Microsoft is holding a special Learn Windows Azure training event today for developers.  It should prove to be a great way to learn about the Windows Azure platform and the capabilities it provides.

This should prove to be a great online session for attendees to learn how to build cloud-based applications using Windows Azure.  An added treat is that the session will be delivered by three of Microsoft’s foremost technology experts, Scott Guthrie, Dave Campbell, and Mark Russinovich.  Having heard each of these gentlemen speak during my tenure at Microsoft, you won’t be disappointed.

Register now for this great event.  Oh yeah, the event is FREE!

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Just came across an interesting article that cites good practices (I never say “best” because that’s really subjective and based on the environment in which you’re deploying ) for deploying SharePoint 2010 search technologies within the enterprise.  The article focuses on the following:

• Deployment Planning
• Starting with well-configured infrastructure
• Security and access management
• Search database optimization
• Monitoring Latency
• Testing of crawling and querying subsystems
• Antivirus

Definitely worth a read.  Check it out!

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This is last installment of a multi-part blog series (read Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3 and Part 4) where I review an article entitled “Google Apps vs. Office 365: your choice” where I provide a different perspective in this ongoing battle for dominance in the cloud between Google and Microsoft.

Let’s round out this series with a word on complexity of the respective cloud offerings from Google and Microsoft and provide a different perspective on who’s truly positioned to capitalize on the cloud.

It’s no secret why Microsoft wants to win with Office 365.  Protection of the platform is a key component to its growth and market leadership.  However, is that not what Google is trying to do?  If Google can protect the web platform, what will that widespread acceptance allow it to do?  While Microsoft has the perceived “monopoly” on the desktop, what’s Google’s advantage?

Let’s be frank here, the introduction of Google Apps is NOT to provide users with robust online collaboration and information sharing tools that it plans to build the next generation of its business with, but rather to get Microsoft to divert its energies away from the ultimate prize, the INTERNET.  How does Google make money? The INTERNET, and more specifically, search and advertising.  With more users opting for internet-based tools, the more of a surface Google has to inject its keen business sense on capitalizing on this tremendous market.

As a matter of fact, Google Apps have started learning some lessons from Office 365, and is moving at a feverish pace to improve the offline experience. Why? Because if momentum shifts back to the “desktop”, then that impacts Google’s bottom line.  Can’t sell advertising on the desktop.  Search is free, however, it’s a vehicle to the several hundred billion dollar advertising industry.  Why do you think Bing exists?

All-in-all, both platforms have their pluses and minuses, with both vendors constantly lobbying their product as the better solution.  Microsoft has been in this game for quite a while and Google, even with its massive success, is *still*, relatively speaking, a new kid on the block.  Microsoft’s effectiveness is not the result of it’s ability to innovate, as there is no question that Microsoft can be innovative when it wants to be.  And Google’s effectiveness will not be the result of its ability to roll out new features quickly (and buggy ).

What’s going to truly win this battle is who will be the first to achieve the “holy grail” of interoperability. The true “visionary” will be the one who can tear down the walls that are beginning to get created within the cloud and allow the industry to truly realize what the original intent of the cloud is and how it can make our digital lives a lot easier.

Support for open standards as it relates to data protocols for information exchange, standardization of authentication/authorization methods for user access, security protocols for ensuring that communication from the PC/Mobile Device/Browser to the cloud and inter-cloud platform communication is as secure as Fort Knox, and a clear execution of these standards within the respective offering is what’s truly going to establish the market leader, IMHO.

So, dear reader, while you can certainly be entertained by all of us technology wonks about what does/doesn’t make for the better platform, at the end of the day, you have the power of choice. Choose wisely.

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This is fourth installment of a multi-part blog series (read Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3 and Part 5) where I review an article entitled “Google Apps vs. Office 365: your choice” where I provide a different perspective in this ongoing battle for dominance in the cloud between Google and Microsoft.

Here we cover collaboration capabilities within the respective cloud offerings from Google and Microsoft.  Collaboration is defined as working together to achieve a common goal.  Document sharing is part of collaboration activities, but it in itself is not collaboration. Mr. Nauges article suggests that Google Apps has better collaboration capabilities.  So I suppose that capabilities such as:

• Integration between Office Web Applications and Office desktop productivity suite (supporting rich documents, offline editing, and document co-authoring)
• Simple setup experience
• Instant Messaging, Presence Awareness
• Voice/Video/Web Conferencing (including multi-party online meeting and video conferencing capabilities)
• E-mail/Voicemail
• E-mail Archival/Retention

don’t really make Microsoft a viable competitor here This is not to bash Google Apps, because for many organizations that need a quick collaboration solution with a basic set of capabilities in order to conduct day-to-day business tasks, Google Apps could certainly be a viable choice.  However, the point here is while it is your choice, based on what your needs are, don’t be misinformed. Get the facts. By the way, how long was Google Apps in “Beta”?

The cost comparison cited in Mr. Nagues article doesn’t quite cover ALL of the costs associated with the respective solutions.  Here’s some additional information, with respect to the costs of the solutions that you, dear reader, may want to take into consideration, as it’s always wise to look before you leap.

Stay tuned to the next (and last) post in this series around platform complexity and round out with my final synopsis.

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This is the third installment of a multi-part blog series (read Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 4 and Part 5) where I review an article entitled “Google Apps vs. Office 365: your choice” where I provide a different perspective in this ongoing battle for dominance in the cloud between Google and Microsoft.

Now,  let’s cover the area of mobility features for the respective cloud offerings from Google and Microsoft and dive a bit deeper into the author’s claims that Google Apps provides better mobile device support in comparison to the capabilities provided by Office 365.

“Anywhere, anytime, and on any device”.  I find it amazing that the industry now embraces a vision pioneered by Microsoft, called Software + Services, whose 3 screens vision has made its way into the technology roadmaps of leading competitors! Now I make no excuses about Microsoft dropping the ball on Mobile, far beyond the scope of this article, but in the industry at large. Windows Phone 7, Windows-based multi-touch devices, and innovative technologies like Kinect will reshape how we interact with the world in the years to come, but it is very apparent that in today’s market, it has a long way to go. With the rapid advancement of mobile technology, it grows increasingly difficult to keep up with the change and both Google Apps and Office 365 are learning from this.

Today’s IT organizations, in the wake of security breaches and other malicious threats as it relates to the protection of their intellectual property, are looking for solutions that not only provide users mobile access to data, but do so in a secure manner and provide the necessary controls in order to manage that security. E-mail is perhaps the most dominant mobile app for business users, aside from the growing popularity of Angry Birds, and will continue to be an area where Office 365 hands down has the more superior solution.

Rather than spend time in this post trying to list mobility support features in Office 365, Microsoft kindly put this information in a document that’s available for download. Rather than go with my opinion (or that of the author of the article I’m critiquing), get the facts for yourself.

With all the knocks the author seems to levy around the lack of mobile support within Office 365 and the need to have Windows-based devices to unlock capabilities within the platform, not once has he covered the challenges of accessing Google Apps with non-Google mobile devices, like… say… Windows Phone. You have to rely on an assortment of 3rd party add-ons to get the most basic of functionality. Things like document editing/authoring, calendar synchronization and other capabilities beg for an integrated phone app experience versus just accessing the pure web-based applications provided by Google. Office Mobile integrated with Office 365 provides a superior productivity experience. While it’s true that mobile support outside of Windows-based mobile devices are lacking, the same could be said for Google Apps as well, can it not? Again, it’s your choice, but don’t be misinformed.

In the next post I’ll talk about collaboration support with respect to the two cloud offerings.

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