free up time, money, and valued resources. But what about security?
Surveys show that security is the no. 1 reason why some enterprises hesitate to move their information into the cloud. Specifically, IT administrators fear their data won’t be protected, that it won’t be available when they need it, and that the privacy of information won’t be maintained.
Yet the reality is that Office 365 can provide a higher standard of security at lower cost than many organizations are capable of achieving themselves. Says Stefan Truthän, chief information officer of hhpberlin, a fire-safety consultancy that recently migrated to Office 365: “We are confident Microsoft has the resources to protect our data in the cloud and provide us with more robust security and reliability than we can do ourselves.”
Paul Lovette, vice president and executive manager of the nonprofit, D&L Representative Payee Services, agrees: “If a computer fails, our data is still accessible up in the cloud, with Microsoft safeguarding it,” he says. “That’s great for our peace of mind, especially because we’re handling sensitive, confidential documents.”
So how exactly does Microsoft safeguard your data with Office 365? Here are seven ways:
1. We provide a secure foundation: Microsoft data centers are built from the ground up to protect services and data from harm, whether is a natural disaster or unauthorized access. Physical security best practices are maintained, including state-of-the-art hardware, 24-hour secured access, redundant power supplies, multiple fiber trunks, and other features.
2. We make sure your data is available: Office 365 data is stored in Microsoft’s own network of highly available data centers, strategically located around the world. Because of system redundancy, updates can generally be deployed to the system without any downtime for your users.
3. We adopt security best practices: The products and services that make up Office 365 were designed and built according to the rigorous security practices encoded in the Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL). The SDL is constantly updated and freely shared within the software industry to help drive better security practices across vendors and platforms.
4. We make sure your data remains yours: With Microsoft, you retain the ownership of your data. If you decide to stop using Office 365, by default we provide 90 days of reduced functionality service, allowing you to export your data. Microsoft also provides multiple notices prior to deletion of customer data.
5. We separate customer data: Data storage and processing is logically segregated between customers through specialized Active Directory technology. For organizations that want additional data isolation, a version of Office 365 is available that stores your data on dedicated hardware.
6. We provide industry-standard log-in security: When users sign in, connections established over the Internet to the Office 365 service are encrypted using industry-standard encryption measures. As the IT administrator, you remain in control and can restrict who can access and perform specific actions on documents, email, and voicemail messages.
7. We protect your data against viruses and spam: To protect incoming, outgoing, and internal email and shared files against viruses and spam, Office 365 includes Microsoft Forefront Online Protection for Exchange. This multi-layered antivirus and anti-spam solution uses multiple scanning engines for highly accurate identification and mitigation of threats. It also minimizes “false positives” that can lead to improperly blocked email.
To learn more about Microsoft’s approach to security with Office 365, check out the Security in Office 365 Whitepaper. Also, please share your feedback. What security concerns did you have about moving your business data to the cloud? What has been your experience?
Microsoft Shares Video Tour of its Cloud Datacenters
We have come a long way since our first datacenter in 1989. The server count, power efficiencies and number of facility locations have grown dramatically. Microsoft’s cloud is now comprised of a globally distributed datacenter infrastructure supporting hundreds of online services, including Windows Azure, Office 365, Bing, MSN, Windows Live, Hotmail and Xbox Live. More than a billion customers and 20 million businesses in over 70 countries use these services each year.
The 5 Biggest IT Security Mistakes
Like cleaning the windows, IT security can be a thankless task because they only notice when you don't do it. But to get the job done in the era of virtualization, smartphones and cloud computing, you've got to avoid technical and political mistakes. In particular, here are five security mistakes to avoid:
Cloud Security Fears Exaggerated, Says Federal CIO
Vivek Kundra, the federal CIO, has made cloud adoption a priority for federal agencies. But the agencies moving in this direction seem enthusiastic about it as well, and not simply because the president's top IT appointee thinks it's a good idea. But Kundra also believes that cloud security issues have been used to discourage cloud adoption. "I think there's been an exaggeration," Kundra said. Doubts about cloud security were expressed by some U.S. lawmakers at a recent hearing by the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. "A lot of people are sort of driving this notion of fear around security," Kundra said. "And the reason I think that's been amplified, frankly, is because it preserves the status quo."
