Office 365 Newswire: Great Ars Cloud Office suite shootout – 5.25.2012

Boy, we do have a Newswire for you today. It’s jam-packed with great content covering our favorite cloud-based productivity suite.

I’m all over this today!
Momentum is on our side!
Let’s do this, what do you say?
Don’t swim against the tide.

Sometimes I break out in rhyme. But not all of the time. When I do it’s not a crime. Unless I mime. Okay… I’ll stop. Let’s go to it. There is much to cover. BTW – today’s typing was accompanied by Pop music… a rather controversial yet excellent album.

Office 365 news & editorials!

• The Great Ars Cloud Office suite shootout :: This time out, the topic is how well the cloud suites convert Office documents. This alone should give MSFT a point on the score board. No one is writing an article about how well Word converts a Google Doc document.
• Another TIC in the box for Office 365? :: Office 365 has a solution for supporting Trusted Internet Connection (TIC). This is probably a big deal.
• Part 2: The Office 365 approach to privacy in the public cloud :: Here is the video that explains Office 365 Trust Centers. This is probably a big deal too.
• Why Office for iPad is inevitable :: Despite Microsoft’s attempts to divert the story (e.g. lie) it is back in the news. This is gonna happen people. Microsoft likes making money too much not to jump in. The iPad will be a boon to MSFT’s stock price when they do.
• Why your business should consider a move to Office 365 :: If you already use Office, Exchange, or SharePoint it’s an easy decision (according the article’s author).
• [Book] Working with Microsoft Office 365: Running your Small Business in the Cloud :: Proof positive you are big deal… someone wrote a book totaling over 350 pages explain who you are, what you do, and why others should base their business operations around you. And if the previous article convinced you to move to Office 365, you now have a good resource to help you do it. Please don’t thank me, this is just what I do. This is what the Office 365 Newswire is all about.

Office 365 tips, tricks & tools

• Office 365 virtual labs for IT Pros :: Technet getting into the action by publishing some virtual labs that will help you prepare a move to the Office cloud. These videos cover how to prep your company to move from on-premise Exchange to online version. Scary words like Active Directory, Identity management, and federation can be found all over this page. These words make IT Pros purrs. To this developer, it’s like water on a cat.
• Personalize the OWA URL for Office 365 :: It can be done. All that is required is a bit of DNS voodoo/wizardry.
• Find the right Office 365 service plan for your business [Slideshow] :: This is a slideshow that shows you how to use the Plan Advisor. I think you can skip the slideshow and go straight to the plan advisor. But maybe I give you too much credit?
• Metro-styled master page for Office 365 SharePoint Online :: Metro is becoming a big deal. It might already be a big deal. The next version just might include some metro-ish stylings. If the Windows 8 is any indication, Metro will be part of all future MSFT software releases. If you want metro for your SharePoint Online site, well, you are in luck.

Office 365 developer items of note

• What’s new for SharePoint development in VS11 Beta :: I’m keenly interested in any VS 11 features that include SharePoint. Therefore, I place this item at the top of today’s developer section. There is a lot to be happy about. No doubt, we will find a few things to gripe about too.
• Useful customizations to AD FS 2.0 when deploying SSO with Office 365 :: This a topic that most likely requires IT Pros and Devs to work together. Hmmm. This could be tough but there is no way around it.
• How to activate a SharePoint Ribbon tab in Sandboxed solutions :: Proof that our team knows their stuff is this item. Just read the first sentence and you will read how our own Andrei Smolin is not only a good guy… he knows his stuff and is willing to lend a helping hand. This is a great tip.
• [Book] Pro SharePoint 2010 Development for Office 365 :: From Apress (one of my favorite publishers), this book covering SharePoint Online development is in the alpha stage. I include it here because you buy the book now at a discount and receive the chapters as they are ready. Currently only two are ready… but… if you are looking for this type of developer content… it might be worth it.

Office 365 score keeping

I didn’t want to lead with the score board today.

Microsoft touts 400% Asia growth for Office 365 :: 1 point for Gryffindor… uh, MSFT! Catholic International Education Office chooses Office 365 for more than 4.5 million students globally :: 1 point for MSFT Events company scales up for Olympic challenge with Office 365 :: 1 point for MSFT Microsoft Office 365 chosen for HeartKids IT system overhaul :: 1 point for MSFT Google Apps v. Office 365: Calendar features :: The author says he could go either way. That the question of "which is better" is subjective and up to the user or enterprise. I really like Google Calendar. But I use my Exchange Calendar as my calendar of record. Google Calendar is easier to share so I’ll 1/2 point to each.

I’m looking for more points for Google. But… either Google Apps is not winning accounts or Google’s marketing stinks. MSFT’s marketing is in high gear.

Cutting room floor

• Fast facts on coffee consumption :: Here is one infographic about coffee… it is good but not as good as the next one…
• 15 things worth knowing about coffee