14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft Online Services is evolving with new features and extended capabilities thanks to the latest update the Redmond company has started rolling out. Microsoft Online Services Service Update for October 2009 brings to the table various enhancements that all customers running the software giant’s Cloud services will be able to start leveraging no later than the end of this month. In fact, Microsoft has noted that the deployment process of the Online Services Service Update for October 2009 is already in full swing, with all data centers scheduled to receive the refresh in full by the start of November.
Paul Englis, a technical product manager for Microsoft Online Services, revealed that the main changes include Bulk Activation of users, new POP mail clients, and enhanced support for Mac OS. “PowerShell commandlets will be added to streamline the activation process, enabling administrators to easily automate the activation of a set of users. Most commonly, these commandlets will be used to activate a set of users that have been migrated from an Active Directory forest to Microsoft Online Services via the Directory Synchronization Tool. Previously, administrators were required to activate users one-by-one with the User Administration tools in the Microsoft Online Services Administration Center,” Englis stated.
Come November, Microsoft Online Services customers will be able to leverage extended support for e-mail clients as far as Exchange Online is concerned. Specifically, Microsoft is including POP-based clients among the mail applications supported by the Cloud-based version of Exchange Server, in addition to Office Outlook 2003 and 2007. Once the deployment of the October Service Update is completed admins will be able to contact Microsoft Online Services Technical Support and open a Service Request in order to get the company to enable POP e-mail client support for a specific company.
“The Service Update includes several enhancements that will provide a more efficient communication and collaboration experience for organizations with Mac users,” Englis added. “A new Sign-In Client for the Mac OS provides a single sign-in experience and auto-configuration of Office for Mac applications and the Safari browser for use with Microsoft Online Services.”
In addition, Microsoft has grown its Online Services in order to embrace companies with a large number of workers. Following the introduction of the October update, Microsoft Online Services Administration Center will be able to play nice with up to 30,000 users, namely three times as much as before. “Please note that SharePoint Online will retain previously established limits (e.g., 20 site collections per company, 50 gigabytes (GB) per site, and 1 terabyte (TB) per company),” Englis explained.