Office365 Service Upgrade

Microsoft Announces Free Webinars to Explain Office Subscriptions

If you wish to join the webinar, you can do that effortlessly by clicking on this link (keep in mind that it takes place at 9:15 am Pacific Time, and a Q&A session will follow after that).

Microsoft's leadership in cloud collaboration

Forrester noted: "Office 365 eases enterprises into the cloud by allowing IT leaders to pick which collaboration workloads move into the cloud and which remain on-premises." In this evaluation, Microsoft had the top scores in sub-categories for breadth of offering, and availability and resiliency, and was tied with other vendors for the top scores in sub-categories for language localization, IT administration, customization, pricing structure, service delivery mechanisms, integration, corporate customers, and partner ecosystem.

Forrester Research, Inc., has named Microsoft as a leader in the cloud collaboration market in its August 2012 report entitled "The Forrester Wave^TM: Cloud Strategies of Online Collaboration Software Vendors, Q3 2012." 
 

Among eight vendors, Microsoft's Office 365, which includes SharePoint Online, earned the highest score for "Current Offering." Recent Microsoft acquisition Yammer landed the top score for "Strategy." Microsoft's leadership in cloud collaboration is one of the reasons why Office 365 is on track to be one of the fastest growing offers in Microsoft history.  With Microsoft products and services, customers can get the best productivity experience in the cloud and on-premises, and always on their terms.  

!0 Reasons to try Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus Preview

Great site to have quick update on what is Office 365 Pro Plus.   More on the Office 365 Enterprise on then Engterprise Preview site.

Office 365 ProPlus is your Office, delivered fast to your Windows PCs. Experience productivity on demand with your new, personalized Office 365 ProPlus. Office applications, with all of your settings, are nearly instantly streamed to your PCs. 

Office 365 ProPlus includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, Access, Publisher, and Lync. Get enterprise-grade security, side-by-side support for previous versions of Office, streamlined update experiences, and IT controls that let you manage Office on your terms and with your tools and processes.

Top 10 reasons to try Office 365 ProPlus Preview:

1. Deploy more easily than ever 
2. Enjoy the power of the cloud—on your terms  
3. Get personal productivity on demand 
4. Monitor performance centrally 
5. Keep data more secure  
6. Get started more quickly and easily  
7. Build a social network  
8. Discover and share insights from your data  
9. Create and share beautiful documents  
10. Add the power of the web and media to documents

Integrate rich web or intranet content directly into your documents and bring your files and data to life with real-time views into dynamic content. Stay up to the minute with reporting systems, integrate directly with map services, or see what your customers are saying without having to update your files.

 Official Preview Site

80,000 Employees VINCI Moves 1to Office 365 - Why Microsoft - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

Another major win for Microsoft this week. VINCI, the world’s leading facilities management and construction group, recently replaced Google Apps for Business and two other collaborative working solutions with Microsoft Office 365.

The company, which has 183,000 employees in 2,500 subsidiaries spread across 100 countries, wanted to create a social network that encouraged employee collaboration and nurtured the development of its corporate culture and working methods. The company chose Office 365 for three reasons:

• Maturity – VINCI wanted a complete and unified solution founded on Microsoft's 30 years of expertise and capable of meeting the company’s specific business requirements. Executives particularly appreciated the unified communications tools with Lync.
  
• Innovation and roadmap – VINCI liked the Microsoft outlook for future innovation in the realm of business social networks, concluding that it would open up new prospects for collaboration.
  
• Flexibility – The company sought the flexibility of a hybrid solution that could be deployed in the cloud or on-premises so that it could serve its numerous subsidiaries with varied technological requirements. It also wanted its employees to be able to work both online and offline.
  

TechNet Blogs

Microsoft Global Foundation Services

All in all, it’s a veritable gold mine of data center intelligence and if you’re at all interested in the cloud, it’s well worth a look. Head to www.globalfoundationservices.com

Global Foundation Services (GFS) is the engine that powers Microsoft's cloud services. GFS focus on smart growth, high reliability, operational excellence, cost-effectiveness, environmental sustainability, and a trustworthy online experience for customers and partners worldwide.

GFS delivers the core infrastructure and foundational technologies for Microsoft's over 200 online businesses including Bing, Hotmail, MSN, Office 365, Xbox Live and the Windows Azure platform. Our infrastructure is comprised of a large global portfolio of data centers, servers, content distribution networks, edge computing nodes, and fiber optic networks. Our portfolio is built and managed by a team of subject matter experts working 24x7x365 to support services for more than 1 billion customers and 20 million businesses in over 76 markets worldwide.
Microsoft Global Foundation Services

Microsoft Office Live Small Business customers: The clock is ticking | ZDNet

Microsoft Office Live Small Business customers: The clock is ticking | ZDNet

Microsoft officials said back in October 2010 that the company planned to phase out its Office Live Small Business (OLSB) Web-site hosting and design offering.

