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By: Eron Kelly I am pleased to share that BPOS-Federal has received FISMA ( Federal Information Security Management Act ) certification and accreditation. FISMA was passed in 2002 and created a process for federal agencies to certify and accredit the security of information management systems. FISMA certification and accreditation indicates that a federal agency has approved a particular solution for its use in line with the level of security established by that agency. The certification and accreditation has resulted in an official “Authorization to Operate” (ATO) issued on April 19 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Services-Federal, which includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Office Communications Online. It follows a similar authorization issued by the USDA in November for the Microsoft data centers that will deliver these services to the USDA. We plan to pursue FISMA certification and accreditation for Office 365, our next generation cloud productivity suite, after it launches. As a result of this action, the USDA is migrating 120,000 employees to Microsoft’s BPOS-Federal service. This means that the USDA can use BPOS-Federal to handle a variety of tasks. For example, the USDA’s Food Security programs can use BPOS-Federal to respond to food safety emergencies, the U.S. Forest Service can use BPOS-Federal to coordinate its efforts to fight forest fires, and the Foreign Agriculture Service can use BPOS-Federal to manage the distribution of food aid to millions of people around the world. We take our responsibility to protect customer data very seriously, and our cloud services already meet some of the industry’s most rigorous global security and privacy standards. FISMA for BPOS-Federal is just the latest example. We are very excited by this news and committed to serving the needs of our public sector customers. You can learn more about the specific elements of the latest BPOS-Federal solution here , and about Microsoft Online Services generally at www.microsoft.com/online . If you have questions about Microsoft’s cloud offerings for government, ask your Microsoft rep or your partner, or you can ask in the comments below. Thanks, Eron

It is important to enforce policies and actively manage desktop clients throughout your network—even when it comes to upgrading Web browsers.

Following the recent release of the Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 and Project Server Integration Feature Pack in March 2011 ( New Feature Pack from Visual Studio Improves Project Management and Software Development Team Collaboration ), we are announcing the release of a demo virtual machine (VM) today that showcases the integration between both products. This demo VM contains four hands-on labs, which also function as demo scripts. Each script contains a series of exercises showcasing the integration between Team Foundation Server 2010 and Project Server 2010. The Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 and Project Server Integration Feature Pack, which further strengthens Microsoft’s Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) solution, was released in March 2011 to customers with a Visual Studio Ultimate MSDN Subscription. The integration between Project Server and Team Foundation Server is a considerable advancement for organizations that want to bridge the collaboration gap between the Project Management Office and software development teams. The demo VM contains the following hands-on labs, which also function as demo scripts: Top-Down Planning of Business Requirements within an Enterprise Project using Team Foundation Server and Project Server Managing Project Details in an Enterprise Project Plan Mapped to a Team Project in Team Foundation Server Making Agile Team Progress Visible to the Project Management Office Managing Field Mappings for Integration of Team Foundation Server and Project Server It’s a great asset to learn about the recently announced feature pack and showcase it to your customers and partners. Feature Pack Resources Demo VM download Solutions For Application Lifecycle Management : Customer Case Studies – Team Foundation Server 2010 and Project Server Integration Feature Pack MSDN Product documentation MSDN Public Forums – Team Foundation Server and Project Server Integration Christophe Fiessinger Senior Technical Product Manager, Microsoft Project https://blogs.msdn.com/chrisfie

The Exchange Management Shell includes several cmdlets you can use to register arrays in Active Directory and in this way tell Exchange about load-balanced arrays you’ve set up for Client Access servers. Here is a look at the cmdlets you can use to

Windows 7? Windows Vista? Windows Server?

The next generation of BPOS is here. Today, we are announcing a public beta of Office 365, expanding it to millions more people, in more regions, and languages – a total of 38 countries and 17 languages in all. You can secure your spot for the beta at www.office365.com .

On April 1, Microsoft informed customers via e-mail

This week in BPOS news is a recurring segment on the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog that covers news from all sectors of Cloud Computing and the Microsoft Online Services business suite known as the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). You can read all past This Week in BPOS News segments here. For this week in BPOS news we take a look at a new Public School system embracing Microsoft’s cloud, and we learn about an essential BPOS tip to increase your productivity. Delhi Schools Embrace Microsoft Cloud-Based Email over Google Our first BPOS story comes from the Why Microsoft blog . Tony Tai takes a look at why schools in Delhi are choosing Microsoft’s cloud over the competition. One of the focuses of the Why Microsoft blog is to bring real customer stories to light. This latest post helps outline the ongoing competition to provide the academic sector with the best possible collaboration and productivity cloud solutions. Tony dives into why Microsoft came out on top for Delhi Public Schools. “ We can offer our students and teachers a technology that is on par with the corporate world without charging any additional fees for it. ” Mr. M.I. Hussain Principal, Delhi Public Schools The Why Microsoft blog does a great job breaking down the challenges, solutions and benefits with choosing the right solution for their cloud. The benefits listed in this article outline three crucial areas that Delhi Public Schools wanted to focus on: Easier, Faster Intra-School Communication and Collaboration Improves Parent – Teacher Communication Easy Access from Any Device We are glad to have Delhi Public Schools in the cloud with Microsoft. Make sure to read the full post here . What other benefits do schools gain from going to the cloud? Leave your comments below. Creating and Troubleshooting Conference Room Mailboxes For our second BPOS story we take a look at the latest BPOS support video and learn how to create and troubleshoot conference room mailboxes. The video below demonstrates how to create conferencing or equipment calendar solutions for your company. What other BPOS tips do you have? Leave your comment below. What are your thoughts about the stories we shared with you this week? Did you see a story you want to share with us? Let us know what other topics you’d like to see. You can comment on this blog post or send an email to our community mailbox . Follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook page.

To help Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and Project 2010 developers conveniently find all relevant resources for Project 2010 development we have created unified information center “Project Developer Curriculum” that references all key resources – from blogs, SDK chapters, SDK code samples, Solution Starters to extensive list of on demand webcasts. This addition to strong Project Developer Center also talks specifically to SharePoint developers offering development approach comparison . We are preparing a separate webcast dedicated to this topic MSDN Webcast: Project Server Development for SharePoint Developers (Level 300) – Thursday, May 5, 2011 at 8:00 A.M.–9:30 A.M. Pacific Time (subject to change). Make sure you register now to get the reminder before the webcast! Q&A Q: What are the key resources for Project 2010 Developers A: Project Developer Curriculum is an awesome unified resource –in addition – Project Developer Center and SDK https://msdn.microsoft.com/project/ and Project Programmability blog https://blogs.msdn.com/project_programmability/