Office 365 Newswire: Microsoft’s secret plan for Office 365 dominance – 12.14.2011

Posted on Wednesday, December 14th, 2011 at 12:16 am by Ty Anderson.

A couple weeks ago (actually last week), I made a passing reference to MOJO. I was speaking then of Microsoft Office 365 numbers and that it points to maybe Microsoft is starting to recapture their MOJO. But what is MOJO? I suppose it depends. I'm about to pontificate so if you want to skip to the news you can but I'll be offended if you do.

MOJO #1

Where I grew-up (the deserted plains of West Texas), there was well-known high school football that eventually became the background for a best-selling book and a popular television series. This school is known as Odessa Permian. They were so good at football (American football) that nobody liked them… even in the desert where friends are difficult to come-by. They even had a term to describe why they were so good… MOJO. They used the term to explain why there were so dominant… as in their magic. They stink now but still use the term… fyi. We applied our own definition using MOJO as an acronym but this is a family-friendly blog so I will not divulge.

MOJO #2

I'm an avid tennis fan. During a Grand Slam I like to watch each and every match. I'll even wake-up in the middle of night so I can watch the Australian Open. Tennis is all about MOJO, or self-confidence. Without your MOJO, you can't win. I remember the 2005 US Open. This was back when Andy Roddick typically made it to the semis or finals. Well he did something silly and took part in an ad campaign that asked…

“Have you seen Andy’s Mojo?”

It was a funny concept at first as the ads showed Roddick working hard while his MOJO (a look alike actor), was out partying around the town… all confident and self-assured.

As it turns out, this was a terrible idea. You don't mess with your MOJO. Roddick and American Express found this out the hard way. Roddick lost in the FIRST ROUND! Amex scrambled to recover a multi-million dollar ad campaign.

Microsoft’s MOJO

Last week, I believe I used MOJO to mean both “magic” & “self-confidence”. I think Microsoft has re-discovered their MOJO. I think they took it for granted for several years but perhaps not anymore. The news around Office and Office 365 lately is more than interesting.

This week’s Office 365 news

Okay then. It’s on! Here is all the Office 365 news you need to know this week.

Microsoft’s secret plan for Office 365 dominance :: Someone found evidence that MSFT is forming a partnership with Parallels to increase the Office 365 hosting business. I thought Parallels was virtual machine software. Turns out I am correct but they are so much more than that. This article reads like a good mystery. There are secrets, deception, envy, money, strange alliances… and I have hunch it will get violent before it is over.
Office 365: How Microsoft does IT :: I enjoy a good article title. Even really nerdy ones like this one. This article is part of an on-going series covering cloud strategies. This one provides insight into MSFT’s internal strategy for utilizing Office 365. It’s no surprise, MSFT has a hybrid approach. This is a good article with several good links to additional content.
What’s new in SharePoint Online (November 2011) :: I have intended to include this list last week but I ran out of room. This means I made the editorial decision to bump for other content I liked better at the time. This items time has arrived. Straight from the SharePoint team, read this article and learn what features were added in the last update.
What Office 365 plan is right for you? :: Microsoft released the Office 365 Advisor Tool this week. It will help you decide which plan you should choose. I have an account and I didn’t find it difficult to figure out what I needed using this grid along with this blog post. But hey, I’m smart as a whip! I did give it a try and I think it is a good bit of marketing.
IT Shops scrutinize Office 365 while clutching on-premise apps :: Microsoft has Office 365 MOJO but internal IT has Office 365-induced ulcers. The business-side of companies like what Office 365 offers. Internal IT wonders how the heck they can integrate it with existing applications. The gist is Office 365 might have a hidden tax in the costs required to integrate your application platform with Office 365. Definitely worth reading and considering as you move to the cloud.

Office 365 tips & tricks

This section contains articles that will help you be a more productive user of Office 365.

Collaboration with Microsoft Office 365 :: From MSFT’s education blog, this is a free eBook published by MS Press. Some unnamed people invested significant time producing it. I took a look the table-of-contents and it explains the basics. It is available in .pdf and .mobi formats.
Did you know you can share? :: Read this article and learn how you can use SharePoint Online to share documents with external users.
Office 365 how-to-videos on YouTube :: You know you are legit when you have your very own YouTube channel. Office 365’s channel is filled with content. Including several "how-to" videos. I recommend bookmarking this site.

Office 365 developer news

You know something is popular when developer content production kicks into gear. Here are a few new items of note this week.

Pro Office 365 Development :: This book from Apress has not yet been published but you can purchase an alpha version if you really need some tips and tricks. I don’t know how alpha versions work but I assume if you purchase the alpha version you will receive the final version at no additional cost. But don’t rely on me on this one.
Design and Development in SharePoint Online vs. On-premises :: A brief article that explains the differences you need to consider when targeting Office 365’s SharePoint Online instead of the on-premise version of SharePoint 2010.
Professional SharePoint 2010 Cloud-Based Solutions :: this book (from Wrox) targets developers and IT pros primarily. The TOC looks great and the authors are well-known Microsoft evangelists that produce great content.

Other news worth noting (but not commenting upon)

I have decided that it might be worthwhile to share other items that are interesting but not deemed (by me) to be worth a comment. You might look at these and think I should have commented on some of them. If that is the cause, I offer you my apologies and promise to do better.

I have more but I’ve reached my self-imposed word count.

That’s it for this week!