Exam 70-333 Deploying Enterprise Voice with Skype for Business 2015 (beta)

Published: July 31, 2015
Languages: English
Audiences: IT professionals
Technology: Skype for Business
Credit toward certification: MCSE

Skills measured
This exam measures your ability to accomplish the technical tasks listed below. The percentages indicate the relative weight of each major topic area on the exam. The higher the percentage, the more questions you are likely to see on that content area on the exam. View video tutorials about the variety of question types on Microsoft exams.

Please note that the questions may test on, but will not be limited to, the topics described in the bulleted text.

Do you have feedback about the relevance of the skills measured on this exam? Please send Microsoft your comments. All feedback will be reviewed and incorporated as appropriate while still maintaining the validity and reliability of the certification process. Note that Microsoft will not respond directly to your feedback. We appreciate your input in ensuring the quality of the Microsoft Certification program.

If you have concerns about specific questions on this exam, please submit an exam challenge.

If you have other questions or feedback about Microsoft Certification exams or about the certification program, registration, or promotions, please contact your Regional Service Center.

Plan and design Skype for Business with Enterprise Voice (30-35%)
Design Enterprise Voice topology
Design mediation server collocation or placement, gateways, trunks, voice resiliency, mediation server dependencies, voice usage and traffic, DNS, and phone configuration
Design call routing and Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) connectivity
Design dial plans, routes, including location-based routing, normalization, voice policies, basic emergency dialing and notification, PSTN usage, and trunk configuration; design for call via work; define SIP trunk capacity requirements; design multiple media gateway support, trunk configuration; define outbound translation rules, inbound dial plan; qualify technology options from UCOIP
Design voice applications
Design call park, Response Group, delegation model, Response Group workflows; design private line and vacant number announcements
Design unified messaging (UM)
Design UM dial plans, normalization rules, UM auto-attendant, subscriber access, UM outbound dialing, and UM placement and capacity for on-premises and online
Plan for network readiness and optimization
Assess network requirements including Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), virtual private network (VPN), multiple MPLS providers including ExpressRoute providers, asymmetric links, point-to-point wireless, internal NAT, TCP vs. UDP, and signaling vs. media traffic; plan for optimal conferencing traffic, capacity, Edge placement, assess QoS readiness including traffic policing and traffic shaping impact on RTC, DSCP, port based, scavenger class, best effort traffic class, and separate/converged networks; estimate network usage; analyze media scenarios for conference, peer-to-peer, PSTN, and capture traces for max jitter, average jitter, peak consecutive packet loss, average packet loss, and one-way network delay
Design network services for Enterprise Voice
Design Location Information Services (LIS) and Call Admission Control (CAC); plan for Media Bypass; design for QoS including port requirements for internal and external services; design and forecast network needs for sizing ExpressRoute
Model and analyze Skype for Business traffic per site
Predict and calculate service needs and growth, compare how different personas impact network requirements, and calibrate usage models based on customer usage and business requirements, including web, audio and video conferencing, PSTN, and peer-to peer calls; adjust business requirements, adjust network components (topology, capacity), and limit traffic volume or modify solution design; calculate traffic volume by using the Skype for Business bandwidth calculator for branch traffic, central site traffic, and remote user traffic
Analyze policies and historical data network usage
Analyze Service Level Agreements (SLAs) on network infrastructure, analyze impact of security policies, including firewalls, VPN tunnels, remote access, Direct Access, NAT, and Private VLANs, and assess appropriateness of current QoS policies for Skype for Business, average usage, peak usage, average drop, and peak packet loss; analyze historical call quality data; analyze bandwidth requirements for Skype for Business Online
Plan and analyze simulation traffic results, and make recommendations
Design site traffic generator endpoint placement/location, design site traffic generator transaction path, and design site traffic generator transaction volume per path; interpret baseline network characteristics and any variations, analyze simulation results in the context of a network (topology, QoS); recommend network reconfigurations, recommend modifications for QoS approach, and explain impact of observed network characteristics, including latency, packet loss, jitter, and bandwidth usage

