On June 14, 2013, Microsoft released Office Mobile in the Apple Store for all Office 365 users at no cost.  This app is available for iPhone 4 and up, iPad 3rd generation and up, iPad Mini and iPod Touch 5th generation.  All devices are required to run iOS 6 and up.

Office Mobile allows you to view and edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.   SkyDrive, SkyDrive Pro and SharePoint are ways to access documents.  “Recent Documents” tracks the most recent documents that you viewed or changed and makes them easily accessible.  Offline editing does not require a constant internet connection but allows you to save your changes once reconnected to a network.

On June 10, 2013 Apple announced that iWork Apps, such as Pages, Numbers and Keynote, can cross platforms to be used on Windows Systems.  Although, iWork Apps are proficient, they can not compare to the Office Suite. 

Microsoft has taken a huge step by crossing platforms with Office software and returning the upper hand to Microsoft.  Office 365 has become more valuable for businesses and home users.  

For more information on Hosted Services and Office 365

 please contact us 856-745-9990 or click here.

Takeaway:  Moving to Office 365 will provide anywhere access for Microsoft features but before you decide to switch there are 10 things everyone should consider.

Migrating

Starting fresh or merging Active Directory from a local machine are options when switching to Office 365.  Exchange 2010 SP2 can minimize the process of merging an existing Active Directory environment by using the included wizard.

Spam Filtering

Microsoft Forefront Online Protection is the spam filter that will need to be setup and configured when switching to Office 365.

Outbound Addressing

Switching to Office 365 you will have to configure user accounts because the e-mail addresses will add ‘.onmicrosoft.com’ to the end of the addresses.

Utilities

For on-site Exchange servers there are additional utilities that can be installed, for Office 365 you cannot install additional software on 365 servers.

DNS Issues

When switching to Office 365 you will have to confirm a list of DNS entries and create SRV records for Microsoft Lync.  If you have a Microsoft DNS server this shouldn’t be an issue.

Management Tools

If there are no longer on-site Exchange servers, Exchange Management Console and ADUC will no longer be used.   Exchange Control Panel is the primary management tool for Office 365.

File Server Permissions

Prior to switching to Office 365, decide how users will access on-site File Servers without on-site Domain Controllers and permissions to manage file access.  There are a few options before switching your network to Office 365.

Mobile Devices

Connecting mobile devices to Office 365 could take several days.  If you chose to start fresh but would like to keep your existing contacts, calendar and mail, you will need to merge the existing PST file to the Office 365 mailbox.  If you have merged your organization to Office 365 this should not be a problem.

Control Issues

Office 365 takes control of common administrative tasks such as:

• Software upgrades
• Patch Management
• & many others.

Microsoft Communication

Microsoft will continue to reach out to your organization via e-mail and phone calls to answer any questions and to ensure that everything works out during the switch.

For more information on Hosted Services and Office 365

 please contact us 856-745-9990 or click here.

Microsoft and Google have been in a publicity rivalry over the services.  Days before the Google I/O Conference, Microsoft announced Sensia Halsovard, Arysta LifeScience and Sepco III have chosen Office 365 after using Google Apps.  Other companies have also switched to Office 365 are that Caltex Australia, FHI 360 and Santa Clara County

“Google Apps was difficult to use and lacked the capabilities our employees had grown accustomed to in Office,” said Dustin Collins, global head of IT infrastructure, Arysta LifeScience. “With Office 365 we’re able to interact and engage with each other more, allowing us to efficiently and quickly respond to new opportunities. As a result, we’re a more agile, competitive organization.”

Google offers a set price for their services, while Microsoft’s price varies by Residential and Company size.  The familiarity and dependability already established with Microsoft Office products is why many organizations are choosing Office 365 over Google Apps.

For more information on Hosted Services and Office 365

 please contact us 856-745-9990 or click here.

PST Capture Tool

Microsoft now offers a free Administrator tool PST Capture Tool.  This tool will discover and import Personal Folders (.pst files) into Exchange 2010 or Exchange Online.  PST Capture will search all computers or specific computers connected to your company network, the .pst files are then sent to PST Capture Central Service, and finally .pst files are sent to Exchange Servers or Exchange Online.

