SharePoint MVPs Volunteer for Typhoon Relief

A few days after Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines one of my fellow MVPs, Dux Raymond (@meetdux), suggested that we should all band together and do something to support the relief effort. His idea was that we would all volunteer an hour or two of phone consulting time for anyone who would contribute to a charity for the relief of the victims of Typhoon Haihayn. I’m happy to report that almost 50 MVPs, including me, have volunteered to contribute to the effort. If you would be interested in some consulting time with an MVP check out Dux’s blog where the list of MVPs who are contributing to the effort is being kept up to date. YOu can find it here:

http://meetdux.com/2013/11/12/operation-sharelove-help-typhoon-haiyan-victims-sharepoint-experts-will-help-you-rescueph/

Unfortunately, my contribution to the effort has already been snapped up by a contributor. But there are lots of other knowledgeable MVPs waiting to help you (and the people of the Philippines) out.

SkyDrive Pro Storage Increased to 25GB

Microsoft announced today on the Office 365 technology Blog that they are increasing the default storage available in each user’s SkyDrive Pro to 25GB from the current 7GB. They’ve also added an option allowing increase to 50GB or 100GBs of storage on a user by user basis. The optional additional storage will come out of your regular tenant storage allocation. Tenants can buy additional storage if needed at a cost of $.20 USD/GB/Month. Microsoft is also adding a new view to SkyDrive Pro that will display links to all the documents that have been shared with you personally, no matter whose SkyDrive Pro they are stored on. So you get more room for storing and sharing your own documents and easier access to all the documents that others have shared with you. That’s what I call a Win/Win.

You can read the whole announcement here:

http://blogs.office.com/b/office365tech/archive/2013/08/27/skydrive-pro-increases-storage-and-ease-of-sharing.aspx

MCSD: SharePoint Certification Officially Announced

There have been rumors running around for months about what exams would be required to earn the Microsoft Certified Solution Developer certification for SharePoint 2013. MS Learning officially added MCSD: SharePoint to their site today. You can see all the SharePoint certifications, including MCSD, here.

The Two SharePoint specific Development exams haven’t been released yet, but should be available later this summer. In the meantime you can get started on the two non-SharePoint specific certification exams.

Another point that should be noted. This announcement continues the trend started with the SharePoint Microsoft Certified Masters certification. Certifications will now be time constrained. You must recertify every two years to maintain the MCSD: SharePoint certification. This is also true for MCSM: SharePoint (three years) and MCSE: SharePoint (two years). This recertification requirement reflects Microsoft’s move away from doing major specific releases, like 2007, 2010, and 2013, to a more continuous release cycle with quarterly service releases for Office 365. You can expect to see On-premise SharePoint going to a more continuous evolution over the next several years also. These new certs anticipate that development in both the Online and On-Premise environments.

I’m a New SharePoint 2010 MCM

Some journeys take a lot longer than you originally expected. I started my journey in pursuit of a Microsoft Certified Master’s SharePoint certification when I attended rotation 8 in May, 2011. If you are wondering what it was like I can’t do a better job of describing the experience than was done by my friend, fellow MVP, (and now fellow MCM) Wictor Wilén does here. Wictor and I were in the same rotation, but where he passed all his qualifications at the end of the rotation, I took an additional two years. After passing everything but the qual lab during the rotation I took a second try at the qual lab about 6 weeks later in July. I made a silly mistake on that one that cost me about 2 hours of troubleshooting time. I knew by the end of the lab that I had failed. After that life just got too busy with billable work, and then a change of employers. It wasn’t until this spring that I decided I couldn’t give up and had to take my last shot at the qual lab. So I spent five days at the beginning of May reviewing all the old material and on Wednesday May 8th I had my chance. At the end of 8 1/2 grueling hours I had a good feeling about the results. On Friday I got confirmation that I had indeed passed. After starting over 2 years ago I am finally a SharePoint 2010 MCM and it’s a great feeling.

I’ve also want to extend a big Thank You to my former company ShareSquared and to my current company Blue Chip Consulting for giving me time away from billable work to attend the training and prepare for my re-take of the Qual Lab. Without their support I would never have made it.

Now on to planning for MCSM SharePoint 2013!

SharePoint 2013 has reached RTM

Earlier today Microsoft announced that Office 2013, including SharePoint Server 2013, reached the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) build. That means that coding and testing is complete and work will now commence on getting these products packaged up and into the appropriate distribution channels for customers. YOu can read the full announcement here:

Office Reaches RTM!

But here are some of the high points and important details covered in the announcement.

People who purchase Office 2010 after October 19, 2012 will get a free upgrade to Office 2013 when it is released.
Surface RT tablets will include a preview version of Office 2013 when they ship on October 26th.
Office 365 customers will begin to see some of the new 2013 capabilities with the next service update in November.
TechNet and MSDN subscribers should have access to RTM code by mid-November. Which happens to be just after the SharePoint Conference November 12-15, 2012.