Office 365 technology – SkyDrive Pro increases storage and ease of sharing

SkyDrive Pro is cloud storage for business. It’s the place where employees can store, sync, and share their files across multiple devices with ease and security. With SkyDrive Pro you can collaborate with others in real time and edit documents from virtually anywhere via a web browser using Office Web Apps. Accessing your files from multiple devices (including Windows Phone, Windows 8, iOS, and Android devices) is a cinch with native SkyDrive Pro and Office Mobile apps. Not only does SkyDrive Pro deliver the frictionless user experiences that employees expect in a file sync solution, it’s backed by a platform that provides industrial-strength content management, compliance, and content management controls.

Microsoft is  continually improving the SkyDrive Pro service. The new SkyDrive Pro apps are now available in the Window Store and App Store. Recently they  announced three new significant improvements to SkyDrive Pro for Office 365 business subscribers – to help you be more productive:

• Each user now gets 25 GB of SkyDrive Pro storage space (up from 7 GB).
• You can now increase users’ SkyDrive Pro storage beyond the default 25 GB-up to 50 GB and 100 GB.
• With the new Shared with Me view,you can easily find documents others have shared with you.

 

Surface RT + Outlook 2013 RT … + More? | Windows RT content from Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows

Surface RT + Outlook 2013 RT … + More? | Windows RT content from Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows.

Office 365 + Windows 8.1 Preview | Office 365 content from Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows

Office 365 + Windows 8.1 Preview | Office 365 content from Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows.

Office 365 business customers who install the Windows 8.1 Preview on their Windows 8 or Windows RT devices will have a mostly seamless experience. But there is at least one gotcha you need to be aware of.

First, here’s what works with no effort at all: Virtually everything. And that’s true for both users and those who administer Office 365 for others.

For admins, this means that all of the Office 365 admin web site interfaces look and work as expected in Internet Explorer 11, which is new to the Windows 8.1 Preview. And this is true for both the “Modern” (a.k.a. “Metro”) version of IE 11 and the desktop version.

Microsoft Outlines SharePoint-Yammer Roadmap, Yammer To Become MS Social Layer

Great post by David Roe Mar 20, 2013   

One of the big questions around Yammer after it was snapped up last June was what would, or could, Microsoft do with the social software? And what would it do with Yammer and SharePoint? Previously, it has said it would integrate them in three phases: basic integration, deeper connections and connected experiences. At Convergence yesterday, it gave more details about the integration roadmap.

SharePoint-Yammer Integration

Today’s update comes from Jared Spataro, who heads the SharePoint business in the Office division of Microsoft. During the Office keynote yesterday, the team demonstrated the integration of Yammer in Dynamics CRM, which started shipping last month.

That done, he said, the next step is Office 365, which already received a major upgrade last month. With Yammer that upgrade will continue as part of Microsoft’s wider plan to make Yammer its social layer across all of its products.  In blog post this morning, Spataro explained where all this is going.

1. Basic Integration

Office 365 will be updated again this summer, but this time the upgrades will specifically target SharePoint and enable users to replace the SharePoint newsfeed with Yammer. According to Spataro, to avoid confusion, the update will be designed so that users will be able to replace one with the other with a simple click on a link in the navigation bar which will take the user to Yammer.

Also, as part of this, Microsoft will provide a Yammer app in the SharePoint Store that will enable users create a connection between groups and sites. While the SharePoint newsfeed will still be the default feed in Office365, the option to replace it will be obvious.

SharePoint-Yammer Integration

2. Deeper Connections

Following this in the fall will be a further update to Office 365 that will enable deeper integration between the two. At that point users will have the option of replacing the newsfeed with Yammer, but the integrated Yammer will offer users a Single Sign-On.

This means that when you click on the Yammer link in the Office 365 navigation bar, Yammer will appear under the bar, enabling users to get back to Office 365 services immediately.

The new experience will also offer other capabilities like rich document functionality as well as Office Web Apps integration to enable editing and collaborative editing of Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents.

3. Connected Experiences

Moving forward into 2014, Office 365 will be updated with more social enhancements and will continue to be upgraded every 90 days, in keeping with Microsoft’s plans for the rest of Office 365.

From a Yammer perspective this means deepening the connections between Yammer and Office 365, but will include upgrades that over time will combine social, collaboration, email, instant messaging, voice, video and line of business applications in innovative new ways.

Yammer and SharePoint Server

But many, if not the majority, of customers using SharePoint are using it as an on-premises deployment so they will be looking for ways to connect their Yammer and their SharePoint on-premises.