The date when that is set to happen — April 30, 2012 — is quickly approaching. Existing OLSB users need to make some decisions and take action in order to avoid losing their Web sites and content.

The People’s Choice, Office 365

 Office 365 encompasses all the capabilities that we currently use with Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite and takes them to the next level by making it even easier to work from anywhere. We are looking forward to using it… Because Office 365 has the same look and feel as other Office products, which everyone is familiar with, our employees will be very comfortable using it. It really eliminates the learning curve and the amount of training needed.”  TechNet Blogs

Look Who IS Using The Cloud

New White Paper Details Privacy Safeguards of Office 365

Privacy is a top priority for many users of cloud computing, so Microsoft today is releasing a white paper that details many of the specific data protection policies, procedures and tools that have been integrated into Office 365, our newest cloud productivity service.
I recently returned from a two-week trip to discuss a range of privacy topics with customers and regulators in Australia and New Zealand. In virtually every conversation, I was asked about Microsoft’s approach to data protection in our cloud services. Microsoft representatives around the world report hearing similar questions regularly in each of their regions.
These questions are understandable. Entrusting information that is core to the success of your organization to a cloud service provider is a big decision. And information about the privacy policies of many cloud services is either hard to find or indecipherable to all but the most astute IT professionals.
Today’s whitepaper, “Privacy in the Public Cloud: The Office 365 Approach,” provides detailed answers to the most common cloud privacy questions in the context of one of our most mature cloud services for businesses, public sector agencies and educational institutions.
While cloud computing experienced another year of impressive growth in 2011, concerns about privacy and data protection continue to keep some potential beneficiaries from embracing cloud computing. News about hacking attacks, theft and misuse of data managed by online service providers has raised questions about the privacy and security of cloud computing.
At Microsoft, we understand that unless we are responsive to our customers’ and to regulators’ questions about data protection in public clouds, we will not earn the trust necessary for our cloud services to satisfy our customers’ needs.
As the white paper outlines, Office 365 was built from the ground up with strong data protection in mind. A team of privacy professionals was dedicated to the service early in the development cycle and worked in close partnership with engineers, business planners and marketers. As a result, privacy’s been an integral part of the service from the beginning, not an afterthought.
Microsoft also announced today that Office 365 customers with European users can sign data processing agreements with the standard contractual clauses published by the European Commission, which are known as the EU Model Clauses. We took a global perspective when we developed our data protection policies for Office 365, and we worked to accommodate the particular priorities of different regions when possible. For instance, we built more than 20 privacy controls into the service to align it with specific European privacy and data protection regulations. Our support for EU Model Clauses is another effort to accommodate the privacy demands of European markets.
I invite you to review the whitepaper and read today’s news release from the Office 365 team. We take our responsibility to safeguard cloud data seriously, and we want to be transparent so our customers can understand our approach to privacy and trust their information is in good hands.


Posted by Brendon Lynch
Chief Privacy Officer, Microsoft

Microsoft Office Now Complies With HIPAA Standards Using the Office 365 Trust Center in the US and the UK For Privacy & Security

This is a big deal as email correspondence has been a huge topic for years with security and ensuring privacy. For my own use I have parked my own domain of ducknet. net over at Microsoft and as a “Live” or “Hotmail” user you get the same antiviral protection that they sell to the enterprise. I remember when they purchased Forefront and attended a few local seminars here in the OC and it has come a long way since then. In the past I have also recommended the Small Business accounts which has now been evolved into Office 365.
Again, individual configurations in the cloud with Office 365 are best created with the IT or IS departments but knowing that the HIPAA compliance is there is a huge step forward. I like the fact that I have choices too with coordinating the cloud with my own familiar desktop Office software too, been doing that for a couple years now. A while back I spoke with Chris Sullivan at Microsoft on how Office helps the small physician practice so now with HIPAA compliance it seems like the solution has even grown to create even more value.

Microsoft boosts Office 365 regulatory compliance

Microsoft has taken steps to make Office 365 more attractive to U.S. and European customers who have to comply with regulatory requirements related to data protection, the company is expected to announce Wednesday.
The new safeguards come primarily in the form of contractual commitments and new software features. Microsoft hopes the moves will lessen potential concerns about using its cloud-based applications, which are hosted in Microsoft data centers where customers' data is also stored.
When selling Office 365 in Europe, Microsoft will now sign contractual "model clauses" developed by the European Union, which establish safeguards and procedures for protecting data when it is transferred outside the E.U.
In European countries with additional requirements, Microsoft will include what it called a "data processing agreement" that goes beyond the E.U.'s Data Protection Directive rules.

