14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has debuted the refresh process designed to kick its Online Services up a notch. Today is the start day for the rollout of the Service Update for July 2009 to Microsoft Online Services. The Redmond company announced as early as July 1st that it would start deploying the update across the data centers powering Microsoft Online Services on July 7. In this regard, the software giant expects that all of the Microsoft Online Services customers will be able to leverage the new features introduced by the refresh by the middle of this month, according to Paul Englis, a technical product manager for Microsoft Online Services.
“Migration Support for Hosted Exchange Mailboxes,” is one of the new features brought to the table by the update, Englis said. “The Microsoft Online Services Migration Tool is updated with features to allow users to specify hosted Exchange mailboxes as source mailboxes for mailbox data migration. Increase for SharePoint Online File Uploads - the maximum file size for documents uploaded to SharePoint Online increases from 50MB to 250MB. More Live Meeting Attendees - meetings hosted in Live Meeting Standard can accommodate up to 250 attendees, an increase from 15 attendees per meeting. This change applies to all users of Live Meeting Standard, including those that own Live Meeting licenses as part of their Business Productivity Online Suite. The upgrade will be available for new customers after July 13; existing Live Meeting customers will be upgraded by August 13.”
Following the availability of the update, Microsoft will open up trials for companies in India. In this sense, Indian customers will start having access to Microsoft Online Services and the Business Productivity Online Suite. Still, access will be limited to trials until the fall of 2009, when commercial availability will follow. At the same time, the software giant has worked to simplify considerably the process associated with starting a Microsoft Online Services trial. This will be possible with the introduction of Quick Trials, which will imply 75% less effort from customers to set up a trial account.
Englis added that the update would also offer “Worldwide User Provisioning - administrators can assign user licenses to worldwide users, an important addition for multi-national organizations with users in numerous countries. Previously, administrators could only assign user licenses to users located in countries where Microsoft Online Services are marketed and sold. Users located in a country where use of Microsoft products is prohibited or restricted, however, still cannot be provisioned. Customers and Partners should consult with their Microsoft contact for additional information on these prohibitions and restrictions.”