This will be covered in the summer update, Spataro says, with guidance for replacing the newsfeed on-premises with Yammer. The Yammer app will be a valuable addition in this respect that will enable users to connect between their groups and on-premises SharePoint sites. SharePoint Server will not be updated every 90 days, but the Yammer improvements that are planned already should also help connect with the on-premises deployments.

Microsoft is clearly putting a lot of eggs in the Yammer basket and in response to customer questions as to whether they should use newsfeed or Yammer for social, Spartaro is quite categorical about it.

Yammer is to become the social layer across Microsoft products and is what he describes as Microsoft’s  “big bet”  for social. The benefits of the Yammer route are enormous, he says, in that it is easy to use, easy to start, and because it’s an online service, easy to update when needed.

However, not everyone want to use multi-tenant cloud services. For those enterprises there is always the SharePoint newsfeed that provides a whole bunch of social capabilities along with SharePoint

There is a key issue here and Spataro hasn’t really resolved it: while he admits that there are some companies that are not happy with multi-tenant cloud services, he may be understating the case a little bit.

While there doesn’t appear to be much research done on the topic so far, there is considerable anecdotal evidence to suggest that quite a lot of companies are not prepared to go that route. While some are just not ready yet — and we saw last week with Alfresco that it may take some companies as long as 10 years to be ready for the cloud — some say they will never, ever make the move. What then?

Spataro says that Microsoft is committed to its on-premises deployments and workers, and with the number of SharePoint deployments reaching the levels they are at the moment — not even talking about future deployments — not to do so would be a really bad business move. More on this as it happens.

Microsoft Outlines SharePoint-Yammer Roadmap, Yammer To Become MS Social Layer.

Office 365 Pro Plus and RDS/TS installation

WHAT:

Many partners are aware by now that the Product Use Rights (PUR) was updated end of January in favor of supporting a RDS or TS deployment of Office, even though the user’s license was a subscription license through Office 365.
INSTALLATION AND USE RIGHTS – Product Use Rights (January 2013) (see note under Additional Terms, page 82)
1. Each user to whom you assign a User SL may activate the software for local or remote use on up to five concurrent OSEs.
2. The Licensed User may also use the software activated by another user under a different User SL.
3. Each user may also use one of the five activations on a network server with the Remote Desktop Services (RDS) role enabled.
4. You may allow other users to remotely access the software solely to provide support services.

HOW:

In trying to provide clarity on the HOW you accomplish this; I would like to offer this information that was gathered from a recent discussion forum:

A Volume Activation Office package is required to install on a Windows Server 2008 R2 or newer server with the Remote Desktop Services (RDS) role enabled.  All Office 365 ProPlus packages use retail activation and because of that they do not install on a server with the RDS role enabled or function if installed first on the server then the RDS role is enabled after the Office install.  Office setup will detect the RDS role at install time and the apps will also detect the RDS role when launched post installation.

In order to install Office Pro Plus 2013 in the Remote Desktop Services (RDS) mode, you must have a volume licensing agreement. Remember that this one license has to be part of the 5 minimum licenses in order to start a volume licensing agreement.  You will need RDS CAL’s  for each user, so my advice would be to attach the Office Pro Plus 2013 to your order for the RDS CAL’s.

Note that installing Office 365 ProPlus on a virtual machine (client or server without an RDS role enabled) is now permitted as well according to the updated PUR. The virtual machine – as with a physical machine install – would be allocated to a primary user, meet Office 365 ProPlus system requirements and be able to connect to the Internet-based Office Licensing Service at least once every 30 days. In other words, we do not distinguish between a physical and virtual machine, as long as all requirements are met.

For Office 365 ProPlus standalone, Office 365 Midsize* and E3/E4, users may use one of their 5 allocated installations via RDS with the Volume License edition of Office Professional Plus 2013. The organization will however still need to procure a copy, appropriate keys and necessary RDS licenses via the Volume Licensing.  The exception only grants the use rights of Office Professional Plus 2013 via RDS to users with an Office 365 ProPlus license.

These are updates from the licensing terms prior to January 2013 for Office Professional Plus in Office 365, which did not allow for any form of virtualization to be used with Office desktop apps.

For more information check out this thread – http://community.office365.com/en-us/forums/156/t/121307.aspx?PageIndex=2

WHY:

Many partners have requested this ability as an option in how they choose to deploy Office for their customers.  This has been a very hot topic since the announcement of the PUR this past January.  Hopefully this will add clarity to the point that YES you can do RDS/TS implementations, even though the customer is purchasing their Office through Office 365 Subscriptions, as well as HOW you need to go about getting the bits.

