Archive
Windows PowerShell Command Builder
Here’s a handy site I just stumbled across.
Enjoy,
Tim
Office 365 Options
Office 365 has Options..here is a good article that might clarify things for you.
Enjoy,
Tim
————–
Microsoft Get to the Point Blog
on 8/19/2011 6:58 AM
So maybe you’re aware that Microsoft’s Cloud is a
reliable option for your office and you’d like to begin a trial deployment of
SharePoint Online. Your next big question may be: “Which SharePoint Online do I
choose?” You know: “Where do I start?”
veteran of SharePoint, I can tell you that it’s best to start with a plan. In
fact, the more comprehensive the plan is, the better it will be in the long run.
I know, “no battle plan survives contact with the enemy” (the enemy, in this
case, being the unforeseen vagaries of IT), but that doesn’t stop generals from
planning, and it shouldn’t stop you either.
Microsoft Office 365 trial offerings out there:
yourself forearmed: these two plans have two different flavors of SharePoint
Online that are, by implication, appropriate for businesses according to the
number of people in a given organization. For many scenarios, choosing your
Office 365 plan by the number of employees will be appropriate. However, I’m of
the mind that it is ultimately simpler to choose your Office 365 plan based on a
discrete set of needs: your organization’s needs. Here are two examples of
organizations with different needs for their SharePoint sites:
-
I need a place for document
collaboration. -
I need to store and collaborate on
hundreds/thousands of files. -
I need a secure site with encrypted traffic, because
we may need to store sensitive data. -
I also need a site that is a kind of ‘home-page’ for
everyone in my office. -
It would be nice to have automation when I need
files and documents reviewed. -
I will need access to Microsoft Support when I run
into trouble.
-
I need SharePoint Lists we can all work on and store
files in. -
I need a public-facing site that tells the world
what it is we do, and present findings. -
I need to be able to change and brand my site easily
on the Internet. -
Search is going to be critical because, internally,
I’ll need to find documents quickly and efficiently. -
My company relies on Wikis, Blogs, and Discussions
heavily to keep people in contact, and keep projects on track. -
My SharePoint Online Administrator will troubleshoot
issues and is involved in the SharePoint Online forum.
Even a short list of priorities puts you in a good
position when you begin planning.
You should look at your trial as an opportunity to
scope your SharePoint needs. This sort of thinking will be valuable to you if
your trial is a roaring success, and suddenly, you’re hearing in the lunchroom
that you’re a genius, and your site will be more widely adopted in your
organization. As fair warning, it’s not uncommon for people to create a
SharePoint test site, turn around, and find it has come into serious use.
SharePoint is very handy for people, combining essentials like document
collaboration with the practicality of uncluttering client shares and desktops
(backed-up file storage).
very quickly. If that happens, it will be easier on you and your colleagues if
your trial site was planned to proper scale from the start. Keep in mind that,
currently, it is quite difficult to transition from the small business Office
365 plan to the enterprise Office 365 plan, or vice versa. There is no simple
and straightforward story around such a move. In any case, your best defense is
your plan, which will dramatically increase the probability that you will deploy
the right Office 365 plan (and, therefore the right version of SharePoint
Online) for you.
What can SharePoint Online do?
hand.
(You will need to select the SharePoint
product.)
Well, you’re unlikely to see such critical SharePoint Online information
condensed in one place outside of these documents, unless you’re reading the SharePoint
Online Release Notes. However, for my money, you can begin your scan of the
documents in the Appendices. There, you’ll find a list of SharePoint Online
features that are available in SharePoint Online for midsize businesses and
enterprises (known as SPO-S for Standard) and features available in SharePoint
Online for professionals and small businesses (which is known as SPO-L for
Light).
Why are these matrices important? Well, let’s look
back at the Contoso priorities. Specifically, let’s look at Contoso’s
requirement for “a site that is a kind of ‘home-page’ for everyone in my
office.” Maybe the general consensus on this is that, beyond the team site, each
person should be showcased on their own site, where they control their own
content, a location where other members can visit and leave or receive updates
on work projects. In SharePoint Online, this concept is known as a My Site, and
the ability to leave messages on My Sites is possible through Noteboard. You can
also update your Recent Activities and maintain your own Newsfeed so that
colleagues will always know — whether you work from home, or from the road —
where your projects are. If one of your top priorities is that everyone in your
office has the ability to create this kind of a personal web site, the Service
Descriptions will let you know that, no matter the number of people in your
organization, you need Office 365 for midsize businesses and enterprises to meet
this need. In fact, the Service Description for Office 365 for professionals and
small businesses states that My Sites do not exist in the installation, which is
truly designed to have a light footprint.
The Service Descriptions may be some of the most
helpful collections of information you could have on your desk. For instance,
did you know that in the Office 365 for professionals and small businesses, your
SharePoint Online storage options are as follows?
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Storage | 10 GB with additional 500 MB per user |
| Buy additional storage | No |
| Max Org Users | 50 |
| Partners Access Licenses (External Sharing) |
Limited to 50 external users/month |
That means the maximum amount of storage is between
34.5 and 35 GBs of space (given 50 users). If the quantity of files and
documents you need to store on your SharePoint sites is going to exceed 35 GBs,
then, no matter the number of users in your business (be it 50 or 15), Office
365 for professionals and small businesses won’t have enough storage to
accommodate you.
Description clearly states:
“SharePoint Online allocates an initial 10 GB of
storage plus 500 MB for each user. This storage is pooled and available for
allocation across multiple site collections. For example, an organization of
1,000 users by default would have a base of 510,000 MB (510 GB) of storage. In
addition, users can purchase more SharePoint Online storage in GB increments
charged monthly, currently $2.50USD/GB/month.”
realize you will never require extra storage, but you can only ask some
questions after arming yourself with the proper information.
wrong, how do I get help?” I’ve yet to see a computer system that is flawless –
I imagine we could compare notes – so be certain you spend a little time
determining how this will be done. Consult your Service Descriptions and look
for “Support” or “Help.” Take a look at the excerpts below.
Description:
“The Microsoft Office 365 technical support team
provides supports services to people with administrator permissions for their
company’s Office 365 services. Those with administrator permissions provide
support services to their company’s Office 365 end users. For contact
information, see Online Help in the services Administration
Center.”
Service Description:
“Customers who purchase Microsoft Office 365 for
professionals and small businesses have the Microsoft Office 365 Community (www.community.office365.com)
available as the primary way to have technical and billing issues resolved.
Telephone support for any technical questions is not provided in the cost of the
subscription.”
when it comes to choices, it may not matter what size your business is. What
does matter is what your business needs. So plan accordingly, and good
luck!
Original Link
External Account Access to Office 365 SharePoint Online
I often get asked, “How can I give someone access to SharePoint that is not an employee?” In BPOS my answer was always “Buy a User License and create an account for them.” In the new world, Office 365, SharePoint Online has the ability to invite users outside your organization to view and/or edit your site. This has the potential to be very powerful for your organization.
I am still testing some more “how do I…” stuff, but for now it looks like your external invitee’s need to have a Live ID for you to use in in order for this to work. If your user doesn’t have a Live ID, make one for them, it only takes a few mouse clicks to do so.
Here is a sample of the invitation:
|
|
||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||
You then jump to a page like this:
As long as the Live ID they use to sign in matches the Live ID you sent the invite to, that will have access.
From the cost savings alone of not needing to use up an Office 365 User License, this can be a HUGE benefit to your company
I’m still playing with this, and will update this post as I learn new things.
Enjoy,
Tim
Tim R's Space 