CIO Issues: The Search for Relevance
In an interview, Vivek Kundra, chief information officer for the federal government, explained that the data center consolidation was part of a broader strategy to embrace more efficient, Internet-era computing. In particular, the government is shifting to cloud computing, in which users use online applications like e-mail remotely, over the Internet. These cloud services can be provided by the government to many agencies or by outside technology companies.
One of my favorite things about camping is that it enhances my appreciation of all the day-to-day luxuries I normally take for granted. After a few days roughing it in a tent, it’s easy to appreciate even the small amenities like turning on lights with the flip of a switch or filling a cup with clean water via a faucet. The beauty of these services is that they’re always there when we need them. The infrastructure already exists. To tap into it, we simply sign up and then pay as we go for the quantity we consume.
Microsoft Office 365 works much the same way. Organizations can access the enterprise-grade productivity software they’re already used to with Microsoft Office. No upfront infrastructure investment is required. Just like water, enterprises simply turn on the faucet whenever they need it – and pay for only what they consume.
The beauty of Office 365 is that it can increase productivity while also lowering costs. Employees can tap into the sophisticated messaging and calendaring features they’re already familiar with. They can also facilitate collaboration with features such as instant messaging, web conferencing, and document sharing. At the same time, organizations can significantly reduce costs by eliminating the need to purchase and maintain servers and software.
Take Patagonia, a global provider of apparel and gear, for example. Executives wanted to improve productivity by making it easier for employees to communicate with each other and with outside vendors and suppliers. Patagonia pilot tested Office 365 and found that it’s helping to increase efficiency. Says Casey Stoops, Network Operations Manager at Patagonia: “We believe Office 365 capabilities, like video conferencing, will help our employees drive real-time decisions, which will help us reduce problem resolution time and potentially accelerate our products to market.”
At the same time, Patagonia expects Office 365 to help it reduce costs. Patagonia anticipates saving $300,000 in server and software upgrades. It also expects to save thousands of dollars in administrative costs by reducing the need to maintain servers and install software updates. “If you look at the Office 365 price point, we could not provide this same level of IT service, at the same cost, ourselves,” Stoops says.
If you are looking for ways to increase productivity and reduce costs, please check out our Office 365 Cost Estimator and see the savings first-hand. If you’ve already signed up for Office 365, please share your experience. In what ways is it raising productivity and reducing costs? Your feedback is appreciated!
Many IT professionals are familiar with the German proverb, “Trust is good, but control is better." As the father of two children, I understand that sentiment. Like most parents, I feel protective of my children and want to steer them out of harm’s way. Yet to be a good father, I actually believe what’s required is the right balance of trust versus control. Too much trust, and I’ll be the last to know if my children veer down the wrong path. Too much control, and I’ll turn their lives into a police state. Not good!
That same balance of trust vs. control also applies to information security. Too much trust, and an organization’s data may become unsafe. Too much control, and employees won’t have access to the information they need. We’ve paid close attention to achieving the right balance with Microsoft Office 365. Office 365 puts IT administrators in control through an easy-to-use administration console that lets administrators manage users, security groups, and domains, while monitoring service health – all from a single dashboard. Employees receive access to the information they need, while IT administrators maintain the proper level of control over sensitive information.
While Office 365 puts IT administrators in control, there’s a certain amount of trust that’s required when moving one’s business productivity applications to the cloud. Will your organization’s data be secure? Will it be available whenever employees need it? Microsoft has worked hard to guard against these concerns by implementing a multi-layer approach to security that includes enterprise-grade reliability, continuous data back-ups, disaster recovery capabilities, globally-redundant data centers, and a strict privacy policy. For example, when you store your data in a Microsoft data center, it’s actually housed within two separate data centers located hundreds of miles away from each other. That way, if a catastrophic event occurs in one location, your data remains fully safe and accessible. By applying enterprise-grade best practices such as these, we’re able to guarantee our customers 99.9 percent scheduled uptime.