Deploy and configure Enterprise Voice (30-35%)
Configure network services for Enterprise Voice
Configure Location Information Services (LIS), Call Admission Control (CAC) for voice, Call Admission Control (CAC) for video, DHCP for phone edition, QOS, and media bypass; configure ExpressRoute for Office 365
Configure voice applications
Configure call park, Response Group workflows, Response Group queues, private line, and vacant number announcements, configure delegation; configure and enable PSTN Conferencing with ACP, Cloud PBX, PSTN Calling, Hybrid Voice infrastructure; port phone numbers to Microsoft as the carrier; configure users with cloud phone numbers
Configure call routing
Configure dial plans, routes, and trunks; apply voice policies, PSTN usages, and emergency dialing; call via work
Configure unified messaging (UM) for Skype for Business and Cloud Voicemail
Configure UM dial plans, the normalization rules, UM auto-attendant, subscriber access, and call answering rules; configure DNS records; configure Edge Server for integration with Office 365; manage and assign Hosted Voice Mail policies; enable users for Hosted Voice Mail; create Contact Objects for Hosted Voice Mail; configure Skype for Business Online Enterprise Voice users to have Cloud Voicemail
Configure Enterprise Voice client features
Configure delegation, simultaneous ring, team calling, and group call pickup, shared line appearance, call via work

Manage and troubleshoot Enterprise Voice (30-35%)
Troubleshoot call setup and teardown
Troubleshoot Skype for Business Server and Skype for Business Online internal phone calls (PC to PC), external phone calls (PC to Public Switched Telephone Network [PSTN]), inbound and outbound routing, network configuration, and internal and external clients; call via work
Troubleshoot Enterprise Voice quality issues
Analyze Call Detail Recording/ Quality of Experience (CDR/QOE) logs, analyze call flow by using Snooper, analyze call data quality using call quality methodology (CQM), troubleshoot third-party devices, QOS, and network bandwidth; analyze rate my call results; analyze and troubleshoot issues with Skype for Business Online Enterprise Voice users
Troubleshoot Enterprise Voice configuration
Analyze dial plans (normalization, translation), analyze session management (trunk routing); analyze policies, routes, and usages; troubleshoot external connectivity (gateways, SBA, PBX, SBC, PSTN) and media bypass; call admission control (CAC); call via work; troubleshoot delegation, simultaneous ring, team calling, and group call pickup; number porting
Troubleshoot and analyze Enterprise Voice applications
Troubleshoot call park, Response Groups, unassigned numbers, Exchange voicemail, and LIS and emergency calling implementation
Troubleshoot universal communications (UC) devices and peripherals
Troubleshoot device update issues, device connectivity issues (LPE + 3PIP), PIN authentication issues, peripherals, and VDI plug-in device pairing
Monitor and manage Skype for Business
Monitor call quality dashboard, monitoring server reports, QoE, synthetic transactions, and server health; monitor Rate My Call results

Who should take this exam?
Candidates for this exam are IT consultants and telecommunications consulting professionals who design, plan, deploy, and maintain solutions for unified communications (UC). Candidates should be able to translate business requirements into technical architecture and design for a UC solution. Candidates should have a minimum of two years of experience with Skype for Business technologies and be familiar with supported migration scenarios. Candidates should be proficient in deploying Skype for Business Server and Skype for Business Online solutions for end users, endpoint devices, telephony, audio/video and web conferences, security, and high availability. Candidates should also know how to monitor and troubleshoot Skype for Business using Microsoft tools. In addition, candidates should be proficient with Active Directory Domain Services, data networks, and telecommunications standards and components that support the configuration of Skype for Business. Candidates should be familiar with the requirements for integrating Skype for Business with Microsoft Exchange Server and Office 365.

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Exam 70-383 Recertification for MCSE: SharePoint

Published: January 6, 2016
Languages: English, German, Japanese
Audiences: IT professionals
Technology: SharePoint Server 2013
Credit toward certification: MCP, MCSE

This exam measures your ability to accomplish the technical tasks listed below. View video tutorials about the variety of question types on Microsoft exams.

Please note that the questions may test on, but will not be limited to, the topics described in the bulleted text.

Do you have feedback about the relevance of the skills measured on this exam? Please send Microsoft your comments. All feedback will be reviewed and incorporated as appropriate while still maintaining the validity and reliability of the certification process. Note that Microsoft will not respond directly to your feedback. We appreciate your input in ensuring the quality of the Microsoft Certification program.

If you have concerns about specific questions on this exam, please submit an exam challenge.

