08/11/2008
Today's topic is Microsoft Exchange Online. I've been using the Exchange Online Beta for a good while now, and it is great! I love everything from the super simple web based interface to managing accounts and settings to the fact that it includes full spam filtering and virus scanning.
Exchange Online comes in two flavors (for now): Exchange Online Standard and Exchange Online Deskless. While the Exchange Online Deskless may be perfect for some folks, I am addicted to using Outlook 2007 so Exchange Online Standard is the absolute minimum for me.
So, what is so special about Exchange Online? First, I don't have to manage Exchange Server. Most of the clients that I work with have IT departments. However, the folks that work in the IT department have much better things to do than to manage Exchange as a full time job. This is where Exchange Online fits a real sweet spot - allowing small to medium sized businesses focus on their business and not focus on running a data center and running an Exchange farm. From the easy to use web interface, an administrator can manage and provision mailboxes and distribution lists, manage domains, manage migration, and even manage mailbox sizes.
Migration? Yes, you can migrate mailbox content from either POP/IMAP mailboxes or from a premise based Exchange Server to Exchange Online.
So what else do you get with Exchange Online? You get excellent spam filtering and virus scanning provided by Microsoft Exchange Hosted Filtering and Microsoft Forefront. You get full integration with Outlook 2007, Windows Mobile Device access and ActiveSync (which will work on your cutesy little iPhones), and Outlook Web Access as well.
Exchange Online also allows you to use your own domain name. Furthermore, Exchange Online supports coexistence with your premise based Exchange Server.
Finally, Exchange Online has support for Exchange Web Services. These Exchange Web Services provide the Autodiscover Services (another win for the IT person), but also full web services for programmatic manipulation of Calendars, Availability, Contact Management, Messaging, Folder Management, Notifications, and Events. See the Exchange 2007 SP1 SDK for Exchange Web Services sample code.
Syndicated from www.stovereffect.com 08/07/2008
I've recently been talking a lot about Microsoft SharePoint Online – part of the new Microsoft Online Services. As I've mentioned, you can sign up today for a beta version and get 5 fully functional seats and test it out for yourself. In fact, I've heard that there is transition support for folks on the beta so that come October they'll be able to use everything they've done during the beta.
So, what exactly is SharePoint Online? It is MOSS! It is not WSS. It is MOSS Standard in the cloud. I'll say it again, MOSS in the cloud. MOSS Standard hosted by Microsoft and supported by Microsoft.
While I don't work for Microsoft, I've read and heard quite a bit about SharePoint Online. This is my current understanding (please provide feedback):
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Up to 100 Site Collection per account (aka per business)
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250 MB of storage per seat (beta gets 5 seats, so approximately 1.25 GB of storage spread how you want across 100 Site Collections).
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5 seats will be the minimum…
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It is MOSS Standard, but it is currently limited (surprised?). What does SharePoint Online not include? Here is a list of items that I've noticed so far…
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No Anonymous access!
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No vanity URLs!
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No My Sites!
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No custom code!
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No email enabled lists!
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No Presence!
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No Site Directory!
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No Business Intelligence (no Excel services, no BDC, no Filter web parts, etc.)
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Limited Search capabilities. Search works great within your site, but…
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No People Search
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No Custom Content Sources
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No cross site collection searches
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No admin of search/index/etc.
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No Content Deployment
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Missing Site Templates from MOSS
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No Publishing Site Templates
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No Search Center Template
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No Records Repository Template (no records)
Wow, that is a big list of things that are not included. But there is an even bigger list of what is included!
WSS Site templates are there, MOSS Publishing Features are there (just no site template), Search is there, SharePoint Designer support is there, branding support is there, Workflow is there, Data View Web Part is there… Surveys, Document Libraries, Page Layouts, Variations, Slide libraries, Forms libraries, Mobile support, and great Office integration is there!
As you can see, there are many of great things included, and there are more features on the way. I would hazard a guess, though, that there is enough included out of the gate that will make a majority of organizations happy.
08/05/2008
Thought some of you might get a kick out of this screen cap. Using my MacBook Pro to copy a VM from local drive to a slooooow USB connected drive...