To a lesser degree, trust is required by giving up certain tasks IT administrators were previously required to perform themselves. With Office 365, IT professionals transfer some of the mundane tasks to Microsoft. No longer are you required to install updates or upgrade your Office software. Microsoft takes care of these tasks, managing the risk and complexity of the backend. The payoff is that IT administrators are freed up to focus on more strategic business initiatives.
Another way in which we put IT administrators in control is by offering 24x7, IT-level support. This enables IT staff to get the support they need whenever they need it, in turn providing the highest level of support to their users. To better understand the control Office 365 offers, take an interactive tour of the Office 365 administrator portal. As always, please share your thoughts and experiences. We would like to hear from you.
Microsoft: Building Businesses in the Cloud
Emphasizing that cloud computing is the biggest shift ever seen in the IT, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella said that together with the company’s partners, Microsoft will help customers through the transition. “By betting on Microsoft’s comprehensive approach to cloud computing, partners can embrace this transformation and build strong and vibrant practices that will advance how business gets done,” Nadella said.
The New CIO – Embrace The Empowered Era or Step Aside
Many employees are no longer relying on IT to provision, manage, and run their technology because they feel IT is too slow and puts unnecessary restrictions on their use of technology. Many customers expect on-demand information, customized user experiences, and mobile apps that IT is expected to deliver quickly, cheaply, and reliably. Some CIOs have reacted to this shift by vigorously defending their turf from these encroachments. Others have ceded control to third-party service providers and business managers who now make their own technology decisions.
CIOs See Promise in Public Cloud Storage
Public cloud storage is like any outsourcing decision. Companies are faced with ever increasing storage requirements, many of which imply permanent retention of archives. So is it better to leave long-term storage management for generic applications like e-mail and CRM to external organizations whose primary business is providing those services, leaving IT more time to focus on critical business applications? Clearly, many CIOs and CTOs believe it is.
U.S to Close 800 Computer Data Centers
Last week in front of an audience of 13,000 partners who attended the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), Steve Ballmer called this a special year for Microsoft Lync, the centerpiece of our unified communications solution. He quoted Microsoft COO Kevin Turner who has referred to Lync as “the Kinect of the Enterprise.”
That statement rang true for those of us who use Lync on a daily basis. For our partners, customers and users like me, it is a tool that is present across all of the productivity programs that we use on premises or in the cloud with Office 365.
If you are not familiar with Lync, it gives you rich presence information and communication tools across the PC, phone and browser. If I want to collaborate with a colleague, I have a lot of options – I can start an instant message conversation, talk on the “phone” (via VOIP), chat on a video conference call, brainstorm on a virtual whiteboard, or share my desktop. And I can do all of this using the Lync interface itself, or through Office, SharePoint and other applications. It has redefined how I think about integration and collaboration, as I no longer send emails to colleagues for “quick questions.” I find it much faster to send an instant message and have a real-time conversation.
One of our customers, Nikon Corporation, found that deploying Lync not only saved the company money on conferences and travel costs, it boosted productivity in some areas by 30 percent, while increasing responsiveness to customers. Michiko Noborisaka, General Manager of the Information System Planning Department at Nikon sees the benefits firsthand. “With Lync, communication is much more efficient because people do not have to switch programs to make a call or join a meeting.”
If you haven’t deployed Lync in your company, it is time to consider it. It is a game changer for communication and collaboration. Your employees, regardless of their work style, will thank you for it. And, if you are using Lync, please share your thoughts. Has it had a significant impact on your business?
Microsoft Introduces Solutions to Help Partners Build New Business With Cloud Computing
"Cloud computing is as big a transformation as we have ever seen and, together with our partners, Microsoft will help customers through the shift," said Satya Nadella, president of the Server and Tools Business at Microsoft. "By betting on Microsoft's comprehensive approach to cloud computing, partners can embrace this transformation and build strong and vibrant practices that will advance how business gets done."
Office 365: What a Rush
As discussed today during Steve Ballmer’s keynote at the conference, the American Red Cross will move 66,000 people to Office 365 email this year, across its 620 U.S. chapters. Email is a big deal to the American Red Cross; it needs to be reliable, secure, and fast, to help the organization support disaster response, supply nearly half the nation’s blood supply, teach lifesaving skills, provide international humanitarian aid, and support military members and their families.