In the U.S., for contracts with health-care companies that have to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Microsoft will include Business Associate Agreement (BAA) contract provisions drafted by the U.S. Department of Health that address legal requirements around patient data privacy and protection.
"We want to help customers move with confidence and security to the cloud and be compliant with obligations to HIPAA and E.U. data protection rules," said Stephen McGibbons, Microsoft CTO for the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region.
Microsoft is also re-launching the Office 365 Trust Center, a website with information about the product's privacy and security practices that has been redesigned to make it easier to use.
Although businesses are becoming more comfortable with cloud-hosted software, companies in heavily regulated industries such as health care and finance tend to be more apprehensive, as they have to be careful not to run afoul of data-protection regulations.
"We want to make sure that customers using our cloud services can demonstrate that they're complying with their regulation responsibilities, and we also want to make it easier for customers to move to the cloud quickly," McGibbons said.



By Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service

Microsoft Office 365 offered by Vodafone

Microsoft® Office 365 offered by Vodafone

Office 365 enables your people to work together seamlessly - whether they're at home, in the office or on the move.
It lets them:

• Access their email
• Share calendars and contacts
• Collaborate on documents and presentations
• Set up and attend web and video conferences
• Keep in touch with IM and a full online presence

Find out more about how Office 365 can help your business.

Free eBook: Microsoft Office 365

I am excited to share this free e-book on Office365 with the readers of this blog.  Microsoft Office 365: Connect and Collaborate Virtually Anywhere, Anytime (ISBN 9780735656949), by Katherine Murray. For details on this book, including the Table of Contents, see the blog post here. To download your free PDF eBook, click here. Updates to this eBook, as well as additional eBook formats, will become available in the future.

  

Freedom to work anywhere, with anyone, anytime, on almost any device. Sounds good, right? The New World of Work, "Het Nieuwe Werken" in the Netherlands or "Anders Werken" in Belgium. It is all about  the Change we experience in the way we (like) work.

Office365 is Microsoft’s smart and simple answer to cloud computing. Using the various programs in
Office365, you can do all the tasks you’re used to doing in your favorite Office applications—write documents, create presentations, check email, manage your calendar, crunch numbers, and more—and then share what you create in real time on a team site, design and publish a website, and even create and host live online meetings while you’re traveling on the train, sitting in a coffee shop, work in the new Businesspoint at Postillion Hotel In Bunnik Utrecht.

 

This e-book shows you how you can use cloud computing—and ­specifically, ­Office 365—to get more done, collaborate more easily, and work more ­flexibly than you ever have before. From the necessary how-tos about ­creating and administering your Office 365 account and working with the various Office 365 programs to sharing files with your team, creating a team site, using Office Web Apps, and holding online meetings, you’ll discover how easy it is to work online and off, accessing and sharing your files whenever you need to. After you learn about each of the core programs, you can try strategies for building successful teams, and get some good ideas on practical ways you can put all this cloud power to work.

I can offer the Dutch readers of this blog a 30 day trial.  Give it a spin and test this Cloud Service and send me feedback.   With this trial environment you are able to experience the  full Office365 functionality for yourself and 9 others. If you would like to have a different configuration, don't Blink and send me an email.

Step by Step Guide to Office 365 | Infographic explaining Microsoft Office 365

Step by Step Guide to Office 365 | Infographic explaining Microsoft Office 365


Infographic by: Cloud Hypermarket

Overstapcentrum voor Microsoft Office 365

Bij de overstap naar Office 365 worden op deze site voortdurende ondersteuning en hulpmiddelen geboden voor het overstapproces. Zorg ervoor dat u vaak op deze site kijkt naarmate nieuwe informatie beschikbaar wordt gesteld. Microsoft Online Services | Online Services

Laatste nieuws:  Office 365 is vanaf 28 juni 2011 officieel beschikbaar.

Microsoft Office 365 Presentatie

Microsoft Office 365 presentatie

View more presentations from Wijzijntamtam

Scenario's on Exchange 2010: On-premises, in the Cloud temporary hybrid or permanent hybrid

 

Other resources
Exchange Online
Exchange Server 
Exchange deployment

The purpose of this whitepaper is to help you choose how to deploy Microsoft Exchange: as Exchange Server 2010 on-premises, Exchange Online with Microsoft Office 365 in the cloud, or using both in a temporary or permanent hybrid scenario. Knowing the benefits and limitations of each deployment option can help you make the right decision for your organization. Whatever you decide, the deployment flexibility that Microsoft provides with Exchange makes it easier for you to get the right solution for your business

Download Whitepaper

Microsoft hekelt 'verborgen kosten' Google Apps

Gepubliceerd: Vrijdag 6 mei 2011
Auteur: Andreas Udo de Haes

De verborgen kosten van Google Apps volgens Microsoft

Google Apps is ongeschikt voor kleine maar vooral grote bedrijven zonder allerlei extra diensten en ondersteuning erbij. En dan wordt 50 dollar per gebruiker per jaar ineens 500, ‘berekent’ Microsoft.