If you have other questions or feedback about Microsoft Certification exams or about the certification program, registration, or promotions, please contact your Regional Service Center.

Design a SharePoint topology
Design an information architecture
Design inter-site navigational taxonomy; design site columns and content types; design keywords, synonyms, best bets, and managed properties; plan information management policies; plan managed site structures; plan term sets
Design a logical architecture
Plan application pools; plan web applications; plan for software boundaries; plan content databases; plan host-header site collections; plan zones and alternate access mapping
Plan SharePoint Online (Office 365) deployment
Evaluate service offerings; plan service applications; plan hybrid search scenarios; plan site collections; plan customizations and solutions; plan security for SharePoint Online; plan for SharePoint Online admin roles; plan networking services for SharePoint Online

Plan security
Plan and configure authentication
Plan and configure Windows claims authentication; plan and configure identity federation; configure claims providers; configure OAuth authentication; plan and configure for anonymous authentication; configure connections to ACS
Plan and configure platform security
Plan and configure security isolation; plan and configure services lockdown; plan and configure general firewall security; plan and configure antivirus settings; plan and configure certificate management
Plan and configure farm-level security
Plan rights management; plan and configure delegated farm administration; plan and configure delegated service application administration; plan and configure managed accounts; plan and configure blocked file types; plan and configure web part security

Install and configure SharePoint farms
Create and configure enterprise search
Plan and configure search topology; plan and configure result sources; plan and configure crawl schedules; plan and configure crawl rules; plan and configure crawl performance
Create and configure Managed Metadata Service application (MMS)
Configure managed service application proxy settings; configure content type hub settings; configure sharing term sets; plan and configure content type propagation schedule; configure custom properties; configure term store permission
Create and configure User Profile Service application (UPA)
Configure UPA application; setup My Sites and My Site hosts; configure social permissions; plan and configure sync connections; configure profile properties; configure audiences

Create and configure web applications and site collections
Provision and configure web applications
Create managed paths; configure HTTP throttling; configure List throttling; configure Alternate Access Mappings (AAM); configure authentication provider; configure SharePoint Designer settings
Manage search
Manage result sources; manage query rules; manage display templates; manage Search Engine Optimization (SEO) settings; manage result types; manage search schema
Manage taxonomy
Manage site collection term set access; manage term set navigation; manage topic catalog pages; configure custom properties; configure search refinement; configure list refinement

Maintain core SharePoint environment
Troubleshoot SharePoint environment
Establish baseline performance; perform client-side tracing; perform server-side tracing; analyze usage data; enable developer dashboard; analyze diagnostic logs

Plan business continuity management
Plan for SQL high availability and disaster recovery
Plan for SQL Server clustering; plan for SQL Server Always-On; plan for SQL Server Log Shipping; plan for SQL Server mirroring; plan for storage redundancy; plan for login replication

Plan SharePoint environment
Plan and configure search workload
Plan and configure search result relevancy; plan and configure index freshness; plan and configure result sources; plan and configure end-user experience; plan and configure search schema; analyze search analytics reports; plan and configure result throttling
Plan ECM workload
Plan and configure E-Discovery; plan and configure document routing; configure co-authoring; plan and configure record disposition and retention; plan large document repositories; plan and configure software boundaries

Upgrade and migrate SharePoint environment
Upgrade site collection
Perform health check; analyze and resolve health check results; plan and configure available site collection modes; plan and configure site collection upgrade availability; plan and configure EVAL mode; plan and configure site collection upgrade throttling

Create and configure service applications
Create and configure App Management
Create and configure App Store; create and configure subscriptions; configure marketplace connections; configure DNS entries; configure wildcard certificates
Configure service application federation
Plan services to federate; perform certificate exchange; manage trusts; manage service application permissions; publish service applications; consume service applications

Manage SharePoint solutions, BI, and systems integration
Plan and configure BI infrastructure
Plan and configure performance point; plan and configure reporting services; plan and configure PowerPivot; plan and configure Excel Services; plan and configure Power View; plan and configure BI security
Question No : 1 - (Topic 1)
You need to implement corporate sizing and performance guidelines for general usage scenarios.
Which three actions should you perform? (Each correct answer presents part of the solution. Choose three.)

A. For the Remote BLOB Storage (RBS) storage subsystem on network attached storage
(NAS), limit the maximum time-to-first-byte (TTFB) of any response from the NAS to 100 milliseconds.

