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

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 two stories that illustrate why public sectors are moving to the Cloud with Microsoft. 1. Microsoft Sees Increasingly Rapid Adoption of Its Cloud Computing Services Among U.S. Government, Education Organizations Last week Microsoft U.S. held the Public Sector CIO Summit in which Microsoft announced cloud computing pacts with 16 more government and education organizations. Our first BPOS story takes a closer look at the recent announcement and increasingly popular adoption of Cloud Computing in the public sector. Curt Kolcun, VP of U.S. Public Sector at Microsoft, talked about why Government and Education establishments are looking to the cloud, “Public sector organizations are looking for enterprise-grade cloud solutions, and that means providing high levels of security, functionality and support,” Kolcun said. “We’re seeing government and education organizations of every size and dimension using Microsoft cloud solutions to help reduce costs and increase productivity in support of their missions.” The new Microsoft cloud computing customers are detailed in the article from Microsoft News Center . They include Vanderbilt University, public schools in Portland, and local governments like the city of Chicago. Check out the entire article here to learn why government and education organizations are choosing to go the Cloud with Microsoft. What do you think of the announcements made in this press release from Microsoft? Do you want your local governments to move to the Cloud? Leave your comments below. 2. Microsoft Unveils Public Sector Cloud Deals In our second BPOS article , we unveil more public sector cloud deals for Microsoft. This Information Week article further outlines some of the public sector announcement made by Microsoft. There is in depth coverage and quotes coming from the Public Sector CIO Summit that adds more context to this week’s stories. The article features a quote from Gail Thomas-Flynn, VP of Microsoft state and local government, who talks about competition with Google. “Google is coming at it from a completely online, more consumer orientation,” said Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft’s vice president of state and local government, in an interview Wednesday. “With Google it’s cloud only. … But what if you’re in the cloud and you want to come back on premise? With Microsoft, you have that option.” The interview with Gail Thomas-Flynn provides some more context around why these public sectors are choosing Microsoft. I recommend that you read this article to gain a third party perspective of the Public Sector CIO event. Be sure to leave 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.

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 U.S. government’s commitment to the Cloud, and find out how 90,000 public sector jobs are being crated with Cloud adoption. 1. Obama banks on cloud, consolidation, to hold down IT costs The United States has been going through some budget cuts from a recent economic deficit that impacted the entire country and numerous industries. Many eyes are focused sharply on U.S. President Obama’s upcoming 2012 federal budget that will help determine how the country recovers from this downturn. IT costs, that include cloud computing, are outlined in the president’s budget that sets aside $79.5 billion for IT spending during the fiscal year of 2012. Much like Microsoft, the U.S. government seems to be committed to the Cloud. This is outlined by federal CIO, Vivek Kundra , who “released a report outlining a ‘cloud first’ strategy for federal agencies.” According to Kundra, the Cloud could save the government 30% through the reduction of data center expenditures. There are conflicting views from the VP of consulting firm McLean, Ray Bjorklund, who is unsure about the cloud savings. He believes the savings apply less to government, and more to commercial businesses. You can read more about how the government is planning on spending and saving on Cloud computing in this ComputerWorld article . Do you think it’s the right move for the government to invest in the cloud? Do you think it will save the government money? What are your thoughts? Leave your comments below. 2. Cloud Adoption ‘Will Create 90,000 Public Sector Jobs In our second story , we take a look at how the adoption of Cloud computing is increasing public sector jobs in the UK. The Center for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) has determined that 90,000 jobs in the public sector are going to appear due to the prediction that government IT will be more open to cloud computing technologies which drive efficiencies. It is forecasted that “289,000 jobs are expected to be generated cumulatively over the 2010 to 2015 period in the UK,” meaning that 199,000 jobs will be created outside of the public sector. This article from CIO.com breaks down the CEBR report that outlines where Cloud jobs will be created across the UK are predicted. The CEBR also looks at profitability which will depend mainly on “efficiency, rather than volume growth, due to the pressures of reduced household spending power and rising commodity prices.” What do you think of the surge in Cloud jobs as predicted in this article ? Do you agree? 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.

