Thoughtsofanidlemind's Blog

Category: Office 365

  • Exploring Office 365 recipient limits

    Office 365 is available in a number of plans. Small business owners, like myself, find the low-cost entry point of Plan P1 very attractive while larger enterprises will find that the “E” plans better suit their needs (see this blog post for more information on the differences between Plans E…

  • Exchange Panel Session at TEC 2011

    I participated in an interesting panel sessions at TEC 2011 EMEA in Frankfurt on Tuesday. Panel sessions can be an embarrassment for both panelists and audience if no one asks any questions or the questions don’t contain sufficient meat to warrant a good discussion – or even some controversy. In…

  • RWC events, weekly happenings, and Frankfurt calling

    Wow… what a Rugby World Cup (RWC) semi-final. Wales were desperately unlucky to end up at the wrong end of a 9-8 result as France staggered through to the final to emulate their feat at the original RWC in 1987. Much of the commentary since the final whistle has centered…

  • Answering questions from SearchExchange about Office 365 deployments

    Last week I sat down (in virtual terms) with Matt Gervais, site editor of SearchExchange.com to discuss some questions arising from a recent survey that they had done of Exchange customers to determine their attitude to Office 365.  You can download the taped conversation at your leisure. The questions I was…

  • Office 365 plans for small companies – unnatural limits?

    Microsoft has unwittingly (or not) created a long term problem for me. Right now, I expend the grand sum of EUR6.35 monthly for a single Office 365 Plan P1 subscription. I think that this is terrific value but then again, I don’t have to buy Microsoft Office as Microsoft kindly…

  • Office 365 dedicated subscriptions: service descriptions available now, service in 2012

    Microsoft released the service definition documents for the dedicated versions of Office 365 on October 4, 2011. The dedicated subscription plans add to the existing range of “P” (professional and small business) and “E” (enterprise) plans that are available now. Dedicated subscriptions are typically taken up by large companies that…

  • Gmail shows Office 365 how to meet a 99.9%+ SLA

    The really bad thing about the Office 365 outages in August and September is that the accumulated 330 minutes of downtime means that Microsoft cannot meet its published Service Level Agreement (SLA) of 99.9%. To their credit, Microsoft has already acknowledged that they failed to meet their SLA in August…

  • September 2011 wrap-up

    Lots has happened during September, much of which I have covered in other posts. This post serves as a wrap-up for other bits and pieces that I haven’t managed to get to over the month. First, a recommendation for rugby fans. Have a look at Brendan Fanning’s WordPress blog where he’s been…

  • Windows Server 8, Exchange, and Digital Command Language

    The IT industry has a habit of refreshing itself by reusing ideas from the past. The recent news that Windows Server 8 will boast a much-enhanced array of PowerShell cmdlets and the ability to log onto servers via the web with PowerShell Web Access brought a number of thoughts to…

  • PowerShell books for Exchange Administrators

    Following my post on why I think every Exchange administrator needs to know PowerShell, I was challenged to say what books someone should read to get up to speed on the topic. So here goes (click here to see my list of good technical books to read). To begin, the…