November 20th, 2009

Office Starter 2010 private beta, with 'Office to GO,' goes to testers

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 8:21 am

Categories: Corporate strategy, Office 2010/Office 14, Office Live, Office Live Workspace, PDC 2009, SharePoint Server, Utility/cloud computing, Virtualization

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Beta, Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft released a bunch of public betas of various Office 2010 products this week. But it also released another one under non-disclosure to a select group of testers: Office Starter 2010.

Microsoft made the code for Office Starter 2010 available to select testers via its Connect Web site late this week. Office Starter 2010, as Microsoft officials have disclosed previously, Office Starter 2010 is the replacement for Microsoft Works. It will be free and ad-supported, includes Word and Excel only and allows only basic document viewing and editing.

There’s one new feature in Office Starter 2010 that I had not heard about previously. It’s called “Office to GO,” according to testers with whom I spoke, who asked not to be named. Office to GO is installed using the Click-to-Run setup that is part of Office 2010. (Click to Run is one of the new ways Microsoft is planning to distribute the Office 2010 bits. It streams the bits onto a user’s PC using virtualization technology so that users can be up and running with Office more quickly than if they had to wait for the entire product to download.)

The Office to GO application allows users to download Word Starter, Excel Starter and any related documents to a USB drive that users can then run onany  Windows Vista Service Pack 1 or Windows 7 PC, according to the aforementioned tester.

Office Starter 2010 also includes a permanent sidebar that includes links to a Gettting Started guide, help and support, templates and clip art, and an “upgrade to a paid version now” (with PowerPoint and/or Outlook) setting. Here’s what that sidebar looks like (click on the image to enlarge):

I’ve asked Microsoft for more details about Office to GO and will add anything I get back to this post.

Update (November 23): Here’s the statement I received from a Microsoft spokesperson regarding my questions on Office to GO:

“Office Starter To-Go is a product where Office Starter users can create a USB device that temporarily enables them to use Word Starter and Excel Starter on another PC on as long as the USB device is plugged in.  The technology used by Office Starter To-Go, is similar to how “Click-to-Run” works in that the USB device is being used as the server for a version of Starter on the device.  When the device is removed from a PC, Office Starter To-Go is also removed. Starter To-Go is only part of Office Starter edition that is pre-installed on new PC’s.  It cannot be installed on a separate PC, but it gives our customers the ability to take their Office with them and use it on any PC to open and work with their Word and Excel documents.”

Meanwhile, in other Office 2010 news from this week, I have a bit of additional information about the Office Web Apps public beta that Microsoft released to testers this week.

As Microsoft officials have said before, Office Web Apps — the Webified versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote — will be available in three versions. One will be free and ad-supported and aimed at consumers. The consumer version, which is tied to Microsoft’s SkyDrive, is what Microsoft released as a Community Technology Preview (CTP) test build to selected testers this past summer. Microsoft officials told me this week that the final version of the free Office Web Apps product will be released in conjunction with Windows Live Wave 4 (which sounds as if it is a “spring 2010″ kind of thing).

There also are going to be two business-focused versions of Office Web Apps that are going to be available as paid subscription offerings: One that will be available to enterprise customers to run on-premises and one that will be hosted by Microsoft. The beta that went out this week is the on-premises business version of the Office Web Apps release. To be clear: It’s not the updated beta version of the consumer test build that Microsoft released earlier this fall. (It sounds like the consumer version of Office Web Apps may not get a new public build refresh before it is released in final form this spring.)

The business versions require SharePoint Server on the back end. Microsoft’s Office Web Apps team did a blog post earlier this week explaining more about the Office Web Apps-SharePoint tie-in. That post includes this diagram:

I’m interested in hearing more from anyone who’s test-driving the new Office Web Apps beta and/or Office Starter 2010. How are the products shaping up? What’s working or not for you?