What CVP Joe Matz Describe How Volume Licensing Enables Customers and Partners to Become Cloud Ready
Corporate Vice President of the Microsoft Worldwide Licensing and Pricing Group, Joe Matz, sat down recently to share Microsoft'sperspective for how Volume Licensing is enabling customers and partners to become cloud ready. Recent changes to the Enterprise Agreement and Software Assurance provide the flexibility, manageability and cost-effectiveness to create the right licensing solution to address the breadth of customer scenarios: on-premises, virtualized, private or public cloud.
WPC 2011 Thoughts
This past week at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference I had the opportunity to hear Sir Richard Branson as the guest keynote speaker. He shared some of his success and wisdom with the audience – and I found it to be very interesting and motivating. One of the key statements he made involved his approach to life: “Screw it, let’s do it”. He is all about taking risk (calculated and controlled) but taking action. Far too often we sit back thinking about ideas rather than getting after it and making things happen.
Microsoft Commits Multibillion-Dollar Partner Investments
“Winning together with our partners today, and long into the future, means delivering incredible world-class technologies to meet customer needs, as well as the right partner incentives, tools and training, which will ultimately drive business growth for them,” said Jon Roskill, corporate vice president of the Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft, speaking before more than 15,000 attendees from around the globe at the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference. “We are bringing our partners to the cloud with us — they can use the tools and skills they have now to take their clients to the cloud.”
Los Angeles is buzzing with 12,000 Microsoft partners who are all here to attend the annual Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC). It is these partners who work with you to deploy our products and solutions. Between visiting LA landmarks and celebrity sightings, partners are learning about our latest programs, strategies, and cutting-edge technologies.
One of the hot topics here is Office 365 and how it is a game changer for business. Partners were wowed by a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on the Total Economic Impact (TEI) of Microsoft Office 365 on Enterprise Customers. This June 2011 study found that Office 365 delivered a risk-adjusted 315% return on investment with a four month payback period based on a composite organization. It also determined that Office 365 has a lower total cost of ownership, and it greatly reduces implementation times compared to a similar on premises solution.
So, you may wonder, how did Forrester Consulting come to this conclusion? They interviewed 10 Office 365 enterprise beta customers, analyzed the results, and created a composite corporation that is an aggregate of the results. Check out some of the benefits – they are truly astounding.
A key finding in this study is the importance for enterprise customers to have the option of taking a hybrid approach to the cloud. While this wasn’t quantified, it is one of the primary benefits of our approach. We want you, our customers, to be in control of your IT decisions – no mandates from Microsoft.
I think you will enjoy reading this study on the TEI of Office 365. Take a look and let me know what your thoughts are.
I was watching the Suze Orman Show on television the other night, and it occurred to me that her job is really all about helping people understand the risk associated with their decisions. For those who aren’t familiar with Suze Orman, she’s a personal finance expert who helps people evaluate whether they can afford something they want to buy. If their financial risk is low (i.e. they have enough money and other assets), she gives the purchase her stamp of approval. But if the risk is too high, the word, “DENIED,” flashes across the screen in big letters.
Watching her show, I was thinking, wouldn’t it be great if we could transform Suze Orman from personal finance expert into cloud computing guru who helps individual enterprises weigh the risk versus the opportunity of moving to the cloud. How would she describe the opportunities? And what advice would she give enterprises for mitigating the risks they face?
The opportunities presented by the cloud are many. Among them include:
But what about the risks? Many IT pros are concerned about the risk of compromising security, the privacy of their information, the reliability of their systems, and a lack of operational control.
Our approach has been to mitigate the risks of cloud computing so that enterprises can fully reap the opportunities. How? By placing the same high value on security in the cloud that we’ve developed through years of experience managing security risks in traditional computing environments.
Our philosophy is simple: If you want an effective security program, you need a culture that places a high value on security. The Microsoft leadership team has long been committed to making the proper investments to drive secure behavior. Trustworthy Computing – and its four pillars of privacy, security, reliability, and business practices – has been in place since 2002. It’s a core corporate value of Microsoft, and guides nearly everything we do.