For more information on this tool, click here.

Active Directory Picture

Exchange offers an Active Directory attribute (‘thumbnailPhoto’) that allows you to add a picture for each user.  This picture is displayed in Lync Online and on SharePoint.  Currently, Active Directory does not have a way built-in to add images to ‘thumbnailPhoto’ Attribute.

AD Photo Edit is a simple tool that connects to Active Directory and synchronizes with Online Services.  Using AD Photo Edit allows you to upload, edit, update and export images.  There are two options available:

1. Free Edition
   
2. Bulk Edition

Once your photo is uploaded to your “username”  the ‘thumbnailPhoto’ attribute will be properly filled.

To download this tool, click here.

Microsoft Migration Tools

This tool is for Microsoft Online Services only.  Microsoft Online Services Migration Tool forwards copies of Exchange Server mail to Exchange Online mailboxes.  Also, you can copy from other mailboxes such as Exchange Server, POP3 Server and IMAP4 Server to the Exchange Online mailbox.

To download this tool, click here.

Remote Connectivity Analyzer

Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer was once called Microsoft Exchange Remote Connectivity analyzer. This tool allows you to test connectivity for multiple services.

To use this tool, click here. 

Mobile Admin

Office 365 Mobile Admin allows you to perform simple Administrator tasks from an application installed on your smartphone.  The tool allows you to create users, modify users, disable users, delete users and reset passwords.

This application is only available for Windows Phone for $1.49 and will be available soon for Android and iPhone.

For more information on Hosted Services and Office 365

 please contact us 856-745-9990 or click here.

GoDaddy, probably the world’s largest domain registrar was sold in 2011 for $2.25 billion dollars. This is a hell of a deal. I can not believe that an Internet company would cost that much. Internet is an intangible business and it is really hard to believe that anyone dot-com based company could cost billions.

Does GoDaddy Worth That Much?

It definitely does! It was reported that the company has a portfolio of 48 million domains and 9.3 million customers worldwide. 73% of those domain names are .com TLDs. GoDaddy nets about $2.95 from each .com registration. The average price of the .com domain registered with GoDaddy is $11.99 per year. Some TLD’s like .net and .org cost $14.99 while most of the other popular web addresses are priced between $12.99 and $19.99 per year. If we calculate the annual revenue the company makes form domain registration, it accounts at more than $500 million per year. However GoDaddy is not just a domain registrar. The company sells Shared Hosting services, VPS, dedicated servers as well as email hosting. Among other web services and products in the company’s portfolio are SSL certificates, DNS, Web design and website analeptics as well as SEO services. The Arizona based company has been cash-flow positive since 2001. That year it had $4.3 million in revenue. In 2004 GoDaddy’s revenue rose to $73 million. The next year – 2005 – the company lost $13.8 million on revenues of $139 million, according to its SEC (http://www.sec.gov/) filing. GoDaddy’s spending on marketing has exploded from $1.2 million in 2003 to more that$15 millions in 2005. The company planned to go public in 2005 and planed to raise $200 million through an IPO. However it has in 2006 GoDaddy decided not to attempt an initial public offering. In 2008 GoDaddy reported a revenue of $497.9 million, $750 million in 2009. The domain registrar has steadily grower its business within the last 5 years. It is also believed that the company has a strong sales team. The average online order which customers submit on GoDAddy’s website is $26.81, while the average one posted after a the new customers talked to a customer service representative was $65.00. Domain Name Wire reported that before the deal the GoDaddy’s CEO Bob Parsons “owned 78% of the company and employees owned 22% through stock options”. Mr. Parsons, who has got himself involved in a scandal earlier this year and sparked outrage by releasing a video of himself killing an elephant, will remain with GoDaddy as Executive Chairman of the Board. The company president Warren Adelman is the new CEO.

What Would Happen After The Sale? I do not have an inside information about what the new owners of GoDaddy would do with the company. However I’d project that GoDaddy would probably try to expand aggressively in the web hosting service market. The company would try to grow its portfolio of VPS and Dedicated server customers and to grab larger share in the server market. It could also try to become an important player on the market of Cloud hoisting services. Whatever the new owners decide to do GoDaddy could become even bigger within the next few years.

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