BPOSitive : News

Administration and Deployment Class now online at Partner Learning Center

Brett Hill — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:10:00 GMT

Announcing availability of the Business Productivity Online Suite Administration and Deployment on the Partner Learning Center
https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&ActivityId=569185

This one day instructor-led course provides students with skills necessary to quickly get an account up and running on BPOS, deploy the sign in tool and administer the services. Designed for IT Professionals, this class is insures that administrators know the core deployment scenarios for each service and includes domain name validation, creating users, accessing and managing each service. While considered an overview class, it is full of useful details covering the core scenarios for each service.

Course Description

This refactored class includes the latest updates to the services and covers :

· Subscribing to and Activating Microsoft Online Services

· Getting Started with the Microsoft Online Administration Center

· Accessing Business Productivity Online Services

· E-mail Migration and Active Directory Coexistence

· Exchange Online Administration and Capabilities

· Managing and Using Microsoft SharePoint Online

· Administering Microsoft Office Communications Online

· Administering Office Live Meeting Standard

Value

Provides a means for Partners to quickly get up to speed on the capabilities of the services and covers the core administration tasks required to manage the services. This class is focused on insuring that students know the main features of each service, how to deploy the sign on tool, validate custom domains, and have an understanding of migration and directory synchronization. At the end of the class students should be able to successfully configure and manage a BPOS account. Additional training is suggested before undertaking migration. (See the Migration and Onboarding class on the Partner Learning Center for depth training on migration)

Migration and Onboading Class now online at Partner Learning Center

Brett Hill — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:08:00 GMT

Announcing availability of the Business Productivity Online Suite Migration and Onboarding Deep Dive class on the Partner Learning Center

https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&ActivityId=568520

This two-day instructor-led course provides students with the knowledge and skills to identify key technical issues needed to move an organization to Microsoft Online Services. As previously announced, the course content is also available as ILT as described below.

Course Description

Day one - Detailed Presales discovery and migration planning

· Detailed walkthrough of pre-sales discovery and activity

· Best practices for a trial account

· Domain name configuration

· SharePoint, and Exchange discovery questions

· Single Sign on tool deployment and workstation preparation

Day two – Migration and Directory Synch deep dive

· Deep dive into directory synchronization and migration

· Capacities and limitations of migration tools

· Using powershell commands to troubleshoot migration

· 3^rd party migration scenarios

Value

Provides all the information most commonly needed to successfully plan and execute migration to Business Productivity Online Suite. Students are guided through a detailed explanation of pre-deployment questions leading to an exploration of our directory synchronization and migration tools. At the end of this class, students will know what they need to ask customers to inform a high quality migration as well as how to execute messaging migration to Exchange Online.

Mac Sign-In application has been released

Brett Hill — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:58:00 GMT

The Mac Sign-In application has been released and is now available for download from the Microsoft Download Center.

The Sign-In Application provides a convenient way for users with computers using the Apple Macintosh operating system to access their e-mail and data on the Microsoft Online Services platform. The Mac Sign-In application was announced with the October Service Update as part of the expanded Mac support for the Business Productivity Online Suite, and the application was made available as part of a preview program for early adoption and testing.

More information about the expanded support for Mac can be found in the Microsoft Online Services Macintosh Support Service Description, which also can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center.

BPOS Portals released in new languages and locations.

Brett Hill — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:36:00 GMT

On Sunday morning (11/08), we published 15 additional sites – serving 14 more countries, in 9 more languages. This brings our total to 40 localized sites (including our first RTL language: Hebrew). In additional to publishing new sites, we also enabled “Buy” functionality on the existing sites for India and Singapore, corresponding to the commercial availability for customers in those countries

Country (Language)	URL
Brazil (Portuguese Brazilian)	http://www.microsoft.com/online/pt-br
Chile (Spanish)	http://www.microsoft.com/online/es-cl
Colombia (Spanish)	http://www.microsoft.com/online/es-co
Czech Republic (Czech)	http://www.microsoft.com/online/cs-cz
Greece (Greek)	http://www.microsoft.com/online/el-gr
Hong Kong (Chinese Traditional)	http://www.microsoft.com/online/zh-hk
Hong Kong (English)	http://www.microsoft.com/online/en-hk
Hungary (Hungarian)	http://www.microsoft.com/online/hu-hu
Israel (Hebrew)	http://www.microsoft.com/online/he-il
Malaysia (English)	http://www.microsoft.com/online/en-my
Mexico (Spanish)	http://www.microsoft.com/online/es-mx
Poland (Polish)	http://www.microsoft.com/online/pl-pl
Puerto Rico (English)	http://www.microsoft.com/online/es-pr
Romania (Romanian)	http://www.microsoft.com/online/ro-ro
Taiwan (Chinese Traditional)	http://www.microsoft.com/online/zh-tw

Customers globally who visit the microsoft.com/online home page are being “geo-detected,” where possible, by their browser language setting and IP address – then are redirected automatically to the appropriate corresponding subsidiary site. At all times on all of our Web pages, customers have the opportunity to change the locale they wish to view.

