BPOS

USDA making the move to Microsoft

The U.S. Department of Agriculture this morning announced that it has chosen Microsoft to host things like e-mail, instant messaging, and collaboration through the software giant's Business Productivity Online Suite.

As part of the deal, which covers 120,000 employees, the USDA will move from its own on-premises systems to Microsoft's Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Office Communications Online. That migration will be completed in four weeks, and will put the USDA's cloud hardware in a secured facility that Microsoft says will be in compliance with the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.

Prior to the move, … Read more

Microsoft's Office event: Think online, not iPad

As I noted in a tweet yesterday, Microsoft's Office unit has scheduled an event for Tuesday in San Francisco. But folks hoping that the company is ready to move its productivity software to the iPad may be disappointed.

Instead, I'm hearing that the event will likely be focused on Microsoft's hosted online services, which today center around the awkwardly named Business Productivity Online Suite, a bundle of hosted Exchange and SharePoint. ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley says the next version is in testing and may also be getting a less cumbersome name--possibly the moniker "Union." (… Read more

Microsoft's hosted services hit a rough patch

Users of Microsoft's hosted versions of Exchange and SharePoint have had to endure a bumpy last couple of weeks, with at least three service interruptions or outages.

Microsoft said in a blog post this week that all of the issues were related to a change in networking infrastructure that the company made last month. The company attempted to fix the issue after a two-hour service interruption on August 23, but the fix didn't solve everything and there were further problems on September 3 and again on Tuesday.

"We aspire to deliver quality services, and in the last … Read more

Microsoft touts cloud computing customers

REDMOND, Wash.--Aiming to show it is still winning customers against Google, Microsoft on Thursday announced deals to provide hosted e-mail and portal software to three big corporate customers.

The software maker said Dow Chemical, Hyatt Hotels, and the University of Georgia are all using the company's hosted e-mail and portal software, known as Microsoft Online. The announcements were timed to come just as Microsoft is set to host its financial analyst meeting here. (I'll be covering the day-long event live, starting around 8 a.m. PT)

In an interview, Hyatt CIO Mike Blake said the company, which … Read more