November 18th, 2009

Microsoft Office 2010, SharePoint 2010 public betas now available for download

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 10:11 am

Categories: Corporate strategy, Office, Office 2010/Office 14, SharePoint Server

Tags: Public Beta, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Corp., Beta, Content Management, Microsoft Office, Collaboration, Groupware, Enterprise Software, Software

Microsoft released on November 18 the public beta of Office 2010. It can be downloaded by anyone for free, as of 1 pm ET today.

Microsoft is making available several different versions of Office, as well as a beta of SharePoint Server 2010 to interested testers, includingMicrosoft Office 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, Visio 2010, Project 2010 and Office Web Apps (the on-premise, business version that is tied to SharePoint Server, not the consumer one that is connected to SkyDrive). The betas are available at www.microsoft.com/2010.

Microsoft made the Office 2010 beta bits available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers for download on November 16.

Microsoft is aiming to launch the final version of all of these Office products, as well as SharePoint 2010 by May/June 2010.

Update: Microsoft also released a beta today of Office Mobile 2010. That beta — for a slimmed-down version of Office that runs on Windows Mobile — can be downloaded it through the Windows Mobile Marketplace for Windows Mobile 6.5 phones.

Update No. 2: The Office team also made good on its hints that it would deliver some kind of new social-networking capability to the product. From the Office 2010 Engineering blog:

“The New Outlook Social Connector brings your communications history, business and social networking feeds right into Outlook, helping you quickly keep track of conversations and stay up-to-date with co-workers, friends and family without switching programs or changing your routine. Today’s beta supports SharePoint social networking and will support Windows Live when Office launches. The business networking site LinkedIn will be the first to provide a connector for the Outlook Social Connector early next year.”

More details on that Connector are available on the Outlook blog. LinkedIn is being integrated into the public beta of Microsoft Outlook 2010. Users will be able to maintain their LinkedIn contacts and stay up-to-date on their activities inside their Outlook inbox using the new Social Connector.

November 16th, 2009

Office 2010 Beta downloadable by MSDN, Technet subscribers today

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 10:50 am

Categories: Corporate strategy, Office, Office 2010/Office 14, Office Live, PDC 2009, SharePoint Server

Tags: Microsoft Developer Network, Microsoft Corp., Beta, Microsoft TechNet, Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software, Mary Jo Foley

As widely expected, Microsoft has begun rolling out the public beta of its Office 2010 suite this week.

On November 16, Microsoft made the beta code available to subscribers to its MSDN and TechNet services. Microsoft is expected to open up the beta, so that anyone who’d like to try it can download it — possibly this week (though Microsoft officials refused to confirm that when I asked them today).

Microsoft also has made the 64-bit Beta version of Office Web Apps — its Web-centric versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote — available for download to MSDN and TechNet subscribers today. (No word yet if/when the 32-bit version of Office Web Apps will appear on MSDN/TechNet). The public also is expected to get the refreshed Office Web Apps bits, possibly this week. Again, Microsoft officials won’t confirm the public availability date, beyond saying it will be “in November.”

Microsoft has set up a download page from which the public will be able to download the Beta bits. On that page, Microsoft lists as the versions it will make available the Office Home and Business 2010; Office Professional 2010 and Office Professional Plus 2010 versions of the product.

Among the noticeable changes between the beta and the Community Technology Preview (CTP) build of Office 2010 that Microsoft released this summer are the new installation procedures for the beta build, a new Upload Center, modifications to the Backstage view; and new icons for all the Office products that are part of the suite, according to a post on the Redmond Pie blog.

Last week, a build of Office 2010 build that was marked “Beta 2″ leaked to the Web. That build was number 14.0.4514.1009. Microsoft officials told me that the leaked build was not the same one as would be released later this month.

Many Microsoft watchers are expecting the company to make the public beta bits available on November 18, as that is the day that one of Microsoft’s Office big-wigs, Senior Vice President Kurt DelBene, is keynoting the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles. Given that Microsoft often releases bits to MSDN and TechNet subscribers anywhere from a couple of days to a week-plus before it makes them available to the public, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the public Office 2010 and Office Web Apps Beta 2s to go live this week.

Microsoft is expected to launch the final version of Office 2010 client, Office Web Apps and SharePoint Server 2010 in May/June 2010.