This is the list of localized sites that were published previously:

Previously Published Country (Language)	URL
Australia	http://www.microsoft.com/online/en-au
Austria	http://www.microsoft.com/online/de-at
Belgium (French)	http://www.microsoft.com/online/fr-be
Belgium (Dutch)	http://www.microsoft.com/online/nl-be
Canada (English)	http://www.microsoft.com/online/en-ca
Canada (French)	http://www.microsoft.com/online/fr-ca
Denmark	http://www.microsoft.com/online/da-dk
Finland	http://www.microsoft.com/online/fi-fi
France	http://www.microsoft.com/online/fr-fr
Germany	http://www.microsoft.com/online/de-de
India	http://www.microsoft.com/online/en-in
Ireland	http://www.microsoft.com/online/en-ie
Italy	http://www.microsoft.com/online/it-it
Japan	http://www.microsoft.com/online/ja-jp
Netherlands	http://www.microsoft.com/online/nl-nl
New Zealand	http://www.microsoft.com/online/en-nz
Norway	http://www.microsoft.com/online/nb-no
Portugal	http://www.microsoft.com/online/pt-pt
Singapore	http://www.microsoft.com/online/en-sg
Spain	http://www.microsoft.com/online/es-es
Sweden	http://www.microsoft.com/online/sv-se
Switzerland (German)	http://www.microsoft.com/online/de-ch
Switzerland (French)	http://www.microsoft.com/online/fr-ch
UK	http://www.microsoft.com/online/en-gb
US	http://www.microsoft.com/online

Serivce update: new features and capabilites

Brett Hill — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:42:00 GMT

Upgrades and Enhancements
The following features and capabilities are included in the October Service Update:

Bulk Activation of Users
PowerShell commandlets will be added to streamline the activation process, enabling administrators to easily automate the activation of a set of users. Most commonly, these commandlets will be used to activate a set of users that have been migrated from an Active Directory forest to Microsoft Online Services via the Directory Synchronization Tool. Previously, administrators were required to activate users one-by-one with the User Administration tools in the Microsoft Online Services Administration Center.
Commandlets added in this Service Update are:

Enable-MSOnlineUser
Get-MSOnlineSubscription
Set-MSOnlineUserPassword

A new version of the Microsoft Online Services Transporter Tool supporting these commandlets will be available for download at the Microsoft Download Center upon completion of the deployment of the October Service Update into production data centers for all regions.

POP Mail Clients
Supported e-mail clients for Exchange Online are being expanded to include POP-based clients. Previously, Exchange Online supported only Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 and 2007.

To enable POP e-mail client support for your organization, have your administrator contact Microsoft Online Services Technical Support to open a Service Request.

Please note: Service Requests for POP enablement will be accepted upon completion of the deployment of the October Service Update into production data centers for all regions. Please reference the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog for deployment updates.

Support for 30,000 Users

The Microsoft Online Services Administration Center will support as many as 30,000 users, improving management and administration for larger organizations. Previously, Microsoft Online Services supported up to 10,000 users.

Please note that SharePoint Online will retain previously established limits (e.g., 20 sites per site collection, 50 gigabytes (GB) per site, and 1 terabyte (TB) per company).

Enhanced Support for Mac OS
The October Service Update includes several enhancements that will provide a more efficient communication and collaboration experience for organizations with Mac users.

A new Sign-In Client for the Mac OS provides a single sign-in experience and auto-configuration of Office for Mac applications and the Safari browser for use with Microsoft Online Services.

Other Mac features in this Service Update include:

Support for Entourage 2008 Exchange Web Services (EWS), including Global Address List (GAL), Calendar Free/Busy Lookup, and Out-of-Office notifications
Global Address List support for Entourage 2004 and 2008 when using the Sign-In Client for Mac
SharePoint Online support for Document Connection for Mac to improve the collaboration experience for users
Improved Firefox and Safari support for My Company Portal

The Sign-In Client for Mac will be available for download at the Microsoft Download Center upon completion of the deployment of the October Service Update into production data centers for all regions. Please reference the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog for updates on the availability of the Sign-In Client for Mac.

Timeline
Deployment of the October Service Update into production data centers has started, with deployment to all regions anticipated to be complete by mid-October.

The deployment schedule is subject to change. Updates to the deployment schedule will be announced via the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog as well as the RSS Feed from the Microsoft Online Services Administration Center.

