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 focus on the next generation of BPOS, Office 365. 1. Office 365 is “Ready for Work” The Public Beta for Office 365 was announced earlier this week. The public beta allows for more people to jump onto Office 365 in 38 countries and supporting 17 languages. We’ve had a ton of interest, which includes over 100,000 organizations signing up during our limited beta. You can reserve your spot for the beta by visiting www.office365.com . But remember, due to high demand, your promo code will be emailed to you when your spot comes up. If you are waiting for your Beta invite, there are plenty of other ways to get involved with the new Office 365 offering. The “Office 365: Ready for Work” contest was announced which allows small business owners to share their story. This is a great way to win fabulous prizes and to share your story with the world. Be sure to visit the Visit the contest page on Facebook for more information. Are you excited for Office 365? What are your thoughts? Have you signed up for the Public Beta? Are you already in the Beta program? Leave your comments below. 2. Microsoft launches Office 365 Marketplace selling Web apps for businesses Along with the announcement of Office 365 , Microsoft has also announced a web-based market that will sell Office 365 applications and services. The Office 365 Marketplace already features more than 150 company offerings that accompany Microsoft’s Office 365 technology. You can view and filter applications by featured professional services, featured applications, by business need, industry focus, department and service type. The marketplace provides a great opportunity for companies to get wide visibility into their fantastic products and offerings. Are you interested in getting listed on the Office 365 Marketplace? Let us know by clicking here . What applications are you excited about? Do you have an application on the market? Let us know in the comments section 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.

By: Eron Kelly I am pleased to share that BPOS-Federal has received FISMA ( Federal Information Security Management Act ) certification and accreditation. FISMA was passed in 2002 and created a process for federal agencies to certify and accredit the security of information management systems. FISMA certification and accreditation indicates that a federal agency has approved a particular solution for its use in line with the level of security established by that agency. The certification and accreditation has resulted in an official “Authorization to Operate” (ATO) issued on April 19 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Services-Federal, which includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Office Communications Online. It follows a similar authorization issued by the USDA in November for the Microsoft data centers that will deliver these services to the USDA. We plan to pursue FISMA certification and accreditation for Office 365, our next generation cloud productivity suite, after it launches. As a result of this action, the USDA is migrating 120,000 employees to Microsoft’s BPOS-Federal service. This means that the USDA can use BPOS-Federal to handle a variety of tasks. For example, the USDA’s Food Security programs can use BPOS-Federal to respond to food safety emergencies, the U.S. Forest Service can use BPOS-Federal to coordinate its efforts to fight forest fires, and the Foreign Agriculture Service can use BPOS-Federal to manage the distribution of food aid to millions of people around the world. We take our responsibility to protect customer data very seriously, and our cloud services already meet some of the industry’s most rigorous global security and privacy standards. FISMA for BPOS-Federal is just the latest example. We are very excited by this news and committed to serving the needs of our public sector customers. You can learn more about the specific elements of the latest BPOS-Federal solution here , and about Microsoft Online Services generally at www.microsoft.com/online . If you have questions about Microsoft’s cloud offerings for government, ask your Microsoft rep or your partner, or you can ask in the comments below. Thanks, Eron

The next generation of BPOS is here. Today, we are announcing a public beta of Office 365, expanding it to millions more people, in more regions, and languages – a total of 38 countries and 17 languages in all. You can secure your spot for the beta at www.office365.com .

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 a new Public School system embracing Microsoft’s cloud, and we learn about an essential BPOS tip to increase your productivity. Delhi Schools Embrace Microsoft Cloud-Based Email over Google Our first BPOS story comes from the Why Microsoft blog . Tony Tai takes a look at why schools in Delhi are choosing Microsoft’s cloud over the competition. One of the focuses of the Why Microsoft blog is to bring real customer stories to light. This latest post helps outline the ongoing competition to provide the academic sector with the best possible collaboration and productivity cloud solutions. Tony dives into why Microsoft came out on top for Delhi Public Schools. “ We can offer our students and teachers a technology that is on par with the corporate world without charging any additional fees for it. ” Mr. M.I. Hussain Principal, Delhi Public Schools The Why Microsoft blog does a great job breaking down the challenges, solutions and benefits with choosing the right solution for their cloud. The benefits listed in this article outline three crucial areas that Delhi Public Schools wanted to focus on: Easier, Faster Intra-School Communication and Collaboration Improves Parent – Teacher Communication Easy Access from Any Device We are glad to have Delhi Public Schools in the cloud with Microsoft. Make sure to read the full post here . What other benefits do schools gain from going to the cloud? Leave your comments below. Creating and Troubleshooting Conference Room Mailboxes For our second BPOS story we take a look at the latest BPOS support video and learn how to create and troubleshoot conference room mailboxes. The video below demonstrates how to create conferencing or equipment calendar solutions for your company. What other BPOS tips do you have? Leave your comment 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.

