14 DAY TRIAL // Come April 2009 Microsoft will introduce an upgrade to its Business Productivity Online Standard Suite. The enhancements planned range from extended support to boosted performance and new features, the software giant informs. Debuted in mid-March 2009, the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite is designed as a rich and diversified collection of online resources offered as an alternative to on-premise solutions. Companies that are looking for a hosted equivalent to running their own servers with Exchange, Live Meeting, SharePoint, now have BPOS available. Arvind Suthar, director of service for Microsoft Online, revealed that BPOS would be opened to business customers in 19 new countries.
“We are pleased to announce the following expanded capabilities that will be introduced in early April, 2009: instant messaging and presence awareness with Office Communications Online; ability to customize your preferred language settings; streamlined, low-cost email and collaboration services with Exchange Online and SharePoint Online Deskless Worker options; ability to configure mailboxes with up to 25 gigabytes of storage; [and] support for Windows Vista Home Basic and Windows Vista Home Premium,” Suthar said.
Microsoft has tweaked the Sign In application, delivering users enhanced stability. The new app is now also offering support for Office Communications Online. Microsoft Online Services Migration Tools is another area where the Redmond company has focused on driving stability and performance. In addition, customers that need to synchronize on-premises Active Directory with Microsoft Online Services will be able to benefit from the upgraded Online Services Directory Synchronization tool. Optimizations related to communications and compression permit the new tool to use less bandwidth and streamline operations.
“SharePoint Online privacy links – Improved privacy link enforcement for international customers. If you modified your SharePoint master page or uploaded a custom master page, you will need to reset your site definition to the default master page while the upgrade is taking place. You will be able to customize your site collections again after the upgrade,” Suthar added.