Additional Information
All service upgrades in the October Service Update will be performed on your behalf. These changes are a mandatory upgrade for all users, so it is important that you are aware of them and understand how they may impact you.

If you have additional questions, there are several resources at your disposal. Click here for information about how to contact Microsoft Online Services Support. You can also read the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog for the latest news about the October Service Update, or participate in technical discussions on the Microsoft Online Services TechNet Forums.

Thank you!
Thank you for choosing Microsoft Online Services to host your business productivity applications. We look forward to delivering additional enhancements and capabilities that improve your service experience and help you focus on your core business initiatives.

Sincerely,
Microsoft Online Services

Outlook 2003 Free/Busy Connector for BPOS

Brett Hill — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:18:00 GMT

One of the most interesting aspects of working with services as opposed to a bits on disk product group, is that we update capabilities all the time. That's really different than releasing service packs for features updates. One of the updates we released was adding Outlook 2003 as a client for Exchnage Online. Since Outlook 2003 was released before autodiscover was created, it is missing free/busy capability and GAL lookup when used in the online environment. Well, that just won't do.

There is currently a beta of the Outlook 2003 free/busy connector that you can sign up for. See the link below for details.

http://blogs.technet.com/msonline/archive/2009/09/24/do-you-want-to-use-outlook-2003-with-exchange-online.aspx

Could be a First for Microsoft! Intneral Technical Wiki now Pushed to Quickstartonlineservices.com.

Brett Hill — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 22:10:00 GMT

Internally, the Technical Product Management team had a Wiki they were using to keep track of all kind of issues. FAQs that were being asked all the time about things like public folders, mail enabled lists, how to work with proxy servers, when is feature "X" coming , blah blah blah.

The cool thing about this particular wiki is that it is a living resource that is actively updated, and used to drive meeting agendas, workflows, feature priorities, and other details. In other words, it's an important tool that we use here.

Well, we had that thought that most of this information would be really useful to Partners as well. It's current. It often has details that are difficult to find, and is relatively comprehensive. What if we could find a way to push the internal Wiki into Quickstartservicesonline and flag items we wanted copied so that partners would have access to the same agile resources we have?! So that's what we did. We made this even more useful by adding all the checklist items from the Migration and Discover whitepaper I recently wrote as line items in the wiki making it a great place to go for the latest questions you should ask before tackling a migration plan.

You can of course search for any topic or click on one of the topic of interest. Say you're interested SSO Auth Proxy (Single Sign On Authentication with a Proxy), click on the link and you'll see :

BPOS-S Single Sign-In Client (SIC as some refer to it) currently does NOT support Outbound Internet Authenticating Proxy Server configurations. Users will receive SIC messages stating …”unable to establish a secure connection..”. This is typically due to a Connectivity Issues with the BPOS-S Single Sign-On Services (SSO Web Services), which has been seen when connecting over the Internet from an On-Premise Authenticating Proxy Server. These servers can be of any flavor, such as Blue Coat, ISA, Threat Management Gateway (v.Next of ISA), etc., as long as they are configured for Outbound Internet Authentication.

Resolution/Workaround

1.       Outbound Authenticating Proxy Servers MUST be using the NTLM Authentication method for the below to work!!!!

2.       When the below snippet is placed into the SignIn.exe.config file, this allows the SSO client to pass the logged in users Domain credentials to the Authenticating Proxy Server, allowing Outbound Internet Connectivity:

a.       Caveat: The user must be logged into the machine as a Domain User Account and that account must be granted Outbound Internet Connectivity for the below to work.

1.       Browse to the following location to modify the SignIn.exe.config file: x:\Program Files\Microsoft Online Services\Sign In

2.       Modify the SignIn.exe.config file, using Notepad.exe or other Application of choice:

3.       Save the File

a.       Logout and Exit SIC

4.       Restart SIC

<system.net>

    <defaultProxy useDefaultCredentials="true">

      <proxy usesystemdefault="True" />

    </defaultProxy>

        </system.net>

This gives the ability to get information out to partners faster and easier than ever before. This is all good news for partners who need ready information without having to wait for formal editing, vetting, and signoff. However, the downside is of course you'll find the content is bit rougher and there will be some inconsistencies. That's the trade off, but we think it's a good one. Hopefully you'll find this useful.

This is only available to Microsoft Partners.

Thanks,

brett

Outlook 2003 support is enabled worldwide

Brett Hill — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 01:39:00 GMT

The June update for services has been finished!

This means that you can now use Outlook 2003 with BPOS. There are a couple of considerations relating the oflline address book and free/busy. See the BPOS team blog for details.

Also, attachment size has been bumped to 30MB.

Sweet!