So how does a culture that values security translate this into an approach enterprises can trust when it comes to the cloud? Microsoft takes a defense-in-depth approach to security in the cloud that includes robust security measures across all service layers, frequent internal and external evaluation of practices and capabilities, and the continual evaluation and incorporation of measures to comply with government and industry mandates as they evolve.
Here is an example of our approach: We have a team devoted to cloud security called the Online Services Security and Compliance (OSSC) team. Each year, OSSC conducts a comprehensive assessment of threats to the Microsoft cloud infrastructure, and calculates the severity of each potential risk. The assessment leads to additional reviews throughout the year, and guides the development of security controls and related activities. It’s a very proactive and comprehensive approach. And it’s just one example.
If you’ve watched the Suze Orman Show, I’m sure you’ve noticed she’s not one to take uncalculated risks. Yet if Suze were a cloud computing guru, I’m sure she’d give Microsoft’s approach her full stamp of approval. She might even make Microsoft technology a condition of moving to the cloud.
To learn more about our approach to cloud security, please watch a short video called “Security and the Cloud.” Also, please share how your organization is assessing the risk vs. the opportunity of cloud-based computing. We’re eager to hear from you!
Welcome to another round of featured news items from around the web. Each week, we handpick articles for our community related to cloud and enterprise technology. We welcome your suggestions for next week’s round-up—share your links in the comments section or tweet a link to us at @msproductivity.
Here are 4 links focusing on the future of cloud computing from the view of a CIO.
Cloud CIO: Are You Making Your Data Centers Cloud-Friendly?
Data center construction is growing ever more complex and expensive as data center facilities expand to meet enterprises' seemingly limitless computing needs.
Only 5% of CIOs can Authorize IT Spending – Gartner
Financial executives hold the IT department reins, analyst firm finds, as CIOs make independent decisions on investment in only 5% of organizations. Most CIOs cannot authorize IT investments on their own, and instead require the approval of a chief financial officers (CFOs) according to a report released today by Gartner.
Cloud Computing’s Present & Future: What You Need to Know
Cloud computing is entering companies with the momentum of a locomotive, writes CIO.com virtualization blogger Bernard Golden. Here, he shares the striking facts about cloud computing's present and future that he obtained while attending recent conferences on cloud computing.
Innovation & The CIO
The 2011 survey of over 2,500 CIOs and IT leaders reveals that CIOs are playing an increasingly influential role within their organizations with 50 percent now sitting on operational boards or management teams. However, the main demands on them remain cost saving, increasing operational efficiencies and delivering consistent and stable IT performance to the business.
Today we are featuring a guest blog post from Tony Scott, our CIO at Microsoft. Tony will be sharing his perspective of how the cloud is changing the enterprise landscape and the role of the CIO.
One of the big challenges CIOs face is the increasing cost and complexity of IT infrastructure. As the needs of the enterprise have evolved, we have, over time, added a Band-Aid here, some glue over there and a little baling wire in that corner. All this to quickly meet the demands associated with evolving business needs. These demands have, however, added complexity to the infrastructures we manage.
To make the situation even more challenging, the work environment itself has changed. No longer do our employees work from one, centralized location. Today, offices are often located around the world, and employees across different cultures work in different time zones in many different places ranging from their home to an airport. And it’s only going to get more intense as companies continue to build a greater presence in emerging markets.
The cloud has tremendous potential to help CIOs address these challenges. As organizations move their messaging and collaboration workloads into the cloud, CIOs will have the opportunity to reduce the cost and complexity of managing their infrastructures, freeing up their time to focus on more strategic organizational imperatives.
As you explore cloud solutions, here are three pieces of advice that I have found helpful:
The role of the CIO will continue to evolve as cloud computing matures. Traditionally, CIOs have been the gatekeepers of important information and of people’s privacy. As the work environment has changed, information sharing and access has become increasingly important. Employees need access to information 24/7, wherever they are. I am finding that with the cloud, I have a new set of tools at my