As Microsoft readies itself for the next release of Office 365 (expected in the first quarter of this year*), several behind the scenes updates are being done to prepare for this. Most notably is the update of SharePoint Online to the Wave 15 build (aka SharePoint 2013). To help customers ready themselves for the change Microsoft posted this article on the Office 365 Community site: http://community.office365.com/en-us/blogs/office_365_technical_blog/archive/2013/01/16/preparing-for-the-next-sharepoint-online-service-update.aspx

One of the challenges that we as a business (Paradyne) encountered early on with BPOS was moving customers file systems over to SharePoint Online.
In a traditional on-premise SharePoint scenario there are many 3rd party tools to migrate files structures over to the SharePoint environment, however these generally require extensions to be installed on the target server.
As this is not possible with SharePoint Online we started to look at another way. One simple approach is to simply open up a SharePoint library with Windows Explorer and just drag your files over, however this can run into a couple of fairly sizeable roadblocks:
- a character in the filename that is not allowed in SharePoint
- file transfer fails due to timeout, network conditions, or is interrupted by an inaccessible file or an illegal character in the file name

So what are our choices?
Doing a lot of research, we came across a BPOS partner in the UK that had written a tool to address exactly this challenge.
Enter Files to Go from Thinkscape!
Files to Go is so simple to use that even our non-technical customers have been able to follow the instructions and successfully migrate their files over to SharePoint Online.
It effectively creates a queue of files to be migrated and performs any illegal character changes on the fly, then simply processes the list and copies your files across.
You can either migrate your files into a single library, or run several migrations into different libraries. The folder structure of your file system is kept intact during the migration so that when you open the library in SharePoint Online you are seeing a replica of your file system.
Files to Go also creates its own site within SharePoint Online where you can track the status & progress of the migration as well as view any errors that have occurred.

Overall it is an extremely simple product to use, from the instructions through to the interface. Support is also an email away!
Files to Go currently works with SharePoint Online (under BPOS) and will also be supporting Office 365 upon its release.

Happy migrating!

The team over at MessageOps have released a great script that takes data from your public folders and replicates it to SharePoint Online as part of your migration away from an on-premise Exchange environment.

You can read more about it here: http://www.messageops.com/public-folder-message-data-and-sharepoint-online

A new website called BPOS Tools has been launched aimed at providing BPOS partners and customers with tools to improve their Microsoft Online Services experience.
A variety of software is currently available that ranges from file migration, monitoring, user management & maintenance, as well as end user usability functionality.
A couple of the key solutions that are beneficial to almost every full BPOS solution are:
- Password synchronisation
- Turning document libraries into email-enabled document libraries
- Migrating file systems to SharePoint Online
- Exchange Online monitoring (above and beyond the Microsoft Online Services Health Dashboard)

Have a look! More products and SharePoint web parts and templates coming soon.

Brett Hill has done another great video on using Excel & Access with SharePoint Online: http://brettblog.com/Home/ctl/ArticleView/mid/408/articleId/393/More-Fun-with-SPO-Using-Excel-and-Access-with-SharePoint-Online.aspx

In speaking to many customers – a lot of them are confused about what SharePoint (and thus SharePoint Online) can do for them. If they have heard of it, a lot of customers believe it is simply a document repository system or just a basic intranet. We have great pleasure in showing them the full capabilities of SharePoint Online, and recently Brett Hill has done a couple of videos which make this even easier: Get productive in 5 minutes: http://www.brettblog.com/Home/ctl/ArticleView/mid/408/articleId/365/SharePoint-Online-Get-productive-in-5-mins.aspx Using a Slide Library: http://www.brettblog.com/Home/ctl/ArticleView/mid/408/articleId/386/Using-SharePoint-Online-Slide-Library.aspx

Standard Change Requests

A Standard Change Request is one that does not require approval. A Service Request can be submitted and will be acted upon without requiring further approval or escalation.

BPOS (Suite)

Change Windows Live ID Associated with BPOS Subscription

Exchange Online

Enable Exchange Online journaling Enable external (server-side) mail forwarding Enable POP connectivity Reconnect disconnected mailbox Enable multi-tenant BES service Add/Remove/Reset Blackberry device Wipe Blackberry device Add or modify standard BES policy Add custom footer or disclaimer to outbound emails Increase conference room mailbox size Convert universal distribution list (DG) to universal security group (SG) Grant “Send-As” Permissions Hide Specific Distribution Lists and/or Contacts Customize Active Sync Policy (Enforce PIN) Disable ActiveSync

Forefront:

Deploy x-header to bypass FOPE/BPOS spam quarantine Add or modify FOPE policy Grant limited access to FOSE Admin Center

Microsoft Online Platform

Populate companyname attribute Increase AD sync object limit Set password to never expire

SharePoint Online

Recover deleted SharePoint site collection ==============================================================================================

Non-Standard Change Requests

A Non-Standard Change Request will require some type of escalation and approval. Generally, approval will be based on: * 500 seats purchased * OR a late stage Comphot Case * OR Siebel Stage 60% or higher If a customer does not meet these criteria, or if the requested change is not in the Non-Standard Change Request list there will be an escalation process (TBD). BPOS Technical Product Management (TPM) and Service Management meet twice weekly (currently Tuesday and Thursday) to triage all change requests.

BPOS (Suite)

Manual Domain Verification (Without creating CNAMEs) VERY COSTLY – EASE OF USE IS NOT A JUSTIFICATION

Exchange Online

Add or modify custom BES policy Disable Outlook Web Access (OWA) Retention Policies Enable IMAP connectivity

Forefront:

Request FOPE report

SharePoint Online

Offboard SharePoint Online data =========================================================================================== Change Requests Currently Not Allowed These requests are frequently asked and currently not allowed.. Grant full access to FOSE Admin Center Request audit log detail

Brett Hill contributed a post to the Microsoft Online Services Team blog this week about a key functional of SharePoint Online (and SharePoint in general): version control! A very simple to follow walk-through about how to use version control and start using SharePoint to it’s fullest: http://blogs.technet.com/b/msonline/archive/2010/07/26/check-it-out-easily-enable-document-version-control-in-sharepoint-online.aspx For more useful information like that, click on our Downloads & Help page and look under the Application Help section.

Further to our previous posting about what’s comming in BPOS, this posting over at ZDnet reports on the official roadmap of BPOS: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-shares-officially-its-future-bpos-plans/6857?tag=mantle_skin;content

A blog post from the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/msonline/archive/2010/07/12/next-generation-bpos.aspx Some of the exciting features are:

• Office Web Apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote)
• Exchange 2010 features (unified messaging, archiving, retention policies, transport rules, multi-mailbox search, free/busy between cloud & on-prem, native migration tools, remote PowerShell, etc.)
• SharePoint 2010 features (portal site templates, extranet & anonymous access, Office 2010 integration, tagging and social networking, better search, improved features & functionality, Visio & Excel Services, sandboxed solutions, improved workflows, SharePoint Designer 2010 access, better control of FQDNs, etc.)
• OCS 2010 features (P2P audio/video & file transfer across firewalls, presence with pictures, federation, IM with Windows Live)
• General updates (single sign-on, identity federation, redesigned admin interface, more administration and access control)