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 Cloud competition of Google and Microsoft, and we examine Exchange Coexistence. 1. Google Apps Won’t Beat Microsoft, Says Customer Who’s Tried Both The Why Microsoft Blog features customer stories and experiences that outline why a user should choose Microsoft over the competition. Their latest blog post features a valentine theme that may not be so lovely for Google fans. Tom Rizzo writes on the Why Microsoft blog about why Google Apps may cause you “heartache…after encountering a wide range of problems.” The San Francisco Chronicle picked up on the Why Microsoft blog post and calls the letters “corny, but the sentiment is real.” The San Francisco Chronicle writer, Matt Rosoff, examines in his own opinion how “Google Apps won’t beat Microsoft” through the real experience of an IT recruiting firm, BridgeView IT. Matt lists the following reasons as why BridgeView chose to go with BPOS instead of the competition: “Google Apps had trouble syncing data with employees’ BlackBerry devices. BridgeView makes heavy use of nested email folders in Outlook, which didn’t show up correctly in Gmail . When BridgeView tried to contact Google for support, they couldn’t find a phone number to call. Google does offer a support line for issues like major outages, but for point questions Google pointed BridgeView to online forums.” Do you think that Google Apps won’t beat Microsoft? What is your opinion on Microsoft and the competition in the cloud? Leave your comments below. 2. Keep Exchange In-House and in the Cloud with Coexistence Do you know what “Exchange Coexistence” is? Jabez Gan, writer for Enterprise Networking Planet , describes it as “the option to run Exchange Servers in-house, but host mailboxes at Microsoft’s data center.” Jabez Gan writes about the pros and cons of choosing Exchange Coexistence in our second featured article . The article first touches on the advantages of Exchange Coexistence which dissect both on and off-premises Exchange servers. Jabez also details the differences between On-premise Exchange and Off-premises Exchange. The disadvantages of Exchange Coexistence are listed as well as a section entitled “When does coexistence work?” This final section may be the most useful because it outlines three distinct scenarios that would or would not call for Exchange Coexistence. Jabez concludes that the decision will revolve around the all mighty dollar. He recommends that you follow the scenarios in his post to help weigh the costs and benefits of having Exchange Coexistence. I would recommend this article to anyone interested in Exchange Coexistence and suggest that you reply to the Enterprise Networking Planet blog post with your own scenario. What do you think about Exchange Coexistence? Are you moving to Exchange Coexistence? Leave your comments and scenarios 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 the Microsoft Online and Office 365 roadmap, and learn about a holistic approach to being more efficient. 1. Microsoft Online and Office 365: Overview and Roadmap Office 365 is the next generation of BPOS . There are thousands of users that will soon be making the transition in the near future to the new standard of collaboration and productivity. But before making the transition, it might be important to fully understand the Microsoft Online and Office 365 Roadmap. This article from Directions on Microsoft entitled Microsoft Online and Office 365: Overview and Roadmap , will help any user understand what is coming from Microsoft Online Services and Office 365. The piece outlines the many layers of Microsoft Online and Office 365 which include the following: Levels of Service Dedicated Standard Deskless Worker Online Versus On- Premises What’s Ahead I would recommend to anyone who is interested in Microsoft Online and Office 365 to read this article . What are your thoughts of the Microsoft Online and Office 365 Roadmap? 2. Holistic Approach to Energy Efficient Datacenters Microsoft has stated that we are “all in” when it comes to the cloud. The cloud is run by many massive data centers throughout the world that provide the necessary hardware to power Microsoft’s cloud. Microsoft has built numerous data centers and has learned valuable lessons in regards to energy management and power usage effectiveness. Some of these lessons are outlined in a new whitepaper entitled, “A Holistic Approach to Energy Efficiency in Datacenters,” written by Microsoft engineer Dileep Bhandarkar. The whitepaper describes one tip to improving the Data Center Power Usage Effectiveness by 25 percent over two years was “cleaning the roof and painting it white, and repositioning concrete walls around the externally-mounted air conditioning units to improve air flow.” I think datacenter efficiency is essential as Microsoft looks forward to deploying more data centers and continue to be “all in” with the cloud. What do you think of the “Holistic Approach” to datacenter efficiency? 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.