B. Limit the maximum size of each content database to 4 TB.

C. For the Remote BLOB Storage (RBS) storage subsystem on network attached storage
(NAS), limit the maximum time-to-first-byte (TTFB) of any response from the NAS to 20 milliseconds.

D. Limit the number of documents in each document library to 20 million.

E. Limit the number of documents in each content database to 10 million.

F. Limit the maximum size of each content database to 200 GB.

Answer: C,E,F


Question No : 2 - (Topic 1)
You need to ensure that service applications meet the technical requirements by using the least amount of administrative effort.
What should you do?

A. Use the Farm Configuration Wizard to add service applications.
B. Use Windows PowerShell to configure service applications.
C. Use the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard to complete the server configuration.
D. In Central Administration, manually create each service application.

Answer: B

Question No : 3 - (Topic 1)
You need to ensure that content authors can publish the specified files.
What should you do?

A. Create multiple authoring site collections. Create a site that contains lists, document
libraries, and a Pages library. Create an asset library in a new site collection, and enable
anonymous access to the library on the publishing web application.

B. Create multiple authoring site collections. Create a site that contains lists, document
libraries, and a Pages library. Create an asset library in the authoring site collection, and
enable anonymous access to the library on the authoring web application.

C. Create one authoring site collection. Create a site that contains multiple lists, document
libraries, and Pages libraries. Create an asset library in a new site collection, and enable
anonymous access to the library on the publishing web application.

D. Create multiple authoring site collections. Create a site that contains multiple lists,
document libraries, and Pages libraries. Create an asset library in a new site collection, and
enable anonymous access to the library on the publishing web application.

Answer: B

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Why a 7-inch Surface tablet would be a mistake for Microsoft

Rumors have begun circulating that Microsoft is working on a 7-inch version of its Surface tablet. I'm not convinced the company should even bother.

For the past couple of weeks, the web has been buzzing with rumors and speculation that Microsoft is working on a 7-inch version of its Surface Tablet. There has been no official word from Microsoft, of course, but if you look at current market trends, introducing a smaller tablet would seem to make a lot of sense. The popularity of the iPad Mini, Kindle Fire and Google’s Nexus 7 are clear indicators that consumers are interested in smaller tablets, and Microsoft surely wants a piece of the action.

Microsoft is in somewhat of a unique situation, however. Not only does the company already have a slew of hardware partners it probably shouldn’t anger any further, but it technically has two mobile operating systems to choose from, Windows RT and Windows 8. Although Windows RT and Windows 8 look similar, the former lacks compatibility with legacy x86 Windows applications, while the latter has somewhat steeper hardware requirements to run smoothly. And therein lies the rub.

A 7-inch Surface Tablet would be a tougher sell than the original.
If history is any indicator, and Microsoft is actually working on its own branded 7-inch tablet, it will most likely run Windows RT. Unfortunately, Windows RT hasn’t exactly been the darling of consumers or the tech community. In fact, many experts are calling for Microsoft to just kill off RT altogether and focus solely on Windows 8 for tablets. With Intel’s current x86-compatible SoCs already offering better performance and similar battery life than the ARM-based alternatives for Windows RT, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to continue expending resources on Windows RT. And if rumors hold true, Intel’s upcoming Bay Trail-based SoCs should only push RT further into oblivion.

The alternative is to produce a Windows 8-based, x86-compatible, 7-inch tablet. But I can already hear the tech press complaining now. They’ll say things like “Desktop mode is useless on a 7-inch tablet,” “You’ll be paying for features you won’t use,” and “There aren’t enough Windows 8 apps,” and so on. Whether everyone feels the same way or not, information and reviews full of caveats about a product don’t exactly instill consumer confidence and foster success.

Microsoft has taken such a beating lately that I’m of the opinion they shouldn’t bother with their own 7-inch tablet. Unless they hit an absolute home run on the hardware and market the device creatively alongside an enticing software promotion, there’s little chance the product will be well received. Microsoft should focus on bettering Windows 8 and its successors, and let its hardware partners introduce new tablet form factors.