I’d like to hear what folks think of the Beta once they’ve had a chance to download and try out the client and Office Web Apps versions both. What is new and different?

November 13th, 2009

Office 2010 Beta 2 bits leak to the Web

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 6:44 am

Categories: Corporate strategy, Office, Office 2010/Office 14, Office Live, Office Live Workspace, PDC 2009, SharePoint Server

Tags: Web, Web Application, Microsoft Corp., Beta, Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft has been having a tough time keeping its Office 2010 bits from leaking.

On November 13, the Professional Plus version of the next version of Microsoft’s productivity suite leaked again. The version that is making its way over the torrents is marked as Beta 2, according to the Neowin.net site, and is build number 14.0.4514.1009.

Microsoft officials have said they plan to release public beta builds of Office 2010 client, Office Web Apps and SharePoint Server 2010 in November. Many company watchers are expecting Microsoft to make those bits available next week, in conjunction with the company’s Professional Developers Conference. (Microsoft also could share details about its Office Mobile 2010 at the PDC next week, as well, I hear.)

(I’ve asked Microsoft whether the leaked build is the actual Beta 2 build the company is planning to distribute this month. No word back so far.) A spokesperson said thes newly leaked bits are not the Beta 2 ones, and added “Microsoft has not released the official beta code and recommends that people do not download code from unauthorized sources.”)

According to Neowin, the differences between the leaked Beta 2 build and the current Community Technology Preview (CTP) build of Office 2010 that Microsoft made available to select testers this summer aren’t huge. The interface has been “refined” and the program icons updated, Neowin notes.

Testers with whom I’ve spoken are most interested in seeing the new features and changes that Microsoft plans to make available as part of the Office Web Apps with Beta 2. (The Office Web Apps Beta 2 bits are not part of what leaked this week.) The first test build of Office Web Apps was rough and didn’t include OneNote Web App at all. Microsoft officials have said they’ll have more to say about how and when Office Web Apps — the Webified versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote — will be able to be accessed via mobile phones around the time the company releases the public beta.

In other Office 2010 news from earlier this week, Microsoft has begun signing up testers for the free Office Starter 2010 release.

Update: Blogger Long Zheng has information on some of the changes Microsoft is making to the Office.com online portal, which is now in beta, that Microsoft also is likely to be showing off at the PDC next week.

November 12th, 2009

Microsoft lines up testers for free Office Starter 2010 product

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 5:31 am

Categories: Apple, Corporate strategy, Google, Office, Office 2010/Office 14, Office Live, Office Live Workspace, Open source, SharePoint Server

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Office Starter 2010, Potential Tester, Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft is soliciting existing Office Live Workspace users to be part of a pool of testers for its forthcoming, free (but ad-supported) Office Starter 2010 product.

The ithinkdiff.com enthusiast site has posted a copy of the Office Starter 2010 invitation that Microsoft has sent out. Potential testers are asked to commplete a survey, which includes questions about the personal productivity applications and services they currently use. On the list are Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Apple’s iWork, Microsoft Works, Open Office and Microsoft Office.

In spite of its name, Office Starter 2010 really has little resemblance to Windows 7 Starter Edition. Office Starter 2010 is a new version of Microsoft’s Office suite that is expected to launch in May/June 2010. Office Starter will bundle together stripped-down versions of Word and Excel only, Microsoft officials said in October. (Stripped-down here means basic document viewing and editing only.) Starter will be ad-supported and free. Microsoft is positioning Office Starter as a replacement for the Microsoft Works trial that is often preloaded on new PCs.

Microsoft officials also said recently that Microsoft is planning to phase out Office Live Workspace, the company’s existing add-on to Office that allows users to share and collaborate on documents over the Web. Office Web Apps, another of Microsoft’s new Office SKUs being introduced in 2010, is the natural successor to Office Live Workspace.

Microsoft officials have said the company is planning to field a public beta of Office 2010 in November. Many are expecting that beta to be opened up next week, in conjunction with Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC). Microsoft is  on tap to make available public betas of Office 2010, Office Web Apps, SharePoint Server 2010. Microsoft also may show off the Office Mobile 2010 product, a version of Office for mobile phones, next week as well.

