LiveOffice Blog

This is noteworthy.

This is the first time a cloud-based archiving vendor has been included in Gartner’s EIA Magic Quadrant – in fact, three cloud archiving vendors made the list this year. For the uninitiated, the Magic Quadrant is a simple methodology for competitive comparison, positioning archiving vendors on two axes, Ability to Execute (Y-axis) and Completeness of Vision (X-axis). Inclusion criteria consist of market share, revenue, number of clients, types of products or services, target market or other defining characteristics that help narrow the scope of the research to those vendors that Gartner considers to be the most important or best suited to meet their clients' requirements.

Although simply being included in the report is an achievement, LiveOffice’s placement is even more notable. The company is the first and only cloud archiving vendor to secure a spot in the “Visionaries” quadrant. Being a visionary means that LiveOffice understands where the market is going or has a vision for changing market rules in order to meet future enterprise demand/requirements. According to Gartner, "Visionaries” resemble Leaders in many ways, especially when comparing them against criteria such as product vision and innovation.

This report is a must-read for any organization that is evaluating their information archiving needs. It covers current market trends and also profiles all the leading providers of enterprise information archiving technology (on-premise and cloud-based).

View it here: http://www.liveoffice.com/forms/gartner-2011-magic-quadrant-enterprise-information-archiving

Other reports available for download that may be of interest:

1. Forrester’s Market Overview: Message Archiving Software-As-A-Service, Q3 2011(October 2011)
2. Gartner’s Outsourcing Email Archiving: Market and Vendor Update(May 2011)

Dreamforce is my kind of event.

Salesforce.com brings together all the leaders in cloud computing to collaborate, connect and inspire. To me, these are just buzz words for spending a week in San Fran partying like a rock star.  And by “partying,”  I naturally mean networking with my cloud colleagues.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Jack DeBlanco, and I am the Laziest Sales Guy in the World.

I’m an Enterprise sales rep for a leading widget manufacturer based in Los Angeles.  Normally I treat industry events like this as my own personal boondoggle and consider it my obligation (i.e., my solemn duty) to attend every networking social event and vendor-sponsored party from dawn to dawn. I better enjoy it while I can, as there’s a cool breeze of accountability wafting in from HQ.

Apparently they want to see how we’re spending our time and their T&E funds in order to get a better pulse on key accounts and opportunities -- and, they want to see it all tracked in Salesforce. I told them these $#^&%-ing Outlook plug ins just don’t work, and you can believe Jack DeBlanco when I tell you that I’m on top of all my big prospects – just look at my pipeline (not too closely, though). 

Man, I live in Outlook, and I just don’t have the time to sync up my emails to my Contacts, Opportunities and Accounts in Salesforce. Do you want me logging “activities” or do you want me generating big sales? Hey suits, you make the choice!

According to top brass, I can now do both, since all my email is automatically being synced to my contacts in Salesforce through this new LiveOffice solution called “Outlook Email Connector for Salesforce.”  I can see my entire email and attachment history right in Salesforce.com without any plug ins or extra clicks.  Sweet!

But remember, these enterprise deals can take months and years to nurture – much like a fine wine. So don’t expect any material change in my close rates, and P.S., I may need to increase my T&E budget, since I now have more time to “cultivate” these vital relationships.

So, if you’re at Dreamforce, come stop by booth 1300 and grab one of my special t-shirts. And if you need a fresh new batch of widgets, I’m your man (only if your order is over $1 million, and you’re cutting the P.O. this month).

Finally, check out my hot new videos here:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c55w3oWWjwk
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3Tcn5f4QPo

Stay lazy, my friends.

Jack DeBlanco

With little more than a week remaining before the federal government risks defaulting on its debts, Congressional leaders and top aides are working to craft a proposal that would allow a divided Congress to increase the federal debt ceiling and avert a potentially crippling economic crisis.

At this point, everything is on the table.

This evaluation includes taking a hard look at all federal expenses including IT spend. The federal government spends about $80 billion a year making it the largest buyer of information technology in the world and has been exploring budget-tightening initiatives for the last several months.