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70-431 Q&A / Study Guide / Testing Engine / Videos

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QUESTION 1
Certkingdom has hired you as their Database administrator. You create a database on named
Development on ABC-DB01 that hosts an instance of SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition.
You perform weekly maintenance and conclude that the Development database growing at about
100 MB on a monthly basis. The network users started complaining about poor performance of
queries run against the database.
There is 2GB RAM installed on DB01 and the database consumes 1.6 GB of RAM.
How would you determine whether additional RAM should be acquired for ABC-DB01?

A. You should consider monitoring the SQL Server: Memory Manager – Target Server Memory
(KB) Page Splits/sec counter in System Monitor.
B. You should consider monitoring the SQL Server: Buffer Manager counter in System Monitor.
C. You should consider monitoring the System – Processor Queue counter in System Monitor.
D. You should consider monitoring the SQL Server: Access Methods – Page Splits/sec counter in System Monitor.

Answer: B

Explanation: The SQL Server: Buffer Manager object is utilized to view the information related to
bottlenecks.

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QUESTION 2
You create a database on ABC-DB01 that is running an instance of SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition.
Certkingdom recently suffered a power outage to the building which forces you to restart ABC-DB01
which now fails to start the SQL Server (MSSQLSERVER). Certkingdom wants you to troubleshoot
the service failure.
What must be done to determine the cause of the service start failure?

A. You should consider reviewing the Event Viewer logs listed below:
The Event Viewer Applications log.
The Event Viewer System logs.
Microsoft Notepad should be utilized to manually view the Microsoft SQL
Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\LOG\ErrorLog file.

B. You should consider reviewing the Event Viewer logs listed below :
The Event Viewer Windows logs.
The Event Viewer Setup logs.
The Event Viewer Application log.

C. You should consider reviewing the Event Viewer logs listed below :
The Event Viewer Forwarded Event logs.
The Event Viewer Hardware events.
The Event Viewer Security log.

D. You should consider reviewing the Event Viewer logs listed below :
The Event Viewer Setup Events logs.
The Event Viewer Windows logs.
The Event Viewer Applications and Services logs.

Answer: A

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QUESTION 3
Certkingdom has recently opened an office in Perth where you work as the database administrator.
The Certkingdom database infrastructure runs on computers utilizing SQL Server 2005 Enterprise
Edition. You create a Import database with a backup schedule configured in the table below:



The Imports database contains a table named incoming which was updated a week ago. During
the course of the day A network user informs you that a table has been dropped from the Imports
table at 16:10. Certkingdom wants the incoming table restored to the Imports database.
What must be done to restore the table using minimal effort and ensuring data loss is kept to a minimum?

A. You should consider restoring the database from the recent deferential backup.
B. You should consider having the differential of Monday and snapshot backup from Tuesday restored.
C. You should consider deletion of all differential and database snapshots except the recent backup.
D. You should consider having the database table recovered from the recent database snapshot.

Answer: A

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QUESTION 4
Certkingdom hired you as the network database administrators. You create a database named
Customers on ABC-DB01 running an instance of SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition.
A custom application is used to access and query the database. The users recently reported that
the custom application experiences deadlock conditions constantly.
How would you determine which Server session ID is related to the deadlocks?
What must be done to observer the SQL Server session ID involved with the deadlock scenario?

A. You should consider monitoring the SQL Server Profiler to monitor Error and Warning events.
B. You should consider monitoring the SQL Server Profiler to monitor Lock Deadlock Chain events.
C. You should consider monitoring the SQL Server Profiler to monitor Objects.
D. You should consider monitoring the SQL Server Profiler to monitor performance.

Answer: B

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QUESTION 5
You are the system administer of a SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition server named DB01 that
uses Windows Authentication mode. Certkingdom uses a custom developed application for running
queries against the database on DB01. Users complain that the custom application stops
responding. Yu notice that the CPU utilization at 100% capacity.
You then try to connect to DB01 by utilizing the SQL Server Management Studio but DB01 still
does not respond. Certkingdom wants you to connect to ABC-DB01 to determine the problem.
What should be done to successfully determine the problem?

A. You should consider utilizing the osql –L command from the command prompt.
B. You should consider utilizing the sqlcmd –A command from the command prompt.
You could additionally use SQL Server Management Studio to access Database Engine Query for
connecting to DB01 with the SQL Server Authentication mode.
C. You should consider utilizing the osql –E command from the command prompt.
D. You should consider utilizing the sqlcmd –N command from the command prompt.
E. You should consider utilizing the sqlcmd –R command from the command prompt.

