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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.

Sometimes when you are working with a computer, you won’t know basic information, such as the name of the computer, the logon domain, or the current user. This can happen when you get called to support a computer in another department within your organization and when you are working remotely. Here are some cmdlets that help you quickly gather basic user and system information . Follow our daily tips: • facebook.com/TechNetTips • twitter.com/TechNetTips • blogs.technet.com/tnmag

In Windows PowerShell 2.0, splatting refers to a way in which you can bundle parameters to send to a command. Don Jones wrote about this in the March 2011 issue of TechNet Magazine . In this companion video, he steps you through Splatting in Windows PowerShell 2.0 . And while you’re there, become a fan of the TechNetTips Facebook Page. Follow our daily tips: • facebook.com/TechNetTips • twitter.com/TechNetTips • blogs.technet.com/tnmag

Learn about the new download manager in Internet Explorer 9 , see how it works, and discover how you can manage it with Group Policy. Follow our daily tips: • facebook.com/TechNetTips • twitter.com/TechNetTips • blogs.technet.com/tnmag

Get an overview of running the Exchange Management Shell for Exchange Server 2010. Follow our daily tips: • facebook.com/TechNetTips • twitter.com/TechNetTips • blogs.technet.com/tnmag

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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

It is important to enforce policies and actively manage desktop clients throughout your network—even when it comes to upgrading Web browsers.

I am happy to announce that I will be speaking at SPTechCon in Boston June 1-3, 2011, delivering the following session: 310 Implementing Team Foundation Server 2010 & Project Server Integration to Solve the Agile/PMO Dilemma Team Foundation Server 2010 and Project Server Integration Feature Pack further strengthen Microsoft’s Application Lifecycle Management Solution by bridging the gap between Project Portfolio Management and Application Development. By bringing the best of both worlds, it creates a win-win situation that enables development and project management teams to collaborate and communicate a project’s timeline and progress using familiar tools such as Microsoft Visual Studio, Project Server, and SharePoint 2010. This session will provide a product overview and demonstrations, as well as discuss customer successes. Lots of great SharePoint content at that event as well as plenty of renowned SharePoint experts. Registrants who use my last name (FIESSINGER) as a code during check out they will receive a $200 discount, so don’t wait and register !