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.

Read more here:
This Week in BPOS News 1/14


Leave a comment!

You must be logged in to post a comment.