Volgens Micrsosoft is Google Apps een gevaarlijke ijsberg. Bovenwater adverteert Google met een overzichtelijke clouddienst voor een scherpe prijs van 50 dollar per gebruiker per jaar. Maar onderwater zitten problemen en gigantische kosten verborgen zoals migratie, ondersteuning en omscholing.

 

 

 

Google Apps incompleet

Zo biedt Google Apps voor bedrijven alleen 24/7 telefonische ondersteuning voor ‘prio 1’ incidenten, als meer dan de helft van de werknemers is getroffen. Voor alle problemen van mindere urgentie is een bedrijf dan aangewezen op een supportcontract van een externe partij. En dat kost ineens 360 dollar per gebruiker per jaar.

Ook blijkt uit door Microsoft uitgevoerde enquêtes dat 9 van de 10 bedrijven die Google Apps gebruiken, helemaal niet zijn overgestapt, maar gewoon nog Office gebruiken. Veel bedrijven gebruiken dan ook alleen Gmail en Calendar, maar negeren Google Docs, schrijft Tom Rizzo van Microsoft....

Office 365 Virtually Pays for Itself

Microsoft Office 365 for Enterprises

Ik maak sinds een paar weken gebruik van de Office365 beta in de P plan variant (tot 25 werkplekken).

Het werkt goed, lekker snel en ook in het Nederlands. Duidelijke interfaces. Vandaag (zondag 15 mei)  met de Enterprise versie gestart, Microsoft Office 365 Beta (Plan E3).  
Het onderstaande artikel van Tony Bradley verscheen op 18 april met de pakkende titel: "Office 365 Virtually Pays for Itself ".  Zeker in de Kiosk variant is het voor een bedrijf met een  aantal medewerkers zonder vaste werkplek een meer dan goede optie.
 
De printkosten en portokosten  per medewerker voor zaken als bedrijfsnieuws, loonstrookjes en diverse overzichten maken een uitvoerbare business case geen  probleem.

Microsoft has launched the public beta of the highly-anticipated Office 365. There is a lot to like about the cloud-based suite, but one of the most compelling features of the service might just be the price.

Starting at $6 per seat per month, Office 365 is almost a no-brainer for small and medium companies. Organizations with fewer than 50 users typically don't have a dedicated IT administrator, and lack both the skills and the budget to implement and maintain the infrastructure necessary to deliver what Office 365 does. For a paltry $72 per user per year, these companies get the benefit of Exchange e-mail, Lync instant messaging, SharePoint collaboration, and the Office Web Apps productivity suite.

The return on investment for Office 365 paints a compelling case for switching to the cloud-based service.

At first glance, it may seem that a service like Office 365 is actually targeted at, or uniquely suited for smaller businesses like these. However, when you start to dig into the math a little more, it quickly becomes evident that even the largest organizations could operate more efficiently, and cut costs at the same time by adopting Office 365. A large company may have thousands or tens of thousands of employees, and generally has at least one data center--possibly more depending on how big the company is and how dispersed it is geographically. The servers have to be maintained, powered, and cooled. The applications have to be monitored, and the data has to be backed up. In order to provide some resiliency and ensure availability, that effort may be duplicated at multiple data centers that all require trained, expert personnel to execute it all.

Start adding all of that up. You have the cost of the server hardware, the OS licenses, the server application licenses, and the client access licenses. You have the cost of electricity to power the server infrastructure, and the cost of the electricity it takes to run the air conditioning to keep the data center cool. You have the investment in hardware and software necessary to perform data backups. And, you have the annual compensation and benefits for the IT staff it takes to manage it all. Office 365 Enterprise offers a range of service plans from $4 per user per month, up to $27 per user per month. Assuming a company of 1000 users, you are talking about an investment of $27,000 per month for the top-of-the-line Office 365 Enterprise service--or nearly $325,000 a year. It looks like a big number by itself, but if you stack it against the math from the last paragraph, suddenly it seems like Microsoft is giving Office 365 away, or even paying you to use it.

You get all of the productivity benefits of the Microsoft productivity and communications tools, while leaving the backend headaches and tedium to Microsoft. Microsoft will deliver Office 365 from geographically disperse, fully redundant sites providing reliable availability and resiliency that Microsoft guarantees with a financially-backed 99.9 uptime Service Level Agreement (SLA).

The break-even will vary from one company to the next. It all depends on how many users you have, which Office 365 plan you choose, and what costs and expenses the move to Office 365 will eliminate for your organization. But, it is an exercise well worth the effort because odds are fair that Office 365 will essentially pay for itself.

Combine Office 365 with Windows InTune PC management, and you have a cost-effective, cloud-based IT infrastructure that frees you and your users up to focus on your core business and do what you do best.