Microsoft Ireland launched Business Productivity Online Services today in the Morrison hotel in Dublin. This is Microsoft’s online, pay-per-user, alternative to SBS. I’ve used the demo and it’s very cool.
BTW, met Eamon Breen for the first time since 2005. He used to be in MS and is responsible for getting me into the whole System Center world: SMS 2003/MOM 2005. He owns Inspired Software & Services, a company specialising in SharePoint. Eamon is a good guy – he helped us out a lot when he was doing pre-sales with us back in the day.
Kelly Waldher, Director of Online Services, Microsoft USA spoke.
What MS Hears From Customers
- Save me money: does a small business want to buy an SBS server, CAL’s, backup hardware, etc?
- Increase our productivity
- Help us grow our business
Forces of Change
Internal trends:
- Blending worlds: new generation of staff expect more than current staff. They’ve grown up with the latest technologies and delivery mechanisms.
- Increasing complexity: IT is not getting easier. Increased integration and possibilities.
- Strategic IT: Businesses are starting to see IT as an enabling force, not a cost centre.
External Pressures:
- Globalisation: The internet allows global marketing and sales … and competitors
- Security: We now understand network and physical security
- Evolving business models: We need to be more flexible and mobile
- Emergent competitors: Agile start-ups and new global competition
- Regulation: Data protection, etc.
- Environmental Concerns: Reduce the carbon footprint
- Global financial turmoil: No money for IT capital expenditure
- Local issues: The recession is hitting everyone differently, e.g. Ireland is getting a double whammy at the moment.
Industry Debate
- Security and privacy: where is my data? Is my computer room secure? Is my hosting solution compliant?
- Cusomisability? Can I customise a hosted solution?
- Visibility and Control: Can I see everything and manage everything? DO I want to?
- Data accessibility: Access it from anywhere
Would a managed hosted solution be better? Do I want or need complete control and customisation? The long and short of this is that BPOS will be great for lots of people but not for everyone.
Microsoft still trying to sell a local installation of Office – despite Office Live. Office + BPOS is their Software + Service offering in this market.
Strategy
Take their best internal services (data centres and systems management) and mix them with their best customer products:
- Exchange
- Windows SharePoint Services
- LiveMeeting
- Communicator
Note:
BPOS consists of:
- Hosted Exchange
- Hosted SharePoint
- Hosted LiveMeeting
- Hosted Communicator
Microsoft Isn’t Alone
Apple, SAP, Salesforce, EBay, Oracle, IBM, Sun.
We at work would also agree with this argument but we have a slightly different take on things, i.e. stressing data protection and compliance plus giving you the management services to guarantee uptime and availability.
Microsoft Strategy
- Desktop: Office Live
- Enterprise: Azure
- Online: Live
- Devices: XBox and phone devices.
Your Choice for Microsoft Products
- User Managed (Live) and traditional onsite installation
- Online or Microsoft hosted
- Online or Partner hosted managed
- Partner managed: Onsite
Microsoft Subscription Online Services
Sold by partners and hosted by MS:
- Exchange Hosted Services
- SharePoint Online
- Exchange Online
- Office Live Meeting
- Office Communications Online
- Dynamics CRM Online
And of course, Business Productivity Online Service which bundles some of these with one easy to use interface – I’ve used it and it’s pretty easy. Administration is a bit funny and many companies may rely on partners for that.
Note: He said that System Center will be going online in some way down the road. I also know that schools/colleges have access to another bundled package of some of the above solutions.
Video
Stresses that BPOS can integrate with your existing onsite installation. I recently posted links to the integration tools and documentation for enabling this.
Investments by MS for BPOS
- Anywhere access without VPN: desktop, mobile and web.
- Seamless use experience
- Collaboration and conferencing
- Real-time communications
- Always up to date tech
- Lower rollout cost
- SAS79 and Cyber-trust compliance
- Antivirus protection
BPOS For the Branch Office
This is being used right now.
The HQ has traditional onsite installation. The branch office uses BPOS for SharePoint and Exchange. HQ administrators create/manage users in AD and that is synched to BPOS for the branch office. They get a shared Global Address List for Exchange.