November 5th, 2009

Microsoft to add SharePoint access to Live@edu

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 8:33 am

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, Exchange Server, Google, Office, Office 2010/Office 14, Office Live, SharePoint Server, Utility/cloud computing, Web conferencing

Tags: Microsoft SharePoint, Web Application, Microsoft Corp., Live@edu, Content Management, Collaboration, Groupware, Enterprise Software, Microsoft Office, Software

Paving the way for its Office Web Apps rollout, Microsoft is adding SharePoint Online to the services it offers students and academics as part of its Live@edu offering.

Microsoft made the announcement at the Educause conference in Denver, according to a posting on the Live@edu blog. The SharePoint Online service should be available to Live@edu subscribers for no additional cost some time next year.

Microsoft officials played up both the collaboration and conferencing capabilities and the Office Web Apps access as being behind the planned addition. Students and educators are a big audience for Google Docs and expected to be one of Microsoft’s biggest group of initial adopters of Office Web Apps.

From the November 3 Live@edu blog post:

“In conjunction with the Live@edu program, we will be bringing a solution to market for students, based on SharePoint Online, for free. So what does that mean? Well, lets look at some possibilities:

“* Work with a class group on a research assignment – documents, background research, project plans can all be stored online and worked on from anywhere.
“* Office Web Apps support means that a user can access Office files on almost any machine to simply view the content, or to make essential modifications.
“* Microsoft Office integration ensures they get a rich, integrated experience with SharePoint Online and the Office Web Apps, if required… and of course offline access to files.”

Microsoft officials have said they plan to offer three different modes of distribution for Office Web Apps — Microsoft’s Webified versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote — due out by mid-2010. There will be a free, consumer-focused version that will be accessible via Microsoft’s Windows Live SkyDrive service. There also will be two paid versions for business customers: A Microsoft-hosted version and an on-premises, user-hosted version. The two hosted versions will require SharePoint/SharePoint Online as part of the back-end infrastructure.

Microsoft already offers hosted Exchange email, among other Microsoft services, to Live@edu subscribers. The Exchange Online version for students/academics is known as “Outlook Live.” There’s no word yet on how Microsoft will rebrand the SharePoint Online offering that will be available via Live@edu.

(Hat tip to Network World for the heads-up on the SharePoint and Live@edu news.)

November 3rd, 2009

Microsoft to show Office Mobile 2010 at TechEd Europe

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 12:44 pm

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, Network service providers, OEMs, Office, Office 2010/Office 14, SharePoint Server, Windows Mobile

Tags: Mobile, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Corp., Office Mobile 2010, Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft officials have shared details about two of the three different versions of Office 2010 that are in development: The Office 2010 client and the Office Web Apps. Next week, at the TechEd Europe conference in Berlin, they finally are slated to show and tell more about the third: Office Mobile 2010.

Update (November 6): A Microsoft spokesperson called today to tell me the Office team isn’t quite ready. This session on Office Mobile 2010 is being cancelled for TechEd Europe. I’m betting it’ll be on the PDC agenda instead, so we’ll have one more week to wait….

Office Mobile 2010 is the version of Office that runs natively on Windows Mobile phones. The most recently released version debuted in 2007. That release is Version 6.1 and includes mobile versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and a rudimentary version of the OneNote note-taking application.

The Office Mobile 2010 release will include “a refresh to the Office Mobile client apps, an all-new SharePoint Workspace Mobile app and redesigned mobile access to SharePoint site content,” according to a synopsis of the “Microsoft Office Mobile 2010 In-Depth” session that is slated for November 12 at TechEd. That session also will cover the back-end infrastructure powering the new Office Mobile release, according to the write-up. The presenter is listed as Outlook Product Manager Dev Balasubramanian.