08/03/2008
Microsoft Online Services is the hosted service offering by Microsoft. You can label this as SaaS (Software as a Service), but Microsoft actually seems to prefer S+S (Software plus Services). However you slice it, Microsoft is offering their products in several distinct flavors.
First, you can get Microsoft's server-based products on-premise. This means that you host it yourself (either in your building, your data center, or at a co-location facility). This is the 'traditional' model that most of use every day. The on-premise model represents nearly 100% of the solutions that I've architected over the past 15 years. There have been a few exceptions to this rule (such as multi-tenant applications), but even in these rare cases the overall architecture was on-premise based.
Second, you can get their server-based products hosted by third-party companies. For SharePoint and Exchange and nearly any other product, third-party companies have been providing a hosted, SaaS, ASP-type solutions for years. I've used a few of these products in the past for a variety of clients with some success.
Finally, you can get Microsoft server-based products hosted by Microsoft. This is the Microsoft Online Services offering. This is new. This is 'in the cloud'. This will change how we work with Microsoft.
Microsoft Online Services are available in two varieties today: Standard and Dedicated. The Microsoft Online Services Standard offering is a multi-tenant architecture. This is the perfect environment for many small and medium organizations. The MOS Standard offering offers fast deployment and configuration with no limit to the number of users (seats). The Microsoft Online Services Dedicated offering is not just a clever name; it is a Dedicated environment. Dedicated hardware, dedicated architecture, for businesses needing more than 5,000 seats. For the purposes of this discussion, I'm going to focus on the Microsoft Online Services Standard offering.
Microsoft Online Services Standard is currently in Beta and expected to be formally launched in October 2008. The Standard offering includes Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft Office SharePoint Online, Microsoft Office Communications Online, and Microsoft Office Live Meeting. Each of these services can be purchased independently for a small monthly fee per user (per seat). There are also a couple of options with the Microsoft Exchange Online and the Microsoft Office SharePoint Online.
Exchange Online is offered as Exchange Online Standard and Exchange Online Deskless Worker. Both versions of Exchange Online are protected by (surprise!) Microsoft ForeFront and anti-virus and anti-spam filters. Exchange Online Deskless worker includes email, calendar, address lists, and is available only through Outlook Web Access (OWA). Exchange Online Standard includes both desktop and mobile support, offers Outlook Web Access, but also includes full Microsoft Outlook 2007 integration (this does not include Outlook 2007 license).
Microsoft Office SharePoint Online is also available as both SharePoint Online Standard and as SharePoint Online Deskless Worker. The SharePoint Online Deskless Worker includes access to the online portal, team sites, and the search. However, the SharePoint Deskless Worker does not include collaboration. This is basically a 'read-only' view into the SharePoint Online environment. SharePoint Online Standard includes Portals, collaboration, search and customized team sites. I would like to point out that this is NOT Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) but this is indeed MOSS Standard (minus a few items). This means that you do get things such as the Publishing features and much more!
BPOS, or the Business Productivity Online Suite (rolls right off the tongue), is a 'package' of the four core offerings in today's Online Services. A BPOS seat gets you Exchange Online Standard, SharePoint Online Standard, Office Communications Online, and Live Meeting Standard. The Deskless Worker Suite is both the Exchange Online Deskless Worker and the SharePoint Online Deskless Worker offered as one per seat cost.
So, what does all of this actually cost? The good news is that it is cheap and that there are no setup fees.
Exchange Online Deskless Worker Seat per month: $2.00
SharePoint Online Deskless Worker Seat per month: $2.00
Deskless Worker Suite per month: $3.00
Exchange Online Standard Seat per month: $10.00
SharePoint Online Standard Seat per month: $7.25
Office Communications Online Standard Seat per month: $2.50
Office Live Meeting Seat per month: $4.50
BPOS Seat per month: $15.00 (38% discount)
Aggregated from www.stovereffect.com
07/31/2008
For those of you that don't know, the Cloud is really just a metaphor for the Internet. There are many universities and companies (Google, IBM, Microsoft, etc.) that have large scale cloud computing projects. Some applications that live in the cloud you may even use frequently, such as Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace, YouTube, StumleUpon, Digg, del.icio.us, LinkedIn, and many more.