Exchange Online
- Includes AV and spam filtering
- Runs Microsoft ForeFront for Exchange
- Add-on services: Encryption of mail and Exchange Hosted Archive (you can set retention period of up to 25 years)
Data Centre
- Geo redundant data centres
- N+1 architecture
- 9 layers of data securiry
- CyberTrust certified
- SSL access
- ITIL/MOF operations
- 24*7*365 support
- 99.9% uptime SLA – they’ll give money back if they miss this
Locations
- Dublin – the new data centre is not built yet. Word is Redmond slowed down the construction. Are MS still co-located in Eircom?
- Netherlands
- Japan
- Singapore
- Washington State
- Virginia Sate
Demo
I love when MS Redmond folks leave the USA. Region codes confuse the heck out of them, e.g. the Windows deployment team still haven’t figured out how to not set English USA as the default keyboard even though we set a different default in our unattended installation – after 15+ years!!! This poor guy couldn’t change part of the URL from EN-IE to EN-US. He kept trying EN and it was an invalid URL. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a good clear speaker. Pity he didn’t start of by saying what BPOS actually was for the newbies to this service.
The customer must either select a MS BPOS partner or enter the partners code (from MS partner site) to sign up to BPOS.
You now get an admin username and password so you can log into the Admin portal. You can add your company domain to the service for Exchange, set up users, link users to services, set up SharePoint sites, enable LiveMeeting or Live Communicator.
How MS Packages BPOS
- Standard: multiple companies on the same service. Cheap and quick to deploy. No seat limit.
- Dedicated: Single customer per dedicated architecture. For >5000 seats. More expensive. Longer lead times. Customer needs most of the server features. Hmm, sounds like MS getting into traditional server hosting.
Two user packages:
- Information Worker: Requires a bit more resources. Uses a PC and possibly ActiveSynch
- Deskless Worker: Less reousrces. Uses only a web interface. Cheaper.
License Conversion Deduction
If you own CAL’s with Software Assurance then you can get a deduction for converting to BPOS.
Price (Ireland)
- Exchange online standard: €8.52
- Office SharePoint online standard €6.53
- Office Communications online €2.13
- Office Live Meeting €3.83
- Exchange online deskless worker €1.70
- SharePoint online deskless €1.70
- BPOS €12.78
Support, Privacy And Compliance
I asked a few tough questions:
- Data about users will be replicated to the USA for English language support.
- European customer data (files, email, etc) (at the moment) will stay in Europe. However, the US government still has the right to get into your data under the Patriot Act because (a) Microsoft is a USA company and (b) Microsoft does business in the USA. If you are concerned about data protection (especially for compliance) then Microsoft’s online services are not for you.
- There is no archive solution for SharePoint at the moment. It is on the roadmap. No dates.
- There will be live support: instant messaging, email and phone where elected contacts from your company can get direct support from MS.
- There will be 30 days of backup data.
This will all be fine for a lot of small companies. I think lots of European companies, especially those in regulated markets, won’t be happy with this. This leaves an opening for hosting partners such as our company. In my reading on the subject and talking with them, Microsoft is usually quite open about this – it may take a little pushing on the subject 😉
Eamon Breen: Inspired Software & Services
Eamon talked about how BPOS was used to provide services at minimal costs to Chernobyl Childrens Project International. Being mobile and being able to communicate is critical. Being a charity means money is tight and targeted at services to the children. BPOS is perfect for them.
Eamon shows the Signle-Sign In Client – and gives me a shout out 🙂 I reckon this tool is like a SBS domain that spans the Internet. You access your online services using any PC (even Home Editions) and sign in once to access all services. It even auto configures your Outlook, i.e. RPC over HTTPS.
SharePoint: document stores, blogs, wiki’s, workflows … all that stuff.
Interesting idea: Use BPOS as a partner workplace, i.e. forget ADFS or Internet Connector Licenses.
Wrap-Up
There is a free trial for 30 days and 20 users.
EDIT #1
I said "If you are concerned about data protection (especially for compliance) then Microsoft’s online services are not for you". In fact, if you are European and data protection worries you then you should not place your applications/data in either an American owned service or an American operated service. This also applies to service providers with an operating presence in the USA. Why? These companies must comply with the Patriot Act and therefore will open the doors to your personl data whenever big borther comes knocking. Only by staying with a local service provider can you protect your data and stay compliant with regulators.