TechNet Flash, Volume 13, Issue 20 - September 7, 2011
TechNet Flash Editor's Note from Mitch Irsfeld

Extending SharePoint to the Cloud

In the new TechNet feature package, Using SharePoint Online for Enterprises, we've collected the newest and best resources to help you make informed decisions to plan for and deploy cloud-based SharePoint collaboration.

For more on the positioning of on-premises vs. online deployments, their respective benefits, licensing and features, see Mark Kashman's SharePoint Online Overview screencast. To go more in-depth on the capabilities of Office 365 and SharePoint Online in particular, we're excited to offer the free eBook Microsoft Office 365: Connect and Collaborate Virtually Anywhere, Anytime, by Katherine Murry. Pay particular attention to Part II, "What Your Team Can Do with Office 365," especially Chapters 4 - 7, to learn what SharePoint Online can do and how to do it.

With SharePoint Online, there are some differences when it comes to administrative tasks, managing users and managing sites, but your existing SharePoint skills will serve you well. The white paper Microsoft SharePoint Online: An Overview for Enterprise IT Professionals is a great place to start understanding those differences. A more dynamic version of that guide is now available on the SharePoint Online Administration page.

TechNet Magazine this month provides an introductory how-to look at provisioning SharePoint Online. Joshua Hoffman's Get Started with SharePoint Online walks through setting up the service, adding domains, adding and managing users, and assigning permissions.

For more specific, role-based guidance, we have three guides to choose from: The SharePoint Online Planning Guide for Enterprises offers a collection of articles for site collection administrators and site owners involved in setting up and using SharePoint Online sites. Similarly, the SharePoint Online Planning Guide for Office 365 for Professionals and Small Businesses offers articles for administrators and site owners at smaller organizations. The SharePoint Online Administration Center Guide shows the SharePoint Online administrator how to manage and maintain site collections, and enable the features that work across site collections.

The way we work is changing, and our tools are changing with it. To start envisioning the services you can make available with Office 365 and SharePoint Online download the Office 365 Trial and then join the Microsoft Virtual Academy to take the Office 365 for the IT Pro - Platform track and see how you can make that vision a reality.

Thanks for reading,

Mitch Irsfeld
Editor, TechNet Flash

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