According to a recent New York Times article, the federal government is on pace to shut down 40% of its data centers over the next four years. Vivek Kundra, chief information officer for the federal government, explained that the data center consolidation was part of a broader strategy to embrace more efficient, Internet-era computing. In particular, the government is shifting to cloud computing which can be provided by the government to its agencies or by outside technology companies.

Tapping cloud computing services, Mr. Kundra said, could save the government an additional $5 billion a year, reducing the need for individual government agencies to buy their own software and hardware.

Earlier in the year, the Commission on the Leadership Opportunity in U.S. Deployment of the Cloud (CLOUD²) was formed to serve a three-month mandate to provide the Obama Administration with recommendations for how government should deploy cloud technologies and for public policies that will help drive U.S. innovation in the cloud. 

The commission will make recommendations for how government should deploy cloud technologies and address policies that might hinder U.S. leadership of the cloud in the commercial space. In fact, our very own Nick Mehta was named as one of the 71 commissioners that will help present the commission’s recommendations to Mr. Kundra (while commercial-facing recommendations will be shared with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Commerce Under Secretary Pat Gallagher).

The government’s move to the cloud is really part of a much larger rethinking about information technology. While a clear motivation is the cost savings, the larger goal is to make the government more nimble and more responsive in delivering core services.

And given the overall growth of cloud computing, this lesson is not being lost on the private sector either.  As companies, large and small, are just trying to keep their heads above water, it just makes sense to rethink your own IT strategy and determine if the cloud can play a larger role.

With the announcement of the Microsoft Office 365 cloud-based suite, there’s plenty of buzz about what this new technology will mean for productivity and business needs. So, to help you think through the issues we've compiled this list of 13 considerations for evaluating Office 365.

1. Do your homework. Deciding which version to go for is a research project in itself, but it is necessary to fully vet the available packages and do your due diligence. Despite the best efforts of the Cloud Security Alliance and other bodies, there are no industry standards for assessing cloud technology so you are on the hook for validating how Microsoft will store your data and how you will go about getting it back should the need should arise. 

2. Select the right plan.The offerings range from a basic, small business edition that provides Outlook e-mail for $2 per user, per month, to an enterprise-class service that includes standard Office 365 elements like Exchange Online, Lync Online, SharePoint Online and Office Web Apps, as well as the full desktop version of Office, for $27 per user, per month. Microsoft will continue to rely on third-party partners to provide advanced functionality. Third-party archiving solutions, for example, can be affordably added and integrated with any of the Office 365 plans to provide advanced compliance, e-discovery and data protection (i.e., a second copy of your Office 365 data).  So, some companies may choose to purchase E1 and then add LiveOffice (paying as little as $15 per user/month for the entire bundle).

3. Have a backup plan. Recent BPOS outages have caused some IT folks to pause and consider the impact that an outage would have on their business. The possibility of some downtime is normally part of most cloud contracts,  but you should have a backup plan and know how your business will stay productive during an outage. By leveraging a third party archive, like LiveOffice, you have a second copy of your data. Plus, some archiving solutions even offer always-on email continuity allowing your users to send and receive messages, even if there is an Office 365 outage.

4. Understand the SLAs. Microsoft Office 365 includes a 99.9% uptime guarantee.  The monthly uptime percentage for a specific customer is calculated by taking the total number of minutes in a calendar month multiplied by the total number of users minus the total number of minutes of downtime experienced by all users in a given calendar month, all divided by the total number of minutes in that calendar month multiplied by the total number of users.

The maximum credit that Microsoft will offer is capped at your monthly subscription amount.

5. Ensure your existing systems are compatible. If the decision is made to move to Office 365, it's essential to make sure users are running PCs and mobile devices that are compatible with the suite. For the most part, you'll need to ensure your company's computers are running the latest, or at least very recent, versions of Microsoft's (or for Mac users, Apple's) key client, server and Web products. The oldest version of Windows that will support Office 365 is Windows XP, Service Pack 3. Mac users will need at least OS X 10.5 or later. For Web access, users will need Internet Explorer 7 or later. On Macs, Safari 3 or later will do. Also note that Office 365 does not currently support Outlook 2003 or earlier versions. Microsoft has published a full list of system requirements here.

