MSPmentor

Google tends to favor announcing major Google Apps customer wins as they’re  confirmed. Not Microsoft, no. Microsoft likes to announce a lengthy list of BPOS and Live@edu cloud customer wins all at the same time, and yesterday saw Microsoft add companies like Sunoco Inc. and DuPont and schools like San Francisco State University to the list of SaaS victories. Here’s the story.

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At this point, it’s well-known that Microsoft caught a lot of heat for BPOS outages in September 2010. In an effort to restore customer and channel confidence, Microsoft Online Services has launched a Service Health Dashboard designed to increase visibility into the status of all their cloud services and tools. Meanwhile, third-party software companies like Level Platforms and Nimsoft also offer monitoring tools for BPOS. Here’s the skinny.

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Microsoft apparently has scored a major coup in the cloud market. The software giant says as many as 33,000 State of Minnesota employees will be going over to their BPOS productivity and collaboration suite. Here’s the straight dope.

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Consider the following scenario: You’re a managed services provider. Instead of investing big bucks to build your own hosted applications, you entrust your end-customers to Microsoft’s cloud — including Exchange Online and SharePoint Online. But in the past few weeks, that Microsoft cloud — called BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite) — has gone dark at least three times. The big question: Will end-customers remain patient amid Microsoft’s SaaS growing pains? Or is there something fundamentally wrong with Microsoft’s hosting strategy?

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At first glance, today wasn’t such a great day for cloud computing. Microsoft suffered its second major cloud outage in recent weeks, raising more questions about the reliability of big, commercial cloud systems. Still, I’ve got a theory: I suspect cloud computing is still more reliable than most on-premises networks. Here’s why.

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Portions of Microsoft BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite), the software giant’s SaaS platform, went dark for 90 minutes today. It’s the second cloud outage in recent weeks for BPOS, which includes SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and other Microsoft SaaS applications. The latest outage arrives as Microsoft is locked in a SaaS pricing war with Google, plus Microsoft is still working to launch the latest Exchange 2010 and SharePoint 2010 releases to its cloud customers. Here’s a closer look at today’s outage and the competitive variables facing BPOS.

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Microsoft has quietly launched a Government Cloud Applications Center designed to bring state and local governments together with partners and solutions designed for the cloud. Here’s a quick look at the strategy.

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A new Forrester Research report indicates that Microsoft, Google, Cisco, and IBM — which is to say, the major SaaS email players — have more-or-less reached price parity for cloud messaging at about $5 per user per month, confirming that the cloud is axiomatically cheaper than on-premise for most MSPs and the enterprises they serve. Here’s the scoop.

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Google has announced that it’s continuing its SaaS momentum in the education space by way of a deal with the Maryland Education Enterprise Consortium (MEEC). The deal potentially puts the Google Apps productivity suite into every public K-12 district, every library, and every college both public and private in the state of Maryland. Here’s the scoop.

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Apparently, it’s a red-letter week for Microsoft Online Services and the software giant’s All In cloud strategy. Specifically, Microsoft says The Dow Chemical Co., Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, and the University of Georgia have all inked deals to embrace Microsoft-powered productivity and collaboration cloud solutions. The big question: Will partners play a role in the SaaS engagements?

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Problem: Migrating Exchange or SharePoint data to a Microsoft BPOS cloud-delivered productivity suite apparently can be costly and time-consuming. Enter BPOS Experts, a New York City-based company that’s offering their BPOS Commander management and migration solution completely free. Here’s the scoop.

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Microsoft continues its All In cloud computing push at HostingCon this week in Austin, Texas. During HostingCon, Michael Joffe (senior product manager, Windows Server) and Trina Horner (pictured, US SaaS/cloud channel development strategist) are expected to describe Microsoft’s cloud strategy to scores of Web hosts, managed hosting providers and service providers. Still, Microsoft will need to maintain a careful balancing act as it pitches cloud computing to large hosting partners and small MSPs. Here’s why.

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Another dispatch from the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC10): Microsoft is striving to help transform hosting providers and telecommunications providers into full-on IT service providers. The secret sauce, predictably, involves the cloud. But what are the implications for smaller MSPs and VARs? Here’s some perspective.

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A few minutes ago, I asked Microsoft Channel Chief Jon Roskill the following question: Can small VARs and MSPs really profit from basic BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite) applications like SharePoint Online and Exchange Online? Or should those small partners begin to focus more on writing their own targeted cloud applications for Windows Azure? Roskill provided these perspectives.

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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is set to take the stage in a few minutes at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC10) in Washington, D.C. Roughly 14,000 attendees — including 9,500 channel partners — are at the event. Ballmer is expected to rally those partners around Microsoft’s All In cloud computing strategy, which includes Windows Azure, BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite) and new offerings like Windows Intune. Update: MSPmentor’s sister site, The VAR Guy, has a recap of Ballmer’s keynote here. You’ll find complete Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference coverage at www.thevarguy.com/tag/wpc10 and www.mspmentor.net/tag/wpc10 throughout the week.

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Is Japanese tech giant Fujitsu going to offer Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud platform within its data centers? A Dow Jones Newswires report came out suggesting just that. And yes, Microsoft and Fujitsu confirmed pieces of the story today during the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC10). Here are the details.

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Microsoft has launched the “Deploying Business Productivity Online Suite” page, designed to be a self-described one-stop shop for resellers old and new of their SaaS (software as a service) applications like Exchange Online and SharePoint Online. It’s a small but significant move in Microsoft’s fight with Google Apps to ensure the loyalty of the IT channel. Here’s the scoop.

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Yesterday, we mentioned Google Apps Education Edition was making some SaaS waves in the academic market. Now, we’re back to report Brown University has signed up for Google Apps in a big way. Here’s the scoop.

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The SaaS and cloud computing war between Microsoft and Google is triggering some collateral damage among managed services providers (MSPs) and VARs. Two cases in point: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is now visiting customers to personally pitch BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite) and Exchange Online, sometimes to the detriment of partner MSPs. And Microsoft is quietly offering special pricing on some direct BPOS engagements, MSPmentor has learned. Here are the details and the potential implications for MSPs.

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Google has launched a program to certify resellers on Google Apps Education Edition. In return, Google is offering their partners better marketing support, more training opportunities, and business visibility in the Google Apps marketplace, the search giant says. It’s all part of Google’s continued push into the education space. Here’s the skinny.

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As Microsoft transitions its channel chief title from Allison Watson to Jon Roskill, the shift provides an inflection point for both Microsoft and the broader IT channel. No doubt, Watson has made cloud computing and SaaS a channel priority during 2010. But Roskill has the opportunity to both clarify and accelerate Microsoft’s SaaS channel strategy — especially as it relates to small VARs and emerging managed services providers. Here are five steps Roskill should take.

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Google Apps is under fire over at the official Why Microsoft blog with the announcement of two enterprises jumping ship to Microsoft Online Services solutions. It’s not surprising that Microsoft is touting cloud customer wins. But the recent blog entry signals that Microsoft is finally ready to take the offensive in the battle for SaaS supremacy.

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The timing is a little suspect in the wake of the Monday’s Apple iPhone 4 presentation, but Microsoft has laid out the business case for Windows Phone 7, the latest version of their mobile operating system, in a blog entry that touts its integration with, what else, Microsoft products and services. Here’s the lowdown.

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