Here is the entire synopsis:

OFS01-IS Microsoft Office Mobile 2010 In-Depth
Presenter: Dev Balasubramanian
Thu 11/12 | 13:30-14:45 | Interactive Theatre 1 - Red

In this session we cover all of the mobility technologies and scenarios enabled as part of the Office 2010 “wave”. You’ve heard us talk about how Office 2010 spans the PC, Phone and Web — come learn what the Phone pillar is all about! Collaboration scenarios, mobile workflows, and mobile access to data, people, and corporate resources are all part of what makes Office on the phone a new experience in 2010. A refresh to the Office Mobile client apps, an all-new SharePoint Workspace Mobile app, redesigned mobile access to SharePoint site content, as well as the infrastructure needed to support it, are covered as part of this session.

In early October, I blogged about a screen shot that showed a mock-up of Office Mobile 2010 that seemed to indicate it the new mobile suite would be customized to work on Windows Mobile 7, the version of Microsoft’s mobile OS expected to be available by the end of 2010. That shot also showed off what looked like some kind of SharePoint application. Microsoft officials did not comment on that screen shot or its implications.

At the recent Microsoft SharePoint Conference, executives noted that Microsoft has a number of enhancements coming to SharePoint for mobile. According to an October blog post by SharePoint Corporate Vice President Jeff Teper:

“We both improved the experience for mobile web browsers and are introducing a new SharePoint Workspace Mobile client so you can take Office content from SharePoint offline on a Windows Mobile device. These clients let you navigate lists and libraries, search content and people and even view and edit Office content within the Office Web App experience running on a mobile browser.”

To be clear, Office Mobile 2010 won’t be the only way to run Office apps on mobile devices. The Softies have said Office Web Apps also are going to be able to run on unspecified phones from Microsoft and other vendors. Supposedly when the public beta of Office Web Apps hits later this month, Microsoft will be ready to share more details how and when specific phones and browsers will support Office Web Apps.

I have lots of questions about Office Mobile 2010. Will it run on platforms other than Windows Mobile? When will it go to testers? Will the final version be released alongside the other two Office 2010 releases (around May/June 2010)?

What do you want to know about Office Mobile 2010?

November 3rd, 2009

Microsoft to raise prices, add more high-end editions with SQL Server 2008 R2

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 9:04 am

Categories: Azure, Channel, Code names, Corporate strategy, Database, OEMs, Office, Office 2010/Office 14, Resellers, SQL Server, SharePoint Server, Utility/cloud computing, Virtualization, Windows server

Tags: Processor, Microsoft SQL Server, Server, Microsoft Corp., Datacenter Edition, Microsoft SQL Server Team, Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Databases, Enterprise Software, Software

With the new version of its database due out by mid-2010, Microsoft is increasing its retail prices. It also is adding two new high-end editions of SQL Server 2008 R2 to its line-up.

Microsoft is planning to make the next Community Technology Preview (CTP) test build of SQL Server 2008 R2 — which will be feature-complete — available later this month, but officials declined to specify a date. The timing is “aligned with” the public beta of Office 2010, which many are expecting around mid-month. Customers can sign up today for notification about the November SQL Server 2008 R2 CTP. Microsoft released a first CTP of SQL Server 2008 R2 (codenamed “Kilimanjaro”) in August.

Microsoft went public with these details on the opening day of its PASS Summit, its SQL Server user group conference, on November 3.

The two new versions of SQL Server will be a Datacenter edition and a Parallel Data Warehouse edition (formerly codenamed “Project Madison”). The Datacenter edition builds on the SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise product, but adds application and multi-server management; virtualization; high-scale complex event processing (via StreamInsight); and supports more than 8 processors and up to 256 logical processors. The Parallel Data Warehouse version will be sold preloaded on servers as a data warehouse appliance. Using the DataAllegro technology Microsoft acquired in 2008, it will scale customers’ data warehouses from the tens of terabytes, up to one petabyte plus range, according to the company.

