As my previous post already stated, Microsoft will be bringing some new features to BPOS. Mary-Jo Foley presented the WPC 2010 slide decks on her blog (thx for that).
Here they are:
Exchange Online
SharePoint Online
OCS Online
Microsoft will be bringing some nice new capabilities to BPOS in the near future. According to the MS Online Services Team Blog these capabilities will be in preview later this year.
Additional features will be available based on Communications Server “14” as part of ongoing service updates.
original post: here
A webpage displaying all webcast related with Microsoft Online. Links to Live webcasts and most recent webcasts:
http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/onlineservices.aspx?tab=webcasts
or to connect them to your RSS Reader:
http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/onlineservices.aspx?tab=rss
The Microsoft Online Services Service Update for March 2010 is currently being deployed into production data centers and is scheduled to be available to all customers in the next few weeks. Updates to the deployment status will be posted to the comments section of this blog post.
Upgrades and Enhancements
The following features and capabilities are included in this Service Update:
25GB Mailboxes for Exchange Online
All users with a Business Productivity Online Suite or Exchange Online Standard User Subscription License (USL) will now be allocated 25 GB of mailbox storage, a significant increase from the previously allotted 5 GB of mailbox storage. This expansion means that a BPOS customer with 10 users (Standard USLs) will now have 250 GB of total storage (10 users x 25 GB) instead of 50 GB (10 users x 5 GB).
While mailbox allocations for all existing users will increase to 25 GB, mailbox sizes will not change. In other words, an administrator will need to update an existing user’s mailbox size to 25 GB in order to allocate increased storage to that user. For example, an existing user whose mailbox size was set to 1 GB by the administrator will continue to have a 1 GB mailbox size after this update unless the administrator changes that user’s mailbox size. The maximum mailbox size is still 25 GB.
Exchange Online Deskless Worker USL storage allocation will remain at 500 MB.
Because the new default allocation for a user is also the maximum amount of storage allowed for an Exchange Online mailbox, the Exchange Online Extra Storage SKU will no longer be available for purchase. Customers who have purchased the Exchange Online Extra Storage SKU will no longer be billed for extra storage.
Increased SharePoint Site Collection Maximum
With this Service Update, organizations will be able to create as many as 100 site collections in SharePoint Online. Previously, organizations were limited to a maximum of 20 SharePoint Online site collections.
Improved Domain Management Experience
Microsoft Online Services is introducing a new domain management experience that utilizes Web services to automatically configure domain records hosted by eNom, streamlining the domain configuration process. Previously, this process required a number of manual configuration steps.
Now a customer can provide their eNom domain hosting credentials in the new Domain Configuration Wizard in the Microsoft Online Administration Center, and the domain will automatically be configured to work with Microsoft Online Services. Or customers can choose to bypass the Wizard and configure their domain manually, depending on personal preference.
At the end of the Wizard configuration process, customers will receive a report of the domain records that existed prior to domain configuration, along with the additional domain records after domain configuration.
Microsoft Online Services is planning to add domain auto-configuration for other domain registrars in future releases.
File Attachments to Service Requests
Customers can now attach files to service requests, providing greater visibility to technical support engineers and significantly streamlining the troubleshooting process.
The maximum size for an individual file attachment is 5MB, and the maximum size for all files attached to a service request is 20MB. As many as 20 files can be attached per ticket.
Support for Mac OS X Snow Leopard
The Mac Sign-In application now supports Mac OS X Snow Leopard. No update or changes are required for your users to take advantage of this enhanced support for Mac OS X.
Enhancements to Live Meeting Usage Report
Deleted users in the Usage Report available to administrators will now have "_Deleted" appended to the user, allowing administrators to distinguish between active and deleted users in the Usage Report.
Enhancements to Live Meeting Recording Publication Process
A number of improvements have been made to the process to publish Live Meeting recordings, including:
Peter de Haas just posted a presentation over at SlideShare.net. This presentation is an effort to provide the ultimate list of information about all topics relevant to Microsoft Online Services. Below the presentation, thx to Peter de Haas.
Original link: here
Microsoft announced @ the 8th annual MS US Public Sector CIO Summit some important enhancements and certifications that raises the security and privacy for BPOS. Below a summary of the changes announced:
From the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog.
Microsoft Online Services is now a BlackBerry® certified partner and BlackBerry Alliance Elite Member. For the Business Productivity Online Standard Suite, licenses and support are now a part of the Microsoft Online Services Hosted BlackBerry service, which customers buy directly from Microsoft. Previously, customers had to purchase and provide their own licenses and support agreement, purchased through a third party, in order to use the Hosted BlackBerry service.
The Hosted BlackBerry service from Microsoft Online Services offers the most commonly requested BlackBerry capabilities, including wireless access to e-mail, calendar, tasks and contacts with global address list (GAL) integration, and device management such as device wipe and password reset. Details about the Hosted Blackberry Service can be found in the Microsoft Online Services Mobility Solutions Description, which can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center. The document includes a full solution description and service pricing.
To learn more or to request a Hosted BlackBerry service agreement, contact your Microsoft representative or a Microsoft Online Services partner. If you do not have a Microsoft partner or representative, you may request the Hosted BlackBerry service agreement through Microsoft Online Services Customer Service.
For additional details please about the Microsoft Online Services mobility offerings, visit www.microsoft.com/online/mobility.
On Mary-Jo Foley’s blog there is a blog item which states that Microsoft is working on a “BPOS Lite” productivity/collaboration suite that is aimed at small/mid-size businesses (SMBs).
This rumor is based on some Bing searches she did for ”BPOS Lite”. If you would like to find out more, you can read the article here
Jim Glynn demonstrates how to connect your Windows Mobile phone to Exchange Online.
You can configure the End-User Notification whenever a new version of the Microsoft Online Sign-In application is released. This is useful if you want to control whether you want your end-users to receive a notification or not.
For example: a End-User who has no rights to install anything on his computer doesn’t want to be bothered by any new version release. You can disable this notifications by use of Group Policy’s (preferred by myself) or by editing the registry (in theory the GPO does the same off course 
).
Here is a description how to do this: Microsoft Online Services Team Blog – Disabling End-User Notifications in the Sign-In Application
kudos to the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog