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 how the UN is taking a page from Microsoft’s datacenters to build more green, and we learn about how one company is utilizing the power of Microsoft Lync to help enterprises collaborate better. UN Taps Microsoft for Green Data Center Tech Datacenters are a crucial part of modern computing. Microsoft BPOS is powered by datacenters across the world and Microsoft has extensive knowledge in researching and developing datacenters. The UN is going to use Microsoft’s green data center technology to build its new office in Nairobi, Kenya. The Microsoft IT Pre-Assembled Components, or ITPAC, is a system constructed with the focus on providing the lowest Power Usage Effectiveness, or PUE, to decrease energy costs. Microsoft reports that the PUE for their ITPAC data centers is between 1.05-1.15. This a good range considering that the average PUE for data centers is reported to be 1.92, which is considered high by the Environmental Protection Agency. Check out the video below to learn how Microsoft’s ITPAC Containers are built. The UN Nairobi office wants to make its new office “energy-neutral” and is turning to Microsoft for help. What do you think of the “green” datacenter focus? Is it essential for companies to be green when it comes to datacenters? Leave your thoughts below. Telligent Connects With Microsoft Lync Telligent is known for their applications that foster community development. They are taking their community collaboration to the next level by utilizing Microsoft Lync . Microsoft Lync is the next generation unified communications in the Cloud. Telligent is syncing Lync with their social community software and enabling users the ability to harness the power of collaboration. Telligent Connect for Lync will be a part of the Telligent Enterprise and will feature the capabilities of Microsoft Lynch including worker’s online presence and launching instant messaging and meetings via Lync. Are you utilizing a Microsoft’s Cloud to create something? Share what you’ve made in the 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

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 what Microsoft has to offer in the cloud and we look some interesting findings around small-to-medium business cloud adoption. What does Microsoft have to offer in the cloud? Our first story for This Week in BPOS News explores the many ways Microsoft brings the cloud to you. Simon May dedicates a TechNet blog post to describing several Microsoft Cloud offerings. He starts at the lowest level by explaining what the Cloud is. I think he does a great job outlining the basics of Cloud Computing and diving into the following Microsoft Cloud offerings: Windows Azure SQL Azure Office 365 and BPOS Windows Intune Hyper-V Cloud Simon introduces the above Microsoft Cloud offerings and explains them in a way that is easily digestible. I would recommend this blog post for anyone interested or intimidated in the Cloud, and wanting to learn more about the many Cloud products Microsoft is working on. Are you in the Cloud? What Microsoft Cloud offerings are you familiar with? Leave your comments below.

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 Microsoft’s cloud strategy from an executive’s view, and learn how partners are moving over 1,000 customers to the cloud. 1. Microsoft Exec Says Cloud Strategy Is Right On Track It’s old news that Microsoft is making a hard push towards the cloud. But Microsoft Office Division President, Kurt DelBene is taking a fresh look at Microsoft’s cloud strategy in our first BPOS Story from InformationWeek . DelBene offered an interview with InformationWeek in which he dives into some recent “significant customer wins” in the cloud and the progress of Office 2010, mobile and the future. DelBene points to greater productivity coming to mobile devices in the near future. “The first workload that will move to the cloud is messaging. We have been engaged with all cell phone manufacturers over the last several years to license our Exchange Active Sync (EAS) protocol.” The conversation from InformationWeek touches on some other cloud computing applications and the vision of the future. The article concludes with another Kurt DelBene quote, “‘Companies are looking to get the same capabilities in the cloud that they now have on premises, and they want to do that in a flexible way,’ he said. ‘There’s not a single one of our customers who says, ‘flip the switch, I’m moving everything today.’” What are your thoughts on Microsoft’s cloud strategy? Do you agree with Kurt DelBene? Leave your comments below. 2. Microsoft Partners Move 1,000 Customers to Cloud Computing Microsoft BPOS is enjoying some great success and adoption through the hard work of Partners that are committed to bringing new customers to Microsoft BPOS. In our second story for this week in BPOS news, we take a look at how some of the top Microsoft partners have brought more than 1,000 customers to cloud computing. With the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference coming up in July 2011, MSPmentor author Joe Panettieri believes that more partner wins are being recognized by Microsoft and third party websites. This article even points to a list of the top 10 U.S. BPOS partners based on company migrations. Joe Panettieri goes on to write about how he envisions Microsoft’s delicate cloud computing messaging in the near future. What do you think of partners moving 1,000 customers to the cloud? What messaging does Microsoft need to relay to Partners? Leave your thoughts in the comments section 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