Additional Information:

One key point is that it requires Office 365 ProPlus, which is available as a stand alone, or through some of the service offerings such as Office 365 Midsize, as well as, the E3 and E4 plans.  Please note that the Office 365 Small Business Premium offering is not eligible.  

From the FAQ: What’s the different between Office 365 Small Business Premium and Office 365 Midsize Business?

Office 365 Small Business Premium is designed for businesses with 10 or fewer users without IT personnel. It provides a subscription version of the Office client as well as Exchange business email, and collaboration through SharePoint. It also provides IM/presence and meetings through Lync.

Office 365 Midsize Business is designed for companies with between 11 and 250 users. It provides the features of Small Business Premium as well as improved phone support, Active Directory and a more advanced IT admin console. It also includes a full version of Office 365 ProPlus, our best version of the Office client.

The applications provided as part of the Office client in Small Business Premium SKU are the same as those in the Midsize Business SKU. The applications included in both SKUs are Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access, Publisher, Infopath, & SkyDrive Pro. However, there are some of features available in Midsize Business SKU that are not available in the Small Business Premium SKU. For example, the Small Business Premium version does not include features like PowerPivot, PowerView, Monacle, Prodiance, Terminal Services, Telemetry monitoring and a few other smaller items.

Small Business Premium Subscriptions have a technical cap of 25 users. Midsize Business Subscriptions have a technical cap of 300 users. These user caps are designed to ensure a positive customer experience based on the SKU design.

Additional Resources from Jesper Osgaard PTA – http://blogs.technet.com/b/lystavlen/archive/2013/01/17/good-news-office-365-proplus-can-be-activated-on-network-server-with-rds-role-enabled.aspx

* RDS Use Rights are included with Office 365 Midsize when purchased Direct, Advisor, or Open TechNet Blogs.

Office 2013 and Office 365 installations and transferability

by Jevon Fark

on February 19

A few weeks ago, we announced the new Office for consumers, including the all new Office 365 Home Premium, Office 365 University for college and university students, and traditional Office suites: Office Home and Student 2013, Office Home and Business 2013 and Office Professional 2013.

Since then we’ve received questions about the number of installations people get with the traditional Office suites, transferability, and how they compare to Office 2010. With that in mind, we want to offer some clarity on the matter, to help customers make the best purchasing decision.

Here’s how our Office 2010 and Office 2013 licenses compare:

*An exception is granted when the software is on a PC that is replaced under warranty.

It is important to note that Office 2013 suites have consistent rights and restrictions regarding transferability as the equivalent Office 2010 PKC, which was chosen by a majority of Office 2010 customers worldwide.

We think this new lineup offers unmatched choice and value for students, families and everyone in between.

• For those looking to use Office on multiple devices – Office 365 Home Premium works across up to 5 devices (Windows tablets, PCs or Macs) and can be activated and deactivated across devices.
• For those who only require Office on one device – The Office 2013 software is licensed to one computer for the life of that computer and is non-transferable (consistent with the rights and restrictions of Office 2010 PKC). In the event that a customer buys the Office 2013 software and installs it on a PC that fails under warranty, the customer can contact support to receive an exemption to activate the Office 2013 software on the replacement PC.
• For college and university students – Office 365 University works across 2 devices (Windows tablets, PCs or Macs) and can be activated and deactivated across devices.

Office News

Licentievoorwaarden Office 2010 = Office 2013 FPP

In een blogpost laat Microsoft weten dat de nieuwe licentievoorwaarden gelden ook voor de losse pakketten uit Office.

De nieuwe licentievoorwaarden worden binnenkort aangepast en gelden per direct voor nieuwe en al verkochte versies van Office 2013De volgende tekst wordt opgenomen bij de de toekomstige versie van de licentievoorwaarden:

 

. Can I transfer the software to another computer or user?

You may transfer the software to another computer that belongs to you, but not more than one time every 90 days (except due to hardware failure, in which case you may transfer sooner). If you transfer the software to another computer, that other computer becomes the “licensed computer.” You may also transfer the software (together with the license) to a computer owned by someone else if a) you are the first licensed user of the software and b) the new user agrees to the terms of this agreement before the transfer. Any time you transfer the software to a new computer, you must remove the software from the prior computer and you may not retain any copies.