This Week in BPOS News 1/14

This week in BPOS news is a recurring segment on the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog that covers news from all sectors of Cloud Computing and the Microsoft Online Services business suite known as the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). You can read all past This Week in BPOS News segments here. For this week in BPOS news we take a look at the new Office 365 for Education announcement, and we get a fresh look at the USDA’s move to Microsoft’s Cloud. Live@Edu grows, evolves into Office 365 for Education, leapfrogs Google Apps for Education In our first story, ZDNET Education writer Christopher Dawson takes a look at the new Office 365 offer for education that will take the cloud to the next level. Currently, Microsoft offers Live@Edu which is a set of collaboration tools aimed towards academia. Earlier this week the Office 365 blog announced that an education offering will be available. Be sure to check out the video below if you are interested in the recent Office 365 education announcement. The ZDNET article turns its focus from the Office 365 announcement to comparing the two main cloud for education solutions with Office 365 and Google Apps. The post makes a lot of interesting points that and outlines how the Office 365 education solution is the next step for Live@Edu and how it takes a competitive leap against Google Apps for education. Do you agree with the author that Office 365 for Education “leapfrogs” Google Apps for Education? Leave your comment below. US Department of Agriculture Deploys Massive Cloud Solution In our second story, we get an update on the US Department of Agriculture’s move to the Cloud. We previously discussed the start of the USDA moving 120,000 users to Microsoft’s cloud on our blog. This most recent article asks an important question, “Is cloud computing truly scalable and can a solution be rolled out quickly?” Author Ian McKenzie suggests that due to the USDA moving to Microsoft’s Cloud, the answer to both questions is yes. The article touches on other large government transformations to the cloud including “the State of California , the State of Minnesota , and New York City embracing cloud computing.” Ian also dives into the complexity of moving a governmental organization as big and dense as the USDA to the Cloud. He points out that Microsoft’s Cloud solution should help the 120,000 federal workers collaborate and engage on a greater level, while the government sector saves money through lowering costs with the Cloud. Do you think that the USDA moving to the cloud proves that cloud computing is a scalable solution that can be rolled out quickly? Leave your comments below. What are your thoughts about the stories we shared with you this week? Did you see a story you want to share with us? Let us know what other topics you’d like to see. You can comment on this blog post or send an email to our community mailbox . Follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook page.

Help! Where’s the Help?

OK. I’ll admit it. Sometimes documentation for Project and Project Server isn’t always easy to locate. It tends to be spread out. And sometimes it can be difficult to determine if the Help documentation you’re reading is from an official site. Worse, some URL’s have changed, and some new locations have been created. Let me help you set the URLs (and your Favorites list) correctly. Official Project Help sites Product information From this site you can try and buy Project, reach our partner and user communities, compare Project versions, learn tips and tricks, learn from modules and exercises, and see Project in action with demos, customer success videos and stories. Project desktop Help on Office Online Office Online contains Help for primarily the end user of Project and Office applications. Find Help articles, tutorials, and videos on basic Project functionality. Project Web Access Help on Office Online Help for Project Web Access end users can be found on Office Online. Help for Project Server administrators, however, is on TechNet . Project Server Help on TechNet TechNet is geared toward administrators of Project and Project Server.

TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Business Productivity Online Services: Blackberry Service Overview (Level 200)

Join us tomorrow for the next installment of our Microsoft BPOS Webcast series. Join Kevin Wang from Microsoft for this webcast as he gives an overview of Microsoft Business Productivity Online Services (BPOS) and BlackBerry services. Click here to register for our webcast. When : Thursday, January 13, 2011 9:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada) Duration: 60 Minutes What : TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Business Productivity Online Services: Blackberry Service Overview (Level 200) Where : Register here You can view other sessions from Microsoft Online Services: Get the Winning Edge If you have questions or feedback, contact us .

TFS and Project Server 2010 Integration: Microsoft Beta Connects Developers, PMs

Good article from Janis Rizzuto from Projects@Work about the Team Foundation Server and Project Server integration feature pack to start the year: Microsoft Beta Connects Developers, PMs 🙂 Hope you all had great holidays and back in full swing, a great Microsoft Project 2011 year in perspective.