6. Understand the licensing implications. Licensing with Office 365 is fundamentally different than Microsoft's traditional licensing. Office 365 licensing is based on a per-user basis that should enable IT leaders to better manage budgets and tailor licensing functions to the specific needs of end users. Microsoft is updating the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA) to provide online and on-premise Microsoft licensed products through a single agreement. Check out this podcast to learn more.

7. Do the math. Before signing on the dotted line, take a look at your existing systems, software versions and software version dependencies to ensure that your business is properly positioned for a cloud infrastructure. Here’s Microsoft’s own assessment for the midmarket over a six-year span.  But, as they say, results may vary so you will need to put pencil to paper to make sure it makes business sense for your organization.

8. How will you get your existing mailboxes to the cloud. There are several options for moving your existing mailboxes to Microsoft Office 365 for enterprises, and choosing the right one requires careful planning. Remember, by archiving all of your Exchange data first, it will make the migration process that much easier as you will have less data to actually migrate (plus you will have an extra copy of your data as an insurance policy in case anything should happen during the migration).

Depending on your current email environment and your company’s functional requirements, you may choose:

• Migration: This involves moving all of your existing mailboxes to your Microsoft Exchange Online
  email and discontinuing use of mailboxes in your on-premises environment. You can migrate your
  mailboxes all at once or in phases, depending on the size of your existing email environment.
• Coexistence: This allows you to maintain your current on-premises email environment and synchronize
  it with Office 365 email, allowing you to share mailboxes between your on-premises and online
  environments.
   

9. Regulatory Compliance. Some organizations are mandated to meet regulatory compliance demands by archiving email within a secure, tamper-proof storage infrastructure that meets all SEC/FINRA email storage requirements (not to mention the slew of data protection and privacy regulations including HIPAA, GLBA, U.K. Data Protection Act, and PCI compliance guidelines). This often includes a supervision component requiring organizations to actively monitor their communications with the outside world. NOTE: Third-party solutions are required for SEC/FINRA compliance with Office 365.

10. Advanced E-Discovery. The pricier Office 365 Enterprise plans (E3 and E4) include some helpful e-discovery functionality including mailbox-level legal holds, audit trail reporting and multi-mailbox search. Some organizations with higher legal risk profiles may need more advanced functionality, including:

•       Role-based permissions
•       Case management for online review
•       Ability to delegate review to multiple reviewers
•       Message-level, dynamic legal holds
•       Export load files in EDRM XML format for early case assessment

Here again, some third-party archiving solutions offer some of this advanced functionality and integrate with Office 365 to provide a centralized platform for capturing messages and SharePoint Online files within a single, searchable archive.

11. Consider a Pilot Program. Before doing a full-blown Office 365 deployment, it may be prudent to launch a pilot program. Starting with a single department or moving a smaller organization onto Office 365 will provide a chance to work out the kinks, test new workflows, and discover bugs before committing the entire enterprise to the platform. Fortunately, Microsoft has created tools and policies designed to help users establish pilot programs. Data from pilot groups can be preserved and integrated with wider deployments afterwards.

12. User Training. Another key step to consider before deploying Office 365 is developing a communication and training plan to educate end-users about the changes they will encounter on their desktops. These changes are due to the fact that Office 365 automatically upgrades the 2007 versions of Exchange and SharePoint Online to the 2010 versions. Also, users accustomed to collaborating with colleagues through BPOS's Office Communicator and Live Meeting tools will have to learn to use Lync Online, which will become the suite's primary tool for messaging and video and voice conferencing. Users will also need to create new, stronger passwords. A number of other user experiences will change too, so it's important that training is ready and available.

13. Post Installation. Once the transition to Office 365 is made it doesn't mean the job is finished.  There are some last steps IT administrators must take at their end to fully complete the Office 365 deployment. Among other things, admins must sign in to a new Administration Portal with new credentials, review the status of the transition, and create or assign a billing administrator.

Office 365 marks a major step in the evolution of Microsoft's Office franchise and should deliver significant value to organizations that can leverage all of its cloud-based potential. So it's worth taking the time to conduct a solid evaluation and put a well thought out transition plan in place.