Microsoft isn’t increasing the Server/Client Access License (CAL) pricing — which is the primary way its customers buy SQL Server, officials said — with the new release. But the new SQL 2008 R2 retail pricing is as follows:

Standard: $7,500 (Per Processor), or $100/Server + $162/CAL (a $1,500 increase over SQL 2008 Standard)
Enterprise $28,800 (Per Processor), or $9.900/Server + $162/CAL (a $3,800 increase over SQL 2008 Enterprise)
Datacenter $57,500 (Per Processor), Not offered via Server/CAL (no previous version available)
Parallel Data Warehouse: $57,500 (Per Processor), Not offered via Server/CAL (no previous version available)

No pricing information was available for other R2 versions of SQL Server, including the Workgroup, Web and Developer, company officials said. For the four aforementioned versions, there will be discounts available for customers purchasing via volume licenses, Microsoft officials said.

Microsoft’s SQL Server team has focused on pricing as one of its main differentiators from its database competition, especially Oracle, so any kind of price increase is a sensitive topic. Company officials said they hadn’t “adjusted” database prices since the introduction of SQL Server 2005. Microsoft is still not charging per core like Oracle does; instead, it charges per processor, which benefits users who run databases on multicore servers.

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November 2nd, 2009

Microsoft chops prices of its hosted enterprise cloud offerings

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 3:28 pm

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, Exchange Server, Office, Office Live, Resellers, SharePoint Server, Speech, Systems integrators, Telecommunications, Utility/cloud computing, VOIP, Web conferencing

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Office, Cloud Computing, Tools & Techniques, Office Suites, Software, Management, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft is cutting prices of its Microsoft-hosted Exchange, as well as its suite of business services (known as the Business Productivity Online Suite, or BPOS), and is refunding the difference to existing hosting customers.

Microsoft is cutting its Exchange Online pricing from $10 per user per month to $5 per user per month. It also is cutting the price of the BPOS bundle — which includes SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, Communications Online and Live Meeting — from $15 per user per month, to $10 per user per month.

Microsoft is leaving the pricing for its Deskless Worker versions of its hosted Online offerings the same. Exchange Online Deskless Worker and SharePoint Online Deskless Worker remain $2 per user per month. The bundle of the two Deskless Worker offerings stays at $3 per user per month.

Not surprisingly, Microsoft officials didn’t attribute the price cut to competition from Google Apps or other hosted offerings. Instead, they attributed the cuts to “rapid customer adoption, global scale and improved efficiencies from new software such as Exchange Server 2010″ (according to the press release).

Microsoft is making BPOs available in 15 new countries before the end of the year. Later this week, BPOS will be commercially available in Singapore; trials are slated to begin in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania and Taiwan. Commercial availability in India is also expected later this year, officials said.

Microsoft officials are now claiming to have more than 1 million paying users for Microsoft’s Online family of services (not counting Live Meeting, for which there are many more paying customers, according to company officials). Newly signed BPOS customers include Hofstra University, Lions Gate Entertainment, McDonald’s Corporation, Rexel Group, Swedish Red Cross and Tyco Flow Control.

Microsoft will be adding a paid, Microsoft-hosted version of Office Web Apps — the Webified versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote– to its Online stable next year. Company officials have said that paid offering will also be available to Microsoft volume-license customers so that they can host Office Web Apps themselves, on-premises, instead of or in addition to allowing Microsoft to host it for them. There will be additional (and, as yet, still unannounce) features that will be part of the paid Office Web Apps offering that aren’t part of the free, ad-funded version.

Microsoft is currently rolling out refreshes to its Online family of services every 90 days or so, according to Ron Markezich, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Online. Some of the new features the company is rolling out to its on-premises software — such as Exchange 2010 — are debuting in the hosted, Online offerings before they are available to customers as server-based products. (The final Exchange 2010 software bits are slated to go to customers starting next week.)

I’m sure Microsoft customers will be upbeat about the price cuts for Microsoft’s hosted offerings. But I’d think Redmond’s partners who are trying to make money from selling Microsoft’s hosted services (if not their own hosted version of Microsoft’s wares) might be less enthusiastic…

October 27th, 2009

SharePoint: The team that makes the donut(s)

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 7:32 am

Categories: Azure, Corporate strategy, Database, Development tools, Office, Office 2010/Office 14, SQL Server, SharePoint Server, Utility/cloud computing

Tags: Team, Microsoft SharePoint, Ribbon, Content Management, Collaboration, Groupware, Team Management, Enterprise Software, Software, Management

When Microsoft officials describe SharePoint Server, they often refer to what’s called “the donut” diagram — a picture of the six server workloads that comprise the overall product.