Answer: B

Explanation: The sqlcmd –A command is utilized to ensure that a dedicated administrative connection is utilized.

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BlackBerry details extensive security protection in BlackBerry 10 OS

BlackBerry 10 OS is distinct from previous BlackBerry OS in that it can separate personal from corporate apps

The recent release of the BlackBerry 10 operating system sets the stage for a security evolution as well, according to Alex Manea, manager of security services at BlackBerry.

For one thing, the BlackBerry 10 OS is distinct from any previous BlackBerry OS in that it provides a way to separate out personal applications from corporate-designated ones by using a capability built directly into the OS called Balance. Manea says this "partitions the phone into two spaces, a workspace 100% controlled by IT, which can delete it without interfering in the personal side" and represents a way that businesses can support the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend by allowing employees their personal space on BlackBerry, too.

And although this BlackBerry Balance dual-partition capability for BYOD is not available for Google Android or Apple iOS devices, BlackBerry management can support these non-BlackBerry devices, says Manea, adding it involves adding a specialized app to iOS and Android devices to do that. Through use of the server-based BlackBerry Device Service software for BlackBerry 10, businesses can manage Android and iOS devices as well, though not Microsoft Windows Mobile, he says. Management capabilities include features such as lock, track and wipe.

BlackBerry is also working on what's known as a "containerization" type of technology for applications that could also be used for iOS and Android that would allow IT managers to place something akin to a container wrap around an app based on IT-based policy decisions.

BlackBerry 10 is also supporting data at rest and in transit through encryption, with the ability to swap out encryption algorithms.

But in addition to new features like Balance, the advent of the BlackBerry 10 OS has set the stage at BlackBerry to evolve the basic security strategy related to present and future smartphones and tablets. For example, BlackBerry recently established a partnership with security firm Trend Micro to assist in vetting apps against malware thorough the cloud-based Trend Micro Mobile Application Reputation Service. And in another partnership with Germany-based Secusmart GmbH, BlackBerry is creating a specialized encrypted mobile voice capability for BlackBerry that would be used by the German government there.

These kinds of projects are widening the perspective on what BlackBerry might undertake in the future as pertains to the BlackBerry 10 OS as a platform, including potentially coming up with a set of security APIs that third-party vendors could build to, such as the kind of anti-malware hooks which they don't have today. There has historically been very little malware aimed at BlackBerry because of its core design being highly virus-resistant, but it is growing.

Manea says as BlackBerry considers what it might undertake in terms of growing its security capabilities with BlackBerry 10, it's evident that the firm is more open than ever before to the idea of exploring projects, partnerships and possibilities.

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Microsoft nudges Office 365 Home users to the cloud

Cloud-based subscription service for Office 365 Home Premium offers good value and convenience

Microsoft has been dishing out various flavors of Office 2013 since November 2012, when enterprises with volume license plans got first access to the finished software. In mid-January, employees at those companies could buy a discounted copy as part of Microsoft's Home Use Program. And Microsoft recently took the wraps off Office 365 Home Premium, which we took a look at.

Office 2013 is available at retail at prices ranging from $139 to $399 for use on a single PC. But Microsoft's pricing model, which allows users to install Office 365 Home Premium on a total of five PCs, Macs or Windows tablets for $8.34 per month or $99.99 a year, is clearly geared toward getting individuals and businesses to adopt Office 365 services. (Watch a slideshow version of this story.)

Office 365 Home Premium includes downloadable versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access, and Publisher. And, in addition to the five PCs, apps can be temporarily streamed to other devices on demand or you're able to do light editing with Web App versions of the software - both options don't count against your license tally.

Office 2013: Everything IT needs to know

The math works out like this: If you're part of a large family or an independent business person with multiple systems, Office 365 could save you decent money compared to the minimum $139 cost (Home and Student) of buying the software for each computer; further, at that price, you don't get Outlook, Access and Publisher. And to make subscriptions more enticing, Office 365 Home Premium includes 20GB of SkyDrive online storage and 60 minutes a month of Skype international calling (together valued at about $160 per year).

