Upgrade for the Microsoft BPOS Suite

Microsoft just announced the expanded capabilities on their Business Productivity Online Suite on the team blog. Some of the new functionality (with comments in Italic):

• International availability in 19 new countries
  (among which is Holland!)
• Instant messaging and presence awareness with Office Communications Online
  (please note, no voice capabilities)
• Ability to customize your preferred language settings
  (only to a limited amount of languages)
• Streamlined, low-cost email and collaboration services with Exchange Online and SharePoint Online Deskless Worker options
  (great new SKU's, limited in their capabilities but a good value for money)
• Ability to configure mailboxes with up to 25 gigabytes of storage
  (who uses this?)
• Support for Windows Vista Home Basic and Windows Vista Home Premium

This upgrade will include changes to some components. These changes include:

• Sign In application – Improved stability and added support for Office Communications Online. Your users will need to install the new Sign In application.
  (checking for updates didn't work just yet)
• SharePoint Online privacy links – Improved privacy link enforcement for international customers. If you modified your SharePoint master page or uploaded a custom master page, you will need to reset your site definition to the default master page while the upgrade is taking place. You will be able to customize your site collections again after the upgrade.
  (wow, I hope this doesn't pose to much problems!!)
• Microsoft Online Services Directory Synchronization tool – Optimized communication with the service and added compression to reduce synchronization bandwidth requirements. If your company is synchronizing your on-premises Active Directory with Microsoft Online Services, you will need to upgrade this tool by the end of October, 2009.
  (this means the next release is probably scheduled for next October)
• Microsoft Online Services Migration Tools – Improved stability and performance including support for multiple process threads when migrating from POP or IMAP mailboxes. Upgrading to the new version of the Migration Tools is optional.

(original post)

All in all we are excited about finally being able to implement BPOS in Holland!