But who actually makes the donut(s), and how does the team decide which features to bake into a new release of the product? I was curious about the people and the processes of the 5,000+-member team that is working on the SharePoint 2010 release. To get a better feel for the SharePoint team, Microsoft gave me a chance to interview over the past few weeks not just the “usual suspects,” but some of the other lesser-known but key SharePoint managers.

SharePoint is built by the Office group and includes approximately 40 teams. According to company officials, the core teams are in Redmond, but there are other large SharePoint teams in Silicon Valley, Boise, Boston, Ireland, Norway, India, China and Japan.

The first thing I noticed during my interviews was that everyone with whom I spoke mentioned the calming, analytical influence of the” father of SharePoint,” Corporate Vice President Jeff Teper. Sure, the SharePoint team can have fun; after all, the team’s mascot is the Flying Screaming Monkey that can and has been flung via slingshot onto unsuspecting targets of all kinds. But SharePoint isn’t a team that lurches from crisis to crisis or one characterized by all-night coding marathons and mandatory pancake breakfasts during the final “death march” of a new product release.

The SharePoint team, which is patterned intentionally on the same culture/processes that have characterized the Microsoft Office team, spends a lot of time and energy talking to customers. Like the Office team, the SharePoint folks spend countless hours watching how customers use (and attempt to use) their product. Team members actually count the number of clicks it takes users to perform specific tasks, with the goal of making each and every feature easier and quicker to access.

When planning a new SharePoint release, the team starts with “an intuitive sense of what should be in here,” said Lauren Antonoff, Partner Group Program Manager and 13-year Microsoft veteran. “We look at what’s currently hard and why it is hard. We ask why can’t it be better.”

“We’re working with our partners differently than we did in the past,” Antonoff added. “In the past, TAP (the Technology Adoption Program test phase) was a nominally assigned kind of thing. It gave us a fractured picture of what our customers were doing.”

But starting in 2007, the team started asking users more and deeper questions, which led to the reegineering of the SharePoint development process, particularly the customer feedback loop. Microsoft began hooking up customers with whole teams inside of a product group so they could talk to developers in different disciplines across the whole SharePoint team so that the SharePoint folks could better understand users’ businesses and pain points, Antonoff said. Going forward, the new structure should give Microsoft more real-world feedback earlier about how customers are using SharePoint, she said. The new processes are somewhat similar to how the Exchange team operates, she added.

Principal Program Manager Rob Lefferts also played up more and earlier real-world customer exposure as something the SharePoint team is doing differently these days. Microsoft itself is one of these customers. He noted the entire Office division has been running SharePoint 2010 for over a year now, since it was in the alpha test stage.

“We’re putting a new build on our servers every week now,” Lefferts said.

Another change with the current SharePoint cycle has been the focus on scalability, said Eric Fox, Partner Development Manager and a Microsoft “lifer.” (Fox joined Microsoft as an intern in 1993 and held a variety of jobs in the Office client team since then.)

“Scalability has been much more of a core focus this time around. We are making sure we target (scalability) with our architecture and design. We’re asking whether any feature has any particular scalability issues,” Fox said. “Social networking is a big test case for this.”

With the 2010 release, for the first time, the SharePoint product team and the SharePoint Online team are working hand-in-hand. Up until now, the SharePoint Online team has been more focused on studying the Exchange Labs and Exchange Online teams’ work, Antonoff said. But with this release, “we’re working on it (SharePoint Online) way earlier than we would usually. ” She said it’s more like “one blurry virtual team” now, instead of two teams working in parallel. The goal is to make the SharePoint/SharePoint Online experience more consistent — which is key to Microsoft’s mission of allowing users to choose how and when they use the hosted version vs. the on-premises version of SharePoint.

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