{"id":894,"date":"2012-08-31T11:39:22","date_gmt":"2012-08-31T16:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/?p=894"},"modified":"2012-09-10T10:58:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-10T15:58:00","slug":"office-365-issues-and-considerations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/2012\/08\/office-365-issues-and-considerations\/","title":{"rendered":"Office 365: Issues and Considerations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In previous posts, I covered a lot of details related to the benefits of moving to Office 365. Of course, few technical solutions consist of only benefits, and there are a few potential issues that I think might be important to keep in mind. In this post, I\u2019ll cover some of the issues that I have run into or think might be an issue for others. <\/p>\n<p><em>Note: This post is part of a series on my move from Gmail to Office 365. To see a complete list of related posts, see <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/2012\/08\/summary-moving-to-office-365\/\"><em>Summary: Moving to Office 365<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<h1>Office 365 Considerations<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Cost<\/b>: First and foremost (for many people), Office 365 is not free. You can use the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/office365\/compare-plans.aspx\">Office 365: Compare Plans<\/a> page to get more details on the available offerings. The Small Business (P1) plan is most appropriate for my purposes, and after the free trial period, it will cost me $6\/month ($72\/year). That\u2019s infinitely more than \u201cfree\u201d, but to me, it\u2019s worth the cost. <\/li>\n<li><b>Exchange ActiveSync Support on other devices<\/b>: Outlook 2013 works great for me, but I found that the built-in Android 4.0 Email application leaves a bit to be desired in the \u201cuser experience\u201d department. First, the app is buggy \u2013 it took me many tries to just add an account. I was unable to change my password without completely removing the account and re-adding it (no easy task on a touchscreen interface). The e-mail widget doesn\u2019t work on my ASUS Transformer TF101, and the folder management UI is almost as painful as Gmail\u2019s web UI. Of course, there are third-party apps (most are relatively expensive for mobile apps) that fill in some of these gaps. <\/li>\n<li><b>Incomplete Migration of application settings<\/b>: While the majority of commonly-used messaging settings seem to be stored online (and, more importantly, are automatically synchronized between client installations), some are not. For example, I found that some toolbar customizations and Outlook client message settings (I usually change the default reply font and color) do not migrate automatically. It\u2019s not a huge deal, but it would certainly help to have all relevant client settings roam to new computers and devices. <\/li>\n<li><b>Outlook Data File Synchronization<\/b>: The default settings in Outlook 2013 specify that the application should download and cache 12 months of data on the local client (stored, by default, in the user\u2019s profile folder in an OST file). As long as you have enough bandwidth and storage space, you should be fine with those settings. However, features like Windows Search can cause a significant amount of overhead while it indexes your entire offline data store. It\u2019s not a huge deal, but it became readily apparent when my aging laptop temperature started to exceed the 100-plus degree Texas summer heat while performing the initial synchronization. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Outlook 2013 UI<\/b>: Overall, I like the new Outlook 2013 UI (especially the default setting on in-line replies from the \u201cReading\u201d pane). There are some things I don\u2019t like, though. As many people have complained, I find that the overly white\/washed-out appearance of the new Office 2013 ribbons and toolbars to be a step backward in usability and aesthetics. Perhaps over time, I\u2019ll get use to the new look. Or, better yet, Microsoft will listen to the feedback and offer some customization options (as they did with Visual Studio 2012). It\u2019s not a deal-breaker, but it might affect some users\u2019 willingness to use the Office 2012 Beta. <\/li>\n<li><b>Office Updates<\/b>: I think most of us who have come to rely on online services have tended to like the idea that new updates and features can be rolled out seamlessly online. In general, being able to use the newest features is a good thing. However, there\u2019s always a chance that an update will make things worse from a usability or functionality perspective. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s an \u201cissue\u201d exactly, but there\u2019s a potential for unwelcome changes to occur. Personally, I\u2019m not worried and will address any problems if\/when they arise. <\/li>\n<li><b>Preview-related downtime and issues<\/b>: I did experience the inability to send messages from my Office 365 account for almost an entire week. More details on that issue can be found in a previous post, <a href=\"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/2012\/08\/cloud-services-the-importance-of-technical-support\/\">Cloud Services: The Importance of Technical Support<\/a>. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>Potential Preview Program Pain<\/h1>\n<p>The Office 365 Preview is just that \u2013 a pre-release version of the final services that Microsoft plans to release. It comes with limited support offerings, and users should expect at least some problems. I\u2019ll probably be ready to sign up as soon as the service goes live, unless anything unexpected comes up before the general availability of the new service.<\/p>\n<p>One important statement in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/office\/preview\/en\/faq\">Microsoft Office Preview FAQ<\/a> is that existing data (calendars and e-mail) will not be migrated automatically. It reads:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u00b7 The Preview is separate from your current Office 365 service and is for temporary use only.<\/p>\n<p>\u00b7 When the Preview ends, all data in the Preview account will be deleted, including email and calendar data, web sites, and uploaded documents, so be sure to download any information that you need to keep.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>It will be inconvenient if I have to back up my entire Exchange mailbox to a .PST file and then re-import it. However, it wouldn\u2019t take a lot of my time and effort to accomplish (now that everything is consolidated and organized as I want it), though it will consume significant Internet bandwidth. Either way, I\u2019m psychologically prepared for the eventual transition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In previous posts, I covered a lot of details related to the benefits of moving to Office 365. Of course, few technical solutions consist of only benefits, and there are a few potential issues that I think might be important to keep in mind. In this post, I\u2019ll cover some of the issues that I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,26,24,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cloud-computing","category-general","category-it-tips","category-office-365"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":920,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894\/revisions\/920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}