Office 365 data is stored in the Microsoft network of data centers, run by Microsoft Global Foundation Services and strategically located around the world.
These data centers are built from the ground up to protect services and data from harm by natural disaster or unauthorized access. Data center access is restricted 24 hours per day by job function so that only essential personnel have access to customer applications and services.
Physical access control uses multiple authentication and security processes, including badges and smart cards, biometric scanners, on-premises security officers, continuous video surveillance, and two-factor authentication.
The data centers are monitored using motion sensors, video surveillance, and security breach alarms. In case of a natural disaster, security also includes seismically braced racks where required and automated fire prevention and extinguishing systems.
Read more in this whitepaper "Security in Office 365 White Paper" - link
Two very important pieces of informations that all Microsoft Partners should know about is the "Getting Ready for CRM 2013 Planning Guide" and the "Role Tailered Learning Plans for CRM 2013"
Getting Ready for CRM 2013 Planning Guide
The purpose of this guide is to provide an overview of the partner readiness program that is being developed to support the release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013. It is intended to provide information that can be used prior to the release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 in the preparation of skills development plans for partner employees. It includes information about training and resources that are planned and currently available with the details subject to change as we progress towards the release date. This guide along with many other resources, including role-based learning plans, will be updated throughout the release cycle. Future versions of the guide will include more details on sales and technical readiness webinar topics, updated availability dates for courseware and exams, and links to training materials and resources once they become available.
Rolebased Learning Plans
The role tailored learning plans are designed to provide readiness guidance on how to prepare according to your role in the implementation of a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Solution. Also now available are learning plans for the upcoming release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013.
Important. The above content is for Microsoft Partners. To access the above content you will need a Partner Source account
There are several exciting benefits to CRM Online being part of the Office 365 ecosystem, but one of the biggest is the ability to link your company's Active Directory system to CRM.
This allows you to manage all your users in one place, sign in to CRM Online with your existing credentials (known as single sign-on, or SSO), and even control access to multiple CRM organizations by using Active Directory.
If you have a large organization that uses Active Directory to manage your users and groups, setting up Active Directory synchronization will allow you to manage all of your CRM Online users in a central location, avoiding the need to manage multiple user accounts and passwords. In the Office 365 portal, each user record automatically includes user details such as phone number, which is populated from the corresponding user entry in Active Directory. After you assign a CRM license to a user in the Office 365 portal, the user (and all associated details) will appear within the CRM application. If the user's name or other information is updated in Active Directory, any changes will automatically propagate to CRM.
Setting up Active Directory synchronization and Single Sign-On (SSO)
Before setting up Active Directory synchronization, you'll should check out the Single Sign-On Roadmap and decide if you are interested in setting up SSO. With SSO, users will not need to enter a user name and password to access CRM. Instead, users browsing to the CRM Online website will automatically be authenticated by using their existing Active Directory credentials. If your company has multiple Office 365 tenants please note that we are currently supporting SSO between your Active Directory and (only) one of the tenants.
If setting up SSO is not feasible in your environment, consider the less complex alternative of using Password Sync, which will seamlessly synchronize your Office 365 account passwords with those in your Active Directory.
After you've determined whether or not to use SSO, you're ready to set up the Active Directory synchronization. To make this process easier, we have provided a tool called DirSync, which empowers you to control and manage user accounts in the traditional way by using Active Directory Users and Computers. Many of the attributes from your local AD Global Address List (GAL) can be synchronized automatically to the cloud
Read more here
See also
Power BI for Office 365 is a new upcoming self-service business intelligence (BI) offering enabling you to gain insights from your data in powerful new ways within Excel and Office 365.
You now have the ability to easily search, discover and access data inside and outside of your organization and, with just a few clicks, shape and transform that data. You can also analyze and create stunning interactive visualizations that uncover hidden insights to share and collaborate from virtually anywhere, on nearly any device.
Key features
Power BI for Office 365 enables you to collaborate and stay connected virtually anytime/anywhere through the cloud. The connection to Office 365 allows you to share and access your BI models across the desktop, Web and devices, all in a trusted, managed environment.
Demo
To see just how compelling Power BI can be, please check this recording from our recent Worldwide Partner Conference.
My collegue Amir Netz is quite enthusiastic about the new offering, and I'm guessing you will be too after his 12 minutes demo :-)
Preview
If you are interested in registering for a preview you can go here (the preview is coming later this summer).
Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) is 'Free Microsoft Training Delivered by Experts', with the added benefit of test questions at the end of each module to ensure you can apply the learnings.
If you are a Small Business Office 365 Admin, looking for a jump start in administrering your Office 365 (latest edition, aka wave 15), MVA has just launched a course for you: Administering Office 365 for Small Business Jump Start
This is a fast-paced and engaging learning experience to help you get ready for the new and upcoming Microsoft Office 365 exam 74-325. The couse will take you through the following modules:
Click here to access the course.
Monday July 8th Microsoft announced that the upcoming CRM Online 2013 subcriptions will come in three flavors
Since you'll be able to mix and match these subscriptions between your users, the flexibility will enable you to consume just the right subscriptions for the right users, at the right price.
The high-level comparison of user capabilities per subscription would look like this
To help you decide which subscriptions will fit which user profiles I've laid out how I would assume the Use Rights for the CRM entities and features will be distributed between these three subscriptions in the table below. Please note that the table represents my personal assumptions. Nothing is certain untill the general release.
