Ty Anderson

Office 365 Newswire: Reality of the Cloud and its impact – 3.30.2012

As a little kiddo, I would stay up late each Friday night with my parents and watch a double-feature of cheesy American dramas… The Love Boat & Fantasy Island. I really liked The Love Boat as I had a bit of a crush on Julie, the cruise director. I was too young to know what a crush is but that’s what it was. My favorite character was Isaac by the way. I wanted to wear a cool red jacket like his, tend bar, and hang out with my friends. That looked like a good way to spend time as an adult.

But I’m not here to talk about the Love Boat. In fact, I can’t believe I even mentioned that show. I did it because it helps lead into what is really in my head this morning… The Cloud! Thinking about "The Cloud" got me to thinking about Fantasy Island… which lead to the Love Boat (because it preceded Fantasy Island each Friday night). Anyways, the intro to Fantasy Island was always the same. It started with a view of the island, a shot of an airplane coming in for a landing, and then an image of Tattoo ringing a bell announcing the arrival of the plane by shouting "the plane, the plane!"

Thus, as I read the news today, and kept encountering item after item discussing the impact of "the cloud", I thought of Tattoo. Only, in my head, he is saying "The Cloud, the Cloud!". Today’s news deals with the reality of the cloud and its impact.

The Cloud is a disruptive "technology". I know it is more than a single technology so I put it in quotes. The Cloud is an idea that involves several technologies. For service providers, the Cloud is really messing things up… it’s disrupting the status quo. And this means, it is hurting the bottom line of many companies. To those impacted negatively by the cloud… it’s no fantasy, it’s a an out-and-out nightmare

Office 365 news & editorials!

  • Microsoft & Azaleos cloud research: Office 365 reality check :: Let’s begin the day with a comparison of two privately commissioned studies. The first, from Microsoft, predicts the cloud will see tremendous growth over the next 5 years… especially with SMBs. The second, from Azaleous (a managed services provider), finds that a private cloud + managed services can cost less than Office 365. Read each report with a grain of salt. This article gets to the facts and is a quick read. (est. reading time: 3 mins)
  • Study: Office 365 savings stop at enterprise-grade deployments :: Here is more analysis of the report released by Azaleos. Basically, if you are a "enterprise-grade", the savings begin to dissipate. Read it but be sure and do your own calculations. No doubt mileage varies here. (est. reading time: 4 mins)
  • Feeling Office 365 squeeze, Microsoft resellers lash out :: The times, they are a-changin’! With the major software vendor porting their cash cow products to the cloud, it really hurts service providers of all shapes, sizes, and service offerings. But, as this article says, where there is change… there is opportunity. Maybe instead of becoming angry and turning green, it is time to check out the newly announced Office 365 Practice Accelerator. (est. reading time: 3 mins)
  • Project & Office 365; by the numbers, ready for Metro :: To be honest, I hate Microsoft Project. I don’t want anything to do with it. I like the idea of it and what it tries to accomplish but I think it stinks at the end of the day. I’m not a PMP certified project manager type either so maybe I just don’t get it. Really, all I need is a todo list and a calendar and I can manage any project. Just try me! But… a lot of people love Project and I’m here for you. This article has some great news about Project and Office 365. It’s news like this that leads to Microsoft Resellers everywhere updating their resume. (est. reading time: 4 mins)

Office 365 tips, tricks & tools

Office 365 Developer items of note

  • Microsoft announces cloud build, previews Visual Studio 11 features :: Yep, even the dev tools are moving to the Cloud. Azure is going to be part of our lives in ways we can’t imagine. Coming soon, with Visual Studio 11, we will be able to scale our build activities if needed using Azure VMs. (est. reading time: 2 mins)
  • "Done". "Done Done". When is a feature really done? :: I like rhetoric and I like philosophy. This post, from Telerik, raises both rhetorical and philosophical questions related to our beloved practice of software development. I’m thinking of asking my kids this same question… especially in regards to cleaning their rooms. (est. reading time: 5 mins)
  • Managing Office 365 with PowerShell :: Office 365 Cmdlets! I think it should be "cmdlts". I think this because this is what I think of IT Admins. I love you guys but my impression is you don’t like vowels, you prefer the console, and all your file names still follow the 8.3 naming convention. It’s okay, we can still get along and coexist peacefully. Consider this nugget as sufficient proof. (est. reading time: 4 mins)
  • Developing education applications and services in Office 365 :: I posted an item about Office 15 for Education in this week’s Office Newswire. I think as Microsoft and other companies start offering vertical solutions to their software, it will squeeze developer-types in a big way. Custom development will be more and more an integration play.

Cutting Room Floor

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