And now some of the nuts and bolts. Office 365 Home Premium is technically a cloud service. You sign in to Office.com to manage your subscription, and documents are stored in SkyDrive by default. But the Office applications are still installed on your PC. The point Microsoft emphasizes is that the latest Office 2013 version will automatically download when you're online - and the company is committed to a quarterly cycle of bug fixes and enhancements. Put another way, no more manually installing fixes, security patches and service packs - and reduced wait time for new features.

Easy to manage, easy to use

Getting started with Office 365 Home Premium is simple. I visited the setup website, entered my product key, logged in, and selected the option to install the software. After about 20 minutes, the full Office 2013 suite had downloaded and was ready to use.

The My Account page lets you install Office on additional systems, deactivate a computer, and perform other tasks, such as activating your Skype World minutes. It's probably no surprise, but Office requires Windows 7, Windows 8, or Mac OS X version 10.5.8 or higher. Microsoft previously released Office for Windows Phone 8 (preinstalled on Windows Phone 8 handsets). However, the company is not talking about any plans for native Office apps on Apple iOS or Android.

Even so, I had good results editing Word docs and PowerPoint presentations on a third-generation iPad using the Web apps through Google Chrome browser.

Significantly, when you use Office - whether on a Windows PC, tablet or phone - formatting and styles remain intact between devices. I found documents retain their fidelity across hardware. Moreover, my default settings (such as fonts) were maintained no matter which system I used for editing.

Your main My Office page also serves as portal into your documents stored on SkyDrive. From here you also launch Office on Demand (Microsoft's Click-2-Run technology) - a process that takes less than five minutes to download and install one application, such as Word. This could be valuable if you need to use a PC that doesn't have Office installed. When you're done, just close the application and it's removed from the PC. Also notable, this process does not disturb any installed earlier versions of Office, such as 2010.
Sleek and simple design

Microsoft has been very aggressive in showcasing Office through various preview versions, so there weren't any real surprises with the shipping of Office 2013 applications - mainly a few cosmetics to improve usability. Still, it's worth recapping some of the major changes from Office 2010 and prior. Office 365 was made for Windows 8, and I tested Home Premium on a variety of desktop and laptops (both touch and non-touch) running Windows 8 Professional and Enterprise. Office 365 has the same beautiful design that's clean and user focused - devoid of extraneous animations and screen clutter.

When run in tablet mode, applications have larger touch points and more streamlined ribbon menus that free screen real estate and improve usability.

One of the more valuable new features of Microsoft Word 2013, I feel, is the ability to edit PDF documents; Word makes content (such as paragraphs, lists and tables) act like Word documents. Read mode automatically reflows text into columns to fit the screen, which is great for small screens. I also found tap-and-zoom features helpful to enlarge tables and images within documents; you can also expand and collapse sections, which makes working with large documents easier.

Besides one place to store documents, I quickly found SkyDrive improves collaboration. For example, I provided colleagues with a link to one document and we could all contribute edits. Although Microsoft promotes this feature as useful for family members working on personal documents, such as a vacation agenda, there's potential for sharing work documents. This feature seems a bit behind Google Docs, which permits live simultaneous editing by multiple people. In the case of Word, you have to save your document before you can see edits by others - but that's a slight inconvenience given the superior formatting and other features of Word.

The revamped Excel does a better job learning your data entry patterns and auto completing the remaining information. Then, Excel suggests PivotTables for the best way to summarize your data. Additionally, I appreciated the way Excel recommends the best charts based on patterns in your data.

PowerPoint Presenter View was one of the first features Microsoft demonstrated last summer, and it continues to be one of the most valuable additions. When working with a second screen (such as a projector) this behind-the-scenes tool let me see upcoming slides and notes, while my audience viewed the actual presentation.

And co-authoring is possible with PowerPoint, just like Word. I worked on a presentation with the desktop Office software while a colleague made changes through the PowerPoint Web app in a browser - and the formatting of the final was perfect.

Access isn't typically given a lot of credit, but it delivers some impressive ways to organize your life and business. Access 2013 opens existing desktop databases (ACCDB and legacy MDB files). When creating new databases, Access handles the complexities of building fields, rules, and relationships. The one disadvantage of Home Premium is that you can't host your databases online; for that, you need Office 365 Enterprise, where the databases are published to SharePoint Online. For that reason, a product such as FileMaker would be more appropriate for putting personal-type databases on the web.
Apps to Go

It seems no cloud solution is complete without a supporting ecosystem. And much like Windows 8 has an App Store, Office 365 features an Office Store, which you access through your Office.com account. Once you select an app from the store, it's quickly loaded into the supported Office product through its ribbon bar.