Brett

Monthly Service Update for June 2009 is currently in deployment

Brett Hill — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:27:00 GMT

The Microsoft Online Services Monthly Service Update for June 2009 is currently in deployment and will be available to all customers by June 30. No scheduled downtime is planned for this release deployment.

The release delivers two important capabilities:

· Exchange Online attachments are now supported up to 30MB. Previously, Exchange Online attachments were limited to 20MB.

· Support for Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 client for Exchange Online is now provided. Support for Outlook 2003 was previously announced in the Team Blog.

Release notes for the June 2009 Release can be found here.

"BPOS.....practically essential": Tom's Hardware reviews BPOS

Brett Hill — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 02:56:00 GMT

“In any economy, BPOS would be persuasive. In this one, it seems practically essential.”

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cloud-computing-bpos,2313.html

Nuff said.

Papers! We Got Papers! - New and updated BPOS Security papers

Brett Hill — Thu, 28 May 2009 21:01:00 GMT

Quick heads up note to let you know about two new white papers from the Microsoft Online Services and Global Foundation Services (GFS) teams:

· Securing Microsoft’s Cloud Infrastructure. This white paper provides insight into the network of data centers and infrastructure operated by the GFS team from which Microsoft’s cloud-based services, such as Windows Live, MSN, Xbox Live, as well as Microsoft Online Services, are delivered. The paper looks at how Microsoft answers business and technical decision makers’ concerns about the security, privacy, reliability, and operational control of Microsoft’s cloud-based services.

· Security in Business Productivity Online Suite. This white paper focuses on the security and reliability processes and procedures employed by the Microsoft Online Services Operations Team to extend the foundation of security provided by GFS for the delivery of Microsoft’s enterprise-class communication and collaboration software services.

Links to the white papers and additional links and information were posted this morning to the MS Online Team Blog.

City of Carlsbad reports on Moving To BPOS

Brett Hill — Thu, 28 May 2009 00:12:00 GMT

Nice article from Network World on the City of Carlsbads move to BPOS suite.

" Carlsbad went live with Exchange in late March and everything went smoothly from Microsoft's end of things. "You went home Friday as a Groupwise user and you came back Monday as an Exchange user."

http://www.networkworld.com/supp/2009/ndc3/051809-cloud-carlsbad.html

The Microsoft Online Services Trial Guide has been published

Brett Hill — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:01:00 GMT

The Microsoft Online Services Trial Guide has been published to the Microsoft Download Center.

The Trial Guide was written to enhance the trial experience for customers that are considering the Business Productivity Suite. The guide contains step-by-step instructions for several customer scenarios, including:

· Setting up a 30-day trial account in MOCP

· Basic account administration

· SharePoint Online administration

· Setting up the end user experience

· Converting a trial account to a paid subscription

SharePoint Designer 2007 is now FREE.

Brett Hill — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 23:55:00 GMT

SHAREPOINT DESIGNER 2007 IS NOW FREE!

SharePoint Designer 2007 is FREE

Brief Description

SHAREPOINT DESIGNER 2007 IS NOW FREE! Office SharePoint Designer 2007 provides the powerful tools you need to deliver compelling and attractive SharePoint sites and quickly build workflow-enabled applications and reporting tools on the SharePoint platform, all in an IT-managed environment. And YES, it works with SharePoint Online, presuming you don't try to load custom code into the SharePoint online site. You can also use SPD to build out worflows based on the the 3stage workflow. It's usually easier in SPD to manage as it gives you a nice UI to do conditional branching with.

Be sure to be signed in with the single sign on tool when you use SharePoint Designer for the best experience. Then launch one of SharePoint colllections and grab the URL. Use the URL to open the site in SharePoint designer and have at it!

-brett

9.1 Services Released

Brett Hill — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:29:00 GMT

You may have noticed that your sign on client was recently updated. That's because BPOS 9.1 was recently released which includes OCS as a new service the deskless worker sku, and international availability. While these three are the big news items, I wanted to bring your attention to a few other updates that aren't getting the spotlight, but deserve your attention nonetheless.

SharePoint Online now returns search results from ZIP and PDF files
SharePoint Online site collections can be created in multiple langauges. More to come !
SharePoint Online now has a privacy link requirement
The Sign on client can now be installed on Vista Home systems
The Sign on client now exposes a Logging option that can be useful when troubleshooting
The Sign on client also supports a few group policy setting
Mailbox size default is now 5GB

As we move forward, new features and capabilites will be added to the services on a regular basis. These will occur pretty frequently, but not on a specific schedule. We will be adding capabilites such as availability in new languages as they become available. Bigger features such as Wave14 integration into the services or new services coming online will of course be big splash items that you'll hear about well in advance.

Enjoy!