Simpler Management on Microsoft Online Roadmap

The management platform for Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Communications Online will get a major upgrade starting in 2010, as the services move to the latest versions of Microsoft’s server applications. Microsoft’s online services management platform authenticates users and provides administrative interfaces for customer organizations to add and remove users, set billing options, and perform other management tasks. The planned improvements should simplify management and improve security for Microsoft-hosted online services. However, Microsoft has not announced a schedule for the upgrade, which will probably occur in stages over a year or more.

Platform Upgrade to Simplify Management, Improve Security

Updates are planned for the management platform shared by Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Communications Online. This platform is used both for Standard configurations of the services (in which customers share servers) and the Dedicated configurations (in which servers are dedicated to a specific customer). The management platform is not formally named but is sometimes called the Microsoft Online platform or the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) platform. (The Live Meeting Web conferencing service will eventually be replaced by Communications Online and is not discussed further here.)