It has been busy, get used to it.

Last month or so it has been a very busy period. I visited an Executive briefing of Microsoft in Redmond where we discussed the Microsoft Online and Cloud propositions. I visited an EBC about this theme about a year ago and back then a lot of promisses where made.
Well the Microsoft Cloud Azure is released and it seems this will become a real succes. Still a lot of development is needed to make this technologie and functionality available for the masses. In the end IT infra will become a utility.
The biggest promise was made towards the Microsoft Online community. Business Productivity Online Services or short BPOS has become codename Union. The name BPOS wasn't exactly sexy or appeling. Well the speed in the online market is enormous and that surprised everybody, even the marketing of Microsoft. But what's in the name. Well there are a lot of changes to be taken in mind.
Today it is not posible to deploy solutions with custom code on the Microsoft Online environment. So for 'us' ISV's and other Microsoft partners the added value opportunity's where somewhat limmited. Well suspect this to change. Microsoft is still a company that sells licences (on-premise or as an online utility) and depents on added value thrue it's partner channel.
When this issue is solved, whit it a LOT of functionality will become available. For instance SharePoint 2007 has evolved to SharePoint 2010. A big change with lot's of opportunity's. There's a lot of material out there to help you compare the different versions. BPOS today is based on SharePoint 2007, the server version or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS). But as discussed a lot of functionality is not available in the multi tennant Online version BPOS. When UNION will hit the market (and me personaly expect it won't be that long to happen), a lot of the new SharePoint 2010 server functionality will be available ONLINE!
So what can I tell you about the changes... Not a lot NDA I'm sorry. But think about the goals of SharePoint (one place to SHARE your thoughts, the informaton or better the knowledge (tacit information), think about the developments in the social media tooling all arround us), take a look at the new functionality of SharePoint 2010 and you can imagine what will be subject of change yourself.
I can also explain what I do not like about SharePoint 2007, or what in my opinion is laking in that version. For instance SharePoint 2007 was still siloed. It was hard to make it one place to share your information. Searching information acrose a collection of sites was hard, maintainn the same enterprise structure for your meta information is not provided automaticaly in SharePoint 2007.
What do you think about the wiki functionality in SharePoint 2007? Well I love wiki's, but hate the poor suport in the SharePoint 2007 version. Ever tried to ad a picture? or a link? In Sharepoint 2010 wiki is everywhere, every page is a wiki and of course the tooling fits with a great user experience.
What do you expect from an online information and collaboration platform? Well you expect it to integrate with your onpremise environment if needed. You expect to be able to collaborate despite of the virtual wall between departments, but what about your company as an boundary object? You build extranets to reach to a higher business productivity even between company's, even if it is a very small company of one person who has some project business with you for a very short time and want to log on anonymous.

Well you can picture this for your self.

When? July the Microsoft World Partner conference will take place. Take a look at the keynote's of Steve Balmer about Online and Cloud strategy We're all in - is the new slogan. Given the growing attention IT utillity is given from the midmarket business my answer is soon. It is going to be busy!