I am happy to announce that I have recently accepted a new position within Microsoft. I will still be working with enterprise customers and partners based here in the Northeast but my focus will be shifting to Office 365.

So, why am I making this move now? Here are the top 5 reasons:

1. On March 4, 2010, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made the public statement that Microsoft was “all in” with the cloud and stated that Microsoft was betting the future of its company on cloud computing. In October 2012, Ballmer redefined Microsoft as a “devices and services” company in his annual shareholder letter. It is clear that cloud computing, including services such as Office 365 and Azure, is viewed as strategic by Microsoft.
2. Microsoft is not the only company that is embracing cloud computing. Studies, such as those cited in this recent USA Today article, reinforce this trend and the positive impact not only for cloud service providers such as Microsoft, but also for our customers and partners.
3. This Wednesday, February 27, 2013, Microsoft will be launching the 3rd major service update for Office 365. This update will bring the 2013 versions of Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, Visio, and Project to Office 365. More information on these service updates can be found in the service description updates.
4. As part of the New SharePoint announcements, and reinforced at the SharePoint Conference in 2012, Microsoft has made it clear that future product updates will be released to the cloud first and Microsoft will be providing service releases on a much more frequent basis – including additional social investments with Yammer, SharePoint, and Office 365.
5. I have thoroughly enjoyed the past 5 years working at Microsoft and focusing on SharePoint and Office. This new role offers me the unique opportunity to leverage my existing skills, knowledge, and relationships while gaining new experiences working more deeply with Exchange, Lync, Yammer, Project, Visio, and our Microsoft cloud services including Office 365 and Azure.

By no means am I leaving the SharePoint community behind. I plan to continue to be very active and speaking at events including SharePoint Saturday Boston and the Boston Area SharePoint User Group in April.

I also plan to resume blogging more again … as soon as we finish writing and publishing “Essential SharePoint 2013” later this year.