About the Use Rights color coding:
Green = Full
Orange = For actions performed only against records corresponding to entities included in the use rights
Red = No
See also (requires access to PartnerSource)
Disclaimer
"Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013" is a pre-release product under development. The information in this blog post represents my personal understanding and expectations as of the date of this blog post. All pre-release product release dates and features specified are preliminary based on current expectations, and are subject to change without notice.
If you are an Office 365 Company Administrator, you will receive an email notification once your tenant has been scheduled for a service upgrade. This email is typically sent several weeks before the upgrade is scheduled to take place.
In case you have missed this email notification, you can utilize the Windows Azure Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell to detect if your tenant has been scheduled for upgrade, and also detect if your tenant has already been upgraded.
Note: This method does not show the exact date of the scheduled service upgrade.
Steps
Value in Output
Description
o365.microsoft.com/14to15UpgradeCompletedDate
If the tenant has been upgraded, this attribute will contain the date of the upgrade
o365.microsoft.com/version
The current version of the Office 365 service is shown (i.e. - 15)
o365.microsoft.com/14to15UpgradeScheduled
If the tenant has been scheduled for upgrade, this attribute will equal 'True'
Note: If you don’t see any of the properties shown in the table above, that means you haven’t been scheduled yet.
If you can access our World Wide Partner Conference 2013 site I encourage you to go see the "DYN20 Microsoft Dynamics CRM momentum, vision, and product roadmap" session
Reuben Krippners segment "Introducing Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013" starts about 36 minutes into the session. He covers the new UI, the Process Control, Quick Forms, Netbreeze and more.
I love it, and I hope you will too.
We plan to offer the following competitively priced license options for our next release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online:
(*) CRM Online list price shown per user per month in USD, actual pricing might vary by geography. Other fees may apply for add-on services such as additional storage, testing and production instances. Prices are exclusive of any fees you may incur to procure Internet connectivity.
Working in CRM 2011 and earlier you'll eventually encounter quite a few new windows and popups that potentially can tab you away from what you are working with.
In the December 2012 Update, we introduced the concept of the “Quick Form” that can
The customization story for these Quick Forms were, well, kind of limited, as the forms were not shown in the form editor and Create/Read/Update/Delete operations were blocked through SDK/Solutions.
In the upcoming Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 (expected around October 2013) these quick forms will be omni present and can be launched from the top navigation bar (the blue bar at the top of the UI) or anywhere you see a "plus" sign. Further its expected thats these surfaces will be opened up allowing you to update the out of box quick forms as well as creating your own forms.
With an entirely new user experience, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 allows you to view everything you need in one spot—fast, fluid, and relevant to the work at hand. No pop-up windows.
Business Procecesses can make you more effective. If you adopt eg a solution selling process you'll must likely see higher win rates compared to not having a process.
In the the December 2012 Update we introduced business processes for a couple of entities in CRM Online - one process for the lead entity and one for the case entity. In the upcoming CRM 2013 release (expected around October 2013) you'll be able to work with multiple processes per entity (even custom entities) and processes can span entities.
Pick Your Process
Each entity can have multiple processes. Role specific process assignment sets the default process. You can then switch to another process if better suited.
Easily configurable
If given the priveleges you can enjoy a simplified point and click process designer to model your complex business processes and enable security roles for the processes. The processes you build can be easy packaged, exported and imported between systems.
Stay tuned for more :-)
i'm excited about our upcoming release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013. We have completely reimagined our user experience, streamlining it so you can easily see what you need to do, accomplishing your tasks quickly and easily. And this experience extends to iPads and Windows 8 tablets, so salespeople have a seamless experience as they move through their days—at work and on the road.
Discover experiences that people love
With an entirely new user experience, Microsoft Dynamics CRM allows you to view everything you need in one spot—fast, fluid, and relevant to the work at hand. No pop-up windows. No flipping from one application to the next. Information at your fingertips gives you the insights you need to get in, get going, and get done, so you can focus on what is most important—your customers
Find your way easily with process guidance
No more guessing what to do next. Process guidance, based on industry-leading best practices, helps your sales team easily move from lead to close—faster than ever before. Flexible and configurable, it gives your organization the ability to be agile in the face of change.
Connect sales teams with the tablet experience
A new mobile application keeps salespeople connected to data, team members, and customers. With access to your CRM solution on your iPad or Windows 8 tablet, you have the tools you need to not only look smarter but also to be smarter.
Microsoft just announced that the SkyDrive Pro apps for Windows 8 and iOS are now available in the Windows Store
... and Apple Store respectively ...
... for SharePoint Online users in Office 365 (please note that On-Premises SharePoint Server is not supported). After signing in to your Office 365 account, you can access, view, and upload your documents from anywhere.
You can use the SkyDrive Pro apps to view documents in your SkyDrive Pro folder, select specific content to take offline when you are traveling or have low bandwidth, organize your content by creating new folders, and upload new content and share with others.
Read more at source here
PS: If you want to learn more about SkyDrive Pro directly from the Product Group, you can join this Live Online Meeting "SkyDrive Pro: Apps, Web, oh my!" Tuesday July 2nd, at 10:00 AM Pacific Time - link