BPOS-S: Troubleshooting Common Migration Issues

For this week’s BPOS Support video , we learn how to troubleshoot common issues you might experience when migrating users to Microsoft Online Services using the Microsoft Online Services Migration Tool. This video starts by giving us an introduction into the Migration Tool and how to make sure your system meets the required prerequisites. Once your system meets the defined prerequisites, you can move on to troubleshooting migration issues. The video walks us through detailed steps that will help you become a migration master. We hope this video was helpful. Watch and learn more about Microsoft Online Services with our other support and how to blog posts . What other videos would you like to see? We want to hear from you in the comments section below or send an email to our community mailbox . Follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook page.

Service Update: January 2011 Release Availability, Features Announced

We are pleased to introduce the January 2011 Service Update for BPOS-Standard, which includes new features and enhancements to improve the service experience for both administrators and users. Many of these service enhancements are the result of customer and partner feedback and will be deployed into production data centers for all regions by the end of January, 2011. The following features and capabilities are included in this Service Update: Microsoft Online Services Blackberry Administration Console Enhancements Two enhancements have been introduced to the Microsoft Online Services Blackberry Administration Console (MOSBAC). These enhancements are relevant for customers who subscribe to the Microsoft Online Services multi-tenant Hosted Blackberry service. User Search Hosted Blackberry administrators can now search for users in the Microsoft Online Services Blackberry Administration Console. The new search function is similar to the user search function in the Microsoft Online Administration Center (MOAC).

This Week in BPOS News 1/7/2011

This week in BPOS news is a recurring segment on the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog that covers news from all sectors of Cloud Computing and the Microsoft Online Services business suite known as the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). You can read all past This Week in BPOS News segments here. Happy New Year! We are back with not only the New Year, but two new BPOS stories. For this week in BPOS news we take a look at how the largest education institution in the world is increasing their productivity, and we view a chat with Microsoft’s CIO about how employees are testing the Cloud. 1. SUNY to get Microsoft’s Live@edu program SUNY stands for the State University of New York. SUNY universities across New York State feature the largest system of education institutions including universities, colleges and community colleges in the world. SUNY has 64 campuses that are a part of the Live@edu program and will allow more than 465,000 SUNY students to use Microsoft Online’s Live@edu productivity suite. In our first story, CNET discusses the new agreement between SUNY and Microsoft that brings more collaboration and productivity to students. Microsoft’s U.S. Education CTO, Cameron Evans, says that Live@edu will also help save SUNY colleges money. CNET reports that Monroe Community College, one of colleges in the SUNY system, will save $600,000 over five years. Students will also benefit from Microsoft Live@edu through new collaboration tools that will increase productivity campus wide. Is your school on Live@edu? Have you seen an increase in productivity? Leave your thoughts below. Related Stories: Kentucky Department of Education Chooses Microsoft’s Live@edu New York announces deal with Microsoft’s cloud 2. Microsoft CIO: We’re dog-fooding the cloud Infoworld.com features a discussion with Microsoft CIO Tony Scott, as they converse about Microsoft’s cloud and how employees are beta testing, or as we call it, dog-fooding. This article is a transcript of an intriguing conversation that covers topics ranging from what it’s like being a CIO of Microsoft, to how the internal beta testing, or dog-fooding, of the cloud is conducted at Microsoft. There is also some great information from Tony Scott about Office 365 and how Microsoft is beginning the internal dog-food process. Tony also discusses other cloud initiatives at Microsoft like Windows and SQL Azure. The entire transcript is 5 pages and provides some great insights and information into the mind of Microsoft’s CIO. I would recommend this piece from Infoworld.com to anyone interested in the cloud or interesting in learning more about Microsoft’s CIO. What questions would you ask Microsoft’s CIO? Are you testing Microsoft’s Cloud? Leave any of your thoughts and comments below. What are your thoughts about the stories we shared with you this week? Did you see a story you want to share with us? Let us know what other topics you’d like to see. You can comment on this blog post or send an email to our community mailbox . Follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook page.