There's a smattering of Apps for Office right now, most of them free, and the majority generally useful. For instance, the free Merriam-Webster dictionary works in Word, Excel and Outlook. But, like any store, some offerings have limited value. LegalZoom, for instance, only directs you to their web site, where you have to purchase one of their services.

With Windows 8, Microsoft proved it's willing to take big risks - from extensive user interface changes to architecting the product for multiple form factors. The same bold moves are apparent with Office 365. The applications in this suite, already among the best in class, now operate easier and have some productivity improvements.

Microsoft is clearly no novice to cloud computing - with years of experience in e-mail (now Outlook.com) and Office 365 for business. The fundamental question is if consumers are ready (and are willing to pay) for the next leap and subscribe to Office 365 Home Premium.

In Microsoft's view, the economic equation adds up to an easy choice, especially if you want the latest software and have multiple devices. And I generally agree. The company says it's committed to rapid updates and feature enhancements - and has invested heavily in sophisticated systems to track bugs and help with rapid development. In itself, that's representative of the new thinking that's been happening within Microsoft for a while.

But for those with one or two PCs and who don't need the latest features - and that may be a large audience - these potential buyers may be satisfied with older Office software, or Google Docs and other free alternatives. There's also pressure from Box, Dropbox and similar cloud storage vendors. As a result, Microsoft's success with Office 365 Home Premium is not a given, but the company will likely get a good number of users switching to subscriptions.

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Rackspace enhances private cloud offering

Rackspace releases updated version of its OpenStack-powered private cloud platform

The company today updated its OpenStack-powered private cloud framework, which customers can download for free to spin up private clouds analogous to Rackspace's public cloud in their own data centers behind their own firewalls.

Since August Rackspace has offered a private cloud platform, which company officials say is pure OpenStack trunk code - no forking or branching. "We made a decision to use the exact same packaging this broad community of developers is using, with Rackspace just providing the configurations," says Scott Sanchez, director of strategy for Rackspace's private cloud division.

Today's updated version includes a variety of feature enhancements, most notably the addition of Open Center, which Sanchez calls a "fabric" for private cloud operations. This is the API layer, complete with a dashboard that shows the user all of the operations running in the private cloud. It also orchestrates various services together - compute, storage and networking, for example - while providing additional tools to automate tasks, such as creating high availability. With Rackspace's "fanatical support" - a company tag-line for its customer service - Rackspace representatives can look into this dashboard to help users set up or troubleshoot issues during service calls. The updated system also expands the host operating system from just supporting Ubuntu to now also supporting Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

The bigger point though is that Rackspace is acknowledging customers who want to spin up private clouds in their own data centers instead of, or in addition to, using the public cloud. Amazon Web Services has not done that. "It's what customers told us they want," Sanchez says.

AWS does have a virtual private cloud service, which are dedicated, non-multi-tenant infrastructure stacks customers can reserve, but no platform for spinning up an AWS cloud in your own data center. Open source project CloudStack and Eucalyptus, a third-party AWS partner say they do. VMware powers many private clouds with its non-open source products, for example. On the OpenStack side, Piston Cloud Computing Co. has packaged an "enterprise-grade" version of the open source cloud operating system. Red Hat is expected to release its own OpenStack distribution soon, while Ubuntu and SUSE already have.

Jim Curry, general manager of Rackspace's private cloud division, says for many customers he speaks to, it's not a matter of them being anti-public cloud, it's that they believe a private cloud just better suits their needs "We're a hosting company primarily," Curry admits. "But we're not going to argue with them."

Having a common platform between the private cloud that sits behind the customer's firewall and Rackspace's public cloud creates a whole series of advantages too, Rackspace says - most notably working toward that much-anticipated hybrid cloud environment. Sanchez says many customers already have some hybrid cloud-like setups. Using configuration management tools like Chef or even third-party options like RightScale, customers can pick which environment certain workloads run in, be it the public or private cloud. But there's still work to be done in this area to allow live migrations of workloads across the environments. Further developing the underlying network connectivity between the public and private clouds is a key to achieving that, Sanchez says.

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