Microsoft has even had their own apps in the cloud, but these apps have been primarily targeted towards individual consumers, such as Spaces.
Microsoft is now releasing their enterprise initiative under the term of Microsoft Online Services. Microsoft Online Services is here. You can go sign up today. Actually, it's been here for a while, but now it's really here. Go try it out yourself or find more at http://www.microsoft.com/online
So, the obvious question is: What is Microsoft Online Services?
First, it's another acronym: Microsoft Online Services is MOS. This is great, since SharePoint actually uses the acronym MOSS (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server). No confusion there.
Microsoft Online Services is: Enterprise class software delivered as a subscription service and hosted by Microsoft.
Over the next few weeks, I'll be breaking down all of the details, the good, the bad, and the ugly of this new offering. However, I'll give you fair warning now: I think that it's all good… 12/14/2007
Companies around the world are discovering Microsoft SharePoint products and technologies. At the same time, many of them—particularly the small and midsize companies—are discovering that they don’t know how to realize the benefits that they know SharePoint products and technologies can offer. That’s where Susquehanna Technologies comes in. Susquehanna Technologies has parlayed its expertise in developing solutions for Microsoft Commerce Server and Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 into a powerful set of customer services built around Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. With these services, Susquehanna Technologies helps its customers realize benefits they have been trying to achieve—which not only helps customers save money and time but also lays the foundation for a solid long-term relationship with Susquehanna Technologies.
Microsoft has featured SusQtech with yet another case study.
12/06/2007
According to KB article 905231, SharePoint has very specific reserved characters that are invalid for use in site names, subsite names, group names, folder names, and document names. This is frequently overlooked by SharePoint users. I would hazard a guess that many end users are not even aware of this information. How could users be aware of this when SharePoint lets users create content that contain these invalid characters? One of the sites that I have recently been working with has invalid characters in all areas. This particular site has sites, groups, folders, and documents that all contain invalid characters. Please ensure that all of your SharePoint users are aware of the following invalid characters:
- Site Names
- Do not use the following: | # { } % & <TAB>" ~ + \ / : * ? " < >
- Do not start a site name, subsite name, or a site group name with an underscore (_) or with the period character.
- I recommend that you do not use an underscore or a period. While it is possible, there are some caveats, such as:
- You cannot use the period character consecutively in the middle of a site name
- You cannot use the period character at the end of a site name
- Folder Names and File Names
- Do not use: " # % & * : < > ? \ / { | } ~
- File names cannot be longer than 128 characters
- Do not use the period character consecutively in the middle of a file name. For example, "file..name.docx" is invalid.
- You cannot use the period character at the end of a file name
- You cannot start a file name with the period character
11/29/2007
Microsoft in collaboration with HiSoftware developed and support the Accessibility Kit for SharePoint® (AKS) along with a partner and customer community to get you started on the road to Web accessibility with an accessible platform and framework from which to launch your SharePoint 2007 portal or intranet site.
Lawrence Liu announced the availability of the recently released AKS for MOSS yesterday.
11/06/2007
Based on the same technology as the SharePoint 2007 Search, you too can have Microsoft Search for FREE! As part of the newly released Microsoft Search Server 2008 product line, you can have Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express for FREE!
I would like to point out the differences in the following hierarchy of products from "low-end" to "high-end".
1. Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express (MSS Express). Free (enough said!), but also has support for Search Center, No Pre-Set Document Limits, Extensible Search Experience, Relevance Tuning, Continuous Propagation Indexing, Federated Search Connectors, Indexing Connectors, Security-Trimmed Results, Unified Administration Dashboard, Query and Results Reporting, Streamlined Installation.
2. Microsoft Search Server 2008 (MSS). This product supports all of the functionality listed in the Express edition, but adds High Availability and Load Balancing capabilities.
3. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. In addition to everything that both of the above versions support, SharePoint 2007 of course adds the great SharePoint Productivity Infrastructure, as well as the People and Expertise Search and the Business Data Catalog (BDC).
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