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 four companies moving to the cloud with Microsoft, and an upcoming webcast for Lync. 1. Microsoft reels in new Office 365 and BPOS cloud customers Our first BPOS story sums up the last couple of weeks of Microsoft cloud news. Microsoft has been on track to bringing new customers to the cloud with the recent announcement of four more companies making the journey. Shell, Manpower, Tampa General Hospital and Advocate Health Care all chose Microsoft, and InfoWorld breaks down each company’s migration story here . 1. Tampa General Hospital – One of the largest hospitals in Florida is making the switch from Lotus Notes to BPOS. 2. Manpower, Inc. – This large temp agency has 30,000 employees and 400,000 clients per year. By the end of this year, 80% of its user base will be running in the Cloud with Exchange Online. “That’s three years to migrate 30,000 employees.” 3. Advocate Health Care – This health care company will migrate over 27,000 employees from iPlanet messaging and Lotus Notes to Exchange Online. You can read more about this company’s migration in this Microsoft Case Study . 4. Shell – Beginning in April, Shell will use SharePoint 2010. Shell is already a big proponent of SharePoint 2007 and this upgrade with help increase productivity. What do you think of the recent migration announcements? Leave your comments below. *Image from InfoWorld 2. Voice, Video, and Data Conferencing with Microsoft Lync Are you a Microsoft Lync user? Have you joined us for a Business Insights webcast? There is still time to register for our latest Microsoft webcast and learn more about Microsoft Lync 2010. In the webinar entitled Voice, Video, and Data Conferencing with Microsoft Lync you will learn how to increase your productivity and reduce costs with Lync. This webcast is presented by Bhavika Thakkar, Lync and Exchange Product Manager at Microsoft. The sixty minute webinar is set for Tuesday, March 22, 2011 AM Pacific Time. You can view our past BPOS webinars here and other Microsoft webcasts here . What webcast would you like to see? Leave your comments below or send us an email at bposcom@microsoft.com . 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

The Office 365 Blog just broke some very exciting news for Microsoft Online Services customers. BlackBerry mobile BES support is now free through BPOS! Allen Filush from the Office 365 blog explains in greater detail with this blog post . More information will be provided later this month for existing customers. Be sure to check out his entire blog copied below. – Josh Topal. —– We have exciting news for Microsoft Online Services customers. We are in the process of updating pricing for Hosted BlackBerry Service for Exchange Online to make this service available free of charge.

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 fastest Cloud service in the world, and how one company is saving $100,000 with Microsoft BPOS. 1. Microsoft Azure Named Fastest Cloud Service Microsoft’s Azure Cloud service was recently named the fastest cloud service when compared to the competition. In our first story for this week in BPOS news, we take a look at how CloudSleuth tested and compared 13 Cloud services from companies including Microsoft, Google and Amazon. The cloud services were tested over an 11 month period which resulted in Microsoft coming in first, followed by Google, GoGrid, Amazon, and then Rackspace. Microsoft was rated the fastest, but only by less than a second. The top five cloud services listed above were within 0.8 seconds of each other. The test was conducted by CloudSleuth which used the largest “legal” bot network in the world, with 150,000 user computers pinging the different cloud services. The response times measured with reflections of what end users would likely see. This article from InformationWeek features an interesting outline of the testing process and some more cloud service response time numbers. Be sure to check out this great study . What do you think of the CloudSleuth study? Does this study alter your perception of the competition in the Cloud? Leave your comments below. 2. Chelgrave saves $100,000 thanks to BPOS deployment Chelgrave Contracting is a labour hire company founded in Melbourne, Australia. Chelgrave recently integrated with Microsoft BPOS and has estimated the company will save $100,000. BPOS gives Chelgrave a fully functioning intranet system with tools like SharePoint Online and Microsoft Exchange that have replaced the existing manual paper-based system. Even without an IT team, Greg Scott, General Manager of Chelgrave, was able to implement Microsoft BPOS with the help of Microsoft and Microsoft partners. Greg Scott claims that the move “has had a great impact on savings for the business, with some 40% more revenue than at the same time last year being generated for the company.” Chelgrave is also saving money on transportation costs through the ability to access files from anywhere and host meetings via Communicator. Chelgrave is a shining example of how Microsoft BPOS is enabling companies and their employees a more productive and collaborate work place while saving money. Do you have any BPOS stories? Share them with us in the comments below or send an email to our community mailbox . 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